Chapter 39: Chapter 33

King stepped forward, shaking the ground with each step. A searing hot white beam came from Olesya’s mounted cannon and King’s orange, and the black lens threw a glance at her, while the energy beam was stopped dead by the shield of energy, washing around a sphere that encompassed the massive body, keeping him safe from harm. The ground around the sphere melted and flowed, several dead bodies turned to ash, along with their armors, their ammunition detonated, but King himself stood unafraid. The only sound that came from him was that of the energy reactor at his back, the sound of two steel columns rising and slamming back into his backpack, pumping energy into his power armor.

The moment the beam stopped its onslaught, King threw up his arm, pointing his gigantic, excavator-bucket-like, gauntlet at Olesya. Energy ran across his power armor, brimming with bright light and coalescing on the tips of his gauntlet. Olesya grabbed two scouts at her side, jumping to the side just in time to evade a beam of utter darkness that came free from King’s steel hand. The beam speared the building, creating a gap as tall as the entire floor and evaporating a member of Olesya’s pack, two members of Annie’s pack, and taking the arm of one of the scouts.

While the beam was still being fired at Olesya, shards speared the King’s purple robes, becoming stuck in the thick armor plates beneath. King turned his massive head to the side, looking into the direction of Sonya’s group, and lifted his second arm. Once, more energy ran across his arm, gathering into a small ball at the tip of his armored gauntlet, bursting forward in a series of beams from within the rapidly becoming smaller beam of energy. Sonya jumped to the side, dragging Sly and the prisoner away. The beams hit the building. While lacking the piercing power of the original beam, they still melted through the first wall, taking away a leg of one of the warriors and exploding against walls within the apartment, covering the soldiers within in rubble. Aranea quickly sent for an update, and Sonya reported that most of her group were still alive.

"Kayleen!" Aranea heard the shout of Annie, filled with worry. She wanted to take over, but the fellow wolf hag quickly shook her head, resuming her cool, "Everyone, eyes on the enemy. The moment he moves his arm, duck to the side. You two!" She shouted to Kaleb and Kate, "Get the wounded to Svetlana at once and keep her away from her!"

"Sly, we need a distraction. Help Lucendra in taking command of the drones." Aranea said over communication.

"But what for? This dude is…"

"We need to get the warlord away," Aranea looked at the battlefield, noticing the tatter robes of King, "And… I have an idea how to drop the big guy." She quickly started to explain her plan to her allies.

Chort turned to face King. The mercenary quickly threw a glance across the battlefield, noticing how buildings where the wolfkins were taking their positions were slowly turning to rubble. The upper floors were crashing, covering the soldiers with stone and dust.

"Sir. I did not expect your arrival." Chort addressed his superior.

"How could I miss the opportunity to fight alongside the greatest warrior among our forces?!" King’s voice boomed triumphally while he walked toward the mercenary and put his hand on the mercenary’s shoulder, "My dearest friend, claim your trophy," King nodded at the downed warlord and the mercenary smiled to him, standing at attention, "I have a declaration to make."

The armored figure walked forward, spreading arms wide. The joints of King’s armor moved soundlessly, unlike the power armors of Regulators or Soultakers, there was not even a hint of sound when armored plates shifted, allowing King greater mobility. His tattered robes billowed in the wind, while twin energy balls came into existence in his gauntlets, causing his shadow to fall on the palace behind him, covering it all the way to the roof.

“Reclaimers! Your warlord has been felled by our might!” When King shouted to the wolfkins, his booming voice betrayed just a hint of cold arrogance, “Your weapons are useless, and any hope of your victory was just taken away from you. I offer you mercy!” King yelled to the wolfkins, the dynamics of his armor increasing the volume of his voice even more, causing the remains of glass windows to tremble and crack in a few miraculously untouched apartments, “The head of the one who led the troops against us is for our greatest champion to claim. Drop your weapons and leave! Run away, spreading the word about our might! Crawl back to the dirt holes from which you came, and this will be the end of it! Refuse and you will meet your end in our city!”

He was met with gunfire as a response. King allowed balls of energy on his gauntlets to disappear, making the energy shield come into being around himself instead. With a booming laughter he weathered the assault, while Aranea jumped from the building onto the stone ground, running toward King, feeling how her heartbeat was increasing with every step. She based her entire plan on a hunch, and if she was wrong…

Chort darted toward Martyshkina, changing one of his arms to a bone sword. He cursed, jumping back when several drones came from the sky, firing at him. The mercenary lifted his arm, changing his fingers back to the tubes that were able to shoot bone projectiles once more.

"Olesya, Leila, now!" Aranea snarled, but both had already started their movement without any need for her command.

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A laser beam from Leila’s rifle melted away the flesh on Chort’s shoulder, revealing scorched bones beneath. Cursing out loud, the mercenary pointed his hand at the building where Leila was, firing a shot and making the soldiers within duck from cover. When he turned to face the drones, Olesya charged into him, pushing the mercenary a good step back. The wolf hag tried to jump back, and the mercenary grabbed her by the sides, pushing a sword to the side of her power armor. Aranea knew full well just how strong Olesya could be now and how powerful her armor was. Yet right now, Chort threw her away as if she was a cub, leaving a large slash on her armor and failing to reach the body beneath simply because drones attacked him.

Olesya landed on her back, rolling to her warlord ungracefully. She grabbed the bleeding warlord under her armpits. The metal on the back of her armor opened, allowing a strange device to come out. Aranea saw how Olesya was about to fly into the air, her body moved a good two meters up, before she and the warlord came crashing down when the enraged mercenary sent a bone shard into the device on Olesya’s back.

King raised one arm, timing his movement to coincide with the end of the attack on him. The soldiers took a moment to reload their weapons, and energy once again ran across King’s armor, this time coming in the form of a net of lightning from his gauntlet, hitting across the drones hovering in the air and opening a path for Chort. The machines twitched in the air, their small metal bodies cracked and exploded when lightning detonated the ammunition within them. King let out a laugh, seeing the explosions in the air.

It was at this moment that Aranea closed in on him, stopping less than two steps from a towering body. King was tall, easily reaching the size of a warlord in his armor. His head moved to look at her and she fired at him.

The energy that was coming from his hand stopped just a moment before her finger pressed the trigger. An overheated ball of plasma that was sped up by her railgun hit him in the center of his body. The energy shield came from his armor, pushing the projectile to the right side of his body, but this time King was too late. Her shot found its mark, tearing through armor plates on his right, spearing through them and exploding against the palace walls, leaving a human-sized hole in the armored walls. The King clutched the side of his body with one arm, and Aranea heard the cracking sound of electricity from within. Some tubes fell from the torn part of the power armor, setting King’s robes aflame. A strange pale white liquid dripped from the destroyed part of his armor, hissing against the stone.

King never groaned from pain. Aranea wasn’t even sure that her shot reached his body. She jumped back when his massive body moved towards her with impressive speed, his left hand crashed into the stone ground where she stood a moment ago, the force behind the blow allowed his arm to come into the stone ground all the way to the elbow. When Aranea tried to fire at King again, she felt tremors beneath her legs. The ground around King exploded, sending the wolf hag flying backward. Energy came from beneath the ground, spreading in a circle from King’s buried fist. Waves of energy licked Aranea’s armor, leaving burning marks on her while the wolf hag crashed on the ground, rolling to the side and dropping her weapon.

"A mere puppet dares to attack me? For what reason do you seek your demise so soon?" King asked, straightening himself up. Aranea warily looked at him. His movements had impressive speed and power behind them, but she was sure that he was a complete amateur. His posture left countless openings. Even now he barely bothered to look across the battlefield for possible dangers, "Matter not. Have your wish granted and be washed away from this world." He moved his right hand away from the damaged side and pointed the gauntlet at Aranea. Gunfire hit him, but both shards and energy beams washed harmlessly away from the gleaming energy bubble that separated him from Aranea. The wolf hag lowered her body, taking aim at King. The moment his shield comes down, she will leap for her weapon. If she runs, King will turn his attention to her soldiers.

King’s head moved, when he heard how Chort cursed. Leila fired again, missing the mercenary but forcing him to back off and giving Olesya time to leap for cover. The mercenary charged after the wolf hag, and Annie jumped in front of him. Her knives struck forward, aiming for Chort’s neck. The mercenary spared her not even a glance. A single kick from his sent the wolf hag all the way back into ruins, shattering the armor around her waist along with the left side of her pelvis. The mercenary was forced to take a step back when Gin fired Tiny’s missile launched at him, the upper body of the mercenary shifted to the side, allowing the missile to explode behind him, leaving his back covered with cuts. Leila picked this time to take aim at him again.

"So be it, die all of you." King said, and the devices at his back worked even faster when he moved up his left arm, taking aim at Leila. Energy ran across his armor while his shield was still on, and Aranea felt a tingle of fear running down her spine.

She leapt for her weapon and the bubble burst, leaving her with not enough time. With her crimson eye, she could see the energy that was about to be unleashed on her and on her soldiers. I faile…

A wall of water rose in front of her, devouring the coming energy blast. The water hissed, turning to steam, while the energy beam tried to burrow its way toward Aranea. More and more water came to meet it, stopping the energy dead. The wolf hag looked around in confusion, noticing that water was appearing at the ground level, literally being willed into existence by some unknown force. She heard a sound behind her and looked back, noticing a second water wall in front of the building where Leila and the others were. This wall also stopped the searing energy beam from reaching the soldiers, sending steam high into the air.

"I will be the one who will decide who lives and who dies, false king," A cold voice said, and clouds of smoke above the battlefield parted. A body covered in blue scales pushed within, sending a burst of wind strong enough to make Aranea struggle to keep her feet. Ivar came to a halt just before the claws on his legs could touch the ground, the wingspan of his mighty wings nearly covered the entire square. The elongated head looked down on King, his shadow left King standing in utter darkness, "Bow to the Dynast and mercy will be given. Otherwise, death."

"Darkness is always the thickest before the dawn," King responded, lifting an arm and pointing at Ivar, "We claimed a warlord on this day. Might as well claim a captain as well."

"You will find this darkness too great for your false light to pierce," Ivar responded, and a beam of crimson light shot out of King's gauntlet, crashing into the rising water in front of the captain. Ivar looked disinterested at the hissing water before him, his tail moving. The claw at the end of his tail found the rail gun and sent it into Aranea’s paws, "Wolf hag, stay alive and distract the other one. I will end the tyrant myself."

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