Revenant's Resolve Chapter 12

“CHTO?!” one of the Bessarbans had just enough time to watch in abject horror as Reznik leapt from a rooftop onto his shoulders.

Tackling the man to the ground, Reznik’s body grabbed the top of the Bessarban soldier’s skull, twist, and wrench down to the man’s chest with a satisfying crunch of bone and sinew popping.

Little could be heard amongst the din of fighting around Reznik, but he could clearly see the sheer terror on the faces of the other Bessarbann fighters that had made the mistake of crossing into a street on Reznik’s path.

So, logically, immediately after Reznik’s body tore the soldier’s head from its shoulders, Reznik hurled the severed head directly into the face of the nearest man.

HAHA! YES!

Wonderful throw!

It seems the past weeks of rest have not troubled your aim!

Now, cut through them, quickly!

We need to go after those Mages!

In answer to Reznik’s prodding and plotted mental course directly through the soldiers, Reznik’s body let out a shriek and leapt into the next man - sending him sprawling away into two of his compatriots. Given the substantial crunch Reznik had felt from the impact, he imagined the man wouldn’t be getting back up anytime soon.

Our right!

Reznik barely dodged out of the way of a massive bearded axe swung by a diminutive man in thick leather armor.

The Dwarf had massively over-swung the weapon, and Reznik saw the moment in his eyes where he realized his mistake. Reznik’s body simply kicked out and sent the Dwarf flying away, into and then through the stone wall of a nearby house.

Oh, so you can learn new tricks, it seems.

I’ve never seen you kick before!

As if replying, Reznik’s body chuffed once, and then turned towards the remaining two men.

Two men who, coincidentally dropped their weapons, turned, and ran away like the devil was chasing them.

To be fair, they probably think he is.

Reznik glanced down to his blood-soaked arms and rolled his eyes.

Oh well, if they didn’t want to die, they shouldn’t have invaded.

Now, off to the Mages, friend!

Palisade wall is just down there - we simply go over, and then out into the field.

I can’t be certain, but that is where it looked like those spells were being hurled from.

Reznik’s body set out for the wall, but not before taking the time to stave one of the sprawled soldier’s skull in with a bare foot.

Oh wonderful.

Now we’re going to have slimy brains between our toes for weeks!

His body customarily didn’t have a reply as it sprinted down the lane to the wall. Reznik wondered why it wasn’t broken in more places.

From the rooftops, it only looked like they made a couple of holes besides the gates themselves.

Hmmm…

It might be so they could concentrate on less angles to attack from.

That, or less ways for people to escape.

Can’t call for reinforcements if you’re dead.

Reznik leapt over the palisade fence with ease, a queasy thought settling into Reznik. He was more than aware that armies would frequently conquer each other’s territory for any number of reasons. Resources, political slights, territory - a thousand different reasons for a million different conflicts.

Unfortunately, extermination was one of those reasons.

Now where would our Mages be?

The were somewhere ove-

Oh.

Oh no.

Reznik’s body blessedly dove out of the way of a column of pure white fire that careened from the heavens towards him. Landing just far enough away to listen to the sound of his right arm sizzling, Reznik’s eyes focused on the steep, diving arc of the spell, and tracked it back to a spot just beyond the treeline in front of him.

Ah, the clearing where we fought the bear.

With an internal grin, Reznik mentally pointed at the spot for his body, which had already begun running in a straight path directly for the clearing.

In the middle of crossing the open field between himself and the treeline, Reznik’s body suddenly ducked down and rolled underneath a hurled, jagged spike of ice that snapped past his head with a weighty snap of air before crashing through the palisade wall behind him with a resounding crunch.

Oh.

Mmm.

It’s been so long since we fought a mage.

We’re rusty.

No more straight lines.

Zig, zag, and run amok like the wild thing you are, friend!

With a wild howl for a reply, his body made a sharp right turn, running nearly parallel to the forest edge for several seconds before it hooked sharply back towards his objective and leapt skyward again.

Crossing far further than any man had the rights to, Reznik landed in a tight roll several meters in front of the closest tree. Beyond it, he could see a terrified-looking pale-skinned Elf.

Incredibly pale, with alabaster skin and somehow whiter hair.

This man was paler than any Elf Reznik had seen before.

He also looked downright terrified - whipping a staff around in his hands to point the tip at Reznik.

The Elf would be too late, as Reznik’s body had already leapt into the gap between trees at the man.

A flash.

A crack of thunder.

A gap of memory later, and Reznik found himself to be flying away from the pale Elf as a dark-haired woman with glowing blue eyes stepped out from a tree behind the man, holding a crackling ball of lightning in her left palm.

He was also flying the wrong direction, in a path perpendicular to the one he’d been running.

Oh that’s just wo-

Reznik slammed through the branch of a tree.

-nderful. So, we have an ice mage, a lighting mage, and th-

Reznik slammed into the ground and tumbled over a root. Then across a boulder. Then finally came to a stop at the base of a tree.

-en whatever that thing was that shot the sunbeam at me was.

I might be a bit outclassed here.

To punctuate his thoughts, a pillar of ice slammed into the trunk of the tree above him, showering his body and the ground with frigid shrapnel.

His body pushed to its knees and cracked a bone in Reznik’s neck back into place.

Ah, that’s better.

Reznik realized that he couldn’t see the Mages anymore. He also followed the path of destruction in the underbrush with his eyes out for a short ways, realizing that not only had he’d been flung over fifty meters away, he’d also lost most of the muscle on his left arm.

Much of the meat of the limb was left on a broken branch protruding from the ground in the path of broken brambles.

Glancing down to the wound itself, he found the muscle slowly knitting itself back together again at a pace that felt painfully slow for a fight like this.

At least they don’t hit as hard as Zarah.

With a wild, whooping roar, Reznik’s body shot through the smashed gap in the bramble to where he’d been flung from. It was clear that his body had not taken kindly to being hit while in the process of attacking the ice mage.

Slow down, simply charging in didn’t work last time, so why would it work this time?

His body continued to sprint through the brush, intent on seeing the mages dead. Apparently, it cared for little else.

Ahead of him, he could see the ice mage preparing another spell that formed an array of person-sized icicles before him. Much to Reznik’s surprise, the man also did not seem to notice the coming approach of a Revenant.

In fact, the spellcaster’s only worry seemed to be the current project he was working on, and not at all his security, or confirming that the monster his counterpart had just lightninged away into the forest  was actually dead.

In fact, Reznik heard laughter and conversation ahead of him.

Likely, the mages were confident that whatever had struck Reznik had in fact killed him.

Which, if he were anything close to human, it likely would have.

His entire body held a phantom ache to it, like every muscle just got done running a marathon.

We should flank around. See if we can catch that lighting-slinger off-guard, or at least deal with her before him.

He seems to take a while to cast things.

Hers was almost instant.

Reznik’s body ignored him, instead choosing to screech loudly and leap towards the ice mage.

Reznik sighed deeply, mentally preparing himself for the sudden flash of thunder as he sailed towards the man, only to be surprised when none came.

Instead, his body slammed squarely into the youth, tackling him down to the ground in a rolling heap.

Somehow, Reznik landed underneath the elf, who began to scream for help.

Reznik’s body began to pull in opposite directions on the elf’s arms, eliciting a sinewy series of snaps before Reznik ripped the sorcerer’s right arm off.

“Ne!” a woman screamed somehow louder than the wailing elf on top of Reznik. A black-booted foot kicked the pale, disarmed man off of Reznik before he found himself staring down a ball of lightning aimed at his head.

Roll! Get out of th-

Another crack of thunder and gap in his memory, Reznik found himself only barely able to make out the sound and sight of the mage shouting at her friend.

She’d taken her focus away from Reznik just long enough for his body to regain its senses, and swipe up and out at her.

The sorceress leapt back as his hand swiped at nothing.

Oh. Oh that’s not good.

If our skin looks like that, I don’t want to think what our insides look like.

Reznik’s flesh was charred, blackened, and covered with open sores and wounds no doubt caused by a prolonged exposure to lightning.

Seemingly unaware of the pain it felt, Reznik’s body rolled onto its stomach and jumped to its feet, just in time for another bolt of lightning to slam home into his back.

Turning around after the brief shock to his system, Reznik faced the mage, who didn’t look that much better than him at the moment. She was drenched in sweat, her uniform disheveled, and her hair clinging to her face in black stringy clumps.

The lightning-flinger snarled at him and said something in a language Reznik couldn’t understand.

The meaning, however, was easy to hear.

She was -pissed-.

Another blue ball of lightning began to form in her hand as Reznik’s body flexed its muscles to pounce.

No, don’t attack! Jump out of the way, that way!

Reznik did his best to force his will at his body, shoving the mental concept with all his might towards whatever consciousness, or lack thereof, controlled him.

At the last possible second, even as the sorceress moved her hand forward to hurl the lightning at Reznik, his body sprang to the side and narrowly avoided the thunderous strand of lightning cast by his opponent.

Oh! You’re actu- shit! To the left!

Left, GO!

Reznik’s body obeyed and sprang out to avoid another searing bolt that roared through the space he’d just been.

The mage’s hand dropped as she took in a sucking, heaving breath of air, doubling forward as she instead clutched at a stitch in her side.

Now!

Go, spring towards her and nibble her face off!

Reznik’s body jumped towards the woman with arms outstretched like he was going to give a long time friend a bear-hug.

Right as it looked like he was about to succeed in his attack, the woman stepped back and pulled out a short sword belted on her hip, slashing out with it in an attack that felt too quick to be normal.

Thankfully, the attack was wild and largely imprecise, merely severing Reznik’s left hand at the wrist and carving a small slit into his upper chest.

Reznik’s left hand darted out towards the woman’s throat, clearly intent on grabbing her, or ripping it open.

Unfortunately, the woman wasn’t entirely drained, it seemed, as she pulled the blade back and came for his other hand. The blow took off most of his fingers, but came too late for her as Reznik’s body sprang forward.

Both him and the sorceress tumbled to the ground in a heap, her trying to push his body off her. She placed a hand to his chest, and Reznik felt a spell begin to build -inside- him.

She’s going to try and hit me from inside my own body, isn’t she?

Fuck.

Fuck, fuck, fuckity fuck fuck!

Okay.

Body.

Puke on her.

Give her some of the old black bile!

Do it, now!

Reznik forced the idea into his body, trying with all his might to convey the feeling of upending his woefully acidic guts directly onto the woman’s face beneath him.

Reznik’s body paused in the struggle to try and shove a piece of protruding bone into the woman and cocked its head.

Then, it sucked in, arched its back, and heaved.

A torrent of black filth poured out from between his lips and onto the caster’s face, eliciting a wild, gurgling scream from the woman as Reznik felt the spell in his chest fade away to nothing.

Shortly after the spell faded, so did the woman’s consciousness - her going from a scream, to a rasping gurgle, to silence as most of the meat on her face sluiced away.

Oh thank the gods.

Honestly, I forgot we could even do tha-

Reznik’s thoughts cut short as what felt like a cudgel slammed against his head, only to shatter into a kaleidoscope of glassy shards of ice, knocking him away from the woman.

Rolling across the ground for a short distance, Reznik’s body managed to come out of the roll into a crouch.

The snowy elf was watching Reznik with a horrified expression, another spell of sharpened ice forming in front of his staff.

A staff that was held by a lone arm - what remained of the other currently fountaining blood out in short pumps.

Wait for him to get close to completing the spell, then leap to the side and close the distance. I don’t think he’s as fast as the other one.

Wait for it…

Wait for it…

Aaaand NO- uh…

Well, okay then!

The snow Elf’s eyes went glassy a moment before his body went limp.

The ice mage dropped the staff he was holding shortly after the icicle fell to the ground.

Toppling like a wet bag of sand, the Elf landed face-first in the blood-soaked grass of the small clearing, likely dead.

Well, it looks like you did a good job today, old friend.

We should get back to the town.

See if we can help anyone, and-

Reznik’s body was stomping towards the mage seasoned with his bile - or more accurately, limping.

Looking down to his hands, or to be accurate, the outright lack of anything recognizable as a hand.

His right hand was completely severed, and beginning to bubble back into place with a reddish-green froth.

The fingers and part of the thumb on his left hand was also removed, now growing back in the same way.

Also, his entire body felt like it was on fire.

In the many years that Reznik had been party to his body’s misadventures in the wastes, he’d never seen it come this close to death.

His flesh had been cooked by lightning, his limbs removed, and had been launched through a forest in the last ten minutes alone.

Fuck.

Okay.

Well. It’s time to eat, isn’t it?

You’re honestly more of a risk to the citizens if I don’t feed you than the soldiers attacking the town right now.

With their magical support gone, I hope the riverguard can hold the line long enough for you to eat, heal, and begin to listen again.

So go, chow down, friend.

His body knelt beside the seasoned mage and took a bite out of her throat.

It didn’t even take its customary howl over a successful kill.

It was focused purely on the meal.

When you’re done, and we head back to town, I need you on your best behavior, friend.

We’re a monster to the enemy.

Not Sir Botezatu’s men or the people.

Reznik knew he was on a timer to affect the outcome of the battle in a more concrete way, and made the conscious decision to not mentally check out as his body consumed the flesh of its prey.

As revolting as it was to watch as his body devoured what had once been a living person, he needed to be ready to get it moving as soon as he was healed and it had had its fill.

Gods, you could do with a little less noise, couldn’t you?

Chewing with your mouth closed is the first step to civility, after all.

No?

Mmn.

Fine, I won’t pester you about it this time.

You certainly worked up an appetite, didn’t you?