House of Blood

The iron lift groaned as it descended into the throat of the Abyssal Ravine.

Thick, damp fog swallowed the sky, wiping away the bruised-purple dawn until only the pale-blue luminescent moss clinging to the basalt cliff faces illuminated the descent.

The deeper they traveled, the colder the air became.

Inside the iron cage, the silence of Cell One was suffocating.

Casper stood at the front, one hand resting on the hilt of his golden-pommeled sword, his back turned to the rest of the team.

Every muscle in his shoulders was taut.

Every breath he took was heavy with suppressed fury.

Beside him, Princess Solene leaned against the rusted iron bars, her pale amethyst eyes calmly observing the descending gloom.

Lyra Medeis stood slightly behind them, her silver raven cloak draped over one arm as her fingers rhythmically tapped the crystal orb embedded in her rapier’s pommel.

And in the far corner, silent as a statue, stood Valerian.

His black blindfold remained firmly tied across his eyes.

His expression was unreadable.

”The wind down here moves at four knots from the east,” Lyra said into the cold air, her voice carrying the refined, melodic cadence of House Medeis. ”The humidity is eighty percent, and the mana concentration is volatile. Standard fire arrays will lose thirty percent of their explosive yield, while spatial transmission will suffer from atmospheric drag.”

She paused.

Then she turned her sharp, intelligent gaze toward Valerian.

Without warning, Lyra flicked her index finger.

A subtle ripple snapped through the air.

A tiny, invisible needle of compressed spatial mana shot directly toward Valerian’s blindfold.

It carried no heat.

No sound.

No light.

Clink.

Valerian’s hand didn’t sweep upward in a grand block.

He simply tilted his chin two centimeters to the left.

The spatial needle grazed past his silver hair and struck the iron cage behind him, producing a tiny spark.

Lyra’s eyes narrowed.

He didn’t track the mana.

Her mind instantly deconstructed the exchange.

The Medeis spatial pulse leaves almost no mana trace until impact. He couldn’t have seen it.

Her fingers slowly stopped tapping the crystal orb.

He felt the atmospheric displacement.

The realization sent a spark of genuine excitement through her scholarly mind.

The slight change in pressure caused by the air being displaced...

Incredible.

”Keep your parlor tricks to yourself, Lyra,” Casper snapped.

His voice cut through the silence.

”We have one hour to collect three Night-Bloom Core Stones. I am taking the lead. You and Solene will provide fire and spatial support from the rear.”

His eyes shifted toward Valerian.

”The blind stray stays in the middle and carries the pack.”

Solene raised a delicate eyebrow.

”And who appointed you squad leader, Casper?”

”My house has led the Vanguard forces for three centuries, Princess.”

Casper stepped forward as the lift shuddered violently.

”In battle, authority belongs to the strongest blade. Not to politics, and certainly not to commoner clerks.”

The iron lift finally slammed to a halt.

The cage doors opened.

Valerian stepped onto the damp, moss-covered shale.

His boots made almost no sound against the wet stone.

”If authority belongs to the strongest blade,” Valerian said flatly, adjusting the leather strap across his shoulder, ”you’re heading toward a cave-in.”

Casper’s expression darkened.

Valerian tilted his head slightly.

”The rock formation thirty paces ahead is structurally compromised by subterranean moisture. Three steps forward and the ledge collapses.”

Casper whirled around.

”Are you telling me how to read terrain, stray?!”

”He’s right.”

Lyra stepped forward.

Her crystal pommel glowed faintly as she scanned the structural weave of the basalt ceiling.

”The mana veins inside the overhang are fractured. A heavy step would trigger a stone slide.”

Casper clicked his tongue.

His fists clenched.

But before he could bark another order, a low, wet skittering echoed from the shadows above.

Everyone froze.

Two hundred paces behind Cell One, concealed within the dense freezing fog along the upper cliff ledges, two figures crouched motionlessly.

Castor Ter Sangius peered through a brass, double-lensed scope mounted on his geometric array-compass.

Beside him, Pollux lay flat on her stomach, her legs dangling over the cliff edge as she casually twirled two silver daggers between her fingers.

”Cell One is already fracturing,” Castor whispered.

”Casper’s pride is blinding his tactical judgment. Solene is observing. Lyra is actively testing Cadet Valen’s spatial reaction limits.”

”What about my favorite clerk?” Pollux asked.

A wicked grin spread across her face.

”Is he doing anything fun?”

”He’s doing what he always does.”

Castor adjusted the fine brass gear on his scope.

”He’s reading the environment three steps ahead of everyone else.”

He paused.

Then his expression changed.

”But they aren’t alone.”

He pointed toward the upper shelf.

”Look at the shadows.”

Pollux tilted her head.

Her pale eyes sharpened.

”Ooh...”

Her grin widened.

”Chitin Stalkers.”

Above Cell One’s position, four massive, eight-legged subterranean predators crawled silently down the damp stone wall.

Each was nearly the size of a warhorse.

Their bodies were covered in jagged obsidian carapaces, while translucent sacs beneath their abdomens pulsed with yellow-green digestive fluid.

Long, hooked limbs clung effortlessly to the vertical stone.

Acid dripped from their mandibles.

Where each drop landed, the shale hissed and dissolved.

”Four Tier-Two beasts,” Castor said calmly.

”Standard procedure dictates that a vanguard cell form an iron-turtle formation and lure them into a choke point.”

His eyes remained fixed on Casper.

”Let us see if Casper’s golden arrogance allows for standard procedure.”

Down on the cavern floor, the fog parted.

A massive black shape dropped from the ceiling.

SCREECH!

The Chitin Stalker slammed into the stone barely ten feet from Casper.

Its eight legs stabbed into the ground.

Acid sprayed from its mandibles.

The creature’s screech reverberated through the cavern.

”Insolent bug!”

Casper’s golden aura exploded.

His sword ignited with brilliant white-hot solar flames.

The sudden light illuminated the cavern like a miniature sun.

”Die!”

He charged.

”Casper, wait!” Lyra shouted. ”The light will—”

Too late.

Casper swung his sword in a massive horizontal arc.

The solar blade smashed into the Stalker’s upper carapace.

BOOM!

Black blood sprayed across the stone.

One section of its armored shell shattered.

The creature shrieked.

But Casper’s attack had accomplished something far worse.

The blinding flare of solar fire illuminated the cavern.

Three pairs of crimson eyes opened within the darkness above.

The remaining Stalkers immediately turned toward the light.

SCREEECH!

All three launched themselves from the walls.

They fell like enormous spiders from the ceiling.

”Form a wedge!” Solene commanded.

She drew her slender, silver-inlaid rapier.

”Lyra, lock the left flank!”

Lyra’s spatial mana erupted.

”I’m burning them all to ash!” Casper roared.

He drove forward again.

His sword crashed into the wounded Stalker’s chest.

CRACK!

Another plate of obsidian armor shattered.

Black ichor exploded across Casper’s golden breastplate.

But his heavy strikes were wide.

Too wide.

His entire left flank was exposed.

A second Stalker lunged from behind.

Its mandibles opened.

Rows of serrated teeth snapped toward Casper’s unarmored neck.

Casper’s eyes widened.

He tried to turn.

His sword was still extended from his previous strike.

”What—?!”

SHING!

A dull steel blade flashed through the darkness.

Valerian stepped between Casper and the monster.

There was no aura. ℯℯ𝘭.

No mana.

No flash.

Just movement.

His left foot planted.

His hips rotated.

His body slipped beneath the creature’s snapping mandibles by less than an inch.

The Stalker’s front claws slammed down where his head had been.

Valerian drove his iron arming sword upward.

The blade punched beneath the creature’s third jaw.

THK!

Steel vanished into soft tissue.

The Stalker convulsed.

Its legs scraped violently against the stone.

Valerian twisted the blade.

The sword ripped through the creature’s throat from the inside.

A fountain of black blood erupted across the cavern wall.

The beast spasmed.

Valerian kicked its abdomen away and ripped the sword free.

The corpse crashed onto the ground.

Before it could even stop twitching, another Stalker lunged.

Valerian heard the displacement.

He ducked.

The creature’s claws tore through the air above him.

He stepped inside its reach.

His elbow slammed into the creature’s optical cluster.

CRUNCH!

Several black sensory lenses shattered beneath the impact.

The Stalker screamed.

Its head snapped sideways.

Valerian grabbed one of its forelegs.

Instead of resisting its momentum, he redirected it.

He pivoted.

The creature’s enormous body flew sideways.

BOOM!

Its skull smashed against the basalt wall.

A crater formed beneath its head.

Black fluid splattered across the stone.

The Stalker collapsed.

Two beasts.

Less than three seconds.

Casper stood frozen.

His solar flames flickered uselessly around his sword.

For the first time since entering the Ravine, his expression contained something other than anger.

It was shock.

Valerian stood between two corpses.

His black blindfold remained perfectly still.

His breathing hadn’t changed.

Lyra stared at him.

”You’re insane...”

A third Stalker shrieked.

It came from Valerian’s blind side.

Lyra reacted first.

”Behind you!”

Valerian didn’t turn.

He stepped forward.

The Stalker’s claws struck empty air.

Valerian lowered his shoulder and allowed the creature’s momentum to carry it past him.

His sword flashed backward.

CHNK!

The blade sliced through the creature’s rear leg.

The limb separated at the joint.

The Stalker crashed onto its side.

Before it could recover, Valerian stomped down on its exposed abdomen.

CRACK!

The carapace fractured.

Acid burst from the ruptured sacs.

Valerian immediately shifted his foot.

The creature’s own corrosive fluid splashed across its armor.

Smoke erupted.

The Stalker screamed as the acid ate through its own shell.

Valerian drove his sword through the gap.

The blade pierced the creature’s chest.

He twisted.

The Stalker went limp.

”Three.”

Valerian withdrew his sword.

Then the fourth beast attacked.

It didn’t leap.

It crawled.

Low.

Silent.

Its mandibles opened behind Solene.

The Princess didn’t notice.

Valerian did.

”Down.”

Solene reacted instantly.

She dropped.

The Stalker sailed over her head.

Valerian caught one of its rear limbs.

His boots slid backward across the wet stone.

The creature was enormous.

For one brief moment, its strength dragged him several feet.

Then Valerian dug his heel into the ground.

Muscles tightened beneath his coat.

His shoulders shifted.

He redirected the creature’s weight.

The Stalker slammed into the ground.

Valerian stepped onto its back.

The beast bucked violently.

He drove his knee into the base of its neck.

CRACK!

The creature shrieked.

Valerian’s sword descended.

THUD!

The blade punched through the back of its skull.

Black blood erupted beneath its head.

The creature twitched once.

Then went still.

Silence returned to the cavern.

Four corpses lay scattered across the damp stone.

Black blood slowly mixed with the rainwater beneath their bodies.

Casper stared.

His sword was still burning.

But suddenly, the flames seemed embarrassingly bright.

Above the cavern, Castor slowly lowered his brass scope.

A long, profound sigh escaped him.

”Incredible.”

His voice was almost reverent.

”He didn’t simply kill them.”

His fingers tightened around the scope.

”He predicted their movement.”

Pollux’s daggers stopped spinning.

Castor continued.

”He used their forward mass, their blind spots, their own anatomical weaknesses, and even their corrosive fluids against them.”

His eyes narrowed.

”He treats combat like an equation where every variable is solved before the blade even moves.”

Pollux giggled.

Her daggers began spinning again.

”I told you, brother.”

Her grin widened.

”The Iron Ghost doesn’t fight.”

She watched Valerian wipe black blood from his iron sword.

”He just cleans up the trash.”

Down on the cavern floor, Lyra slowly lowered her rapier.

Her eyes remained fixed on Valerian.

”You knew where the joint seams were.”

Valerian said nothing.

”You didn’t even use light to see the carapace.”

Still nothing.

Lyra took a cautious step closer.

”How?”

Valerian wiped the last streak of black blood from his blade using a piece of dry moss.

He sheathed the sword.

Then his blindfold turned toward Casper.

”Monsters are like noble scions.”

Casper’s jaw tightened.

Valerian’s voice remained completely flat.

”They make too much noise before they strike.”