All Chapters of The Last Howl: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

The cold draft winding through the high, vaulted stacks of the restricted archives carried the heavy scent of old parchment, damp stone, and dried blood.We were deep within the Main Keep, the massive, central stone fortress that towered at the heart of the academy, housing the institution’s core libraries, alchemy laboratories, and high-level command rooms. Behind our makeshift barricade of heavy oak study desks, Julian, the Honor Guard captain, lowered his crossbow completely. His hardened eyes scanned our ragged group, our blood-stained tunics, the dented armor, and the grim determination etched onto every single face."I still can't wrap my head around it," Julian admitted, rubbing his bloodshot eyes with a dirt-caked hand. "When the arena security grid slammed shut, and the alarm towers went silent, we assumed everyone in the combat grounds was torn to shreds. How in the Moon's name did you make it all the way from the subterranean reservoir up to the third-floor archives without

The air inside the central control room was warm and thick with the hum of active mana circuitry. Copper wires glowed with soft blue light along the stone walls, feeding power into the massive master console at the center of the circular room.Surrounding the main console was a glowing bank of visual monitors, crystal display screens projecting live, flickering CCTV feeds from every corner of the academy.One large monitor in the center was playing a frozen, repeating recording clip on a loop. My eyes locked onto the screen, and my stomach plummeted.It showed the outer border wall. A heavy military transport truck had smashed straight through the reinforced iron gates, crumbling the stone barriers into rubble. From the driver’s seat tumbled a human driver, not a turned beast, but a frantic, he lay dead for a while as the guard checked his pulse but as soon as the guard turned around the bloody man suddenly lunged on the guard's back and sank his teeth straight into the neck of the pa

The rhythmic thrum of the central terminal engine vibrated through the soles of my boots, but inside my chest, my heart felt hollow.Sitting on the edge of the stone console, my body finally began to register the cost of the last few hours. My muscles burned with an unbearable ache. My throat was dry, tasting of rust and copper dust, and my hands wouldn't stop shaking.No matter how many times I told myself to stay strong, raw fear kept clawing at my throat.We almost died.In the water pipes, on the narrow catwalks, against Vice-Chancellor Vane, we had come inches away from having our throats ripped open. I looked down at my hands, watching the tiny tremors in my fingers. I wasn't some invincible warrior. I was just a student who wanted to survive the night, and the terrifying truth was that one wrong step on our way back down would mean becoming another blood-stained corpse on the library floor."You're thinking too much," a low, deep voice rasped beside me.I flinched slightly, loo

The absolute darkness of the elevator shaft swallowed us as the freight lift plunged downward, leaving the deafening roars of the main hall echoing far above.When the safety brakes finally locked into place with a violent, spine-shattering THUD, the cage lurched to a halt in the dead space between the main floor and the subterranean level. The thick, mechanical silence that followed was broken only by the heavy, ragged sound of our breathing and the wet dripping of blood from our blades."Is... is everyone alive?" Vanya choked out, her voice trembling violently as she dropped her brass wrench to the iron floor.Alexander was on his knees beside me before the dust had even settled. His broad hands hesitated to touch me, his silver eyes wild with frantic concern as he searched my eyes, ignoring the thick black gore smeared across his own jaw."Bellona," he rasped, his voice rough and laced with an intense, raw panic that shook me to my core. "The rib. Speak to me. Did it break skin?"I

The metallic screech echoing down the subterranean corridor wasn't just the sound of iron grates buckling; it was the sound of our execution.Inside the claustrophobic record office, the silence that followed was suffocating, heavy enough to crush the lungs in my chest. The air tasted of iron, burnt gunpowder, cold stone, and the unmistakable, sickly copper stench of fresh blood. We were ten souls left trapped in a subterranean vault, surrounded by shattered oak cabinets, ruined ledgers, and the cooling, lifeless body of Marcus sprawled across the center of the floorboards.Nobody moved. Nobody spoke.The frantic, clawing adrenaline that had driven us through the darkness, the madness that had dragged us through the collapsing lift shaft, through the sickening losses of Sia and Timmy, and through the bloody slaughter in the central academy hall, finally evaporated. It left behind an abyss of hollow, agonizing exhaustion. We had run out of ground to yield. We had run out of miracles.O