Chapter 1618:


    The decision stunned him. He had not anticipated this. Anyone else would have retreated, instinctively shrinking from the de. But Maia did not belong to that category.


    The gap between them copsed almost instantly. The dagger’s edge skimmed close enough to brush the fabric of her clothing — and that was when she moved.


    Her body rotated sharply as she dropped her center of gravity, sliding forward beneath his attack. Every motion flowed into the next without pause, controlled and precise. She lowered her shoulder into position, drove her elbow down to stabilize herself, and wrenched her hips forward with explosive intent.


    In that single decisive instant, all the force contained within her frame converged at one point — her shoulder. The collision mirrored the impact of a full-speed linebacker driving into an unprotected opponent, raw and unforgiving. It was not simply a strike. It was violencepressed into one perfect release.


    A heavy, muted thud echoed through thepartment as flesh met flesh.


    Time lurched forward again, resuming its relentless pace.


    The operative’s fingers still clenched the dagger, his arm locked mid-thrust, suspended in the posture of attack. Yet inside his mind, everything had copsed into darkness. The force had torn straight through his chest, annihting whatever resistance he had left — as though a speeding lotive had plowed into him without mercy. A broken grunt forced its way from his throat.


    His body lifted off the metal floor and flew backward, weightless and uncontrolled, like something discarded without care. His eyes bulged wide, shock and raw fear overtaking whatever resolve had driven him forward.


    This made no sense. How could someone with such a slight frame unleash power like this?


    Before he could grasp the answer, his back mmed into the opposite steel wall. The impact reverberated through thepartment before his body crumpled and folded onto the floor. Pain tore through him, overwhelming and absolute, leaving no room for thought. His abdomen convulsed violently under the trauma, and without warning a foul mixture burst from his mouth — bile, stomach acid, and the half-digested remnants of hisst meal. He could not even gather the strength to scream. His vision rolled backward into darkness as consciousness abandoned himpletely.


    ?????? c??аptе???? ?????????? ????е?? ???? ??????????????l??.c????


    Stillness settled over thepartment, thick and suffocating.


    Maia drew in a slow breath and released it with quiet control. Her stance loosened as the tension drained from her muscles. She rose to her full height and smoothed the creases in her clothing with unhurriedposure, her face betraying nothing of the violence that had just urred.


    Only then did the rush of disced air reach her.


    Chris’s body surged forward, his attempted tackle meeting nothing where the operative had been moments before. His momentum carried him too far — he staggered, barely catching himself before falling. When he finally steadied, he found himself standing directly before Maia.


    They faced one another in silence. The distance between them shrank to almost nothing, their noses separated by mere inches. Chris could see every individualsh framing her eyes, and felt the fragile warmth of her uneven breath brushing against his skin.


    .


    .


    .