Chapter 29 - 28
[Velmora — Black Market Strip]
The market smelled like smoke and metal—no spices, no warmth, just ash-dusted food rations, rusted tech, and eyes too tired to hope.
Kiro moved through the crowds with a lowered hood. He didn't need the System's sensors to feel the tension in the air—workers glancing over their shoulders, drones hovering too long, and the low thrum of Copper patrols sweeping the strip for trouble.
Then he saw him.
A **boy—maybe eighteen—**skinny, wild-eyed, a faded scar along his jaw, bolting through the press of bodies. Behind him, three Coppers in full suppression armor tore through the crowd with stun lances raised.
"You! STOP!"
The boy knocked over a stack of stolen thermal coils, diving between two carts, but a drone locked onto him from above.
Kiro moved without thinking.
With a flick of his hand, Blood Venom bloomed in his palm—an orb of seething crimson liquid, pulsing like a living thing.