Chapter 304: Family ties

Words : 2864 Updated : Oct 3rd, 2025

As the arena descended further into chaos, Sophie found herself facing her mother across the blood-spattered floor. Kendall Reign—not a ghost, not a memory, but flesh and blood in Purge uniform. The woman who had abandoned her family years ago now stood before her daughter, alive and aligned with the enemy. "You should stand down, Sophie," Kendall said, methodically removing her tactical gloves finger by finger. Her movements were precise, unhurried despite the destruction surrounding them. "This doesn't have to involve you." Sophie's jaw clenched as she widened her stance, distributing her weight perfectly between both feet—a fighting posture her mother had taught her before disappearing from her life. "Doesn't involve me? You're attacking my school mates, my friends. You left us for years, and now you're back to what—destroy everything I care about?" Kendall's eyes—the same piercing blue as Sophie's own—revealed nothing. "I've been planning this operation for years. Walk away. Let me finish what I started." "Not happening," Sophie replied, voice crystallizing with cold fury. "All I ever wanted was a mother. Instead, I got... whatever you are." The air between them seemed to compress, time slowing as both fighters measured the other. Then— Sophie exploded forward, crossing the distance in a blur. Her first strike was a feint—knuckles angling toward her mother's throat before abruptly redirecting toward her floating ribs. Kendall's forearm intercepted, bone meeting bone with a dull crack. The impact vibrated up Sophie's arm, but she was already rotating, driving her elbow toward her mother's temple. Kendall slipped the strike with minimal movement, shifting her head back exactly two inches—not a centimeter more than necessary. Her counter came immediately—fingers rigid, targeting the nerve bundle at the base of Sophie's neck. Sophie twisted, the strike grazing her trapezius muscle instead of paralyzing her as intended. "I taught you that sequence," Kendall remarked, voice unnervingly calm as they separated, circling each other. "But not how to disguise your intent. Your eyes telegraph everything." Sophie lunged again, launching a combination—jab, cross, rising knee. Each strike came within millimeters of connecting before Kendall's defensive movements neutralized them. The older woman's efficiency was maddening—no wasted energy, no unnecessary flourish. When Kendall countered, it was devastating. Her palm slammed into Sophie's sternum with surgical precision, striking the exact intercostal space between ribs to maximize pain without breaking bone. Sophie staggered backward, lungs spasming as she fought for breath. "Your positioning is amateur," Kendall criticized, advancing methodically. "Too much weight on your back foot when you should be centered." Sophie barely raised her guard in time to deflect a strike aimed at her liver, but missed the follow-up—a precise elbow that connected with her temple. Light exploded behind her eyes as she stumbled, blood vessels rupturing beneath the skin, promising a livid bruise within minutes. "You left," Sophie spat, blood speckling her lips from where she'd bitten the inside of her cheek. "You don't get to critique my technique now." She feinted low, then launched herself upward in a spinning kick that should have caught her mother's jaw. Kendall's hand snapped up, fingers wrapping around Sophie's ankle mid-rotation. With a brutal twist, she leveraged Sophie's momentum against her, slamming her daughter into the concrete floor so hard that dust erupted from impact cracks. Sophie's back arched in agony as vertebrae compressed, nerve endings screaming. Before she could recover, Kendall's boot pressed against her wrist, pinning her arm at an unnatural angle that threatened to snap bone. "This is mercy," Kendall whispered, increasing pressure until Sophie's carpals ground against each other. "Compared to what's coming, this is kindness." With a guttural cry, Sophie bucked upward, using her free hand to drive stiffened fingers into the soft tissue behind her mother's knee. Kendall's leg buckled momentarily—enough for Sophie to roll free, leaving behind skin on the rough concrete. They separated, both breathing harder now. A thin line of blood trickled from Sophie's split eyebrow, partially obscuring her vision. Kendall rolled her shoulder where Sophie's desperate strike had connected with a nerve cluster. "First blood to me," Sophie taunted, wiping crimson from her eye with the back of her hand. Something shifted in Kendall's expression—a coldness solidifying into resolve. "Enough playing around." She attacked with renewed purpose, her movements a blur of practiced lethality. A strike to Sophie's floating ribs produced an audible crack. A sweep took her legs out from under her. As Sophie fell, Kendall's knee rose to meet her descending face—the impact splitting skin across her cheekbone and sending a tooth skittering across the floor in a spray of blood. Sophie hit the ground hard, vision swimming with black spots. She rolled instinctively, narrowly avoiding a heel strike that would have crushed her windpipe. The concrete cracked where Kendall's boot connected instead. Desperation fueled Sophie's counterattack—a wild upward strike that caught her mother beneath the chin. Kendall's head snapped back, but she converted the momentum into a backward roll, creating distance before Sophie could capitalize. "You're fighting angry," Kendall observed, touching her split lip with clinical interest. "Sloppy. Emotional." Sophie struggled to her feet, spitting a mouthful of blood onto the floor. "What do you expect? You abandoned us—me and dad—for years. Now you're back, working with terrorists?" Her breathing was ragged, each inhale sending shards of pain through her cracked rib. "Was your twisted worldview really more important than your own daughter?" Kendall's eyes narrowed. "My worldview is what might save you." She closed the distance again, this time with a flurry of precision strikes that targeted nerve clusters and pressure points. Sophie blocked what she could, but Kendall's experience showed—each attack flowing into the next with mechanical precision, creating openings where Sophie's defense proved inadequate. A knife-hand strike to Sophie's neck sent her stumbling sideways, throat constricting as blood vessels compressed. A follow-up kick connected with her knee at exactly the angle needed to hyperextend the joint. Something popped—ligament or tendon—and Sophie screamed as her leg collapsed beneath her. Her mother didn't relent—closing in to deliver a devastating combination that left Sophie reeling. A palm strike to her diaphragm expelled all air from her lungs. An elbow to her temple split skin to the bone, blood immediately streaming down her face. A precision strike to her kidney dropped her to her knees, retching blood onto the floor. "Why?" Sophie wheezed, trying to drag herself backward as her vision tunneled. "What's worth betraying everything—everyone—you supposedly loved?" "Love?" Kendall loomed over her, expression twisted with something between pity and conviction. "You think love saves anyone? The Harbingers are coming, Sophie. Not scouts, not advance parties—the real invasion. I've seen what they do to worlds. To species." She seized Sophie by the throat, fingers digging into precisely the right points to cut off blood flow without completely restricting air. Sophie's head swam as her brain began to starve for oxygen. "There is no fighting them," Kendall continued, lifting Sophie until her toes barely scraped the ground. "Only surviving on their terms." Sophie clawed at the hand crushing her carotid arteries, her struggles weakening as consciousness began to fade at the edges. Blood from her split forehead ran into her eyes, turning the world red. This was it—she would die at her mother's hand. After years of wondering why she'd left, they would end like this. Enemies. "Kendall!" The voice cut through the arena like a battle command. Sophie's mother froze, her grip loosening just enough for Sophie to draw a rasping breath as blood flow returned to her brain. Slowly, Kendall turned, still pinning Sophie against a shattered pillar. "Reign," she answered, voice suddenly hollow. Minister Reign stood twenty meters away, immaculate in his formal military attire despite the chaos that had consumed the arena. Six Purge operatives flanked him, their masks identical to those worn by the forces that had stormed the facility. Sophie's oxygen-deprived brain struggled to process the scene. Her father—here? With Purge operatives? No, that couldn't be right. He'd helped them prepare the defenses. He'd warned them about the attack. He'd... "Let her go, Kendall," Minister Reign said, his voice carrying the authority that had commanded armies. "She's our daughter." Kendall's fingers uncurled from Sophie's throat. Sophie collapsed to the floor, coughing and gasping as blood dripped from her swollen lip and lacerated scalp. "You're late," Kendall said to Reign, all emotion drained from her voice. "Traffic," he replied with dark humor. "The secondary teams secured the perimeter as planned. Owen's contained. Most student resistance has been neutralized." Sophie's head snapped up, her battered face a mask of confusion and dawning horror. "Dad? What are you saying?" Reign's eyes flicked to Sophie, then back to Kendall. "You didn't tell her?" "I was getting to that part," Kendall replied. "Before the family reunion." Minister Reign approached slowly, his polished boots clicking against the concrete. "Sophie, this operation wouldn't have been possible without... certain insights. Security protocols. Access codes." "No," Sophie whispered, shaking her head as understanding crashed over her. "No, you helped us secure the arena. You warned us about the attack." "I did," Reign agreed. "Just as I warned the Purge about your countermeasures. A delicate balance, ensuring both sides were... prepared." Sophie's world collapsed around her. The pieces clicked together with sickening clarity—how the Purge had known exactly which systems to target first, how they'd bypassed security measures that should have been impenetrable, how they'd timed their assault with such precision. "You betrayed us," she managed through bleeding lips. "You betrayed everyone." Kendall stepped toward Reign, her expression softening for the first time. "You could have told her, Reign. Prepared her. If you really cared about more than just yourself, why keep her in the dark? Why not help her see the truth instead of letting her become an obstacle?" Reign's jaw tightened. "I tried. She wouldn't listen." "You never tried!" Kendall snapped back. "You wanted to play both sides—the loyal Minister and the Purge sympathizer. You wanted your insurance policy." Sophie's mind reeled as her parents argued over her broken body. Noah's warnings echoed in her memory—his quiet insistence to Lucas and Kelvin that Minister Reign's emotional attachments might compromise their defense plans. How he'd suggested they create backup protocols that only the four of them knew about. She'd been furious when she discovered their secret meetings, resenting Noah for his paranoia. Now she just wished he was here. Wished she could see him again, hold him, apologize for not trusting him. Noah had seen through her father's façade while she'd been blind to it. "Sophie," her father's voice broke through her thoughts. He knelt beside her, extending his hand. "We can still be together. A family. The three of us. The Purge has secured locations that will survive what's coming. We can leave now—" Sophie gathered the blood pooling in her mouth and spat directly into her father's outstretched palm. The red glob slid between his fingers, staining his pristine white glove. "You're a disgrace," she hissed through clenched teeth. "A disgrace as a minister. As a soldier. As an EDF personnel." She pushed herself up on trembling arms. "You've failed humanity. I exterminated a boy for supporting his father's manic ambitions." Her eyes burned with hatred. "You are weak-willed and a spineless hypocrite.Your libido regrettably is higher than your perceived IQ, Father. I feel so much disgust for you just like I do for anybody beating the last name ALBRIGHT. I finished Adrian and right now I could do the same to you," Somehow, Sophie found the strength to stand, leaning heavily against the pillar as she turned to walk away. The Purge operatives immediately moved to block her path. Reign rose slowly, wiping his hand on a handkerchief as he regarded his daughter with newfound coldness. "This isn't a choice, Sophie. In the absence of your mother, I may have pampered you a bit too much. You're coming with us." Sophie's laugh was ragged, wet with blood. "I'd like to see you try your luck." A single tear formed at the corner of her eye, trailing down her battered cheek. Before it could fall to the ground, it sparked—a tiny flare of blue-white energy that illuminated her bloodied face. The first Purge operative rushed her, confident in his advantage over an injured opponent. However, in a twisted turn of events, the operative's boot caught on an imperceptible crack in the floor, disrupting his balance by millimeters—just enough for Sophie's palm strike to slip past his guard and connect with his throat. Cartilage collapsed beneath her fingers with a wet crunch. He dropped, hands clawing futilely at his crushed windpipe. The second and third attacked simultaneously from opposite sides. Sophie ducked beneath a strike that should have connected, the operative's momentum carrying him forward as his ankle inexplicably twisted beneath him. His face met Sophie's rising knee with catastrophic force—nasal cartilage splintering upward into his brain. Blood erupted from his nostrils as he collapsed, twitching. The third operative's weapon jammed at the critical moment—the firing mechanism sticking as though fate itself had intervened. Sophie seized his wrist, hyperextending the elbow until bone shattered through skin with a sound like green wood breaking. His scream cut short as she pivoted, using his own momentum to drive him face-first into a concrete pillar. His skull caved with a wet thud, brain matter and bone fragments painting the gray surface. "Sophie, stop!" her father commanded. She didn't listen. The fourth operative lunged with a chi-infused blade. Sophie moved just enough for it to miss her heart, letting it slice across her ribs as she trapped his wrist. A brutal twist snapped his radius and ulna simultaneously, the blade clattering to the floor before she snatched it midair and drove it up through the underside of his jaw. The point erupted from the top of his skull in a fountain of gore. Two more operatives rushed onto the scene to see their comrades being butchered. Blood sprayed across her face as she yanked the blade free, instantly engaging the fifth operative. His strike seemed to miss by fractions of an inch each time, as if reality itself conspired against him. Sophie's counterattack was merciless—fingers driving into his eye socket, penetrating to the brain before she wrenched her hand free in a spray of vitreous fluid and neural tissue. "That's enough!" Reign bellowed, moving to intervene. Kendall caught his arm. "Let her finish." The sixth operative tried to retreat, recognizing the unnatural tide of fortune flowing against his team. Sophie's thrown blade caught him between the shoulder blades with impossible accuracy, severing his spinal cord and sending him sprawling forward. She was on him instantly, driving her knee into the small of his back before grasping his chin and the back of his head. With a savage twist, she wrenched his head around until his face aligned with his spine, cervical vertebrae splintering through skin. The seventh and eighth operatives attacked together in desperation. Sophie moved between them like oil through water—breaking the first one's knee with a side kick before seizing his partner's arm and dislocating it at the shoulder. As the first operative fell, she drove her heel into his temple with a wet crunch. The second screamed as she grasped his dislocated arm and twisted, using it as leverage to flip him onto his back. Her foot came down on his throat, crushing his larynx beneath her heel. When it ended, eight bodies lay scattered around Sophie, broken and bloodied beyond recognition. She stood in the center, swaying slightly, her uniform soaked with both her blood and theirs. Reign stepped forward, his face unreadable. "Enough," Kendall said sharply. "Let her go." Sophie limped past her parents, each step sending waves of agony through her dislocated knee, leaving bloody footprints in her wake. "Sophie," her father called after her. "You belong with us. With your family." She paused but didn't turn around. "You two are soulmates," she said, her voice hollow as she clutched her broken ribs. "You belong together." Blood dripped steadily from her fingertips as she took another painful step forward. "I'm going to mine." Blood dripped from her fingertips as she stood framed in the exit, her back straight despite the pain. "Hold the fort down until he comes back," she murmured, more to herself than to them. "Because I know my first-year boyfriend better than anyone. He's tougher than a cockroach and smarter than five geniuses put together." A ghost of a smile touched her bloodied lips as she stepped into the corridor, leaving her parents behind. "He'll find a way to return to me."

Chapter 304: Family ties

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