Leonard didn't know which would co first: losing consciousness or his neck snapping. Blackness crept at the edges of his vision.
Fleshripper rubbed its mutilated arm stump against Leonard's face, saring blood and gore across his cheek. "See.... Fresh at..." it rasped.
Leonard's face was now coated in foul-slling Gnoll blood, but he was too close to death to feel disgust or repulsion.
"Enough..." Fleshripper growled, its remaining hand tightening, crushing Leonard's windpipe. Darkness flooded Leonard's vision; the feeling of fainting was already present.
A tallic whistle sliced through the battlefield air. It was sharp, piercing, like a streak of lightning given voice, screaming like an enraged dragon of pure light. Leonard, his consciousness fading, dimly saw a blinding flash in the direction of the sound, barely registering what was happening.
Suddenly, he was falling, hitting the muddy ground hard. The pressure on his neck vanished. Fleshripper's severed hand, still locked in a death grip, thumped beside him. Confused, gasping desperately for air, Leonard looked up. Fleshripper's other arm, the one that had held him captive, was gone, severed cleanly at the shoulder.
The Elite Gnoll stared stupidly at its two bleeding stumps, a look of utter disbelief dawning on its grotesque features.
Fleshripper shrieked, a sound unlike its previous roars—high-pitched, filled with agony and bewildered terror. It staggered back, stumbling blindly, looking from one arm stump to the other as if unable to comprehend how it had been so utterly disard.
Leonard, after several deep, ragged coughs that brought up blood, managed to understand. A weak smile touched his lips. "Finally... you ca..." He succumbed to the darkness, his strength utterly spent.
Walking steadily through the burnt, smoldering swamp, a figure erged. A paladin, her armor gleaming crimson, the reflected light of embers and lingering flas dancing across its polished surface.
Mikaela rushed to Leonard's side and knelt. "Oh, Leo... Forgive my delay. I almost couldn't find you," she whispered, her voice thick with relief and concern.
Leonard managed a faint whisper. "It's okay... You ca... just in ti..."
Mikaela imdiately began channeling Holy Healing, her hands glowing softly as she worked on Leonard's crushed throat and other injuries. "How did you find us?" Leonard rasped, his voice barely audible.
Mikaela smiled, a captivating, genuine smile despite the grim circumstances. "Thank your blockhead friend," she said. "I was still far away, but that pillar of fire shot into the sky like an enraged spear. It was hard to miss."
Leonard managed another weak smile, then coughed again, spitting more blood. "Kaleb's... Explosion..."
Mikaela looked at him apprehensively. "Don't try to talk. Rest now. Leave everything to from now on."
Mikaela rose to her feet, a subtle but profound shift in her deanor. Her amber eyes, usually warm, now blazed with an intense, fiery light. The gentle healer was gone, replaced by the unwavering resolve of the Inquisitor. Her battle spirit ignited.
"Evil demon," she declared, her voice ringing with cold conviction, devoid of her usual warmth. "Even if I perish before the divine judgnt, today your soul will be purged."
Mikaela raised her right hand, palm open towards the sky, and this ti, she roared the na of her holy sword with righteous fury: "KALENDOR!" A brilliant column of white light descended from the heavens, solidifying into the familiar, ornate blade in her grasp.
She settled into a battle stance, the holy sword humming with power. Fleshripper looked at her, and for the first ti in its wretched existence, its eyes widened not just with rage but with raw, primal fear. Its body trembled uncontrollably, and the few remaining patches of fur stood on end.
"Woman... Goddess... Exiled..." Fleshripper choked out the words fragnted, nonsensical, yet filled with a terrifying certainty.
Mikaela flinched inwardly at the strange words, a flicker of unease passing through her, but she pushed it aside, her resolve hardening. Ignoring the cryptic warning, she launched her attack.
Mikaela closed the distance instantly, Kalendor a streak of blinding white light aiming for Fleshripper's head. The holy energy radiating from the blade caused the air around it to sizzle.
Fleshripper, despite its terror and missing limbs, reacted with surprising speed, ducking clumsily under the blow. It lunged forward, jaws snapping shut inches from Mikaela's face, attempting a savage bite.
Mikaela sidestepped the bite, bringing Kalendor around in a horizontal arc aid at the Gnoll's legs. The blade didn't connect fully, but the holy energy seared Fleshripper's hide as it passed, leaving a smoking, cauterized wound. The Gnoll howled in pain.
Enraged and desperate, Fleshripper ignored the searing pain and lashed out blindly with its remaining leg in a powerful, sweeping kick. It was a crude, telegraphed move, born of desperation.
Mikaela raised Kalendor to block, underestimating the sheer brute force behind the desperate kick.
The impact was imnse.
Kalendor held, but the force traveled up Mikaela's arms and slamd into her body. She was thrown backward, tumbling through the air like a discarded doll before colliding violently with the trunk of a nearby withered tree. The world exploded in pain and then went dark. She almost fainted.
Fury, absolute and blinding, consud Leonard. Rational thought vanished, replaced by a primal need for destruction. He began to float, just slightly, his boots hovering centiters above the muddy ground. Blue lightning crackled and snapped violently around his body, more intensely than ever before. His eyes ignited, no longer just glowing but burning like the heart of a storm, the eyes of a thunder god demanding retribution.
Mikaela, her vision swimming, saw Leonard one last ti before the darkness claid her. She saw the uncontrolled power, the divine fury made manifest. "Weise... finally..." The thought echoed in her fading consciousness as she passed out completely.
Fleshripper stumbled back, then fell to its knees. Even with its limited intelligence, it knew. It recognized the overwhelming pressure, the crushing weight of a power so far beyond its own comprehension. It felt the sa monstrous hierarchy it felt when near Skullcrusher, the sa instinct screaming at it to submit or be annihilated. Fear, cold and absolute, finally overwheld the Battle Rage.
Leonard slowly raised his hands towards the churning, storm-like sky. For the first ti, he wasn't channeling energy through his swords. Raw, untad electrical power gathered directly in his palms, the air splitting with the violent CRACKLE and HISS of pure energy. The light was blinding, the sound deafening.
He lowered his gaze, fixing his blazing eyes on the terrified, kneeling form of Fleshripper.
And then, a searing white flash consud the Wailing Wetlands.
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