Renkyk tumbled down the slope, hitting his knee on a rock and then snagging his robe on a broken branch. As much as his knee ached, getting snared was worse. In the blackness of that night, he couldn't even see where the snag was. He could easily hear the beast's snarls as it approached him, however.

"Ren!" Galdrehln shouted from up in a tree maybe twenty feet away. "Get going! You have to move!"

He didn't bother responding. Of course he knew he had to move. The monstrous scaled creature that had assaulted them just off the road to the village of Jehgren was far too powerful for either of them. They had tried hurling fire at it and bludgeoning it with chunks of earth they had hurled via the Auras. It all met with futility.

The beast hissed again. It was closer now. Much closer.

Renkyk grabbed a sprig of torchweed, a proven fire reagent, from his pouch. Focusing his mind upon it, he cast a puff of flame near where his robes had gotten caught. Both the branch and the robe burned away rapidly, but the flames revealed that the beast was within mere feet of Renkyk.

Its eyes, glassy and green, narrowed while its mouth opened, revealing a chasm filled with mortifying teeth. Its large shiny scales reflected the orange light of Renkyk's flames as did its black and smooth claws on its stubby arms.

Renkyk gasped and scrambled away, trying to reach a thick tree next to Galdrehln's. His heart pounded relentlessly and his gait was hobbled, his feet finding the ground awkwardly. He fell again, this time tripped up by an exposed root. His ankle twisted with terrible pain, both sharp and burning.

"Ach!" he grunted.

"Ren! Get up! Now!" Galdrehln screeched.

He tried to stand again to start climbing the tree, but it was no use. He couldn't put any weight on his right leg. An air of resignation set in as he turned and looked toward the beast that continued lumbering toward him. Its steps were few and deliberate, but relentless all the same. Renkyk imagined this foul creature stalking its prey over many miles just like this. How many dozen animals had it killed in its life? To the monstrous predator, Renkyk was just another meal. Nothing more and nothing less.

Two bolts of ice rained down from Galdrehln. One missed the creature entirely. The other was too poorly formed to do anything other than scuff off the beast's scales. The effort did draw the monster's attention for at least a brief moment, but it was indeed only brief. Whatever pitiful mind the creature possessed, it was enough to assess that Galdrehln wasn't a threat.

"Fuck," Renkyk muttered as he fumbled around his sack of reagents while the beast neared.

First he tossed a vial of water up into the air and cast from it an icy block that he dropped on the beast's head. It only succeeded in slowing his foe down for a brief time. From all outward appearances, the beast appeared emboldened. Next, Renkyk tried another puff of flame, but the creature's thick wet scales took no damage. Again, all that had seemed to do was enrage the beast.

Next, Renkyk used the ground itself, heaving a pillar of soil up into the creature's belly. A terrible rumble and a strange explosion sounded out with the soil heaving out of the ground and into the beast's belly. This elicited a strange grunt from the creature and nearly toppled it over onto its back. Yet, because of its stubby legs and wide stance, this proved too great a challenge.

He knew few other techniques. He'd watched those who wielded lightning and wind as well as those who had tapped into what Nethron had called "the Abyssal Aura." His mind leapt from one desperate plea to another. He tried everything that was in his bag of reagents, but found his options lacking.

As he struggled, the beast drew closer and closer, its strange wide paws pushing into the mushy ground in front of it. Its long forked tongue slithered forward, almost reaching Renkyk's feet.

Hearing Galdrehln sobbing up in the tree next to him, Renkyk realized how desperate his situation truly was. It wasn't until that moment that he thought he might die to this beast. Somehow, he had figured he would elude it or ultimately escape it. Those hopes dimmed as it continued its inexorable lumbering toward him.

GRAAAOOUUGGGHH, it snarled at him, its eyes flickering in excitement.

His body froze in panic. He desperately turned to a stray thought that popped into his mind at that moment. He saw a flicker of argent light when he blinked. As the beast prepared to lunge, Renkyk pushed out his hands with his eyes closed and focused his entire being on the Silver Aura. Its wispy tendrils tickled his mind and coursed through his body before letting out a powerful dull pulse and a bright argent flash.

The beast stopped its advance where it stood. Renkyk opened his eyes to hear it let out a pitiful wheeze as its scales wilted and fell from its body. Its entire skeleton seemed to collapse inside itself and its flesh turned to alternating patches of goo and flaky detritus. Within seconds, it was naught but an indistinguishable mass of sickening remnants of what had once been one of the most frightening creatures in all of Vorlanys.

Galdrehln let out a squeak of joy from the tree above. Renkyk, however, was more simply astonished at what he had done.

Suddenly, a strange and ethereal presence wisped about Renkyk's ears.

"That was fascinating," the familiar, but oddly distant voice rang in his head. "I never thought that the Silver Aura could be used for such a purpose. Mortal ingenuity always did impress me."

Renkyk's heart leapt in his chest.

"How..." he mumbled aloud in the quiet of the night. "Are... are you?"

"No, I am not back," Nethron's voice became more distant. "But you showed me a way to speak with you again."

"I... I don't understand," Renkyk replied, a joyous twitch rippling through his face.

"This is a faint bond and it will soon fade, but I will be around," Nethron assured him, his voice becoming fainter still. "It is as I told Forynda. My mark will be on this world. Forever."