Chapter 143: Chapter 135: The final battle is drawing ever closer.

Aranea had crossed a distance of ten meters before the woman could ever finish her punch. Instead of a male’s snout, the fist met Aranea’s paw, looking almost bitty against her now gigantic paw that closed around it. The warlord moved swiftly to get behind the scout's back. Still holding the scout’s fist, she had twisted the wolfkin’s arm behind the back.

"No dominations." Aranea spoke sternly, holding the scout’s shoulder with one paw and holding the other arm at the point of snapping.

"These are just males, warlord." The scout whined, trying to break free from the hold.

"No. Dominations."

"They won't survive in the field if I don't discipline them for their failure on the training course," The scout tried to look back at Aranea. "Warlord, for crying out loud, one of them had a finger on the trigger during the training run!"

Aranea could see that the woman was right. A male's shardgun was fired during a training course in which they were supposed to crash into a building and reach the upper floors before jumping from the third floor and charging further across the training section of this makeshift district. The point of this training was to prepare wolfkins for unexpected situations in the field. Sometimes these training buildings had hostilities in them, other times they had explosives, all duds, of course. And sometimes "civilians" or simply nothing were inside.

This scout was of the Alpha team, one of many instructors who were overseeing the training of the Beta team, the newest recruits from the villages. The trainers made no distinction between males and females, leaving both with numerous scars, and today Aranea decided enough was enough. She, Annie, and Olesya were the only warlords in Fort Uglo, it was time for the others to fall in line.

"Then punish them by the book, with additional exercises. Don’t just go around and put our valuable assets in the hospital."

The scout desperately struggled for a few seconds before giving up, silently baring her neck in submission. Aranea let go of the woman and gave her a friendly pat on the shoulder, leaving the recruits to be lacerated verbally rather than physically.

She walked away, clenching and unclenching her right fist to check for any sign of pain. There was none, after three weeks of rest, her arm was as good as new.

And so was she. Aranea had darted from the place, covering the entire training square in the blink of an eye. Her paws grabbed one of her own soldiers by the nape of her neck, forcing the woman to release her jaw hold on a smaller wolfkin. The warrior hissed in both fear and anger, unsure what exactly she had done wrong. Aranea’s nostrils caught a faint smell of urine.

The smell of fear awoke something new in Aranea, and she was overcome with the desire to bury the fangs in the woman's neck for the sake of it. She breathed out slowly, calming herself. Much has changed in the last month. Ever since Jekaterina’s demise, Aranea’s power has gone wild, demanding to be released in full. If previously it felt like a half-locked room from which she picked up a few valuables from time to time, then now it felt like an overheated pipe, ready to explode if she did not use the valve to let the steam out. The halfbreed grew a good ten centimeters overnight, scaring herself with the new muscles.

She handed both women to Tiny, who started patiently explaining the rules of the pack, while Aranea walked away, surveying the training zone. So many new recruits Her pack received five hundred men and women from the village. Olesya lucked out, getting only three hundred. And Annie…

"Brooding again?" Annie softly landed next to Aranea, pressing something on the backs of two wolfkins locked in what had looked to be a mortal grapple. Their claws dug deep into each other's hides, drawing blood. At Annie’s touch, both women went limb, "Lucendra! Take these bumpkins to the medics and explain to them the difference between training combat and a real one! You know, the Alpha pack’s wolf hags are throwing glances at you." Annie turned to the halfbreed.

"I forbade them to use beatings and dominations in training as of this morning." Aranea sighed.

"Well shit. Alpha is going to skin you alive."

"Not if we prove her wrong with results," Aranea put both paws behind her back, walking across the training field. "If my recruits can get higher scores than hers during the field training, all will be forgiven."

"If is the key word here. My cubbies have learned how to use power armor just fine by now, but…"

Annie pointed with her paw to a set of buildings in the distance. These were mostly steel boxes, with some added wooden plating to imitate huts in the Ravaged Lands. The buildings spat out fire from the second floor, indicating that low-powered explosives had worked. Six bodies, clad in power armors, jumped from the second floor, landing before ‘insurgents’, played by Yuki and Sly, who held some ‘civilians’, played by Alek and his crew, at gunpoint.

The situation was meant to imitate the clearing of a hostile den of criminals. The wolfkins used their explosives on the upper floor, charged through the blasts, fully safe in their power armors, and jumped out of the window. But when they shot, the paint balls of their shardguns missed Sly and Yuki by a wide margin, splashing against the wall behind them. Sly even spread his arms in a gesture of ‘what was that all about?’ and Yuki had simply shot the sergeant in the metal ear, smiling at his curses.

Aranea nodded respectfully to the failed pack, impressed by how easily they moved in the power armor. All the recruits were coming from the villages, all of them were used to hacking their prey to death and shooting with outdated shardguns, with no training about how to wear the armor. They must be perplexed as to why they failed now. Ultis came to them, slowly and patiently explaining the differences between reaction times in power armor. To put it simply, the pack got a bit too eager. Their limbs were moving too quickly now.

"…Are not that great at hitting stuff," Annie sighed, looking at how the soldiers were putting out the flames and placing new wooden panels for the next pack, "Ari, don’t go looking for trouble, ‘kay?"

"I am not," Aranea flashed a cheeky smile, "Kaleb had already prepared a very special pack of gifted males and females. We are planning to stage a joint training tomorrow against an all-female pack, that ought to shut the Alpha team’s mouths up." She glanced at Annie.

The warlord was now smaller than her, even all the victories from the Challenge only made Annie five centimeters taller, which was weird. All the other major contestants—Bel, Bogumila, Virginia, even Sonya—had grown no less than eight centimeters. Her friend was wearing the usual warlord’s leather coat, colored in blue. Aranea looked her over and finally gave in, asking the question that had bothered her all these weeks:

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"Say… Did they grew back?" Aranea lifted her paws, pointing at her own cups.

"Of course! Took two weeks, surrounded by the whole net of scars, but I got them back," Annie grinned fiercely, "And the moment Virginia comes back, I am getting back on her."

"Oh, so you are simply flat-chested." Aranea teased her and had to dodge a friendly jab aimed at her shoulders. The fist only glanced against her coat, failing to reach the skin beneath.

I can react to your movements! Aranea had to throttle her desire to go for the throat and wrap her arm around Annie, laughing along with her. It was truly strange. Something in the past few days has almost compelled her to provoke others and try to pick fights. At first, she blamed Aranea/Ravager for this, but her other self called the halfbreed an annoying bitch and told her it wasn’t her.

The warlord looked around the field. Leila was busy training recruits how to use the energy weapons and how to work around a no-recoil situation. Unfortunately, due to the high cost of these weapons, the state only provided a hundred of them per warlord's pack. Somehow, Sly got permission to prepare two more rail guns for Aranea. The warlord was unsure if she should berate him for wasting precious resources or not.

A series of explosions near the outer wall indicated that Danulka and Gin had already started their heavy weapon training. Aranea half expected that the Alpha team instructors would grumble at the fact that a male was leading these sessions, but surprisingly, the wolf hags bowed to Gin’s expertise, even if he was somewhat behind Danulka or Tiny for now.

On the shooting range, Carty was dodging actual shards, casually dancing among potential death. The scout was encased in fully sealed power armor, she held a small terminal in her paws, reading from it, while several packs fired life ammunition at her. The risks weren’t that great, the power armor was capable of fully blocking several volleys, and the trainees had yet to hit Carty even once. Still, judging by Mia’s nervous tramping behind the soldiers, the medic hated this whole ordeal. Aranea felt for her, truly, but getting accustomed to high-speed opponents was a must. The wolfkins were stronger than normies, and this made some of them arrogant in their abilities. All of them will have far better chances to survive after being humbled a bit.

These were far from the only training courses for the wolfkins. Instructors from the ranks of normies were busy showing how to operate terminals, how to create bank accounts, and being aware of scammers. The engineers eagerly taught the wolfkins how to perform basic maintenance in the field. Some wolfkins even got interested in medicine, and Olesya approved these new courses for any and all volunteers, ignoring the shamans' council opinion. They later sent their approval but warned the warlord not to cause strife within the tribe. And congratulated Olesya on this innovation.

Keyl was somewhat confined to the main citadel. Each time the white-furred wolfkin came out, some wolfkins would immediately ask him for a domination match, getting annoyed when the warlords shooed them off. He was not a comrade to them but a rival who encroached on their territory, someone who betrayed a deal of non-interference between two groups. Keyl can stand up for himself, but not against hundreds of eager challengers. For everyone’s sake, Aranea had asked him to stay by Javenika’s side.

New medics from the ranks of new breeds had arrived from the Torment, among them almost the entire Hekanta’s crew. Geldi and Marco took it upon themselves to oversee the integration of new medical personnel, since the rest of the medics wanted little to do with former slavers and criminals, even if they were trying to turn a new leaf. Aranea once overheard how Mia was cheering up a few of her comrades who were still stuck in the Torment and who had failed an exam.

The shaman council reached out to the new warlords, asking them to find suitable soulmates already or to make their first lifegivings. Annie and Aranea had considered this request seriously, the Tribe’s losses this year were grievous. Olesya’s answer was swift and not all that sophisticated, the cyborg warlord demanded an apology written in blood, suspecting that the shamans were mocking her.

Aranea moved on across the training field, stopping sparring each time the wolfkins started using their claws and tearing each other apart. Truth be told, the warlords were technically on leave, and the training was supposed to be conducted by the lower ranks, who did an admirable job. But the constant demands from the medics to stop the 'bullying', as they put it, forced the warlords out of their offices and into the open.

Everything is better than listening to Marco’s and Ieshua’s complaints! Aranea had decided to herself, blocking a thrust that threatened to spear the jaw of a male wolfkin. The warlord chastised both greenhorns, leaving them in Kate’s care.

Dominations and infighting were starting to get on Aranea’s nerves. She had nothing against ranking battles, with five hundred new wolfkins, it was no wonder that females had started competing for titles of scouts and wolf hags. This tradition was so deeply ingrained in the Wolf Tribe that Aranea had no desire to fight it, at least not now. She had to pick her battles.

And the battles she had chosen to fight were to end dominations and beatings of males and low-ranking warriors. It was easy to subdue the most eager fighters, but far more difficult to explain to them why they should stop this practice. Each woman and man from the villages had lived their entire lives in this system. They obeyed the military command and tried to abide by the new rules of their pack, but in their eyes, Aranea saw only confusion. It will take some bonding and time, lots of it, for them to understand why the tribe must change.

And time was ticking away. In a week, six shamans will arrive, two for each warlord. Spirits only know if they will try to interfere with the warlords’ efforts or not. On one paw, they warmly accepted Leila and sent their approval for Geldi’s joining the tribe, asking no questions and upholding Janine’s and Aranea’s decisions. On the other paw, she was going against their teaching now.

We will cross this bridge when we come to it. Aranea decided, turning to a worried-looking soldier.

"Warlord," the man had saluted her, "We just got word that one of the recon parties near the fort was attacked!"

"Do we have ID on the foe?" Aranea raised her fist, stopping the training. Attacks, even here, were not uncommon. The Ravaged Lands were an untamed wilderness teeming with dangerous beings running above and beneath the ground. From raiders to insectoids to malfunctioning AIs, the place had everything.

"Greenies, warlord."

"Raise the alarm!" Aranea roared, stomping across the square, "Recruits and civilian personnel are to head to the underground bunkers! You!" She pointed at the soldier, "Immediately send a message to the command that the fort is under attack! Activate the mine field! Please request that Inspector Javenika join us."

"You sound as if you are preparing for war." Olesya walked toward Aranea, gesturing for her wolf hags to get on with the commands.

"The last time I saw greenies, a city almost died," Aranea explained. "Suit up, everyone! If the enemy won’t come to us, we will hunt them ourselves!"

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