Its claws scoured the flat of my blade, grinding against the ornate molding, and spraying my face with sparks. I pivoted, launching a diagonal slash that pealed against its ragged claw, rebounding as surely as if it were a wall of mortar and stone I had struck. I staggered back, my blade weaving a network of silvered lines through the air as I parried its flurry of blows, which rang upon me like a hailstorm of iron.

Another pace I was driven back, another. My blade thrashed in my grasp, cowering beneath the force of my foe's blows, trembling as if it were itself a thing alive and shivering in fright. Cracks formed, widened, spread like rivers of pitch, as grinning, the monster intensified its assault. Both hands came in from above, crashing against my trick weapon with such force that the driver was split in two, shattering apart and leaving my arm bare save for ribbons of flesh and vines of dark blood that crept fearfully toward my shoulder.

The next swipe caught me across the face, casting me across the stones like a child's plaything tempestuously abandoned. Pain wracked my body, a thousand burning needles barbed and edged in cruel hooks that tore me apart from within. I coughed and gasped, floundering to my feet in time to be smote down again.

I shuddered, fell to my knees, and felt the Cinder falter within my breast. It advanced, triumphant, its eyes radiant with merciless flame. The Beast raised a bloodied hand, fist clenched and wreathed in flame that cast flickering light over half its twisted face, the orb convulsing ever more wildly as he drew back to strike.

Or'do reached down, proffering a gloved hand. "Get off your ass, Aleorn. We've work to do." Even my imagination thought him blunt, it would seem. All the same, I felt fire surge through me, igniting my cold veins with fresh life.

As its fist descended like a star smote from heaven's vault, I backhanded it aside, and lunged to my feet; my body ablaze with fury and agony. Like cold chains binding me to the earth, pain dragged me down, slowed my movements, clogged my throat like solidifying tar. All the same, I struck: my fist moving as if through honey, smashing against its chest with incredible force. It stumbled back, shock clear even on its most foul features. I gave it not time to reconsider, retreat, or worse strike me down, I ducked low and surged in behind the staggering blow, driving my fist against its jaw, snapping the creature's head back with an audible clack of teeth on teeth, and the deep, wet crunch of splitting vertebra. Again I struck, again, again! Fury devoured my sanity, rendering my fists light as wind, my blows heavy as crumbling mountains. It reached out, snagging my hand with its own, and with impossible strength, it lifted me to peer into its eyes. Like molten emerald, those hateful almonds bored into me, then widened in shock as I reached in past its long arm, plunging fingers of cold, hard iron into its soft flesh, and ripping free one of its ribs.

Limp, it folded to the earth, then burst apart in a brilliant flare. Once more, I had cleansed the dark, and once more, I had succumbed to it. The madness lingered still, an irrepressible urge to crush, to smash, to destroy whatever I could. I knew not how long I could resist its allure.