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In times of crisis, what was needed wasn’t the ability to formulate a perfect plan, but the ability to act in the absence of it. Three years ago, she had drawn the sword of a corpse to stand against the hordes of the unpraying, and three years later, she had to be just as decisive.

[b]“Tobias, Grett,”[/b] the Templar spoke sharply, [b]“Take your men and protect the Bishop. Secure the town in case further beasts are attracted to the eruption of the leyline. Investigate the well too. Sounds like [i]something’s[/i] inside.”[/b]

The light of the heroes. The roar of a chiroptorapter. The birth of an elemental. Events were progressing fast, and if she didn’t catch up, she’d be left behind. With a rasp of well-oiled steel, the masked knight drew a sword of a strange length, too long to be a dagger but too narrow to be a short sword, and called out, her voice ringing through the plaza, [b]“The rest of you to me. Sister Clarissa, follow twenty paces behind and sing hymns of protection. Arden, guard the rear, ten paces behind. We move now!”[/b]

WIth momentum alone, she kicked her spurs and jolted off, her battlebred stallion a white streak of lightning that heralded the thunder of tens of other hooves. 

In the dust cloud left by their dynamic exit, the Bishop watched, slightly bemused, as the remaining knights used their capes to frantically wave the dust away from the holy man.

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Blinding and deafening. It was like looking at an explosion that simply didn’t stop, and the sheer sensory overload of the magical eruption caused the chiroptorapter to flinch, two of its sensory organs compromised.

That only fuelled its hunger, its anger. And the reality of it was that it didn’t matter regardless. Above the stench of the mana-rich waters, it could smell something far more appetizing. The hefty, [i]spicy[/i] overtones of a lizardman’s sweat, undercut by the fear-sweat of a female human. So close too. They were running away, but they were still so delectably close. Baring its teeth in predatorial ecstasy, the raptor sprang off. The earth rumbled under its eight-clawed feet, its spiked club of a tail swinging side by side in anticipation.

It wasn’t much of a chase. It wasn’t even a challenge. Whether through physical defect or just natural fatigue, the chiroptoraptor was upon Amaris within seconds, its twelve foot frame surging upon her. What distance she made during the premilinary moments of running was negligible, and the monster didn't even have to grab her to take a bite. Like a bird plucking its prey from the ground, the rubyscaled beast snapped its neck down and brought two sets of dagger-sharp teeth upon the girl's left shoulder, ripping out her heart as it drew back. Her body was tossed high up into the sky before thudding down onto the ground, limbs sticking out erratically as sanguine ichor fed the glade beneath. 

In the last moments of her life, Amaris could hear only the soft chuckling of her Dark Queen, the mirth that a cruel being could extract over the failures of their incompetent toy.

Fuelled by bloodlust and seeking livelier prey after its appetizer, Tiki and Phann were mere afterthoughts, moving so slowly that there was no doubt in its reptilian mind that it'd be able to attend to them after it chased down the lizardman.