The next morning, Vicky Thorne was not a shadow-king. He was a philanthropist.
He and Mila stood on a brightly lit, temporary stage in the main atrium of Veros University. The hall was packed, a sea of local press, university faculty, and curious students. Sunlight streamed in through the high, arched windows, illuminating the massive banner behind them: THE VEROS STUDENT FUTURE FUND: FIRST WAVE RESULTS.
This was Mila's brainchild. It was the public-facing, "light" side of their two-front war. It wasn't enough to win the shadow war; they had to dominate the public narrative. While the Silent Dragon's "Wellness & Security" front was being systematically dismantled by her legal and financial assault, she was going to bury their reputation under an avalanche of goodwill.
Mila, dressed in an immaculate white business suit, stepped to the podium. Her transformation was complete. She was no longer a stressed, cynical detective. She was the CEO of the most talked-about foundation in the city, and she commanded the room with an effortless, radiant authority. Her heart was a steady, calm drum. She was home.
"When Mr. Thorne founded this fund," Mila began, her voice warm and clear, projecting to every corner of the hall, "it was based on a simple idea: talent shouldn't be wasted. It was an idea that saw a young woman's bake sale for clean water and gave her the capital to build ten wells." She gestured to Sarah, who was sitting in the front row, beaming. "It was an idea that saw a pre-med student struggling to pay tuition and gave him a future."
She then turned to the two men sitting beside her on stage. "And it was an idea that saw one of this university's most brilliant engineers, Ethan, struggling with a 'commercially unviable' project."
Vicky, sitting beside her, felt a surge of genuine pride. He had been a struggling engineer himself. This part of his new life, the act of building rather than destroying, felt just as satisfying as the hunt.
"Today," Mila said, her voice swelling, "the 'Future Fund' is proud to present the first working prototype of Mr. Ethan's genius. And more importantly, the man who it was built for."
On cue, Ethan, looking terrified and ecstatic in a new suit, walked to the podium. With him was another man, a former soldier in his late thirties who had lost his arm in combat. The soldier raised his new, sleek, matte-black prosthetic arm.
"Thanks to the Fund's resources," Ethan stammered, his voice thick with emotion, "we were able to build it. It... it works. The neuro-latency is zero. He... he can..."
The soldier, who hadn't spoken, raised his prosthetic hand and, with a look of pure, unadulterated wonder, gently touched his own cheek. "I... I can feel it," he whispered, his voice cracking. "I can feel my own face." He then picked up a single, simple coin from the podium, his metal fingers moving with perfect, delicate precision.
The room erupted. It wasn't polite clapping; it was a standing ovation. Cameras flashed, capturing the moment. Vicky Thorne, the mysterious young billionaire, was seen simply smiling, clapping for his old friend.
Mila leaned over, her whisper for him alone. "The Silent Dragon's stock just dropped another 12% in pre-market trading, thanks to your Senator Hayes. Their 'Wellness' brand is toxic. Ours is healing the sick. We're winning, Vicky."
Vicky looked at her, his Queen, and her smile was as sharp and satisfying as a well-placed blade.
As the cameras flashed on Vicky's philanthropic victory, a different war was being waged across town.
The Silent Dragon "Wellness & Security" dojo in the financial district was a monument to their arrogance. It was a three-story building of glass and steel, a legitimate front where they trained billionaires in self-defense. According to Marcus's intel, the sub-basement was where they really trained. It was a black-market Chi-enhancement lab and a brutal, unsanctioned fight club.
At 11:00 AM, as the Disciples were finishing their morning training, the assault began.
It was not a raid. It was an infiltration.
The combatants were Lieutenant Elias Vance (Tier 2 Vampire, Lvl 7) and the Alpha Squad (Nine Tier 2 Vampires, Lvl 6). They didn't use the front door. They entered through the ventilation shafts and sub-level sewer access, moving in perfect, silent coordination.
Ten Iron Tier Disciples (Lvl 10-12) were in the sub-basement, sparring. Their leader, a broad-shouldered man known as "Brother Kai" (Lvl 12), was berating them. "You are too slow! The Bronze Adept demands perfection. The city is our..."
The steel door to the stairwell imploded, ripped from its hinges and thrown across the room , crushing a rack of weights.
Elias Vance stepped through the ruined doorway, flanked by his nine soldiers. They were clad in their silent, black tactical gear, their faces obscured by polarized, crimson-lensed masks. They fanned out, sealing the room in less than a second.
"Who the hell are you?" Brother Kai roared, his hands already glowing with the brown, earthy energy of his Iron Tier Chi. He wasn't scared. He was furious. He thought this was a rival gang, perhaps the Triad, making a profoundly stupid move. "You think you can just walk in here? You're dead!"
A Disciple, reacting on instinct, pulled a 9mm pistol from his waistband and fired three rounds, point-blank, at the chest of the nearest Alpha Squad member.
This is where the disbelief began.
The Alpha Squad soldier didn't dodge. He didn't even flinch. He just stood there. The bullets, fired from less than ten feet away, flattened against his chest plate — a lightweight, experimental weave (armor) Vicky had funded—and dropped harmlessly to the floor, tink-tink-tink.
The room went dead silent. The gunman's face was a mask of pure, uncomprehending shock. "It... it didn't..." he stammered, his mind short-circuiting. "That's... impossible... "
The soldier he had shot simply tilted his head, a gesture of almost animal-like curiosity.
Brother Kai, recovering his wits, shouted, "They're armored! Arrogant fools! Their armor can't stop our Chi! Break them!"
Kai himself led the charge. He was an Iron Tier Disciple, Lvl 12. In the human world, he was a god. He lunged at Elias, the largest target, his fist a miniature battering ram of Chi energy, a blow meant to shatter bone and rupture organs. He aimed to punch through the armor and the man inside it. "Die, freak!"
Elias, a Level 7 Vampire Knight, simply raised his hand.
He caught the Chi-powered fist.
The impact sent a small shockwave of dust through the air, but Elias did not move. He didn't even budge. He just... held the punch. Brother Kai stared, his eyes wide with a sudden, dawning terror, his strongest attack held in an iron grip, his Chi dissipating against the man's glove like steam.
"Weak," Elias rumbled, his voice electronically distorted by the mask.
He squeezed. The sound of bones crunching—metacarpals, knuckles, the wrist—was sickening. Kai screamed, a high-pitched sound of agony and disbelief. His "god-like" power was nothing.
The other nine Disciples, seeing their leader instantly incapacitated, charged the Alpha Squad. They were trained, they were disciplined, and they were furious.
What followed was not a fight. It was a clinical, terrifying, and utterly one-sided harvest.
One Disciple, a master of kicks, threw a spinning hook-kick, his leg glowing with Chi. The Alpha Squad member (Lvl 6) caught his leg in mid-air. The Disciple's eyes went wide. Before he could react, the soldier twisted. A sharp snap echoed as the Disciple's femur broke. The soldier tossed him aside like trash.
Another Disciple, a massive brute of a man, managed to tackle an Alpha soldier. It was like tackling a statue of reinforced steel. The Disciple found himself trying to wrestle a thing that had no pulse, no breath, no give. The soldier didn't even grunt; he just wrapped his arms around the man in a bear hug, and the sound of ribs cracking echoed in the room.
Two Disciples, smarter than the rest, tried to flank an Alpha member. The soldier didn't even turn. The other two Alpha members across the room, who had been watching, moved. They were blurs, crossing twenty feet in a micro-second, appearing behind the flanking Disciples and snapping their heads back with perfectly applied sleeper holds. The Disciples were unconscious before they hit the ground.
The Disciples, the supposed apex predators of the human world, were being dismantled by beings that were faster, stronger, and completely impervious to their attacks. Their Chi, their hard-earned power, was useless. It was like toddlers trying to fight a team of grizzled, superhuman operators.
The final Disciple, the one who had fired the bullets, was frozen in place, his mind utterly broken. He just stood there, shaking, his gun hanging limply from his hand. He had watched nine of his brothers, masters of Chi, be broken like children in less than a minute.
An Alpha Squad member walked up to him slowly, took the gun from his unresisting hand, and tapped him on the helmet. The man fainted from pure fear.
In less than sixty seconds, it was over. Ten Iron Tier Disciples were zip-tied, broken, and shivering in terror. Their minds were broken. Their entire belief system, built on the supremacy of their Chi, had been shattered. These... things... were impossible.
Elias Vance stood over the whimpering Brother Kai. "The Bronze Adept," he commanded. "Where is he?"
"I... I don't know!" Kai sobbed, his mind shattered by the power discrepancy. "He... he meets us at the old Temple... downtown... on Kaito Street! I swear, that's all I know! He's... he's going to kill you! He's a Bronze Tier! He's a real master!"
Elias nodded to his squad. "Package them. All ten. The Master will want to... taste-test their Chi."
The Alpha Squad injected the Disciples with a heavy sedative, loaded them onto a non-descript delivery van that had been waiting in the alley, and were gone. When Marcus's "cleanup" team arrived twenty minutes later, disguised as a HAZMAT crew responding to a "gas leak," they found only an empty room and a few flattened bullets on the floor.
The Vise
Vicky and Mila returned to The Vault that afternoon, the triumph of the press conference still fresh.
Elias and Marcus were waiting for them at the command table.
"Master, Queen," Elias said, his voice laced with satisfaction. "The Silent Dragon's downtown dojo has been... renovated. Ten new prisoners are in the cells. They are... broken. And they gave us a new lead: 'The Old Temple' on Kaito Street. We are already working to find its location."
Simultaneously, Marcus gestured to the holographic map. "And on the public front, Mila's strategy is a masterpiece. The 'gas leak' at the dojo, combined with the IRS audit and the safety-code violations you pushed through, has resulted in the city condemning the building. The Silent Dragon just lost its primary training center. Their stock is in freefall, and the press, fresh from your conference, is painting them as a fraudulent, dangerous organization. We are choking them from both ends."
VBicky looked at Mila, who was watching the data streams with a look of cold, satisfied pride. This was the justice she had always craved.
"Good," Vicky said. He felt no need to hunt. His XP was unchanged, but his army was stronger, his Queen was victorious, and his enemy was bleeding.
"Mila, keep strangling their corporations. Marcus, find that temple. Elias," Vicky said, a cold smile touching his lips, "prepare the Alpha Squad. The Bronze Adept is next. It's time to cut the head off the snake."
STATUS UPDATE
(No combat or XP gain for Vicky. All XP from the raid went to the Alpha Squad, leveling them.)
VICKY THORNE: STATUS
Level: 13
XP: 2,400 / 9,800 (To Lvl 14)
Stat Points Available: 0
STR: 19
SPD: 18
END: 18
Chi: 10 / 10