Rex exhaled, his breath condensing before him in misty clouds as snow gently fell from gloomy skies, specs of the soft fluffy flakes settling upon his gray locks and the shoulders of his cloak. He stood at the very edge of the floating island, the gazebo and falling snow creating a charming backdrop behind him, the scene as picturesque as a painting.
The island's barriers were down due to the weather being fairly pleasant for the Deadlands, a telltale sign of one or more Elysian Trees in the region as Sol only ever smiled upon the divine trees. And they were exceedingly rare so far up North. Perhaps...
'Return when you find her.' His Alpha's puzzling words resurfaced on his mind and he shook his head, bits of snow tumbling off his hair. That was impossible. There would never be a female willing to tolerate his repulsive scent, let alone be attracted by it.
He had long accepted the fact and when his Alpha had made him—an unwanted male—First Beta, he had assumed that he did so because he did not wish to have a female for their pack. And when he'd declared that Rex would be the one to choose their Luna, he hadn't been moved nor surprised, knowing without a doubt that it was only to ward off admirers from his territory. And it did work... for a little while.
A devastating roar tore him out of his thoughts and he refocused on the ongoing battle below, watching as a frost mammoth feral bellowed out before charging at Max, one of his littermates, its four tusks angled low, blocking all possible routes of escape. It was as big as a hill and as fast as a horse but Max was faster, dodging the tusk that attempted to skewer him by a hair's breadth.
Snow was tossed into the air in its wake but Hex was ready and waiting, sending a gale to blow the snow away before the feral could use it to add to the icicles shielding it's body, a means to preserve its mana. He used a wind blade to break off an icicle on it's side as it swerved back around and Max created a long spear using his earth mana.
'Try and compress it further, Max,' Rex reminded him through their mind-link. Taking the advice, Max tried to remould the spear but it instantly shattered in his hands. It was too late to form another one in time as the feral madly charged towards him once again.
The three engaged in battle were all king-level orcs, the feral being much stronger with a dense heavy coat of fur beneath all the ice and an even thicker layer of fat beneath the fur. With Max's strength, only a narrower but sturdier spear could penetrate through those defences, not that it would cause any real damage even then. It was too enormous and it would take hundreds if not thousands of such stabs to bring the armoured mammoth down.
Of course, he could quickly end it by focusing on piercing through any orifice on its skull but that wasn't their goal. Max was the only one of their litter still stuck at the four-star level while the rest were already five-starred or above, which gravely wounded his pride. What he really needed was to advance his level and that would only happen through pushing past his limits and continuously refining his mana.
He could also search for a compatible female but that was not the path he'd chosen, that they had chosen, opting to follow Rex instead, a fool's errand if you asked him. He sighed and more misty clouds formed in the air. They would come around eventually but before that, he had to get them stronger in the fleeting time they had left.
"The estrus season is here," Luca said as he silently appeared beside him, casually observing the fight as well. The mammoth had already patched the cracks in its armour with new icicles, looking as good as new, the red in its eyes glowing brighter in fury. "I should be in the Pearly Isles right now, wooing my future queen but instead I'm back to these godforsaken wastelands babysitting you."
Rex cast him a sideways glance and for a moment, considered ignoring him. Luca was a cold-blooded male and the Pearly Isles were the territory of the Dolphin Queen, a warm-blooded female. It went without saying that she would never accept him into her pack, not even as a snack as he was both venomous and poisonous. It didn't matter that he was an alpha. If anything, it made him an even greater threat.
He would have better luck going after a cold-blooded female but a cold-blooded female was, well, cold-blooded. And yet, he was still better off in comparison. At least he had the right to perfume for her and release his pheromones as much as he wanted at the borders of her territory without making her retch in disgust. At least he had a chance, however small.
The thought brought a bitter smile to his face. Females not only despised him, they wanted him dead and had nearly succeeded on a few occasions. If someone had told him a century ago that he would be envious of a reptile, that he was lesser, he wouldn't have bothered to issue a challenge before pouncing. But such was his reality, more so now that he was leaking mana worse than a poorly constructed beaver dam.
"No one is forcing you to be here Luca," he bit out, harsher than intended, his bitterness seeping through. "Feel free to leave and chase after your future queen."
"Now, we both know that's not true." He could hear the smirk in his voice at the successful jab. He didn't bother with a response. Of course, Micah—their Second Beta—had sent Luca after him to 'protect' him.
Down below, the feral had managed to wrap its trunk around Max's hind leg as he had taken his wolf form and smashed him into the ground, sinking him deep into the snow. Then it reared up on it's hind legs to better stomp him to death.
Rex instinctively formed a small sharp metal rod in his palm and an acute piercing pain went right through the center of his chest, a restrained growl slipping out between gritted teeth. But Hex got to Max before he could take further action, the mammoth trampling where they once stood a beat later. The earth quaked and the ground shook. And an avalanche would've occurred if one hadn't happened just two hours earlier when the clash began.
"You've grown weaker," Luca pointed out the obvious. As if he would forget about his cracked mana core if it wasn't brought to his attention every time he used his mana. As if the excruciating pain in his ribcage wasn't reminder enough. It was the reason why he had to help his littermates get stronger as fast as possible.
"Then you should know why I can't go back," Rex said. "Why I have to remain here." Females might find his pheromones unpleasant but his mana might as well be a toxic poison to them. He would much rather have been venomous.
"Then I shall wait to carry back your corpse."
"That won't be necessary." He played with the rod between his fingers, flipping it across his nimble digits as the pain faded to a dull ache. "The pack will—"
It was then that the sweetest most tantalizing scent he had ever smelled reached his nose and he froze, closing his eyes, inhaling deeper. He didn't dare to believe it. For as much as females couldn't stand his scent, he couldn't stand theirs either. His eyes popped back open as the rod was instantly launched towards the feral, piercing through its left eye, the red in its other eye fading as it dropped to the ground, dead.
'Everyone back on the island.' He wanted to leave immediately but barely remembered the pack members scouring the lands close by, lowering the island. 'Now!'