Novel & Cerita Flesh And Blood Armory

BLOOD AND GUILT ~TATE'S POV~ The Armory was cold, smelling of gun oil and silver. I stood at the workbench, my hands moving mechanically as I loaded high-caliber rounds into a magazine. Click. Click. Click. The sound was the only thing keeping me from screaming. 'New blood,' the Codex had said.

Kala murmured. THE ARMORY I passed through the main armory, where warriors tested weapons blessed by old bloodlines. Swords that hummed. Axes that flared with lightning. Guns engraved with storm runes, charged by solar crystal and moonstone alike. In one corner, the Alpha wolves trained with flame-bursting spears. In another, the human warriors were loading anti-demon rifles while two elves argued about mana reload rates. A dwarf named Braglin sat on a cannon he’d named “Sally” and threatened to marry it if it fired true in battle.

The trial didn’t feel like a victory; it felt like an autopsy. For six months, the world peered into the jagged, hollowed-out remains of the Laredo empire, picking through the bones of Ares Holdings and the “Contingency Fund” with a voyeuristic hunger. Every headline was a fresh bruise: The Incestuous Titan, The Silent Mother, The Girl in the Glass Cage.

“I don’t need therapy. I don’t need exercises. I don’t need you coming in here telling me what I’m supposed to be doing with my own body.” I stay where I am, folder pressed against my chest now because I don’t know what else to do with my hands, surrounded by drawings of the girl I can never bring back. “If you don’t do the exercises, your muscles will continue to atrophy. You’ll lose mobility in your upper body. Your spine will start to curve and you’ll develop contractures that will make it even harder to—” “Good.” The word breaks through everything else. He turns his chair around now, finally looking at me, and there’s something in his expression that makes my chest feel like it’s caving

Beside them lay bundles of unopened rune-engraved longswords, their hilts wrapped in sweat-absorbent leather. Arms even the Black Rock Royal Guard would kill for. Bruno turned, his hands clasped behind his back. He pointedly avoided looking at the girls. “Our Alpha says,” Bruno cleared his throat, his voice stiff and awkward, “the Black Rock armory is clearing out junk. No place to dump these castoffs, so we left them here. Do whatever you want with them.” Serena stared for two full seconds. She strode over and ran a hand over one of the armors. Cold, solid, perfectly balanced.

Iron Fangs has had a long-standing weapon exchange with five packs", she said. She flipped the pages quickly. "Rave stream, Frostbloom, Granite Spine, Hollow Shade, and Bloodhound". "Ravenstream is too far", I said. "Exactly. And Frostbloom's forges freeze every other month. Granite Spine's metals are too brittle for our needs. Hollow Shade...you do not want to owe them favours". She tapped a nail on the last name. "Which leaves Bloodhound". I frowned. "Bloodhound? They specialize in specialized weapons, not mass military supplies".

I hugged my arm to my chest, the skin still burning where his fingers had dug in. Then Aaron’s voice broke the silence. His voice came out lower and softer this time. “Let me see.” I looked up. He was standing close now, his eyes not on my face but on the arm I cradled. Slowly, carefully, like he was afraid I might shatter, he reached for me. I let him. His thumb brushed over the reddened skin, his touch gentle but firm. His jaw tightened, and for a second I swore I saw anger flicker in his eyes; not the wild, reckless kind Justin had shown, but something controlled and dangerous in its own right.

Then he remembered the machine he arrived with. He smacked his forehead, climbed onto the excavator, and drove the bucket straight into the lock until it snapped. He pushed open the steel-bar gate. What lay inside would make any man feel his blood surge. It was his first time seeing a real armory, and it looked nothing like what he imagined. No towering stacks of ammo crates. Instead, rows of uniform, clean, dark assault rifles lined metal racks along the walls. Heavy green-gray boxes made of some unknown alloy rested beneath the racks. Camo uniforms and helmets hung on the walls. Several cans of camouflage spray paint sat stacked below.

The academy gates loomed ahead, massive black iron twisted into the shape of thorned vines. It glowed faintly along the metal, humming with magic that made the hairs on my arms stand on end. Two guards stood at the entrance, both armed with blades that looked older than the city itself. One was a vampire, pale as moonlight with eyes like melted gold. The other… I didn’t even know. His skin shimmered faintly, like his shape was never fully fixed in one form. They scanned us, eyes lingering on me, but Davorin murmured something under his breath and they stepped aside.