Chapter 18: Chapter 17

"I want to vomit." Annie admitted quietly over the communicator, on a secured frequency between Aranea and her.

Forces of the state were advancing, taking street after street. Soldiers were slowly advancing, wave after wave. When soldiers on the front line were out of supplies or ammunition, they retreated to the back, allowing another wave to move forward, not allowing the enemy to feel even a moment of rest or respite. Meanwhile, soldiers in the rear resupplied and had their armor fixed, then rejoined the formation.

This barely resembled a war as Aranea knew it. No, it looked as if some sentient hive mind had invaded the city, such was the precision and almost automatic actions of the troops. Each battalion, each squad, each company, and each soldier were in exactly the right place, doing exactly the job that endless drills prepared them to do. Engineers were busy disarming mines, snipers were busy taking out enemy soldiers, and ground forces were busy storming apartment after apartment, pushing back forces of the Resistance. Countless traps were found in buildings, from simple primitive explosions to modern mines left behind by enemy troops. At first, sniper teams of the enemies dominated the streets from the upper levels of the city, firing down upon the state’s troops with impunity, while anti-air defenses were active. Despite using outdated technology, the anti-air installation of the Resistance was surprisingly efficient in taking down drones of the state. But the Reclaimers had drones to spare. Once AA were located, they were showered with artillery fire from crawlers, rendering entire districts of the city into piles of rubble. Now, the skies belonged to the drones of the state, machines were clouding the skies, shooting down any enemy soldier who dared so much as to show his face from the windows.

At the start of the battle, hospitals declared that they would treat wounded from both sides. These were the only true safe havens, where neither the Reclaimers nor the Resistance dared to fight. Hospitals were also used as places for soldiers from both sides to meet, either to make deals about surrender or to trade prisoners.

As for the rest of the city… It was in ruins, with both sides fighting tooth and nail in the rubble and locals trapped between them. Aranea and her pack were walking across the ruined street, the remains of an APV vehicle were burning in the middle of the street, a half-cooked hand was visible from one of the cracks. The doors of the armored vehicle were disabled by enemy artillery, and soldiers inside literally boiled to death. Corpses of both state and enemy soldiers lay on the street. The majority of these were enemy bodies, ill-equipped dead people; some even lacked anti-heat suits. As the pack moved forward, heading toward the direction of the gunfire, they saw bodies hanging from the now dark neon sign of the jewelry shop and a man who filmed dead bodies. Ropes were deeply cut into their necks, their hands were tied behind their backs. Bodies were slowly moving while the wind was blowing, sacks of dead flesh that just recently were alive. They were stripped of all valuables, but Aranea saw that four of them were locals. Two, a woman and a man, were soldiers of the state, they soldiers' tags were left on their necks. While the bodies of locals were mostly unspoiled, the eyes of soldiers were missing, and the dead were crying with red tears. A cardboard sign was on their chest, with a single "Marauder" word painted in red on it.

Alek was not lying. Ivar did not tolerate any degeneracy in the ranks of his troops. Physical punishments were given for any offense, and firing squads were always at the ready. Soldiers of the blue wyrm were financially rewarded for reporting crimes committed by their comrades. These poor fools must be either new or insane to try and rob locals.

The man turned out to be a reporter from Iterna. He hurriedly showed his tag to the pack with trembling hands, and Aranea raised her paws in the air, trying to calm him. She allowed the lower part of her helmet to slide onto her chest and smiled to the man, telling him that everything was fine. Removing the upper part of the helmet was dangerous, and while cleanup was mostly done, who knows if there were truly no more enemy snipers in buildings. The wolf hag and her pack already found two enemy soldiers, taking them down without killing them, and reported their locations to the headquarters. Annie and her pack found one enemy soldier hiding in an apartment.

The reporter tried to ask her questions, but Aranea politely refused to answer, instead telling the man to go to safety. She could hear civilians still hiding in buildings. Thankfully, she and her pack were only tasked with removing stragglers of the enemy from the rear. Annie and her pack were busy moving through the buildings above the street, leaping from the destroyed apartments of one building to another, checking the places left in the wake of the infantry advance. The reporter refused to leave and instead trailed after the pack, filming the destruction. Aranea contacted the headquarters about him and received an order from Ivar directly. She was told to allow the man to do his job. Surprisingly, no words came about ensuring his protection.

The city was split in two. The majority of citizens tried to reach the relative safety of controlled areas under the rule of the Reclaimers. Aranea was surprised to see so many locals abandoning allegiances to their rulers. Yet the blue wyrm was ready to such an outcome, his instigators, spies, and propagandists infiltrated Belaz far before the attack. Ivar was wielding both military and political power like some sort of wicked conductor, while playing the symphony of war, advancing his troops further and further. His form could be seen in the skies above the city. From time-to-time, the resistance tried to shoot him down, last time they even went as far as using an anti-bunker missile, a high-powered explosive missile capable of rendering a small village into a pile of dust. The aim of the enemy was true, the deadly missile passed through the net of defenses made with the help of the countless drones. These machines were supposed to keep the skies clear of any danger. However, the enemy managed to surprise the state's troops once more. With the help of the Bento tribe's cyborgs, they cleared an area in front of the missile, trying to take down the blue wyrm. He only moved his wing, covering the missile in the water and collapsing it above the city. After this failure, the enemy abandoned any coordinated attempts to kill the blue wyrm.

Meanwhile, a large amount of manpower was poured into field hospitals and kitchens. Overnight, a makeshift tent city was created for the locals, soldiers were busy escorting them outside of warzones. Entire convoys with water, food, and medicine were arriving each hour. The sheer scale of the operation and how efficiently it was done left Aranea in awe against her will.

Annie and her pack joined Aranea as they reached the crossing. The fellow wolf hag was armed with twin long knives and a single pistol. While the majority of Dragena’s pack preferred long range weapons, their wolf hags and scouts were overly fixated on close ranged weapons.

Fighting was already finishing at the crossing, Regulators were pushed back. Alek was busy interrogating prisoners, Marco was busy treating injured soldiers from both sides. Robet Hilingson and his task unit were enroute to returning to crossing from underground in a few minutes, they were out of ammo. Another wave of infantry was already sent to capture an underground farming area.

A few regulators still furiously tried to resist, firing from a small two-story building near the road that led to the north of the crossing. Their efforts fell short, as Ursico began to pummel the building with explosive rounds from his suits. He fired four rounds in total, collapsing the entire second floor. The shape of a man in a Regulator's uniform charged from the rubble, his armor and clothes ripped apart as his muscles grew. His biceps grew thicker than cars, and his legs appeared to be capable of killing a wolfkin warrior simply by stepping on her. He took only three steps before he was cut down. Ursico switched his weapons to armor-piercing rounds and fired at the enemy. The enormous man leaped at the lieutenant when the first AP round sliced away his leg below the ankle. Falling on the ground and roaring in pain, the regulator crashed his fist against the ground, causing the stones of the road to rise all around him in an attempt to shield himself. Ursico simply fired another round, piercing both the stone and the shoulder of the man and causing him to roar in pain once more. Thrashing in panic, the regulator broke through his own stone shield, crawling toward the north. Snipers attempted to cut him down but were stopped when Ursico lifted an arm of his mechanical suit. The machine jumped, landing on the back of the man, breaking the stones beneath him. Then, Ursico pressed the barrel of his weapon against the enemy's head. The man, crying from pain, forced the words of surrender out of himself, making his size revert back to normal when the metal legs moved away from his back. Ursico left him in the care of Marco. The rest of the enemy's survivors quickly came from the building, raising their arms in the air in a show of surrender.

Aranea looked around. This must have been a beautiful place once. Not up to the standards of the state, but people lived in this area. Wooden carts were seen here and there, as were the corpses of dead cusacks and draft animals from the Ravaged Lands, their bulks rotting in the sun. The few surviving beasts were half-crazed with fear, with their ears pressed to their heads as they lowered themselves on all four heavy legs. Their eyes looked around wildly for their masters, but if those people were alive, they were in hiding now. Aranea gave the order to Leila to calm the beasts by using her mind powers. They were someone’s property and will be returned to their owners if state officials can find them. If not, there was no reason for animals to die here in vain anyway. Most of the windows in nearby buildings were broken, revealing ruined rooms within.

At the center of the crossing were the feet of statues on a pedestal. A single artillery shell hit the pedestal some time ago, breaking all the statues on it. The broken remains of statues lay on the ground, stone hands grasped together. What could they be? A sign of union between the new breeds and normies? Regulators' simple vanity? No one will probably know, unless the state rebuilds it. Dead bodies were being dragged to the sides of the crossing by soldiers. Propaganda posters with images of Blaguna, Yasen, and Regulators were visible on the walls of the building, calling for locals to join the army and provide any assistance.

"It is a duty of every citizen to join in the protection of his country. For years, we protected you, will you give up your freedom now? Fight! Fight for your right to live! The enemy might look strong, but they too are dying! Join us and send them to the abyss where they belong!" The Voice of Blaguna’s could be heard through loudspeakers, as she was trying to whip the local population into a frenzy.

"People of Belaz! The enemy is at your door, they are ravaging our home, killing your neighbors, friends, and family! The enemy dares to violate your lives! Will you let this insult slide? Will you cover in fear? We fight alongside regulators to repel them. Will you allow us to fight alone? I say no to all, for I know there are no cowards here, only burning hearts are in this city! Every able man and woman, take weapons from a nearby army group and join the fight for freedom! Stand beside us as brothers and sisters, and together we will prevail! Freedom at any cost!" The propaganda speech of King was booming across the streets, using the same loudspeakers as Blaguna. Prerecorded speeches were filling the streets.

"Citizens of Belaz city! The Reclamation Army came to restore these lands back to humanity, to bring peace, order, and prosperity to you all. Do not listen to the poisonous words of anyone who wishes to send you to your demise while they themselves are hiding in safety behind your backs. Put down your weapons, go to our positions and you will be protected. We have food, water, and medicine in abundance. If you can’t reach our lines, hide and wait for our troops, order will be restored soon. Do not resist, I repeat, do not resist. You will not be harmed." The voice of Osero was filling the streets, speaking from the loudspeakers of a few flying drones. Meanwhile, soldiers were busy destroying the loudspeakers of the resistance. Aside from their speeches, the air was filled with the sounds of fighting, howling shells of artillery were hitting the ground in the distance. The wailing of the wounded could be heard in the air, the soul-tearing screams of those who lost their families sounded like the deadly shrieks of banshees, evil spirits from legends. Only these were not the evil spirits. Just humans, who were hurt and suffered loss. Such was the second day of the assault, and the city almost fell to the Reclaimers.

It was at this moment that Annie uttered her words on the secure channel.

"Have faith. What we are doing here is for the greater good." Aranea responded, her words ringing hollow even for her. She looked around, seeing dead bodies of soldiers from both sides. Some soldiers sat, grasping their knees, and shook back and forth a little. One soldier had his faceplate removed, an engineer was currently fixing it. The eyes of the soldier resembled glass, an utter lack of emotion could be seen in his shaken visage, his lips were trembling. Doctors near him were working overtime, trying their best to save the wounded from both sides. Local, his arm severed by explosion or gunfire, whimpered in agony as he lay on filthy ground. His life was no longer in danger, and yet… Aranea looked at the other injured. Soon enough, a relief team will arrive to carry the wounded back to the rear.

Surely, things will be better when we take over. Aranea thought. And then she inhaled the air with her nostrils. She knew what she would feel, yet she did it anyway. Some things cannot and should not be forgotten. The smell of blood in the air. The smell of roasted meat, human meat. and the smell of shit and piss, as the bowels of the dead were released in their moments of death. This is in the air right now. This was what the Reclaimers brought to the city. Never before had Aranea or her pack been involved in capturing the city. Belaz City was the first operation of such scale in their lives. To her horror, Aranea understood that this scene barely bothered her. The sheer scope of this battle made it hard to care…

No. Don’t weasel your way out of responsibility. Do not forget. This too is your duty. Dare not banish these memories from your mind. Such is the price of unification. Things might turn better in the future. But for the people right now, this is hell on earth. This was also done by my hands as well. I too am guilty. For the sake of the dead, give your all to build a better world for everyone who is still alive. The wolf hag thought to herself, nodding to Annie as she came close. She will become a better person. She will force herself to mourn the dead from both sides, if she must. Because only monsters kill without care.

New breeds were kept behind, only warlord Martyshkina was still at the front, leading the front line in person. Captain Ivar was clear in his orders, he wanted to show the enemy that the Reclaimers could win even without their "superhumans". The blue wyrm wanted to tear the last hope from the hearts of the Resistance, to show them that nothing that they could do would matter. That no matter what tricks the enemy tries, the Reclaimers will take it all, even without the help of their own new breeds.

Aranea and Annie were on their way to join Ursico when the halfbreed heard a noise from the ruins to the south of the crossing. It was coming from a small three-story building, painted in yellow, purple, and green. The iron fence around the building was torn asunder, the smoking remains of a hover tank could be seen near the ruined wall of the building. As Aranea walked closer to the building, she saw that most windows were shattered. The entire third floor collapsed.

"What is this place?" Aranea asked in confusion, looking at the crudely drawn red sun at the side of the building. Half of the sun was missing, along with the wall.

"Kindergarten," Annie said from behind Aranea. As the wolf hag turned around, Annie was almost near her, pointing at a ruined steel slide to the left, "I saw such places back in Pearl. Come, the Core Lands have tons of such buildings around, don’t tell me that you never saw one? Tsk, barbarian," Annie sighed heavily when she saw Aranea shake her head, "In short, people bring their cubs here to socialize, play, and learn," She looked at the ruins of the building and shook her head, "Sure hope that no cubs were inside when we were storming the area…"

Aranea moved forward, walking closer to the ruins. With a gesture, she dismissed Sonya and the bodyguards, stepping inside the building. Whoever was inside was too small. Her ears picked up barely a sound of steps. The wolf hag sensed how Annie trailed after her as she entered the ruined corridor. This place was probably protected from the heat, back when it was intact. Now, heat was slowly creeping in. The walls of the corridor were covered with lists of paper, with children’s paintings on them. Some of the paintings slowly started to flow down in the smallest multicolored rivers, as the heat was slowly melting away the paint.

Aranea walked forward, toward the source of the noise. This place did not have electricity. Instead, she could see candles lying scattered on the ground. She passed through a room that had a piano in it. The once proud musical instrument was crushed by a stone when the room above fell down. In another room was board, with various words written on it by chalks of different colors. It was mostly basic words, such as "mother", "father", "family" and so on. Two crude figures were painted by kids' hands, holding hands of each other, with the word "friendship" written underneath them.

"Must be nice, growing up in such a place," Annie commented, looking at the board and around. Tables, with the remains of food, were scattered around the room. She loudly sniffed the air. The sound of her sniffing was weird, it was as if she had trouble inhaling air through her nostrils, "Phh. Stinks with gunpowder, can’t sense shit here."

"I heard something or someone. Give me some time." Aranea allowed the upper half of her helmet to slide onto her back. Her long ears twitched, trying to detect the source of sound. She was certain that she had heard footsteps before. Maybe it was just a piece of fallen rubble?

Books were visible on the shelves. The multicolored book covers were painted gray due to dust from the crack above the shelves. Annie took one book, wiped the dust from it, and opened it. She saw various colored pictures, "Drawings, heh. That idiot probably read something like this as a cub. Or they read it to her."

"You are speaking about Svetlana, right?" Aranea asked her directly, hoping to divert her attention away from the war going on around her. Annie returned the book to the shelves and turned to Aranea, the helmet on her head slid in two, removing itself from her head. The lower part of the helmet of power armor moved onto her chest, the upper part behind her back, revealing a snout, looking almost identically to Svetlana’s face. If not for scars and the obvious difference in size, the two would look almost identical.

"This obvious, eh? Yes, about her," Annie admitted, looking around in wonder, "I bet that she visited a place like that when she was a cub. Or the one even better."

"Care to tell me what your story with her is? Why are you two… so apart, if you get my point." Aranea asked carefully, not wanting to rile up her fellow wolf hag.

"I really ought to kick your ass for even asking…" Annie let out a quiet laugh and ran across her hair with a paw, "But I owe you one for saving my hide. Our story is… complicated."

"Try me."

"Trust me, you wouldn't like it if I tried you for real," Annie flashed a cheeky smile at her own joke, before getting serious, "Ah, what the loss. Anything to be distracted from… this. As cubs, Svetka and I were separated after a gang of monsters attacked our village. Mom was killed, dad always assumed that Svetka was dead and drank himself to death out of guilt, the fool."

"I thought you two had different dads?" Aranea asked quietly.

"Tiny told you this? It is just a lie that Svetka and I agreed to tell people due to how our dad ended up. She wants to protect his memory. Well, I don’t. Anyway, my life as a cub was boring after that. Zero took me in. She made me a wolf hag at the snap of her fingers, just like that!" Annie snapped her own fingers, trying to imitate the gesture of the warlord, "Imagine that someone like me became a wolf hag to the greatest warlords of all!" Annie hugged her sides, trying to hold back laughter.

"Why are you laughing?" Aranea cocked her head in confusion, "Zero is the greatest warlord of all, even greater than Alpha. Surely it must have been a great honor to…"

"She has no packs, no followers, no one," Annie laughed as she wiped the tears from her eyes, "A wolf hag with no subordinates, serving a warlord who leads no one. How would you like to serve someone who never even shows you her face? She didn't even bother to teach me how to fight… Oh, she hired trainers for this, sure. But all other warlords teach others themselves," Annie looked at the books once more, lovingly running her paw across their covers, "You know why Zero needed me? She took me in, so I would work as a community manager for the Tribe! You know, answer questions on the Net, give interviews and stuff like this. In order for the normies to not be afraid of us. Me!"

"It sounds like an important job." Aranea said neutrally. Annie looked at her defiantly, as if trying to see if the halfbreed was mocking her.

"I hated every moment of this duty and Zero eventually noticed it. She came back with honoured Dragena one day, and the Honoured one took me in. I was quickly stripped of my rank when others challenged me and easily beat me up, due to how weak I was. But Dragena never gave up on me, unlike Zerto. She taught me everything I know, she sent me to study in other cities, she helped me grow as a warrior. And then, when everything seemed stable for once, when I started to claw my way up to my former rank… Svetka comes back, all smiling and happy. Turns out, she was saved by a traveler during an attack and later handed over to an orphanage in Second Army, where the normies adopted her as their own child. Dad was so close to finding her…." Annie grasped her paw into a trembling fist, "Never mind. She said that she wished to re-establish family ties with me, but..." Annie sniffed the air angrily, "She was never in the pits." She has no idea how to fight. She doesn’t want to learn to fight either. I don’t know her. But…"

"You are curious, right? You look around now and think that maybe she had a better life than you," guessed Aranea, "You think that maybe there is nothing wrong with not wanting to fight…"

"You are looking too much into it. To fight is… Do you think that I didn’t want to give up and lay down when mom died and Svetka was gone? What about when my dad was gone? Or when I was crushed by my peers? I kept on going because I fought and still do. I looked the world in the eyes and said, "I deserve to be happy too" and refused to lay down and die. It is the same with you."

"You are wrong," Aranea calmly responded, "I do not fight for the sake of…"

"Cusack shit, you are not fighting! Are you not human to not feel sadness? I know your story, I fight to become a perfect warrior, you to get strong enough to enact your revenge on the Ice Fangs."

"Revenge? On the Ice Fang order? They are my father’s tribe, how can you even suggest… No, I want nothing so insignificant," Aranea quickly responded, understanding with horror that she was telling the truth, "I want to kill some people, true. But what I really want is to change something, to…"

"Whatever. To change something, you still need power, so you need to fight, stupid. Anyway. Svetka and I went to see her family once. They seemed like good people. Sure, I was on edge the entire evening, but I answered their question honestly, I really did. I tried to be good, I sat at their weird kitchen table, tried to properly eat… I told them war stories, I told them how the live is in Tribe and so on," Annie ran her paws across the scars on her face, "And then, during sleep, I heard how her "dad" told her that I was bad news. That I am a bad influence, as if it was I who reached out to her! As if I was not spilling my blood out in the wastes so they could sleep soundly at night!" The voice of Annie almost broke into a scream, but she took hold of herself, continuing speaking with bile and anger, "Perfect little Svetka. Always clean, always lucky, always know it all. It is always me who is the bad one. I left her home on this very night, without saying a word to her."

"Annie, listen. It is not her fault if her parents think that you are bad or something. She is still your family. She found you, you said it yourself. Do you think that if you meant nothing to her, she'd still try so hard to find and speak with..." Aranea felt herself getting angry. What would she not give to see her family again? And here is this idiot, this selfish prick who refused to even try to work out her differences with her remaining kin!

"Now you sound just like my mentor. I will say to you the same thing that I told honoured Dragena, I don’t care." Annie rolled her eyes in a show of annoyance, "Listen, we all have different lives, okay. She has this weird life of hers, where her family cares for her and views me as bad. Fine, I left them alone, be happy assholes, I wish you all the best in life. But no, she had to drag her carcass after me, joining the army as a useless medic…"

"Svetlana saves lives working as a medic." Many would have died, had she…"

"Great!" Annie raised her paws in a sign of peace, unwilling to continue the discussion, "If that is your point of view, then great! She is a better person than I, fine, I accept this fact."

"This is not what I am tried to sa…" Aranea tried to find words to explain that both of them were valuable where they are right now, but Annie was already talking again.

"But I can’t accept her as my sister," Annie refused to give Aranea any time to explain, "She is weak. Cowardly, unsure, unwilling to dominate… She is someone who needs protection," Annie almost spit the last words in disgust, "I will protect her, sure. It is my duty as a reclaimer. But she is not my family. She is not of the Tribe anymore."

"Leila is not from the Tribe. You still enjoy sparring with her. I was raised outside of Tribe initially as well, and look where I am now. Who cares who was raised where? If she found you, it won’t kill you if you spend some time talking with your sister…" Aranea tried to persuade Annie, but the wolf hag just smiled.

"Unlike her, Leila and you can fight. Listen, I appreciate the effort, but ...."

They both stopped upon hearing a loud crack from a nearby room. Their helmets slid back onto their heads and both wolf hags darted toward the doorway, trying to move as silently as they could. They crawled toward the side of the doorway, Annie reached for her knife, while Aranea took the shardgun into her paw. They looked at each other and charged inside.

And stopped, even a warning scream was held back in their throats. Before them was a cub, a child of normies, in a dirty looking orange anti-heat suit, half torn in several places. The lenses of wolf hags moved in surprise for a brief moment, before they ducked low, looking around the room in suspicion. The stairway to the second floor collapsed. Rubble and dust covered the once spacious room. At first glance, no one else was here, yet Aranea was on edge. Reports say that some of the enemy troops used locals for surprise attacks, perhaps it was the same here…

You are reading story Duty, empty dreams and trying not to become a monster. at novel35.com

The kid looked up and the soldiers saw that the facemask of her anti-heat suit was open. The metal cage that was supposed to protect her face from heat had round openings for eyes, covered with plastic instead of a proper lens. The kid smiled, showing a mouth with several teeth inside.

"Hi." The kid said and put a finger in her mouth, sweat was running down her face.

"Hello there, little one," Aranea said, lowering herself to her knees and placing her weapon behind her back, "What are you doing here all alone?"

"Are you mental?" Annie snapped at Aranea, "Take the cub away from here! Questions later!"

Annie reached for the facemask of the kid’s suit and closed it. Aranea nodded in agreement, normies among soldiers would be able to calm down the kid far better than they could ever hope to.

The kid stepped back as Annie reached out to grab her as gently as she could. Before the wolf hag could try again, they heard footsteps from the other side of the room. Aranea's paw reached for her shardgun, but she decided against taking it when two newcomers, a man and a woman, came in. Both were dressed in gray anti-heat suits that covered them from head to toes, dust was covering them. Their suits were torn at the shoulders and arms, showing the yellow color of the clothes underneath.

"Please, don’t hurt her," The man raised his hands, "You use "tokens" as currency, right? I have some that I can give you..."

"Your cub?" Annie asked and moved aside when the woman charged forward, grabbing the child into her hand, backing down from soldiers in fear, "What is she even doing in a warzone? You should have moved to a safe place…"

"Mummy!" The kid screamed happily, "I lost you, so I came here!"

"Warzone? Safe places?" The woman madly laughed at Annie’s words, "As if there are any safe places left! We just bought an actual house in the city, found jobs, and then you bastards come in and burn our city! "A Horde of monsters and freaks…" She stepped back, shivering in fear of her last words, hugging the child closer to her chest. The man stepped before her, "Take me if you want to. Just let them go." The woman whimpered.

"I understand that the situation looks dire and that you are hurt and scared. Do not worry, we are not angry at your words. Please follow us, we will lead you to people who can escort you to safety." Aranea raised her paws before herself, speaking in a slow and calming voice to the pair, while Annie was strangely silent, looking at people through the red lenses of her helmet.

"Kitty." The kid suddenly said.

"A what?" Annie asked in surprise.

"Kitty lives here. When I got lost, I ran here to see if kitty was fine." The kid tried to explain, reaching with her hands to her mask, trying to remove it, "But everything is strange now," The child looked around in mild surprise, "No nanny. No angry Joe. I heard kitty. But could not find."

"Heard, huh?" Aranea closed her eyes for a moment, banishing all thoughts from her mind.

From her childhood, her hearing was good. And Janine taught her how to capitalize on this quirk of her, how to push her hearing to even greater heights. For this purpose, Janine actually invited a normie, an old frail person who lived with Dragena’s pack for a time. And yet, strangely enough, the wolfkins of Dragena’s pack treated this man with respect. Aranea was far more brash three years ago and tried to mock her new teacher, demanding to know what this old, decrepit fool could teach her. The old man, who used a stick to help himself walk around, only smiled and challenged her to a contest of hands, his left hand against her right paw. He somehow held her down, by grabbing the fingers on her hand painfully. She couldn't even get her claws out of his embrace, no matter how hard she tried. Of course, Janine later left quite a number of scars on the halfbreed for such a show of weakness and disobedience. During the next lesson, Aranea was far more attentive.

Her strange teacher taught her how to banish all thoughts and worries from her mind. By pushing them out of herself, new and greater heights of her senses could be reached. And now she tapped into this ability once more.

Five sounds of beating flesh. Two could be barely heard, three others were far louder. Hearts. Sound of moving air, as people around her were breathing. A rock fell, as booming sounds of shelling tore the silence of the abandoned building. And something else, near the ruined stairway…

Her eyes opened, as Aranea snapped back into reality. Barely a moment passed in the real world, she spent more time entering a trance. Annie looked at her as the wolf hag walked toward the rubble near the stairways, releasing claws on her left paw. Her left paw struck downwards, piercing through stone. Rather than breaking, stone was sliced by her claws, as she reached all the way down nearly one meter of fallen stone wall. Something alive was near her paw, exactly in the place where she sensed it. Allowing claws to slide back into her fingers, placing themselves just above the bones, she picked up the struggling body and pulled the creature out.

Aranea blinked when she saw the screeching being in her paw. It had a long body covered with thick brown fur. At first she thought that the creature was injured, but then she saw that it truly had five legs. One leg was coming right from the chest of a strange being, each leg was almost as long as the creature’s body, moving around and coiling around Aranea’s wrist as if the legs were missing any bones. The maw of creatures was open in horror, tiny claws were scratching across the wrist of Aranea, three eyes looked at her in fear.

"Kitty!" The kid screamed, jumping off the hands of her mother and reaching for the strange being. Aranea let go of the weird thing slowly, ready to pull it back if it dared to harm the kid, but the mismatched being wrapped itself around the kid’s hands, purring.

"How in the world?" Annie asked, shaking her head, "I failed to even…"

"Just a good hearing, that’s all." Aranea smiled inside her helmet.

The building trembled as the explosion hit the roof. A large piece of stone fell from the ceiling, right above the pair of locals. Before the stone could hit them, Annie jumped, crushing it into pieces with a single kick. A nearby window exploded, glass poured inside the room. Before it could hit the kid, Aranea blocked her with her own body, pieces of glass harmlessly crashed against the steel of her armor.

"Grab her and leg it." Snapped Annie, forcibly lifting locals with one hand each and darting away from falling rubble.

Aranea wrapped her own arms around the scared kid, trying to guard her with her own body, and charged after Annie. She allowed Annie to move through the doorway and crashed into the wall near the door with her own leg, speeding up to the exit. She felt as if the building jumped when several explosions crashed on the roof, utterly collapsing the second floor. The ceiling cracked, and stone, wooden chairs, shelves, and various other things flooded from above. Aranea charged forward, feeling as if her heart was about to jump from her chest. Rubble was not much of a threat to her, but it could potentially kill the kid in her arms. Head-sized pieces of stone hammered on her armor before she leaped out of the building along with Annie. She turned back just in time to see how the building was slowly collapsing on itself. Shaking her head, the wolf hag checked if the kid was alive and well before walking to relative safety. Several shells landed on the crossing. The new breeds were safe, but at least three soldiers of lieutenant Ursico's were lying in pools of blood.

The reporter was unharmed and busy filming the carnage around him. A small iron ball lifted itself from his backpack. Light came from the center of the flying ball, as the camera of the drone began to work. The reporter noticed Aranea and Annie, and sent his drone to film them.

"How do you feel yourself…" The man stopped his question, seeing the kid and animal in Aranea’s paws.

"As a monster." Aranea shrugged her shoulders, not allowing the kid to run away.

"No comment. No comment, got to lead civilians to safety," Annie’s fangs snapped at the man, and she almost kicked Aranea to move her forward past the man. The helmet of Annie was fully closed, removing even the opening for the mouth, "Do not speak with them. They always try to spin situations around and make you look bad."

"Are you still on about it..." The reporter started to ask.

Annie jumped up to him, looking straight into the eyes of the man who raised his hands in a gesture of peace: "Yes, Larry. I am very much pissed off about that." Like a whirlwind, the wolf hag turned and moved after Aranea.

But I want to feel bad. Aranea wanted to respond, but then moved forward, putting the kid near other locals and leaving her with her parents. She shook her head and walked toward Ursico. There was no point in feeling down, what happens now will not be stopped. She must keep a cool head on her shoulder and try to keep the people alive if possible.

She walked past a deceased body on the ground. A man in a crimson anti-heat suit lay next to a broken bicycle. Something, probably a piece of metal from a shell, hit him in the back of the head, removing the entire upper head. Judging by a dent in a nearby civilian car, he clearly tried to get away from the fighting, when he was hit. Just another person caught in this crossfire. Aranea fully understood why Annie wanted to vomit. They did it. Maybe not personally, but this did not remove even a lick of guilt from them. Their fault.

Robet and his team had already returned, quietly conversing with Ursico, who was still encased in the mechanical suit. When Lieutenant Hilingson removed his helmet, Aranea saw that his neck and even the lower part of his jaw both bore marks from injections that had boosted his physical abilities. Sweat was running down his face, blood was visible in the corners of his mouth. The effects of the drugs were receding, and the kickback from pain in his muscles was coming back to him.

"What the in abyss' name was that, Marveni? This area was supposed to be freaking safe!" Annie angrily asked, calling her pack to herself, "If you can’t finish off the enemy, then call us for help!"

"Your task is to clear up stragglers behind enemy lines." The massive suit did not move an inch to look at Aranea or Annie, instead, Ursico was looking toward the north. The weapons on his shoulders were moving, as if he was trailing some target. A ruined hover tank with several large holes in its hull was visible in the distance, streams of smoke were still visible from the machine.

"It seems to me that we are the only ones who do our job right here." Annie growled in challenge.

"My apologies," Hilingson said, putting the helmet shaped like a snake head back on his own head. Edges of armor connected with a hissing sound, "This is partially my fault. My group and I were part of the force tasked with taking down Katriana Vincent, commander of Soultakers forces in the area. She led us by the nose, allowing us to storm half empty farms, while she and her forces struck elsewhere."

"You are not at fault, Robet," Ursico said calmly, "She and her forces have faced us head on since the first minutes of the siege. They were supposed to be exhausted and weak, especially now when Bentos has outright run from this place. They were supposed to stand and fight."

"So what went wrong?" Aranea dared to ask, and Marveni turned the bulk of his suit, looking at her through cameras.

"She made a fool out of us, by amassing the forces of Regulators in a farming area. When we advanced, they quickly retreated, setting fire to the area while she and the core of her troops used hover tanks to raid into areas controlled by us. On the orders of Katriana, the tank barrels of hover tanks were changed in favor of making enemy vehicles into mobile artillery. We were hit lightly, while other forces got pummeled hard. We will have to..."

"Sir, reports have just came in!" "We have two groups of enlistees near a water processing facility," Said the communications officer, a man dressed in a gray city combat uniform and light armor, "Fifty people in each group at least. According to scouts, they are lightly armed."

"More job for me, it seems." Robet said, cracking his fingers. He lifted one hand toward his helmet when Aranea stopped him.

"They are behind the front lines. Allow my people to take them down."

"But…"

"Come on, they are hardly even a threat," snorted Annie, understanding the goal of Aranea. Should the pet killer team of Ivar go on a mission, they will leave only bodies behind them, "Besides, you are all worn out anyway. It’s your turn to rest."

"Doctrine of captain Ivar tells us that full domination is needed to secure proper victory. You can only defeat the enemy by crushing their spirit..." The lieutenant responded, unsure of what to do. His team was weary after the assault but taking down a large group of enemies was his job.

Aranea was ready to challenge the man if needed, but help came from an unexpected source.

"Their spirits will be properly crushed, after they will be taken down like a bunch of helpless kids." Marveni opened his suit, looking at his fellow commander with human eyes. Aranea was somewhat shocked to see how pale the lieutenant was. All color was gone from his face, a large scar ran across his face, and the tip of his nose was missing. And yet there was fire in his eyes, "The city is burning, and people weep from pain, fear, and loss. Gaze upon the locals right now and ask yourself, whether it is fair to take any more from them? Is it right? Are you a man or a machine, my friend? Let the enemy live and spread rumors about the superiority of our military. Let husbands return to their wives. Haven’t you killed enough by now, Robet?"

"I have. Planet is my witness, I have killed my fill and more. Be it as you say." Hilingson only nodded, returning back to his group.

Aranea immediately gave orders to Tiny, before Ivar or anyone else could hear about the situation and interfere. Tiny will take her pack, several members from Leila’s pack, and Sonya’s pack, along with Sly. By all rights, it should have been Sonya who would have been a better candidate to lead the pack. However, if Tiny was to grow as a leader, she needed to be given more and more responsibilities, so Aranea could see her limits. That and Aranea also felt more confident that someone like Tiny could handle the mission without bloodshed better.

"Carty." Annie snapped at her scout, and the scout in azure colored power armor rose gracefully from the ground. Instead of the usual shardgun, a pair of pistols were on the waist of Carty, "Take your pack, boys, and help Tiny. You are to obey her every command, you got it? After you finish with enemies, proceed with orders from the captain, but make sure to do what we agreed upon before... Initiating the operation. Do not take any risks."

"Orders?" Aranea asked as Carty bowed courteously to her leader, leaving with Tiny without saying a word. The wolf hag had received no orders from Blue Wyrm.

"Confidential information. Not for anyone’s ears but our own. Pride of our pack is at stake."

Aranea wanted to ask more, but the com officer charged once more. As the man revealed new information, Annie crushed stone underneath her leg.

"Where is she right now?" Annie asked in an icy tone, anger could be heard behind her words.

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