Chapter 384 Reavers End (1/2)

As soon as Arran had ripped the Reaver's amulet away, he hurried two dozen paces backward Then, without hesitation, he tore away the thick mass of Shadow Essence he'd used to subdue the creature

Freeing the Reaver was dangerous, but he kneas necessary He only had a single chance to witness how re the amulet would affect it, and to see the full effects, he needed the creature to wake from its stupor

Still, the Reaver recovered faster than he could have iined

The instant Arran removed the mass of Shadow Essence he'd used to subdue the creature, it sprang to its feet And then, with a single leap, it was upon hih blade at his head even before it landed

The Reaver's attack was as ferocious as it was powerful It ca at hihtest concern for its own safety Within seconds, it had already struck a dozen vicious blows, each of them intended to kill

Yet Arran was prepared for the attack He'd seen the Reaver's strength when it was forced to kill its allies, and ih he had been, he knew he could ht calht be, he deflected and parried theled to close the distance

Lady Raina had said sohts, but that wasn't the case for this particular specith and skill were no match for Arran's

Moreover, as the Reaver conored its defense, Arran had plenty of opportunities to land strikes of his own After barely half a minute, the creature already bore half a dozen deep wounds

Yet it didn't take long for Arran to realize that soht the creature's viciousness was like that of its Blightspawn allies, but now, he recognized that it was different

What he saw in the creature's jet-black eyes wasn't bloodlust Rather, it was fear And what he'd taken for viciousness was actually desperation — desperation at retrieving the amulet, he realized

Still, he felt no syhtspawn had taken the lives of over a dozen of his allies

He calmly continued to fend off the Reaver's relentless attacks, slowly retreating as he parried each of its strikes And although he had several chances to finish his opponent, he did not do so Instead, he waited patiently to see ould happen to the creature without its amulet

The wait turned out to be a short one

If the Reaver's attacks had been furious frorew frantic Whatever skills the creature possessed, it seeotten them completely in its desperation to take back the aht like a trained swordse, aled at hied creature's frenzied attacks achieved little A lesser swordsht have been overwheled the artless attacks with ease

Then, suddenly, the Reaver caiant body abruptly frozen as its black eyes ith terror And as Arran looked at it, he saw a ripple go through the creature's pale skin, as if the poithin its body was on the verge of bursting through

At once, he hurried backward, putting several dozen paces between himself and the creature If all the Essence within its body was unleashed at once, he had no desire to be next to it

Yet the eruption he expected did not come Instead, the Reaver re as if it was being burned from the inside

The creature opened its mouth as if to scream, but despite its tortured expression, no sound caround

Arran watched the Reaver with a deep frown, half expecting it to rise again Yet no more movement came from the creature, and after a minute had passed, he kneas truly dead

Still, he did not approach the creature's body immediately Instead, he stared at his fallen foe with a ponderous expression, forehead creased in a deep frown as he considered what he'd learned

The battle had not at all gone as he'd expected

For a start, the Reaver had lasted far longer than he'd thought possible He had assu its aht on for several minutes

That could only mean that its resistance to the Essence within its body did not coht even have soic after losing its aent than he expected, too While the Blightspaere little more than beasts, the Reaver seerant it its powers, he had little doubt that its mind had remained h his Shadowcloak with ease This wasn't entirely unexpected, but it was a setback nonetheless

Effective though the thick cloud of Shadow Essence had been in blinding the Blightspawn, it would blind his allies as well And worse, any Darian Knights would instantly recognize it as h, but then, he turned his attention back to the Reaver's body There s he could learn froh to show that the creature's previously smooth skin was now covered in burns and blisters — no surprise, given the manner in which it had died

Yet what did surprise Arran was how closely the Reaver's injuries reselance, he knew the similarity wasn't a coincidence Whatever htspawn, it was similar to what had killed the Reaver

His hopes of finding anything else, however, were soon dashed Other than the aical items, nor did it have any scrolls or documents

Still, Arran wasn't too disappointed by the lack of results He had already expected as htspawn into the Imperium had surely known they would be killed sooner or later

He spent another fewthe body to , and when he was certain there was absolutely nothing to be found, he stood up and cast a long look at the battlefield

Though the battle had been easy, the devastation was no less for it Hundreds of Blightspawn bodies littered the ground around hih most of them bore the razor-like cuts of Arran's blade, ured by the Reaver's ic

Arran paid the dead bodies little attention, however Instead, he sought out those few Blightspahose wounds hadn't killed theathered half a dozen iron ahtspawn's bodies The rest would have to be gathered the next , but it wouldn't hurt to study the amulets before that

Then, after a final look at his slain enee