I snuck through the thick plumes of smoke, readying myself for a fight. Out of the corner of my eyes I saw Rex walking through a lycanid honour guard. The whole situation was odd and reeked of trouble.

  Just after he’d left I signalled for Bell to move to the opposite side and for Asmodeus and Panda to remain inside the smoke, hovering above us so that they weren’t spotted.

  If Rex needed us. When he needed us, we’d be in the perfect position to strike. No team member of mine would be left to fight an entire company of mercenaries on their own.

  As I crept around the outskirts of the group I settled myself into a small nook down the side of a burning building. It probably wasn’t the safest place to be, but it did provide access to a stone building just next door.

  Seeing an opportunity to take the high ground, and leaning on my increased agility skill, I tried out something I’d only ever seen in the movies.

  Launching off the side of the burning building, I jumped back and forth between the two walls reaching higher and higher with every leap.

  “I can’t believe that worked,” I muttered to myself with a smile as I settled on top of the stone building’s roof. Thankfully, this building wasn’t on fire.

  The roof itself was flat and offered little cover, but the sight lines were superb.

  Dropping to my haunches I crept towards the edge of the roof and laid eyes on the nearby group of lycanids. I was close enough to hear them and I could see them fairly well through the smoke – though my dragon’s eye wasn’t activating for some reason.

  Settling down near the edge, I watched and listened in as Rex approached the large lycanid with the red mohawk and began to speak. He seemed to be the leader of Broken Sheild.

  Wait, did Rex just call him uncle?

  “You’ve been spending too much time with the enemy Rexus,” Gorthak snarled, “you’re starting to speak like you’re one of them. Have you forgotten what they did to our kind?” He shot the group of bloodied humans a look and growled, a young man with a broken nose winced in response.

  “Have I forgotten?” Rex baulked. “When I left Broken Shield we were an honourable company, we helped people. Yet I find you here attacking civilians and burning their fortress. You’re a lot of things uncle, but I never took you for a coward.”

  I heard a cacophony of audible gasps and muttering among the rank and file and supressed a laugh.

  “A COWARD?” Gorthak shouted, “me? How dare you throw such insult my way Rexus, I trained you better than that. This is no cowardly action; it is righteous retribution… and it’s been a long time coming.”

  “Retribution for who? I have little sympathy for the humans but this… this is barbarism. These people have done nothing to us, why, they weren’t even alive during the Slow Slaughter.”

  “Humans are all the same. The Rexus I remember, the Rexus I wanted to adopt as my own, used to hold to that belief more firmly than any of us,” Gorthak snarled sadly. “I guess all that time you’ve spent living in their cities has corrupted your lycanid sensibilities.”

  “What was the point of all this needless slaughter?”

  “It was hardly needless. The point as you so eloquently put it, was to carve out a home for our people. We’ve been nomadic for far too long. If we are to rebuild we must put down roots and this fortress is impregnable. Where better to relocate the females? Where better to restart the empire.”

  “Restart the empire?” Rex asked, “it’s been gone for centuries, why now?”

  “I’m getting old Rexus,” Gorthak sighed, “I want to start a family, I want to see the young pups grow up with a home. A real home, not out on the road like we were. I… I-”

  “And if this fort is so impregnable then how did you get in?” Rex interjected.

  Gorthak seemed taken aback, he stumbled slightly over his words and my dragon’s eye finally awoke in a sea of red hot, and furious, arura.

  “Are you suggesting?”

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  “That you weaselled your way in, claiming to be friends of these people and then slaughtered them in their sleep?” Rex answered before Gorthak could finish his sentence. “Yes, that’s exactly what I’m suggesting. What a terrible day it is to see my brothers in arms doomed to repeat the savage and dishonourable histories of the humans.”

  “ENOUGH!” Gorthak bellowed, “did you not see the portcullis gate? I punched my way in as is the lycanid way. How dare you accuse me of resorting to dirty human tricks.”

  “Punched your way into a town full of women and children,” Rex replied calmly. “Look at these soldiers,” he said, pointing to the young man with the broken nose. “They are barely even old enough to shave their own balls. How can you justify this? How can you claim that this upheld our code?”

  “Um,” the young man said in a blood-muffled mumble. “I’m actually twenty-one, I’ve been shaving my balls for a while now.”

  “Shut up!” Both Rex and Gorthak said in unison.

  “Rexus,” Gorthak began, “the nerve of you offends me deeply. You wound me. A man I once called nephew. The man I wanted to welcome into my house as my own… reduced to this: a human sympathiser. I never thought I’d see the day. There is only one way to settle this. The lycanid way. Single combat.”

  A bloodthirsty cheer went up around the area as the lycanids began banging their weapons on the floor with vigour, reforming their circle and trapping Rex and Gorthak soundly in the centre.

  With a resigned look on his face, Rex gripped his axe with both hands and, looking his uncle dead in the eyes said: “so be it.”

  Gorthak grinned sadistically and punched his two gauntlets together causing sparks to pass between them. The weapons were odd, thick metal with gold trimming and they seemed to have some kind of lightning affinity.

  I watched with bated breath as the two began to circle each other. They did not speak, at least not in words, but their bodies told a different story as they squared up, gnashing their teeth and staring each other down.

  Then, Rex struck.

  Like a coiled snake, Rex leaped across the circle with his axe held above his head in a two-handed grip. It crashed onto the floor, displacing stone as his weapon cleaved a rent into the street itself.

  Gorthak dodged effortlessly and used his momentum to launch a kidney punch from behind his nephew. Lightning crackled as visible, violet bolts wrapped around Rex like tentacles, causing his body to seize up and jerk.

  “You never learn Rexus,” Gorthak smiled, “how many times must I tell you to let your opponent come to you?”

  “You also taught me to strike when their guard’s down!” Rex yelled, swinging his axe backwards and throwing stone chips and dirt across the battlefield.

  His axe connected with Gorthak this time but glanced off his plated armour with a grating sound. However, Rex didn’t stop there. Pressing his advantage he leaned into the momentum of the axe and swung it around in a circle to bring it back around once again, this time aiming for Gorthak’s armpits. Where the gaps in the armour were.

  He jumped back with surprising agility for a beast his size and kicked out viciously, catching Rex in the sternum and sending him skidding backwards as he spluttered and coughed blood.

  “I did teach you that didn’t I?” He smirked, rushing forwards and grabbing the haft of Rex’s axe.

  With a powerful jerk he dragged Rex towards him and headbutted him on the snout. Rex howled as blood shot from his nose, his muzzle bending in an unnatural way.

  Gorthak kicked his knee and Rex dropped to the floor. Following him to the ground and pressing his advantage, Gorthak pinned the axe to the stone with his knee and punched Rex in the face shouting as he went.

  “You’re… one hundred… years… too… young… to… challenge… me!”

  With each pause between words he struck a mighty blow into Rex’s face.

  It was time, I knew I had to act. He was going to die if we didn’t intervene. Yet some part of me, in some deep recess of my mind, didn’t want to interrupt. Rex had borne it all when he challenged Gorthak alone. It was single combat. Would he ever forgive me if I rushed in and saved him? Would it sully the lycanid honour he was so proud of?

  Did it matter?

  “You’re worthless Rex,” Gorthak said, panting as he leant back on top of his bleeding nephew. “You always were a disappointment. To me, to you father, to our people.”

  Rex screamed a primal shout which sat halfway between a barbarian’s roar and wolf’s howl. With a sudden show of strength he freed his trapped arm and grabbed Gorthak by the scruff of the neck, pulling him in close.

  Gorthak’s eyes went wide as Rex bit his throat, clamping down on the jugular like a feral beast. Gorthak screamed but Rex shook his head, tearing and ripping at the skin around his uncle’s neck as blood poured from the wound and into his mouth.

  “Get off me!” Gorthak shouted as he began hitting Rex in the head over and over again. But Rex was… well… he was like a dog with a bone and his grip wouldn’t faulter.

  “Help!” Gorthak screamed, “Broken Shield, get this race traitor off of me, that is an order!”

  From all sides the lycanids moved in, though some hesitated at first. There were a few scattered glances and it was obvious that they knew it was wrong to intervene. The right of single combat was sacred in their culture. However, I got the distinct impression that their fear of Gorthak outweighed their principles.

  Numerous clawing hands grabbed at Rex from all sides and with a heaving struggle they pried his jaw open and Gorthak threw himself backwards as his mercenary company pinned Rex to the ground, multiple lycanids for each limb.

  I readied my bow and contacted the others. Rex couldn’t complain at my interference now. This was bang out of order and I planned to put a stop to it. I began nocking multiple arrows and prepared to launch acid rain.

  “COWARD!” Rex bellowed. “This was supposed to be single combat.”

  “Fuck single combat,” Gorthak spat, pawing at the gushing wound on his throat. “Take this as my final lesson to you Rexus, may it serve you in death. A lycanid is nothing without his pack.”

  “Oh I have a pack, uncle,” Rex said. “Dissident Flame, it’s time. Kill this cockless weasel!”