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((The Mon/Wen/Fri Double -- page 1 of 2))
The blizzard was mostly gone, Hector saw. In its place was a cloud of dust and mounds of destroyed rock.

Perhaps that training session had gotten a little out of hand. He was glad that they'd decided early on to move these sessions quite far away from Warrenhold. This empty cavern on the other side of the lake below the castle provided plenty of space to test things out, and with the lamps that they'd set up to dispel the darkness, no one could approach without being spotted. Plus, Axiolis or Garovel was usually around to observe, and the reapers could easily sense any nearby souls thanks to how lifeless the rest of the environment was.

Axiolis hovered to Hector now. 'Not bad, my boy.'

Hector sensed Zeff approaching from his upper left and half-expected to get attacked again, but instead, the man came sliding down from an icy platform.

"Indeed," said the Lord Elroy. "That was an admirable showing." His left arm was missing, and his clothes were dirty and torn in several places, but... was that a slight smile on his face? "I'm proud of you."

Wide-eyed, Hector didn't know what to say.

After a beat, however, the man's expression was wiped clean again, and he said, "Don't be too pleased with yourself, though. You still gave me many opportunities to kill you."

"I-I know that."

Axiolis grabbed Zeff's shoulder, then addressed Hector. 'How's your regeneration? It should be starting to wear off now, no?'

The reaper was right. Hector could feel a familiar sensation, an oncoming wave of fatigue. Not quite there yet, but he'd felt it enough times now to know that it wouldn't be much longer. "Yeah."

'That's probably enough training for today, anyway. Let's go meet up with Garovel.'