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The Fifth Strike
Last Updated:
2025-08-18 22:38:39
Latest chapter
The Last Moonbane The Pieces in the Library
Seraphina’s POVThe sunlight was warm, almost mocking. After the hours of pounding claws and shrieking things outside the inn’s door, the town felt almost… ordinary.Birds chirped from the crooked gutters, and a thin breeze rustled through the banners strung between the houses. A farmer passed us on the street, tipping his straw hat in greeting. His donkey cart rattled over the cobblestones as though nothing in the world had ever been wrong.But the four of us knew better.The inn door behind us hung crooked now, its frame splintered where the creatures had battered against it through the night. The pale shimmer that had held them back was weaker, thinner. I didn’t need to touch the wood to know: one more night like last, and the barrier would break.We didn’t say it aloud. We didn’t need to.Instead, Thalia tightened her cloak around her shoulders and led the way down the street. “The library,” she said. Her voice was brisk, determined. “We waste no time today.”Nyra nodded, eyes nar
The Last Moonbane The Cracks in Sanctuary
Seraphina’s POVThe first light of morning crept through the shutter slats, gray and reluctant, but to us it was salvation. The sounds had ceased hours ago—the scraping claws, the pounding fists, the guttural screeches outside our door. For the first time, all four of us were still breathing when dawn returned.Relief swelled in my chest, sharp and fleeting, because it came with another realization: survival wasn’t victory. Not here. Not in this cursed town.Thalia stretched stiffly, leaning against the wall with her sword across her lap. Her face was pale, hair plastered to her temples with sweat, but she managed a grim smile. “We made it.”Elias gave a low laugh, more exhale than amusement. “Barely. But yeah. One night.”I wanted to echo them, to let relief have its place, but my eyes drifted toward the door. The iron-banded wood sagged on its hinges, deep cracks running along the grain where claws had raked again and again. In the center, a splintered hole had appeared, no bigger t
The Last Moonbane The Fifth Strike
Seraphina’s POVI woke to the sound of bells.Eleven sharp tolls, each reverberating in the hollow space of the inn’s common room.My chest rose, then fell. I didn’t need to ask what time it was. The rules of this place had already carved themselves into my bones: morning always began here, at eleven.I sat up slowly, the blanket sliding from my shoulders. Around me, the others were already awake. Thalia stood with her arms crossed near the hearth, Elias was pacing a groove into the floorboards, and Nyra crouched by the table, her dark braid falling over one shoulder.The room itself… was wrong.Loose sheets of paper littered the table, curling at the edges as if they had been torn in haste. Rust-colored stains streaked across several pages, the kind of stains no one needed to name aloud. The smell lingered, faint but metallic. My gaze dragged itself to the wall beside the hearth.Words had been gouged into the wood with something sharp. Most of them had been hacked out again, leaving
The Last Moonbane Fractures in the Loop
Seraphina’s POVWe spent most of the morning arguing over the safest way to test our theory.The four of us sat around the inn room’s small oak table, sunlight spilling across maps and scraps of notes Nyra had been obsessively keeping. The smell of the baker’s bread still drifted faintly from outside, that same too-sweet mix of wheat and honey we’d smelled on every loop since arriving in this cursed place.“This room’s not unbreakable,” I said, my fingers tracing the edge of the table. “The hits we heard last night… they were stronger than the first night. I could feel it in the wood under my feet.”Elias leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms. “Which means it’s not a permanent shelter. But we don’t know how fast it degrades.”“That’s exactly what we need to find out,” Nyra said, flipping through her notes. “If the room’s barrier works like the rest of the cycle, maybe it needs the reset at dawn to stay intact.”Thalia blew a strand of hair out of her face. “So what, we all just
The Last Moonbane Cracks in the Walls
Seraphina’s POVThe morning light didn’t feel like a victory.We had survived the first night, yes. But the memory of that pounding—relentless, deliberate—lingered in the bones of the room like a smell you couldn’t wash away.Elias stretched his arms, moving with the slow stiffness of someone still expecting an attack. Nyra was crouched beside the desk, checking the circle she’d carved into the back. It was still there.“So it keeps marks,” she said, more to herself than to us.“That’s… something,” Thalia replied. Her voice was even, but she hadn’t let go of the dagger she’d slept with under her pillow.I didn’t mention the splintering I’d seen on the door yesterday. Not yet. I told myself I was just waiting for the right time.We left the inn.The town greeted us with the same smiles, the same voices calling out “Morning, travelers!” as though last night had never happened. But now, every word felt like an echo.Our goal today was simple: find somewhere that held real information. No
The Last Moonbane The Door That Wouldn’t Yield
Seraphina’s POVThe first strike hit the door so hard that the frame shuddered.My breath caught in my throat, the sound vibrating straight down my spine.Another came, claws dragging, wood splintering.They were here.The townsfolk—no, things—we had seen smiling that morning were back, their bones twisted, their skin stretched thin, their voices reduced to low, guttural snarls.“Hold the door!” Thalia’s voice cracked like a whip. She was already braced against the wood, muscles taut.I moved without thinking, slamming my shoulder into the panel beside hers. Elias came next. Nyra stood back, her hands weaving an iridescent shield in the air—layer upon layer of magic pressed against the door like invisible stone.The thing outside slammed again.And again.The sound wasn’t quite right. Too flat, like a drum beaten with rotting meat.And then—something unexpected.It stopped.The snarls didn’t fade; they were still there, ragged and too close. But the blows ceased. The air on the other
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