by C. R Corbin
He looks up at the light, witnessing the flight of his troops as they began to descend into the fortress and he grinds his teeth, forcing himself upwards as he remembers each and every moment with her until he was desperately crawling up the wreckage with his sword in his mouth.
"Gulvan!" he roared as he reached the top, he could see the top of the spire, his brother was there in his gaudy gold armor and his mate was chained to the post.
He charges forth as the troops drop down and begin to run into the center of the base with him. He screams at the troops in front of him to move out of the way and bisects them with his blade when they don't. He would make it to the top of the tower, come hell or high water.
"Support king Koigo!" shouted one of his commanders from behind him as the men join him in the ensuing onslaught. The tired and battered forces of Gulvan had been subject to the initial bombings and were still a bit shell shocked, they were soon wiped out by the deluge of fresh troops.
Arrows rained down on the arriving forces but Koigo managed to dodge the wave and block the remaining arrows that did come his way through the use of the bodies that he had used as shields. His eyes glowed a deep gold and he roared with an all-consuming rage as he watched the top of the tower.
"Onward!" shouted Koigo as he sprints into the base of the tower, deflecting any blows that came his way and taking down the enemy with deadly efficiency.
He begins his ascent up the stairs, the archers that fired down on him had their arrows cut in mid-air before they met their untimely end at his blade. The troops almost had to take a moment to pause and admire his fighting prowess as he literally sawed his way up to the roof of the tower.
And soon he arrived, she was tied to a ramshackle post and her mouth was gagged, she looks at Koigo with relief and visible worry as he looks back at her and breathes a sigh of relief before turning his attention to his brother.
"So glad you could make it brother." Gulvan stated, a wide smile on his face. Koigo approached his mate but was cut off suddenly by Gulvan's own blade which blocked his path.
"Don't think that you're going to free her so easily." Gulvan states, grinding his blade against Koigo' as the two men snarled at one another.
Koigo dodged a swing and rolled over to where Saradi was, he swings his blade once to cut the ropes around her and she is able to wrangle herself loose while Gulvan attempted to attack her, only to be blocked by Koigo.
"Been so long since we've done this." Gulvan snarled with their blades clashed in front of them. Koigo pushes and breaks the blade lock before tackling his brother off the tower. He could hear Saradi calling after him as his body fell into the wreckage of a small building at the base of the fortress.
...
She falls to her knees from her place near the post and pants as she feels her wrists, groaning as the feeling in her extremities come back to her. Immediately she crawls to the edge of the roof to watch as Koigo and Gulvan struggled to stand, she sighs in relief but continues to watch with bated breath before barely rolling to the side quick enough to dodge the hammer of Malbog
"You are destined to be a pest aren't you?" Malbog asked her with furious eyes as he rotates his hammer in his hand, it was a large and unwieldy thing but she knew that he was deceptively fast despite looking like the typical muscle-bound brute.
And he was angry.
She looks around to see if anything could be used as a weapon but finds nothing but the rope that she had been tied up with. She sprints towards it and grabs it just in time to roll out of the way of another swing of the hammer in her direction. He glares at her, his grey skin perfectly matching the desolate atmosphere around them of snow and black rock. His fingers tightened around the hammer and he steps forward before swinging his weapon once more, this time in a horizontal direction. She creeps back to the edge, she didn't have her armor or any of the weapons that she was used to using in the army or even in training.
All that she had was this dumb rope.
"I'm going to bash your legs until they're mush and show you to the king! You little-" he states as he prepares to swing his hammer yet again, she was near the edge and was about to be struck but he was cut off by an laser striking his back.
"Grah!" he shouts as he grabs his shoulder and looks back to the man that was standing near the entrance to the top of the spire.
"Kinu." She states with a wide smile as the human continued to fire on Malbog, enabling Saradi to maneuver away from him. As soon as she approached Kinu's side he handed her a knife and a small pistol.
"This was all that you had?" she asked and he laughs.
"You should be grateful."
"I have had it with you humans!" bellowed Malbog as he charged forth while the two continued to fire at him. The charging Rialan was scalded by the lasers but his thick skin prevented any significant harm from being done to him.
He turns and swings his hammer, growling and roaring in anger as he was driven into a frenzy by them. He manages to separate the two and begins to charge Saradi, hoping to knock her off of the tower. He didn't care about the pain of the lasers striking him now, the only thing on his mind was getting revenge for his eye.
"Saradi!" shouted Kinu as Saradi dove over the swing of the axe before tossing her knife directly into Malbog's remaining eye. He snarls in pain as she charges into him, placing her blaster against his face and firing off every single round that she had. It almost worked but he manages to grab her gun in his confusion, his face was charred and bleeding but he was still on his feet somehow.
"Shit! She growled out as Kinu came up from behind to attempt to choke the attacking Rialan with his rifle but he was soon knocked off.
Saradi sprints towards the rope that she had left behind during the battle and begins to wrap it around Malbog's head, the Rialan growls in anger as she steers him towards the edge and gives him one final kick before falling to her back. The two humans crawl over to watch as the body falls into the snow below, both of them sighing in relief when it became apparent that he would no longer threaten them.
Now it was all up to Koigo.
#
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
He groans in pain as the siblings stand up from their fall. Their Rialan physiology made them extraordinarily tough but they had still felt the ache of falling from a tower that was likely 6 stories high by human standards. There was a large piece of wood stuck in his side and Gulvan probably had a rib or two that was broken.
But they battled, as they always had.
For a moment Koigo could remember the play fights that they had as children with sticks instead of swords. Now all of that had changed and the two men were charging at one another with ill-intent, it was something that he had seen coming his entire life. He remembered his brother's favorite moves and Gulvan remembered his, when he would stab Gulvan would deflect and when Gulvan would attempt to slash his feet as he loved to do, he would flip over the blade and return with a flurry of his own.
They were evenly matched, where Gulvan had a bit more brute force Koigo was faster and more agile, where Gulvan was hardier Koigo could claim the faster reflexes.
Koigo begins to step back from a flurry of sword swings in front of him, side stepping his brother before kicking up a piece of rubble to distract Gulvan. He swings his sword once and catches Gulvan on the chest just barely, leaving a relatively shallow cut covering the silver chest of his brother who growled in frustration before coming back at him with a furious series of strikes that managed to cut Koigo' face.
There was no end to this, they would both die if this went on long enough.
And so Koigo used the last resource that he had, his mind.
Gulvan swings and Koigo dodges just barely but pretends as if the blow had struck him severely and ducks down, coughing as he did so. Gulvan maneuvered forward, the tip of his blade trained on Koigo neck who moves as quickly as he can to deflect it before jamming his blade upwards into Gulvan's throat in the ensuing confusion.
It was a
gambit, and it had worked.
His brother's gold clad hands grab the blade and struggle to pull it out, cutting his palms in the process. Gulvan howls and a sickeningly hollow noise fills the air before he falls onto his knees, panting and falling to his side as blood continued to trickle from his neck.
Koigo falls to his back, exhausted and near unconsciousness from the compounding factors of the fall and the wounds that Gulvan had given him.
He watches his blade flicker in the wind, his brother laid there beside him, lifeless, cold, despite their history Koigo could feel a bit of pain for his lost rival. He looks to his brother and begins to wonder just how similar they really were...and just how much they had shared.
"Need help?" someone asks him and he looks behind him to see Yaki limping towards him, there were a group of soldiers around him. His old friend extends his hand and helps Koigo to his feet and the young king is able to stabilize himself just enough before he was tackled to the floor by a familiar scent.
Her.
"You idiot! What were you thinking tackling him off of the tower?!" she asks him and he laughs at her, she shakes her head in disbelief but pulls him into a long kiss that seems to be just warm enough to make the pain from his wounds fade.
"Don't you ever leave me again." He tells her as he strokes her back and she nods.
"Likewise." She replies.
....
It was the middle of summer, as such every single window was open, sometimes she cursed the Limuran custom of not using air conditioning as it would, "build the spirit", whatever that meant. Even she, the tough militant, wasn't all too keen on enduring this.
But her son seemed to like it well enough judging by how he was tolerating a duel with his father in the training yard at the moment.
"Again!" Koigo orders as Aior charges him with his stick, swinging a combination that was aimed to strike Koigo' head before the stick travels downwards to attempt to strike his father's feet. It was subsequently blocked and the boy huffed in annoyance as he rises to his feet once again and swings his sword down on his father's blade that was lazily raised above his head.
"Too slow."
The boy was not perturbed by this, if anything it only drove him even madder as he continued to swing madly in an attempt to strike his father.
The man ducks from side to side, watching the tip of his son's weapon as he continues to chide his son for being predictable. Koigo never struck back, that was not the point of the exercise, it was to show his son to think outside of the box, to be creative in his swordplay.
"Think of something, anything." Stated Koigo.
The boy paused just outside his range and watched his father intently before charging forth yet again. Aior swings but this time the tip of his stick strikes the sand beneath them and causes some to rise up, causing his father to cough. Seeing his opportunity he rises with his stick and strikes his father's chest....or so he thought.
As the sand clears it became apparent that his father had just barely managed to block the shot.
"Nice." The elder stated while Aior only frowned and shook his head in discouragement. His father rests a hand on his shoulder and reassures his son which gradually lightens his mood.
"Am I really that good with the blade?" he asks and his father nods.
"One of the most talented warriors that I have ever seen."
"But there's no way that I can be as fast as you because-"
"Son." Koigo stopped him before he could finish, "Your human side gives you power too. It gives you mobility that I don't have, endurance that I don't have." The man stated.
Indeed the boy wasn't as intimidating as his father. His horns were substantially smaller and he wasn't as massive. His father towered above him at about 8 feet and had the build of a lifelong warrior, not too bulky but not too lean either. His father's feet had large pronged talons instead of regular toes that he had but he still retained the secondary weapon of all Rialans, the claws on his fingertips.
But he had always felt a bit insecure, that had decreased with training from his father and with any luck the boy would come to terms with it. After all, he had already beaten almost all of the Rialan sparring partners that he had been matched with due to his added mobility and endurance.
But still his son felt the insecurities that were all too common in young people. The feeling of not being good enough, of not being qualified to be in the position that one is in.
And he had to let his son know each time that his human blood wasn't a hindrance, rather it was a power.
And Koigo, for as cynical as he sometimes may be, knew that the lesson was getting through to his boy's head.
"Yes father." He stated with a small smile and placed his stick on the rack along with his father. The two of them sat down for a few moments, drinking water and basking in relaxation after their training session but something else was brought to their attention.
"I hope you two won't take too long! The photo won't take itself!" shouted Saradi down to them, she was having her own troubles keeping the little girl that was tugging at her shirt preoccupied.
Father and son laughed and went on their way to get ready while Saradi knelt down to the girl's level. She was still a child but would be approaching adolescence in a few years, her son was already practically grown, it had all moved by so quickly. The feeling of it, the joy that consumed her each tie she looked upon her family, Saradi would not give it up for the world.
"Mama, can I go down and train with them today? Are you going?" Saradi was asked and shook her head.
"Not right now honey. Maybe after the photo, you don't want to have to take a bath and go through putting on that dress again do you?' Saradi asked her daughter who made a face.
Saradi just laughed and pulled her in a bit tighter.
"Come on, we'll meet your brother and papa down in the hall."
The world had changed dramatically since Gulvan's defeat, the palace had a healthy mix of both Rialan and human workers and all of Limura had welcomed Koigo' ascent to become emperor of the entire planet. His rule was fair and kind and he even instituted reforms to strip some power away from him and to bestow it to the people themselves.
The royal family was beloved and the populace would shower praise after praise upon them, their planet and the moon was finally at peace.
Finally.
And as the family all gathers around the chair that would be used as the centerpiece for the photo, Koigo and Saradi share a look for a brief moment in wonder. From hatred to love, from pain to this euphoric mood.
They had truly prevailed.
<<<<>>>>
If you enjoyed this read then you might also enjoy other books from C.R Corbin including:
The King’s Mate (Rialan Kings Book 1)
Alien Warrior’s Hunt: A Sci-Fi Alien Romance (Verotan Mates Book 3)
Alien Warrior’s Passion: A Sci-FI Alien Romance (Verotan Mates Book 2)
Alien Warrior’s Claim: A Sci-Fi Alien Romance (Verotan Mates Book 1)
Geran: A Sci-Fi Alien Romance (Warriors Of Hawkura Book 2)
Rebekal: A Sci-Fi Alien Romance (Warriors Of Hawkura Book 1)
Alien’s Gift: A Sci Fi Alien Romance (Delosian Warriors Book 3)
Sarien: A Sci Fi Alien Romance (Rialan Captives Book 3)
Relkor: Rialan Captives Book 1
Alien’s Claim
Grexarr: Kanosian Warriors Book 5
Alien’s Prize
Kreux: A Sci-Fi Alien Romance (Morelen Princes Book 3)
Tariel: A Sci-Fi Alien Romance (Morelen Princes Book 2)
Mortok: A Sci-Fi Alien Romance (Morelen Princes Book 1)
Ethriel: A Sci-Fi Alien Romance (Kanosian Warriors Book 4)
Fherin: A Sci-Fi Alien Romance (Kanosian Warriors Book 3)
Maloq: A Sci-Fi Alien Romance (Kanosian Warriors Book 2)
Anthriel: A Sci-Fi Alien Romance (Kanosian Warriors Book 1)
Janar: A Sci-Fi Alien Romance (Jorathian Warriors Book 1)
Yagrax: A Sci-Fi Alien Romance (Jorathian Warriors Book 3)
Zaven’s Passion: A Sci-Fi Alien Romance
Kelian: A Sci-Fi Alien Romance
The Captive Mate: A Sci-Fi Alien Romance
If you want to receive a free book with more giveaways in the future, or if you simply want to receive updates about any new releases from C.R Corbin then sign up for her mailing list
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
