The rhythmic crunch of boots on frosted soil cut through the oppressive stillness of the lower vineyard.
Callum led the way, his broad shoulders squared beneath the weight of heavy bandoliers packed with glass potion phials and silver-banded Dimeritium canisters. Right behind him came Callidea and Calla, carrying bundles of ritual chalk, crushed silver powder, and an assortment of faintly humming focus crystals.
The moment they stepped into the shallow basin surrounding the wellhead, Callum came to an abrupt halt. His nostrils flared, his predatory green cat eyes narrowing as they locked onto me.
Callidea stopped half a pace later, her sharp gaze sweeping over my posture, the rise and fall of my chest, and the faint wisps of steam still evaporating off my skin into the freezing night air.
"Cain?" Callum asked, his brow furrowing as he stepped closer. "You alright? You look like you just got dragged through a thresher."
Callidea set her ritual basket on the flat rim of the well, closing the distance between us with silent, fluid grace. She reached up, tilting my chin slightly with two slender fingers as her emerald eyes scanned the dilation of my pupils and the flush along my cheekbones.
"Your pulse is hammering like a drum," Callidea murmured. "And your body temperature is nearly ten degrees above normal then it was before we left. What happened while we were gone?"
I knew there was no hiding the physical aftermath. My enhanced Witcher physiology had weathered the Provoker potion, but the sheer chemical and mystical violence of the advancement had pushed my pores to vent a film of cold sweat. Worse, the residual scent of the concoction, that sharp, acrid stench of scorched copper, ozone, and bitter bile, was still clinging faintly to my breath.
I took a slow, steadying breath, letting my Cold Blooded trait regulate my heart rate down to a calm, rhythmic thrum.
"I'm fine," I said, offering a small, reassuring nod. "Just took a potion I've been brewing and refining in secret. Meant to push my physical strength and enhance my reflexes before we kick this hornets' nest."
Callum took a deeper whiff of the ambient air and visibly recoiled, scrunching his nose in sheer disgust.
"A potion?" Callum grunted, waving a hand in front of his face. "What the hell did you brew it with, grave hag bile and sulfur? I've smelled necrophage nests that smelled cleaner than whatever putrid sludge you just poured down your gullet."
Calla stepped up beside her brother, looking between the two of us with an arched eyebrow. She took a deliberate breath, testing the breeze.
"I don't smell anything out of the ordinary," Calla said, crossing her arms over her wool-lined robes. "Just cold earth, dying vines, and that foul bone totem over there."
"That's because it's a Witcher thing, sister," Callum replied, keeping his eyes fixed on me. "Our noses are sharp enough to track a bleeding rabbit through three miles of swamp water. But Cain... it's not just the stink."
He stepped closer, tilting his head as his gaze lingered on my shoulders and hands.
"Your presence," Callum muttered, his voice dropping into a low, serious register. "It shifted. Five minutes ago you felt like you usually do, sharp, focused, quiet. Now... the air around you feels heavier. Like you're wound so tight that a single spark would set off a powder keg. Did you honestly just swallow an experimental potion without running it past me or mother first?"
I offered a faint, dry smirk. "I know what my body can handle, Callum."
He really is sharp, I thought to myself. His instincts for reading danger and physical capability are terrifyingly accurate.
Now I'm curious to see just how much my newly upgraded abilities could reveal, I focused my intent and activated my Mind's Eye.
The world instantly shifted into hyper-clarity. The drifting mist slowed to a crawl, every individual moisture droplet catching the moonlight like suspended glass. When I turned my focus entirely onto Callum, my breath caught in my throat.
Swirling around his frame was an eerie, radiant aura of ghostly emerald-green and stark white energy. It pulsed outward from his core in rhythmic in hypnotic waves, humming with an overwhelming, almost suffocating density of raw physical and magical potential.
Before I could analyze the aura itself, the System interface chimed softly inside my skull, and a massive, translucent blue status window materialized directly over Callum's head.
My eyes widened in genuine, stunned disbelief.
Mind's Eye Status Window:
Name: Callum (Hillstead)
Age: 15
Race: Half-Elf / Half-Human (Mutant)
Bloodline Trait: (Sealed)
Class: Wolf School Witcher (Common)
Titles: Uncrowned Protagonist. Genius Supporting Character / Rival.
Attributes:
Constitution: 29.5
Strength: 31.3
Dexterity: 25.3
Wisdom: 19.8
Intelligence: 10.0
Charisma: 30.5
Luck: 79.8
Mana: 10.0
Abilities & Skills:
Forgotten Genius (Epic)
Master Swordsmanship Level 7 (Epic)
Meditation Level 7 (Common)
Poison Resistance Level 1 (Common)
Sign Magic Level 4 (Common)
Traits:
Gluttonous Growth (Epic)
Lost Prince (Legendary)
Genius Supporter (Rare)
I stared at the glowing numbers and classifications, completely frozen.
What in the absolute hell am I looking at?
My mind scrambled to process the sheer absurdity of the data. His Strength was sitting at a staggering 31.3, his Constitution at 29.5, and his Luck was a ridiculous 79.8! At fifteen years old, his physical baseline completely outstripped mine, and his Charisma was high enough that he practically radiated natural magnetism without even trying. Which explains alot now. He was better then me in certain stats.
I immediately focused my intent on the titles, demanding the System parse their descriptions.
Title:
Uncrowned Protagonist:
As the original destined protagonist of this reforged world's narrative, your supreme destiny has been uncrowned and displaced by the arrival of an anomalous entity (The Transmigrator / MC). Consequently, your absolute potential has been sealed and recalibrated into the second highest position: Genius Supporting Character / Rival.
Effect: Stat and skill growth rate is permanently increased by +50% to compensate for the loss of primary narrative destiny.
Genius Supporting Character / Rival:
You occupy the definitive pinnacle of supporting presence in this world. Whenever you are in proximity to the MC, your growth parameters adapt dynamically to challenge, push, and keep pace with the primary anomaly.
Effect: Mental corruption, psychological manipulation, and madness resistance are increased by +50% in order to provide unwavering support and force the MC toward higher thresholds of power.
A cold shudder ran straight down my spine.
Uncrowned Protagonist?
The words hung in my thoughts like lead weights. Was Callum originally supposed to be the chosen one of this world? I knew since this world had certain named characters the were exact copies of movie starts from my world , made this world different. I just thought I was thrown into this world for some cosmic script I had no idea about. But it was Callum destined to be the legendary half-elven Witcher who came to this world?
Does that mean it was supposed to be another reincarnated person or transmigrator here instead of me. My arrival had literally knocked the crown off his head, forcing the world's underlying framework to reclassify him as my primary rival and greatest ally.
Jesus Christ, I thought, a mixture of awe and profound guilt washing through me. I didn't just get a brother... I stole the main character's seat.
I forced myself to breathe, locking down the emotional tremor with Cold Blooded. One thing at a time, Cain. This is something you'll have to unpack later. Don't lose focus now.
I directed my focus toward the rest of his profile, dissecting his traits and abilities.
Ability & Traits:
Forgotten Genius (Epic):
Due to your status of being uncrowned and descending from a lineage of extraordinary individuals, your raw, world-altering potential has been forgotten by mortals, but preserved by instinct.
Effect: Grants Selective Learning, accelerating master-level comprehension in chosen physical or intellectual fields by +30% during active instruction or combat. (Max 2 subjects simultaneously).
Master Swordsmanship Level 7 (Epic):
An instinctual, peerless mastery of the blade and greatsword disciplines, operating at the upper echelon of living blade masters.
Trait: Lost Prince (Legendary):
The rightful, forgotten heir to two paramount bloodlines of the Continent.
Effect: [Sealed / Dormant].
Trait: Genius Supporter (Rare):
Provides flawless tactical and spiritual support for anyone you actively deem family or trusted companions.
Effect: While within a 100-foot radius of designated allies, your personal attributes increase by +20%, and all allied party members receive a flat +15% increase to all attributes.
Trait: Gluttonous Growth (Epic):
Your blessed flesh hungers incessantly for fuel to sustain its strong power.
Effect: Caloric requirement is 300% higher than normal. If placed in an active state of starvation or severe caloric deficit, the [Berserker State] automatically triggers until sustenance is acquired (+50% to all physical attributes, -10% to Intelligence).
I stared at Callum, my eye twitching faintly.
This explains everything, I realized, piecing together years of training at Kaer Morhen. This bastard was blessed or cursed with a horrible apatite for his strong body.
And his Master Swordsmanship Level 7 meant he had been operating at the upper threshold of blade mastery for months, possibly years. All those brutal spars we had in the courtyard, where I barely managed to scrape together a hard-fought victory... the bastard had been holding back on me!
Thanks to my Cold Blooded trait, I didn't feel angry. But my pride as a man took a sharp, competitive sting.
And that Genius Supporter trait... It explains so much now.
Every time Callum and I hunted together, everything felt smoother, faster, and more manageable. When we I the Shadow Wolf on Blue Mountain, that invisible +15% attribute aura was actively keeping me alive, boosting my agility and stamina just enough to land the killing blow! And keeping us both alive enough even though I should have died.
If he wasn't my brother, I'd hate his guts, I thought with a wry, exasperated smirk. He's practically a walking cheat code for an classic anime. And on top of that, he's a bottomless pit who goes feral if he misses lunch! No wonder Callidea looked so exhausted whenever he was at the table.
I shifted my gaze slightly to the left, testing Mind's Eye on the two women.
Surrounding Callidea was a breathtaking, radiant aura of deep, pulsating emerald light. It was rich, harmonious, and suffused with centuries of refined herbal and alchemical mastery, with subtle threads of ancient elven nature magic weaving through her core.
Beside her, Calla radiated a vibrant, crackling weave of emerald green laced with brilliant streaks of stark, crystalline white, pure, untamed elemental Chaos waiting to be unleashed.
But as my gaze drifted past them, peering down through the cracked, salted soil of the depression, the air in my lungs froze solid.
Beneath the surface, roughly fifteen feet below the dead wellhead, the earth was practically boiling. A colossal, concentrated vortex of wild, luminous green Chaos energy was swirling like an underground hurricane.
A Place of Power, my mind screamed. No... an active Chaos Nexus!
Everything clicked into place in my mind with horrifying clarity.
The stray cats that had historically swarmed the vineyard, cats were natural conduits that gravitated toward raw magic! The unmatched quality of the wine grapes in decades past! The sheer, unnatural resilience of the corruption!
This entire vineyard sat squarely atop a dormant elemental wellspring. And whatever summoned the Leshen had tethered the beast directly to the valve, turning a localized primordial chaos energy into an apocalyptic parasite that had been drinking pure Chaos for almost a decade.
"You have got to be kidding me," I said aloud, my voice flat with disbelief.
Callum blinked, startled. "What? What's wrong, Cain?"
"Look at the ground," I muttered, drawing my silver sword from its back scabbard. The blade slid free with a sharp, ringing hiss. "We aren't just standing in a blighted vineyard. We're standing right on top of an active Chaos Nexus."
Before the others could respond, the temperature around us plummeted instantly to sub-zero.
The stagnant water in the old well froze into black ice with a violent, splintering crack. A freezing, howling gale erupted out of nowhere, tearing through the dead trellises and whipping our cloaks around our bodies. Thick, necrotic mist surged up from the fissures in the soil, pooling around our knees.
And then, suddenly appearing out of the darkness a nightmare materialized.
System Notification: Emergency Quest Issued!
Legendary Rank Quest: Ancient Leshen
Objective: Slay the Mutated Ancient Leshen before it completely severs its master's binding and achieves absolute autonomy.
Rewards:+3 Ability Points.1 Legendary Equipment Chest
Warning: Failure to eliminate the target before full nexus assimilation will result in the catastrophic destruction of the entire Hillstead settlement and possibly the whole continent.
A Legendary-ranked quest!
My heart hammered against my ribs. In the language of the System, "Legendary" didn't just mean difficult, it meant world-altering. It meant that if we failed here tonight, no one in this valley was walking away alive.
The creature was colossal, standing easily twenty feet tall.
Its towering frame was constructed of petrified, blackened ironwood and ancient oak, but instead of standard decaying bark, its flesh was reinforced with massive, jagged outcroppings of luminous green crystallized magic. Pulsing, neon-green veins of raw Chaos surged through its wooden limbs like molten magma, illuminating the swirling fog with an unholy, radioactive glow.
Perched atop its massive, hunched shoulders was a colossal stag skull, its sprawling, multi-branched antlers scraping against the low-hanging storm clouds above. Burning within the dark, hollow eye sockets were twin orbs of blinding green flame, radiating a sharp, calculating, and intensely malicious intelligence.
Carved deep into its wooden chest, shoulders, and forehead were glowing, smoldering runes of binding, scars left behind by the mortal who had summoned it. The runes hissed with black smoke, burning violently as the beast's immense internal power strained against the magical chains.
Every step the monster took caused the ground to groan and shudder. Around its cloven wooden hooves, patches of dead flora violently bloomed into twisted, thorned brambles before rotting away into black ash within seconds.
"Great Melitele preserve us..." Calla gasped, stumbling back half a pace, her knuckles turning white around her staff. "Is that... is that what all Leshens look like?!"
"No," Callidea replied, her voice taut with grim horror as she readied her alchemical reagents. "A normal Leshen is eight, perhaps ten feet tall. This... this thing has mutated. It is gorging itself on the land's lifeblood!"
"It's feeding on the nexus," I said, my golden eyes locked onto the glowing veins pulsing beneath its bark. "The runes on its chest are the master's binding marks. The summoner thought they could control an Ancient Relict, but this bastard grew too powerful. It's using the nexus to burn away the leash. If it breaks those runes, it won't just kill the Baron, it'll slaughter every living thing in this valley!"
I spun slightly, barking orders with the absolute authority of a veteran squad leader.
"Callum, you and I take the front! We keep its focus locked on us and stop it from reaching the nexus core! Callidea, shatter that bone totem and begin the resonance trace! Find out who holds the other end of that leash! Calla, provide ranged support, do not let it flank us!"
Calla nodded sharply, the fear in her eyes instantly replaced by cold sorcerous determination. "Don't die, you two!"
Callum grinned, a savage, predatory smirk splitting his face. "You worry about yourself, sister!"
"Move!" I roared.
Callidea lunged toward the bone totem beside the well, pulling a flask of volatile alchemical fire from her pouch and smashing it across the carved stag skull.
Fwhoosh!
A brilliant column of golden-white flame consumed the totem.
The twenty-foot Leshen threw its antlered head back and unleashed an ear-splitting, primal roar that sounded like a thousand splintering trees grinding together. The concussive sonic shockwave tore through the basin, ripping uprooted vines from the earth and sending a physical wall of pressurized air slamming into my chest.
My eardrums rang violently, but my Intimidation and cold blooded together flared to life, completely neutralizing the terror aura rolling off the beast.
"Now!" I yelled.
Callum and I moved simultaneously, our boots churning the frozen earth as we split into a textbook pincer assault.
Callum closed from the right flank, his silver blade tracing a gleaming, two-handed arc aimed directly at the creature's left knee joint. I closed from the left, dropping low beneath a sweeping root tendril, and drove my silver sword upward targeting the glowing seam beneath its hip.
CLANG!
CLANG!
A sound like hardened steel striking solid granite echoed through the night.
Our silver blades bit barely half an inch into the petrified, crystallized bark before violently rebounding. The impact sent a jarring, bone-rattling shockwave straight up my arms, numbing my wrists and spraying a shower of blinding emerald sparks into the dark.
Callum and I both staggered back two paces, our eyes widening in absolute unison.
"Fuck!" we shouted together.
"Its bark is fully crystallized by the nexus!" I shouted, recovering my balance instantly. "our swords can't cut through the armor!"
Across the clearing, Callidea knelt within a circle of glowing silver powder, her eyes closed as her slender fingers traced intricate geometric runes in the dirt. A brilliant column of pure white light rose from her hands, anchoring itself to the burning totem fragments as she chanted in ancient Elder Speech, searching the valley for the summoner's soul-signature.
"Calla, keep them alive!" Callidea called out without breaking her cadence. "The trace is taking root, but I need time!"
"I've got them!" Calla shouted, raising her staff. "Stay behind me, Witcher's...."
"Calla, watch out!" I screamed.
Before the warning had even left my lips, the twenty-foot Leshen dissolved like it was never threr , as it teleported.
Whoosh!
In a fraction of a second, the swarm reconstituted itself directly behind Calla, towering over her like a vengeful wooden god. Its massive, clawed hand, tipped with 7-foot splintered oak talons, swung downward in a vicious, decapitating swipe aimed straight for her skull!
There was no time to cross the distance physically.
"Quen!" I roared, throwing my left hand forward, fingers snapping into the defensive sign.
"Quen!" Callum bellowed beside me, his hand mirroring the exact same gesture.
Two overlapping, golden-amber domes of crystalline magical force materialized around Calla's body just as the Leshen's massive wooden claws slammed down.
CRACK-SHATTER!
The double-layered Quen barrier absorbed the monstrous blow, detonating outward in a blinding shower of golden shards. The kinetic backlash flung Calla backward through the air, sending her rolling across the dirt, bruised and gasping for breath, but she was alive!
"Calla, roll!" I ordered, my body already moving. "Callum, trap it! Yrden, now!"
Callum and I hit the ground on one knee simultaneously, slamming our left palms into the frozen earth five paces apart.
Vzzzt!
A sprawling, glowing purple runic circle erupted across the ground, connecting our hands and enclosing the twenty-foot Leshen within a massive, buzzing web of gravitational energy. The purple runes flared brilliantly, their static hum vibrating through the soles of our boots.
Instead of merely holding the standard Witcher sign, I reached deep into the arcane conduits of my soul, drawing upon my innate Chronomancy affinity. I funneled the temporal magic directly into the Yrden spell, forcibly strengthening its gravitational power with strongest 'Slow' spell I had to give.
A faint, translucent silver ripple washed over the purple Yrden circle. The effect was instantaneous and breathtaking.
The twenty-foot behemoth, which had been raising its massive arm to summon a wave of subterranean roots, suddenly froze mid-motion. Its movements slowed to a surreal, agonizing crawl, its massive wooden limbs dragging through the air as if encased in ten feet of solid amber!
"It's locked down!" I roared, my eyes blazing with golden fire. "Calla, Callum, let's burn this son of a bitch to ash!"
"Right!" the twins shouted in unison.
Calla thrust her hand forward, her emerald eyes igniting with blinding sorcerous fire. A roaring torrent of crimson and orange elemental flames erupted from her palm, spiraling through the air like a hungry serpent.
Beside her, Callum threw his hand forward, his fingers snapping into the sign of Igni. A powerful steam, of orange fire erupted from his palm, joining the sorceress's assault.
While a terrifying, white-hot pillar of concentrated incineration exploded from my outstretched hand. The three streams of magical fire converged in the center of the Yrden trap, coalescing into a towering, apocalyptic vortex of swirling flame that completely engulfed the twenty-foot Leshen from crown to root!
The heat was blinding, scorching the frost from the ground for fifty yards in every direction. The monster stood trapped in the heart of the inferno, its petrified wood crackling violently as the glowing green light in its stag-skull eyes flickered and dimmed beneath the sheer thermal onslaught.
For three long seconds, the clearing was illuminated like high noon.
Callum lowered his hand, panting heavily as he watched the burning silhouette. "Did we... did we burn through the avatar?"
"Don't let your guard down!" I said.
From the heart of the roaring flames came a sound that shook the very foundations of the valley, a deep, resonant, furious rumble that sounded like tectonic plates grinding together.
BOOM!
The Leshen's massive wooden arms slammed down into the center of the Yrden trap with the force of a falling meteor.
A colossal shockwave of green energy and pulverized earth detonated outward in a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree blast. The kinetic ring shattered our Yrden circle like glass, extinguished the inferno in an instant, and sent all three of us flying backward through the air.
Calla was hurled twenty feet, tumbling through the shattered trellises before catching herself against a stone retaining wall. Callum and I flew backward, twisting mid-air to absorb the momentum. We slammed our boots into the frozen slope, driving the tips of our swords into the earth to stop our slide.
I looked up, coughing on the ash, and what I saw made the blood drain straight from my face.
"Shit," I breathed.
Calla pushed herself up from the rubble, her eyes wide with unadulterated terror. "That's... that's impossible!"
Callum straightened up, his knuckles white around his silver hilt, his face dead serious. "Cain... I think we're in deep, deep trouble."
The Leshen hadn't just attacked.
Using the concussive strike, its massive clawed arms had literally torn open a thirty-foot crater in the center of the vineyard, ripping away layers of soil, stone, and ancient bedrock to fully expose the pulsing, subterranean Chaos Nexus below.
The nexus was glorious and terrifying, a churning, blinding sphere of raw, green elemental power, humming with enough ambient energy to level an entire mountain range.
Dozens of massive, thick black vines, each as wide as an ancient oak tree, erupted from the Leshen's lower torso and plunged straight down into the glowing heart of the nexus.
The monster threw its head back, letting out a triumphant, unholy shriek as it began greedily siphoning raw Chaos directly into its core. The neon-green veins along its crystallized bark widened to the width of wagon wheels, pulsing with blinding, radioactive brilliance.
Above us, the storm clouds violently swirled into a localized hurricane, black lightning crackling across the sky.
"The bastard is force-feeding itself," I said, rising to my feet. "If it finishes that siphon, nothing short of an army of archmages is going to put it down."
I turned to Calla, who was sprinting back toward our line.
"Calla!" I shouted over the howling wind. "Can you enchant our blades? We need something that can bite through crystallized elemental armor!"
Calla looked between our silver swords and the monstrous, twenty-foot avatar, her breath coming in ragged, terrified gasps.
"I... I can weave an ancient Aretuza cutting flame!" Calla shouted back, her voice shaking slightly. "It's an unstable enchantment! It will cut through petrified bark like hot iron through tallow... but the heat is so intense it will completely melt the tempered silver! You'll only have five minutes before your blades turn to liquid slag in your hands!"
I glanced toward Callum. "What do you say, brother? You ready to sacrifice your blade?"
Callum let out a sharp, fearless bark of laughter, rolling his massive shoulders. "We've got plenty of coin to buy new swords in Cintra! But Vesemir is going to kill us if he finds out."
I gave him a dry, sideways look. "You mean I have plenty of coin."
"Same difference, brother!" Callum smirked, thrusting his silver blade forward. "Do it, Calla!"
I stepped up beside him, extending Eirael's silver edge parallel to his blade. "Please, Calla. Light 'em up."
Calla didn't waste a second. She hovered her hands inches over our swords, and closed her eyes.
She whispered a rapid, rhythmic incantation in high elven dialect.
Fzzt-CRACKLE!
A blinding, ethereal azure light erupted from her palms. A layer of crackling, ghostly blue fire wrapped around our silver blades, hissing with an intensity so profound it distorted the air around the edges, glowing with the brilliance of a fallen star.
"You have five minutes!" Calla yelled, her face pale from the sudden mana drain. "Keep that monster pinned in one place! I'm going to cast the exact same flame on its central root core!"
"Hold still, both of you," I commanded, stepping between them.
I closed my eyes for a fraction of a second, tapping into my chronomancy again for a powerful Haste, for the three of us.
Callum, and Calla and I felt simultaneously pulse of energy and clarity fill our bodies.
Snap!
The entire universe ground to a near-halt.
The swirling storm clouds above slowed until they looked like painted canvas. The roaring wind fell into a low, deep hum, and the pulsing light of the Chaos nexus began throbbing at a fraction of its former speed.
Callum gasped, his green cat eyes blowing wide as he looked down at his own hands, which were moving with impossible, effortless fluidity.
"Gods above..." Callum breathed, a wild, euphoric grin stretching across his face. "I missed this feeling! Everything is crawling!"
Calla stared at her hands in absolute, flabbergasted shock, her jaw practically dropping to the dirt.
"What... what did you just do to us?!" Calla gasped, looking at me as if I had grown a second head. "My thoughts... my body... I feel completely weightless! My thoughts flow through my mind ten times faster!"
"It's a spell of mine ," I said, rolling my wrists as the blue flames on my sword danced with blinding speed. "It'll last for roughly three minutes. Ask questions later. Right now, we have an apex predator to butcher."
Calla let out a breathless, exhilarated laugh. "Keep that overgrown tree pinned for thirty seconds, Cain! With this speed, my cast time just dropped to nothing!"
I twirled my blue-flamed silver blade into a low, aggressive grip, stepping shoulder-to-shoulder with Callum.
"Let's go, brother," I said, my golden eyes locked onto the towering behemoth.
Callum settled into a low, predatory combat stance, his blade humming with azure fire. "Right behind you."
We moved.
We crossed the thirty-yard crater in the span of a single heartbeat, appearing at the base of the twenty-foot Leshen like twin bolts of blue lightning.
Our swords blurred into an synchronized, devastating storm of azure fire.
SLASH!
SLASH!
CRACK-HISS!
The blue-flamed silver carved deep into the monster's petrified, crystallized knee joints like a scythe through dry grass. Intense, searing heat ignited inside the open wounds, turning the sap into boiling steam and violently severing the thick black vines tethered to the nexus below!
The Ancient Leshen threw its antlered skull back, letting out a deafening, agonized shriek that shattered the surrounding stone. Its glowing green eyes locked down onto us in blinding, murderous fury as its massive wooden talons raised to crush us into paste.
And behind us, bathed in the howling wind of the storm, Calla raised hands as they were engulfed in an ethereal blue corona as the incantation rolled from her lips.