Chapter 123: Anomaly in the Mud
Team Soup had been assigned a corner section of the underground quarters They were four narrow cots squeezed between walls that wept moisture in the damp cold. A lantern hung from the ceiling, casting orange light across the room.
Renna was already sprawled on her cot. She’d been talking nonstop for ten minutes about the breach fight, replaying every arrow shot in excessive detail.
"And then the third one tried to sneak around Emric’s left side, but I saw it coming because i caught the glare on its tusks. So I aimed just a bit to the right, and the arrow went right into the weak spot above the eye. I didn’t even know it was a weak point until Maeve told me last month, but it worked like a charm and the thing just dropped like a sack of—"
"Renna," Emric said from his cot. "I love hearing about your battle tactics, but my brain needs about six hours of sleep to function tomorrow."
"You’re so boring."
"I’m efficient. There’s a difference."
Lyra sat on the edge of her cot, cleaning her spear with a cloth. She hadn’t said much since the breach. Her eyes kept drifting toward Holden’s cot, where he lay on his back, staring at the ceiling.
He wasn’t asleep.
His earpiece crackled.
"Holden." Maeve’s voice was tight. The voice she used when she’d found something she couldn’t explain.
He sat up slowly. "I’m with you."
"I’ve been running diagnostics on the outpost’s radar network for the last hour. Getting familiar with the baseline readings so I can flag anomalies during active combat."
"And?"
"There’s something I can’t explain." The rapid sound of a keyboard echoed through earpiece. "Holden, there is a blank space moving through the monster horde outside the eastern wall."
Holden went still.
"Define blank space," he said.
"A literal hole in the radar. The sensors pick up every living creature within a three-mile radius. Beasts, soldiers, even rats in the trenches. Everything shows up as a signature. But there’s a patch moving northwest through the swarm right now, about four hundred meters out, and it’s completely invisible to every sensor I have access to."
"Are the monsters reacting to it?"
She paused, her fingers tapping the keyboard.
"No. That’s the strangest part. The swarm is parting around it. They’re actively avoiding the blank space like it’s not there. Which means whatever this is, the beasts either can’t sense it or are choosing to ignore it."
Holden’s hand moved to his chest.
His fingers found the spot where the cursed dagger had entered. Smooth skin. No scar. But he could still feel it.
His eyes went cold.
"Holden?" Maeve’s voice shifted. She could hear the silence. "What are you thinking?"
"Lock the bunker down," he said.
"What? Why?"
"Maeve. Lock the door. Don’t open it for anyone except me or Vespera. Understand?"
"Holden, you’re scaring me. What’s out there?"
He didn’t answer that question.
"Stay inside," he said quietly. "I have a debt to collect."
He pulled the earpiece out and set it on the cot.
Lyra was watching him. "Holden? What’s wrong?"
"The assassin from the Capital," he said. "He followed us."
The room went silent. Even Renna stopped talking.
"How do you know?" Emric sat up, reaching for his glasses.
"Maeve just found a blank spot on the radar that monsters are ignoring. That’s not a beast. That’s a person wearing something that hides their presence from every detection system in this fort." Holden stood up. "The same thing that got past my defenses in the Capital. The same thing that put a hole in my chest while I slept."
He reached into his inventory and summoned the Solar-Forged Sword. The black blade appeared in his grip, the crimson edge glowing faintly in the dim lantern light.
"You can’t fight him in here," Emric said, his voice urgent. "If he’s the same assassin, he’s Peak Rank 3, 9-Star. Inside these narrow corridors, with all of us nearby, the crossfire would—"
"I know," Holden said. "That’s why I’m going out."
"Holden, no." Lyra stood up, her hand reaching for him. "You almost died last time. Even with your real strength, the gap is—"
"I know the gap."
"Then why are you walking out there alone?!"
"Because if I stay in here, he picks you off one by one, in your sleep." His voice was flat. "I’m not going to let that happen. Not again."
He turned and walked to the barracks door.
"Holden!" Renna’s voice cracked. "You can’t just—"
"Stay inside," he said without looking back. "All of you."
He opened the door and stepped into the cold corridor.
The front gate of the Demon-Mouth Outpost was a massive iron construct, reinforced with ward plates and flanked by two guard towers. At this hour, only a skeleton crew manned the walls. Most of the soldiers were either recovering from the breach or stationed at the eastern section.
Holden walked past the guards without a word.
"Hey! Where do you think you’re—" one guard started.
Holden kept walking.
The gate was cracked open, just wide enough for a single person to slip through. Beyond it, the No-Man’s Land stretched out in darkness.
He stepped through the gate and the cold hit him instantly. Freezing rain drenched his jacket in seconds. The mud outside the walls was even deeper than inside, reaching his shins and dragging at every step. The only light came from the dull red glow of the fortress behind him and the occasional flash of distant artillery.
He kept walking forward.
One hundred meters. Two hundred. Three hundred.
The rain poured down harder, turning the world into a blurry gray mess of mud and shadows. The noise of the fortress faded away behind him, drowned out by the steady hiss of water hitting the ground and the low, rumbling groans of monsters waiting in the dark.
He stopped walking.
He was already four hundred meters away from the gate, completely alone.
His System screen flickered in the corner of his vision.
He pulled it up manually.
[Passive Scanning: Active]
[Hostile Entities Detected: 847 (Rank 1-2 Beasts, surrounding perimeter)]
[Hostile Intent Detected: NONE]
[Anomaly Detected: NONE]
No anomaly. No trace of the assassin whatsoever.
Holden closed the screen.
The Void Mantle didn’t just hide the wearer’s energy. It erased their existence from spiritual detection entirely. The System couldn’t see the assassin. The radar couldn’t see the assassin.
But there was one thing the Mantle couldn’t hide.
Physics.
Holden stood still in the rain and watched the dark trenches ahead of him.
He didn’t need the System for this.
He just needed his eyes.