Steel screamed. Orcs howled. The sky bled smoke and ash.
Rei blinked.
Once—he slipped past a swinging sword, the edge grazing his shoulder. Pain flared, but he didn't flinch.
Twice—he carved through a brute's throat, black blood hissing as it sizzled against the Riftlight on his blade.
Three times—he stood behind another, blade humming with violet fire.
Seven blinks. Seven times seven kills.
Only one remained.
Oggrazh the Black Howl.
Warchief. Oathbreaker. A beast wrapped in shattered iron. Tusks cracked, slick with blood. Eyes glowing like dying coals. His roar thundered across the battlefield, rolling over bodies, crushing hope.
Rei faced him alone. Breath ragged. Blade alive in his hands, veins of violet flame flickering over steel.
Oggrazh swung.
The world trembled.
Rei vanished mid-breath. Blinked behind the warlord. Struck with every ounce of his strength.
Oggrazh twisted. Arm like a boulder crashed into Rei's chest. Rei hit the stone-strewn ground hard. Pain bloomed everywhere. Coughing blood.
"Now!" Rei gasped.
Kaia was already moving.
White hair whipping in the wind. Frost-mark glowing like a crescent moon. She darted between broken corpses, over shattered steel, her twin bone knives gleaming.
"SHATTER!"
Ice detonated along Oggrazh's leg. Frost coiled like fangs, snapping around his joints. His roar turned into a guttural scream, cracked and ragged.
Oggrazh lifted his axe—but Kaia's speed was a blur. She slid behind him, weaving past the arc of his weapon, ice dripping from her blades.
Durik joined the fray.
Feet planted. Hammer gripped in both hands. Frost mist curling around dwarven steel. Runes pulsing like frozen heartbeats.
He muttered: "Frost Hammer? Nah. Judgment of Ice? Too long... Blizzard Strike? Bit much—ah, sod it—"
Then slammed the hammer into the ground.
"FOR THE MOUNTAIN!"
The earth split. Frost howled. A wave of ancient winter swept across armor, blade, and bone.
Durik stood, frost-wrought mail shimmering. Eyes pale, gleaming like starlight in snow.
Oggrazh staggered.
The opening Rei had been waiting for.
The Void pulsed in his chest. Heart thrumming. Adrenaline and Rift energy fusing.
Blink.
Straight through the frost barrier. Past Oggrazh's guard. To the single gap where victory waited.
Bread Cutter screamed violet.
It cleaved through flesh, iron, bone. Warm bread. Nothing more. Clean. Effortless. Final.
Oggrazh's head fell. Thud. Silence.
Durik raised a fist, voice booming across the field:
"I NAMED IT! BREAD CUTTER, BABY!"
Rei didn't move. Didn't speak. Blade folding back into steel with a quiet hiss.
The battlefield was a tableau of smoke, frost, blood, and broken bodies. Orcs shrieked, some fleeing, some frozen by the icy mist that Kaia's knives left behind.
Kaia's breathing was ragged. Her tail flicked irritably, streaking frost across the ground. She glanced at Rei, eyes wary.
"You okay?" she asked.
Rei wiped blood from his mouth. "I'm fine," he muttered. But inside, the Void whispered. Hungry. Always hungry.
Durik clapped him on the shoulder. "Fine? Boy, you just danced through a warlord like he was a training dummy!"
Kaia rolled her eyes, knives still glowing faintly with frost magic. "He might be fine. But we're not done. There are more—orcs coming. And the sky's not going to clear itself."