光明使者 The Light Bringer

强盗们天还未亮就出击了；五十名如狼似虎的人身穿铁衣，里面裹着陌生动物的毛皮，手里握着粗糙灰暗的斧头。他们的步伐敏捷，进入了山脚下的定居点。这些人都是数年之中共同浴血的同袍手足，都经历过一瞬间的生离死别。带头的战士身穿一副饱经捶打的鳞甲，肩上扛着一柄厚重的大剑。龙盔下的脸粗狂野蛮，烙印着一生的沙场征战和更烈的阳光曝晒。

The raiders attacked before dawn; fifty wolf-lean men in iron hauberks mantled with strange furs and bearing ash-dulled axes. Their steps were swift as they entered the settlement at the foot of the mountain. These were men who had fought as brothers for years, who lived in the heartbeat between life and death. A warrior in battered scale armor and bearing a heavy-bladed greatsword over his shoulder led them. Beneath his dragon-helm, his face was bearded and raw, burned by a lifetime of war-making under a harsher sun than this.

前几个定居点都很容易就攻下来了；对于这群战争狂来说根本没有什么挑战。战利品很少，每一天都朝不保夕，但在这片陌生的土地上，任何机会都不能放过。

The previous settlements had been easily overcome; little challenge for men weaned on battle. The spoils were few and far between, but in this strange land, a man took what he could get.

这次也没什么不同。

This one would be no different.

突然前方一道闪光，一束明亮的阳光射了出来。

Sudden light flared ahead, sunlight gleaming brightly.

这不合理。距离日出至少还有一小时呢。

Impossible. Dawn was an hour or more away.

首领举他饱经风霜的手，他看到一个独行的人影站在村落街道的正中间。他咧嘴坏笑，因为他发现这个人影是个女人。终于有点好货让他们不虚此行了。她的周围泛着火光，他靠近了一些，看到了她身上的纹饰铠甲，脸上的恶笑旋即消失了。栗色的长发从金色的头环中泻下，重盾和长剑闪耀着太阳的光芒。

The leader raised a callused hand as he saw a lone figure standing athwart the settlement’s street. He grinned as he saw it was a woman. Finally, something worth plundering. Light enflamed her, and the grin fell from his face as he stepped closer and saw she was clad in ornate warplate. Auburn hair spilled from a golden circlet and sunlight glinted from her heavy shield and long-bladed sword.

街道上出现了更多武士，纷纷站在了这名女郎的两边，每名武士都装备了金甲和长枪。

More warriors emerged from the street, taking their place to either side of the woman, each gold-armored and bearing a long spear.

“我是这片土地的守护者，”她说。

“These lands are under my protection,” she said.

蕾欧娜举起了她的长剑，与此同时十二名拉霍拉克以她为中心组成了楔形。她身边左右各站了六名拉霍拉克，一起将盾牌重重地砸在地上。蕾欧娜转过半个身，将自己的盾牌嵌在楔形阵的尖端顶点。她将手中的长剑插入盾牌锐利刃缘下方的的武器滑槽。

Leona lifted her sword as the twelve warriors of the Ra-Horak formed a wedge with her at their center. Six to either side, they swung their shields and hammered them down as one. Leona made a quarter turn and locked her own shield into place at the apex. Her sword slid into the thrust groove beneath the shield’s bladed halo.

她活动了一下手指，紧紧握住长剑的缠皮护手，感受着体内的能量潮涌。这能量就像是一团被束缚着的烈焰，渴望被彻底释放。蕾欧娜将它压在自己体内，让它缓缓流入自己的血肉。她的眼中燃起火光，心中涌起力量。在峰顶融入她体内的灵体渴望着用自己的肃清之火，烧死这些人。

She flexed her fingers on the leather-wound grip of her sword, feeling the surge-tide of power within her. A coiled fire that ached to be released. Leona held it within her, letting it ease into her flesh. Embers flecked her eyes and her heart pounded in her chest. The being she had joined with atop the mountain longed to burn these men with its cleansing fire.

戴龙盔的人是关键。杀了他就能震慑其他人。

Dragon-helm is the key. Kill him and the rest will falter.

蕾欧娜的内心的一部分想要服从于她体内的那股力量；想要将这些人烧成白骨和渣滓。他们已经杀掉了数十名巨神峰的子民。他们此前曾玷污了烈阳教派的神圣领域，不仅肆意踢翻神圣的太阳石，甚至还胆大妄为地用自己的排泄物污染巨峰的山泉。

Part of Leona wanted to give the power in her free reign; wanted to scorch these men to smoldering bone and ash. Their attacks had killed scores of people who called the lands around Mount Targon home. They had defiled the sacred places of the Solari, toppling sacred sun stones and polluting the mountain springs with their excretions.

戴龙盔的人大笑着轮起肩上的巨剑，他的手下向四周散开。要想在战斗中挥舞这样巨大的武器并且保持律动腾挪，需要周围留出空间。他用粗鲁的嗓音吼了一声，听上去更像是动物的嚎叫而完全不像人类语言，随后他的手下也一起回应了一声吼叫。

Dragon-helm laughed and swung his greatsword from his shoulders as his men moved away from him. To fight with such a huge weapon and keep it in constant motion needed space. He yelled something in a guttural tongue that sounded more like animal barks than anything human, and his warriors gave an answering roar.

蕾欧娜呼出一口热气，强盗们开始冲锋了，他们吼叫着冲向拉霍拉克小队，口中的喷出的唾沫沾在了下巴编成辫子的胡须上。蕾欧娜让体内的热火流进了自己的血液，感受着古老的星灵将自己的精魄更完全地与她合二为一，感官相通，赐予她异世界的感知力。

Leona let out a hot breath as the raiders charged, their braided beards flecked with frothed spittle as they pounded toward the Ra-Horak. Leona let the fire into her blood, feeling the ancient creature merge its essence with hers more completely, becoming one with her senses and gifting her with perceptions not of this world.

蕾欧娜眼中的世界变慢了。她可以看到每个敌人的心脏脉动辉若炽光，她可以听到每个敌人的血液湍流轰如雷霆。在她眼中，敌人们的身体如被嗜血的红焰所笼罩。戴龙盔的人向前一跃，手中的巨剑像巨石泰坦的拳头一样砸在蕾欧娜的盾牌上。如此猛烈的一击敲得盾牌瞬间发生形变，同时也将蕾欧娜击退整整一码。拉霍拉克武士们与她一同后撤一步，盾墙依然完好无缺。蕾欧娜的盾发出炽热的光芒，戴龙盔的人感到自己毛皮斗篷下一阵撕心裂肺的闷热。他惊诧地瞪大了眼睛，向后抡起巨剑，准备再次攻击。

Time slowed for Leona. She saw the pulsing glow of each enemy’s heart and heard the thunderous drum-beat of their blood. To her, their bodies were hazed with the red fires of battle-lust. Dragon-helm leapt forward, his sword hammering Leona’s shield like a stone titan’s fist. The impact was ferocious, buckling the metal and driving her back a full yard. The Ra-Horak stepped back with her, keeping the shieldwall unbroken. Leona’s shield blazed with light and Dragon-helm’s mantle of fur smoldered in its furnace heat. His eyes widened in surprise as he hauled his enormous sword back for another strike.

“迎击，反刺！”她话音未落，其余的强盗就冲上了他们的阵线。两军交锋的一刹那，金色的长枪穿梭而出，锻于高山的钢铁刺穿了血肉皮囊，冲在第一排的强盗们纷纷倒下。身后的强盗践踏着他们的尸体，继续猛攻。

“Brace and thrust!” she yelled as the rest of the raiders hit their line. Golden spears thrust at the instant of impact and the first rank of attackers fell with their bellies pierced by mountain-forged steel. They were trampled underfoot as the warriors behind them pressed the attack.

这道盾墙摇晃着，但坚韧不倒。兵刃碰撞，肌腱隆胀，挥砍攻击的低吼不绝于耳。蕾欧娜怒吼一声，将长剑刺入一名强盗的脖子，从额头到下巴，用刀口把他的脸一分为二。他惨叫着退了回去，喉咙里含满了自己的血。她用盾牌撞向旁边另一个人的脸，碾碎了他的头骨。

The shieldwall buckled, but held. Axes smashed down, sinews swelled and throats grunted with the effort of attack. Leona thrust her sword through the neck of a raider with a scar bisecting his face from crown to jaw. He screamed and fell back, his throat filling with blood. Her shield slammed into the face of the man next to him, caving in his skull.

拉霍拉克小队的阵线突然变形弯曲，是戴龙盔的人又劈下了他的巨剑，这一击砍向了蕾欧娜身边的武士，他的盾牌碎成两半，身躯从肩颈被斩到盆骨。

The Ra-Horak’s line bent back as Dragon-helm’s sword slammed down again, this time splintering the shield of the warrior next to her. The man dropped, cloven from neck to pelvis.

蕾欧娜没有给戴龙盔的人留下机会出第三刀。

Leona didn’t give Dragon-helm the chance for a third strike.

她将自己金色的长剑向他刺了过去，刻着符文的剑身在空气中生成了相同形状的火焰残影。白炽的烈火吞噬了戴龙盔的人，他身上的皮毛衣物和体毛立刻燃烧起来，他的盔甲像烙铁一样印在了他的肉里。骇人的痛苦让他发出惨叫，蕾欧娜感觉到体内的宇宙力量正陶醉于这个人的剧痛。他蹒跚着后退，不知为何居然尚未咽气。他手下的进攻开始变得迟疑，这时他已经跪倒在地，变成了熊熊燃烧的火堆。

She thrust her golden sword toward him and a searing echo of its image blazed from the rune-cut blade. White-hot fire engulfed Dragon-helm, his furs and hair instantly igniting and his armor fusing to his flesh like a brand. He shrieked in hideous pain, and Leona felt the cosmic power inside her revel in the man’s agony. He staggered backward, somehow still alive and screaming as her fire melted the flesh from his bones. His men faltered in their assault as he fell to his knees as a blazing pyre.

“杀进去！”蕾欧娜喊道，随后拉霍拉克武士们一齐向前猛冲。强壮的手臂无情地挥舞着长枪。突刺、旋扭、拔出，犹如一台不知疲倦的杀戮机器。强盗们抱头鼠窜，躲避着拉霍拉克武士手中沾满鲜血的长枪，他们已经被首领的消亡吓破了胆，现在只想着如何逃命。

“Into them!” shouted Leona, and the Ra-Horak surged forward. Powerful arms stabbed spear blades with brutal efficiency. Thrust, twist, withdraw. Over and over again like the relentless arms of a threshing machine. The raiders turned and fled from the Ra-Horak’s blood-wetted blades, horrified at their war-leader’s doom. Now they sought only to escape.

这些强盗为何而来、如何攀上巨峰，没人知道。他们显然不是为了瞻仰巨峰本尊，也没有尝试攀上峰顶。他们是战士，不是朝圣者，如果留下活口，他们只会重新集结，继续杀戮。

How and why these raiders had come to Targon was a mystery, for they had clearly not come to bear witness on the mountain nor make an ascent. They were warriors, not pilgrims, and left alive they would only regroup to kill again.

蕾欧娜不会允许他们的杀戮，于是将自己的长剑刺入大地。她进入自己的潜意识深处，唤起巨峰彼端世界的宏大力量。太阳从巨神峰的巅峰升起，蕾欧娜向着烈阳伸出一只手。

Leona could not allow that and thrust her sword into the earth. She reached deep inside herself, drawing on the awesome power from beyond the mountain. The sun emerged from behind its highest peaks as Leona thrust her hand to the light.

她单膝跪地，将拳头砸向地面。

She dropped to one knee and slammed her fist on the ground.

太阳之火从天而降。

And sunfire rained from the sky.