The charge seared the bark of the nightshade's hands black. Smoke rose in a thick cloud and the nightshade screamed, a terrible sound that reverberated throughout the forest.
In an instant it let Miro go, dropping him to the earth.
Gasping, Miro checked his body for broken bones, but aside from the pain in his ribs and legs, he still seemed to be in one piece. He picked himself up and looked up at the nightshade, lurching from side to side in anguish.
Miro checked his armoursilk; using the lightning effect had taken much of its power. He looked around for his zenblade and found it a few paces away.
Miro was ready, and he now had a plan.
He commenced his song, ignoring the pain of his body, adding the core sequences to both his armoursilk and his zenblade. Again he leaped at the nightshade, climbing up its body, but this time keeping an eye out for the sweeping arms. When a limb came at him, he was ready, and Miro put his whole song into the zenblade, turning the blade blue, giving his weapon an incredible searing sharpness.
He swung at the arm with the same strength he had put into his blow at the nightshade's torso, and cut the hand off at the wrist.
As the creature tossed and turned with pain, Miro held on with all his strength. The other arm came at him, and this time he cut the other arm off at the elbow. He continued higher, clambering up the vines until he was high enough to see where the limbs branched at the trunk. Miro cut the nightshade's left arm off, and then the right, before letting go and dropping gracefully to the ground.
The nightshade raised a root-covered appendage to stamp on the bladesinger, but Miro cut again, leaving the nightshade unstable and filled with pain.
With a mighty crash, the nightshade fell to the earth.
Miro leapt atop the trunk and stood with his legs apart, his face grim as he stared down into the dark sunken eyes. He held up his zenblade and activated the new sequence Ella had built into it.
The blade flamed like a burning torch. There was no enhancement of its strength, or its lightness, or its sharpness; this was simply pure heat.
Miro looked at the burning blade and touched it to the thick trunk, between the creature's eyes. He held the weapon to the bark long enough to set it afire before continuing further, slowly moving down the nightshade's body, running the searing blade along its length to the base of its torso. As the creature blazed the runes on its surface turned black.
The nightshade writhed and twitched, hissing and screaming, and then the creature was still.
Miro turned away from the burning hulk. Over the crackle of the flames he heard screams and the sound of breaking branches.
Layla! The thought of her fighting one of these creatures sent chills through Miro's bruised and battered body. He began to run.
Miro followed a trail of dead hunters, their small bodies torn limb from limb or crushed into unrecognisable lumps of red flesh. Miro's rage grew. What chance did the hunters' arrows have against a nightshade? Miro's anger was directed at his own people. They had neglected to give the Dunfolk any help, and this massacre was the direct result.
Miro's legs stretched as he jumped over logs and bushes, starting his song as he reached the scene of the battle.
Ahead, the nightshade faced hundreds of the Dunfolk. Arrows stuck out from it in all directions; it was enraged, but far from crippled. Even as Miro watched, it picked one of the young hunters up and dashed her against a tree.
Another young hunter climbed up the vines on the nightshade's body, hacking at the limb underneath. A heartbeat later the creature plucked him off and threw him against the ground with a terrible force before hitting him with its hand again and again.
Near breathless from running, Miro's song almost faltered when he saw Layla step forward, a look of determination on her face and a bow in her hands. The Dunfolk healer took careful aim, heedless to the danger. She released her feathered arrow and true to her aim it flew through the air to lodge in the nightshade's right eye.
The creature roared and reared back, before dashing forward and picking Layla up in its right hand. It started to squeeze. In a moment blood would gush forth from the healer's mouth.
Miro jumped atop a log and leaped high as he could, launching off a branch to fly through the air. With his zenblade held at full extension he swung down.
Miro took the nightshade's arm off at the shoulder, falling heavily to the earth.
Still in the grip of the gnarled fingers Layla landed in a tangle, but in a moment Miro saw her crawling away, apparently unharmed. Miro noticed the nightshade's senses seemed to be impaired, and called out to the hunters. "The eye! Aim for the eye!"