NOVEL NEXT Chapter 45: Frozen
For a moment, the only sound in the café was the slow, rhythmic drip-drip-drip of blood. The severed head rolled a few inches before coming to a stop, the lifeless eyes staring into nothingness.
The headless body swayed for a brief, chilling moment before collapsing with a wet thud.
Then the blood came. It gushed from the neck stump in thick, pulsing spurts, as if the body had only just realized it was dead.
The first burst of blood splattered onto the floor, painting it deep crimson.
The second spurt arced through the air, hitting a nearby table and spraying onto the already horrified crowd.
And with the third violent gush, the café erupted into absolute chaos.
"BLERGH!" The first person gagged.
Then another.
And another.
Within seconds, half the people in the café were hunched over, dry-heaving or outright vomiting onto the ruined floor. The smell of bile mixed with blood, creating a stench that only made things worse.
"GAAHH!" A girl from the crowd shrieked before immediately covering her mouth and running to a corner to empty her stomach.
Even some of the Aquafrost Elites who were used to combat couldn't hold it in.
A burly guy staggered back, hands clutching his throat, before falling to his knees and throwing up right next to the headless corpse. The sight of that only made more people gag.
The only person in the room making more noise than the vomiting crowd was the Net Café Manager.
He collapsed to his knees, hands grasping at his hair, his entire body shaking uncontrollably.
Then he let out a scream.
It was definitely not a normal scream. It was not even a terrified scream.
It was a soul-wrenching banshee wail of a man who had suddenly realized he missed out on winning the lottery.
"AHYIEEEEE!!" He clutched his chest, gasping like he'd just witnessed the end of the world.
"I AM NOT INSURED FOR MURDER!"
He grabbed a chair, violently shaking it as if it was responsible for this tragedy.
And then he fainted dramatically.
Across the room, Jennifer Aquafrost hadn't moved.
Unlike her men, she stood completely still. She had turned pale, her normally composed aura disrupted, but she didn't gag. She didn't vomit.
It was clear this wasn't the first time she had seen such a gruesome scene, a testament to the rigorous training she had undergone in the Aquafrost Clan.
And yet, something was off.
Her gaze wasn't on Damien Bloodbane. It wasn't on the blood, the body, or even the chaos around her.
Her eyes were locked on the decapitated head that had rolled to a stop, a faint furrow of confusion forming on her brow.
Damien Bloodbane caught the look instantly.
She didn't recognize the dead man!
Which meant that someone had impersonated an Aquafrost just to get close to Athena.
It was an assassination attempt!
Harry Shadowfang had caught that look as well and realized its implications. But being a well brought up scion of a powerful clan, he understood that the real gravity of the situation was not the fact that someone had made an assassination attempt.
As vile as it was, it was merely an attempt. And even if it was a crime punishable by the heaviest sentence, the offender was also already dead. Case closed.
No, the real problem now was the fact that Damien Bloodbane had committed murder in Beijing.
And Beijing was not a city that took kindly to murder.
Damien Bloodbane was in deep, deep trouble.
The city had one of the strictest zero-tolerance policies for violent crime in the world. The moment a life was taken, the authorities would act swiftly and mercilessly. It didn't matter if it was self-defense, an accident, or an outright execution. Once blood was spilled, the entire weight of the law would come crashing down like a mountain.
The moment the authorities got wind of what had happened, Damien Bloodbane would become a wanted man.
And judging by the deathly silence that had spread through the net café, it wouldn't be long before someone reported it.
Then the Sim Pod at the center of it all hissed open.
Athena bounced out happily, her blonde curls bouncing with her. She stretched her arms lazily and let out a contented sigh.
"Ahhh! That was a good nap!" she chirped, beaming. Then she turned to Damien Bloodbane, her bright blue eyes sparkling with joy. "Bro! You did it! The Aquafrost idiots all surrendered and the trophy is ours!" She cheered, throwing both arms up in celebration.
Nobody moved. Nobody said anything.
"Ew! What's with the smell? Pooey!" She scrunched her face and daintily covered her nose with her handkerchief. Her gaze then dropped to the decapitated corpse still bleeding out on the floor in front of her and the dagger in Damien Bloodbane's hand still dripping blood.
"Oh," she said simply. "That's a lot of blood."
And then she fainted.
KABLAM!!
The moment she did so, heavily armed men burst through the doors and windows, guns ablaze.
RA PAPAPAPAPAPAPAPA!!!
The deafening roar of automatic fire ripped through the café. Flesh tore apart like paper and blood sprayed the walls in thick, dark splatters.
Terrified screams filled the air, a chaotic, horrifying symphony of agony.
Zhang Lei barely had time to raise his hands before his chest exploded in a shower of red, his body crashing backward over a table.
Zhang Nan tried to run, only to have his leg blown out from under him, his shriek cut short as the next volley of gunfire turned his torso into a gory mess.
Another was crawling, desperately gasping for air, blood pooling from a gaping wound in their stomach, only for a final, brutal shot to silence him forever.
Damien Bloodbane reacted instantly, his instincts kicking in before his mind even caught up.
He lunged toward Athena, but before he could reach her—
"Time Lock." A soft voice whispered.
Click!
A pulse of energy detonated in front of him, sending a strange energy through the entire room.
His limbs locked.
His breath hitched.
He was completely frozen in a way that had nothing to do with ice or cold.