“Sometimes drastic measures might be needed to thoroughly get rid of some pests. Nobody likes to have to call for a pest exterminator on a monthly basis because whatever they’re dealing with keeps coming back over and over again. Pests are often like weed. You got to remove the roots as well.” - Bahran Death-Giver, Death mage and pest exterminator specialist from the Elmaiya Empire.

A conflagration burst out as the flame lance violently exploded right against the greater Cragmite’s head. The flames engulfed most of the beast’s form, along with Aideen and Celia next to it. This time, the beast was truly hurt from the blow. The young dwarven mage had did as Aideen asked and used everything she got to make this one strike.

It proved to be decisive enough.

As the flames died out, the white chitin of the greater Cragmite had been scorched black, and it showed cracks at a few places. The beast also looked dazed by the explosion, and had yet to regain its bearings when the guard leader and his Deathbird swooped in to take advantage of the opening that was presented before them.

The Deathbird’s wicked talons struck down at the side of the greater Cragmite’s bulbous head. This time, the talons carved deep grooves into the flesh of the beast, causing ichor to spew out from the wound they caused. The Cragmite screeched in pain once more, and tried to get away, but it was suddenly struck from the other side of its head, which stunned it for a brief moment.

Aideen was the one who landed that strike. The conflagration had been severe enough to have burnt the upper half of her body into charcoal despite how she was partly covered by the greater Cragmite’s bulk. All it took for her to recover from such an injury was a mere moment of her healing, though, which recovered her body as if nothing ever happened to it, at which point she struck the already stricken beast from the other side.

While normally the Mortality affinity could not directly regenerate bodily tissues like that, she had found that it worked just fine for unliving like herself. Probably it was tied to how their bodies were in part mere physical manifestations of their souls, given how they could regenerate even if their entire bodies were utterly annihilated.

Since such a phenomenon took place even with unliving who lacked any sort of magical prowess, that meant the process was innate to their kind, and what else would their bodies be made from if not mana itself? As such, Aideen’s healing allowed her to regenerate her form with minimal fuss, at an efficiency and effectiveness no other healer could ever match.

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The blade of her weapon sunk deeper into the monster’s flesh this time, the blow itself causing the carapace around the impact point to shatter in a spider’s web pattern. More importantly, the sudden impact and pain made the greater Cragmite halt for a moment too long, and the guard leader’s Deathbird leapt atop its back.

From that point of vantage, the bird went to work as it tore apart the greater Cragmite’s back with its beak and claws.

Naturally, the greater Cragmite tried everything it could to get the Deathbird off its back. It bucked and shook wildly in an attempt to throw the bird off, but the bird held on easily, its talons digging deep into the Cragmite’s back. The Deathbird was out of the range of the Cragmite’s mandibles, as it could not twist its head far enough back to reach at something on its own back.

It tried to summon stone spikes to hit the bird, but those were too slow to have a chance of hitting the nimble bird. Even the beast’s attempt to conjure up stone shields on its back came to naught as the Deathbird simply broke those apart with pure brute force while it continued to flay open the Cragmite’s back.

All the while, Aideen skirted around the greater Cragmite and landed blow after blow to its underside and legs, which further unbalanced the monster. Under their cooperation, the monster finally lost its aggressiveness and tried to flee back to its nest. It screeched loudly as it turned around and tried to run back the way it came from.

The Deathbird on its back was loath to give up on its prey, though.

Instead, the bird renewed its assault with even greater intensity. The repeated strikes combined with the damage the greater Cragmite had taken proved crippling, as the Deathbird’s beak snapped one of the Cragmite’s left side legs and broke it off. Then it tore off a second leg on the same side and sent the Cragmite down to the ground.

From there, the Deathbird ferociously demolished the greater Cragmite’s head with its talons and beak, only stopping when there was little more than a gooey, ichor-coated mess beneath it. The greater Cragmite moved no more, and only then did the Deathbird trill its victory cry to the sky, which in turn attracted the other birds over.

By that time, the tide of lesser Cragmites had run back to their nest, leaving behind only the corpses of their brethren strewn all over the place.

The Deathbird pecked out and ate some parts from the dead Cragmite, before it trilled once more, more calmly this time, and walked away. The group of lesser birds immediately raced each other to the Cragmite carcass as they devoured what the Deathbird left behind, ignoring even their riders’ commands as they feasted.

Fortunately by then there was no more threat around, and the Deathbird itself allowed its rider to lead it back to the caravan. The larger caravan also approached from further away, bringing the remaining guards with them.

It was nearing evening by then, the battle having consumed precious time for the caravans. It was far too late for them to risk continuing on with their journey in the dark, so instead the caravans gathered together and formed as safe a formation as they could make in the narrow pass as they camped out for the night.