Casek swallowed, glancing up at the slivers of open sky he could see between the canopy. The afternoon was passing quickly, and the light beneath the trees would fade even faster. There was little enough time to make camp, let alone fight a group of the Shadow.

  His companion’s face, however, was all hard lines and iron-resolve, however. Casek knew the look. Poorly disguised hate radiated out from Raelynn like a signal fire—she had already decided to fight, never having even considered retreat.

  He pushed himself up against the tree trunk he’d hunkered down behind, several feet behind Raelynn’s hiding place. Chunks of bark dug into his spine, and the smell of damp moss filled his nostrils as he took measured, calming breaths. Casek could sense them up ahead. A cluster of foul-feeling presences on the periphery of his awareness—like a sour taste stuck on his tongue.

  There had been four distinct presences at first, but others had joined them. They were shades, he thought, all far weaker than the two forces he could sense at the head of the group.

  “Two Drau, Tauph. I couldn’t stand up to one!” he hissed.

  Try to stay calm. I can sense the power within Raelynn. She should be enough for them. Concentrate on keeping the Shades from her back, and she’ll handle the Drau.

  Raelynn turned back toward him and frowned, before crouching low and scuttling across the bed of dead leaves and earth to reach him.

  “You’re going to have to take the Shades. I can kill the Drau, but I’m concerned there may be something worse lurking in the background. Drau normally need to be forced to be in the same place.”

  “Can you sense it?” Casek asked.

  Raelynn’s dark eyes snapped to him, and Casek had to fight the urge to shrink back from the intensity of her gaze. “What do you mean, sense?”

  “You can’t do that?”

  “Nobody can.”

  Uh, guys? Tauph said, saving him from having to find a response to Raelynn’s statement.

  The first Drau’s howl rang around the forest, its murderous gaze honed in on where the pair crouched. It padded towards them, head low and teeth bared, glistening saliva dripping from its hanging maw. It looked like some kind of twisted wolf, coated in white fur broken by strange, spine-like black protrusions. They swayed and writhed like tentacles, reaching out for some imagined prey.

  Just behind it, a more familiar image of a Drau stood—half deer and half-shade; a mass of smaller Shadow-beings teeming between its hoofed legs. Even this far back, Casek counted nearly a dozen shades, and more seeped from the shadowed canopies and protected crevices on the forest floor every second.

  “Shit!” Raelynn hissed, spinning toward their assailants and drawing herself fully upright.

  Her swords sprung to life in her hands as they had earlier, but this time, a pulse of power flowed across her clothes. Steel plate shimmered into existence, strategically placed to protect her vital areas. At least, it appeared to be steel. The gleaming material moulded perfectly to her body, and moved and shifted as she did, allowing her to move as though she was wearing no protection at all.

  Casek summoned his own sword, only slightly jealous of the added protection his new companion possessed.

  She must wear more than one foci. Some create various kinds of weapons, but not all. The more powerful you are, the more capable you’ll be of utilising multiple foci, Tauph said, just as Raelynn set off toward the foe.

  “So it comes back to binding, then. Don’t suppose you could explain exactly how to do that?”

  There was a pregnant pause. Sorry. I’ve been stuck with you for the entirety of your sleep, Casek. I know of the foci and how they work, because they were being developed whilst you were awake. Actually using them? Not so much.

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  “Learn on the job, then. Got it. Can you—can you see? Like, independently of my vision?”

  You want me to watch Raelynn whilst you fight—to see if we can learn how? Yeah, I can do that.

  Casek smirked. “Perfect.”

  The shades accompanying the Drau had already flowed out around Raelynn, knowing instinctively that, for them, attacking her as she was would mean death. Instead, they looped around her, keeping out of range of her blades, and searched for weaker prey.

  Instead, they found him. He dashed at the closest Shadow-entity, his speed surprising the gangly creature. It gurgled viscous, oily fluid as his sword cut through its torso and dissipated into dark mist. Casek didn’t stop to watch the haze be absorbed. The next two shades were upon him immediately, lashing out with deadly claws and unnaturally elongated limbs.

  He ducked below the first strike and lashed out with one of its own. These shades were better prepared for him, however, and his intended victim skittered away from his attack. The second of the pair followed up with its own blow, but Casek adroitly stepped inside its guard and pierced the creature through the chest.

  Power flowed into him as his foci absorbed its essence. These were larger than the shades he’d fought in the research facility. Better fed, he supposed, able to gorge themselves on whatever they found in the forest. The increased power seemed to correlate directly with the speed and strength they could move with.

  The shade that had danced away from him appeared to b grotesquely obese—far more so than it was possible for any human its size to be—yet it darted, dashed and weaved between the flurry of thrusts and slashes Casek launched in its direction. A third shade joined the fray, and he snarled, steel flashing and opening up the newcomer with a viscous vertical cut.

  Giggles burbled out of the obese shade’s mouth, as though Casek killing its kin whilst it evaded the human’s blade was the funniest thing it had ever seen. That moment of hubris was enough, however. It hadn’t realised it was still within Casek’s reach, and he lunged suddenly, catching it unawares.

  It died laughing, Casek’s blade in its mouth and pierced through the back of its neck.

  Raelynn had no such problems. The Drau stomped and charged, rushing at her with claw and tooth; only for the woman to gracefully step around each of their attacks as though they had been made in slow motion. Every so often one of her swords would flicker, and a fresh wound would open up on one of the Drau, partnered with a fresh, pained shriek. He didn’t even see the weapon move.

  She was enjoying this. Their pain. Their helplessness. She was savouring every howl, every oozing black wound she had inflicted. She moved with an arrogance offset only by the spite plastered across her face.

  Casek worked his way closer to her battle, aiming to position himself at Raelynn’s back. He no longer feared the two Drau to be too much for one person to handle alone, but he wanted to ensure no shade could somehow affect her obvious superiority.

  He might not be an expert at fighting the Shadow, but he knew combat. A well-timed blow from even the weakest of opponents could mean the difference between life and death.

  A fresh wave of shades threw themselves at him, and he dispatched them with practiced ease, one after the other. Maintaining his blade was costing him magic from his reserves—as was each blow he struck against the enemy—but he was recouping so much by absorbing the fallen creatures that he wasn’t tiring at all.

  In fact, there was a barely perceptible difference growing in how he moved. He was a shade faster, a hint stronger, with every shade he killed.

  Remember, Tauph’s voice chimed in. That won’t last. Think of the difference between a raindrop on a teaspoon and a drop of water in the ocean.

  “I have to be strong enough to do that first,” Casek said, cleaving another shade in half.

  True. I’m just trying to manage expectations. Your strength increase with each shade slain will taper off dramatically at a certain point. Once you reach it, binding more powerful Shadow-entities will be the only way to grow noticably stronger.

  Two things happened simultaneously, then, that had Casek’s heart leaping into his throat. First, Raelynn charged, suddenly and violently at the wolf-Drau, lopping off its head with a single, clean sweep of her main sword. Then, as its head rolled away, face stuck in a contorted expression of horror, a piercing shriek rang out through the treetops, forcing Casek to clap his palms against his ears in a vain effort to block out some of the noise.

  Raelynn kept her composure, ducking to the floor as a dark, swooping shape arrowed at her through the air, golden talons outstretched as if to pluck her from the floor. Whatever it was, it was certainly large enough that it might have been able to pull it off.

  Not only that, but it elicited the first flicker of fear from Raelynn.

  The shape swept off back into the trees, visibly wheeling around in the sky for a second strike. It was definitely some kind of bird, and it positively thrummed with power.

  How did I not sense that? Tauph muttered at the back of his mind as Raelynn scrambled back toward him, face taut.

  “Shit! I’m sorry, but you’ll have to fight the Drau. Hold it off, distract it—even just lead it away from here somehow. I will come back and help, but I cannot fight both Shadowspawn at once.”

  “What the hell is that?”

  Raelynn spat, scowling towards where the creature had disappeared into the canopy. “That is a Bel’gor.”

  Thank you all so much for reading this far! If you've enjoyed what you've read, please consider checking out one of my other stories below - just click on the pictures to go to their pages!