2026-05-16 21:29:26
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Chapter 455
He looked at the man for a long moment, at the wet hair, the bound wrists, the wide grin that was still sitting on his face. He didn't respond to the question. He didn't react to the tone.He just looked at him.And then he said, quietly and directly… "Who are you working for? Why are you taking children from these villages? And where are you keeping them?"The man stared at him.Then he let out a short laugh, leaned forward as far as the binding allowed, and said, low and clear and completely relaxed… "I am not saying a single word."Wabash's jaw shifted.It was small. Just a small movement at the back of his jaw, like something tightening. His hands, at his sides, closed and slowly, the fingers curling in until his knuckles had some pressure behind them.Then he smiled.Not warm. Not the easy smile he usually had. This one was forced up from something underneath it, thin and deliberate, the smile of a man keeping a lid on something that wants to come off."You said you won't comp
Chapter 454:The Oath
The man in the chair had his head hanging forward when the water hit him.Egries didn't pour it gently. She tilted the bucket and let it go,a full, cold, committed pour that hit the top of his head and ran down his face and neck and soaked the front of his cloak in one go.His head snapped up."HEY…" He sputtered, shaking his head like a wet dog, water flying off his hair. "I'm up! I'm UP! What the…""Shut up.” Mira said.He turned and looked at her. Water was still dripping off his chin. His eyes moved from her face down to her folded arms and back up again, and something in his expression settled into the specific look of a man who had decided, while still half-unconscious and soaking wet, that he was not going to be spoken to that way."Make me." He said.Mira uncrossed her arms.She stood up from where she had been leaning against the tent pole and took one step forward and the expression on her face was the expression of someone who had been looking for a reason and had just
Chapter 453
The man looked up. "We had fifteen children in the basket. Moving through the east canopy, fifty percent speed, quiet. One of the children got the gag off, I don't know how, someone must have loosened it during the carrying and called out. Loud enough to carry."He shook his head."Before we could cover it again, someone was already in the trees. Moving up from below, fast, I mean genuinely fast, not trained-fast, something-else-fast. He was in the canopy before the sound had finished travelling." He looked at his hands. "He cut the basket seal open while we were moving. In the air. Moving at speed himself, he cut it while it was moving." A pause. "And then the other one,on the ground,caught it from underneath before it dropped. Made a shield that took the whole basket and brought it down steadily." He looked at Web. "They had talked about that. They had a plan for exactly that scenario before they even moved. That kind of coordination doesn't happen by accident.""How many?"
Chapter 452
Mira looked at the ash one more time. Then forward.Beatrice crouched slightly, looking at the grey on the ground. "They were clones." She said. "All of them."Caius crouched beside her, touched the ash, rubbed it between two fingers. "Flame clones. Yeah." He stood up. "Which means the real one is somewhere nearby.""So where is he?" The defence captain said, looking around the clearing."Had to be watching." Asta said. "Staying back. Keeping himself out of it."Everyone went quiet for a moment.The tree line. The undergrowth. The spaces between the roots where the dark was thickest.Then, from the right side, maybe twenty feet into the bushes, the sound of something moving. Low and careful and almost quiet. Almost."There.” Beatrice said.Her bow was up before anyone else had turned all the way.“"Flame Arc Technique — Binding Web."”The arrow left the string and fanned, splitting into a wide net of burning threads, spreading fast and dropping over the area of movement in o
Chapter 451
The voice came from the far side of the remaining group. Taller than the others, standing a little ahead of them, the bearing of someone who was used to people listening to him in rooms like this. His hands were raised and his eyes were fixed on her and the expression on his face had gone past regular frustration into the specific place that people reach when they are being coached during a fight."Shut your mouth and FIGHT!"Mira looked at him.She stood completely still for a moment.Then she closed her eyes.She breathed in through her nose. Held it #!£ then breathed out.When her eyes opened, she stepped sideways.And kept stepping.Except the original Mira stopped.And the one that kept walking didn't.The clone separated from her cleanly, same height, same build, same twin sabers burning steady at its sides, same posture, same expression and stepped forward into the space between Mira and the remaining group, coming to a stop directly in front of the tall man who had been yelli
Chapter 450:Clones and Ashes
The circle had not moved yet.Twelve men in black cloaks standing in a tight ring around the two of them, close enough that Asta could see the heat shimmer coming off their hands in the cold night air. Nobody had launched anything. Nobody had spoken since the whistle. They were doing what people do when they want the numbers to do the talking before anyone has to move a foot, just standing there, letting the math of twelve against two settle into the space between them like a wall.Mira looked around at all of them slowly.One side. The other side. All the way around.Then she looked at Asta.The smirk hadn't left her face since the moment they appeared. If anything it had gotten a little wider."There's twelve of them." She said, the same tone she would use to comment on the temperature."Yeah." Asta said. "I can see that.""Just twelve." She said again."I counted them.""Right." She rolled one saber slowly in her right wrist, the flame blade turning lazy circles in the dark.
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