Chapter 242 Shot

Chapter 242 Shot
>>Riona
Demos’s words barely registered at first. My eyes were locked onto the blood staining his clothes, the deep crimson that soaked through his shirt. My heart hammered in my chest as I watched him stand up despite the injury. My hand shot out instinctively, grabbing his arm to steady him, my voice frantic.
“No, Demos, you need to rest. You’re hurt,” I said, my voice shaking, though I was trying so hard to sound strong. “You can’t just keep going.”
He ignored me, his gaze sharp and calculating, even with the blood dripping down his side. “This doesn’t make sense,” he muttered, his voice low but intense. “Why would they attack us here? Out of nowhere? It doesn’t add up.”
I wanted to argue, to tell him to sit down and let me help, but before I could say anything else, I heard footsteps. Loud, fast, the unmistakable sound of more people approaching.
"More of them," Demos hissed, his eyes narrowing, his muscles tensing as he prepared himself to fight once more.
Before I could even react, the alley was flooded with more thugs. They came from every direction, running toward us with weapons raised, ready to finish what they had started.
I stared at Demos. And I knew that look on his face, he had no plans of running.
I gritted my teeth.
That only means I have to stand by his side and support him!
The moment the thugs swarmed us, everything became a blur of movement, adrenaline, and gritted teeth. Demos and I fell into sync, both of us launching into the fight without a second thought.
We fought like crazy and I knew I was strong but this was the first time that I felt like there was raw primal power coming from somewhere deep in me. Like another entity was there, supporting me.
The fighting continued. But soon, the chaos of the alley, the sheer number of attackers, separated us.
I could see Demos, tall and powerful even with blood staining his clothes, taking down thug after thug with brutal efficiency. He moved like a force of nature, dodging and striking, and in the blink of an eye, two men were already crumpled at his feet. Despite the injury, he was a storm, and nothing could stop him. But with each step he took, he got farther from me, and the noise of the fight made it hard to hear anything besides the thudding of fists and the grunts of men.
I was left with my own fight, and I could feel the weight of the battle settle in my chest. But something inside of me stirred. At first, I didn’t know what it was—this feeling of power, of strength that wasn’t my own, building up like a tide inside me. I threw my fist at a thug’s face, knocking him backward, and felt a surge of energy that propelled me forward, faster and stronger than I had ever been before.
My body moved of its own accord, my fists a blur as I took down one attacker, then another, moving fluidly, instinctively. I dodged a heavy swing from a crowbar and countered with a quick jab to the man’s ribs, sending him gasping to the ground. The power I felt—was it adrenaline? Rage? Whatever it was, I felt different. Stronger. Almost like something was waking up inside of me, urging me forward.
I didn’t stop to think about it. I just kept moving, clearing the alley of thugs one by one. There were more of them coming, though, and as I took another down, I noticed something strange. The alley was narrowing in on me, and the fight was taking me further from Demos. I glanced to my right and saw him engaged in a brutal fight of his own, moving toward the opposite side of the alley, as though our battles were pulling us apart.
I shouldn’t have been distracted. I should have kept my focus on the thugs around me, but I couldn’t help the way my eyes kept drifting toward him. He was so fluid, his every movement sharp and lethal, but I couldn’t deny the growing fear that I wasn’t going to be able to reach him in time if anything happened to him. The thugs were closing in on both of us, and though I fought harder than I ever had before, the distance between us felt like a wall.
Still, I couldn’t stop. I wasn’t going to leave him to fight alone.
Another thug came at me from the left, but I barely had to think before I reacted, dodging his attack and knocking him out with a well-placed kick. I had to finish this fight—my fight—before I could help him.
I moved through the alley with a renewed sense of purpose, not even registering the pain in my side as I dispatched another thug. My thoughts blurred into a single goal: survive. I had to fight. I had to help. It was the only thing that mattered.
The alley was emptying out now, the thugs retreating or lying unconscious on the ground, and I found myself standing there, panting but alive.
But Demos—he wasn’t finished yet. His fight wasn’t over.
I stood there for a moment, catching my breath, watching him. And then, without thinking, I began to move toward him. The world around me felt different—more real, sharper. The power that surged inside me felt like it was part of the air, part of the earth beneath my feet.
But before I could reach him, another figure appeared, coming out of the shadows. Another thug.
!!!
I shot my body around, back at him.
I raised my fist, ready to end this one too. But as the man lunged toward me, I realized something else had shifted. The power inside me had only just begun to reveal itself. And now, it was in full force.
I moved toward the thug with a speed I hadn’t known I had. He swung at me, but I dodged, my body flowing in ways I couldn’t explain. I countered with a series of blows, each one landing with precision, until he crumpled to the ground, his eyes wide in shock.
With the last of the thugs lying unconscious at my feet, I finally turned back toward Demos. He was still fighting,
With the last of the thugs lying unconscious at my feet, I finally turned toward Demos. My body felt lighter, adrenaline still coursing through my veins, the power inside me beginning to ebb. I felt stronger than I ever had before, but as I started moving toward him, I was jolted by the sudden crack of a gunshot.
!!???
The world seemed to freeze for a second. The sound of the shot echoed in my mind, but it wasn’t the noise that hit me—it was the pain. The sharp, searing pain that bloomed across my arm.
I staggered to a halt, my breath catching in my throat. I looked down, and that’s when I saw it—my arm. A red stain was spreading, soaking through my sleeve as blood pooled around the bullet wound. It was deep, the pain radiating outward, stealing my breath.
The cold, relentless pain seeped through my skin like ice, and then it spread, deep, burning through my nerves. I gritted my teeth, gasping as the world seemed to tilt, my knees buckling as the warmth of blood poured from the wound. It was hard to focus, hard to think, as the pain threatened to overwhelm me.
“Riona!” Demos’s voice shattered the haze. I looked up, seeing him finish off the last thug in one brutal strike. He turned toward me, his eyes wide with horror when he saw the blood spilling from my arm.
He screamed my name, his voice laced with panic as he rushed toward me, but before he could reach me, another shot rang out.
!!!!
This time, it wasn’t aimed at me.
I froze. My breath caught in my throat, the air thickening around me. The world seemed to slow as I watched the bullet fly, my heart sinking as it found its mark.
NO!
It pierced Demos’s skull with a sickening crack.
The impact was immediate.
He didn’t even have time to flinch, his body jerking violently before collapsing to the ground like a ragdoll. His eyes, wide in shock and pain, were locked on me as the life drained from them, leaving only emptiness. Then they closed
No…
Time slowed to a crawl as my heart thudded painfully in my chest. I watched, helpless, as Demos crumpled to the dirt, the blood seeping from his head like a dark tide, and all I could hear was the ringing in my ears.
My breath stopped. The world went silent, and everything inside me screamed in denial.
“No!” My voice broke, raw and desperate.
Everything felt unreal, like the ground was slipping from under me, and I was falling into a nightmare. My hand instinctively reached out toward Demos, but the distance between us felt endless.
I stumbled forward, my body betraying me as my legs gave out, sending me to my knees.
It couldn’t be real. It couldn’t.
The silence was unbearable, a heavy weight pressing down on my chest. My hand was still outstretched, reaching toward Demos, my mind struggling to comprehend what had just happened. My heart felt like it was slowly shattering in my chest, each breath harder than the last.
And then, another gunshot sliced through the air.
The bullet grazed my shoulder, a sharp sting that brought me back to reality with an agonizing jolt. I gasped, my body instinctively recoiling from the pain as I stumbled to my feet, my vision blurring from the force of it.
I looked up, and my heart nearly stopped.
A figure was emerging from the shadows on the opposite side of the alley. A man, his face obscured by the darkness, but the glint of his gun was unmistakable. He was walking slowly, methodically, toward me. Each step purposeful, deliberate. My body screamed at me to move, to run, to do anything—but the pain in my shoulder was too much, and my legs refused to obey.
I tried to focus on him, to make sense of everything, but the world felt distant, unfocused. My breaths were shallow, and the throbbing in my arm was consuming me.
The man’s footsteps echoed in the alley, each one dragging out the silence in the space. His face was obscured by the shadows, and the gun still clutched tightly in his hand. He moved toward Demos’ fallen body, his movements smooth, almost calculated, as if this wasn’t his first time leaving destruction in his wake.
I could barely breathe, my heart pounding painfully in my chest. My vision was blurry from the blood loss and the tears threatening to fall, but I could still see everything clearly enough as he knelt down beside Demos to inspect the body, his gloved hand brushing across the bloodied skin.