by Regine Abel
Even from the relatively short distance, the battle looked like a well-choreographed ballet. In spite of their massive size, Braxians didn’t lumber about, their speed akin to that of the Xelixians, but slightly slower than Veredian Warriors. But their strength left me reeling. They didn’t only strike the creatures with their weapons, but also with their fists. Their blows knocked back the beasts or rattled them. Each joarkal easily measured three meters long—not counting their also very long tails—and a little less than two meters high. Between their impressive muscle mass and stony carapace, shoving them around had to require tremendous strength.
Ravik took my breath away. As the beast charged him, he swung his battle axe, striking the joarkal on the side of its face with the flat back side of the weapon. He obviously intended to stun, not kill. The creature’s head jerked far to the right, and it stumbled, losing its momentum. Still, halfway through regaining its balance, the beast swiped a massive paw at Ravik, the blade-like claws aiming for his face. He blocked it with the staff of his battle axe, holding it with both hands, and then parried a second, and a third swipe. On the fourth, the joarkal pressed with all its weight, probably trying to break the staff. Ravik’s muscles bulged under the effort as he shoved back the predator just in time to dodge out of the path of its scorpion tail stabbing into the location Ravik had just been standing in. Spinning on himself, he swiped his battle axe around, giving it greater velocity, and struck right under the pit of the joarkal’s front leg, cutting deep through the leathery skin and muscles of the underbelly.
The creature reared its head up, roaring in pain. Without missing a beat, Ravik spun in the other direction and slammed the blade of his axe into the softer underside of its neck. A dark-blue liquid gushed from the critical wound. The beast attempted to back away, but my mate rammed into its wounded side with all his strength and weight. Toppling to its side, the joarkal tried to get back on all fours to protect its vulnerable underside, but Ravik backhanded it and then punched its bleeding neck wound. The beast toppled on its side, clawing feebly at empty air as its lifeblood poured out of him. Another swing of Ravik’s battle axe put an end to the creature’s agony.
Watching my mate battle proved quite the humbling experience. As a Veredian of the Warrior breed, I possessed excellent combat skill. It had significantly fueled my already cocky and self-confident personality. But I could clearly see that without the assistance of the advanced technology developed by my Veredian Sisters and the Tuureans, I couldn’t have defeated that creature in single combat. I didn’t even know that I could win against a Braxian. A single blow from them would crush me. One mistake would suffice to ensure my demise.
It was a sobering thought.
As Ravik turned to aid one of his men trying to finish off its target and with a second joarkal charging him, my armor suddenly went active. The black nanites unraveled the celesium shell from my belt and armbands, covering my body in the most impenetrable armor in the known universe. Startled, I looked around me, seeking what threat could have triggered its auto-defense. The four Braxians by my side all gaped at my transformation, their expressions going from shock to wariness. Aside from my horns, clad in my armor, I looked exactly like a Tuurean female. With good reasons, too, but ones that I couldn’t share with them.
However, I couldn’t focus on their worries right now. Voltar tensed next to me, the slit of his reptilian eyes widening as he suspiciously looked around, but he, too, didn’t seem to see anything.
As with the Tuureans, the armor automatically covered my face with a dark visor and my braid with an intelligent armor. The nanites in the braid’s armor synchronized to my neural waves so that they would respond to mental commands. Added to my natural combat skills, this priceless gift from Admiral Lee, the military leader of the Tuurean army, turned me into a lethal war machine. Within seconds, the celesium completely formed around me, its systems going online.
The graphic display turned on inside my visor, the scan indicating the presence of multiple people surrounding us. As the enhanced vision of my visor kicked in, it revealed the blurry silhouettes of a dozen Guldans. Weapons drawn, they were stealthily closing on us, camouflaged by a cloaking shield.
“INTRUDERS!” I shouted.
The Braxians closed protectively around me, looking this way and that for their invisible foe. The fools didn’t realize they were the ones in danger right now, not me. I raised my fist in front of my chest. The air shimmered around it, then an energy shield formed in front of me.
“Shields up!” I shouted, squeezing past Gorav just as a few of the Guldan took aim at us.
Unable to see them, and therefore unaware, he tried to stop me until the sparks of a few blaster shots bounced off of my energy shield. One of my four companions collapsed, hit by a couple of shots directly to his chest. The remaining three raised their own shields and armed their blasters.
“Fall back,” I ordered.
The Braxians complied. I doubted it was so much out of obedience than in response to the blaster shots raining on us. They closed ranks, their shields touching each other to make a single protective wall before us. While blindly shooting at our invisible attackers, we slowly backed away.
Reaching into my pouch, I retrieved a few seeker nodes, which I held in my palm. I pushed a ‘disrupt Guldan shield’ command at the nanites contained within them, using my Veredian power. Over the years, I’d learn the hard way to be precise in the simple commands I could give to avoid disaster. Had I not specified the specs of a Guldan shield, the nanites would immediately have begun attacking my own shield and that of my companions. I flicked the seeker nodes individually in the direction of the closest Guldans. Once in motion, they would use the planet’s magnetic fields to travel up to 300 meters—or before that if one hit a target—and then deliver its payload.
Within seconds, the targeted Guldans’ cloaking shields collapsed, making them visible at last. Angry roars arose from my companions, echoed by Voltar who took on a menacing stance, hovering protectively next to me. The revealed Guldans rushed us. Voltar and the other karvelis belonging to my four companions, charged our attackers in response. Thankfully, they provided the necessary distraction for me to repeat the process with the seekers and reveal the remaining Guldans.
“That’s all of them,” I shouted.
The words no sooner left my lips than two of the three Braxians still standing, jumped into the melee, Gorav staying by my side.
I tapped my braid, its armor parting at the base to eject the wide, silver ribbon I’d woven into my hair. The ‘tassel’ stiffened into a pommel while the ribbon turned into a blade. It didn’t come anywhere near the quality of my celesium sword—another gift from the Admiral—but it would cut any bastard who got in my way.
Gorav stared at it with disbelieving eyes.
“Let’s go kick some ass,” I said with a broad grin.
“Ravena, no!” Gorav exclaimed.
Ignoring him, I dashed towards two of the Guldans on our flank who were pointlessly firing their blasters at the karvelis. Their thick scales appeared to deflect the shots, but not the pain caused by the impact. The first one, with short, brown hair aimed his blaster at me while his companion armed himself with his sword. My shield absorbing the shots convinced him to switch to his sword as well. I didn’t slow down as I barreled towards him. His eyes widened, and he braced himself, no doubt ready to use my momentum to toss me to the ground.
Just as he raised his sword to swipe at me, I slid to the ground, my speed carrying me forward. Startled, he didn’t have time to jump out of the way before I knocked him off his feet, my raised sword taking a good bite into his thigh. He screamed and rolled to his side, raising his shield just in time to avoid being bludgeoned by Gorav.
Without missing a beat, I jumped from the slide back onto my feet and whipped my head around at the second Guldan rushing towards me. Obeying my neural command, the tip of my braid extended, wrapping around his neck. Before his hands could even reach f
or the armored braid, sharp blades protruded from it, severing his head. His face took on a surprised expression before the braid released him, the tip shrinking back to its normal length. The Guldan’s head fell off, his beheaded body advancing a few more steps before collapsing to the ground.
I turned around just in time to see Gorav kick the shield out of the hand of the Guldan, still on the ground, unable to get up from the blows my companion rained down on him. The Guldan tried to swipe his sword at Gorav who just dodged it before catching his opponent’s wrist, squeezing it hard enough to break his hand and make him let go of his weapon. Still holding the Guldan’s wrist, Gorav brought down his fist on his victim’s thigh. With a cracking sound, the Guldan’s leg jerked, folding in the wrong direction as he bellowed in agony, his eyes rolling in his head. Gorav grabbed the wounded man’s horn, lifting him up with one hand, like a weightless ragdoll, then slammed his head on the ground. The back of his skull exploded like an overripe fruit, spilling blood and gore. The Guldan’s body twitched violently, then went still.
I looked up at Gorav with horrified awe. There was something utterly sexy about the bloodlust on his face.
“Nice work,” I said, before glancing at our other two companions.
With his teeth, Voltar was tearing off the leg of a Guldan who appeared already dead or dying, considering the guts spilling out of his belly from what looked like claw wounds. One of the other karvalis stabbed his target twice with his scorpion tail. Within seconds, the Guldan’s face turned red, foam pouring out of his mouth. He fell to the ground, face first, convulsing. The karveli stepped on his back, breaking his spine, on its way to another prey. The other two Braxians were busy breaking limbs and crushing skulls of their own.
“They’ve got this. Let’s go to Ravik,” I said, running towards the forest.
“It’s too dangerous for you there!” Gorav shouted.
“Yes, but there might be more cloaked Guldans there,” I countered without slowing down. “The Braxians will be defenseless.”
That convinced him despite his obvious reluctance. “They know,” Gorav said, following me. “We warned them.”
Of course they would have. They’d been in communication with them coordinating the attack to begin with. Why they hadn’t joined us was quickly answered as I took in the mayhem reigning within the forest. An angry roar behind us had me looking over my shoulder. Voltar chased after us. His presence reassured me. As we ran forward, Gorav warned Ravik of our approach over his com.
This wasn’t a battle; it was carnage. A fresh wave of joarkals had descended upon the Braxians still dealing with the first pack. Surrounding them, another two dozen cloaked Guldans gleefully fired away at the Braxians. To my horror, I quickly realized they were choosing their targets. Not so much sparing as avoiding some of the Braxians, even aiding them by firing at the joarkals that threatened them. In the confusion, I couldn’t recognize the Braxian faces but tried to do so with their sigils on their shoulders.
I found Ravik surrounded by his closest allies, battling the group of joarkals. As we approached, an unexplainable wave of energy swept through me, with an irrepressible urge to kill. I blinked and shook my head, trying to fight the feral state that wanted to take me over. Gorav seemed to feel it as well, but it didn’t faze him.
A few of Ravik’s men had erected a protective shield around them, shooting blindly, mostly in the completely wrong direction. They were under heavy fire. At this rate, their shields would soon be depleted, leaving them defenseless. There were too many Guldans for me to reveal them the same way I had done with my seekers. Even if I tried, with the number of people and creatures running around, they’d likely end up in the path of the seekers, causing them to go off before reaching their intended targets.
No doubt considering me safe, Voltar jumped into the battle alongside his master. Clearly itching to join the fray, Gorav nevertheless remained by my side, shooting in the general direction of the forest. For once, I actually welcomed this protection, which allowed me to analyze the situation, looking for a solution. The Guldan’s blasters didn’t flash when fired, making it impossible to know their location. Even the impact on the shields gave no sense of the direction from which they’d originated.
And then it hit me. The Braxians didn’t actually need to see the Guldans, only to know exactly where they were.
“Gorav, what’s your com’s channel frequency?” I asked.
He frowned, taken aback by the question. After a brief hesitation, he communicated it to me. I plugged it into the interface of my armband, and queried the subroutine that allowed my suit to detect the Guldans before sending it through the com channel to all Braxians. It upset me that the likely traitors would receive it as well, but the needs of the many outweighed those concerns. I normally wouldn’t share this type of technology, but the Tuurean cloaking shields remained more advanced and undetectable with this subroutine.
“You’re a fucking genius, female,” Gorav grunted.
I grinned.
With this software upgrade, the Braxians armband scanner showed them the exact position of every Guldan within a three-hundred meters radius. While they still couldn’t see their targets before them, the Braxians fired the bows and blasters with deadly precision, most of them hitting their mark. The tide turned as a number of the Guldans attempted to beat a hasty retreat. No longer under heavy fire, the men holding the shields turned to the beasts.
“Pattel, your command,” Ravik said to the elder warrior in a barely understandable growl. “Krygor, Keran, with me.”
I expected Ravik to tell me to stay back but, to my surprise, he glanced at me, a savage look on his face. His chest vibrated with a growl. I lowered my visor, realizing he couldn’t see my face through the dark material. A glimmer of recognition flashed through his eyes.
I understood then that Ravik had entered battle rage; a rare genetic trait passed down within warrior clans. Those who achieved it were called Berserkers, revered by their clans. On the field of battle, once a Berserker entered battle rage, he could enhance the strength, speed, and endurance of his clan mates, turning them into Furies. That bloodlust and extra strength that buzzed through me stemmed from him.
He grunted again, then turned around and took off chasing after the Guldans. I followed, feeling stronger and faster than ever before.
CHAPTER 9
Ravik
My blood boiled with rage, a red haze filling my vision at the cowardly attack. They had targeted my mate, forcing her into battle and kept me from going to her using swarms of joarkals. They reeked of forxis, a hallucinogen known to cause extreme bouts of aggression. This had been a well-coordinated effort with the assistance of Braxians.
I raced through the forest, already knowing the Guldans ahead would escape. As soon as Ravena made their location visible on our radar, Clan Lorvis, Clan Sedrak, and Clan Arthol broke rank to chase after the Guldans. All three conveniently happened to be led by one of those who remained of the Fifteen. They’d been fighting at the edge of the battle, close to the Guldans, and yet remained unscathed while members of other clans fell to blaster shots.
As we approached a clearing ahead, the dots of the Guldans disappeared from the radar. The angry roars that rose behind me echoed mine. I realized then that a few more men—mine and some from other clans—had followed us.
Good. More witnesses to his execution.
The trees parted to reveal Clan Leader Torvin Sedrak, surrounded by four of his men. He started advancing towards me with a falsely disappointed expression. But mine must have revealed that I wasn’t fooled. Chin lifting in defiance, his eyes narrowed and his face hardened.
I raised a hand, indicating that my men not advance any further as I marched closer to Torvin, my breathing still slightly labored from the run. The men who’d accompanied me fanned around us. Thankfully, Ravena stood back with Krygor and his youngest son, Gorav.
“The Guldans have escaped you,” I said, the battle rage haze making my words
come out slurred and growly. “How convenient when you were so close to them and can move faster than them.”
Torvin’s eyes flicked this way and that, taking in which clansmen were in attendance, no doubt gauging how much support he might garner. When they settled on Ravena, hatred flared, and his mask dropped.
“This has nothing to do with the Guldans, does it, Magnar?” Torvin asked, putting as much contempt as he could in my title. “This is about that human cunt and that abomination she gave you. You’re pining over that filthy slave, and rather than taking a proper Braxian mate, you’re still chasing after alien pussy,” he spat, casting a meaningful—and contemptuous—glance at Ravena over my shoulder. “You’ve learned nothing. No wonder Braxia is on the verge of bankruptcy. You’re running it into the ground, turning us into pathetic farmers, taking orders from Krygor’s half-breed.”
Looking at the men around us and at the others trickling in from the woods, he pointed at me, taking them as witnesses.
“This is your ruler,” Torvin shouted so all would hear him. “An alien lover, who bows to a half-breed. Probably sucks his cock while he’s at it. He has rejected every alliance that could bring us back to our glorious warrior ways; starves our clans by taking away our slaves; charges cutthroat fines to those who won’t follow his rules; spits on our customs; forbids retaliation against trampled honor; and now brings a fucking female to the battlefield. He is unworthy of the title Magnar.”
An odd sense of peace settled over me as mutterings from the men rose around me. In a few minutes, I would kill this man, painfully. For Lissy, for my son, for his disrespect to my Ravena, and to me, and above all, for betraying Braxia.
“Whatever your grievances with the way I rule Braxia, you forfeited your life the day you brought foreigners to attack and kill Braxians on their home world to further your own agenda,” I said, in a voice devoid of emotion.