Chapter 101: Chapter 93: Two monsters in the forest

Huntsman leaped forward like a beast, yelling something about food. The soultaker who helped him screamed just once before her left arm and leg disappeared in the gigantic mouth. Huntsman bit into the limbs, gulping them down without chewing, and moved on, leaving a ruined and bleeding body behind.

"Retreat! All forces, retreat at once!" Aranea screamed, limping toward the rifle that she lost, ignoring a few shots across her armor from the soultakers.

Huntsman went rabid. The beast moved forward, grabbing his own allies and pushing them into his mouth. The bodies popped in his jaws, splashing the insides and blood across his jaws, while he looked around the battlefield, standing to the waist in flames. The ruined bodies went down his throat, creating a huge bulge beneath his skin. The giant swallowed the meat and steel, coughing from the effort. His gaze fell on the frozen wolfkins, and the man extended his arm toward them.

"I will massacre you!" The dark-skinned soultaker shouted, sending forth another wave of darkness from himself. Huntsman jumped away, crushing into the command center and sending the multi-ton compartment into the air with a simple shoulder tackle. The frozen wolfkins started to move, looking around in surprise, "What are you doing here? Idiots! Everyone, kill this maniac right now!" The soultaker shouted to his own people and the reclaimers, stopping them before they could open fire on each other.

The soultaker spun around, his coat's edges swirling in the air behind him, and charged at Huntsman alone. He reached for a pistol on his belt, firing into the towering figure. The madman disappeared, allowing bullets to hit the trees behind him, and reappeared at the edge of the clearing, turning to face wolfkins from the second group who arrived to help. A scout managed to push a male and a warrior aside, before Huntsman’s teeth closed on her, the giant simply leaped forward like a swimmer, biting away the woman’s upper part. He rolled on the ground, leaving behind the scout’s bleeding legs, and disappeared anew, evading missiles that Tiny fired at him. The mercenary reappeared next to the sword spear and grabbed it, reappearing behind Tiny and bringing his weapon down with all his might at the scout's back.

No! Aranea threw up Dragena’s rifle, taking aim at Huntsman's head. The crimson eye allowed the halfbreed to see Huntsman's movements in slow motion, seeing how the edges of his blade caught fire due to friction. She was under no illusion as to what will happen. The recoil will tear through her right shoulder, bisecting her arm in process. The halfbreed saw what this thing did to Annie, and the warlord was far stronger than her. So what? These are my troops, my friends, and my family. You won’t take anyone else from me, fucker.

Fear crippled her, arresting all her attempts to press the trigger. It was a fear of loss, of being alone, of losing a loved one, of incoming pain... Every person on the battlefield was hit by a cocktail of unending horror. Fear, wild and maddening, with no clear source or reason, came upon Aranea, forcing her to relive the moment when her mother changed before her eyes, when she saw Kostya’s head. The wolf hag felt a trickle of liquid running down her left leg.

All around her, the shouts and screams stopped. The dark-skinned soultaker fell on his knees, biting his own hand. His face became pale, like that of a ghost. Keyl made several uncertain steps toward Aranea, putting his trembling paw on her pauldron, whining slightly in confusion. The warriors, scouts, and a few standing wolf hags bent low, showing their necks in unison, following some primal and unknown instincts. Aranea bit her own leg, standing upright along with Tiny, Sonya, and Keyl. Even they failed to keep their composure, whining and crying against their wills, unsure of what just happened. The soultakers lowered themselves to the ground.

A primal and soul-grabbing horror touched every soul in this part of the forest. It demanded submission, it demanded that everyone stand on their knees before something truly ancient, something that was ingrained in the wolfkins’ very psyche, would come to extract punishment. People's limbs were shackled by irresistible paralysis.

Huntsman felt this fear too, stopping his weapon short of Tiny’s back. His eyes blinked, and some semblance of sanity returned to the face covered by the blood of others. The flame colored his face, giving his crude facial features a truly demonic look. A single snapping branch, a very deliberate sound, boomed in a sudden silence, causing Huntsman to turn around.

Another horror stood behind, partially hidden by the trees, staring at Huntsman. Alpha was naked, safe for a few ornaments made out of bones. Each of her arms ended with three great claws, the same grievous tools of destruction were coming from her toes. There were surprisingly few scars on Alpha’s pale body, and the ones that were still present looked like they were ready to fade away in an instant. Huntsman’s lips spread in a leer, and he turned his back on Alpha. The sword spear went down.

Alpha lunged, moving with speed enough to leave a faint ghost of herself behind. Before the blade even touched Tiny's armor, Huntsman leaned back, twisting his body unnaturally and colliding with the blurring figure charging at him from behind. Instead of his spear, his jaws spread wide, ready to bite the warlord. A thunderous crack spread across the clearing, the shockwave produced by the collision of two titanic beasts sent hundreds of trees falling. Fighters on both sides were flung off their feet like toys, and Aranea found Tiny crashing against her body. Pain speared the wolf hag’s broken ribs, and pushing through the fear, Aranea stood up, holding the surprised scout steadily and helping her to stand up.

With surprise, Aranea saw Keyl standing ten steps ahead of her. Twin lines ran from the place where she stood just a second ago, Dragena’s rifle was left lying at Keyl’s feet. Alpha stood with her back to the soldiers, leaning slightly forward. Huntsman's teeth had ripped a large chunk of her right shoulder's flesh away. He stood behind her, partly hidden by her body. When he turned to look at her, the man’s face betrayed anger.

All the skin on the outer side of his right arm was missing all the way to the elbow, revealing meat and muscles beneath. Blood poured freely from the wound. The giant ignored his wound, struggling to chew the meat he'd bitten off Alpha. Eventually he spat it on the ground, making Alpha look back at him, gulping down the flesh.

"You taste like chicken." Alpha calmly informed him.

"And your flesh is disgusting, just like his. I can’t eat that," Huntsman mused in the same tone, looking at the night sky and holding the sword spear with his left hand, "Warlord Alpha, the high priority target…"

"Just Alpha," The warlord walked to him, leaving footprints on the ground and stopping just within striking distance, "You took my sister and incurred a blood debt from the Wolf Tribe. Tonight you meet Alpha, not a warlord of the state."

Huntsman chuckled, smiling at some unspoken joke, and Alpha smiled back at him. The two stood for three seconds, laughing quietly. Three seconds of peace. At their end, violence struck.

Alpha made a jab. Aranea's crimson eye couldn't even see the movement; a blurred line ran from Alpha's left side, aimed at Huntsman's chin. It was met with another blurry line, producing an ear-piercing shriek when claws scratched against the strange metal of the sword spear. Alpha made one more thrust with her left paw, an almost lazy one that was beaten aside as well, while the two opponents laughed at each other.

Huntsman jumped back, his eyes wide. With a trembling hand, he reached for his lower jaw, finding it sliced in two after Alpha’s third thrust, his own tongue was slithering freely from a crack in the bones. Putting Tiny aside, Aranea understood what just happened. This was a weird form of motion camouflage at work. Alpha’s first attack, both of her thrusts were made at a level of speed that was comfortable for Huntsman to match. It lured him into a weird sense of security, giving him false information that he could react to Alpha’s attacks. Then followed the third strike. Aranea narrowed her eyes, wondering why Alpha didn’t slice through the windpipe of her foe.

Huntsman vanished, reappearing behind Alpha. He brought his sword spear to her neck with a double grip. Alpha grabbed the blade with her left paw and speared Huntsman in the stomach with her right elbow. The man coughed, pressing both legs against her back, and tore the weapon free, disappearing again.

This time, Alpha was gone as well, propelled by her own feat. A shout of pain made everyone look to the right of the clearing, where Alpha tore a chunk of flesh from Huntsman’s body, right below his ribs, timing her attack with his reappearance. The man teleported again, screaming from the pain anew. And again. Alpha was on him, moving with a speed that Aranea had only ever seen Valerye reach. Without her power armor, Alpha had no way to access the video feed. The warlord knew. She had read Huntsman perfectly to predict where his teleportation would take him—to tear her jaws into his body.

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Huntsman, driven half mad by pain and the effect of a fear spreading from Alpha, reappeared for the fourth time, losing a part of his left thigh to a mighty chomp. Pure rage flashed in his eyes, and he brought his blade to his face, spitting out a black substance across the sword spear. Landing on one knee, he charged at Alpha, running past her right side. The blade hit the warlord across the belly, leaving a slash, while Huntsman’s right arm flew into the air. He rolled on the ground, groaning in pain.

Alpha fell on her knees. Huntsman rose behind her, blood pouring from his missing arm and the other horrifying wounds inflicted by the warlord. Holding the spear with his left hand, he closed on her…

Alpha moved, picking up the torn arm and chewing on it, devouring it with neither hurry or worry. Huntsman said nothing, backing away from her, his tongue licking his own chest, and the confidence in his eyes was replaced with panic. He looked at his spear, still covered with the toxic-looking black substance, and then at Alpha.

The warlord stood, turning to him. Blood was dripping from her mouth, along with pieces of flesh. She ran a wrist across her mouth, showing countless ugly black veins running across her body, spreading wider and wider with every move.

"This was the poison that took down my sister," Alpha looked into Huntsman’s eyes, "You felt hot, tearing her apart. Hot in…" Her claws pointed at his belly, "The stomach, right? Hot enough to ignore her pleas? Because her flesh tasted real good."

"How do you…" Huntsman never finished the words.

Alpha crashed into him, her jaws closing on his belly. The man shouted in pain, throwing up his spear. Alpha simply grabbed his arm, the giant claws coming through flesh like a hot knife through butter. The fear coming from Alpha increased, making Aranea gulp down her drool in genuine horror. It was neither a battle nor a struggle. Alpha buried her head all the way to the shoulders in Huntsman’s belly, devouring his insides, while he was shouting at the top of his lungs.

He thrashed and thrashed, too scared to remember about his power, too in pain to do anything but scream. Alpha’s jaws were closing in with the sound of a fired shardgun, tearing off huge chunks of his flesh, turning it into paste, and gulping it down. The warlord grabbed Huntsman by the shoulder, pushing his remains toward her jaw. The man screamed one last time, in a weak, desperate voice, before falling silent when his lungs were chomped upon.

At the end of it, there was nothing left of him. Alpha sat with her back to the soldiers, finishing her horrible meal in silence. She stood up after what seemed like an eternity, threw Huntsman's foot into the maw, and jumped into the air, landing like a falling stone in front of the black-skinned soultaker.

"Name and rank?" Alpha demanded, chomping down on the foot.

"I… I surrender!" The man shouted, closing his eyes. Alpha simply looked down on him. The youth opened one eye, then the other, looking at himself in disbelief, "What? Why isn’t it…"

"Because fear overpowered your binding," Alpha tapped with her own claws at her temple, "Tell me, boy, did you really think that in the centuries that I was alive, I had never faced off against someone who wielded mental power? A mental binging is a simple command imposed on a brain. Like any command, it can be overruled with a strong enough artificial emotion."

"Name’s Jericho. Jericho Cochran of the Young Guard. The commander of… What remains of my forces. I can still win, you know?" The man lifted the plasma grenade, "If I just use my power against you, I can capture you and…"

"Try it," Alpha said as she knelt before him, "I give you a free try, Jericho."

The man’s face hardened, and darkness shot from him in a circle. Aranea barely had time to shout a warning to the warlord when the darkness engulfed her, turning the wounded soultaker on the ground into stone. The darkness moved on, stopping five steps away from the man.

Jericho looked around in confusion, and Aranea could feel him. They both saw Alpha being hit by darkness. The warlord should be a statue. Some new breeds, such as Dominator of the Oathtakers, were immune to powers. Some new breeds were partially immune to supernatural abilities. Alpha was none of them, against transmutation power, she should have been helpless.

The soultaker made a step back and felt flesh behind him, finding himself leaning against Alpha’s leg. The warlord jumped away when he used his power, landing at the edge of the clearing, before jumping back with a stealth that was unexpected for her size.

"Jericho Cochran of the Young Guard," Alpha intoned, breathing into his scalp. The fear was gone from the air, allowing the soldiers to slowly move freely, "What will it be? Life or death?"

"Spare my people, and I surrender."

"Granted."

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