The elevator door opened and I jumped out, my weapon ready to strike or defend me, whichever was needed. I expected some kind of sneak attack or ambush right out of the door, but there was nothing there. The large open space was just as I remembered it. From one end of the floor to the other, there was nothing but black carpeting, and the giant glass windows. Apart from the support beams that held the roof up, the room appeared deserted.

He could be hiding behind one of the pillars, I thought. Or he could have run away.

He has to be here, Tomas’s voice replied. Our spies saw him retreat to this floor, and he hasn’t been spotted leaving.

Right then. I took a tentative step forward into the space, looking all around me for the old man I’d come to kill. He wasn’t at the end of the room behind his desk, which had also been wiped clean of the mountain of papers I’d noticed at the last visit. Good to see that, despite his many failings, he finally got his organization under control. I snorted at the thought and began to circle around the elevator shaft.

At first, I made a quick movement, popping around the corner and swinging my scythe through the air, in case he was there. But as it came into view, I realized that it was quite empty. Strange. I cut through the space again, just to be sure. Weird. Then surely, he had to be hiding behind one of the pillars. Just as I started moving towards one, something smacked me in the side of the face, sending me flying sideways.

“What the-” I burst out, popping back to my feet and rubbing the side of my face.

Again, something hit me without warning, this time in my ribs. As I was sent flying once more, I felt a sharp pain where it had hit me, and I was sure that my ribs were cracked, possibly broken. My instincts catching up to the moment, my defensive shroud came to life just as the invisible force hit me again. I felt the impact, but it stopped several inches short of my chest. I immediately counter-attacked with my scythe, but couldn’t feel anything in the air.

“Who’s there?” I shouted stupidly. “Show yourself!”

“I don’t think I will,” a voice replied. “You came into my space, killed my underlings, and dare to attack me?”

“Mr. Jensen,” I snarled. “Of course you’d have some dirty trick up your sleeve.”

“Child,” the voice sneered back at me. It seemed to come from all directions. “I should teach you never to underestimate one who fought and clawed for the title of Grand Reaper.”

Another impact slammed into me, pushing me a few inches, but it was stopped by my aura. I swung again, but it didn’t do me any good. Letting out a frustrated yell, I threw my scythe in a wide circle around me right after the next impact, but still, it hit nothing. I caught it as it returned to me, more than a little concerned.

He’s either invisible or excels at long-range combat.

No shit Tomas. What’s the difference?

If he’s invisible, you can flood the space with aura. It will reveal him.

Something smacked me in the back of my knees, and I nearly fell down. I crouched low, concentrating for a second, and let my aura flood out away from me in waves. It surged out like a small lake, quickly filling the room. Almost at once, I caught a sense of the tall figure at the other end of the room. He threw up a defensive screen of his own as my aura surged towards him, but he couldn’t hide from me anymore.

The problem was that my aura also detected exactly thirteen other signs of aura in the room. All around me, etched onto the pillars, were runes that I could see clearly now. The runes were in an intricate circle patter, and practically glowing with power. As I watched, one of them glowed brighter, and a bolt of aura shot from the center, flying straight at me. I shredded it to pieces with my scythe, but another fired from behind and slammed into my back.

“So you can tell where I am now,” Rictus said, popping into sight. “But can you protect yourself from all angles?”

I lifted my scythe and pointed it at him. “You’re an Empath, right? You tell me what I think.”

He laughed at me, a cold high sound. “I’m no Empath. That’s just what I’ve told the others so that they would think I’m a kind old man who gives a shit about them.”

Somehow, I didn’t doubt that. So he’s a Runist and an Emitter, I thought to myself. But keeping all this up has to cost him a ton of aura. So if I last long enough, then I win.

Not necessarily, Tomas corrected me. Humans can have up to three specialties. If he’s also a Generator, then this could be a very bad situation.

A Generator. Just like Ivan, I remembered. Generators were able to create massive amounts of aura within their bodies. Quite apart from having a larger amount available to them naturally, they could also recover much faster than others, even regain some of their aura in the middle of battle.

Well, there was only one way to test it. I threw my scythe at him with as much strength as I could muster, then rolled out of the way as two of the runes fired at me. My scythe stopped within a foot of him and fell to the ground before I pulled it back. I threw again and again, dodging the runes that fired at me instead of trying to block or destroy them. I danced around, all while throwing my scythe as soon as I caught it, testing his defenses. After about ten throws, I couldn’t see any visible change to his aura’s density.

I caught the scythe once more and gave myself a moment to survey the space. The runes were pretty evenly spread out around the room. I could probably attack each of them one at a time, but then I’d risk leaving myself open to attack from the other twelve. Rictus himself would also be able to fire on me. Unlike him, I definitely wasn’t a Generator, so just trying to take the brunt of those attacks was a bad idea.

The way I saw it, I had two options. I could use Granis’s energy to bolster my defense, allowing me to endure all the attacks long enough to destroy the runes. Or I could focus on Rictus himself, focusing all my strength into attacking and try to finish him before the runes did too much damage. Either way, I could finish this, but I was guaranteed to take quite a beating.