My deepest nightmare had come to fruition.
The doors to the cages swung open with a clank. The figures inside instantly scrambled out. Low to the ground and ready to attack, they still had enough human in them they didn’t go down on all fours.
Joska was the first out, getting himself in front. The already large guy puffed his chest, beating on it as a gorilla would, rallying the dozens of beast-like men behind him.
He was the alpha.
“Joska?” Caden wheezed, taking in his old classmate. Then his gaze went to Samu, not too far behind. “Samu?”
Joska’s and Samu’s heads snapped to Caden, a sneer hitching on their lips, responding to their names.
They understood him.
A howl from Joska pierced the air, sending chills down my spine. He grabbed the cage he came out of, his arms flexing. Grunting wildly, he snapped off a metal bar, his dark eyes landing on me. Recognizing. Despising. The feelings Joska had for me before seemed to only heighten in this state.
He howled again, ramming his fist with the metal rod into the air, rallying up the group behind him, ready to attack. One by one, they each broke a bar from their cage, displaying their excessive strength, shaking their weapons with his.
Then they did something that sunk terror into my gut. Spreading out, they started to move around us like we used to do on sweeps. It was methodical. Planned.
“Shit.” I stepped back, oxygen slipping from my lungs, my gaze snapping from Caden to Hanna, their eyes coming back to me with the same horror and understanding. They saw it too. The old guards seemed to still have enough cognitive understanding of a human but double the strength of any fae I’d ever seen, with animal instincts to kill. They were far worse than the wild animals.
There were ways to counter a sweep in the real world by breaking through one side, spilling out of the circle. Here there wasn’t anywhere to go. No breaking free.
The only chance was to get their weapons from them and spread out as we did last time, lessening the power they had as a group. With Joska the leader of the pack, most followed his cues. They wouldn’t be as strong alone. Depending on what fae essence they took on, some would be better than others at fighting.
As if Joska knew what I was thinking, he let out a yowl, the entire throng running for us like we were on a battlefield. They moved so fast our human reactions couldn’t keep up.
“Mom!” Hanna’s voice shrilled through the stadium. Nora didn’t even have time to turn as Samu chucked the metal rod in his hand like a javelin.
The jagged point struck its mark, spraying blood over Rebeka’s face. It was so fast, Nora stared unblinking at Rebeka, her body not registering what had happened. Her mouth opened to speak, blood drooling from it.
“Nora!” Rebeka screamed as Nora’s body finally crumpled to the ground.
“Mooooommmmm!” Hanna wailed, moving forward. Wesley grabbed her, holding her back as she thrashed. “No! Let me go! Mom!” she sobbed, her body sinking in despair against him.
Caden dove past Rebeka, shoving her out of the way as the soldier-monster hurtled for us, ripping the bar out of Nora, his training was conditioned in his body, seeing an opportunity and taking it.
We had no time to register or mourn Nora’s death, the throng of monsters coming straight for us.
Pushing through the goblin metal, I reached out to Warwick and Scorpion. “Take out the weakest links. Get their weapons. Scorp, you go after the back group. We will take on Joska.”
Scorpion nodded, getting in front of Hanna while Wesley tried to get her to her feet. For a moment, I didn’t know if she would, but she was a trained soldier down to her core. You learned to compartmentalize. Do your duty. Grieve later. Killian and Rosie grouped with them.
“Ash!” I nodded at another tier of monsters. He instantly reacted. Kek, Kitty, Birdie, and Lukas ran with him, not waiting for the hybrid monsters to attack first.
“What the fuck is she doing?” Caden gripped the bar he stole, his head jerking toward the tiny blonde running for one of the largest monsters out there, one who seemed more rhino than human.
“Oh, holy shit.” I knew exactly what she was doing. Birdie’s slight frame scaled up the back of him like she was a squirrel before the creature even understood she was there. Climbing onto his shoulders, her legs wrapped around his neck. I had seen her use that move on a guy who had to be part giant and win.
He clawed and bucked, trying to get the girl off of him, but Birdie held on, contracting her legs and crunching down on his esophagus. The man’s face turned purple before he fell to his knees. She didn’t relent, her thighs like a boa constrictor. The man’s eyes flipped back, tipping over, slamming into the ground. The brutal impact tossed her into the dirt, rolling her over to us.
Coughing out a groan, she got up.
“I won’t lie and say that wasn’t frightening and oddly hot at the same time,” Caden huffed, his head shaking.
“Oh, pretty boy, if you think that was scary…” she brushed herself off with a wink, “your little vanilla world couldn’t handle what I actually do in bed.”
Caden jerked slightly at her statement. A smile curved her mouth as she whirled back around, facing the wave of monsters coming at us.
We met them halfway, Samu’s fist slicing across my cheek, probably the only time he ever got a hit in first, and that was because he wasn’t human anymore. With a growl, I slammed my elbow into his gut, causing him to stumble back. My heel plowed into him, tossing his ass onto the ground.
He snarled back, his eyes darting over to Caden. His body pointed toward him. You could feel and see the animosity, jealousy, and hurt because Caden never befriended him. He wanted him to pay.
Jumping for him before he could move, a force knocked into me, hurling me back into the wall like a freight train. My head slammed into the wood, spinning my mind. Blood trickled down the back of my neck, my lids lifting to see Joska only feet from me. Anger and rage heaved in every breath he took. His eyes narrowed on me, his lip curling, raising the pole in his hand, chucking it straight at me.
Adrenaline and fear exploded through my muscles, jerking my body down farther. I felt the bar skim my head, grazing the top of my scalp and sticking into the wall behind me.
Holy fuck.
An aggravated roar filled the arena, Warwick plowing into Joska, both men crashing hard into the dirt, rolling together. Joska bellowed, his unbelievable strength matching The Legend as his teeth bit down on Warwick’s neck. Wagging his head violently, he tore into Warwick’s flesh.
“No!” I screamed, scrambling up, yanking the spear out of the wall. My fingers wrapped around the metal, Warwick’s bellow filling the arena. I didn’t think; the only instinct was to save him.
Running up behind Joska, my arms went up. “Move!” I screamed at Warwick.
He shoved Joska over as I dropped the bar like an ax into his back. The sound of bone, muscles, and matter slurped as the spear drove between Joska’s shoulder blades. Joska reared back with a yowl, Warwick scrambling out from underneath him as I yanked the bar free. Saliva dripped from Joska’s mouth as he turned to me, his bloody, meaty hands grabbing for me. I rammed the rod through his throat, feeling the pointy end embedding in the dirt, the reverberation jarring my muscles. Blood sprayed over my face, the metal tunneling through his neck.
Joska’s brown eyes stared at me. Gurgling, his mouth opened, pooling blood onto the ground.
Warwick got to his feet, his face and arms cut up badly, but I knew he’d heal.
Birdie dropped another guard, using her uniform top to strangle him, his body going limp right next to us. “Two down. You only have one?” She smirked.
“Remind me to never piss you off.” Caden retorted, moving to us.
“This? Please. You should see what I do when I’m actually angry.”
Right then, a grunt came from Joska’s dead body, swiveling us back around. His eyes popped open, his hand reaching for the pole, his lips snarling as he yanked it out of his neck with a growl.
“Holy shit.” Birdie leaped back. “He’s still fucking alive!”
Joska snarled as he rose, his death stare only on me. The other guards we thought we killed were twitching awake as well.
The darkest dread sank into my chest. Not only were they stronger because of the drug, but they were even harder to kill... if not impossible. They healed rapidly, and from what I remember in Killian’s lab, they didn’t register pain.
Joska roared, causing all the others to respond in a chilling cry. A warrior’s death cry.
“Kovacs!” Warwick shoved me away as Joska sprung, the harpoon coming for me.
BOOOOOOOM!