Chapter 83: The Beast Refused To Kneel

The seven Skelliger guards had earned their keep in the inn long before, having completed a feat against a rogue Sorcerer, and upstairs, Arya and Lannor had even brushed past one of them...

Though they’d interacted little, tonight Lannor and Arya were now undeniably entwined with these men. The girl’s gray eyes fixed on Lannor’s amber cat eyes, confusion writ plain across her features, as if she could not fathom the strange words spilling from his lips. A sudden chill ran down his spine—not from blood loss, not from the Gene Seed surgery. His wounds, even his bleeding, had long since been staunched by the Elixirs. This was a chill of the mind.

Then, from the corridor outside, a soft, haunting whistle floated in. The melody was gentle, almost soothing, yet it pierced the din of laughter, clinking glasses, and music from the inn below, carrying through to the room as though all other sound had been silenced.

What in the world...?

Lannor had spent a long time in this world; in his homeland, it would have equated to a semester as an exchange student abroad. In that time, he had seen spirits, spectral hounds, magical curses, all under Bordon’s guidance. Those things had seemed ethereal, but a witcher could always find a way to counter them. This, however—silently, invisibly, creating and erasing seven skilled warriors from memory—was beyond anything he could conceive.

A surge of excitement coursed through him, awakening the newly implanted Gene Seed. The integrated Astartes Implant began coordinating his body’s functions with terrifying efficiency. It could not improve his base strength without other Astartes Implants, but it could allow every current system to operate at peak capacity.