“Preparing to contact the target. We’ll assess his sanity, then decide the follow-up.” Lin Fan reported on the tactical pad, its screen cold as winter water.
A car’s engine rolled from far to near like thunder crawling down a valley. “He’s coming?”
A sports car knifed out from the road ahead, a silver fang cutting air; the driver was Hu Fei. “Back then, no way I could touch a ride like this. Now it’s easy. Heh—power was all I lacked.” He sneered and hammered the throttle; the engine bellowed like a caged bull at full rage.
Screeeech—the car slewed to a stop at the plaza’s flank, tires smoking like torn silk.
“Where is he? Bring him out!” Hu Fei jumped out and strode toward the center, boot heels hard as stones. Silence answered—flat as frozen ground.
A black-clad youth stood in the open, a solitary figure; his gaze was frost, pinned on Hu Fei.
The sight cooled Hu Fei a notch; after a few breaths, he pieced it together. His mouth tilted into a mad grin, eyes sharpening like broken glass. “Playing this kiddie game? Don’t insult me. Think you’ve got me in your pocket?”
“Two choices. One—come back with me,” Lin Fan paused, then cut the air with voice like a blade, “Two—die here.” Red fire poured from his hands, molding into weapons like molten carp leaping; his black eyes kindled into vivid flame. “Don’t waste my time, trash.”
For a heartbeat, Hu Fei was stunned. Every ability user he’d met till now was bottom-feeding scum compared to this youth.
His heart wavered, then desire surged back like a tide. “Go with you? Keep dreaming! I’ll change this place—make it my world. I’m strong now. No more chains of ‘morals.’ No one controls me! That includes you!”
On a rooftop, a girl with moss-green hair lay prone, cheek to concrete like a cat before a pounce. A custom, lightweight silver Barrett rested before her, sleek as moonlit steel. “Range… calibrated. Wind speed, wind direction… ability user, so ignore. Safety…” click—off. Her small hands danced over the silver body; her crimson pupils settled into the 16x scope. Lin Fan and Hu Fei swelled in the glass, like she stood right beside them.
The crosshair kissed Hu Fei’s brow. “Be good and listen to Young Master, or else…” Lin Yumo’s lips curved. “Boom.”
“Explode!” Hu Fei howled. He clenched the empty air; an explosion blossomed before Lin Fan, a cruel flower of heat.
“How—?” Lin Fan raised a shield, but the blast shoved him back several meters; the ground tore open in a fresh scar. His flame shield flickered like a dying lantern; dust smeared his black coat.
“Still too forced.” His bond with fire was far from Elemental Form; the blast pressure strained his inner blaze, a forge guttering under load.
“Weren’t you cocky a minute ago? Now look at you.” Hu Fei grinned and chained more explosions, each one a hammer on an anvil.
Boom-boom-boom—the plaza shook, flames biting at air.
“Young Master!” Lin Yumo’s voice cracked over the radio, tight as a drawn bowstring. “Are you okay?!”
Smoke thinned. Lin Fan’s flame shield winked out. His coat hung in tatters; soot mapped his face. “Bit tricky,” he said, standing slow like a tree rising. “Dark Butterfly, I’m fine.” He still hadn’t caught Hu Fei’s mechanism for the blasts.
“Want me dead? Save your own neck first.” Hu Fei’s confidence surged back like floodwater. “Curious how I make it blow? I’m not telling.”
“Warm-up’s over.” Lin Fan’s laugh was cold. He tossed the ruined coat; fire slid back under his skin like banked embers. Soot clung, yet his face held no discouragement, no impatience—only iron.
“What are you pretending?” Hu Fei snapped, temper flaring like dry grass. “Eat a big one—Starburst!” Fist-sized lights popped into being before Lin Fan, bright seeds in a midnight field. “So that’s it,” Lin Fan thought, the principle clicking like a lock.
The lights detonated, violence stacked on violence, worse than all earlier waves combined. “That should kill him,” Hu Fei muttered, wiping sweat, breath ragged as saws.
Smoke peeled back. The black-haired youth lay there; blood threaded out, red lines on stone.
“No way,” Lin Yumo breathed, disbelief thick as storm-cloud in her scope. Lin Fan hadn’t even opened the Forest Force Elemental Form; by rights, he shouldn’t lose. Her tactical pad chimed—a new message slid in like a cold blade.
“Still bargaining, brat?” Hu Fei swaggered up, planted a boot on Lin Fan’s ribs, pressed down; blood surged harder, a spring forced wide.
“Damn it, miscalculated,” growled Brother Blackfly from afar, teeth clenched, face dark as rain. “Boss, what now?” The thugs clustered, clutching their loot like frightened rats.
“Run. Only move left.” Survival first—out of here alive.
They piled into the waiting truck. Hu Fei snapped his fingers—boom—the vehicle erupted, a daylight bonfire.
“Eat shit, Hu Fei!” Brother Blackfly roared, swallowed by fire like a moth in a furnace.
“Betray me? That’s the ending you deserve.” Hu Fei’s grin split wide, madness oozing like oil.
Then the smile died. “Forest Force—Four-Pillar Prison!” Trees heaved up from the earth, trunks weaving into a sealed cage, wood crossed like iron. The living bars drank dust from the air, scrubbing it to pure oxygen—a tinderbox of breath.
“So—will you come back quietly?” The Lin Fan on the ground crumbled into soil, a decoy dissolving like dry clay. Roots braided up from below, and the black-clad youth stepped out of green and loam, his handsome face clean of ash. “Or will you die?”
