“Master, there isn't time to—”

  Just as Azure spoke, another raider charged our location.

  Fortunately for me, Henrik blocked him, but another raider approached from the opposite side.

  Maya was gone. Other defenders were fighting elsewhere; there were none to help me.

  It was just me.

  The raider struck with a curved blade at my chest. I deflected the blow, barely. The force of the impact nearly ripped the sword from my hand. He was physically stronger than me and had more experience. And he knew it.

  The raider attacked with a speed that I had difficulty tracking, let alone be able to block. With each successive attack, he pushed me back further from the barricade. My arms screamed from trying to keep his blade from cutting me down.

  “Master, his footwork follows a pattern,” Azure helped again. “He strikes high, then low, then thrusts.”

  With that information, I could—

  A pitchfork burst through the raider's chest from behind.

  Maya yanked her weapon from the raider's chest as he fell to the ground. She looked at me, panting heavily. “Tomas, what did I tell you about dying? Honestly, it seems like you've never fought in a real fight.”

  “Thanks,” I managed, my voice quivering. “I owe you one.”

  She began to speak when Henrik interrupted her. “Maya! The south wall is being breached!”

  Maya cursed using language that would make my old college roommates blush. “Keep an eye on this area! And Tomas, if you see anyone with red markings on their face, run. Those are the Sun-Touched. Do not fight them.”

  “Sun-Touched?”

  But, by the time I finished speaking, she was already gone, running toward the breached south wall with her bloody pitchfork.

  “Master,” Azure called out softly, “I am detecting something. Near these raiders, the ambient energy is becoming concentrated and is changing. It is somewhat similar to how spiritual energy flows during cultivation, but it is corrupted.”

  A large figure broke through our makeshift barricade, sending wooden shards in every direction.

  The impact threw me off balance. I fell hard to the ground, the air forced from my lungs.

  Looking up at the raider, I realized what Maya was warning me about.

  The raider was enormous, clearly over seven feet tall and built like a boulder. But it was not the raider's size that caused me to freeze in place, his arms were covered in swirling red designs that pulsed and moved in synchronization with the light of the red sun.

  That was a Sun-Touched.

  “Master..." Azure said with a tone that I had never heard him use before. Afraid. “Master, that energy. It is breaking down his body and building it back up again. He must be experiencing an immense amount of pain...”

  The Sun-Touched did not appear to be experiencing pain. He appeared ecstatic.

  He rushed toward me with supernatural speed.

  I barely managed to roll to the side as he punched the ground where I was standing, creating a crater.

  “The Sundering's greatest gift!” the Sun-Touched boomed, his voice distorted and layered with echoes. “Behold the red sun's blessings! The weak shall perish, and the strong shall inherit—"

  An arrow entered the Sun-Touched's eye.

  The Sun-Touched stumbled backward, surprised rather than injured.

  But it gave me the time I needed to get away from the monstrous creature.

  “Thanks for the shot, Sara!” Henrik yelled from his post.

  A mature woman with a hunting bow stood atop a nearby rooftop, already loading another arrow into her bow. “Seventh Band speaks too much,” she laughed. “I suppose the red sun causes them to become philosophers.”

  “Do any of them die?” I asked as I watched the Sun-Touched pull the arrow from his eye as though it were an insignificant nuisance.

  “Yes,” Sara answered, releasing an arrow. “If you set them on fire, or remove their head, they die. Any other method of killing them only just angers them.”

  The Sun-Touched ignored me and charged toward Sara's position.

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  Sara jumped from the rooftop a second before the Sun-Touched smashed through it, landing safely on the ground and springing to her feet with a level of agility that was unexpected given her age.

  “The east side has fallen!” a person yelled from across the square. “Fall back to the central courtyard!”

  “Falling back?” Henrik spat. “There is nowhere to fall back to!”

  Despite saying that, we were already falling back, joining the crowd of defenders and villagers who were heading toward the center of the village. The Sun-Touched chased after us, apparently fixated on Sara now. She engaged him in a deadly dance, always managing to stay just out of reach while shooting him with arrows that didn’t do anything to slow him down.

  I eventually caught up with Maya, who was helping an injured woman up.

  “What’s the plan?” I asked.

  Maya gave me a look that told me there was no plan.

  We were just trying to survive the next five minutes.

  The red sun climbed higher in the sky. I could feel its light pressing down on me, making my thoughts turn strange. Angry. Violent. I didn’t have to even look at it to feel its influence.

  “It is approaching the seventh hour,” Henrik whispered. “And when the red sun reaches its zenith—"

  “Things get worse,” I finished. “Of course they do.”

  By the time we made it to the central square, there were only twenty of us defenders left, the rest were either dead or lost.

  The Sun-Touched appeared at the far end of the square, with Sara still dancing around him.

  The problem was that he wasn’t alone.

  There were two other raiders who were showing signs of the transformation, their skin began to turn red as their muscles grew to unnatural proportions.

  The Sun-Touched picked up what was left of our barricade and hurled it at us like it weighed nothing.

  We all split up, sprinting in every possible direction.

  Henrik wasn’t able to dodge in time.

  The debris struck him, knocking him to the ground. I heard bones snap.

  “Get him to the healer's house!” Maya shouted, already going off to hold off one of the transforming raiders.

  I picked Henrik under the arms and dragged him away. He was heavy, very heavy, and this body was weak. Every stride was exhausting. Behind me, I could hear Maya and Sara trying to stall for time, their blades clashing futilely with flesh that wouldn’t break.

  “Leave me, boy,” Henrik gasped. “Just go!”

  “Not happening,” I growled, continuing to drag him toward the healer's house. “You’re going to be okay. We’re all going to be okay.”

  I didn’t believe it but saying it out loud made the lie feel almost true.

  The healer's house was already packed with wounded individuals.

  A gray-haired woman, who had a lot more strength than I expected, helped me get Henrik onto a bed.

  “Arrow wound and blunt trauma,” I said. “His ribs are probably broken.”

  The healer stared at me in confusion.

  “Tomas, I didn’t know you knew healing?”

  I didn’t answer.

  New screams came from outside.

  I sprinted to the window.

  Three more raiders were undergoing transformations.

  The process was horrifying to watch.

  Bones cracked and reformed, skin split as muscles bulged beneath, red markings spread all over their flesh.

  Within seconds, the Seventh Band had three more Sun-Touched.

  “There’s no way we can fight that,” I whispered.

  “No,” the healer agreed quietly. “We can’t.”

  She handed me a leather satchel containing emergency supplies.

  “There’s a tunnel system below the old storehouse, take any survivors that can still walk with you.”

  “What about you?”

  “Someone needs to stay with them,” she pointed to the wounded. “Now go!”

  I knew what that meant, but I didn’t argue.

  I got together everyone who could still walk — six people total, including myself and Henrik, who claimed he was still capable of fighting despite barely being able to stand. We made our way through the deserted streets of the village toward the old storehouse.

  Before we could find the tunnels, the wall next to us exploded.

  A Sun-Touched stood in the newly created opening. This Sun-Touched was different from the others. Red markings completely covered his body, and his eyes glowed with an intense ferocity that hurt to gaze at. In one enormous hand, he held something that made my heart stop.

  It was Maya's pitchfork.

  The Sun-Touched flung Maya's corpse aside like discarded trash.

  I started forward without thinking, but Henrik grabbed my arm.

  “She’s already dead,” he said softly. “Don’t waste what she sacrificed for us.”

  The Sun-Touched looked at us with his blazing eyes and grinned, showing teeth that had been sharpened to points.

  We did what any sane person would do – we ran.

  The others scattered toward the storehouse while the monster focused on me.

  I barely raised my battered sword in time to deflect his first strike.

  The impact shattered the blade and sent me tumbling backward.

  I rolled to mitigate some of the impact.

  The Sun-Touched walked toward me at a leisurely pace, enjoying the hunt. He wasn’t in a rush. Why would he be? I had no options. He knew it.

  I retreated backward, searching for something, anything.

  I had no weapons, no cultivation, nothing.

  The air changed.

  A heavy pressure pressed down.

  My soul felt like it was being squeezed.

  Even the Sun-Touched stopped, looking up as it sensed something was wrong.

  A figure materialized in the sky.

  I couldn’t see their face beneath the hood, but I could sense their power.

  This wasn’t qi.

  This was something else.

  “Skybound,” one of the wounded nearby whispered. “By the twin suns, it's a Skybound. We're all dead.”

  The robed figure extended one hand.

  The Sun-Touched pursuing me ceased to exist instantly.

  In one moment, he was there. In the next, he was a fine red mist painting the ground and nearby walls.

  With another gesture, a fleeing raider stopped in his tracks mid-stride, his entire body freezing as ice encased him.

  This wasn’t a battle. This was annihilation.

  I turned away and sprinted toward the storehouse, toward Henrik and the other members of our party.

  They were nearly at the entrance to the tunnels. Only slightly farther. If we could only—

  The Skybound's next spell caught Henrik's group.

  I looked away, but I couldn’t block out the screams.

  They stopped quickly. Everything stopped quickly.

  Then the robed figure appeared in front of me.

  “Interesting,” they murmured. “Your life-force is unusual, almost like...”

  “Look, I'm not worth your time,” I raised my battered sword, trying to stop my hands from shaking. “I can't even fight properly, just let me go!"

  “Unfortunately, I can’t leave behind any survivors, you saw too much.”

  With a wave of their hand, symbols appeared in the air, glowing with reality-bending power.

  I tried to run. Tried to dodge. Tried to do anything.

  “Master,” Azure said, his voice filled with sorrow, “I'm sorry. I don't know how to he—”

  The spell hit.

  Pain.

  Agonising pain exploded through every nerve.

  It felt like being torn apart and frozen solid at the same time.

  My vision turned white, then went dark.

  For the second time in this life, I felt myself dying.

  The darkness consumed me, and I fell into the void again.