Flesha was slowly approaching. He walked in a very unnatural manner. His movement was jerky and abrupt as if he was a puppet on strings held by unskilled hands.

"Answer me! What have you done!" Hewin shouted.

But Flesha merely glanced at the remains of Hewin's father and smiled awkwardly again, blood dripping from his fingers.

Hewin stood up, his sword from black stone pointed at Flesha. Hewin has never been in a fight to the death. He threw some punches while he was slaving in the depths when humans were harassing him but still, that was far away from holding a sword against your friend. Suddenly, he remembered that Enyar's father, Falyar, was once a royal guard in almost forgotten times when Lynxarians still had a king and their island wasn't destroyed by an earthquake. When Hewin and Enyar were playing knights and fighting with wooden sticks, Falyar spilled some advice here and there. For example, he said that pointing a sword towards the enemy is useless since the sword is not ready to swing, there is no force ready to strike. The suggestion surfaced in Hewin's mind and he acted accordingly. Hewin lifted the sword above his head, his grip firm despite the terrible fear inside him.

Flesha came close. As if fascinated, he studied Hewin's blade with his black eyes.

"Mølwød ræm," he said. Voidsword, Hewin understood and realized at the same moment this thing cannot be Flesha.

Then Flesha swung his big ax aiming at Hewin's head.

Hewin brought down his sword to meet the ax but the impact sent him stumbling backwards. Flesha was tall but very skinny and it seemed impossible to Hewin that he should be able to create such force. Flesha followed through and slammed the butt of the ax's shaft to Hewin's side. Hewin felt his ribs crack. He fell down and cut himself in the hand with the Voidsword in the process.

Hewin rolled away from the reach of Flesha's ax that was biting to the ground. Hewin got on his legs again and then he saw it. Broken sticks and small stones smeared by his blood hovered above the grass where he was lying moments ago. Hewin looked at his bleeding hand. But instead of a bloody cut, there was a shadow blossoming out.

"Hæh," Flesha whispered, amazed. A door? That can't be the proper meaning, Hewin thought. This brief pause in Flesha's attacks made an opening for Hewin to strike. He swung the sword down trying to slash Flesha across the chest but Flesha's reaction was extremely fast. He stopped Hewin's attempt easily by his ax and started to push against the Voidsword.

Hewin couldn't muster enough strength to oppose with his sword. The only option left was to catch the wooden shaft of the ax with his wounded hand. But as soon as Hewin caught the ax, the shadow rising from the wound pulled at the weapon until the shaft broke in half. Flesha lost the leverage and the Voidsword pushed forward, cutting deeply in Flesha's chest.

Flesha made a step back, then two. Then he started laughing loudly. The sound made Hewin's fur stand up. But soon, Flesha's terrible laugh came to an end as he started choking on a dark liquid coming from his mouth. Finally, he fell dead to the ground, his eyes normal again.

Hewin shouted: "Mother!" and hurried to the house.