The Rogues Who Went Rogue
Chapter 118

Saxum glared at Chong, who was standing right next to him. Saxum replied, 'We have the chemical to overpower the King's Authority. They have nothing to challenge that. That's why they're asking us to give in, Chong!' 'What if the Queen's Authority overp-'

'Look at them!'

Chong did. The king and queen looked like a very close couple, a very devoted couple, one that would put each other's lives before their own. Saxum linked him again, 'She. Won't. Kill. Him.

'But should he kill her?' Chong questioned in dismay. He wouldn't mind if Regina killed him because of a decipio's manipulation but he could never forgive himself if he was manipulated into killing the love of his life. He might just take his own life out of remorse and heartbreak. 'Listen here, Chong. We have business deals to uphold, promises to keep. Delancy had already given her life for this. There's no..."

'Delancy didn't give her life for this, Saxum. Her life was taken because of this. There's a huge difference. She was killed from an unknown illness after the first abducted vampire was sacrificed during the triplets' experiment. That's how the Forest of Oderem works. A life for a life. The forest took away the creature you loved most because the one who died must have been someone who had a significant other as well. We can manipulate the king to kill the queen but it's not going to end well for us in the long run. The forest's curses overpowers everything!' Saxum turned to face the creature he thought was his loyal friend and follower, who would support him no matter how high the stakes were. First the obedient Gerella went rogue, now Chong wanted to chicken out?

'Chong, think very carefully about the stand you're taking. Ella's rebelliousness will not go unpunished.'

Chong's eyes drilled into Saxum's when he declared, 'Ella went against all of us because the sick children were the last straw for her. She asked us to pull the plug but we paid no heed to what she was yelling to our faces. If she can stand for our people without having any blood relationship with any of them, it doesn't take much difficulty to comprehend that I will stand with making sure my son won't end up dead'

'Your son is going to join Delancy if we don't follow through with what we've started. Rudolpho already said that the king and queen share close ties with the empress and consort. Should the latter pair ask for our decimation, what do you think the former would do?' Chong didn't know how to answer that, so he walked around the question. 'Saxum, all I know is that neither of them are using their Authorities on me or on any other pure-bred wolf or lycan here. They don't want this fight.'

Saxum took one step closer and asked, 'Do YOU want this fight?'

In a firm, defiant tone, Chong said aloud, "No."

Chong howled in anguish when Saxum's claws went right through his gut, ripping it out before snapping his neck. At the warehouse, Regina drew everyone's attention when she shrieked at the sudden abdominal penetration that no one could see.

When Chong's neck was snapped, Regina's screams and wails filled the entire warehouse as those who had no children came to see what the commotion was about. The physical excruciation ended only to be replaced by an emotional loss when the other end of the mate-bond became cold and barren. Lifeless. Non-existent.

On the battleground, Lucianne's eyes bulged wide as her breathing got heavy. When Chong's lifeless body fell on the ground, Saxum's eyes immediately locked with hers, and her look of dismay was replaced by one of disappointment and anger. There was nothing that could stop Saxum. He was determined to finish this.

Greg knew it too, so he linked his followers, 'Everyone knows the drill: protect her at all costs.

'Yes, Your Grace.'

Saxum scoffed at Lucianne's expression when he said, "Your mind tricks works on some people, probably because he was your kind, but not on me."

They exchanged hard stares for the next few moments before Saxum taunted, "Still don't have the urge to commence attack even after what you've seen?"

Lucianne simpered. "I know how this will go down in history. Until you attack, don't expect us to make a move."

Saxum found himself matching her smirk when he stated the obvious, "When one is in power, history...is something that can be rewritten. If you talked this long to buy yourselves time, then your luck just ran out. It's time to play."

The moment Lucianne felt the mental walls building up, she allowed her animal to push forward. The thickest stripe on her tail glowed in bright blue as she not only broke the mental walls but also tried to compel every opponent that she could compel to stand down. Xandar used his Authority as a shield, to help his people push back the manipulation like how Lucianne did for everyone back in Blue Crescent, and they began charging forward.

It was on the tip of Greg's tongue to say that it was going to be too easy seeing that they had been familiarizing themselves with a decipio's power and both the Authorities were obviously giving them the upper hand, but the duke chose to save that cocky declaration for later, when they actually won.

Some hybrids found it harder to move but Lucianne soon realized that she couldn't completely compel them since the vampire part of their genes wasn't tailored to heed to a lycan's Authority. Those with a dominant wolf or lycan genotype were easier to compel whereas those with dominant vampire genotype, like Saxum, were much more difficult to coerce.

Many vampires were trying to distract her by appearing behind her or getting in her way, which made holding the hybrids with her power slightly more difficult. It was especially hard to target the discretus-hybrids since she couldn't see them to compel them. Her allies came to help her but this in no way made it easier to pinpoint her targeted creatures.

As Xandar held the shield for his people, he targeted the proditors who were in his way of getting to Saxum. The king landed punches and broke his victims' limbs before throwing them at trees to render them unconscious or kill them if the proditors were still stubborn about attacking despite being injured. He found that beating them was surprisingly easier than he anticipated.

Then again, he had been training with his wife for months, even beating her almost half the time now, so his speed and agility had improved tremendously with the consistent practice. Even the veloxes couldn't rival the king's speed. The fortis were the easiest to beat. And after the manipulation practices with Pellethia, the mental attacks by the decipios on the ground weren't as insurmountable. The most annoying, thus far, were the invisible discretus.

The king even had a second here and there to briefly glance around the battleground to see how the others were faring, especially his wife and family. Lucianne had help, and as soon as she was done tripping her opponent with her tail and kicking them in the head to knock them out cold, she and the one or two creatures with her moved on to the next one.

Christian was doing well too, swiftly dodging attacks before delivering his own attacks with techniques that Xandar himself had never seen him use before, deducing that Lucianne must have taught his cousin those new tricks during their weekly private training sessions. Greg seemed to be enjoying himself, smirking right before he injured or killed his opponents. Juan and the alliance members were doing better than fine too.

The only advantage Saxum had was in numbers. However, this so-called advantage was being neutralized when more and more hybrids and any proditor or rogue on their side were either being knocked out or eliminated. Even the discretus were dwindling in numbers when the vigil took them down one at a time.

After more attacks and kills, Xandar managed to reach Saxum. The king growled in rage as he pounced on the leader, which was when Saxum yelled, "NOW!"

Xandar broke Saxum's left elbow and tore off his right arm, neither indulging nor caring about the sharp shrieks coming out of Saxum's mouth even as he broke the leader's knees. But the moment the king reached for Saxum's neck, he paused. His eyes alternated between dark green and onyx, and the intrusion made Lucianne kill her opponent so that she could see what was going on with her husband.