As the shaman’s hand went down, the clouds parted and Orou could see the various black strands swimming inside of the clouds start to coalesce and merge together, forming a strand much bigger and more ferocious than the black spear that was in shaman’s hand. He saw the strand float in the cloud right above him and slowly saw the lightning descend onto, but he could do nothing as the process was over in a flash and before Orou could react, the thick strand had moved right above his head. In practically an instant, the strand which resembled black lightning descended downwards onto Orou, hitting him straight on, shocking him to his very core. His entire body was charred and as Orou spazzed on the ground, he could feel tiny, little wild strands once more entering his body.

The shaman confidently smirked as he looked around for Grizz. The shaman turned his head to look in every direction, but his eyes couldn’t zone in on a target. Instead of looking confused or bewildered at Grizz’s disappearance, his smirk only grew wider as he started waving his hands in the air and making strange symbols in the air. The black clouds only grew in volume, becoming darker and darker the longer he chanted. A few moments later, two runes made of black strands were levitating above his hands, slowly but surely ascending into the clouds. The moment the two runes touched the clouds, they merged and the black cloud began stirring. It stirred and stirred the clouds, which had completely covered the city, began shaking.

Almost as if two invisible hands were squeezing the black clouds, the clouds deformed and all of the sudden, it started raining. Each droplet of rain had a small, wild strand inside of it and as the droplets touched the ground, the wild strands merged with the rest of the strands and began to cause chaos. The impact on the ground, the buildings and the nature around them was not as huge as the impact on the beastmen living in the city. Almost instantly, a variety of shouts and cries of pain rose up from several spots in the city, creating a strange cacophony of noises. Although Orou was still on the ground, he could hear the rain impacting the battle towards his right, the main battlefield of the two armies. Looking expectedly around him, he raised his hand, most likely in preparation for bringing down another lightning bolt onto poor Grizz.

Strangely enough, Grizz was nowhere to be found. There was a strange silence abound in the area, a tense moment for both Orou and likely, the shaman as well. Finally, both the shaman and Orou heard a strange noise behind the shaman and as the shaman excitedly turned around, the only thing that greeted him was a dagger aimed straight towards his throat. Grizz had made his way around to the shaman’s back and bore through the pain the black rain was inflicting on him in order to get the finishing blow on the shaman. The shaman tried his best to dodge, but his legs weren’t responding to his commands. He looked in fear and panic upon the oncoming dagger, but he could only stare face to face with his upcoming demise. The dagger found no resistance as whatever the shaman was going to say didn’t leave his throat, the shaman’s body toppled over and he started bleeding from his throat, though surprisingly, he still wasn’t dead.

As Grizz went over and inflicted the finishing blow onto the shaman, his body started to wither away. Grizz looked around in confusion as in seconds, the shaman’s body had turned to nothing more than a pile of ash, which was quickly scattered by the wind. The devastating rain abruptly stopped and the black strands left the clouds, but the damage was already done. The buildings around them were in shambles, the earth around them had significantly blackened and even Grizz’s clothes had several holes in them. Grizz let out a sigh of relief as he quickly made his way to Orou, who had stood up and was looking towards a particular spot in the distance.

Although Orou’s body still had several wild strands inside of it and his entire body was numb from shock, his mind was occupied with a more important thought. Using his black and white vision, he saw that the place where the shaman’s body had withered away still housed several black strands. In a scrambled mess, the stands quickly floated a few hundred meters off into the distance and Orou made haste to chase after them, seeing that he had observed this process once already. Grizz’s eyes were full of confusion, but he still followed Orou to wherever he was going, which turned out to be a spot above an abandoned building. Lifting his head up, Orou hissed at the air, thinking about what he could do to prevent the shaman from simply coming back, the black strands were slowly but surely reconstructing themselves, forming an outline of a beastman they were familiar with.

Orou didn’t have time to waste, so he decided to greet the shaman in the best way that he could. His body was slightly sore and his blood core had mostly taken care of the wild strands, so he started forming the outline of a massive pillar right above the empty spot of the building. With one of his wills, he started bringing the spirits into the pillar, filling it to the best of his abilities. With his other will, he designated the location of three spirits, one of them being right in the middle of the pillar, one directly above it and one directly below it. He meticulously started constructing the formation of three eyes with three dots above each of them, turning several regular spirits into bright, shimmering spirits. Using his will to barely hold them down, he waited for the formation to be complete.

As he got closer and closer towards the end of the spell, he slowed down his process and momentarily took his eyes of the formation to look at the black strands. The black strands had almost formed the complete body of the shaman, though currently, he was still missing a head. Orou needed one more spirit in the right place to complete his formation, but he completely stopped whatever he was doing and stared at the black strands, awaiting the moment when he could strike. As the final strand was placed into the shaman’s body, his body appeared in plain sight of everyone and that was the moment Orou decided to complete his spell.

The shaman laughed as he looked around, only to be surprised by Orou and Grizz awaiting him below. His head snapped up as complete horror and despair crept onto his face. He moved his hand in front of him and he started moving his legs as if to jump down from the building, but his movements were too slow. The clouds parted way to reveal a massive beam of light descending down onto the shaman, illuminating everything around it in a blinding and scorching light. The heat given off from the beam was so intense that the building that was made entirely out of stone started melting, even the furthest corners of the building. Immediately, both Orou and Grizz were hit with an intense heat wave which would kill them if they didn’t move.

Even before the massive beam of light hit the building, the shaman’s clothes and fur had caught on fire and his flesh started melting. As the beam of light got closer and closer, the screams of the shaman got louder and louder. The beam of light evaporated everything it touched, the shaman’s skin, muscles, blood and bone, all completely gone. His building combusted from within as the beam of light easily went through it, descending lower and lower into the ground, completely melting everything it touched. This went on for several more seconds as the ground beneath their feet started to become hot and eventually, the beam of stopped shining down onto the earth, though it had ruined the earth that it touched.

Orou looked around for any signs of the shaman, but the black strands that made up his body didn’t clump up and run away this time, in fact, there was completely nothing left of the black strands that had once made up his body. The beam of light, in all of its shining glory, had cleansed the shaman, both from the inside and the outside.