Blood is hot, you know that?

For instance, after getting my torso cut open by Carl, my shirt is feeling pretty hot after getting soaked with blood. And with every drop of that precious red stuff that leaves my body, I feel my strength ebb away. Its not a new feeling, I experienced the same thing on the night when Rutger's was attacked. It doesn't get any easier to bear though. Dying just sucks overall.

At least this time I'm getting killed from a proper life ending wound, not that deflected bullet scratching my face bullshit. But there's at least one plus side to having one near death experience on your resume.

You know how to deal with it.

Clenching my teeth down hard, I force down the stack of mint lozenges dissolving away in my mouth. Its like swallowing a pile of refreshing and breath cleaning pebbles all at once. I actually feel the hard lumps going down my gullet and hitting my stomach.

Here goes.

Remember what Maus said. The body is nothing more than matter. And so it can be mended, patched like a piece of damaged clothing, as long there is additional matter on hand. The lozenges melt in my stomach's gastric juices and I will my body to use the added mass to mend the wound Carl had inflicted. My body readily complies, patching shut the injury and stopping the bleeding entirely. And I realize this effort is far from enough. The wound is sealed by the thinnest of scabs. A mouthful of sweets by itself isn't going to mend something so serious. But my condition has stabilized.

I can fight. Barely.

Slowly rising to my feet, I move my limbs with deliberate slowness, careful not to make any noise that would draw attention to me. I had known from the start that defeating Carl in a straight on fight was impossible. The only way for me to even scratch pretty boy was for him to be ignoring me entirely. And no way Carl's going to be paying attention to someone he just gutted.

"Fall." Pretty boy dully pronounces as Paul screams in pain. There's a harsh intake of breath and the sound of another streetlight shattering before the darkness swallows up even more of the side streets our group is fighting in.

Good. The boss's still up and about. I'm too late.

Turning around, I see Paul staggering about, his back a mess of red ruin thanks to Carl. The boss's face is nevertheless a picture of pure concentration as he duels Carl relentlessly. Yaksha and Kajay rematerialize under a still functioning street light further away, waiting for Carl to push the boss toward them. Carl's strikes are simple and precise, his sword a blur of lightning fast thrusts and slashes. A veritable cyclone of soul energy explodes between the two combatants as neither party bothers with holding back any longer.

Paul's breaths are labored and his halberd is in terrible shape. The blade is badly chipped and I swear that the entire weapon is flickering in and out of existence. The thin blade of Carl's sword might as well be a sledgehammer given the force pretty boy is swinging it with. Every merciless strike is parried by Paul but the boss is constantly forced backward.

Paul's running low on soul energy. I need to intervene now. There's no time to assume the "position".

Squaring my shoulders, I run forward at full tilt, torso hurting like a motherfucker. Carl's too preoccupied trying to finish off Paul to notice me, but the boss's eyes immediately widen with surprise at my miraculous recovery.

"Finally, you show fear." Pretty boy grins to himself, completely misreading Paul's expression.

"Carl!" Kajay yells in warning as the jumpsuit duo aim their guns at me.

Pumping the last of my strength into my legs, I launch myself into a lunge straight at Carl, fist cocked back to strike. Kajay's warning however causes Carl to break his clinch with Paul and spin about.

"Say goodnight." I hiss as my fist descends for a knockout blow.

Carl doesn't bother with words, his free hand shooting out and intercepting my fist with a meaty smack. He then pivots on his feet and sends me flying through the air as if I weighed no more than a feather.

Now I know how Burke felt.

Landing hard, the torso wound reopens and a fresh gout of blood begins oozing out. As I roll uncontrollably across the ground, pain scrambling fiercely my senses, my mind distantly notes that Carl had tossed me right at the world's two most obvious assassins.

"Shit! Robbie!" Paul cries out as he rushes to try and cut down the streetlight I had landed under. Paul manages to get as far as under the streetlight's illumination before Carl catches up with him.

"Going so soon?" Carl mocks, "I've barely even started."

"Don't underestimate us!" Paul snaps back, the gossamer thread of his soul surging with renewed intensity. The blade of the boss's halberd crumbles into formless specks of light and the shaft snaps into two equal halves. Paul grabs the loose half of the shaft with his other hand and jabs under Carl's guard, eliciting a groan of pain from pretty boy.

"You're not the only one with a few gimmicks up his sleeves." Paul challenges, brandishing his new pair of soul weapons.

"Dual wielding?" Yaksha sounds surprised, "Our briefing never said anything about this."

Paul swings out with one arm, catching Carl's sword and deflecting the blow neatly. With pretty boy's sword arm out of position, Paul's second arm savagely drives the other rod hard into his target's ribs. Carl bucks to the side from the impact, his teeth gritted in an uncharacteristically ugly state of pain.

"Really hate the second phase of this fight." Carl wheezes incomprehensibly.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

"Stop treating this like a game!" Paul barks, both arms whirling about in a savage, deadly dance.

The boss is doing it, he's managing to drive Carl back after I broke the original momentum of the fight. I just need to hold out long enough for Paul to wrap things up with pretty boy.

"Yaksha! Kajay!" Carl shrieks angrily, "Stop standing around and help me!"

The jumpsuit duo look at each other and back down at me.

"I'll help Carl." Yaksha says to her partner, "You finish off whomever this is and join us."

With that, Yaksha bolts off to join the battle against Paul. Kajay merely shrugs and levels her gun right at my face. Oh man, no way I'm going to tank a bullet to the brain. Between the pain and the fear, I think I'm about to wet myself. No, scratch that. I've probably already wetted myself.

"Get away from Robbie!" Sara unexpectedly shouts and tackles Kajay, throwing off the gun's aim and causing it to discharge harmlessly into the air. Kajay herself remains standing as Sara impotently pushes away.

"Carl told us not to hurt you." Kajay curses at Sara, "But it would be so, so easy."

The jumpsuited lunatic smashes an elbow into the small of Sara's back, causing my best friend to wail in agony. Sara's arms remain wrapped tightly around Kajay, refusing to let the assassin go. In the background, Paul desperately fights for his life, caught between two enemies.

"Damnit." I moan weakly. Is this how its going to end?

There's no choice. My hand closes in on the blood phial secured in my pockets. Maus's warnings be damned. Its either take the plunge or die tonight.

And I'm not willing to die tonight.

With the last of my strength, I chug down the blood phial's entire contents in one go, leaving a rusty iron taste in my mouth. Like I said before, blood is warm. Even preserved blood kept for who knows how long in a phial. The trickle of liquid heat goes down my throat easily and settles inside my body.

And my heart nearly explodes.

A rush of sheer adrenaline courses through my body as an explosion of fire bursts from my heart. I feel my entire skeleton being broken down and reforged. Muscles contort against my will, forcing me back up to my feet as my heart pounds away like a drum.

"It hurts!" I scream at the top of my voice as every nerve strains. An invisible force takes root in my heart, digging into my body and spreading down all the arteries. A heat haze erupts around my body as raw soul energy is expelled from each pore. My heart is like a supernova, an artificial sun. Its going to burn me up, turn my insides into ash.

"Robbie?" Sara murmurs, completely dumbstruck.

""An awakening." Kajay looks on with horror on her face.

The blood of my ancestors howls in my veins, asking a single question. Why have I accepted this gift?

"This is new." Carl mutters as my struggle takes centerstage of the battle.

"Robbie!" Paul yells at the top of his voice, "You need to maintain control during a soul awakening! Or it will drive you insane!"

Control? What control? The combined voices of my ancestors bear down on me, forcing tidal waves of knowledge into my skull. I'm not in control of anything. But I do know one thing.

Asses need to whooped.

Freshly built nerves flare with foreign knowledge. My soul shouts for release. And with a flex will, gossamer threads of soul energy leap from my chest, forming a set of cesti. Hardened bands of iron wrap around my lower arms and studded leather affixes itself to my knuckles. The strange knowledge continues to brand itself into my soul, turning me inside out.

Changing me.

"Kajay! Pull back!" Carl orders, "He's going rabid!"

I snarl at the insult and all my instincts demand that this new knowledge be put to use. Immediately.

A single haymaker, slams into Kajay's head with the force of a thunderbolt. I feel her jaw shatter under the blow and Kajay's eyes nearly roll to the back of her head. Sara quickly runs off, realizing she can't help any further. I raise my fist again, intending to smash that Kajay's head apart like a melon.

At the last moment, Kajay shakes of the bleariness from the first blow and manages to raise an arm to block my hammer blow. She shrieks in pain as my cestus fractures her arm as the bone was porcelain. Instead of backing off, Kajay drops her gun and instead presses closer to me, insidiously sliding her knife between my ribs.

"I win." she hisses and gives the knife a forceful twist.

The pain, its overwhelming. I throw my head back and roar to the heavens. My soul resonates as my body hangs together by force of will alone.

"Berserker. That delinquent has a berserker trait." Carl mutters under his breath.

I lash out with my fists again and Kajay is ready, ducking and weaving through the attacks. Her knife flashes, hacking out chunks of my flesh. But that doesn't matter. My soul will protect me from all harm. It not only wants this pain, my soul needs it to unleash the blood's full potential. With every wound I take, my body grows stronger. Muscles bulge to near freakish proportions. My shirt begins to tear at the seams.

Why am I fighting? The question hammers away at me. Why do I want this power?

My fist connects with Kajay's gut and sends her flying upward. A clean hook pummels her straight through the torso and jumpsuit assassin two is piledrivered into the ground. Kajay gurgles, bloody bubbles forming at her mouth. This is it. Time to deliver the killing blow.

Yaksha's gun rings out as she shoots out the last remaining streetlight. The jumpsuit duo fade out of existence and the fire in my veins intensifies, raging at being denied this victory. A powerful force grabs me by the back of my collar and before I can fight back, Carl hurls me toward the limo, sending me crashing into the passenger door.

"This isn't over!" Carl points at the boss before sprinting away into the darkness.

I want to go after pretty boy but the fever tears at me and my body begins jerking wildly out of control. I'm left thrashing about on the ground.

"Sara, go check on Yvonne!" Paul directs as he urgently attends to me, "Shit. Shit. Shit."

"We won." I cheer weakly as the cesti on my hands begin to flicker.

"Robbie, you're burning through too much soul energy." Paul's eyes are flooded with concern, "Once your berserk state ends, your body will succumb to its wounds. You need to hang on for as long as possible."

"Blaaaaah." My mind goes blank as the ancestral voices return. Questioning, demanding.

"Alright. How did my own awakening ceremony go?" Paul closes his eyes in concentration, "C'mon, think!"

Why do I want this power?

"Robbie do you swear yourself to the eternal service of my house?" Paul suddenly asks, reaching out his hand to me.

"Blaaah." Vision's going hazy.

"On your oath, I'll accept you as my knight." Paul whispers and drips several droplets of his blood into my mouth.

Speak the words. The voice of my heart demands. Walk the path of your ancestors. That is the price of this power.

"To protect. That is why I want this power." I murmur to myself, recalling the heraldry grandad left to me, "To be without fear before my enemies."

The voices quieten down. I had already fulfilled this first part of the vow in this battle.

"And to safeguard the innocent, even if it should lead to my death." my voice is a sigh and I swallow Paul's blood. The voices grow silent and my mind is my own again. I did it. The oath taking was successful. I'm in full control over the legacy.

Except there's a new problem. Overwhelming weakness floods my body as my soul energy runs out.

"Robbie." there's tears in Paul's eyes, "You're the best knight I could ever have."

"Drink." I croak out.

Paul nods and reaches into the limo's minibar for a bottle of sparkling fruit juice. He begins gently tipping the contents into my mouth.

"I'll make sure your parents are taken care of." Paul promises, "They'll be granted all the benefits due to retainers of my family."

"Not going to die. Seriously." I groan, focusing on using the fruit juice to mend my wounds. I'll be able to endure until we reach a hospital thanks to how much of the stuff is loaded in the minibar.

"Yeah." Paul pats my shoulder but I can see he doesn't believe me. But that's fine.

Because from now on, everything's going to be alright.