The castle district rose before Jin like a fortress within a fortress. Stone walls twice the height of the outer city defenses enclosed the royal grounds, their surface scarred but unbroken. Smoke stained the pale granite black in places, and scorch marks spoke of techniques that had tried and failed to breach them.

  The main gates stood open.

  Not forced. Not broken. Simply open, as if inviting challengers to try their luck.

  Jin slowed as he approached, boots crunching over debris. The street leading to the gates had been a broad avenue lined with the homes of nobles and high-ranking officials. Now it was a killing ground.

  Bodies littered the approach. Dozens of them. All wearing the midnight blue of House Valerian. They lay in scattered clusters, some alone, others in groups of three or four. The positioning told a story Jin could read even without military training: they'd tried to rush the gates. Tried to overwhelm whoever stood guard through sheer numbers.

  It hadn't worked.

  Beyond the gates, the outer courtyard opened into a vast space of packed earth and stone. Training grounds occupied the left side, wooden posts and practice dummies now abandoned. Barracks lined the right, their doors hanging open, emptied of the soldiers who should have been there. Straight ahead, the inner castle loomed, a structure of pale stone and red tile roofs, its towers reaching toward the smoke-choked sky.

  But Jin's attention fixed on the figure standing between the gates and the courtyard.

  Captain Hu Xiao.

  His father.

  The man stood like a monument carved from living stone. Broad shoulders. Thick arms. A frame built for endurance and raw power rather than speed. His armor, Royal Guard crimson plate, was dented in a dozen places, streaked with soot and blood that wasn't his own. In his hands, he held a greatsword nearly as tall as Jin himself. The blade's edge still gleamed despite the carnage.

  More bodies surrounded him. These weren't scattered randomly like the ones Jin had passed. These were arranged in a rough semicircle, all facing inward. All within ten paces of where Hu Xiao stood.

  Movement caught Jin's eye. Five more soldiers in Valerian colors emerged from behind the barracks, moving cautiously, spreading out as they approached. Their armor was different from the regular troops Jin had fought. Better crafted. Reinforced at the joints. Emblazoned with rank insignia he didn't recognize.

  Officers. Commanders. Men who'd earned their position through skill, not just service.

  They stopped just outside the semicircle of bodies.

  The one in the center, older than the others, a scar running from temple to jaw, studied Hu Xiao with narrowed eyes.

  "He hasn't moved from that spot in an hour," the man said to his companions. His voice carried across the courtyard. "Forty-three men sent to break through. Forty-three corpses to show for it."

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  One of the others shifted his grip on his sword. "He's just one man."

  "One Martial Master." The scarred officer's tone was flat. Certain. "I've seen enough battles to recognize the difference." He drew his blade, good steel, well-maintained. "We attack together. All five at once. Overwhelm him before he can mount a defense. Even a Martial Master can't face five first rate martial artists simultaneously."

  "And if we fail?" another asked.

  "Then we die learning our limits."

  They moved as one.

  Lightning crackled along their blades, condensed qi that wrapped around steel in jagged patterns of blue-white light. They came from different angles, coordinated, each strike aimed to force Hu Xiao to choose which death to prevent.

  Hu Xiao's response was immediate.

  Fire erupted around his greatsword, not wild flames but a dense coating of crimson qi that clung to the blade like molten glass. The air around him shimmered with heat. He planted his feet and spun.

  The technique wasn't elaborate. No chant. No flourish. Just a single, devastating rotation.

  Fire exploded outward in all directions. A vortex of flame that expanded from Hu Xiao's position, consuming everything within five paces. The very air ignited. Stone cracked from the heat.

  "Back!" The scarred officer threw himself away from the inferno, boots scraping stone as he rolled clear.

  His companions weren't as fortunate.

  Two of them had committed too deeply to their attacks. The fire caught them mid-strike. Their lightning qi met Hu Xiao's flames and detonated in a shower of sparks. The force threw them backward, armor smoking, weapons clattering from burned hands.

  A third managed to leap clear at the last instant but landed poorly. Off-balance. Vulnerable.

  Hu Xiao was already moving. The greatsword came down in a brutal overhead arc that the man barely blocked. The impact drove him to one knee. Before he could recover, the sword reversed, pommel strike to the temple. He collapsed.

  The fourth officer had dodged to the right, circling to attack from Hu Xiao's flank. His blade came in fast, wreathed in lightning, aimed for an exposed gap in the armor.

  Hu Xiao's hand shot out. Bare fingers closed around the lightning-wreathed blade.

  The officer's eyes went wide. He pulled. The sword didn't move. Hu Xiao's grip was absolute, his fire qi protecting his hand from the crackling energy that should have seared flesh from bone.

  "Monster..." the officer whispered.

  Hu Xiao's greatsword took him through the chest. The man's body went limp. Hu released the captured blade and let both sword and corpse fall.

  Ten seconds. Five opponents. Four down.

  The scarred officer stood alone at the edge of the engagement range, breathing hard. His eyes moved across his fallen comrades, then back to Hu Xiao.

  "Forty-eight," Hu Xiao said. His voice was steady. Calm. As if he'd just finished a training exercise rather than a fight for his life. "You're number forty-eight."

  The officer's grip tightened on his sword. For a moment, he might charge anyway. Might throw his life away on principle.

  Instead, he stepped back. Lowered his blade. "Tch. This gate is yours, for now."

  He turned and fled in the direction he came, leaving his wounded and dying comrades behind.

  Hu Xiao didn't pursue. Didn't strike him down as he retreated. Just watched him go, greatsword still wreathed in fading fire qi.

  From the avenue approach, Jin had watched the entire exchange. He'd stopped at the edge of the killing ground, the scattered bodies that marked where dozens had tried and failed to breach these gates. The fight had lasted a mere ten seconds. Four skilled officers reduced to corpses and casualties by a single man.

  Jin had known his father was strong. The strongest warrior in the kingdom. But knowing and seeing were different things.

  This was what a Martial Master could do.

  He stepped forward now, boots crunching over debris as he crossed the threshold into the outer courtyard. Past the gates. Past the bodies. Into the space his father had held alone against an army.

  "Father!"

  Hu Xiao's head snapped around. His eyes found Jin.

  For a heartbeat, Jin expected relief. Pride. The warm expression his father always wore when Jin succeeded at something difficult.

  Instead, he saw shock. And beneath it, worry. Deep, immediate worry that made Jin's chest tighten.

  "Jin?," Hu Xiao said. Just the name. Nothing else.

  But the way he said it carried the weight of a thousand unspoken words.