'Where's mother?' the thought rang in Elessar's heightened mind. Her mother was nowhere to be found.
'Was she caught in an attack?' Suddenly she broke off her state of pause and started turning around the little room trying to spot if she had fallen to a corner but alas, she wasn't in the room.
Elessar pulled off the blanket atop the bed and she was hit with a foul stench, large black stains were on the little makeshift bed of thatch and clothing.
The black stains ran down taking the shape of a humanoid figure, they were from the dead skin of her mother.
Elessar then crept forward through the other hole, she looked to her left to see that the portion of the house existed no more.
She took a few steps and then she halted, her nose twitched and she caught a whiff of a terrible smell. She looked below and then proceeded to squat. On the wooden floor were black footprints conspicuously imprinted and it gave up the same terrible smell.
With her hand over her nose against the stench, she thought 'Did she walk? Has mother regained consciousness?'
Her feelings of worry dwindled greatly and new feelings of hope took root.
She stood and went through the door missing half of its wall. She met the crowd again still by the fallen tree, some kids went up the fallen tree playing about it running back and forth and making joyful innocent noises.
Elessar's insides lightened, perhaps she was worrying needlessly, perhaps there was no imminent danger.
She took a sigh and a step forward when she felt the wind change and heard a loud powerful snap.
'What?' she paused.
Screams escaped from the villagers as they ran in the opposite direction chaotically, trying to get far far away from whatever had done that.
The chief thrust his hands and plant outgrowths zoomed forward into empty space.
Elessar thought she had missed it but she didn't, something, someone had snapped through the kids and a few adults in a single strike and it couldn't be seen, it had come from empty space.
Elessar heard Pouka growl taking an offensive stance and crouching, her face was the most aggressive she had ever seen and she saw her hairs standing, whatever it was, it caused great worry in the beast.
Yet, Elessar couldn't see the creature, she looked forward and saw the vines pressing against a thing that wasn't there, that had no shape.
The chief was struggling, his face strained and his powerful plants chopped off.
Elessar then got the courage to move forward which she did and then she halted when she saw a tab overhead the thing.
[Graimpuf (transformed) - lvl 45]
The archers in their position rained down arrows–some enchanted with magic on the invisible beast but they all hanged in the air and couldn't go through its fur.
Neska sent vine after vine at the invisible creature, some coiling around its legs holding it in place and suddenly, a massive mushroom sprouted and then the ground boomed.
The image of the assailer was finally brought to light. The creature was massive, very massive, it had taken the lives of almost a dozen with a bite.
The transformed Graimpuf was red, it had lots of thick fur and it stood at a tall height of at least twenty meters.
However, there was something very peculiar about this Graimpuf and that was that it had three heads each with a pair of plain red eyes like it was a demon.
The mushroom Neska had conjured up knocked it off its feet by hitting its jaw.
Chief Neska continued the onslaught spamming sprouts of large mushrooms rocking it and sending it flying. After six mushrooms blasting it away did Neska stop.
The unholy beast was resilient and it quickly got up and roared. It went for a bite down at the chief who hastily responded by jumping back and creating bundles of short trees as barriers catching the beast's bite.
Again rains of arrows fell and again it was unaffected, however this time it didn't ignore the archers. It looked over to the ones nearest to it and roared, projecting powerful red lightning from its maw burning up the archers and blackening the tree on which they stood.
Finrod's team, seeing this, all suddenly jumped off the branches where they stood and took cover from the creature.
The red beast rained multiple bolts in their direction.
"Finrod!" Elessar screamed, turning back in his direction, catching the beast's attention in the process. It growled at her and unknown to her it was about to rain lightning on her but before it did, Pouka charged forward throwing her up her back and running in the opposite direction.
The beast paused in its attack watching its fellow Graimpuf run away.
Then, large vines whipped its face causing it to turn away, they came at it hitting and hitting it again, over and over.
It groaned in pain and then swung its head roaring, releasing a jet of powerful wind that blew apart the vines and almost turned Neska into a large stain of red.
Finrod hid alongside his mates by the trees, they didn't know what to do, they could do nothing, they were powerless.
He looked down clenching his fists and grimacing. He didn't like it, the feeling of powerlessness, the images of his fallen brethren replaying in his mind.
He crept past the trees and moved into the village, he saw others running to where he had come from, many watching the chief fight and others taking it upon themselves to heal others.
As he ran, he tripped on something and fell to the ground, he bent his neck and looked at his feet and he spotted the thing he had fallen over.
By his feet was the squashed body of a Funari child, it had been swept up in a stampede and met a terrible death. Finrod quickly looked away and got up.
He got close enough to the beast and spotted Neska up close battling it.
[Graimpuf (transformed) - lvl 45]
He froze…
Elessar on the other hand turned behind and in the middle of all the chaos and fear, only one thought stayed true to her, 'Mother, where are you?'