…but was thwarted at the last moment. Sand started to rapidly gather within the deep wounds her eyebeams left behind on the Dhashur's body. In the mere blink of an eye, the bleeding stopped, and the sand created new scales to cover its sinewy body.
At the same time, the creature rose back to its feet when Astrid was mere inches away from it. A cunning light shone in its eyes, and Astrid immediately understood she'd been tricked. With high agility and extreme speed, it spun its body around and whipped its spiked tail at the unprepared vampire.
Astrid's instincts and reflexes kicked in. Her own swords changed directions midswing to intercept the snapping tail, but she could only partially deflect the attack. Instead of impacting her chest, the attack caused a deep cut on her arm, causing her to hiss in pain.
Despite the wound, she managed to use the tail's sweeping force to somersault backwards and create some new distance between herself and the third-rank creature.
