An Understated Dominance by Marina Vittori

With Mulder leading the way, Warrick-disguised as a member of the City Defenders-walked openly through the streets.

Night had fallen, and the streets were eerily empty-not a single soul was in sight. Only heavily armed patrols moved through the city:

Every checkpoint along the main road was heavily guarded. Even the patrol squads had to show their emblems to pass.

Warrick walked at the back of the group. His hat was pulled low so that it covered half his face. In the darkness, it was nearly impossible to make out his features unless someone got close.

“Austin is more meticulous than I expected,” he muttered. “If it weren’t for the Hall of Gods’ undercover agents helping me, I’d never make it out of Celestria.”

Seeing sentries stationed openly on the streets and hidden in the alleys, Warrick felt a chill crawl down his spine. In less than two miles, they had already passed seven or eight checkpoints.

In addition to the heavily guarded checkpoints on the main roads, countless hidden sentries kept a constant watch on the streets. At the first sign of trouble, they’d move in immediately.

Warrick had initially planned to slip out of the city with his guards if he couldn’t make contact with his allies. With his level of cultivation, escaping Celestria should have been possible.

But now, he realized how naive that plan had been.

With the city under lockdown-guards stationed every ten steps and hidden sentries every hundred-sneaking out was nearly impossible.

If he were spotted, the entire city’s forces would descend on him. Even with his extraordinary abilities, breaking through such a tight encirclement would be a hopeless task.

The streets were silent, and no one in the group spoke. Even when they passed other patrols, there was no exchange of words-just a simple nod before moving along.

And just like that, Warrick blended seamlessly into the patrol team as they made their way toward the outer city.

were stopped at the final checkpoint just as they were about to exit the inner

the inner and outer city-the

the lockdown, vehicles had been prohibited from entering the

get a ride was to reach the

heavily guarded, with

city. As Mulder led the group toward the checkpoint, the hundred or

Defenders are only responsible

razor-sharp gaze. His tone was firm and commanding. As he spoke, his hand

their piercing

frowned slightly and silently

to this point. They’d passed through every checkpoint without issue. He hadn’t

Did someone notice something?

just standard procedure. Leave it to me,” Mulder murmured before striding toward Colton with a

“Mulder?”

gaze lingered on him before

doing here?” he asked. “I remember your unit was assigned to patrol the inner city. Without deployment orders, you’re not supposed to

something in the outer city,” Mulder replied. Then, he asked with a grin, “Could you do

the rules. Right now, the entire city is under strict lockdown. Without an

a straight

circumstances, bending the rules wasn’t a big deal. At worst,

now things were different. The whole city was under lockdown, and there was a manhunt going on. A single mistake could cost him

on the line. There was no room