Redmane and Pietr rejoined each other once they had set everything into motion.

  He hadn’t intended it, but this would be a splendid opportunity to observe the Imbued of other worlds in action.

  Astral Stalker

  [Imbued] marked as Prey

  Gnosis: 1501

  For a vantage point he chose the limb of a nearby tree, high enough to be out of their peripheral vision, and since there were mere moments before the battle was joined, he examined their System tags.

  —

  Arnth Nere

  Class: Warrior

  Archetype: Fencer

  Faction: Cohors Invictus

  Level: 149

  —

  This one looked like he was the leader of the group, or at least he carried himself that way. He was a tall fellow with dark hair and pale eyes, and wore a long blue jacket trimmed with silver. In his hand he held a finely made thrusting sword. At the moment he leapt to his feet, Redmane thought he saw fear in the man’s expression. But the look went away when his weapon came out.

  —

  Livia Caelestis

  Class: Warrior

  Archetype: Winged Archer

  Faction: Cohors Invictus

  Level: 145

  —

  A short, pale girl with light hair and keen blue eyes. She didn’t look like she was strong enough to string the massive recurve bow she was holding, let alone draw it. But she held it confidently nonetheless, with an arrow nocked and held low, her eyes fixed on the charging boars to the south.

  —

  Marcus Vesperian

  Class: Warrior

  Archetype: Thunderer

  Faction: Cohors Invictus

  Level: 147

  —

  This one was tall and brawny, with broad shoulders, a barrel chest and an anvil chin. He held a heavy hammer in each hand, their heads roughly the size of his own. Redmane watched the bronze tint of his skin become something like actual bronze, a Skill which hardened his flesh into armor.

  —

  Cale Ramtha

  Class: Magister

  Archetype: Vitalis Conduit

  Faction: Cohors Invictus

  Level: 144

  —

  The other three formed a protective triangle around this one. He was tall and willowy, with long hair nearly as white as his skin. Though he was no elder. This one may have been the youngest of the set, in fact. He held a staff and closed his eyes, muttering the opening syllables of an incantation which made the whole Coterie take on a faint white glow.

  They would be a match for King Edd or Vargath, to be certain.

  Had they hunted them one at a time, slaying their minions while making their way toward the lair of each.

  Now everything came at them at once.

  From the north, many of the demi-human warriors had grown impatient with their leader’s casual pace and broke out into a full charge, inspiring the rest to follow suit. King Edd, meanwhile, continued to saunter toward them with his blade rested on one shoulder and a bloodthirsty grin on his face.

  From the south, the boars had only picked up speed. They were close now, the thunder of their hoofbeats shaking the earth as they charged in a V formation behind Vargath, who ran at full speed with his head held low, those tusks mighty enough to knock the whole Coterie into the sky if they didn’t move.

  The two groups would hit the Coterie simultaneously.

  The first belligerent to contact the Imbued was an especially eager demi-human with longer legs than his comrades. He let out a battle shriek and leaped high into the air, his yellow eyes wild with exhilaration, his club held high for an overhead strike.

  With a flick, Arnth Nere casually sliced him in half from his groin to the top of his head, and the two pieces sailed past the fencer to land behind him on his left and right.

  And then the demi-humans truly charged.

  Hearts pounding and muscles straining, they surged forward, fueled by a burning anger at the Imbued’s audacity. Their eyes were wide and frenzied, aglow with rage, and sweat glistened on their brows. The air was thick with the sound of their grunts and the clatter of weapons, a cacophony of metal and fury as they bore down upon the Coterie.

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  Livia Caelestis leapt straight up into the air, and Redmane suddenly understood why her Archetype was called ‘Winged Archer.’ For she sprouted a pair of glowing blue wings made of pure Gnosis. But they didn’t behave like the wings of a flying creature. They remained static, as if they were a mere decoration. She moved through the air like a wasp, hovering and shifting about laterally and diagonally, firing arrows from her quiver which glowed blue and struck the demi-human clan like bolts fired from a ballista.

  She turned and loosed a spike of blue into the neck of Vargath, but the boar was not deterred.

  They would all be trampled in one more heartbeat.

  Until Marcus Vesperian lifted his leg and stomped the ground, and Redmane had to grab hold of the trunk of his tree to avoid being flung from it.

  Decimus’s Earthshaker

  The tip of Marcus’s boot became the vertex of a triangle of shredded earth. A seismic wave that ripped through the ground faster than the boars charging in the opposite direction. The ground shattered and heaved, sending mud and grass and shards of rock flying in a triangular formation. It was like the breath of a dragon, if that breath were naught but pure force.

  All the boars, Vargath included, went flying.

  The earth bucked them and, massive as they were, they took to the air like leaves in a tempest. In an instant, the sound of panicked squeals joined the sound of weapons clashing on the other side of the battle. Marcus raised his twin hammers and they crackled with power as he brought them down on Vargath’s head with as much force as he could muster.

  Which was a lot. The blow struck Vargath, but it made a fresh crater on the ground beneath the point of impact as well.

  On the other side, Redmane watched King Edd’s lackeys make way for him, the crowd parting so he could saunter up to Arnth Nere, who greeted him with a bow and a flourish of his sword. The demi-human hefted his weapon, bowed as well, and at first it looked as if Edd’s followers were going to hang back and observe their duel. But that lasted roughly a second, before one leaped at Arnth’s back.

  Arnth stepped to the side, leaving an afterimage of himself in the wake of his evasion. Evidently this illusion was convincing enough to bait the next few demi-humans into attacking it, but the first weapon to touch it made it vanish.

  The fencer seemed undeterred by their tactics, but he wasn’t making much progress against his real opponent while fending off attacks from every direction at the same time.

  This was where Livia Caelestis came in.

  From above she rained glowing death on the clan of demi-humans and the family of boars both. A few demi-humans were armed with ranged weaponry of their own, slings and short bows mostly, and as they returned fire she immediately knew who to pick off next. And she didn’t stop with the demi-humans. Her covering fire swung toward the boars, preventing them from interceding in Marcus Vesperian’s battle with Vargath.

  Cale Ramtha, meanwhile, was the heart of the diagram, the calm center of the furiously turning wheel. His eyes remained closed, trusting fully in the capability of his comrades to keep him safe while he bolstered their strength and healed their wounds with support Skills, untouched by the weapons of demi-humans or the tusks of giant boars, Arnth protecting him from the north side, Marcus from the south, and Livia from above.

  Clearly, they had done this before.

  This was a good team. Well trained and battle tested, acting in perfect harmony.

  It was a shame they had come at the call of Jarel Craith. That they were here to aid in the conquest of his world.

  The thought made it easier for Redmane to put his finger on the scale.

  The Beast Liberated

  Gnosis: 1461

  Lacerations exploded all over Cale Ramtha’s body, spraying arcs of bright red blood all over the Coterie and their campsite. The Magister fell to his knees and doubled over, coughed out another spray of red which spattered the grass beneath him. He wasn’t dead, but he was close.

  More importantly, the group briefly lost its cohesion.

  Arnth Nere, in the midst of parrying a blow from King Edd, glanced back in alarm.

  Livia Caelestis looked down at Cale with panic and anger in her eyes.

  Marcus Vesperian, who had just struck off the tip of one of Vargath’s tusks, caught the other one full in the gut just as Cale’s protective Skill faltered. The impact threw Marcus into the air at speed. The tree he struck cracked in half when his bronze body hit, sending him staggering. There was a bleeding wound in his stomach — Vargath’s tusk had punctured his metallic skin.

  Now Cale had to make a snap decision. Heal his comrade or heal himself.

  The Magister chose Marcus, threw a healing Skill that caught the Warrior just as Vargath charged at him with tusks swinging. Marcus Vesperian’s wound glowed white, his body flushed with vitality, energizing him and clearing his mind just in time to meet the charging boar again.

  Redmane silently commended the Magister’s loyalty before finishing him.

  The Beast Liberated

  Ghosis: 1411

  There was another spray of red, and Cale Ramtha hit the grass face first. Motionless.

  With their pillar of support gone, Redmane suspected they wouldn’t last too much longer. They were brilliant fighters, but they counted on their Magister. Their strategy revolved around him. Now he would see how they adapted to his absence.

  Livia Caelestis was looking for him. But it seemed she couldn’t see the incorporeal, because more than once her determined gaze swept right past the place he’d chosen to observe them.

  She could not spare much time to search, however, because her living companions demanded most of her attention. The Winged Archer continued to run overwatch, harrying Arnth and Marcus’s attackers with deadly arrows from above. And while she did so undeterred, having already picked off all the demi-humans carrying ranged weapons, she couldn’t protect them from everything by herself.

  Arnth slipped to the side of an uppercut from King Edd’s heavy sword, but before he could spring back with a riposte, three demi-humans were already lunging at him with powerful but clumsy swings of their own. Again he had to sacrifice his offense, even though Livia was doing her utmost to keep them off of him. But there were just too many.

  Marcus took another critical hit from Vargath, sending him skidding back, his heels digging furrows into the earth. But the Warrior was far from defeated. His eyes burned with resolve. The boar came at him for another blow and this time Marcus was quicker — his hammers came out wide and then shot in from either side, smashing into Vargath’s skull from the left and right simultaneously.

  There was a deafening crack, and the Great Boar’s eyes rolled back in their sockets as he thudded to the ground, defeated.

  And then two more boars bowled Marcus over, trampling him under their hooves. His hammers went flying.

  Things became more chaotic. Where before Marcus kept the boars busy on one side and Arnth kept the demi-humans occupied on the other, it all mixed. Boars charged through the ranks of demi-humans, sending them spinning through the air screeching. Arnth had a new set of problems to worry about.

  Livia fired indiscriminately into the melee, now that her only restriction was not striking Arnth.

  Marcus lay on his back, arms and legs out wide. Breathing, but weakly.

  King Edd leapt onto the back of a boar charging past him, holding a tuft of its bristly fur in one hand and his heavy sword in the other, grinning as he slashed at Arnth Nere on his way by. The blow went high, easily ducked by the fencer, but the Imubed had more pressing concerns. He had to jump aside to avoid being trampled by another boar, and the demi-humans continued to fling themselves at him from every side.

  He sliced two in half mid-leap, wheeled around to locate King Edd, but he’d lost track of him.

  Redmane hadn’t. He watched as the demi-human leader crouched on the back of the charging boar with impressive balance. And then he sprang high into the air, bringing his blade back for a leaping overhead blow.

  Not for Arnth though.

  For Livia, who was looking the other way.

  PATREON