AN:- Please read the author's Note before reading this chapter, if you haven't.Uploded in the auxiliary vol.
With chapter 10 we have successfully ended our first arc " The Lonely Hunter."
Here we start the second vol " Forged in Black Fang."
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Black Fang City's inner gates towered like the maw of a creature born from ash and iron. Smoke curled from its battlements, wreathing towards the bruised purple sky of dusk. William clung hard to Jax, his breathing shallow, his ribs shrieking with each step.
The bandit attack had dispersed Borin's caravan as chaff in the storm—shrieks, steel, and the nauseating crackle of splintering bone. He had been abandoned for dead in the dust, but somehow he'd made it here with Jax's assistance.
Jax, steadfast as ever, supported his weight without flinch. Blood was dried on the corner of his lip, his knuckles bruised from battling bandits.
They fell in at the tail of a winding line at the Quter Master's office—a stonework archway guarded by armoured men and buzzing with the low whine of scanning equipment. There were hundreds waiting, their faces creased with weariness, hope or despair. The air was thick with sweat and a metallic tang—perhaps fear or the city itself.
A guard stood at the front, holding aloft a scanning tab. It glowed with light: violet for Tier 3+,blue for Tier 3, green for Tier 2, orange for Tier 1, red for Tier 0.
Individuals stepped forward one by one and extended their wrists. Those with embedded bracelets that glowed red and orange were pushed without mercy down an alleyway which was narrow and dark and labelled 'Lower Path'. No questions. No dignity.
When it was his turn, William grimaced as he lifted his arm. The scanner dimmed—then blazed a dull, ashamed red.
The guard—a massive bruiser with a scar running across his brow—sneered. "Tier Zero? Why did you come here boy? To die ?"
William's jaw clenched, but he spoke the words through gritted teeth. "Borin's caravan was attacked out west of the city. I was the one left behind. Came here to report—"
"Report?" The guard laughed harshly. "To whom? The rats in the slums? Save your breath, gutter-rat. We weren't concerned about a gutter rat like you. We have more important matters to attend ."
Before William could respond, Jax stepped forward, rolling up his sleeve. The scanner flared a steady, undeniable green.
The guard's sneer vanished. He straightened, eyes flicking with wary respect. "Tier Two. You're cleared for the Upper Quarters, sir."
Jax didn't move. "We're together." He pointed at William.
"Your servent sir?" the guard asked.
Jax met William's eyes—just for a second—and nodded. "No ,he is my friend."
A beat of silence .The line behind them stirred .Higher tier didn't accompany the lower tier; unless the lower tier is the servent .
No one ever heard anyone higher tier address a lower tier as his friend.
Never .
"You sure sir? The entry fee is double." the guard probed.
"Yeah," Jax said, firm. "I'm sure." And paid the entry fee.
Murmurs arose. Some had called Jax a fool. Others whispered that perhaps he owed the boy a blood debt. No one spoke it out. Tier Threes enforced silence, even in pity.
As they entered the city William looked back. A noblewoman in a silk-draped carriage rode through the main gate without even slowing.
Her scanner wasn't necessary—her bloodline did the talking. Past her, towering billboards began to light up:
*"THE HUNTER ASCENSION CONTEST – ENTRY FOR PRIMARY TIER 2+ ONLY."*
Black smoke script in gold.
Jax kept a hand on William's shoulder as they navigated the press of bodies. "Don't let the shine fool you," he muttered, voice low. "This city eats slow."
William gazed at the Hunter Ascension billboard, its vow shining like a blade in the darkness. "Then we learn to bite faster."
Jax didn't respond. But his hold tightened—briefly.
Within the walls, Black Fang City lay out like a fever vision.
Smoke from the forges and cooking fires intertwined with the stench of open sewers. Straw-haired street kids clung to the wheels of rumbling carriages, palms outstretched, as mailed enforcers kicked them off the way without missing a step. Above, balconies dripped with velvet and lamp light; below, beggars shivered in doorway pools slick with rain and filth.
They walked past brothels swathed in red silk, apotheacries of vials of distilled valor for sale on the black market, and black-market stalls peddling pilfered augments.
There were symbols on each shop front:
a red stripe for Tier 0 access, an orange circle for Tier 1, and so forth. William's red stigma could as well have been a brand.
At last, the roads narrowed into tortuous side streets where the houses clustered like conspirators. The air thickened with the smell of mildew and charred oil. Here, even the rats looked starved.
Jax took them to a slumping tenement jammed between a tannery and a bone mill. The door sign read
"The House of Hell "
—A cruel joke, or maybe just truth worn thin William surmised.
Inside, the common room was dark, lit by flickering candles and the occasional spasm of a broken neon strip. Men and women sat on splintered benches, sipping thin broth or cheap rotgut. No one glanced up as they came in.
The innkeeper, a thin woman with a glass eye and ink-stained fingers, hardly looked at their faces. "Twenty credit for the night. Shared room. No refunds if you get knifed."
Jax paid without arguing. She flung him a rusty key attached to a fragment of bone.
Up a shaky staircase, over the creaks of hidden tenants, they arrived at their room: one room with two beds, a cracked basin, and a window blocked up with tar. Rain pattered against the glass like anxious fingers.
William fell onto the closest bed, wincing as his ribs complained. He unbuttoned his tunic—bruises spread across his side like clouds in a storm. One rib could be cracked. Possibly two.
He saw Jax dig into a secret pouch stitched into his jacket and produce a plain vial.
"Drink it. " Jax instructed, handing it to him. "It'll mute the pain. Not cure you—just prevent you from screaming."
William downed it. The liquid seared cold, then numbness. The pain in his ribs faded to a far-off throb.
Jax handed him a rag dampened with foul-smelling salve. "Hold still."
As Jax worked, applying the cloth gently to the worst of the swelling, William finally spoke the question that had seethed since the gate. "Why'd you come with me? You could've walked into the Upper Quarters like a king."
Jax didn't glance up. "Kings get lonely."
"That's not an answer."
A silence. Then, softer: "I was Tier Zero once."
" In a world that idolized power, admitting weakness is suicide." Jax went on, tone flat. "No augments. No name. Just another red-glow kid in the gutters. A Hunter picked me up—saw something. Brought me into a legacy family.Gave me a shelter ."
He touched his forearm. "But I remember what it feels like to be shoved into the dark."
William asked "You think I've got something too? That's why you decided to follow me earlier. Despite you are stronger than me ."
"And older ,but your short frame makes you look younger; same age as mine." Last sentence he murmured under his breath.
Jax finally looked him in the eyes. " Borin told me you're special. You'll achieve great height one day."
He returned a half-smile. "Yeah. So I think you've got something." " Also i am not more than one or two years older than you."
Outside, the city thundered—engines, cries, the faraway ring of steel against steel.
Somewhere, a Hunter Ascension competition was about to start. Somewhere, a Tier Zero was being destroyed by a strong.
But here, in this room, William felt something move within him—not hope, not yet, but resolve. Hard. Sharp. Unyielding.
He wasn't just surviving anymore.
He was forging.
Jax threw him a dry biscuit from his pack. "Eat. Tomorrow, you will took the tier upgrade fight .Win or loss ,either way, you start climbing."
William accepted the biscuit. It was bitter with the taste of dust and iron.
Perfect.
He munched deliberately, gazing out the tar-sealed window. Beyond that, Black Fang City shone—a testament to power, erected on the skulls of the weak.
Yet even the shattered could create something indestructible.
And William was going to do just that.
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