Light of Epertase 01: Legends Reborn Read Online Free PDF Page A

hand back, wondering if he had done himself more damage than he had his foe. The beast of a man refused to stifle his antagonistic, taunting laughter.
    Though the armblade was fast, even one-armed, Rasi was faster, landing punch after punch while narrowly avoiding each counter shot. Rasi prayed for an opportunity to make the attacker regret his arrogance, but with each heavy blow he landed, the behemoth seemed to become stronger. Rasi knew he himself was becoming weaker as the fight raged on.
    The battle was long and violent and Rasi gave all he could, but his foe was too strong, too fresh. Finally, Rasi had given all he had left and could not avoid the onslaught any longer.
    “Uh!” He grunted as searing pain sliced through his good shoulder and into his chest cavity. The straps responded instinctively, wrapping the wound. His blood ceased to spill onto the white ground, but it didn’t mute the hurt. Before he could recover, excruciating pain erupted from his nose as it exploded into a red volcano. He dropped to his knees, eyes blurry with tears.
    Thunder rumbled in the sky and the clouds darkened, announcing a dreaded mountain storm.
    The beast of a man hovered above him, his once-glistening armblade now dulled with red smear. He raised his sharp appendage into the air again, this time preparing for the killing blow. Rasi lowered his head. He was too tired, too weak to resist. If he had met this murderer when he was rested and uninjured, he’d have killed him, he was sure. But not this time.
    I’m coming to you, Edonea. If not in this world, in the next.
    The beast smiled with flexed muscles.
    “Good-bye, Rasi. You were formidable, I suppose. Heh, heh.”
    Rasi braced for the coming death strike while angry songs of thunder rang in his ears. His wife’s long, silky hair flashed into his mind. He smiled, remembering her perfect scent. He would use that scent as his guide in the afterlife.
    He flinched as he sensed the beast’s blade swing toward his neck. His anger rose inside him, helpless to release. He clenched his jaw. Finish this, he silently ordered.
    But death did not come. Instead a blood-curdling scream rang out over the thunder. Rasi was startled to realize it wasn’t from his own lungs. He opened his eyes. The beast of a man writhed on the ground while the whiteness changed to crimson sludge around him. Blood spurted into the air from where his arm, his weapon, once was.
    Rasi lifted his gaze to his hovering straps. The bloody stump of his enemy’s arm hung beneath them with tendons and ligaments dangling from its end.
    Rasi rose to his feet, reinvigorated. He glared at his fallen opponent as the beast struggled to crawl, a trail of blood and meat left in his wake. The man, once so cocky, whimpered like a beaten dog as he slithered away.
    Rasi’s new straps snapped like cobras in the air, eager for more blood. The one around his arm uncoiled from the now-clotted wound. Adrenaline surged through his veins and he wondered if that was what kept him standing. He was excited and strong and wanted more.
    I am invincible.
    Rasi gave his fallen foe his back. He didn’t know if this armblade would survive bleeding in the cold, mountainous landscape, nor did he care. He left with the solace that the murderer’s likely death would not be a pleasant one. As he drudged through the whiteness, he could no longer hear his enemy’s cries and he grinned.
    The temperature dropped as a storm and the night approached. It was a more bitter night than the others and for the first time Rasi began to feel the sting of the cold. The snow fell heavier from the gods, covering his tracks as quickly as he made them. He stumbled several times but somehow kept his footing. His stomach rumbled again, angry at its lack of nourishment. He could no longer feel his toes. The black bite of frost that he was so fortunate to have missed would not stay away much longer. Too weak to push onward, he fell to his knees. His legs quivered as he