Chapter 38: Chapter 32

The Regulator broke through the stone roof, his force turned stones that had endured several shellings into pieces of rubble. The force behind his initial kinetic bubble was so great that it sent pieces of stone flying all the way from the palace, across the square, and crashing straight into the building, collapsing large chunks of stone from the apartment walls. His power reached all the way to the sky, making a tiny dot of clouds above the battlefield to part itself.

Like a deity from an ancient time, his arrival was announced by laughter and destruction. Yasen rose in the air, his yellow cape beating behind his back like phoenix wings, the jewels and brilliants on his helmet shining brightly under the sunlight coming from above. Waves of force were coming from his feet, pushing his body up and making the regulator hover in the air while he spread his arms wide, palms facing the sky above him. A force was unleashed from his palms, making an arc in the air before landing on the roof where Tiny and her team were, forcing the entire pack to fall to a floor below. Yasen laughed, seeing how the explosions around Chort disappeared.

"Glorious victory is at hand! Brothers, sisters, join the fray and write your names into our legacy!" Yasen slapped both palms over his head and missiles and shells flew from behind him, aiming for Aranea and the rest of her pack in the south.

"Everyone into cover!" Aranea hit the floor with her leg, breaking the wood and stone and allowing herself to fall onto the floor below, joined by the rest of her pack. A moment later, the upper floor exploded, the shells and the missiles sent a shockwave, pushing Aranea onto her knee, most of her troops were thrown off their feet. On the street before the building, Leila jumped back to the cover of the building, still holding the unconscious guard in her hand. The place where she stood sank a good meter down when Yasen made an overhead gesture with both arms, bringing his power down like a hammer.

Where, where is the attack coming from!? Aranea tried to quickly think about who could attack them. According to the reports, the defensive positions around the palace were taken down, and turrets and artillery installations within the palace were taken down as well in the prior attack. So who…

The warlord stood up, blood running down from a wound in her chest while she pointed a revolver at Yasen. The regulator turned his helmet to look at her, pointing both his arms before himself when Chort leaped from the dying clouds of smoke around him. His legs became three fingered columns of elastic bone, she charged across the battlefield far faster than any car could, tearing stone from the ground with each step. His hands turned to white bone up to his wrists, ten hooked claws trembled at the anticipation of burrowing within the warlord’s flesh. He was almost on her when Martyshkina calmly turned the revolver on him, firing at point blank. To save himself, Chort pushed his left arm in front of the incoming bullet.

Martyshkina fired two shots. Impossibly fast and with deadly precision, one bullet ended up cracking the bone surface of the enemy’s hand and getting stuck in the palm, between the thumb and the index finger. The second bullet pushed the first bullet even further, widening the cracks in the arm and shattering the bone for good. Finally, Aranea understood just how the warlord injured the mercenary during their first fight. Chort’s face turned into a mask of pain, and one of his eyes twitched from pain. The surface of his hand was covered by elastic bone, but his insides were still made from flesh and blood. Four fingers of the left hand fell off, the thumb of the mercenary slithered toward the warlord, expanding itself like a balloon, merging with the damaged area around the wrist and becoming a tendril of pale flesh. This tendril wrapped itself around Martyshkina’s shoulder. Chort tried to throw the warlord off her feet when his mouth opened from pain. Her foot was buried in his abdomen, the sharp claws pierced whatever passed for his solar plexus. With her ammunition nearing its end, Martyshkina decided to fight in close combat.

The mercenary’s right hand moved like a flash of lightning, his claws ran over the toes buried in his flesh, and Martyshkina croaked from pain, jerking off her suddenly bloody toe. Several bloody claws were left in Chort’s flesh, only to be spat out by his body. Her little toe was severed, small traces of blood were left on the ground while the warlord evaded the incoming hit of the mercenary. Martyshkina moved one of the revolvers to her belt, stubbornly refusing to let go of her weapon, and unleashed the claws on her paw, weaving a net of cutting slashes around the two fighters. There was no grace in the warlord’s movements, the strain on her body was visible even to the naked eye, despite her power armor. Martyshkina tried to lure in the mercenary with wide slashes, leaving herself falsefully open for the enemy. Each time when the mercenary closed in on her, she responded with a full power thrust of her claws, aiming to bisect the enemy.

The eyes on the mercenary’s body disappeared, turning back to skin, his wounds no longer healed nearly instantaneously. Just like his opponent, Chort too was running on fumes, but he stubbornly refused to retreat, aiming to finish off the warlord before him. He no longer allowed the warlord to catch him with flukes, he was fully content with weathering down the foe before him with quick cuts and slashes, refusing to match his physical strength against hers and covering the ground with Martyshkina’s blood.

While Aranea was busy pulling the rubble from her body, Sonya and her pack were the only one who remained untouched by the incoming fire. The former wolf hag tried to take aim at Chort, but quickly abandoned this idea out of worry of harming the warlord. Instead, they opened fire on the Yasen, who was hovering over the palace. Armor-piercing shards stopped a good thirty centimeters from his body, becoming stuck in an orb of force that surrounded the regulator. While the shards were falling, Yasen turned to look at Sonya’s pack and made a thrusting motion with his arm, sending a wide wave of kinetic force that collapsed three floors in the building where Sonya and her pack were, dropping the wolfkins all the way to the ground floor in a torrent of rubble.

When Yasen appeared, Carty took a moment too long trying to take aim at him, unsure if she should leave the prisoner or try to eliminate the new enemy. Her focus was on Yasen, and this cost the scout when the guard reached her leg with a hand. Not even a thick layer of armor saved Carty from the power of her opponent, Aranea could see how Carty’s life signs jumped all over the place, in a span of a second, she suffered a cardiac arrest, suffocation, when her lungs briefly exhaled all oxygen and refused to inhale air, and finally partial paralysis of her body, when her limbs gave in from a surge of pain that speared her body. The scout made three steps back in a frantic motion before falling onto the ground.

According to reports of the investigation bureau, the power of this guard lay in sending some sort of energy impulse within a victim’s body. This impulse then lingered within the body, triggering pain receptors over and over again. Depending on the amount of power that the guard sends in, her unnatural ability could easily replicate a death from pain when the heart itself stops because the body can take no more pain.

However, against a member of the Wolf Tribe, even such extremes were of no use. They were not the strongest of the new breeds in the world, nor were they the smartest. They had neither the amazing regenerative power of trolls nor the impressive physique of orais. But they were built by the nature of the new world to endure and tough on through the pain. Carty’s heart pushed a beat, followed by another beat, she growled, inhaling air in her strained lungs. Her body jerked on the ground, while the scout tried to stand up.

The royal guard stood up, briefly looking around and charging at Carty, one arm raised for a finishing blow. Aranea finally threw away a large piece of rubble, finding her rail gun. She leaped toward the window, fully understanding that she was simply too late to shoot down this foe.

A wave of force hit both Carty and the guard, causing the scout to gasp for air and breaking the elite guard in two. Before microphones built into Carty’s armor popped up under the pressure, Aranea heard a loud snap of the enemy's spine. The guard unwillingly saved the scout from a wave of force from Yasen when she towered over the fallen foe.

"Sir! You just hit…" The guard who fought against Sly said through the pain in his voice.

"Her sacrifice will never be forgotten." Yasen said dismissively, ignoring the sight of his own soldier on the ground. The woman’s body was twitching, and blood was pushing through the cracks in her armor. The regulator pointed his arm, intending to finish off Carty. His second arm pointed at Sly.

Yasen screamed in pain when crimson laser lights came from the ruins of a building where Annie’s pack were. Several drones, equipment usually abandoned by packs in the heat of battle, were activated amidst the chaos of a battle. Yasen looked at the three flying machines that were lifting themselves from the ruins and clapped his arms, unleashing a single burst of energy that swapped them to the ground before they could even reach the skies. Before he could turn to finish his deed, two more hits hit from the back and a new video feedback came onto Aranea’s helmet.

"Ha! Never knew you had it in you, Lucendra!" Sly shouted, throwing his opponent onto the ground.

"Sly, immediately get to cover!" Aranea shouted. She checked the position of all members, noticing something in surprise, "Tiny, get Carty from the danger zone! Gin, don’t you dare to leave the cover!"

"Yes, I need help!" Lucendra said over the communication, "I can’t… I can’t operate them all myself, it's just too much!" She screamed, and Aranea briefly saw how a blue was almost on her. The creature sneaked around the soldiers, allowing his own kin to die in droves. Intelligence or instinct drove this being to seek a vulnerable prey. Whatever it was, before the creature could attack Lucendra, who sat in half a ruined room in front of a portable terminal, a pair of knives hit the creature at the shoulders, going all the way to the waist and leaving four parts on the floor.

"Coward. You are disgracing Dragena’s name," Annie spat the words to her soldier, turning to continue the massacre. Amidst the dying greenies around her, the wolf hag shook her head and said, "Keep up the good work, Lucendra."

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"It doesn’t matter!" Yasen laughed like a madman, turning around and smashing away the drones. Burn marks decorated his armor, his cape was on fire, but aside from that, the regulator was unharmed, "You no longer have the numbers!"

Aranea could see what he meant. Before the drones were destroyed, they showed her a column of hover tanks that were moving toward the palace to reinforce the defenders without doubt. With the warlord still locked in deadly combat with the mercenary, the simple arrival of fresh forces was enough to tilt the tide of battle in their favor.

No more. Aranea bit her lip, contacting the regular army, who were still nearby. She saw icons of Ursico and Olesya, of all the people coming to reinforce them. The surprise lasted only a moment before a smile appeared on her lips: "Olesya, I need your pack to help Annie, they are locked in close combat with the enemy creature. And if your cannon can shoot down the vulture, I will be much obliged."

"All in a day's work. Don’t you dare to die, Ari. And keep my warlord safe." Olesya replied, leading her pack behind the battlefield. According to the video feed, the wolf hag used her own body to break the walls of the building, making a new route for her troops.

"Lieutenant, I need to take command over our allies. I am transmitting the coordinates, use heavy weapon to greet our new guests." Aranea said. She saw how Tiny leaped across the battlefield toward Carty. The scout fell from the roof when Yasen unleashed his power, her weapon was lost, but she herself was unharmed. The power armor absorbed all the impact from the fall, and now Tiny reached two bodies on the ground. She briefly and carefully checked the enemy, sending a confirmation about the enemy’s death, and threw Carty over the shoulder.

"This… Is… What… I… Get… For… Listening… To… You!" Carty hissed.

"I am sorry, I am sorry!" Tiny responded quickly, "I can carry you in both hands, if…"

"Don’t… Dare!" Carty managed to say.

Yasen saw the retreating soldiers and pointed a finger at them. The blast of energy never came from his finger, for searing hot energy beams came from inside the ruined east building. Olesya, accompanied by two scouts with energy rifles, fired at Yasen. The rest of her pack struck at the backs of the creatures, removing the last enemies who were busy fighting against Annie's pack.

A bubble of kinetic force around Yasen did little to protect him from the energy beams. Two crimson streaks of light melted his knee pad and pauldron, a beam of overheated white from Olesya’s shoulder cannon melted away the armor on his right arm, leaving Yasen alive by sheer miracle. The regulator howled in pain, grabbing molten metal on his arm, the pinky of his right hand was missing, evaporated in an instance by Olesya’s fire.

"This… You all are going to die either wa…" Yasen stopped when an ordinance flew over his head, landing roughly in the pack of his reinforcements. The regulator cast only one glance toward what was going on a street leading to the palace, returned his gaze to Olesya, who was aiming at him, and silently flew up to the skies, speeding himself up in the same way he ran from the previous battle.

"Olesya, aim at the mercenary and prepare to fight at my command! Tiny, if any of your pack still have ordinance, now is…" Aranea’s words died in her throat when she saw a new development on the battlefield.

An oval of pure darkness opened in front of the palace. A perfect round hole, six meters in diameter. The surface of the hole looked like a pool of water. Like a figure that was coming from underneath the water, someone came from inside the oval, disrupting the darkness that clung to the newcomer like glue.

An armored foot, easily the size of a shaman, stepped on the stone square before the palace, followed by another massive leg. Robes of pure purple fell from an armored waist, covering the legs fully, while the newcomer was pushing his upper body through the darkness.

"New target, fire at will!" Aranea snapped, unwilling to wait and see who it was. She lifted her rail gun, firing a direct shot into the center of the mass, joined by Olesya and the entire Sonya pack. Even some artillery shells from Ursico and his team joined in the fury. A ball of plasma, sped up by a rail gun. A beam of pure light from Olesya. Shells and armor-piercing shards. The incoming barrage hit the newcomer, landing on whoever it was with almost pristine accuracy, the slow movements of the newcomer, arrested by the darkness of the oval, allowed for this miracle. Meanwhile, Olesya's pack was joined by Annie's pack, the wolfkins fired at Chort from the ruins, pushing the mercenary away from the heavy panting warlord.

A bright explosion covered the black oval, hiding it from Aranea’s eyes in a cloud of smoke. The black oval popped, disappearing soundlessly in the air, parts of darkness dying out in the open light, like a morning shadow before the coming sun.

"Everyone, prepare to fire ag…" Aranea started speaking, seeing a green light coming to life within the cloud of smoke.

A line of sickly green light came from inside the smoke, finding Martyshkina’s chest and throwing the warlord, back. A beam of unknown energy melted through her armor, speared her right beneath her heart, separated her spinal column, and threw the warlord’s body across the stone ground. Aranea stopped, looking at this in pure confusion. The warlords were the strongest in the Tribe. They were not meant to be fell so… Easily.

"Confirm the target! Who is it?" Aranea shook the confusion, "Olesya, on my command, grab the warlord, pull her out of the danger zone!"

A figure clad in heavy armor plates came from within the cloud of smoke, announcing his arrival with heavy and regal steps. Regal purple robes covered the mighty bulk, leaving both arms open. A massive mechanical backpack was on the back of the foe, half shrouded by the robes. Gilded horns were pointed to the sky, while the newcomer was looking at the sight of the battlefield through the lenses of his helmet. A green stone was located on the left arm of the giant, the moment he took a second step, the stone exploded, making the giant look at it in annoyance. The wolfkins fired at him and their ammunition, both energy and physical one, exploded helplessly against a shield that came into being around the foe. With the sound of a roaring engine, two steel columns started to move up and down on the backpack of the newcomer, powering up the internal systems of the brutish looking, yet so advanced power armor of the enemy.

King came to the battlefield in person. The leader of the Resistance was here.

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