Free Web NovelChapter 35: Skyreach (2)
Yara lifted a hand and pulled everyone’s attention from the glowing countdown.
"We head to the eastern gate," she said, already moving her gaze over the village streets like she could see the battle before it started. "If the monsters rush in from the outside, we can choke the flow there and keep them from spilling into the village."
Gerbaut looked toward the far end of the road and gave a short nod. "Good."
Misha glanced at the timer overhead, then at Yara. She had always been in charge of planning, nothing should go wrong, right?
They moved at once, heading towards the eastern gate.
By the time they reached the eastern side of the village, the wall gate rose in front of them like a dark line against the fading light.
Old timber beams framed the opening. Watch platforms sat above the wall, half-rotten but still standing. Broken stakes jutted from the shallow trench outside and splintered fencing lay dragged across part of the entrance to form a crude barricade.
She noticed hooded figures standing near the gate, their cloaks dark and uniform, with silver-threaded emblems stitched at the shoulder. Armed men spread out around them with spears, shields, and bows already in hand. They moved with the confidence of people who thought the ground belonged to them.
Nyxie stopped so suddenly. Her grip tightened around her claymore. "You’ve got to be kidding me."
Misha followed her stare. The emblem on the nearest cloak caught the light and she saw a broken crown wrapped in thorns.
"Blackthorn Guild." Gerbaut said from her side.
Blackthorn Guild?
This was her first time seeing people from a guild.
One of the men near the barricade turned first, then others followed.
A path opened through them, and their commander stepped forward with an easy swagger that somehow made Misha dislike him before he even spoke.
"Kylo..." Nyxie muttered through gritted teeth.
"Who?" Misha asked as she looked at her with a questioning gaze.
"Kylo. Our former companion." Gerbaut answered, his voice flat.
The man had once belonged to Skyreach. He left on Floor 4, joined Blackthorn, and never looked back. Skyreach kept climbing without him, then after completing Floor 7, they found out that they could not enter the portal to the Floor 8 without another member. The memory still sat on everyone’s skin. freewebnøvel.com
Misha felt the shift in the air.
Jules stiffened. Gerbaut’s hand settled lower on his spear. Nyxie was glaring at him coldly.
Kylo wore dark leather armor polished so clean it almost reflected light, like he cared more about appearances. A fur-lined mantle hung over one shoulder for no practical reason at all. Rings flashed on his fingers when he adjusted the gloves at his wrists. His mouth curled into a smirk that sat there too comfortably, as if he had practiced it in a mirror.
He looked expensive, smug, and deeply punchable.
Kylo’s smirk widened the moment he saw them. He looked them over slowly, almost lazily, and took his time with it.
"Looks like we meet again." He spread one arm toward the gate like a gracious host welcoming beggars into his home. "I wondered how long it would take before you wandered over."
Nyxie stepped forward at once. "Wandered? Move aside Kylo."
He laughed under his breath and shook his head. "Still loud as ever."
Her jaw tightened. "You talk too much for someone who hides behind ten people."
Kylo looked over one shoulder at his men, then back at her, amused. "Ten? I thought you’d accuse me of hiding behind twenty. You always did like exaggerating when you got emotional."
Nyxie’s fingers flexed on the hilt of her claymore as she glared hardly at him.
He leaned forward slightly, his smile turning mean at the edges. "You going to swing first again? If I remember correctly, that worked out so well for your group last time, right?"
The words landed hard. Even the wind seemed to pause.
Nyxie took another step, rage flashing across her face. "You smug piece of trash."
"There it is." Kylo straightened and brushed invisible dust from his sleeve. "The same undisciplined, and unrestrained Skyreach. You always skip straight to barking. Do they train that into you, or were you born exhausting?"
"Coming from you?" Nyxie barked out a laugh with no humor in it. "You’d trip over your own ego if your men weren’t there to hold you upright."
A few of the Blackthorn members shifted. One or two smiled under their hoods. They heard this before.
Kylo never lost that awful smile. Somehow that made him worse.
"Maybe," he said as he flicked at his sleeve again. "Even then, I still stand higher than you now."
Nyxie’s eyes flashed. "You left people to die!"
"And yet here you are," Kylo’s smirk deepened. "Alive enough to complain."
Misha felt her grip tighten around her rapier.
So that was the kind of man he was. The sort who dressed cowardice in polished armor and called it superiority.
Then he glanced past Nyxie and his eyes landed on Yara. His whole expression changed at once. The contempt softened into polished charm so quickly. That Misha nearly recoiled from the sheer shamelessness of it.
He dipped his chin, smiling like they shared some private understanding. "The offer still stands Yara. After everything between us, you know I can undo you in ways they never could so join us."
Misha’s mouth fell open. freewebnσvel.cøm
No way... Yara and him?
Nyxie made a disgusted sound. "Don’t talk to her!"
Kylo ignored her completely as his gaze locked on Yara, carrying an intimacy so unmistakable it turned the air heavy. It was the look of a man who knew her far too well, who knew how to unravel her with nothing more than his voice dropping low, and the warmth of their bodies intertwined as his mouth brushed the right promise against her skin.
Yara stepped forward before Nyxie could lunge at him. She folded her hands in front of her, a gesture of restraint so deliberate it only made the tension around her feel sharper. Her posture was elegant and controlled but her breathing had turned slow and deep. She lifted her chest beneath the weight of his stare. Heat coiled low in her stomach while her face remained as cool as polished glass.
A faint smile touched her mouth, cold and devastating. "Whatever happened between us is now in the past."
Misha caught the faint chill gathering at her fingertips.
Ice?
"And this isn’t the time for any of that," Yara continued. "We have one quest and limited preparation time. Fighting each other only makes the monsters’ job easier."
Kylo tilted his head, listening with that same smug expression, like he had already decided he would reject whatever came out of her mouth and still wanted to enjoy the sound of it.
Yara continued anyway. "We should work together. Your people hold the wall. Ours cover the breach points and support the front line. We can rotate between waves and reduce casualties."
He let the silence stretch for a few seconds too long. Then he smiled. "No."
