Both sides were eager to kill the other, and the battle was soon decided.
The Silent Lady cut through the Mind Flayer's skull, its edge precisely splitting the swollen head to expose the wrinkled, pinkish-gray brain inside.
The brain tissue still pulsed faintly, as though struggling to release one final burst of psionics. But without the protection of its skull, it was nothing more than a fragile mass of flesh.
Renato stepped forward to finish the job, churning the exposed brain to pulp with his sword tip.
On the ground, only the corpse's tentacles still twitched faintly. The blue patterns on its Chitinous Carapace gradually dimmed, then went out entirely.
Renato wiped the silvery-white blood from his blade and glanced over his fallen opponent.
The brains of these brain-eating aberrations were little different from those of ordinary people: just as fragile, just as easily destroyed with a single blow.
But this Mind Flayer was different from his previous opponents. It was a true warrior.
That showed not only in its physical abilities and combat skills, but also in its superb judgment of the battle's rhythm and its timing when striking.
In a fair duel, it might have held its own against many experienced swordsmen.
But as a spellcasting race, Mind Flayers ultimately had bodies ill-suited to close combat. With its psionic spells rendered ineffective, it had finally succumbed to Renato's relentless onslaught.
Renato raised his head and looked around.
New Rolling Stone City had changed beyond recognition.
The ground around the altar was riddled with enormous cracks, bottomless fissures spreading in every direction.
The once orderly stone paving had been torn apart, while Laduguer's Statue had long since crumbled to dust, leaving only a vast depression.
In the distance, entire rows of houses had collapsed. Flames burned amid the ruins,