Yes, Kaede previously stated that she was now stronger than Hedan and Pagi, however that was assuming they didn't improve over the course of that month. And now they had the Moonar, which wasn't something to be trifled with. To be fair it was far less dangerous once one knows how it works, but still, Nicya expected them to have more tricks up their sleeves.

She leaped outside the Moonar's range and observed how Pagi reacted. She hoped he would reveal his hand, but he simply repositioned himself so that she would be in between them. No matter where she moved, all he would do was running around trying to prevent her escape. All while his mate would only try to close the distance with the girl in order to make use of the Moonar. It was an oddly straightforward pattern.

Thus she tried something similar to what the Soft Bone Rabbit did to her: while Pagi was repositioning she intercepted him and sweeped his legs. She wrecked them like if Voört was to hammer a couple of dry breadsticks. Screams were heard, which confirmed her the unexpected and confusing success of her move.

Hedan seized the opportunity to activate the Moonar, but as soon as Nicya felt the spike in temperature on her back she was already grabbing Pagi by his robe and hurling him towards Hedan. The gaunt elf almost roasted his own friend in the same fashion they killed so many others. Then the impact between the two happened, and it involved several more bones fractured.

Nicya picked up the Moonar from the ground where it fell and placed it into her bag, much to Hedan's relief who feared she might have wanted to use it.

"Why are you so weak, though? You were stronger than me before." asked her.

Hedan was paralized in fear, with his only relief being the body of his helpless whimpering friend over him, shielding his own.

"Didn't you guys have other artifacts or items you could have used?"

"You can take everything, our bags and all."

"Of course I will take everything, I'm asking why did you lose?"

Hedan thought she wanted to humiliate him, and, to gain her favour in hope of surviving, he superseded his passivity in favour of slapping himself as hard as he could, which in elven customs was a display of extreme submission, although hardly ever sincere.

She sighed. She wanted answers, not that. After grabbing all their belongings all she left on the ground was an elven barbecue for whichever lucky monster would come across it.