+9 Life Force

  This time, there was her surprise nor lethargy when the bde sprang to life in the hands of its wielder once more. Instead, there was only eagero find out how many victims there would be this time as it looked at the frantic world unfolding around it.

  +6 Life Force

  That the enemy was other humans this time leasant surprise. Sometime betwee time it had st lost sciousness and now, its wielder seemed to have abandoned his friends and the cramped room at the inn they’d shared.

  That romising. He’d repced them with a small trade caravan in the middle of nowhere, and that caravan seemed to be utack by bandits of some sort. Every one of those details just made its new circumstances better aer.

  +8 Life Force

  Where they were and what the enemy wanted was much less important than who they were to the bde, though. It hadn’t tasted human blood before, and the energy that was flowing into it now, was somehow sweeter than the monsters as it had subsisted on up to this point.

  +11 Life Force+7 Life Force

  From what little it could make out from its blurry view, the three wagons that its wielder had been walking along until so retly were shabby things, but it was obvious that bandits had decided to try their luck just the same. Anything worth transp over long distances and paying someoo guard was likely something worth stealing in the eyes of desperate men.

  +6 Life Force

  The sword couldn’t recall being a wielded by a desperate man before, but seeing the wind burnt skin aed bdes of these bandits triggered some sort of distant memory. It had certainly dealt with their type enough to be intimately familiar with them.

  +10 Life Force

  Given that there were only two guards that it could see, including its wielder, it should have been an easy fight for the six bandits that were even now rushing out of the tall grasses on the side of the road to ambush the wagons. Sadly, the bde doubted that it would work out for them as expected.

  Six on two would not be enough to stop it from bleeding any of these sinewy, hard-bitten men dry. Their steel bdes could hold back its thirsty edge better than the monsters it had fought so far, and their teamwork would strike more blows against its wielder.

  That wouldn’t be enough, though. It would only make the fight more protracted which would, in turn, only be the hungry bde no matter how it all turned out.

  Even as steel rang out against steel, another man charged Ren as he felled his first oppo with a lucky blow that cleaved through the man’s trachea to the bohe fight was already half over. Their armor reduced the strength of its impacts, but whether its tip found some unarmored bit of flesh or it had to first pierce through boiled leather, it did nothing to hold back the energy that it drained from even the smallest cut.

  +6 Life Force+10 Life Force+8 Life Force+5 Life Force

  This was a new wrio the bde, and while its owners struggled to keep up with warriors who did not fall with the first sweep of his sword, it studied the effects as its oppos died from four or five smaller wounds rather than a single brutal wound.

  +9 Life Force

  “This one has some kind of taint about him!” one of the bandits cried out.

  “It’s nothing. Just a tri!” another said with a chuckle of bravado. “Bring him down, and maybe the boss will eve you keep it!”

  It was clear they uimated the unarmored boy, but it doubted they would do so much longer. One corpse would bee two in short order where the magic of the bde was ed.

  That was when the Bde noticed Marden for the first time. He’d been on the far side of the wagons, now he ivoting around, and only barely holding his own against a single bandit with his long khe Ebohought about infming Ren’s paranoia about him, but decided to hold off.

  It didn’t want to distract its wielder just yet. Right now it had more important people to kill.

  +11 Life Force

  The sword wasn’t ed with what the men said or even how the fight went, as Ren fought like a ered wolf. Instead, it focused oure of the smallest wounds the boy mao inflibsp;

  In such cases, it could expee bleeding or perhaps even weakness from the oppo, depending on the location. This time, though, it could see them weakening almost immediately as their skin paled and the life was leached from their bodies.

  Such small wounds weren’t even satisfying. It barely felt them as they were inflicted. Even those tiny wounds were serious when the bde that made it sucked out a noticeable portion of their vitality.

  The bde had no expnation for how any of this worked. It merely studied aed while its enemies bled and died.

  As steel rang out against steel, it was the creeping dread of those wounds that ultimately won the day for its wielder, even if its wielder didn’t notice. He was too busy fighting for his life.

  That’s not what his sword saw. To it, all Ren was doing utting his iude on dispy. His parries were clumsy things, but his ters were all but ent. It was clear to the bde that if these men had just a little more skill, he would end this day dead in the mud.

  As it was, he still had a ce of walking away like his friend. Mardem had finally wrestled the bandit he was fag to the ground, and he was stabbing the maedly, in a frenzy. The behavior was less like someone gl in killing, though, and more like a desperate man who was terribly worried that at any moment his oppo was likely to rise again.

  It’s probably his first kill, the bde thought in disgust, crossing the boy off his list of perspective wielders. Any of these bandits would be a better choice than that.

  +5 Life Force

  The bde didn’t want that boy as a wielder, but also, just now it didn’t really want its current wielder to die. At least, not until its reserves were high enough for Empower Bde or Increase e 2. If one of them killed him after it had spent all of that vitality, well - then it would almost certainly prefer to have one of these other men as a stronger wielder going forward.

  It preferred to get the tter so that it could start to take more trol over its owiny, but it remaio be seen how much power it would gather from this fight. The first option only cost 250 Life Force, and the sed cost 300, which was a lot, eve was draining 5 with every strike. It might even have to settle for Increase Reserves 5 instead, sihat was only 150, but that would be less than optimal.

  +9 Life Force-3 Life Force+7 Life Force

  By the time it focused on the fight once more, the worst of it was over. Two bandits y on the ground around its wielder, two more tio fight him, and one had moved on to try to finish of Marden, and the Ebohought it was very telling that Ren didn’t run to help his friend. Only one man was trying to escape, but with the way he was limping and bleeding, he wasn’t likely to get far when Reually chased him down.

  +5 Life Force-6 Life Force+10 Life Force+8 Life Force-4 Life Force

  The bde watched its wielder take a blow that he did o take to score only the mi of cuts in response, only to follo by missing a golden opportunity to get in behind the guard of his other oppo and draw the on along the bandit’s throat, opening his carotid and unleashing a tidal wave of blood.

  -3 Life Force

  It was embarrassing, and it was all the bde could do, not to give up watg in disgust and go back to looking at the ter as it ticked toward its goal. It didn’t, though. Instead, it watched its wielder fumble until he finally mao take down another enemy with a thrust that found a hole in the man’s mail.

  +11 Life Force-2 Life Force

  It didn’t care what the boy did as long as Life Force reached 300, but until now, it was still a few tantalizing points out of reach. It was only the st killing blow that finally pushed its total over the line.

  “He’s just one lousy brat,” another man called out, rounding the wagon from the far side. “Bring him down, and we finally up our presents and see what these boys brought us!”

  Ren had been down to a single oppo for a moment, and the man looked like he’d been about to break and run for it. However, the sight of his leader put some steel ba his spine.

  The bde wasn’t surprised. The man was bigger than any of the bandits, and though he didn’t wear mu the way of armor, he had a giant steel battleaxe. It was heavily notched, and had obviously seen a lot of use.

  If that thing he sword doubted that even the massive store of life energy it had collected throughout this fight would be enough to save its wielder for long. It didn’t even know if it could heal something like a missing limb, and it didn’t want to waste the energy to find out.

  Still, to make sure that it wouldn’t be, it immediately spent everything it had purchasing Increase e 2. The very st thing it wao do was waste any of its energy, but even if that wasn’t a problem, it was happy to tilt the scales against its current wielder however it could. A man like the bandit leader would be infinitely preferable to the shepherd that held it now.

  What… where did all that strength go? Ren wondered.

  For a moment, the sword was shocked that it had heard the boy’s thoughts. Then it realized that was exactly what a power like Increase e was supposed to do. The wire ing its hilt wound tighter too, in that moment, making it look slightly less care worn than it had been a moment before. As it took all this in, it noticed that it had two new abilities to repce the old one.

  Increase e 3: In an ideal world, the wielder and the on move as one. Only with this unity true skill be unleashed. With this level you don’t just feel your wielder’s emotions aheir thoughts, they hear yours too, pleting the bond.

  Increase trol: You already touch your wielder’s mind, but that doesn’t mean you o be gentle. You no longer influence, but pel, though your trol is her absolute nor subtle, and your wielder resist, it is now possible to make your will ma.

  It had little time to study its increased e with its wielder or even wo the fact that the boy could feel it when it spent energy. Instead, the information about the new skills drove all other thoughts from its mind. Finally, it had found the skill that it had sought, even if it was expensive.

  It had beeain such a skill existed, of course, but to know and to see it were entirely different. Now, it just o cim it, despite the cost, and then it would finally repce the Shepherd’s weakness with its strength.

  That might not be necessary, though, it realized. Even with its magic, the odds were against it in a battle like this, and it hoped against hope that its current wielder lost.

  He’s to for you, the bde hissed, hoping to shake Ren, even though its wielder couldn’t yet hear it. You have no ce. He’ll kill you and then that coward Marden will flee and take Vara from you!

  The Ebon Bde’s words weren’t enough to make its wielder flee. It could feel his hand shake on its hilt though as a wave of doubt passed through him.

  The Bandit leader was bigger, stronger, and obviously bolder than the rest of his men. With the Ebon bde in his hand, he might well attra army and carve out a kingdom or at least a bloody swath through the local towns and vilges. The bde didn’t care what he did really, so long as its hunger was sated.

  “I-I we’re tryin’ sir, but his sword…” the st remaining bandit sniveled. “it’s an evil thing, and he has some sorta healin' magic about him. He has a hexbde and—”

  His words were interrupted by a desperate series of blows that sent the man tumbling backward over the corpse of one of his rades. Unfortunately, before Ren could follow up and deliver the Coup de gras to the man, the bandit leader weighed into the fight.

  He didn’t roar a challenge or square off against its wielder in some way that might be sidered fair. Instead, the man moved wordlessly toward Ren’s blind side and swung his axe at his wielder’s neck with such force that when Ren mao duck just beh the blow, it embedded solidly in the side of the wagon he’d been using to protect his baost of the fight.

  And just like that, the fight was over. The sword’s instincts could feel it. It could read its oppos like they were nothing but novices. Until that moment it had practically been drooling at the certainty that the big man would cleave its wielder in two and cim it for his own on.

  However, even though the big man smartly released the stuck axe and reached to his belt for another on, none of those moves were fast enough to stop Ren from shing out and opening the bandit leader’s belly in a spray of entrails and blood. The sed strike took the man’s sword arm even as he drew a bde. He roared in pain, but Re sshing and stabbing him again and again like a man possessed. He didn’t stop until the body stopped twitg.

  +6 Life Force+9 Life Force+10 Life Force+5 Life Force

  After that, those who could still do so fled. Their morale was pletely broken.

  Uncharacteristically, the bde didn’t even care that all of that sweet Life Force was getting away. Instead, it seethed that the man who should have bee its wielder y on the ground bleeding out while the insignifit scrap of a boy who was motivated more by a desire to help his friends than by bloodlust reed still held its hilt.

  It was a situation that was growing intolerable with each battle. At this point, nearly any oppohat Ren had faced off against would have made a better wielder than him, but this was beyond the sword to trol. All it could do was grow stronger and wait for its opportunity to do more while it sheathed in silenbsp;

  It would be silent no longer, it decided. It had only one way to extract its vengeahough, and that was to poison its wielders mind with jealousy and worry with whispers. Ren couldn’t quite hear them, but would definitely feel what the bde had to say.