Free Web NovelChapter 28: To kill
Days went by quickly and into the late hours of a particular day, just before the sun set.
The light that filtered through the bars of the cage had turned orange by then, long and flat, settling across the floor in thin strips.
"The best way to down a man in all fairness is to make sure he never sees it coming."
Zack let the words sit for a moment.
"After all, who would like to get punched in the face?"
He stood in the middle of the cage, hands loose at his sides, eyes moving from face to face as he spoke.
Technically he was teaching Ethan.
But there were three young people here, and there was no reason to waste a lesson on one when it could land on all of them.
The older man had a way of filling a space without taking it up. He didn’t pace. He didn’t gesture broadly. He simply stood and talked, and the words had weight behind them because the man behind them did.
"Now I have a question."
His eyes settled on Ethan. freēwēbηovel.c૦m
"If the best way to down a man is to take him by surprise, what’s the best way to make sure he never gets up?"
He paused.
"Figuratively speaking."
Ethan said nothing.
He turned the question over quietly, the way he processed most things, not with urgency, just with the flat attention of someone who understood there was a real answer underneath the surface one.
Zack wasn’t asking about technique.
The pool of fighters they faced each night was changing. The ones who couldn’t fight had already been sorted out. What remained was filling in steadily with people who could, and the margin of every match was getting thinner as a result. Sooner or later the situation would arrive that no amount of skill would make clean.
They would have to kill a man.
This was not typical for human summoners their age.
Unfortunately....
Zack didn’t press for an answer.
He looked at each of them for another moment, then let the subject go the way it had come.
"It’s almost that time of the day."
He took a breath, slow and even.
"I wish you all good luck."
He gave a small wave and walked to the side of the cage, lowering himself to the floor with the careful ease of a man whose body had collected more than a few years of wear. He folded his hands in his lap and said nothing further.
,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Outside.
"Bat Boy, come here."
As Ethan and the other two stepped out of the cage, the Demi-human waved him over with a broad expression that stopped just short of a grin.
He wasn’t the type who liked humans in any particular way. But these past few days had been kind to his coin purse.
Even his friends had started asking what his method was.
He looked Ethan over and then moved directly into what he had to say, the way someone did when they had already rehearsed it and didn’t want to spend time on pleasantries.
"I’ve got ninety percent of your ritual requirements."
He paused, the corner of his eye creasing.
"Even that blood from an angry witch thing."
Another pause.
"My sister.... she has a bit of a temper."
Something that might have been a laugh moved through his expression without quite making it to sound.
"Hey."
He stepped forward and pulled Ethan into a close embrace without warning, dropping his voice to a register that didn’t carry past the two of them.
"This next match."
He held there for a moment.
"Make sure you win. There’s a lot at stake, not just for me."
His voice didn’t waver. It had the quiet flatness of someone delivering information rather than making a request.
"If you win, I’ll personally move toward the horde and grab the heart of that giant lizard for you."
He released him and stepped back.
Savors kept his expression easy, but the weight behind what he had just said wasn’t something he was bothering to conceal. His superior was in on the bet. The number of people with something riding on tonight was not small.
Ethan looked at him.
"Easier said than done," he muttered.
His gaze moved past the older Demi-human to the stage ahead.
,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Every fight before tonight had cost him.
He had won, but not cleanly. Not the way someone who had a clear edge won. The kind of wins where you came out the other side short of breath and with something new to add to the damage column.
This one was different before it started.
The man standing opposite him hadn’t wasted any time.
"You’re the boy that killed Jacob’s family heir’s beast, right?"
He was from the Algar clan. Main branch.
When the stronghold fell, the first elder and those closest to him had tried to move their families out ahead of the horde through a side route. Some of them had made it. Some had walked straight into the main slaver force of the Maqaue clan instead.
This man had been among the ones who didn’t make it out.
"There’s no need to deny it."
He exhaled, a short sound.
"It’s not like I care either way."
He had watched Ethan fight. Several nights of it. He understood what he was looking at, which meant he also understood what he was about to do to it.
Ethan said nothing.
The man across from him waited. fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com
Still nothing.
"Silent one, huh?"
He spread his hands slightly.
"Okay. Let’s just fight."
He straightened up and his voice dropped into something carrying its own particular kind of weight.
"I am called Wuna Algar. Third son of the second elder."
He let that land.
"Remember that name."
Ethan’s eyes moved.
Not to the man.
To the summons.
From the very beginning of the exchange, Wuna had already called two of them forward.
Both standing.
Both ready.
’He’s not giving me a breath.’
