Davon spent his down time trying to meditate with his Reliquary. Placing the bow in his lap, he closed his eyes and tugged at the strings connecting him with his weapon, waiting expectantly for any sort of response.

  Much like every time before, Davon only received occasional hints of feedback. He gritted his teeth in frustration, wondering if he would ever figure out how to do this by himself. Internally, he cursed the cryptic Boneshaper for not giving him more information.

  Then he sighed. Frustration won’t get me anywhere, he thought.

  Davon took a deep breath and calmed himself. That was when an idea struck him: maybe he’d been approaching the process from the wrong angle.

  As gently as he could, he touched the mental strings again. This time, though, he didn’t wait for a response. Instead, he tried to invoke the string, as if he were invoking a rune.

  A light flared in the back of his consciousness. Imagery began flashing through his mind, as if he had suddenly unearthed a memory from years ago.

  Just as Davon was beginning to comprehend the series of images, his meditation was interrupted by the sound of a bell echoing through the camp. Startled, he jumped up in his seat, clutching his bow instinctively.

  Kai and Lyla had also grabbed their weapons and were on the alert. The trio stood there, frozen, for a few seconds while the bell continued to ring.

  Then Lyla inhaled sharply.

  “The bell isn’t a call to arms, remember?” she said, easing her grip on her spear. “It’s a gathering bell. It means all Revenants in the camp should go to the command tent.”

  Scowling, Davon slung his bow onto his back. “I would like a word with whoever decided that was a good way to call a gathering,” he grumbled.

  Recovering from the moment of alarm, the trio made their way to the command tent, joining the crowd of gathered Revenants inside. Every Revenant not currently out on patrol was there, leaving very little space for anyone to move.

  “Listen up, everyone!” Grant clapped his hands sharply to silence the murmuring crowd. “We finished constructing the in-camp Imbuement Chamber.”

  Excited whispers spread through the tent, forcing Grant to clap his hands once again before continuing. “This means that any casualties out there will be resurrected here,” he announced. “And THAT means we can finally make a push against the Crimson Reavers around Heinburg! Today, we will be doing just that. Emma?”

  “There are two Crimson Reaver outposts near our camp that could do with a good reckoning,” Emma explained. “We will be sending three teams to each, while the rest stay back to guard the camp. The assault teams have already been chosen, and will be called to arms after this meeting. The plan is to have each team assault one of the outposts from a different angle, to split the enemy’s forces and make them easier to deal with. Any questions?”

  Taking the crowd’s silence as a ‘no’, Emma nodded with satisfaction. “Then the meeting is concluded. The following Revenants, please stay here…”

  As Emma read through the list of names, Davon was somewhat surprised to find that he, along with his teammates, had been selected.

  I suppose we did kill Aelius, he thought as he watched most of the gathered Revenants disperse.

  “Good. Now, assault teams, gear up and meet at the gate,” Grant commanded, looking over each of the remaining Revenants in turn. “The assault begins as soon as possible.”

  —

  Half an hour later, Davon found himself ducking behind a particularly large rocky outcrop, just on the outskirts of a Crimson Reaver outpost. The approach to the outpost had gone off without problem, aided by Emma’s invisibility spell. But now, the spell had worn off, and Davon was anxious that any movement he made would draw the enemy’s attention.

  Emma had sent the trio to the far side of the outpost, right by one of the entrances. Yet, despite having to cover more ground than the other two teams, they were somehow the first to get into position. All they could do now was wait for a signal from the other two teams to begin their assault.

  Suddenly, the sound of a war horn tore through the air around them. The group exchanged confused looks. That was not the signal they had agreed on with the other teams.

  “They got spotted!” Lyla exclaimed, pointing to one of the guard towers. Davon could see archers turning to face away from them, arrows drawn.

  “Damn it, come on!” he called, leaping to his feet. “Now or never!”

  Davon rushed out of his cover, nocking an arrow as he ran. Relying on Kai and Lyla to deal with the soldier standing guard beside the gate, Davon invoked the Scattershot rune, sending a hail of projectiles towards the archers up on the guard tower.

  Davon watched with satisfaction as the archers, unaware of the incoming projectiles, fell off the tower one by one.

  Making use of the enemy’s surprise, Lyla threw her spear towards one of the gate guards, skewering him before he could react. The second guard was so distracted by the death of his comrade that he failed to react as Kai ran towards him at full speed. The young warrior brought his axe down in an overhead strike, killing the guard instantly.

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  The momentum of their initial success immediately stalled as a massive shape leapt over the outpost walls, landing in the middle of the group with an earth-shaking thud.

  Suddenly, Davon was face-to-face with the chainmail veil of one of the large quadrupedal beasts. So up close and personal, he had the opportunity to appreciate the raw power of the beast’s unarmored limbs. Its arm was half as thick as Davon’s chest, and covered with rippling muscles.

  Davon’s breath caught in his throat. In a moment of pure instinct, he threw himself to the side, narrowly avoiding a clawed hand. The earth where he had just been standing cracked beneath the force of the blow.

  Overcoming the initial shock of their enemy’s assault, Davon felt the familiar adrenaline coursing through his veins, slowing the passage of time. He disengaged the mechanism on his bow’s handle and split the weapon into two swords while invoking his Sharpness rune. The blades lit up with golden light, and he swung both in a combined cut at the beast’s joints.

  Seconds passed like agonizing minutes as Davon watched the beast react to his strike, moving its arm out of the way at the last second.

  Carried by the momentum of his missed swing, Davon pirouetted backwards, moving away from the creature. The beast’s crimson eyes, barely hidden behind the chainmail veil, met with his. Behind those eyes, Davon saw intelligence befitting humans.

  A thrill of anxiety muddied the adrenaline surging through Davon’s body. This was no ordinary beast.

  Suddenly, a ball of fire struck the creature in its side, sending it into a stumble. Glancing over, Davon saw Lyla standing off to the right. Her spear was back in her hands and pointed towards the beast.

  The monster craned its neck towards Lyla with a low growl. In a sudden movement, it whipped its tail towards Davon. Failing to react in time, he caught the blow on his shoulder and was sent flying.

  Davon’s world spun as he hurtled through the air, crashing and then rolling along the ground. When he came to a stop, he couldn’t tell where the pain was coming from. He just knew was that he was in pain, all over.

  He pushed the pain aside and forced himself upright, grabbing his swords as he did so. A glance around the battlefield showed him Kai holding the entrance to the camp. Crimson Reaver bodies were piled at the young Revenant’s feet. Lyla was facing off against the giant beast, the pair circling each other slowly.

  With fury in his heart, Davon invoked the connection with his Reliquary. Images began flooding his mind in response. Through this link, Davon commanded the weapon, willing a rune to form in one of the blank slots. His Reliquary shuddered in his hands, and when Davon looked down, he saw a brand-new rune inscribed on his blades.

  Davon returned his attention to the battlefield just in time to see Lyla sidestep a slam of the beast’s claw. Wind gathered around her, allowing her to dash swiftly to the side and come to a stop gracefully.

  Walking slowly towards the combat, Davon flourished his swords and invoked his new rune. His vision blurred for a moment. Then, in a split second, he appeared directly beside the beast.

  He had successfully activated ‘Shadow-step.’

  Before the thing could react, Davon swung both of the blades at its neck. His swords slid against the armor covering the beast’s neck, largely ineffective, but the blow shocked the thing into retreating.

  Davon’s gambit paid off, buying Lyla enough time to make distance from their foe. The beast stalked slowly in a circle around Davon. He matched the creature’s pace, eyes locked with his opponent as he circled in the opposite direction,

  In his periphery, Davon noticed a burning arrow soar into the air, coming from the guard tower: the agreed signal that the outpost had been cleared of Crimson Reavers.

  Not done yet, he thought, but good to know.

  The staring contest between beast and Revenant was interrupted when something else flickered into Davon’s periphery. Too focused on the beast in front of him, Davon only caught the brief image of a hand before it slammed into his chest. He braced for the pain, but none followed.

  Instead, in the blink of an eye, Davon found himself in a different location. Looking around, he saw he was standing in a small, circular patch of red ground, almost like an arena. The walls were lost in a haze of moving shadows. The silence in this realm was deafening.

  On the far side of this arena stood one of the Crimson Reavers wearing a plumed helmet. The Crimson Reaver held her weapon in a reverse grip, partially hidden behind her back. Davon could only see the slightly curved tip of the blade, made of a black metal and decorated with crimson grooves.

  “You are an interesting one.” The Crimson Reaver’s voice was a low growl. “Do you fight as well as you carry yourself, Dead Man?”

  Davon narrowed his eyes, starting to circle his enemy as he flourished his blades. The Crimson Reaver circled in the opposite direction.

  Breaking the silence, Davon swung his left hand in an uppercut, a probing blow. In one graceful move, the Crimson Reaver reversed her grip, parrying the blow with her own blade.

  Sparks flew as their blades slid against each other, showering both of the participants. Before this clash had a chance to finish, Davon invoked his Shadow-step rune. The force of the Crimson Reaver’s push carried her momentum forward just as Davon disappeared. With no obstacle to push against, she was thrown off-balance.

  Davon appeared on the other side of his target and stabbed towards where he imagined her ribs would be, pulling on the Sharpness rune once again. An unearthly shriek shook the realm around the duelists as Davon’s blade sank through the Crimson Reaver’s armor. Before he could continue his assault, the Crimson Reaver grabbed his hand and pulled him forwards, forcing him to stumble with his back exposed.

  Turning on his heel, Davon saw his foe’s blade coming down towards his head. Carried by instinct, Davon Shadow-stepped backwards, out of the way of the blow. He felt the mental connection to his Reliquary ache, warning him not to pull any more power through it.

  The two duelists stared each other down, both panting from exertion. Then suddenly, the Crimson Reaver let out a raucous laugh.

  “You are a worthy foe, Dead Man,” she growled, pulling the blade from her side. “We will meet again.”

  She threw Davon his weapon. As he grabbed it from the air, the world around him blurred. Suddenly, he was once again standing outside the Crimson Reaver outpost. He looked around quickly, orienting himself.

  He saw Kai on the ground, axe raised against the claw of the massive beast in a struggle to keep the monster at bay. Behind him, Lyla was taking aim with her spear.

  Before any of them could attack, however, the beast suddenly leapt backwards. The Crimson Reaver duelist Davon had just fought was sitting on the beast’s back, holding what seemed to be reins in one hand. The other hand clutched at her side.

  For a moment, the Crimson Reaver looked in Davon’s direction. Then she pulled on the reins, commanding the beast to bound away.

  Silence fell over the battlefield. Davon took a deep, shuddering breath.

  The Revenants had won… barely.