She also saw the foreigner, zigzagging at inhuman speeds towards the beast and trailing silver-green ribbons of Fog as she went. Expecting it to do no more than distract the monstrosity for a brief moment, she tried invoking Headpiercer Arts, to channel the Viriditas she had just ingested into a gunshot.

Her Aether was just about above average, and her grasp of Aethermancy was, as the Tablet suggested, rudimentary - but it was enough for what she wanted to do. Zefaris had no formal training in the usage of such techniques, beyond the absolute basics that every soldier was given. A technique needs a name, or a phrase by which to recall the moment of its creation. She didn’t have the time to think of a “good” name, so a simple one would have to do.

Green Fog spilling from her mouth, she whispered the words, “Headpiercer Arts: Bramble Shot!”

A pull of the trigger. The rifle’s internal hammer struck the Ignis crystal, igniting the explosive mixture in the cartridge and sending the lead ball rocketing down the barrel. For the tiniest, briefest of moments, her world came to a standstill as she felt the essence of greenery within her body being depleted - it was a split-second of eternity, a snapshot in time which she would recall every time she used this technique again.

Left. Right. Left. Right

She wasn’t running as much as she was leaping back and forth, making her way towards the beast in too erratic a pattern for it to decide on where to aim its breath of decay. Its mouth periodically swung open as it seemed to struggle with the decision, and she had decided to use the opportunity to toss the small bottle right into its waiting mouth once she got close enough.

Only… Such a moment didn’t come. An arcing stream of deep red liquid splashed on its back, sending ribbons of Red Fog in every which direction as the beast shivered and froze at the undoubtedly excruciating pain. Zelsys could clearly see its heart beating a panicked staccato as it pumped more black ichor to try and counteract the essentia of animalistic survival that was seeping into its decaying flesh.

Left. Right.

Almost there, she was almost there, but not quite. Then, from the left, from behind one of the barriers, there came a flash of emerald light and a thundering boom. A moss-covered musket ball carrying a net of thorny vines slammed directly into the beast’s waiting eye-socket, a horrendous scream emanating from the beast as the bramble quickly enveloped its head, beginning to slither down the blood-stalks of its neck, a thick Green Fog wafting from the growth all along.

It was stuck, frozen solid by unbearable pain that could only be inflicted on a creature of death and decay by the distilled essences of life. Zelsys saw the opportunity and took it, stopping at the end of one of her leaps to take a breath before she took off again, sliding underneath the beast from the right.