"Was Saldrich supposed to be this powerful at this point in the original novel?!" Aldrich gasped, sprawled on the unforgiving ground as waves of agony radiated through his battered frame.
He pushed against the dirt, trying to lift himself, but his trembling limbs buckled beneath the weight of pain and exhaustion, dropping him back to the earth.
"I don't have time for this… damn it!"
The fog painstakingly summoned as part of his strategy was thinning prematurely, and the allotted four minutes hadn't even passed. Worse still, the overwhelming surge of mana radiating from her body was warping the very environment. The haze, once a shield for Aldrich's movements, now twisted and recoiled, unable to retain its shape under her influence.
Malakaih, ever loyal, trotted to his side. The familiar's coarse tongue brushed his cheek, a grounding touch meant to keep him conscious.
