Chapter 191- The Last Rage
Adrian
The weight of the world pressed down on me as I knelt there, one knee in the dirt, my sword trembling under the pressure of CJ’s fire-forged blade. I should have fallen. By every measure of logic, I should have stayed down, crushed beneath their unity, their combined strength.
But I wasn’t built for surrender. I had clawed my way from nothing, carved my throne out of blood and darkness. I would not let it end with me on my knees before them.
The rage in my chest, black and unyielding, refused to die. It screamed against the edges of my body, demanding release. For Kael. For everything. For me.
“NO!” I roared, and the sound was not wholly human.
My body tore itself apart in the transformation I had denied until now. Muscles stretched, bones cracked, claws split from my hands as fur rippled across my skin. My chest swelled, spine lengthened, and with one last shudder, I became the beast—my true form, my curse, my gift.
The lycan towered over them, a monstrous reflection of the man I once was. Power surged through me, hot and violent. The pain of every wound, the fatigue of every clash—they all fell away, replaced by primal strength. My eyes burned crimson as I fixed them on CJ and Lexy.
Their fire was strong. Their bond was strong. But nothing could match the fury of a beast unleashed.
I struck.
With one massive swipe of my claw, I sent CJ staggering back, his sword barely catching the blow. Sparks flew as steel scrapped against unrelenting talon. He grunted, forced to plant both feet to hold his ground, but I saw it—the shift, the falter. For the first time since Kael’s fall, I had them reeling.
Lexy’s fire lashed at me, searing into my fur, but I pressed through it, swiping again, faster, harder. The air itself quaked as I fought, my roar splitting the night sky.
CJ slashed upward, his sword cutting a fiery arc, but I caught it in my clawed hand. The blade bit into flesh, but I held it, teeth bared, strength pouring from every muscle. With my other arm, I struck him across the chest, the blow throwing him back a full pace.
For a fleeting, glorious moment, I overpowered them.
I lunged again, claws crashing down in a storm of fury. CJ blocked, Lexy fueled him with her fire, but even together they struggled against the raw, savage power of my lycan form. Their strength was coordinated, disciplined—but mine was chaos, rage given flesh.
“You thought me broken?” I snarled, my voice guttural through the beast’s throat. “You thought Kael’s fall would weaken me?”
I slammed CJ’s sword aside, the force rattling through his arms. His blade glowed, fire licking its edge, but I hammered him with strike after strike, claws tearing trenches into the earth with every miss. The battlefield itself groaned beneath the weight of our clash.
Lexy tried to circle, flames building in her hands, but I was faster now, my beast’s body carrying me with terrifying speed. I pivoted, one claw swiping in her direction. She leapt back, her flames flaring wide, but the sheer force of the swing forced her to stumble. For an instant, the Phoenix herself faltered before me.
I laughed, deep and monstrous. “Even your fire won’t save you!”
The taste of triumph returned to me, bitter and sweet all at once. I slammed my claws down again, sparks exploding as CJ barely caught the blow. My strength drove him to his knees, his teeth gritted, his arms trembling under the weight of my fury.
I leaned in, snarling into his face, hot breath pouring over him. “This ends with you broken king.”
But then—something shifted.
I felt it before I saw it. A pulse of energy, faint but rising, threading through the air. It wasn’t Lexy’s fire this time. No, it was darker, softer, smoke curling like unseen fingers around the battlefield.
Tarria.
She stepped forward, her eyes alight with the same strange power that had felled Kael. Shadows coiled around her hands, the air thickening with her presence. I snarled at her, a guttural sound that shook the ground, but she didn’t falter. She lifted her hand, her smoke trailing out to weave around CJ.
Lexy’s fire flared at the same time, both forces meeting in him—two streams of power colliding and fusing within his body. I saw it in his eyes immediately: the sudden, terrifying surge. His exhaustion burned away, his trembling ceased. He stood taller, his blade glowing not only with fire but with something darker, steadier.
“No,” I growled, driving my claws down again.
This time, CJ caught the strike with one hand. The sound was deafening, steel meeting claw with a shockwave that rippled through the field. He didn’t falter. He didn’t yield.
The fire from Lexy, the smoke from Tarria—they poured into him, not clashing but entwining, fueling him with more than just strength. Unity. Three wills braided into one.
CJ’s eyes shifted, glowing brighter, no longer just gold but threaded with shadow. His sword pulsed with an otherworldly light; the fire and smoke entwined along its length.
I snarled, but unease twisted in my gut.
Then it happened.
His form began to change. His shoulders broadened, his frame stretching, power rolling off him in waves so thick it made the air hard to breathe. His growl rumbled low, primal, as fur began to ripple across his skin. His teeth lengthened, his eyes blazing brighter than my own.
CJ was transforming. Not like me—not into a beast fueled by rage—but into something far more dangerous. A king transformed, lifted by his queen and their shadow-bound ally.
I stared as his final form took shape, the glow of fire and smoke rippling through the beast he was becoming.
For the first time, doubt cracked through the wall of my fury.
The battlefield shook beneath us as his transformation completed, and for the first time since Kael fell, I felt something I had not allowed myself to feel in years.
Fear.
And the story ended there, with me facing a king who was no longer merely a man, but something greater—something I might not be able to stop.
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