Flying towards the spearman, who was currently attempting to scramble Palinus's internal organs, Rufian realised this was not another heroic counter gank where he could take two easy kills.

They had just heard the notification that Bruchts had gone down, and he needed to do something to change the flow of the rift; otherwise, they had no chance. So he had flown in to the rescue, but these were not inexperienced conscripts.

"YAAAHHH!" The cry came from deep in his chest, an expression of anger for the pain he was inflicting on Palinus and frustration for the situation.

The spearman must have sensed his intention as he simply disengaged from Palinus before Rufian's fist could make contact. Even more frustratingly, he was edging towards the brush rather than standing his ground and allowing Rufian to dictate the fight.

*thump*

His fist striking the spearman solidly in the shoulder felt different with his new ars. It had hurt whenever he used it, not that he would let that show to the others, but now it felt like his fist was encased in iron and his arm was supported.

The contact was solid, and it dealt some damage to the spearman, but the man didn't seem perturbed as he smirked and stepped backwards into the brush.

His fists itched to follow, and his feet unconsciously took a step towards the tall grass where the smug spearman presumably lay in wait.

"Don't follow Rufi!" Palinus yelled at him. For a moment, he considered pretending he didn't hear. He could just step in and maul the man a bit. A simmering rage inside of him made him want to charge.

Taking a deep breath in response to the realisation of his emotion, Rufian steadied himself. Khet had told him all about the Sanguine Rage, he needed to fight to keep his rage in check. It wasn't his rage, well, it wasn't just his rage.

"Splintery cocks!" He cursed, forcing himself to step away from the brush. He placed a finger in his ear and reported to the team. "The roamer escaped my counter towards bot."

They would need to know, just in case the two escapees tried to pile into their fight.

"I need to run around the long way to the bot to support," Rufian said quickly to Pal, reminding him to take care. "Make sure that you don't get caught if they come back."

The run into the forest was almost good to clear his head, he recalled the words from his new enhancer mentor as he practiced the breathing techniques Khet had taught him.

"The Sanguine Rage feels warm, and the strength it promises is inviting." The muscular man had said that night, "But do not mistake it for anything other than a curse. It will rob you of your senses and make you wilder than an animal. Focus not on the feeling, but on your breathing. Your breathing controls your body, and if you control that, you seize it from the curse … Question your rage, are you an animal or are you a man?"

Deep breath in. Hold it for a moment. Deep Breath out.

"I am a man," Rufian whispered to himself. Controlling his breathing was harder with an avatar than with his real body, it was even harder while he sprinted. But he felt where the Sanguine Curse raged in his mind, and he shut the door as he took control of the simmering inferno, yelling at him to attack mindlessly.

A moment later, he plunged through a patch of brush at the edge of the forest and could see the ongoing battle in the bottom lane.

The whole lane was covered in ice, the Erulean minions were slipping about on it and taking minor damage over time. Running across the icy surface towards the protection of the tower, he could see the girls moving and firing; they were slowed by the ice and were bloodied as they retreated.

A bolt of bright white essentia flew towards Seline as she turned and shot back with an arrow. Rufian stepped towards the attacker and gulped as he saw her. A woman taller than his mother, with the unmistakable blonde hair of the Stonemen starting to grey, she wore a thick pelt coat, and a raven swooped from her shoulder to launch itself at Seline

Geirlaug Nifldottir 541/667 | Level 1

Frost Sayer

From the wounds on both the girls, Rufian knew to look for another enemy, so he ran not towards the stoneman witch, but at an angle to meet his retreating allies. His guess that the other enemy was in the brush was confirmed as an axe came swirling out of the tall grass to hit Vesuvia in the back. The blow seemed to slow her down even more as a hulking figure emerged from the brush.

Reinvar Umfridus 598/712 | Level 1

Fenbound Brute / Bruiser

The man was monstrous, as he followed up his throw with a sprint towards Vesuvia, he began to hack into her flesh, the axe returning to his hand as he swung ferociously. He ignored the blows of the minions, Vesuvia, and Seline. They were doing damage slowly, but each savage strike from his axe made his health point tick back up with an ars that looked like it was temporarily restoring his body. His axes siphoning tendrils of blood, which curled up his arms like the roots of a tree to create scab-like patches over the wounds he was accumulating.

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Rufian rushed in to help. He was frustrated he had used his Lock-on ars, it could have been super effective if he timed it to land just as the man entered the tower range. With that on a cool down for another minute and a half, he would just have to sprint and hope he could do enough damage to deter the savage man from diving the tower.

Vesuvia was low on health; if the brute kept up his attack, he would take her down in only one or two more strikes. Rufian wished desperately for the girls to do something, but they were behind on a level, and it meant that they didn't have many options.

As the next few steps took the brute within tower range and the massive crystal began to spool up with a blow, the girls suddenly stopped running. Both channelling their ars quickly, Seline cast her thorns to root the man in place and Vesuvia cast her anti heal to mitigate his regeneration. It was masterful coordination, and Rufian was impressed with their teamwork.

Running awkwardly toward the action with the frozen ground slowing him down, he was nearly close enough to engage, and he lifted his fist in anticipation. Something about the man felt familiar, his mossy beard reminded him of the men they had fought in their first rift.

It suddenly clicked into place with a realisation that broke his brain for a second, this was the man who had cursed him. He looked different, bigger, and scarier, but it was the same name. Turning to the woman who supported him, Rufian finally got a proper look at him. The face was the same: scrunched in hatred and eyes shining with impotent rage, though it seemed like the boy had developed some potency to match his rage now.

"Pal! It's that fake shepard-" Rufian started to say as he ran in to help, but their opposition wasn't idle, and their confidence, despite being captured below the turret, cut off his commentary as he focused on the fight.

The raven flew towards Reinvar and circled him for a moment as it channeled essentia into the thorny vines binding him. In a flash of blue light, he was free and back to charging after Vesuvia, still slowed and desperately trying to sprint under the turret.

Reaching out to try to land a punch on the big brute, Rufian finally joined the action. Smacking a right fist on the man's shoulder, he did some minor damage. But it wasn't going to be enough, and with the slow effect of the ice, he couldn't keep up.

*An Ally has been Slain*

One more blow of the wicked axes later, and Vesuvia was down. Seline and Rufian didn't pause to mourn her as they tried to take vengeance on the man, attempting to do enough damage to prevent him from escaping the range of the tower.

But rather than retreat, he roared. Charging after Seline, he accepted another blow from the tower, taking him critically low on health points. His speed was astonishingly faster than was fair for a man of his size, managing several brutal strikes of his axe into her before she was able to react and retreat.

Swinging at the back of the man's head, Rufian was starting to build some combo damage. But Seline's health points were getting dangerously low, and the tower shot was still a half-second away.

Racing to get the final blow and save Seline, he was pleased when a straight left struck off the last health points of the brute, just as he was winding up his own strike to land the killing blow on Seline.

*An Enemy has been Slain*

Heaving for breath, he raised his hand in celebration too early.

He hadn't been keeping track of the stoneman witch, and a bolt of essentia flew from her staff.

Launching himself, he dove for the bolt, desperately trying to catch it. But it was too late.

*An Ally has been Slain*

Seline was down. They hadn't even needed help from the middle lane or roamer to get the kills; this was bad.

Frustrated he hadn't been able to do more, Rufian gave Palinus the news.

"They dove the tower…. We got one, but V and Sel are down." He reported, "Pal… It's that guy from our first rift, he looks bigger and well… he's scary now."

If he had just been more aware, he could have saved Seline, and maybe if he had held his ars in reserve rather than use them on a failed counter gank. This all could have been avoided, but it didn't change the fact that they had underestimated their opponents; they weren't some backwater shepherds, they were strong.

"Sorry, team." Bruchts apologised as he respawned his avatar.

He explained that he had been caught out of position and stunned, taking full damage from minions and the man with the enormous sword in the top lane.

"Did we get him?" Vesuvia questioned as she returned, only to find Seline spawning behind her.

"We did, but this is bad," Seline said as she returned. "Right now, we need to focus on stemming the bleeding. We need to harvest as much essentia as we can to give ourselves another shot. Most important of all, DON'T BLOODY DIE AGAIN."

Rufian found the rest of the rift an unpleasant experience, he chaffed at being held back from his usual aggressive style. His job was mostly running around the forest punching on with the creeps. The first couple of fights with each creep pack was kind of fun, the little pack of miniature wolves was as cute as they were fierce, and he almost felt bad as he punched them on the snout.

A cave section full of Ice Elementals was interesting; the Erulean rifts didn't tend to have underground spawning points, but the tension of the rift prevented him from enjoying himself as he found himself constantly checking on the lanes. He was glad he did, as he managed to prevent a dive on Palinus as the spearman charged him in combination with the slinger's stuns. He managed to get a kill from that, and his presence at least kept the enemy team from completely dominating the rift.

"Good job team," Seline said in team chat, "I know you are all hurting, this sucks… but we are doing well to avoid more deaths. We can come back and get them as long as we preserve enough essentia for the Nexus to spawn another Rift."

Frustrated with slowly losing Rufian focused jump scaring the enemy avatars, and bashing up the creeps in the forest. On the right side of their forest was another interesting creep spawn.

Wickwraith 240/240 | Level 1

Smoke Spectre

The three wispy elementals were made of smoke, and punching them was frustrating; they took damage just fine, but the punches felt awkward with no resistance as their smoky bodies let his fists fly through. They attacked back by lashing him with their long tails and leaving long lashes of flame that caused [Burning].

Finally finishing them off, he got excited when the essentia they dropped began to coalesce into something. Stepping away so as not to interfere, he smiled as he saw what the drop was.

"Palinus is going to love that!"

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