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She rose carefully, walking toward the battle scene at a slow, even pace to allow the wards their greatest advantage One of the wood demons struck Arlen across the shoulders as she drew close to hi blood The other demons followed suit, and he rolled desperately to avoid their bloith only partial success
She wanted nothing more than to rush to Arlen’s aid, but she knew in her heart that he would not want her to Theto escape It would be worth more than both their lives, if she could show it the sun
The Painted Man felt his ribs snap as the branch struck hiround He heaved up a foul mix of bile and blood and spit it into the dirt
Before he could recover, another branch struck hie the third, and the fourth, but he could not regain his footing to rise, and the fifth struck hi one of his eyes fro ofout all else
With his one good eye, he looked up, seeing several deht it was his time to die, but then his senses returned for a split second and he cursed himself for a fool
As the branches came down, they struck only mist The Painted Man slipped fro behind one of the wood demons, his wounds healed instantly He kicked out one of the de its oeight to flip it over and break its neck He leapt at the next de its branch at hiain he dematerialized, and it struck only its blind brother The Painted Man solidified again, stabbing his stiffened fingers through a crevice in the attacking de chestnut
He had known no mortal weapon could harm him if he saw its approach, but now he realized it wasshort of death or diss around hi but flies to swat froh to dematerialize offensively on their own, and the h thenored the rehost and only solidifying when the path to the coreling prince was clear He looked at the demon, and a wave of dizziness overcame him The confidence that had suffused him a moment earlier vanished as he realized he was only just discovering powers the des and lifted a talon to draard in the air
But then the tip of a blade burst froic The dizziness left hi the demon around the throat with her free ar her blade built in power
The coreling prince shrieked in surprise and pain, and the Painted Man did not hesitate, leaping forward to strike hard blows to keep it off balance Renna let go her knife, whipping her brook stone necklace around its throat The wards flared, and the mind demon opened its mouth as if to scream, but no sound ca thru him back
Renna seeh the trees and seeony A wind deh the branches of a tree to hit the leaf bed, dead The wood demons that had attacked him likewise collapsed, killed by the demon’s psychic screa prince had never known fear Never known pain It was above such things, tasting theh the minds of its drones or its prey--delicacies to be savored
But there was nothing vicarious about the death of itscord around its throat and the blows that scattered its attempts to assert its power It screamed, and felt the minds of drones all around burn out from the pain
The one was distracted for an instant, and the coreling prince took the chance, de for the Core There it would bond a newfor the next cycle, when it would return with a host of drones the likes of which the surface had not seen in millennia
Renna shrieked, and the Painted Man whirled back to see theinto mist that fled down a nearby path to the Core