SSS-Ranked Evolution: Worlds Unbound-Chapter 107: don’t buy

When Ren was 16, she came back to celebrate his birthday and had gifted him his most precious item, a dagger. He used it for everything, hunting, fighting... 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

Ren brought out the dagger from his tunic and tears were almost forced out of his eyes, "I want to see you again sister." his concentration was broken when he heard Luna again, whining. She had brought game for them and as they sat down to eat, Ren could tell she was sad. She was not eating as much as she usually did.

"What is it?" he nudged her head, but it was just another whine. Her tail was deflated too, and her sad eyes gave her away, "it’s about the wolves right?" he guessed, and she whined in affirmation. He could only imagine how she must have felt to see her siblings under the corruption. And while he couldn’t do much, he gave her more head rubs and a kiss to make her feel better.

They watched the stars together and were even fortunate enough to see a shooting star, upon which Ren wished, "I want everything to go back to normal." a silent whisper before sleep took him away.

At the breaking of dawn, they began their journey again and Karnak was closer than estimated. Eventually, they reached the gate. It was old and almost crumbling and when Ren took in the environment, he felt the misery of the old town.

The town was utterly lifeless, but it wasn’t just the absence of people that made it feel this way—it was the emptiness that spoke louder than words. The sky above churned with dark clouds, heavy with the promise of rain. The first drops fell as he crossed the broken stone bridge at the town’s edge, turning the dirt beneath his boots into a muddy mess.

The buildings were in various stages of decay—crooked wooden beams, crumbling stone walls, and shattered windows. Their broken forms leaned as if trying to hold onto one another, resisting the inevitable collapse. The air was cold and damp, carrying with it a faint smell of rot and earth. Ren swore he could almost hear whispers in the wind—distant echoes of laughter, cries, and the bustle of a life long gone.

Ren could feel the anger and sorrow still lingering here, woven into the very stones of the town. This wasn’t just a forgotten place; it was a graveyard of dreams.

As the rain grew heavier, it washed over the empty streets, trickling through cracks in the stone and pooling in the uneven ground. The sound of the raindrops on the rooftops was rhythmic and hollow, like a mourning song. Ren’s eyes lingered on the abandoned carts and scattered tools left in the open, as if the town’s people had dropped everything in a desperate rush. Somewhere, a lone wooden sign creaked in the wind, its faded letters unreadable now.

A broken statue stood at the town square, half-buried in mud and rubble, its features worn away by time and neglect. It looked like it had once been a symbol of hope or pride, but now it stood as a cruel reminder of how the empire had turned its back on this place.

Ren tightened his grip on his sword. He wasn’t alone here. He could feel it. Monsters had claimed what humanity had left behind, but the real monster, he thought bitterly, was the empire’s indifference.

Abruptly, Luna stopped, her nose twitching in the air. She turned around, sniffing more, before she began barking. Loudly. As if trying to scare someone to come out. Ren halted, and wondered what she had seen. But as he crossed the distance between them, the whistle of the wind shot through his ears.

Ducking almost immediately into a roll, he evaded a shuriken that was strong enough to slice the remnants of the broken statue into two. Such a clean cut. Ren’s eyes widened, if he hadn’t moved fast enough, the ninja star would have taken his head right off his body. His eyes scanned everywhere, looking for who had thrown the weapon at him. His instincts kicked in again, dodging swiftly to evade another shuriken.

"Show yourself!" he screamed to the air, only the raindrops were audible, his eyes darting from left to right. Then. The whistle. With a take-off, he dodged multiple shurikens of smaller size thrown at him, his form bolted, using an old carriage as a springboard to avoid being killed. His eyes caught a shadow on top of an abandoned building, "Luna, strike!" he gave the command and with the flick of her tails, she threw lightning bolts at the intruder, causing the building to crumble completely.

"This place is not meant for people like you." a snarl came from all around, and soon enough, the intruder revealed himself. He was in black ninja attire and a sturdy mask covered his face. Ren’s brows furrowed, was he another one sent by the empire to hunt him?

"You have no say in my business." Ren took a battle stance, with Luna beside him. The assassin cocked his brows, wondering who he was but not wanting to waste any more time, he drew a battle stance.

"The dead have no business in the land of the living."

The rain fell harder now, drumming against the ruins of Karnak as Ren faced the assassin. The man was shrouded in a dark hood, his face masked, and his movements unnervingly swift. The assassin’s hand flicked, and a shuriken glinted in the dull light before slicing through the air toward Ren. He barely raised his short sword in time, the blade deflecting the attack with a sharp clang.

Before Ren could counter, the assassin darted forward, spinning low and slashing with another knife-like shuriken. Ren sidestepped, his boots slipping slightly in the mud, and swung his sword, but the assassin was too fast. A hard kick to Ren’s gut sent him staggering back, his breath knocked out in a sharp gasp.

The assassin leapt onto a crumbling building with inhuman agility, perching like a bird of prey. From above, a rain of shurikens came down, each one deadly and precise.

Ren gritted his teeth, flipping backward as a blade narrowly missed his face. He twisted and rolled, his movements sharp but growing desperate as more blades tore into the

Ren didn’t wait. Ignoring the pain in his side, he sprinted toward the assassin, his boots splashing through puddles. The assassin staggered to his feet, his mask cracked, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.

"You won’t make it to them," the assassin snarled, his voice trembling with both pain and rage, "Even if it kills me, I’ll end you here."

Ren’s anger boiled over. "People live in Karnak?! Who are they?!" he roared, slamming his head into the assassin’s, the impact splitting the skin on his brow. The assassin stumbled back, blood mixing with the rain as it dripped from his mouth. Both of them crash into an abandoned shop.

Ren threw him out of the crumbling shop they’d crashed into, his strength fuelled by desperation. The assassin barely recovered before Ren’s sword came for him again. Their blades clashed violently, the sound ringing through the empty streets like a death knell.

The fight reached a fever pitch. Their strikes were faster, more savage, each one aiming to end the other. Ren saw an opening and kicked, but the assassin dodged and drove a blade into Ren’s side. The pain was excruciating, white-hot, but Ren didn’t stop.

The assassin jumped back onto a building and unleashed a final barrage of homing shurikens. Ren gritted his teeth, blood pouring from his wounds as he sprinted across the walls of the ruined town, evading the deadly blades by a hair’s breadth.

But he couldn’t keep this up. His vision blurred, his body weakening. "Luna... Strike now!" he gasped in desperation.

The wolf growled, electricity sparking across her fur. She released a bolt that struck the assassin mid-air, throwing him off balance. The man fell, his body slamming into the ground hard.

Ren didn’t hesitate. He moved faster than his body should’ve allowed, his desperation giving him one last burst of strength. The assassin tried to rise, but Ren’s roundhouse kick sent him sprawling back into the mud.

Ren planted his boot on the assassin’s chest and held his short sword to the man’s throat. Both of them were breathing hard, their faces pale, bloodied, and soaked in rain.

"It’s over, move another inch and I will sever your head from your body." Ren warned, his voice low and cold.

The assassin glared up at him, hatred burning in his eyes. He struggled to move, the more his life force left him, the weaker he felt, "who..." he coughed out blood, his mask laying feet away from him, broken and his face visible to Ren, "are...you?"

"A Beast tamer."

"You are from the empire, you will not find him here." blood splattered from his mouth with a hard cough. The lightning attack had done more damage than he had expected, but his words only made Ren’s eyes twist in confusion.