Chapter 17: Shadows of the Hunt

"He survived?!" A porcelain teacup shattered against marble tiles in the aristocratic northern district. Chu Jie's roar sent his servants cowering. "That unawakened trash crawled back from the wilds?!"

Days earlier, he'd toasted to Chu Xun's presumed death. Now, the failure of his spies burned like acid. Jie San groveled at his feet, forehead bleeding from frantic kowtows. "Young Master, I swear I watched him leave! He must've—"

A stone-encased foot crushed the servant's skull. Brain matter splattered across imported quartz flooring. The remaining attendants froze like prey animals.

Only the cloaked figure by the courtyard's moon gate remained unfazed. "Ghostblade." Chu Jie flicked gore from his petrified toes. "Erase that bastard. Cleanly."

The assassin's raspy chuckle slithered through his rebreather mask. "Tsk. Kinslaying breaches clan law."

"Twenty standard cores." A titanium case clinked onto the blood-slick tiles. "Or do I find someone hungrier?"

Ghostblade's gloved hand blurred. The payment vanished. "The boy dies before moonrise."

Unaware of the contract on his life, Chu Xun tested his enhanced physiology in the safety of his sparse apartment. Steel kitchen knives snapped against his retractable claws. Flexing revealed bioluminescent veins threading beneath his skin – residual effects of the mysterious "Dragon's Boon" serum.

His summoned Xenomorph whined at his feet, its stature reduced to that of a malnourished hound after their genetic symbiosis. "Don't worry, buddy." He scratched its domed cranium, earning a purr-like vibration. "We'll fatten you up post-exams."

The citywide lockdown complicated matters. Without access to wilderness prey, both their growth stalled. Chu Xun's holographic calendar pulsed red – ten days remained until the Academy Trials. His upgraded physique might surpass average initiates, but against Chu Qing's rumored third-stage awakening…

A flicker outside his barred window.

Chu Xun's claws unsheathed instinctively. The Xenomorph hissed, dorsal spines flaring. Three blocks away, Ghostblade lowered his thermal scope.

"Interesting," the assassin mused, noting the anomalous energy readings. His modified ocular implant tagged seventeen vital points on Chu Xun's glowing silhouette. "This'll fetch bonus pay."

Midnight approached. Chu Xun's improvised training – flipping his steel-frame bed one-handed – halted when all power grids failed. Emergency luminescence bathed the city in eerie blue.

The Xenomorph's shriek came milliseconds before the window exploded inward. Chu Xun rolled left as a monofilament wire bisected his bedding. Ghostblade landed in a crouch, hummingblade resonating at ultrasonic frequencies.

"Ten seconds." The assassin's voice modulator distorted into mechanical taunting. "Make them count, little—"

Acid spray hit his chestplate. The Xenomorph's tail strike came low and vicious, shearing through reinforced kneecaps. Chu Xun was already moving, claws raking upward in a decapitating arc.

Ghostblade's scream cut off as his rebreather tank ruptured. Dragon's Boon-enhanced talons met alloy spine – and prevailed.

The assassin's collapsing body revealed Chu Xun's apartment wall now decorated with a glowing symbol: a serpentine dragon etched in phosphorescent acid.

"Clever pests." Dr. Nan Gong observed the duel's aftermath through hijacked surveillance drones. Her lab's quantum computers decrypted the acid sigil's meaning – a challenge to Dragon Keep's enforcers.

She siphoned Ghostblade's neural data from the city's black market autopsy feeds. The assassin's final memories played across holograms: Chu Jie's sneering payment, Chu Xun's bioluminescent claws, that infernal creature's strategic brutality.

"Specimen X-001 exceeds projections." Her scalpel traced the Xenomorph's thermal signature. "Time to escalate testing parameters."

Dawn found Chu Xun burning evidence. Ghostblade's remains dissolved in a stolen industrial acid vat, his hummingblade now stored beneath floorboards. The Xenomorph gnawed contentedly on the assassin's carbonized femur.

"We're being watched." Chu Xun's enhanced hearing caught the telltale buzz of nano-drones. His reflection in the acid pool showed eyes gleaming with predatory awareness – no longer entirely human.

Somewhere beneath the city, Dr. Nan Gong's laughter echoed through sterile corridors.