Lucas Voss was smiling when Adrian Vale died.It was not a nervous smile or the tight expression of a hunter trapped inside a collapsing Rift. It was easy and bright, almost friendly. Dawn had reached the broken ceiling of the old quarry dungeon, and a strip of pale light lay across the mud between them. Behind Lucas, the exit gate flickered. In front of Adrian, thirty carrion hounds paced through the darkness with their heads low and their yellow eyes fixed on him."You actually believed I invited you here to help you reach level ten?" Lucas asked. His staff rested across one shoulder. The blue crystal at its tip still shone with unused mana. "That is almost sweet. I only wanted to see your face when you understood that no one was coming."Adrian tried to rise. His left leg folded beneath him. Blood ran down his side, warm beneath the cold morning air. The closest hound sprang before he could drag himself backward.Pain came in pieces. Teeth tore into his calf. Claws opened his ribs.

The next Ascension froze the obelisk.Hairline cracks ran across its golden surface. Frost spread across the plaza stones in a bright white web. The students in line backed away with startled cries as a pillar of ice formed inside the field of light.At its center stood Mara Ashford.Adrian recognized her at once. She had been the third Apex student in their year, as famous for her white blond hair and distant manner as for the potential stamped on her aptitude record. In Adrian's first life, he had never spoken more than two sentences to her. She had risen fast, joined a private guild, and vanished from Northbridge's public news before he reached level five.The ice shell shattered with a sound like glass breaking in a church.Rare Combat Class Acquired: Winterweaver.The courtyard exploded into noise. Even Principal Reed forgot his disappointment over Adrian long enough to look thrilled. A Winterweaver could turn a street into a fortress, freeze a monster pack in place, and control

Adrian claimed the experience the moment the clock struck twelve.Warmth rushed through his body. The number in his status window changed, and he stared at it as though it might disappear if he blinked.Level 1. Experience available: 39,603.In his first life, he had needed three years of crawling through low level Rifts, begging parties to take him, and losing most of each kill's reward to shared experience. Three years for fewer points than he now held after one afternoon and one night.He almost laughed aloud.Instead, he lay back on the bed and watched the ceiling until sleep finally took him. He did not spend the experience yet. The academy's Briarwood Training Rift awaited in the morning, and arriving as a level six Gravecaller would raise too many questions. Better to use the power once he was beyond the gate.He woke before sunrise.Marcus's bedroom door was shut. A folded note sat on the kitchen counter in his father's uneven handwriting.Do not come home late. Do not trust t

The second goblin never saw Adrian's arrow.It died while trying to crawl from a thorn bush, and the first Boneguard finished it with a clumsy chop before Adrian reached the body. Adrian recovered the core, placed a hand on the corpse, and waited through the full minute. Another Death Echo joined his list.When the second Boneguard crawled from its black summoning circle, the forest felt different.It was not because two little skeletons were an army. They were not. Their ribs were thin, their bone cleavers were chipped, and the first one had a fracture running across its skull. But they stood on either side of Adrian without fear. They did not care that other hunters laughed at him. They did not need wages, encouragement, or a promise of a fair experience split.They were his.Adrian moved through Briarwood with a new rhythm. He used the skeletons to draw attention while he fired from cover. When a goblin charged, the Boneguards met it first. When a goblin tried to flee, Adrian's Agi

Nolan Pike's fireburst lit the forest behind Adrian like a small sunrise.He ran low and fast through the trees, using his Agility to clear roots and fallen branches without slowing. The Boneguards bought him seconds at a time. He could feel each one being destroyed, not as pain but as a cold gap in his awareness. Then he called it again, and the gap filled.For a moment, the chase became almost absurd. Nolan destroyed skeleton after skeleton. Adrian replaced them. Lucas yelled angry instructions that nobody followed. Tessa screamed whenever a Boneguard got too close.But the amusement could not last.Nolan was beginning to understand the pattern. He stopped wasting spells on every target and focused on forcing paths through the forest. His fire spells burned hot enough to turn wet leaves into steam. If he got a clear line of sight on Adrian, a single direct hit could end the fight.Adrian reached a large boulder and climbed it in two steps. From there, he could see the clearing below