The air was no longer still.
Every Hunter could feel it—
a tension like a wire stretched to breaking,
vibrating through the ruined street.
Kai stood at the center of it,
between her squad
and the two figures she had chosen to protect.
Her shadow stretched long under the dim streetlights.
Her hand hovered near the hilt of her blade.
Qin Mian tightened her hold on Yin Lie,
feeling every faint tremor in his body.
He was still unconscious,
but something under his skin
shifted in slow, unstable pulses
as if reacting to the fear around them.
And fear there was.
Layers of it.
In the Hunters' eyes.
In the air.
In the ground.
In the wind
that seemed to wait for the inevitable.
The Hunter lieutenant spoke first.
"Captain Kai.
This is your last chance to stand down."
"No," Kai said.
The lieutenant inhaled sharply.
"So be it."
He lifted his rifle.
And for the briefest moment—
Qin Mian felt time hesitate.
Her heartbeat.
The streetlights.
The dust midair.
Everything held its breath.
Then—
BANG.
The first shot shattered the night.
Shock
Qin Mian ducked by instinct,
curling over Yin Lie,
protecting his face,
his chest,
his heart.
But the bullet never reached them.
Kai had moved.
No—
she had vanished.
A gust of displaced air slammed into Qin Mian
as Kai's figure blurred past her vision,
closing the distance between her and the shooter
in less than a second.
Steel rang.
Sparks erupted.
Kai's blade met the rifle barrel
halfway through its second shot.
The force ripped the weapon sideways.
The bullet tore into the wall behind them,
carving a molten groove through concrete.
Kai did not shout.
She did not curse.
She only exhaled:
"You fools."
She twisted her wrist.
CLANG—!!
The rifle snapped clean in half.
Before the Hunter could react,
Kai slammed the pommel of her blade into his throat—
not enough to kill,
but enough to drop him gasping to his knees.
Another Hunter swung his rifle toward her.
Kai stepped aside,
a dancer of death,
and kicked the weapon upward—
the shot firing blindly into the air.
Two Hunters lunged from the left.
Kai met them with no hesitation—
elbow in one throat,
heel into the other's knee,
both collapsing at awkward angles.
It wasn't a fight.
It was a correction.
A punishment.
A choice.
Qin Mian stared, breathless.
This woman was terrifying.
This woman was beautiful in motion.
This woman—
Chose them over everything she's built.
The street shook again.
A Dangerous Ripple
Qin Mian felt it first—
a sudden pull
from beneath her hands.
"Lie…?"
Yin Lie's fingers twitched.
His breath hitched.
His aura sharpened
in a single, dangerous pulse.
Oh no.
Not now.
Not during this.
Qin Mian pressed her forehead to his.
"Lie—stay asleep—
don't react—don't react—"
But his body disagreed.
Another pulse spilled out of him,
a wave of icy-hot resonance
that washed across the street.
Kai flinched mid-strike.
The Hunters staggered,
several dropping to one knee,
unable to breathe for a second.
The lieutenant gasped:
"What—
What the hell—
He's destabilizing again! Arrest—"
"SHUT UP!!" Kai snarled.
Her voice cracked like a whip.
"Do you want to trigger a district collapse?!
Keep shooting and he'll tear the ground open!"
But the lieutenant, shaken and sweating,
raised the half-broken rifle like a club.
"He's a threat!
We HAVE to neutralize him—!"
He rushed forward.
Qin Mian screamed:
"DON'T TOUCH HIM!!"
Kai Breaks
The lieutenant lunged.
Kai reacted before conscious thought.
Her blade flashed once.
A line of red opened across the Hunter's forearm—
blood spraying into the air.
He dropped the weapon,
howling in shock and fury.
Every other Hunter froze.
Captain Kai
had drawn blood
from her own unit.
Her voice was ice.
"No one touches that boy."
The world held still—
terrified still.
The lieutenant's eyes filled with disbelief.
"You…
You struck a Hunter…
for him?"
Kai didn't blink.
"For both of them."
The Squad Shatters
Three Hunters lowered their weapons immediately.
They couldn't fight her.
They wouldn't.
But the hardliners—the ones who believed the Director blindly—
stepped forward in rage.
"You're compromised, Captain!"
"You're a traitor to the Directorate!"
"We'll restrain you by force—!"
Kai lifted her blade.
"Try."
And they did.
The street erupted in motion.
Shots fired.
Blades clashed.
Boots pounded against the broken asphalt.
Kai moved like a storm.
Cutting through gunfire.
Redirecting blows.
Disarming, not killing.
Every movement calculated.
Precise.
Lethal—if she wished it.
But even with all her skill,
she couldn't keep the entire squad at bay forever.
And the moment two Hunters slipped past her—
they ran straight at Qin Mian.
Qin Mian's Barrier
Qin Mian screamed:
"DON'T—!"
Her Anchor reflex surged.
A translucent shockwave burst out from her chest—
a sphere of blue-white pressure.
BOOM—!!
It slammed into both Hunters mid-sprint.
They flew backward,
dropping their weapons,
colliding with a streetlight
that snapped clean in half.
Qin Mian's breath trembled.
She hadn't meant to hurt them.
But she would again
if anyone approached.
She positioned herself over Yin Lie,
one hand on his hair,
one on his back.
Her voice shook with instinctive fury:
"Don't touch him.
Don't touch him.
Don't come near him."
Her power rippled outward,
the ground vibrating under her knees.
Kai glanced over her shoulder.
"Mian—hold that field steady—!
If you lose control—"
"I won't."
Her eyes burned.
"Not while he needs me."
The Final Trigger
But the street—
the world—
had one more shock waiting.
A disabled Hunter, trembling on the ground,
reached not for his rifle
but for his comms unit.
He pressed a single button.
A high-pitched alert tone shrieked.
"Director—
Captain Kai has defected!
The Anchor is active!
The anomaly is destabilizing—!!
Send reinforcements—!"
Kai's eyes widened.
"NO—!!"
But the message was sent.
It echoed citywide.
And Yin Lie—
unconscious, unstable,
held tightly in Qin Mian's arms—
reacted to the distress,
to the threat,
to the fear in her voice.
His aura snapped.
Like a chain tearing loose.
The ground beneath them cracked in a violent spiral.
Kai stumbled.
The Hunters screamed.
Qin Mian grabbed him desperately.
"Lie—NO—!!
Please—don't—!!!"
A low, rumbling roar of energy
burst from Yin Lie's chest—
not loud,
not explosive—
but deep enough
that the world felt it.
The first shot had started a fight.
This pulse
would start a war.
Chapter 113 End