Even though the bde had seen all of this ing, it still rather enjoyed watg it reach a climax as its wielder and the man's friends left the bcksmith’s the following afternoon. They faced down a mob, in what was very clearly a hastily id trap. Before them stood a semiciren with bared swords and behind them oreet they were backed by another half dozen men with loaded crossbows.

  “You hand over the gold, and we’ll let you walk away with your lives,” the leader called out. He was an ugly warrior with mismatched armor and a well-notched sword. “Or you draw steel, and we kill you for it. Doesn’t matter to me either way. No reason to die when you just go bato the mountains and take another bite off y score.”

  The Ebon Bde knew immediately that no one was walking away from anything here. Kell and the rest of his group either handed over their valuables and then died, or they fought for their valuables before they died. It was a simple equation. The cutthroats might let one of them live long enough to lead them back to Gern’s big score, but that was it.

  The bde should have been pleased by that idea. But some little detail worried at it. Though it hadn’t cared in the past, ever si had unlocked small pieces of its soul, things had been shifted, and it was surprised to find that it did not wish to be held by a traitor.

  In fact, more than anything now, it regretted that it had tried so hard to turn the sniveling shepherd against his friend. It did not care for either of them, but it would have rather that they chopped each other to bloody pieces like men rather than fight over a woman like boys.

  That didn’t mean that the bde wanted a good, principled owner. It wanted a bloodthirsty warrior without peer to use it to cleave a bloody trail across the kingdom. A traitor, though? It would rather be wielded by a goblin. Some things were too ugly to tolerate.

  So, as Gern tried to talk their way out of the situation, arguing, “There’s plenty of gold for everyone in those mountains. We could go together and split the profits. No one o die. We could all be rich,” the bde analyzed the situation, then decided to take a gamble and whisper to its wielder, as it started siphoning off of every enemy within rao make what was about to happen easier.

  This would hurt a lot, for Kell, at least. The man was wearing his bde on a crude rope scabbard he’d made, but his armor was still packed up on their mule with the rest of their supplies. All of theirs were. None of them had been expeg this.

  No one hear me but you, it started. Do not react, or those crossbowmen could get restless.

  Wha-what? Who is this? Kell’s mind demanded fearfully as he stood there, trying not to turn his head and look for the source of the unseen voi his mind.

  I am a on, nothing more, the bde started. But in a moment, when the fighting starts, you and all of your friends will die unless you do exactly as I say.

  How I trust you? Kell argued I don’t even know who you are.

  You must strike first, and you must strike without mercy, the bde argued, ign the question. While you wield me, you shrug off even grievous wounds. Your friends will not be so lucky, so you must charge now, while they aren’t expeg you!

  I… the young man tried to formute his thoughts. Gern is trying to hahis peacefully, Kell insisted. We still talk our way out of this. We still—

  Even as he tried to expin the facts of life to the bde, the crossbowmen opened fire on all three of them at a gesture from their leader. Mika and Kell were both hit, but only Mika went down.

  Rip out the quarrel, the bde yelled in its wielder’s mind, even as it was drawn in anger. You ot heal a wound that is full of wood and steel!

  -6 Life Force

  Kell obeyed, though it was more due to ahan to any pulsion from the bde, and he swung it wildly forward with one hand while the other ripped the bolt out of his side. The wound was gone even before he tossed it away.

  -4 Life Force

  The Ebon Bde could already feel itself losing Life Force, but it didn’t care. It was already over 400, and it was about to feast on the souls of these treacherous fools.

  -2 Life Force

  Kell's blow left him wide open, and he was stabbed for his trouble, but as soon as the bde withdrew, the wound closed at the cost of nine more life force. The man lost his head for his trouble, and the bde drank deeply.

  +16 Life Force

  You have cimed one human soul!

  “You killed Mika!” Kell screamed, lurg toward the leader, who was obviously surprised to see him still standing. -2 Life Force

  Kell was impossibly outnumbered, and his angry blows should have doomed him, but the Ebon Bde tributed to those motions, granting him a certain elegand making it past the defenses of these men more frequently than he had any right to.

  +16 Life Force-8 Life Force

  +12 Life Force

  You have cimed a human soul!

  +20 Life Force-4 Life Force

  You have cimed a human soul!

  Kell took blow after fatal blow, but he killed too, even more often than he should have died. He only fell when his spine was briefly severed by a hard ssh to his back. That wasn’t enough to keep him down for long, and he rose again and again to keep fighting as he tried and failed to defend the men he called his family. It would have been hard to keep him down, given how much the bde was dev the lives around him, though.

  -14 Life Force

  Its hunger had bee a palpable miasma that was eg all of its draining targets in a thin bck mist. Which gave its oppos a terrible dilemma that they weren’t even aware of. With this many targets to choose from, they had enough swords to hold it at bay, if only barely, but they gave it too many souls to feast on. If they fought it with less, then it would drain less, but they would surely perish beh its focused attention.

  You have cimed a human soul!

  You have cimed a human soul!

  You have cimed a human soul!

  Slowly, oh at a time, the bde whittled them down. At one point, it saw a pop up about its Path of Death, but it ighat, both unwilling and uo tear its attention away from the brutality of this bat. It still did not love this wielder, but it loved the way that he kept goie the attacks that were raining down upon him. He was simply unwilling to let these men finish off his friends, even though they were very much done for already.

  You have cimed a human soul!

  You have cimed a human soul!

  Gern was holding his entrails in, but he still had a pulse. Mika, oher hand, was nothing but a warm corpse. Yet somehow, despite all that, the young man fought, eliminating one enemy at a time.

  Ohey almost succeeded in killing him. One of his oppos had succeeded in cirg around behind him and driving a short sword between Kell’s ribs, cleaving his heart in twain. For a moment, Kell died. If the Ebon Bde had the ability to steal his wielder's soul, he probably would have stayed dead, too.

  You have cimed a human soul!

  However, almost as soon as the blow was struck, the attacker pulled his bde free, and Kell came to life once more, quickly whirling to dispatch his unseehe battle went on for almost ten minutes, and a good k of the town came out to watch the desperate duel. A few of them even shouted encement.

  For the st few minutes, Kell had been trying to cut a path to the ring leader with single-minded fury, and as soon as that happened and the man was bleeding out on the ground, the others quickly retreated, but her of them wao let them go, and Kell cut down two more while they fled before the rest had made good their escape.

  You have cimed a human soul! Your soul ste is full, and the soul has been burned for 89 Life Forbsp;

  By that point, his body was exhausted, and his chest was heaving. Feasting on the blood of his enemies ily, though, made him a tireless juggernaut. At least, that was the case until he sheathed the bde and then ran tern. Then, his legs very nearly gave out on him.

  “Pa!” Kell yelled, even though the man wasn’t really his dad. “Are you okay?”

  “Fet me, cheika!” the old man growled, obviously unwilling to accept that his actual son had been killed by a bolt through the heart in the first moments of battle.

  “I… I think he’s…” Kell tried to say, rolling the other man onto his babsp;

  “Nonsense,” Gern yelled before doubling over in pain. “He just needs a healer.”

  Could you… the same way you healed me? Could you heal them? Kell asked his on silently.

  Mika is dead, and nothing heal him, the bde agreed. As to Gern, well, if he wielded me, my magic would heal him, but I do not think he would give the on back. He barely let you keep it the first time.

  Kell said nothing in respoo that for a long moment. Theood and said, “I’m going to go a you a healer, Pa!” and ran off as fast as his legs could carry him.

  A few mier, he’d returo the massacre, promising to vish the man he was dragging along in gold. It was there he found Gern unscious but alive, though more than a few strangers were pig through the bodies of the dead men. Kell ignored all of them except the orying to rob Mika’s corpse. That one he killed with n at all, pinning the man to the dusty street with a sword through the babsp;

  You have cimed a human soul! Your soul ste is full, and the soul has been burned for 91 Life Forbsp;

  While the healer worked, the bde whispered to its wielder, You know that it was the smith that betrayed you. He set up this ambush and probably sacrificed your lives to keep half of yold for himself.

  You don’t know that Kell shot babsp;

  I don’t, the swreed. But I know that no one else knew you were going to be there just before you left town, and it takes time to put together a gang this big.

  Kell didn’t answer, and the bde didn’t bebor the point. The man was grieving his loss already, and when Gern died despite the healer’s magic, he bmed himself.

  It was shortly after that moment that the sheriff finally made an appearah half a dozen men wearing mismatched armor. He was clearly afraid of Kell but asked him what had happened just the same. Kell expihat he and his family were about to go back out into the wilds to try t back mold when they were set upon by thieves and cutthroats.

  The wman, to his credit, suspected the same thing the sword did and the smith fessed after only a few threats. “They weren’t supposed to kill ‘em, though. They were just supposed to rob ‘em!” the man pined when he broke down.

  That defense didn’t go down very well, and the man was senteo hanging on the spot. That robably all that saved Kell, but the sword sehat the man didn’t really want to be saved. In fact, it was clear that more than anything, he regretted not killing the smith when he’d had the bsp;

  The bde would have tried to provoke that flict, but it was already overflowing with power and souls. So, it would prefer some quiet time to pte what choices it should make with those , rather than causing more bloodshed.

  “Just because you aren’t to bme for all this, doesn’t mean I ever want to see your fa my town again, you uand?” the sheriff asked after Kell had paid off the healer for his rendered services, futile though they were.

  Kell nodded but then asked, “ I at least stay to see them buried? After that, I’ll be on my way.”

  The request softehe w man’s heart, and he nodded. So, Kell loaded everything of worth that he still had onto their mule a off to the gravedigger to make arras.

  “You were right. I should have struck first,” he cursed privately as he walked away.