Chapter 120: Tactical Retreat
Holden’s room was cramped with six people in it.
He sat on the edge of his broken bed, shirtless, his bare chest drawing stares from everyone except Maeve, who was too busy running her fingers over the spot where the cursed knife had entered.
There was no mark there or even a faint discoloration. Just smooth skin.
She pulled her hand away and wiped her watery eyes.
Holden pulled up his System screen and stared at his kill points.
[Current Balance: 124,290 KP]
Eighty thousand Kill points. Gone. Just like that.
He’d spent weeks grinding in the arenas, farming dungeons, killing beasts, and one shadow with a cursed dagger had eaten nearly half his savings.
He closed the system screen before anyone could notice the distant look in his eyes.
"I wasn’t fast enough," he said. His voice was flat and analytical. "Peak Rank 3, 9-Star. The power gap was too wide. I could see every move coming, but my body couldn’t keep up. That’s never happening again."
"Holden, you nearly died," Emric said. "Statistically, nobody walks away from a cursed blade to the cardiac region. Whatever that blue crystal was, it saved your life. Without it—"
"I know, Emric."
"We need to leave the Capital," Lyra said from the corner. She was standing with her arms crossed, her eyes still red but her voice was firm. "If my father hired a Rank 3 this time, he’ll hire a Rank 4 next. And the Royals will do the same. Staying here is basically painting a target on our backs."
"You are right," Holden said. "But where do we go? The Academy is back in our territory. That should be safe, right?"
Renna perked up from where she was sitting on the floor.
"Oh yeah! We could just go home! I mean, not that home is exactly safe, but at least there isn’t shadow assassins creeping through our windows, and honestly after the last few weeks I could really use a break from almost dying—"
"No," Vespera said.
She was leaning against the wall by the door, her eyes scanning the room. She’d been standing guard over the villa since the Duke’s visit.
"The academy is tangled up in Capital politics," Vespera said. "The Royals have judges, warrant officers, and administrative loyalists scattered throughout the border territories. If they want Holden arrested, they can fake a warrant that looks legal on paper. By the time anyone questions it, he’d already be in a Capital dungeon."
Emric pushed his glasses up. "Then where? If the legal system is compromised and the Capital is actively trying to kill him, our options are limited to somewhere outside the Crown’s jurisdiction entirely."
Vespera pushed off the wall.
"Demon-Mouth Outpost," she said.
The room went quiet for a moment.
Renna’s mouth dropped open. "The... the Demon-Mouth? That’s the monster frontline! That’s where people go to die!"
"It’s also the only place in this kingdom where noble families have zero jurisdiction," Vespera said calmly. "The outpost operates under strict Military Martial Law. No civilian courts. No noble warrants. No private assassins. Sending hired killers into a military frontline zone is classified as high treason against the armed forces. The Duke of Sterling is many things, but he’s not stupid enough to commit treason."
"But the mortality rate," Emric said, pulling out a small notebook and flipping through pages of handwritten statistics. "According to the latest military reports, the Demon-Mouth Outpost has a thirty-seven percent casualty rate per quarter. The eastern wall alone has been breached fourteen times in the past year. The surrounding wilderness contains an estimated two to four million active dimensional beasts, including multiple Rank 4 variants."
Renna grabbed Emric’s arm. "Four million?! You said four million, right? That’s not a number that should come out of a human mouth!"
Maeve had been quiet through the whole conversation. She sat beside Holden, watching his face carefully. She knew that look. The one where his eyes got a little too focused.
Holden looked at her.
Then he smiled.
"Four million beasts," he said softly. "That’s a lot of room to grow."
Maeve’s eyes widened slightly. She didn’t know the details of his secret, but she knew her brother. When he said "room to grow," he didn’t mean it the way normal people meant it. He meant something else entirely.
"I need to push past my current rank as fast as possible," Holden continued, looking around the room. "Because the next assassin they send won’t be a Rank 3. They’ll bring someone I can’t survive, no matter what tricks I have."
He stood up.
"The frontline is exactly what I need. I need that pressure to reach my goal."
Vespera studied him for a long moment. Then she nodded once, something like pride flickering behind her cold expression.
"I’ve already filed the transfer papers," she said. "You leave tonight. Under the cover of darkness, through the military rail line. The Capital will wake up tomorrow and find their tournament champions have simply vanished."
"Thank you, instructor," Lyra said quietly.
Vespera’s expression softened by the smallest degree. "He’s my disciple. Nobody touches him. Not even the Sterling family."
She turned toward the door. "Pack light. You have two hours."
The military train waited at a hidden platform beneath the Capital’s eastern wall.
It was a brute of a machine. Heavy steel plating covered every surface. The windows were narrow slits of reinforced glass. The wheels were thick as tree trunks, designed to crush debris and keep moving through anything.
Team Soup boarded in silence.
Maeve carried her computer bag
with her Ashen Bestiary tucked under one arm. Emric had his shield on his back and a satchel full of notebooks. Renna carried her bow case and a small backpack she’d stuffed with too many snacks. Lyra had nothing but her spear and the clothes on her back.
Holden stepped on last.
Vespera stood on the platform, her coat whipping in the night wind. She didn’t say goodbye. She just looked at him, gave a single nod, and turned away.
The train’s engine roared to life.
THOOM. THOOM. THOOM.
The heavy wheels began to turn, slow and grinding, building momentum. The platform slid away. The underground tunnel walls flickered past, lit by dim orange lamps.
Then the tunnel ended.
The train burst out of the Capital’s eastern gate into open darkness. The night sky spread overhead, covered with stars. Behind them, the Capital blazed like a jewel, its skyscrapers glowing with crystal light, its towers reaching toward the clouds.
Holden stood on the back deck of the last car, one hand gripping the steel railing, the other holding Lyra’s.
The cold wind hit them hard, carrying the smell of wet earth and distant rain.
Renna stuck her head out from the side door. "It’s freezing out here! Are you guys crazy? Come inside!"
Neither of them moved.
Holden watched the city shrink. The Colosseum. The Royal Palace. The Sterling estate district. All of it growing smaller and smaller, the lights merging into a single golden smear on the horizon.
Lyra leaned her head against his shoulder.
"I meant what I said," she murmured. "About my family. They’re not my family anymore."
"I know."
"They’ll come for you again."
"I know that too."
The Capital disappeared behind a ridge of dark hills. The train charged forward into the black unknown, its wheels grinding against the rails.
Holden’s eyes stayed fixed on the horizon where the city had been.
"When I come back to this place," he said quietly, "I’m going to tear House Sterling to the ground."