"Uh...Li, I could really, really use a hand!"

"I'm thinking, just give me a second! Just keep him busy!"

"Alright, here goes nothing...let's see if all that dance practice paid off...hey, guardian! Let me show you the moves of my people!"

Evade using the power of interpretive dance!

Li blinks in complete silence before looking towards Al-Aris in surprise. "Wait...what? Dance practice?"

Al-Aris smiles...and then, Li giggles.

"Oh, right! For the wedding! Awwww, that's so sweet...and that gives me an idea..."

Turn the ground in front of the guardian into a gigantic ice lolly.

Sit. Stay. Roll.

caekdaemon - Al-Aris and Li-Rala [6,9]:
Al-Aris: "Uh...Li, I could really, really use a hand!"
Li-Rala: "I'm thinking, just give me a second! Just keep him busy!"
Al-Aris: "Alright, here goes nothing...let's see if all that dance practice paid off...hey, guardian! Let me show you the moves of OHGOD"
You barely dodge out of the way of the bowl's paw as it slams down to the ground, striking a stance in your interpretive dance as you do.
Meanwhile, Li waves her hands and does her magic, covering a patch of ground in front of Urstrig into a patch of colorful frozen ground for it to slip on. The beast takes a step forward onto the ice... and sinks right into it. Ice lollies are not very solid.

Appearance: A big and bulky man that appears to be middle aged, with a full head of black hair and surprisingly dark eyes. He claims to be Middle Eastern in origin, but to an observer he would seem to be a little...pale.


Seraphimo - Dunrim [9]:
Screw it. You turn around and shove your phone back in your pocket as you sprint towards the huge forest spirit, intending to suck its essence out.
Wow, that uh, sort of sounds diabolical. Whatever.
The others are doing a good job of distracting the beast, between shenanigans from the lovers and actual fighting from Matt and Linna. You swipe by the beast as it screeches in pain, possibly from the giant ballista bolt out of nowhere, and drain as much energy as you can on the way past. It ends up being a rather large amount of energy, you can feel twin overflowing fistfuls of glowing green forest power in your hands. And yet, the damn thing doesn't seem to even take notice of you, like the chunk of energy you just yoinked out of it is nothing to it. How tough IS this bear?!

Appearance: His face is full of soot and he looks a bit pale but otherwise he looks like a normal human. He is a little shorter than the average human and he likes to wear fully protective clothing. His origin is claimed to be somewhere inside Europe though he's not telling where.


TheKebbit - Wassily Nuñez [2]:
Wassily: "I am no mere landsman - I will see this monstrous spirit sunken in defeat!"
You bring your hands together, firing a blast of Freezing Spray at the enemy bear spirit, just in time for it to thrash from being a hit by a ballista bolt. The blast of icy water goes wide, sailing into a patch of trees in the distance.



CaveCricket48 - Linna [6]:
You grit your teeth against the pain, push yourself up to your feet with the help of your non-broken arm, and glare over at the bear owl guardian spirit. This thing's done doing damage to you and your team. That's not gonna happen again. You feel a spark inside you, a flicker of light and radiance, accompanied by a whisper by that damn annoying Paladin spirit. Ignoring it, you go back to the spark.
Yes... Yes, this will do well.
Linna: "Light of Faith!"
A thin ring of light appears beneath you, slowly spinning while sending a glowing perimeter up just around your feet. It then shoots outward, expanding to 8 feet or so around you, the edge blazing up in a gentle but insistent wall of light. You feel a sense of ease, as your bruises fade quickly and the pain from your broken arm ebbs. The bone itself is still in two, and the arm is unusable, but as long as you don't try to punch with it, you should be fine.
Speaking of...
You charge at Urstrig, not sure what you intend to do, but intending to do it anyway. Your shield vanishes from your arm as you run, not going to need it with this plan. A few feet from the owlbear you leap into the air, leading with your good arm, and grab a fistful of ethereal fur as you cling to the beast for dear life. You hear it screech in pain as all around you the fur is covered in burning light, your Light of Faith burning the forest spirit directly and all over its body.
Congratulations, you've got its attention again.

Appearance: A young woman that seems a bit thin but stands on a sturdy pair of legs. Her short dark hair is still long enough to nearly cover her eyes that are already concealed behind thick glasses, making it difficult to read her expression.


maart3n - Mikey/Heph [2]:
"KILL THE BEAR OWL!"
Your dog just puts its ears down and whimpers a bit.
Don't you DARE even say this stone dog is a pacifist. Good lord, you're ready to heave it off a cliff.
Whatever.
You can still boost up Linna, fix that arm of hers that looks to be bending at an angle arms aren't meant to bend at.
Oh. Uh. Unless she covers herself in a glowing field and runs at the owlbear before you can get to her, in which case you cannot heal her arm.
Great.



CrazyMLC - Matt Sterling [9]:
The others are struggling with the bowl, thankfully keeping it relatively still. It's flailing around a lot, but it's all in the same space, so no aim corrections needed. You grab your giant wooden siege weapon, adjusting it a bit further to make sure the aim is perfect, then smack the firing mechanism with your fist, just as Linna leaps at the bear. Your ballista bolt immediately shoots forward like a bullet, whizzing through the air and embedding itself in the guardian spirit's side. And then it sticks.
Huh? Didn't it just phase out before, when Li covered it in candy? Maybe it can only phase through candy. You're not sure. Either way, it has a big honking wooden spike stuck in it now.



Events: Urstrig tries to hit Al-Aris, who dodges out of the way fabulously. It then is unaffected by Li's attempt at slipping it up, and doesn't noticed Dunrim making off with a bunch of its energy. It does notice when Linna jumps on its back, covered in burning gold light, and immediately after is shot with a ballista bolt.

Maaaaaaart3n.

Whoopsie, my baaaad.

Help loading the Crossbow.
"Wolf, please go be a good boy and KILL THE BOWL! *fierce roar to encourage wolf*"

Rolling on the river~

caekdaemon - Al-Aris and Li-Rala [5,4]:
Al-Aris: "He really, really doesn't want to go down, does he?"
Li-Rala: "Wassily! Catch!
You'll need a running start, but it's better than nothing!"
Li forms a rather sadly sized jawbreaker in her hand, then throws it behind her and tries for another, managing a similarly sized candy. She shrugs, accepting that this is her candy ammunition limit for now, and throws the tennis ball sized candy over to Wassily.
Al-Aris: "This gives me another idea..."
You take off running towards the new guy with his ballista, having gotten a good idea from Li's jawbreaker. On your way over, you form your Decay energy into a solid form, shaping it to be a long rod, with a sharp tapered point at one end. You don't have the time or energy to make it very fancy right now, so it'll have to just be a simple sharpened rod. You arrive at the ballista and smack it into place, then give Matt a thumbs up to fire, which he immediately does. The bolt flies true, and impacts the forest spirit directly in the side!
Then passes right through.
Whoops. Might've put a bit too much chutzpah into that one.

Appearance: A big and bulky man that appears to be middle aged, with a full head of black hair and surprisingly dark eyes. He claims to be Middle Eastern in origin, but to an observer he would seem to be a little...pale.


Seraphimo - Dunrim [5]:
Dunrim: "Hey maybe we should WORK TOGETHER Team? An example is that we attack it all at once!"
Alright, since it doesn't care, and it seemed somewhat effective, you move to suck more energy out, full throttle this time. Which is when Urstrig decides to fall onto its back to crush Linna, meaning you clear the hell out of there.
Suddenly, something grey and quadrupedal dashes past you, and as you look back you see it run at the Bowl, then a large blue square panel flashes into existence between it and the spirit, with the grey wolf situated between the spirit and the ground. Urstrig and Linna stall in their fall, somehow, before their motion is reversed and Urstrig is returned to its feet, a bit bewildered.
Seeing your chance, you move forward to-
*WHOOSH*
A black ballista bolt suddenly zips by, passing right through Urstrig's stomach, missing Linna by inches. Oh, and Wassily throws a jawbreaker at it.
That was two too many close calls for your tastes. Well, they attacked together at once, sort of. Next step, not almost killing each other.

Appearance: His face is full of soot and he looks a bit pale but otherwise he looks like a normal human. He is a little shorter than the average human and he likes to wear fully protective clothing. His origin is claimed to be somewhere inside Europe though he's not telling where.


TheKebbit - Wassily Nuñez [7]:
Li-Rala: "Wassily! Catch!
You'll need a running start, but it's better than nothing!"
Wassily: "What am I- Oh sure why not."
You slide back to the edge of the arena on your Sea lines, getting as much space to accelerate as you can. Then, you begin speeding towards the bowl, quickly reaching your max speed, while it tries to dislodge Linna and is foiled by Mikey's stone wolf. As you're almost at the Bowl, a black streak zips across your field of view, passing through the spirit, but you are not deterred, and throw the jawbreaker with all your might!
Being a jawbreaker, it bounces off the spirit without any real effect. Dammit.
It was going fast enough to knock an ordinary person out cold, but this is an oversized ghost owlbear, normal person limits don't exactly apply.



CaveCricket48 - Linna [7]:
Linna: "'Light of Faith?' What kind of ability shout is that? BE BURIED IN MY LIGHT!"
You continue pouring on the Light of Faith, this time with a cooler shout, letting your purging light continue. You notice that the Light of Faith continues without you needing to force it to maintain, there's only an initial burst of effort to call it forth. After that, it just burns bright on its own.
Then Urstrig decides to jump backwards in an attempt to crush you, and you realize you may be slightly totally boned. Somehow though, you aren't.
Mid fall, the two of you stop, and craning your neck around you see, well, one of the totems ringing the area. Er, sort of. It seems to have come alive, and is using its barrier to repel you and Urstrig from the ground. Well, thanks wolfie!
Then, there's a loud thunk as a black ballista bolt hits Urstrig and goes out the other side, thankfully missing you. By at least a foot. Probably.
Best not to think about it.

Appearance: A young woman that seems a bit thin but stands on a sturdy pair of legs. Her short dark hair is still long enough to nearly cover her eyes that are already concealed behind thick glasses, making it difficult to read her expression.


maart3n - Mikey/Heph [8]:
Mikey: "Wolf, please go be a good boy and KILL THE BOWL! *fierce roar to encourage wolf*"
It runs off towards the Bowl. Whatever, let's hope it gets the message.
Instead of watching, you make yourself useful and run over to the ballista along with Al, and sort of... help load it? You don't do much, these two seem to have it.
Wait, what is your dog doing? WAIT, IT HAS A BLUE SHIELD?!
...
Ohhhhh. It was made from a barrier totem. So it's a barrier wolf. Not a bitey wolf.
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh.



CrazyMLC - Matt Sterling [6]:
You're about to grab another tree and make more ammo, but Al comes running over with a black rod you feel some dangerous energy coming off of. He then loads it right into your ballista, and you wait a moment for a clear shot before firing it right at Urstrig. This time, with the enhanced ballista bolt, the shot goes straight through the spirit rather than getting lodged inside it. Well, it's something.
You're uh, glad you didn't hit Linna. That would've been hard to explain.



Events: Al-aris, Mikey, and Matt man the Ballista, while Linna holds on for dear life and Mikey's stone wolf prevents Linna from getting crushed. Wassily attacks with a jawbreaker provided by Li-rala, not doing much, and the ballista fires a decay bolt from Al, doing a good amount.

Urstrig, having just taken a rather serious hit, goes quiet. Linna senses something is wrong immediately, since every time it's gotten hurt before, it roared in pain. But now...
Now, it moves like lightning, spinning around and thrusting its arm at the Stone Barrier Wolf. The wolf gets its shield up in time, blocking the spirit's talon and claw paw from shattering it, but Urstrig then flickers, allowing its hand to pass right through the shield and grab onto the wolf's tail. It yelps in surprise, while Linna and the wooden bolt both fall to the ground, then Urstrig spins rapidly and flings the Barrier Wolf into the air. A large stone wolf, easily weighing as much as a small car, is thrown bodily through the air and into the surrounding forest like a rag doll. Linna backs up along the ground, sweating as Urstrig's aura gathers and intensifies, all its fur bristling into small sharp spikes, its claws seeming to elongate, beak sharpening, and all of it becoming more dangerous.

The spirit falls foward, landing on all fours, and releases an absolutely blood curdling howl, shaking the earth itself and making everyone's ears ring, before locking eyes on the ballista at the edge of the clearing and the three people standing by it. Linna sees the ground beneath all its paws crack ever so slightly and the beast's limbs all tense up, as if gathering its energy for a charge.