2025-09-23 22:02:43
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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
ENEMIES IN THE DARK
The storm did not wait for dawn.By the time Ares left Elijah’s room, Lin City’s night had already thickened into something dangerous. The streets outside the Resistance Hall shifted with shadows that didn’t belong to beggars or drunks. Watchful eyes followed him from alleys where the air stank of rust and sour liquor. Somewhere close, a knife caught the light of a broken streetlamp before vanishing again.He had expected them. Victor Wu’s allies had not survived this long by sleeping through danger. Word of his return had spread faster than he could have guessed, and predators always circled quickest when they smelled the possibility of losing ground.Ares walked with his head high, refusing to shrink. If they wanted to test his name, let them....Reyes appeared at his side as if conjured from the dark. The older man’s coat hung heavy around him, but his eyes were sharp, alive with an old fire Ares hadn’t seen in years.“They’re watching you,” Reyes muttered without moving his lips.
THE WEIGHT OF HIS NAME
The Resistance Hall still trembled with echoes of the storm Ares had set loose. He had spoken, and though the words were already fading into the cracked stone and rotting beams, the weight of them lingered like smoke in every corner.He had not raised his voice. He had not needed to. The silence that followed had been louder than any battle cry.Now, as the crowd thinned into scattered knots of whispers, Ares remained standing at the center. His shoulders were squared, though fatigue pulled at his bones. His fists opened and closed at his sides, as if his body hadn’t decided whether the night called for war or restraint.They had heard his name. They had seen his face. There was no turning back.Mira stood near the back, half-hidden in shadow, her eyes never leaving him. She had sat through his vow without flinching, without interrupting, but now her gaze burned like a torch - steady, unblinking, almost accusing.In the small room beyond, Elijah slept on a thin mattress. His breathing
