2025-05-06 19:16:41The night air was cool as Ali walked home, his muscles still humming from the intense training session with Malik and Laith. The streets were quiet, the occasional flicker of a streetlight casting long shadows. He rolled his shoulders, replaying the drills in his mind, until a sharp, unfamiliar sensation prickled at the back of his neck. He sensed danger.
His screen showed before his eyes a silent alert flashing in his vision [Threat Detected, Proximity meters.] Ali froze, scanning the dimly lit alleyways. Was this part of the training? But no, this felt real. The system guided him, pulling his attention toward a narrow side street. Heart pounding, he moved silently, every sense heightened. Then he heard it, a muffled gasp, the sound of fabric tearing. Peering around the corner, he saw a woman leaning over a man pressed against the wall, her fingers curled possessively around his collar. The man’s eyes were wide with terror, his breath ragged. Wait… something’s wrong. He thought to himself. The woman’s face twisted unnaturally, her features melting like wax. Her limbs elongated, fingers sharpening into claws. The man whimpered as the creature’s mouth stretched into a grotesque grin, rows of jagged teeth glinting in the dim light. It was a shapeshifter. Ali’s instincts kicked in. He stepped forward, voice cutting through the darkness. "Hey!" The creature’s head snapped toward him, its hollow eyes locking onto his. The man took the chance to stumble back, gasping. The Ghoul hissed, its voice a guttural mockery of human speech. "Another snack?" Ali clenched his fists, adrenaline surging. The system flashed again. [Engage with caution. Target: Shapeshifter. Weakness: Strike before full transformation.] He didn’t hesitate. He immediately actived the armor "White armor Activate" he declared. As soon as he was in his armor he lunging forward, he waved his sword at the Ghoul’s half-formed face. It cut him but the Ghoul managed to step away and regenerate, regaining its original form. The man scrambled away, shouting, "What the hell is that thing?!" "Run!" Ali barked, dodging a swipe of the Ghoul’s claws. The creature snarled, now fully monstrous—spindly limbs, jagged bone protrusions, a mouth too wide for its face. Ali ducked another attack, countering with a sharp kick to its ribs. It staggered but recovered fast, slashing at him. Pain flared across his arm, but he gritted his teeth. He knew he must focus. Remembering his training, he feinted left, then drove his elbow into the Ghoul’s throat. It gagged, its movements faltering. Seizing the opening, Ali grabbed a nearby metal pipe and swung with all his strength. CRACK. The Ghoul crumpled, it fell down to his knees. Panting, Ali stared at the empty space where it had been. The system updated: [Threat Neutralized. Combat Experience +10.] The man was still trembling a few feet away. "You—you saved me. What was that?!" Ali exhaled, wiping his brow. "Something that shouldn’t exist." He pulled out his phone, quickly messaging Malik and Laith: "We have a problem. Ghouls in the city. Just fought one." The response was immediate. Malik: "Stay where you are. We’re coming." Ali looked back at the shaken man. "You okay?" The man nodded shakily. "Thanks to you." The black smoke from the defeated Ghoul began to swirl unnaturally, coiling back together like a sinister vortex. Ali’s eyes widened as the creature’s laughter rasping and cruel echoed through the alley. "You’re just a small fry," the Ghoul sneered, its voice guttural yet mocking. "But I’ll have fun with you." Before Ali could react, the creature’s body twisted, bones cracking as its form expanded. Scales erupted across its skin, wings tore from its back, and in seconds, a dragon-like monstrosity loomed over him, molten fire glowing in its throat. "Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me!" Ali barely leapt aside as a jet of searing flames blasted where he’d stood, the heat singing his clothes. The dockyard crates behind him exploded into splinters and embers. Think. Adapt. Laith’s voice echoed in his mind. "Fear gets you killed. Strategy keeps you alive." Ali forced his breath steady. The Ghoul was stronger, yes, but it was arrogant. And arrogance could be exploited. Dashing behind a stack of cargo containers, Ali activated Stealth, his form blending into the shadows. The dragon-Ghoul snarled, its massive head whipping side to side. "Hiding won’t save you, little insect!" Ali didn’t answer. Instead, he moved silently toward the waterfront, leading the creature away from the city. The Ghoul took the bait, stomping after him, its massive tail smashing through lampposts. Then, just as Ali hoped, the creature’s form flickered. Maintaining such a powerful transformation was draining it. The dragon’s scales melted away, shrinking back into the slender, humanoid figure from before. Now was his chance. Ali lunged from the darkness, swinging a heavy chain he’d ripped from a nearby docked boat. The Ghoul hissed as the metal links wrapped around its torso, binding its arms. "Clever," it spat. "But not enough." Ali drove his knife straight into its chest. The Ghoul shrieked, its body convulsing as black ichor spilled from the wound. With a grunt, Ali heaved it off the pier and into the churning sea. The water hissed where the creature’s flesh touched it, bubbles erupting before the Ghoul dissolved into nothing. [Target Eliminated.] Panting, Ali collapsed to his knees as the system flared before him: [LEVEL UP!] [New Ability Unlocked: Light Sword] [+3 Strength] [+4 Stamina] [+5 Battle IQ] A grin tugged at his lips. He’d done it alone. Then his phone rang. Malik’s voice was uncharacteristically urgent. "Ali! Are you ok?" Ali tapped the device. "Yeah, Ghoul’s down. But we’ve got a bigger problem." "We’re tracking you now," Laith cut in. "Stay sharp. If one’s here, more are coming." Ali exhaled, flexing his fingers. The night was far from over. And now, he had a new weapon to test. The Light Sword hummed to life in his grip, a blade of pure energy, glowing like a sliver of the sun. And he was ready to test it.
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Chapter 384 The Young Teacher
The morning sun was still low over the eastern ridge, casting long amber fingers through the chain-link fence surrounding the base's secondary training yard. Laith stood at the edge of the worn concrete, arms crossed, watching his four remaining students cycle through their drills. Three of them: Yazeed, Qasim, and Tamir had finally begun to move not as soldiers mimicking foreign movements, but as warriors who had absorbed those movements into their own flesh and blood.The fourth, a quiet marksman named Rafiq, was still struggling. Laith made a mental note to work with him individually later. But today, his attention was captured by Yazeed.Yazeed was a lithe, whipcord-thin young man from the southern desert tribes. For weeks, he had frustrated Laith with his tendency to turn every technique into something overly elaborate, adding flourishes and spins that compromised efficiency. But something had clicked in the past three days. His movements had tightened, the extraneous motion stri
Chapter 383 Three Brothers
The training yard behind the Knights' headquarters was quiet in the late afternoon, the sun casting long shadows across the worn mats and training dummies. Ali stood with his arms crossed, watching his two younger brothers run through a basic disarming drill for the seventh time. Samir's footwork was sloppy, and Sami kept telegraphing his strikes by tensing his shoulders a full second before moving."No, no, stop," Ali called out, his voice carrying that particular tone of exhausted resignation that had become his default when dealing with them. He stepped forward, separating the two panting youths. "Sami, you might as well send the Ghoul a formal invitation to your attack. Your shoulders are screaming 'I'm about to hit you' from across the room. And Samir, your stance is so wide I could drive a truck through it. You're not trying to wrestle a bear; you're trying to maintain mobility.""But Marwan said a wide stance gives better stability," Samir protested, wiping sweat from his foreh
Chapter 382 A Long War
The air in the professor's study was thick with the scent of old paper, dust, and the sharp, clean aroma of ozone from multiple humming computer towers. Professor Elias Nazzal, a historian and linguist whose name was whispered with reverence in academic circles and suspicion in others, pushed his spectacles up his nose, his finger tracing a line on a yellowed parchment laid out under the glow of a magnifying lamp."This," he said, his voice a low, urgent rumble, "is not just a political land grab, Hazim. It is a ritual."Hazim leaned over the desk, his eyes scanning the intricate, angular script that was definitively not Arabic, nor any human language. It was Ghoul script, transcribed from fragments found in raids over the years. The parchment was part of a much larger, pieced-together translation Nazzal had been working on for a decade."They—the government of UFN, or rather, the Ghouls within it, are not just building an administrative complex where the Grand Mosque stands," Nazzal
Chapter 381 The Silence Of The Night
Ali took Sami to a doctor and luckily his little brother was in perfect shape. No Ghoul-tainted cuts, no internal injuries from the suplex or the subsequent terror. Ali, who had stood silently by during the examination, his face etched with deep fatigue, felt a knot in his chest loosen infinitesimally.“He is fine. Just needs rest, and perhaps a long talk about workplace safety,” the doctor had said with a knowing, but careful, smile.Now, Ali drove them back to the main Knights’ headquarters, the silence in the car a complex tapestry. It wasn’t the angry silence from before, nor the usual dismissive quiet. It was a heavy, processing silence. Sami stared out the window, watching the city lights blur past, his knuckles white where they gripped his knees. The adrenaline had fully receded, leaving behind a hollow, trembling awareness of what he had done, and what had almost happened.When they entered the common area of the HQ, they found Samir alone, hunched on a worn sofa, staring blan
Chapter 380 A New Knight
The high-frequency shriek of the Ghoul died abruptly as Ali’s powered fist, channeling the last surge of his armor’s capacitor, punched clean through the cracked obsidian carapace and into the unnatural creature beneath. There was a sickening crunch, a final, spasmodic twitch of the blade-like limbs, and then the creature collapsed into a smoldering heap of inert chitin and viscous, black fluid.Ali stood over it, his primary focus shifting to tactical assessment. The immediate threat was neutralized, but the breach protocol was clear: sanitize and secure.For the next ten minutes, he moved through the ravaged sub-level with methodical precision. He checked every shadowed corner, every toppled equipment rack, using his armor’s multi-spectrum scanners to detect any residual heat signatures or anomalous energy readings. He found none. The intruder had come alone, died alone. He reached the sealed door of Professor Riyad’s safe-room.“Professor, it’s Ali. The hostiles are down. Single en
Chapter 379 A Protector
Ali’s black Modern car screeched to a halt in the executive parking lot. In the passenger seat, Sami, his younger brother, was still rubbing his neck, his eyes slightly unfocused."Stay here," Ali commanded, his voice leaving no room for argument. He didn't even look at Sami as he spoke, his eyes fixed on the building's main entrance, where Fadi was already waiting, his face grim. "Lock the doors. Do not get out of this car for any reason. Do you understand?""But I can help!" Sami protested, the words slurring slightly from his lingering dizziness. "I've been training! I can—"Ali turned sharply, and the fury in his eyes was so raw it stole Sami’s breath. "You are not ready! You're dizzy from your own brother's amateur suplex! You would be a liability, a distraction, a target. You will stay. Here."The words were a cold slap. Before Sami could muster another protest, Ali was out of the car, the door slamming shut with finality. Sami watched, seething with a mix of shame and frustrati
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