Chapter 32 · Bound to the Executioner: Leveling Up With My Enemy - Chapter 32: Level 99 Heretics

"Move, or we both turn into charcoal in about six seconds!"

Soren’s voice roared over the scream of the atmosphere tearing open. He didn't wait for me to agree; he grabbed my collar and hauled me behind a shattered marble pillar just as a beam of white-hot orbital energy slammed into the plaza. The shockwave threw us both hard against the stone. I felt the air leave my lungs in one violent rush, my back snapping against the debris.

"Pip! Status!" I choked out, coughing up gray dust.

"Critical! Absolute disaster!" Pip’s voice shrieked in my ear, the little familiar hovering inches from my face, its holographic chassis flickering a frantic red. "The orbital glassing sequence is at forty percent. The capital isn't melting—it's being erased from the map. We have approximately eight minutes before this entire zip code becomes a lava lamp!"

I tried to push myself up, but my right hand gave way. I looked down. My knuckles were shredded, blood leaking through the gaps of my combat gloves, glistening under the unnatural glare of the sky. I didn't feel the pain—not yet—