Chapter 4: The Double Game Revealed

But that was all—his face was still mostly contemptuous. He gave me a once-over, like he couldn’t believe I was worth the trouble.

The four behind Damon immediately surrounded Autumn, taking up defensive positions.

No one spoke. In an instant, both sides were locked in a standoff!

I quickly analyzed their abilities.

Autumn’s teleportation is easier to deal with, and now that she’s seriously hurt, she’s not much of a threat.

But I know Damon can freeze things, and he can manifest ice blades—he’s clearly tough.

The black-winged “Blackwing” obviously has the ability to fly.

The huge, muscular guy must be a powerhouse with super strength.

The copper-skinned, shirtless man is likely extremely tough, like a wall of bronze.

But the dwarf, barely three feet tall, I couldn’t figure out what his power was.

Just as I was thinking, an ice blade suddenly thrust at me.

“You killed Scarlet, so I’ll kill you for her!” As Damon finished speaking, the ice blade was already slashing toward my face.

But before the ice blade could hurt me, a butcher’s knife chopped it into shards of ice!

Jackson, holding the butcher’s knife, stepped beside me and stared straight at Damon. He said to me:

“Leave him to me.”

Jackson is taller than I am. Looking at his back, I thought he looked incredibly badass. There was something almost heroic about the way he squared his shoulders, ready to take on whatever came next.

After speaking, Damon snorted, and another seven-foot ice blade appeared in his right hand. Both blades stabbed straight at Jackson.

I didn’t hesitate any longer. My eyes instantly turned blood-red, my arms rubberized, and I extended the Titan Claws straight at the huge muscular guy.

I knew this battle would be brutal!

The big guy didn’t give me a chance to touch him with the Titan Claws. As soon as I reached him, he reacted fast, grabbing the Claws with both hands.

With a powerful yank, he dragged my whole arm in front of him like a rope, then kicked me in the stomach!

Pain!

Big Mike suffered the same fate.

When his sledgehammer struck the copper-skinned, shirtless man, it was like hitting a steel wall.

The copper man wasn’t hurt at all, and while Big Mike was stunned, he knocked Big Mike flying with a body slam!

What shocked me most was the dwarf. His mouth could actually spit silk like a spider. The silk was as thick as a finger and was wrapping around Savannah.

Savannah kept swinging her long knife to cut the silk, but it was clearly a struggle! The silk clung to her blade, sticky and strong, and every time she hacked through one strand, another took its place.

What surprised me even more was that I had thought Harper’s three-headed hellhound would be more than enough to deal with “Blackwing,” but Blackwing was incredibly fast. Although the hellhound couldn’t hurt him, it also couldn’t catch him!

They chased each other in the air, moving faster and faster. The hellhound’s growls echoed through the rafters, but Blackwing dodged and weaved, a blur of shadow and feathers.

Looking at Jackson, he was already locked in a fierce battle with Damon.

For a moment, the entire old Langley house became a battlefield filled with the sounds of combat. The walls shook with every blow, and the floorboards groaned under the weight of monsters and men. Dust drifted down from the rafters, swirling in the chaos.

......

I couldn’t worry about anyone else. My hands were still trapped by the big guy, so I quickly switched tactics. My already rubberized arms stretched out again, and at the same time, my legs elongated, wrapping around the big guy like ropes!

But the big guy seemed to expect this. As soon as I wrapped around him, he forcibly tore my body apart and punched me in the head!

Bang!

I felt dizzy, my head about to burst. Lights danced behind my eyelids, and for a split second, I thought I might black out.

My body snapped back to normal, and then the big guy slammed me against the wall like a sack of potatoes.

I felt as if my insides were about to shatter. The taste of copper filled my mouth, and I gasped, struggling to stay conscious.

Before I could even cry out, another figure was thrown in front of me.

I saw Savannah—except for her head, her entire body was wrapped in a cocoon of silk from the dwarf, and the dwarf was wrapping silk around her head as well.

Before I could get up to save her, her head was completely wrapped and she stopped moving.

No, she’ll suffocate!

Ignoring the pain, I forced myself up, used the Titan Claws to slice open the cocoon, and pulled Savannah out.

“Savannah, you okay?!”

Savannah had just managed to stand up, but before she could answer, the big guy charged at us.

His fist, as big as a bowling ball, smashed into my chest. I felt my ribs nearly break. The breath whooshed out of me, and I staggered back, vision swimming.

But I seized the chance, slashing at his abdomen with the Titan Claws.

Luckily, he wasn’t really a wall of metal—the Claws cut open his belly and blood gushed out!

The big guy staggered back in pain, but seeing the blood only made him angrier.

As he charged at us again, two claws suddenly swooped down from above, grabbing Savannah and me, lifting us out of the way of the big guy’s punch and into the air.

It was Harper, controlling the three-headed hellhound, who had saved us!

But the hellhound had barely flown twice before I felt a powerful force pulling us down.

Looking down, I saw countless finger-thick silk threads wrapping around our legs.

Below, the dwarf was spitting silk at us. Lacking strength, the big guy hugged him, and together the two tried to pull us down from the hellhound’s claws!

Blackwing tried to sneak attack the hellhound, but was blown away by its huge wings.

But the big guy’s strength was insane. I felt as if my feet were about to be torn off, and even the hellhound was wobbling in the air.

Jackson saw our predicament and wanted to help, but Damon’s frost kept him fully occupied!

And Big Mike, probably hurt by the copper man, was still lying on the ground.

The hellhound roared, lowered its head, and bit through the silk binding us.

After putting us down in a safe spot, Savannah and I both felt like we were falling apart.

Our opponents were just too strong! My arms trembled, and every breath burned. I glanced at Savannah—her face was pale, but her grip on her knife never wavered.

The hellhound tried to charge the big guy again, but was blocked by a suddenly appearing ice wall.

Damon could not only create ice blades, but also ice walls.

His power was even greater than I’d thought!

I wondered how he had time to deal with the hellhound, when I saw Jackson had been frozen in a block of ice.

“Jackson!” I shouted angrily and rushed to help, when suddenly the ice shattered.

Jackson, with blood-red eyes, holding the butcher’s knife, blood at the corner of his mouth, broke through all the ice that trapped him!

As expected of Jackson! The sight sent a jolt of hope through me—if anyone could turn the tide, it was him.

But as he rushed at Damon again, the copper man blocked Jackson’s butcher’s knife with his body.

Without hesitation, Jackson slashed again.

Bang!

The next moment, the copper man looked down in disbelief at his chest, where a bloody gash split open and blood spurted out.

His wall of bronze had been broken by Jackson!

“Leo!” Damon shouted in anger, then conjured an even bigger ice wall to block the hellhound. With a wave of his hand, dozens of seven-foot ice blades appeared, all shooting at Jackson.

Jackson slashed with his knife, but couldn’t block them all.

One ice blade wounded his right leg, and another pierced straight through his chest.

“Jackson!” Savannah and I shouted at the same time.

But he didn’t answer. He wobbled and almost fell, but stubbornly propped himself up with the butcher’s knife, refusing to go down. His knuckles were white on the handle, his breath ragged, but his eyes never left Damon.

Harper hurried over to support him. She slipped an arm around his waist, her face set in grim determination. For a second, the two of them looked like a pair of outlaws from some old Western, bloodied but unbowed.

Autumn finally smiled in satisfaction at this scene.

“With your strength, you think you can take us on?”

Damon stepped toward Jackson, his gaze cold and oppressive. The air around him crackled with frost, and every step he took left a patch of ice on the warped wooden floor.

Jackson coughed, looked at the ice blade in his chest, and forced a smile:

“I never thought I could kill all of you.”

“Then why go to all this trouble? Just to show off how clever you are?”

Jackson wiped the blood from his mouth and said in a low voice:

“If I’m not mistaken, you wouldn’t always carry the jade with you, would you?”

“What do you mean?” Damon’s eyes narrowed.

“Nothing, just a reminder. Such precious jade—if you don’t carry it with you, is it really safe?”

Jackson’s voice was clearly weak. He swayed on his feet, but there was a glint in his eyes, a spark that hadn’t been there before.

“What are you trying to say?” Damon clearly sensed something was off and grew anxious.

Harper looked up at him. “Vice President, you’re always so shrewd. How can you not see it now?”

“You were after the jade too?” Autumn finally reacted, looking at Jackson in surprise.

Jackson curled his lips. “If I’m right, Xavier should have already succeeded.”

Xavier?

Hearing Jackson’s words, I was also a little shocked.

What did this mean?

Damon frowned, clearly realizing something, but then looked at Jackson with contempt:

“Just Xavier?”

Jackson raised his head and met Damon’s gaze, his voice unusually firm:

“You could plant a mole in the Sunrise Circle. How do you know Xavier hasn’t done the same in Silver Hollow Society?”