Baldur's gate II_ throne of Bhaal - Drew Karpyshyn [95]
Balthazar ducked and dodged, his body bending and twisting in ways that would have snapped the spine of an ordinary man. The Ravager was relentless in its attacks. Its claws were nothing but blurs of horrible, grasping, gashing death. Yet somehow the monk continued to evade the lethal talons, deflecting, parrying, and redirecting a half dozen attacks in a single second.
The Ravager was faster and stronger than any creature that Balthazar had encountered, but he knew it was but a beast, an untrained animal. It attacked with simple brute force and fury, it had no concept of tactics or strategy. Decades of study in the arts of combat allowed Balthazar to anticipate and defend against each and every attack.
As Balthazar learned the rhythms and patterns of the monster's assaults, he slowly began to take the offensive. Mixed in with the dodges and parries were vicious counter-thrusts, punches, and kicks to the bulging, faceted, insect eyes of the demon. The beast seemed oblivious to the damage Balthazar was inflicting. It was as if pain had no meaning for this monster.
But as the monk continued to gouge and brutalize the demon's ocular organs, the Ravager's attacks became wilder and more frenzied, and less and less accurate. Soon the creature was thrashing madly, swinging blind in the fervent hope it could somehow find its opponent by touch alone and rip him to shreds.
The mad, chaotic efforts of the sightless Ravager were as ineffective as its previous attempts to destroy the monk. In desperation, the beast slammed its entire body against the wall in a wild effort to crush its elusive foe.
Balthazar sensed the desperate move and easily ducked under the Ravager's widespread legs as it coiled itself for the leap. The demon threw itself against the magically reinforced stone, sending great cracks through the very foundation of the indestructible tower.
The monster was up an instant after slamming into the stone, turning and flailing around with its arms as it tried to locate the monk. Balthazar stood calmly at the far side of the room, gathering all of his power into a single hand.
The blind beast smelled or heard or simply sensed where the tattooed man stood and charged forward. Balthazar held his ground, letting the monster come to him. He crouched beneath the Ravager's talon grasping for his throat. He leaped over a claw that slashed at his legs. Balthazar calmly stepped toward the beast and thrust his open palm into the beast's massive chest.
The Ravager reeled backward, screaming in frustration and confusion. It stumbled back, waving its four arms in a futile attempt to regain its balance. Halfway across the room it collapsed to the floor, its entire body trembling with vibrations from Balthazar's quivering touch like a tuning fork struck with a hammer.
Still shrieking its impotent rage, the demon struggled to its feet. It stood unsteadily, its body quaking and shuddering as the vibrations intensified. There was a horrendous crack as a million spiderweb thin fissures appeared all at once in the chitinous shell that was the Ravager's skin. The trembling continued, wracking the monster's form with violent convulsions. The hairline cracks spread and widened, and a viscous green liquid oozed out.
The Ravager screeched one final time, then collapsed in silence on its back as great chunks of its body began to shake free, dropping to the earth with sticky thuds. A single crack wound its way up the entire length of the demon's torso, and the two halves split wide apart.
The massive body of Abdel Adrian crawled free of the mucous and slime that encased him. Balthazar could see the man's injured arm and leg had been restored during the transformation, but the big warrior seemed oblivious to his healed limbs. He flailed his hands and feet in primal revulsion, struggling to break free of the crumbling shell and the sticky, oozing substance that clung to his body like foul syrup.
Balthazar