The forest path was a tunnel of mud and misery.
The convoy moved at a punishing pace. Rylan marched at the front, his eyes fixed on the north. He didn't stop for water breaks. He didn't stop when a mule threw a shoe. He simply ordered the load transferred to the backs of the Earth-Kin and forced the animal to keep walking.
Behind them, the sky was changing. The sun was rising, but the light over the Oakhaven valley was wrong. It was too bright. Too orange.
"Don't look back," Rylan commanded, his voice raspy.
They marched until the trees thinned, revealing a wide, rushing river that churned with grey, silty water. The Iron-Flow River. The natural border between the civilized lands of the Empires and the lawless chaos of the Neutral Zone.
There was only one way across: The Stone-Arch Bridge.
And it was blocked.
A barricade of spiked logs sat in the middle of the bridge. Behind it stood twenty men in mismatched leather armor, holding crossbows and rusted pikes. A banner depicting a coiled water snake fluttered in the wind.
The River Vipers. A low-level bandit clan that preyed on refugees.
"Halt!" the bandit leader shouted, stepping onto the barricade. He was a greasy man with a necklace of ears. He eyed the heavy wagons, the Earth-Kin, and the women. He licked his lips.
"Toll road!" the leader jeered. "The price is heavy today. Half the cargo. And the women stay for... inspection."
The militia behind Rylan stiffened, raising their spears. They were tired, scared, and outnumbered.
Rylan didn't draw his sword. He checked his internal state. His shoulder was screaming. His Qi reserves were at 40%. A drawn-out fight would be messy.
He needed to end this in one move.
"Stay here," Rylan ordered Lyra.
He walked forward alone, stopping ten paces from the barricade. He looked small compared to the fortified position.
"You are blocking the road," Rylan said, his voice calm, carried by the wind.
"I own the road!" the leader laughed. His men chuckled, leveling their crossbows. "You look like you've been through a grinder, boy. Drop the sword and maybe I'll only cut off one of your hands."
Rylan reached into his robe.
The crossbows clicked, fingers tightening on triggers.
Rylan pulled out a round, heavy object. It wasn't a weapon. It was the bone mask of the Crimson Lotus Captain he had killed the night before.
He tossed it.
The mask sailed through the air and landed at the leader's feet. The leader looked down. His laughter died instantly. Every bandit in the region knew that mask. It belonged to the Elites—the butchers who flayed men alive.
"I killed the man wearing that six hours ago," Rylan lied—or told a half-truth. "Because he blocked my road."
He took a step forward. He activated Imperial Aura, pouring every drop of his remaining focus into it. He didn't project "Leader." He projected "Predator."
"I have an army of Crimson Lotus demons marching behind me," Rylan said, pointing a thumb back at the orange glow on the horizon. "They are chasing me. If you stop me, you are stopping them."
He smiled. It was the smile of a man who had nothing left to lose.
"Do you want to be here when they arrive?"
The leader looked at the mask. He looked at the glow in the sky, which was undeniably the signature fire of a sect war. He looked at Rylan's blood-stained robes and the sheer, suffocating pressure radiating from him.
The leader swallowed.
"We... we didn't know," the leader stammered.
"Move the logs," Rylan ordered. "Now."
The leader kicked his men. "Move it! Move the damn logs!"
The bandits scrambled, terrified not of Rylan's sword, but of the monster he claimed to be running from. They dismantled the barricade in seconds, pulling the logs to the side.
Rylan walked onto the bridge. He didn't look at the bandits as he passed them. He walked straight through their ranks, his back exposed.
The convoy followed. The Earth-Kin lumbered past, glaring at the bandits. The militia marched with heads held high, fueled by the borrowed arrogance of their Master.
When the last wagon was across, Rylan stopped.
He turned back to the bandit leader.
"One more thing," Rylan said.
"We let you pass!" the leader cried, backing away.
"The army behind me," Rylan said. "They are tracking spiritual signatures."
He pulled a small, silver pin from his belt—a detonator pin.
"I need to cover my tracks."
"What?"
Rylan threw the pin. It wasn't a bomb. It was a signal flare. It landed on the bridge, right in the center of the wooden supports.
Mei, standing on the far bank, slammed her hand onto a rune-plate she had hastily scribed on the bridge's anchor stone.
CRACK.
The Stone-Arch Bridge didn't explode. It shattered. The structural integrity rune Mei had compromised gave way.
With a roar of grinding stone, the entire center span of the bridge collapsed into the churning river below.
The bandits screamed as they fell, vanishing into the grey water.
Rylan watched them fall. He hadn't just killed the bandits; he had cut the road. No one could follow them. And no one could go back.
He turned to his people.
They were staring at the broken bridge. They were staring at the smoke rising from the Oakhaven valley, now visible miles behind them.
A massive pillar of green fire erupted into the sky over their old home. The Jade Empire had arrived. The Crimson Lotus was engaging.
Oakhaven was burning.
"My house..." a young militia boy whispered, dropping his spear. "My mother is there."
"Your mother is gone," Rylan said, his voice cutting through the grief. "Look at me."
The boy looked at him, tears streaming down his face.
"Oakhaven is dead," Rylan announced to the group. "It is ash. You are the embers I saved."
He pointed north, toward the jagged silhouette of a city rising from the smog in the distance.
Iron-Tooth City. The city of smugglers, mercenaries, and exiles.
"That is your home now," Rylan said. "Wipe your faces. If you look weak in Iron-Tooth, you will be eaten."
He turned and began to walk.
Mei fell into step beside him. She looked back at the ruined bridge one last time.
"You trapped the Crimson Lotus and the Jade Empire together," Mei whispered. "They will destroy each other."
"Yes," Rylan said.
"But Master," Mei asked, her voice trembling. "What happens when they realize we aren't dead? What happens when they realize you played them both?"
Rylan adjusted his injured shoulder.
"By then," Rylan said, looking at the grim walls of Iron-Tooth City, "I will have an army real enough that I won't need to bluff."
End of Chapter 42