Pampering Discarded Heroines Triggers My 10,000x Rebate System

Drip... drip... drip.

Cold water dripped from the ceiling onto Zephyra’s cheek, slowly waking her up.

Her head throbbed with pain, and she could taste copper and blood in her mouth. She forced her swollen eyes open, blinking through the darkness.

She was sitting on the dirty concrete floor of an abandoned warehouse. Broken rails and rusted train cars sat in the shadows around her. When she tried to move her arms, she found her wrists and ankles bound tight behind her back with thick mana-suppression zip-ties.

”Look who finally woke up,” a mocking voice called out from the dark.

Lord Varek Drossian walked out from behind an old train car. He wasn’t wearing his fancy velvet coat anymore, just a dark vest, and he was leaning on his snake-headed metal cane.

Standing beside him were his two tall S-Rank shadow bodyguards, with dark scarves covering their faces and twin poisoned daggers strapped to their belts.

Varek walked up to Zephyra, using the silver tip of his cane to lift her bruised chin.

”You really thought you could run away from me?” Varek grinned nastily. ”You made me lose fifty million dollars of face tonight in front of the entire High Council.”

Zephyra glared at him with cold eyes. She gathered the blood in her mouth and spat it straight onto his shiny leather shoe.

”You’re a coward, Varek,” she said quietly. ”You couldn’t beat Evren with gold, so you had your men jump a crippled girl in an alley.”

Varek’s face twisted in rage. He wiped his shoe on the floor, his eyes burning with anger.

”Crawford isn’t here to save you now,” Varek snarled, raising his heavy metal cane. ”I’m going to break your other arm first. Then I’ll send your fingers to his hotel until he hands over that Sun-Fire Coral on his knees!”

Varek gathered green mana in his cane and swung it down hard toward her shoulder.

Zephyra closed her eyes.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

A massive explosion blew the entire warehouse wall apart. Bricks, dust, and broken mortar flew across the room in a huge cloud as a black-and-gold twin-turbo SUV smashed straight through the brick wall, crushing two parked syndicate cars before skidding sideways to a stop right in the center of the warehouse.

The bright high-beam headlights shone directly into Varek’s terrified face.

Then, the driver’s door kicked wide open and Evren stepped out into the glare of the lights, resting his massive Frost-Bane Cleaver easily across his right shoulder. Cold white mist rolled off the giant blade, freezing the muddy ground beneath his boots

Beside him, the passenger door flew open, and Amber walked out. As she stepped out, bright golden mana wings flared from her back, drawing two glowing crystalline ice blades.

Evren looked straight at Varek with freezing eyes.

”Step away from her, Varek,” Evren said in a calm, deadly voice. ”Before I cut you in half.”

Varek stumbled backward in pure terror, his face as pale as chalk.

He knew he couldn’t fight an S-Rank monster who had just solo-cleared a mutated Rift. He turned toward his two S-Rank shadow bodyguards and screamed in panic.

”Kill them! Stall them for three minutes!”

Varek didn’t waste any time. He grabbed Zephyra by her collar and dragged her across the concrete floor toward the steel security door at the back of the warehouse that led to his underground vault.

”Evren, he’s taking her down to the bunker!” Amber called out, jumping into the air with her golden wings.

”You’re not going anywhere, Varek!” Evren roared, charging forward like a speeding truck.

The two S-Rank shadow bodyguards moved instantly.

They threw black smoke pellets onto the ground, vanishing into the shadows of the warehouse ceiling. A dozen dark, poisoned steel needles shot through the smoke, aiming straight for Evren’s neck and eyes.

Through his Kinetic Flow passive, the path of every needle lit up in blue lines across his vision.

Evren swung his giant cleaver with one hand, deflecting every single poisoned needle and sending them bouncing harmlessly off the walls.

”Evren, keep moving! I’ve got the ceiling!” Amber shouted from above.

Amber flared her golden wings, hovering near the steel rafters. She crossed her twin Frost-Valkyrie blades and swung them downward in a wide arc.

A wave of freezing blue ice spread across the ceiling beams, instantly coating the iron rafters in thick frost.

The cold mana broke the assassin’s stealth, forcing him to drop from the ceiling right in front of Amber. She dived like a falcon, her glowing ice blades clashing against his twin daggers in a shower of sparks.

Meanwhile, the second S-Rank assassin dropped from the shadows directly in front of the hallway door, trying to block Evren from reaching the stairs.

The assassin lunged forward with blinding speed, thrusting two venom-dripping daggers in a synchronized cross-strike toward Evren’s throat and chest.

Evren turned on his heel, using the sword to parry the strike.

CLANG!

Sparks erupted as the frost blade slammed into the twin daggers. The assassin was fast and skillfully deflected the brunt of the edge, but the weight of the cleaver forced his guard wide open, sending him skidding backward across the concrete.

The assassin reacted instantly, twisting his body mid-slide to throw a counter-thrust.

Evren predicted the exact angle of the counter with Kinetic Flow.

Before the assassin could recover his balance, Evren stepped inside his guard and drove a front kick straight into his chest.

The impact slammed the assassin into the reinforced door frame, disorienting him for a split second.

Evren followed through immediately, sweeping the Frost-Bane Cleaver in a powerful horizontal arc. The sword cleaved through the assassin, freezing him in place before his body collapsed against the wall.

Kicking the hallway door open, Evren sprinted down the concrete stairs.

At the bottom of the dimly lit subterranean corridor stood a massive, circular titanium blast door.

Varek was standing in front of the door with trembling hands, frantically typing an eight-digit security code into the digital keypad to lock himself and Zephyra inside his deep underground vault.

Zephyra was lying on the cold steps beside him, glaring up at him with defiance even in her dinjured and restricted state.

”Almost there... almost open!” Varek muttered frantically, sweat pouring down his face as he pressed the last number.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

The digital lock flashed green, and the pneumatic locking bolts began to hiss open.

Just as Varek reached for the heavy steel handle, a gust of freezing wind blew down the stairwell.

Evren landed at the base of the stairs with a heavy thud, cracking the concrete beneath his boots. Without breaking stride, he thrust his left palm forward, releasing a concentrated blast of pure mana.

The invisible shockwave slammed directly into the digital keypad on the vault door, blowing the electronic lock into a shower of sparks and molten plastic.

The pneumatic bolts slammed back into place, sealing the vault door completely shut from the outside.

Varek spun around in pure shock.

He stared at the smoking, ruined keypad, then looked up at Evren standing five paces away, holding the frost cleaver with eyes as cold as death.

The snake cane slipped from Varek’s trembling fingers as he backed up against the steel door.

”Nowhere left to run, Varek.”