Thordak hung from the ice shards like a trophy on a wall.
His breathing was shallow and wet. The charred remnants of his armor had fused to his torso in patches, and the skin between the patches was burns and puncture wounds that would have killed a lesser dwarf six times over. His Vitality kept him alive. That was the point.
[Overlord's Sacrifice] required a living vessel.
The spell was simple in concept. When a killing blow landed on the Primordial Subjugator, the damage transferred to a designated slave instead. Instantaneous, passive, the difference between dying and walking away from a fight that should have ended you.
The problem was the vessel. For the spell to work properly, for the damage to transmit, the sacrifice had to be able to take the hit. Dying on the spot would make the spell moot.
Ragnar's warhammer had caved the sacrifice's skull in.
