NOVEL NEXT Chapter 375: How To Die Screaming
One of the Knights surged forward with a roar, his feet cracking the stone as he accelerated.
Lilith ducked left, vanishing in a flicker of movement, her cloak snapping like a whip behind her. A knife flew from her hand a moment later, aimed at Petry's throat.
He yelped and dove behind a crate.
Ren raised his hand and fired a Push at the incoming Knight, slamming the man into a nearby wall hard enough to shake dust from the ceiling.
Another Knight dashed toward Lilith's last position, only for her to appear behind him and slice a line across his calf, vanishing again before he could swing.
The last Knight didn't move. He was watching Ren.
"Vine Armor," Ren said, and the green lattice spread over his body in an instant, wrapping him in living strength.
The Knight's lips curled. He drew a short-hafted hammer from his belt, and charged.
Ren met him head-on.
Steel rang against hardened vines. The air exploded with every collision of resonance. Money scattered as their fight spilled across the vault.
Lilith was a blur, appearing, striking, and vanishing, her cloak like a shadow, her knives like fangs. She kept the Knights pinned and dancing, her smile sharp.
Next to her, the vault trembled beneath their feet as Ren sidestepped a hammer blow that cratered the stone, then lashed out with his vines.
They snaked through the air, wrapping around the Knight's ankle. With a sharp yank and a Push-enhanced strike, he flung the man into a wall, cracking it with the force of the impact.
To his left, Lilith danced between crates, her knives slicing arcs of silver light. Each throw struck without missing. The moment a blade buried itself into flesh, she yanked her hand, and the Pull resonance snapped the knife back through the wound, tearing it wide open on the return.
A scream echoed through the vault, one of the Knights stumbling to a knee, blood spraying from his leg.
Behind a stack of crates, Petry cowered. His eyes darted from the chaos to the vault entrance. He wanted to run but didn't dare, his heart pounding like a drum.
"You thieves picked the wrong vault." One of the Knights growled, rolling his shoulder as he stepped out from behind a support pillar. His armor shimmered faintly. "This is our sanctum. Our strength triples here."
Ren's eyes narrowed. "Funny, it still doesn't seem like enough."
With a roar, the Knight lunged.
They collided in a blast of speed and strength. Ren blocked the first strike with his bracer, but the second clipped his side.
Pain flared, but he twisted, catching the Knight under the chin with a rising knee. His vines erupted upward from the floor, slamming the man's head into the ceiling.
The second Knight appeared behind Ren. A heavy gauntlet slammed into his spine, sending him sprawling.
"Ren!" Lilith shouted.
Before the second Knight could follow up, three knives buried themselves in his side. He roared and ripped them free, but Lilith was already pulling them back. The force of the Pull resonance dragged his limbs sideways, making him stagger as fresh blood poured down his armor.
"You two think you're strong?" The third Knight spat, sword raised. "You have no idea what it means to survive in Carthage."
"Do you know one thing I've learnt from my husband?" Lilith's smile was cold and predatory. "Strength isn't just surviving. It's protecting what matters. And it sure as hell isn't posturing in someone else's vault."
"You're the thieves." One barked, swinging wildly. "You broke into our domain!"
Ren slammed a Push into the ground, launching himself upward in a burst of speed. Mid-air, he summoned his vines and sent them crashing into two of the Knights, smashing them across the chamber.
"We're not thieves." He said, landing hard and cracking the floor beneath him. "I like to think of ourselves as more like cleaners. We clean up dirtbags like you guys."
Lilith weaved between two charging Knights, her cloak flaring. She dropped low, sweeping a leg under one of them. As he stumbled, she planted a knife in his neck, then used her Pull to rip it free and embed it into the thigh of the third Knight.
One of the Knights twisted around Ren, plunging a spear of ice into his stomach. Ren broke it, flipping back to create space between them.
"You're strong." The Knight grunted, panting as he stumbled. "But you're bleeding. You're breaking."
Ren spat blood. "We always bleed. But you? You're already dead."
His vines erupted around them like a cage. He and Lilith moved in tandem, back-to-back, striking and dodging. Knives hissed through the air, spinning out and yanked back like boomerangs, cutting lines across armor and flesh.
Another Knight fell to his knees, clutching a deep wound in his gut.
"Don't assume you've won!" Lilith shouted, eyes flashing. "Not until we say it's over!"
With a growl, one of the Knights burst forward in a last-ditch charge. Ren met him halfway, letting his Vine Armor absorb the blow. He caught the Knight's arm and twisted, snapping it at the elbow, then drove a knee into his helmeted face. The metal cracked. The man collapsed.
Only one remained.
He stumbled back, surrounded by bodies, his breath coming fast.
"I was promised power." He whispered.
Ren surged forward.
One final Push, and the man fell.
Ren stood still, blood running down his arm, chest heaving.
Lilith walked up beside him, wiping her blade clean on a fallen cloak.
In the silence of the battle, Ren turned, head tilting as he heard the low scrape of boots behind one of the overturned crates.
A faint wheeze followed, along with panicked breathing, shallow and fast. He walked toward the sound, boots crunching on broken stone and the blood sprayed across the floor.
"Don't kill me!" Petry burst from his hiding spot, hands raised high, his wide eyes locked on Ren. "Please, I didn't know this was going to happen. I'm not part of whatever they did! Please! I don't want to die!"
Lilith approached from behind, her knives still bloodied, her eyes cold.
"You're smarter than you look, Petry." Ren said casually. "Hiding behind a crate while your bosses died screaming? Impressive."