The Ryu Dynasty Returns

Chapter 2:

The masked men moved immediately.

One advanced towards Riven while another one restrained his hands behind him, forcing him to kneel violently onto the bloodstained marble floor.

The one in front of him, grabbed his neck and slammed his face on the floor, hard enough to split the skin near his eyebrows. Blood seeped out of the wound and onto the floor.

“Riven!” Asia’s cries become louder, tears streaming down her face as she stretches out her hands towards him.

“Asia!” Riven yells back, struggling. He kicks and tries hard to claw his way out of the man’s grip. “Let me go!”

All the children’s cries are ignored as the leader leads four of the other men away with him.

“Hurry up men!” He ordered.

Asia’s screams are heard from the courtyard as they depart.

“ASIA!!!!”

Riven screamed his sister’s name helplessly as he looks on.

He takes a glance at the bodies of his parents lying in their pool of their cold blood, a few feet away from him and for the first time since his birth, he knows helplessness.

“Hehe,” One of the men standing freely sneers. “The Wei’s heir has finally given up?”

He crouches down right in front of Riven.

As the man holding his neck down releases his grip, Riven jerks up and bites down on the hand on the one in front of him hard enough to draw blood.

“FUCK!”

Angrily, he grabs Riven’s neck, blood streaks down his face as he locks gazes with him.

“You stupid kid!”

PAR!

A hard slap was sent across Riven’s cheek sending his face flying sideways, blood pooling at his mouth but before he could recover, the man began to choke him.

Riven’s mouth opens slightly as he gasps for air, his hands still held tightly behind him. His eyes widen, darting around the room as he felt his life being slowly sucked out of him.

The man continues to add pressure to his grip, a scrowl on his face as Riven swirms underneath his hold. Just as Riven’s eyes roll back, the lights of the ballroom flicker once.

The masked men take no notice of this.

Then—

BAM!

The massive glass window along the eastern side of the hall explodes into pieces.

Before any of the masked men could react, a dart swings forward cutting the windpipe of the one holding Riven’s hands.

His hands immediately fly to his neck as blood gushes out of the wound, covering his palms and the ground. His eyes widened as he falls backwards.

Dead.

WHOOSH!

Another falls to his death.

WHOOSH!

One by one, they drop dead.

Panic instantly slams into rest.

“It’s a ghost!” The one holding Riven’s neck cries out, stepping back from the boy as he stares at his companions falling one by one to their deaths.

No one could see the one who was causing this calamity.

“Run!”

As the surviving ones try to escape to the door, darts are thrown skillfully, hitting them precisely on the necks as they all fall to their deaths.

Silence calmly returns to the hall.

Riven coughs violently as the sudden rush of air into his lungs relives him. His vision blurs, but his ears pick up sounds of footsteps coming towards him, he looks up.

However, before he could see the face of the figure in front of him, he is knocked out cold.

Darkness envelopes him quickly.

…

The veil of unconsciousness slowly peels itself away from Riven as his eyelids flutter open. The sunlight shining into the room makes him squint his eyes a little as his vision goes from a blur to stable.

Riven feels an instant ache in his joints and a cooling sensation on his neck.

Someone was with him.

He jumps up instantly, earning a scared flinch from the person beside him. Riven locks eyes with a young boy about his age, the boy swallows hard and before Riven could speak, he runs out of the room, slamming the door shut.

Riven stared around his surroundings, confused. He was in a spacious room, the smell of medicinal herbs were heavy in the air.

He felt a peculiar soreness in his dry throat. The door opens again, and the boy earlier walks into the room with an older man.

Riven is instantly alert.

“Who are you?!”

The man ignores his question and looks down at the boy standing beside him.

“Orion, you have no reason to be frightened,” he glances up at Riven. “You’re brothers now.”

Riven’s brows furrowed. His gaze darted from the man to the boy—Orion. They looked harmless.

“You’re safe now, child. You don’t have to hold any fear in your heart. We won’t harm you,” the man said with reassurance but that wasn’t enough for Riven to let down his guard.

“Who are you? Where am I?” He questioned. “Where’s my sister?!”

The man straightens up with a thin smile. “Damon Zhao, and this is my son, Orion Zhao.”

Riven’s eyes show a glint of recognition. His father had told him about a certain Damon Zhao. Cassian had considered him as family but Riven had never seen him before.

Remembering his father now, his heart ached. The memory of his parents being killed and the feeling of their blood soaking up his clothes sent a deep rage surging through him.

Damon saw the look in the young boy’s eyes and understood it.

A hunger and thirst for revenge.

“My father had spoken about you,” Riven began, his jaw clenching. “He regarded you highly, like a friend. You were the one who saved me?”

Damon nodded, his smile still intact. “I’m repaying your father’s favor of saving my life. I’m deeply indebted to him.”

Riven’s face darkened with confusion accompanied the anger in his eyes.

“Then why didn’t you save my family?!” He thundered.

A muscle in Damon’s jaw ticked, a flint of regret crossing his eyes.

“I wish I could have arrived earlier. This is something I would regret till the day I die,” he said with a deep sigh. “But there’s something I would love for you to know, child. You are alive for a reason, your father had died protecting something far greater than wealth.”

“What do you mean?”

“Survive long enough to find out the answers yourself.”