"Whoosh!!"
The sound of bolts tearing through the air shattered the stillness of the corridor. Two well-trained Drow crossbowmen lowered their bodies, braced their crossbows against their shoulders, and pulled the triggers.
Rather than panic at the unexpected attack, they had instinctively taken aim and fired precise shots at the towering black figure ahead.
Yet the poisoned adamantine arrowheads failed to strike their target. Wreathed in ominous black smoke, the heavily armored swordsman twisted his torso with an agility that defied reason, turning sideways to evade the first crossbow bolt.
The arrowhead grazed the edge of his pauldron, struck sparks from the stone wall, and buried itself deep in a gap between the bricks.
Against the second bolt that followed close behind, the human made an even more astonishing move.
He turned his wrist and raised his black sword, its blade cleaving squarely through the middle of the shaft and severing the bolt in midflight!
Both Drow crossbowmen froze at the sight, their fingers stiffening halfway through reloading. The Mizzrym Family warriors in the front rank, armed with swords and shields, were equally stunned and instinctively raised their shields a little higher.
Was this a stroke of luck, or had his swordsmanship already reached a truly transcendent level?
"Quick! Kill that human!" a commoner priestess loyal to the Mizzrym Family shrieked, wildly brandishing her Three-Headed Serpent Whip. "This is the Goddess's will! Don't retreat! Charge, you lowborn wretches..."
The priestess was still screaming, but the situation no longer needed a cleric of Lolth's cries to spur it on. Renato had successfully drawn every Drow's attention.
Not one of them noticed that Klauthsura, concealed by psionic invisibility, had already drawn close enough and was silently reciting a blasphemous incantation.
An almost invisible mote of psionic light drifted from her fingertip into