Chapter 21: Schemes Beyond Schemes
The next morning came swiftly.
The sudden, jarring clang of the inner-ring alarm bells echoed through the cavernous streets of Tempest City, signaling the strict lockdown ordered by Tiger Lord Manuses.
Below the upper terraces, the sprawling labyrinth of the lower slums instantly descended into a breeding ground for wild, frantic rumors.
A little black spider hovered around the wall, watching the small group of rogue mercenaries, black-market dealers, and terrified merchant caravans huddled beneath draped pavilions and dark alleyways, whispering in hurried, tense tones.
The spider’s eyes shimmered for a moment.
A God is watching...
"Did you hear? The entire Frog-kin pen in the lower sector was emptied out in minutes! They say an invisible demon walked right through the reinforced stone walls and dissolved their iron shackles into thin air."
"That’s nothing—someone is hunting the enforcers! Three elite Orc captains and an Ogre lieutenant were found butchered in the eastern alleyways just an hour ago. Their throats were slashed with unnatural precision, and their mana cores were ripped straight out of their chests!"
"The Tiger Lord has completely sealed the grand iron gates. No one goes in, no one goes out. They’re bottlenecking the thoroughfares between the rings. Something big is coming, I tell you. A storm is brewing in the canyon."
While the streets boiled with panic, a completely different conversation was taking place inside a dimly lit, closed stone apartment deep within the mid-rings.
This heavily reinforced, secretive safehouse belonged to an independent, highly calculated group of infiltrators who had been meticulously digging into the operations of the local slave market.
Leading this hidden cell was Alpha Brenda.
She was a battle-hardened cultivator, and an exceptionally intelligent leader of a prominent Hyena-kin tribe.
Unlike the sycophantic Hyena enforcers who chose to grovel beneath Tiger Lord Manuses’s volcanic throne for scraps, Brenda and her pack answered to a completely different call.
Her sharp, calculating eyes glinted in the flickering candlelight as she stood over a crude wooden table covered in mapped layouts of the city’s underground slave pens.
Surrounding the table were four of her most trusted Hyena-kin warriors, their bodies coiled with tension, their ears swiveling to catch any sound from the corridor outside.
"The city is in a total lockdown, Alpha," one of the male warriors whispered, his voice low and raspy. "The Tiger-men guards are mobilizing on every corner. They think this is just a standard slave riot or a local breakout. But the rumors about those dead Orc captains... that wasn’t the work of desperate, starved Frog-kin."
"Of course it wasn’t," Alpha Brenda replied smoothly, her lips curling into a sharp, knowing silhouette that bared her powerful jawline.
She leaned over the table, tapping a clawed finger directly onto the mapped sector of the underground syndicates. "A ghost slipping through iron bars and a ghost ripping out C-class monster cores in the dark... someone highly competent has infiltrated this concrete leviathan ahead of us."
She looked around at her warriors, her expression turning incredibly solemn. "We have been digging deep into this slave market for weeks, tracking the massive influx of independent beastmen tribes being brought here as cattle." She paused. "But my instincts tell me the scale of this atrocity is far worse than mere trade. The Trolls aren’t just selling our blood brethren for profit anymore."
"What do you mean, Alpha?" another warrior asked, leaning in closer.
"The movements of the Troll syndicates," Brenda explained, her eyes narrowing in calculation. "They’ve been funneling the captured Sheep-kin, Wolf-kin, and Rabbit-kin directly into the deeper, restricted underground sanctums rather than the open auction blocks. There are whispers of grand altars being prepared beneath Norona City and within the dark pockets of this very canyon. They are gathering sacrifices for a dark god."
A collective, dangerous growl vibrated within the chests of the Hyena warriors, their fur bristling at the mention of their people being used as ritual slaughter for a foreign deity.
"If the Tiger Lord is actively supporting the Troll King’s coalition to harvest our people, then Tempest City is no longer just a lawless hub—it’s a meat grinder for the beastmen race," Brenda declared, her voice dropping into a chilling, absolute whisper.
She straightened her back, her posture radiating command. "This sudden lockdown plays perfectly into our hands. Let the unknown infiltrators draw the Tiger Lord’s main vanguard to the eastern alleys. We will use the chaos to dig even deeper. Find out exactly where they are holding the rest of the captured tribes before the altars demand them."
Her eyes flashed with a fierce, independent fire. "Whoever is playing games in the dark tonight has lit a fire under Manuses’s throne." Her eyes flickered.
"Ensure your weapons are ready, pack. When the structural walls of this city inevitably fracture, we will tear our own piece out of their throats." The air rippled.
Just like the old Frog-man, Alpha Brenda is also a cultivator.
A cultivator of the Martial Master realm, possessing dual awakened mana cores.
"Lady Alpha," a warrior stepped forward. "What is it?" Alpha Brenda questioned. The warrior gulped hard, "We received a report."
"It seems while Tempest City is in commotion, a pack of crimson wolf-men are hunting down sentries, adding fuel to the already burning fire," the warrior explained.
"We have concluded our investigation" another added.
"Is that so?" Alpha Brenda’s lips curled up, "The Great Luna Pack has finally made their moves, huh?" She chuckled.
"You know them?" another warrior asked. "Of course I do." Alpha Brenda clenched her fist, "The Castilian Pack once waged war against them."
"We lost terribly, the death of my father was why majority of our pack was absorbed by Lord Manuses." She smiled. "For now, we’ll support them and scavenge whatever we can find in the shadows"
"For the sake of our freedom, we must aid the destruction of Tempest City!"
