Used a Scarf.

"We kill it." - he said slowly. Ciri hanged her head. - "And then cave in the whole tunnel. I will create several Dragon Dreams. In closed space it will be enough to create a landslide of magnitude elves will never be able to clear."

Alan nodded with clear approval. It was the best lesser evil to chose. Even if they will make enemy out of Iorweth in return, so be it. Not the first enemy in their books and not the strongest one.

"Ciri, I need the scarf." - the later came over and silently hugged Geralt's arm, as if saying thanks for his decision. Sometimes she is a kid, another acts like she understood everything. Even Alan can't help but got confused with her.

"What for?" - she asked mechanically, not willing to separate from it at all.

"It is a weapon actually, a magic one." - said Alan and took it from her neck. - "I will give it back, don't worry. It is yours."

"You are gifting it to me, really? I really can have it? Really, really?"

"You already have it, no?"

"Is it so hard to answer directly? Just tell me!" - she stared at Alan with piercing gaze of forest green eyes. The later looked sideways. It was hard for him to withstand her glares. Only hers. Sometimes it just rises inside Ciri, the origins she had as a princess. Her gazes these moments can be very convincing. Not intimidating, at least not to Alan, but enchanting, strong, with dignity of a high nobility and strict upbringing.

No slave or commoner will have such gaze.

Geralt once said it is like the one Calante gave during her times.

"Yes, you can, now sit still please and stop hugging me, I need to work over it a bit."

"Fine." - she sat back on a stool, but it was to high for her and Ciri just waved her legs in good mood.

Alan took out dimeritium ingot and placed it on the scarf, giving it a mental order to devour the metal and incorporate into itself, to develop a property of pure dimeritium in it. The great thing about it is that harmful effects will never work for the owner of the scarf, but others might not be so happy go lucky.

Ingot just melted into it, giving the scarf a tinge of metallic luster and bluish color.

"What kind of magic artifact is that?" - Geralt marveled at it.

"A very special and ancient piece of armor from forgotten place. It belonged to one of the three high rulers of long disappeared race. And they all were very powerful mages. You might say..." - Alan thought for a moment remembering Amalgal again with sadness in heart. - "It is my ancestry, one of the little things left by my teacher."

"It is very important." - said Ciri, looking at Alan with serious gaze.

"It is." - he said and afterwards added. - "But not really as much as your life."

Ciri became red all of a sudden, but Alan just stated a fact he believed in without underlining meaning she found herself.

"It should be effective now."

"Hope so." - Geralt looked with sceptically narrowed eyes. - "But I still will make couple of more bombs."

* * *

"I've had that often with Yen." - grumbled Geralt while descending the steps. He extinguished the torch, it not only made his eyes painful due to Cat potion, but also was loud enough to hinder his hearing. - "You even have her eyes. Sometimes I even think you are her son."

'I don't read your mind passively, for that I need to will it. Primarily, Vibe is a telepathic channel for communication and only after a trait that can read minds. Also I can help prevent reik from interfering into your senses. And no, Geralt, I'm not her son. If you want to know, my parents are already dead.'

"Sorry."

'No, you are not. You've seen to many such stories and being through a lot yourself to find something like that special and warranting your apology. So don't bother. I'm not that fragile.'

"I apologize."

'Yes you are. Apology for lies accepted.'

Alan was sitting on the ground floor in meditation, while paying close attentions to everything Geralt will do. The hunt began, and they kept silence. Ruins turned out to be a very wide underground location.

"Portals... day just got better." - Geralt sighed noticing a gateway that light up through the focal stone the moment he got close.

'It shouldn't teleport you far away.'

"Hope so, haa." - witcher closed his eyes with his hands and stepped through. - "Hands still there, head not sliding down, leg functioning normally. Looks like I'm good."

Geralt saw a big plaza ahead, covered in soft glow of magic pearls. Still it was not even close to be intense enough to serve as proper source of light. How long has it being for even self chargeable artifacts to go bad?

"Alan?"

'Here.'

"Good."

Silence and drops of falling water breaking the surface of the stone paving. He heard nothing else, as if only this existed. Suddenly on the limits of senses Geralt pinpointed something new. A very faint echo of a soft step. It was taken lightly, with tremendous grace of a predator.

Geralt stopped and his pupils went wider, making nearly all his eyes black. His right hand unsheathed the sword silently and left went for the dimeritium bomb. He twisted it a bit, for ignition by the side of open tinder box and lowered the body, slightly bending knees.

Staying still senses became very acute, adrenaline poured in the brain in just the right dosage to increase body performance. One mistake here can cause death. The enemy Geralt was facing now far exceeded regular things he coped with.

Alan sensed a tug on the vibe channel and knew that reik is ready to attack. It used some sort of mental disruption in a wave of pure soul force to shake the perception of a target. It actually can be used as a more serious weapon if it was stronger, but as it is now, Alan just spread his Vibe to encompass Geralt's mind and repelled it.

'It's attacking.'

Witcher was not a professional of the monster slaying craft for show. He sensed where attack will come from and in one fluid motion threw dimeritium bomb under it's body, that moved like a shadow.

With a shock to the ambiance it went out and spread a cloud of dust, that drove away and suppressed magic.

Monster stopped for a moment, feeling heavier than normal and Geralt attacked. Albeit it was not as fast, it still reacted and blocked the sword with claws. A metallic collision echoed through the silence of empty cavern.

Monster leaned forward, wending claws to unprotected places, but it clearly never fought a well trained witcher, as Geralt reflexively parried both of them in a sequence of motions barely traceable due to break neck speed.

He stepped sidewards and chopped down, monster went on all fours and rolled away with grace of a true predator, before lunging at witcher again. In one fluid motion Geralt went under it's arm, twisted the sword in the most efficient shortcut and performed whirlwind move, effectively sending it's arm flying far away.

Reik didn't even seem to register the damage. No roars, no blood, just eerie silence, screeching of clawed limbs on the rocks, leaving deep scars and it shifted like a ghost to attack again.

"Mindless beast." - concluded Geralt.

Suddenly reik made a strange move with legs and momentarily accelerated forward. It was too fast for witcher to react and left a deep gash right on his chest, very near to the heart. No armor helped to lessen the damage and Geralt felt lightheaded immediately, although Swallow stopped the bleeding, he was a hair breath away from dying.

Pain went away fast, but torn muscles made it hard to use same strength on the sword, still Geralt twisted on his feet, kicking the monster out of the stair case down to the passage.

Taking a moment, he removed the potion Alan given him and directly poured it on the wound, that started to close with visible speed and reeled scarf over his arm, feeling strange hunger deep within the artifact. It was almost sentient and craved for mana. Scarf vibrated a bit, tightening around his arm and transformed into metallic gauntlet.

Reik appeared from the side like a specter, aiming it's claws at his now unprotected neck, but Geralt just twisted his sword around, feeling tremendous impact that nearly broke his arm and flew out, barely stabilizing himself by the wall, to only duck again.

Clawed arm blurred just above his head, sending shards of stone everywhere while cutting wall like butter. Geralt shifted around the beast in the fastest speed possible and nearly received a leg in the gut. It had quite a pack of natural weapons too. But that gave him a chance.

Geralt grabbed the leg of reik with a gauntlet and the monster he thought can't feel pain suddenly screamed. And, oh god, that was one hell of one. Not even cockatrices can cry like that! It nearly sent him flying! But the key world was nearly.

If Geralt could tell one weakness of reik, it will be his relatively small weight. If it can be considered a weakness at all. But this time it played into witchers favor, for he saw how part of the gauntlet again became a scarf and wrapped around the arm of a monster. It was clear that the artifact intended to directly devour the monster reserve of mana.

Still it connected Geralt to reik!

"Fuck... than let's dance." - Geralt lifted the monster and slammed it into the floor, however reik was a very agile enemy with tremendous physical power. It directly send witcher over itself on his back.

Geralt shifted again, trying to mount it and while doing so received several deep wounds from it's legs, but eventually succeeded. Coughing out blood, with effects of Swallow wearing off and his vision gradually becoming darker, he commanded the scarf to change and it listened, shifting to the neck of reik and letting Geralt strangle it using both arms. He kneed the monster at the back, while looking to the ceiling and noticing what he wanted.

He jumped up, dragging the monster with him, while the later tried to escape, however one of it's arms was cut off, another didn't move as if completely dead. Geralt climbed to the stone ark and went down, hanging the monster by the scarf.

It can do nothing but wriggle around and gradually reik was loosing strength to even do that.

"It seems I'm done here. Alan, you need to come." - witcher sat nearby still holding the artifact that can lengthen itself to become very long and sighed with tiredness. It wasn't the longest battle, but it took much from him. - "Ugh, I'm getting older."

'How was it?'

"It always seems impossible. And then they die. Come." - said Geralt.

'Two minutes.'