SSS-Class Profession: The Path to Mastery-Chapter 193: Shattered Trust

Evelyn slammed into me again, harder this time.

I staggered backward, boot sliding over the smooth tile. My heel clipped a piece of broken chair frame, but I caught myself just in time to duck under a savage, clawing swipe that would’ve torn through my throat.

Her movements weren’t coordinated. They weren’t tactical. It was just pure, desperate violence wrapped in a body I knew too well.

I couldn’t fight her.

Not properly.

Not when every bone in my body screamed to save her, not break her.

She lunged again, shrieking.

Her nails ripped down the front of my jacket, slashing through cloth and skin alike. I yelled for a moment, pain flaring across my chest, but I didn’t retaliate. I couldn’t.

"Evelyn!" I choked out. "It’s me!"

No answer.

Just another savage, mindless swing. One that had no hesitation or humanity behind it.

My hands shot up instinctively, grabbing her wrists. She thrashed like an animal, feral, wild, trying to tear herself free, trying to bite at me, trying to kill. I could feel her muscles twitching under my grip, unnatural, enhanced by jobs she didn’t normally have.

I wouldn’t last long if I played passive.

She slammed her forehead forward, I jerked sideways just in time. Her skull grazed my temple, a glancing blow that still blurred the edges of my vision.

"Dammit," I gasped, fumbling my burner phone out with one shaking hand while wrestling her with the other. She bucked and snapped like she wasn’t even human anymore.

I didn’t care who was listening.

I didn’t care about this tightrope game anymore, about whatever stupid balance of information between me and the government kept us from fully exposing each other to the public.

I pressed the call button.

Anthony’s line blinked green.

"Get in here!" I barked into the mic, raw panic and fury scraping my throat. "Facility, third floor, west wing, Isolation! Evelyn’s—"The words nearly caught." She’s been turned into a subject of the Cain Protocol! You hear me? She’s been turned!"

The chat exploded in my peripheral vision as I lowered the phone.

@masksofficial: WHO IS ANTHONY???

@grayfox42: CAIN PROTOCOL WHAT DOES THAT MEAN???

@undercitybuzz: IS HE SAYING THEY TURNED HER INTO A SUBJECT LIVE

I didn’t have time to explain anything more to him.

I barely had time to survive.

Evelyn tore one arm free and drove her elbow toward my jaw. I twisted, the strike grazing my shoulder and numbing my arm instantly. Electricity crackled along my nerves. She moved with speed that wasn’t hers. Power that wasn’t natural.

They did this to her.

The government did this to her.

And for the first time in a long, long time, I felt something new burning through me:

Rage. The same rage from when Sienna had been kidnapped.

A rage that could have torn the walls apart if I let it.

Not the cold, strategic fury I used during the District Inferno or the mafia tournament. fгeewebnovёl.com

This was raw.

This was personal.

They took Evelyn.

They broke Evelyn.

She lunged again.

I twisted her momentum, throwing her into the wall. Not to hurt her—God, no—but to buy myself even a second to think.

"EVELYN, STOP!" I roared.

My voice cracked with everything I’d buried, fear, grief, helplessness.

She turned, disheveled, wild-eyed, her bare feet slapping the ground as she rushed me again.

The intercom crackled.

"Cain sees Abel."

Again. Again.

As if mocking me. As if daring me to believe I could undo what they had done. Even If I somehow turned her back into normal, they would simply play that message and force her to attack me again.

She charged.

I ducked, pivoted, catching her from behind, locking her arms to her sides, but she was stronger than I had initially expected, she was at least at the strength of a B-Rank firefighter. She thrashed, elbows slamming into my ribs, my kidneys, over and over.

I gritted my teeth. Held firm.

Stay with me, Evelyn.

She threw her head back, striking me under the chin so hard my teeth clicked together. Pain splintered up my jaw. My arms loosened. I stumbled.

She tackled me.

We crashed to the floor, her fists raining down.

I caught the first one, barely, fingers locking around her wrist.

Held it inches from my face.

Her strength...Her rage...

It wasn’t hers.

It wasn’t her choice.

She wasn’t even here anymore.

And that realization shattered something deep inside me.

My breath hitched.

My vision blurred.

I fought off her other arm, straining, my body screaming at me to retaliate.

I could knock her out.

One punch. That’s all it would take.

She was still human. Fragile.

I could end this right now.

I raised my fist, heart hammering.

I hesitated.

Just for a heartbeat.

I couldn’t.

I couldn’t hurt her.

Even if it meant dying here, bleeding out alone in a government hellhole.

And Evelyn...seeing the hesitation in me.

She drove her knee upward into my ribs.

A sickening crunch. Pain exploded across my torso.

I gasped, falling off her, clutching my side.

She was already up, moving, face twisted in blind fury.

She swung.

I barely managed to block, the force behind it rattling my bones.

She wound up again, aiming straight for my temple.

I knew I wouldn’t stop it this time.

I braced.

Waiting for the blow—

And then—

A blur slammed into her from the side.

Anthony.

He was fast, controlled and precise.

He hit her like a freight train, locking her arms, dragging her down in a brutal, professional takedown.

Before Evelyn could recover, he yanked a thick cloth sack from his belt and jammed it over her head, yanking the drawstring tight.

She screamed, thrashed, kicked.

Anthony wrestled her arms behind her back, cuffed her wrists together with sharp, practiced movements.

"Easy now," he muttered under his breath, wrestling her into submission. "Nothing personal, sunshine."

I lay there, gasping, seeing double.

The rage still burned inside me. A wound with no clean edges.

Anthony looked over his shoulder, grinning that reckless, lopsided grin that looked like he was saying that we’d just gotten away with murder or were about to attempt it.

"Boss," he said, panting, likely due to running 3 straight floors without break, "next time you wanna do a rescue mission..."

He yanked Evelyn upright, holding her steady as she still struggled against the bag and cuffs, before eventually it goes silent, not from passing out, but from lack of vision on me.

"...don’t hesitate when your life and everything is on the line!"

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