Runebound Reverse Tower of The Dead-Chapter 101: Thin Ice

The two groups seemed to immediately understand the implications of Kael’s words.

Not because they liked hearing it. Not because they wanted to admit it out loud. But because it settled over the street like a hard, undeniable weight, something even pride couldn’t shrug off.

Even if they didn’t like it, he was right, even if they didn’t want to agree, he was still right.

A hidden piece can change the fate of a climber. And if it’s this early, it can mean the difference between life and death. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

It wasn’t just greed that pulled them into stillness; it was that sharp, ugly certainty: the kind of advantage you got once, early, and never again. The kind of thing that rewrote the rest of your climb before you even understood what the rest of your climb was.

"Come here, Kael," The Sun Clan boss said.

His voice carried without needing to rise. It wasn’t a shout like the Snakes used, nor a bark meant to intimidate, more like a command said with the confidence of a man used to other people moving when he spoke.

Kael’s eyes flicked over the clustered bandanas, the axes and crude blades, the bows held a little too ready. He could feel the tension in the bodies around him, shoulders set, fingers flexing, the same restless energy as a room full of dogs told to sit while meat dangled.

Looking at the Snakes who were surrounding the place for a second, Kael said, "Would be nice if these guys were to move away." He said.

He kept his tone light, almost lazy, like he was commenting on clutter instead of an armed wall that had tried to carve him open minutes ago. Inside, his pulse didn’t match the casualness at all. It bumped hard against his ribs, not from fear alone, anger too, the kind that tasted metallic at the back of his tongue. But once again, it began to calm down all too unnaturally.

"Not when you have that many cores!" The Snake Leader said, "You’re going nowhere!"

The leader’s voice had that practiced bite, loud enough for his people, confident enough to sound like certainty. His eyes stayed locked on Kael like a hook.

Kael’s mouth twitched. He let it. A tiny expression, just enough to bait. Then he lifted his arms in a slow stretch, rolling his shoulders as if the whole standoff was just an inconvenience.

"Too bad for you if you think I kept them," Kael flexed his arms.

Even through leather and the tracksuit layered over it, the motion made him look broader than he had any right to at level one, especially with how settled he seemed. Not swaggering, not blustering. Just... composed.

Though hidden by leather and covered by the tracksuit over it, it still looked impressive.

"All used up, I got myself a good powerup in terms of Stats, so, you still want them?"

He didn’t raise his voice. He didn’t need to. The words were a pebble dropped into a shallow pond, and the ripples were immediate.

The Snake leader cursed inwardly.

You could see the calculation flicker behind his eyes, fast and unpleasant. If Kael had dumped his cores into stats, the payout from killing him would be thin. If Kael had dumped cores into stats, Kael would be harder to kill. And if Kael was harder to kill, then even a "clean" mugging could turn into a messy, embarrassing pile of bodies right in front of everyone.

If he bought stats, he’s probably out of Cores he thought. That means that even if they kill him, he’ll only drop one core.

The leader’s jaw tightened. He didn’t like being cornered by logic. None of them did.

"Let’s be friends now," The Sun Clan boss said. "Kael, come over, no one’s going to harm you. Unless they want to have a full blown out war here."

The phrasing was almost polite. Almost.

But the threat was plain as day, wrapped in a smile that wasn’t friendly at all. Kael felt his stomach churn at the word friends. The last time he’d been "let’s be friends,"’d, it ended with poisoned water and shadows at his back.

"Sure thing... Boss," Kael said the last word, but inwardly he almost threw up.

How could he call someone Boss when they tried to kill him not even one day ago.

The Snakes looked at their own leader, waiting for the order.

They held in that tense in-between, half poised to step aside, half poised to lunge. Kael could read it in the way feet angled toward him, in the way a bowstring was touched like it was being reassured. Were they to let him through? Or kill him and risk their own lives?

Both were heavy with implications; the first meant concession to another leader. The second meant death to many Snakes.

A leader didn’t just decide a fight. He decided whether his people bled for pride.

"Fine, let him through." The Snake Leader said.

The words didn’t come easy. They came like grit forced between teeth.

Just as the bowman was about to interject, "But don’t you think this is the end of it. We’re not giving up on the hidden piece."

That statement made the crowd calm down a bit.

It wasn’t reassurance to Kael; it was reassurance to his own people. We’re conceding space, not surrendering. A promise that their hunger wasn’t being denied, only delayed.

Just because he gave them an inch, he won’t let the Sun Clan take a mile is what he meant.

The Snake group gave way for Kael to move between them, but the aggravated stares and muffled curses were all too clear for Kael.

He could feel them like heat on skin. Some spat on the ground as he passed. Some muttered words he didn’t need to hear clearly to understand. A few stared at his hands, like the gauntlet was already theirs in their minds.

He still walked down the stairs of the shop, looking once behind him to see Baltak snickering at the fanatics of humans. And thinking hard on how to screw everyone over.