He was breath away from dying but he he refused to yield.
With a brutal yank it dragged on the sword, pulling Ren off balance. In the same motion it tore its other arm free as Leo's binding burned out in a final flash.
Time slowed. My palm was still on its back. I felt the intent snap into focus. It was going to take one of us with it.
It released the hilt, twisted, and ignored Ren. The freed arm swung toward Leo, who stood only a short distance away, drained and open.
My heart lurched. Leo had no time to dodge. That blow would tear him in half.
"No," I shouted. Strategy vanished at that moment. All that left was Instinct that took over. I ripped the bracer free, metal clattering and sparking at my feet, and threw everything into reaching Leo.
I had one trick left. Blink, with a second body in tow. I had never done that on the fly. It could fail. It could go very wrong. There was no choice.
I dragged the last reserves of mana into the teleport weaves of the bell. And for some reason if it seem the bell was helping me? Making it easier for me? Or I am just imagining things?
I had no time to ponder over some minor changes. My mind was dead set on Leo who was breath away from dying.
The weave lit up on my head, [Blink] and then the migraine rose like a beast in my skull. Black spots danced at the edges of my vision. I fixed on Leo and reached.
For a split second the world snapped away and back. I reappeared behind Leo, grabbed his tunic, and yanked him down and aside with everything I had, throwing my weight the other way.
The dazed Migoi's fist whooshed through the space where Leo's ribs had been a heartbeat earlier. It clipped his shoulder and buried itself in a tree, blowing bark into splinters. We crashed to the ground in a heap under the arc of that swing.
My vision blurred. My head felt split open. Not done yet. As I fell past Leo I flung my other hand toward the sword still jammed in the Migoi's neck. My fingers brushed the hilt of Dawn's Edge. Through the metal I poured the full fury of Hunt into the creature of necromancy school.
It was reckless. Hunt is for weakening and trcikery, not for brute forcing like that. I know it more than anybody else. But I forced it to one purpose, to sever the ethereal strings that tied this undead to its master. Using sword in the neck as conduit, my [Hunt] touched the corrupted mana within the creature.
A flood of alien sensation slammed into me, a flash of mountain cold, a stab of sorrow and rage that was not mine. Then something snapped, like a rope cut between the Migoi and something far away.
The effect was instant. The blue fire in its eyes went out. The raised arm sagged and fell. A final shudder went through that massive frame, and the Migoi collapsed to the dirt, Ren's sword still stuck in its half severed neck.
I hit the ground on my backside as backlash crushed me. My skull felt caught in a vise. White hot pain lanced behind my eyes. A high ringing swallowed sound. Leo lay beside me, stunned and breathing, alive. Ren stood over the fallen foe, chest heaving, eyes wide.
It was over. We had slain the undead Migoi.
I tried to laugh. It came out strangled. The world swam. Up and down traded places. I tasted copper. Blood from my nose. The price of that burst of Hunt.
Through the narrowing tunnel of my vision I saw motion beyond Ren and Leo, near the treeline. Boran. Crawling on hands and knees, trying to slip away. Something was wrong. His movements were jerky and wrong. As he half rose, one eye glinted red in the dark.
The thought clicked into place a second too late. Gyalpo. The spirit still rode him, and it was making its move.
"No, maybe it was never Boran. "
I forced my mouth to work. "Re, Ren, Boran," I whispered. The words slurred. My hand trembled as I tried to point.
Ren spun, following my gaze. Boran stood at the edge of the clearing, swaying. His face was bloodless, one eye normal, the other a luminous crimson.
"You," Ren snarled, lifting his sword. He stepped in front of Leo and me, ready to strike.
Boran's lips twisted into a mirthless smile that was not his. "Nighty night," he rasped, voice distorted and doubled. The red eye flared.
An invisible weight crashed over the clearing. Darkness thickened, like a heavy veil settling over us. Ren staggered, suddenly woozy. Leo slumped forward at my side, like a puppet with cut strings. The sleep hex took him at once.
I fought to keep my eyes open. Useless. I had nothing left. The last thing I saw before the dark took me was Boran's body shuddering and flickering, his outline wavering like a candle shadow, and that ghastly crimson eye fixed on us with triumphant glee.
Then I fell into darkness.