The sun barely kissed the horizon, and already the cold courtyard behind Marla's warehouse echoed with the soft shuffle of tired feet. Seven former slaves, dressed in mismatched robes and ill-fitting boots, stood in a crooked line. Their backs were straight, but their eyes betrayed uncertainty. Some trembled; others simply waited for commands with vacant stares.
Ash Lockwood paced before them, flame pulse stone holstered on his belt, shoulders squared like a soldier addressing his first recruits. The red serpent coiled lazily across his shoulders, invisible to all but him.
> "This is what you chose?" the serpent scoffed. "Brittle bones, fevered breath, no discipline."
> "They don't need perfection," Ash replied internally. "They need direction."
The serpent snorted.
Ash halted and faced them.
"From this day forward, you are no longer slaves. You are recruits of the Crimson Fang Unit. You will be trained not as cannon fodder, but as a force to make entire clans shiver."
A young boy—perhaps thirteen—with sunken cheeks and burns across his arms, raised a hand hesitantly.
"We're not... cultivators."
Ash smiled grimly.
"Neither was I."
---
Rising from Ashes
Training began with the simplest drills. Movements, formations, responses to commands. Ash didn't teach them Qi manipulation yet. He focused on muscle memory, reaction timing, field awareness.
He showed them how to move as a unit—something no cultivator sect taught. Most fighters here fought alone, vying for personal glory. Ash trained them to fight for the person beside them.
> "If one falls, all fall," he told them.
> "If one falters, the formation crumbles."
The serpent was unimpressed.
> "You drill them like soldiers. This is a world of beasts and soul marks. They won't stand a chance."
Ash pointed at the blind man leaning against a training spear.
"Watch him," he whispered.
---
Awakening of Talin Voss
Talin had been blind since Ash bought him, the milky veil over his eyes seemingly permanent. But Ash had sensed something beneath the dullness—a twitch in his fingers, a rhythmic tapping of toes on the ground, as if he were listening to vibrations.
During a mock ambush drill, Talin caught a tossed stone mid-air.
Everyone froze.
Ash stepped forward.
"You felt that coming?"
Talin tilted his head.
"It echoed through the air. I see… different."
The serpent hissed.
> "A spirit-eye variant. Primitive, but useful."
Ash adjusted Talin's training. While others ran circuits, Talin meditated on sound, training his other senses until he could navigate blindfolded through an obstacle course.
By week's end, he could identify team members by footsteps alone.
> "You'll be my spotter," Ash told him. "My eyes in the dark."
Talin bowed.
---
Mira's Fractured Time
Mira was the eldest of the group—a quiet woman with iron-gray eyes and deep scars along her neck and collarbone. She barely spoke, but during sparring drills, something odd happened.
Ash watched her move.
For brief moments, her opponents seemed to slow down. Their strikes hung in the air for a fraction longer than they should have.
> "A time fragment mark," the serpent said. "Extremely rare. Her body can delay the world around her—barely, but enough to matter."
Ash pulled her aside.
"Have you felt time stretch around you?"
She looked away.
"Sometimes... in fear. When I was punished. Everything slowed down."
"It's not fear. It's power. We'll control it."
He assigned Mira as the group's counter-strike shield, using her mark to intercept or evade surprise attacks.
For the first time, she nodded with purpose.
---
The Blood Oath
On the seventh night, Ash gathered the recruits under the broken moonlight. They sat in a circle around a fire pit.
He handed each of them a flame crystal shard.
"We forge not just strength," he said, "but loyalty. You've all known chains. This is your choice to walk away. Or to walk into fire beside me."
No one left.
They pressed their fingers to the crystal, letting a drop of blood ignite it.
The Crimson Fang Unit was born.
> "You're playing at commander again," the serpent muttered. But there was less mockery now. Almost... nostalgia.
> "I'm not playing," Ash whispered.
---
Echoes of the Past
That night, Ash stood alone, flame pulse resting on his lap. He stared at the stars, memories of Earth drifting in and out. His old squad. Their laughter. Their last mission. The betrayal.
> "They left you to die, didn't they?" the serpent asked, reading his thoughts.
> "No," Ash replied. "One of them sold us out. The others died because of me."
> "And now you want redemption? Through them?"
Ash didn't answer.
He simply whispered into the night:
"No more dead brothers."
---
End of chapter 12.