Chapter 74
Elijah let the King's Aura fade.
The pressure lifted, and the prisoners gasped, sucking in air like drowning men breaking the surface. Some of them collapsed completely, their bodies limp, their faces pressed against the concrete. Others stayed on their knees, but their hands were shaking, and their eyes were still wide with terror.
The young woman with brown hair and gray eyes—the one Elijah had stopped in front of—was crying now. Silent tears streaming down her face, her bound hands trembling in her lap. She didn't look at the bodies beside her. She didn't look at the blood spreading across the floor. She just looked at Elijah, and her lips moved, but no sound came out.
"The south side gang," Elijah said, turning to Tristan. "You and Aurora are coming with me. We're going to pay a visit to the north side gang."
Tristan's purple eyes narrowed. "The ones who pulled back?"
"Yes. They surrounded the bar but didn't attack. I want to know why."
Aurora pushed off from the wall, her silver hair catching the light, her blue eyes sharp. "You think they had a change of heart?"
Elijah shook his head. "I think they got scared. Or someone told them to stop. Either way, I want to hear it from them."
He turned to Kai.
"You're taking the twenty prisoners. Take some of our people and three vans. Drive them to their gang's headquarters. They're going to show you where their leaders are, and then you're going to destroy the gang from the south side."
Kai's blue eyes were steady. "And if the prisoners try to run?"
"Kill them."
"And if they lead us into a trap?"
Elijah's voice was flat. "Then kill them. Every single one."
Kai nodded slowly. "What about you? You're going to the north side with just Tristan and Aurora. Their gang is as big as ours. If they decide to fight—"
"Then I'll fight."
Kai was quiet for a moment.
"The day after tomorrow," Kai said. "Your fight with Jack."
Elijah nodded.
"You're going to be fighting the strongest fighter in the lower underground. A man who has never lost. A man who has been training for years while you've been training for weeks." Kai's voice was low, serious. "Are you going to be ready?"
Elijah met his eyes. "I have to be."
Kai stared at him for a moment longer. Then he nodded and turned to the prisoners.
"Untie them," he said to the gang members standing guard. "Put them in the vans. If any of them try to run, shoot them."
The gang members moved quickly, cutting the bonds on the prisoners' wrists, pulling them to their feet. The prisoners stumbled, their legs weak, their bodies shaking. Some of them looked at Elijah as they were led away. Others kept their eyes on the floor.
Kai was already on his phone, calling for the vans. Three of them, bought cheap from a dealer in the 8th District who didn't ask questions. Three to Four thousand dollars each. They were old and dented and smelled like cigarettes, but they ran. That was all that mattered.
"The vans will be here in ten minutes," Kai said, pocketing his phone. "I'll take twenty of our people. The rest will stay here to guard the warehouse and the bar."
Elijah nodded. "Keep me updated."
Kai put his hand on Elijah's shoulder. His grip was firm, warm. "Let's show them not to mess with us."
Elijah smiled. "Yeah"
Kai walked toward the door, already calling out orders to the gang members who were gathering around him.
Tristan and Aurora returned a few minutes later.
The car was black, the same one Elijah had stolen what felt like a lifetime ago. The paint was still clean, the windows still tinted, the engine still smooth. Tristan was behind the wheel, his purple eyes focused on the road ahead. Aurora was in the passenger seat, her silver hair pulled back, her blue eyes scanning the street.
Elijah opened the back door and climbed inside.
The leather seats were cold against his back. The smell of the car—leather and metal and something faintly sweet—filled his lungs. He leaned his head against the window and watched the warehouse disappear behind them.
"The north side gang," Tristan said, pulling onto the main road. "What's the plan?"
Elijah watched the streetlights pass overhead, their orange glow flickering across the dashboard. "We find their leader. We ask him why his people surrounded the bar and didn't attack. And then we remind him that the Azura gang isn't going anywhere."
Aurora turned in her seat, her blue eyes meeting Elijah's in the rearview mirror. "And if he doesn't want to talk?"
Elijah's red eyes were cold. "Then we make him talk."
The car moved through the dark streets of the 9th District,.
Elijah thought about Kai's question.
Are you going to be ready?
Two days. That was all the time he had left before he stood across from Jack Reyes in the ring. A man who had never lost. A man whose physical stats were at their limit, whose Ki enhancement gave him 100%, whose effective stats were higher than anyone Elijah had faced.
Elijah's stats were still climbing. His physical limit was 50. He wasn't there yet. But he had two days. Two days to train, to push his body further, to close the gap.
I have to be ready, he thought. Because if I'm not, I won't walk out of that fight.
The car turned onto a wider street, the buildings taller here, the lights brighter. The north side of the 9th District was different from the south. Less abandoned. More alive. People still lived here, still worked here, still tried to build something in the middle of all the chaos.
Elijah could feel the Ki of the people in the car without looking. Tristan's purple aura was steady, controlled, at the peak of what his body could achieve. Aurora's silver Ki was denser than it had been a week ago—she had reached Beginner Knight Stage Peak sometime in the last few days. Kai's dark purple aura was even denser, his breakthrough to Peak coming with a weight that pressed against Elijah's senses even from a distance.
Henry was close. His green aura was bright, still growing, still pushing toward a ceiling he hadn't found yet. He would reach Peak soon. Maybe in a few days. Maybe in a week.
The car drove on.