Chapter 27: Chapter 21

Twelve moved forward, flailing his hands as if they lacked bones, his gait was weird, as if instead of legs he was slithering forward on a pair of snake’s tails. The smile never left his round face, not even when Kate landed a shot from the shardgun into his face. His face’s features got distorted when sharp shards were buried deeply in his face, neck, and chest. His clothes were ripped, but no shard managed to penetrate his skin, even a shard that struck his eye simply pushed the eye deeper inside Twelve's head, rather than blinding the number.

"Not going to work, gals," Twelve was still speaking with a crystal-clear voice, despite the fact that his entire face was caved deep inside his skull, "I think ya lost something. Have at thee!"

The flesh and insides of his face were pushed back, giving him an uncanny resemblance to a balloon. The flesh pushed the shards away from his body, sending them at the speed of an arrow right back at Kate. Aranea moved to block them, but Annie was faster. With her own knives, the wolf hag created a tapestry of slashes in the air, piercing through the shards and sending them away.

Annie stopped in front of Aranea, sparing a moment to look at the tied-up Svetlana. The number in the cloak snapped his fingers, sending a small black orb from underneath his cloak into Annie. Following her instincts, Aranea kicked a piece of rubble into the flying orb. The tiniest thing enveloped the stone before devouring it like a living acid. The black substance fell on the floor, devouring a man-sized hole in the floor. Before Aranea could even scream a shout of warning to Annie, she saw that another wolf hag was standing directly before Twelve.

"Out of my way." Annie simply said to Twelve, putting away her knives, and the blonde man simply laughed in response. He still continued to laugh when Annie kicked with her right leg, hitting him across the temple. The number's head was jerked to the side, and the first dent was in his skin. Despite this, his laughter never ceased, the loud and clear laughter of a person who just heard a wonderful joke.

The number raised his left arm up and took a wild swing at the wolf hag before her. Annie took the hit on her own right hand, intending to block and counterattack the assault. Like a whip with no bones, Twelve’s arm wrapped itself around the right arm of Annie. The blonde man repositioned his head, the dent disappearing from his once-again perfect skin. Assured of his invulnerability, a smile played on his lips while he was tightening the grip on the arm of the wolf hag. Under the unnatural power of the number, Annie’s armor gave in a screeching sound. Twelve’s smile turned to childlike surprise when Annie pulled him closer to herself, slapping him with the palm of her left hand right into his chest. The seemingly simple slap caused the blonde man to smirk even wider, while the flesh on his chest absorbed the palm’s strike, allowing the hand to pierce deeper into his body. His laughter was cut short a moment later, and a frown of uncertainty appeared on his face. A pained expression came onto his face, as he bent his body backwards, trying to get away from Annie’s palm. Seeing this, Eight charged forward, raising his hands for a decapitating strike.

Aranea met him halfway before he could reach Annie. She dodged the thrust of his blade-like hand and ducked low, kicking him in the knee, shattering the knee pad on his left leg. Aside from this, she caused nothing but bruise, his limb felt like a solid pillar of steel. Eight kicked, his claws scratching against the helmet of Aranea as she moved backward, using all four of her limbs. Without stopping his movement even for a moment Eight stepped forward, crushing the stone floor underneath his feet. His arms shifted, becoming thinner, every semblance of the fingers disappearing from view. Now his arms were just two overly long and thin blades, aimed to slice through the shoulders of the wolf hag. Aranea dodged the overhead strike, backing down while two deadly blades bit the floor. She made an attempt to land an uppercut across Eight’s jaw but had to jump back when Eight pushed his bladearms out of the floor, making a thrust aimed at the left lens of her helmet. Seeing that Aranea stepped out of range, Eight allowed the bladearms to shift once again, the metal on his arms flowed back into his elbows, the previous length of his arms. Metal fingers appeared on his arms, above each hand was a glimmering blade that was coming out of his wrists.

Twelve's arms wrapped around Annie’s neck, pressing the collar of her armor deeper into her body. The breathing of Annie became hard for a moment, she stubbornly pressed her palm to Twelve’s chest again, but the blonde man only allowed the mocking smile to return to his lips.

"Ya need concentration to pull this off, lassie. And I ain’t giving ya time to pull a fast one on me again…" When the tip of his right shoulder vanished into the torrent of superheated energy beam, his words turned to a scream of pain. His tracksuit caught fire, revealing the ugly red mass on his right shoulder.

"Can’t shrug off this, can you sucker?" The half-wyrm asked, taking aim at Twelve’s head while Annie grabbed his liquid-like body with both her arms, trying to hold him steady. The eyes of Twelve briefly widened with fear as he flailed his body around, trying to slip from the grip of the wolf hag. With each of his movements, small fountains of blood were pushed from his wounded shoulder.

Eight quickly snapped his teeth, biting his own tongue to the blood, and spat the blood onto Aranea’s lenses. The number kicked Annie in the back of her left leg, making the wolfkin fall on one knee and release Twelve from her grip. Growling from anger, Annie darted to the side, trying to evade the thrust of the enemy’s blade. The blade's thrust moved toward the wolf hag’s head and was stopped mere inches away from the steel helmet when Aranea grabbed Eight by his elbow with her right paw, thrusting the claws of her left paw into his back. She twisted Eight’s arm aside, trying desperately to penetrate through the unnatural skin that covered his body. The blood on her lenses meant less than nothing, the wolf hag was fully able to see through the cameras on the armors of her allies.

"Annoying cur!" Eight spat in anger, feeling the scratching of the claws on his back. Aranea felt as if she was trying to pry open a solid chunk of steel. The tips of her claws, the pride and joy of every wolfkin, were shattered on impact. The pain of her broken claws spread across her arm like a flame and the wolf hag was forced to admit her defeat. All she managed to achieve were the five scratches across the Eight’s back, barely deep enough to draw blood.

As if following some sort of mind command from Eight, nearby Numbers turned their rifles on Aranea, firing at her from close range. She felt tremors across her body, as bullets slammed into her torso, dozen after dozen, feeling like a bunch of stones during a sandstorm. Aranea grabbed Eight by his shoulders, dragging the number into the line of fire, using him as a shield to protect herself while Leila turned her laser weapon, aiming at Eight’s head. Twelve, meanwhile, kicked Annie away from himself, jumping aside and smiling innocently at the furious look of his partner.

The numbers who were firing at Aranea were attacked in the back by the Cat and Kaleb. The soultaker carried no armor on her body, but this did little to save the numbers before her. Her first kick broke the knee of the number before her, she pushed the long barrel of her pistol through the eye of her foe, before dodging the incoming attack from another number before her. It took a second for Aranea to understand that the soultaker was out of ammo. She tried to reload her pistols while dodging to the left, trying to evade the aim of the number before her. She could not worry, Kaleb shot the number, pushing the dead body away with his shoulder and aiming at the other foes.

"You really are getting on my nerves." Eight said and steel spears broke from his back, forcing Aranea to jump backwards. Instead of pressing his attack on the wolf hag, Eight jumped forward, the spears merging with his back while his right leg turned into a blade. Eight made a full turn in the air and sent a downward kick with his bladeleg at Leila’s shoulder.

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The half-wyrm hesitated. Either it was because of surprise, or because of her recent mental struggle with the creature in the number’s head. It took her a second too long to start dodging. The blade was about to cleave through her shoulder when Cat crushed into her, causing both women to roll to the side. The blade of Eight bit the ground, slicing through the stone. Without stopping, Eight turned toward his prey, his bladeleg melted and went limp, carrying him after the half-wyrm and soultaker like a snake’s body. Cat screamed from pain when Eight kicked with his left leg across her shoulder, making her entire left arm twist backward. The crimson bead on her shoulder was pushed deep into Cat’s flesh. Eight followed up his attack with a thrust with his wrist blade. Leila’s tail wrapped around the soultaker’s waist, dragging the woman from the line of attack, giving Annie just enough time to crash into Eight, sending them both into the wall.

"Let go of me!" Cat screamed, looking at the tail wrapped around her waist.

"Not a capture! Just he…’

"I don’t care! This is way too creepy!" Cat snapped back, trying to pry herself free from Leila’s tail with one arm, "Let go of me, you mutant!"

"I have just enough of you!" Eight shouted into Annie’s face, making a direct thrust aimed for her belly. The wolf hag met his attack with a punch, causing Aranea to shout in worry. The tip of the blade was aimed right at Annie’s fingers and…

The wolf hag’s fist slid underneath the wrist blade of her foe, shattering two of his five fingers. Eight’s face became a mask of surprise when Annie stomped on his head, breaking the stone floor with his own body. Eight’s legs turned into blades once more, trying to catch Annie’s torso like a scissors blade. The wolf hag simply stepped back, landing a kick into the groin of her opponent and making Eight howl in anger and pain. He jumped back on his feet and faced Annie head-on. The number, powered up by technology from Iterna, found his match in the wolf hag. Even for Aranea, it became hard to see their movements.

While several numbers tried to sneak up on Annie from behind, Twelve leaped forward, propelling himself from the place and transforming his body into a series of rope-like appendages. Twelve's limbs wrapped around Leila’s shoulder and leg, twisting her to the side and throwing the half-wyrm at the ground. He pressed one of his arms to the head of the half-wyrm, allowing his flesh to flow and cover the helmet like water. And then he tightened his grip, causing the helmet to screech.

Aranea charged at him, wanting to throw him away from her soldier. The images of the chaos around her were still projected onto her retina. She knew that the number in gray cloak had moved before Kate ever shouted the warning. Forcing herself to stop, she narrowly evaded the hit of the gigantic body that buried its fist into the ground before her. Not desiring to waste even a moment, she struck with her leg, bisecting the head beneath the cloak, feeling how her claws passed through both flesh and bone. The servo motors of her power armor amplified her strength, allowing her to smash through the entire head of her foe, while Kate and Kaleb fired at the enemy from behind. The shards pierced the figure, smashing harmlessly against her own armor.

Aranea spared a nod of thanks to her soldiers, trying to circle to the left of the foe, when his arm moved. The being's head was slashed in two, and its chest was pierced with several shards, turning his ribs and lungs into mush, but the force behind the blow threw Aranea back a good step. The cloak fell from her foe, and he straightened himself.

He was a troll. Aranea easily enough deduced his gender, for beneath the cloak the person was fully naked. The male trolls were rumored to have very impressive manhoods, and this was the first that caught the wolf hag’s eye. The second was his physique. Trolls all have grey skin and arms long enough to reach their ankles. Trolls lack ears, and their eyes are usually pale in color. Mostly all of them live in the lands of Oathtakers, however in recent times, more and more of them have started to spread around the world. The director of the largest hospital in the Wastes was Ieshua, the troll who worked side by side with the Wolf Tribe for a long time.

Aranea knew all of this. However, trolls were usually thin. This specimen before her dwarfed her in size, his wrists were thicker than her own. Instead of the usual flat belly, this troll had impressive looking abs. The head of the troll was split in two, one eye popped and was slowly flowing back onto the number’s chest. The other eye blinked, focusing on Aranea. The bones within his head reconnected before the very eyes of the wolf hag. The torn holes in the chest closed when the flesh flowed toward each other. The remains of the popped eye flowed backward, forming a new eye within the eye socket of the being.

Trolls boasted impressive regenerative abilities, true. According to what Janine told Annie, trolls could easily pick up the lost limb, press it to the wound, and it will reattach itself. There were records of when two or even more trolls accidently merged with each other on the battlefield. But even trolls could not recover after losing their brains. This was always a mortal wound for them.

The troll smiled, cracking his shoulders, and Aranea felt a cold shiver run down her spine. Trolls never, ever show emotions. They could crack jokes just as easily as everyone else, they had empathy and could feel worry, fear, love and other emotions. They just never showed them.

The number who was wearing the stolen body of the troll like a flesh suit allowed a smile to rest on his lips while he spread his arms wide, readying for the charge.

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