Sold as the Alpha King's Breeder-Chapter 1519 - 118 : The Dawn of Horrors

*Rhys*

The sun had barely crested the horizon when the first alarm bells rang out across Egoren, their urgent peals shattering the stillness of the early morning air.

I was already awake and pouring over maps and battle plans in his study. My heart lurched from a sickening sense of dread as the sound reached my ears.

The war had begun.

Without a moment’s hesitation, I was on my feet and moving. Bursting out of the palace doors, I scanned the chaos that had erupted in the courtyard and beyond.

Soldiers and guards, both human and wolf shifter alike, ran to and fro, their faces grim with determination as they rushed to take up their positions along the castle walls and line up into platoons of thirty or so men.

As some of the platoons began to march out into transport trucks, I strode out into the fray.

I was thankful that the generals and majors I put in charge had done an excellent job organizing and mobilizing everyone so quickly.

Despite putting on a stern face for my troops, I was battling anxiety. I wondered how Pyroth had launched such a successful attack so quickly and how bad the damage was.

From the entry, a breathless scout rounded the corner, stopped at my feet, and saluted.

The young shifter’s face was pale with fear and exertion, but his eyes were hard as stone as he saluted. "Your Majesty," the scout gasped out.

“Status report, soldier,” I commanded with a warm tone.

He was young and had probably just entered the armed forces.

“Pyroth’s forces have launched a surprise attack on our northern borders along the steep mountain ridges. We rigorously patrolled and reconned those areas, but his assault still caught us completely off guard."

The scout’s words tumbled over each other in his haste to deliver his message.

“Our enemy chose that point because he most likely knew of an ancient way to bypass our reconnaissance. What’s their position now?” I continued, my lungs strained.

I hoped we weren’t too late and that they had been contained.

“Our forces are strong. We managed to keep the battle in the upper highlands and evacuated the nearby villages but without reinforcements, the battle will soon reach population centers that cannot be fully evacuated in time.” The scout tried to catch his breath.

My shoulders relaxed a little in relief that the fighting had not reached the civilians yet.

My jaw tightened with anger and resolve, and my mind was already racing with the implications of this new development.

“Thank you, soldier. Please get some water and a breather. We’ll get those reinforcements there in time,” I reassured him before dismissing him. He saluted and went off to a nearby tent.

I realized I had never gotten his name. I wished that I could keep track of all who protected Egoren.

However, now was not the time to feel sentimental.

I knew that Pyroth’s ultimatum was nothing more than a ruse. He simply wished to lull us into a false sense of security while he prepared his armies for a strike. The most frustrating thing about all of this was I planned for him to double-cross us, yet I still was outsmarted by him.

I didn’t think he’d strike from the north, where forces were relatively robust. I should’ve known he’d try to cause as much bloodshed as possible.

I had to admit, the dragon lord’s plan had come to fruition. He caught Egoren in a trap. Without a strong show of force, he would penetrate our forces to massacre our vulnerable.

Without a moment’s hesitation, I called forth the colonels and generals who had organized the platoons.

As swiftly as I could, I devised tactics that would hopefully rebuff and contain Pyroth’s forces and, with luck, push them back beyond the perilous mountain terrain.

“You two, take four platoons and station them here in the cliff-side to provide cover fire. Stay hidden, and be sure to take more ammo than you think you need.” My voice rang out with authority.

“You three, take a battalion and go support our vanguard here.” I pointed to a set of coordinates on a table set up. “I’ll coordinate the mobilization of our western and eastern fronts, but you will have to bide time until they arrive.”

“Lastly, you three, need to take a platoon each and go to these three towns and evacuate each of them down to the provincial capital here,” I instructed. “Remember that every moment counts, so we must be vigilant and act swiftly and decisively. Good hunting everyone.”

As the armies of Egoren began to assemble, I took a Jeep and a driver and led the way, riding out at the head of my finest warriors and most skilled wolf shifters.

The journey to the northern borders was a blur of urgency and tension, the air thick with the weight of impending battle.

My senses tingled on high alert, watching the clouds for any dark, angled shapes and scanning the horizon for any plumes of black smoke as we traveled uphill.

It wasn’t until we were nearly upon the crest where our lines struggled to hold back Pyroth’s forces that I smelled the stench of charred flesh and saw the chaos and devastation.

Pyroth’s forces, a seething mass of dark, twisted dragons and their riders, had already pushed past the border defenses, leaving a trail of destruction and carnage in their wake. The ground was littered with the bodies of the fallen, both in human and shifter form alike, and the air was thick with the coppery tang of blood and the acrid stench of smoke.

I hadn’t expected us to be winning, but I also hadn’t expected us to be so completely overrun already. It was clear as day that the dragons had all the momentum and that turning the tide of this one-sided battle would be a herculean effort.

But it was not an impossible one.

The screams of the burning vanguard and the crunch of teeth through bone rattled me more than I cared to admit.

But I could not let this tragedy get to me now. I had to be victorious.

White-hot flames raged in my chest at the sight of our nearly routed forces, and I let out a roar of pure defiance.

I leaped from the jeep and led the first platoon of troops into the fray. I had intended to remain in my human form and use my firearm and sword, but my shifter form demanded to come forth, so I shifted.

I charged forward as a mighty wolf, my fur bristling with power and fury.

Without much thought, I sprung into the air and sunk my teeth into the scaled wing joint of a nearby dragon that had impaled its talons into the chest of a dying soldier.

Using all my strength and leveraging momentum and gravity, I slung the dragon to the ground, pinning it with my massive paws. Dodging its snapping maw, I went in for the kill, my fangs chomping down on its exposed neck, tasting the bitter metallic tang of blood and viscera as a reward.

I had no time to check on the warrior bleeding out. I could tell by the sound of his fading heartbeats that no amount of surgery would save him. I scanned the battlefield, eyeing a boulder and leaping on it to gain the high ground on another diving dragon.

I pounced on it from above, biting deep into its neck. The dragon pitched violently to the left, and I latched on for dear life as the dragon plummeted and hit the rocky terrain, with me catching the brunt of the jarring impact.

Despite my rugged build, I suffered deep gashes in my shoulder and back and had probably at least one fractured rib. But the dragon lay belly up, lifeless and cloudy-eyed. I won, and that was all that mattered.

I shook off dirt and twigs and continued on. My mind went into auto-pilot, relying on my extensive training and shifter instincts. The battle was an inferno of dragon fire that burned through skin and wolf-fur alike. It was answered in kind with cyclones of swords, spears, and incisors eviscerating both leathery hide and hard scales alike.

I couldn’t let up, not with all my comrades fighting alongside with all the skill and fury of seasoned warriors.

I lost count of how many consecutive times my powerful jaws and razor-sharp claws tore through Pyroth’s warriors. My only thought was repelling the enemy and turning our imminent defeat into an unprecedented victory.

Around me, two wolf shifter warriors pincer-attacked a large, ferocious dragon. One of them got burned by dragon fire in the process, but they pressed on, tearing their fangs into his back. Their howls and snarls mingled with the roars of the dragons above.

My chest bloomed in pride as I took a step back to survey the battlefield from a high-level perspective.

The enemy was thinning out. We were pushing them back.

I dove again upon a dragon rider at the realization that we were driving them away from Egoren’s borders. With every ounce of strength and determination I possessed, I continued to press on, despite noticing that the wolf shifter that had been burned by the large dragon had succumbed to his burns. His comrade howled in mourning.

The bodies of the fallen continued to pile up around me as another dragon slammed against me. I danced back to bite him deep in the neck. The mixed corpses I had to leap and step over were a grim reminder of the price that had to be paid for the defense of Egoren.

I didn’t know if Pyroth truly wanted his progeny or was just using them as a means to eradicate us, but at this point, it didn’t matter.

There was no going back now. I would slay him even if it was the last thing I ever did.

A large armored dragon on a sharp outcrop of rock fired a single fireball into the air and let out a long, tremoring bellow.

All the dragons in the vicinity immediately halted their advance and either took back to the skies or double-backed.

“They’re retreating!” I howled out as I transformed back into my human form.

My forces around me let out a whoop in victory. Many sat where they stood or leaned up against the craggy granite in relief. Some leaned on their rifles and swords.

As the last of Pyroth’s dragons vanished behind the mountains and clouds, I properly surveyed the carnage.

My bloody chest heaved with excretion, and many slashes and cuts still oozed blood. My wrist hurt. I was sure it was probably sprained or even broken, but that was a small price to pay.

A wolf shifter gazed into the sky, glassy-eyed and already attracting flies.

What truly enraged me was that Pyroth was nowhere to be found on the battlefield. It was only the beginning.

Pyroth wouldn’t stop until he steamrolled us all to get what he wanted. Unfortunately for him, Egoren would never surrender as long as there was breath in my body and fire in my heart.

"We have won the day," I declared. My words carried on the wind to every corner of the battlefield. "But the war is far from over. We must stand together, now more than ever, if we are to have any hope of defeating this threat to our kingdom and way of life."

The soldiers of Egoren raised their voices in a roar of approval and began to help the injured and remove the fallen.

Amidst the darkness, I searched for a glimmer of hope, wondering if it was worth it.