CHAPTER 76: I’M VERY UNSATISFIED WITH THESE RESULTS

Her eyes widened as she saw the flames. Immediately, she lunged back.

I stood there, the white flames surrounding me in a circle, their heat pressing against my skin like a second heartbeat.

Her expression was priceless. Her eyes went wide and she struggled with words for a second, mouth opening and closing like she’d forgotten how speech worked.

"I—I thought Kassie was combat-based. You lied to us."

I shrugged.

"Did I? Did I not?"

Her gaze darkened into a frown.

"You... you are no F-rank."

I looked at her and smiled.

"I am, Elena Volkov. I’m probably the strongest F-rank you’d ever set your eyes upon in your life." I exhaled and shot her a clear look. "Listen, I don’t have time for you. I’ve got priorities right now."

I paused as I turned away from her, sparing her one last glance over my shoulder. Something like pity flickered through me.

"Good luck surviving the fire, Elena."

The fire spread. I allowed it to run amok and it spread like a living thing hungry for fuel. The trees and leaves caught it like a pandemic, flames leaping from branch to branch with eager abandon. White-hot radiance spilled through the forest, turning the shadows into something blinding.

"Tempest!" she yelled.

But I was already moving. Her Heroic Spirit disengaged from Kassie, pulling back from the fight. At the same time, Nisha glanced at me after dealing a blow that dented a Paladin’s chest plate, the metal crumpling inward like paper. Now that the day was bright, I could see her athletic physique beneath her revealing grey tank top — the kind that served to cover only her breasts — and a skirt that threatened to reveal everything between her thighs as she moved about delivering crushing blows.

I glanced around as we prepared to disengage and make a run for it.

"Emma! Where’s Emma?!"

Nisha punched the last guy in his gut, the impact throwing him up off his feet. Then she glanced back at me. "I told her to—"

The sky rumbled, dark clouds churning overhead. Elena was up to something again.

"Peekaboo, motherfucker!"

Derek’s massive summon dropped from the canopy above, crashing down through the branches. But Derek himself was still higher up, standing comfortably on the branch of a tree and clutching Emma by the neck, her legs dangling uselessly in the air.

Kassie appeared behind me. Her featureless helmet had no light within it, but the sheer emptiness seemed to gleam with cold malice.

"See? I told that bitch." Derek’s voice rang out, smug and satisfied. "You’re nothing but a cold-blooded killer. It’s in your blood. I just knew something was off with you — even going ahead to try and kill Kai. You must’ve been very ambitious, you bastard."

I stared up at him, jaw tight with barely contained fury.

"Surrender yourself," he said. "And I will consider letting the little girl go."

Nisha was standing close to me, watching my face carefully. I didn’t know how she’d done it, but she had rendered five Light Paladins unable to move — all of them groaning in heaps on the forest floor.

"Cade..." Her voice came out low.

I sighed and pointed one hand toward Derek.

"You must think I’m a fool."

A white chain shot out from my back, streaking toward him like a striking serpent. But the bastard was fast on his feet. Just as the chain lashed against the branch he was standing on, splintering the wood, he leaped away with Emma still in his grip, landing somewhere deeper in the burning canopy.

Simultaneously, his summon lunged forward and Kassie countered it. She held the thing off with one hand pressing against its massive helmeted head as it advanced, stoney boots scraping furrows in the dirt. She raised her knee and smashed it into the summon’s torso — but the creature didn’t budge. If anything, the strike seemed to have been absorbed.

"Cade. Listen." Nisha’s voice cut through the chaos. "We need to leave now while we still can. I guarantee you, these are no serious troops... I could tell by the way they fought. They’re initiates. The Church — they know what they’re doing. It’s almost like they’re testing the waters." Her eyes bored into mine. "They wouldn’t be doing this if they weren’t certain they could win."

She looked at me with dark urgency burning in her gaze.

"Cade."

Without her saying it, I knew what she was asking of me.

The sky rumbled and another bolt of lightning struck somewhere in the distance, causing part of the burning forest to explode in a shower of sparks and debris. I glanced toward the destruction.

’Tch. They can’t just stay still, can they?’

It didn’t feel right to abandon Emma. I didn’t want to. But Derek... he was playing a game. The fact that the bastard seemed unnervingly calm — not diving in to kill me when he had the chance — was strange.

He was stalling. He had to be.

Nisha was right. We had to leave.

If I got caught now, it would be the end of everything.

I clenched my fist and glared up at Derek, who was holding Emma’s neck like she was a broken doll he’d found discarded in an alley. The poor girl was groaning, trying desperately to speak, her legs kicking uselessly against empty air. But that bastard didn’t even spare her a glance. He was watching me, waiting to see what I’d do.

’Derek. We will meet again. And when we do, I promise you a slow, agonizing death.’

There was no need for me to say it aloud. With the roar of the burning trees and the distance between us, he wouldn’t have heard me anyway.

"Let’s go..."

I clenched my fist until my nails bit into my palm, gritting my teeth against the pain that had nothing to do with my body. I glanced at Emma one more time. I could hear her struggling groan, her voice fighting to break free. And Derek laughing — that smug, satisfied laugh that made me want to tear his throat out.

"You bastard." He was still laughing, delighted by what he was seeing. "You really are going to abandon her. Wow! Wow! You’re more fucked up than I thought."

I did not glance back.

Pain lanced through my chest as I ran, each step carrying me further away. Kassie dealt Derek’s summon a powerful roundhouse kick that sent the thing flying backward through the trees, buying us time.

I kept running.

The smoke stung my eyes. At least, that’s what I told myself as moisture blurred my vision. I wiped my nose with the back of my hand and kept moving, kept pushing forward.

Without looking back.

Too ashamed and hateful of myself to look back.

I continued running.