Chapter 113: The Fight 1
The wolf howled.
Dagan twisted inside Soren’s coils and drove both claws beneath the snake’s scales.
Blood ran.
Soren did not loosen.
Dagan bit down on his shoulder.
His fangs scraped across pale scales.
Soren’s massive head turned slowly.
The look in his silver eyes made Dagan freeze.
He had expected a wounded male.
He had found something that had been waiting for permission to kill.
Soren’s jaws opened.
Venom sprayed into Dagan’s face.
The wolf screamed.
His eyes blackened.
Skin blistered across his muzzle.
He shifted back into human form inside the coils, clawing at his burning face.
"Stop!"
Soren tightened.
Dagan’s ribs collapsed inward.
Crack!
Another coil closed around his hips.
His spine snapped.
The scream died inside his throat.
Dagan hung limp.
Soren threw him into the gorge wall.
His head struck first.
Stone cracked beneath his skull.
The leader of Ashclaw slid to the ground and did not move again.
Silence held for half a heartbeat.
Then Ashclaw exploded.
"Kill the snake!"
"He killed Dagan!"
"Fire!"
Archers released from the upper ledges.
Arrows rained into the gorge.
"Down!" Swanly shouted.
Kael slammed into her and covered her with his body.
Two arrows struck the stone where her head had been.
Raku shifted halfway into crocodile form and swept his tail across the front line.
Three Ashclaw males flew into the wall.
One landed badly.
His neck bent sideways.
The others rolled, shifted into beast form, and charged again.
Soren met them alone.
A wolf leaped onto his back.
Its claws tore through the softer scales near his damaged core.
Soren hissed.
The sound shook dust from the gorge walls.
He twisted violently.
The wolf was thrown into the air.
Soren’s tail caught him before he landed and slammed him into the ground.
Once.
Twice.
The third impact broke the male’s body.
A boar beastman charged from the side.
His tusks struck beneath Soren’s ribs.
Black blood sprayed across the stone.
"Soren!" Raku roared.
The snake looked down at the tusks buried in his body.
Then he curled around the boar.
The male squealed and tried to pull free.
Soren crushed him until the tusks tore out sideways.
The boar’s scream became a choking gurgle.
Soren threw him aside.
Three more rushed him.
One clawed his face.
Another wrapped both arms around his tail.
The third drove a bone spear between his scales.
Soren’s head snapped toward them.
His pupils disappeared into black.
His tail lashed.
The male holding it flew across the gorge and struck an archer climbing down from the ledge.
Both fell.
Soren caught the spear-wielder in his jaws.
He did not bite.
He shook him.
The male’s body snapped from side to side before Soren released him into the wall.
The third tried to run.
Venom struck his back.
He dropped screaming, clawing at flesh that was already turning black.
Swanly rose beneath Kael.
"Move!"
"No."
"Kael!"
"Arrows are falling!"
"So are people!"
She shoved past him and drew her bow.
An Ashclaw archer leaned over the ledge.
Swanly fired.
The arrow entered beneath his chin.
He disappeared backward.
Another rushed her from the right.
Kael shifted into black panther form and struck him in midair.
They rolled through blood and broken weapons.
The Ashclaw male raked claws across Kael’s healing shoulder.
Kael roared.
His wound split again.
Swanly’s entire face changed.
"I just treated that!"
Kael tore open the male’s stomach.
The attacker collapsed beneath him.
"Complain later!"
"I will complain over your grave if you keep doing this!"
A hyena laugh came from behind her.
Swanly turned.
The broad-jawed Ashclaw male stood several steps away.
The same one who had slapped the Riverbone female’s backside.
His friend, a scarred boar male, stood beside him.
Both had laughed while the female’s mates were forced to watch.
Now the hyena smiled at Swanly.
"You should have accepted Dagan’s offer."
The boar’s eyes moved over her body.
"We may still keep you."
Swanly lowered her bow.
The hyena mistook it for fear.
He rushed her.
Swanly waited.
One step.
Two.
She dropped beneath his claws.
Her stone blade flashed upward.
It entered the soft flesh beneath his jaw.
The hyena stopped.
His mouth opened.
Only blood came out.
Swanly ripped the blade sideways.
He collapsed at her feet.
The scarred boar roared and shifted.
His huge body charged toward her.
The Riverbone female he had humiliated stood behind him with her mates.
Her face went pale.
Swanly planted one foot against the dead hyena’s chest and pulled her blade free.
The boar lowered his tusks.
Swanly did not move.
Kael spun toward her.
"Swanly!"
She drew one arrow.
Waited until the boar was almost on top of her.
Then fired directly into his eye.
The arrow disappeared to the feathers.
The boar stumbled but kept moving.
Swanly stepped sideways.
His tusk sliced her clothing and grazed her hip.
She caught his ear, climbed onto his back, and drove the stone blade into the other eye.
The boar screamed and crashed onto his knees.
Swanly held on.
He rolled.
She jumped clear before his weight crushed her.
The blinded beast thrashed across the gorge.
Swanly grabbed a fallen spear.
She ran forward and drove it through the soft place behind his front leg.
The point entered his chest.
The boar jerked.
Then collapsed.
Swanly stood over him, breathing hard.
Black and red blood covered her hands.
She looked toward the Riverbone female.
The female stared back.
One of her mates slowly lowered his claws.
Swanly pointed at the two bodies.
"Those were yours."
The female’s lips trembled.
Then she nodded once.
Kael reached Swanly and grabbed her waist.
"You let him reach you."
"I killed him."
"He touched your hip."
"He is dead."
"That does not make me less angry."
"It should."
"It does not."
Another arrow struck the stone beside them.
Swanly shoved her bow into his hands.
"Then be angry while helping."
Kael bared his teeth.
He dragged her behind him and charged the next attacker.
Around them, Riverbone fought back.
Nerin stood beside the wounded despite blood running from his broken antler.
He sensed feet through the stone and warned guards before Ashclaw males came around the rocks.
"Left!"
Arion turned in time and caught a wolf by the throat.
The wolf’s claws tore across his chest.
Arion slammed his forehead into the male’s face.
Bone broke.
He threw the wolf toward Raku.
Raku’s tail finished him.
Thalara’s roots burst from cracks beneath Ashclaw’s feet.
They wrapped ankles.
Pulled archers from ledges.
Dragged attackers away from the cub shelf.
Her forehead eye rolled wildly as she watched Soren.
Not the enemy.
Soren.
Kairo had Nilo, Miko, Lumi, Tavi, and the younger cubs pressed beneath the stone shelf.
"Do not move!"
Miko covered both ears.
"Too loud!"
Nilo peeked through Thalara’s roots.
"Soren scary."
Kairo grabbed his face and turned it away.
"No look."
"But Papa fighting."
"Papa not snake."
Miko’s lower lip shook.
"Snake friend?"
Kairo did not answer.
He did not know.
Tilla held Tavi against her chest while Mora stood in bear form across the opening.
Every time Soren’s tail struck the ground, the cubs screamed.
Raku saw them.
He saw his leader too.
Soren was no longer choosing targets.
An Ashclaw male dropped his weapon and raised both hands.
"I surrender!"
Soren crushed his skull beneath one coil.
A Riverbone guard moved too close.
Soren’s tail struck him aside.
The male flew into the wall and did not rise.
"Soren!" Raku shouted.
No response.
Blood called to the damaged core.
Every heartbeat sounded like an enemy.
Every movement demanded death.
The Ashclaw warriors nearest him began fleeing.
Soren followed.
He dragged one back by the leg and broke him against the gorge floor.
Another tried to climb the wall.
Venom burned through his hands.
He fell screaming.
Soren’s claws tore through his throat before he landed.
Weapons dropped.
It did not matter.
His venom burned through wood, hide, flesh, and bone.
The gorge filled with screams.