"Vile witches, who hide in your southlands until you think we are vulnerable!" Forgeron roared to the darting shadows that were just outside of his reach. "We will not tolerate your breech of our lands!" the fiery Rolvaag added, crouching on his haunches. When one flew lower, he leapt powerfully up at her and locked his claws around her cloud-pine branch and pulled her powerfully down. She screeched and fought hard, but her slender form was no match for a 500 pound bear, and he crushed her into the snow.
At once, he turned around and searched for another witch to dispatch and left that perfect opening the witch high above had been waiting for. In a fraction of an instant, her pale arms pulled back the bowstring and loosed the arrow, where it found it's mark and buried it's spelled head deep into Rolvaag's flesh.
A fierce bellow of pain escaped his mouth as he fell, the injured leg unable to hold his weight anymore. Kasatka immediately scanned the skies for the shooter, and so left herself also vulnerable. The arrow met with her forearm and she also collapsed in immense pain. "Why does it hurt so much?" her pain-wracked brain wondered as she writhed. Forgeron roared angrily, so deep and so loud even the air trembled.
"Yes..." Soren hissed to himself upon hearing the battle start. A good fight always allowed him to take off some stress and anger, so in mid-lope, he turned and spraying snow as he went, barreled off toward the sound. Once in sight, he leapt powerfully and snatched several of the witches from the sky and obliterated them by sheer force of momentum. Their blood sprayed the landscape and turned the scene into one of pure carnage. In full battle-frenzy, Soren turned with a bellow to come face to face with the queen witch, and an arrow to the chest.
"I don't want to fight...I don't want to fight..." Pyree thought over and over. The fire-hurler had long since run out of sulfurous stone to carry the flames, and she huddled behind it, staying out of the way of a death-tipped rain. Gazing out through her helmet, she saw the arrow strike Rolvaag, saw the blood stain the snow pink, and saw Kasatka fall shortly after. "All this pain...I cannot let it happen!" Roaring as she never had before, Pyree bounded from behind the fire-hurler and charged toward a witch that had landed to inspect the two fallen bears. With a mighty head-butt, she sent the witch flying out across the snow. As her head struck, Pyree heard the snap of the witches back and knew what she had done. "No..." A blinding pain suddenly struck in her right forearm, and she crumpled, half because of the pain, half because of the weight of the guilt that had suddenly buried her, like a wild, blank avalanche.
A cold cry came from Modomnoc as he loped to her and rose to his full height of ten feet in a challenge to the witch. "How dare you! Come down here and fight me face to face!" he bellowed. "Never bare your belly, foolish cub!" came a voice from high up, and Modomnoc fell to the arrow in his side. "Modomnoc..." Pyree said softly, and they both slipped into unconsciousness.
The perfect tag-team, Nineveh and Rue moved in perfect harmony to each other. Nineveh knelt and curled up so that her armored back was all that was visible in the snow, and Rue charged up and "leap-frogged" off of her sister, snatching at the air with her razor claws and taking down as many witches as possible. This was a favorite tactic when dealing with enemies who could fly, so the twins leap-frogged all around, leaving a trail of bloodied snow. Their fun was to end, however. The queen witch had used the twins own interrogation of arctic foxes against them and had learned of this leap-attack technique and knew the bears were vulnerable in the air. With one paw outstretched to grab at their prey, the sisters often left their bellies exposed and attacked then. Both fell in an instant, bellowing more in outrage and shame than pain.
Far off, Solange watched her friends fall and cried out in alarm. "Rolvaag!" Helleri and Dohai were huddled together behind her, each worried about their respective siblings and/or parents, Dohai a little more so. Dramoro was all he had in the world, what would he do without him? Solange was half caught between running to her friends aid, and staying to protect the cubs. She didn't have time to make her decision, however, for the witch queen found her and the cubs, loosing three arrows one after another, each finding their respective marks. "Forgeron!" she yelled, and Helleri backed it up with a shriek of "Daddy!!"
Dramoro heard the cries of alarm from the cubs and immediately began charging toward them. "I'm coming, Dohai!" he shouted, then cried out as an arrow drove itself into his shoulder. Heedless of the pain, Dramoro kept running, until his little brother was in sight. There was an arrow sprouting from the cubs shoulder too, and Dramoro collapsed just within reach of him and roared for Forgeron.
Whipping around to face the sound, the great Captian of the Guard bellowed and ran full tilt toward his fallen cub. A one-ton mass of blood-stained muscle, iron, teeth and claws slammed into the witch queen, who had made the mistake of flying low so she could hit the smaller cubs. Placing a razor-filled paw over her head, he pinned the female into the snow and snarled, "What are you doing, witch?!" Her voice came, muffled slightly but he heard every word. "We are paying back a debt to the Kingdom of Svalbard, avenging the slaughter of our sisters millenia ago! Your guard have the worst punishment placed upon you, for as the spell placed on each arrow seeps through your kindreds blood, it will turn you all into nothing!"
As she said this, she pulled the last arrow from it's hiding place in the strips of silk she wore and plunged it deep into Forgeron's side. He howled and crushed her head into the snow until he felt it pop like an egg. Pain clouded his vision as he stumbled over to the three hulks of Solange, Helleri and Dohai before passing out, one paw over the two cubs.