Rise of the Street King

Chapter 16 – Firefight in the Market

The market was supposed to be silent at this hour. Stalls stood closed, tarps pulled tight, crates stacked like shadows. But now the night howled with gunfire.

Muzzle flashes lit the narrow lanes like bursts of lightning. Bullets shredded through wooden stalls, sent jars of pepper and beans bursting into clouds. Lanterns toppled, oil spilling and catching flame. The smell of smoke and gunpowder filled the air, thick enough to choke.

Jayden dove behind a broken cart, wood splintering under the spray of lead. His pulse hammered. His ribs screamed. His crew was pinned, outnumbered, drowning under a tide of fire.

Kade crouched by the alley mouth, rifle snapping in controlled bursts. His face was stone, but Jayden saw the sweat dripping. Aria was on her knees behind an overturned basket, shotgun booming into the chaos. Hassan leaned against the wall, pale, holding his bleeding side, but still clutching a pistol with shaking hands.

They were outgunned. Outnumbered. Trapped.

And it was his fault.

Jayden pressed his forehead to the cracked wood, forcing breath into his lungs. This was the price of hunger. Razor’s laugh echoed in his skull, and Musa’s voice rose above the firefight.

“You thought you could tax us?” Musa shouted from behind cover. His rifle barked. “You thought you were ready for this life? Tonight you die, boy!”

Another wave of bullets sprayed. Glass shattered. A fruit stall exploded, mangoes rolling into the dirt, crushed under boots.

Jayden clenched his fists. No. He wasn’t dying tonight. Not here. Not like this.

He raised his head, shouting through the noise. “If I’m dying, Musa, I’m taking you with me!”

A shotgun blast answered, close enough to rattle his teeth. He ducked, heart thundering.

Aria’s voice cut sharp through the chaos. “We can’t hold this! We need to move!”

“Where?” Kade snarled, firing another burst. “We’re boxed in!”

Jayden scanned the stalls, his mind racing. Smoke curled through the air. Fire licked across a canvas tarp, spreading fast. The whole market was turning into a furnace. He spotted a narrow lane, half-blocked by crates. Their only chance.

He turned to his crew. “We cut through there. Kade, cover. Aria, with me. Hassan

“I can still shoot,” Hassan gritted out, raising his pistol. His hand trembled, but his eyes burned with stubborn fire.

Jayden nodded once. “Then shoot straight.”

Another volley screamed past. Jayden sucked in a breath, then leapt from cover, firing wild to draw attention. Bullets sparked off the cobbles at his feet. He didn’t think. He just ran.

“Move!” he roared.

Kade laid down a wall of fire, shells raining brass. Aria fired, then slammed her shoulder into a crate, shoving it aside to clear their escape. Hassan stumbled after them, leaving a trail of blood on the wall.

The crew burst into the lane. Jayden shoved Hassan forward, felt Aria at his side, Kade’s rifle cracking behind them. The lane seemed endless, the air thick with smoke, the sound of boots pounding close behind.

Then Musa’s voice rang out again. Closer.

“Don’t let them escape! Ten thousand for the boy’s head!”

The words cut deeper than the bullets. A bounty. Already. Jayden’s chest burned with rage. Musa wasn’t just trying to kill him. He was trying to erase him before he even rose.

They broke into a wider clearing an open courtyard in the heart of the market. Stalls surrounded them, torched and burning. Shadows swarmed the edges. Red-scarved gunmen poured in from every side.

Trapped again.

Jayden raised his pistol. He could barely see through the sweat and smoke, but he raised it anyway. “We stand here,” he said. His voice cracked, but it carried. “No more running.”

Kade’s jaw tightened. “You’ll get us all killed.”

“Better dead on our feet,” Jayden spat, “than crawling for scraps.”

Aria pumped her shotgun. Her lip was bleeding, her arm still bandaged, but she nodded. “Then let’s make it loud.”

The gunmen closed in, rifles lifted. Musa stepped forward, his scarf down now, face twisted with triumph. “End of the line, Jayden.”

The heat, the smoke, the weight of the night pressed down. Jayden’s vision blurred, but he stood tall. He thought of the vow he made in blood. He thought of Razor’s words: You’re not ready for this game.

He was ready now.

He raised his pistol, finger tight on the trigger. “Come and take it.”

The square erupted.

Bullets tore the air. Stalls exploded into splinters. Flames climbed high, turning night into a hellish dawn. Jayden ducked, fired, ducked again. He saw Musa’s men dropping, but more flooding in. Hassan’s pistol cracked weakly beside him, Kade’s rifle barked in steady rhythm, Aria’s shotgun thundered like war drums.

And then

Hassan cried out, his pistol spinning away as he dropped to the dirt.

Jayden’s blood froze.

“Hassan!” Aria screamed.

Musa stepped through the chaos, rifle aimed, his grin savage. “This is what hunger gets you, boy. Dead friends. Empty hands.”

Jayden’s vision tunneled. The fire roared, the bullets screamed, but all he saw was Hassan bleeding in the dirt. Something inside him snapped.

He roared and charged, firing until the pistol clicked empty, then slamming into Musa with raw fury. They hit the ground hard, fists swinging, teeth bared. Jayden tasted blood, his and Musa’s. He clawed for the rifle, Musa kneed him in the ribs. Pain exploded, but Jayden didn’t stop. He couldn’t stop.

The world narrowed to one truth.

Kill or be killed.

Musa’s hands tightened on the rifle, the muzzle swinging toward Jayden’s chest.

Jayden’s fingers found the knife strapped to his boot. He ripped it free.

For a split second, Musa’s eyes widened. Then Jayden drove the blade forward.

It sank deep.

Musa’s breath hitched, his grin shattering into shock. Blood bubbled at his lips. He stared at Jayden, eyes wide, uncomprehending.

Jayden held the knife tight, hand trembling, chest heaving. He had crossed it. The line Hassan warned him about.

The square seemed to fall silent around him, though the fire still burned, though the bullets still flew.

He had killed.

And the streets would never see him the same again.

Musa collapsed, lifeless. Jayden staggered up, knife dripping. His crew stared at him, wide-eyed.

Then a new sound cut the air.

Whistles. Dozens of them.

Police.

Floodlights flared, cutting through the smoke. Boots thundered from the far end of the square. Shouted orders rang out. The market was about to become a slaughterhouse.

Jayden froze, bloodied knife still in hand, Musa’s body at his feet.

For the first time, fear clawed back into his chest. Not of death. But of what he had just become.

Jayden has just taken his first life, Musa’s, in front of his crew and enemies but before he can even process it, the police storm the burning market. They’re trapped between blood, fire, and the law.