“H-How are you back so fast?” Flaxseed stammered, retreating until his spine struck the door. The clan leader token in his fist dug sharply into his palm. Seraphina’s laugh out through the lantern-lit hush. “You thought that pup outside could really detain me?”
She stepped closer, gaze drifting to the token. Surprise flickered, then dark delight. “A clan leader token… So you’re one of the Flaxseed clan.”
Flaxseed’s stomach dropped, yet forced his chin high. “Yes, and I’m here to avenge them!”
Seraphina cocked head, red sleeves swaying like flames. “Avenge them? With what, bravado and that trinket? I helped erase your kin years ago. Tell me, little relic-keeper, exactly how do you plan to balance that ledger?”
Flaxseed’s temper ignited the instant the words left Seraphina’s lips. He hurled himself at with a roar, the raw vow of a cornered beast
“I’ll kill you!”
But fury could not make up the gulf between their power.
She merely raised a hand. A silent shock wave, cold, invisible, merciless, slammed into him. Bones rattled, blood splashed across his lips, and his body cartwheeled backward before skidding along the marble floor.
Seraphina, now a fourth tier Earthly Immortal Realm cultivator, advanced one heel at a time, the hem of crimson robe whispering over polished stone. A sliver of cruelty sparkled behind lashes.
“You delivered yourself to my doorstep, Flaxseed. Don’t blame me for being ruthless.”
Before next step could fall, an explosion battered the palace doors. Crimson dust and shattered tile rattled from the ceiling. Through the smoke boomed a familiar voice. “Mr. Flaxseed, hurry!”
Jared burst into view, aura blazing as tore a path toward the exit.
Wiping the blood from his chin, Flaxseed staggered upright and lunged past toppled columns, chasing the sliver of daylight Jared had opened.
Seraphina flinched at the fresh chorus of detonations and steel-on-steel clamors rolling in from outside.
Rage flared across face, yet every blast forced to parry, trapping on the palace threshold while prey slipped farther away.
Beyond the ruined archway Flaxseed spotted Jared sword, locked with half a dozen Crimson Coil Sect elites. Gashes striped Jared’s arms; each breath looked costly.
“Jared!” Flaxseed shouted, dragging what strength had left toward the fray.
“Stay back, go!” Jared barked, shoulders surging with a burst of power that flung his attackers in a ringing circle of steel. “I‘ll find you once I break loose!”
Heart torn between gratitude and guilt, Flaxseed clenched his jaw, pivoted, and sprinted for the tangled slopes of Serpentcoil Mountain, knowing if lingered, both of them would die here.
Seraphina at last shook free of the melee. Spotting quarry vanishing among the trees, spat fury into the air.
“After him! Do not let that rat escape!”
Dozens of serpent-eyed warriors surged down the stairway, blades flashing as they gave chase.
From the battlement Jared watched Flaxseed’s dwindling outline and allowed a weary breath to slip out. His diversion had worked.
Without hesitation pivoted west, luring a second wave of pursuers into the opposite ravine. Thus a new hunt unfurled beneath the twisted ridges of Serpentcoil Mountain, two fugitives, two diverging trails, and an army of snake demons threading through the mist after them.
Flaxseed crashed through knotted undergrowth, lungs rasping. The dagger-stabs Seraphina left in his organs flared hotter with every leap.
Don’t stop, don’t you dare stop!
Behind the Crimson Coil Sect warriors-half man, half serpent-glided between trunks, their scaled bodies faster than wind. Each breath tasted of iron, yet terror kept his feet striking earth.
Thud!
A root snagged his boot.
Flaxseed pitched forward, face first into wet loam. The clan leader token spun from his palm, clinking into nearby grass. Encircling shadows closed in, serpent warriors grinning wide enough to bare fangs.
“Run on, then!” the leading demon sneered, pressing a sword tip to Flaxseed’s throat. “Who would have thought a Flaxseed survivor still scuttled about? Fate is on our side!”
Flaxseed clawed for the ground, but a scaled boot stamped onto his chest, pinning helpless beneath its crushing weight.
