I chose a moonless night to act.
The high walls of Star Fire Safe Zone crouched in the darkness like a giant beast. Searchlights swept rhythmically over the ruins outside the walls. I lay in the shadows like a lifeless rock.
The patrol had just passed.
I calculated the timing. The moment the searchlight beam moved away, I moved.
No running start. My leg muscles exploded with power, and my body shot toward the wall like an arrow leaving a bow. The moment I neared the wall, I swung one hand out, fingers hooked like claws.
The black energy curling around my fingertips sliced through concrete with almost no resistance.
I pulled myself up, rising higher. A few climbs and descents, and I had silently scaled the eight-meter wall, landing lightly in the shadows of the inner wall.
The whole
