He hadn't noticed the separation. The absolute chaos of the engagement—the blinding smoke, the roar of thermal fire, the screams of the dying—had swallowed his spatial awareness until he found himself isolated in the eastern district, his final physical arrow nocked tightly against Moonlight's string. The civilian evacuation was complete. The villagers were away. But Nathan was boxed in.
A Corrupted Rock Hound emerged from the thick black smoke like a geological nightmare. It was the size of a small carriage, its rocky hide deeply fractured and weeping viscous dark fluid. Malformed extra limbs sprouted from its shoulders and flanks, twitching with the Court's sick mutation magic. Its eyes burned with a radioactive violet malice, and its jaws slavered a corrosive acid that sizzled violently as it hit the cobblestones.
Nathan raised Moonlight. He drew the string back to his anchor point. He fired his last arrow. THWANK.
