With a tug that seemed easy as walking, Bora Bora, or rather Chaos, broke free of the vines holding his arm. Grimr summoned more vines in an attempt to bind his entire body, but the scythe slashed through them easily, then cut the vines holding him by the neck.

“Now, now, Warden,” Chaos said, his voice smooth as silk and full of pleasure, “Please don’t interrupt this lovely chat I’m having with my acolyte. It’s that very temper that nearly cost you your life last time, is it not?”

Eric had no clue what he meant by that, and, glancing over at Megan, he could see his confusion mirrored in her face. He glanced back at Grimr, but there was no change to the deadpan, almost cold look in the smaller Ancient’s eyes. “You’ve been driven back many times before, interloper. Save us all some trouble and release this toy so we may put it down.”

“And waste the centuries of effort I’ve put into claiming it?” Chaos moved Bora Bora’s jaw, letting out a low chuckle. “No, I think not. You may clear me out in the end, but for now, I think I’d like to have a little fun.”

Without warning, the scythe began to change shape in his hand. It shrank until it was a simple sword, with a shineless black blade and a bone-white handle. He caught the weapon easily and flicked it in a backhanded cut at Samuel. Samuel parried the blade without much trouble, but his face showed plenty of shock as if he hadn’t expected to be attacked by the entity. He parried another two blows, then jumped back.

“Eric, Megan, you two stay out of this fight,” he cautioned, though his voice was light and cheerful as if asking them to run an errand for him. “Your attention would be better spared rounding up those criminals.”

Eric glanced back at the still-standing Laughing Lich members. They’d stayed in the same spot to watch the fight, but now looked startled as they were mentioned. They turned their gazes onto Eric, and one or two of them raised their swords, looking determined to fight. He wasn’t at all disappointed to be excused from the fight against Chaos controlling the body of Bora Bora. Grinning, he gave his sword an experimental swing. “Right you are, Samuel. I’ll get on that.”

A few seconds of tense silence stretched between everyone as the different parties eyed each other warily. Then the peace was broken as Grimr leaped forward, the long bone knife in his hand pulling back for a lethal blow. Chaos stepped to the side at the last moment and swung his own weapon to counter, but the small Ancient twisted out of the way. A second later, Eric was charging toward the bandits.

He hit the first one with a barrage of slashes and thrusts, forcing him back. Immediately, one of his partners came forward to attack Eric’s flank, but he was expecting it, and sidestepped easily before swinging in a full circle to cut the man at the shoulder, right in the gap of his leather protection. He gave a pained cry and fell to the ground, immediately losing his interest in the fight.

As the others stepped forward to crowd Eric, the fight between the Ancients and Chaos was already fully underway. The three figures moved so fast that they were practically blurred, but Eric was able to catch glimpses of their movements. Samuel and Grimr were faster than their foe, but couldn’t get past his guard to inflict any real damage. The only scratch on him had been the one that Eric had made.

Megan waited until they were all focusing on Eric before making her move. A wreath of lightning appeared in the air above Eric’s head, quickly growing as it fell down, and made contact with more than half of the bandit’s number. Their bodies went stiff as they were electrocuted, and Eric cut down three of them before the spell ended, opening a hole in their line. With a snarl, Hunter appeared, dashing through that same gap, running in a tight circle around the bandits and Hunter.

The appearance of the large white wolf distracted the bandits, causing several of them to whip around, shields and weapons raised, in a vain attempt to protect themselves against what they thought was the largest threat. They had no way of knowing that Hunter had next to no power to harm them, and was simply moving to draw their attention. In any event, Eric didn’t give them time to ponder their mistake. He thrust and slashed his single sword freely.

Without a second blade to hold, Eric found that he could easily strike, grab, or push his opponents. He may not have been as skilled at unarmed combat as his mentor or the other Masters of Issho-Ni, but he had some experience with fighting prior to coming to Ahya, and this body was stronger than he’d ever hoped to be back on Earth. He lashed out with a solid punch to the nearest bandit and felt a satisfying impact as he hit the man in the stomach. He let out a gasp as the air was driven from his lungs, and fell back.

Eric seized the man he’d punched by the front of his armor, and, twisting, pulled him around in time to intercept two sword cuts from his friends. He gave a cry of pain as the blades cut through his armor, and then Eric shoved him away, giving him a powerful kick to spur him along. He crashed into the men behind him, toppling two more like bowling pins. Another arc of lightning came from where Megan stood, dancing cleverly around Eric and striking four more.

In what had only felt like seconds, the fight against the bandits was over. More than half their number was lying on the ground, lifeless as could be. Two more were clutching heavy injuries and feebly crawling away from him. Another four, seeing the quick destruction that two people had caused on their numbers, promptly threw down their weapons and dropped to their knees, calling for mercy. Eric didn’t bother attacking them anymore, both out of consideration for his duty to Issho-Ni and also because he didn’t care to fight an opponent that had clearly given up.

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So instead, he turned his eyes to watch the other fight as Megan came over, quickly binding the survivors with conjured leather cuffs, and kicking away their weapons. The fight looked much the same as it had before, except that, perhaps, Samuel and Grimr weren’t moving quite as quickly as before. They were both breathing quite heavily as they disengaged from Chaos, and Eric could make out the perspiration on their foreheads.

“Worst possible puppet for him to take,” Grimr muttered, almost too quietly for Eric to make out the words. “I almost wish the idiot had challenged me back before he gained Divinity. We could have been spared this headache.”

“Well, there’s no point complaining about it now,” Samuel said. He raised his free hand to his forehead and drew a line there. The runes that had appeared for his fight against Averin showed themselves again, forming a crown of runes that shined bright blue. “We’ll just have to hit him as hard as we possibly can, and worry about the consequences later.”

Grimr frowned up at him, twisting his neck to look at the runes. He didn’t seem to register what his friend had just said. “That’s new. When did you-”

Chaos leaped forward before he could finish the question, now holding a long stout spear. Both Ancients jumped aside to avoid the mighty thrust, but then the weapon came around, slashing Grimr across the arm. It would have severed the limp completely if it weren’t for the inherent strength of an Ancient’s body, but Grimr was still knocked sideways by the blow, to be sent rolling into the tall grass some few yards away.

He advanced on Samuel then, the spear whirling in great arcs as he tried to cut him. The Archmage was light on his feet, however, and danced back and forth, dodging each swipe with minimal effort. As he retreated, he laughed, taunting his opponent. “Oh come now, Chaos. You should know me well enough to know that I’m very good against a nikana.”

“Ah, yes,” Chaos replied snidely, not pausing in his stream of attacks. “Your first apprentice used one of these, didn’t he? Perhaps I cannot harm you with this, but the same could not be said for your friends, can it?”

Then, without so much as a warning, without even glancing in his direction, Chaos pivoted on his heel and hurled the spear, shifting its shape into that of a javelin, directly at Eric. For an instant, time seemed to slow, and Eric could see Samuel’s pale face turn toward him, his arm outstretched to cast a spell. Even he knew that no spell could reach him in time. He saw the lightly spinning point of the javelin as it began to fall, but didn’t feel the impact of the weapon as it ran through his chest.

Thankfully, that was due to Hunter’s swift reaction. The wolf appeared just in time to knock Eric to the side, taking the javelin behind his shoulder joint. Unlike previous instances, when weapons would glance harmlessly off his hide or simply cause him to disperse, the javelin buried itself in the wolf’s body and knocked it to the ground. Hunter let out a screech of pain and immediately fell still. Eric felt something in the back of his mind snap, and at once fell to his knees. Something deep inside him had vanished in that instant, leaving him incredibly weak.

“Aha!” he heard Chaos shout triumphantly. “A shard of that great Ancient beast that struck down my last minion! Even I didn’t expect that!”

Samuel had advanced on him again, his face set in grim, determined lines. Without a weapon for the moment, Chaos was forced to back up, his eyes wide with shock as he avoided the tip of the crystalline blade. Samuel was striking as fast and hard as he could, releasing a smooth, uninterrupted flow of slashes, thrusts, and chops. It was clear to everyone that at any moment, he’d land a decisive blow on his enemy’s form.

Grim appeared again, the wound to his arm healed, and jumped at Chaos, taking him by surprise. His form shifted at the last possible moment, morphing into the huge black cat that was his natural form. The weight of its body, combined with the speed of its leap, brought both of them crashing down to the ground. Grimr had his left arm gripped tightly by his jaws, and dragged him back and away from Eric, growling menacingly.

Samuel was upon the two of them in an instant, the sword slamming down point-first into Chaos’ chest. It was a perfect strike, with no wavering or chance to be deflected. But yet again, it was stopped by an invisible force mere millimeters from Bora Bora’s armor. Samuel yelled in frustration, and the blade flashed with his bright white mana.

“Tumagos!”

At his shouted word, the sword slipped past the invisible barrier and sank straight into Bora Bora’s chest, piercing through the armor as if it weren’t there. It continued to ram home until it could sink no further, stopping at the hilt and pinning Chaos in place. Samuel let go of the hilt and stepped back, his chest heaving.

“There we go,” he panted, wiping his sweaty hair out of his eyes and staring down at his pinned foe. “Kapit.”

There was a flash of light from the sword, then nothing. “You can’t move now, not without cleaving that body in half. Surrender now, Chaos, and go away. I’d like to put an end to this if you don’t mind.”

It looked as though the fight was over, and they’d won. Chaos attempted to grab the hilt of the crystalline blade and yank it free, but it would not budge. “Curses. That woman’s pesky magic again.”

In spite of his visibly poor chances, he didn’t look nearly as finished with the fight as he should have been. Instead, he grinned up at Samuel, his teeth coated in red blood, and whispered something that Eric couldn’t hear. It clearly unnerved Samuel, however, who glanced around quickly, his face pale and fearful. Eric glanced around too, but couldn’t see anything out of place in the otherwise calm countryside around them.

Then he noticed, far off in one direction, two figures approaching. They weren’t hard to miss, as their combined power radiated with an intensity that dwarfed his own, and one of them more than matched Samuel and Grimr. It was a tall figure, pale as paper, and wearing long, elaborate robes. Umbric, the Infernal. And before him, holding a long jagged black sword, was Menikos, the dead Ancient he’d raised from the dead.