The clearing erupted into violent motion.

Ironbelle hit the smaller creature first.
The mecha’s shields slammed forward like twin iron walls, driving the aberration backward through the snow. Steel screamed against bone as the monster bit down on the fans, sparks skittering across metal. But Curly’s machine held, pushing the creature several paces off its original line before its limbs scraped desperately for purchase.

The impact sent shockwaves through its malformed body—joints popping, ribs grinding, viscous frost sloughing off in sheets.

Then Axol’s blade carved through the fray.

The greatsword swung wide, the momentum of his turn carrying the strike through the smaller beast’s side with devastating force. The creature spun out from the blow, its entire frame shuddering before it crashed bodily into the ruins of the old wooden barricade. Bone and ice splintered on impact. A warped shriek rattled from its hollow chest as black vapor vented from the cracks forming across its back.

The creature wasn’t dead—yet—but it was hurt, badly, and furious.

Across the road, the larger bear-wraith staggered under mounting injuries. A steaming gouge marred its flank, and its half-sludge jaw hung unevenly from Andrea’s earlier strike. Ichor dripped steadily into the snow, each droplet sizzling like acid.

The earth trembled.

Andrea’s blood-fed ritual sent ripples through the frozen ground, the snow shifting as tendrils of dark energy seeped upward. The bear-thing recoiled, as if recognizing the threat that pulsed from the soil.

The snow bulged. Then cracked. Dark veins of necrotic energy pulsed outward like roots seeking purchase.

Hands broke the surface first.

Skeletal. Frostbitten.
Still wearing tatters of armor that might have once belonged to Rotian scouts.

More followed.
Half-buried torsos.
Wolf skulls with green ember-eyes.
A spine dragging itself like a centipede.
Three full humanoid forms clawed free of the ground, steam rising from their joints as undeath re-knit movement into their frozen limbs.

They moved without hesitation—
not toward the travelers,
not toward the ritual’s caster—

—but toward the bear-wraith.

The creature sensed it a moment too late.

The first undead slammed into its wounded leg, clamping skeletal fingers around exposed tendons and dragging with unnatural strength. Another leapt onto its back, driving a rusted sword between jutting ribs where the corpse-heart pulsed its sickly green glow. The third crawled beneath its torso, hooking clawed hands into the creature’s exposed viscera.

Bromann’s second shot landed home as well.
The arrow buried itself deep in the larger monster’s opposite knee. The corrupted joint buckled at once, dragging the monstrosity into an uneven crouch. Snow blasted upward as its massive hand braced into the ground to keep from collapsing entirely.

A rumbling growl vibrated through its broken frame.

Rachel’s presence shifted the air—a gathering heat that contrasted sharply with the frozen world around her. Though she had yet to strike, the monsters reacted to the pressure of her aura, the smaller one twitching in agitated jerks, the larger one’s pulse-flame hiccupping as if sensing an approaching burn.

The battlefield moved again.

The elk-aberration heaved itself upright with an unnatural snap of bone against bone.
Chittering in fury, it skittered sideways, attempting to flank Ironbelle rather than clash with the metal shield again. Steam poured from the ring of teeth where its face should have been, melting small pits in the snow as it lunged.

The larger creature made its choice.

Drawing on whatever strength still animated its ruined flesh, it dragged its bulk upright on three limbs. The chest-light guttered, then flared. With a guttural, bubbling roar, it swept its massive forelimb in a wide arc straight toward Andrea—toward the ritual, toward the power stirring beneath the soil.

The blow ripped through the air with the force of a falling tree.

Snow exploded outward in a blinding spray as the limb descended.

[hr][/hr]

Ooc: Everyones attack landed, the undead were succesfully summoned. The larger monster is near defeat the smaller one might need a bit more whacking. so far no one has lost any hp. Andrea will need to dodge.