House of Blood

Inside Room 104, there was no lamp lit.

Valerian sat cross-legged on the narrow, straw-stuffed cot in the far corner, his back against the cold basalt wall.

His coat hung neatly from a wooden peg. He wore only his simple linen tunic, trousers, and leather boots.

His black blindfold was securely tied across his eyes.

His breathing was so slow and imperceptible that even a thermal detection array would have scanned the room as empty.

Outside, the heavy footsteps stopped directly on his threshold.

”Master,” Aurelix whispered, her spiritual form stretching lazily across his soulscape, nine phantom tails brushing against his suppressed core. ”Five iron-clad oafs with cheap kinetic enchantments. The big one in front smells like sour beer and bad intent. Shall I burn their minds into cinder?”

No magic, Valerian replied calmly into his internal space.

No aura. No dragon-fire. Just momentum.

Aurelix’s lips curled into a mischievous smile.

”Boring.”

Valerian ignored her.

Outside, Brant tightened his grip on the massive kinetic battering ram.

The runes along its iron frame pulsed brighter.

”Ready?”

One of the upperclassmen nodded.

”Ready.”

Brant stepped back.

Then he swung.

CRASH!

The heavy iron-reinforced oak door didn’t just open.

It shattered inward.

Iron hinges snapped with the sound of gunshots, and heavy oak splinters rained across the small stone chamber like shrapnel.

Dust and the smell of ozone flooded the room.

Brant stepped over the ruined threshold, his four upperclassman squad mates filing in behind him with heavy iron truncheons drawn.

”Out of bed, stray!”

Brant’s voice roared through the chamber.

He raised his iron-sheathed boot.

”The Rite of the Broken Door claims another—”

His boot came down.

Nothing.

The straw mattress compressed beneath the impact.

But there was no body underneath it.

Brant’s eyes widened.

”What—?”

A faint movement occurred behind him.

Valerian was already there.

He had stepped into Brant’s dead angle without making a sound.

He didn’t draw a blade.

He didn’t unleash a surge of mana.

He simply leaned his weight forward.

His left hand caught Brant’s overextended knee.

His right palm struck the side of Brant’s heavy iron helmet with a crisp, low-impact—

TAP.

The sound was almost laughably small.

But the timing was perfect.

Valerian didn’t strike with enough force to overpower the giant.

He redirected the force already moving through him.

Brant’s eight-foot frame, weighted down by nearly two hundred pounds of iron plate, suddenly lost its center of gravity.

His planted foot slipped.

His knee twisted.

His enormous body spun sideways.

For one brief second, the terrifying third-year looked almost weightless.

Then—

BOOM!

His face slammed into the basalt wall.

The impact shook the entire room.

His visor dented inward.

A violent vibration traveled through his helmet and straight into his jaw.

Brant staggered.

His vision flashed white.

Blood immediately began running from his nose.

”What the hell...?”

Valerian was already moving.

The second upperclassman came screaming through the dust.

His heavy iron truncheon swung horizontally toward Valerian’s neck.

The weapon carried enough force to shatter a normal cadet’s spine.

Valerian didn’t duck.

He stepped into the swing.

The truncheon passed behind his head by less than an inch.

His forearms crossed tightly around the attacker’s wrists.

Then his hips rotated.

The upperclassman’s own momentum became a weapon against him.

Valerian twisted inward.

CRACK!

The man’s elbow slammed into his own ribs.

Several ribs buckled beneath the armor.

The upperclassman released a strangled gasp.

Valerian didn’t give him time to recover.

His left foot hooked behind the man’s ankle.

His right shoulder drove forward.

The man’s legs disappeared from beneath him.

THUD!

He hit the stone floor hard enough to knock the breath from his lungs.

His truncheon clattered away.

Eleven seconds had passed.

Two down.

But the remaining three didn’t move.

They stared.

The dust slowly settled around them.

In the dim moonlight filtering through the shattered doorway, they saw only a thin, blindfolded boy standing amidst the splinters.

He wasn’t breathing heavily.

His hands hung loosely at his sides.

There wasn’t even a visible drop of sweat on his forehead.

He hadn’t used a single drop of mana.

Yet two third-year Vanguard enforcers lay on the floor.

One had a broken rib.

The other was struggling to breathe.

And neither had managed to touch him.

The third upperclassman swallowed.

”Get him!”

His voice cracked.

”Use your arrays! He’s just fast!”

The three rushed forward simultaneously.

They understood that the room was too narrow for ordinary swordplay.

So they tried to overwhelm him with numbers.

One attacked from the left.

Another came directly through the center.

The third moved toward the doorway, attempting to cut off Valerian’s escape.

Valerian listened.

Boots scraping stone.

Metal shifting.

Breathing.

The subtle hiss of mana entering enchanted weapons.

Three attackers.

Three angles.

One doorway.

He stepped forward.

The first blade came down.

Valerian slipped beneath it.

The steel passed over his blindfold by a finger’s width.

His right palm struck the flat of the weapon.

CLANG!

The blade was redirected into the wall.

The attacker’s shoulder followed the weapon.

Valerian seized his wrist.

A short twist.

A violent pull.

The man’s own forward momentum sent him stumbling past.

Valerian drove his elbow into the exposed gap beneath the man’s breastplate.

THUD!

The third-year folded.

Valerian caught the back of his armor and slammed his face into the stone wall.

BANG!

The man’s visor rang.

He collapsed onto one knee.

Before he could fall completely, Valerian stepped away.

The second attacker was already there.

A heavy truncheon swung toward his temple.

Valerian raised one forearm.

CRACK!

The weapon smashed against his guard.

The third-year grinned.

”Got you!”

He pushed harder.

Valerian’s arm didn’t move.

The upperclassman’s grin disappeared.

The blindfolded cadet simply stood there.

Then Valerian rotated his wrist.

The truncheon slid off his forearm.

His fingers caught the man’s elbow.

He stepped behind him.

One foot hooked around the attacker’s ankle.

His hip drove forward.

CRASH!

The upperclassman was thrown onto the stone floor.

Valerian didn’t stop.

His heel came down on the man’s wrist.

The third-year screamed as his fingers released the weapon.

Valerian kicked the truncheon away.

Then the third attacker arrived.

A short, heavy trench-sword swept toward Valerian’s ribs.

Valerian stepped backward.

The sword missed.

The attacker reversed the blade.

A second strike came immediately.

Valerian leaned backward.

The edge passed across his tunic, cutting a shallow line through the fabric.

For the first time, the attacker smiled.

”I got you.”

Valerian tilted his head.

”No.”

The attacker froze.

Valerian had deliberately allowed the blade to come that close.

He had measured its reach.

He had measured the man’s stance.

And now he knew exactly where the attacker’s weight was.

Valerian stepped forward.

His forehead struck the man’s helmet.

CRACK!

The upperclassman’s head snapped backward.

Before he could recover, Valerian seized the sword arm with both hands.

He twisted.

The shoulder rotated beyond its natural range.

POP!

The man screamed.

Valerian drove his knee into the man’s stomach.

THUD!

The air exploded from his lungs.

He doubled over.

Valerian caught him by the back of his armor and hurled him sideways.

The upperclassman crashed into the cot.

The wooden frame shattered beneath him.

Silence.

Three men down.

The remaining two stared at each other.

Fear had replaced their confidence.

One of them looked toward Brant.

”Captain...”

Brant was still on one knee.

Blood dripped from beneath his visor.

His breathing was ragged.

”Kill him!”

The remaining two charged.

This time, they didn’t hesitate.

One swung his truncheon high.

The other attacked low.

Valerian jumped.

The high strike passed beneath his boots.

The low strike swept through empty air.

Valerian landed between them.

His left palm struck the first man’s throat guard.

THOOM!

The impact drove him backward.

The second tried to stab Valerian from behind.

Valerian turned without looking.

His hand caught the man’s wrist.

He pulled.

The attacker stumbled forward.

Valerian stepped aside.

The man collided with his own companion.

BANG!

Their helmets smashed together.

Both staggered.

Valerian moved between them.

His elbow struck one man’s jaw.

CRACK!

The man’s head snapped sideways.

A second elbow drove into the other’s ribs.

CRUNCH!

He collapsed against the wall.

Valerian grabbed the first man’s breastplate.

He spun.

And hurled him into the second.

Both bodies crashed through the already damaged doorway.

BOOM!

They tumbled into the corridor.

Brant stared.

Four of his men were down.

The fifth was barely conscious.

And Valerian still hadn’t drawn his weapon.

Brant’s hand trembled as he reached for his side-blade.

He forced himself upright.

”You...”

He pulled the blade free.

”You little—”

Valerian’s hand closed around the abandoned battering ram.

The massive weapon weighed two hundred pounds.

Brant’s eyes widened.

Valerian lifted it.

With sheer physical strength.

No mana.

No enhancement.

No aura.

Just muscle.

The ram rose above Valerian’s shoulder.

Brant barely had time to raise his sword.

Valerian stepped forward.

BOOM!

The blunt iron head slammed directly into Brant’s chest plate.

The impact folded the giant backward.

His boots left the floor.

He crashed into the corridor wall.

CRACK!

The stone behind him fractured.

Valerian followed.

Brant tried to raise his sword.

The battering ram struck again.

BOOM!

His sword flew from his hand.

His breastplate caved inward.

He dropped to one knee.

Valerian advanced.

Brant tried to crawl backward.

”Wait!”

Another strike.

BANG!

The ram smashed into his shoulder plate.

The armor buckled.

Brant screamed.

His massive body rolled across the stone.

He tried to stand.

Valerian hooked the ram behind his knee and pulled.

The eight-foot giant collapsed face-first.

THUD!

Brant groaned in pain as blood trickled from his nose inside his helmet.

He forced himself up on one knee.

His hand reached frantically for his side-blade.

His fingers closed around empty air.

Then he felt something cold touch the bridge of his visor.

The blunt tip of his own battering ram.

Valerian stood over him.

One hand held the two-hundred-pound weapon.

His posture was entirely relaxed behind his black blindfold.

Brant’s breathing became shallow.

He stared at the boy who hadn’t even drawn a weapon.

”Your entry angle was three degrees too high,” Valerian said.

His voice was terrifyingly quiet in the dust-choked corridor.

”Your weight was on your heels, and your rear guard wasn’t covering the threshold.”

Brant swallowed hard.

”You...”

The iron ram pressed slightly harder against his visor.

”What kind of monster are you?”

Valerian tilted his head.

”I’m the clerk.”

He withdrew the ram.

”Pick up your men and your splinters.”

He tossed the massive weapon onto Brant’s lap.

THUD.

”My floor is clean.”

Brant stared at him.

For several seconds, nobody moved.

Then the surviving upperclassmen began dragging their injured companions away.

No threats.

No insults.

No laughter.

Only the scrape of metal against stone.

High above on the balcony, Princess Solene and Lyra Medeis watched in absolute silence.

Lyra’s breath hitched slightly.

Her silver raven cloak fluttered in the freezing wind as her sharp eyes tracked Valerian.

He was calmly sweeping the wood splinters out of his doorway using the flat of his boot.

”No mana,” Lyra whispered.

Her voice was laced with rare, genuine awe.

”He didn’t activate a single conduit. He used zero flash, zero elemental affinity... total, absolute martial economy.”

Solene’s amethyst eyes remained fixed on the scene below.

”He didn’t fight them.”

She paused.

”He dismantled them.”

Her expression sharpened.

”Like a craftsman taking apart a broken clock.”

Lyra remained silent.

Something about the scene disturbed her.

Not the violence.

Not the efficiency.

Something else.

She stared at Valerian’s blindfold.

”He never looked at them.”

Solene glanced toward her.

Lyra’s voice dropped.

”Not once.”

The realization crawled through her mind.

”He wasn’t watching their weapons.”

Her fingers tightened around the railing.

”He wasn’t watching their feet.”

A pause.

”He wasn’t watching their faces.”

Lyra’s eyes narrowed.

”He didn’t need to see them at all.”

Solene leaned back against the stone railing.

A small, subtle smile touched her lips.

”Tomorrow, the entire Vanguard Division will be talking about this.”

”What will they call him?” Lyra asked.

Her eyes lingered on the blindfolded figure in the dark corridor below.

Solene turned toward the inner stairs.

”The commoners will call him the Blind Mercenary.”

Her white imperial robes trailed behind her.

”The scions will call him the Silent Fourth.”

She paused.

”But by morning...”

A faint smile appeared.

”The seniors will simply call him The Iron Ghost.”

Down in Sector C, Castor Ter Sangius closed his brass array-compass with a sharp—

SNAP.

He looked at his twin sister, Pollux.

”Fascinating.”

A slow, calculated grin formed on his face.

”Casper von Valerius just paid three hundred copper coins to create a legend.”

Pollux giggled.

She twirled both daggers between her fingers.

”And I want to see if that legend bleeds.”

Inside Room 104, Valerian pulled the broken door back into its frame.

It didn’t fit anymore.

Half the hinges were destroyed.

The wooden surface was split down the center.

He sighed.

He dragged a heavy oak chair across the floor and wedged it against the ruined entrance to keep out the mountain wind.

Aurelix appeared lazily within his soulscape.

”Nine seconds,” she murmured.

Valerian paused.

”What?”

”You dismantled the final three in nine seconds.”

Aurelix’s golden-crimson eyes gleamed.

”You’re getting faster, little master.”

”I wasn’t trying to get faster.”

”That makes it worse.”

Valerian ignored her.

He walked back to his cot.

Sat down.

Crossed his legs.

And closed his eyes.

Outside, the corridors slowly returned to silence.

But the story had already begun spreading.

By midnight, dozens of cadets would know.

By morning, hundreds.

And before the next sunset, the entire Vanguard Division would know the name of the blind first-year who had dismantled five third-year enforcers without using a single drop of mana.

Valen.

The blind mercenary.

The Silent Fourth.

The man who fought like iron moving through shadows.

The Iron Ghost.