Victoria charged, but not immediately toward the front entrance where Alpha Team fought, instead through the western wall. She clenched her fist and dense magical aura covered her.

Her fist hit brick. And the wall exploded inward into fragments.

She crashed into the factory like a cannonball, creating a massive hole.

I followed through the gap she'd created.

What I found nside was chaos.

Alpha Team was fighting at the front and the Beta Team cornered on the factory floor, guards are crawling everywhere. And now Victoria and me are entering from a third direction.

The ambush sprung on both sides.

Kael and Lucille stood back-to-back with Cipher between them.

Razor and the unknown woman circled like predators that smelled blood.

"Two S-ranks and a wounded scholar," Razor mused. "Against two of us? The math doesn't work in your favor."

"Math is overrated anyway," Lucille said.

Kaeel's shadow magic exploded outward and he spread hiw hands as if he was covering something. "Darkness Field!"

The factory floor went black immediately. And it wasn't normal darkness too.

Razor laughed. "Darkness? Really? I'm a shadow specialist too, boy. You think that helps you in some way?"

But Kaeel wasn't trying to hide. He was only trying to give Lucille an opening. And she took it.

"Poison Mist."

Since the darkness was there, they won't be able to see what she did and besides, the poison is colorless and odorless.

The woman inhaled it and staggered. "What....."

Razor held his breath immediately as be heard that. "Be careful, Scythe!"

But Scythe was already affected and the paralysis was spreading fast.

She fell.

Razor realized the trap almost too late, he retreated, trying to get out of the mist. What got him angry the most was the fact that it was even a simple type of trap! Too simple!

But then Victoria arrived like a whirlwind. She grabbed Razor by the throat mid-retreat.

"You," she said coldly.

"What do you..." he choked out.

"Shut the fuck." She threw him as if she was throwing a cannonball.

Razor shot through the air and through a brick wall like a rampaging bullet, and the impact alone made the building shake.

Razor didn't get up.

Seraphina was bleeding from a dozen cuts and Adrian was now holding off four guards simultaneously while Damian had taken a blade to his leg.

But they'd held the line, even though more guards had appeared to replace those that fell.

Fortunately when they heard Victoria's entrance and the exploding walls, the remaining guards panicked and they retreated deeper into the factory.

Adrian and the rest breathe a sigh of relief and made to link up with the others.

"We have Cipher!" Kaeel called out. "Moving to extraction point!"

"Copy! Support Team, prepare for emergency extraction!" I shouted into crystal.

All teams converged toward the western wall breach Victoria had created.

The rest of the guards tried to stop us but we fought our way out and Into the alley, then down the street.

The extraction wagon was waiting with Lyra at the reins.

"Get him in! Now!"

We loaded Cipher. Lucille and Marcus climbed in with him.

"Go! Don't stop!" I ordered.

The wagon took off. Racing through empty streets toward safety.

I sighed as I watched them go.

We'd done it.

Cipher rescued with two Executors neutralized with absolute minimal casualties.

It was then that it happened. The air around them seems to blew colder and light dimmed. A sense of danger enveloped everyone and we raised our head instinctively.

Standing on a rooftop above us was a woman that was smiling down at us.

"Impressive rescue," she called down. Her voice was cold and amused. "You've become quite troublesome, cycle-breakers."

Victoria's expression went from triumphant to grim in an instant when she saw the woman. "Run. Everyone.... RUN."

"We're not leaving you!" Seraphina protested.

"You don't have a choice. She'll kill all of you in seconds. I'm the only one who can even slow her down. That's Huntress, one of the leading figures in the League.

Victoria looked at me.

"Get everyone out, Hadeon."

"Victoria...."

"GO!"

The Huntress descended, stepped off the roof and began floating down on shadows like a queen descending stairs.

"Victoria and I have unfinished business," she said. "The rest of you... I'll hunt later. One crisis at a time."

Victoria's eyes turned heavy and dark, without hesitation, she charged.

Two strong monsters.

The shockwave threw us backward.

"MOVE!" I grabbed whoever was closest, started running.

Behind us, sounds of catastrophic battle sound in ear shattering explosions, building walls crumbled and street stones shattering. P

We ran.

Every fiber of my being screaming to go back, to help Victoria. But what could I even do?

Everyone reconvened at the emergency safe house, in another one since the other one might have been compromised already, this one is a merchant's warehouse Lyra had secured.

Cipher was alive and the medical Team was already working on him.

It was only after that we realized our casualties. Apart from the missing Victoria.

Seraphina was also severely injured with lightning burns across of her body, but he's still functional.

Damian also has a boken arm, cracked ribs.

" We should go back," Seraphina said tiredly. "And look for her."

"And find what?" Kael asked grimly. "Two corpses? Or worse?"

"She's not dead," I said firmly. "She won't die that easily."

"How do you know?"

"Because she survived the last time she fought The Huntress. And she's gotten stronger since then." Cipher was conscious enough to speak.

"They... questioned me," he said weakly. "For hours witb tuth serum, and the pain. I tried to resist..."

"What did you tell them?" I asked.

"Some minor names, nothing about... the core resistance. Nothing about you specifically. But they know... they know there's an organized movement now."

"It's okay," I said. "You held out as long as you could."

"There's more." Cipher grabbed my arm. "The interrogator. He said something. About the tournament. About a 'final solution.'"

"Final solution?"

His eyes were urgent. "Hadeon, they're planning something but I don't know what. We should do something."

My blood went cold.

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