"Zel'ra thon'veth, ra'kel sa'vael!"
With the words they charged the monster.
Elric was quick to lead the battle charging in with his sword now doused in salt. Ducking low he narrowly avoided the wide swing from the Echo aimed at his head, sliding on his knees. He managed to get close enough to deliver a slash to one of the creature's legs.
His joy was fated to be short lived as the creature twisted its body in an unnatural angle and sliced at Elric's shoulder.
"Argh" a scream escaped his lips as the pain rippled through his body.
He was spared a second attack, as a salted arrow found its way into the creature's side causing it to let out another pained scream. It snapped its head to face Den who was already loading his second arrow. Den's actions allowed Elric a much needed moment of respite, granting him the opportunity to pull away from the creature.
"Come get some, you ugly old hag" Fen called out as he charged at the echo with his salted axe. The resulting force caused the creature to stumble back, allowing Fen who wasted no moment to swing at her limb.
The strike served one of her unnatural arms causing it to fall to the ground with a thud, the unexpected pain registering in the creature caused it to release a debilitating scream.
The scream seemed to shatter the very air, high and sharp, like glass breaking in their skulls. Elric dropped to one knee, hands pressed against his ears as his vision blurred. Even Den flinched, the second arrow slipping from his grip before he could notch it.
But Mira moved through the chaos like a blade through cloth.
Her torch, bound with sacred root and burning white-orange, slammed into the side of the creature's head. The flame hissed on contact, smoke and rot blooming in the air as the Echo reeled.
"Now, Elric!" she barked, spinning away before the creature could retaliate.
His body screamed in protest, but he pushed through the pain. Sword gripped in both hands, Elric surged forward and drove the blade deep into the echo's back—right between the shifting ridges of its shoulder blades. The salt lining the blade sizzled against corrupted flesh.
The creature bucked and shrieked, thrashing as if it could shake the blade loose.
Fen caught it across the side with another heavy swing, and Den—recovered now—fired a second arrow that buried itself into its sunken chest. The Echo staggered.
For a moment, it seemed to falter entirely.
Then its form began to ripple. Its face changed—twisting into a dozen versions of sorrow: an old woman weeping, a child calling out for their mother, a young man whispering for forgiveness. Each voice layered on the last, a chorus of agony that churned in the mind like boiling oil.
The voices seemed to still the group.
"Don't listen!" Elric cried. "It's not real!"
But something in him clenched.
One of the faces, that flashed across the creatures face looked like his father... Not the broken, half-dead creature he'd sent into the pyre, but the man he remembered from before. Laughing. Proud. Whole.
"Elric!" Mira's voice snapped him back.
It was only for a moment but that moment was all the creature needed.
The Echo surged forward with unnatural speed, its remaining claws aimed straight for Elric's throat.
Even in his panicked state, his training kicked in, with his sword being raised just in time to stop the creature from reaching his throat. However the impact was still enough to knock him flat on his back, and drive the breath driven from his lungs. The creature loomed above him, mouth open in a hiss that stank of grave earth and rot, black veins pulsing in its neck.
A flare of light arced over them.
Fen's torch slammed down on the Echo's spine, hastily followed by two arrows that embedded themselves in the creatures eyes. With the creature now blinded, Mira was able to draw close unseen.
With a final scream, Mira drove a dagger laced with salt into the hollow of its throat.
The creature gave a choked, gurgling cry—and finally, collapsed.
Its body crumpled like wet cloth, limbs folding in on themselves, mouth opening one last time in a silent gasp. A moment went by before the Echo began to dissolve, flesh crumbling into ash, the remains swept away by the restless wind that surrounded the group.
For a long minute, the only sound that remained was their ragged breathing.
Elric lay there, heart hammering, his body aching in a dozen places.
Then he felt a hand on his arm. Den knelt beside him, eyes wide but steady.
"You alright?"
Elric managed a weak nod. "Shoulder's torn. Nothing deep."
"You hesitated," Mira said quietly, standing over them.
Elric looked away, chewing on the words before speaking out. "It... it took my father's face. Just for a moment."
"Echoes always do that," she said. Not accusing just factual. "They find the crack, then dig into it. But that's not what I meant and you know it.
In this line of work, hesitation gets you killed and you know that."
Fen unaware of what was going on, simply set himself down hard against a piece of collapsed stone, torch resting beside him, face pale and sweaty.
"Well, that was shit,"
His words caused the other tree to turn to him, Den broke the silence with a tired laugh. "We're alive. That counts for something."
They looked at where the remains of the creature once was and noticed something left behind.
Mira crouched and pulled something from the ash, twisted, half-melted, but still recognizable; a charm of blackened silver, stamped with an unfamiliar glyph.
"Hunter's relic," she said as she tossed it to the now upright Elric. "One of the ones they hid."
Elric stared at it, before asking what they were all thinking "That wasn't part of the trial, was it?"
Mira shook her head. "No. Some creatures however retain some level of intelligence especially an Echo. It might have found it and then proceeded to..."
Her voice trailed as she didn't dare to finish her sentence, A silence fell over them again.
"Alright that was bad for sure, but we still need to get some rest. There are still two cycles to go before we can return home. And I sure as hell don't want to face the things waiting for us out here without getting any sleep".
Elric looked to his group and knew they had a long journey ahead of them.