Crack.
A dry twig snapped under Nclai's foot.
He didn't pause.
Fog clung low across the old ruins like a second skin, and broken branches clawed the sky like skeletal fingers. The northern ridge had never been part of the original test ground. Now, it was forgotten.
Too quiet.
Too still.
Even the wind seemed to hold its breath.
The faint hiss of a hidden blade unsheathing.
A thump behind the wall of stone.
He kept walking.
His breath was slow, eyes scanning with more than sight.
Blood Sensitivity: Passive
A dull, rhythmic pulse beat beneath his skin, alerting him to the subtle presence of blood.
Eight signatures.
None of them students.
None of them beasts.
Assassins.
They had waited. Patient. Coordinated.
His hand dropped to his side. He inhaled, calm.
"Come out."
Whoosh.
Like cloth ripping in reverse, eight masked figures emerged from the mist.
They didn't charge.
One stepped forward.
"You're not supposed to be alive."
Nclai tilted his head.
His shadow lengthened unnaturally behind him.
Skill Active: Shadow Veil
He vanished, reappeared behind them like spilled ink.
A flick of his hand—
Blood Control: Active
A thin crimson line erupted from his fingertip. It swirled through the air like a whip, carving a spiral through the mist. One assassin moved to block—
SPLASH!
His leg exploded.
A single twist of blood inside his femoral artery.
The man shrieked, collapsing in a thud.
The others rushed.
Clang! Clink! Whoosh!
Blades met air.
Met nothing.
Met shadow.
Nclai ducked beneath a dagger swipe, his palm grazing another's shoulder–
The blood beneath their skin turned against them.
Boom!
Two were blown back, one into a broken wall, leaving a bloody crack in the stone.
Nclai's coat flared.
His eyes glinted red.
Eyes of Verdict – Activated
He locked eyes with one.
"Kneel."
Thump.
The man dropped, convulsing.
Another slashed toward Nclai's spine–
Sssshh—SPLAT.
The blade stopped mid-air.
Blood spiraled from Nclai's side and hardened mid-spin into a needle-thin spike.
It pierced through the assassin's wrist.
The scream was a shriek.
He collapsed.
Three remained.
The leader barked a signal...
Whirr!
A trap rune flared on the ground.
Too late.
Nclai had already twisted the air with a ring of blood. It thickened, solidified, pulsing like veins in the sky.
Then he clenched his fist.
The ring collapsed inward—
BOOM.
A wave of ruptured pressure sent the last three scattering like broken toys.
He stood in the center.
Coat torn.
Breath steady.
Shadow still veiling the ground.
Silence.
Then—
......
System Update
Sync Ratio: 22.4%
Bloodline Trait Evolved – Eyes of Verdict: Lv.2
Command Range Increased
Duration: 5–7 seconds
Target Rank: B-rank and below
Cooldown: 45 seconds
Available Commands: Halt, Obey, Reveal
......
Nclai exhaled through his nose.
"Too generous," he muttered.
His eyes drifted over the twitching bodies.
His blood returned to him slowly, coiling around his wrist like a red snake before vanishing beneath his skin.
Drip. Drip.
The last sound was not his enemy's.
It was rain.
He didn't smile.
He didn't gloat.
He just walked forward through the smoke and wreckage of ambush.
The ruin didn't remember who built it.
But it would remember what happened here tonight.
And so would the ones who sent them.
......