Chapter 150: A Bloody Swear
Chapter 148
Thud—!
The guard’s limp form collapsed onto the floor with a heavy, wet thud after Kai extracted his jagged crystal dagger from the man’s chest.
Kai stared down at the fallen adversary for a few lingering seconds, his expression devoid of even a microscopic trace of emotion.
’Can’t believe I finally did the one thing I spent so much effort running from. I’m certain he would be proud if he were standing here right now,’ Kai thought, shaking his head slightly while releasing a sharp exhale that carried the weight of profound exhaustion.
The remaining guard, who had been charging toward him with reckless abandon only monts before, skidded to a sudden, frantic halt.
His montum died instantly upon witnessing his comrade being executed with such cold efficiency by the youth before them.
’Ho—how is a child capable of killing so effortlessly? What is happening here? When the other one struck, I saw a flash of panic in his eyes.
He was genuinely terrified and shaken by his own actions. Bu—bu—’ the ta-human stuttered internally, his thoughts fracturing as he spun around to scan the carnage filling the laboratory.
At that precise mont, Ray decimated one of the super-strength tas he was facing, ending the threat with a terrifying display of power.
The guard’s eyes dilated in sheer, unadulterated horror at the spectacle.
’... How are these kids able to take lives as easily as breathing?!’
Anyone observing the fray at this mont would have likely shared that exact, puzzling sentint; the scene was utterly bewildering.
However, there was no ti to dwell on the morality of the situation, as Kai had already turned his focus back to him, his athyst eye fixed on the man with a chillingly calm gaze.
"Like I promised earlier, I would take this semi-seriously, which is why I’ve kept this bandana over one of my eyes," Kai began, gesturing with the blood-slicked dagger in his hand.
The rhythmic drip-drop of crimson falling from the blade echoed through the room, hitting the once-pristine surface of the marble flooring and staining it a dull, morbid shade of red.
"... Under normal circumstances, I don’t resort to this. But you see, you laid hands on soone close to Ray. You bastards touched Van, and in doing so, you’ve made Ray furious. And if he is furious, then I am as well."
The ta-human listened to the declaration with a look of pure bewildernt.
What could he possibly do to defend himself now?
He was completely drained of ta-Force.
He had expended everything in his initial rush, foolishly assuming Kai was an easy target who would crumble quickly.
He had been dead wrong, and now he was forced to pay the price with a mangled hand while his partner lay cooling in a pool of his own gore.
He was trapped.
There was no viable escape route; even if he managed to flee the imdiate area, Bryce would surely deal with his failure with lethal prejudice.
Elysa, anwhile, shifted her frantic gaze between Bryce and the teenagers.
Her eyes eventually settled on Kai, lingering far longer than necessary.
It wasn’t because of the boy’s striking appearance, but because he stood directly in the path of her only exit.
She briefly considered staying behind at the Corps to use her political influence to erase these kids from existence.
But she had to wonder exactly what kind of monsters she was tangling with.
For all she knew, they were high-ranking Legacies, which would explain their ability to kill so effortlessly.
So of the more ruthless legacy families were known to force their scions into blooding their hands from the mont they could walk.
No amount of currency Bryce offered was worth forfeiting her life.
After all, wealth is useless if one isn’t alive to squander it.
’I suppose that’s how the old saying goes...’
She cast one final, fleeting glance at Bryce before turning her focus back toward the door.
Her mind was made up, and her eyes remained set firmly on the threshold of her escape.
Without hesitation, she began crawling forward, abandoning the sanctuary of the table she had been cowering behind.
She moved with agonizing caution, ensuring each movent produced as little noise as possible, terrified that any stray sound would draw the room’s lethal attention toward her.
She even suppressed her breathing to a shallow minimum, scuttling on all fours like a common street dog.
How humiliating for a Sergeant of the Iron Corps...
But who cared about prestige in the shadow of death?
Her palm pressed into a cold puddle of blood, and the sudden warmth made her stomach churn.
She nearly gagged, but she forced the bile back down, the tallic tang of the air thick enough for her to taste.
Still, she refused to stop, driven by the frantic belief that discovery ant execution.
’It’s all because of that damned Van! Everything was going perfectly until he surfaced and dismantled my operations. I would still be here, accumulating as much wealth as possible.’
She utilized the overturned furniture as cover, staying low in the narrow aisles between tables that shielded more than half of her form.
Whenever she encountered a cluster of discarded equipnt, she would nudge the pieces aside with trembling hands, clearing a path toward the threshold.
’... I promise—I fucking promise! If I manage to escape this alive, I will find you, Van. If I don’t kill you outright, I will ensure your life becos a waking nightmare. Even if it ans throwing you to the Aberrants or a beast, I will see it done... ouch...’
Her knee scraped against a jagged tallic shard, the sharp edge drawing blood.
Gritting her teeth against the sting, she redoubled her pace.
’... Since you’ve forced
to forfeit my position at the Corps and made
bleed, I’ll return the favor tenfold. Just you wait, you sneaky bas—’
Finally, the exit—her salvation—was within reach.
She cast one frantic glance over her shoulder to ensure the combatants were still occupied.
Seeing she was clear, Elysa summoned every ounce of adrenaline her body could provide and bolted.
She leaped through the wide-open exit, leaving the carnage of the room behind her.
Without looking back, she fled as fast as her legs could carry her.
****
Back in the laboratory, Kai remained standing before the wind ta, who stared back at him with a grim, hollow expression.
With his ta-Force completely spent, the guard could do nothing but watch the boy.
"So, what now—"
The guard hadn’t even finished his sentence when Kai exploded forward.
With a forceful thrust of his feet, he closed the gap instantly, appearing directly in the man’s personal space.
"No one touches my property. Get this, and get this right."
A flash of violet light flickered before the man’s eyes, followed imdiately by a sharp, searing heat across his throat.
He clamped a hand against his neck, feeling the rapid pulse of warm liquid spilling through his fingers.
Before he could even register the reality of the wound, he crumpled to the ground with a wet thud.
Dropping to his knees, Kai panted heavily as the jagged crystals surrounding his limbs began to recede, dissolving back into his skin.
’That was close. I was less than a minute away from suffering the total depletion of my ta-Force.’
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