by Luna Voss
I take a deep breath, hearing the sounds of the battle raging outside the ship.
Here goes nothing.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
I burst through the front entrance of Castle Drok riding the hover-turret. Immediately, I can see that things aren’t going well for my side. It is mostly their bodies that litter the ground. The Drokal fighters have been pushed back, and now they defend only the immediate area around the ship. They form a line, making a wall with their shields, as wave after wave of Broga soldiers crash into them. It looks like they won’t be able to hold out much longer.
“Move out of the way!” I shout.
Several of the Drokal soldiers turn their heads and notice me riding the hover-turret. I see their eyes widen in shock.
“Move!” I scream, louder this time. “You need to create a gap in the line so that I can shoot through it!”
The soldiers nod at each other, and then in one coordinated movement, several of them pull back, moving to the side and allowing the Broga warriors to break through. Blue-faced enemy Kyrzons stream through the gap, roaring in triumph at their apparent victory. I target my laser cannon at them, my heart pounding.
“Take this, you fuckers,” I mutter under my breath, and squeeze down on the firing mechanism.
My turret makes a long, resounding crack, and blue lasers rip out of the cannon. They tear into the Broga warriors, creating brilliantly purple flashes as the Kyrzons begin to crumble to the ground, their bodies burning and smoldering.
The rest of the Broga formation begins to roar in confusion. For another couple of seconds, they keep trying to break through the hole in the Drokal line. Then they turn back, screaming as they see their comrades being cut down. The Drokal soldiers yell in triumph, chasing them down and hacking at them as they retreat into the woods outside the settlement.
I speed my turret through the line, blasting any enemies not already in full-fledged retreat. The turret moves quickly and easily, and I don’t find piloting it to be much more difficult than a hover-cart. The only tricky part is aiming as I move.
I fall back, unable to continue firing without risking hitting my own allies, and start to make defensive circles around the ship. I scan the area around me, on the lookout for any remaining enemies. After a couple of rotations, I see a group of Drokal soldiers returning from the woods, and I zoom out to meet them.
“They are defeated!” one of them shouts to me, raising his spear.
“Where are the rest of our soldiers?” I ask, worried. This group only comprises a fraction of the warriors I saw chase Clan Broga out of the settlement.
“They gave chase,” he tells me. “We have only returned to collect tusk-oxen and supplies. Now we attack Clan Broga’s capital city, to rescue our chief and vanquish our enemies.”
“Point me to the capital,” I order him.
He nods. “It is in this direction,” he tells me, pointing.
I set off without another word. The hover-turret screams as I push the acceleration, slowing down only enough to avoid obstacles. Soon, I come across a group of Kyrzons who are fighting, and I fire a laser bolt at the ground near the ones who have blue faces, upsetting their balance and giving the advantage to the Drokal warriors.
I zoom past them, hearing to the sound of steel clashing on steel behind me. My hover-turret cruises over rocks, shrubs, and bushes, effortlessly gliding across the uneven landscape. I hear the wail of raptors, and a group of them appears to my left, snarling as they chase me. I speed up, and soon, I’ve left them behind.
This is the way to travel. My vehicle is handling the terrain much, much better than the hover-carts back home.
Plus, y’know, laser cannon.
I pass through a more heavily-wooded area, and am forced to slow down slightly to avoid hitting trees. Signs of habitation greet me as the woods begin to thin.
As I exit the woods and come out on an open field, I see Kyrzons on tusk-oxen leaving the forest from different exit points around me and charging across the field in the same direction. Most of the riders I recognize, and some of them are women. These are Drokal soldiers. I follow their lead, keeping pace with them as we head to invade Clan Broga’s capital.
As we get closer, I start to hear the sound of running water. The end of the field nears, and soon, I’m able to see that it’s a cliff with a river rushing far below it. We ride along the cliff, the warriors around me yelling and waving their swords, until a settlement appears in the distance.
A warrior rides up next to me, and I turn to look at him. It’s Tam. We make eye contact, and he grins. He raises his ax and lets out a bellowing roar:
“Fort Broga will be ours!”
Everyone shouts ferociously. I yell too, and fire a laser blast in the air.
We reach the settlement, riding past smaller buildings until we get to the fortress. There, we’re confronted by a significant force of Broga warriors in tight formation, making a shield wall around their base with their spears pointed at us. I slow to a stop, and the riders around me do the same.
The fortress behind them isn’t a ship. It looks as though it’s been carved out of rock, right into the face of the cliff.
That must be where they’re keeping Drokal prisoner.
The warriors from my clan line up behind me, prepared for battle. I hover back and forth in front of them, furious conviction coursing through me.
“Today we rescue our chief!” I yell, and the warriors roar their approval. Feeling buoyed, I continue: “Today we will destroy Clan Broga! We will take their fortress, their land, their power cells. We will make their warriors bow to us. For Clan Drokal!”
The warriors before me roar and clash their weapons on their shields. I turn back to face the Broga shield wall, my eyes narrowing.
It’s time for battle.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
I feel a rush of air as something whizzes by my face. I spin around, and see an arrow sticking out of the shield of one of the warriors behind me. Turning back to the Broga line, I’m confronted by the site of a swarm of arrows heading in my direction, arcing through the air overhead. The soldiers behind the front line must be firing over the shields.
My only option to avoid the danger is to zoom forward, toward the enemy line. I do so, grimacing, and hear arrows thunk into shields behind me. The Broga line starts to advance, marching toward me with their shields raised and their spears forward. I fire blue lasers into them, which flash blindingly against their shields and cause a panic. The front line of Kyrzons drop their shields and start to break rank, allowing my attack to rip into their formation.
I see another volley of arrows heading my direction, forcing me to speed to my right to avoid them. When I look back at the Clan Broga force, I see that the next line of soldiers has stepped forward, their shields and spears at the ready.
I fire again, this time missing in my haste. I then have no choice but to move as more arrows come my way.
With a roar, the Clan Drokal soldiers charge, crashing into the Broga line. I circle around, trying to find an angle where I can shoot at the enemy without hitting my own warriors.
Suddenly, another arrow whizzes past me. This time, not coming from the main force of Broga soldiers.
Coming from behind me.
I spin around on the hover-turret just in time to dodge another arrow heading directly for my head. I start hovering around in a jerky, erratic pattern, trying to present a difficult target as I look for my attacker.
Another arrow shoots into the ground right next to me. This time, I’m able to see that it’s coming from a figure on the roof of a nearby building. I target the building and blast it with lasers. I don’t stop until I see the entire structure engulfed in flames.
Behind me, I hear a roar. I turn, and am very nearly beheaded by a Broga warrior swinging a two-handed sword. I throw the hover-turret into reverse as he resets himself for another attack.
My opponent grins as he sprints in my direction, holding his sword ab
ove his head. I acquire my target, squeeze the trigger, and rail him in the chest with lasers. He collapses, copious amounts of smoke coming from his burnt-up torso.
Both sides of the conflict are starting to lose their organization, and the fighting is getting thick. I need to get out of here. Being on a hover-turret in the middle of a pitched battle is not a good strategy. I stare at the Broga fortress, the space in between it and myself filled with warring Kyrzons.
If only I could find a way through to rescue Drokal.
An arrow clanks against the front of my vehicle, spurring me to speed to another location. From my new vantage point, I can see an area of the fighting near the fortress where a crowd of Broga warriors are grouped together. Capitalizing on the opportunity, I squeeze laser bolts into them, momentarily creating a gap in the conflict.
I zoom through it, hovering over their smoldering bodies, and am able to reach the fortress. One of the enemy fighters hurls a spear at me, but he is quickly cut down by a Kyrzon that I recognize as Kalish.
“I’m going to rescue Chief Drokal!” I shout to him, pointing at the fortress.
He gives me a nod, then grins and throws himself back into the fight. I speed the hover-turret to the front of the fortress, avoiding arrows and spears as I move. When I reach the entrance, I don’t bother trying to open the front door, I just blast it into pieces.
The battle rages behind me as I pilot my vehicle through the smoking debris of the fort’s entrance. It’s dark inside, and I’m glad to be able to flick on my hover-turret’s headlights. As soon as I do, I’m greeted by the sight of an ax-wielding Kyrzon charging directly at me.
I light him up with the turret and hover over his body before he’s even stopped moving. I’m in a hallway now, both walls lined with doorless entryways. I move forward slowly, peering through each doorway as I pass. I see no sign of my mate.
The hallway ends in a larger room with a big window, and I’m confronted by a flight of stairs. It’s too narrow for me to fit down there with the hover-turret, but everything about that creepy stone staircase screams “dungeon”. After a few moments’ hesitation, I park my turret and continue down the stairs on foot.
Down here, it’s really dark. Thankfully, there’s a torch on the wall at the bottom of the stairs, which I take and hold aloft. I pass through another doorless entrance, and I’m relieved to see what appears to be a dungeon, complete with barred cells.
I creep forward hesitantly. There are more torches on the walls, but my eyes haven’t fully adjusted yet, and it’s still hard to see. There’s no telling what awaits me down here.
The first cell I pass is empty. Ditto with the next one. I’m starting to get discouraged, when I see by my torchlight that the next cell houses a hulking figure, sitting with his back against the wall.
Unfortunately, this isn’t the only hulking figure in the dungeon. And the other one isn’t locked in a cell. A terrifying-looking Kyrzon jailer stalks toward me, scraping a wickedly curved sword against the bars of the cell next to him as he walks. I step backward, panic flooding over me, instantly kicking into fight-or-flight mode.
Without the hover-turret, I don’t have any way to defend myself.
The Kyrzon advances, his sword making an awful sound as it scrapes the metal bars of the cell. I move backwards as quickly as I can. If I can get to the hover-turret in time, maybe I can blast him as he follows me up the stairs.
Suddenly, the huge figure in the cell springs into action. He charges at the bars, reaching through and grabbing the jailer’s wrist as his hand holds the sword. A struggle ensues, the sword clanging against the metal bars, and I see both men fighting for control of the weapon.
My survival instincts taking over, I sprint toward the Kyrzon jailer, whacking him in the back over and over again with my torch. He turns, distracted by the flames, and his opponent is able to wrest the sword from his grip, thrusting it immediately back through the bars and into the jailer’s chest.
The jailer falls to the ground dead, and I look through the bars at the prisoner.
Chief Drokal stares back, a look of utter amazement dawning on his face as he recognizes me. “Cleopatra?”
Chapter Thirty
I rush to embrace him through the bars, and Drokal does the same. We hold hands, pressing our foreheads together through the gap in the cell.
“What are you doing here?” Drokal asks, his expression somewhere between intense pride and utter shock.
“I’m here to rescue you, dummy,” I say, planting a series of kisses all over his mouth. “Are you hurt?”
“I am uninjured,” he says. “How did you get here?”
“It’s a long story,” I tell him. “I led the attack on the fortress. The rest of the clan is here fighting against Clan Broga. We need to get you out of that cell.”
“There’s a key hanging on the wall over there,” he tells me, pointing.
I retrieve it, and unlock Drokal’s cell. He throws open the door and bursts out, scooping me up in his arms and covering me with kisses.
“You’re incredible,” he breathes. “How did I get so lucky to have you?”
“I’m pretty sure you paid 100,000 power units for me,” I say, “but let’s wait until after the battle is over to count our blessings.”
Drokal picks up the curved sword from the body of the defeated jailer. “Clan Broga will bow to us,” he snarls, examining the blade.
We head up the stairs together, and Drokal’s eyes go wide as he sees me climb into the hover-turret.
“Is that…?” he stutters. “From the Great Hall?”
“Yes,” I tell him. “No time to explain.”
No sooner am I done speaking, when a pair of Broga soldiers charge at us down the hallway swinging axes. Drokal raises his sword, but before they even reach us, I’ve hit them both twice with my laser cannon, reducing them to smoking heaps on the floor.
The chief stares at me in amazement.
“Come on,” I say, zooming out to join the battle.
Drokal follows, and together we burst out of the fortress and into the thick of the fighting. He throws himself at a blue-faced warrior, and sparks fly as their swords clash. I watch him for a moment, seeing the muscles in his arms ripple as he swings his sword, and then spring into action myself as a spear shoots past me and lodges itself in the ground behind me.
It looks like Clan Broga is getting the upper hand in the fight. Their soldiers are benefiting from their greater numbers, and ours seem to be fading. Suddenly, I hear one of the Broga warriors scream:
“It’s Chief Drokal! The prisoner has escaped!”
The Clan Drokal soldiers roar, emboldened by this news. They begin to fight harder, and the sound of clashing steel intensifies.
I speed around the outside of the conflict, searching out archers and picking them off before they can establish sniping positions. I glance into the thickest part of the battle, and see Drokal’s sword flashing, his eyes blazing as he battles three Broga warriors at the same time. He ducks under one of their attacks and stabs his opponent in the neck, before kicking another to the ground and finishing him off with a brutal thrust.
“Chief Broga, I will tear your head from your shoulders!” he bellows, throwing himself at the next warrior, whose bald head and clean-shaven face I recognize from my Auction Day.
Watching my mate fight is mesmerizing. He looks positively majestic as he swings his sword, effortlessly delivering a vicious spinning attack. Chief Broga parries, and I’m forced to look away as a nearby archer targets me with his bow.
I feel the arrow scream past my shoulder, delivering a burning sensation as it grazes my skin, drawing blood. I target the archer with my cannon and blue laser bolts rip into him.
I circle the battle, searching for Drokal, still doing my best to eliminate any archers or other ranged attackers who might threaten my clan. I catch flashes of my mate fighting with the Broga chief, but they’re in the middle of the melee, and I’m unable to get a clear view.<
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It seems like the tide of the battle is turning. Now that Chief Drokal and I have joined the combat, the Broga soldiers are wavering, their attacks growing fewer and more labored. Soon, many of them are in retreat, still fighting, but moving away from the fortress, rather than holding their ground.
The two war chiefs are still locked in combat. Their swords flash, the two men appearing to be evenly matched. First one of them attacks, and the other blocks, and then the pattern reverses. Neither fighter can gain the upper hand. I aim my laser turret, trying to target Chief Broga, but he and Drokal are too close together, and I’m unable to get a lock.
“Make space!” I shout to Drokal. “Make space so that I can shoot him!”
Drokal turns for a split second, and he makes eye contact with me. Then he nods, and kicks his opponent in the chest, pushing him backwards.
That’s all the space I need. I pull the trigger, firing a bolt of blue energy at Chief Broga’s head.
I miss, but only barely. The laser blazes past his face, singeing his cheek. He grimaces, turning to face me, his lips curling into a snarl.
It is in that split second, as Broga is distracted, that Drokal pounces. He sprints forward, picking something off the ground as he does so, and swings his sword at the enemy chief’s neck. Broga only barely manages to raise his own weapon in time to block.
But Drokal has another attack hidden right behind the first. In his other hand he holds the head of a spear, its wooden shaft lying broken on the ground behind him. Drokal drives the spearhead upwards into Chief Broga’s stomach, right under his rib cage, and the other chief falls to his knees.
“There is no more Chief Broga,” Drokal snarls, and with a single swing of his sword, he beheads his opponent.
It feels like the battle should be over. In an Earth movie, this would definitely be the end of the conflict.
Unfortunately, seeing their chief fall seems only to fortify the resolve of the remaining Broga warriors. They begin to fight with a renewed vigor, several of them managing to overpower their opponents. They begin to swarm Chief Drokal, separating him from his allies and forcing him to fight with his back against the wall of the fortress.
