The beast collapsed.
It hit the ground hard enough to shake the ruined square, and the miasma pulsed once, a final spiteful flare that tried to cling to existence… and then it disappeared with a final pulse.
The silence that followed was immediate, the world pausing around them, with wind already entering the contaminated area.
The grey stain in the snow didn't vanish, but it stopped spreading. The pale fungi that had been unfurling mid-motion sagged as if the strings were cut. The twitching rodents, their bodies contorted under a command that wasn't theirs, went still one by one.
Kael dragged a harsh breath through his mask. "Target down," he said, voice raw.
Roric let out a long exhale that sounded like relief and nausea at the same time. "That wasn't…" He stopped because there weren't words that didn't sound pathetic next to what they'd just watched.
