Chapter 203: From Hero to Zero

Kael didn’t let go. Instead, he tightened his grip on Syris’ hand until his knuckles turned white, staring dead into the Snake King’s amethyst eyes.

“I will never leave Ren’s side,” Kael declared, his voice low and vibrating with intensity. “She will become the Queen of the White Tiger Clan, and I will be her loyal guard. I will go anywhere she goes. I will follow her to death’s door itself. And if she walks through it, I will follow her there too.”

He leaned in, his golden eyes burning.

“And you, Snake, will just have to live with it.”

Syris glared back, his own grip tightening until their handshake looked more like a contest to see whose bones would shatter first.

“She doesn’t need a guard,” Syris hissed, his forked tongue flicking out in agitation. “And she is already my Queen. The Queen of Snakes. She does not need a ruined, broken clan dragging her down. You should all just accept your fate and die out with some dignity.”

“Stop being so unreasonable,” Kael gritted out.

“Stop being so persistent,” Syris countered.

Viper stood between them, his head whipping back and forth like he was watching a tennis match of testosterone. He fanned Syris furiously with the palm frond, the wind picking up the King’s silky black hair and Kael’s white locks.

’Are they going to fight?’ Viper worried, sweating.

The tension was thick enough to cut with a leaf.

Viper cleared his throat.

“Perhaps,” Viper squeaked, breaking the silence, “we could prepare the pig? For the female? She will be hungry when she wakes up.”

Growl.

Grrr.

Both Kael and Syris looked down. Their stomachs had roared in unison, as if suddenly remembering that they hadn’t eaten a proper meal in days.

Slowly, reluctantly, they withdrew their hands.

The moment the contact broke, Kael stumbled backward.

“Ugh.”

A wave of dizziness hit him like a physical blow. His head spun, the world tilting on its axis. His body, usually light and brimming with explosive power, suddenly felt heavy. Strange. Lead-like.

Thump.

Kael fell to his knees on the furs.

He gasped, clutching his chest. He could feel it leaving him. The Beast King aura. The Alpha power.

He felt his strength cut in half. He felt his accelerated healing slowing down to a crawl.

When his vision finally cleared, he looked at his palm. The cut he had made to seal the pact was still bleeding. A Beast King would have sealed that wound instantly. Now, it just oozed, slow and red and aggressively normal.

He blinked, looking around.

Something was different.

’It is quiet,’ Kael realized.

He could no longer hear the beetle crawling on a leaf three miles away. He couldn’t hear the heartbeat of the squirrel in the branch above. He couldn’t even hear Ren’s steady heartbeat from two feet away unless he focused. And, most blessedly, he couldn’t smell the stench of the Fox that was coming from the tree hut high above.

Kael stood up on trembling knees. His body felt sluggish, like moving through molasses.

“So this is what it feels like,” Kael whispered, flexing his hands.

He had forgotten what it was like to be a normal beastman. But as his knees stopped shaking, a strange sensation washed over him.

Relief.

He felt… liberated. He wasn’t constantly bombarded by the sights, sounds, and smells of the entire forest. The world was smaller now. Quieter.

He looked down at his chest and arms, a sudden panic seizing him.

’Wait. Am I small?’

He remembered being a scrawny, knobby-kneed tiger before he became a Beast King. He feared he had deflated back to that pathetic size.

He poked his bicep. It was hard. He looked at his pecs. Still massive.

’Okay, good,’ Kael breathed out.

He closed his eyes and tried to shift. He called for his beast.

Nothing. Just the empty echo of his own mind.

Syris, sitting on the furs, felt the shift instantly. The oppressive, heavy aura of the White Tiger King vanished, popping like a bubble.

He looked at Kael.

He was no longer staring at a rival Alpha. He was staring at an ordinary—albeit very large—White Tiger beastman.

A slow, wicked grin spread across Syris’s face.

’I could bully him,’ Syris thought delightedly. ’I could use my Alpha aura right now. I could make him fetch me water. I could make him fan me. Oh, the possibilities are endless.’

Kael felt the shift in power too. Syris’ presence suddenly felt heavier, more imposing. He felt a primal urge to lower his head.

He gritted his teeth and stood tall.

“Viper is right,” Kael said. “We should stop fighting and cook the pig for Ren. She needs to eat.”

Syris opened his mouth to argue—probably to suggest that Kael should go die in a hole while he fed Ren—but Kael cut him off.

“Do not waste your breath chasing me away,” Kael said, turning his back on the Snake King. “I will only leave if Ren tells me to go.”

Kael marched over to the corner of the cave where Viper had dumped the unconscious pig.

As he walked, his mind spiraled.

’Will she still want me?’ Kael worried. ’The Moon Goddess wants her to bond with powerful Kings. I am neither powerful nor a King anymore. I am just Kael. What if she rejects me?’

He reached the pig. It was tied securely with vines.

Kael stared at it.

’Cooking,’ Kael thought, baffled. ’How do I make fire?’

Behind him, Syris narrowed his eyes.

“Tiger,” Syris murmured lazily. “The pig is not sleeping.”

Kael didn’t answer. He reached for the knot.

’Why is he ignoring me?’ Syris wondered, annoyed. Then he remembered that Kael’s hearing wasn’t as good anymore.

“YOU IDIOT!” Syris shouted. “THE PIG IS—”

Too late.

Kael undid the last knot.

The pig’s eyes snapped open.

It didn’t hesitate. It shot out from under Kael’s hands, knocking Kael onto his butt.

“What—” Kael gasped.

The pig scrambled over Kael’s legs, drifted around Viper, used Syris’ knee as a springboard, and bolted toward the cave entrance.

Ren’s eyes snapped open.

She didn’t wake up because of the noise. She woke up because she somehow sensed that her main ingredient was leaving the premises.

She sat up just in time to see a brown blur streak past her face and out into the freedom of the forest.

Ren extended a hand, her face a mask of pure despair.

“PORKY, NOOOOO!!!” Ren cried.

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