Leor wore a look of hesitation, his eyes dashing between the Twisted and Rynn's receding figure. What was he supposed to do? He didn't believe that he could cleanse a Twisted, even with his recent elevation to the rank of Adept. If he could cleanse the monster, he still wouldn't do it. The taboo against such things existed for a good reason. It was a rule that had been established after centuries of tragedy, a lesson written in human blood
At most he might be able to push back the creature's defiled Will for a short time, just to give the child a chance to say farewell. Even that was a risk. The woman's consciousness might awaken in a great deal of pain, or worse, someone could get hurt trying to show mercy to such a dangerous defiled.
Leor stepped closer to the ongoing battle, it was clear that the Highblood ape had learned from his previous fight. He kept hold of the agile Twisted by the throat, careful never to stay in one place too long and allow the dark corruption to spread.
The fight was entirely one sided. It continued like that for the next few minutes, as the mighty ape struck the slender body of the Twisted with his heavy fists again and again. Leor lingered closeby, allowing what little light he could generate to cover the battlefield, but the internal struggle was still raging inside Leor's mind.
Finally, as the Twisted appeared truly beaten, Bone placed his hands on each side of its face, preparing to crush its head between his palms, ending the threat for good.
"Wait!" Leor called out to the Highblood Beast, waving his torch in the air as he rushed forward.
Bone hesitated, glancing down at Leor with his large brown eyes. That was a mistake. The Twisted seized on that moment to release a large flood of corruption, instantly melting from Bone's grasp into the dark cloud.
Bone let out an angry growl as he quickly searched for the Twisted, waving his thick arms through the corruption to clear it away, but the creature could not be found. Bone turned to Leor with a furious glare, exposing his massive teeth in a vicious snarl after realizing that the young human had helped his enemy escape. Bone was so enraged that Leor thought he might get crushed in the Twisted ones place.
Just as Leor opened his mouth to explain himself, the sound of a feminine scream split the silence. Leor and Bone both quickly turned to face the sound, just in time to see Alina falling to the floor, four bloody claw marks cut across the left side of her face.
The Twisted fiend hadn't escaped, it had chosen to go after Rynn instead. Just like it had done back at Drelk's fortress when it began to lose the fight. Alina fell to the ground, grasping her bloody face in agony as thick streams of blood poured through her fingers. Her prophetic talent should have allowed her to dodge such an attack, but she had been burdened by the need to defend Rynn, and was forced to face the creature head on.
"Noo!" Leor felt a burning fury rising up inside his chest as he turned to chase after the Twisted one, his lips pulled back in anger to expose his tightly clenched teeth.
Most of that feeling was directed at himself, because he had done something so foolish. He knew better than to try to save a Twisted, but he had allowed his emotions to make him second guess his training, and now Alina was suffering for his foolishness.
The Twisted one snatched Rynn by the arm, attempting to escape into the sky once again, but this time that wasn't a possibility. Bone had thoroughly destroyed the Twisted's ability to fly during the fight, as if the ape had predicted that his foe might try to escape once again.
As the Twisted realized that it could not flee into the air, it tried to escape on foot. Unfortunately for the vile creature, it had suffered far too much damage to move swiftly. Instead, it hobbled forward with a heavy limp.
Leor acted without thinking, the anger inside him fueling his movement as he put his new Adept's body to the test. With his Body of Will empowering each of his actions, Leor was no longer the weakling he had been just a few hours earlier. He had more Willpower than he knew what to do with, flowing through every inch of his body.
As he ran, he sent his power flooding into his weapon, filling the polearm so full that it began to hum as it gave off a gentle white glimmer. Designed for mid to high tier Initiates, the polearm was not capable of absorbing all the Will that Leor was pumping into it.
Leor had moved to within throwing distance of the fleeing Twisted now, but did not rush to attack for fear of harming the child. Just as he had that thought, the old grey wolf appeared before the creature.
Old grey had been stalking through the shadows, getting close enough to strike without allowing the Twisted any time to respond.
The wolf didn't go for the kill though, instead he sunk his jaws into the long arm of the Twisted, tearing with all his might. The powerful jaws of the wolf ripped through flesh and broke bone, tearing the arm in two and freeing Rynn from the creature's grasp.
Leor knew that his chance had come as soon as he saw the child's body falling toward the floor. Without hesitation, he sent another burst of Willpower into his arm as he arched back and sent his polearm rocketing through the air at tremendous speed.
It looked like a beam of light as it raced toward the Twisted, cutting through the darkness of the underground hollow like a sacred weapon from the immortals themselves. The creature sensed the powerful Will inside the weapon flying toward it, turning to face the source of the danger at the last second.
Just as it did, Leor's polearm connected with its chest. A brilliant flash of white burst forth from the impact as Leor's light natured Will was released, though the illumination only lasted an instant before the strange nature of the underground space sucked it away.
When the blinding brightness receded, Leor's weapon had pierced the body of the Twisted and stuck in its chest halfway through. An earsplitting screech escaped the creature's lips as it tumbled forward toward the ground, grasping weakly at the shaft of Leor's weapon.
Thankfully, old grey had snatched Rynn up and swiftly carried her away the moment he freed her, so the child was not forced to bear witness to the gruesome scene.
The first thing Leor did as his enemy lay dying was rush to Alina's side. She was tearing pieces of linen apart from her pack to use as makeshift bandages, wrapping them around her head to hold her sliced skin in place and stop the bleeding.
"Are you alright?! Forgive me, Alina, it's all my fault!" He spat out as he kneeled down beside her to check on her wounds.
Alina wore a pained grimace as she pulled the fabric into a knot to tighten it around her face, glancing up at Leor from the corner of her vision as she worked, "I'm guessing you won't make such a dumb mistake again, am I right?", she asked, her lips pulled into a subtle frown.
"I won't." He quietly promised, his fingers clenched tightly around the cloth of his leggings while he kneeled, staring at his friend's awful wound.
The pained look disappeared from her face for a moment as she put on a half smile, "Good, see that you don't and you will have my forgiveness." She offered.
Leor wore a sincere expression as he nodded to her words, quietly promising to himself to never repeat the same mistake. As the young man was making his silent oath, a different voice split through the silence, one that he had never heard before.
The voice sounded strained and weak, as if speaking each word was a great struggle.
"H-Hello… is anyone… is anyone there?"
As soon as he heard the direction the voice was coming from, Leor instantly understood what was happening. Between the Twisted one's weakened state, and the massive amount of his own Willpower he had sent blasting into its body as he struck the deadly blow, the creature's defiled Will had been weakened enough to allow the body's true consciousness to emerge.
As young Rynn heard the voice, she began to tremble and rushed to pull herself away from the old wolf.
"Mommy! I'm here!" She screamed, but the wolf's strong hands kept her from moving toward the voice.
Leor and Alina glanced at each other, both of their expressions sinking at the awful scene that was playing out before them.
The two humans made their way to the fallen body of the Twisted one, observing the steady flow of blood that was filling the floor from its wounded chest. There was no hope for survival, if the Twisted survived even a few more minutes it would be a miracle.
Leor moved around the front of the body to stand before the upturned gaze of the creature. "We are here, you are not alone." He answered softly.
The heavily injured Twisted took a sudden quick breath, its pupils moving to focus on Leor. "A.. Human?" The creature blinked a few times before trying to tilt its head toward the sound of Rynn's desperate shouts. "Rynn? Is my… child here?" the voice struggled to ask.
As soon as Leor heard the creature speak the child's name, his eyes squeezed shut hard, and his fingers tightened around his torch. That was the final proof. He had hoped against reason that it was not true, but now there was no denying that this Twisted creature had truly been Rynn's mother.
Turning his gaze toward old grey, Leor gestured for the Beast to bring the child over. The old wolf hesitated for a moment, before covering the child's eyes and walking toward them. Old grey sat Rynn beside her dying mother, his dark grey hand still gently covering her vision.
Like that, the mother and child were reunited once again. After sixty long years apart, they were able to meet each other one last bitter time.