Seeing Eleanor completely disregard its companion and launch an attack on it instead, the left serpent recoiled slightly. Its twin tongue flickered in confusion. Meanwhile, committed to its lunge, the right serpent crashed its heavy head into the ground where she had stood only a moment before.
The squirming sea of pale arms along the left serpent's underside was exposed as it reared back. Eleanor spun her spear low and fast, parallel to the ground, and drove a surge of lightning down the shaft. With a sharp crack, a scything arc of blue lightning shot forward, slicing through the air barely three feet above the ground.
As the lightning struck the grasping arms, the crackle was joined by a sickening pop and sizzle. Hundreds of skeletal hands blackened and shrivelled, some turning instantly to ash. Carried by its own momentum, the serpent staggered forward, releasing a hollow, rumbling shriek of pain.
