NovelPlus
Storytelling

The Tap and The Truth: The Ballad of the Iron Crucible

Chapter 3

Theme:
Font Size:
24px
Chapter 5: The Ghost in the CornerThe blood flow to Lyra’s brain was instantly severely restricted. The oxygen to her lungs was cut off entirely as his forearm crushed her trachea. Her face flushed a violent, desperate crimson before her skin began to turn a terrifying, mottled shade of purple. Panic—a visceral, suffocating, primal terror that overrides all logical thought—exploded like a bomb in her chest. She raised her right hand and frantically, desperately slapped Kael’s massive arm.Smack. Smack. Smack."I tapped!" Lyra managed to choke out, the words nothing more than a raspy, desperate, terrifying wheeze. "Let go!"Kael merely smiled, his teeth stained a gruesome pink from the blood dripping from his own nose. He squeezed even harder, his muscles bulging, lifting her entire upper torso off the mat purely by her neck.The gym froze in collective horror. The bystander effect took a massive, suffocating hold over the room; dozens of tough, heavily tattooed, hardened cage fighters stood paralyzed. Even Coach Miller stood leaning against the cage door, his jaw tight, his eyes cold, chewing his gum rhythmically, but doing absolutely nothing to stop the assault.Just as the very edges of Lyra's vision began to collapse into a terrifying tunnel of dark, encroaching static, a voice cut cleanly through the heavy, suffocating silence of the room. It wasn't particularly loud, nor was it shouted, but it possessed a strange, acoustic density—a resonant, booming calm that commanded absolute, unquestionable attention."Let her go."A man stepped smoothly out of the deep shadows near the rusted bleachers. He had been a quiet fixture in the gym for the past week, a silent, unmoving observer who simply paid the day fee and watched. He appeared to be somewhere in his late fifties, with a neatly trimmed, salt-and-pepper beard, a completely bald head, and deep-set, dark eyes that held the terrifying, unreadable calm of deep ocean water. He wore a simple, faded blue canvas jacket and a pair of worn-out denim jeans.Chapter 6: The Fall of the GiantHe walked steadily to the edge of the cage. Despite his age, his footsteps made absolutely no sound against the mat. He reached his fingers through the chain-link fence and placed a single, impossibly steady hand directly on Kael's towering shoulder."Let her go."Kael’s eyes snapped open, his focus violently ripped from his victim. The sheer audacity of the interruption infuriated him more than Lyra's earlier evasiveness. He loosened his vice-like grip on Lyra's throat just enough to turn his thick neck, his monstrous ego demanding he immediately address and destroy the source of the challenge."Who the hell are you?" Kael roared, a thick blue vein pulsing dangerously against his throat.
PREV NEXT

News in the same category

The Tap and The Truth: The Ballad of the Iron Crucible

10 Part