The bde had slept soundly for almost two days, with only the occasional burst of sadness er to rouse it when it came to life once more as Ren shoved it through the chest of a strao a night of blood and fire.
+8 Life Force+6 Life Force
“Get away from our horses, or your ,” its wielder shouted.
It was easy to see why everyone was in a panic to escape. The little town of Toln’s Cross was on fire, and though the world was much too blurred for it to see the mohat had do, the word was on everyone’s lips: Dragon.
+10 Life Force
The current situation was less clear but still somewhat uandable. Its wielder and his friends were trying to escape before they became one more mouthful for the dragon, and while Ren was trying to py the hero, he was revealing his true self to his friends; he’d bee a murdering Psychopath.
That wasn’t too much of a problem just now, though. He was in good pany. The two groups faced off in a smoke filled stable full of skittish horses that were slowly filling with smoke while the sounds of screams drifted in from somewhere outside.
+7 Life Force
The men that had been in the process of saddling up the horses iion were an unsavory sort, and the bde would have no trouble accepting any of them as wielder or a victim. It was the tallest of that ugly group that strode forward, drawing a curved dagger and brandishing it along with a yello-toothed smile.
“You know,” he said, “That’s a nice sword you got. I think it would go good with my new horse.”
+11 Life Force
Those words were the only warning that a that more violence was about to happen. Ren had kept the man he’d impaled on his sword held up like a human shield, so he wasn’t in the best position when his buddy with the awful smile, shoved the dying man to the side, nearly disarming Ren in an effort to drive his dagger through the boy’s nebsp;
+9 Life Force
If Ren had been wielding a normal sword, that would have worked, and he would be lying dead on the marewn floor while these predators turned on his friends. The Ebon Bde was not a normal bde, though, and as Ren tur, it sliced through its first victim’s side befouging deep into the sed attacker with the springloaded force of its release from the previous attacker’s now disemboweled body.
+6 Life Force+8 Life Force
That wasn’t enough to stop the man with the dagger from slig Ren’s throat wide open. They both should have died at that moment, but as the thug’s wide smile faded and he slumped to the ground, Ren’s wound healed smoothly thanks to the amount of Life Force he’d already drained from the first two men, and in moments he was fine.
“Anyone else?” he demanded loudly, from a newly healed set of vocal cords, ag like he hadn’t almost died.
All three of the remainiook that moment to flee for their lives from the stables, and so Ren turo his friends and said, “All right, let's…”
His words faded when he saw the look of terror on their faces.
“What?” Ren demanded in frustration. “I did what o be done, alright?”
For a moment, no one respohen, just when the sword was sure that they might start running from him too, Elliah limped forward and said, “We talk about it ter. Let’s get out of here while we still .”
That was enough to settle things, and the three of them started leading their two skittish mounts from the stables while a dragon roared somewhere in the background. It was a terrible sound but also a familiar one, and the sword struggled to remember where it might have heard the distinctive roar. Something about the rumbling scratch of nature’s ultimate predator stirred something primitive in the darkness of its mind.
Before it could find answers, though, they were outside, and riding. As soon as they hit the main street, both horses were in a full gallop, charging toward safety. That was when the sword finally glimpsed the true measure of the devastation.
Holy… by all the divines, Ren thought as panic shot through him. He hadn’t shown any fear in the previous fight, not even when he’d been stabbed in the neck, but now he was obviously taken aback by the devastation he could see.
Tollin’s Cross was not a big town, but already half of it had been leveled, the rest of it was on fire, and there were more than a dozen nearby bodies scattered amongst the rubble. As they appeared, a giant 30-foot-tall dragon rose up out of one of the nearby buildings with a few rge timbers in its maw. It devoured them before it turoward the moving horses. Then it screeched and bellowed forth a gout of fme that almost torched its wielder from almost a hundred yards away.
For a moment, the sword thought that the group had gotten away , which was unfortunate because it wanted, more than anything, to see the monster up close, and now even that was being deo it. At least, that was the case until the thing stretched its wings and took flight, beating them hard as it took to the sky to chase down the meal that was trying to get away.
Both riders spurred their mounts onward with a hard kick to their ribs, but there was no sario where they could possibly outrun this beast on horsebabsp;
“We should split up!” Elliah called over the wind from the other horse where he held tightly onto his sister’s back. “That way, at least one horse will—”
“I’m not leaving her,” Ren shouted back, following the horse in front of him even as they advanced on both of them.
The sword was torn. Part of it wahe dragon to unleash another wave of fire and burn all of these simpering brats alive. The other part of it uood that it would be without a wielder then, and amidst all the age, no one might find it for some time.
It was a terrible choice, but then, the bde did not have to make it. Instead, all it could do was watch as the terrible bulk of the dragon closed on the desperate riders.
When it dived at them, there was no fire. Instead, it khe horses down with its bulk, sending all three riders flying in different dires as it nded in front of them. Then, it seized the sed horse in its jaws, sending out a spray of blood and screams in all dires.
“Vara!” Ren yelled, pushing himself to his feet even as he drained most of the rest of the sword’s life energy in the process of healing himself. The bde was down to 9/500 as he rose up and ran toward the girl.
When he reached her bloody form on the ground not far from him, the bde couldn’t see where the other boy, Elliah, had gone. Not that it mattered. He could have been devoured with the horse for all it cared.
What it did care about, though, was that its wielder did the dumbest thing it could imagine. Ren pulled out his sword and pressed it into the girl's hand. This instantly reduced the bde to zero Life Force without even healing her pletely. It was enough to make her eyes flutter open, though, which was why the sword finally chose to reveal its presenbsp;
-9 Life Force
“Wha-at… what happened…” she looked down at her blood-stained dress. “Where’s—”
He could have healed your brother like this at any moment, the bde whispered to her.
It had thought about telling her about Marden’s fate, but betrayal was more plex. It would take time for the on to expin, and it had no idea if those tangled emotions would be clear to her.
She uood its meaning of this message at least, because Vara’s eyes wide the realization. “You… why didn’t you do this for Elliah?” she asked. Gripping the sword tighter. “Why didn’t you—”
“I just wao be with you,” he said, in a moment of wounded hoy that pletely ighe giaile threshing around and ripping flesh to pieces only a doze behind him. “I thought—”
He never fihat sentehe bde felt a dozen thoughts aions gh her at that moment, but more than any other, the ohat stood out was revulsion.
She could never love someohat had almost let her brother die just to save his secret. The selfishness disgusted her.
That level of disgust was fertile ground for the words of betrayal that echoed through the dazed mind of the wounded woman. Before she even knew what had happened, she was already thrusting the sharp tip of the bde through the chest of its former wielder, and the look of sho the boy’s face was almost as delicious as the Life Force it started to drink in once more.
“Vara… I… why…” Ren asked.
+5 Life Force
Sadly, as quickly as the blood left the boy, the Life Force that the bde drained fled from it and into its current wielder, healierrible wounds in moments. As soon as Ren spoke, and she finally registered what she’d done, she released the on, horrified that she’d hurt anyone, even him.
+10 Life Force+8 Life Force
There was a scream then from Elliah, and Vara stood and ran towards it, regardless of the danger, while Ren pulled the bde from his stomach with blood-slick fingers and tried to uand what had just happened.
You ’t save her if you die, the bde whispered in his ear. Sughter the dragon, and she’ll see you for the hero you always were…
The bde thought it could have done a better job with that message, but all of this was happening so quickly, and the st thing it had pnned on was a dragon attabsp;
It worked, though, and the boy gripped the wire wound hilt tighter before f himself to his feet for the sed time in as many minutes before staggering toward his oppo. Then, ohe bde was empty of power, and his wounds were partially healed by the lifeforce that the bde had just drained from him, he charged the beast.
In the distaollin’s Cross was still burning, but that didn’t matter. It only served to illumihe outline of the terrible dragon. That awful red light gleamed dully off the monster’s mottled scales which were red b on bck. The two dead horses didn’t matter either, aher did the fact that everyone else might already be dead. There was only one way out of this private hell, and it was with violenbsp;
At this moment, the bde and its wielder only cared about ohing, and that was murdering the giaile right in front of them. The boy wao save his girl and find his happily ever after, and the sword wao see the sm beast dead at its feet, even if it didn’t know why, but it wa more than it had ever wanted anything before now.
her of their motivations mattered. What mattered was that they wahe same thing for the first time, and that made something clito pce, causing the sword to glow with a dull red aura as its runes lit up for the first time that it could recall.
Synization Achieved, +100% damage, +100% dodge for one minute.
The words were as ued as the sensations, but the sword would wonder about those ter. Right now, it was too focused on the death of the mohey faced to care about anything else.
The wielder might be battered and bruised, but that roblem that was easily remedied with a good hard sword stroke, and if the boy had nothing else, right now, he had plenty e just waiting to be vented.
Unfortunately, despite the fact that his bde was glowing with are might that her of them uood, its wielder went and did the dumbest thing he could do, again, which was being a pattern for the young man.
It charged the t dragon, and swung with all his might against the giant monster’s body, the first blow did almost nothing. Ren thoughtlessly brought the on down in an overhand chop, and it deflected almost pletely off its red-brown, rust colored scales.
In all likelihood they weren’t just rust colored. They were likely iron, or something like it covered in rust. It certainly felt like it the way that the attack did less than nothing to it.
Not only did the swet no life force, but all that Ren got for his trouble was to alert the dragon of his prese roared, and whirled around, even as its wielder was trying to strike a sed time. This time it was a side chop that mao work itself between two rows of mottled scales, leaving a gash that oozed bck, boiling blood that looked more like tar than anything else.
+7 Life Force
The dragon shed out at Ren with its near cw, striking a gng blow that sent him tumbling. Still, somehow the boy mao keep a hold onto the bde, and rose to his feat before the gia breathed the first gout of fme. That one he ducked, running back toward the giant creature with his head dowing only lightly singed for his efforts.
Go between the scales, not through them, the bde whispered in its wielder’s ear, as it closed with the dragon and leaped onto its back. This time it wasn’t a ssh, or a chop, but a thrust, that finally strue. The dragon roared in pain as Ren shoved three feet of steel ihe body of the burniile, ae the Life Force that the Ebon Bde was abs, it suddenly felt the unfortable heat as the internal fe-like temperatures of this thied it to hundreds of degrees within seds.
+9 Life Force
Even that didn’t hurt the bde, though. It wasn’t capable of pain, us wielder, and as soon as the pommel heated to red hot, Ren whipped his hand a way in surprise.
+6 Life Force
That would be the st mistake of the boy’s short life. This time when it buffeted him with its wings, he had nothing to hold onto, and when he nded in the dust and tried to rise, the dragon’s long whip-like tail shed out and folding him and half and almost certainly breaking his spine as he crumpled to the ground.
+11 Life Force
Normally he would have healed immediately, but this time he was without the sword, which was still just where he’d left it embedded in the beast. The sword couldn’t help him, but even if it could have, it wouldn’t.
+5 Life Force
It watched the strange syization effect dissipate, as it eyed what was soon to be its former wielder with distaste. He wouldn’t have to suffer, long, it decided as it watched the dragon rear up and prepare to breathe fire again.
+9 Life Force
This time its gouts of liquid fire found their mark and Ren lit up like a torch. He didn’t even have time to scream.
+6 Life Force+10 Life Force
None of that surprised the sword as stayed wedged deep ihe dragon, almost all the way to its hilt. It wasn’t sorry to see such a pathetic wielder go, and holy, it too ied in watg the number of its Life Force reserves go ever higher to even he boys death.
+5 Life Force
What did surprise it was that rather that eating the boy, oing back to feast more oown, it struggled briefly to remove the sword with its mouth. Then, when it failed, it took to the sky and began flyi.
It was almost certainly flying back toward its ir, which robably somewhere in the mountains it had glimpsed when it had first awoken. The Ebon bde had no idea where those might be, or what they were called. It wouldn’t have been able to see them even if it was daylight. Instead it was simply along for the ride.
+10 Life Force+6 Life Force+9 Life Force
Did that harm its ces of being found and wielded again? Probably. It wasn’t as if it had any trol over that, though, all it could do was watch its Life Force steadily increase, and decided what it was going to spend those point on before the dragon found some pce to dislodge it.
+11 Life Force+8 Life Force
