The Huntsman's Amulet by Duncan M. Hamilton

simultaneously, hacking inward with both as though to slice Soren in two. Had he not seen the attack coming and jumped back, it would have succeeded. It repositioned its blades and started moving toward Soren again.
    At the Academy, each drone had six patches, usually more worn and scuffed than the rest of the leather cadaver. These were the contact points that would deactivate it. This drone had no such patches. Their absence was of little consequence, as Soren had spent so much time striking at them he knew where they were. His only hope was that this drone had deactivation points like those he was used to. As soon as the drone was in range he lunged forward, firing the tip of his sword into a spot he thought to be a deactivation point.
    He felt his sword pierce the leather and strike something solid on the interior, but the drone appeared unaffected. For the first time Soren felt a kernel of doubt in his gut. Could drones have been built purely for combat? He backed away, down the street in the direction he had come from. He cast a glance over his shoulder and was relieved to see that the street was empty. Was there more than one? Had he simply been unfortunate in having this one stumble upon him?
    The drone moved forward again to follow Soren, matching his pace. He could see the neat hole where he had punctured it and wondered if a second strike at the same spot would be worthwhile. The drone moved forward with greater speed and slashed down with its two blades. Soren parried them both with sword and dagger but was pressed to the wall behind him. He hacked at the appendage blocking his way up the street. There was little skill behind the strike; it was intended purely to clear his path. In all the time he had practised against the drones, he had never struck at the arms, only the target points.
    His sword made a horrible shrieking sound as it clashed with the metal of the appendage and sent a numbing jolt and vibration into his hand, arm and shoulder. Part of him had hoped his blade, made from the very finest Telastrian steel, would cut through. The blow knocked the arm out of the way and allowed Soren to move back into open space. As he passed, he jammed his dagger into one of the other deactivation spots. He plunged it in until it struck whatever solid framework lay behind, but it did nothing.
    As soon as he had struck the arm to spine tingling effect, it occurred to Soren that it might be his blade, Telastrian though it was, that had come off the worse. He sighed with relief when he saw it was intact. He was certain a lesser blade would have shattered with the impact.
    The drone responded to his changed position. It moved in his direction and accelerated, slashing high and low with the two arms facing him.
    He ducked under the high strike and parried the low with his sword, using the force of the attack to drive him in closer to the drone’s body where he struck again with his dagger, hitting what he hoped was a third deactivation point.
    The drones in the Academy had six spots in total where they could be deactivated; the number required to turn it off could be varied, so the fact that hitting them had done nothing did not mean his logic was flawed. He would have to follow it all the way to its conclusion to know one way or the other.
    As well as moving faster, the drone increased the intensity of its attacks. They lacked the finesse of the drones he had fought before; these were savage strikes, any of which would cleave him in two should they connect with flesh.
    Soren moved back under the barrage of attacks in an effort to maintain some distance. As he parried between sword and dagger, stepping back with each attack, he tried to visualise the blue glow that brought on the Gift. Fighting drones was one of the occasions where the Gift had descended on him most readily in the past; he couldn’t understand why that wasn’t the case now.
    Faced with death, Soren was always grateful for small mercies. In between