Even with the blight removing his normal limiters - at no small cost to his body in the process - the Attuned could not match Ascended speed at night. Bastien broke away from his stalking hunt of the man in a blur of movement, but the once-bard was right behind him, bounding over the snow on nimble feet with a snarl on his face and black slaver dripping from his chin.
Sounds without meaning fell from the prey's lips. They might have meant something to a more civilized man, but since they weren't the sweetness of screams nor the challenge of a shout the blightbeast ignored them. He leapt atBastien the moment the Rose was brought into view, black eyes fixed on the man's jugular as he tried to grab and rend the bearer of the hated flower with black-clawed fingers. A banshee or a stone golem may have reacted in such a way, bestial and rabid in their attacks. The bard had fought the blight with every inch of his being in Leafchange, holding it back and managing to continue working in spite of the rages that occasionally overcame him, but now he paid the price for it. His mind, his consciousness, were entirely subsumed in the darkness and he was reduced to little more than an animal.
An animal that could change shape at will, had no concern for its own safety, and had a fox's cunning, but an animal nonetheless. One that, unfortunately for Bastien, was enraged by the simple sight of one of Vi's Roses and sought to destroy both it and its bearer with frightening intensity.
Sounds without meaning fell from the prey's lips. They might have meant something to a more civilized man, but since they weren't the sweetness of screams nor the challenge of a shout the blightbeast ignored them. He leapt at
An animal that could change shape at will, had no concern for its own safety, and had a fox's cunning, but an animal nonetheless. One that, unfortunately for Bastien, was enraged by the simple sight of one of Vi's Roses and sought to destroy both it and its bearer with frightening intensity.
