Chapter 18: Traitor!

Toa was shaking harder than he’d ever shaken in his life. He couldn’t think, couldn’t focus — not with an enemy standing in front of him, and certainly not with the truth of what he’d just done settling into his bones. He’d killed his brother.

There was a finality to that thought he’d never had to face before now, and a horror wrapped around it he didn’t know how to carry. He tried not to look at the severed head lying in the grass, or listen to the wet sound of blood still pumping out of his brother’s body, spreading beneath their feet. But worse than either of those things was the infuriating, amused look on the face of the cat tribesman standing across from him.

"Toa! What have you done?! Traitor!"

Toa spun just in time to catch the blow aimed at him in a rough guard, barely absorbing the impact. The rest of the Snake-kin had abandoned their living shields now that the musket lay in pieces — but that left them with two enemies to deal with, not one. Toa opened his mouth, tried to warn them that turning their backs on Kren to come at him first was a mistake. But the fury in their eyes left no room for reason. Four of their own had died faster than they could react, and their leader — their leader — had fallen at Toa’s own hand. He was still nowhere close to making peace with that.

"W-wait!"

They didn’t wait. None of them gave him the chance to explain himself; they simply came swinging. He shoved the first attacker back, ducked beneath a second wild swing. He was stronger than every one of them — but these were his allies.

They had to understand he’d had no choice. Didn’t they? Except even if that were true, they’d already stripped him of any say in the matter, boxed him into a single role: traitor. He hesitated, then swung wide with barely any real intent behind it — he couldn’t bring himself to kill his own people twice in one day. They fell back, out of range.

That was when the wind tore past him.

The cat tribesman moved faster than Toa’s eyes could track, white hair leaving a pale streak in his wake as wind screamed off his heels. Toa could only watch as the man drove his sword through one Snake-kin’s chest, twisted the blade, and wrenched it free through the side — nearly splitting the man in half on the way out. He flowed straight into the next stance, the sword moving in his grip like it had a will of its own, Wind Aura shrieking to life along its edge. One flash of green, and another head hit the ground. Six left now, Toa included.

"S-stop!" Toa cried, finally rushing forward, the hooked greatsword humming in his grip as he tried to force an Aura art out of it. The cat-kin simply slipped behind one of Toa’s remaining allies and kicked the man forward — directly into the arc of Toa’s swing. The blade cut through him with an ease Toa had never expected, the feel of it parting flesh and bone traveling up his arm as the body fell away in two halves.

"TOA!"

One of his own screamed his name — shock and fury tangled together in the sound. Toa’s hands shook so violently the sword slipped from his grip. He lifted his horrified gaze to the cat-kin, and in that moment, the white hair and those piercing golden eyes finally clicked into place. He staggered backward, legs giving out beneath him.

"K-Kren!"

"Ah, so you do know who I am. I was almost disappointed neither you nor the dearly departed Bunaya figured it out sooner. That’s a foolish way to fight a war, you know — my teachers made that very clear to me." He paused, leveling his bloodied blade at the four remaining Snake-kin, who had already abandoned Toa entirely to encircle Kren instead.

"You have to know your enemy to defeat him. But all any of you snakes seem to know about me is that I’m weak. That I have no power of my own to call on. That’s fine by me — being underestimated just means your slithering little prince won’t see me coming when I finally take his head."

Kren cracked his neck from side to side, the sound of it echoing somewhere deep in Toa’s chest. "So I’d suggest you all fight like you mean it, because I promise you this — if you don’t put me down here and now, not one of you is leaving this clearing alive. So says the King of the Felines and the ancestral lands of Kora. Kren N’kora Blackmane!"

Someone roared in response — but it wasn’t the king. It was one of the slaves. Toa turned toward the sound and found himself blinking at the raw worship in their eyes.

"Kill them, Your Majesty!"

"Yes! Destroy them, sire!"

"KILL THEM!"

"KILL THEM ALL!"

Kren turned back to Toa, that same infuriating grin still stretched across his face. "I am, if nothing else, a man of the people." He chuckled, clearly savoring it. "And my people have spoken."

Toa barely had time to blink before Kren surged forward. Two of the remaining Snake-kin scrambled back, drawing small musket pistols from their holsters. Kren didn’t hesitate — he hurled his longsword straight into the chest of the nearest one, the force behind the throw enough to lift the man off his feet and carry him back nearly six feet before he crashed down, gasping in shock as blood pooled beneath him.

The second fired, but Kren ducked sideways with barely a thought, the Aura round tearing past him to bury itself in the grass right beside Toa — not that Toa was capable of registering the near miss through the fog of his own shock.

Kren raised a hand toward the shooter. A spinning disc of wind bloomed to life and shot forward. The Snake-kin tried to dodge, but the disc expanded mid-flight, spinning and buzzing like a thousand furious bees, shredding through shoulder and neck alike. Blood sprayed the grass as he collapsed. Two left now — and these two, at least, understood the value of running while they still could. They turned and bolted. But Kren had made them a promise, and he intended to keep it.

He scooped up one of the fallen pistols and fired. Both Snake-kin dropped where they stood, holes punched clean through the backs of their skulls.

Then, silence.

That silence was enough to remind Toa of exactly where he stood — that of the twelve Snake-kin sent here, he alone remained. And judging by the look on Kren’s face, that wouldn’t last much longer either. He looked up. The grin was gone now, replaced by something colder, harder.

"And then there was one. Make your peace, Toa. Because you’re about to die."

Toa saw no way out. Even if he fought, even if some sliver of him wanted to survive — to what end? He shook his head, accepted what was coming, closed his eyes, and bowed his head to receive the final blow.