Aria Frost stood with her arms crossed.
Aria tapped the screen. "Our team’s been assigned to assist with the suppression of the Black Fang Syndicate."
Felix frowned. "Black Fang?"
"They operate in the eastern districts," Darius said. "They’ve been around for years."
Felix looked at the map. "How many victims?"
"Thirty-two confirmed." Aria continued.
His fingers tightened slightly. "Still alive?"
"Most of them."
Aria kept going. "Yesterday we finally located their primary headquarters." A large underground facility appeared on the screen. "It’s beneath an abandoned industrial complex."
Darius smiled. "So we’re finally kicking down the door."
"Our objective is straightforward. Infiltrate the compound, rescue the hostages, secure the evidence, and capture the syndicate leadership." She paused. "Alive."
Darius nodded. "Understood."
Felix looked at the map again. "What about combat strength?"
"Forty-three confirmed awakened members. Three A-rank threats, though one was recently downgraded to B-rank."
Felix smiled. "So nothing too difficult."
Aria looked directly at him. "Don’t get careless."
"When have I ever been careless?"
The entire team stared at him in unison. Felix blinked. "...Okay. Bad question."
The team arrived at the industrial complex shortly before noon. From the outside it looked genuinely abandoned, rust-covered machinery, broken windows, old storage containers, nothing to suggest what was underneath.
Felix looked around. "That’s almost suspiciously boring."
Darius nodded. "Criminal organizations usually aren’t considerate enough to decorate their headquarters."
Aria raised her hand, and everyone stopped. "Positions." The team split, Aria and Darius toward the main entrance, Felix with the second group, the rescue team holding back outside, ready to move the hostages once they were found.
Aria looked around at everyone. "Remember. Hostages first." A round of nods answered her, and then she lowered her hand. "Move."
The entrance exploded inward, and the operation began.
The first wave of criminals barely lasted thirty seconds. Felix stepped through the smoke as a man rushed him with a mana-coated blade; he sidestepped, let the blade miss, and drove his elbow into the man’s stomach hard enough to fold him instantly.
Another came at him from behind, he ducked under the fist, grabbed the arm that followed, twisted, and put the man on the floor.
"Two," Kael’s voice came through the comm.
"Four," Lena answered immediately.
"Stop counting."
"Why?"
"Because we’re professionals."
Felix laughed. "Keep arguing, I’ll take the rest."
"Don’t you dare."
The fight moved through the corridors like that, unlike monsters, the criminals fought with weapons, traps, formations, ambushes.
But Felix had spent years fighting intelligent enemies, and to him human or monster hardly mattered; an enemy was an enemy, and he was exceptionally good at reading them. A nervous glance, a shifting foot, a tightening hand, a change in breathing, every movement gave something away, and he anticipated attacks before they landed.
Whenever a teammate went down, healing mana was already covering the wound before they hit the ground.
"Ryan, behind you."
Ryan turned just as a blade started to descend, and Felix was already there, his forearm caught the strike with a hard *clang*, and his answering fist sent the attacker flying backward.
Ryan stared at him. "Thanks."
"Try not to die."
"I’ll do my best."
"Good." Felix turned to the next criminal already charging in and smiled. "Next."
Several minutes later the team reached the underground section. The deeper they went, the more reinforced the facility became.
"This place is huge."
Aria looked at the structure around them. "They’ve invested heavily in it."
Darius pointed ahead. "Movement." Everyone went alert and moved forward together.
Then they found them.
Cells. Dozens of them, and children inside: some unconscious, others curled against the walls. One little girl looked up as Felix approached and flinched. He immediately dropped to her eye level.
"Hey."
She stared at him. "Are you from the Association?"
"Yeah."
Her eyes filled with tears, and Felix pressed his hand gently against the cell. "You’re safe now."
Her shoulders finally relaxed, and his healing mana spread through the room, their breathing stabilized, pain eased, and bodies began to recover.
The rescue team rushed in behind him. "Get the medical equipment!" "Move the children carefully!"
Felix went from cell to cell: broken bones, mana exhaustion, malnutrition, poisoning, he healed whatever he could reach.
But with every door he opened, something in his expression went a little colder. He’d fought countless monsters. He’d killed criminals. He’d seen the worst things people were capable of. Still, there was something particularly disgusting about treating children as merchandise.
A voice echoed from behind him. "You heroes always arrive too late."
Felix stopped.
A man stood at the end of the chamber, his mana pressure heavy enough to fill the room: A-rank, and his eyes were cold. "You think rescuing a few children makes you righteous?"
Felix rose slowly. "No." He glanced at the children behind him, then back at the man. "I don’t care about being righteous. I just want you to pay some price for hurting them."
The man’s mana erupted around him. Felix smiled.
The fight that followed was brutal. The man’s enhancement ability dramatically increased his physical strength, he smashed through a reinforced wall like it was drywall, and his strikes came fast, faster, faster again.
Felix avoided the first, the second, the third, watching the pattern settle into something predictable. He waited for the next one.
It came. Felix stepped inside the man’s reach and drove his fist into the ribs, the crack was audible and the man staggered.
Felix caught his arm, twisted it, and slammed him into the ground hard enough to crack the floor beneath him.
The man tried to rise. Felix set a foot against his back. "Stay down."
"You think this changes anything?"
"No." His expression went completely flat. "But it changes what happens to you."
A few seconds later, the man was unconscious.
Darius arrived and took in the scene. "Alive?"
"Barely."
Aria walked over. "You were instructed to capture him."
"I did."
"You nearly broke every bone in his body."
Felix shrugged. "He was resisting."
By evening, the Black Fang Syndicate was finished: leadership captured, facilities secured, operations documented. Most importantly, the kidnapped children had been rescued.
As the transport vehicles carried the prisoners away, Felix stood outside the industrial complex and watched the children being led to the medical vehicles. One little girl stopped, turned, and gave him a small wave. He smiled and waved back.
Aria stood beside him. "You did well."
Felix shrugged. "Just doing my job."
She glanced at him. "You know, you’re surprisingly good at this."
"At what?"
"Dealing with people."
"Monsters are easier than people."Felix stated.
Aria raised an eyebrow. "That’s debatable."
"Not for me." He watched the medical vehicles pull away.
After a moment he turned toward the transport. "Let’s go home."
Wednesday evening, Felix returned to Valemont City. The mission had run longer than expected, but the Association was calling it a success. He dropped his gear by the door and collapsed onto the sofa.
He stared at the ceiling.
His phone buzzed, a message from the Association: *Rehabilitation program resumes Thursday.*
He stared at it, then smiled. "Right. Thursday. Acheron."
He’d gotten used to the rhythm by now, three days fighting monsters, or apparently criminals; then two days underground.
He closed his eyes, and for some reason found himself wondering what Seraphina had thought of the books he’d left her. "Guess I’ll find out tomorrow."
Thursday morning, the elevator descended. Felix stood beside Gideon Rask, hands in his pockets, and neither of them spoke for several floors.
Finally Gideon glanced over. "You brought something."
Felix looked down at the three books tucked under his arm. "Yeah."
"For her?"
"Yeah."
Gideon gave him a strange look.
The elevator kept descending until the doors finally opened onto Acheron Deep Detention Facility. Felix followed Gideon through the reinforced corridors to Seraphina’s cell, and the door slid open.
She was sitting exactly where she’d been before, a book resting in her hands. When she looked up, her eyes went to him, then to the books under his arm.
Felix smiled. "I brought you something."
She stared at them for a few seconds, then met his eyes. "More?"
He held out the first book. "Don’t blame me if you hate them."
She took it, her fingers brushing his for just a moment. She looked at him. "Thank you."
Felix blinked. It was such a small thing, but hearing them from her felt different.
"You’re welcome."
She lowered her eyes back to the book. What Felix didn’t notice was that she was no longer simply waiting for his sessions. She had started waiting for him.