Chapter 391: SQUAD TWENTY- FIVE OATH REAFFIRMED

The sub-zero mountain gale howled between the towering black basalt walls of the Viper’s Throat, swirling fine sheets of frost across the frozen canyon floor.

Sagiri kept his right hand planted against the wrapped hilt of Nokai, staring across the gravel at the seven familiar figures standing in the gloom.

His breath rose in thick white plumes against the starlight, his mind struggling to understand how they had caught up to his pace.

"What are you all doing here?" Sagiri asked, his voice rough and cutting through the whistling wind.

"You need to turn around and head back to the academy before the morning patrols notice you are gone."

"The High Council put the entire northern territory on lockdown, and anyone caught carrying weapons outside the perimeter will be executed for treason."

Maita scoffed aloud while kicking a frozen chunk of shale into the ditch, adjusting the leather harness of his twin short-swords with an irritated sneer.

"Do you have any idea what four miles of an abandoned garrison drainage flume smells like?" Maita complained, his face smeared with black soot.

"I smell like dead river rats and stagnant grease, and you want us to turn around and walk right back through it?"

Kaka did not shift his feet an inch, driving the iron rim of his heavy tower shield two inches into the frozen gravel.

"Shut up, Maita," Kaka rumbled, his voice as flat and heavy as the granite cliffs rising above them.

"Let the boy whine," Kiuga said with a lopsided grin, pulling down his woolen face wrap, "he almost slipped headfirst into the sludge three times."

"If you keep talking, Kiuga, I will throw you down this ravine," Kaka said, not even turning his head to look at him.

Sagiri stared at the three of them, feeling the familiar headache building behind his temples as their bickering filled the narrow mountain cut.

"I am not joking around," Sagiri said, taking a step forward while his crimson eyes narrowed in the dark.

"This is not another obstacle arena exercise or a mock skirmish in the northern woods."

"The man who took Rika is the same phantom who orchestrated the destruction of my clan in the South."

"Whoever is operating in that canyon has an army, and whoever goes down there might end up dead."

Kaka rested his massive, calloused hand against the top rim of his shield, looking directly down into Sagiri’s glowing eyes without blinking.

"A man losing in battle is no shame," Kaka said in a low, stubborn growl.

"It only proves that the other man was stronger on that day."

"But turning around and running while a brother fights alone is what cowards do, and no Asakana runs from a fight."

"See?" Kiuga chuckled softly, nudging Kaka’s armored shoulder with his elbow. "The big brute actually has a brain when he remembers to use it."

"Touch me again, Kiuga, and I will test how many of your ribs can bend before breaking," Kaka snapped.

"You two never change, do you?" Sagiri muttered, shaking his head as the heavy knot in his chest began to loosen.

Kiuga’s expression settled into a sharper, more tactical focus as he stepped up beside Kaka’s heavy iron barrier.

"Did you honestly think Squad 25 was going to sit in the barracks eating warm porridge while you ran off into the mountains alone?"

"Seyika mapped your exact vector before we even left the headquarters," Kiuga added, pointing a gloved finger down the gorge.

Above them on the western ledge, Bukata lowered his recurve bow and peered down into the frozen cut.

"Tripwires are set along the upper overflow chute," Bukata called down in his quiet, measured tone.

"If any northern tracker tries to drop through the grate behind us, they will bring twenty tons of loose boulders down on their heads."

Beside him, Zolinka gave the steel tension cable a sharp tug before slipping his wrench back into his leather belt pouch.

"The line will hold against the frost for at least four hours," Zolinka reported, sliding down the scree to join the rear line.

Ulekai and Zazarie stood at the southern bottleneck with their heavy halberds braced against the stone, keeping their eyes glued to the dark pass.

"The rear is clear," Zazarie said, checking the edge of his blade, "nobody followed our tracks out of the garrison."

Sagiri looked across the seven warriors, taking in their torn field cloaks, soot-covered faces, and the calm determination in their stances.

They were risking their sashes, their ranks, and their lives under northern martial law just to stand in the freezing mud beside him.

He had run northwest through the blizzards to spare them from the violence of his past, yet here they stood, ready for whatever lay ahead.

’They really are the most stubborn idiots in the entire North,’ Sagiri thought, a faint smirk touching his lips before he exhaled slowly.

"Alright," Sagiri said, crouching low near the center of the path, "gather around and listen carefully."

Kiuga and Kaka leaned in close beneath the overhang, with Maita and the others closing the circle to block the freezing wind.

"The trail ahead carries a foul chemical stench that I recognized the moment I entered the gorge," Sagiri explained in a low voice.

"It belongs to the masked man who was in the woods that day."

Kaka’s heavy jaw tightened with an audible snap, his dark eyes flashing with sudden recognition.

"The man you chased all the way to Galka?" Kiuga asked

"That is him," Sagiri confirmed, nodding toward the dark ravine opening half a league ahead.

"I felt the vibrations through the bedrock earlier," Sagiri said, pressing his palm against the stone to emphasize the point.

"Whatever facility he built out here is buried deep underground in the rock, hidden completely beneath solid granite."

"There are no surface fortress walls, no watchtowers, and no visible gates out in the open."

"We will have to scout the canyon floor to find where the entrance is sealed beneath the stone."

Kiuga pulled a small charcoal slate from his vest, studying the elevation lines Seyika had sketched before their departure.

"If the complex is buried under the rock, they must have ventilation shafts and freight ruts," Kiuga reasoned.

"That means there is a reinforced road or an underground tunnel entrance wide enough for cargo."

"We move in standard wedge formation," Kiuga instructed, looking around at the squad members.

"Kaka takes the point with the heavy shield, Bukata watches the high ledges, and Maita covers the left flank."

"Zolinka, Ulekai, and Zazarie hold the rear line to make sure we don’t get boxed in from behind."

"Stop giving speeches and start moving," Kaka grunted, hauling his massive shield up and turning toward the lower path.

Maita drew his twin short-swords with a crisp metallic click, rolling his shoulders to shake off the bitter cold.

"If we get killed in this frozen ditch, I am haunting all of you for the rest of eternity," Maita muttered.

Sagiri tightened the gray linen wraps around Nokai, stepping into the center of the wedge formation beside Kiuga.

The sub-zero wind screamed through the high crags above, but inside the narrow canyon cut, the cold had completely lost its bite.

They were no longer separate warriors chasing shadows in the dark; they were eight brothers moving with lethal, unified purpose.

Together, Squad 25 surged forward into the Bleeding Gorge, ready to hunt down whatever was buried in the deep earth below.