Way To The East, Dragon Heart Series Book 17

3

Hadjar couldn’t even use the last pill that Helmer had given him. His body wasn’t responding to his commands. His energy was completely out of control. All he could do was stand there and watch Essenin use her lethal Technique to-

“Not bad, girl,” someone whispered.

The crystal blades clattered to the floor. Essenin, clutching her throat, collapsed to her knees. She was scratching at her skin with her nails, instinctively trying to pull out whatever was preventing her from breathing. Then, with an unpleasant, bone-crunching sound, her body jerked, arched, and collapsed facedown. Lodged right under the back of the woman’s head was a dagger familiar to Hadjar.

Abraham appeared out of the void. He kicked the sabers away from Essenin’s hands with the toe of his foot, bent down, and pulled out his dagger.

“Great job with the distraction,” he winked at Hadjar and, coming closer, put a pill in his mouth. “She didn’t even notice me. Well done, my friend.”

After swallowing the pill, Hadjar felt himself regaining control of his energy and body. After a few seconds, he was able to get back up and put the Blue Blade back into its sheath. Part of him regretted that it wasn’t he who had ended Essenin’s life with his own sword, since then the Blue Blade would’ve definitely evolved. The other part of him… He looked at what was left of a sixth of the city. Nothing.

At the moment of impact, he’d been able to control only a quarter of the ‘Star Flash’ Technique’s power. But Abraham had come out from behind Essenin as if he had only been there for a moment. However, Hadjar knew the craft of assassins all too well. When he had been the General of the Moon army, he’d had to face assassins sent by aristocrats almost every night. He had seen people get stabbed in the back of the head before. It was a quick and inevitable death, but it took time to set up such a kill. The battle between Hadjar and Essenin had lasted no longer than four seconds, during which they had managed to destroy part of the city and hundreds of cultivators. Abraham couldn’t possibly have had time to get into position to strike so cleanly immediately after the ‘Star Flash’ Technique had been used. This meant that he had been lurking behind the Head of the Underground Whisper clan all this time. So, the attack that had almost destroyed the peak-stage Heaven Emperor hadn’t harmed the debonair smuggler in any way.

“Don’t look at me like that,” Abraham patted Hadjar on the shoulder. “Let’s just assume that all three of us killed her. Together.”

“Order your men to retreat!”

Abraham looked up and swore, “f**k! I forgot about her son!”

Chapter 1473

T

he troops of the Star Rain clan were flocking into the city through the gates opened by the dwarf. They gradually surrounded the square, driving the Underground Whisper clan’s warriors toward it. The deserted square gradually became crowded again. The remains of the scaffold’s podium served as a kind of pedestal on which Abraham and Hadjar were currently standing.

The latter turned around. Before he’d started fighting Essenin, he’d thrown the Head of the Star Rain clan to the ground with an effort of will, hoping not to kill him in the process. However, he didn’t recall seeing Itia reach the prisoner. And yet, his head was now resting on her lap. At the far end of the square, she was trying to contain the disintegration of Galenon’s flesh and energy body. After removing his collar and shackles, which returned his ability to use energy, she’d smeared his wounds with ointments and given him various pills. They weren’t as powerful as the ones Helmer had given Hadjar, but still strong enough to bring Galenon back to his senses.

“You didn’t waste any time, did you?” Hadjar asked.

In those few seconds he’d spent fighting against Essenin, Abraham had managed to get behind the Heaven Empress after pulling the wounded Head of the Star Rain clan out of danger.

“Well, some of us have to use more than just our blades,” the old rogue spread his arms out helplessly. Then he gestured upwards, “Look over there.”

On the roof of one of the surviving buildings stood a young man who looked exactly like his mother. Even his clothes somehow resembled hers. He had smooth facial features and blond hair gathered in a ponytail. His hand, which was holding a dagger to the artery on Lathea’s throat, was trembling slightly. Near them, on the tiles, lay a bloody corpse. Alestan, when he’d betrayed his clan, had to have known that even those who used traitors didn’t like them: if a person could betray someone once, they could do it again. Alestan’s motives were as clear as day — unrequited love. It was so corny.

“Hey, kid,” Abraham lit his pipe and waved it toward the roof. “What’s your name? Satin, right? Satin, let our dear Lathea go, okay? And in return, we won’t harm you. You can travel all over the world. Gather allies. Plot your revenge. Maybe visit some w****s. By the way, I would pick that last option myself!”

“This isn’t the best negotiation tactic,” Hadjar sighed.

“Really?” Abraham was genuinely surprised. “It seems to me like-”

“Shut up!” Satin shouted.

The power of an initial-stage Heaven Emperor flooded the square. But it was incomplete. Apparently, Satin had been cultivating when the battle had broken out. It was quite reasonable that Essenin had provided most of their newfound resources to her heir. However, Satin hadn’t completely gone through the transformation, and if he didn’t return to his meditation in the near future, he would remain a peak-stage Nameless for the rest of his life. For most, such a level of power was what they wished for in their wildest dreams, but not for one of the heirs of the Forty Families.

“You invaded my home!” Satin shouted. “You killed my mother, and before that, you betrayed my father, and now-”

Hadjar took a step forward. Wind hit the square, causing Satin’s energy to disappear into the streams of the mysteries of the Sword and the Name of the Wind.

“Calm down,” Hadjar said softly, but his words sounded heavier than a dwarf’s hammer coming down on an anvil. “The battle has already ended.”

“No!” Satin persisted. A tear rolled down his cheek. “The strongest warriors of my clan are still-”

“These warriors?”

Guy stepped out of the crowd and threw something to the ground. When the peculiar ‘balls’ finished rolling around the square and finally crashed into the scaffold, it became clear that they were heads. The severed heads of three of the six numbered warriors of the Underground Whisper clan. How had Guy managed to kill three Heaven Emperors of the Strange Lands? Hadjar wondered what they needed from him when they already had such immense power.

“Listen to me, Satin,” Hadjar sheathed his Blue Blade. “I know how you feel. I was once where you are now. I’ve seen at least four people who were in your exact position before.”