The Beast kept its gaze locked on Callum for several more seconds, unmoving, its many eyes narrowed with that focused Bestial Hatred, before the others seized the opening.
Bram moved first.
He closed the distance in a sharp burst of speed and drove his saber straight through the Beast's stomach, the blade punching clean through its torso. The Beast's body tensed around the intrusion, its attention snapping to him for a brief moment as it reacted, its longsword coming up in a rough, unrefined swing meant more to force space than to strike cleanly. The motion knocked Bram back a step as he withdrew his blade, but the Beast did not pursue him. Its focus shifted immediately back to Callum.
Drimus came in from behind.
The massive lion-like demon lunged forward and clamped his jaws down over the Beast's upper body, teeth sinking in as he lifted it partially off the ground. He shook his head violently, thrashing it from side to side while maintaining the bite, trying to tear it apart through sheer force. The Beast's body twisted within his grip, its tails snapping forward and driving into Drimus's nose. The sharp impact forced a reflexive recoil, and the demon released it with a pained snarl.
The Beast dropped.
Callum was already there.
He surged in the moment it hit the ground, his right claws raking across its chest in a deep, tearing slash. The Beast staggered from the impact, trying to pull back, but Callum stepped in again, his left claws cutting across its right arm, carving into it before it could create distance. The Beast let out a low, bestial grunt, its breath coming heavier now, the wounds lingering, not closing, not knitting back together like the others had.
"We are finally doing some real damage," Bram remarked, eyes fixed on it as he adjusted his grip.
"Me and the demon will make openings, you focus on making it hurt," he added, sparing Callum a brief glance.
Callum and Drimus both gave a short nod, understanding clear despite the lack of words, as the three of them shifted into position.
The Beast straightened.
Slowly, deliberately, it looked at each of them in turn. First to its left at Bram. Then to its right at Drimus. Then forward, settling entirely on Callum.
It moved.
It broke into a sprint directly toward the werewolf.
Bram and Drimus reacted immediately, both charging to intercept. Bram reached it first, stepping in and bringing his saber down in a diagonal arc aimed to cleave from shoulder to torso. The Beast met the strike with something entirely different from before. Its longsword snapped into a reverse grip, the blade angling upward just enough to catch Bram's descending saber. Instead of stopping it outright, it guided the strike, letting the saber slide along its own blade in a controlled deflection, redirecting the force off its body as it dipped under the arc and continued past him without breaking stride.
Bram's eyes widened. *What the!? Its swordsmanship spiked so much! It was an amature and now it pulled of something that complex!?*
He barely had time to register it.
Drimus came down from the other side, his massive front legs slamming toward the Beast in an attempt to crush it outright. The Beast's form flickered, turning incorporeal just as the strike would have landed. Drimus passed through it, his weight crashing into the ground instead, and in that same instant the Beast leaped upward, phasing through him. As it rose, its body solidified again, twisting mid-air, its sword lashing out in a tight, controlled arc that cut clean across Drimus's spine.
The demon collapsed immediately, his massive form hitting the ground with a heavy crash.
The Beast beat its wings once, redirecting itself mid-air, and launched straight toward Callum. As it closed the distance, its blade shifted, the dark metal taking on a silver gleam that immediately set off alarm in the werewolf.
Callum reacted on instinct.
He slashed forward to intercept, but the Beast twisted its body mid-air, slipping past the strike while bringing its blade across in the same motion. The edge bit into Callum's left arm, severing it cleanly from the bicep. He let out a howl of pain, the wound burning intensely as the severed limb fell away, but he forced himself to move through it, turning immediately and driving his right claws forward in a counter.
The Beast had already landed behind him.
Callum's strike found nothing, and in the next instant, pain exploded through him again. The Beast raised its longsword and brought it down through his right arm, the blade carving from between his middle and ring finger and driving down toward his elbow, splitting through flesh and bone. The sheer intensity of it forced the werewolf down to the ground with a pained whine, his body collapsing under him.
The Beast lifted its sword.
It moved to finish him.
"Not gonna happen!" Bram shouted, sprinting in to intercept.
Before he could reach them—
"Astral Chains."
Space tore open around the Beast.
Thin fractures split the air itself, and from those ruptures, chains of pure astral energy shot outward. They wrapped around the Beast in an instant, four binding its arms and legs while another coiled tightly around its tails, locking them together. The Beast roared, straining against the restraints, its body twisting as it tried to break free, but the chains held firm… for now.
Bram skidded to a stop, already knowing who had done it. He turned his head.
Ercale stood a short distance away, arm lowered after the cast.
"That will hold it till it changes to break out, so get it over with quick," he said, his gaze shifting past the Beast.
Zee was already there behind him.
She stepped forward slowly, each step measured as she approached the restrained Beast. Its attention snapped to her instantly, all of its Bestial Hatred focusing onto her alone.
She took a breath.
Then another.
Then she spoke.
"Xain… it hurts doesn't it?"