Chapter 29: Chapter 23

"By the way, you look like shit. What, are you taking blood bathes now or…" Olesya asked innocently.

"Oh, shut up!" Aranea snapped back, firing the rail gun right between the eyes of Five.

The old man’s head jerked back briefly, but with a shock, Aranea saw that Five was utterly unharmed. Not a scratch was on his wrinkled flesh, not a dirty spot was on his body. His clothes were still on fire, but in places where scraps of his suit and shirt underneath were falling away, such places were revealing the pristine tanned skin beneath. The crooked fingers of the old man closed in a fist before Five took a deep breath and stepped forward.

Aranea fired again. The rail gun's projectile, the projectile of the weapon that had never failed her until now, ricocheted away from her foe's skin, becoming dimmed by the moment and dying on the wall. The howling wind followed her shot, and Five slid a step back, but before Aranea could fire again, he made two steps forward. The folded gun on Olesya’s shoulder unfolded itself. A stream of energy was unleashed into the face of Five, joining its fury to the fire of Aranea. Two wolf hags unleashed their strongest weapons into the wrinkled face, causing the old man to raise a hand before himself, his figure became a dark shape in the cone of light. When Aranea and Olesya stopped attacking, Five continued to walk toward them, almost naked but unharmed. He held one arm before his eyes, like a person who would protect his eyes from the shining sunshine.

"Nine…" Five said, nodding at the troll’s body, "Was granted the power to enhance whatever natural ability of the host. Eight…" The old man continued to walk toward the wolf hags, "Was granted the power to become a chimera of metal. And I," The old man almost reached the duo, "Was blessed with the power of being indestructible. Be it physical, heat, cold… Even spatial! No damage can damage the body in which I reside…"

What? Aranea took a step backward, ignoring the boasting of her foe. No one was truly unkillable. In the three hundred years that the state existed, they were faced with countless new breeds, many of whom possessed various powers. But all of them, without exception, fell in the end. They either became soldiers of the state, or now led a civilian life, or were killed or died of old age in prison. Every power had a weakness, every...Wait, the hand!

"But can you survive without air? Olesya…"

"On it." The fellow wolf hag gave a simple nod, charging at Five alongside Aranea, without waiting for further explanation. Both of them had the same idea coming to them.

The old man struck with his left arm, aiming for Olesya’s visor. The wolf hag dodged the hit, grabbing the outstretched head of the foe by the wrist and elbow, landing a brutal kick at his knee with her leg and jerking his arm aside. Aranea charged right behind her friend, pushing the acid grenade between the jaws of the surprised old man, pushing his mouth closed with an uppercut, before jumping back. With one arm, the number still hid the syringe behind his back, his other hand was immobilized by Olesya, and his eyes briefly widened when the grenade exploded within his closed mouth.

Acid poured from his nose and mouth, the number bent over, coughing non-stop, spilling the acid on his white beard. Aranea could sense the smell of acid, she heard how the fluoroantimonic acid was trying to decompose the skin of the foe. This type of acid was unfit to be used near water, and Aranea summarized that the mouth of the foe counted as a watery area, slightly negating the property of this weapon. However, there was something else about this weapon. Upon the explosion of the grenade, the acid becomes overheated and partially turs into toxic vapors. This was expected behavior of such a grenade, the vapors were just an additional means of dealing with the crew of the enemy’s tanks and with new breeds that possessed regenerative abilities to overcome the acid itself.

Iterna provided various services for its people. Some of them could live and even survive without breathing in outer space. But very few Iternian looked old. The rejuvenation procedures were provided to the citizenry by Iterna itself, as part of their universal healthcare plan. If the news is to be believed, the state actively discouraged its citizens from dying of old age. If Five was coming from Iterna, chances were that he had similar augmentation or biological upgrades like Eight.

But Aranea bet on the fact that since Five’s body looked old, the body snatcher got this body from some poor soul in the outer world. Seeing how the man coughed without end and how the toxic fumes were coming from his nose, Aranea was glad to see that she was right. But against all her hopes, Five refused to fall. The vapors were disappearing before the very eyes of the wolf hag, and in a few more moments, the number will be able to breathe once more. Aranea prepared to jump at him and close his nose and mouth with her own paws.

Olesya acted faster than her. Flames came from her right paw, and she speared her paw into the man’s face. The flames harmlessly licked his face, burning away the air before Five could inhale. Aranea circled behind him, attempting to hold him in place if he chose to retreat.

Five did something else altogether. His left arm grabbed Olesya by her wrist. The body of the old man became swollen with muscles. When battle started, Aranea could look down on Five, he was shorter than her by the head at least. Right now, however, his back expanded, growing bigger, his legs and arms became thicker. One hand still protected the syringe, while the other hand grabbed Olesya by the wrist, jerking her off the ground and sending her cartwheeling into the floor. The force of the landing caused Aranea to jump lightly, but Olesya gave no scream of pain, trying to claw at the man’s leg.

"Fools. I hunted for someone like this…" Five said, kicking Olesya into the ceiling. The wolf hag smashed the stone above her, stopping her fall when some strange device slid from the back of her power armor. Five jumped, grabbing the wolf hag by her leg, before crashing her against the floor once more, "… For quite some time. You see, despite the old appearance, the original owner of this body had a power. He could expand his muscles rapidly during the times when he felt fear," Five lifted his leg, preparing to crush Olesya before him, "And I can manipulate the emotional state of this body with ease. Right now, I believe that the former owner of this body feels utter horror right now."

"No!" Aranea shouted, darting underneath his leg and pushing Olesya away. The leg came crushing down the second later, burying into the stone all the way to the knee. The old man’s beard now barely reached his waist, his skin turned to a crimson color, muscles, like steel ropes, ran across his arms and legs. The old man’s eyes became two beads of dark, looking all too small for his massive face. Five ripped his leg from the stone with a thundering sound.

Eight and Annie were locked in their own conflict. Eight’s legs were fully transformed now, carrying the body of the number around Annie at great speed. Each time the wolf hag used her own arms to block the incoming attacks, Eight kicked with one of his four legs, leaving a scratch against the armor of the wolf hag. Annie growled when a missed kick struck her under the left armpit, cracking the power armor and drawing blood from the skin beneath.

"Now we are getting somewhere." Eight smiled, speeding up his assault.

Annie retreated for the first time since their fight, reaching with both paws to the handles of her knives. The magnetic locks spat out the knives, allowing the wolf hag to grab them and land two slashes across the blade arms of Eight, making the number frown from pain. The weapons in Annie's hands were called armor pierces. Weapons meant to slice through the enemy’s close-range weapons with ease. Both knives left cracks in the blade arms of the number and from these cracks the blood showed up, dropping on the floor. Eight backed down, using his four legs to evade the incoming slashes of his foe. The wolf hag used careful slashes instead of thrusts, each time Eight attempted to counterattack, Annie jerked her weapons back, unwilling to receive any more damage to her armor. With Svetlana in safety, Annie became utterly calm, sparing just a single moment to send a command to scout Kayleen to assume command of the pack.

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Olesya still tried to stand up when Aranea grabbed her. The fellow wolf hag was surprisingly heavy, even powered by her armor, Aranea’s muscles strained while she threw Olesya away from the incoming fist of Five. Aranea raised her arms in the air, ready to block the incoming punch.

Five never followed up his attack. Seeing that one wolf hag escaped his reach, his fist opened and he pushed his fingers past Aranea’s arm, grabbing her by the chest and throat, lifting the wolf hag high in the air above himself.

"Enough of this foolishness!" Five shouted, his voice deafening the sounds of the battle. The surviving numbers, eleven of them, some covered with grievous wounds, all stepped back to the podium. The eyes of Five flashed a flame of rage when he saw that Markus, Kaleb, and Kate used the chaos of battle to free the rest of the hostages, escorting them to the safety of the packs amidst the chaos of battle. Eight stopped his own fight, his blade arms trembled in anticipation, while calm eyes burrowed into Annie, "Anyone moves and she…" Five pressed his fingers, causing the metal of the armor to bend slightly, "…will be naught but a blood smear against my palm. Triple digits, help Nine!" Five commanded, and several men in black armor dropped on their knees, tearing away the scorched flesh on the troll’s body, revealing the gleaming meat beneath. They pressed the two sides of the sliced body together, and the troll took a breath, while his own flesh reknotted together, before the very eyes of the wolfkins.

Twelve limped closer to Five, holding a strange projector-like device in his arms, pointing it at the soldiers at the entrance. He was breathing hard, the blood still ran down his wounded shoulder and from the terrible wound in his side, but whatever Iternian technology was inside his body, the number managed to hold a tight grip on his consciousness.

"What do you want?" Annie demanded to know, keeping her eyes on Eight before her.

"You just saw the demonstration. None of you can kill me or even harm me," Five tightened the grip on Aranea’s body, pushing the air from her lungs, "Give me back the material," he nodded at Svetlana, before the device in Twelve’s arms gave a beeping noise. Five smiled, "Or give me this one," He nodded at Leila, "And you all may fuck off out of my sight in peace. Choose to resist and I will butcher you first, then the scum that you tried to safe."

"If this what it takes…" Svetlana tried to make a step forward, but Olesya simply grabbed her by the nape of her neck, throwing the medic behind the lines of the wolfkins, right into Kaleb’s arms.

"The answer is no. Kate, Kaleb, lead the wounded out of here, this instan…" Aranea screamed in pain when Five pressed his grip around her body even more. On the screen of her helmet, she could see that both Kate and Kaleb dragged the struggling Cat after them, forcing the hostages and a few wounded soldiers to leave with them. The wolf hag was pleased to see that neither of them dared to voice their disapproval. Leila could have hesitated. Even some soldiers in her pack could have hesitated. But Aranea knew Kaleb and Kate for years, and of them she was always certain.

Don’t die, please. Kate sent a quick text message on the terminal within Aranea’s armor.

"So this is your choice." Five said, seeing the retreat. The troll behind him stood on both feet, loudly inhaling the air while Twelve pointed the device at Aranea, "Seems like we will get a few more bodies for our kin…" The device in Twelve’s gave another sound and Five smiled, "Seems like Six is about to join the fun…" The number began raising the arm with the syringe.

"Found you." Aranea overheard the words of countless people. Once on her mission, she visited the Church of the Planet, witnessing a morning prayer. Hundreds of people were speaking the same words, asking their deity to show mercy and kindness to all people in the world. Not all of them were speaking in unison, but the passion in their words filled the massive cathedral.

Whoever spoke these words made them sound utterly alien. Two words were spoken by countless mouths, but they were spoken in perfect unison. Only by the difference in voice could Aranea even tell that several people said these words, such was the perfect coordination of the new speakers.

Twelve screamed in pain when something pushed from beneath the cracks in the floor. A pulsating mass, no, Aranea understood with shock, not a mass, but flesh. Human flesh was pulsating around the legs of Twelve, covering him all the way to his knees. The number screamed in a maddened panic, stretching himself all the way to the ceiling, trying to grab the floor of the room above with his arms.

The mass spouted appendages, hitting and wrapping around his limbs like ropes, dragging the panicked man within itself. One appendage hit across the arm of Five, beating away the syringe. The number stepped back, still holding Aranea, while the living rope lifted itself in the air, dangling the syringe before him. Meanwhile, Twelve kept screaming, while his body was pushed deeper and deeper into the mass of flesh beneath him. The tiniest tendrils came from the flesh, burying deep within the cheeks of the man, merging with his own flesh.

He is being eaten alive! Aranea understood with a minor shock. She knew only one person who could have used such power.

The floor cracked while the machines of the numbers were dragged beneath the floor of the basement. Judging by the crumbling sound, someone collapsed them like tin cans beneath the floor. A new figure was slowly raising itself from the crack. Its skin was pale, countless eyes sprouted on the utterly bald round head, giving the figure the ability to see in all directions across the room. The limbs and chest of the figure reminded Aranea of the people who succumbed to starvation, bones could be seen beneath the skin, the projectors were lighting up the veins that were forming underneath the pink skin. A single line ran across the round face, revealing a mouth full of white teeth.

"Welcome to the end of your days, parasites," Lord Steward, the ruler of Oathtakers, said in perfectly calm tones, his eyes glancing around the room, blinking in perfect unison. He ignored the dying gasps of Twelve, while the number was absorbed into the foundation of his leg. Instead, the newcomer chuckled at the sight of the reclaimers and resistance, "Saving reclaimers again. It seems to have become a new habit for us. Well now," He looked at the troll, "Long time no see, Brogard. Time to come home, your family and us, we all missed you so much."

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