Chapter 31: 31: Familiar Eyes Under a Bloody Sky
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Clang! Clang! Clang!
tal cried out below the ridge, and the sound did not echo like ordinary noise. It echoed like panic. Like desperation. Like the kind of clashing that only happened when people stopped fighting to win and started fighting to not die.
"Aaaaaah!"
Another scream tore through the basin, sharp enough to make Sekht’s spine tighten. Dust rose in bursts where boots and bodies struck stone. The wind carried the sour scent of sweat and fear, and underneath it, the darker sll of blood being spilled in the open.
Sekht remained still behind the stone crack, half-hidden in shadow, nightmare coat blending into the rock’s darkness. Bat Bat hovered near his head, wings barely making a sound, eyes glittering with the childish excitent of a creature that thought all danger was just another form of entertainnt.
Below, the formation was breaking.
Ten escorts, backs tight, trying to keep their circle, trying to protect the one person in the middle. Their blades flashed with disciplined rhythm, their movents trained, their breathing controlled — until a mistake happened. Until a monster slipped through. Until discipline beca pain.
Sekht’s gaze stayed locked on the girl.
She moved with frightening grace, and not the soft grace of soone dancing. It was the controlled grace of soone who had been trained to survive. Her blade carved through air with a clean whistle, and each swing carried chaos energy that left faint streaks like pale lightning.
Whoosh!
A humanoid raider beast lunged at her from the left, and she pivoted, stepping with her heel like she was stamping the ground into obedience.
Shhk!
Her sword cut the beast’s forearm nearly off. The creature scread and stumbled, and one of the escorts finished it with a thrust to the throat.
Shhk!
But their victory lasted one heartbeat, because the monsters pressed again. Their numbers were not endless, but their confidence was. They fought like creatures who had done this many tis before — ambush, swarm, exhaust, then let the leader carve the final piece.
And the leader had stepped forward.
Thud... Thud...
The larger humanoid’s cleaver dragged lightly at its side, scraping stone, leaving sparks as if the weapon itself was impatient.
Scrrrk... Ting...
It was not in a rush.
It did not need to be.
It carried eight thousand battle powers like a crown.
Sekht’s jaw tightened.
"I should leave."
The thought ca fast and cold, like the part of him that had learned survival without feelings. He had made a rule. Avoid anything over five thousand. He had another rule too, even heavier than the first. Do not gamble against numbers you cannot asure.
Eight thousand was a gamble.
Eight thousand could an death.
Eight thousand could an being forced to drink in front of strangers, losing control, revealing weakness, revealing secrets.
Sekht’s eyes narrowed as he stared at the girl again.
Sothing about her face tugged at the back of his mind. Not recognition yet, but familiarity. Like a scent that reminded you of a place you forgot you missed.
Her profile, when she turned, caught the moonlight.
High cheekbones.
A sharp, determined mouth.
Eyes that were not frightened even when surrounded.
His chest tightened.
"Why does she look like soone I used to know?"
Sekht’s focus sharpened. He activated Blood Eye, aiming it at her from the ridge.
The world crisped, as if invisible lines snapped into place.
[System notification-
Na: Lily
Race: Human
Overall Battle Power: 4000]
The na hit him like a stone thrown into still water.
Lily.
Lily.
The sound rang inside his mind and did not fade. It echoed against old mories and forced them to wake up.
Sekht’s throat went dry.
"Lily..."
A girl’s laughter, bright and annoying.
A courtyard in Slik where he used to pretend he did not want to play.
A child following him like a shadow with no sha.
"You promised!" a young voice had shouted once, furious and dramatic. "You promised you would not leave without !"
He rembered her cheeks puffed in anger. He rembered her hair tied up too tight by servants. He rembered her small hands grabbing his sleeve as if she could anchor him to the ground.
He rembered being twelve.
He rembered her being there every ti his father did business with the city lord. He rembered her showing up with snacks stolen from the kitchen and insisting they were "war rations."
He rembered her skinny fra, short height, the way she ran too fast and tripped over her own feet and then blad the ground for being rude.
He rembered the day she left.
"She went to study," soone had said.
"She will co back stronger," soone else had added.
He had not seen her since.
Then he had gone to purgatory to train.
And ti had passed.
Not normal ti, but enough ti to reshape bodies and voices and faces.
He had been in purgatory for four years and ten months.
If Lily had left to study at twelve, and if she returned after seven years—
Sekht’s eyes narrowed.
This could be her.
The girl below was not skinny anymore. She was tall enough to command space. Her body was shaped by training, strength hidden under smooth movent. Her face still carried traces of the child he rembered, but it had matured into sothing dangerously beautiful.
Not the kind of beauty that begged for attention.
The kind that attracted trouble.
Sekht’s gaze moved to the escorts.
He appraised them quickly, one by one, flicking Blood Eye through the formation.
[Slik City Guard
Overall Battle Power: 3000]
[Slik City Guard
Overall Battle Power: 4100]
[Slik City Guard
Overall Battle Power: 4500]
[Slik City Guard
Overall Battle Power: 3700]
More.
All within the sa range.
City guards.
Not random escorts.
Not rcenaries.
Slik did not escort random girls into purgatory with ten trained guards unless she mattered.
Sekht exhaled slowly through his nose.
"Sigh..."
Bat Bat hovered closer, peeking around the rock like a nosey child.
"Help?" Bat Bat asked, voice small but clear now.
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