The small rolling ball of flame, a tiny thing really little more than a mere wisp, danced across Nirael's hand as he recited his incantation.  Then as his words completed it lept forwards, arcing over the battle to land behind the ghouls.  But just before it touched the ground it exploded in a massive magical blast of pure elemental fire.  The sun speckled forest lit up with the conflagration and the damp ground of the river bank sizzled and hissed as the roaring inferno of fire roared into being for only a split second.  But in that split second, it was long enough for the flames to engulf two of the ghouls.<br/><br/>The fifth ghoul, that had already been wounded was knocked to the ground by the heat and explosive force, necrotic flesh blasted from it's bones and distracting the seventh as it's body, now void of undeath, fell charred and sizzling near it.  The sixth ghoul, that had tried to flank Lunari from the north east hadn't even seen the fireball coming, distracted as it was by the wall of inky blackness that had been created by Lunari's voidcloth.  But it too fell forwards from the blast that ripped into it from behind.  It thrashed about on the ground, losing even any semblance of it's bestial undead thoughts as it's rotten flesh sizzled and blackened.  Pure instinct took over and it thrashed about madly, trying to extinguish the flames that fed on it's body.  But only for a few moments as it too succumbed to the spell and lay, twitching in the damp loam of the riverbank.<br/><br/>Lunari flinched aside from the heat and light of the spell, but was otherwise unaffected.  It seemed to Nirael that she was no stranger to magic, certainly, and used the distraction of the fifth ghoul's death to further distract the last remaining ghoul in front of her.  Twirling in a tight and quick spin, she flung her arm up and down quickly, the inky voidcloth wrapped about her forearm leaving a solid wall of night in it's wake and blocking the view of the remaining ghoul.  But her distraction didn't stop there.  She continued her spin, dancing around the side of the ghoul before finishing her pirouette with an upwards stab directly into the back of the ghoul.  Her scimitar driving upwards through it's back deep into the chest cavity of the undead beast before the tip of the scimitar burst forth through it's grey chest, sliding between ribs and covered in a brackish grey blood.<br/><br/>Were the ghoul a human opponent, such a strike would have been instantly lethal.  But these ghouls were animated by dark forces, and the hideous beast thrashed, it's mouth opening to try to cry out, but unable too with lungs that were now preforated with the elven scimitar.  It swung it's claws wildly however, one of them catching Lunari's sword arm and opening a rent in her purple flesh, causing a cry of pain from the elven woman.  In response she savagely threw herself to the side, onto the blackened ground where Nirael's fireball had gone off, pulling her scimitar with her as she did so.  An effect that almost tore the ghoul in half as it ripped free from the beast.  It too dropped to join it's burned companions in final death as a spray of brackish blood and viscera spilled to the riverbank  below it, masked only by the trail of inky blackness that followed Lunari's path.<br/><br/>Nirael's attention was torn however as Mara also cried out in pain, the ghoul's claws finding her weapon arm as well and scratching her, even as she drove her long dagger directly into the face of the ghoul in front of her.  The small but sharp blade skated across the face of the first ghoul, crossing one of it's eyes as it went.  Again, a blow that would have been lethal, or at least permanently incapacitating to a humanoid, but seemingly only an annoyance to the ghoul as it continued to swing it's rotten claws at the human woman who attempted to use her bow in her off hand to bat away the foul rotten talons.<br/><br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">ooc</div><div class="spoiler_body">I had Lunari take 2 actions this turn, just because.<br/><br/>Ghouls 2,3, and 4 are still entangled<br/>Ghoul 1 is engaged with Mara and has been badly wounded, but is 'alive.<br/>Ghouls 5, 6, and 7 are dead, 5&amp;6 from the fireball, 7 from Lunari's two attacks.<br/>Lunari took a wound, failed her saving throw, and will be paralyzed on her next turn.<br/>Mara took another wound, but it isn't serious, and she made her saving throw so is not paralyzed.<br/><br/>Ghoul 1 is the only one in melee range and ghouls 2-4 haven't been able to break the bonds, but you don't know how much longer that spell will hold them.  (I just rolled poorly for all 3 honestly)</div></div>