As the sounds of battle raged behind her, Arabella forced herself not to look even as she heard the yowls of the chimera and the smashing of bone against steel. She had to both look and keep moving forward, lifting herself over the splintery limb of the fallen windmill and rushing to the side of the knight who was crushed beneath it.

As she knelt next to his fallen form, the enormous lump of wood planted over his waist and stomach, she frantically checked him over. The coppery stench of blood was nowhere to be found in the air, nor could its dark red touch be seen anywhere on his armour or on the ground around him. Meanwhile, Arabella's pointed ears strained over the sound of the fighting, desperately waging their own battle to hear if the man was breathing – putting a hand on his chest or neck would be pointless, given his armour was in the way and she had no idea how to unfasten it.

Over the chimera's roars and the boom of lightning and thunder, she thought she heard something – a moaning, barely audible and stifled by a helmet's visor. And then she saw the man turn his head slightly from where it was twisted to one side, his right arm shifting upwards as he raised his shoulder.

The amount of relief Arabella felt in her heart as this happened could not be put into words. Sparing not another second, she placed her hands over the man's chest and called to her goddess, praying with a fervour that made her whole body shake.

A golden glow surrounded both the knight's body and her own while she chanted the healing words, and the angelic chiming of divine magic sounded over her voice, she saw the knight's head suddenly jerk upright and heard a gasp erupt from his mouth, punctuated by the sound of suturing flesh and what sounded like rock scraping and grinding against rock within the man's body.

'Broken bones...' Arabella instantly realized, focusing her magic even more as she desperately hoped to soothe his pain.

Another gasp behind the visor, another crack sounding beneath the breastplate... and then it all stopped.

The knight shifted underneath the wooden beam, the heavy breathing that sounded from his helm full of amazement and relief. Turning his head towards her, he nodded to Arabella and said "I am in your debt, mademoiselle..."

The piece of armour distorted his voice somewhat, but from both his last word and his accent, Arabella could tell he was a Milisevran like Elsa.

'At least he's alive for me to hear his voice...' she thought to herself.

The knight's arms were still trapped by the fallen beam, however, and when Arabella saw this she immediately hurried to try and lift it off him. Digging her heels into the ground, she slid her hands under the mass of wood and pulled upwards, gritting her teeth as she strained and moaned with exertion.

But the beam didn't move an inch. Before long, her arms and shoulders were already burning, and panic gripped her as she saw that the subject of her attempted rescue was still trapped.

She couldn't lift the beam, and she dared not try to roll it off the fallen knight lest she hurt him some more.

Golden locks whirling as she turned to look behind her, Arabella desperately searched for help. But all she could see was the thick cloud of green gas the chimera had unleashed from its dragon head, with dark shapes shifting inside it and the clashing of blades filling the air outside...

~~~

Technus's axe and shield moved with firm, unflinching precision as he engaged the chimera, his robotic eye piercing through the thick cloud of noxious gas and highlighting the monster as a moving shape of multiple glowing colours as the heat of its body betrayed its presence.

His every movement was precise, controlled and stern - the goat's horns drove towards him; Technus lifted his shield and withstood the blow even as his feet skidded through the earth. The lion or dragon heads sprang to bite him; Technus sidestepped and watched their fangs glance off his pauldrons, leaving only scratches and sending sparks through the viridescent smoke with each swipe that was deflected. All the while his face-mask repelled the airborne toxins from his remaining organs, just as his shield and armoured body kept the chimera's attacks from those same targets.

Once again, Lady Erathis' creations proved more than a match for the crude works of nature or the arcane. As they always did and always would.

Technus was still facing a flaw, however – speed. In the time it took him to deliver one strike, the chimera could unleash two or three, each one blurring so fast through the choking poison that each talon descended upon Technus faster than an arrow in flight. He had a hard enough time moving his shield fast enough to counter this continuous assault, the pistons in his arms straining and struggling with the effort, and by the time he had raised his axe to deliver a blow of his own, its head parting the mist with each strike, the chimera had already flapped its wings, darted out of reach, and was circling him from a distance once again.

Technus revolved his body to keep facing it all the while, his legs unmoving as his torso and head slowly rotated about his steel and copper spine. As he turned, his organic eye glimpsed Logan and Stalk retching on the floor, and he spared a pittance of his attention to look at them.

The poison was engulfing them, and even as he saw the paladin's palm radiate a golden, divine light, Technus turned back to the chimera - the sight of this was stirring something in him that he'd rather not revisit, and even as he saw the three-headed monster stalk towards the fallen human and kenku, all Technus found himself able to think was 'They should have accepted Her gifts when they had the chance'.

The chimera's wings spread and began to encircle its next meal, drool pouring from every set of teeth it had... but then a shriek filled the air and the wind began to whistle. Technus felt an oncoming gale rush sideways across his face, the wind's icy touch slicing across his skin from left to right.

At first, Technus wondered if another creature was swooping in from the skies above them – the chimera's mate, perhaps. But as he turned his gaze to the skies, he saw nothing, and he only had a few seconds to look before the wind picked up even more. Logan and Stalk were rolled across the ground by the force, away from the ravenous jaws that were waiting for them, and he saw the chimera dig the claws on both its front paws and its wings into the ground, clinging like a limpet to avoid being swept over itself.

Technus drove his axe's cog-toothed blade into the earth and took a knee, hunkering down and feeling his whole body rattle in the gale, his hood and robes flapping like banners atop a tower. But as he lifted his gaze, he also saw the dark green cloud that surrounded them all begin to fade, dissipating as the air turned from a poisonous mirk of fog, to a gentle screen of greenish tint, and then finally nothing at all.

The world around him returned to normal, and as the light of the turquoise sky spread forth, Technus came to see the source of that gust of wind...

~~~

Ren's palms pulsed with magic as he splayed his fingers and focused, his white hair lashing against its bindings as the wind blasted down from behind him and swept across the landscape, an invisible wave that washed away everything it touched.

He had been lucky enough to avoid the poison, and after getting clear of it only to hear Logan and Stalk's coughing within the toxic fog, he knew he had to do something and scrabbled through his spellbook so fast his fingers became awash with papercuts.

He knew Gust of Wind would clear the poison, and he cast it as quick as he could... after reaching a safe distance, mind.

As the horrid mist whirled away into nothing, however, worry crept right back into Ren's body – the chimera was still on its feet and showed no intent of fleeing, while Logan and Stalk were stuck without any healing. He knew the paladin had some of his own, but would it be enough?

Arabella. They needed her help.

Frantically looking around, Ren saw the gleam of sun off the high elf's golden hair and began sprinting in her direction. But he got no more than a few paces before a shadow fell over him and, in a spray of earth and sound, the chimera crashed down in his path. Ren's heart leapt into his throat and he staggered backwards as the beast loomed over him, lifting a paw and extending its claws as it prepared to pin him down, all three heads homing in right after...

But then, a thick and sinuous mass of green, long and slender as a kraken's tentacle, coiled itself around the monster's leonine wrist. At first, Ren didn't know what it was, but then he saw that this constricting, serpentine shape was rising up out of the ground, and there were many more following after, lashing themselves around the chimera's legs and snaking around its body. Not only that, but they were made of thick, fibrous plant matter.

Ren recognised the spell immediately – Entangle – and it took no more than a quick glance to his left to see who was casting it. Finnan had also escaped the poison, and his whole body radiated green light as he extended both hands and slowly curled his fingers in, as if crushed an orange in each palm.

Not only that, but in the far distance where the poison cloud had once stood, he saw Technus sheath his axe at his hip before his mechanical shoulder compartment popped open and his right hand reached back to draw out his pistol, red robotic eye glowing as it locked on to its target.

Ren needed no telling to get out of the way – as the chimera's heads strained to try and bite him, he backed away and began to run, during which time he yelled out "Expeditious Retreat!" Immediately, air raced across his face as he felt his feet move faster and faster underneath him, each step hurtling him across the landscape as the world began to blur.

The chimera's tail lashed back and forth, cracking like a whip. It was all Ren could do to weave out of its way after he disengaged. Then, a click sounded from Technus' direction, followed by an ear-splitting 'boom!' and the sound of the chimera groaning.

Whatever was happening, Ren dared not spare a moment to look and see. Focusing on his spell, he propelled himself over to Arabella's side, crossing almost a hundred feet a matter of seconds before skidding to a halt.

The knight who had first charged the chimera was alive, straining to push up the beam that he was pinned under. But he remained stuck, and even Arabella's help couldn't budge the slab of wood even an inch.

Even as he watched this, Ren called out "Arabella! I think Logan and Stalk are still out of action! They'll need healing, as will the others!"

From the way he heard plant fibres snapping and shearing behind him, that could end up being sooner rather than later...

Arabella frantically looked between Ren, the knight and the battle behind them. "I can't just leave this man here, though!" she protested. While she spoke, the knight was still pushing to free himself, but he and Arabella couldn't move it. And Ren knew his arms wouldn't be of much help either.

Twisting around to look at the chimera, he saw what he had feared – the monster had torn free of its botanical bonds and was now closer than before, only twenty feet away. Technus and Finnan were brawling with the monster once again; Technus firing his pistol a few more times before switching to his axe once again, while Finnan had cast Shillelagh on his staff and was batting away at the chimera's legs, delivering rap after rap on the monster's skin.

However, their attacks were doing little to harm the monster – while blood poured from some of the wounds, Ren could tell even from this distance that many of their strikes were barely breaking the skin. They left gashes and bruises, but little else.

'This isn't working...' Ren thought. 'We need something bigger!'

However, as he thought this, the elf's eyes trailed over the fallen limb of the windmill... and he got an idea.

Reaching to grab his spellbook once again, he rapidly scrambled through the pages, his heart thumping in his ears as the noise of the battle seemed right on top of him, shouts of exertion mixing with howls for fury. In the corner of his eye, he saw the chimera's movements, all of which were co-ordinated in a horrific and alien way as its three heads were all of one mind. The dragon head snapped its jaws shut, missing Finnan by barely an inch, while the lion head focused on Technus, dodged a swing of his axe, and then before he could raise his guard again, the monster drove its claws clean through his torso, shattering his metallic exterior and rending through what lay beneath like a hunting knife through paper.

As the cyborg was launched aside in a spray of broken parts, Ren felt his flesh turn to ice. Every part of his froze, burned and cramped all at the same time.

He wanted to run and hide... but then, he saw the chimera turn all its heads to look at Finnan. The halfling was all that stood between the monstrous beast and himself, Arabella and the knight... and yet he stood firm with nothing but a stick and shield made of broken planks, ready to defend them.

Not only that, but as she saw all three of the chimera's heads loom over her halfling friend, Arabella also stood up, her palms glowing his magic as she charged up a spell of her own.

As he saw this, Ren felt a small warmth within his frozen form. It wasn't a fire – it was barely a spark, if anything, but it was there all the same. And it was enough to propel him to call out "Arabella, Finnan! Get clear!" before, spellbook still held open on the right page within his left hand, he thrust his free arm towards the limb of the windmill and screamed "Catapult!"

Immediately, the air around the long beam of wood rippled with arcane power, shimmering lines of purple light flitting through the air and encasing the object in a net of magical energy. Then, turning towards the chimera, Ren saw Arabella and Finnan turn his way and, just as they dove sideways, he heaved with all him might and focus, throwing his extended arm over his head.

Like the launch of a trebuchet, a massive creak sounded out and the enormously heavy mass of wood arced through the air. Only difference was, this time, the wooden object was what was being launched!

Clouds of dust flew off the windmill limb as it was yanked clean from the ground and hurled end-over-end, sailing across the battlefield and, as the chimera looked up, smacking into the creature head-on. All three heads groaned and howled, and the monster's entire body was sent sprawling as there was a massive explosion of splinters, each one the side of a sword blade, that rained down all around it.

As their foe lay in a crumpled heap, however, the knight that Ren had freed with that move immediately clambered back to his feet. Turning to Ren, he called out through his visored helm "An excellent idea, master wizard!" before reaching to his waist and drawing a long, thin rapier from the scabbard that rested there. "Now, let's finish this damn beast, once and for all!"

Ren was unable to speak, amazed by even what he'd just done. But his amazement grew when he saw the armoured figure raise his rapier high, blade flashing in the sunlight.

"Mighty Bahamut, lend me your divine favour so that I might lay low the wicked!"

As he chanted those words behind his visor, the glow upon his weapon seemed to shine brighter and brighter... until the weapon rippled with golden light and Ren felt the wave of power radiating off it. The sensation burned his face in the way only magic could, and at once he saw the glow for what it was.

Divine energy.

This man wasn't just a knight - he was another paladin!