Courage or Catastrophe? [Sarain + Ebony + Luthais]

Sarain had a point about the running, but how were the three of them (plus the two familiars, Luthais supposed grudgingly) supposed to handle a wyvern on their own? Luthais saw that she was going for its wings-- yes, that was a good plan. If they could disable its flying ability, they might stand slightly more of a chance. Could wyverns fight on the ground? He wasn't sure.

Luthais gaped in alarm when Sarain got slashed and fell away from the others. He started running toward her, but it wasn't easy given the snow piled up. Cellius seemed to be melting the area, making his path somewhat less difficult. As the burning lion attacked the wyvern and got repelled, Luthais couldn't help but feel an errant bit of concern for the tree that the familiar slammed into, given that Cellius was still aflame. He turned his attention back to the tree he was supposed to be focused on immediately, the one Sarain was in that the wyvern was trying to knock down. Reaching out with his magic, Luthais strengthened the roots' grip in the ground so that wouldn't happen. He had to put some extra effort in to stop them from becoming brittle as Jinn brought in a cold front. This wasn't good; they needed to coordinate better if they were to have any hope of winning this fight.

And-- what the hell was that? Some sort of big blackbird-- that could talk? Another familiar then, presumably of Ebony's even though it was helping Sarain since she was clearly an Ascetic judging by her ki blasts. Luthais hadn't seen this one around, and he hadn't seen Ebony do any sort of summoning magic in the heat of the battle. That meant that it too had been going around unattended by its master-- as if Ebony clearly wasn't already incompetent in handling Jinn unsupervised. Luthais felt a fresh surge of anger at the half-elf's utter irresponsibility. "Precisely how many more familiars do you have wandering about with the potential of going rogue?" he snapped.

Then the wyvern managed to break free again, and Luthais concentrated back on the immediate situation. There was too much chaos around the wyvern with Ebony's familiars attacking it for Luthais to get in edgewise if he didn't want to risk friendly fire. "You need to utilize your familiars better," he said to Ebony. "The two lions are antithetical; one's attack could easily cancel out the other's." Luthais wasn't sure whether to recommend dismissing one of them to focus on the other. It should certainly be an improvement in Ebony's control, but they would also need all the allies they could have on their side to battle the wyvern.

Anyway, he ought to help Sarain get out of the tree she was trapped in. Locating the branch she was standing on, he spurred it to grow out and down so that if she ran along it to the end, she could jump to the ground at a decent distance away from the wyvern, closer to where Luthais and Ebony were.

Why is this guy still shouting at him Ebony thought trying to maintain consciousness. He held his ground however when Sarain shouted out a plan that could very well be done but for that there would have to have the cage set. Jinn on one side quickly came back to the fight from his last fall and Cellius kept shooting fire at it. The feeling was glorious and exhausting all at the same time as he hastily commanded his lions to attack in a better formation while Ophelia tried to distract it, maybe in hopes to gauge the other eye. Every time the giant crow try to use it's talons, the wyvern would immediately try to use it's massive jaws to drag her down but Ophelia knew better to keep her distance. 

"Be ready for the cage Jinn, Cellius and bring it down to it's knees if you have to ! " he ordered loudly. 

Sarain whirled and dodged the bulk of the wyvern as the lions kept it busy. In her peripheral vision, she saw the plants sprout up into a cage around them and she couldn't stop a corner of her mouth from raising slightly. Now she could do some damage. She just hoped that Cellius and Jinn would try to keep their attacks away from the cage.

She latched on to one of the sides as it sprouted up, carrying her to the top of the cage where she began firing ki blasts at the beast. She was fast, never in the same place for more than a few seconds as she leaped and caught herself across the living mesh Luthais had created. She moved with a striking expertise, and her attacks were fast and vicious, but the armor of the wyvern was thick. She noted that she didn't seem to be making any progress. She'd have to find a vulnerable spot...

The wyvern slammed one of the lions into the side of the cage and turned and lunged at Sarain, using the plants to boost itself to reach her. She leaped away from vicious fangs and time seemed to slow down as an insane idea struck her. The inside of its mouth wasn't armored... She would just need an opportunity to strike without being bitten.

Keeping the cage fully intact despite everything being inflicted on it was quite similar to what Luthais imagined juggling would be like, not that he had ever tried himself. He had to repair the wood from scorching, freezing, and cutting damage in turn. In the past, he had dealt with uppity fire mages who thought plant mages would be easy pickings, and he taught his classes in winter, but he did not usually deal with flames and ice at the same time. At least the basic foundation of what he had to do to fix the cage from all the attacks was the same: new growth.

It was difficult to keep up the cage and try and see what was going on at the same time since the former required so much of his focus. He was relieved to see that Sarain had not seemed to take another hit, although it did not seem like her hits were working either. The fiery lion had more success, and as it latched onto the wyvern and slowed it down significantly, Luthais took the opportunity to try and help out further. Breathing deeply to concentrate, he redirected some of the cage roots to grab the wyvern's legs and hold it more or less in one place. This trapping measure was only temporary, and Luthais didn't doubt that the roots would be broken one way or another, but he hoped one of his allies would take advantage while they lasted.