[Dogs of hell!!].
Ash sat with his back against the rough cave wall, arms crossed, eyes half-lidded. The faint crackle of the campfire sent shadows dancing across stone, but his mind was elsewhere. His body still burned faintly from the raw blood of the Radbeast coursing through his veins.
Most men would be dead within seconds of swallowing it. Yet he breathed. He lived. He endured.
Across from him, Luna crouched with an eager gleam in her eye, chin resting on her palms.
“So… now that I’ve answered you truthfully…you gonna tell me how you’re still alive?” she asked for the third time that night.
Ash didn’t answer.
She leaned closer, studying his face. “Come on don’t play mute now!!. You drank raw blood from a radioactive apex predator, and you’re just—what? Sitting there, brooding like it was water?”
Silence.
“Seriously, who are you?…what are you?!”
Ash cracked one eye open, sighed, then shut it again. “Would you shut up…You ask way too many danm questions.”
“Only because you give too few answers.” She smirked, but there was curiosity in her tone that wouldn’t fade.
Adam groaned from the other side of the fire, shifting uncomfortably under the tattered blanket Luna had tossed over him earlier. His forehead glistened with sweat, and his breaths came heavy, shallow.
Ash turned his head slightly. “What’s wrong with him?”
“I don’t know,” Luna admitted, pressing the back of her hand against Adam’s temple. “He was fine last night…but suddenly he got a fever spike. Could be the too much radiation exposure, or…” She trailed off, lips tightening.
“Or what?” Ash urged her,
“…Or something worse.” Luna answered her eyes locked on to Adam, closely studying his condition,
The fire popped, and for a moment, the cave was silent except for Adam’s ragged breathing. Ash’s jaw tightened. He didn’t speak, but the look in his eyes carried more weight than words.
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Meanwhile, at the cliffside.
The Reckon Squad, a squad of killers belonging to the Goliath-clan coincidentally intercepted Jackson and his team, though the Reckon-squad were coming back from a mission, they decided to join jackson’s team after a brief report,
As one of the reckon squad members crouched low, hands deep into the dirt, scanning the jagged drops of blood trail where Ash and the others had passed through, Blood streaks painted the rocks, a clear trail that had brought them this far.
Jake stood at the edge, sniffing faintly, his sharp senses picking up his own trail, his grin stretching wide. “The scent’s fresh. They’re alive.”
[Name:Jake
[Homo branch:Balloter]
[Ability:Aura manipulation:3rd rank warrior]
[Affiliate:vice-leader of the Goliath clan, captain of the reckon-squad].
“Man are we lucky to run into you, vice-leader!!’’ Jackson exclaimed in relief!!
‘’Heads up…we got company!!” Another member of the reckon-squad alerted the rest,
Just as the ground shifted. Shadows darted between the boulders and bushes,
Figures emerged—ragged, masked, and armed with cruel blades and rusted rifles. Scavengers.
“Shit,” one of Jackson’s men cursed. “Scavs.”
The ambush was fast and merciless. The scavengers descended with shrill laughter, striking with desperate brutality. They fought not for honor, but for brutality and for the love of the game, their attacks wild yet effective. The Jackson team were the first to suffer heavy casualties. But he Reckon Squad responded with precision and steel, cutting them down one by one, but not without blood spilled as the final man from the Jackson team fell without a head,
Jackson himself roared in anger as he cut down several scavengers, blinded by rage, but his flames of furry was instantly smited as he was stabbed from behind by none other than Jake himself,
‘’W..why?!..’’ groaned gripping the blade lunged in his chest,
Then another of Jake’s blade pierced through his throat, blood spraying hot across his cheek. He licked his lips, laughing low. “I am not as soft as boss Goliath…so pathetic vermin should just die!!.”
As he whipped the blood off his blade, He looked around at the carnage, eyes narrowing, both the scavengers who attacked him and his squad were dead, and among those corpses were his fellow clansmen, those he deemed as vermin,
‘’What now captain’’ one of his reckoning squad members asked,
“If scavs are bold enough to be out in numbers this close to the Valley…” He clenched his blade tighter. “Then something bigger is stirring, let’s just catch those brats and go back.”
The squad said nothing, but their pace quickened, slowly vanishing into the night, leaving the massacre behind,
The hunt resumed, now taken over by a more ferocious and dangerous dogs of hell!!
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Hours earlier.
The streets of Morreti territory bustled with life. Merchants haggled, children darted between alleys, and the scent of roasted meat filled the air. For a place ruled by criminals, the town looked almost ordinary.
“Unbelievable…” a cloaked man muttered as he walked through the crowd with his companions. “Is this really the infamous Eldorado?”
“No surprise,” another replied smoothly. “The Morreti mob are businessmen before they’re butchers. Build a stable empire, and people will call you kings, not criminals.”
“Scum will always be scum,” a third voice interjected.
“True,” the second answered with a chuckle. “But at least the Morretis understand the value of order. Better them than the other two.”
“Enough chatter,” the tallest of the group said, his voice sharp. “We’ve arrived.”
The trio stopped before a sprawling mansion, its gates guarded by men in sharp suits and dark glasses. Beyond the iron bars, lights glittered across perfectly trimmed gardens.
One cloaked figure pulled his hood lower, stepping forward.
“Business awaits,” he said.
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And elsewhere, in the depths of Eldorado, cloaked figures moved again—toward the estates of the other two criminal families. Each step was careful. Calculated.
The streets remained bright with life, but in the shadows, Thanaros’ true rulers stirred.
And the Blood-Moon eclipse loomed ever closer.
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Narration:
While a fever burned through Adam’s body and Luna pressed too many questions into silence, the island moved restlessly around them. Predators stalked. Alliances shifted. And in Eldorado’s glittering streets, the game of kings and corpses began anew.
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End of Chapter 19.
