The loud, chaotic noise of the twelve-year-old girl screaming directly into his ear finally pierced the veil of sleep.
Kian's eyes snapped open. He looked incredibly disoriented, then profoundly annoyed.
What is happening? Kian thought internally, his head throbbing. Why is this dirty orphan screaming at me and ruining my shirt? A crying child is the absolute worst headache in the world. Why won't she just be quiet?
He pushed her hands away and sat up slowly. He looked past her trembling, tear-streaked face and peered out the open carriage door. He saw the massive swarm of black hounds and a group of humans who seemed to be fighting each other.
Kian let out a long, exhausted, deeply irritated sigh. He did not fully understand the situation. But he wanted the incredibly loud, crying orphan in his carriage to stop making noise so he could go back to sleep as soon as possible.
"Lexi," Kian said lazily, his voice carrying clearly up to the roof. "Go."
Mirelle collapsed onto the rugs, gasping for air, her chest heaving as she cried in pure relief.
---
Back on the battlefield, Elian was staring death in the face.
Elian stood completely frozen. His twin daggers were still raised in a desperate, useless block. At that moment, he knew he was done for.
But suddenly...
The Abyssal Blindhound that was about to hit his throat lay dead on the ground. Its big, armored skull was completely shattered.
He did not understand what had just happened. He froze in shock.
A heavy gust of displaced air slammed into his face. It carried the sharp, metallic scent of spilled blood and ruptured organs.
Before Elian could even lower his arms, a second hound, which was currently pinning a screaming Archer to the ground, suddenly jerked violently sideways.
Snap.
The thick spine broke at a horrifying ninety-degree angle. Black blood sprayed across the dry grass.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Three more hounds dropped dead simultaneously. Their heavy ribcages shattered inward, pulverized by an invisible, catastrophic kinetic impact.
Elian's eyes darted frantically across the battlefield. He was a Level 6 Thief. His entire survival relied on his sensory radar.
Thieves did not look for visual cues in the chaos of combat. They felt for the natural, involuntary leak of Life Force. It was the fundamental physics of living things.
The bleeding Adventurers leaked weak, flickering Life Force. The enraged hounds leaked dense, violent Life Force. Even the grass beneath their boots leaked a microscopic trace of biological energy.
Elian pushed his awareness outward, desperately searching for the mysterious energy signature of the person tearing through the monster swarm.
Nothing.
The air was completely empty. It was a terrifying, absolute void. He felt a sharp, sudden chill run straight down his spine. His hands began to sweat against the leather grips of his daggers.
He was looking at physical destruction, but his radar registered a ghost. It broke the absolute laws of living beings. A living human could not have zero Life Force. It was impossible.
A blur of dark fabric and pink hair materialized near the center of the broken defensive circle.
Lexi stopped moving and stood entirely still. Her face was completely flat. She looked incredibly bored, holding a plain, un-ignited steel dagger loosely in her right hand.
The non-thief Adventurers simply stared.
The heavy Swordsmen dropped their shields, their exhausted arms trembling. The Mages and Healers collapsed to their knees, gasping for air.
They did not understand the hidden principles of stealth and they did not feel the terrifying void in the air. They just saw a young girl who was moving incredibly fast.
A wave of profound, overwhelming relief washed over the bleeding frontliners. Someone had finally come for them. They were safe.
But Elian and the other two Thieves in the raid team were stepping backward, their faces pale. They were completely lost. They could not understand the physical anomaly standing ten feet away from them.
"Behind you!" the senior Mage suddenly screamed, his voice cracking with panic.
A huge Abyssal Blindhound, twice the size of the others, leaped from the tree line. It aimed directly for Lexi's unprotected back, its jaws unhinging to bite her head clean off.
But Lexi did not rush. She turned around casually, raising her plain steel dagger to meet the charging beast.
Elian's eyes widened in sheer horror. The frontliners gasped.
Every single Adventurer in the world knew the absolute rule of the iron furnace (Rule of Mana Core). To cut an armored monster, you had to ignite your Aura.
A melee had to forcefully push their Mana outward to coat their body or weapon with Aura. That biological process took two to five seconds.
Lexi's blade was completely dull and she had not ignited her Aura.
If she hits that thick skull with raw steel, the blade will shatter and she will die! Elian thought frantically, his legs frozen in place.
The plain steel blade met the charging monster's forehead.
Point 0. The exact millisecond of physical contact.
Lexi did not wait three seconds to pull her Mana outward. Her mana was already active, rushing violently through her hardened Etheric Veins at all times. She simply held it back, sealing it just beneath her skin. The moment her blade touched the target, she let go.
BOOM.
The highly pressurized Aura violently exploded outward through the steel in a single, instantaneous fraction of a second. The localized explosion of raw raw physical force was deafening.
The pack leader's armored skull did not just crack. It caved in completely, exploding into a shower of bone fragments and black blood.
The headless, huge body of the beast slammed into the ground, sliding past Lexi's boots due to its own residual momentum.
Elian's jaw dropped open. His twin daggers slipped from his trembling fingers and hit the ground.
He was entirely broken. He was trapped in a two-layered collapse of reality. First, he was looking at a living human with absolutely zero Life Force. Second, he had just witnessed a warrior bypass the universal law of Aura delay, generating maximum output in almost zero seconds.
He could not comprehend what was going on. It was impossible.
The Swordsmen and Mages erupted into cheers. They were in absolute awe. They did not care that she just broke the absolute rules of Mana Core. They just thought she was probably a person who came for help. But Elian and the Thieves stared at her pink hair as if she was not real.
The sound of heavy wooden wheels rolling over road broke the tension.
A pristine, spotless black carriage drove out from the tree line. Mirelle sat on the driving board, her blistered hands gripping the heavy leather reins. She pulled the horses to a gentle stop right next to the pile of dead monsters.
The senior Mage wiped the sweat from his eyes. He looked at the side of the carriage and saw the silver crest shining in the sun.
"The Feeble Soul," the senior Mage whispered, his voice trembling with sheer reverence. He looked back at the pink-haired girl. "That isn't just a fast girl. That is the Silent Shadow."
The realization hit the raid team like a heavy punch on the gut. The infamous, legendary Thief of the Imperial Capital.
Tears of absolute joy streamed down the faces of the exhausted frontliners. They had been saved by a legend.
But Elian and the two Thieves with him just shivered, horrified that they were standing within striking distance of the capital's worst nightmare.
The heavy wooden door of the carriage creaked open.
Kian stepped down onto the dirt. He wore plain, slightly wrinkled clothes and his black hair was messy. He looked entirely unbothered by the hundreds of monster corpses littering the road. He just looked annoyed that it was so noisy outside.
The senior Mage gasped. He was a veteran of the capital so he instantly recognized the famously elusive face.
"Lord Thousand Strings," the senior Mage choked out, dropping to one knee in the dirt.
The newbie Adventurers quickly followed suit, their eyes wide with absolute honor. Meeting a Level 8 Adventurer in person was a mythical event.
The young female Healer, who had been sobbing in terror just minutes ago, could not handle the massive emotional whiplash. The sheer relief of surviving certain death completely overpowered her common sense and professional boundaries.
She scrambled up from the dirt, sprinted past the kneeling Swordsmen, and threw herself directly at Kian.
She wrapped her arms around Kian's body in a massive, desperate bear hug. She buried her face in his chest, weeping uncontrollably.
Kian froze. His eyes bulged slightly.
My ribs, Kian panicked internally. They are cracking.
She was an experienced Healer. Her grip strength was terrifying because she spent her days dragging unconscious, fully-armored men out of dungeons. Her hug felt like a tightening iron vice. Kian was a lazy man who had not lifted anything heavier than a comic book in four years. He had zero Mana to reinforce his frail bones.
He could not breathe. He tried to push her away, but his weak arms simply bounced off her shoulders.
The senior Mage watched the embrace in absolute, sweating horror. He elbowed the lead Tanker next to him.
"She just grappled a Level 8 without permission," the senior Mage whispered frantically, his face completely pale. "He is going to incinerate her!"