Sadea’s lightning didn’t dissipate after it hit Steelbreaker. Rather, it crackled up and down the length of the blade, as if it were contained by Raksha’s aegis.

“Unbelievable!” the sorceress cried. “You’re so stupid it’s unbelievable! You are a pea-brained, dung-eating moron! You are so stupid that your mother—“

Raksha tuned her out. He could afford no lapse in his concentration. Lan Feng had sheathed its sword once more and adopted its fast-draw stance.

“This is the Icewind Flash blade Form,” the revenant said. “Watch closely, child. Distant Moon and I will demonstrate it only once.”

Lan Feng’s silhouette blurred. Raksha raised his sword.

Then the revenant was standing behind him, blade drawn, cut finished. Raksha’s right glove peeled from his hand. The fabric of his collar split along its seams. His flesh was untouched.

That was the Icewind Flash blade Form.

A singular blindingly swift strike encapsulating the foe’s weapon arm and neck, numbing the former with a chilling aegis and then severing the latter.

Lan Feng walked away, sheathing its blade. Raksha turned to face him anew.

The revenant fell into a fast-draw stance once more. “Now, the real thing. Are you ready, child?”

His mind racing, Raksha brought Steelbreaker to bear. The Icewind Flash had been faster than sight and conclusively lethal. What would he meet it with?

The Raging Claw blade Form, favored by his Master? No. It was meant to slay multiple weaker foes at once. Here, against a single powerful adversary, it would prove ineffective.

The Starlight Arc blade Form or the Harmonic Palm he’d learned during his duel with Lin Kung, the former Wu Dang Sword Master? Those wouldn’t work either. The martial Forms of Wu Dang were defensive in nature and ponderously slow before the likes of the Icewind Flash.

The Nine Bleeding Petals dagger Form? The Tormentor’s Vine whip Form? He didn’t even have the right weapons.

“Focus, child,” Lan Feng said. “You must do nothing less in battle.”

Raksha sheathed his blade and mirrored Lan Feng’s fast-draw stance. “Thank you for demonstrating your blade Form, Elder. Please, I beg your criticism as I attempt it.”

“You would pit your Icewind Flash against mine? After seeing it once?”

“I couldn’t quite see it, actually.” Raksha shrugged. “But I think I’ve got the general idea.”

The revenant grinned. “You have chosen to join me in walking death, then.”

“No, Elder. I will release you from it.” Raksha brought the Conflagration to full burn once more, filling his being with its strength. His senses sharpened beyond the point of pain, and his limbs brimmed with power.

The Icewind Flash was a masterpiece of martial science, the epitome of speed and precision embodied in a single sword stroke. But it was also only a single sword stroke, traveling in one direction.

Lan Feng’s fingers fell on Distant Moon’s hilt. The revenant blurred out of sight.

Raksha opened his mouth and roared, blasting the full force of his aegis forth in his voice. He’d composed this technique during his battle with the chimera. The creature’s lion head had emitted roars loud and focused enough to buckle plate steel and shatter stone.

He couldn’t quite match that, but it was enough.

Lan Feng crashed head-on into Raksha’s wall of sound. Laced with the Conflagration’s might, Raksha’s roar blasted right through the revenant’s aegis and tore chunks of grey flesh from its limbs and torso.

Lan Feng’s graceful, gliding advance turned into a staggering stumble, but the revenant still had its hand on its sword. Raksha took a step forward, moving into range. He began the Iceborne Flash.

Both martial scientists drew and struck. Raksha’s advance brought him past Lan Feng.

The broken top half of Distant Moon’s blade spiraled into the air. A heartbeat passed. It fell, clattering onto the floor.

Lan Feng laughed as it turned to Raksha. The revenant’s torso was cut open, revealing the shriveled, rotten viscera within, minus a heart. The edges of the wound peeled away, turning into ash before Raksha’s eyes.

“Well done,” the revenant said. “Your Icewind Flash was competent. Somewhat unorthodox and far from perfect, but more than passable.”

“Thank you, Elder. I benefitted from your wisdom,” Raksha replied.

“And that roar. A masterful projection of your aegis through your voice. What do you call it?”

Raksha thought for a moment before answering. “The Lion’s Roar.”

“A fitting name. Ah, I see it, now. You are a prodigy of martial science.” Lan Feng sighed. “How blessed am I, with my second death at hand, to have encountered one? What peaks will you attain? I cannot even begin to imagine.”

The revenant fell to its knees. Distant Moon’s hilt crumbled in its hand.

“Rest well, my old friend,” it said. The revenant’s wound had grown beyond its torso now, spreading up its shoulders and reaching its face. “Thank you, Raksha of the Conflagration.”

Lan Feng cast its gaze past his shoulder. “And you, sorceress of lightning. Without your strength on Raksha’s sword, it wouldn’t have stood up to Distant Moon’s power, and you would have both joined me in walking death.”

Raksha glanced at Steelbreaker. Sadea’s lightning was still coursing down its length, caged by his aegis, like a firefly trapped in a bottle.

“Huh, that’s interesting. Definitely didn’t expect that,” the sorceress muttered, walking forward and prodding at Steelbreaker with the tip of her staff. She nodded at the revenant. “Yeah, whatever. You’re welcome. Just hurry up and die. I don’t know about you, but the rest of us don’t have all day.”

“The one who raised me—” Lan Feng began.

“Stannes Erban, right? Local office chief. Got too big for his britches. Needs to be purged like the heretic he is,” Sadea interrupted.

“—is not human,” the revenant went on. “It wears a dead man’s flesh, and it doesn’t belong to this world.”

“Shit. Shit. Shit.” Sadea punched Raksha repeatedly in the side, out of fear, frustration, or just simple spite. “That sounds like a demon to me. No, that’s definitely a demon. Shit!”

“We’ll kill it, whatever it is.” Raksha fended the sorceress off by placing his hand on her face and pushing her away, ignoring her cries of “ew” and “do you know where your hands have been.”

“Another thing, child,” Lan Feng said. “I was killed by a mutant. An archer with arrows of enchanted bone. Shot me from the shadows and annihilated my heart. I bled out just before I was able to cut him down.”

“The Hunter,” Raksha growled. “I know him. I will avenge you, Elder.”

“I care not for vengeance. I simply wish to warn you of a formidable foe.” Lan Feng’s head fell from the crumbling remains of its neck. “Farewell, Raksha of the Conflagration and sorceress of lightning.”

“Farewell, Elder.” Raksha saluted Lan Feng once more, but the revenant had become nothing more than piled ashes.