Reaction is Sense. Obvious, as senses: sight, hearing, smell. But less obvious as well, like the softness of footsteps and the wind on your skin. The prickle during the night, the chill at a ball. Agility is prized as Grace, but I tell you, it is only the performative half. It is through our Sense that we behold Grace, study, understand and appreciate it. You’ll not find such immediate benefits to polishing your Reaction as you would with the others. But you’ll find every other aspect easier to push if you can see, hear and feel what it means to push them. The gains, means and purposes of Reaction are subtle and varied. I pity fools who neglect it. They strangle their own potential and all but ask for their lives to end suddenly and in surprise.

Sand “Lord” Iluvin the Ghost’s “Ramblings at Court”. A collections of short stories from a rogue famous for never being caught and executing some truly spectacular ambushes and reversals on both the field of battle and in courtly games.

***

The teeth of a Bones weren’t human. He wasn’t sure what they were, but they were sharp. Frank could tell, because the one that went for him tried to bite his nose. But while speed and momentum had carried it close, Frank had been ready, if not sure where the threat was. He’d gotten his staff up to block, and while the scratches along his arms weren’t pleasant, the furs had taken most of them. It was still only Strength one.

The moment the momentum from its sudden charge ran out, Frank pushed back suddenly, throwing it backwards with the middle of the staff lodged against its spine in its ribs. It was light, too light for a body, but then, it was only bone. His crashed on its back in time for a glance around to spot Deli sweeping her axe around her, held close, the motion sweeping both of the Bones that went after her off their feet, while guarding her face with the blade.

Their attempts to scratch her through her better armoured furs did nothing, but they jumped the sweep. Frank was just starting to step forward when he ducked. He’d recognised the stance. They’d practiced it the same morning.

“Agility is grace.”

Without a single wasted motion, Deli used the first swing to wind up for the second, and suddenly her blade cut across before her, horizontally at waist height. By the time it reached Frank on her left, it was already coming up, rolling around for an executioners blow.

It caught the closer of her targets in the side and threw it back, breaking multiple ribs and scattering them on the floor. The second one ducked under it and sprang up at her right in time to meet her rising boot, as Deli effortlessly balanced swing and motion.

Which was about all the time Frank could spare worrying about her before his Bones came for him again. That was the trouble with them. Strength one, Agility three, to his two.

This time as it threw itself at him, he jabbed with his staff as if it was a spear taking a charge. He missed the spine but claimed several ribs. All it cost him were two hands scraping across his lowered head. While the cap took some of it, Frank felt lines of pain on his cheeks.

It didn’t matter. This wasn’t his first fight and he didn’t let it distract him. With his staff already through the Bones broken ribs he stepped into the skeletal thing, bashing it back with a shoulder and feeling its jaw clamp down on his shoulder for a moment before it was yanked off by the rest of it being pushed back.

This time however, he knew better than to let it out of his reach. Using the staff spine contact as a pivot, he planted his feet and heaved the Bones sideways and at his feet.

“AAARRRGGH!” Came from his right, along a thump, as the axe head came down like the blade of a guillotine, cleaving through arm, shoulder, waist and leg. With a spark like some electric appliance shorting out, the Bones flickered bright blue, and then collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut. Then she turned to the other Bones, which had been thrown across the room, as it charged her again.

Frank saw it all in passing as his opponent tried to claw at his hands and staff, while he swung him around and down, between the two of them. His legs were under attack by the thing’s clawed feet as well, but so far it was mostly wild flailing, not targeted attacks. And for that, the Light armour did good work, even if he didn’t have the training to know how to use it to best intercept and take attacks on it.

It tried to skitter away, but Frank stepped up, pinning its pelvis beneath his foot, and jabbing his staff into the bottom of the skull. He put his whole body into it, and the lower jaw broke of, flying somewhere as the skull cracked, and separated from the spine.

This didn’t stop the bones from trying to scratch his feet, or the staff. But planting his staff into the already damaged ribcage, and twisting until it shattered completely, did the job; his own Bones flashing and going inert.

When he turned back to Deli, he saw her dance around her planted weapon, dodging the last Bones. It switched targets in an instant and came for him. Again, he blocked with an upraised staff.

“They always try to bite, as it’s their strongest attack.” The advice given by other fighters rang in his head.

Frank only held it for a moment. There was a loud whoop as the axestaff came around and cut both its legs off. Frank flinched from it, as it came close enough to almost shave hairs from his furs. Of course, that didn’t end the Bones. It had no Aura of Life, no Health, or its undead counterpart that Skeletons supposedly enjoyed, so it took a bit more doing as it tried to crawl up to his face to end it.

As in Deli reached out, her hand taking hold of the back of its spine, and threw it to the ground, before ruining what was left of its ribcage in another swing of her axestaff.

Frank’s heart was beating quite a drumbeat, when the battle stopped.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw something dull flying and warned: “Scatter!” before doing so himself. Or trying to. For while he only saw Deli’s axeblade get caught by the sudden explosion of yellow smoke, as she pulled it after her, he wasn’t quite fast enough. What he had managed, was to see it fast enough to hold his breath. If that would help was another matter.

Of whatever Demon threw it, there was no sign, not even retreating footsteps.

***

It took a while for the second cloud to subside. It left the bones covered in an oily sheen that Frank didn’t like. At least it didn’t stink like the first. Still, they collected them as instructed into a sack, one that Frank carried. Deli only had her weapon and armour on her. While she could carry a lot more, more than Frank, it would also wear her down.

Fixing up the breach was harder. They weren’t builders or carpenters, and just piling on junk would not do anything. Frank wasn’t sure how the Bones had gotten up, as the bars seemed too thick for a ribcage to squeeze through. They tried the house upstairs. It was some kind of abandoned and emptied out shop. While it didn’t have much, they did manage to rip some planks out of the ancient, dusty shelves, and wedge them against the doorway, blocking it. Then they piled on trash, to weight them down.

With how weak Bones were, they shouldn’t be able to scratch through the planks, and without it, they couldn’t get at the junk, which was too heavy for them to move from inside.

It wasn’t perfect, but it was functional for now. They’d report it when they got back into the barricaded and safe, well, safer, corridors.

Deli wiped sweat off her forehead, and after a short rest for her to recover a bit, they moved on.

Health = 25/42

Mana = 7

Frank had lost a single point of health. She’d lost none.

***

Their second run in was with a distant Wailing Woman. Normally, patrols avoided them. But as a Mageling with a staff carved from the Eternal Tree, he’d accepted the charge of trying to deal with one, if they got the chance. Trying to keep quiet, they went towards the wailing, Deli served by her much higher Agility, and Frank compensating as much as he could with his Smooth.

The wailing cut off and returned, the mark of one that was patrolling or wandering, ending when she dove into a wall, and sounding again when she came out of one. It was a much more dangerous opponent, but one worth a bounty. If they could deal with her. They found her in a large hall, covered in mushrooms.

Checking his map, if he wasn’t completely lost, Frank thought they were somewhere closer to the centre of town, in one of the warehouses around the back of the shops on the main street.

The Wailing Woman was a pale apparition, translucent and numbing to look at, her wail a constant pressure on his ears, like being underwater. She was trailing a long dress that floated behind her as if underwater, her-

Deli stumbled in place, and he pulled her back out of the room, taking some distance.

“What was that?” Frank asked, worried.

She was shaking her head like a wet dog, or a punch drink fighter. Slurring, she told him. “Don’t ‘now. Floor spun.”

Each of the wails could have different effects that struck at different Abilities. Just their luck to find one that hit Body. Though it made him wonder how his measly Body two was standing up to it so much better.

Whatever the case, he wasn’t leaving her. Deli was, at least, rapidly coming back to herself.

“Come on, let’s move on.” he told her.

“What? No!” She sounded offended. “I can take care of myself Frank, for the few breaths it will take you to take a swing at her.”

“Maybe. But every breath counts in a fight, and it’s not like I can linger to check the room over first with you out here. It’s a large room, who knows what could be hiding in it. We report it and move on.”

Frank was careful not to use his command voice, or it would shut down all input from her. And out on patrol, two heads were definitely better than one. Maybe she could see an angle or a threat he was missing.

“I don’t like leaving an enemy to our back.” She finally admitted.

“I don’t like knowing how many we might be leaving. But I’m not about to stick my neck out alone to find out. You might be able to outrun Bones, but I can’t.”

Deli grimaced, but nodded. Frank marked the room in his notes, and they moved on with their patrol.

***

They hit two more pockets of Bones, one a solo that was in hiding, waiting for them to pass, and another two that further scratched up their armour and made new tears in Frank’s outer shirt, but failed to harm him.

Throughout it all, they were stalked by the damn smoke cloud Demon, who kept trying to set traps. From doorways, to mines, to just throwing it at them as they were entering a room. From what Frank could glimpse of the projectiles as they flew, it had made bottles out of thin ice, and filled them with the smoke.

Frank was getting sick and tired of that. Especially once it started laughing at them, when Deli cursed the Demon out for a coward. For all of that, with their lights they didn’t inhale any, and the smoke did no apparent harm from just walking through it. Something Frank got a lot of experience doing.

Frank had given Deli a disbelieving look for trying to insult it, of course no Demon would fall for that.

She’d shrugged, as if to say: ”Well I had to at least try.”

***

They came back to the line after a half-patrol, because Deli was flagging. While she rested for two bells, Frank experimented with his excess mana. Without blanks, he couldn’t carve, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t practice on targets made from snow. He made some interesting discoveries. With Channel two, he could not only reach longer by focusing the flames, he could also shape them to some extent. More, he had a feeling he could now push it. Use more than one mote of mana at a time.

But there was something dangerous about that, his Instincts told him, so he set it aside for practicing when it was safe.

***

The second half of their patrol was better. Instead of sweeping towards the centre, they went along the edge, to the tower at the corner of the walls, and back along another parallel path.

The smoke Demon didn’t bother them at least, but Frank had to face another thing he’d never have to worry about back home: winter snakes.

While a lot of them hibernated, from what he understood, it turns out that human tunnels were a popular destination for that. Their previous patrol had at least warned them to watch their step.

Frank couldn’t help but long for some chalk, so he could mark where it was safe to step, and where not. He’d even asked about it.

They laughed at him. “It is good practice for staying alert and watching the floor. Besides, you don’t want to rely on some chalk. What if some of them move, and you are careless because you through you knew where they would be, huh?”

That wasn’t the point, but he knew it was pointless to argue. So they patrolled. Knowing there were snakes around, but not being able to find them, see them, wasn’t the most calming walk Frank had ever taken. But while they had to deal with multiple Snow Shades that had invaded the tunnels from a nearby breach, Bones didn’t trouble them.

Frank was just waiting for the other shoe to drop. He heard and saw nothing following, stalking them. That made him all the more certain something was.

***

It came to a head as they reached the half-way point of the patrol.

From the bottom, the tower was one giant open room, with walkways carved into the stone along the edges, and wooden flooring sticking out of it alongside beams holding up the walkways. It looked less like a tower, and more like a chimney with a distant open top.

They’d been warned about that. It was still surprising to see the sky suddenly. The middle of the tower basement was piled high with snow. It also clumped and lingered along the edges as the spiral climbed. Frank kept a wary eye above them, but apart from a few Snow Shades willing to try their luck by falling on their heads there was nothing.

He should have watched the floor. Focused on the mound of snow and the walkways above, he missed the snakes beneath their feet until some Demon high above screeched like a demented child. The sound was acid in his ears, and more importantly, followed by a flying form flickering across the middle open to the sky. It looked less like a demon, and more like a miniature red dragon as it flashed by, and spat fire down on them.

While Deli got out of the way, Frank’s shoes were singed. That was nothing to the sudden hiss that came from around them as dozens of snakes boiled out of the rocky floor all around them. Even Deli couldn’t dance through so many of them, and they were pissed.

Reacting quickly, Frank pulled back towards the edge of the tower, calling more fire forth and burning the ground. Deli danced the other way, moving out towards the snow the snakes were avoiding. The snakes scattered under the renewed fire assault, clearing a line between them, fleeing for safer ground.

Four Bones burst out of the snow behind Deli, accompanied by a new kind of dead. It was pale, blue, and looked like it was made of ice, its arms like spears, the footsteps heavy. It did not burst out of it, so much as shake off the snow as it stepped forward. Deli tried to sweep them away but four to one and caught mid step jumping away, they ran her over, all five of them falling in a sprawl of angry Bones and furs while the pale ice thing advanced.

Frank ran to her while one of the Bones leapt of the pile and came to intercept him. Beyond the point of saving mana, he forced more into his hands, his heart in his throat. Even as a part of him knew she had Health, watching her go down and be buried in dead was viscerally terrifying.

He didn’t have time to manage the staff, instead guided by an instinct he didn’t have a month ago to point it mid-run towards the Bones coming at him. A red hot line flashed between them fueled by his worries and anger, linking the tip of his staff and the chest of the Bones. For a moment, the staff was gloving a mix of green and red. Then it was like someone set of a grenade in the thing’s chest and it shattered, blown back in pieces.

For just a moment, the three Bones attacking Deli turned, to see what had happened.

Deli took that chance to heave. Even while ambushed, she’d gotten her axestaff up between her and the threat, and now threw them to the side in a heap. Frank didn’t miss the chance. As Deli rolled away from them and to her feet he thrust out his staff before him, willing them to burn. The normally wide breath of fire came out as a focused line, and for once, the Bones speed worked against them. All three tried to scramble away, in different directions, and got tangled up in each other.

It was only a moment’s delay but a moment was all it took.

The flames rolled over them and– a hot body hit the back of Frank’s neck and shoulders, as sharp claws buried themselves at his neck, stopped only by him dropping his head and raising his shoulders in time to deny them access to his carotid. Burning lines of pain went down his ears and side of the head, and he didn’t hesitate or freeze up. The Academy had trained him better than that given worse surprises. He went with the motion the sudden weight landing on him pushed, tucking into a forward roll.

His back landed on something the size of a small pig, or a large chicken, or faun, and he felt the bones of the arms around his neck turn and twist in distress. The pained scream right in his ear was more telling.

“Frank!”

“Dealing!”

He had no idea what the ice thing was, but it looked big, at least two and a half meters, and pondering. No doubt, her better Strength and long axe would serve her well there. He had a rat to kill. As he came up to his feet, the thing let go and tried to jump away. Frank dropped his staff and grabbed its clawed feet just as it pushed on his shoulders. It almost lifted him off his feet with the beat of its large wings, but he hung on.

And what came up, must come down.

One the way down, he heard Deli shout: “Hah!” while he swung the red damn flying rat to the floor by his feet. It hit the floor head first. Frank paused for an instant, as it wiggled and squirmed in his hands. Then he turned to the side and bashed it against the wall like a living bat he was trying to break. Multiple times. It tried to spit flames again, but they went all over the room, not on him. By the seventh blow, he felt something crack in the foot he was holding and the thing panic.

It buffeted him with its wings again, except this time they acquired a pale sheen, in white and green. Not willing to risk it with an unknown, he let go, throwing it into the wall. The wall cracked, as invisible blades of wind carved into it anywhere the wings touched. It came up from the wreckage covered in scratches, and beyond angry, it’s square face topped with small horns at each of the four corner of it. It’s face was mostly human, but as red as a fire engine, with beady eyes, no eyebrows, and narrow mouth filled with needle teeth. In the time it took to get back to its feet, Frank grabbed his staff.

He wasn’t about to use fire against a fire Demon, but nothing stopped him from swinging like a mad man and bashing its skull in. With a loud crack, the reinforced tip of his staff connected with the cheek of the Demon, who was coughing, coming out of the dust and half blinded by it.

Staff part way into its head, it was still alive, aware, at least enough to look at him in shock.

Like it was made of it, sparks of fire erupted from its chest. In a small burst of fire and something more, some terrible whispering scream from far away, the fire swallowed it whole, and it disappeared.

Frank turned back to Deli, his face hurting like hell, to see her land another blow to the knee of the moving ice sculpture. She was using the spike at the back, and the crack on it widened.

Frank ran to go help.

And while that thing was tough and took a while to put down, it was too lumbering, slow, to pin them against the walls with the rest already dealt with.

When it finally broke, Deli was heaving, and Frank was sweaty as well.

“What the hell was that?” Was the first question he had.

“Ice Shade.” She panted. “They’re supposed to. Stay up in the mountains. In the glaciers. That birth them.”

“Well this one didn’t.” Frank complained, but not to her. To the world maybe.

She shrugged. “Demons?”

Frank scoffed. “It can’t always be Demons.”

She didn’t reply, as another Snow Shade plopped to the floor, a few meters behind them.

Frank shook his head. “Let me just collect the bones, and be out of here. I don’t want another fight like that.”

“Agreed.” She said, leaning on the wall near the exit, while he policed the remains. The Bones caught in the line of fire were too hot to handle. He had to throw snow on them to cool them off first.

“We really need to work on our coordination.”

She didn’t argue with that. It was obvious. They were not used to fighting with one another.

But while Frank worried about another ambush due to the resumed quiet all the way back, nothing else attacked them. Nothing but Snow Shades, and they didn’t count.