He battered her tendrils with his paws and seized them with his teeth, tearing them asunder. But for every one he ruptured, three others pierced through him. If he mauled them before Midnight could fully form them, they tore right upon contact, but those with superior density slashed into him and distorted his form. As long as they were under Midnight’s control, these tendrils emitted lingering ripples that hindered his ability to reform, until he clawed them off.

He adapted immediately, shifting his focus from her tendrils to Midnight herself, using his size and reach to slash at her, even if it meant simultaneously cutting through several tendrils that obstructed his path of attack. He forced Midnight to dodge and defend, to retreat before him, but did not allow her to gain distance. Blocking her every attempt to soar upwards again, he confined her to the cavern floor. Where Midnight was cautious, he became reckless. While she planned ahead, she underestimated just how much he was fighting in the now. As their claws, teeth and tendrils clashed, he suddenly burst right into and through her defences, with a reckless leap and no apparent regard for his own safety. All her serpentine tendrils pierced him, but he reached her. He struck her down before Midnight could dodge or reinforce her position with additional tendrils. Three heavy blows landed right after, severing half, and half, and again half of her form, reducing her to the fickle size of a mere patherren.

But Midnight clung to the future she had envisioned. And then did what she had seen her wizard do many times to his enemies, when he had woven hidden threads of shards and light just as delicate and potent as the spears and discs of darkness she had prepared. All of them were still there.

Pages: