Chapter One Hundred and Fifteen: Blood Ignites Bone Valley
Section One: Wolf Fire in Ashen Alleys
Sand collapsed, blood pools cooled. Code tags lay buried in scorched mud pits, pulses faintly flickering like unquenched fire wells.
Maria crouched at the ruins' edge, fingers on hilt. Wei coiled rope loosely at waist, knuckles tapping, clacking against rope ends. Jason stood atop corpse mounds, cloak blood-splattered, boots crushing bone, gaze piercing deeper alleys.
Wind from Iron Valley's heart carried sand, fire, and night's lurking sounds—not gamblers' gasps, nor black-market hawkers, but heavy boots thudding sand, gun bolts scraping metal. Mistveil's bones stirred.
Maria's thumb grazed blade, low: "They're coming."
Wei licked lips, grinning, "Right on time."
Jason said nothing, covering a code tag with sand, pulse barely visible, then lifted his gaze.
Alley's end sparked firelight—not campfires, but flint sparks from fireguns, blade glints, a full Mistveil main city guard force.
No longer gamblers or rabble—trained fighters, black-fist killers, black-market mercenaries, hard-boned ruthlessly.
Thirty-six strong, armor wrapped in rags, boots bound with iron scraps. Half-masks showed only cracked eyeholes, gazes iron-cold. Blunt axes, warhammers, short blades, broken guns in hand. No words, no cries—only flint clicks, wolf teeth snapping bone.
Maria adjusted hood, eyes knife-sharp. Wei looped rope, palm whitening. Converts lined behind Jason, blades drawn, code tags hidden, pulses trembling—not heartbeats, but bones quaking.
Opposite, Mistveil's black-fist leader stepped forward, torn cloak baring bloodied tattoos, wolf-head emblem on chest. His rusted axe, handle cracked, blade notched, reeked of death.
He stood at alley's mouth, squinting, voice like a broken drum: "Fire Trust?"
His cracked teeth gleamed as he spat the words.
Jason, Maria, Wei, converts—unmoving.
Wind swept sand, blood, rot, rust.
The leader laughed, hyena crawling from night sand. "Fire Trust? Hah."
He spat blood, low: "Burn, then. Shattered bones make fine fuel."
A bolt clicked. Black-fist killers raised fireguns, flints sparking.
Maria drew, blade flashing firelight. Wei's rope slithered, snake from dry well.
Jason stepped, crushing bone, low: "Show them real bones."
Fire exploded, guns roared, sand erupted blood-mud, bone shards flying.
Maria leaped, blade slicing bullet paths, diving into ranks. Steel slit armor, throat, body falling. She stepped on corpse, spinning, blade carving jaw, throat, blood gushing.
Wei slid, rope strangling neck, bones creaking, snap—neck broken, corpse kneeling. Rope whipped, snaring knee, yanking—bone pierced skin, white shards exposed.
Jason charged, bare-handed, fists smashing joints—shoulder, ribs, knee—blood spraying ears, spines crumbling to mud.
Converts fanned, blades slicing armor gaps—neck, armpit, waist—calm, reaping.
Narrow alleys piled corpses, blood flowing, sand sinking. Gun blasts, blade clashes, bone cracks wove a dirge.
Maria dodged hammer, blade piercing ribs, twisting, chest caving, blood steaming.
Wei's rope snapped throat bone, foot crushing knee, rope slicing throat, blood pulping.
Jason lunged at leader, blade meeting axe. Axe crashed, wind howling. Jason blocked, arm guard sparking, pushed back. Leader spat blood, swung again. Jason caught arm, fist smashing nose, blood flooding. Knee crushed ribs, blade tore thigh artery, blood drenching.
Leader screamed, axe flailing. Jason sidestepped, blade severing wrist tendons, axe falling. Hand gripped neck, knee shattered jaw, neck snapping, skull bursting. Leader collapsed, blood pooling.
Alley blood reached ankles, limbs floating like rotted puppets.
Maria stood in corpse piles, blade dripping. Wei's rope clung with flesh. Converts knelt, breaths steady, blades groundward.
Jason atop leader's corpse gazed at buried code tag, blood and sand in cracks.
He crouched, thumb wiping tag, pulse twitching—like fire burning bone, flesh, faith.
"Bone cracks, fire burns."
Maria, low: "Birth fire."
Wei snapped rope, converts drew tags.
Wind swept alley, sand, blood, scorched bone clinking, fire cracking bone.
Jason rose, gazing through dust to Iron Valley's depths.
Blood flowed, bones split, Fire Trust burned in bone.
---
Section Two: Bone Valley Blood Inferno
Alley's end drowned in ink-black night. Blood pools spread, seeping cracks, staining ruins' roots. Corpses stacked, gray dike of death, limbs floating like torn flags. Wind thickened blood-stench, scorched rot, night pocked like needle-pierced rot-skin.
Maria crouched, thumb scraping blood crust from blade, steel un dimmed. Wei coiled rope, blood-soaked, dead snake. Jason at blood's edge, gaze calm—not joy, not rage, but cold, fire in bone, no smoke, no flame, just searing sinew.
Converts lined, half-crouched, blades low, code tags blood-soaked at chests. Silence, blood roiling like rotting flesh in rivers.
Far off, Mistveil's main city glowed—not fire, but campfires, black market's core, Mistveil's heart.
Maria whispered, "Elite guards."
Wei licked cracked lips, hoarse laugh: "Another wave."
Jason, low: "Not enough. Burn bone, take the city."
Wind whipped dust, fluttering scorched cloaks, corpse piles trembling, dead souls stirred.
Alley's mouth brightened, shadows moving—not gamblers, not small gangs, but Mistveil's elite guard. Gray armor, black scarves, fireguns, short axes—trained killers.
Fifty, front rank guns, rear axes, boots thudding sand.
Maria drew, Wei tightened rope, converts stood, blades blood-glinting.
Jason faced firelight, still as ruin's gravestone.
Guard leader emerged, gaunt, bony, wielding black sickle, mask showing dead-fish eyes. He stopped in sand, low: "Fire Trust?"
His voice scraped iron. Jason didn't answer.
Leader approached, sickle dragging blood-mud trails. "Mistveil doesn't trust fire. We trust bets, blood, bone—not fireseeds, not broken-bone sparks."
Maria flicked blade, ringing. Wei's rope hissed.
Leader paused, sand sinking, raising hand. Guards aimed, flints sparking.
Jason, low: "Bet lives? Fine." He glanced at converts, voice blood-bubble soft: "Bet bones, once."
Maria smirked, Wei grinned, snake strangling neck. Converts arrayed, blades flashing, piercing night.
Alley silenced, fire crackling, bone cracks echoing, knives sharpening in gutters.
Leader spun sickle, blade sand-and-blood-crusted, roaring: "Kill!"
Guards advanced, guns firing, bullets screaming, axes raised, wild dogs crushing rot-city.
Maria slid through gunfire, blade splitting bullet, diving ranks, throat slit, blood misting. Blade severed wrist, palm and gun flying, smashing face.
Wei ducked, rope tripping ankle, collapsing ranks, strangling neck. Rope tore shoulder, blood arcing.
Jason broke lines, bare-handed, seizing axe, twisting, elbow snapping ribs. Blade stabbed gut.
Converts flanked, blades slicing armor, cutting sinew, bone. Blood layered sand, ash slipping like hourglass.
Leader advanced, sickle slicing bone, blood. Jason met, blade clashing sickle, sparks flying. Sickle swept, Jason ducked, blade tearing shoulder guard, blood seeping.
Leader bit teeth, sickle slashing. Jason elbowed, blade cutting wrist, sickle falling. Hand gripped throat, snap—neck broken, leader dead.
Guards crumbled. Maria slashed knee, stabbed chest. Wei crushed cheekbone. Converts carved, blood exploding, sand sinking.
Corpses piled, blood spilled alley, sand strewn with limbs, flesh, bone. Firelight lit blood, corpses, silent slaughter.
Maria took leader's cracked code tag, blood in cracks. Wei lifted sickle, thumb bleeding. Jason stabbed tag in blood-mud, pulse dead-man's heartbeat.
"Bet bone, bet life, bet fire."
Maria: "Bone-breakers birth fire."
Wei laughed: "Burnt bones shine brightest."
Converts pressed tags in blood, pulses biting marrow.
Wind swirled dust, fire licking blood, sand splitting, dead mouths gaping. Bones burst, laughing, weeping, betting fire, life, bone's last gleam.
---
Section Three: Bone Fire Razes City
Blood split sand, beast gut spilling rot-pulp. Corpses littered alley, limbs, bone, guts, torn armor heaped. Fire licked blood-mud, charred bone. Dust spun, fluttering cloaks, night twisted, black-glossed skin.
Jason stood, blood at feet, bone beneath, code tag in mud, pulse flickering, dying nerve.
Maria crossed corpses, blade spinning, reflecting fire, blood-thread flowing. Wei tightened rope, thumb scraping crust. Converts lined, blades unsheathed, blood and dust on necks, armor.
Jason gazed at ruins' end—Mistveil's main city.
Black-market tower loomed, dead dog on sand, wolf-head flag blood-blurred. Below, final guards—not gamblers, not fringes, but core, blood-bone gatekeepers.
Black-market guard remnants, black-fist champions, hired deadmen, primal life-betting madmen.
Campfires burned corpses, flags, bone, illuminating silent stares at ruins, corpses, blood, Jason's group.
Maria lowered blade, tip down. Wei hooked rope, palm reddening.
Jason glanced converts—no orders, only breaths, blood-flow, fire-glint in eyes.
Maria, low: "One push?"
Wei licked lips: "Hell yeah."
Jason pressed code tag, sand sliding, pulse ember-buried.
Firelight showed black-market guards moving, slow, broken-legged dog, steady, boots crunching blood-mud.
Maria drew, Wei's rope hissed, converts arrayed, blades forward.
Dust surged, brushing corpses, blood, rust, rot-flesh scent.
Jason's gaze fell, sand splitting, black-frozen soil exposed, blood seeping, night's sick snake.
He looked up, eyes nailing black-market tower, voice bone-crack low: "Burn."
Maria's blade split night. Wei's rope snapped. Converts advanced, boots crushing blood, bone.
Black-market guards charged, gray masks, guns drawn, axes gripped—no cries, only sand, blood scent.
Firelight swayed, bone-spilled flame.
First, a bare-chested black-fist champion, scars crisscrossing, chest bone exposed, rusted iron torn. Wired broken blade snapped, metal threads shredding dust.
Maria met, blade gashing chest, bone-deep. Champion roared, blade slashing. Maria dodged, blade piercing heart, blade falling, blood misting, champion kneeling, face in blood.
Wei's rope strangled soldier's throat, snap—bone and windpipe crushed. Rope tripped knee, sinew torn, neck snapped.
Converts carved, blades piercing neck, waist, armpit—slaughter, bone-breaking.
Jason advanced, no blade, fists crushing knee, ribs, face, blood and bone flying, corpses like rags.
Guards collapsed, remnants firing, bullets raining. Maria split bullet curtain, slicing barrel. Wei snapped spine. Converts wove blood array, blades tearing armor, arteries.
Fire soared, corpses piled, blood flooded, soaking ruins.
Tower door burned, beams ignited, wolf flag curled, ash falling.
Jason led, alley war, blood, bone cracks meshing—no retreat, no mercy, only bone and fire.
Maria breached tower, blade splitting hinge, wood flying. Wei's rope felled guard, neck snapped, hung on frame. Converts stormed, blood weaving, slaughter unfurling.
Fire climbed roof, devouring cloth, corpses. Iron Valley's east sky reddened, black beast skin torn, blood-holed.
Jason entered hall, code tag in blood, pulse fire-flicker.
"Bone cracks, fire burns."
Maria, blade firm: "Blood oath."
Wei, grinning: "Bone inferno."
Converts murmured: "Bone-breakers birth fire."
Dust swirled, fire ate ruins, bone burst, flesh ashed.
Mistveil's main city—gone, ash and smoke.
Firelight held code tags, blood-oaths.
---
Section Four: Bone Oath in Ash Valley
Flames tore night, ash falling, burnt bone dust. Wolf flag charred, emblem scattered.
Blood flooded sand, seeping tiles, cracks, deep earth. Corpses littered tower, limbless, gutted, charred.
Wind fanned fire, ash, ruins exhaling rot-hot breath.
Jason stood in blood, boots ankle-deep, cold, sticky. Maria knelt, blade in ground, blood wet. Wei coiled rope, blood dripping. Converts arced, blades in hand, code tags pulsing at chests.
Ash swirled, fire lighting bloodied faces, cracked armor, bloodless victory.
Maria exhaled, throat iron-torn: "Mistveil—"
Wei laughed, low: "—burned clean."
Jason crouched, thumb on code tag, blood in cracks, pulse faint, heart's dying ember.
Blood dripped, he whispered: "Bone cracks, fire burns."
Maria raised blade, blood dripping: "Bone-breakers birth fire."
Wei snapped rope, neck-snap crisp: "Bone cracks faith, faith births fire."
Converts murmured: "Bone cracks, fire burns."
Blood boiled, bubbles rising, marrow gas. Fire licked edges, black smoke, scorched stench.
Jason raised tag, pulse rolling ember, eyes blood, fire, bone-faith.
Maria, Wei, converts raised tags, blood sliding cracks.
Jason, low: "Oath."
Maria: "Oath."
Wei, rope snapping sand: "Oath."
Converts roared: "Oath!"
Tags stabbed blood-mud, blood roiling, sand splitting, dust-blood mist.
Fire rose—not campfire, but blood-fire, bone-fire, torching bone, flesh, faith.
Jason stepped from blood, boots trailing red, Maria, Wei, converts following, steady, corpse-soldiers pressing bone.
Ruins held blood, fire, code tags, blood-bone oaths.
Wind whipped ash, fire lighting blood, corpse hills, ruined tower.
No wolf, no gamblers, no limbless—only death, bone, fire.
Mistveil, Iron Valley's east—extinguished, ash and blood.
Jason at ruins' edge gazed through fire, deeper night.
Maria, hoarse: "Next?"
Wei tightened rope, thumb on knot: "Burn valley dry, then it counts."
Jason nodded, rust-iron slicing rot-bone: "Next."
Converts silent, blood roiling, bones bursting in firelight, marching deeper, no glance back.
Wind swept blood, code tags pulsed last, dimmed—not death, but fire in bone, sand, Iron Valley's trembling heart.