The left?
The right?
Suddenly, it sensed something.
It abruptly lowered its head.
Directly below, on the churning muddy ground, a figure was rising out of the earth, as though the land itself were lifting him up.
He Xi gripped his staff and pointed it straight overhead.
At the staff head, blue-white light blazed to its utmost brilliance.
The Wyvern's slit pupils suddenly contracted—
Sizzle—!!!
[Lightning Bolt].
A serpent of electricity shot directly up from below, ravaging its body from within.
The Wyvern let out a shriek, its body convulsing violently as its wings flapped wildly. The gale they whipped up nearly forced He Xi, who had only just emerged from the ground, back into the earth.
He planted his feet firmly and braced himself with his staff, barely maintaining his stance.
The electric light faded.
The Wyvern staggered back again and again. Its wing membranes were covered in scorched black burns, while the softest part between its hind legs had been completely burned through by the current, exposing a gruesome mass of charred flesh.
It suddenly raised its head, the ferocity in its slit pupils replaced by pain and panic.
"Kah...
...whine."
Its great jaws hung half-open as a plaintive whimper squeezed out from deep in its throat.
Its wings spread.
It took flight.
It turned.
The enormous grayish-brown figure flew higher and farther through the sky, fleeing south in panic without once looking back.
It soon shrank into a tiny black dot, finally vanishing beyond the horizon of the Heather Wasteland.
He Xi's staff remained pointed in that direction. Only after he was certain the black dot had disappeared did he slowly lower his arm and pull his legs free from the mud.
By then, Grot had already run to Kazmir's side.
As a gentle healing light rose,