Arken sighed heavily at Sir Renar's words. "I can certainly tell," he commented, "I hope her capabilities are making up for her eccentricities." Fanilly inhaled deeply. Their enemy had yet to make an appearance, but was almost certainly present. Would it attack? Would it simply continue to observe? Whatever it was was lurking out of sight, certainly. Did that mean it was stalking them? Or was it some form of scout, employed by the fae? They couldn't even be entirely certain that it was related to the Moonlight Queen. Or, for that matter, even the local fae at all. Fae weren't the only creatures that dwelled in the deep of Brennan forest. How did she respond? What tactic did she enforce? Their formation was already arranged to best defend those who were unable to engage at close range, so at the very least they were as reasonably prepared for an attack as they could be given the lack of knowledge that they possessed about their potential opponent. That, combined with the stark atmosphere of this area of the forest--- She inhaled again and parted her lips. "Iron Roses---" There was a groan from the forest. It wasn't the sound of a beast or man. No creature could pass such a noise from their lips. It was the echoing creak of moving branches, of wood scraping against wood. The trees--- The trees marked with faces were moving. Immediately, Fanilly drew her sword, the flash of steel and the sound of sliding metal piercing the atmosphere. In a way, the revelation of their foe had relieved the tension. "Prepare for batt-what?!" Fanilly's eyes widen, her mouth falling open. Certainly, the trees were moving. But they were being dragged along. Pulled up from the earth, near-black roots winding together as the faces upon them melted away. They split and twisted, branches binding themselves like the individual fibers making up rope, forming a continuous shape of gnarled bark and intertwined limbs and roots. Fanilly could hear something like a heartbeat echo through the forest as more and more trees were pulled free from the earth to join the forming shape. A serpentine head formed, shards of razor-sharp splintered wood filling its maw as its jaws slowly opened, rising upwards and snapping the branches that formed the canopy. The massive wooden serpent rose above them, jaws opening wide, an unearthly green glow serving as a simulacrum of eyes. "Th-that's...---" What in the blazes was this?! Fanilly had heard plenty of eerie stories of presences in Brennan, but she'd never heard of anything that sounded like this! And it was poised to crash down upon them. "Iron Roses, disper---" Damn it, it was already bearing down, mouth open wide! Did they even have time to--- "Threefold Barrier!" A purple light erupted from mid-air, expanding into a set of three disc-shaped constructs of light. They resembled magic circles, angular patterns marking their formation and arranged as a stack. The tree-serpent creature crashed against them. The first immediately shattered, fragmenting into pieces, and Fanilly could see cracks run through the second. But it was sent reeling back, buying them even a little time. Lord Arken's staff glowed brilliantly. He must have been the one who cast the defensive spell. Fanilly took a deep breath. Her heart was nearly slamming against her breastplate, beating almost at the same time as the enormous heartbeat that filled the forest around them. But she had to give her orders. They had to destroy this monster, whatever it might be! "Break formation!" she called, "Spread out so it can't target us all at once!" Despite having no idea what kind of creature this was, at the very least she knew that remaining clustered together was no use against such a huge creature. Fanilly was already running. "Lord Arken, Lady Fiadh, Sir Fionn, do you have any idea what this thing is?!" [hr] The Gannek's maw seemed to gape wider and wider, more pitch black arms reaching from inside its body--- But Sir Rolan's bolt struck true, piercing one of its white eyes. The sound that left the monster was unlike those made by living things. An unearthly, metallic screech that seemed to reach into the very bodies of those around it and shake their bones, reverberating through their ears. It sounded more like a blade being scraped along stone then anything a living creature should be able to produce. Its lengthy body twisted as it attempted to look in the direction of the attack, the bolt already being pushed out of its body by its mending form. However, it was unable to locate Sir Rolan, due to Sir Gerard's efforts. The branch ramming deep into its mouth clearly took it by surprise, and it could do little to swiftly reach to its body being yanked along with it, its underside quickly exposed as it was pulled away from the slowly-dying tree. Even though it had been taken by surprise, its shadowy arms were still crawling along the branch in an attempt to reach out towards the bold knight. "I'll support you!" called Dame Yael, her slim-bladed sword leaving its sheath and skewering one of the monster's hands in a single motion, forcing it to retreat back into its maw at least temporarily. Sir Caulder didn't need to be told what to do. His heavy axe raised up over his head, and was sent careening towards the monster's exposed belly to split it open and spill its insides--- Only for it to be caught by two of the creature's legs. Each of its feet were shaped similarly to human hands, and unfortunately despite its maw being preoccupied it still had awareness of other attacks. Gritting his teeth. Sir Caulder slammed one foot forward, pouring his strength into his arms, but the Gannek's physical power was impossible to ignore despite its spindly frame. And worse, one of its legs was reaching for the knight's head--- Meanwhile, the terrified aessyr had buried herself as deeply into the furs as she could possibly manage, trying to disappear entirely.