[i]Seeing as the monster planned its assault to coincide with the ranger's appearance and not his immediate firing thereafter, hence the premeditation and measures taken to do so, and as the it was not a complete oaf that screwed up timing or was subject to space/time fluxes, chances are the unseen blow would, as heavily intended, fuck shit up. It was quite fast itself, and made up for any shortcomings with timing. That is to say, should any other practical form of physical retaliation exist short of nuking the elf's tent as he's sleeping, this would be it.

Furthermore, considering that a five foot flail is nothing to scratch at, and how the one the ranger was being subject to was attached to twelve feet of pure muscle at the end of which resides a thousand year old beast which literally sleeps on a mountain of skeletons, well... Not a deadly strike to an elite reality warping ranger, but certainly one which could extinguish most mortal creatures and dreadfully wound those that survived, hence the previous expression of it being powerful enough to "absolutely clobber" the target. Armor would do little good, especially since the ranger's arm would not protect him. The attack was an uppercut, and his arm would obviously not be underneath his chin. It had [b]not[/b] come at him from the left as would have been most convenient indeed, but from directly below.

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