Shadowless Warrior

Had anyone in the tavern taken any notice of the altercation in the corner booth they would have seen the flames in Flekel's eyes go out.  Not when the knife bit home but just before.  The flame orbs snuffed out like candles in a sudden draft though they left no lingering tendril of smoke rising from them.  Instead the sparks flew upwards, tiny comets, straight through the ceiling into the night sky.  Slowly they settled earthwards again away from the inn. 

In a clump of trees and dense foliage beyond the city wall a huge shape awaited them with upturned vertically split eyes.  Their owner, part boar, part cat, enormous, muscled, lumbering yet swift, received the fiery sparks on its forehead.  There they twinkled for an indeterminate period as they sank into the skull.

Deep within the huge creature's brain sluggish thoughts were thrust aside by a new energy.  What had been just above animal intelligence was now replaced by a much more complex layering of advanced mind processes.  The massive brain, unused except for motor functions, was rapidly filling up with memory with a large area devoted to conscious thought including interlinked pathways into the memory store.  Previously untouched nodes were tapped into expanding the mind's facilities into hitherto undreamt of usages.  Telepathy, telekinesis, prescience and other extra-sensory perceptions came into play.

This process took over an hour to formulate its major roads and by-ways, to wake dormant senses and take control of the vast array of functions both inside the brain and body alike.  When it was done the first concept by the new mind was,

"A pity to lose such an able and likeable body in favour of this one.  Now let the chase really begin."

Unbeknownst to Kendor the huge shambling creature sniffed out his still warm trail outside the tavern.  It was close, not many hours behind.  Still Flekel had to adapt to his new environment and he was in no rush to culminate the chase.  He followed the trail at a leisurely amble.

When the gate guards saw it coming they unanimously decided they had urgent business elsewhere.  The creature walked unimpeded into the city streets, one more reason to remain indoors.

Many things had happened while Kendor slept.  The innkeeper's stories were not all lies.  Events had unfolded apace starting with Nagmur attempting to call up Osolon.  The interrupted ritual had opened a portal to another realm.  Not the one intended and instead of the one he sought to summon came a more powerful and erratic daemon than his pet Garrunpa.  This one feasted on the first few souls it came in contact with slaying all the living followers left in the amphitheatre.  Thus fortified it strode over to the burnt and dieing form of Nagmur.

A spasm shook his frame.  It was all the daemon needed.  A body racked with pain and a mind unable to keep it out.  The daemon melted into a smoke coloured a bilious yellow.  This vapour flowed into the ruined nostrils of the recumbent man.  Visibly Nagmur was unchanged.  Inside a fierce battle was fought and lost. 

The victor set about repairing the vessel it had won.  First it shored up the dwindling blood supply sealing the wound in his side and the ruptures in his gullet.  Beyond this the daemon let the body suffer its ills.  It tested its motor functions forcing the body to rise, to stand in a slightly bowed fashion where the charred skin pulled at the bones beneath.  Experimentally it tried to speak.  The croak it made required further repair to the abused throat.  A further test and the daemon within decided the vocal arrangement was sufficient for its purposes.  Given voice at last the daemon raged and howled much as Kendor did.

Unlike the thief, the daemon was not restricted to sound alone.  He was far more violent.  Indiscriminate with it.  Sizaful had tried to stop the excesses when Nagmur blasted the cohort of cavalry.  Now he was no more.  The daemon knew many ways to perform magic and with no master restricting it, it gave full rein to its