Trals danced with the revenant, fending off a cascade of lighting-flash blows. Dodging, feinting, lashing out with accelerated hands, but never connecting. Rain and glowing warning signs clogged his vision. Trals sprang backward, a dark rainbow of muddy water arcing between him and his mindless enemy. For the first time in his life, Trals needed time during a battle to think.

He landed, slid, stopped himself with a clawed hand thrust through the mud to the solid grond beneath. ...