If it were only the beast’s eyes, deep-set but looking greedily at my Sigmir in a way that made me want to take a shower, despite it not being directed at me, it would have been one thing. I would still have plucked the thing's eyes out for it, and killed it soon after, but I wouldn’t have anticipated nearly the same amount of pleasure in doing so. What really made me want to come up with creative solutions to prolong the thing’s pain as long as possible, to rend its body, flay its mind and finally, grind its soul until nothing but dust remained, was the brightly pink appendage that stiffly stood out from its middle section. For that, it deserved an eternity of torment, but I would have to settle for whatever pain I managed to inflict before it succumbed.

Throwing caution to the wind, I decided to take the risk of using the double-edged sword that was Mind Magic. There was little doubt in my mind that I would be able to strike at it that way but in doing so, I would open myself up to a counterstrike. It was the reason I only used direct mind-magic attacks when I was confident that the enemy was weak enough to succumb. Or if the pain I would suffer wasn’t as important as the pain my foe would suffer.

Focusing my mind, gathering some Astral Power, conceptualising it as a lance of frozen Darkness, cold like the depth of space, I waited for my chance. I doubted an attack on that scale would kill the thing, but even a momentary stun at the right time would cost it. Dearly.

I didn’t have to wait for long, Sigmir had managed to get back up, thanks to an attack by Adra, who the monster had smacked aside for her interference, and was charging back in, Lok’nar drawn back to strike. Right before the monster could try to evade, I struck, my Mind Magic instantly crossing the distance and piercing into its mind. For a moment, I could feel the primal savagery of its mind, that it was nothing more than a beast, less even, simply a mass of primal instinct, purely focused on killing, consuming and mating. As I tried to freeze it in the Dark, to make it see nothing but a lightless, cold void, a place of eternal solitude, it lashed out, driving me back quickly.

Even the short mental battle between the thing and me left me with head-ache and a bloody nose, my health-pool sapped almost to the half-way point. Between the earlier attack I had mostly evaded and the backlash from my Mind-Magic, I was hurting. But so was the thing, even a few moments of inattentiveness, as it had driven me out of its mind had given Sigmir all the chances she could ever want. Her massive axe, driven by anger, determination and her glorious, muscular body had cleaved off one of the things massive arms and even continued on, digging into its thigh. The wound in the leg was only superficial, but for some reason, it didn’t seem to close as all the others had.

But the real damage was, obviously, the lost arm and the blood that was gushing out of its wound, causing the monster to roar again, only now it was in pain. Hearing its pain, my earlier smile returned, the noise was akin to the sweetest music to my ears.

“Look at this.” Lenore mentally pushed an image at me, urgency making me pay attention. Thanks to her vision, she could see that the thing was more than just a beast, or maybe less. Its flesh was filled with a dense network of magic, partially Blood-Magic, but there was more to it, Darkness- and even what appeared to be the counterpoint to Death-Magic, a primal Life-Magic all mixed together with parts I couldn’t grasp in an intricate curse. In its own way, it was beautiful, its complexity reminiscent of the divine Magic Olivia wielded. A part of me wanted to study the beauty of the magical craftsmanship, but that could wait until we had chopped off the rest of its limbs, especially that ugly appendage between its legs.

During my moment of distraction, the battle hadn’t just stopped to wait for me. With the beast missing an arm, Rai had decided to take the opening presented and pressed the attack, slashing at the wound Sigmir had struck, trying to enlarge it, in an effort to cripple that leg. Sigmir, too, had only backed off for a moment, to avoid the counter-strike from its other arm, before pressing back in. In the image shared by Lenore, I could see the Curse I had woven earlier, still clinging to the monster, until a flare of power, accompanied by another roar, shattered the remnants of my hindering curse, allowing the beast to move at its full speed again. Rai, who had been a little closer to the beast due to the shorter reach of his blades, was the first to get swatted aside, the beast simply body-checking him, causing him to tumble away.

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Sigmir, on the other hand, had its full attention and despite its lack of an arm, it wasn’t willing to call it quits, surging forward in an effort to grapple her. Its sheer mass, alongside the sudden increase in speed, was enough to catch Sigmir, pushing her off her feet and to the ground, with the beast on top of her. Without thought, I charged forward intent on violence, as the Frozen Shuttles I had abandoned earlier surged back, striking into its back to little effect. My own two blades of Ice were added to the mix, barely penetrating the beast’s coarse fur and tough flesh in an effort to murder it. Instead of trying to rip them back out, I simply drew my other weapon, the silver Athame I used for my Blood Magic. If the Beast was willing to ignore me, as it tried to do unspeakable things to Sigmir, I would gladly take that opportunity.

Curiously, the slender silver knife easily slid through the fur, barely hindered by the tough flesh beneath. I had been careful to stab its side, below the rib-cage, where I could sink the blade in deeply without having to care for any major bones that might hinder my weapon. With my mind still focused on my Athame, I activated both Overflow and Bullet Time, pushing my Blood Magic to the highest output I could manage, as I ripped out the energy that kept it alive and kicking.

I had felt the pain of Blood Magic before, having used it on myself, but I had been relatively careful when doing so, trying to keep the effect as controlled as possible. Here, I didn’t care if the thing was in pain, if anything I relished in the pain I was causing it, and the effect it had was obvious. As I began drawing out power, it stiffened, giving Sigmir the opportunity to push it off herself and roll away, leaving the monster scrambling in the dust for a moment, before she managed to get a grip on her Lok’nar and sunk the blade into the things spine, splattering me with a bit of its blood.

Still, it wasn’t dead. Not yet. And it hadn’t suffered nearly enough for my liking.

The shattered spine had taken out its legs and before the monster could do more to push itself up with its remaining arm, Sigmir had lined up another strike, this one shearing off the second arm at the elbow, leaving it eating dust.

“Ylva wants to know if you can use the thing’s blood to strengthen her.” Sigmir told me, her voice hoarse, both from exertion but also from pain. Wrestling with the massive monster had taken a toll on her. Luckily, she didn’t seem to be really wounded, only battered.

I had to consider the question for a moment, but it seemed plausible. At least some of the monster seemed to be canine in nature even if it’s overall appearance was a horribly unnatural amalgamation. Stepping closer again, I drew out the Athame, sniffing the Blood I had already drawn, only to be confused. The blood smelled like nothing special, similar to the blood of ordinary beings, quite similar to orc- or troll-blood.

After making sure that Rai and Adra were reasonably well, with Olivia taking care of them, I focused back on the monster. Together with Lenore, I took a closer look, both at the crippled being that wallowed in the dirt and at the Blood we had already drawn. The results were disappointing, I could see how the curse on its flesh was drawing magic from the Astral River, more than I had thought possible, in a way that I hadn’t thought possible, trying to restore the monster’s flesh. And for some of the wounds, it worked, even my Ice-weapons were pushed out of the wounds I had struck, landing on the ground nearby, but some other wounds reamined, including the crippling ones.

But as impressive and interesting as the curse on the monster was, the monster’s blood was utterly boring. There was literally nothing special about the Blood I had magically drawn, there was a bit of Astral Power but even the dripping Blood was more interesting as it carried some of the curse within. However, the difference alone was quite interesting, the way the curse tried to keep the flesh alive made me wonder, how far would that work? Could I dissect the monster without killing it? When would the curse break? Would the curse try to regenerate appendages, if I cut them off with the Ice-Weapons? The wounds they had struck were regenerating after all, while others did not.

So many questions to answer, so much truth to dig out of the monster’s flesh. The pain I would inflict was merely a bonus to my pursuit of knowledge.