The forktail hit Seb like a storm, and he still met it head-on.
The sword rang as his silver blade came up just in time, catching the creature's snapping jaws with a harsh, jarring impact that traveled straight down his arms. His boots slid across the stone, gravel grinding beneath his heels, but he held. Barely.
The beast reared back, shrieking, its tail whipping around in a vicious arc. Sebastian ducked under it, pivoting low, his body moving with precision. His sword flashed upward, aiming for the neck,
Too short.
The blade scraped scales instead of biting deep.
"Damn it!"
He twisted away as claws slammed into the ground where he'd stood a moment ago. Dust burst upward, stinging his eyes.
"Me and my body limitation..." he muttered through clenched teeth, circling, breath steady but sharp. "Geralt was right…"
The forktail lunged again, faster this time.
Sebastian slipped to the side, barely avoiding the jaws snapping shut inches from his shoulder. He retaliated with a quick slash across its flank, clean, controlled but again, not enough.
"…the problem is my body can't keep up with my skill…"
The creature's wings flared, its movements erratic, aggressive more savage than the one Geralt and Eskel had just fought.
"...And why the hell is this lizard so aggressive?" he snapped, ducking another swipe. "The nest had no damn eggs!"
Behind him, Ciri's voice cut through the chaos of the battle.
"I can help!"
Sebastian's head snapped toward her for the briefest second.
"Stay where you are!"
He turned back just in time to raise his hand.
"Aard!" The blast hit the forktail square in the chest just as it tried to take flight. The force slammed it back into the ground with a heavy crash, stone cracking beneath its weight.
Sebastian didn't waste this chance, his free hand moved quickly to his belt, pulling a vial. He uncorked it with his teeth and downed it in one motion.
The potion burned like ice and fire all at once.
His pupils narrowed, the world slowed.
"…this'll have to do," he muttered, rolling his shoulders as the effects of Blizzard took hold. "Boost reflexes… reaction time…"
The female forktail rose again, shaking off the impact, its fury only growing.
"I said I can help!" Ciri insisted, stepping forward despite herself, fear and stubbornness warring in her voice.
Sebastian didn't even look at her this time.
"With what? Your fists?!" he snapped, dodging another strike with unnatural precision now, the potion sharpening every movement. "Just hide, damn it!"
But the damage was done, the forktail had noticed her.
Its head snapped toward the rocks.
Toward the weaker prey.
Ciri froze.
For a split second, that was enough.
The beast moved.
Too fast for her to dodge.
Sebastian's eyes widened.
"No you won't!"
He threw himself into its path, intercepting it mid-lunge. His blade flashed, this time guided perfectly by enhanced reflexes and carved deep into one of its wings.
The creature shrieked, its momentum faltering.
Seb twisted instantly, raising his hand toward Ciri.
With Aard the force struck her, not to harm her but to throw her clear. She was blasted backward, sliding across the stone, out of immediate reach.
"Seb!" she cried, scrambling to recover. "Careful!"
He turned back
Too late.
The forktail's other wing came in low, a follow up strike of fury.
It sliced clean through him.
There was no resistance..
For a moment, it didn't even feel real.
Sebastian's eyes widened slightly.
Then, his head separated from his body.
It spun through the air, weightless, as his body stood there.
Time stopped.
For Ciri, everything stopped.
The wind. the fire of the nest, the sound.
All of it.
Gone, her breath caught somewhere between her lungs and her throat. Her eyes locked onto the frozen sight in time, in front of her.
"…Seb…"
Her voice was barely a whisper.
Unheard.
His body lay stood there headless.
too still.
Her hands trembled.
"…Sebastian…"
She took a step forward then another.
"No…"
Her vision blurred.
"No, no, no…"
The world refused to move.
Refused to change, as if it was forcing her to look.
To understand. "He just…" Her voice broke, splintering apart under the weight of it.
"…he just died…For me."
The thought hit like a blade.
'Because of me...'
'Just like everyone back home...'
Something cracked, deep inside, an old anicent power inside of her.
Something that had been waiting for a moment like this.
Time resumed.
And Ciri screamed.
And it wasn't a cry or a simple shout.
A scream that tore through reality itself.
Power erupted from her in a blinding surge, light bursting outward in a violent pillar that split the sky. The air warped, space bending and fracturing under the sheer force of it.
The ground shattered.
Stone cracked and the mountain itself trembled.
The forktail didn't even have time to react.
Its head, Exploded.
Gone in an instant, reduced to nothing under the overwhelming surge of power.
The shockwave continued outward, tearing through everything in its path. Trees snapped, rock faces split open, the very ridge collapsing in places under the strain.
Ciri stood at the center of it.
Breathing hard, eyes wide, power still radiating from her in unstable waves.
Far from them, Geralt and Eskel froze mid-step.
They had just finished the wounded male, its corpse still twitching at their feet.
Then, the world shook.
Both of them turned sharply toward the mountain.
A pillar of light tore into the sky, violent and unnatural.
Geralt's eyes narrowed instantly.
"…what the hell is that?"
Eskel stared, his expression hardening.
"That's coming from the ridge and Seb is there! He should have joined us by now.."
Realization hit them both.
"…Seb."
Geralt didn't hesitate.
"We're going back.."
Eskel was already moving.
"Now!"
The chaos had barely settled, though the mountain itself shivered from the tremors of Ciri's magical outburst. Smoke and dust swirled through the shattered rocks, the sky above a fractured gray, and the ground, if it could still be called ground was fragmented into floating slabs.
Flames curled, twisting in midair, forming a humanoid shape. A fire so brilliant, flickered and reformed, until Sebastian's head once ripped from his body by the forktail, reattached seamlessly, heat radiated from him, not in a destructive way, but in a strangely tangible, protective aura. His golden eyes blinked against the smoke, reflecting the chaos around him.
"Ciri…" he muttered to himself, voice low almost drowned by the echoes of her power. She didn't see him, or rather, she didn't see anything now but the torrent of energy and destruction she had unleashed.
/-\
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