Chapter 8: Chapter 7

Valerye walked from the ruined steel platform, accompanied by booming sounds of her steps. Each of her steps left a mark on the stone floor, causing the room to tremble slightly. Without her armor, she weighed over four hundred kilograms. With her power armor on, she easily weighed over a ton. Chort was still breathing heavily, trying to stand up. Yasen froze in place. Valerye looked around, noticing the dead bodies of allies. Aranea was surprised to see just how small the warlord was. Standing upright now and in the full advanced armor of the warlord, she was still barely taller than Aranea was.

Valerye looked at the dead soldiers, dead wolfkins, and noticed wounded Leila, Gin, and finally Tiny, who bit her own armored hand to stop screaming. The scout was growling in shame, tears streaming from her eyes despite her best efforts to bear the pain. Gin was barely breathing, while Leila struggled to stand up, pressing her hand to the wound on her belly.

"My…" The voice of Valerye sounded strangely raspy and rough, each of her words was followed by a loud inhale of air. The warlord stopped, thinking for a word to describe what happened around her, "… Kin is injured, my kin is dead, my allies… Graagh!"

Valerye grabbed the left side of her helmet, right above her brow, with both paws. Her body twitched in pain, her shoulders shook slightly, her words became groans of pain. The warlord forcibly straightened herself, removing her paws from her helmet and looking up at the ceiling. Aranea remembered Kate's words about the brain damage that Valerye had suffered in the past. Could it hit her now, at the worst possible time?

"You," Chort half whispered, half shouted, trying to stand up. His body was already busy straightening up the broken bones, pushing them inside with a cracking sound, "I will make sure to make you eat dirt for what you have done to me."

His index finger on his right hand turned into a bone blade without a handle. The blade disconnected itself from the rest of the hand, falling into the mercenary's palm. Like a balloon, his dented side was expanding, fixing the injury before the very eyes of Aranea. Blindingly fast, Chort threw his new weapon, aiming at the throat of Valerye. Aranea screamed to warn her, but the warlord had already moved forward. The systems of her armor already had connected to the systems of the wolfkins, including to the systems of Aranea. She saw what the cameras on the other power armors could see. Her left hand swapped away a blade from the air, throwing it on the ground and the body of the warlord turned into a red streak, reappearing before Chort.

"We only have cold concrete here. Stand up, you might get a cold, old geezer," Foulsnout calmly said, sounding nothing like before. Now she was back in control, attentive and cautious, her posture just betrayed just a hint of arrogance, while the warlord sized up her foe. Even her breathing was even now. She kicked with her left leg, aiming for the face of the crouched mercenary. Chort dodged to the right and the leg struck the floor, causing the entire room to shake when the floor came apart because of the pressure behind the kick. Chort's hands moved to strike the exposed knee from both sides, his fingers aimed to attack the weak points of the warlord's power armor, places where armor plates were connecting with each other. Foulsnout punched with both of her arms, breaking the open palms of Chort. The mercenary groaned and jumped, landing on the warlord's knee and using it as a springboard to launch himself at the ceiling, shattering the armor on the warlord's knee in the process, "Wolf hag, scout, everybody else, protect the injured from debris." The warlord commanded, unbothered by the attack. Her voice was breaking between the calm and collected and the rasping voice from before. The red fur showed from the cracks within the armor. Meanwhile, Chort’s boots got torn asunder, bones came from his feet, biting deep into the stone of the ceiling. The mercenary looked down, buying time for his body to recover from the grievous wounds.

Without thinking much, Aranea jumped to protect an unconscious warrior who was lying closest to the battle between the warlord and the mercenary.

Valerye jumped up before Chort could use the ceiling as another springboard to launch himself at the warlord. Aranea saw how freakishly strong the mercenary was, yet the warlord was moving with ease. So far, she has suffered no wounds from her enemy. Her right leg crashed into the ceiling where Chort was just a moment ago. Her adversary had successfully evaded her attack and was jumping down, his hands slowly reforming. Cracks run across the ceiling, and large parts of it are broken into debris. Aranea smashed away a stone that nearly fell on the unconscious body before her. A large stone was falling on Tiny and Gin, but Leila smashed it away with her tail, ignoring the wound in her belly. The remaining members of Tiny’s and Leila’s packs dragged Sonya, Ursico, and the remaining normies away to safety.

The warlord followed down after Chort, and the right hand of the warlord struck with an overhead strike, aiming to smash the head of her opponent. Chort smiled at this strike, lifting his left arm up, taking the incoming blow on the wrist. The concrete floor below him erupted from the force of the blow that the warlord produced, but he himself looked unharmed.

"You really thought that I never killed your kind, doggie?" He chucked into the face of Foulsnout, "All I need is to dissipate the impact of your blow, letting it through my body and onto the fl…" His smile disappeared the moment his wrist cracked under the pressure, bones pulverized, resulting in his hand below the wrist dangling like a toy on a strap of flesh.

"Even with a body like yours, martial arts have their limits," Valerye calmly said, as her right fist opened, palm striking down like a blade of a sword. Chort backed down, but Valerye's fingers slashed through his clothes and skin, leaving a long, deep diagonal cut on his body. The warlord looked at her opponent and said, "You're running on fumes, old timer. With how liberal you were in creating your pet army, how much "material" do you still have in your own body to keep on going?"

"It’s not like he is alone here." Yasen said, pointing forward with two fingers. A wall of force was unleashed from his fingers, it charged across the room toward the warlord… only to be stopped dead by the simple backhanded strike of the left hand of the warlord. A loud boom was heard in the air, as kinetic energy failed to reach its target, crashed against the warlord's armor.

"Stay away, flea. I will kill you later, at my leisure." Valerye barely glanced at the regulator, continuing to advance on Chort without a halt.

"Yes, do stay away, Yasen. I am going to add someone to my collection," Chort chuckled, his hands twitching as they began changing into strange whip-like tendrils. The skin of the new flesh was pristine white. Soon, the color of his skin below his neck was changed to that of blinding white, "You ever heard about Anji, doggie?"

"It was you." This was not a question. There was no hint of anger in the voice of Foulsnout. To Aranea, this sounded more like a judge who was announcing the death sentence for a criminal.

Warlord Anji, ranked seventeen in power, died over thirty years ago in battle. Her killer was unknown. It was not unexpected, the Wolf Tribe often took revenge for their dead members. Aranea was surprised at the fact that Foulsnout could be so calm in the presence of the warlord's killer. If this mercenary truly killed the warlord, it meant that Chort was dangerous.

Chort stopped retreating and walked toward the warlord, his body visibly relaxed, his arms were loose at the sides of his body, and the biological whips almost touched the floor. A smile was on his face while wounds on his body were healing themselves.

Despite the fact that almost a quarter of the ceiling was destroyed, there were still lamps on the walls that were working in the room. There were also working lamps in the walkways and in the rooms above. This place was supposed to be always lit, to ease the guard duty of soldiers. There was no way to turn them off from inside the room. The shield generator was the thing that provided them with energy. And yet… when warlord and mercenary struck at each other, each lamp in the room and in the room above went dark. Their lives were ended, and darkness fell on the room. Only the lenses of fighters illuminated the absolute dark that fell. Oculars and sparks that were produced when Chort slammed his whips into the body of Valerye, crushing through her armor.

The moment when two unnaturally strong opponents crashed into each other resembled an explosion of grenades. The sonic boom produced by their initial collision pushed Aranea back several steps. For a brief moment, the fighters became a blur in her eyes, and it took her crimson eye some time to adjust and see what was going on within a new hurricane of violence. Chort no longer attempted to block attacks from the warlord, instead, each punch from the warlord into his chest, shoulders, or knee slipped off as Chort shifted his weight to the side. Blows that were supposed to crush bones were no longer effective, they were denting the pristine white body of the mercenary before harmlessly sliding to the side, giving the impression that Chort no longer had any bones in him. And yet, ineffective though they may be, when the blows land, they hurt. They tore skin away, reaching all the way to muscle fibers sometimes. They left huge bruises on the enemy’s body. The blows, honed by the training of the warlord, were not in vain. The mercenary's clothes were torn away, revealing an impressive physique of his upper body. A host of eyes opened across the pristine white body with beady blue eyes, tracking her every move, not allowing the warlord to attack Chort from the blind zone. Even on the back of the mercenary, new eyes opened.

Chort responded in kind, his biological whips slashing through both the stone of the floor and the steel of the armor. The only thing that could stop these weapons of death was the body of the warlord. The whip left a huge trail in the floor every time Foulsnout dodged, and every time she blocked with her arm, it still hit her across the back. As a result, the warlord almost abandons the idea of blocking. Each time the air screamed while the whip was moving for the strike, the warlord pushed ever onward, hitting and kicking. Her mechanical claws slid forward, placing themselves over the fingers, leaving deep wounds on the body of the mercenary, but Chort ignored the bleeding and terrible wounds. Both were giving their all, both only wanted to kill their opponent.

When the warlord made a straight punch with her left, Chort raised his right bio whip up. Like a flower, the tip of the whip opened itself, swallowing the warlord's hand whole. Aranea heard the cracking of the armor within the unnatural flytrap, the muscles of Chort's arm tried to collapse the arm of Valerye. His left hand shifted, becoming a fist at the end of the whip. He punched the warlord into her open left side, breaking through the armor. She responded with a punch from her right arm, aiming for the smiling face. Like a snake, Chort tilted his head at an impossible angle, to dodge the incoming punch. His head, the only part of his body that still had natural color, narrowly evaded the attack. His smile was cut short, for the warlord was not finished. She kicked him in the right side of his body, propelling the mercenary backwards and popping several eyes on his body. His flytrap was torn away by the warlord, she cut her arm free from his embrace, tearing through his flesh with her mechanical claws. Both fighters took but a moment to catch their breaths before charging at each other once more.

Finally, a shift was happening in this cruel combat. Chort noticed that Valerye was always blocking hits that were supposed to land on her head. He smiled and concentrated all his attack, aiming to crack her helmet.

Aranea grabbed her rail gun, but instead of firing on Chort, she turned around, aiming at Yasen. The mercenary was too fast for her. Should she miss, she will kill their savior. The regulator, however, was a fair game. That and Aranea decided for herself that he had long overstayed his welcome in this world.

Yasen saw her movement, and a wall of force hit her before she could take aim. It slammed her against the wall. She clenched her fangs and tried to take aim again, only to have another attack hit her. Not even the regulator could break through her armor easily now. But this does not mean that she could hit him either or that she could endure his attacks for long. Aranea licked the blood off her lips and tried to move.

Leila stood up, one hand pressed to her wound, the other hand reaching for her helm. Aranea noticed that some encrypted messages were sent to her and to the warlord.

"What?" The half-wyrm said in confusion as she received the secret message. Unsured, she made a step toward Chort, "But…"

Behind her, Yasen raised his hand and pointed at Tiny and Gin. Aranea could almost feel how he was smiling underneath his faceplate:

"Two more warriors who dies because of you, dog girl." The air began to tremble at the tip of his finger.

"Leila! Drag them out of the line of fire!" The wolf hag screamed, trying to stand up, only to have another force blast hit her.

"But… orders…" Leila said, her voice sounding weak and indecisive. A blast was unleashed from the hand of Yasen, making the half wyrm roar and turn around, hitting force blast with her right hand, stopping it dead before it could reach the soldiers. Yasen said something in surprise when Leila smashed her fist into his faceplate, sending him flying into the pile of debris, half burying him, "Screw it. I'm not dying, and I'm not going to let anyone else die... Warlord, I am sorry, but I must protect my te…"

"You will stay out of the way. All of you." Foulsnout simply commanded, dodging the overhead strike and appearing behind Chort. Her left hand struck forward, aiming for the back of the head of the mercenary. Claws pierced his neck, but Chort only laughed, as bones came from behind his neck and from the back of his head. The eyes on his back warned him about the attack, and the mercenary was prepared to counter it. New bones did not pierce his skin, but rather they came from it smoothly, like a person who was slowly rising from underwater. The bones locked around the hand of Valerye, trapping the arm and starting to forcefully twist the arm aside.

Aranea stood up, wanting to fire, but noticed the eyes of Chort. The mercenary was waiting for her to take action. With the warlord trapped, should she fire and miss...

"Why?" Tiny asked in a deafened voice, clearly suffering from pain and shock. During the fight between Valerye and Chort, she crawled to Gin and now tried to stop his bleeding, "Why did you stand before me and take the blow that was meant for me? I can’t do even a fraction of the things that you can do, so why…"

"Are you one of those people who assign value to others just because of their powers? Would you act any different if you had my body? Would you let your team member die just because he or she is "inferior"?" Leila asked mockingly, sounding angry at the implication.

"No. But because of me, you will…" Tiny turned to examine Leila's wound, and the half wyrm laughed, slamming a palm over the wound.

"This? Don't worry, we wyrms are just built differently. You are my buddy, Tiny, and my comrade. I ain’t going to let any more people on my side die, not if I can help it. Neither will I die from this scratch…"

"Good to know." Yasen angrily crashed through rubble, sending a kinetic blast into the head of Leila. His helmet was cracked, revealing one eye, burning with hatred and rage. The blast slammed into her and moved her back a few steps, "Because I am intending to take my time taking you apart!"

More and more blasts hit Leila in the body, forcing her to move backwards. This time, Aranea had time to take aim. Yasen noticed this and backed down, releasing a wave of force into her. But she still pulled the trigger. In a hurry, she missed the neck of the regulator, but the tip of his right shoulder was gone in a flash. The screams of Yasen were silenced by the storm of sound that followed after the shot. The wave of force that Yasen unleashed on Aranea was just gone, torn apart by the shot of the rail gun. Despite the pain, Yasen quickly pointed his index finger at Aranea, and something unseen cracked against her left arm, slamming the wolf hag against the wall. Leila charged forward.

"How dare you make me bleed! You… you are just a bunch of animals, unworthy to even lick my boots!" Yasen pointed both hands at Leila, unleashing blasts of force as fast as he could, wielding his power like a machinegun. Aranea blinked in confusion, seeing how Leila pushed through them, she remembered all too well how he stopped the tank's shells. And then she smiled. In panic, Yasen did not bother to concentrate his power, he unleashed it as soon as he could, and thus the output of his power was weaker. Leila reached him, punching him right in the jaw and sending him upwards. Still in the air, Regulator screamed, more in anger than in pain, and unleashed new waves at both Aranea and Leila. This time, the wolf hag rolled around to dodge Yasen’s attack. Her enemy completely lost his head from anger and fear. She glanced back. Foulsnout was still struggling with the mercenary, behind the warlord was the main entrance.

Valerye helped herself with her right hand, almost clawing her left arm free from the new trap of Chort. And yet Chort still managed to do one last twist, dislocating several bones in the left arm of Foulsnout. The damage from the initial trap and the damage from the second trap piled on, causing the strain on her body. Chort smiled when he saw with the eyes on his back that the warlord backed down, he started turning around, the whip of his right-hand slicing through the air in a horizontal slice.

He expected his enemy to retreat and try to fix her hand. Or try to block the incoming attack. Instead, the warlord ducked, evading the blow from above. Chort hit with his left hand in an overhead strike. At this very moment, the warlord charged forward, passing between the legs of the mercenary, appearing behind him. He started turning back just as the warlord jumped into the air. Two heavy armored feet slammed right into the face of Chort. Into the single area that is still the same color as before. His jaws were shattered. The cartilage of his nose was pushed into his face. The left eye popped from pressure. And his body flew backwards.

The force of the blow sent him all the way through the main corridor. Through the steel doors that blocked the entrance to the shield facility. He crushed through them like a cannon ball. The steel doors did not even finish falling on the ground as Chort was still flying backward, crushing into the massive gates that led to the shield facility. There he stopped, his body made a dent in the gates but failed to break them. Blood flowed from his mouth, yet his numerous eyes was still focused only on the warlord.

Valerye charged right after him. Her form turned into a crimson streak as she charged from the facility. Her heavy right paw was raised above her head, preparing for a cruel hit. Chort could not survive it. Not with his face so horribly maimed, with his bones broken and shattered into pieces.

And the old mercenary knew it. As Chort's hands changed from bio whips back to the form of normal hands, the flesh flowed from his arms, forming another greenie in front of him. Chort slammed both his palms into the creature's back when it stood before him.

Valerye was on to the creature, ignoring its frail punches. The creature's hands hit the broken armor on the side and shoulder, of the warlord, and the eyes of Aranea widened in realization.

"It goes much harder through full armor," she remembered how Chort said these words to her. Chort planned to use the same technique that disabled two wolfkins on a warlord. The fiend somehow used the greenie before him as a conduit to send vibrations into the body of Foulsnout.

The warlord’s body shuddered, as if from receiving a heavy hit, yet her aim remained the same. Her punch tore through the body of greenie, landing right into the rising hands of Chort. Punch shattered his wrists and moved forward, reaching the head of the mercenary and sending him through the gates, forcing massive steel doors to bend…

"No!" Aranea stopped herself from cheering. This was not what happened just now. Yes, the punch of Valerye reached the wrists of Chort. But it was not her force that sent her foe through the gates. It was force that came from the mercenary. His legs rose and kicked through the dead body of his own creation, and he used the body of the warlord as a support to push himself back through the gates. The warlord received two hits, one came from vibration, causing her posture to shift and relax against her will. The next hit was the true one, two legs slammed into her belly, breaking through her armor and hitting her, forcing her to roll back. She would have blocked the second attack if not for the first. Chort read her like a book.

As much as it pained Aranea to admit it, Chort was truly a master. His body flew backwards, but it would be he who would recover first. His power allowed him to regenerate, Valerye could not recover from her injuries fast enough. The left hand of the warlord was still suffering from dislocated bones. The mercenary's right hand was already turning into the whip. Chort started to make somersaults, His head was over the ground. Aranea was sure that he was smiling, the damage on his face already starting to heal. In the meantime, Valerye still bears her wounds, not even her superior body could withstand the cruel kick of Chort, not when the mercenary forcibly relaxed the body of his enemy before landing his kick. Aranea could imagine what would happen next. The mercenary would land on the ground and charge the warlord before she could recover from the vibrations in her body. Weakened as she was, the warlord is bound to miss the next attack. By all rights, her opponents won this duel.

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And yet he lost. Aranea understood this when she looked at the radar, after countless signals joined her network. Chort understood this, when he looked to his left.

To his right were the cliffs. To his left was the route to the rear of forces of the Reclamation Army. The entire pack of the warlord Valerye Foulsnout, was there, taking aim at the mercenary. Aranea understood why Valerye was known as the perfect warlord. What she could not win with force, she would win with cooperation. Each and every one of her moves were calculated. Valerye lost as a fighter. She won as a commander. In the air, Chort could not dodge gunfire.

And he received it in full. He screamed in rage, striking with his whip-like arm toward the ground, his left side riddled with armor-piercing shards. His legs were shot away, his left hand was turned into bloody tatters. Using his remaining strength, Chort crashed into the ground, burrowing his way down with his remaining arm, leaving everything below his waist to his foes as he was running away into the depths of the ground, shapeshifting himself into a worm-like form.

Leila jumped in the air, grabbing Yasen by his leg. She slammed him into the debris before herself, only to be forced to let go of his leg when he shattered her helmet with panicked blasts of force. Aranea jumped at him, crushing her leg into his chest and pulling her gun nearly to his face.

Yasen gasped, feeling how the claws pierced his chest armor, feeling the claws on his skin, and then he flew away from the wolf hag. He could release blasts of force from his legs as well, and now used this technique to get away from his enemies. The regulator broke through the breach, stunned to see how the force of Foulsnout swarmed his own forces, who were busy clearing out wall defenders. Struck in the back, now faced with both defenders and a fresh aid, the attackers could not even retreat safely anymore. Dark smoke from the north was now flowing above the shield that surrounded state forces, enveloping defenders into a sphere of night.

"This changes nothing!" Yasen shouted, laughing like a maniac, "By now, the lady and her forces should already be in range and…"

He stopped in confusion. Aranea jumped on the wall. The enemies before her turned and ran as reinforcements came, abandoning their wounded and dead. Finally, the resolve of the Resistance was broken. She looked at the field and saw that Blaguna Nokto and her forces had not moved an inch. They were still at a comfortable distance, firing missiles and rockets at the shield.

"Looks like you have been duped by your boss, idiot." Aranea mocked, lifting her weapon, before jumping to the left, evading a new wave of force that slammed into the wall. The wall underneath her was shaking, when tremors from the start of the battle now caused the entire place to tremble. And still, Aranea could not tell what was going on and what was causing these weird vibrations in the ground.

"Back to our melee." Leila said, charging from the building. Her fist crashed through the wall of force from Yasen, slamming into his face again. He roared and pressed his right hand to the chest of the alf wyrm, releasing a wave of force strong enough to send her body into the air. On the com network, Aranea could hear how Leila groaned from pain. Yasen flew upward, not allowing Leila a chance to recover. His next blast sent her crashing face down against the ground. He lifted his hands above his head, creating a ball of force, focusing his power this time.

Aranea fired at him, missing once again. She intended to kill him by striking his chest, but her left arm failed her, the tremors underground caused her to misguide the trajectory as well, and all of this resulted in her moving the weapon to the left at the worst possible moment. The shot from the rail gun tore at the right side of Yasen, tearing away skin and muscle but leaving ribs and lungs untouched. Aranea missed by a lot, and something popped in her left shoulder, causing pain to rush across her body. The regulator screamed in terror and hurled a force ball at her. Aranea grabbed two injured people near her, not caring if they were friends or foes, and jumped from the wall, along with several other people.

When the ball of force hit the wall, a section of the wall, nearly five meters long, was gone, reduced to a pile of rubble. The people who failed to jump in time were buried under the stone, several life signals blinked for the last time before the eyes of Aranea, turning into a straight line when the systems of their power armor failed to pick up heartbeats. Aranea noticed that she had saved one of the regulators, and she threw the man away in disgust, leaving him to be captured by the soldiers. Leila flew up, crashing her fist against the wall of force that Yasen created in front of her. Aranea saw how such a wall redirected the tank's shells, yet the left arm of Leila pushed through it. The armor on her left hand was cracked in several places, the scales beneath were damaged, and one of her fingers was broken, but the half wyrm managed to dig her two remaining claws into Yasen's belly.

Suddenly calm and composed, the regulator did not counterattack right away. He waited a moment, and a blast of force from his hands sent Leila back to the ground in a thunderous explosion. Her wings got broken, the armor around them shattered to pieces. Yasen lifted his arm to finish off Leila and saw how the wolf hag was taking aim at him. He looked at Aranea, the look of pure hatred was in his sole visible eye. And yet, he knew when he was losing. Using blasts of force on his legs, he darted away, flying as fast as he could toward the position of the Regulators, leaving his troops behind.

Aranea threw her weapon to a nearby wolfkin from Sonya’s pack and charged outside. Several soldiers of the Regulators attempted to finish off Leila. The wolf hag charged into them, ignoring the pain in her left hand. Her claws tore through their throats. The enemies died because they were too slow to react to her and thus they died by her hand. Too easy. One moment, a woman before her was alive, the next moment, Aranea opened her all the way from face to belly with her claws, leaving the enemy to spill bloody innards on the ground. All the bravery that enemies mustered was gone, the wolf hag had to force herself to stop as several enemies threw their weapons down. She wanted to kill. She needed to kill…

Ignoring this sensation, Aranea reached out to Leila. The half wyrm was badly wounded, but was already standing up, chuckling at something. The woman groaned from pain while Aranea helped her sit.

"I really did it this time. The old demon sent me an order," Leila explained, partially hallucinating from blood loss, "But I had to ignore it. I mean, I can’t just leave my friends to…"

"You are still bleeding. Stop talking and try to stay awake." Aranea worriedly said, seeing how a medic from the Valerye group hurried to them. To the surprise of Aranea, this was a male wolfkin. The wolf hag allowed him to treat her scout while she herself stood up and forcibly fixed her dislocated shoulder with her right hand.

The battle was still raging, but surely with the arrival of Valerye and her forces, the state had achieved the advantage nessessary to win here. Valerye brought one thousand wolfkins with her, her entire pack. Even now, they were preparing to bite into the flank held by the Regulators and their allies. Here and there, pockets of resistance near the shield station were already busy giving up. When Foulsnout has recovered sufficiently, her mere presence will...

And then thing that was causing the tremors came from the dark clouds to the north.

There were some things that Aranea was sure of. She knew on which side the sun was rising. She knew that if you throw something up, it will always fall down. And she was certain that mountains do not walk.

On this day, she was proven wrong. The mountains were indeed capable of moving. A mountain of steel before her was the living proof of this.

Six massive legs, each bigger than a crawler, supported a massive torso, carrying it from beyond the black clouds. A mere step of one leg caused Aranea to jump slightly, and the thing was still far away. The massive torso was filled with countless rows of weapons. The steel behemoth lacked hands, but at such a size, it didn't need them. It could step on the opposition and end it that way. A folded gun, whose enormous barrel was bigger than the entire shield station, was located behind the left shoulder of the mechanical beast. Countless lights were visible on the massive body, tearing through artificial darkness on the field. The thing lacked a head, where the control center of this mechanical horror was, it was impossible to tell. The mere arrival of this behemoth caused the entire com network to fall. It was not because of panic. This thing was jamming all communications. The shield came into being around this weapon of horror and doom.

The crawlers unleashed their heatwave cannons, the ultimate weapon of destruction of these massive mobile bases. Because of the massive energy consumption needed to power them up, the mere use of such weapons rendered crawlers helpless, but right now it was clear that the enemy will not allow great machines to retreat. The heatwave cannons were capable of punching holes in enemy cities, turning entire districts behind walls into pools of molten stone and metal. The brilliant beams of white heat were sent across the battlefield, only to harmlessly crash against the shield bubble that surrounded the mechanical behemoth. Tiny sparks of white flame fell on the ground, turning whole portions of the battlefield into glass. One such white spark fell on the hover tank, evaporating the vehicle from existence along with the crew. However, against the steel idol from the Old World, the fire from the strongest vehicles in the state amounted next to nothing. The fire from defensive weapons and artillery of the state also failed to even pierce the shield around the machine.

Swarms of drones flew toward the behemoth, intending to bypass its shield and try to attack it from within. Before they could even get into range, they were shot down by countless anti-air weapons on the behemoth of the Resistance. The steel machine continued to walk toward Chokepoint A, its enormous body was nearly three hundred meters tall. Aranea could not tell just how exactly wide this weird mechanical monstrosity was.

A scorching beam of red shot from the center of the metal behemoth, hitting the forces in the pass. It spared none, Aranea saw how the body of Jekaterina was thrown in the air and nearly torn apart, cyborgs and soldiers of the state were melted away. Janine, covered in countless wounds, leaped to hide inside the trenches. Bunkers were reduced to rubble and molten pools of stone. Sand was turned to glass. The strongest defensive position of the state in this region was overrun in a moment. A moment. This was all it took for the Resistance to smash through the ranks of defenders as soon as their ultimate weapon arrived.

"Behemoth from the old world," Leila whispered in a doomed voice, upon seeing the events that were unfolding before her, "Army killer and destroyer of cities."

In the pass, Janine and a few survivors stood up. It looked impossible that anyone could survive this hell, yet some people from both sides survived. Janine walked from the trench, looking around in surprise. For the first time in her life, the warlord was both truly seriously injured and truly confused by enemy might. For the first time in her life, the state was losing.

This cost her, when the naked form of Jekaterina, still holding her scythe, appeared before Janine, slashing across the belly of the warlord. Blood and guts showed from the wound, and the warlord staggered from pain.

"No!" Aranea yelled and charged down. She was not thinking. If she had taken a moment to think, she would have stopped herself. As she ran on all fours across the stones that led to the pass, using her claws in order not to fall to her death, all she could think was to save Janine. The Warlord was the one who saved her when she was at her weakest. The one who took her in. The one who gave her home. Despite everything, Sonya and Janine were now Aranea's family. One of them always sat by the night bonfire, telling stories to the cubs when Aranea was still young. Both of them trained her and others, despite beatings and harsh treatment, both risked their lives to save Aranea. Both strived to ensure that their troops excel, both always had her back. Losing her family once more, was unthinkable for the woman.

Janine stumbled back, silently shuddering while Jekaterina inflicted wound after wound on her body, slowly taking apart the warlord with cold and brutal efficiency. Her axe slipped from her grasp, her mechanical jaw was ripped by an enemy weapon's strike, her tongue fell on the chest, dangling stupidly, and blood poured from the shattered remains of the jaw. A wound above the knee forced Janine to fall. The warlord tried to use her good hand to help herself stand, when Jekaterina raised her weapon over her head, ready to slice away the head of warlord in one clean move.

"No!" Aranea almost crashed into her, but at the last moment, the leader of the Soultakers beat her aside with the shaft of her weapon, forcing the wolf hag to roll across the ground. The enemy lacked support from power armor, and yet even now she was so much stronger than Aranea. The hit of the shaft spilitted the Aranea's helmet, revealing her snout. The wolf hag tried to stand up and felt the blade pressed against the metal of her gorget.

"Well, hello there, doggie girl," Jekaterina said in a surprised voice, trying to make a joke. Not a single scar was on her body, not a single drop of sweat was on her either, "You came to return me my coat, I trust?"

"I lost it." Aranea honestly answered. She expected a deadly strike at any moment and silently prepared herself for the next meeting with her dad, Yuki, Kostya, and all others.

"Sad. I liked it. I hate taking the life of someone I spared once. Are you willing to surrender again? I promise that neither Yasen, nor Blaguna will never get close to you, I myself will let you go later, once we win this stupid war. That or I can knock you out." Jekaterina offered to Aranea in a calm tone. The enemy leader was utterly uncaring about her lack of clothes or armor. Only the long hair of Jekaterina partially covered her body, yet even her hair could not hide the impressive muscles on the near perfect body of the enemy leader.

Aranea thought about her answer for a moment, and then left half of Jekaterina’s body disappeared. One moment, the tall woman was standing before Aranea, in the next moment, the left part of her head was gone, revealing the brain matter that fell from her skull, a skull that was cut in two. There was no warning, no sound of a shot, nothing. A line ran along the nose of Jekaterane, all the way down her body. On one side of this line, Jekaterina still had her body. On the other side of this line, the body of the enemy leader was utterly missing. The blood was pouring out from the missing side of her body. The bones gleamed for the briefest of moments before being covered in blood. For the first time in battle, surprise was in the sole eye of the enemy. As her body fell to the ground, blood flowed from her remaining half, coloring the ground red and drying on the overheated surface. Jekaterina's skin turned black upon contact with the molten ground, and her remaining arm twitched.

Behind the form of Jekaterina was a lean woman, floating in the air a few steps away. She was dressed in free clothes of a sand color. Despite lacking any means to protect herself from the heat, she was also without any sweat on her round face. Long black hair flowed behind her freely. Her narrow black eyes looked at Aranea, and the woman smiled.

"Stand up, weird eyes," The woman commanded in a melodic voice, "She will reassemble herself soon enough."

As if to confirm her words, bones struck out from the body of Jekaterina, while her skeleton was busy reforming itself. Blood swirled across bones, muscles were reappearing, the brain was showing up again, filling the restored white of the skull. Muscles ran up the newly formed bones, blood vessels were reappearing before the very eyes of Aranea, and muscles were knotting new fibers. Jekaterina was healing, nay, resurrecting herself at an incredible rate. 

The savior of Aranea gestured with a lithe hand, and once again, half of the body of Jekaterina was missing, the newly formed body disappeared from view, causing the downed woman to start the process all over again. The woman giggled but then stopped, seeing how the wolf hag charged at her. Confusion was on her beautiful face. Aranea grabbed the woman by her shoulders and dragged her away from danger, as the cyborg rose behind the woman, trying to crush her with the remaining hand. The hand crashed into the molten ground and the woman nodded to Aranea in thanks. She gestured, and the cyborg was gone from view, disappearing the same way half of Jekaterina's body disappeared.

"Where…" Aranea asked in shock, looking around for the enemy.

"Eighty kilometers up, two kilometers to the west. Currently falling," The woman smiled as she said this, removing half of Jekaterina’s body again, "About to crash on the ground in..."

"Are you insane?" Aranea shook her by the shoulders, "If you can disable enemies so easily, why in the world kill them?! We may need prisoners for parley..." She stopped, understanding how ridiculous she looks like, with the horror on the horizon closing in on them.

"Duly noted," The woman snapped her fingers, "Now the nasty boy is in the prison cell of the crawler. Thanks for helping me, I am not usually present on the front lines alone. Name’s Ofelia, of the Reclaimers, aide of glorious caption Scorpio. How should I call you, weird e… I mean, friend?"

"Aranea," The wolf hag shook hands with the woman, still in confusion, then snapped out of it," Listen, we need to run! This mechanical beast is coming for us, we need to get the warlord to safety and treat her woun…"

"All will be well," Ofelia looked up, once again removing half of the body from Jekaterina, and said, "Janine won’t kick the bucket just because of this, although I will try to convince her to get a normal jaw this time."

"..ew… ou…ia." Ironjaw mumbled, trying to stand. Without her mechanical jaw, she could barely make sounds, much less speak words. Aranea leaped to her, desperately trying to think of something to stop the blood flow. With a surprise, she saw a fully intact med kit to her left. Grabbing the item, Aranea saw the smile on Ofelia's face. Ignoring it and the tremors behind, she hurriedly started to work on the wounds on Janine's face. She was not a doctor, and her knowledge of medicine was insufficient. All this caused the wolf hag to freak out even more, while part of her family was bleeding out like a cusack before her.

"I was tasked with keeping our guest here, there is something she needs to see," Ofelia stopped looking at the approaching horror and nodded at Jekaterina's body, once again used her power on her, "Spirits, I saw regenerators before, but this right here is legit scary. As for the mechanical behemoth, Well, the trial of strength is about to start.

"What do you mean?" Aranea asked, still in confusion. When light began to shine through the smoke-covered skies, she noticed how her shadow beneath her legs stretched all the way to the horizon before disappearing completely. It was as if the sun was approaching the battlefield. Aranea looked up and felt fear. Something, no, someone was there, high in the skies. For the briefest of moments, she saw a limb covered by golden-colored scales. Limb, the size of a crawler.

"Ivar Murzaliev. Scorpio. They are coming here. But the one who will take this beast down is someone else. Wyrm Lord is coming, the commander of the Third Army will take the field today himself." Ofelia smiled while the light shone on the battlefield ever brighter.

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