2025-08-29 17:31:21
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FIRE BENEATH THE RAIN
And with that, Ares Kane turned and walked back into the storm - unbroken, unafraid, reborn.The wind clawed at his coat as he descended the tower stairwell, boots hammering against the metal steps. The air was thick with smoke, sirens wailing from below. Somewhere deep inside the building, fire had taken hold—licking through the lower floors like a living thing.Hawk’s voice crackled faintly through the comm. “Boss! You alive?”“Alive enough,” Ares said, his breath rough.“Good. Because the whole building’s coming down. You might wanna move.”Ares pushed through the stairwell door and entered the burning lobby. Flames licked the marble walls, casting everything in blood-orange light. Hawk crouched behind an overturned table, rifle smoking, his grin wild. Reyes leaned against a pillar, his arm bleeding through the fresh bandage.Ares strode toward them, his silhouette hard in the firelight. “Wu’s done.”Hawk whistled. “You mean - ”“Dead,” Ares said flatly. “It’s over.”Reyes let out
THE FLOOD BREAKS
The storm had cracked open wider. And Ares Kane stood at its eye, unyielding, waiting for the flood.Rain began to fall again, washing over the rubble, softening the edges of what war had broken. Lin City slept uneasy beneath the storm’s weight - half fearing him, half praying for him. Ares didn’t move. His eyes tracked the skyline where the Syndicate Tower glowed faintly in the distance, a pillar of arrogance against a dying sky.Footsteps approached from behind. Hawk’s voice broke the silence. “They’re talking about you again. Half the slums want to sell your head. The other half would follow you into hell.”Ares didn’t turn. “Then hell has a crowd.”Hawk let out a rough laugh. “Wu’s tightening the noose. He’s calling bounty hunters from the outer zones - mercenaries, killers, the desperate kind.”“How long?”“Two days. Maybe less.”Ares nodded once. “Then we end it before they arrive.”Hawk blinked. “End it how?”“Wu,” Ares said flatly. “We cut out the heart.”Behind them, Reyes li
THE BOUNTY OF BLOOD
Chapter 200 – The Bounty of BloodAres stood where the wall had broken. Night clung to him, thick and heavy, the smell of ash still rising from the charred barricades. He hadn’t moved since dusk, hadn’t spoken since Hawk delivered the news. His shadow stretched long across the rubble, a sentinel carved from blood and silence.Behind him, the Hall slept in uneasy quiet. Mira lay curled beside Elijah, her arm thrown over their son as though her body alone could shield him from the world. Every time Elijah shifted, Mira stirred. Her eyes never fully closed.Ares heard it all - the boy’s shallow breaths, Mira’s restless murmurs, the groan of the wounded in the next room. Every sound pressed into him like weight. He could carry steel. He could carry war. But this weight - the fragile weight of those who trusted him—was different.The poster Hawk had dropped earlier still crumpled in his pocket. Ares drew it out now, unfolding it with hands that trembled not from fear but from rage. His nam
ASHES IN THE MORNING
The hall still smelled of smoke and blood.Bodies lay in broken heaps near the threshold, boots sticking out from rubble, fingers curled stiff around rusted weapons. The floor was slick where dust mixed with blood, a dark paste clinging to boots. The air trembled with the silence that always followed slaughter - the silence of men who had survived against numbers that should have crushed them.Ares stood in the middle of it all.His knuckles were raw, split open, crimson streaks dripping to the floor. His shirt was torn at the shoulder, streaked with soot and blood that wasn’t all his own. Every muscle screamed for rest, but his eyes - those eyes still burned like fire had been poured into them.Hawk leaned against the broken wall, laughing through shallow breaths. “Not bad, Kane. Almost makes me glad I didn’t sleep in this morning.”Reyes sat slumped against the barricade, face gray, shirt darkened by a wound across his ribs. He pressed his hand against it, jaw tight, refusing to com
THE SIEGE AT DAWN
Dawn was coming. So were they.The first light broke pale over Lin City’s jagged skyline, painting broken roofs and cracked windows in sickly gold. The Resistance Hall stood silent, its old bricks holding their breath. Inside, no one slept.Ares stood at the window of Elijah’s room, watching the horizon as though it might reveal the shape of his enemies. His reflection stared back at him in the glass - lined, weary, but carved with something unbreakable. Behind him, Elijah stirred in his sleep, murmuring nonsense words of a child not yet old enough to understand the war closing around him.Mira was already awake. She had not left Elijah’s side all night. Her eyes found Ares’s back, and she whispered, “How many?”“Enough,” he said without turning. “Too many, if we wait. Not enough, if we’re ready.”Her voice cracked. “That isn’t an answer.”“It’s the only one I have.”...Downstairs, Hawk slammed a crate onto the table, spilling rifles, battered magazines, and grenades that looked olde
WHISPERS BEFORE DAWN
For him, for Mira, for the promise he had carved into the bones of the city - Ares Kane would stand unyielding, no matter how many enemies filled the dark.But the dark did not sleep.After Chen Guo vanished into the alleys with his mocking grin, the street seemed emptier, though the smell of blood still clung to the wet stones. Ares didn’t move at once. His pulse was steady, but his mind carried the weight of what had just been declared. War - loud, public, unavoidable.Reyes holstered his pistol with a grunt. “That wasn’t just a warning. That was a leash being slipped.”“I know.”“Then why don’t you look more rattled?”Ares turned his head toward him. His eyes were calm, almost too calm. “Because being rattled won’t keep my son safe.”Reyes studied him for a long second, then shook his head as if cursing quietly at the stubbornness. “You’re still the same boy I pulled out of the desert years ago. Reckless. Proud.”“Maybe,” Ares murmured. “But this time, I’m not fighting for a flag o
