Chapter 98: I Became Awakened… Then Met a Real Champion

Valeria kept her eyes on the forest.

"That’s far too specific for roadside thieves."

"Recovery team."

"The caravan?"

"Probably the documents and any witnesses."

Nyxara looked bored. "They took longer than expected."

Raven turned toward her. "You knew they were coming."

"I expected them."

"There’s an important difference."

"For you."

Valeria formed four drops of blood above her fingers. "Does the organization know who you are?"

Nyxara’s expression shifted slightly.

"If they did, they would have sent more."

That reassured no one.

Raven returned his attention to the terrain. He could handle one of the Awakened. Maybe several if he isolated them and controlled the engagement. Valeria, Level Twenty-Nine Elite, could deal with most of them and probably the leader depending on his Skills and equipment.

But ten coordinated Awakened plus an Elite wasn’t a fight Raven would choose without a reason.

Nyxara was here.

That changed everything.

It did not mean Raven stopped planning.

"I don’t need a plan," Nyxara said.

"I do."

"I can kill them."

"That doesn’t mean I intend to stand still while you do."

Nyxara smiled. "Are you worried about me?"

Valeria looked at her. "Don’t start."

Raven answered before the conversation could derail. "I’m worried about having to reorganize the fight if you do something unpredictable."

"Much less romantic."

"That was intentional."

A whistle cut through the forest.

Not an arrow.

A signal.

The eleven attackers stopped hiding.

Four appeared ahead. Three to the left. Two to the right. The last two remained behind them.

Their leader walked onto the road, a man in his forties wearing light gray armor and a short cloak without insignia. A curved sword hung at his side, along with six black pieces attached around his belt.

Black Mithril.

Raven recognized it immediately.

So did FORGE.

[Low-Purity BLACK MITHRIL Detected.]

[Multiple Artificial Mana-Interference Devices Present.]

Interesting.

The man didn’t look at Raven first.

He looked at Nyxara.

Then his expression changed.

Not fear.

Partial recognition.

"Bloodborn."

Nyxara looked disappointed. "How observant."

The man raised two fingers.

Every subordinate drew a small black object.

Stakes.

Each roughly a foot long.

Valeria recognized them.

"Suppressors."

Raven looked at her. "For Bloodlines?"

"Probably."

The leader spoke.

"The caravan’s merchandise and any documents you removed will be returned. Witnesses will be eliminated. The Bloodborn will be captured if possible."

Nyxara blinked.

"If possible?"

"She’s worth more alive."

Her smile vanished.

Not because she was frightened.

Because someone had just said something she found offensive.

Raven decided that was very bad news for the man.

Valeria looked at Nyxara. "For once, I’m interested in hearing your response."

Nyxara dismounted completely and handed her horse’s reins to Roland.

"I think I’m going to disappoint them."

The leader lowered his hand.

The black stakes struck the ground.

Six.

Then eight.

Mana spread between them.

FORGE reacted.

[Artificial Suppression Array Detected.]

[Primary Material: Low-Purity Black Mithril]

[Function: Mana Disruption / Hereditary Skill Interference]

[Target Specialization: BLOODLINE-DEPENDENT BIOLOGICAL MAGIC.]

Raven followed the mana lines between the stakes.

Eight anchors.

Overlapping connections.

Not independent devices.

A network.

Useful.

The runes ignited.

Nyxara stopped.

For the first time since Raven had met her, he saw an involuntary physical reaction. Her shoulders tightened, and a dark vein appeared briefly along the side of her neck.

These people knew what they were doing.

One of the Awakened threw a chain.

Black Mithril.

Not at Raven.

At Nyxara.

She didn’t dodge.

The chain wrapped around her forearm and the metal glowed.

Nyxara looked down at it.

The leader smiled.

"Royal or not, every Bloodline has channels."

Mistake.

Raven knew it was a mistake before Nyxara looked up.

Her eyes were no longer merely violet.

Vertical pupils seemed carved into dark light.

Predation reacted.

[High-Order Bloodline Skill Activation Detected.]

["Abyssal Dominion"]

The atmosphere changed.

Mana didn’t explode outward. No shockwave knocked down trees.

The light simply began to disappear.

Raven looked toward the sky.

It was still daytime. He could still see the sun between the branches.

And yet the forest was darkening.

Not like a cloud passing overhead.

Something was consuming the light before it could fully reach the ground.

[ABYSSAL DOMAIN Expansion Detected.]

[Source: Bloodline of Night Sovereign]

[Environmental Alteration:]

[Light Absorption — ACTIVE]

[Sound Suppression — ACTIVE]

[Shadow Density Amplification — ACTIVE]

[Foreign Mana Degradation — ACTIVE]

[Bloodborn Physiological Enhancement — ACTIVE]

[Host Is Within Hostile-Capable Domain.]

[Predator’s Instinct Reliability: REDUCED.]

Raven felt the final effect immediately.

Predator’s Instinct became almost useless.

Not gone.

Overloaded.

Threat ahead.

Behind.

Below.

Left.

Inside every shadow.

His instinct was trying to tell him Nyxara was everywhere at once.

"That’s irritating," Raven muttered.

Valeria had stopped smiling. "I didn’t know she could do that."

"Neither did I."

Nyxara grabbed the chain around her arm.

The Black Mithril was burning her skin. Raven could see the damage clearly—a dark line around her wrist, regeneration noticeably slower wherever the metal touched.

So the artifacts worked.

Important.

Not enough.

Nyxara pulled.

The Awakened holding the other end was launched off his feet.

He didn’t stumble.

He flew.

His body tore through a bush and struck a tree hard enough to crack the trunk.

The leader shouted.

"Close the field!"

Four men activated the suppressors.

White runes spread across the ground.

The darkness around Nyxara trembled.

Raven didn’t watch her.

He watched the stakes.

Three flared brighter than the others.

Load-bearing points.

The array wasn’t distributing interference evenly.

"Valeria. Front-left stake. Break the runes, not the metal."

She understood immediately.

A blood needle crossed the road.

One of the Awakened moved to intercept it.

Raven was already moving.

Burst Step.

The Skill responded differently now.

Cleaner.

No violent drag after the acceleration.

He appeared beside the man before the defender could fully turn.

Level Twenty-Two.

Eleven Levels above Raven.

Still human.

Raven struck the inside of his elbow first.

The suppressor rod slipped from the man’s hand.

Stonehide covered Raven’s other fist.

He drove it into the man’s jaw.

Not enough to knock him out.

Enough to turn his head.

Raven caught the wrist holding a short blade, stepped behind the elbow, and used Kinetic Acceleration through the movement.

CRACK.

The joint failed.

The man screamed.

Raven kicked the back of his knee and sent him down.

Valeria’s needle passed over Raven’s shoulder and struck the rune carved into the stake.

The inscription shattered.

One entire section of the suppression array flickered.

Nyxara glanced toward them.

Only briefly.

But Raven saw the result.

The darkness on that side deepened.

"Interesting," she said.

"Focus."

Her smile returned.

Then she disappeared.

Not speed.

Raven couldn’t track it as movement at all.

One moment Nyxara stood thirty feet ahead.

The next, the shadow behind the leader opened and she stepped out of it.

["Void Step" Detected.]

The Elite reacted quickly.

Very quickly.

Level Thirty-Six wasn’t decorative either.

He turned before Nyxara fully emerged and thrust out his left hand.

A magic circle formed.

"[Solar Lance]!"

Golden light erupted from less than three feet away.

Nyxara raised one hand.

The darkness around her fingers closed over the lance.

It didn’t stop it completely.

The spell tore through part of Abyssal Dominion and struck her side.

Cloth split open.

Burned flesh.

Raven saw ribs for a fraction of a second.

Then the wound began closing.

Fast.

Far too fast.

[Abyssal Regeneration Active.]

[Estimated Recovery Rate: EXTREME.]

The leader stepped back.

Not far enough.

Nyxara placed one hand over his face and lifted him off the ground.

No speech.

No prolonged exchange.

She threw him into one of the Black Mithril stakes.

CRACK.

His spine visibly buckled.

He was still alive.

Elite.

Nyxara appeared over him before he could rise.

Her foot came down on his chest.

Armor collapsed inward.

The ground beneath him fractured.

Raven watched for half a second.

Level Thirty-Six Elite.

Destroyed in seconds.

Not defeated through some clever combination of Skills.

Not overcome after trading twenty attacks.

He simply did not belong in the same level of fight.

Movement to Raven’s right.

Predator’s Instinct was still saturated, so Raven used his eyes.

An Awakened had taken advantage of Nyxara’s attack to move toward Valeria.

Wrong target.

Raven picked up the suppressor rod dropped by the man at his feet.

FORGE flashed a warning about unstable enchantment.

He didn’t care.

He threw it.

Kinetic Acceleration caught.

The black stake crossed the space like a bolt and struck the attacker behind the knee.

Armor stopped penetration.

Momentum did not.

His leg folded and he hit the ground.

Valeria’s blood thread reached him before he could rise.

It wrapped around his sword arm, throat, and ankle simultaneously.

One pull.

The man hit a tree sideways and stayed there.

Valeria glanced at Raven.

"I had him."

"I know."

"Then why?"

"He was closer to you than I liked."

A fraction of silence.

Valeria’s expression changed.

Then a projectile crossed between them.

Raven ducked.

"Later," he said.

Her smile appeared despite the situation.

"Definitely."

Two more Awakened attacked Nyxara from opposite sides.

One fired three projectiles of light.

The other activated a net of black chains.

Nyxara turned.

The projectiles entered her Domain and dimmed. The first vanished. The second veered away. The third struck her shoulder with only a fraction of its original force.

The chains never reached her.

A shadow beneath the attacker rose like liquid and wrapped around his leg. The man tried to cut himself free, but the darkness climbed to his waist.

Nyxara closed her fingers.

The shadow slammed him into the ground.

Once.

Twice.

His body stopped moving.

Raven looked past her.

Another suppressor operator was repositioning.

Not attacking.

Trying to restore the broken section of the array.

That made him more important than the fighters.

"Roland. Man by the rear stake."

Roland already had an arrow nocked.

"How much do you need him alive?"

"Functional hands preferred."

The arrow flew.

It pierced the man’s thigh.

He staggered but reached toward the stake anyway.

Raven used Burst Step again.

Twenty feet.

Then another burst after one normal stride.

His new mana circulation handled the transition far better than before.

The operator saw him coming and raised a short spear.

Raven didn’t contest the point.

He kicked loose dirt into the man’s face.

The spear shifted.

Half an inch.

Enough.

Raven moved outside the line, trapped the shaft under his arm, and slammed his forehead into the man’s nose.

Blood.

Disorientation.

Stonehide spread over Raven’s fingers.

He struck once beneath the ribs.

The man folded.

Raven tore the control piece from his hand.

FORGE reacted.

[Suppression Array Control Component Detected.]

Raven looked at the mana lines.

Then crushed the rune plate against the Black Mithril stake.

The network failed.

Not completely.

Three other anchors remained active.

But the coordinated field collapsed into isolated pockets.

Abyssal Dominion expanded another several yards.

Nyxara turned her head toward Raven.

Her violet eyes found him through the darkness.

"You broke my cage."

"It was badly designed."

The Bloodborn smiled.

"That might be the nicest thing you’ve done for me."

"It wasn’t for you."

"Of course."

The second man who had attacked her finally broke.

He turned and ran.

Nyxara stood almost a hundred feet away.

Trees separated them.

Reasonable escape route.

His own shadow lengthened.

Wrapped around his ankle.

He fell.

"No! She’s a—"

The darkness dragged him backward.

Raven never saw where he ended up.

He only heard an impact muted by the Domain.

Another attacker rushed Raven from behind.

Predator’s Instinct gave him nothing useful.

Roland did.

"Left!"

Raven turned.

Sword coming down.

Stonehide.

He didn’t block the blade directly.

He struck the attacker’s wrist from the side, redirected the edge past his shoulder, and stepped inside.

Level Twenty-Four.

Stronger.

Faster.

But expecting an Awakened eleven Levels below him to defend.

Not attack.

Raven drove his elbow into the man’s throat, hooked the ankle, and used Kinetic Acceleration through the takedown.

The attacker hit the ground hard.

Raven took his knife.

The man tried to rise.

Raven placed the blade against the gap below his jaw.

"Stay."

The man froze.

That one could answer questions.

Raven looked around.

Three enemies were down by his actions or coordination with Valeria and Roland.

Nyxara had already removed the leader and several others entirely.

The difference remained obvious.

Raven could influence the fight.

Nyxara could decide it.

That distinction mattered even more now that he was Awakened.

Roland slowly lowered his bow as another scream disappeared somewhere inside the darkness.

"I don’t think she needs us."

"No," Raven said.

Valeria kept watching Nyxara.

She didn’t sound pleased when she answered.

"She doesn’t."

Raven looked at the broken suppression array, the captured attacker beneath his knife, and the bodies scattered across the road.

Nyxara didn’t need them to survive the fight.

That didn’t mean Raven intended to be useless inside it.

He had become Awakened that morning.

He was finally strong enough to matter against people like these.

And Nyxara had just demonstrated exactly how much farther Champion still was.