’If I stop even for one second, I’m dead.’ Ryman thought, caving the face of a Naga in with one of his maces and cutting the extended vines of a Redcap with the other. ’Nobody can use spells or bloodline abilities, which makes things dangerously simple.

’This is no elegant fight. This is a brawl. The one who manages to hit the hardest and most often wins.’

The Fae gave up on their humanoid form and spread themselves wide in the forms of a net of vines that surrounded their allies. Full Guard gave them perfect spatial awareness, and whenever one of the tendrils so much as grazed the Skoll, it grabbed and coiled around him.

Protector always kept an ax at the ready to sever the sudden restraints, but at his speed, even a gentle tug left more than a bruise. It pulled his muscles and dislocated his joints.

Sure, it also ripped the tendril to shreds, but it was just one tendril among many, and it wasn’t the Fae who ran for their lives.

Whenever Protector got tangled, light fusion wasn’t enough to heal the damage before the Upyrs piled up on him. He had to combine Fusion Magic with his Life Eater bloodline ability to escape death.

Before leaving home, he had consumed the equivalent of several meals’ worth of food and converted it into life force with Invigoration, storing everything in his children.