Chapter 60: Desperate Situation
Evan’s grip on his revolver tightened until his knuckles turned a stark, bloodless white.
The freezing rain finally began to fall, tiny, ice cold water needles piercing through the thick canopy of the pine tree, but he barely felt it.
His dark eyes locked onto Peaker’s pale, terrified face, searching for any sign of deception or madness.
The transition from a perfectly synchronized, sixty second assassination plan to this sudden, chaotic breakdown was a violent shock to his mind.
’Why should we leave?’ Evan demanded, his voice a whisper that cut through the rustling of the wet leaves.
’Give me a logical reason, Peaker. The perimeter is mapped. The guards are in position. We are seconds away from executing the sequence.’
Peaker’s fingers dug even deeper into Evan’s shoulder, his breath coming in ragged, shallow gasps.
’I can’t explain it all right now, Evan. There’s no time. But in short... Ghost turned out to be a traitor.’
The words felt like a physical blow. Evan’s mind immediately raced backward, cataloging every interaction, every word, and every movement Ghost had made over the last three days.
Ghost, who had praised the logic of machinery, the man who had cooked the mountain mutton with them, the fellow disciple who had shared a toast of Crimson Marrow Wine just hours ago, a traitor?
’Ghost’s real name is Shu Jon,’ Peaker whispered, his teeth chattering from a mixture of cold and pure adrenaline.
’He’s a direct bloodline member of this damn clan. The whole merchant cover, the salt trade, the broken wagon... it was a setup from the very beginning to lure us deep into the inner ring. Ghost, with other people from the clan vanguards, had already ambushed me when I went to setup the front gate line. I barely slipped through the shadows to reach you. They are tracking me right now. They are soon gonna attack you too, Evan. If we stay in these trees for even another thirty seconds, we are surrounded. And then these two are gonna be tortured until our faces fracture and we give up the First Court’s secrets.’
Evan did not waste a single breath arguing or demanding further proof.
His survival instinct, immediately accepted the worst-case scenario.
The equation had flipped.
The hunters were now the prey.
’Okay,’ Evan said, his face hardening into an expression of absolute, icy pragmatism.
’So how do we run?’
Peaker let out a bitter, desperate laugh, his eyes darting toward the dark forest floor below.
’We have to physically run, Evan. On foot. Through the mud. My Qi has completely depleted, and I can’t activate any blood worm right now. Through the remains of my Qi, I hardly reached you.’
Evan looked down at the dark, dense brush surrounding the central camp.
Running on foot through an enemy encampment filled with three hundred Watchers and thirty Commanders was a statistical death sentence.
They would be cut down before they even cleared the inner ring fences.
Evan let out a long, heavy sigh, the cold air pluming faintly before his lips.
He looked at Peaker, a grim, calculated determination replacing the shock in his eyes.
’We aren’t running on foot,’ Evan flatly stated.
He reached into the hidden recesses of his aperture, unlocking a secret, highly volatile crimson Blood Worm he had kept suppressed since his initiation.
’I have a flying blood worm. Its name is the Muscle Flight Blood Worm.’
Before Peaker could even process the words, Evan aggressively grabbed Peaker by his right hand, his grip tight as iron.
Without a single microsecond of hesitation, Evan launched both of them off the sturdy branch, jumping straight out of the high pine tree into the empty, rain slicked air.
As they free-fell through the darkness, the wind howling past their ears, Evan channeled the absolute maximum output of his liquid crimson Qi into his upper torso.
He threw his head back and shouted into the stormy sky, ’Muscle Flight Blood Worm!’
An instantaneous, agonizing explosion of pure physical trauma ripped through Evan’s body.
Beneath his dark combat fatigues, his shoulder blades violently parted with a sickening, wet crack.
His skin tore wide open, blood spraying into the cold air as two massive, grotesque crimson wings made entirely of raw, pulsing muscle and exposed sinews violently grew out from his back.
There were no feathers, no elegant leather, just the raw, bloody anatomy.
Evan frantically clapped his newly formed muscular wings together.
The first clap was clumsy, sending a massive spasm of blinding agony straight down his spine.
The second clap caught the heavy, humid air.
After two to three times of desperate, uncoordinated flapping, the wings generated immense lift, and they began to fly, soaring upward into the dark, cloud filled sky, clearing the tops of the pine trees.
But the cost was staggering.
Evan was feeling too much pain.
These weren’t separate appendages, these wings were made literally of his own extended back muscles, tearing and straining with every single movement.
He gritted his teeth so hard a thin line of blood trickled from his gums, his vision blurring as he forced his crimson Qi to continuously fuel the agonizing flight while carrying Peaker’s dead weight.
They flew through the pouring rain for two agonizing minutes, the wind ripping at their wounds.
Suddenly, through the heavy downpour, Evan spotted a wide, open ground beneath him that was safely outside the main defensive borders of the Shu clan.
Before he could alter his trajectory to land, a sharp, whistling sound sliced through the storm behind them.
Something heavy and heavily infused with Qi hit Evan directly in his left leg.
It pierced the skin of Evan, and the sudden, excruciating shock caused his left wing to buckle.
His stabilization failed, and they violently started to drop out of the sky, plunging toward the hard earth below.
’Hell nah!’ Peaker screamed, his eyes widening as the ground rushed up to meet them at terminal velocity.
Evan’s mind remained cold despite the blinding agony.
He refused to die in the mud.
Forcing his remaining reserves into his right wing, he started to control himself a bit.
He twisted his torso mid air, making a desperate tactical calculation.
He forced his remaining muscular wings to flatten out vertically against the wind, using them like a primitive, biological parachute to create maximum drag against the air resistance.
They hit the ground with a massive, muddy thud, rolling violently across the open field.
The vertical alignment of the wings had worked, they hit with a bit less pain than a direct impact, but the impact still left them battered and bruised.
Evan’s muscular wings immediately dissolved back into his torso, the skin sealing shut with a jagged, bloody scar.
Panting, Peaker and Evan forced themselves to stand up, their boots sinking into the wet grass.
They wiped the rain from their eyes, and the sheer horror of their situation completely froze the blood in their veins.
Behind them, looming like a giant shadow, was the massive hill of the Supreme Elders of the Shu clan and several high tier figures were already walking down the slopes of the peak.
But that wasn’t the worst part.
Standing directly in front of them, blocking their path to freedom, was the Leader of the clan himself, Shu Hui.
Surrounding the leader in a perfect, unyielding semi circle were fifty elite Watchers and two fully awakened Commanders, they were fully ready and their red eyes glowed with predatory hunger in the dark.
Peaker’s jaw dropped as he stared at the army waiting for them.
’We are fucked,’ Peaker said.
