Todos los capítulos de The monster's fated prey: Capítulo 71 - Capítulo 79

One moment the eastern wall was still taking climbers. The next, the remaining Ashenveil forces were pulling back across the open ground, dragging what wounded they could and leaving the rest. They stopped well out of arrow range and began to regroup in rough lines under the cover of their own shields. No horns. No fresh charge. Just the hard, practical decision of a force that had hit the wall with everything it had left and could not break it. The silence that followed felt wrong. Too wide. Too sudden. Lior was still standing in the center of the cleared stretch where the fighting had been worst. Blood covered his hands and forearms. Some of it had dried into dark cracks across his knuckles. His blade hung loose at his side. He was breathing, but the rhythm of it did not match the exhausted pant of the other fighters along the wall. It was slower. Deeper. As if the lungs belonged to someone who had not yet decided the fight was over. Around him the pack took stock in grim si

By mid morning the fortress knew the full shape of what the two day battle had cost. Names were written on scraps of hide and nailed to the main hall door. The list was longer than anyone wanted to read twice. Men who had held the eastern wall, the north stair, and the southern posts were missing from the living ranks. Others lay in the lower rooms under Mara’s care, some expected to rise again, some not. Aziel stood in the center of the main hall with the list in his hand and the captains already gathering. He had not slept more than a short stretch after the first light. The cut above his eyebrow had been cleaned. The rest of the exhaustion he simply carried. “We deal with the split now,” he said. His voice carried without effort. “Before the next attack comes. Before anyone else decides hesitation is a form of loyalty. Full captains’ meeting. Everyone who still holds rank is in this room.” The word spread fast. Within a short time the hall held every remaining captain and s

A short, sharp probe hit the southern wall hard and fast. Not a full assault. A test of numbers and response time under cover of dark. Ashenveil fighters came in a tight group with covered shields and fresh ladders, aiming for the section Tova had been holding with too few blades since the main battle. The call went along the wall in low, urgent voices. Aziel was already moving when the first runner reached the center post. Lior started to follow by instinct and then stopped himself. The agreement from the side room still held. He stayed off the front line. Aziel caught the pause and gave a single hard nod. “Center post. You hold here. I take the south with what we can spare.” Lior’s hands closed once at his sides and opened again. “Go. I will not move unless the center itself is hit.” Aziel left at a run with a small group of ready fighters. The solid weight of his presence stretched with the distance but did not disappear. Lior felt it the way he felt the cold stone under

Dawn came grey and hard. Bren stood by the main gate with eleven men behind him. Their packs were light. Their own blades. They didn't carry any rank badges. They had shown up early, just like they said they would, and a good part of the fortress had come out to watch them go. Aziel faced them in the open ground inside the gate. Lior stood at his right, close enough that everyone could see the shared rule in the way they stood. Equal on paper. Equal in the structure. Still, most of the fighters looked at Aziel first. Old habit. Deep habit. Lior’s place did not erase years of who they had followed before. Tova and Sera watched from the side. Ysolde stayed further back. The rest of the pack filled in however they could, tired faces, tight mouths. The bitterness was already there before anyone moved the bars. Bren spoke first. “We’re going, All eleven of us. we want clean exit with no trouble on the way out. And we would not be coming back on the old terms.” Aziel looked over

The rain had eased by late afternoon, but the courtyard still held the water in wide brown pools. Ysolde found Aziel and Lior near the eastern stair as the light began to thin. She did not waste time on soft news. “The remaining silent faction is quieter since Bren left,” she said. “Not gone. Just quieter. The loud ones walked out with him. The ones still here have learned to keep their mouths tighter. That does not mean the feeling left with the eleven.” Aziel’s face stayed hard. “How tight?” “Tight enough that I had to work for the details,” Ysolde said. “Then this morning a younger fighter in the lower stores got careless. He was repeating Oren’s old words almost word for word. Shared rule as a break in the chain. Following you but not the man beside you. Two others were listening. They shut up when they saw me, but the damage was already in the air.” Lior felt the report settle in his chest. The formal place at Aziel’s side did not stop the old words from finding new m