Chapter 37: Attack in the Sky

"That’s enough," Asher said softly, closing his eyes once more.

General Ashford offered a faint, approving smile before returning his gaze to the burning city below.

One was here to rescue his children; the other was here to retrieve his younger brother.

The pilot’s voice crackled through the cabin intercom. "General! We have visual on Crowns Academy."

The soldiers leaned toward the open door. In the distance, the towering perimeter walls of the academy came into view through the haze.

Thick pillars of black smoke continuously curled into the crimson sky, but the main structures were still standing.

"Looks like the perimeter held," the adjutant muttered, letting out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding.

Before anyone could celebrate—

"Contact!" the co-pilot screamed over the comms. "High speed from twelve o’clock high!"

A ear-splitting shriek tore through the clouds.

General Ashford’s posture straightened instantly. Beside him, Asher opened his eyes, his hand resting lightly on the hilt of his black sword.

"Bank left! Bank left!" the pilot yelled, pulling hard on the collective.

Whoosh!

The heavy military transport banked sharply at a forty-five-degree angle.

A massive dark shadow sheared past the open bay door, its wingtip missing the spinning main rotor blades by less than a meter. The wind pressure alone violently rocked the aircraft.

For a fraction of a second, every soldier in the cabin saw the creature clearly.

It had once been an eagle, but mutation had twisted it into an apex predator. Its wingspan stretched six meters across, every feather rigid and black as obsidian.

Thick crimson veins pulsed beneath its skin, and its hooked beak was dripped with dark, coagulated blood.

"What in God’s name..." a soldier whispered.

"More incoming!" the co-pilot roared.

The blood-red clouds above exploded.

One. Three. Ten. Twenty—

A flock of mutated raptors poured from the upper atmosphere, their piercing shrieks overlapping into a wave of sonic pressure that rattled the helicopter’s glass panels.

"Open fire! Clear the airspace!"

Ratatatatatat!

Heavy mounted machine guns and assault rifles erupted from the open doors. Tracers cut glowing lines through the twilight sky.

Several mutated raptors were caught in the crossfire, their bodies torn apart by heavy-caliber rounds as they tumbled toward the ruined city below.

A brief shout of triumph rose from the crew, but it was cut short instantly.

"They aren’t stopping!"

The fallen birds were merely the front line. The rest of the flock dove without a shred of hesitation, using the momentum of gravity to accelerate.

One massive raptor smashed straight through the cockpit windshield of the second transport helicopter in the formation.

CRAAASH!

Reinforced glass shattered inward in a shower of deadly shards. Before the pilot could draw his sidearm, razor-sharp talons sheared through his chest, pinning him to his seat.

"Mayday! Mayday! Pilot is down! We’ve lost control—"

The second helicopter tilted wildly, black smoke pouring from its left engine intake as it plunged into an inverted spin.

"Pull up! Pull up!"

BOOOOM!!

The transport slammed sideways into a thirty-story commercial high-rise, detonating in a blinding fireball that illuminated the red clouds. The shockwave rattled the teeth of everyone in the lead helicopter.

An entire squad of elite soldiers... gone in under thirty seconds.

General Ashford stood near the open door, watching the burning wreckage fall through the sky. His face remained calm, but the thick veins along his jawline bulged against his skin.

Asher slowly stood up. He reached down, picking up the narrow black sword resting across his knees.

Clang.

He drew the blade three inches from its sheath. A dense, brilliant golden Qi quietly coated the dark steel, humming with a low, vibrating resonance.

The soldiers around him instinctively pulled back, feeling the sudden, suffocating pressure radiating from the young man.

Asher stepped toward the open bay door.

"Young Master Asher!" the adjutant shouted over the roar of the wind. "You can’t jump! We’re three hundred meters up!"

Asher didn’t turn his head. "If those beasts reach our main rotors, we all die anyway."

His dark eyes locked onto the incoming flock. His pulse was steady, his expression devoid of panic or doubt.

General Ashford gave a single, firm nod. "Open the side hatch completely."

"General?!"

"Open it."

The heavy steel door slid back with a loud metallic clatter. The gale-force wind rushed into the cabin, whipping Asher’s black coat wildly around his shoulders.

The heir of the Blackwood family rested his sheathed weapon against his collarbone. Then, his lips curved into a faint, cold smile.

"I’ve been looking for an excuse to test this blade."

BOOM!

Golden Qi exploded beneath his boots. Before the soldiers could blink, Asher vanished from the cabin floor.

"He... he jumped!"

Outside in the open air, Asher didn’t fall.

The moment his boots left the threshold, dense golden Qi condensed beneath his soles, forming solid, temporary platforms in mid-air. He stepped on the invisible air-anchors as if walking down a flight of stone stairs.

His hand blurred. The narrow black sword cleared its sheath completely.

SWOOSH!

A brilliant, three-hundred-meter arc of golden sword-light cut across the crimson sky, splitting the atmosphere with a sharp, glass-like whistle.

The lead flock of mutated raptors... was severed cleanly in two.

Severed torsos and wings rained down into the streets below, dark blood spraying across the clouds.

Inside the cabin, the soldiers stared with their mouths hanging open.

"So this... is the power of the Blackwood heir..."

Before anyone could catch their breath—

SCREEEEEECH!

A far heavier, resonant roar shook the heavens, causing the helicopter’s frame to groan under the sudden pressure wave.

General Ashford’s eyes narrowed. "The real threat is here."

The crimson clouds above churned violently as three colossal shadows descended through the mist.

These beasts were three times the size of the raptors Asher had just killed. Their feathers shimmered like dark, polished steel plates, and two curved, blood-red horns protruded from their skulls.

Every flap of their massive wings created mini-cyclones in the air.

The pilot’s hands trembled on the flight stick. "General... those things are massive."

"Maintain formation," General Ashford ordered, his voice flat and unyielding. "Steady the craft."

Far ahead in mid-air, Asher hovered on a platform of golden Qi, his dark eyes fixing on the three giant beasts. His calm expression turned serious for the first time.

They’ve already evolved more powerful...

Without warning, the lead monster folded its wings and dived.

BOOM!

It broke the sound barrier, shooting toward Asher like a black missile.

Asher’s pupils contracted. His wrist flicked, unleashing a concentrated crescent of golden sword Qi directly into the beast’s path.

The creature twisted its body mid-air with abnormal agility, but the golden arc still sheared through its left wing-joint, spraying black blood across the sky.

Instead of falling, the beast let out a furious screech. Before Asher’s eyes, the severed wing muscle squirmed, dark veins knitting the wound back together in seconds.

Regeneration...

A cold sweat broke out on the adjutant’s neck inside the helicopter. "How are we supposed to kill something that heals instantly?!"

General Ashford stepped forward, placing his hand on the frame of the open door.

"Enough."

A dense, blinding white aura began to mist outward from his boots, climbing his legs and wrapping around his broad shoulders like a shroud of heavy silk. The air pressure inside the cabin spiked, forcing the soldiers to their knees.

The General looked at the largest of the three beasts as it turned its gaze toward the lead transport, its talons extending for a fatal strike.

Fifty meters. Thirty meters. Ten meters—

"You’ve made enough noise," General Ashford said softly.

BOOOOOOM!

The helicopter violently recoiled as a sonic boom exploded behind General Ashford.

He vanished from the door, reappearing directly in the airborne path of the giant beast.

His right fist drew back, the white Qi condensing around his knuckles until it glowed like a miniature sun.

Then... he punched.​