Surviving Zombies Was Easier Than Raising Beast Cubs

Chapter 106: Chapter 106: Our leader offered you safety, dying snake. You should lower your head and thank him

Content Warning: Graphic violence, torture, bone-breaking, and death.

Dozens of bowstrings tightened above Splitstone Gorge.

Nerin’s face went white.

”They are waiting for us.”

Soren did not look up at the hidden archers.

He looked directly at Dagan.

”No.”

The gray wolf’s smile remained in place.

”No?”

”We are not entering that gorge.”

Dagan slowly lowered his hand.

Behind him, Ashclaw’s males shifted closer to their weapons.

”You misunderstand,” he said. ”The ridge behind you is collapsing. The lower gorge is the only safe route.”

”Your males are hiding above it with arrows.”

”A precaution.”

Soren’s tail moved once across the stone.

The scrape made every nearby Riverbone survivor tense.

”For travellers you invited inside?”

Dagan’s expression hardened.

”You are wounded. Your people are exhausted. Half your hunters can barely stand.”

His gaze swept over Riverbone’s blood-covered survivors.

”You need our path.”

Soren wiped the black blood from his mouth with one thumb.

Then he looked at the stain as though mildly annoyed that his body had dared reveal weakness in public.

”No.”

One of the Ashclaw males barked out a laugh.

”You know who you are speaking to?”

Raku’s face changed.

Swanly felt Kael’s body stiffen beside her.

Even Nahla stopped wrapping Soren’s ribs.

The stranger stepped forward.

”Our leader offered you safety, dying snake. You should lower your head and thank him.”

Soren’s pale fingers twitched.

The scent of blood filled the cracked center of his core.

Too much blood.

Too many strange males.

Too many threats standing near Swanly, the cubs, and his weakened tribe.

His broken venom channels burned.

Something hot and vicious rose through him.

Nahla grabbed his wrist.

”Soren.”

He looked at her hand.

The healer released him immediately.

The Ashclaw male laughed again.

”You can barely sit without an old female holding you together.”

Soren’s tail vanished.

The male’s laughter stopped.

A pale coil wrapped around his waist and lifted him from the ground.

His spear fell.

”What the hell?”

Soren remained seated.

His expression did not change.

The male kicked wildly in the air.

”Put me down!”

Soren’s tail tightened.

Crack!

The sound was wet and intimate, like green wood splitting under a heavy boot. The male’s ribs folded inward one after another. His scream tore out of him in a high, broken shriek that made several Riverbone survivors flinch.

Blood sprayed from his mouth and ran down Soren’s scales.

Soren did not look at him.

He kept his eyes on Dagan.

The man screamed.

His ribs broke beneath the scales.

One.

Two.

Then several at once.

Dagan’s smile disappeared.

The hidden archers above the gorge shifted.

Raku lifted his weapon.

Kael moved in front of Swanly and the cubs.

Riverbone’s guards raised their spears.

The Ashclaw male clawed at Soren’s tail.

”You mad bastard! Do you know who you are touching?”

Soren finally looked up at him.

His silver eyes had darkened until only thin rings remained around his pupils.

”Who,” he asked softly, ”are you talking to?”

The tail tightened again.

Crack!

The tail tightened again.

Crack.

The male’s shoulder folded inward and collapsed with a wet, grinding pop.

His arm hung wrong.

He screamed, the sound tearing through the stone passage, and clawed at the coils, his nails scraping uselessly against the white scales.

Soren twisted his tail once.

Another arm broke.

Then one leg.

Then the other.

The sounds came in a sickening rhythm.

Crack.

Crack.

Crack.

Wet and final.

Bone after bone snapped and gave way beneath the pressure.

The man’s shouting turned into wet, broken, choking gasps as blood filled his mouth.

His body jerked and convulsed in the air, then went limp except for the weak, desperate twitching of his fingers.

No one moved to help him.

Not even Dagan.

They all watched the white snake sit there, calm and pale, while he methodically destroyed a living man piece by piece without ever standing up.

Dagan watched his own male hang in the air while Soren crushed him.

Fear flashed across the wolf leader’s face.

Real fear.

For one heartbeat, Dagan understood.

This was not a wounded snake pretending to be strong.

This was the worst possible moment to stand near him.

Then Dagan saw the black blood slide from Soren’s mouth again.

He saw his trembling hand.

The strained breathing.

The fear faded behind calculation.

Perhaps the snake could still kill.

Perhaps he could not kill for long.

Soren released his tail.

The ruined male struck the stone with a heavy, wet sound.

He was still breathing.

Barely.

Broken bones shifted inside him with every shallow gasp. One eye remained open, filled with pure animal terror.

Soren curled his tail around the man’s ankle and dragged him toward the forest edge.

The body left a dark smear across the stone.

The man whimpered.

”No. Wait.”

He tried to speak again, but only a wet, bubbling sound came out.

Soren threw him.

The broken body vanished into the trees below.

For one breath, there was silence.

Then the man screamed again.

A different scream, thin, high, and full of new horror.

Something large dragged him deeper into the forest.

Branches shook.

Wet tearing sounds followed.

His voice cut off mid-scream.

Nobody looked away from Soren.

Nobody looked away from Soren.

Riverbone feared him.

Ashclaw feared him.

Even the hidden archers above Splitstone Gorge did not release a single arrow.

Soren wiped more blood from his mouth.

”Anyone else?”

No one answered.

Dagan’s jaw tightened.

His eyes had changed. The calculation was still there, but underneath it sat real, cold fear.

He had just watched a half-dead snake crush one of his males into scrap while sitting down, then feed the remains to the forest like it was nothing.

The hidden archers above the gorge did not release a single arrow.

Several of them had gone pale.

Riverbone’s own people stood frozen.

Even Raku’s grip on his weapon had tightened.

Soren wiped more black blood from his mouth with the same calm he had used while breaking the man.

The blood stained his pale fingers.

He looked at it for a moment, mildly irritated, then flicked it away.

”Anyone else?” he asked again, softer this time.

Still no one answered.

”Fine.”

Dagan forced a smile back onto his face, but it no longer reached his eyes.

”We will not force you into the gorge.”

”You could not,” Soren replied.

Dagan’s nostrils flared.

”When darkness falls and the forest things come closer, do not ask Ashclaw for protection.”

Soren leaned back against the stone.

”If I need your protection, I will ask someone to bury me first.”

Dagan turned sharply.

”Ashclaw, move.”

His males withdrew toward their fires, but they kept glancing over their shoulders.

The hidden archers slowly disappeared from the upper ledges.

Riverbone remained where it was.

No one breathed properly until Ashclaw’s warriors were out of immediate striking distance.

Then Soren’s body swayed.

Raku caught his shoulder.

Soren’s claws appeared.

”Remove your hand.”

”You just crushed a male while sitting down,” Raku said. ”You have proven yourself. Now stop trying to fall.”

Soren’s gaze became murderous.

Raku did not release him.

Nahla shoved herself between them.

”You idiot.”

Soren looked at her.

She struck his chest with the back of her fingers.

”You forced power through the damaged core again!”

”He irritated me.”

”Many people irritate you. You cannot explode every time one opens his mouth.”

”I can.”

”You will die.”

”Then the tribe will finally enjoy quiet.”

Nahla’s face twisted.

She raised one hand as though considering slapping him.

Swanly stepped closer.

”Soren.”

His head turned toward her immediately.

Too quickly.

His eyes travelled over her face, throat, arms, and stomach.

Checking.

Looking for blood.

”Are you injured?”

”No.”

”Then stay away from Ashclaw.”

”You just threw one of them into the forest.”

”He was offensive.”

Swanly stared at him.

”You broke every bone he owned.”

”He should have guarded them better.”

Raku looked away.

Nahla muttered something about impossible males and began tightening Soren’s bandages.

Swanly studied him.

He was pale.

Black blood stained his mouth again.

His scales darkened beneath his jaw before returning to silver.

Something was seriously wrong.

But Kael was bleeding too.

His shoulder wound had reopened during the standoff. Blood soaked through Nahla’s wrapping and ran down his upper arm.

Swanly’s chest tightened.

Not another person.

Not another wound.

She was not spending more points unless she had no choice.

She opened her storage privately.

Food.

Clothing.

Arrows.

Tools.

Old medical supplies from her former world.

Her gaze stopped on a sealed tube shoved beneath several bandages.

{Rapid tissue-repair gel.}

{Reduces bleeding and accelerates closure of claw and bite wounds. Full healing time depends on wound depth.}

Swanly almost kissed the system window.

She grabbed the tube.

The object appeared inside her palm, hidden beneath her sleeve.

”Kael.”

The panther male was watching Ashclaw.

He did not turn.

”I am fine.”

”You do not even know what I was going to say.”

”You were going to mention my shoulder.”

”It is dripping blood.”

”It will close.”

”Sit down.”

”No.”

Swanly walked directly in front of him.

Kael looked down at her.

She pointed toward a flat stone.

”Sit.”