The creature's massive form loomed before us, a horror beyond mortal prehension. I had no time to waste.

  "Priests, holy wards! Now!" My voice cut through the chaos.

  The priests rushed into formation, their white robes billowing as they raised their sacred symbols. Golden light cascaded over our forces, the divine prote settling like a warm mantle across our shoulders. I eled my own light magic, feeling it surge through my veins.

  "Knights, to arms!" I infused my bde with radiant energy, watg as my first order knights' ons began to glow with the same holy light. The familiar warmth of my magic flowed into Lucas's staff as well, amplifying his own siderable power.

  The Devourer recoiled as our first strikes nded, its otherworldly flesh sizzling where the blessed ons carved into it. My sword left trails of burning light with each swing, and my knights pressed the advaheir coorditacks f the beast back step by step.

  Above us, Lucas's hands wove plex patterns in the air. The temperature around us spiked as rings of fire materialized overhead. "Clear the area!" he shouted.

  My first order knights fell ba practiced formation as streams of fme crashed down upon the Devourer. The bination of holy magid Lucas's inferno created an effect I'd never seen before - where the two forces met, the creature's flesh didn't just burn, it disied.

  The Devourer's screech shook the very stones beh our feet, but we held round. My bde found its mark again and again, each strike leaving wounds that glowed with divine fire. The beast thrashed and fought, but it couldn't escape the relentless assault of light and fme.

  "Press on!" I anded, leading another charge. "Don't let it recover!"

  Through the chaos, I heard Lucas ting spells, summoning wave after wave of searing fire. Power surged around us, the sacred radiance of our blessings iwining with his mystical inferno. Though we carved into the monster relentlessly, matg each regeed injury with fresh attacks, I knew our strength had limits.

  No matter how deeply I sshed or how fiercely we struck, the abomination's shadowy form meself with frightening speed. My bde left a scorg gash in its skin, only to watch the dark tissue merge back together seds ter, erasing any trace of damage we'd inflicted.

  "The attacks aren't w!" Lucas's voice carried over the chaos. "It's regeing more and more quicker!"

  I spotted what had to be its core - a pulsing mass of corrupted energy at the of its head, far beyond our reach. My knights' blessed ons might have been able to destroy it, but the creature's t height made it impossible to get close enough.

  "Lucas, you target the core?" I called out, defleg a massive tendril that threateo crush three of my knights.

  His staff bzed with power as he unleashed a trated beam of fme directly at the creature's forehead. The inferno stru invisible barrier and dissipated harmlessly around it. "Some kind of shield! My magi't pee it!"

  The situation grew more desperate with each passing moment. Every strike we nded was meaningless - like trying to empty the o with a thimble. The Devourer seemed to grow stronger, feeding off our attacks, while my knights' energy began to fg.

  "Fall bad regroup!" I ordered, watg as another of my perfectly pced strikes simply melted away into the creature's flesh. "We need a rategy!"

  My knights moved into defensive formation, their blessed ons creating a barrier of light between us and the monster. But we all k wouldn't hold for long. The Devourer's regeion made it virtually immortal, and without a way to reach its core, we were fighting a losing battle.

  Lucas's magic crackled uselessly against the creature's defenses, each spell absorbed or deflected before it could reach that crucial oint. We needed something else - something the beast hadn't anticipated.

  A golden streak fshed over my head, followed by a thunderous crack that shook the very air around us. The Devourer's massive form shuddered violently as an arrow - bzing with an otherworldly bination of green and white glow-colored magic - punched through its skull after shattering the shield as if it's a piece of paper.

  The beast staggered backward, its grotesque bulk swaying precariously as dark ichor sprayed from the wound in thick, viscous streams. For the first time since our battle began, the injury didn't knit itself closed, and I watched with rising hope as the corrupted flesh around the impact site began to b and crack.

  My eyes traced the arrow's path back to its source. There stood Aurelith, bow still raised, her form wreathed in golden light. The power radiating from her was unlike anything I'd witnessed before.

  The Devourer crashed to the ground, its impact shaking the stone floor. The creature writhed, trying tee, but the wound from Aurelith's arrow remained - a perfect tunnel of seared flesh that refused to close.

  One of my sed order knights sprio my side, breathing hard. "Lady Seraphihe elf - she says she has strength for only one more shot, and it must t. You and the mage o follow up for the sed core after she fires!"

  I locked eyes with Lucas across the battlefield. He nodded, already gathering power into his staff. This was our ce - one shot to end this nightmare. But we'd need perfect timing, perfect coordination.

  The Devan to rise, its movements sluggish but growing stronger. Whatever Aurelith had doh that first shot, its effects were temporary. We had to act fast.

  "Lucas!" I called out. "The sed core on my mark!"

  I raised my sword, holy light bzing along its length. The Devourer reared up, its wounded head twisting toward us with murderous i. Above us, I heard the creak of Aurelith's bow being drawn bace more.