The storm of blades returned with brutal rhythm.
Leon's sword clashed against the hunter's twin daggers, steel shrieking as they slid across each other. The hunter moved with uncanny grace, each step calculated, each strike aimed for a vital spot. Leon countered with cold precision, his left hand weaving short bursts of magic between slashes to create space.
Behind them, Kaelis moved like a phantom. He rolled beneath an incoming glaive, pivoted on one knee, and drove his blade upward through the gap in the attacker's stance. The glaive-wielder blocked it with a twist, but Kaelis reversed direction mid-motion, redirecting the momentum into a low sweep that knocked the enemy off their feet.
He didn't hesitate. A flick of his wrist and a throwing knife embedded itself into the hunter's shoulder. "One more step and you'll lose the arm," Kaelis warned.
To his right, the frost wyrm roared. Its wings carved the wind as it lunged at the sigil caster, who barely avoided being torn apart by a blast of freezing breath. The mage's robes were tattered, and his breathing came in sharp, shallow gasps.
Leon moved to press the advantage.
But the hunter agent was still between him and the caster, unrelenting, relentless. Daggers flashed again, one striking across Leon's cheek, drawing a thin line of blood. Leon gritted his teeth and twisted his torso, driving his sword up under the agent's arm.
The blade met resistance, armor.
The Hunter grinned beneath the cracked mask. "You're not the only one who evolved in the dark."
Leon's shadow pulsed at his feet. "Kel."
From the black, Kel rose like a blade drawn from its sheath, his ice-formed spear whistling through the air. The hunter turned just in time to block, but not fast enough. The blow knocked him back, forcing him into a defensive crouch.
"Push them!" Leon called, eyes burning.
Kaelis followed the command without pause. He lunged at the fallen glaive-user, moving with inhuman fluidity. This time, his new tactic, redirected momentum, caught the agent off guard again. Kaelis used the enemy's attack to spin behind him and jam his blade through the gap in the shoulder plate. Blood splashed the snow.
The glaive fell.
One left standing. Oroth.
He screamed, runes flaring around him. The ground cracked, glowing "Burn in reversal!"
A sudden pulse of reversed magic surged through the area, striking Kel and the wyrm directly. The frost wyrm bellowed, its body locking up as sigils wrapped around its form like chains of molten glass. Kel staggered, frost armor flaking off under the pressure of corrupted energy.
Leon felt the surge, a curse-type reversal spell. "He's trying to sever the link!"
Kaelis was already sprinting toward Oroth.
"Too late!" the Oroth cried, finishing the sigil sequence. The ground erupted in a pillar of flame, aimed directly at Leon.
Leon didn't retreat.
He raised his hand. "Obsidian Shroud."
A dome of shadow snapped into place around him, the flames crashing against it in waves. Inside the dome, Leon clenched his jaw as heat rippled against his barrier.
"Break."
The shroud burst outward, swallowing the fire in a roar of darkness. Leon shot forward through the dying flames, shadows trailing behind him.
His blade pierced Oroth's stomach before Oroth even realized the counterattack had come.Oroth gasped, eyes wide as frost and shadow crawled over the wound.
Leon stepped closer, their faces inches apart.
"You gambled," Leon said coldly. "And lost."
He pulled the blade free and let the body fall.
The silence afterward was not peaceful. It was heavy. Thick. Tense.
Kaelis wiped blood from his blade, breathing hard. "Four dead. One incapacitated."
Kel stood silently, his form barely holding after the reversal magic. The frost wyrm circled above, wounded but functional.
Leon let out a long breath and looked around at the ruined snowfield. The Black Sigil had sent elite agents. They hadn't expected to win, but they'd expected to wound.
"They're testing us," Kaelis said. "Probing strength. Tactics."
"They're scared," Leon replied. "But not enough."
He turned toward Oroth, the glaive-wielder, still alive but pinned by ice.
Leon knelt beside him.
"Oroth spat blood and smirked. "You'll be hunted until your last breath, Leon Ashbourne. They've already set the next wave in motion."
Leon's eyes narrowed.
"Where?"
Oroth choked a laugh. "Sanctum Virelith… That's where judgment begins."
Leon's heart slowed for a moment, then thundered again, harder.
He stood.
"Kaelis. Gather the shadows. We march at dawn."