2025-08-21 08:27:11
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THE DAWN BEFORE THE HUNT
“Tomorrow, they won’t hunt us. Tomorrow, we hunt them.”The words landed like a blade striking stone. Mira didn’t respond at first. She sat across from Ares, her posture straight, her hands clasped as if holding something fragile inside herself. Her eyes searched him - not for weakness, but for truth. Was this resolve, or just a man forcing his own wounds shut so others wouldn’t bleed?But Ares did not look away. His face was carved in that familiar calm, the calm of a man who had seen storms break armies and deserts swallow men whole. His words weren’t spoken to inspire. They were spoken because he had already decided.The oil lamp burned low, throwing restless shadows against the cracked walls. Elijah shifted in his sleep, turning over, a soft whimper caught in his throat. The boy’s hand balled into a fist against the threadbare blanket. Ares’s eyes flickered, soft for only a heartbeat, then hardened again.“We can’t live in hiding,” he said at last, his voice carrying like gravel d
ASHES AT THE DOOR
The night after the assault was too quiet. Not the silence of peace - but the silence of a city holding its breath, waiting for the next scream.Inside the safehouse, the dead had been dragged into a heap in the courtyard. Their bodies still leaked shadows across the floorboards where they had fallen, blood seeping into old wood. No one spoke of burial. There was no time, no ground safe enough to dig. Only the smell of iron lingered, a reminder that the Concord would not stop.Ares stood by the doorway, his blade cleaned but not sheathed. His hands flexed against the hilt, restless, already tasting the next fight. He should have felt triumph - the hunters repelled, his son safe, his enemies humiliated. But instead he felt only the weight of Mira’s eyes drilling into his back.“You should have let him sleep,” she whispered finally. Her voice carried no accusation, only exhaustion. “He cried himself back into dreams. That’s not a child’s sleep, Ares. That’s fear.”He turned slowly. Mira
THE HUNTERS' SHADOW
The night pressed heavy on Lin City, the smoke from burning homes clinging to the sky like a second skin. Inside the safehouse, silence weighed just as thick. Fighters who had once laughed in the face of death now sat hollow-eyed, their rifles laid across their knees like toys clutched in fear. Every distant shout sent them stiffening, waiting for the inevitable knock of war.But the true storm wasn’t outside. It was circling them, unseen.Ares stood at the cracked window, his frame etched in the orange glow of fires burning across the horizon. His hands were steady on the sill, but his jaw was steel, teeth gritted against the knowledge of what was coming.“They’ll come for him,” he said at last, his voice gravel in the silence.Mira stiffened, her arms tightening around Elijah who slept in her lap. Her eyes found Ares - sharp, trembling. “Don’t you dare say that out loud.”“I don’t say it to curse us,” Ares replied, turning. His gaze held hers, fierce, unblinking. “I say it because i
THE RETALIATION
And Lin City… would drown in it.The warning became truth faster than anyone expected....At dawn, the city woke not to birds or traffic - but to sirens. Explosions rocked the east district, smoke rising like dark pillars against the sky. Ares’s strike at the docks had ripped open The Concord’s pride. Their response came swift, merciless, and aimed at the heart.By noon, three Resistance safehouses were reduced to rubble. Streets once busy with vendors now stank of fire and dust. Mothers clutched their children in alleys, while men whispered of vengeance and doom in the same breath.And above it all, the word spread like sickness: The Concord is coming for the families....Inside the safehouse, chaos churned. Fighters stormed in with wounds still fresh from the docks, shouting, arguing, blood and grime staining the floorboards.Reyes slammed a pistol onto the table, his voice cracking through the noise. “They’re not even hiding it now! They’re burning out every nest we’ve got!”Hawk
STRIKING FIRST
The city held its breath.After the depot massacre, Lin City was quiet - but it was the kind of quiet that sits heavy before a gun goes off. Shops opened late, shutters creaking in fear. Streets emptied faster at dusk. Gangs whispered, businessmen tightened their guards, and in the alleys, everyone asked the same question: What would the God of War do next?They didn’t have to wait long....Inside the safehouse, Ares stood at the table again. The map spread before him was stained now with blood and ash from the depot fight. Circles. Arrows. X’s where men had fallen.Reyes leaned back in his chair, arms folded. His knuckles were scabbed raw, his lip split. “So,” he muttered, “what’s the play? Sit and wait for them to knock again? Or do we finally kick their teeth in?”Hawk rubbed at his jaw, his voice lower. “We’re stretched thin. Half the Resistance is bleeding. If The Concord marches in full force, we’ll be crushed before sundown.”Mira listened from the corner, Elijah curled asleep
BAPTISM OF FIRE
The first burst of gunfire ripped through the depot like thunder splitting stone. Bullets sparked against steel beams, rattled off rusted walls, cracked through crates. The Concord charged in with all the arrogance of men who thought numbers made them gods.They didn’t see the wires.The explosion tore the front wave apart. Fire roared, smoke curling black against the dripping ceiling. Screams cut the air - high, jagged, panicked. Men stumbled, burning, their banners catching flame.From the rafters above, Ares’s men opened fire.The depot became a slaughterhouse....Ares moved like a shadow through it all. His rifle barked once, twice, each shot deliberate, each man that fell chosen. He wasn’t a wild animal foaming at the mouth - he was a surgeon with steel, cutting through the noise with precision.Reyes was beside him, laughing like a madman between bursts of fire. Hawk’s shotgun thundered, echoing against the rafters. Resistance fighters, ragged but steady, poured rounds into the
