Veer smirked, shaking his head. "Terrifying," he muttered fondly, before leaping up the wall after her, with Cutie scaling the rock face right beside them using his massive claws like ice picks.
The climb was grueling, but they moved with brutal efficiency. By the time they hauled themselves over the jagged lip of the canyon’s rear wall, the sky was just beginning to turn a faint, bruised purple in the east.
They dropped silently into the shadows of the upper parapets.
Kaya immediately held up a hand, signaling them to stop. Ten yards away, guarding the rear entrance to the inner sanctum, were two massive Snake Tribe sentries. They were heavily armored, gripping long venom-tipped spears.
But Kaya’s tactical assumption had been entirely correct.
The sentries were cold-blooded. In the freezing, pre-dawn temperature, their biology was actively failing them. They were huddled together, shivering violently, their eyes half-closed and glazed over. They were practically in a state of forced hibernation, their reaction times slowed to an absolute crawl.
Veer didn’t even need to use his blades. He moved like a phantom, slipping across the stone floor without a sound. He stepped behind the first guard, snapping his neck with a swift, brutal twist. Before the second guard could even process what was happening, Cutie was there. One massive paw clamped over the guard’s mouth, while the other crushed his windpipe with a sickening crunch.
Two elite sentries, dead in less than three seconds.
Kaya let out a breath she didn’t realize she was holding. She gestured forward, and the three of them slipped past the dead guards, descending the stone stairs into the absolute heart of the Venom-tooth Canyons.
The transition from the rough outer walls to the inner sanctum was jarring. Kaya found herself walking down massive, sprawling corridors made of polished black obsidian. Emerald-green torches burned low on the walls, casting eerie shadows that stretched infinitely into the dark. The sheer luxury of the place was staggering. Gold trim lined the doorways, and thick, expensive carpets muffled their footsteps.
"They live like kings while the rest of the continent fights for scraps," Veer murmured, his eyes scanning the dark hallways for threats.
"Not for much longer," Kaya whispered back.
From the front of the canyon, miles away from their current position, the faint, muffled sounds of shouting and the rhythmic beating of war drums echoed through the stone walls. Lord Siss’s archers were firing arrows. The fake Free Clan army was doing its job, providing the perfect acoustic cover for their infiltration.
They moved swiftly toward the lower levels, following the layout Kaya had extracted from the hyenas. They found the treasury doors relatively unguarded—a testament to Lord Siss’s arrogance. Cutie effortlessly ripped the heavy iron lock off the hinges, and they slipped inside.
The room was filled to the brim with chests of gold coins, rare medicinal herbs stored in glass vials, and racks of high-grade steel weapons stolen from merchant caravans. Cutie immediately unfurled a massive burlap sack and began sweeping everything he could reach into it, his eyes wide with practical delight.
But as Kaya stood in the center of the treasury, a cold, unsettling feeling began to creep up the back of her neck.
She looked around. The air was entirely too still.
The hyenas had told her that the inner sanctum was lightly guarded because the Snake Tribe relied on the marsh and the front gates. But "lightly guarded" didn’t mean entirely abandoned. They had walked through three major corridors and the central treasury without seeing a single patrol. Even for lethargic, cold-blooded beasts, this level of emptiness was statistically impossible.
Kaya’s mind raced, running the variables. The fake army. The hyenas. The interrogation.
’What if the hyenas cracked?’
She had relied on their fear of the fake poison to keep them in line. But what if Lord Siss was smart enough to see through it? What if he realized the army at the front gate was a distraction? If he knew the army was fake, he would know the real threat was sneaking in the back.
Which meant he hadn’t pulled his guards to the front wall. He had pulled them into the shadows.
"Veer," Kaya said, her voice tight, dropping all pretense of stealth. "Stop packing. We need to leave. Now."
Veer froze, looking at her pale face. "What’s wrong?"
"It’s a trap," Kaya realized, drawing her hunting knife as she backed toward the treasury door. "He didn’t take the bait. He set his own."
As if on cue, the heavy obsidian doors of the treasury slammed shut with a deafening, echoing boom, sealing them inside. The emerald torches lining the walls suddenly flared violently to life, flooding the room with blinding green light.
From the shadows of the treasury’s upper balconies, dozens of elite Snake guards melted into view. They didn’t look lethargic or cold. They looked heavily armed, wide awake, and they all had their bows drawn, aiming paralytic venom-tipped arrows directly at Kaya, Veer, and Cutie.
And from the center of the balcony, a slow, melodic, chilling laugh echoed through the room.
Lord Siss slithered forward, his massive black coils wrapping elegantly around the stone railing. He looked down at them with an expression of pure, arrogant amusement.
"Welcome to my home, little human," Lord Siss hissed, his amber eyes glowing with lethal intent. "I must admit, your beggar’s trick with the hyenas was highly entertaining. But did you honestly believe you could outvenom a snake?"
Kaya stared up at the massive, thirty-foot serpent coiled arrogantly around the balcony railing. Dozens of venom-tipped arrows were pointed directly at her chest, the heavy obsidian doors were sealed shut, and they were entirely surrounded by elite killers. The situation was objectively terrifying.
So naturally, Kaya let out a loud, highly critical sigh and crossed her arms.
"Honestly?" Kaya called out, her voice echoing clearly across the treasury. "I just thought a three-hundred-year-old snake would have slightly better taste in interior decorating. Black obsidian and glowing green torches? Really? It’s a bit cliché, don’t you think? It’s giving ’insecure villain with a massive superiority complex.’ And the gold trim is just tacky."
The absolute silence that followed her words was deafening.
The elite Snake guards up on the balconies actually twitched in shock, their bows wavering slightly. No one in the history of the Western territories had ever spoken to the ancient Snake Lord with anything less than absolute, groveling reverence. To critique his home décor while standing in a kill box was a level of suicidal disrespect they couldn’t even process.
Lord Siss’s beautiful, flawless face twitched. The arrogant amusement melted entirely, replaced by a cold, venomous fury. His slit-pupil eyes narrowed into dangerous slits.
"Kill the beasts," Lord Siss hissed, his voice trembling with dark malice. "But cripple the human. I want to pull her tongue from her mouth myself."
The air instantly filled with the deadly ’twang’ of dozens of bowstrings snapping forward.
"Cutie!" Kaya yelled, dropping low to the ground.
The giant rabbit beastman didn’t hesitate. With a deafening roar, Cutie plunged his massive claws into the heavy, solid oak and iron chest of gold coins beside him.
Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!
Use arrow keys (or A / D) to PREV/NEXT chapter