Soul Reaver hurls himself at the Legionnaires in a blind rage. Weapons slice into his flesh and bounce off his armour, but the wounds do not phase him and heal at an amazing rate. Soul Reaver hacks and hews his way through the Legionnaires, who even with their amazing fighting skills are sorely pressed to defend themselves.

Then suddenly, Soul Reaver stumbles as reality pulses out of his vision. He feels it all slipping away like a heartbeat that reverberates through his entire body, stopping him in his tracks. The Legionnaires at first seem to want to renew the attack... but then even they pause. Slowly, their cowled heads turn towards Stavarus' body...

Stavarus' body seems to shudder ever so slightly. His fingers twitch.

He cannot possibly be alive!

Again, reality pulses away for a moment, revealing threads of darkness wrapped like a transparent cocoon around Stavarus blazing soul.

His senses returning, Soul Reaver sees a flicker of spirit energy in Stavarus' body.

Again, a shudder runs through Stavarus' body. With inexorable slowness and the grating of bone on steel, the bolt gradually begins to pull itself from Stavarus' chest. Stavarus' hands slowly raise themselves up to the moving bolt. They are shaking, as if afraid to touch it.

Several Dark Legionnaires begin to cautiously edge towards Stavarus' body.

The bolt hits the ground with a deafening clang, and rolls a few centimetres away. The pool of Stavarus' blood seems to grow even darker.

Stavarus' body spasms, curling itself up into a ball. Stavarus grips his sides in pain. Soul Reaver can feel something vibrating through the ground, running from the soles of his feet through his entire body. Slowly the rumble grows into something audible... into some sort of growl.

Stavarus twiches and spasms again. It looks as if the muscles beneath his flesh were twisting and writhing around, his skin darkening and losing its colour. With a groan of pain, he claws at his back, where his muscles seem to be growing into a squirming hump. His hair grows visibly and becomes white as snow.

Soul Reaver takes a step back from Stavarus in disbelief. The Legionnaires stand over him, quickly raising their weapons to go for the kill...

Stavarus' eyes suddenly open with a blaze of white light. Two pairs of jet-black bat-wings burst from his back as his fingers tear into talons and his teeth elongate into fangs.

With a roar that rips into the most primal fears of all living things, Stavarus flies up into the air, as if pulled by invisible strings. His wings spread outwards from him, his Daemonic mouth tears open into a cry of rage and defiance. As he hovers above the ground, a sphere of transparent blackness pulses out of him, disintegrating his clothing, hurling his weapons from him and throwing the Legionnaires onto their backs. Amazingly, the aura itself did not even touch any of these things - it was the shockwave of power from Stavarus' rebirth alone that did this.

The Legionnaires leap to their feet just as Stavarus' body tenses. Veins stand out on his massive muscles as the sphere around him blasts outwards over a radius of several metres.

Everything it touches is obliterated. The Legionnaires have their flesh blasted into dust and that dust blasted into nothingness. Their skeletons crumble into oblivion. Their weapons are erased from existence. The shockwave of the expanding sphere throws the few remaining chunks of dusty flesh, bone and earth outwards in all directions.

Stavarus lowers his head, a sneer on his lips. He has become a monster, a beast of incredible power. The wound on his chest is gone - not even a scar is in its place. Four black wings spread outwards from his body, while a shock of long white hair whips in a magical wind. His chin and lower jaw have elongated grostequely, setting his fanged mouth into a permanent rictus of anger. His hands have elongated and sprouted wicked talons. He hovers effortlessly above the ground, without even beating his wings. The dark sphere of power retracts, leaving the Stavarus-creature hovering above a crater of blasted earth.

The Legionnaires fire their weapons at Stavarus, but it is no use. Their bolts and arrows disintegrate the moment they touch his aura. Another ballista bolt fires at him, only to sizzle away into nothingness mere millimetres into the barrier.

Stavarus glances into the direction of the ballista, and projects his dark aura outwards as a curving wall of blackness. It explodes the ruins around the ballista and blasts the weapon into kindling. The Legionnaire operating it is annihilated.

Stavarus allows his aura to fade away, but only so he can take revenge on the Legionnaires in brutal hand-to-hand combat. Roaring a battle-cry, he faces towards the nearest Legionnaire and thrust himself forward on his mighty pinions.

With a whoosh of air, Stavarus appears in front of the Legionnaire so quickly that mortal eyes cannot have followed his movements. His talons flash as he grabs the Legionnaire by both sides of his ribcage. His claws crack through the Legionnaires ribs, and with no effort at all, Stavarus rips the undead warrior in two.

Stavarus then flits into the remaining warriors. He is blindingly fast and impossibly strong... the 'battle' is little more than a one-sided massacre. The Legionnaires don't even have time to raise their weapons before they fly into pieces, their limbs ripped from them, their bodies torn to shreds. Three more Legionnaires die before the remains of the first have even had time to hit the ground.

Stavarus finally slows again in the midst of the last six Legionnaires. His aura blazes from him once more, the sphere of blackness pulsing out of his body with a rush of air that whips Soul Reaver's cape behind him and drives dust into his eyes.

The first Legionnaire goes to charge at Stavarus. He responds merely by turning his head to face the oncoming foe. Another whoosh of air and a pulse from his aura, and the Legionnaire is no more. With a final roar and a brutal, arcing sweep of his hand, the Stavarus-monster projects its aura outwards and destroys the final Legionnaires.

The sphere gradually fades away, as the Stavarus creature breathes heavily, his chest heaving up and down. Slowly, the rage fades from its features, the glow dims from its eyes. He drifts down towards the ground. The creature stands only for a few moments... then its eyes roll up into its head, and its legs buckle and give way.

Stavarus falls unceremoniously onto his side. With the sound of twisting flesh, his wings retract, his transformation fades. Stavarus' human self reforms.

Now Stavarus lies naked upon the ground, curled up in the foetal position... his body wracked with sobs. Smoke gently swirls from him.

Soul Reaver, still overawed, eventually dares to make a approach. Cautiously he reaches out his hand, but stops some distance from actually touching Stavarus.

"What... what happened?..."

(ooc: Anyone who was standing near Stavarus when he reawakened would probably do well to post that they leap out of the way. That sphere will kill you as surely as it will kill a Legionnaire)