Its weight staggered her as the blow struck home. Lara braced herself and flung it toward a wall as hard as she could. The air’s peculiar buoyancy worked in her favor, supporting the chimera over a greater distance than she could have thrown it herself. It hit with more force than she expected it to, Llyr’s spell doing its part as well. Lara ran forward to strike at the sea monster again as it slithered down the wall. Its many legs went slack with the second hit and, heart pounding, she put a hand on one of its wings, less eager to kill it than wisdom might dictate. Impatience and a sense of danger surged through the staff: its bent for destruction was far greater than hers. Lara throttled it back as she explored the chimera through touch. Her fingers made an impression on the wing, black softness oozing between them as though she’d put her hand into a bucket of thick warm grease. Lara’s gorge rose and she pulled back, then gritted her teeth and slid her hand up to the creature’s insectoid spine.
