Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

That was what her entire time in Scotland was about to amount to because Valerie Gray was failing in every sense of the word. Eyes widening in horror as the beast raised itself up higher and higher, towering over her mortal self, she hardly registered the tears that had squeezed their way out of the corners of her eyes. It matter not that this was more precious water being lost from her body. The runespoor was about to strike her, sink its fangs into her (and knowing her luck this runespoor would possess an especially potent venom sack), and that would be the end of it all.

Tossing the Ehwaz rune aside in the tall grass (for she saw no use in trying to amplify a spell using it and something told her the combined effort of it with Animalis Fidelis was a strong theory but would fail miserably like everything else she had attempted), the Wampus took several more unsteady steps away from the serpent and slipped slightly as her combat boot sunk into the mud she had previously made to write her runic translate in.

She could try and Duro the tall grass around herself and the runespoor to perhaps try and create a stone wall around it and accomplish what her Incarvolo could not. Precede the effort with a Gouging Spell and trap the beast like a animal at the zoo. But then that still ran the risk of it somehow miraculously climbing its way out by the abnormal strength and resilience the beast was displaying. She still had an active Isa rune on her person as well and for a moment she weighed the option of taking ownership of her Snow Queen name, but deflected the thought almost as soon as it had appeared in her mind. There was also the potential of transfiguring the vines into ropes to tie the serpent down to the earth, but she rules that out as well for now.

She had always considered runespoors misunderstood (people referring to them as Dark simply by their association with Dark wizards who were fluent in snake language) but at present she was wondering if perhaps she had been naive to think otherwise.

She wished the mud, the earth itself, would just swallow her up whole.

And then her eyes widened and once more found the resolve to tighten her grip around her cherry wood wand.

She wanted to buy herself more time. Conjure a flock of birds or transfigure nearby rocks into Labradors (a thought that insufferably made her think of a certain Thunderbird who she had some choice words for should she make it out of this) to serve as a temporary distraction to the creature, but refrained here as well. She would rather use that energy and concentration for this shift in tactics.

Earth magic, as the jinx technically was considered, was not a branch of study Valerie was by any means proficient in and had hardly given it a second thought while looking branches of magic. It was not the concrete Transfiguration she would rather fall back on and low level but (if nothing else) efficient. Should she need to do so, her mind was already calculating how much time she would need to carve Thurisaz or Dagaz enhance the transfiguration energy of her spell given her physical and emotional strain, but having already exhausted (at least in her mind but if this failed and she still had strength in her perhaps she would reevaluate) the option of using the greenery surrounding her this was the risk that the drumming of her heart was telling her take.

Seeing the snake lunge for her (and with no other thought in mind and zero time to react otherwise) Valerie stood her ground and pointed her wand to the ground beneath the runespoor and fueled her casting with her Wampus fury. The image was vivid in her mind and if successful the runespoor would quite literally be subdued in nature.

“ORBIS!”