🔥 The Path of Fire (Path of Light and Fire Book #1)(Completed) 🔥

Chapter 26.3 - Silent but Deadly

"You know I didn't want to Hebi. Your brother-"

"Yes I know. 'My brother betrayed the mission and had to be stopped.' Save your lies, Turrent. We both know the truth. That was your way of showing me just how much better you were. Kill my brother knowing I couldn't do anything about it."

Turrent sighed. He was tired of this cyclical conversation.

"They'll expel you for this."

Hebi laughed. "As far as they're concerned, we're under contract to kill your five friends. The contract is precisely worded. We are to leave the entirely of your 'capture' to the army.

"But who's going to tell? Your corpse?"

The Yuan broke the stalemate with a spear toss. Turrent whirled on her and knocked it away.

That's when Hebi struck.

He and his partner attacked Turrent in tandem. This was how Tsuchinans were taught, to attack an alert opponent in a relentless pairing. Only Turrent was ever sent off on assignment alone.

It wasn't because I was so much better than the others. It was because I refused another partner after Marshall's death.

He anticipated their moves, but they were too fast.

I need to adjust his strategy soon.

A spear toss grazed his cheek and he overcorrected. Hebi jabbed his left shoulder and his sword thudded against the cold earth.

He deflected Kaizoku's blade with his other sword and kicked Hebi in the sternum.

The feeling returned within seconds, but he played it coy. He hoped Hebi and Kaizoku would get overconfident and press their advantage.

A stream of water blasted Kaizoku in the back and the man cursed. Turrent looked up at a faint noise, just as a dark blue blur descended on him.

"You killed him!" it screamed.

He swung his sword up, clashing with the blur. The hiss of metal on metal followed.

Neko? I told Leena we'd just have to kill her later.

She flipped to her feet and landed near the lone Yuan. She shot him a look filled with daggers before sprinting away.

Leena sprinted after the woman with her left tit hanging out of her shirt. She raised her dagger to Turrent in salute and continued after Neko.

There is a story here, I'm sure.

Turrent picked up his fallen short sword and faced the Tsuchinans again.

No more distractions. I am ready.

Kaizoku flipped his eyepatch up and licked the blade of his knife. His reflexes were heightened now, though as much as his own, Turrent didn't know. Hebi unbuttoned his snakeskin vest and flung it to the ground. The green swirls on his chest emitted a greenish gas.

He won't need to touch me.

Kaizoku dashed forward and attacked. Turrent struggled to keep up, parrying each slash and countering with his own. Hebi ran at the two of them, arms wide and screaming.

He welcomes death if it gives Kaizoku the chance to kill me.

Turrent pulled on his Path as deeply as he could and saw what he thought was the future.

In one future, he pushed Kaizoku's knife aside and thrust his sword into the man's heart. Hebi bear-hugged him, stopping his lungs and suffocating him.

Pass.

In another, he blocked Kaizoku's blade with one, putting his second through Hebi's skull. Kaizoku planted his knife in Turrent's throat before he could recover.

Also pass.

Many visions ended with Turrent's death in a variety of ways, but one ended with his survival.

He allowed Kaizoku's blade to bite him in the shoulder. He fell backwards with the momentum and kicked him into Hebi. Hebi caught his partner and Kaizoku shuddered then stilled.

The horror in Hebi's eyes saddened Turrent in a way he no longer thought was possible. They were friends once, what seemed ages ago when they were just Initiates in the Blackhall. Things deteriorated after he killed Hebi's brother and now they stood here in a fight to the death.

I wish it didn't have to be this way.

Turrent sheathed his blades and yanked Kaizoku's knife from his shoulder, reopening the old wound Valice had given him. Hebi laid his partner on the ground and closed the dead man's eyes.

"Burn in hell, Edward."

I know I will.

Turrent plunged Kaizoku's blade into Hebi's chest, tears falling unbidden from his eyes.

I destroyed my best friend's life. I deserve death. Let them come and end the shell that was once Edward son Paul de Birming.

A rumbling echoed behind him, a cacophony of sounds that drew him out of his misery. It was coming from the direction of Sikati and the front of the army.

His death was well deserved, but it would have to be postponed. The other Seriens needed him.