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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.
