Chapter 3: Chapter 2

Aranea only nodded as she charged forward, feeling how the stones began to crack under her feet. Once again, they were late. A caravan of the free traders was already under attack. One small, rusty looking metal truck and buggy, eight people in total, ran into twelve green creatures on the wide-open plains of sand. Only a small hill was nearby. These were the same as the ones that were involved in the attack on the convoy of the Reclamation Army a month ago. These creatures have started to appear in recent days, always attacking neutral traders. Doctors of the state made an autopsy of these creatures and found that they almost utterly lacked brains. There was certain confusion right now about how exactly these creatures moved around or how they communicated with each other, but one thing was undeniable. They were capable of planning. The wolfkins named these enemies "greenies."

Unknown factors could wait. The wolf hag saw how one of the greenies raised its clawed hand to kill one of the injured traders. Aranea charged from the location, closing the gap between herself and the enemy in a matter of seconds. The claws were unleashed from her paws, as she sliced the foe before her. Her arms tore into enemy flesh, following wounds left by her claws. Her paws tore through muscles and broke bones as they enlarged the wounds left by her claws. Her claws sliced through more flesh and bone as they went deeper, and in just a moment, greenie was cut into four pieces. The new physical abilities and speed granted to Aranea after the events of that night were intoxicating. Before, Aranea had to struggle to keep up with these creatures, but now they were too slow for her. Her body was filled with adrenaline. Something inside her demanded that she release the hold on her power, to accept more and to become something more.

She ignored the call as usual, moving forward. The buggy was destroyed, all four people in the vehicle were killed. They tried to fight back, she could see that some of the greenies bore wounds on their bodies, but the attack was too sudden. Some people from the truck were still alive. One was near her, he escaped from the truck through the front window. His companion was less lucky, his torso lay in front of the truck. Aranea could hear screams from people in the back of the truck as greenies tried to break through the metal door. Enemies have already noticed her.

"Surrender or perish." Aranea simply said to them. Just as she expected, they ignored her. Some of them still tried to break the door and get to the people inside, while others charged at her. Yet she had to do it.

Ever since she snapped and mauled Kate she tried to hold herself to higher standards. She will never allow herself to fail once again. Neither in the presence of friends, nor in the presence of enemies.

She charged past her attackers, grabbing two of them by the throats. Her claws ripped through the flesh and muscle. Aranea found no bones inside, so she simply sliced off the heads of enemies, before moving forward and carrying the carnage further. It was a bit strange. Some greenies had bones within them, others had thick muscles that filled the role of bones.

Aranea caught herself at the thought that she finally understood what so attractive for the Ice Fang order and some members of the Wolf Tribe found in melee weapons. It was just easier to tear apart foes with her bare paws now. To her eyes, greenies moved like in slow motion, against her claws their bodies were like sheets of paper, their flesh existed only to be torn by her. She killed and tore the foes apart, leaving a bloody trail behind herself as she reached the back of the truck. With a single swing she sliced away hand of greenie that tried to open door and then she pushed right paw through its chest.

So simple. The thought scared her. Humans should not think such thoughts when they kill anyone. She shook her head and looked at the last greenie. The creature turned and run.

Is it capable to feel fear? Aranea wondered as she walked after the creature. Even by simply walking she was shortening the distance between them. Greenie was running toward the hill. No. There are always at least two reasons to run. Either you are trying to escape or you’re leading me into a trap. She sensed a new smell and her ears heard soft “click” sound and sound of movements. Clever beastie. But! Smile touched her lips as a red laser beam shot from wastes, hitting someone on the hill. Greenie stopped, as if confused, before turning and spitting at the wolf hag. She sidestepped acid spit and charged at foe, slicing off its head. “I have very reliable ally.” Aranea said with a smile.

"Target eliminated, wolf hag," Kate reported via terminal built into the power armor. An apology could be heard in her voice, "I failed to take the target alive. He had you in his aim and was ready to…"

"No apologies necessary, Kate. Wonderful job as usual." Aranea tried to cheer her up as she was returning to the truck.

After Aranea became the wolf hag, she kept Kate in her position, appointed Sonya to the position of scout, and forced Yuki to accept the scout role as well. For at least a few more weeks, Sonya will remain in the hospital. The former wolf hag was angry and bitter about the fact that she was still alive, but at least she provided Aranea with all possible advice. Aranea instead forced Sonya to read books about anger management and gave her orders to lead her new, smaller, pack without the use of any physical violence. The wolf hag was unsure if the books would change Sonya in any way, but the new scout was loyal enough to follow orders to the letter.

Yuki had to be repeatedly pushed in the right direction. Never before had Aranea met any wolfkin of the Wolf Tribe who actively refused promotion based on the simple fact that it would require more work. Yuki was strong enough to become a scout, but by the Spirits, she was just so lazy! She always found a way to complete her tasks with the minimum amount of effort required. When Aranea sent her after greenies, Yuki simply deduced the next possible location of attack, and she, along with her pack, placed their camp right next to the possible target, instead of looking for enemies. And then Yuki and her group spend all day playing cards, until greenies arrive. When Aranea assigned the transfer of equipment to her, Yuki tricked the engineer team into doing this, while she herself wasted the entire day relaxing in a bar. Aranea had no idea just how exactly Yuki was motivating her pack, yet they were consistently seen training all day long even when Yuki was not around. Tasks were done, Yuki used no physical violence, and nobody even saw her screaming at her pack, thus Aranea had no real reason to complain. She just wondered how the scout managed to get things done. Yuki came to Aranea one day and asked to be demoted because her new job is taking up too much of her free time. Aranea refused, of course, but this fact bothered her. Yuki had all the potential to become a wolf hag one day, so why did she insist on not trying?

This left only Kate. Now here Aranea had actual troubles. She tried to find a way to make amends for her behavior, but Kate simply took any task that kept her away from Aranea. The scout still refused to tell her how much these damned beads cost and refused to accept any compensation. Kate’s birthday happened a week ago, the scout usually invited the pack to celebrate at one of bars in the previous years. Normally a pack is expected to pay for such things, but Kate was always a weirdo and refused to accept help or tokens from anyone, even at her birthday party, she always paid for everyone herself. This time, however, Kate was missing, even though Aranea gave her leave for a day and asked for the help of Olesya in preparing a party for the scout. Lastly, Kate insisted on calling Aranea by her title. This bothered Aranea far more than it had any right to be, especially considering that this was her fault. Aranea was so used to Kate’s bickering that the current situation kept her on edge. She needed to find a way to make peace and amends. If Aranea can’t even heal this wound, how is she going to change the Tribe? Therefore, she only took Kate on today’s mission.

Step one, find place where you both feel comfortable. Step two, ask for forgiveness. Aranea quickly remembered the summary of advice as she came to the iron doors. Man, whom she saved before, could be seen sitting near truck in deep shock. Aranea knocked on the door. “Everything clear. You can come out, no one will hurt you anymore.” The wolf hag tried to sound as soothing as she could.

“Are they gone?” A voice from inside asked, “What about…” there was murmur inside.

“Yes, enemies are disposed of.” Aranea waited patiently. She could have easily ripped doors open, but poor people were probably scared enough as it is. In a few minutes the doors opened and three people came from inside.

“Regulators told us that this area was safe,” A young-looking woman pulled cowl of anti-heat suit and looked around in shock, “Reclamation Army confirmed it… and look at this.” She pressed hand to a mouth in shock as she saw bodies in the buggy.

“My deepest condolences for your loss,” Aranea bowed. In truth, she barely felt any emotions toward dead, but she was worried about living. Olesya was doing her best trying to help her fellow wolf hag be more human, but something was wrong in Aranea’s herself. Something that needed to be fixed. “I and my partner,” She pointed at the hill, where figure of Kate checking a dead body was visible, “Already summoned help. Vehicles will be here in half an hour.”

“You will stay with us until help arrives, right?” asked one of the men.

“But of course. Please ask for any help that you need from us.” Aranea nodded.

She was waiting by the truck when Kate arrived. Over her armor, the scout was dressed in a camouflage cloak of sand color. Behind her back were a shardgun and a folded laser rifle. Normally, the third army only receives scraps compared to other armies. The third army was stationed in half-ruined regions, and its ranks were swollen with barbaric tribes such as the Wolf Tribe, so the Dynast saw little need to equip them with the best equipment. When Ravager was in charge, such a situation was fine with her. The former commander used her overwhelming power to change the flow of battle in her favor. She cared little for planning, gear, or equipment. The situation changed drastically once Wyrm Lord took command. commander of the 3rd army petitioned the Dynast for the newest equipment for his troops and forced the Wolf Tribe to learn how to use new weapons. Ironjaw was fine with this change and forced her scouts to train with new gear. Sly, meanwhile, promised something really special for Aranea, so she gave him permission to choose a weapon for her. 

“Wolf hag, I checked the dead body. This is one of silver masked. At first glance just a normie, but intel will find out the rest.” Kate saluted, helmet of her armor moved down from her head.

“Excellent work, Kate,” Aranea smiled to her encouragingly, “While we are waiting, I give you permission to act and speak freely.” She noticed that hand of the scout moved toward inner pocket of her armor, then stopped. Aranea knew that the scout obtained a new set of beads, these were simple looking things, but each time when Kate noticed Aranea nearby she hid them in fear.

“Kate, I swear by all Spirits, that you can use your beads, and I won’t take them away, nor will I break them again,” Aranea tried to speak in calm and assured voice, as therapist taught her, “I am very sorry about what happened, I should have never harmed you or your things on that day. If you want to, you can beat the shit out of me right now, I will not resist.” The last part was something the therapist didn't advise her to do., yet Aranea felt like it would be fitting.

“Wolf hag, please… This is not about physical pain. I am sturdy enough to endure any punishment you deem necessary to impose on me. You were fully within your rights to punish me for my actions, it is I who should be apologizing.” The scout calmly replied, sitting down on the ground and taking out her beads, moving them hastily in her arm.

Small, but progress. Aranea decided, before continuing: "Listen, the entire pack worries about you. Kostya haven’t heard an insult from you in weeks, Yuki said that you no longer go drinking with her, Sly said that you no longer order him to teach you anything about mechanical jobs and Kaleb…" She noticed how a shiver run through Kate’s body "…Told me that you avoid him all together. You no longer take him to trainings, you no longer talk with him…"

“Serves him right,” Finally, a hint of emotions appeared in Kate’s words, hint of her usual anger was showing in her words, “He had no right to reveal this secret. It just shows that you can’t trust anyone. Everyone will betray you eventually,” She shook her head, “My apologies, wolf hag, this was unworthy of me. I am sorry for causing any worries to the pack.”

“What is happening with you?” Aranea asked with a genuine concern, sitting on the ground near the scout. “Was it because you killed humans on that night?” Kate only let out a laugh at this suggestion, they both knew it was not her first kill. Kate was slightly older than Aranea and saw combat way before the wolf hag. “Was it because I crushed your beads? I already told you that I will get you replacements that will look just like the ones you lost, if only you describe lost ones to me. We can even put Sly to this task, Spirits know we need something to keep him away from tinkering with energy weapons. Please, just tell me Kate, what is going on? What can I do to help you?” She knew that she was getting pushy in her questions, therapist recommended that she didn’t do this, but this situation was genuinely freaking her out. Kate was always that indominable pillar in pack, no matter what problems happened, she simply shrugged them off and continued being herself. Seeing her sulk like this was scary for Aranea.

“I am no cub and have no need for coddling, wolf hag,” The scout replied stubbornly, “I just grew up as a person, as you commanded. I swear that I will not be a burden for the pack, so please let me be.”

Aranea felt the urge to grab Kate by the shoulder and demand explanations. She hated this whole situation. She hated the feeling of guilt, she hated the fact that unity of her former pack was broken, she hated this sense of helplessness. Aranea was strong now, she was no longer the weakling she was once. And yet her new powers caused scars on her pack.

If I can't even make peace with Kate, then how am I supposed to fix the Tribe? Aranea asked herself, feeling fear running on her skin below her fur once again. She always thought that it will be easy, that she will somehow rise to rank of a warlord and then simply banish all stupid traditions, that other warlords will follow her lead… And look at her right now, barely done anything and this already caused harm to her friend. So much for my way. I need to be better. I must be better.

Pair waited in silence until patrol vehicles appeared on the horizon. Two heavy armored all terrain cars approached. One car left to pick up the dead body and tug the truck of civilians back to base, while the second car picked up the people and wolfkins. Kate found place for herself in the cornet of the car, turning her back to everything inside, while Aranea sit in one of chairs and spend her time scrolling through reports. More and more forces of Reclamation Army arrived from Core Lands and Wastes, ranks of the third army were swelling with recruits. Wyrm Lord was busy directing new forces to newly joined settlements, as civil workers were busy turning them into proper defensive positions. Work was underway, many locals were forcibly relocated to new homes, as old buildings were torn, but surprisingly few locals complained about this fact. The state was flooding area with resources, was busy creating new jobs and training locals. For the first time in many years, food, medicine and water were in abundance in this part of Ravaged Lands.

It took several hours for the car to arrive back to the base. Still located in the formerly ruined city, this place suffered massive changes. Former half stone, half wooded wall was torn, now a solid wall of reinforced concrete surrounded the place, watch towers were built in most important places, bunkers and trenches surrounded the space outside of the wall. The ruined buildings were ether smashed or remodeled, now twenty gray colored square shaped four-story tall buildings were built in the city and construction of many more were still underway. Reclamation Army allowed some of reporters from World Without Borders, one of news agencies of Iterna to arrive in order to take pictures and question locals. The locals had voted for a new mayor, that weird looking guy who initially greeted Janine, and send him with an official complain to warlord Janine. The mayor stated that their city now starts to look like some grey lifeless cog and people are unhappy with this. Janine silently glared at the mayor, promising nothing about his complaints. Yet on the next day few teams of wolfkins were send to paint buildings in different colors. That is where the horrible happened. Olesya and her pack were put in charge of this task. Olesya initially was supposed to guard the city, but with arrival of the army she and her pack were constantly on leave, thus Ironjaw saw using them as good idea to keep them busy. Nobody bothered to explain to the wolf hag what exactly her task was. This was a mistake. Instead of coloring each building into one color, Olesya and her pack turned each building into toxic looking tapestry of multiple colors. And nobody thought to report Janine about this, while the warlord herself was busy solving never ending problems. People reported that the warlord had a nervous tick when she received report from Olesya about completion of the task. Surprisingly, locals loved this new look of their city and reporters from World Without Borders named this design choice “unorthodox, but brave”. As a punishment Ironjaw send Olesya and her pack help workers in an orphanage, while the warlord herself tried to do her best to hide herself from this design choice. Each time when someone saw Janine on the streets she was always looking down, refusing to even look at the buildings.

Water supply was restored in the city, worker teams were currently busy renovating the roads. New settlers arrived, breathing new life in the place. Traders from Core Lands arrived, bringing new goods. New workshops were built, and three new bakeries were established in city. The locals managed to reopen two ruined farms, after shipment of cusacks, animals who were capable to survive in harsh climate of Ravaged Lands, arrived. All in all, in just a month life came back to the city.

The car arrived through main gate and Aranea along with Kate jumped from it on the road, while soldiers took civilians to a hospital. Traders will stay there until agents from the investigation bureau will finish with their questions. Lost goods will be compensated, families of the deceased will be informed. In the past few days Janine spend all her time writing letters to the families of the deceased, both civilians and military members, all who died under her command in the past months. With a regular army here, the warlord finally had enough free time to do this.

Kaleb was waiting for them near the front gates, standing at attention. Aranea nodded to him, allowing him to speak freely.

“Welcome back!” The smaller wolfkin smiled happily, “We returned half an hour before you, Yuki most likely already finished her report to the warlord. I trust that your mission was a success as well?”

“I had one job and I failed to do it,” Kate responded bluntly, “Because of my incompetence, enemy sniper is dead.”

“Kate, I was wondering if you would like to go to…” Kaleb tried to ask her, but the scout pushed past him, taking off her cloak.

“Kate, hold on for a minute,” Aranea said, and the scout froze in place, “Scout Kate saved my life today and helped in protecting the traders.”

“Wolf hag, with all due respect, this is a lie,” Kate responded in a monotonous tone, turning to her. “I was tasked with the suppressing and capturing potential human foes…”

“If situation allows it,” Aranea corrected her in a steel voice, “I gave you these orders, so I remember them. You acted with necessary professionalism and had manage to eliminate the target before I was in danger. I say success of our past days calls for a celebration. Find Yuki, Kostya and Sly, we are going to have a little feast in this new bakery,” Aranea nodded at building on opposite street/ “Your presence is of course mandatory, and this is an order. On with it, we meet at four today.”

“Wolf hag, I am a bit short on tokens lately…” Once again, a hint of actual emotion was heard in the voice of the scout. This time it was frustration and embarrassment, “I really have to balance my budget before next pay in this month. I can’t afford…”

“I will pay for us all, no problem,” Shrugged Aranea. She smiled in the back of leaving Kate. I ain’t letting you off the hook. I will find a way to bring you back into shape. The wolf hag decided in her mind.

“She still…” Kaleb asked when Kate left in a hurry.

“She is my dear comrade and capable soldier,” Aranea shrugged her shoulders, “As for everything else… We will have to work on it.” She called Kaleb away from people, into a nearby alley. She pressed her back to the stone wall, looking up, “What is going on with her? Kaleb, I know that you have not told me everything. I need to know, what are the mystery behind her beads? Why does she carry them anywhere? Where did she get original ones?”

“They are…” Kaleb stopped himself and slap himself across the snout, “No. I already told you too much and as a result Kate feels herself even worse. I know this is not your fault and all…” He moved his paws up, stopping Aranea from speaking. “But I refuse to add to her misery anymore. Please don’t look into it.”

“Nope,” Aranea jokingly hit him across the shoulder, “I will look into it, I will find the truth and will find a way to make both her and you to feel better. You’ve been shouldering this by yourself for far too long and I ruined everything for you and her. Put your mind at ease, this time I will not fuck up the situation,” She closed on Kaleb, her snout almost touching his face as she looked into his eyes, “Now tell me one thing however, where did Kate’s tokens go? I know how much she earns, and I know that she also takes additional jobs. If someone dares to bully member of my pack out of their tokens…” Once members from another pack beat the living hell of Aranea and took her monthly payment of tokens. Aranea refused to admit to Sonya what happened, but the wolf hag had really… strong methods of interrogation. Upon squeezing information from Aranea, Sonya went to another pack and broke the legs of both the warrior involved in this and tore the eye of the wolf hag in charge of that pack. After that she reported the situation to the warlord, who punished Sonya for maiming a fellow officer and punished other two soldiers for unworthy behavior.

“It’s nothing like that!” Kaleb looked up, before continuing in shy voice, “I suppose there is no harm to tell. Kate used to take jobs to pay for procedures.”

“Procedures? Is she ill?”

“No!” Kaleb almost screamed, before looking around in fear that someone might overhear them, “You know how the state pays for our recovery, right? Painkillers, antibiotics, augmentation in place of lost limbs… But state does not pay for cosmetic operations,” He pointed at the scar over Aranea’s eye, “You have to pay for this yourself. Kate used to take jobs to pay for operations that removed scars from her body. I get the feeling that she wants to utterly forget her time as a cub and scars reminded her about this time.”

“Used to…” Aranea repeated these words, as if tasting them. Kaleb startled and looked down, understanding that he let out too much, “But not anymore, am I right?”

“She… she donated her last savings to the cubs in the orphanage and took no jobs this month. She is either busy training or sulking away in her den nowadays after….” He stopped.

“After I gored her,” Aranea allowed claws to slid from her paws as she pressed her hands toward a stone wall above Kaleb’s head. She felt the stone crumble underneath her sharp weapons. She wanted to break something but forced herself to be calm and retract her claws. Kaleb was just as much of a victim as Kate was. Childhood of both wolfkins was horrible, she had no right to blame any of them right now, “Kaleb, I understand why you never told me this. I know that you think about me as unstable now…” Kaleb wanted to say something, but the wolf hag silenced him with a glance, “…And I can’t blame you for this. Hopefully, in time, I will regain your trust. But you must understand that I need to know this kind of information now. I truly, truly do not want to hurt Kate, but I need to know more to help her.”

“I am sorry,” The soldier answered honestly, “For what is worth, I am trusting you. But I can’t, just can’t reveal her secret to you. She also trusted me.”

“It’s fine,” Aranea lightly slapped him across the shoulder to show that she was not angry, “Go and have a rest, we need everyone in top shape today.”

Aranea left Kaleb and caught a ride to the command center. She could easily get there faster by simply running, but the warlord forbidden such shows of power and speed in order not to scare the locals. Thus, wolfkins could only go all out in a training area, during a deep night, in remote areas of city or during missions. On the streets and during the day they were forced to move at the same speed as normies. This caused most wolfkins either sulk in their dens or spend time training, while the Wolf Tribe tolerated other humans in this day and age, young generation hated being restricted in any way.

The command center was no longer a single building, it was now sprawling complex of buildings where countless officers were working. Intel division, investigation bureau, officers of the state, state officials, all were here. Janine expected to be sidelined as before, instead as per orders of Wyrm Lord, all operations and changes in the city could only happen with approval of Ironjaw. Clearly, the commander wanted to make amends with the Wolf Tribe, but something was telling Aranea that this was not working out. The warlord was a fighter, one who led her pack into battle, she was used to living in the most desolate places. Locked in the city, surrounded with so many things that were alien to her, having her fellow warlords so far away from her… Janine was annoyed with this situation. She would never allow this to show up however, and always tried to excel in her new duties, using her enormous vitality to meet with every petitioner. Ironjaw was hardly even sleeping these days. She was reading, studying new things, trying to get to the bottom of every problem. The locals liked her, but Janine once told Aranea that all she wants to do is to escape from this place. She was the relic of old age and change was a scary thing for her. Yet requests from Ironjaw to be relocated were ignored by Wyrm Lord.

Aranea reported to the tired looking warlord and was genuinely shocked at how strange the cabinet of her leader looked. An enormous axe was missing from the room, left somewhere in the arsenal. The weapon that was always by the warlord’s side was now tossed aside in order not to scare the locals. The warlord's armor was gone, and Janine was wearing civilian clothes for the first time in over a century. The last time she wore full civilian garb was during the memorial service to honor those who died during the defense of Houstad city. shocking change was the fact that Janine was clean. Her fur was washed out and gleaming with black. No sign of parasites was on her. Three secretaries, two female and one male, all normies, were moving across the cabinet and nearby room, carrying documents for Janine to read or sign. The warlord was forced to learn how to use and type on the massive terminal. Engineers added a system on her personal terminal that accepted voice commands in order to take some of the burden off Janine, as it was hard for her to work with just one arm. Instead of the simplified terminals that were installed into the power armors of the wolfkins, Janine now had to work with more complex machine. A small room was next to the cabinet of the warlord, a tight space that barely allowed the warlord to enter and fit, yet it was the sleeping place and den of Janine for the past month. Rows of letters and a com device were on Janine’s table, the warlord used each free moment writing apologies or calling and apologies in person to families of the dead, both wolfkin and normies. A window behind her was tightly shut, Ironjaw refused to look at the poisonous-colored buildings.

"Dismissed. You are on leave until rest of the day," Janine waved her hand, trying to hold a newspaper with flamecaster and drink another cup of coffee with her good paw. Newspapers were delivered from Core Lands and Iterna. Currently, Janine was trying to read the latest news from the lands of their rivals. She could use the terminal for this, but the old-fashioned way seemingly calmed her nerves. Seeing the newspaper fall out of Janine's trembling mechanical hand again, one of her secretaries came to Ironjaw and took the newspaper in her hands, holding it so the embarrassed warlord could read it with ease. Janine had a hard time accepting help from anyone, much less from normies, yet the warlord forced herself to thank her subordinate in a mumbling voice.

"Warlord, we are planning to have a small party. You want to come…" Aranea asked, and Janine looked at her with mad eyes.

"Does it look to you that I have any free time on my paws? I have a meeting about the distribution of supplies to the villages of normies in ten minutes, a topic of which I know dangerously little. Then I must be present at the trial to decide what to do with conmen who drugged some children and used them to pose as families with fake disabilities to beg for tokens. I gave the order to hang the conmen and take the children to the orphanage, yet officials overruled me, stating that we first needed to have a trial. I also have to give an interview to the journalists from both Iterna and the Core Lands, a task that was ordered by Wyrm Lord. Then I must assign forward patrol parties. I already prepared the list, but the military command overruled me, stating that wolfkins can’t shoulder all the burden and that I must assign normies to patrol duty as well. Normies, who are too frail! No one listens or respects me here. They ask for my orders, then overrule me when I make the orders. What is the point of me being here then?" Janine angrily drank the entire cup of coffee and grabbed the coffee pot. The warlord quickly began to drink from it, while her aides looked at her in surprise, "I don’t have time for manners. Send words to cooks, I will skip my meals today and in the coming days."

"But warlord, you need to eat…" One of her aides began saying.

"I do not have time for this duty," Janine cut her off, "Do not worry, I can go on for months without any food, I am used to this."

"Warlord, you also must come to the medics today for the rejuvenation procedures," The male aide stated, and Janine looked at her table and pile of reports.

"How am I supposed to find time for this?" She whispered, "What task can I sacrifice?"

"If you want to, I can help you with…" Aranea started asking, and Janine looked at her in confusion, as if she had forgotten that her fellow wolfkin was still here.

"Wolf hag, you are still here? Fine, if you want to do something, go and check on the wolf hag Olesya. Ensure that cubs are unharmed, well fed, and, for the love of Spirits, keep the wolf hag Olesya away from paints."

"About this, warlord…" One of the aides said uncomfortably, "Orders came in to allow the wolf hag Olesya to paint new buildings in the same style as…"

Aranea quickly bowed to her leader and left the building before an explosion could happen. She felt pity for her leader. Rumors were floating in the air that Wyrm Lord planned to enact changes in the Wolf Tribe to make them more civilized. Aranea personally welcomed this idea, but for old timers like Janine to lose their way of life without ever being beaten in the challenge was hard. Yet the warlord was just too loyal to abandon her duties. The wolf hag quickly said a prayer to the Spirits, asking them to help her leader.

Before visiting the orphanage, Aranea quickly visited the barracks. She handed over her armor to the tech crew and went to take a shower to clean herself before returning to the cubs' presence. Aranea had to eventually call Marco for help, as she could not get rid of all the parasites from her fur, some of them had to be cut off from her skin. Marco's face was visibly pale as he finished slicing off parasites from her flesh. He said that he would speak with command about the mandatory examination for all wolfkins. Aranea just shrugged it off. It was inevitable to get fleas, spine mites, and ticks when you spent all your time in the wastes of the Ravaged Lands. Some of them, however, were large enough to present an actual danger to normies. This was part of the reason why wolfkins preferred to live aside. Aranea checked the rest of her pack, ensuring that no one was fooling around too much, and left to carry on her orders.

The newly built orphanage was located in the west part of the city. This was a massive complex built in the place of four former warehouses. Worker teams clearly overestimated the sheer number of children without parents when they built this place. Barely one third of the vast complex was in use. This complex even had an actual underground bunker, in case someone tried to bombard the place. From Core Lands arrived a few specialists to help with children, the rest of the personnel were hired from the locals. Free World had their doctor stationed inside of the giant square building because of the new cooling system. Locals, children included, were so used to overwhelming heat that simple air-conditioners caused some of them to catch common cold. Aranea allowed the teacher to lead her into a training hall. As the woman explained to Aranea, by the orders of the warlord, this place was also to be set up as a school, as this building was one of the safest places in all the city. Janine issued orders to hire teachers from Core Lands, but only people from the Free World and locals have expressed interest in teaching here, as few people are willing to leave the comfort of Core Lands for the scorching heat of Ravaged Lands. Janine has already made an official request to the Dynast for assistance in resolving this situation. The warlord also officially hired doctors from the Free World for a period of ten years, to help keep the city healthy. Once fully staffed, this whole facility will be in proper use.

Aranea heard laugher of kids before the doors to the training hall were open. Inside was a brightly lit place. The floor was made of wood. Mats covered the floor of a spacious room. At the right wall, hastily made machines for exercise were carelessly placed. Two sets of gates were installed at the north and south ends of the room. Several balls were seen in a wooden crate by the wall. Boring-looking Siri and two normie teachers were standing there, making sure that no kids would break anything.

Olesya was standing in the middle of the room, laughing girl was sitting on her shoulders, held by the paws of the wolf hag. Aranea recognized this girl as one of those to whom Kate had been giving food over a month ago. Body of Olesya charged from place, for a moment, both she and her "rider" charged toward the wall, then wolf hag jumped high in the air and then spun in the air. The girl's hair touched the floor during the spin in the air, and Olesya landed back on her feet, facing the center of the room, charging back to the middle and stopping as if nothing happened.

"What are you doing?!" shouted Aranea, coming to the center of the room. Olesya saw her and a wide smile appeared on her snout. She was surprised to see that both wolfkins were also clean like her. She half expected, half dreaded that Olesya will spread flesh-eating parasites everywhere here.

"What else, we are playing in the horsie and the rider game!" One of the cubs showed Aranea a picture of a four-legged animal.

"You missed a pair of legs." Siri said in a sour voice, coming forward, "Everyone knows that horses have six legs."

"No, they are not!" One of the boys dragged a large book, showing a photo of the creature to Siri.

"Eh, this is a creature from the pre-Extinction world. They are ex… somewhere else now." The scout corrected herself after noticing a glance from her wolf hag.

Olesya took the girl off her shoulders and picked up the boy with the book, passing him over to Siri.

"Here. You play the horsie role now, I need to have a talk with Aranea."

"Wait, what?" blinked Siri in surprise, clumsily holding the cubs in her paws.

"And put your soul into it! I promised the kids that if they cleaned their rooms, we would play. If I return and the kids are unhappy, we will stay here until you get it right! " Olesya waved her claw in a joking gesture before leaving with Aranea, while the kids started chanting the word "horsie" at confused Siri.

"Is this about your scars?" Aranea whispered, nodding at the snout of her friend.

"These?" Olesya proudly touched the large scars on her face, "Nope. These make me look dashing. You got to love yourself as you are, girl, or one day you will find yourself in despair. The reason for me pushing Siri around is that she still considers herself a wolf hag from time to time. Oh, she is loyal and competent, but I either must beat these ideas out of her or try other ways," Olesya let out her claws, allowing light to fall on them as she looked at them lovely.

"I see that your punishment has little effect on you." Aranea joked as she shoved the other wolf hag to the side.

"Punishment? What punishment? This is bestest work ever!" Olesya jokingly lifted her brows, "My pack gets to stay in such a spacious den, barely has to work and can play with cubs all day long. Sure, we have to fix something from time to time and unload some cargo, but eh, piece of cake. We have the whole east wing to ourselves, we literally live like royalty!" She stopped. "Oh, and speaking of cake. Make sure to thank Kate for the treats, the cubs loved them. I tried to find her to thank her myself, but alas."

"Yeah, about this…" Aranea quickly explained the situation to Olesya, "I screwed up big time. And have no idea how to fix this." Her shoulders sank.

"If I were you, I would have gathered your original pack. Lock them up in the room. Take Kate by the nape of the neck, look her in the eye and say that I am sorry and that she should snap out of this. And then not let her out of the room until she beats the hell out of me, so we will be even."

"That’s too extreme."

"Stop treating her with kid gloves. Girl is screwed in her head, removing scars, seriously?" Olesya said in annoyance, "Scars are cool, they are a sign of how tough you are. The world tried to crush you, yet you endured." She shook her head. "I will find her and talk with her myself." Aranea wanted to say something, but the fellow wolf hag only snapped her jaws. "No physical harm will be done to her, I promise. I will just drag her to the pub and make us both drunk enough, so we can both cry our hearts out to each other. We'll have a "girls talk," as the normies say.

"No. Olesya, please leave her alone," Aranea said strictly, her body is tense. If necessary, she will beat sense into her friend. "Not everyone can just shrug off problems like you. I need to solve this problem with time and care…"

"Care?" Olesya began laughing and nearly fell on her back. She stepped toward the wall, tears of joy flowing from her eyes as she held her sides, "Oh girl, how I like you. Please, never change. Care! As if we are capable of it!"

"Anyway, I only came here to ensure that kids are safe, and you stay away from paints." Aranea snapped at her friend, embarrassed.

Olesya hugged Aranea in order not to fall, still laughing as both of them walked toward the door. Halfbreed punched her friend in the side with all her might, but the wolf hag only coughed and continued to laugh. She continued to do so until they opened the door and came face to-face with a courier who carried large bags with him.

"Great!" The young man said, pulling back the cowl of his suit, "You must be the wolf hag Olesya," He looked at Aranea, but she shook her head and pointed at the correct wolfkin, "My apologies, lady. The cake that you ordered arrived. Please, just put your signature here…"

"Cake?" Aranea asked with suspicion.

"Eh, one of the kids finished his chores but fell sick. This place is too cold for cubs, cause of these damn coolers. Svetlana gave him something to feel better and sent him off to sleep. The boy was so angry and sad about missing the game, so I bought him something to keep him from feeling lonely in the medical room. Now, I don’t know much about treats, but I went to the store and asked for help. The owner was nice enough to help me choose," Olesya chuckled, putting her signature down, "A promise is a promise, always."

"Ah… Is that so." Aranea began to laugh, pressing her back to the door jamb. Olesya looked at her in worry, "Oh, I get it. You wash yourself, you play with kids, and you buy them treats. I will go now, oh mighty and evil beast, please continue to show no care to anyone!"

"Please, wolf hag Aranea, let us not forget that one of us actually uses her power," Almost purred Olesya, checking the cake before taking it from the courier, "If you think about me as a caring person, then by all means, invite me to a sparring session. I will show you such tender and care that you will never be able to forget."

"My apologies!" quickly said the courier, "I was not aware that I caught you in such a personal moment," He quickly pulled down his cowl and prepared to leave, "I wish you best of luck in your personal life." The man hastily retreated to his vehicle and began to move away.

"Wait, wait, wait! This is not what you think it is!" Olesya screamed in panic as she realized what he meant, while Aranea collapsed on the ground, laughing her ass off, "What are you laughing about, you idiot! Now the entire city will think that we are dating each other! Damn you, now I will never find a proper mate!"

"Wait, you really want to find a mate?" Aranea stopped her laughter, looking at the wolf hag in shock. She never expected Olesya to be one of the people who wanted a family life. Her friend always aimed to become a warlord, Olesya always pushed to be on the front lines to excel and to fight against the strongest foes she could find. This goal seemed incompatible with family life.

"To be honest, I mostly want to have my own cubs," Olesya shrugged. She carried the cake inside the building and returned to sit on the stone steps near Aranea. Olesya put her snout on her hands and looked forward, "Playing with and taking care of other cubs is good, no ifs or buts about it. But I kinda want more, you get my drift? I want to have cubs of my own blood, female or male, no matter, running, learning the world and shit."

"That’s a beautiful dream." Aranea said quietly.

"This is not a dream!" The wolf hag stubbornly shook her head, "It’s a goal! Goal! One day I will be there, just like one day I will become a warlord. My cubs will be the most beautiful, the most handsome, and the happiest there are, and there is no way I will ever give them up to pits. No, they will have these "rooms", like the ones kids here have, where they can play. "And, of course, toys and books," Olesya sighed. "I haven't figured out how I'm going to trick shamans or find a mate yet, but a girl can take her time, right? Janine had her first cubs when she was over sixty years old, so I can take my time." The wolf hag talked quickly, as if she was trying to convince herself.

"If you ever need my help…" Aranea started talking in a soothing voice, but Olesya jumped to her feet.

"Ok, this is getting too cringe," Olesya smiled weakly, "It’s embarrassing for me to talk about it. We will cross this bridge when we come to it. Sorry Ari, just… of course I will ask for your help when the time comes! Maybe I'll even name one of my girls after you. But right now, I need to deliver cake. I won’t touch Kate, but do tell her that she is welcome to come and help any time, bye!" The door slammed as the wolf hag hastily retreated back into the building.

The halfbreed had a small smile on her lips as she stood up. It was good to know that her friends also have normal dreams. The Wolf Tribe was slowly changing, the younger generation had their own views on the future.

"You were wrong, Ravager," Aranea told herself as she walked toward the civilian terminal center, "We are not monsters. Imperfect, yes, but we will become better one day. All of us together will become better persons."

The terminal center was a large, imposing building, going all the way up to thirty stories. A massive round-shaped mechanism was built on the roof of the building, allowing this building to send messages to other cities by connecting to a net of satellites far above in the skies. The Net was still a new thing in the Reclamation Army, and while Dynast himself was not against instant messages between civilians, the infrastructure in Ravaged Lands was not up to the task, so they used massive com towers here. One was in the command center, intended for military use. This one was for civilian use, military personnel were forbidden to reveal any secrets, but otherwise were allowed to use it to contact their families in other regions.

Aranea paid a fee for the use of a small room on the twentieth floor. The higher the floor was the better was connection, through trial and error, Aranea figured that this floor served her needs perfectly, there was no need to overpay. She sat in the chair and dialed the number, calling the person from Iterna.

Iterna was a rival country to the state, yet relations between the two countries were stable. The Dynast made it clear that he had no intention of invading it yet, trade was booming between the two sides. According to what Aranea knew, Iterna was the sole country to survive the Extinction undamaged. Some people claimed that this country had a utopian type of government, one that aimed to provide for each citizen. Others claimed that they were demons who forcibly changed the genders of people. The state's reporters dismissed the last claim as mere superstition upon investigation. Warlord Zero confirmed that this rumor was false as well, laughing during the interwier when people asked her this question. However, in this near-mystical land, many wondrous items could be purchased, films about the old world, cartoons, and superior medicine, among other things. Aranea never was in Iterna, but they had one thing that she needed at the moment. Warlord Martyshkina was the one who gave Aranea this number and transferred funds to them.

"Yes?" asked the pleasant voice of mister Philip.

"It’s Aranea, doctor," Aranea weakly smiled, knowing that he can’t see her, "Sorry for calling you so suddenly, yet…"

"I already told you, miss Aranea, this is not a problem. As my client, you have my permission to call me at any time of day," Iterna had professionals in the field of mental health, something that was still new in the state. Aranea never revealed from where she was calling, omitting certain details. Who knows if Iterna would help a person from the rival state?

"I screwed up, doctor." Aranea quickly told Philip what happened today in the field, omitting some details, like combat.

"Sounds like you made some progress," The man said confidently, "She is no longer afraid to reach for the item in your presence…"

"That’s not all," The wolf hag responded in a sad voice and told everything she learned from Kaleb, "As you can see, I have really done it this time. To be honest, I have no idea how to even fix this." She weakly admitted it.

"That..." The man was silent for a moment, processing information, "… is why I am here. To help. But I believe it is time for us to come clean. After our last talk, people from the intelligence division visited me, asking why I was speaking with someone from the Reclamation Army…"

Aranea felt her blood turn cold.

"… You have nothing to worry about, miss Aranea," The man continued speaking in a calm and soothing voice, "This is not a crime, not for me and certainly not for you. In fact, I was curious, why you even paid me in the first place. Our services are free for the citizens of Iterna. We do accept donations, of course, but the government funds us well enough," He said with good-natured laughter, "This made me curious. Now I am doubly curious. Who are you really? Please understand that I am not asking out of curiosity but to help you. To properly aid you, I need to know more."

"Will… will you keep this secret?" Aranea asked.

"Alas, no. Agents from the Intelligence division are listening even now, but worry not. They will not try to blackmail you or use information against you or your state in any way, shape, or form. They are only listening to our conversation to ensure that you are not blackmailing me." Once again, a hint of humor was in Philip’s voice.

Aranea thought for a moment. The most reasonable thing to do was to end the call. She never spoke about her past with her pack, why should she reveal it to an outsider? And yet... Aranea always learned from her mother that if she did something wrong, she should try to fix it, even if this meant asking for help from others. The wolf hag felt genuine fear, revealing herself was… She took a deep breath. She had a duty before her pack.

"I am a member of the Wolf Tribe." She finally forced herself to say. She expected the man to end the call, but the doctor was still there.

"Ah! Now I am getting a bit of a clearer picture. You see, some of your answers hinted at the fact that you may be one of the abnormals. "

"Yes, about it…" Aranea told him everything she remembered. Her childhood, how she became a scout, omitted her encounter with Ravager, how she became a wolf hag.

"That… Please, a moment, miss Aranea." She heard a loud "click" sound. "I turned off the ability of the intelligence division to hear us, I do believe they now have enough information to know that I am safe," He chuckled, "Anyway, you no longer have to pay anything to me. Consider my help free from now on."

"Why the sudden generosity?" The wolf hag asked with suspicion.

"Because I can," The doctor answered plainly, "The goal of Iterna is to rebuild the world, not to tear it down again. You have problems, I can help you, so I will help you. Back to your problem. I need to consult others and pick up some research books…"

I knew it. Aranea thought in sadness. He too was unable to help her.

"… Yet I am certain that the problem with your friend lies not in how you treated her, although this was horrible and we will need to work on your problems later as well, with your permission, of course. Nor in the monetary cost of a lost item," The doctor said thoughtfully, "Granted, the best choice would be to bring her to us, but I understand that such a thing may not be possible. No, the problem of miss Kate lies in something else. I would’ve loved to speak with miss Kate, but based on what I know right now, I can only deduce that she needs this item for something. She greatly worries about something, so much so that it causes her to be in panic when she loses said item. Could it be that she believes that these beads suppress something? Memories perhaps? Hm. Doubtful. Quite a puzzle!" The man cheerfully said, "Let’s find out how we can help her. When will you be able to contact me again?"

"About that…" She tapped the arm of the chair with her claw, noticing that she only had a few more seconds left for talking, otherwise she would have to pay again. "Probably only in the next month or later. I am not this rich to afford the calls…"

"I can ask Intelligence to allocate funds…" The doctor offered.

"No! Spirits, please no! No one needs to know," Aranea felt herself panicking. "You gave me something to work with, now it’s up to me." She hung up the call, before Philip could say anything else. There were two primary reasons for keeping her affair secret. First, she was unsure how the investigation bureau of the Reclamation Army would react. They will definitely be interested in learning why someone in Iterna pays for her calls. Second, Aranea refused to fully trust Iterna.

She forced a smile as she stood up. So, Kate has some other mystery behind her. Perhaps making her drunk is not that bad of an idea after all…

****

"No, we can’t get out here, caterpillar tracks are busted!" A voice shouted over the terminal network as Aranea and her pack were closing in on the source of gunfire, "We have wounded here, one of the tanks is on fire! I can’t just drop my men and run, find a way to get us out here!"

"Understood, sergeant. We are trying our best to arrive as soon as we can, hold on." A female voice responded.

Aranea growled, forcing her pack to charge forward on all four. From the sound of it, their allies are in deep shit.

Today she was with almost her entire pack, aside from the still wounded Sonya and two new warriors, who managed to damage their legs in training. Twenty-seven wolfkins, force enough to make a small town submit. But that was not all. Olesya's pack was closing in on the place as well.

They were on a regular patrol mission, when they received a call for urgent help from a nearby village. Villagers asked for help from the state after Resistance looted the place. Not wanting to take any chances, command dispatched a small convoy of two tanks and four supply trucks to accept the fealty of their new subjects. This place was once an enormous city, with countless skyscrapers and a sprawling subway system, but Extinction put an end to it. Now, barely a few thousand people live here. The convoy arrived, starting to provide supplies and beginning negotiations with the locals. Everything was fine at first, then all hell broke loose.

The village was located in the ruins of the city, two large, towering skyscrapers still pierce the sky in this area, one to the south and one to the north. These half-ruined giants of the Old-World were no longer populated or in use. Sandstorms that come to this area from time to time make quick work of anyone trying to settle inside. Yet today, forces of the enemy were inside of them. Using them as platforms for their sniper teams, silver masks opened fire at troops of the Reclamation Army just as their allies on land started their attack.

The pack of Aranea charged, past damaged buildings. They run into four of silver masks, who were shooting at state forces on the square. Yuki and Kate were on the enemies in an instant. Neither wolfkin bothered with shardguns; their claws ripped through enemies' clothes and armor, leaving only dead bodies behind.

The Reclamation Army's forces were stationed in the center of the square. They were busy distributing supplies when the attack came. Aranea felt anger as she saw dead bodies, both civilians and soldiers alike. One of the trucks lay on the side, one of the tanks had fire coming from fist-sized round holes in the armor. An ear-piercing sound came from one of the skyscrapers, and a new hole appeared in the still intact tank. The twin guns of the tank moved, aiming at the building in the distance. Fire spit out of them as shells were unleashed on the building, causing an explosion in the distance and exploding two large rooms in the building.

"Sly, make smoke screen at once! Kostya, wipe out enemies in the building," Aranea began giving orders. Sly and three other wolfkins charged forward, two males and one thin looking warrior, who was small even by the standards of males. This new warrior belonged to Yuki’s pack. She was an odd one, always scared of something and willing to take orders from a male. This was so unusual, that Aranea even asked Yuki if she really wanted to keep her, but the scout only shrugged. No one else wanted to take this female, so Yuki allowed her into her pack. Sly’s team threw smoke bombs, covering the square in a thick layer of dark cloud. Light flashed through the building's windows as wolfkins led by Kostya fired their shardguns at the enemy forces.

"Friends arrived!" Aranea screamed as the guns of a tank began to move toward them. Once more, an ear-piercing sound came, and a round hole appeared in the square before the wolf hag’s leg. She wondered just what weapons the enemies were using. She failed to even see the projectile. Even her crimson eye failed to notice a trace of bullet or shell in the air. "Kaleb, take the injured away from the second tank!"

Kaleb only nodded, leaping to the tank. The shardgun in his hand fired once, ending the lives of two silver-masked soldiers hiding behind the tank. Then the ground behind him exploded and greenies charged from under it, both clawed arms aiming for Kaleb’s back. Kate crushed into the male wolfkin, sending him away with a hit to the side, taking one blow on her shoulder. The metal of her armor was split under the pressure of the enemy's hit, and the clawed hand left a deep mark on Kate’s shoulder. Miraculously, the second strike of the creature missed its mark, and Kate grabbed the enemy by the back of its head. She kicked the knee of the greenie, breaking it and slamming the creature face down into the ground with full force, following with a crushing step on the creature's head.

"Thanks!" Kaleb cheerfully shouted, aiming to treat her wound, but stepped back as Kate glanced at him.

"Concentrate on your work, male, and leave me alone," The scout commanded in a monotone voice, reaching for the laser rifle. Despite the smoke around them, the lenses of her helmet moved, finding and tracking the target. In a quick motion, she threw up her weapon and a red beam shot forward, toward the skyscraper, "One." She said, calmly, before jumping away from the place. With an ear-piercing sound, a new hole appeared in the ground where Kate had just stood.

Kaleb hit the tank hatch, trying to get people inside to open it, but only panicked screams came from inside. Apparently, both the emergency exit and the main hatch were jammed, and the three-man team ended up trapped. Kaleb only nodded, told people inside not to sweat over minor things, and pushed his claws into the steel of the hatch, bulging his muscles. The systems of his armor screamed an alarm as the armor enchanted his strength to the possible limit. The sound of tearing metal was loudly heard across the battlefield, when Kaleb tore away the hatch of the tank and started helping people to get out of flame trap.

More greenies shot from underground, one appearing behind Sly and the thin warrior. Aranea growled in anger as she saw a warrior being too slow to reach for the shardgun. It was expected from Sly, as he was a male, but warriors were supposed to be better. Before the creature could slash either of them, Aranea was already behind it, her claws ran from the back of its head all the way to the bottom of its body, opening it up. Greenie trembled and fell over dead, insides fell from the body of the creature.

"My thanks, wolf hag." The warrior said in a barely audible voice, her shardgun finally in her paws. She fired once, stopping another greenie from goring a male from the Sly group.

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

"Why are you so slow? Are you ill?" Aranea growled at her. The warrior shuddered as if being hit, yet still pointed her weapon at another foe, "Carry on good job." The wolf hag told her before disappearing. She will need to ensure that this one gets proper food and training later. There is no way she will allow her troops to stay this weak.

She tore through four greenies as they appeared, their flesh and muscles were utterly helpless to stop her claws as she tore through them. One of the greenies ripped through a male wolfkin's hand, only to be blown away by Kostya, who emerged from the building.

"All clean, wolf hag." He gave a quick nod as the rest of his team followed. The old wolfkin has become more relaxed in the past few days and more focused. He no longer worried about his failing physical abilities, now he was busy learning to live with them. The shardgun in his hands rose up, blasting another greenie. One of the silver masks appeared from the building to the north, aiming to take a shot at Sly, only to be gunned down by Yuki. The scout then appeared behind Sly, hitting him behind the head and berating him for being careless.

"Continue around the area, eliminate any silver masks…" Aranea said to Kostya, ripping off the head of another greenie, stopping upon hearing a scream. One of the greenies rose up, tearing through the armor of the male wolfkin. A nearby warrior tried to help him when a new attack came, this time from the south skyscraper. Five ear-piercing shots came, and one of them took away the leg of the warrior, causing her to fall, cursing and groaning. These weird weapons utterly ignore the armor of wolfkin. Unknown projectiles cause the flesh to disappear just as easily as the steel. Greenie nearly gored the male in its arms, but the thin warrior appeared nearby, pressing the barrel of her weapon to the side of greenie. A shot tore through the inside of the creature, and in its death throes, the creature threw both opponents outside of the smoke cloud.

Aranea charged forward, tearing through two greenies in her path and informing Olesya of the new enemy sniper team's location. She almost reached the soldiers of her pack. The female lifted her hands over her head, giving the sign of surrender, the male only managed to lift one hand, because of an injury on his shoulder. Aranea could see two forms of people on the north skyscraper, so far away, and yet her crimson eye could see them. One was slightly thinner, the other bulkier. The bulky form lifted a silver-colored weapon and fired. Once again, Aranea failed to even see the projectile, nor had she seen any light from the long-barreled silver rifle. The bulky figure moved, as if something pushed it back and the snout of the male soldier disappeared. The round hole was in his helmet. Aranea had no need to check the icons of her armor to know that this shot killed him instantly. The second figure aimed at the thin warrior but did not shoot. Aranea grabbed a warrior and threw her away from the street into the wall, breaking the stone. She charged after her, checking to ensure that the scared wolfkin was alive and then contacted her pack.

"Yuki, Kate, take charge, while I am gone. Take the notion that greenies were underground, locals could possibly work with the enemy, don’t trust them too much."

"Where are you going?" Yuki demanded to know.

"To remove obstacles. The south tower will be taken care of by the pack of Olesya. I will take the northern one."

"Be careful. I removed one of the bastards on the north tower, but there are at least three more." Kate warned her.

"Sure. Kostya, pinpoint my location, aid the warrior here."

"I am sorry, wolf hag. I can still fight, wolf hag." The warrior tried to stand, her voice filled with fear and shock. Aside from possibly a few bruises underneath her armor, she was unharmed. But the wolf hag could clearly see that she was in no shape to fight anymore, scared too much. Aranea pushed her back on the floor and put her leg on the chest of the warrior. This warrior was one of the new ones in her pack, and Aranea had yet to learn her name. She summoned information on the monitor of her helmet and frowned.

"What is your name, kid?" She asked, wanting to be sure.

"Tiny, wolf hag." The warrior responded, showing no sign of disobedience.

"You are to wait until Kostya arrives." The wolf hag took a step away from her and turned to face the north wall. Tiny sounded like a nickname, rather than a proper name. This girl was in Yuki’s pack. Aranea promised herself that she would learn later what was going on there.

Aranea decided to avoid using the street. Instead, she was charging in a zigzag path through ruined buildings, charging toward the tall tower ahead. Just a few months ago, this would have been a nearly impossible task for her. Now she barely felt when the stone walls were crumbling against her armor. 

I am weak no more. Aranea suddenly understood. Something moved inside her, asking to be let out, promising to make her so much stronger. Aranea forced this feeling back. She will not accept anything from her power anymore. No way she will end like her mother. She was good as she was right now. As she was closing in on the building, the wolf hag changed her approach, leaping from windows and hiding in shadows to try and fool enemy snipers.

She reached the skyscraper just as Olesya and her pack reached the square, helping to drag the injured away from battle. The unit of the Reclamation Army was closing in to help and scout Siri with her pack began cleaning the south tower. Meaning that only the north tower still had unattended enemies and Aranea sped up. As she ran up the stairs, her enchantment eyesight caught sight of a wire that connected several grenades. She leaped over the wire and sent a warning to Siri. The scout thanked her for information but told her to worry for herself. The former wolf hag was sure that she wouldn’t fall into ambush.

"We need to leave!" The ears of Aranea caught words from five floors above her.

"Shut it! They will soon be here! Why didn’t you fire?"

But the enemy was surrendering! By the laws of war, we must spare the ones who give up!"

Aranea chose not to go on the floor with the enemies, there was little doubt in her mind that the door leading to them was trapped. She pointed at the enemy location with her ears and moved on the floor below, positioning herself under the owner of the second voice.

"You stupid bitch, they are all will be de…" The words stopped as Aranea jumped up and crushed through the ceiling. The adversary in front of her was the same adversary who had killed her warrior. Behind him was the slick form of another enemy in a silver mask. Both of them were dressed in uniforms of black and gold color, both had silver masks underneath the cowls of their cloaks. Aranea felt anger rising in her but forced this feeling to go back, punching man in the stomach and sending him back, causing him to fly to the back of the room and drop his weird silver rifle. Aranea felt a metal underneath his clothes. On a floor lay the dead form of another silver mask. A laser shot hit him through the scope of his rifle. Someone moved in a nearby room, and Aranea ducked low, ready to charge.

"Surrender or die, I don’t care which." Aranea forced herself to say. No matter what sort of weapons they use, these enemies need to aim at her first. She was not in danger. No matter what they have done, the rules of war, were the rules of war. Obeying them here, might save the lives of others. Personal hatred and angere were nothing to the duty.

"We surrender, of course we surrender! Please sh…" The fallen man quickly said in a pleading tone, yet Aranea heard movements in the nearby room and in the man’s sleeve.

She jumped from the place, landing on the ceiling, using the claws of her paws to hold on to the ceiling. A round hole appeared in both walls to the right and left of the room. A projectile would surely have injured her had she not jumped away. A pistol came from the sleeve of the man, while a smaller enemy lowered her weapon in confusion.

"Kill her, you idiot!" The bulky man snapped at his partner, aiming at the wolf hag. Aranea wondered what he had hoped for, No matter. Aranea decided upon landing on him, her leg turned his head into paste, breaking through metal and collapsing the bones, killing the foe instantly. Ignoring the still twitching body under her feet, she crashed through the right wall, coming face to face with another silver mask. The woman began lifting her weapon, her finger was on the trigger. And yet, this foe was simply too slow. Aranea managed to strike forward with her paw, using a single claw to pierce the throat of the enemy, all before the sniper could press the trigger. Grabbing the gurgling body of the enemy, she threw her into the doors behind her, breaking them. Hidden grenades went off and a bright explosion crashed through the wall and ceiling, leaving Aranea alone with the last enemy, who was lifting her rifle in panic. Briefly, Aranea wondered how the woman was still standing, she was sure that a shockwave would knock her off her feet.

"My offer still stands," The wolf hag said in a tired voice. These stupid killings of each other made little sense to her anymore. Her soldiers, enemy soldiers, all who died here… What did any of them achieve? Stopping a food supply? "No need to die. Surely someone, somewhere will miss you."

"Just like someone will miss my teammates." The woman snapped back, raising her weapon, and Aranea's eyes widened as she dove to the left. Her adversary was quick! Not as fast as her, but she was clearly one of the new breeds.

Aranea's ears were filled with screaming sound as her foe pulled the trigger, narrowly missing the wolf hag by hair. Aranea kicked the rubble on the ground, sending it into the barrel of the weapon and deflecting it upward. It was just enough for the next shot to miss her shoulder. Not wanting to give her foe any more chances, Aranea charged forward, grabbing the barrel of the gun with her right paw and striking with her left, aiming for the head of the foe. Halfbreed blinked as claws passed through the form of her foe, making the barrel to turn ethereal and escape from her grip, and the foe slid forward, passing through Aranea's body. She could still see the silver mask, but the form of the enemy was now murky, as if she was not fully present in reality. The wolf hag felt a tingling feeling across her own body, almost as if she had come into contact with an electric current while the enemy body passed through her. The sudden disappearance of the foe forced Aranea to fall forward. She landed on her arm, standing on it and looking back. The enemy shifted back to solid form, turning around to take aim on Aranea. The silver mask was just as fast as any warrior of the Wolf Tribe. This could only mean that she was too slow for the wolf hag. Aranea pushed her arm and jumped backward, striking with her left leg. Once again, the form of the enemy became murky and the wolf hag flew through her, feeling tingling all around her skin.

Stupid. What am I doing? Aranea snarled at herself. If one way does not work… She hit the floor with her right paw, grabbing her shardgun with her left hand. Floor cracked and Aranea fell, using her right paw to grab onto the ceiling of the room below and position herself for a shot. She based her shot on a simple guess, assured that the enemy would try to hit her through the floor. She guessed right based on the scream in the room above.

She broke through the ceiling in a new place, appearing before the wounded silver mask. A shot from the shardgun injured the enemy's left leg and arm, leaving large wounds on them. The silver mask still tried to lift her weapon before Aranea knocked her aside, grabbing the woman by the throat with her right paw and pressing the silver mask against the wall of the room, a wall that led outside of the building.

"Try and phase through this." Aranea pressed her shardgun to the stomach of her foe, finger on the trigger.

"Wait!" The silver mask screamed with a panic in her voice. "Please, wait! I give up, I surrender!"

Aranea frowned under her helmet. Silver masks already lied to her today, they dared to attack her allies, they dared to kill… Anger was boiling in her, demanding to be let go, demanding that she stop fooling around, demanding…

She put the shardgun behind her back, telling anger to shut up. I am me. Aranea stubbornly said to herself. She promised to be better, her duty was to uphold this promise. Decent people do not murder surrendering enemies.

"Dare not to resist." Aranea said to her foe, pushing claws into the silver mask of the foe, tearing the faceplate of the silver mask, revealing a scared face beneath. The wires hissed, and Aranea tore the remains of the enemy helmet away, the communication device inside the helmet fell on the ground. A scared brown-haired woman was looking at her with blue eyes, a single scar was over her nose. Her long hair was tied up in a knot behind her head.

"Name and rank? One of your fellow silver masks mentioned someone arriving. Who will arrive and when exactly?" Aranea demanded, but the silver mask was silent. Her lips were trembling with fear, yet she forced herself to speak.

"I am not telling you anything." The woman spoke in a resigned tone, her breath hardened from being exposed to the harsh weather of the Ravaged Lands. Aranea nodded, reaching for a thing at her waist, while the woman looked at her in fear. Aranea reached for the respirator and pushed the thing into the mouth of the woman.

"Here. This should help you to breathe." She forced the prisoner to seat and tore half of prisoner's cape, using it to bandage the wounds of the silver mask, "This would all be so much easier if you and your people just accepted our offer from the start."

"You are the ones who came to invade our lands. Can’t you just leave us alone?" The woman mumbled through pain.

"Alone? And for how long? Hundreds of years have passed since Extinction and you are still living like savages, fighting with each other for scraps like dogs." Aranea responded, working on the wounds of the prisoner.

"Regulators are not savages! We are heroes, ones who keep raiders from preying upon our people," The woman reacted angrily, almost causing the respirator to fall from her mouth,"We protect people, from…"

"Oh, you did a great job here," Aranea responded sarcastically, working to stop the flow of blood on the leg of the captured enemy, "I saw how many dead people were on the square. Surely, the death penalty is the correct price for accepting food from the hands of enemies. Assholes."

"We tried to avoid casualties among civilians…"  The woman whispered.

"Surely. This is why you looted your own people, attacked caravans that brought food to them, attacked neutral traders, and why you allowed your people to live in ruins," Aranea mocked her, "Sure. No malice here. Heroes, saints even."

"You… you lie and twist things. Regulators would never attack traders. Yes, our people live in harsh places, but this is only because we lack funds to build proper towns, and this stupid conflict drains us of what we have. Yes, we took some things, but this is only to prevent them from falling into your hands! You are invaders here, no matter how you try to justify your invasion, all deaths and blood are on your hands, you bastards!" The woman snapped back passionately, but Aranea ignored her, finishing bandaging wounds and tying up the hands of the prisoner. After this, she stood up and heard a series of loud explosions that were coming to a square.

"Olesya, what the hell is this?" asked Aranea.

"Just our backup! Ari, hurry up here, you will miss all the f… Sly, to your left!" Aranea heard the sounds of movement and the sound of claws tearing through flesh. "Careless fool! Stay behind warriors if you can’t protect yourself! "

"Wolf hag Aranea?" A new voice asked, "Lieutenant Marveni Ursico here, I reckon that since you saved my girls and boys here, drinks are on me now when we get back to base."

"Thanks for your offer," Aranea smiled, "I trust that this heavy fire is your doing? Will you assist us in mopping up the enemy force?"

"Yes, my tanks and heavy teams are flushing out foes from buildings as we speak. As for assist, I am not sure if this is the right word for our help. Your packs seem to have everything under control…" The roof of one building near the square exploded and several broken bodies of greenies and silver masks flew upwardб "This was not my work, by the way, your fellow wolf hag seems to have unleashed her claws."

"You can still make up for this, sir," Aranea spoke with respect, keeping an eye on the prisoner, "I captured one of the enemy combatants and overheard the news about possible enemy reinforcements. Size and whereabouts are unknown."

"I will dispatch a team to keep an eye on possible movements of the enemy," Ursico responded with concern, "Worry not, they will not sneak up on us again."

"Thank you, sir. Wolf hag Aranea out," She looked at the prisoner and said, "For your own sake, I hope you're not afraid of heights. If you throw up, I will make you clean my armor later." Halfbreed slung the silver mask over her right shoulder and stowed one of the silver rifles behind her back. Aranea looked down on the small buildings below. She felt good for the first time in a long time. Ashamed as she was to admit it, she actually felt something today when she saw dead civilians. It may have been anger, but finally she was starting to grow into a proper person.

"What are you…" prisoner began to ask as Aranea jumped out of the building. Halfbreed slammed her claws into the side of a skyscraper with her left paw. Nearly stopping her fall, Aranea stood up and ran down the wall, jumping from the wall at the last possible moment and landing on the roof of a nearby small building. The stone floor underneath her broke and she fell to the floor below, causing the prisoner to grunt.

"Wheh, this was wild. You are still alive?" The wolf hag asked the prisoner.

"My ribs hurt… use stairs next time, please." The woman groaned, and the respirator fell out of her mouth.

"Too long. You are one of the new breeds, you can take it," Aranea said as she caught the device and pushed it back into the prisoner's mouth, "Hold on, we still have a way to go." Aranea walked toward the wall and knocked it down, jumping down the street. She came face-to-face with a few scared people in rags.

"Please don’t eat us all!" A man in front of her screamed in horror and fell on his knees.,"If you need to eat someone, eat me, just let others…"

"Not a cannibal, relax. Citizens, please evacuate the city for the time being. There will be more fighting, but the army will arrive soon, and everything will be fine for you to return. " Aranea gave the man a pat on the head, before charging past them. The sounds of battle had already died out, Siri reported that the south tower was cleared out of enemies. Olesya granted the former wolf hag permission to lie in ambush in case new enemies appeared. Aranea felt safe as she charged toward the square. Three wolf hags, even if one was former, were here. Help arrived, everything was going to be fine. They finally apprehended the prisoner, and the Resistance's involvement was all but confirmed.

Aranea reached the square, which was now cleared of smoke. Soldiers of the state were busy dragging the dead bodies of the enemies into a pile nearby. One of the trucks was put back into action, food was being unloaded, wounded members of the convoy and wounded members of wolfkins were put in the back of the truck to transport them back to base. Ashamed looking Tiny was sitting near a building nearby, furiously cleaning her shardgun, Yuki was busy cheering her up, while at the same time holding Sly by his ear, ensuring that he wouldn’t disappear while searching for something. Kaleb was trying to tend to Kate's injury, but she pushed him away, trying to bandage her own wound. Olesya approached them and sat on the ground, beginning to bandage Kate's wound despite the scout's protests. Kostya was talking with a short man in a military uniform with the marks of a lieutenant, two soldiers in full armor were standing behind him. A large tank was standing in the middle of the square, along with two more new tanks. One more tank was on the street nearby, with two all-terrain vehicles nearby. Soldiers were busy trying to get one of the badly damaged tanks back into action.

"Wolf hag Aranea!" Ursico threw his arm up in welcome, "Come, join us."

Aranea put the prisoner on the ground, pressing her back to the tracks of the tank. Then she took off the rifle from her back and threw it to Sly. Wolfkin grabbed the unknown weapon greedily.

"Yuki, let go of Sly and watch over the prisoner here. She has some weird power, I saw her pass through the solid matter and through my body as well. Also, don’t let her appearance fool you, she is by no means slow. Treat her wounds" Aranea pulled the cowl of the silver mask over her head to protect the woman from heat and left her in the care of Yuki. She turned toward Ursico and saluted. It felt weird to report to normie, "Greeting, sir, wolf hag Aranea ready to…"

"At ease, Aranea," The man pulled the helm from his face, revealing a smiling brown face. Aranea was surprised to see that the man was smiling without showing his teeth. The officer clearly knew some of the customs of the Wolf Tribe. He also bowed his head, showing that he had no intention of usurping power from her, "I served with warlord Valerye Foulsnout before, so I know some of your customs." He explained as the helmet of Aranea moved back, revealing her surprised face.

"My thanks for your assistance, sir," Aranea bowed, "pardon me for asking, but how did you arrive here so quickly?"

"Captain Scorpio gave us the order to patrol this area." The man shrugged, "He noticed that the blue wyrm changed patrol routes, putting your packs in this area. So he sent us as well, since last time he left things to blue…"

Aranea nodded grimly. Yes, this would be something that Murzaliev would do. She has never faced the man in her life, yet she starts to hate him like Janine. Would it really kill the blue wyrm not to use their allies as bait?

"Everyone is packed and ready to leave, sir!" A bulky man in half-ruined power armor approached and saluted the officer. Signs of sergeant rank were still barely visible on his shoulders. Red hair could be seen through the shattered helm, and one of the lenses on his helmet was missing, revealing a blue eye beneath.

"Thank you, Alek," Ursico said, nodding, "By the way, say hello to your savior. I heard wolf hag Aranea was among the first to arrive here."

"Hey, we worked hard as well!" Olesya said smugly. Kate made an attempt to jump away from her, but the wolf hag easily grabbed her, holding her in place, "You will stay right here, until I finish my work."

"My thanks, ladies," The sergeant bowed to them, and Olesya giggled like a girl. Alek looked at the prisoner. Yuki was busy changing makeshift bandages on her with proper ones. The silver mask frowned, when the wolfkin checked her ribs. "This is one of the bastards who tried to kill us, eh? Kinda wish that she would be dead, along with the rest of the scum." The prisoner shivered under the gaze of Alek.

"I will ride in a truck with the prisoner," Aranea started calmly, "I fully trust you and your soldiers. Yet I would like to avoid any chance that anything happens with our prisoner."

"Hey, sorry for the bad impression, lady!" The sergeant lifted his hands in a gesture of peace. "Me and my people are from the corps of his excellency Murzaliev. We don’t have these kinds of people among us, the blue wyrm is very through with anyone who dares to break laws. We may be a badmouthing bunch, but we ain’t criminals."

"I believe you, sir," Aranea said, smiling. "However, this prisoner has some nasty power. I would prefer to keep an eye on her, if this is okay with you."

As the report came through, Ursico suddenly lifted his hand to the ear. He started asking about something, when a loud explosion was heard in the south part of the city. From the sound of it, one of the tanks was firing at something.

"What is going on?" Ursico demanded to know. "Who is…"

"Direct hit!" A new voice came through the com network. "No one could have…"

"The enemy is still on the move!" A woman's voice shouted.

"Impossible, I hit her dead ce…" The rest of the voice disappeared in a short scream of pain that lasted barely a second. Icons of several troopers and tank team in the south gone dark. As impossible as it may seem, a new enemy wiped them out in a matter of seconds.

"Report! What is going on?!"The lieutenant demanded to know as the sound of gunfire erupted from the southern part of the city.

"A single enemy approaches our location, sir!" The woman's voice responded, and the sound of gunfire could be heard in the background. "From the looks of it, she is…" static cut the rest of the words, and rows of buildings in the south started to fall. Three-and four-story tall buildings crumbled like paper, green mist showed up over their roofs. "... impossible to kill." The same voice of the woman from before breathed heavily, holding back the panic, "Sir, retreat now, before she..." scream cut off the rest of the words as green mist covered the source of the transmission.

"Get injured in the trucks, prepare to retreat!" Ursico snapped at his troops, "Alek, you and your people are to evacuate as well, wolf hag Aranea, wolf hag Olesya, you are…"

"You are all going to die eventually, what’s the point of running away?" A voice asked calmly from a nearby building.

Aranea turned around to see the same old man that she saw during the night when the convoy was attacked. The same green eyes, same outfit as before. His hands were up in a mocking gesture of surrender as he came forward from the building. Three wolfkins were on him in moments, aiming their shardguns at his head, but the man only smiled.

"There were two warriors from my pack stationed in there," Olesya snarled at the old man standing up, "Where are they?"

"Today I am here as a mere messenger of my lady," The man nodded to the south, "Came to…"

"Where. Are. My. People?!" Olesya closed in on a man, pressing a shardgun to his face, and the old man only smiled in response.

"There is no one alive behind me. Alas, you no longer have…" The man tried to calmly respond.

"Olesya, stand back!" Aranea shouted, remembering just how fast this demon was. But Olesya’s finger was already on the trigger.

In next moment impossible happen. The man stood calm, relaxed, as Olesya halfway pressed the trigger of her shardgun. Suddenly, the left hand of a strange man moved, slicing through the shardgun, leaving half of the weapon in wolf hag’s arm. She cursed as the remains of her weapon exploded in her arm, breaking her fingers. With her good left paw Olesya punched forward, her claws nearly touching the smiling face of the man as he stood still, unharmed by the explosion in Olesya’s hand. Kate unleashed her claws and pushed them deep into her wound on her shoulder, frowning from pain as blood poured from her wound. Claws almost scratched the face of the man, when his hands moved again. Aranea could barely see the movement; it was as if the man's hands had transformed into two elongated whips, striking Olesya's body with impossible speed, causing air to scream at each hit, while Olesya stood still, as if frozen in time. Both arms of the wolf hag crumbled, bones snapped in different places, the paws and legs of the wolfkin became rag-like, as tendons and muscles were torn. One hit crushed the helmet of Olesya on her left side, a large dent appeared on her head as she finally flew backwards.

All of this happened too fast for the normies to see. Even most of the warriors could barely see it. Only Aranea, Yuki, and Kate saw this beatdown in its entirety. The body of the wolf hag fell into the arms of Kate, who looked in shock at the ruined body of Olesya. Wolfkins around the strange man tried to shoot him, but his form became a whirlwind, as he struck with his legs and hands once again, wielding his limbs as spears and piercing the armor of the soldier and tearing through armor and flesh. Three dead bodies fell around him as he smugly looked in the direction of Olesya. He frowned when he saw that she was alive.

For the first time, shock could be heard in the man's voice as he asked, "How..."He looked at the body of his defeated opponent as if a miracle had happened before his eyes, "… Are you still alive?" he stepped forward, and Aranea prepared to lunge at him, fully understanding the uselessness of such action. She was simply too slow. The man shook his head, ignoring the weapons pointed at him, "No. I am a professional, I have my honor. I aimed to kill her, yet she survived. You have my permission to leave. I won’t try to stop you anymore today." He looked at his arms as if in doubt. "Am I really getting too old? Can nothing stop the flow of time?"

"What is the meaning behind this attack? Do you understand the implications of your actions, mister…?" Ursico asked in a deadly serious tone, quietly gesturing for Alek to put Olesya into the truck at once.

"I am known as Chort," The old man bowed politely. "Mercenary in the service of the Resistance. By the orders of lady Blaguna Nokto, I am here to announce open hostilities between the Resistance and the Reclamation Army as of this day. Remove yourself from our lands or be removed."

"By you?" Ursico asked, putting on his helmet.

"Oh, not at all. The lady is already here for the demonstration. If your warriors just allowed me to pass, they would have lived a bit more." Chort shrugged his shoulders, "But alas, we work with what we have. I am not the one who will kill you. She and he are the ones who will kill you."

"He?" Aranea frowned.

A tank on a nearby street moved backwards as something hit the machine in the front. Nearby vehicles were crushed into buildings with insane force, smashing people inside. A figure leaped onto the tank, dressed in silver power armor. The long yellow cape was behind the new enemy. Each segment of his armor was carefully tailored and looked like a work of art. The faceplate of his helmet was encrusted with gold and jewels, lenses of his helmet glowed with a soft blue color. The figure pressed his fingers to the hatch of the tank, and the metal underneath pushed down, as if some force shot from the hand of the man. The metal struggled for a brief second under the pressure of the unseen force, then broke, the force unleashed by this new enemy crashed people inside as he jumped from a tank, landing on square, his face looking down, his cape slowly falling on the ground behind him. Warriors to his left and right lifted their weapons and fired at him. And yet, projectiles flew backward as with a loud "thumb" sound, the very air around the man staggered, Aranea could see barely visible waves that spread in all sides from the shoulders of the armored person, crashing into warriors, slamming them into buildings, breaking bones and metal of their armor.

"Yasen Wolansky, second in command of the Regulators, has arrived. The man stood up and struck a pose, pointing his finger at lieutenant Ursico. "You are prey far unworthy of my presence, but true heroes always perform their duties, even if it means performing humiliating chores!"

"Sir! You've really arrived!" The prisoner screamed happily, and Yasen pointed two index fingers at her jokingly.

"Yeah, I am not doing it. Kill him. All forces assemble and prepare to retreat!" Ursico gave a command, hitting the armor of a nearby tank with his fist.

The guns of the tank turned toward Yasen, who still casually stood in place. The twin barrels unleashed projectiles, two long rounds aimed at the man before the tank. Once again, the air before him staggered, stopping large metal projectiles before him, crumbling and exploding them. Shockwave and shards of metal moved backwards, leaving slashes across the tank's armor. Alek grabbed the lieutenant, dragging him away as a wall of force hit the tank, leaving dents in the front armor and moving the massive vehicle backward.

"Weaaak," The man stretched out the word mockingly, "So weak. Surrender evildoers, before I will be forced to turn all of you into paste…" He stopped as Kate threw up her laser rifle, leaving a scorched mark on the armor near his left eye, nearly punching through the lens.

"Ain’t fast enough to block this, hero." Kate angrily said. Aranea could hear the strain in her voice, scout was angry and ashamed of her miss, she aimed at the eyes of her foe.

"Ain’t worth shit to block this pee shooter." The man reacted angrily, smashing his palm into the ground. Tremors run across the square, causing soldiers to fall from their feet. Aranea jumped up, closing in on Yasen and taking aim at his head. She pulled the trigger on her shardgun, but the air around the enemy shifted in barely discernible waves, and a powerful force slammed Aranea into the chest, knocking her backwards. The armor on her chest cracked upon the impact. Aranea felt drips of blood falling from her mouth as she flew backwards and landed on the roof of a nearby building. She rolled around, regaining balance, and stood up. Kate growled as her leg fell into a newly made crack in the ground, still moving earth broke her leg as the edges of the crack came together. Two warriors jumped before the scout, trying to protect her as Yasen charged. Strange distortions in the air stopped shardgun shots and forced warriors to take a step back. Yasen landed before them, ducking low and making a round kick, causing both warriors to fall. He grabbed one warrior and tore her in two, throwing still twitching parts of her body away. The second warrior tried to stand, but Yasen placed a hand on her helmet. His hand made no movement, yet the helmet of the warrior crumbled as an unseen force sent the head of a wolfkin deep into her chest, killing her. Casually, Yasen threw the dead body away, knocking Yuki off her feet with it. Kate tried to take aim, but Yasen appeared over her, his fist stopping mere inches from her face. He tilted his head to the side.

"My lady?" He asked, listening to something. "Understood, I will obey." Kate tried to shoot him, but he was already gone from the place, grabbing the silver mask in his hands and jumping up with her. He landed on the roof near Aranea, with Chort appearing next to him, "You are in luck," Yasen said sarcastically, ripping off restraints from the woman in his hands, "My lady wishes to grace you all with her presence. Feast your eyes on her power and feel despair, for today you are in the presence of one of the leaders of the Resistance. Understand the full futility of your stupid ambitions and make peace in your mind, for you are about to die." He lightly kicked Aranea, moving fast enough for her to fail to block. Yet this kick was merely to throw her off the roof, not to harm her.

The wolf hag landed on her feet, Kaleb and Yuki were trying to free Kate's leg. Tiny and another warrior were saved from falling into one of the cracks by Kostya. Sly was busy trying to save one of the normie soldiers' from dying because of the blood flow. Alek and his team joined his efforts, while Ursico was busy trying to form his people into a retreat.

"Scout Siri here," The voice came over the com network from the south tower. "Wolf hag Olesya not responding, what is going on?"

"Olesya is injured badly." Aranea quickly responded, reaching Kate and breaking ground around her leg, "We were attacked and are currently trying to retreat."

"Then you'd better hurry up. I can see the enemy, she is coming right for my team. The enemy is using some weird field of destruction, anything that comes into contact with green fog just falls apart. Do not try to fight her," Siri went silent for a moment, "Tell Olesya that I am proud of her. And save her please, it’s bad enough that I won’t get my rematch."

"What are you meaning…" Aranea asked in confusion. She could see that Siri was still on the fiftieth floor of the skyscraper. No enemy was near her.

And then she saw and felt her blood turn to ice. The south skyscrapers began to fall. A building that stood for centuries started falling down as green mist licked its foundation. For a few moments, the enormous tower did not tilt, it did not fall to the side, but for a few moments it fell straight down, as if an enormous maw was eating it from below. Yet finally, the inevitable happened. With a thunderous sound, the tower tilted to the north, causing Aranea's blood to turn cold. At the last moment, Aranea grabbed a few normies around her, including Alek and Ursico, screaming for the rest of her pack to do the same. Like a bomb, the tower crushed into the ground, the life signs of Siri and her team went dark a few moments later. Buildings were reduced to rubble, as steel construction caused a sea of smoke and dust to rise in the air. The wolf hag was afraid to even imagine how many people were crushed by this superstructure, the tip of the tower nearly reached the square. The ground was shaking, parts of the ruined square went up, a few people fell into cracks as they lost their footing. Systems of armor send panic signal after panic signal, recommending escape from the zone of seismic activity, forcing Aranea to manually shut them down. Finally, the horror was ending, and the tremors were dying out.

Through dust and smoke came running people. Some with grievous injuries, some were unharmed. A few of them were without anti-heat suits, and Aranea saw pure horror on the faces of these people. Green mist came behind them, slowly enveloping those who were too slow. Those who wore suits only lasted a moment as the clothes were being removed, nay, being eaten away from them. Then they suffered the same fate as others, their skin was gone in a moment, revealing muscles and flesh underneath. Before even a scream could leave their lips, holes appeared on their bodies, tendons were ripped, and bodies fell on the ground, slowly disappearing into a bloody mist. A figure was walking behind running people. The armor was bulky, and the hands and legs of the armor were clearly oversized for the person inside. The helmet was in spherical form, and the faceplate was made of armored glass, revealing the face of a woman with short white hair inside. Her pupils were enlarged, giving her a crazy look. Yet her face was otherwise calm, her lips were in a thin line, and an almost bored expression was on her face. Green mist was coming from holes in the shoulderpads. Everything the mist touched turned to ash, but the armor of this new foe and the ground remained unaffected by the green poison.

"Fire! Eliminate the enemy!" The lieutenant commanded, breaking away from Aranea, "Sergeant, why are you still here? into the truck and leg it! Move it people, those who can’t fight, get the hell away from here!"

The tank moved forward, the last massive vehicle that was still intact. It unleashed two shells at the coming foe, only for them to disappear in the mist. Flamer fired next, but fire was devoured by green mist as well. The machineguns of the tank began firing, the wolfkins joined in an effort to kill the coming enemy, yet once again the blasted mist was devouring everything, allowing nothing to come through.

"How are we going to stop this?" Aranea thought in shock as the tank tried to move backward, yet green mist leaped forward, like a hungry animal, licking caterpillar tracks, ruining them and enveloping the machine, turning it into dust.

"I have an idea how to slow down the enemy!" Sly shouted, "Fifty-fifty, it may work or not."

"On it, then. Yuki, help him and keep him safe," Aranea commanded, "Everyone, leave with our allies. Sly, Kostya, Kaleb, Yuki, and I will stay behind and try to stop her."

"I am staying as well." Kate grunted in pain. Aranea wanted to refuse, but there was no time. She simply nodded as Kate threw up her rifle and fired. The laser beam reached the walking figure but failed to penetrate the armor glass.

"But we need to somehow make her follow us!" Yuki screamed as she ran to the west with Sly. The rest of the group moved north under the command of the lieutenant. Tiny wanted to stay, but Yuki growled at her, commanding her to leave. Only Aranea and her team were left on the square, green mist was coming close to them through a ruined tunnel made by the bulk of the former skyscraper. Kaleb grabbed Kate into his hands, carrying her. For the first time, the scout ignored this and instead reached with her claws into the wound on her shoulder.

"Kate, what the hell?" Aranea asked.

"Just trust her on this." Kaleb silently asked, as the scout was tearing flesh out of her shoulder. The walking figure stumbled, falling on her hands as the ground underneath her gave in. Slowly, she stood up, green mist still coming out of her shoulders. The foe mockingly removed dirt from her armor before resuming her advance.

"I can’t stop her," Kate said in desperation, "No matter what, she is simply way out of my league! Kaleb, open my belly, I need to pay more…"

"It’s ok," Kaleb responded, his voice surprisingly calm. "No need to hurt yourself anymore. I will figure something out.

Aranea wondered about this situation for a moment, and then she saw a silver rifle on the ground. It was a sheer miracle that this thing was unharmed in all the chaos. Without thinking, she grabbed it. The figure was slowly changing course, aiming to move after the military retreating to the north. Aranea took aim at the walking calamity. And pressed the trigger.

She felt as if something had hit her like a sledgehammer. The recoil of the gun surprised even the wolf hag. A tiny little crack appeared on the shoulder of the figure, and woman looked at Aranea.

And then she began running toward the wolf hag.

"All set!" screamed Sly, "Lead her to this place." Sly sent an image of the street to the west.

"You heard the man, people, leg it. "Aranea took aim again, firing another shot. The figure threw up her hand just before Aranea could press the trigger. A crack appeared on her hand.

Mist almost reached the legs of Aranea, and she jumped away, running after the rest of her pack.

"Sly! A silver rifle able to hurt enemy. Explain!" Aranea shouted, picking up Kaleb with Kate still in his arms and pushing them forward. She sent records of the shots that were captured by the cameras on her armor to the wolfkin.

"I can’t tell everything right now… But you seen how this mist dissolves everything? This rifle accelerates projectiles to such a speed that mist fails to take them apart in time, something breaks through and hurts enemy." Sly made a guess.

"Sadly, not hard enough." Aranea grimly responded, pushing through the indicated place. She noticed that a few stones in the ground were hastily taken out and put back.

The halfbreed dashed across the street, almost carrying Kaleb, while green mist closed in on her. Buildings to the left and right were falling, heart of the city was slowly becoming an empty place, as everything was turning to dust. Through cameras in Sly's armor, Aranea saw how the enemy stepped into the designated arena behind her.

Sly pressed the button on his armor and explosives hidden underneath the stones went off. Aranea turned and saw how flames engulfed the figure, causing it to fall underneath the ground. For the first time, a surprising expression was on the face of a woman, before she disappeared in a torrent of stone, fire, and earth.

"Yes!" screamed Sly, "There was once a subway in this place. The place is no longer working, but there is a pretty deep hole underneath! Hopefully she is either dead, or will be stalled long enough for us to…"

"ENOUGH" A voice boomed from the underground and the ground all around the soldiers began to fall. Buildings started sliding down, the stones began to turn into dust. Everything around them was slowly crumbling, as the field of destruction slowly spread across the city. The ground cracked underneath Aranea’s legs and she fell. Stone slammed wolf hag into the face, breaking armor, and darkness came upon her.

Aranea woke up, feeling blood on her snout. She tried to move her arm and understood that a stone was pressing her down. Half of her body was covered with rubble. In fear, she checked signs of her armor and saw that her pack was still alive. Yuki and Sly were buried nearby. She could see that Kaleb and Kate were lying unconscious to her left. Kostya lay to the right, trying desperately to get out from under the rubble. The place surrounding them was half dark. Bright rays of light were shooting from above.

The woman in weird armor was standing before Aranea. The wolf hag heard a hissing sound, as the spherical helm came apart, revealing the face of the foe. The woman took a breath, which reminded Aranea hiss of a snake.

"Bitch," The enemy said, but her voice managed to sound bored, "I hate overextending myself.," Aranea looked up and saw that the skin at the corners of the lips of the enemy was torn. The woman lifted her hand, touching her lips, "Blasted recoil. I will make sure to make you pay for causing this," A foot crashed on the head of the wolf hag, smashing her into the ground, "What comes next is just your own damn fault. You could have died easily, but no, you just had to choose to incite blood debt."

"Lady Blaguna?" Aranea heard the noise and the sound of someone landing. By the sound of his voice, this was Chort, with two enemies from before, "Foes are on the run. King was expecting you to...

"He will understand, mercenary," The woman calmly spoke in response, "I know him far better than you can ever hope to," Aranea felt her bones cracking underneath the pressure of Blaguna’s foot. "I owe this bitch a blood debt. Time to collect."

"Lady Nokto... City, the entire city was…" came the voice of the female silver mask. The woman sounded genuinely shocked. "People, so many had…"

"Acceptable losses. I always hated this stinking place, now we no longer have any need to protect it." Blaguna responded carelessly, increasing pressure on the head of the wolf hag slightly.

"But… This is no work of heroes…"

"Ah, relax my dear!" Yasen laughed somewhere nearby. "Heroes are the ones who are left alive to write the story. Don’t worry, history will mark you as a saint, if you want to."

"We surrender." Aranea forced herself to say. "We can’t fight anymore…"

The foot lifted from her head, crashing onto her shoulder, the armored heel pushed the metal of Aranea's power armor aside and pierced the skin of the wolf hag.

"And you think that I will simply accept your surrender? After you dared to make me bleed?" The woman mocked.

"Lady Nokto!" shouted the voice of the silver mask again, this time in desperation, "The enemy accepted my surrender and allowed me to keep my life! They are worthy of being treated as prisoners! The Reclamation Army may be evil, but they follow a code of…" She stopped as the cruel woman began to laugh.

"You are Geldi, right?" Blaguna asked, still laughing. "My, I have never expected you to be this wicked."

"Wicked?" Geldi asked in confusion, "Lady, these are enemies who surrender, we ought to…"

"No matter," Blaguna responded to her, stopping laughing. "I will allow you to indulge in this impulse. I do have a blood debt to settle with this scum. Chort make some servants, I need someone to drag these scums into my fortress." The leg slammed into the back of Aranea’s head, knocking her out.

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