Read Novel Full Chapter 519: Attacking the Black star Clan [2]
Chapter 519: Attacking the Black star Clan [2]
The Black Star base stood beneath an old building that looked half abandoned from the outside.
Its walls were cracked, the windows were dusty, and the front door looked like it had not been properly used in years. Anyone passing by would think it was just another dead corner of the city where no one important bothered to look twice.
But beneath that rotten shell, things were very different.
Narrow stairs led down into reinforced corridors. Hidden passages connected room to room. Watch points were built into the walls, and the deeper one went, the warmer and tighter the air became. Lamps fixed into the stone gave off a dim red light that made every hallway feel more closed in.
Gabriel stood outside the entrance with Barry beside him.
The blindfolded summoner looked pale even in the dark. His breathing had not settled since Grizzlenaught brought him back up, and every time the spectral bear’s name crossed his mind, his shoulders tightened slightly.
Gabriel looked at the old building once and rested one hand on one of the Twin Fang blades.
He had no intention of slipping in quietly.
Killing the clan was not enough. He wanted this place exposed. He wanted anyone nearby, from informants to guards to ordinary people, to know that something had happened here tonight.
"You really mean to do this head on?" Barry asked carefully.
"If I wanted silence," Gabriel replied, "you would not be standing here."
His hand tightened around the hilt. The blade came out with a low metallic sound. The second sword followed a breath later, and the dim street light caught along both edges just long enough to show their cold shine.
Gabriel stepped forward and slashed twice.
Shing! Shing!
Two arcs of force shot out and smashed into the entrance. The first tore through the front wall. The second struck lower and blasted apart the hidden support beneath it.
Boom!
The old building exploded inward. Stone, wood, and dust burst through the opening while the ground shook under the force. The fake abandoned building collapsed enough to expose the passage leading down into the true base below.
Inside the base, chaos started immediately.
Men shouted from below. Footsteps pounded through the corridors. Hidden members who had been stationed deeper inside rushed toward the sound, while others froze, realizing at once that the outer cover had been destroyed.
One man near the upper stairs stumbled backward and shouted, "We’re exposed!"
Another grabbed his weapon with shaking hands. "What happened to the entrance?"
The panic spread fast like wildfire.
Far below, in the deeper part of the base, Torin remained seated cross-legged in his usual meditative posture. The heat in that lower chamber did not move him, but the moment the entrance was blown apart, his eyes opened.
"We have been compromised," he muttered.
His face darkened, though he did not rise immediately. The suspicion he had been holding these past hours settled into certainty.
Barry.
It had to be Barry.
That was exactly the kind of thing Black Star always tried to avoid, which was why backup assassins existed in the first place. If one failed, another erased the loose end before it could become a trail.
This time, the trail had survived.
Torin’s fingers tightened once over his knee. Fury moved under his skin, but he forced it down and kept breathing slowly.
Rushing out blindly would be stupidity. He was wise and experienced enough to avoid such mistakes.
He turned his head slightly toward the steward standing near the doorway.
"Send the others," Torin said. "Have them stall White Phantom."
"Yes, Lord Torin."
The man bowed and moved at once, disappearing from the chamber to carry out the order.
Outside, the dust from the ruined entrance began to settle.
Through the smoke and broken stone, figures started to appear below. One after another, Black Star members rushed into view with weapons already drawn. Their headbands caught the light clearly now, black serpent marks lined up across dozens of foreheads.
That was all Gabriel needed to see.
"So it really is here," he said.
He did not sound surprised. His hand rose slightly. The ground beside him rippled, and Grizzlenaught emerged again with that same oppressive red body and glowing blue eyes. The sight of it made several Black Star members stop short.
Gabriel tilted his head toward Barry.
"Take him back."
Barry’s head jerked up at once.
"No," he said, and the word came out too fast. "Wait. Don’t send me back there."
Fear was no longer hidden in his voice.
His clan members heard it clearly, and that made them look between Barry, Grizzlenaught, and the calm white masked figure with even more unease. Barry had always been one of the calmer ones. Seeing him react like this made their own throats tighten.
Gabriel did not care. Even if they connected the summon to him, it changed nothing. None of them were leaving this place alive. That much he was certain of.
Barry took a half step back, breathing faster now.
"I cooperated, you said—"
Gabriel cut him off with a look.
"I said you could live depending on how useful you were, and I am keeping my word. But for now, you have to stay out of the way."
At those words, Grizzlenaught’s paw closed around Barry before he could plead again. The summoner let out a strangled sound as the floor beneath him rippled.
A second later, both he and the spectral bear sank underground and vanished.
The members watching from inside the exposed entrance swallowed hard. The sound of saliva moving down their throats felt louder than it should have. No one spoke or stepped forward yet.
They were all wary of the man who had made one of the strongest members of their clan look so helpless.
Gabriel rolled one shoulder and raised both swords properly.
The blades caught the light from the ruined entrance, the dust-filled air drifting around him. Broken stone lay under his feet. Red-tinted dust still hung in the space behind the first line of assassins.
When his gaze settled on them again, several members flinched without meaning to.
Gabriel looked at the group and spoke in a bored tone.
"Let’s get this over with."