It was easy to recognise the moment in which my curse settled within the Blood of the Manticore. Where before, its movements had been sharp, putting tremendous pressure on Sigmir, to the point that only the combined assistance from Rai, Adra and Olivia managed to keep Sigmir in one piece, suddenly, the Manticore’s movements became dull, its muscles no longer able to perform to the beast’s desire.

With the weakness coursing through the Manticore’s limbs, Sigmir was able to keep up with its attacks, blocking its claws with her shield and guiding the poisonous stinger away from her body with the head of her axe. There was no more need for Adra and Rai to intervene in an attempt to disrupt its attacks, allowing them to go on the offensive, which they did. While Adra tried to cripple one of its front-legs, forcing it to choose between taking her arrows to that limb, its chest or getting struck in the wing. Similarly, Rai was now free to fully move around, slipping through the shadows and attacking the muscles that controlled the stinger. He was even audacious enough to jump onto the Manticore, forcing it into comical convulsions to shake the unwanted passenger off.

Not willing to limit my contribution to the curse I had placed on the Manticore, I let two more of my frozen shuttles soar out, joining the first one in a simple formation. By mentally linking the shuttles into a single whole and controlling them as if they were one, I was able to use them, even while I had to pay attention to the magic formation I was channelling power into.

While the shuttles lacked the mass to deal critical damage and I couldn’t spare the concentration to precisely strike at the few weak-points where that lack didn’t matter, using them as a distraction was well within my capacities. Trying to get lucky and hit an eye, I let my shuttles circle around the Manticore’s head, letting the sensations I received from Sigmir guide me. She could see the Manticore’s movement much clearer, recognise the way its muscles shifted and where it would move next, and our bond allowed me to follow those instinctive judgements from Sigmir and adapt my own attack-patterns after them.

It made me wonder just what would happen if two melee-fighters had such a bond, or a whole group of them. Not quite fighting a single mind in many bodies, but maybe even worse, as many minds, joined by a singular purpose and in alignment amongst themselves would multiply their power far beyond their numbers. For a moment, the image of a wolf-pack sprung to my mind, working together as they encircled their prey, some distracting at the front, others nipping at the heels to harry.

With the curse sapping the Manticore’s strength, the battle quickly turned in our favour, the wounds struck by Adra and Rai quickly taking its toll. Rai managed to accomplish his goal first, his knife severing the muscle that allowed the stinger to strike with bone.crushing force, turning it into a limply dangling appendage in dire need of some blue pills.

Once he had accomplished that, he continued to focus on the Manticore’s hindquarter, slipping in whenever it tried to press an attack on Sigmir. No longer trying to reach the Manticore’s back, he could use both blades to lacerate the Manticore’s hind-legs, trying to take away its ability to move.

That was the same effort Adra had been engaged in, only that instead of focusing on the hind-legs, she was aiming for the front and the arrows that stuck out of the Manticore’s shoulder told of her progress. It was not crippled just yet, but the blood staining its fur made it obvious that it was only a question of time.

A shrill roar of pain echoed through the valley, the sound loud and shrill enough to shake my concentration, causing me to drop the frozen shuttles as I fully focused on the runic formation I had drawn up. While the Manticore’s wounds were bad enough to affect it’s combat-ability, there was no reason to give up that massive advantage.

For a moment, the Manticore focused on me and I thought it would rush me the next moment, trying to get rid of me similar to the way the Lycantroll had done. But instead, it whirled in a circle, flaring its wings to force Sigmir and Rai away, if only for a moment. In that moment, just before the two of them could press back in and take advantage of the large movement that had to have disrupted the Manticore’s balance, it’s muscles tightened visibly and it leapt into the air, jumping higher than I had thought possible. It wasn’t a graceful leap, blood splattering out of the wounds on its legs, but it was high enough to stop the initial melee-attack.

At that moment, I realised that it didn’t just try to reposition and continue fighting, the frantic beating of its wings told of its desire to escape. Not willing to let it go and bring its friends back to haunt us, I activated Overflow, first pushing as much power into the curse-formation as I could. It would fade in the next minute, but that would be enough, it had to be.

A short glance told me that Adra was preparing one of her powerful arrows, filled with Astral Power and enchanted to enhance its piercing power and I decided to add my own attack in concert with hers. I wouldn’t be able to draw up a runic formation, but I could instantly project a simple formation, it just cost a lot more.

Focusing my will and magic, the runic formation instantly appeared and I could feel the Astral Power drain out of me as I pushed as much power into it as I could. It was wasteful and inefficient, but compared to letting the Manticore get away, I was happily paying that price. The formation flashed with silver light and moments later, a massive Javelin of Ice shot through the sky, trailed by glittering sparks, some of the power leaking out and condensing in the air for a brief moment, before fading away.

The Manticore must have felt the mass of Astral Power approach, tucking in its wings to drop for a moment, barely avoiding the attack. I had anticipated that it would dodge and kept the connection to the icicle at the forefront of my mind, so I could still control it to an extent. While there was no way to completely change its direction, I could easily shatter it, just like I had shattered the Ice on the arrow-head earlier, causing some frozen shrapnell to lacerate it's tucked-in wings and even injure some of the muscles controlling them.

But while the Manticore lost quite a lot of feathers from my attack, it was far from plucked. Luckily, I wasn’t the only one who was aiming for its life and while my attack had missed, the Manticore had lost altitude, coming far too close to the cliff we had climbed out of earlier. It had to frantically beat its wings, unless it wanted to crash into the merciless rock and tumble down, where it would get torn apart by us.

Adra’s arrow drew a beautiful, azure trajectory through the late afternoon-sky and the Manticore had nowhere to escape, no more tricks to dodge. The wind enchanted into Adra’s arrow tore at the wing, while the arrow itself ripped a bloody hole into the membrane, likely breaking some bones inside and shredding important muscles.

With one wing crippled, the Manticore was no longer able to fly, its frantic flight no longer following its will, instead obeying the impartial laws of physics, forming a ballistic trajectory that carried it right into the rock-wall with a painful sounding crunch. After sticking to the wall for a brief, almost comical, moment, gravity reminded the Manticore that it was the law and not to be denied and the broken form had to obey, falling almost thirty meters back down to the ground. While the sound was just as painful as its impact into the wall, there was no more need to pity the beast, as a notification reminded me that it was not the fall that killed you, but the sudden stop at the end. In this case, the Manticore had expired, leaving us with a large, pulped carcass and me with very little Astral Power.

Olivia and I quickly checked on everyone, both to make sure that the fight had caused no lasting injuries, but also to ascertain that none of the spores we had been exposed to during the last few days were lingering.

Once that was done, Adra and I dealt with the Manticore’s body. Adra took the teeth and claws, while I used the last of my Astral Power in a combined spell with Lenore, turning the carcass into dust that would soon be scattered by the wind. There was no need to alert the Manticore’s that we had resurfaced, or the problems we had escaped from by going underground would just come back and haunt us.

Exhausted, but exhilarated at being back beneath the open sky, we started to make our way downhill, following the no-longer underground river, as we had for the last few days.