Headed by a Snake

Only Felinus's Elven ears would be able to hear Tanamar so well over sword, spell, and shouting. The young hero's direction was clearly intended for him, alone.

They were strange tactics... even for a human. But they were logical. With each seal destroyed, the creature's ability to resist the song their bows sang fell drastically. When the final seal was broken, though the Throne Giant's power would surge tremendously, its ⌈Mana Ward⌋ was likely to shatter, leaving it vulnerable.

"It feels like our arrows are doing jack shite!!" An Iron-Rank Hunter yelled.

"Keep firing!" Tanamar ordered, "The giant is wasting concentration on blocking our ranged attacks. He'll start casting Fourth-Circle spells if we let up!"

The other Hunter's face paled with the new knowledge and his rate of fire increased.

Humans always needed a motivation to perform to the best of their ability. Some found it easily. Some needed not-so-gentle reminders.

What capricious creatures...

"Keep focusing it down, Fel," Tanamar whispered. "I'm going to split my damage for a sec."

Felinus understood Tanamar's actions even less than that of a typical human. Still, their judgment had always proven reliable in the past. Felinus trusted the boy as much as he would any honest and well-meaning child.

Felinus was a master archer with well over two hundred years of experience, without peer in both precision and accuracy... until the Brazen Guard had enlisted the help of the Stormbrands.

Though the human wasn't even a tenth of his age, it was as if he'd lived several human lifetimes practicing the art of the bow. Further, the skills the Holy Lancer used were... unique.

Tanamar could fire arrows of varying sizes, some comparable to human siege weaponry. Sometimes they would curve to follow their targets as if they had wills of their own. At other times, Tanamar's arrows would shatter, blinding his marks and shocking them into confusion. Only reliant on mana, his barrage of arrows could be as endless as a coursing river... with the primordial force of a great typhoon.

Felinus' ears twitched, hearing the roar of a great beast in the distance. Following Tanamar's gaze, he observed a Dire Eel emerging near the opposite side of the lake. Its scales were red instead of pale blue... Perhaps their scales hardened and changed color with age? ...Or perhaps the creature had undergone bloodline evolution?

Narrowing his eyes, he made out the green hair of the Tactician, the tall stature of his Librarian companion, and... one more. They were being sorely contested at the fourth and final seal.

"Is that your target, Hero?" Felinus asked.

"Ayep," Tanamar responded casually.

If it were any other human, Felinus would have found the notion absurd. The Dire Eel was at a range far past the limits of his own longbow. With the seconds of time it took for an arrow to reach the creature, it would have long moved from its spot.

"Is the beast known to you?"

"It is," Tanamar nodded. "Lake of Rage, north of Mahogany Town. That one was bigger, though."

Felinus had traveled all of Tyrion and had never heard of such a foreboding place.

At any rate, though the Brazen Guard would lose a third of their pressure by losing Tanamar, it was far more important for him to reposition in order to ensure the fourth seal's reactivation.

"Go. I'll keep command while you're gone."

"No need," Tanamar aimed his bow towards the beast. "I can hit it from here."

Mana pulsed from where the young human stood. The billowy mist above the dungeon parted, a beam of light crashing down from the heavens and shrouding Tanamar's form. Runed lines glowed upon the ice, thrumming with power, rotating and reconfiguring dynamically to empower his attack.

Tanamar's silvery hair stood on end, flowing as the air swirled around him. As he drew back his longbow, a blur of magical afterimages followed.

The mana-empowered skill was... greedy, hungry. Most Archer classes collaborated with the world and its laws... Tanamar... he was forcing the world to bend to his will. And bend it did. The spirits in the ground, the air they breathed, the trees and the snow, the light of the heavens-- all bowed, lending Tanamar their power.

"Creation is a noble charge..." Tanamar spoke, his voice a peal of thunder, an echo in an empty valley. "The elements give themselves freely to the cause. I am unworthy of their praise... for my light brings only darkness. This is my ⌈Oath⌋: Death to the enemies of House Vanzano."

It was not an arrow of mana that formed in Tanamar's drawn string. It was divine light... condensed power wielded by the gods... raging against being wielded by a mortal. Releasing the bowstring, the death sentence sped instantaneously across the frozen lake, rending a crevasse in the ice trailing its path.

For the briefest of moments, Felinus thought for certain that he heard the screech of a giant feathered roc, descending upon its prey.

The Elven Hunter shivered, a chill of terror running down the length of his spine. Tanamar was an Iron-Rank. He was young. And he was human. How powerful would he become in the future?

Felinus controlled his breathing to calm his heart rate... "Hero... you previously stated we should save our strongest skills."

"Oh, no worries, Fel," Tanamar smirked. "I can cast that twice."

...

Oh. Hm.

Tycon grabbed Karodin's collar and yanked him backward. He glanced back to Zenon-- he would be fine. Tycon took a quick hop backward, careful not to slip on the ice.

A beam of light about twice the thickness of a ballista bolt shot through the red Dire Eel. The ice immediately grew slick with the pooling blood from its gaping wound.

"What?! WHAT??!?" Zenon shouted, "By the FLAME, what just happened??!"

"An attack from one of our allies, it seems." Tycon shrugged, "Our enemy still remains. Which one among us would have the honors of the kill?"

The thunk of a crossbow answered the call before either Zenon or the grounded Karodin could volunteer. The massive eel collided with the ground, which cracked the ice, but thankfully did not break it.

The Lake Eels were strange creatures for their bodies to half-phase through the ice while reverting to fully corporeal upon their deaths.

Legionnaire Karodin sat up, staring at the eel corpse, "What... By the Flame... what just happened?"

"An attack from..." Tycon stopped himself, sighing. "Don't worry about it."

He glared back at where his Venomous Shadow was hidden. The white-hooded doppelganger placed its crossbow and quiver neatly against the rock near the fourth seal before fading away.

How polite.

No matter how strange Tycon's ⌈Venomous Shadow⌋ summon was, he could not hate it.