The Moon Goddess' Chosen

244 Chapter Two Hundred Forty Four

Frost let his spiked balls fall to the ground, his muscles screaming in pain after the exertion he’d put himself through. He was panting badly and could barely keep himself standing. Blood stained his clothes as his method of fighting had proved to be messy when taking out the enemy. The upside to using his deadly spheres was that even when they didn’t offer a killing blow, they rendered the enemy unable to keep fighting after the first attack.

“This just got a lot more complicated,” Amanda’s voice reached their ears, “What are you doing here? You were supposed to flee after I gave you the king’s plans.”

“What are you doing here? You looked like you were ready to kill us,” Jackeline yelled back at the alpha.

Amanda held her tongue before replying, failing to meet her eyes, “You wouldn’t have been the first hunters I would have killed.”

Frost went on full guard at the suggestion, “Jackeline, get away from her. She’s dangerous.”

Jackeline backed away from the woman as the man suggested, although she didn’t feel like fighting her, “Frost, she’s the one I told you about. The person who told me everything about the rogue king’s plans.”

“What...” he exclaimed, fear flashing in his eyes, “No, that’s not how verified information is collected, Jackeline.”

“I didn’t lie about any of it. However, at the time, I didn’t know about the king’s plans to invade the capital. In other words, I didn’t know his battle plan,” Amanda pleaded.

“Rogues don’t have a battle plan. They just attack until there is nothing left in their path,” Frost argued.

.....

“Oh, you misunderstand. Rogues do have plans. Well, those of us that climbed the ranks and know what to do with the others. Most of the time, the rogues that end up dying in an attack were only decoys, like the pawns you see at your feet. These are all decoys that the king can just throw around. Their overwhelming numbers are what makes them invaluable to him when he’s carrying out a plan like this.”

“How many of them are they?” Frost asked.

“That’s not quite the problem right now. It’s what he has planned now. To turn all the hunters that are opposing him into rogues. The army that he can raise from that kind of army will simply be catastrophic, not to mention what he stands to gain from killing the king of Lycaon,” Amanda spoke up.

“What about you? Which side are you on? You were clearly going to kill us just now,” Frost said to her, with a hint of resentment.

“I wasn’t going to kill you. I was going to knock you out and leave my bite in you. That was the king’s orders after all,” she corrected, “However, I would have never thought the first hunter I would run into would be the only one that knows my secrets. I only had two choices really. Either I killed you before you said a word, or killed Balar and claim he was killed when he got careless with the enemy. I chose to...”

“What are we doing talking to a rogue like they can be reasoned with? Honestly, Jackeline, what’s been going on?” Frost cut Amanda short when he got bored listening to her.

“Why don’t you hear her out? She’s not a rogue by choice,” Jackeline argued.

“That’s literally the same case for all of them. There is no rogue that chooses to become a rogue. They just get bitten and inherit the will of the alpha that bit them. Then go on rampages killing everything in their path,” Frost laid it out as simply as he could.

“Some are born into it, Frost. Don’t tell me you’ve already forgotten about Ashley. Didn’t her existence teach you anything about what a rogue’s life is like? If they happen to resent that life, there is nothing that keeps them from finding a way out if they are strong enough,” Jackeline argued.

“Don’t pull that card on me, Jackeline. You’ve not always been this soft on rogues before. You can’t start now when you were the one who witnessed what they did to Katie with your own eyes,” he countered.

“You’re not even listening to me, are you? It’s like we are going in a loop. You just saw her killing rogues and you have the audacity to doubt her,” Jackeline argued.

To this, Frost had no argument. He looked between the woman staring dangerously at him and the rogue she was defending. Amanda wasn’t in the least bit bothered by their argument. In fact, she was poking one of the dead wolves before them, “Are you guys done already? You must like each other very much.”

“Huh, w-what gives you... that i-idea?” Jackeline’s composure crumbled immediately. The woman shifted her attention to the red-eyed rogue.

“I’ve never seen something so obvious in my life. Anyway, it’s not my place to judge whatever way you choose to communicate your emotions to each other. As I was saying earlier, the rogues have planned to turn each and every one of the hunters here into rogues. I didn’t know the hunters were this weak, but then again, Samson did tell me about his encounter with one of the Mighty Warriors. They really are as weak as they claim to be,” the woman said, ending her poking charade and getting up to meet their eyes.

“What are you going to do now? We won’t exactly let you through to attack the capital,” Frost asked her.

“You trust far too...”

“I trust Jackeline. Not you. Let’s make that perfectly clear. You’ve offered me no reason to trust you,” Frost cut her off harshly.

The rogue general looked about the battlefield as though pointing out all the proof they needed. When her gesture didn’t make sense to the man, she sighed, “Whatever helps you sleep at night. If I can’t go back to my king and if I can’t proceed to the palace, there is only one option left for me to do.”

“and what might that be?” Jackeline asked her.

“I’ll help you put an end to this war...” the woman said, looking onto the capital before her, “Before things take a turn for the worst. The rogues were ordered to leave all the hunters alive and leave the generals to mark them while they were unconscious.”

“I got that part, but how is it supposed to help us in the long run?” Jackeline asked her.

“Well, to be perfectly honest with you, the only way the rogue king would put an end to this was if the last two people that stand in his way achieved what they were brought into this world to do. The power to strip the wolves of the abilities that make them the perfect tool to annihilate all humans...”

“Stop speaking in riddles and skip over to the part where we do something about all this,” Frost groaned.

“We have to get the moon goddess’ chosen to mark each other before the king of Lycaon dies. The rogue king has been pulling strings with his spies... trying to play it safe, but when he heard of the king’s illness, he changed the game. He stopped trying to keep Cole and Katie apart and decided to just kill them and the king of Lycaon. Kill three birds with one stone, he called it,” the woman finished.

...

Micah could tell when it was that his sister stopped responding to her surroundings. He sensed the very moment she was taken out and began preparing for the worst. “Honestly, Evelyn, what were you thinking?” he cursed before turning to the security detail that filled the floor on which the king was being taken care of.

What her sister had done was get rid of all the wolves that surrounded the two powerful figures that were making their way toward the palace. “Everyone better get ready. The enemy is finally upon us. On this day, we put our lives on the line to protect what we always have. Mankind... While protecting the king certainly is an indirect way to it, it sure is a way to make sure we don’t lose the war against the rogues. Lend me your strength in fighting the enemy that approaches us. I ask that you all pull out all the stops. It doesn’t matter how much of your gifts you expend, unless you intend to kill particular foes, nothing will work against them...”

“Oh, I do love a good speech,” a voice rumbled through the halls, shutting the hunter up, “Honestly, making it to this point has been one boring walk, hasn’t it, Benji?”

Just then, the boy made his presence clear at the opposite side of the hall... almost half the security detail had already been downed and none of them had noticed the swift movements of the rogues before them. Micah, quickly getting serious, reached into the insides of his coat and thrust the poisoned knives he could find from within its pockets.

The boy moved faster than he had anticipated, dodging all of them with a series of leaps through the air. He moved very fast and used anything he could find, from a hunter in his way to the walls on both sides of him. The chandeliers at the ceiling seemed to be part of the things he could reach as well doing all he could to escape the flying projectiles all while smiling at the hunter’s attempts to put him down.

Sensing the enemy to his back, Micah got down just in time to dodge the fist that had been aimed at the back of his head. He retrieved another knife swiftly and slashed at the man’s thigh, however, he was only able to nick the skin as the man pivoted out of the way of the blade, bringing himself into a fighting stance meant to apprehend someone who was fighting against someone armed. The speed with which the man moved told Micah that he was well-trained, “So you’re the so-called generals of the Rogue King.”

“You’ve guessed correctly. You get full marks for that one, however, that will not save you from the fate that awaits you. You will be defeated here and now, the man responded. Two hunters came to Micah’s aid after snapping out of their daze. The rest seemed to be occupied with the agile boy.