Grey, speed 19/Aetheric blast 6

A dark shard of black ice stabbed out of the air, aimed at my throat. I parried, but when I reached for the hidden arm holding the blade, I grabbed nothing but air. Another blade thrust from the side, aimed at my hip, then another in front of me, driving up under my ribs toward my heart.

I blocked both strikes, imbuing the third impact with an aetheric blast that incinerated the bushes. Moving in the wake of the blast, an aether blade appeared in my fist, sweeping into the center mass of the disruption in a blur as aether exploded through my arm in precise sequence.

I felt the blade meet resistance as it found my target’s flesh and bone.

The shadows fell away like a cloak being pulled from my target's shoulders as they rolled across the ground and back to their feet. One arm had been completely severed, the bloody appendage lying on the ground between us. The thin, pale man pressed his remaining hand against the gushing stump, glaring at me with bright red eyes through the bangs of his dark, unruly hair. “The ascender…” he said, his voice oozing out of him and staining my eardrums.

“Where are the rest of you?” I demanded, keeping some distance between us but ready to counter if he so much as twitched.

He shook his head, but no emotions crossed his face beyond a twinge of registered pain. “No warning, last time. The High Sovereign didn’t tell them what you are. A toe-to-toe fight, a real one. A rare treat for them, even though they didn’t survive. Won’t happen again, ascender. But not here for you. Knives in the dark, but not for you.”

“You’re standing on the wrong continent,” I said, shifting my weight forward slightly. “Which means that even if you’re not here for me, I am here for you. Now where are the others? How many? I know you’re not here alone.”

Regis approached from behind, circling around to pen the Wraith in from the other side.