The students could immediately hear the dangerous, icy tone cutting through the woman’s throat. Under normal circumstances, they might have brushed it off as a bluff, assuming she was just some unhinged local shouting crazy threats in a quiet diner.
But after everything they had barely survived back at the university campus, a cold dread settled over the table. They knew exactly how fast the world could twist into a nightmare. A visible shiver went through Talia and Steve.
"It looks like she’s completely alone," Jono whispered, his voice shaking as he tried to calm the others down, or maybe just stop himself from panicking. Even if she was crazy, there were seven of them and only one of her.
Aki didn’t look at Jono. Instead, she leaned in slightly toward Rick, her eyes tracking the fake server’s hands. "Did you notice her when we walked in?" she whispered.
"No, I didn’t even see her approach the table until she was already standing over us," Rick whispered back, his body tense, coiled like a spring.
"It’s not just that. I don’t recognize her face at all," Aki replied. She had an exceptionally sharp memory when it came to mapping people. "She wasn’t part of the staff that was working the floor when we ordered our drinks. And now... I can’t see the actual bartender or the manager anywhere."
The realization hit them like a physical blow. This woman was completely serious about her threat, and she wasn’t operating solo. Where were the actual employees who had been running the venue ten minutes ago? Had they been paid off to look the other way, beaten and tied up in the back storage room, or worse?
In a survival situation like this, Max had always taught them that it was best to assume the absolute worst blueprint. That was exactly what Aki and Rick decided to do.
Without a single word of warning, Aki reached down, grabbed a heavy ceramic plate off the table, and hurled it straight at the woman’s face.
The fake server didn’t even flinch. She simply snapped her head to the side with blinding, fluid speed, letting the plate sail past her ear. It flew across the empty restaurant before crashing violently onto the hardwood floorboards in the distance.
"Everyone get out of here right now!" Rick shouted, slamming his hands on the table.
He knew instantly that this was a massive boundary breach, far more trouble than they were equipped to handle alone. A normal human couldn’t have reacted to a sudden, close-range projectile so flawlessly—especially coming from someone like Aki, who didn’t telegraph her movements.
The university students didn’t hesitate. They listened to the enforcers immediately, knowing Rick and Aki knew the rules of engagement far better than they did. Eric was the fastest to react, sliding out of the booth and sprinting toward the exit path.
But the woman was already moving. She materialized directly in his trajectory, her fist cocked back and ready to unleash a brutal strike to his jaw.
Out of all the regular students, Eric knew his fair share of practical martial arts from his time dominating the Wushu club. Bringing his hands together in a swift, practiced motion, he swirled his arms into a defensive frame, ready to absorb and deflect the incoming kinetic hit. But the fist never arrived. It was a perfect, calculated feint.
Instead, the woman pivoted on her heel, driving her leg forward in a devastating front kick straight into Eric’s stomach. The force of the impact sent him hurling backward through the air, crashing hard into the rest of the group.
"Stay back behind me!" Rick roared, charging forward to intercept her.
She was purposely blocking the primary exit, sealing them inside the venue. But as Rick closed the distance, he realized something strange about her posture. Her focus wasn’t entirely locked onto the two Bloodline enforcers. For some reason, her actual target was the university students themselves—she wanted the whole group contained.
Rick threw a heavy, crushing right hook. The woman precisely lifted her forearm, blocking the lethal strike just inches from the side of her head. Before Rick could pull his arm back into his guard, she clamped her fingers around his sleeve, utilized his own forward momentum, and violently hurled him across the floor, sending his body crashing hard into the brick wall.
"That’s a remarkably strong hit," the woman noted, a cold amusement dancing in her eyes. "I definitely didn’t expect that kind of output from a bunch of local kids. You guys clearly aren’t ordinary students."
She shook out her left arm, feeling the residual ache in her bone. Rick’s punch had been heavier than she’d calculated; if she had known his baseline strength, she would have slid out of the pocket and dodged it completely.
Suddenly, she snapped her head around, her predatory instincts flaring just as Aki lunged from her blind spot. Aki had grabbed a metal fork off the table, weaponizing whatever tool she could find to survive the encounter.
But the desperate strike missed its mark. The woman’s hand shot out like a striking viper, catching Aki cleanly by the right wrist and locking her mobility down.
"Oh, I like you. You’re vicious, just like me," the woman whispered, a dark grin spreading across her face.
With her free hand, she smoothly raised the metallic assassination dart she was holding and slammed the sharp steel point right through the back of Aki’s hand, pinning her flesh.
Aki screamed out in pure agony, her vision blurring as the cold steel pierced through her palm. Before she could even process the pain, the woman drove a harsh knee into her stomach, sending her crashing violently over the wooden table, scattering glass and silver everywhere.
The remaining university students were left backing up into the furthest corner of the venue, staring in absolute disbelief and horror at the blood on the floor.
"Alright, as you can see, resistance is completely useless against my skill set," the woman claimed, wiping a stray drop of blood off her apron. "So, are you all going to line up and come with me quietly? Or do I need to put a couple of you in body bags first? Honestly, my employers said casualties are acceptable, so either way works for me."
But before she could step toward the terrified students, a sharp scraping sound echoed through the quiet restaurant. To her genuine surprise, both Aki and Rick were already dragging themselves back up to their feet.
Wiping the crimson from their faces, the two Bloodline rangers stood side by side, dropping into their primary fighting stances despite the fractures and the steel dart still embedded in Aki’s hand.
"I think you didn’t realize that you’ve put a hell of a lot more on your plate tonight than you expected," Rick said, his breathing heavy but his voice completely steady. "Because as long as the Billion Bloodline group is standing on this floor, we won’t just hand these kids over to a ghost like you."
A wide, ecstatic smile slowly washed over the woman’s face, her eyes lighting up with a sudden hunger.
"The Billion Bloodline group," she whispered, her fingers curling into tight fists. "Who knew I’d get an appetizer of the main event before the real fight even starts?"