Page 144 of Renegade Kingdom
The bear was right there, pressed against the inside of my skin, and the Spring magic poured through the contact like water through a broken dam.
It was time to unleash the berserker.
The bear tore out of me with a roar. One moment I was a man, and the next I was the beast. Every emotion felt a thousand times concentrated when the berserker inside him was set free from the chains I’d wrapped around my mind. All I could feel right now was an overwhelming need to protect that burned white hot next to the rage that fully encapsulated the berserkers view of the world.
The creatures in front of me fell back a step in shock. They knew a predator when they saw one. It was the last mistake they’d make. They should have run while they still had the chance.
My claws slashed through the nearest creature like it was nothing more than tissue paper. The Spring Court magic made the earth beneath the creatures’ legs soft, swallowing them to the knees, holding them in place while I tore them apart.
The bear was thorough in his brutality, but this was a lesson for the creatures we face. A demonstration of what would happen to them if they didn’t turn back now.
The bear wanted more. It wanted to be free. For those last few chains to be broken and his full rage to descend onto the battlefield. He was ready to become the thing that every predator in Nymeria had learned to fear the wrong being. The berserker intended to correct their mistake.
Not yet, I told it.Not yet.
This was a delicate moment in the fight we faced. We needed their fear, their hesitation. Because at the end of the day, we were vastly outnumbered and the rest of our forces were too busy trying to ensure the safety of the Endless who had been freed. There was no one coming to reinforce our circle of protection around our mate. We were it. Her only defence. And we need these creatures to withdraw, to decide the risk was too great, that the battle was already lost and flee. The last thing we needed was them to realise they had a chance if they overwhelmed us all at once.
“What are they waiting for?” Damon grumbled from somewhere behind me.
I couldn’t answer him with anything more than a snarl of frustration. Because as much as I knew how significant this moment was, there was also a part of me that wanted them to come. That wanted to feel the blood dripping from my claws and see the terror in their eyes.
The strike came from nowhere.
One moment, we were waiting to see what they’d choose. The next, the air itself split open and something enormous poured through the gap. Not a creature. Magic. Raw, concentrated and reeking of desperation. It was hurled from the northern edge of the field. A force of last resort. Arik’s last flailing attempt to stop Alyssa from doing whatever she was attempting. And it was aimed at the only thing on this battlefield that posed any real danger to him.
Alyssa’s body.
The strike moved faster than thought. It tore through the space between Arik and Alyssa like a needle through cloth. But there was one thing Arik had forgotten.
Alyssa wasn’t alone on this battlefield.
And there was something standing between him and her.
The bear did not ask permission.
The bear did not wait for my decision.
The bear took over. The final chains broke loose in my mind and the berserker took full control.
I stopped being Tank. It felt like I was falling, as Tank the man slowly slipped into the dark recesses of my mind, away from Alyssa, away from the world. But it was a small price to pay, I’d pay it a thousand times over if it meant she’d walk away from this fight.
But as the berserker took full control, the magic stayed with it and the Spring Court responded.
Power surged upward through the soles of my paws, through my legs, through every fibre of muscle and bone and fur. The Spring Court magic poured into me with a force that should have been annihilating but instead it felt like coming home. The land recognised me. The court recognised me. The ancient, ferocious magic of growth and renewal recognised the savage need to protect inside the bear and said yes.
I became something connected to the realm itself. Not a bear standing on the ground but a bear thatwasthe ground. Massive. Ancient. A primal, unstoppable force of nature protecting its own.
The strike hit me.
Hard.
I felt it even though my consciousness was barely a whisper now. A wall of concentrated magic slammed into my chest with enough force to level a mountain. The impact drove me back half a step. One step. The ground cracked beneath my weight and the ground screamed through the bond, the Spring magic screamed with it.
But I would not break.
The strike battered against me like a wave against a cliff face. It burned. It tore. It tried to find gaps in my defences and exploitthem, worming through the Spring magic with the desperate intelligence of something that knew it was the last chance.
I held.
