Chapter 32: The Jasper House
Raiden inhaled deeply, his hand finding Ash’s head. Her condition held at a maddening standstill—stable enough to avoid immediate crisis, yet too severe for any real recovery.
She was caught in this middle ground, breath coming in heavy gasps, temperature climbing without pause, her wounds weeping blood that never seemed to slow.
Standing from the bed, Raiden glanced once more at Ash, pocketed Speed’s necklace, and headed for the exit. A week of silence stretched behind them. No attacks, no confrontations. The quiet felt ominous.
He walked out onto the grassy field where Leo and Levi were putting the captured goblins through their paces, the same creatures Raiden had subdued days ago. The sounds of combat barely registered. His attention was fixed elsewhere entirely—on the sky.
He looked up at the apparent emptiness, but the feeling wouldn’t leave him—someone was watching. His danger senses stayed dormant, unusually quiet, yet his assassin’s training ran bone-deep. He’d spent too many years in that world not to recognize the weight of hidden observation.
Yet nothing revealed itself. He’d scanned every inch of the surrounding area. Frustrated, he retreated back into the house and activated his invisibility, hoping to detect the heat signature of whoever—or whatever—was spying on them. Again, he found nothing.
The sensation had been plaguing him for two days now, but with no concrete evidence to support his instincts, he decided to abandon the search. With a resigned exhale, he allowed himself to become visible again.
Turning left, he made his way toward the group. Raiden’s initial orders had been simple: kill the goblins. But Leo and Levi had slaughtered most of them within minutes. With the three remaining creatures, he’d painted ink marks on the backs of their necks and revised the exercise—erase the ink without taking their lives.
He’d designed the exercise to improve their reflexes, battle awareness, and decision-making under pressure. But one look at the current situation had him shaking his head, hand slapping against his forehead in obvious disappointment.
They were both pursuing the same flawed strategy: pin down the goblins, then scrape off the ink by brute force. True, the creatures’ obstinate nature and sharp self-preservation instincts made them difficult to catch despite their weak physiques, and some cunning would be necessary. However, this wasn’t the skill Raiden wanted them to develop.
"Stand down," Raiden ordered, walking past them and approaching one of the cornered goblins.