For a moment, I felt utterly confused. Instead of the encounter ending with the death of the bolotnisa, it had only been phase one. At the same time, I felt a pressure settle around my mind, pushing inwards to the point that I was only barely able to mentally hold on, my senses shutting down and turning inwards. Thanks to Lenore, I was still able to get an impression of what was going on, albeit only a rough one due to the distance involved, and it looked like my Avatar was surrounded by a dark, roiling mass of power.

“Don’t struggle, just let me grab you and take you as my bride!” the grotesque figure shouted.

Next to Lenore, for just a moment, Sigmir stood utterly still, her motionlessness unnatural, as I felt myself push back against the influence that was trying to erode my Avatar. But the moment passed and suddenly, Sigmir was surrounded by her red aura, glowing with insane power, her arms showing the signs of her own Avatar-state with Ylva and she exploded forward with abandon. As she moved, charging at the grotesque figure, she let out a howl, a mindless sound of pure fury and hatred, chilling my bones.

Suddenly, I felt the pressure fall away, my senses returning to me, and I realised that I was next to Adra. Rai had used his own magic to pull me along on a Shadow-step, a move he was now paying for, his body shaking as he held his head in obvious pain. Adra caught him, before he could fall to the ground, while Lenore hopped over to my shoulder, lending me some magical strength through our connection.

Thanks to the speed at which our connection allowed us to converse, we were able to put together a reasonable approximation of what had happened. The strange pressure seemed to have been an insanely powerful Mind Magic effect, one that I had barely withstood. The consequences of failing wouldn’t have been pretty, of that I was certain.

After taking a moment to catch my breath, I looked up and watched Sigmir, in a crazed, all-out assault trying to smash the grotesque thing to pieces but it proved to be slippery, slithering away from her blows like a spineless slug. The one time I saw her land a real blow, the wound seemed to vanish within moments of it appearing. It was then, that I noticed something else, as I looked around. Where earlier the mist around the lake had been dense, they were now looking strange, foreboding and dark, making me feel a profound sense of unease.

“Look.” I told Lenore, while switching my sight to hers, so I would be able to see what the mist was. When she did, I felt a cold shiver run down my spine, the mist formed a barrier, filled with deadly magic, roiling around the lake. Walking into it would be deadly and it looked like it was coming at us, slowly but surely. We were on a timer.

“We need to destroy that thing!” I screamed, causing Rai to snap out of his stunned state and try to move forward on unsteady feet. Adra followed my eyes and I saw the colour drain from her face, as she realised what the barrier was. She turned her bow into a spear and together with Rai, they followed Sigmir over the muddy ground, trying not to get stuck in the muck.

“Want to use your own magic or join me?” I asked Lenore who moved into her Hallow, pooling her magic with mine. Given the amount of Death-magic in the swamp, trying to hurt it with that seemed to be foolish, so I was happy with her choice.

Together, we activated our Avatar-state and I felt our mind mingle, my sight showing me the flows of magic around us. The earth was still suffused with both Earth- and Death-Astral-Power but the water seemed to be concentrated in the barrier around us.

Before beginning my assault, I wanted to know what we were facing. Observe told me it was called Tzar Bolotnik and level 120. That wasn’t good, seriously not. Especially if I looked at the way it was using Earth-Magic in an attempt to drag the others into the muck, which was still full of Death-Astral-Power and would undoubtedly be harmful to them.

Using my default attack, I created the runes to start throwing Icicles at the thing, hoping that my attacks would be more impactful than theirs. Lenore’s presence helped, her own Wind-Magic adding some punch to my projectiles, even if the Death-Magic produced by our bond was completely wasted.

For a minute or so, we tried to get through the things defenses but the combination of muddy ground and its prolific use of earth-magic to defend itself and hinder the others made it difficult. We were simply unable to get it to hold still, so we could finally hit it.

“You can’t defeat me!” the thing laughed, as it slithered away from the others, while grasping hands broke out of the muck, trying to grab them. It was the same magic that had supported the shambling crawlers throughout the swamp, only now, it manifested a lot faster, making me unable to block it. Rai barely managed to shadow-step out of the way, while I saw Sigmir get caught, her leg lacerated but she simply ignored it, fighting on.

“Look closer!” Lenore admonished me, pushing her focus on me. I followed her train of thought and what she had realised made me understand just how serious a situation we were in. Tzar Bolotnik was being empowered by the swamp, the death-energy spread all around us was absorbed, healing and sustaining him. If we wanted to defeat him, we’d have to either fully drain the swamp or overpower the speed he was draining power with. Neither seemed to be working, not with his defenses and sturdy bulk. In addition, there was the roiling fog of death slowly closing in on us, giving us a time-limit.

“Damn.” I replied, readying a new spell while rapidly conversing with Lenore to come up with a countermeasure. The monster started shouting again, taunting us with our inability to shut it down, an irritating twitter of insults and boasts, making me want to shove its face into the muck and keep it there.

I had to move forward, to keep away from the mist closing in on us, carefully stepping into the mud of the now drained lake, still trying to get an idea.

“I think I’ve got an idea.” Lenore said, her thoughts flowing freely to me, showing me what she had in mind. It seemed possible, if difficult, and a long-shot that might kill me. But what else was new, if any of us were to make a self-sacrifice, I was the one to do so. I could come back, the others, not so much.

“Let’s do it.” I agreed, centering my mind, using the staff we used when casting conjoined spells as a balance, setting it into the muck in front of me. After taking another deep breath, I slowly exhaled, letting my thoughts and power flow with the air, spreading my magic around me. The mist was blocking the sun out, giving me a nice twilight to work with, shadows and darkness that I was now using to my own advantage. The bolotnik’s connection to the swamp was almost imperceptible, a foul taint covering every facet of our surroundings and I was trying to find all of it. I wanted nothing more than a shower, the oily taint making me feel dirty but I had to press on. If I didn’t manage to find and connect to enough of it, everything might fail.

Once I thought I had done a good job, Lenore and I started the next part of our attack, using pure intent and imagination to shape our magic and channelling a tremendous amount of power, we struck, not at the bolotnik, not at the swamp itself, but at the connection, not even trying to truly sever it, but only interrupt it for a moment. Interrupt and slip in the space created by our interruption.

And it worked, but that was the critical point of Lenore’s idea. Now, the death-magic from the swamp was still flooding through the connection but no longer into the bolotnik, but into us. I had no way to survive such a flood of Death-Astral-Power, but Lenore could, at least we were reasonably confident that she could. We instantly split up, each of us holding one side of the connection we had interrupted, our split truly severing the connection and I thought I heard an angry roar from the bolotnik, but I was too focused to pay any more attention.

Not while I was connected to an insanely powerful draining-spell, strong enough to leave me a withered husk within seconds, but I had one more card up my sleeve. Or rather, in my bag.

Reaching into my magic bag, I pulled out the chunk of Eternal Ice, aching at what I had to do, and slipped it into the connection, substituting it for myself. The Eternal Ice was holding a lot more power than I did, so the connection eagerly took it, trying to gobble it up instantly.

I felt the power flow and let my eyes flicker open to witness what Lenore and I had wrought.

And it was glorious.