Chapter 64: Unyielding Spirit Alexis Kane

The instant the bond completed, Alexis’s full profile unfurled across the panel floating in front of Kael.

[TidalBlade]

Bloodline Tier: Legendary

Talent Crimson Phoenix Flame (A): Normal attacks deal +20% fire damage. All fire-based skill damage increased by 60%.

Skills: Heavy Slash (D), Sweeping Strike (C), Fiery Combo (B), Fire Phoenix Slash (A)

Since she was a player rather than a monster, the usual star-rating breakdown didn’t apply but the talent alone told him everything he needed to know.

An A-grade innate talent put her growth ceiling somewhere in the neighborhood of a Legendary-tier boss or NPC in her own right.

Which meant an SSS-grade talent sitting on top of his own kit put him somewhere past that entirely.

Satisfaction settled through him, quiet and considerable.

Across from him, Alexis felt the runes finish etching themselves into her forehead, and something shifted inside her mind the moment the contract sealed a presence, total and inescapable, settling over every thought like a second skin.

The man standing in front of her wasn’t simply someone she’d lost a confrontation to anymore.

He was the entire center of her world now. Obedience to him wasn’t a choice sitting somewhere among other choices. It was the only shape left for her thoughts to take.

What... what did you just do to me?

"What did you do to me?!" The words came out sharper than she meant them to, horror bleeding through every syllable.

"Nothing dramatic." Kael’s voice stayed level, almost bored. "Call it a small correction. You tried to leverage a secret against me this is what that costs."

"Be grateful I don’t know your real-world address yet. I’m also a little short on time to go looking." A faint, humorless smile. "Otherwise this would’ve gone considerably worse for you."

He fixed her with a flat stare and issued the next command without ceremony. "You don’t reveal my identity to anyone. Not without my say-so."

"Yes, Master."

The words left her mouth before she’d fully registered forming them.

Her hand flew to her lips a half-second too late.

Oh my god. Did I actually just say that.

Heat flooded her face in an instant, mortification crashing down on top of the horror already sitting there.

She’d walked into this meeting holding what felt like the winning hand, and somewhere in the span of thirty seconds, she’d ended up calling the man she’d tried to blackmail Master like it was the most natural word in her vocabulary.

"Undo it." The plea came out fast, stripped of all pretense. "I’m sorry I was wrong, please, break the contract."

"I’ll never breathe a word about who you are. I swear it." Desperation crept into her voice, climbing. "Name a price. Whatever you want, I’ll pay it."

"I don’t make a habit of handing my future over to someone else’s judgment," Kael said, unmoved. "But don’t worry given everything, I’m treating this lightly. Nothing’s actually going to happen to you."

"When the contract lifts depends entirely on my mood, and on how you behave between now and then."

"I’ll be exactly the companion you need," she said quickly, far too quickly, the words tumbling out before she could stop them.

Realizing what she’d just promised and how close that address had come to slipping loose a second time she flushed red all over again.

"Careful," Kael said, something close to real amusement threading through his tone now. "People who get comfortable with the benefits tend to stop wanting it to end."

Watch yourself, bastard.

I’m Alexis Kane. My pride doesn’t bend this easily.I’d throw myself off the nearest cliff before I’d actually beg to stay somebody’s companion.

She clenched her jaw around the thought and said none of it aloud.

Heiress to real wealth, raised with every advantage money could arrange, she’d never in her life answered to anyone without a fight first.

Every instinct in her screamed against the shape of this new arrangement total obedience, total submission, a leash she hadn’t agreed to wear.

But the contract left her no room to argue, and she knew it. All that resistance curdled into a resentful, simmering silence instead, her expression settling into something Kael found almost endearing in its sheer indignation.

He could guess exactly what was running through her head. It changed nothing. As long as the bond stayed intact, her feelings about it were simply not a variable that mattered.

"Enough sulking." He waved a hand, moving past it entirely. "Introduce me to the rest of your team. Then we get moving that instance isn’t going to clear itself."

"Oh and in front of anyone else, you don’t call me Master. This stays between us."

"Yes, Lord." The word slipped loose again before she could catch it, and her whole face went red for the third time in as many minutes.

She spun on her heel fast, using the motion to hide it, and led the way without another word.

They crossed back through the peach grove together and found the rest of her party waiting on the other side.

Frostbloom was already there, familiar from their last encounter. Beside her stood two men a Mage going by SilentDrifter, and an Archer calling himself Farshot. Both sat at level 27, one rank below Alexis.

Strong players, by any ordinary measure of the server. Standing next to someone who’d cleared a third class advancement the night before, they barely registered.

Introductions went quickly. SilentDrifter and Farshot had never actually met Kael in person before, and the novelty of running an instance alongside the server’s top-ranked player clearly had them both a little starstruck, deference bleeding into every word they offered him.

Frostbloom, meanwhile, had other priorities entirely. The second a private channel opened between her and Alexis, the questions started.

"Well? Did you actually see his face? Is he hot?"

"...He’s handsome," Alexis admitted, something complicated crossing her expression.

"Ooh?" Frostbloom’s interest sharpened instantly. "Handsome how? Scale of one to Silversong?"

Alexis hesitated long enough that the silence became its own answer. "...Dead even. Honestly indistinguishable."

"Lex. Lex. A face like that, available, and you’re just standing there? Go get him!"

"You lock down Unrivaled, I’ll work on Silversong, and between the two of us we’ll basically own this entire server."

Alexis said nothing, lips pressed into a thin, complicated line.You have no idea I already belong to him. And that you’ve just described the exact same man twice.

If the two of us somehow split that particular arrangement, he’d barely even notice the difference.

The image that thought conjured sent heat climbing back into her cheeks for reasons that had nothing to do with embarrassment this time.

She coughed, hard, and reached for the secret realm map before Frostbloom could read anything else off her face.

The map ignited the moment she activated it, soft blue light spilling outward to wrap around all five of them.

A flash, and the clearing vanished.

Behind the rest of the group, Kael watched Alexis lead the way forward, posture stiff and proud despite everything that had just happened to her.

All that composure, he thought, faintly amused, and she’s about to spend the whole run pretending none of this ever happened.

Waste of a perfectly good act of defiance. He almost looked forward to watching it crack.