Ashen Ascension: The Divided Flame-Chapter 52: Face Off Against Them All

The boy screamed. The sound tore through the forest, sharp and uncontrolled.

Luna flinched. Not because of the act itself, but because of how easily he had done it. There had been no anger in his face.

Ivor’s expression remained unchanged as he twisted the sword and pulled it free. Blood followed the blade as it slid out. The boy writhed on the ground, clutching at his leg, his breathing broken by pain.

Fragments of memory surfaced in Ivor’s mind. He remembered the feeling of being on the ground. The weight of their kicks. The helplessness. Even through the haze he had been in, he remembered the smell of each of them. That memory remained clear.

He angled the sword toward the boy’s other leg.

The boy saw it and panicked, scrambling backward, his hands clawing at the dirt as he tried to escape.

Ivor stepped forward and brought his foot down hard on the boy’s ankle, crushing it into the ground. The bone gave beneath the force. At the same time, the sword came down again, piercing through the boy’s left thigh.

Another scream followed.

It echoed farther than the first. For a moment, Ivor felt something else rise within him. A quiet, cold urge that directed his attention to the boy’s neck. It would take almost no effort. One motion. One strike.

He could end it. His grip tightened.

But he stopped. His jaw clenched as he forced the instinct down. He did not act on it.

He turned his head.

Three more boys had entered the clearing.

They froze when they saw him standing there and their friend broken on the ground. Their eyes moved between the blood, the sword in Ivor’s hand, and his face.

Anger surfaced quickly. But they did not move. Ivor could feel the others arriving. More footsteps. More presences spreading through the trees, closing the distance.

They were surrounding him. He remained where he was, the sword steady in his hand. Behind him, Luna moved forward and came to stand beside him. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

Within seconds, the clearing filled with movement. Footsteps rushed in from every direction. Branches snapped. Voices called out to one another. The quiet forest from moments ago turned into a tightening circle of bodies and intent.

Ivor did not turn his head.

He counted.

One. Two. Three.

More entered. Including the boy broken behind him, there were seventeen. He had not looted from this many. That much he knew. Which meant only one thing. The boy Nara had been fighting held influence. Enough to gather others quickly. Enough that they had all come.

Then that boy entered the clearing.

He did not rush like the others. He walked forward calmly, a naked blade resting in his hand. His posture was straight, his breathing controlled, his attention fixed.

Ryker.

The first thing Ivor noticed was his body. There were no visible injuries. No limp. No hesitation in his step. He concluded that Nara had been defeated.

Ryker’s eyes did not wander. They found Ivor immediately and stayed there. He had seen him before—injured, bleeding, barely conscious.

Now he saw something else.

Ivor still looked thin compared to the others. His body carried the signs of long hunger and hardship. But he stood upright without strain. His breathing was calm. His grip on the sword was steady. And his eyes. They were the darkest black he had ever seen. They did not look away. There was no fear in them.

Ryker stopped five feet away from him.

The clearing fell quiet.

No one moved.

Ivor stood still, but inside, his awareness shifted. He reached inward. The Ember Seed responded instantly.

He willed and activated the new ability Soul Sense once again.

The seed flickered.

A faint pulse spread outward from him, invisible. It passed through the air and returned information directly to him. The range was not large, no more than ten feet, but within that space, nothing could move without him knowing.

He felt them.

Behind him.

Beside him.

Before him.

Every shift of weight. Every tightening grip. Every breath taken in preparation. Nothing could surprise him now.

Ryker locked his eyes onto Ivor, and despite seeing the same weak, malnourished boy standing in front of him, he felt an unfamiliar unease rise within his chest. He could not explain it, nor did he want to acknowledge it, but something about Ivor’s stillness and the way he stood without hesitation made him tighten his grip on his sword. He did not like that feeling, and he did not allow it to linger.

"Where are the crystals?" Ryker asked.

The boys behind him were visibly surprised by the question. Some of them looked at one another, not expecting him to begin with words when he had gathered them all here for punishment. They had assumed he would strike immediately.

Ivor did not answer. His mind was already moving ahead of the moment, measuring the distance between them, the angle of Ryker’s stance, and the presence of the others surrounding him.

At the same time, another realization formed in his mind, and his lips lifted slightly in response. He had attuned ten soul nodes, and he had read before that when humans attuned ten mana nodes, their strength increased by twenty-five percent. That meant when he reached that point in his mana circuit as well, his body would undergo another increase. For others, that threshold came once, but for him, it would come twice.

Ryker noticed the faint smile on Ivor’s face, and anger surfaced immediately. He interpreted it as defiance, as though the boy standing before him did not understand his position.

"You will return them all," Ryker said, his voice hardening. "Or I will beat them out of you."

He stepped forward and lunged, thrusting his sword straight toward Ivor’s midsection.

Instead of retreating, Ivor stepped forward into the attack. He turned his body at the last moment, allowing the blade to pass beside him without touching him. The movement was precise and controlled, guided by instinct and the awareness flowing through Soul Sense. Before Ryker could recover from the missed strike, Ivor moved.

His sword rose in a vertical slash, cutting upward toward Ryker’s chest.

Ryker’s eyes widened slightly as he realized the counterattack had already begun. He reacted immediately and pushed himself backward, but he was a fraction too slow. The blade passed through his upper robes, slicing the fabric cleanly before he cleared the full path of the strike.

Gasps spread through the clearing as the others witnessed it.

Ryker landed several steps back, his posture no longer relaxed. His grip on the sword tightened, his attention sharpening as he reassessed the boy in front of him.

Ivor did not press forward immediately.

He understood the difference between them.

The others here had been trained. Their movements carried discipline. Their strikes followed patterns taught to them. Ivor did not possess that same foundation. He had trained only with his father, and even that had been with wooden weapons, not in structured combat like this.

He had no intention of engaging Ryker in a prolonged sword fight. His goal was simple. He would end it quickly.

Before Ryker could adapt.

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