“I’m following,” I growled, and I coiled my powerful legs underneath me before launching off the top of the dais.
I landed halfway to the hallway door, rolled on my shoulders to lose some of my momentum and then kept running. I holstered my golden revolver and then moved to open the door, but a salvo of blue pulse bullets tore through the door, and I had to fling myself out of the way so I wouldn’t get hit.
“Kasta, where is heeeeee?” I growled as I tried to lean around the door.
“He’s at the end of the hallway!” she answered. “Eleven and point four meters.”
“Help me aim!” I said as I backed up from the wall a bit and aimed my silver revolver into the wall.
“Left to your 11 o’clock!” she shouted. “Little bit to your right! Up a bit! That looks like it! Shoot, Adam!”
I squeezed the trigger as soon as Kasta said that, and the bullet erupted from my revolver like a blast from a volcano. The metal slug tore through the wall of the throne room and passed into the hallway beyond.
“You hit him in the gut!” Kasta shouted. “He’s turning to run. Go! Go! Go get ‘em, Adam!”
I yanked open the trashed door, and saw Uffe stumble toward the door at the end of the next hallway. He was holding his stomach with his right hand, but it didn’t look like it was doing any good. My bullet had left half of his intestines on the wall where his pulse rifle lay, and I figured he would bleed out if he didn’t get medical attention in the next five minutes.
I sprinted down the hallway as the beast in my soul screamed, and I didn’t bother opening the door he had just passed through. I just checked it with my shoulder and smashed through the thin metal as if it was made out of rice paper.
Uffe was waiting for me with a knife in his hand, but he hadn’t predicted that I would plow through the door, and his stab was half a moment too late. I grabbed his wrist with my left hand, pushed my revolver to his elbow and then pulled the trigger. He screamed as the bullet both burnt off his armor and then turned the metal into dust.
Then I wound his metal arm around behind my back and clocked him in the face with his own limb.
A dozen teeth exploded from his mouth and sprayed across the kitchen along with his left cyber eye. His armor was dripping off his face, and he tried to scream, but I clubbed him in the face again with his arm, and he flipped backward over the counter.
“Noooo,” Uffe gurgled as I stepped around the counter. He was trying to crawl away from me, but his left arm was just a nub, and his right arm was mostly just dripping oil and blood.
“Yesssss,” I growled as I kicked his chest and spun him over.
“Fuck. You. Vaish.” He spit one of his teeth up at me, but it just bounced off my chest armor and fell into the massive wound on his stomach.
“Your tattoos show wolves eating crowwwwssss,” I said as I pointed to his chest with my left hand and holstered my silver revolver.
“Fuck. You.” He panted. “May Odin curse you.”
“I think it’s the opposite,” I said as I pulled my knife from my sheath. “And now tiger eats wolf.”
Uffe gasped when I slowly brought my blade down to his neck, but then he never made another sound again.
Chapter 16
I returned to the throne room to find Elana, Aasne, and Eve running toward the hallway. The three of them had their helmets up covering their faces, but the metal dripped away from them as soon as they saw me.
“He’s deaaad,” I growled as I held up Uffe’s head.
“We guessed as much,” Elana said. “His women just started screaming. All but one is dead, but she is in no condition to harm us.”
“Let’s go backkkk,” I hissed as I gestured to opposite side of the throne room where we had entered. “Just one more task, and then the Nordar will be one.”
“Excellent, my king,” Elana said as she bowed her head to me.
“The Nordar will become one,” Aasne gasped as we began walking. “I never thought it would be in my lifetime.
“Hey Adam,” Zea said. “We’ve got a problem.”
“What?” I asked as the four of us slowed our walking speed.
“This Riecka chica is demanding that she get in the security room!” Juliette said. “She’s got a group of armored assholes, and they said they will break down the door. Layalina says we should let her in, but I’m thinking that is a bad idea.”
“We will be right therrrrre,” I growled, and then the four of us sprinted through the corpses and destroyed robots on the throne room floor.
The elevator ride seemed to take forever, but it was only ten seconds, then we were charging down the hallway to the intersection, and rushing back into the security room.
As soon as we entered, I saw Paula and Kasta point to the far door where Juliette stood with her rifle. There was obvious banging coming from the other side, but it didn’t sound like they were actually trying to break the door down.
“She just wants to watch me submit to you!” Layalina hissed as soon as she saw me. “We never intended to betray-- That is my father’s head! You’ve done it!”
“Yes,” I said as I tossed Uffe’s head on top of the terminal next to where Layalina was tied up. Then I walked over to where Zea sat.
“I have no cameras out in that hallway, remember?” the hacker said as she reached her fingers up to stroke the chin of my armor. “I saw them walk down the stairs from above. There are some armored assholes with her.”
“Why is she so desperate to get in here?” I turned back to Layalina.
“I’m like a younger sister to her,” the tattooed woman said. “She is only eight years older than me, and we planned this coup together. She is telling your women that she wants to watch me submit to you. Nothing more.”
“This is stinky,” Zea chimed from her terminal. “Why does she care?”
“It is important for the family to witness a submission,” Aasne said.
“Yes,” Elana agreed.
“You thinkkk I should let them in?” I growled as I gestured to the door. My anger wasn’t really threatening to overcome my mind, but I could feel the first trickles of rage bite at the corners of my mind.
“Without guards,” Elana said as she nodded. “If she just wants to see Layalina submit to you, then she shouldn’t need them.”
“Everyone but Juliette grab weaponsssss and get behind terminals for cover,” I said, and they all positioned themselves behind terminals so they could shoot at the door.
I moved to stand next to the handle of the door, pulled out my gold revolver, and then I nodded for Juliette to swing open the door. She had her own massive black revolver out, and she gave me a quick nod before she yanked it open.
I was fast for a human, but I was incredibly fast when I was in my weretiger form. Riecka was standing with her fist raised to pound on the door again, and my right hand closed around her throat before she even brought her hand down to knock.
“Don’t move,” I growled to her guards as I pushed the barrel of my revolver into her forehead. The men froze in place, and Riecka let out a gasp as she tried to claw at the armor on my wrist.
“Youuu--” she hissed, but I squeezed a bit tighter with my fingers, and her pretty face began to turn red.
“Wait here,” I growled. “If you attempt to enter, I will kill all of you. Uffe is dead, and in less than five minutes I will be your king.”
The armored men nodded, and then I pulled Riecka into the security room. Juliette kicked the door closed behind me, and then she quickly searched the woman while I held her throat.
“A knife,” Juliette said as she pulled a ten centimeter blade out of Riecka’s belt, spun it in her fingers, and then slipped it into her own pocket, “but other than that she is clean.”