Aven freed the last of the prisoners willing to fight and arrived in the courtyard just in time to see the barricaded gate doors explode. Splinters erupted out, and the prisoners reinforcing the barricade scattered back as Erdrak burst through.

  The ogre captain roared in challenge, halberd lifted high and wrath pouring out in a tangible wave. The strongest vis in Hellfrost wasn’t here just to quell the uprising; he was here to destroy it.

  A half-dozen prisoners charged him. A half-dozen prisoners died. Aven watched it all in slowed time as Erdrak wielded the halberd faster than the desperate prisoners could even move. He cut through the crowd like a scythe through wheat, leaving severed limbs, shattered skulls and sundered flesh. In the midst of the slaughter, Aven recognized a couple of them. One of the canin brothers who’d joined their group of hunters early on. A woman from the quarries who never spoke but wielded the hammer harder than any non-vis he’d ever seen.

  The other prisoners fell back, screaming in panic. Erdrak’s aura of wrath was enough to shatter the fragile courage they’d built.

  All except Rani, who hurled herself at Erdrak’s back, locking her stump around the shoulder amour and stabbing a kitchen knife into the exposed flesh. The knife failed to break skin, the ogre’s vis-enhanced body stronger than mere steel. With a single hand, Erdrak reached back and plucked the shrieking, cackling woman from his back. Erdrak lifted, and with the Battle Mind, Aven could still see her gap-toothed grin as Erdrak slammed her into the ground.

  “Come on then!” Erdrak’s laughter rang out, his gnarled green and mud-brown skin now covered in the red blood of his enemies. He stepped over Rani’s fallen, barely stirring form. “Is that it? The last lot of you to rebel at least gave a better fucking fight than this!”

  “Please!” a boy no older than eighteen fell to his knees, the shovel used as makeshift weapon falling from his hands. “Mercy! I-”

  Erdrak’s halberd cut off any further pleas.

  Senseless. The boy wasn’t vis. He wasn’t a threat at all. And Erdrak killed him without hesitation.

  Aven shouted over the crowd, “Move! We fight, or we die!”

  That galvanized the prisoners to action. Erdrak’s gaze finally fell on Aven, and the ogre’s mouth fell open in shock, eyes bulging. Guards stumbled through the hole that Erdrak had created, and the prisoners charged them down.

  Erdrak ignored the battle behind them, focused solely on Aven, “You’re dead.”

  “You left me for dead out in the wilderness,” Aven approached Hellfrost’s own titan. “I crawled back. You left me for dead in the voidpit. I crawled back out.” Aven held out his arms, “You want me dead, kill me yourself, you fucking coward!”

  Erdrak roared, and the wave of his wrath slammed into Aven with physical force. The halberd swung, and Aven brought his voidhand to bear, blocking the strike with his left arm. With his right, the void sprang out like a spear, stabbing straight for Erdrak’s neck.

  Even surprised, Erdrak still managed to jerk back out of the spear’s range as it grazed his neck, whirling the halberd back to a defensive position.

  “Every time you left me for dead,” Aven raised both voidhands as claws, “I’ve come back stronger.”

  Erdrak said nothing. He didn’t roar, or even growl. His eyes hardened, and muscles tensed. For the first time, Aven saw someone who wasn’t just domineering, throwing power around for the joy of watching others suffer. Aven faced down a warrior of Octarnis, a vis of the 3rd Circle whose entire world now focused on killing Aven.

  Finally.

  Aven let all other concerns fade as he dove into the Battle Mind. The sounds of the battle at the gate faded away. Worries about whether Esharah would succeed in her critical part vanished. The halberd stabbed, and Aven’s claws met it. Voidblood and sparks flew as arcsteel shredded through his voidhand, only for another to take its place in an instant.

  A body faster than any mortal met a mind just as swift.

  They danced. Strike and dodge, strike and block. The arcsteel blade tore chunks of voidmist flesh from Aven’s limbs. His claws sliced across the ogre’s chest and back, arms and legs, each strike drawing lines of red blood. Aven’s heart was pumping fast and hard. Each breath felt hot. Every strike he blocked felt like his arms would tear. His feet moved on their own. Aven felt his whole body was the weapon, a weapon wielded by the mind.

  He saw each strike, each dodge. Each step, every counter, and the counter to the counter. More clearly than ever before, Aven read every twitch and tensing in Edrak’s movements. His claws struck from impossible angled, shifting with his well to curl around Erdrak’s defenses.

  It wasn’t enough. Avens’ mind could match the tempo, but his body faltered, even reforged in the void. The strength in Erdrak’s blows still forced him back. And even as his strikes landed, Erdrak still bulled forward. Relentless. Implacable.

  Deeper into the Battle Mind, Aven saw the future unfold. A few short seconds that stretched out into a single outcome. Erdrak would strike. Aven would stumble. The next blow would cut him in two.

  Edrak struck. Aven stumbled.

  Aven smiled at the glimpse of a red mountain charging from the side.

  Ko’jan hit Erdrak in the back, sending him stumbling forward, and Aven lunged forward. Claw turned to spear, directly at Erdrak’s throat.

  The spear struck. It stopped.

  Aven’s shock was so great he didn’t manage to reach for the Battle Mind before Erdrak’s halberd smashed into his side. Black blood erupted as his voidhand met the halberd’s axe-blade, and Aven went flying. By miracle, the blade hadn’t bitten all the way through the voidarm to flesh.

  While Aven sprawled from the impact, Ko’jan charged again. Right into the butt of the polearm as Erdrak jerked back. Ko’jan staggered, and Erdrak spun.

  Aven couldn’t stop it.

  The spiked tip rammed through Ko’jan’s abdomen, driving him back. Ko’jan screamed and thrashed, bringing his club down on Erdrak’s head. The ogre took the blow. And the next. He jerked the speared end of the halberd back and stabbed again. Through the stomach. Through the chest.

  Ko’jan fell, and Erdrak turned back to face Aven, death in his eyes. All Aven’s resolve crumbled. A vis of the 3rd circle was a mountain too high for any of them to overcome. From the beginning, only death awaited challenging a titan like Erdrak.

  Aven staggered back, mind racing. There had to be something he could do. There had to be.

  Ko’jan’s pierced, bloody corpse stared at him from behind Erdrak. There was nothing Aven could do against this. Nothing.

  “Erdrak!” A bellow came from the door, loud as thunder.

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  Logash slammed into Edrak from the side with a force that rang throughout the entire courtyard. The sound of the collision echoed louder than any strike of Aven’s claws, and the impact was enough to knock them both off their feet.

  Erdrak hit the ground rolling, somehow hanging on to the halberd, and he swept it wildly to drive Logash back.

  Logash rose to full height. Around his chest, a harness of thin ropes dangled kludged-together armor of plates and bowls – each decorated with a symbol painted in black blood. The runes carved carefully over weeks by Logash’s hand. He held no weapons, yet there was a smile on Logash’s face, an eagerness in the gleam of his eyes as he regarded Erdrak. In his eyes, a fire kindled. The prisoners had a titan of their own.

  Aven felt it the instant the two ogres locked eyes. A kinship, but not of blood. The two vis warriors knew each other in that instant. They recognized the other. A fellow warrior. A true enemy. A worthy opponent. In Logash, that knowledge formed respect. In Erdrak, it became hatred.

  Erdrak charged. Logash struck a fist against a rune on his shoulder, a symbol of a mountain. Power blazed from the rune, and when Erdrak struck, the halberd sank not into flesh but stone. The thin layer of stony armor shattered from the blow, but the blade barely drew blood from the skin beneath. A fist covered in rock slammed into Erdrak, driving him back. Logash slapped another rune, an etching of clouds and lightning, of wind and rain. A crack of thunder sounded when Logash moved, his fist now moving faster than Erdrak’s blade.

  Screams from the gate jerked Aven’s attention away from the clash of titans. The battle had spilled out through the gates as more guards flooded in, and Aven rushed to help hold back the tide. These weren’t the legionaries from the town. They didn’t have the skill and training of veteran soldiers. They still had weapons and armor. They were still guards who had grown comfortable killing prisoners and torturing slaves. The battle had turned from chaos to carnage. Blood soaked the courtyard, bodies of prisoners and guards strewn about the courtyard.

  Ouron stood at the front of the battle, holding the line with the other vis.

  Someone bumped into Aven. He turned to see a canin boy. Ko’jan’s friend.

  “Come on,” the boy pulled at Ko’jan’s arm, trying to drag the larger beastkin away. “Come on, Ko’jan. Get up.

  Aven grabbed him, “You...” he paused, trying to remember the boy’s name. “Wally?”

  The boy’s ears flattened as he met Aven’s eyes, “Ko’jan...he won’t move.” The fear was clear, the disbelief.

  Aven glanced at the unmoving corpse. Ko’jan’s eyes held the same resolve, the same determination. Even in death, Ko’jan believed they could win. Even as Aven had led him to death, Ko’jan still followed with head high.

  “Wally, he’s dead,” Aven gripped his shoulder, looking him in the eye. “Do you hear me? They killed Ko’jan. And if we don’t win, they’ll kill the rest of us. It’s fight or die.”

  “I...I can’t fight,” Wally stammered miserably, pupils dilated in terror. “Ko’jan the strong one, I-”

  An idea rushed to Aven through the chaos, “Wally, back in the tower, grab the binding manacles. We can avenge Ko’jan. Go!”

  The boy’s jaw set. He nodded and ran off. Aven didn’t have time to watch him go, because a pair of guards were heading his way. A spear stabbed at him, and he turned it aside with one hand while the other slashed through the guard’s arm at the elbow. He fell with a cry, and the second guard paused.

  Maybe Aven should have felt rage from Ko’jan’s death. The death of a friend. Instead, Aven just felt drained. Exhausted. Prisoners and guards slaughtered each other, while beneath the world there were creatures that would have torn both apart with equal hatred. Below, the voidspawn. Above, Erdrak and Yvris. They were all just caught in the middle.

  “I don’t want to kill you,” Aven said.

  From the soldier’s expression, that was something they could agree on.

  Aven gestured to the fallen guard and lowered his voidhand, “With a tourniquet, you could probably save him from bleeding out.”

  The standing guard looked to Aven, then to his fallen comrade, then to the barracks entrance a couple dozen yards away. He dropped his spear and grabbed his companion.

  No time to waste. Aven joined the line of fighters at the gate, claws reaching over the line to strike at the guards locked in combat. Apparently, the presence of a monster from the void was enough to shake the soldiers, because they fell back quickly, screaming in terror.

  Where were the rest of the guards? Aven saw dozens, maybe fifty at most, counting the ones already slain, but there was no sign of the other half of the guards, nor any sign of the two hundred reserve legionaries from the town. No time to think that through; there were too many immediate problems to be suspicious of good fortune.

  With Ouron’s help, Aven moved the splintered and shattered pieces of the barricade back in front of the door. Not enough to full block it, but enough to create a chokepoint.

  Another crack of thunder echoed through the courtyard. An impact shook the whole building.

  Aven turned to see Logash’s body hit the ground.

  Erdrak still stood. One arm hung limp. His armor shattered. His body covered in scrapes and ugly welts. He spat out a broken tooth.

  Logash pushed himself up onto his knees, massive body quivering with exertion. All the runes were dark, most of the plates dangling in splintered pieces.

  “Vestra said you were as strong as me,” Erdrak’s voice scraped like a blade over whetstone, harsh even as he chuckled. “Looks like she was wrong. Even with your damn tricks.”

  Aven saw Logash’s body tremble. As if something was trying to break free, a rage long-buried now ready to be unleashed. Logash’s eyes closed, and he drew in a deep rumbling breath.

  The trembling ceased.

  “Sorry, Aven,” Logash murmured. His arms collapsed beneath him. He stirred, groaning, but he did not rise.

  Erdrak reared back and roared in victory, the wave of his wrath crashing against them all, even stronger now that it was laced with triumph. Every one of the prisoners fell back against that wave.

  Except for Aven. He stepped forward.

  “No one to save you now, voidspawn,” Erdrak hefted the halberd in one hand.

  Ko’jan was dead. Logash was down. A doezen more corpses laid around the courtyard. No one was left to fight Erdrak except him.

  At the tower entrance, Wally emerged, a pile of manacles in his hands.

  “Wally!” Aven shouted, holding out his arms. “Throw!”

  The canin boy fumbled with the pile, coming up with a set of the binding manacles. He threw it just as Erdrak charged.

  Deeper into the Battle Mind. The deepest Aven had gone since the battle against the deathsinger. Deep enough to let his mind fully fracture. Two minds split. With the power of the void, he split his body too.

  Two bodies that he felt as his own. Two sets of limbs. One stepped forward. The other reached out for the arcsteel manacles.

  Aven felt the halberd pierce through his voidhand, all the way to his chest. He saw the triumph in Erdrak’s eyes. Even in a false body, he felt the spear impale him.

  He yanked that fractured piece of his mind back from the shell formed from the mists of the void. The false body collapsed on Erdrak’s halberd, and his true body lunged forward, manacles in hand. Aven clapped the manacles onto Erdrak’s wrists, and the arcsteel burned.

  The ogre screamed as the manacles bit deep. Aven clung tight, grappling the raging ogre while his voidhand shoved the pin in, locking the manacles in place. Erdrak fell back, flailing the single locked manacle around. His broken arm helplessly tried to paw at it.

  That was all Aven saw before vertigo struck. His body fell, head ringing. Pain stabbed as the broken pieces of his mind tried to stitch themselves back together. The feeling of impalement, the spear piercing chest and lungs overwhelmed him as a murdered mind tried to reunite with a living one. The world spun, and his stomach heaved. Without food in this new-formed stomach, nothing came up except black bile spilling out onto his hands and the cracked tiles of the courtyard.

  By the time Aven came to awareness again, Erdrak was screaming, lashing out as Ouron and a trio of other prisoners tried to restrain him. The ogre was a cornered animal, lashing out with all his strength, even with the arcsteel manacles binding him. Without vis, Erdrak was still a two-hundred-fifty-pound mass of muscle and fury.

  He didn’t stop fighting until Ouron’s club bashed him into stillness and silence.

  Aven slumped onto the ground. The world still seemed to spin. He felt like a part of himself had been torn out and crudely stitched back together. Then Ouron was at his side, helping him to his feet. Katrin had his other arm, and Vili perched on his head, the small shadow spirit pulling up on his hair.

  The courtyard fell silent. No more guards were fighting. Some were on the ground, arms raised in surrender. Corpses of both guard and prisoner littered the courtyard. The air stank with blood. The smell of charred flesh joined it as Janaya stomped out of the keep, dragging an ashkari corpse burned nearly beyond recognition. She threw it onto a pile of corpses, her own body a mass of burns and bleeding cuts already closing as her hellfire healed the wounds.

  “Victory!” Janaya howled towards the skies.

  More tentative cheers started to join hers. Aven didn’t have the strength to join in.

  “The ogre is beaten,” Katrin whispered as if she couldn’t believe the words. A chirp of affirmation from Vili echoed more certain joy. “We’ve won.”

  “Not yet,” Ouron grunted. “We still need-“

  Sudden pain stabbed through Aven’s soul. Screams erupted as every prisoner in the courtyard fell simultaneously. Amid the screams and curses, Aven saw Esharah emerge, stumbling forward, tears pouring down her face. Behind her, Yvris stood with the Book of Sins in hand. The Head Warden of the keep, Executor of Hellfrost, Priest of Discipline looked out over the crowd. A smile split his face at the suffering.

  The warden’s claws stabbed into the book, and the screams reached new heights.

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