Callum felt it the instant his claws buried themselves in.
Warm blood spread across his hand, heat soaking into his fur, and something inside him loosened all at once. Not relief, not safety, but a release of pressure that had been building since the moment this fight began. *Alright, the possibly hardest hurdle is over with, now I just have to get away,* he told himself, his body already preparing to pull back.
King Domine did not react immediately.
His vision still stung from the shotgun blast, irritation lingering as he registered the wound. Slowly, his gaze dropped to his chest, to the claws lodged inside him, to the blood beginning to gather and spill around them. Then, just as slowly, he lifted his head.
Callum felt it before anything else happened.
That look.
A twisted grin stretched across Domine's face, a vein bulging sharply along his temple, his expression not pained but offended in a way that made Callum's entire body tense.
*Oh no,*
Domine moved.
His claws snapped upward in a brutal, precise motion and severed Callum's arm at the bicep. The cut was clean, the limb coming free instantly. Callum's body jerked from the force and the sudden loss, his balance breaking, but the tail still wrapped around his leg held him in place, stopping him from falling back.
"This hurt," Domine said, voice low and controlled as he reached forward and ripped the embedded claws out of his chest. Blood followed in a short, sharp spray.
"Let me show you how much."
Callum lashed out with his remaining arm, trying to drive another strike in, but Domine knocked it aside with a quick motion. In the same movement, he brought the severed arm up and drove it across Callum's face, the claws raking deep and tearing through flesh, leaving jagged wounds that snapped his head to the side.
The tail tightened.
It lifted him clean off the ground.
Then it slammed him down.
The first impact cracked the stone beneath him. The second drove the air from his lungs. The third bounced his body just enough before the tail snapped upward again and launched him into the air.
Domine caught the severed arm mid-fall.
He held it like a spear, drawing his arm back, lining up the throw as Callum's body rose and began to descend.
The motion stopped.
Pain hit him.
It was not the surface wound. It was deeper, sharper, something that twisted inside his chest and forced a reaction out of him.
"Ugh!"
His hand snapped to the injury, fingers pressing into the bloodied opening as his grip on the severed arm loosened and the limb fell from his grasp.
"What is this?"
His senses reached outward immediately, searching, tracing the source of the interference. They locked onto it quickly.
South of the crater.
Vilak stood at the edge, staff raised, the black gem at its tip pulsing with steady, deliberate rhythm.
The moment Domine's eyes found him, the necromancer flinched.
"H-he found us already!"
Domine exhaled slowly, frustration bleeding into the sound as he looked down briefly at the blood covering his hand. *Was this their plan?* he thought, his mind already working through it. *Werewolf claws would leave a injury I couldn't easily endure, and this pain… that necromancer is gouging at it, and because of it coming from that dog's claws, my magic immunity isn't working on it.*
Understanding settled in quickly.
Above him, Callum was already falling back down, forcing his body into position to strike again despite everything that had just happened.
Domine raised his hand and caught him out of the air.
"Why did you think this would work?" he asked, his tone edged with irritation.
Then he threw him.
The air shattered around the motion. Callum vanished forward in a straight line, the force behind the throw tearing a shockwave through the space he crossed as he was sent directly toward Vilak.
"Down!" Zee shouted as she lunged forward and shoved Vilak to the ground.
Callum tore overhead a fraction of a second later, passing just above them, the force of his movement kicking up dust and debris in his wake. Zee's reflexes had barely been enough.
She pushed herself up immediately, eyes snapping back toward the crater. "Okay part one worked, part two also works, now how do we do part three? Because the people that were fighting him do not seem to be here!" she demanded, looking back at Xain and Lia.
"Our plan kind of hinged on those people being here, so I don't know!" Xain shot back, panic slipping into his voice.
Back in the crater, Domine had already turned toward them again.
His hand lifted, palm angling forward.
"Dominus-"
Steel cut him off.
Bram was already on him, his sword moving in a rapid sequence that forced Domine to shift immediately. One strike came in from the right, another from the left, then a third angled upward, each one arriving before the last had fully resolved. Domine twisted through them, redirecting, stepping, barely creating the space needed to avoid being cut as the sequence continued without pause.
"Like I'm going to let you target them!" Bram snapped, pressing forward.
Domine clicked his tongue and disengaged, his body shifting back just as a bolt of lightning crashed into the space he had occupied.
Ercale came down with it, landing in a low stance as residual lightning crawled across his body.
"You cowardly piece of shit," he said, his voice tight with anger. "Just making me go up in the sky."
His gaze locked onto Domine, sharp and focused.
"I am going snap off those horns from your head and stab you to death with them."
At the crater's edge, the group stared, expressions shifting between hope, confusion, and disbelief.
"Wait that man, he's wearing the same clothes at the wolf guy," Zee said, narrowing her eyes as she focused on Bram.
"Is that what he looks like under the mask?" Mae added, leaning slightly forward.
"Erkie… your the one who did that?" Xain whispered to himself, as he looked up at the ball of divine energy in the sky, he was wrong, but it was the only assumption he could make.
"Hey peanut gallery! Help us! Don't just spectate!" Ercale yelled up at them, snapping their attention back to the fight.
Vilak scrambled back to his feet, gripping his staff as the gem pulsed again. "Fester Wounds," he cast, the spell taking hold immediately, digging into the wound in Domine's chest and forcing a sharp grunt from him as the pain flared more violently than before.
That was the opening.
Ercale and Bram moved at the same time, both surging forward to capitalize on it, lightning gathering once more as Ercale closed the distance, his focus narrowing entirely.
*I'm going to make you tell me what you did to my King.*