Chosen Mate Of The Beastmen Empire

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The moonlight glowed pure and bright. A sharp clang of gongs ripped through the valley, jolting countless people awake from their dreams. Every barbarian threw on clothes and scrambled up-the young and strong grabbing weapons to

assemble.

"The imperial army's here!"

"Move it! Hurry!"

Nyx stood in the middle of her guards' protective circle, looking around, soaking in the scene.

Between the two peaks was a razor-thin gap. If you stood there and looked up, the sky squeezed into a long, narrow line. sunlight spilling faint, hazy shadows onto the rock walls.

A natural wonder like that-often called a "sliver of sky"-would've been perfect for tourists. Right now, though, it was these barbarians' hideout. She didn't really want to wreck the scenery. If only they'd wise up and surrender.

On the other side of the stone wall they'd piled up, the barbarians seemed to have grouped up and started yelling out- official speech mixed with their own tongue. Nyx perked her ears, catching bits and pieces, piecing it together with some guesswork.

They were basically saying the outsiders could forget about breaking in, stop wasting time, and get lost back where they came from.

"Jon, you're up!" Arlong called out one of his guys-sharp-tongued and fluent in barbarian–who stepped forward to shout back.

Jon had a booming voice, perfect for trash-talking, and went straight for the gut. "Hey, barbarians inside-open the gate and surrender quick! Your chief Monka's waiting for you in prison! Know why we found this place so fast? He spilled how to track you down!"

Monka had been a respected leader among the barbarians for years. Hearing this, they flew into a rage-humiliated their chief got caught and refused to believe he'd sell them out.

"He's lying!"

"Slander! He's slandering the chief!"

"Shut your trap!"

Hearing the mess of shouts from inside, Jon sneered, "Bunch of idiots-sold out and still won't believe it!"

He cranked up the volume. "Monka's a spineless punk-couldn't handle the questioning and spilled everything after a couple rounds! Even screamed that his foster father screwed him over, begged us to grab the old man and drag him to Hilltop City to get hacked to pieces!

"That old geezer's full of dirty tricks-egged Monka on to drag you all into this mess. You could've been living decent lives as honest folk. When push came to shove, he ditched Monka and bolted. A lowlife he is! He's dragging you down too, using you as pawns."

As he kept cursing, his tone turned sly. "The general says if that old man dies, the rest of you captives who surrender won't

be killed!"

Below the stone wall, the old man's face turned livid, sensing the crowd's eyes on him shifting. He scrambled to steady the troops. "Don't fall for his tricks! This is another one of Erik's scams-trying to con you into opening the gate!

"Don't think the court'll really let you off! Long as you've got our blood in you, you'll always be dirt to them! Surrender, and maybe they won't kill you, but you'll be slaves-your kids and grandkids too, working like animals for them!noveldrama

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"Hold this gate, and they can't touch us! Why else would they waste breath on these tricks to lure us out??

No one would pick slavery over being a free commoner. Even if life in the mountains suckerf, it beat signing your life away on a slave contract. Good masters were one in a million-most slaves got beaten on a whim, sometimes to death, and no one cared.

The old man's words hit home. Some who'd been wavering about killing him to surrender quietly dropped the idea, set on holding the gate to the end.

The trash–talking guy kept at it. His jabs were sharp and nasty, totally humiliating— pissing off the barbarians inside more than once. A few hotheads wanted to charge out, weapons swinging, but the old man shut them down.

The standoff dragged on who-knows-how-long. Night faded, dawn crept up, and both sides started feeling the exhaustion. Erik shot a look at the guy, whose voice was starting to crack, signaling him to come back.

"You've got fifteen minutes to think it over-surrender and live, or fight and die, no mercy," Erik's voice boomed out, silencing the whole army. The barbarians hiding in the valley felt their hair stand on end, like a beast had its jaws on their throats.

"Quit putting on airs!" the old man snapped back, forcing a cold laugh. "Come in here if you've got the guts! Daddy's waiting!"

This gorge only had a jagged path one person could squeeze through, now blocked by their wall. Climbing over wasn't easy -they had archers and vats of boiling oil ready. Anyone who tried would get a rain of arrows and a hot oil bath.

The air went dead quiet. Every rustle of wind or grass sent shivers of dread through the old man's chest. He stood tall anyhow, staring down that stone wall. Fifteen minutes wasn't long, but to him, every second crawled like years.

Time was up-a horn blared. A flood of footsteps echoed from outside, and every barbarian's heart jumped into their throat

"They're pulling back!" The old man strained his ears, then his eyes widened, a grin breaking out. "Hear that? They're retreating!"

Those steps were clearly fading away-not charging in. He'd won this round. Erik was just bluffing-not worth fearing or surrendering to.

The barbarians' faces lit up with relief, cheering and shouting, bowing to the old man, hailing him as their leader. He had led them through this crisis.

They hadn't fully trusted him before, still hung up on the captured Monka. But after holding the fort all night, they'd thrown themselves at his feet, ready to crown him the new boss.

If the old chief could pull off one solid defense, he could do it again-second time, third time. Until the court got sick of wasting troops and supplies on them. Then they'd be free of the extermination threat, back to their old lives.

"Time to celebrate properly!"

"That so-called great general ain't all that! Just a bag of cheap tricks!"

"Next time they show up, I'll shoot arrows from the wall-might even nail the general with one!"

The valley buzzed with glee-folks spouting big talk and bragging, laughing their heads off. Mid-laugh, a deafening roar crashed down like thunder.

"Boom-!" It was like the sky caved in.