Noticing the limb came his way James shifted his body weight so as to launch himself off the tree, and thus out of the range of the creature (hopefully XD).
Just in time as well, as a multitude of spears made from what seemed to be shadows slammed into where he was just standing. James was shocked by such a thing, as one as inexperienced as himself would be, as he now realized there were multiple combatants.
Taking a deep breath his eyes now skimmed the battlefield before him. He had noticed there were two combatants before him, one a definite enemy while the other seemed to be attacking the creature which was attacking James. A possible ally? Then again James had yet to get a good glimpse of the mystery man, so who knows.
Meanwhile there was also this unknown danger hurling spears of shadows at them. He quickly calculated a plan as he slashed his sword at a nearby tree. As soon as the blade made contact with the tree two more runes, one being a emerald green and the other a bright indigo, now flared up.
The tree was cut clean in half and now collapsed in front of James, freezing over as it did. The ice begun to spread from the tree towards the creature at a rapid pace and James had effectively hidden himself from sight due to the tree and his runes now dying down. All but one anyway.

Jasmine allowed the shadows to collapse down into a pool, using them to slink closer to the fight without making herself visible. She stopped a few meters away from the other combatants.

The Ranger could indeed see it, but he could also see the approach of the pool of shadows marking the second of their opponents...the shadow-wielder. He was more than capable of fighting on two fronts, though it would be difficult given the respective natures of the two hostiles...however this kid with the cheap runeblade was another matter entirely. There was no question...if he tried to fight the shadow-wielder, he would die. In addition, the shadow-wielder poses the greatest threat to Cruallassar himself, but since the elf is better capable of dealing with him than the swordsman is, it is a threat Cruallassar must respond to.. On the other hand, if the swordsman tried to fight the monstrosity, he would probably die...but it is less likely. And if he tried to run, he would certainly die. So the choice is clearly laid out. Doesn't mean the ranger can't help the tourist in the right direction though. He had noted that the kid had earlier tried to blast the monster with a fireball. Didn't work, but it was a step in the right direction. As things stood now, the monster would hunt him and try to ambush him from the shadows. The kid can't see him. Easy prey. However...
"Kid, torch the trees!" The ranger calls back, at the same time resheathing his blades and returning to his bow as he prepares to engage the shadow-wielder. The loss of the shadows would not hinder him greatly...his shadow manipulation was not a key part of his fighting style, and his ethereal shift and shadow-meld don't rely on pre-existing shadows. Whether the other's power was similar to his own or not is another matter, but hopefully it would be lost with the illumination of the surrounding area, leaving her an easy target. In the meantime...he puts a finger to his bowstring, then pulls the finger back, as if drawing an arrow. At the same time, red energy congeals around the bow, forming a red shaft and bowstring. He then releases the energy at the shadowy presence, all in one swift motion...a mere blink of an eye. The monster's reactions and instincts might be up to the task of dodging something like this, but could the shadow-wielder?

James took this moment of respite to catch his breath. He needed to calm down and think his way out of this.
"Kid, torch the trees!" James looked up as he heard the voice. It must be the mystery man who was attacking the creature, so he was an ally? James would just have to trust him here.
His sword now catching fire he now ran while running his sword along the ground, leaving a trail of fire behind in his wake. Before the rune could wear off he pointed his sword to the other sword of the clearing and launched a fireball. The fire spread quite quickly and soon enough all of the trees around of them were ablaze.
As James' rune dyed down he disappeared in the smoke, but there was still one rune active on his blade. Not that anyone could see it anyway.

The pool of shadows split into multiple smaller segments spreading out through the underbrush and amongst the flames almost instantaneously. It would be difficult for the Ranger to spot exactly which shadow she was in.

The Ranger raises an eyebrow at his arrow scorching a blackened hole in a point right in the middle of now several shadow pools. Then, with lightening speed he spun around, flipping an explosive arrow to the quiver. The monster had reacted precisely as he had predicted, leaping out of the flaming tree at its target...and in midair, it was the best target. The arrow with its explosive head was drawn back, aimed, and fired in the same near-instantaneous motion, straight at the beast's center-of-mass, where it would be most difficult to dodge. The nanosecond the arrow left the quiver, he burst into ethereal shadows again, shooting up above the fray and re-materializing with a second arrow nocked...one of his hailstorm-arrows. A number of smaller shadow pools, huh? Ok then, he doesn't need to know which one houses his enemy...he can shoot them all. The shaft speeds on its way, bursting into a hundred arrows of red energy lancing down over the the shadowy pools at the same moment as the explosive arrow would likely detonate if it hit its target.

James continued to stand there as one rune continued to glow. It was mostly smothered by the smoke, but if one got close enough they could see the bright violet rune slightly.
The creature, when reaching James' illusion, would go straight through it as it only affected the senses of sight and smell. It effectively was just a figment of their imagination.
James had used the smoke as, well a smokescreen, to cover his tracks as he now slowly made his way around the clearing. He could sense the presence of a creature reeking of bloodlust so he was, for the sake of having no words to describe it, getting the f*ck out of there as quickly as possible.
He had his mouth covered the entire time to prevent himself from breathing in the smoke as the blue, yellow, green and indigo runes all begun to glow brightly. James had begun counting down. 50 seconds away.

A pool of darkness swept underneath James, grabbing at his feet and sucking him down. Jazmynes hands reached from the pool, latching on to his legs and pulling him down, hastening his descent into the pool, he would have to react quickly or be engulfed near instantaneously into the pool.

James continued moving as he could feel the bloodlust closing in, he swung his now once again frozen blade towards the swinging limb. He had his eyes shut this entire time, with all the smoke around seeing was a bother so he would have to rely on his ability to sense its bloodlust and also smell the damn thing. It reeked of death and decay, so it was rather easy to smell. Though the smoke did also make smelling it difficult as well.
Suddenly James felt himself be tugged downwards before disappearing into the pool of shadows instantly as he was caught completely off-guard and thus couldn't defend himself from his attack.
The creature's arm swung through midair as James was now gone from the spot he was standing.

Cruallassar hits the ground rolling from his previous high-flying shot, coming up in an instant to view the adventurer's plight. A shadow sinkhole under him, a massive tail around his arm...lovely. In the blink of an eye, three more energy arrows are let fly...one at the monster's tail, likely immobilized for the time being with grabbing the kid's arm, and one each above and below in case he dodges the center one. In another instant, three more are let loose, this time at it's center of mass and head. And finally, another shot is sent at the shadowy pool on the ground, so that it would miss the kid, but hopefully hit anything lurking down there. Though the chances of that are slim.

James now felt his arm being tugged on and dropped his sword from the sudden jarring of his shoulder. He cried out as it felt like his arm was going to be torn clean off when he opened his eyes, pure anger in them. Bringing his left arm up he grabbed onto the tail of the creature and using his higher than average strength to grab hold of the tail and crush it in his grasp. Now the creature would have maybe half his tail left, with the other half still wrapped around James' arm.
Of course now he went straight into the shadow sinkhole, but at least he still had his limbs! The arrow which had been aimed at the sinkhole now thudded into his buckler as he fell straight in as well.
The red rune on his blade also now glowed and his sword went flying into the shadow hole after him.

Jazmyne licked her lips, before unveiling her trademark vampire fangs, her bright white teeth and purple eyes the only visible things in a world of darkness. She latched onto James' shoulders before sinking her fangs into his neck.

The great beast found out the hard way that it wouldnt be that easy to invade upon Jazmynes world. As it dived into the pool, rather than sinking into the shadows as James did, it simply collided face first into the ground upon which the shadow was cast.