Read Novel Full Chapter 1272: Blindsided
Chapter 1272: Blindsided
The glow along the sheathed blade sharpened.
Behind her, shadows pulled together.
A serpent rose from the shape, its body long and coiled, its eyes narrow slits of violet haze.
The serpent’s head hovered above her, jaws open as if ready to swallow anything in her line of sight.
Morgana reacted an instant too late. Her fingers snapped, dragging air toward her palm. Multiple elements tangled together, forming a shield the size of a house. Or she would’ve, had Black Fang been a rookie that allowed her enemies time to react.
Black Fang’s blade left its sheath.
The slash tore forward with a thin scream of metal.
Morgana was late to finish conjuring the shield.
What was already created stood no chance.
The shield split down the middle.
The halves twisted away, knocked aside like pieces of wet bark.
The slash carved into her torso, opening her mage attire from the ribs up to her collarbone. Fabric tore in strips and drifted in the wind behind her.
She released an agony-filled, guttural scream as a line opened on her chest. Skin parted.
Dark venom seeped into the cut at once, sinking into her blood with a frightening speed. Her arms shook. Her knees bent in the air. A wet sound escaped her throat after the initial scream of pain as she tried to hold her flight steady.
The venom stained her skin in uneven streaks. The scent of it hit her nose first: sharp, metallic, mixed with something rotten.
Her control flickered.
Her descent began.
Then the artifact on her neck activated.
Light burst against her skin. A cold, firm pressure traveled through her body, sealing the worst tears in her flesh. The poison burned out of her bloodstream in instant patches, forced out through small openings in her skin until it steamed away.
Her breath steadied.
Her flight held.
The artifact dimmed to a dull stone. Its carvings lost their color. The magic within was gone.
Morgana touched the half-healed cut. Her fingers came away with a thin mix of blood and venom-black residue. Her jaw clenched so tightly her teeth clicked.
She fixed her eyes on Black Fang.
"You discarded psychotic bitch, you should’ve been put down alongside your mother," she spat.
The insult wasn’t exactly strategy.
Nor was it a tactic of intimidation.
It was just... Pure and true rage, coming from the depths of this woman’s heart.
That artifact had been one of her most guarded trump cards, a treasure she carried for threats that haunted her even in sleep. It had a single purpose: to keep her alive through anything.
Black Fang’s cut forced it out in seconds.
The artifact drained itself entirely just to keep her breathing.
And the slash had been so heavy that even an artifact of that tier failed to finish the healing.
A thin line of unsealed flesh still marked her chest.
Her robes stuck to it with wet warmth.
A cluster of sharp warping noises cracked through the sky behind Morgana.
She didn’t need to turn.
Her allies had cut through Devil’s elites already. Their figures were rising fast, anchored by the void tethers Void had thrown out to keep them from plummeting after Morgana abandoned her control earlier.
Morgana lowered her hand from her half-healed chest and raised her head.
Black Fang stood exactly where she’d been.
The rooftop around her was cracked from the pressure she poured into her stance. The serpent-shaped shadow behind her had already dissolved, but some of its outline lingered in the air, like a stain of malice that refused to fade.
Her eyes locked onto Morgana.
There was nothing disciplined about that stare.
It wasn’t the calm judgment of a swordswoman or the focus of a trained killer.
It was raw.
Animalistic.
A hatred sharpened by centuries of encounters and hostile interactions.
Her lip twitched once. The tendons in her jaw flexed. Every line in her face promised that the next cut would be aimed to maim, not kill, just to make the suffering last longer.
Then something moved in front of Black Fang.
Morgana’s breath caught.
Devil smashed into Black Fang’s stomach, arms hooking around her waist in a rough tackle.
His body slammed into hers with enough force to make both of them skid across the rooftop tiles.
Black Fang’s reaction said everything.
Her eyes never left Morgana.
Her grip tightened on her katana, ready to twist free and return to the fight even if it cost her her life.
She wanted to stay.
She wanted to tear Morgana apart.
She wanted to carve that half-healed cut wider until it reached the woman’s heart.
She was stronger than Quinlan, and if that wasn’t already enough, he was hurt as well, barely holding himself together.
If she resisted, he wouldn’t move her even an inch.
But she let him drag her.
Allowed it.
Her body tilted into his tackle, giving him the leverage he needed. The motion was small, almost invisible, but Morgana knew enough about combat to see it.
A tear in space opened behind Black Fang.
Morgana’s eyes widened.
"No!"
She thrust her hand forward. Wind snapped toward her fingers. Lightning gathered again, sparking from her knuckles.
She reached out.
Too slow.
Quinlan and Black Fang disappeared into the tear.
The last thing Morgana saw was Black Fang’s face, turned fully toward her even as the portal swallowed her.
She stared with a depth so dark it hollowed the air between them, hatred etched into every muscle around her eyes.
Then the tear sealed.
The rooftop fell quiet.
And Morgana was left hanging in the sky.
For two heartbeats, nothing moved.
Nothing breathed.
Then the tension inside her throat broke.
A harsh sound ripped out of her, raw and violent. It clawed out past her teeth, bent the air around her, and echoed across the tiles. It was no battle cry, no royal command.
It was fury that had nowhere to go.
The sound died slowly, scraped thin as her breath ran out.
She didn’t scream words.
There weren’t any left that could properly convey what the woman felt in this moment.
Inside, the truth sat like a hot knife against her ribs.
For the second time, he slipped from her grip. For the second time, she reached out and found nothing. And this time, she didn’t just lose Devil... she burned through one of the kingdom’s Legendary-grade artifacts doing it.
One such great piece, used away in seconds. Wasted because she saw Black Fang a single moment too late.
Air warped behind her.
Her allies came into view, pulled by Void’s tethers.
Not one of them looked pleased.
Fractured silence hung between them. Some avoided her eyes outright. Others stared with expressions too tight to hide what they really thought, such as Kaede. The young woman seemed one step away from telling Morgana off in a very, very colorful manner.
She ruined the setup, abandoned the tactic, and made hasty decisions that ended up not only failing but nearly killing her as a result.
None of them said it aloud, though. Not even Kaede. After all, she was a duchess in front of the queen.
Well... none of them said anything out loud, except one.
Lilith, with her white hair swept by the wind and her gaze locked on Morgana with utter disbelief.
"If Black Fang is a psycho, then what are you?"
Her eyes narrowed as she spat,
"I can’t believe this. The strongest human mage is a detriment to her allies."