Page 46 of Imbalance
Nico growled, "I submit, damnit!"
Fuck. Now we were tied. We just needed to have the majority of wins, not all of them. We could still do this.
This time, our opponent was smart enough not to glance over at the other duel, but excitement ran through me as he finally activated his third rune.
Prepare yourself.
Our hackles rose as my Hellhound froze, waiting for our opponent to show his hand.
Drayven let out a massive cry of victory at the same time Colt screamed, "Fuck!"
"The score is tied with two wins for each side," Cyrus announced.
It was up to me and Adrien to win this. A tie wouldn't be good enough—I knew that deep down.
"You can do this, guys! End this!" Ama yelled, giving us a surge of energy to make her proud.
I felt myself losing my mental connection to my Hellhound as Ama’s cry of support completely dashed his concentration on battle strategy. His bloodlust and desire to prove to her that he was a worthy mate was flaring brightly in his thoughts.
Do not push me out!
I will do what I must to win this.
I shot every profanity I could think of at him as he began to run straight at our opponent and put up a solid wall between us. I knew what would come next. He'd push me out completely and take control, removing any thread of connection I had.
I'd black out and wake up to handle the aftermath of this battle. All I could do was say a prayer to the devil that this worked out in our favor.
The last thing I saw was a blinding light exploding from our opponent, like a shockwave of energy had burst from him and came rushing towards us like a tsunami.
Fuck.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Ama
"Ifucking concede!" Jace screamed with the anger of the world infused in his tone, his dark hair plastered to his forehead by the sweat dripping on his brow.
Adrien stood behind him in his Wraith form with what appeared to be a shadow blade to Jace's throat. Somehow, he'd caught him out of his Wraith and Hellhound hybrid form while I’d been watching Damien's battle come to an end.
His opponent had been a fiercely powerful blend of Dark Elf and Hellhound, but Damien's Hellhound had shown no fear and had tactfully figured his opponent out. At the end, when the burst of magic had shot towards Damien, I’d thought the fight was going to be over. In my mind, there had been no way he could have avoided it.
However, the damned Hellhound had simply tensed his muscles, lowered himself to the ground, and run directly towards the magic, jumping over the wall of raw energy. He had to have gotten damn near ten feet into the air. It had been impressive, and also clear his opponent was woefully unprepared for his actions. Damien had landed a foot in front of him and knocked him to the ground, placing his mouth around the soft flesh of his opponent’s throat and growling.
His opponent had let out a whine and rolled over, showing submission. I had briefly feared for his life, seeing that Damien's Hellhound seemed in full control, his eyes blazing with fire as he’d stood over his opponent for many more seconds.
Damien’s Hellhound had eventually relented, though, making Safiya and I both heave sighs of relief as we had found each other's hands and squeezed.
Dropping Safiya’s hand, I jumped up and down and squealed, clapping my hands in excitement.
We’d won. We'd actually fucking won.
A part of me had known, deep down, that we would, but it had really come down to the wire at the end, which had me on the edge of my seat, a small trickle of doubt creeping in. But my men had come through, and we had proven to the king and queen that we weren’t beneath them and were a force to be reckoned with.
We had earned their army, fair and square.
Glancing over at Cyrus with a smirk, I asked, "Is your army prepared to leave tomorrow?"
His thick eyebrows scrunched together as he grumbled, "I will tell my general to prepare them to march out soon."
