“No!” His growl thunders through the cell. “She is mine!” His voice threatens to unleash a rage as the Battlemaster shifts her weight against him.
“Fuck, you pieces of shit!” His roar shakes the cell walls as his berserker power ignites.
The guards laugh as he lunges at them, restrained by the chains.
“You belong to the Arena, Beast. You lost your ability to claim anything when they brought you here.” The Battlemaster warns before disappearing through his cell door, clutchinghisAvina, who is now screeching and fighting in the Battlemaster’s arms.
Sigvid sees red as his full strength tangles with his berserker power, raining dust down upon their heads.
The remaining three sentries stare with varying levels of shock and terror as one chain link breaks and then another until only the Beast remains, free to feast upon their souls.
There is that blessed fear in their eyes.
He roars as he charges the guard standing to his right. Before the man can even react, Sigvid slams his head into the cell wall with a sickening crunch.
Again and again, he smashes his head into a bloody pulp of brain matter and hair. While still holding his neck, he hurls the limp body at the other two, knocking them both to the ground.
Sigvid snarls, dragging the corpse into the hallway, where the Battlemaster stands further down. Avina screams and demands freedom. He watches her flail in vain against his monstrous arms.
Using the dead body, Sigvid flings him toward the Battlemaster, who watches with his mouth gaping.
The Battlemaster drops her at the last moment to roll out of the way of his guard's body.
“Avina, get behind me!” Sigvid barks.
She stumbles toward him, readjusting her dress over her breasts and shoulders. He can feel her hands press against his back.
Why does she trust me?
Sigvid grabs the Battlemaster by the neck and slams him into the bars of the empty cell beside him.
While the leader is down, Sigvid turns to the trash. Using the chain attached to his wrist as a weapon, he swings it as hard as he can and whips one of the other two guards in the face—blood splatters across the cell, followed by his agonizing screams.
Sigvid crashes toward the bloody guard. He wrenches him back by his hair, sinking his teeth into his neck, and rips out his throat. As the guard collapses, choking on his own sputtering blood, Sigvid spits out the flesh onto his crumpled form.
“Sigvid!” She cries out in a terrified voice that sinks into his chest.
Why the fuck does her fear give me fucking anxiety?
He twists his snarling glower to find the third and final guard with an arm locked around her waist and a blade pressed against her throat. “No need for bloodshed, Beast. She is not yours to have.”
Sigvid can threaten the Timber Queen.
This miserable guard can not.
A passionate play of rage and a resounding need to protect her wrecks him even in his berserker mode.
“Let her go, and you will live.” Sigvid’s eyes are focused entirely on the tears falling along her flushed cheeks.
The guard cackles. “This is a neutral zone. Not only can I slit the throat of the Timber Queen,” his blade motions along her column, “but no one could take action against me.” He takes a step closer, tugging her along. “Our orders are simply to return her to her room safely. Did you know she bribed me for the key to your cell?”
“Let her go.” Sigvid’s warning reverberates off the stone walls.
When crimson trickles along her neck from the sword, Sigvid knows he will not permit the soldier to fucking survive.
The guard smirks as he opens his mouth to speak when Avina vanishes. The only part of her visible is the dress clinging to her curves.
“What the-?” The guard bumbles backward as she reappears behind Sigvid. “I would not have hurt you too badly!”
