Pride Broken in the Alley
He couldn't hold on any longer.
At last, Lucas decided to cast aside his pride.
For a man like Lucas—blond hair plastered to his forehead with sweat, blue eyes bloodshot with fury and humiliation—that choice was far harder than enduring pain.
Pain could be resisted.
Pain could be clenched through.
Pride… pride was something else.
It had carried him his entire life.
Pride in his talent.
Pride in being counted among the rising prodigies of Obsidian Wing.
Pride in the cold certainty that he stood above ordinary men.
That he was predator, never prey.
That he would be the one forcing surrender from others—never begging for rescue.
Yet now, with blood thick in his mouth and his limbs trembling from exhaustion, even that pride began to crack.
The crack started small.
A tremor in conviction.
A whisper of survival drowning dignity.
Then it spread.
His chest heaved.
His breathing turned ragged.
