The reaver caught Edge’s iceblade with its free set of claws, which had been streaking down to sever its leg at the knee.

  However, the monster had underestimated the momentum behind the blow, causing the sword to graze its limb before coming to a halt. It disengaged a heartbeat later to limit its exposure, but the damage had already been done.

  The creature’s left hand was covered in rime from its proximity to his mana-forged weapon, though the frostbite wouldn’t do more than slow it down. But that was just a bonus. The real prize was the block of ice encasing reaver’s leg, causing it to shriek in pain as frost billowed into the air.

  That brief touch wasn’t sufficient to freeze the feathered limb solid, but it hurt like hell and made the peak stage-two monster wary of what he could do. Which was wise, since Edge had only revealed a fraction of what he was capable of.

  That being said, the reaver still believed it could win the fight, and it wasn’t about to back down. While it was cunning enough to proceed with caution, it was still a monster. It was driven to relentlessly pursue its prey—spurred on by a merciless cocktail of bloodlust and hatred.

  When he met its pitiless gaze, there was no question that the shadowreaver intended to kill him. To feast on his fear and devour him alive.

  And though that realization was terrifying on any number of levels, Edge couldn’t hold it against the horrific creature. After all, minus the fear part, he felt the exact same way.

  Each combatant viewed the other as prey and was willing to stake their life on finding out who had the right of the matter. If deception wasn’t sufficient to lay their enemy low, then overwhelming might would have to suffice.

  The reaver began burning through its energetic reserves, activating multiple skills that enhanced its offense while gearing up to unleash a brutal onslaught of combos.

  It was an intimidating sight, but Edge wasn’t worried. It was time for him to get serious too and dial his damage up to eleven.

  He began by activating the support skills he wasn’t already using. He Leapt back to open some room, ignited his core, and manifested Warlord’s Mantle. The moment the ghostly ruby cloak settled around his shoulders, energy rushed through his limbs as the aura boosted his Power, Speed, Reflex, and Control to lethal new heights.

  Time slowed down as the aura augmented his battlefield awareness. The mantle would also sap momentum from his enemy’s attacks and disrupt a portion of the mana from spells passing through, although he was hoping that he wouldn’t have to rely on that feature today.

  While he continued his preparations, a stray corner of his mind reviewed the rules governing skill combos. The short of it was the System placed every skill into one or more categories, including actives, passives, auras, domains, and Uniques.

  Using more than one active, aura, or domain at once counted as a combo, which offered incredible power in exchange for a dramatic increase in cost. Since Mantle was the only aura he was using, there wasn’t any reason to hold back.

  At the same time, Edge switched on his passive skills. Fear the Seasons had two modes. The passive component delivered a major boost to his Speed on top of what Mantle provided. During the fall, it also made his wind powers stronger, which would come into play when he activated Fear’s domain a little later in the fight.

  His oversized iceblade was so cold that he had to add Regulate Temperature to the mix, but passive skills didn’t count as combos no matter how many he used. His Unique skill, Manifest Chain, didn’t count either, so he had Foebinder emerge from his left wrist to hover in the air beside him.

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  Edge was already running Elemental Blade. If he used any more active powers, he would have to pay the price for using a combo. Thanks to all the Generation he’d picked up recently, he could pull off quite a few. However, his reservoir wasn’t bottomless, and it was wasteful to combine skills when he didn’t need to—a vital strategic consideration when two core-wielders battled.

  There was, however, one combo he was planning to use right away, since it would make the rest of the fight a great deal easier. While he gathered his will and got ready to let loose, he took a good look at what the shadowreaver had been up to over the last few seconds.

  The monster’s muscles were bulging beneath its skin, which meant one of its skills had provided a considerable boost to its Power. Likely some other attributes too. The claws on both hands had extended several feet and were coated in coruscating sheets of mana, which Edge assumed was the product of an offensive aura. The shadowreaver’s movements were sharper than before—the result of enhancing its combat awareness via one passive power or another.

  In between the drawing of one breath and the next, the monster would charge in a feather-clad flash to rend him limb from limb. Before the creature could close the distance, he paid the price for a combo and let loose with Intimidating Roar.

  He felt the avatar living inside his village pitching in, which had been happening more often lately, even though they could only lend their aid once or twice each day. Acting in unison, Chibime and Edge opened their mouths and released a mana-infused torrent of sound.

  The reaver had begun its attack a half-second prior, but it stopped when the aural assault broke over it, invading its mind with primal terror.

  The monster was high on Disruption, which limited the effect of the Epic skill but didn’t negate it completely. The monster lost its predatory grace as it was forced to grapple with the unnatural terror compelling it to flee.

  Fear wasn’t an emotion the creature had to deal with often, and being hit by Roar enraged the reaver. It issued a wrathful scream and came streaking toward him with its claws poised to strike and loathing gleaming in its eyes.

  With Mantle bolstering Edge’s arms, the colossal iceblade was light as a dream. He braced himself for impact and met the brute head-on in a fierce exchange of blows.

  Most hunters couldn’t hope to match the raw attributes of a monster—especially one further along in its stage—but with the combined bonuses from his skills, he had surpassed the shadowreaver’s Speed by a fair margin and narrowed the gap on the rest.

  In short, his foe was stronger, but he was faster. Chips of ice and flakes of keratin fell like rain as a magic blade and natural weapons clashed time and again.

  He paid for combos whenever he Double Slashed, Hardened, or repositioned with Shadow Play. But if he limited them to two skills at once, he wasn’t in danger of running out of magicytes before the fight was over.

  Thanks to the training he had undergone since leaving for the Savage Garden, Edge’s swordplay was better than ever. By this point, he could just as easily be considered a warrior as a hunter.

  Although Harden blocked the lion’s share of the creature’s assault, he took a few cuts that slipped past his guard, which Rejuvenation would heal as soon as the fight was over. With Mantle dampening the force of the blows, nothing sliced too deep, despite the magic empowering the monster’s attacks.

  The shadowreaver took a few heavy hits along the way—subzero mana sapping the strength from its limbs as creeping rime spread across its body. While he had gained the upper hand over the course of their exchange, he was dead certain that the creature was up to something and needed to take it down before he learned what it was planning the hard way.

  Over the course of the brutal melee, Edge had saturated the area with wind mana in preparation for unleashing Fear the Season’s domain. The moment it was ready, he manifested Maelstrom, and a gale began to blow.

  Edge could direct the wind produced by his domain at will. Before the monster adapted to the air buffeting its body, he conjured a powerful gust and shoved it hard from behind.

  At the same time, he lunged with his iceblade and sent Foebinder streaking out to wrap around the reaver’s beak, taking the weapon out of play as man and monster came together with incredible force. The move caught the creature by surprise, and he broke through its guard, impaling the brute on the end of his sword and freezing its vital organs.

  Before the shadowreaver perished from its grievous wound, Edge reached out with both arms and activated Skill-Eater’s ultimate ability.

  Extraction.