Chapter 99: Chapter 92, part 1 of 2: The Crusher.

Yuki breathed out, seeing how the soultakers were marching through the forest. Keeping a steady pace, the soldiers’ teams were moving toward the clearing. She had to admit it—for normies, they knew their craft. Their forward groups scanned the surroundings, advancing carefully, checking the ground, and disarming a few mines.

Behind the soldiers moved a behemoth of steel, a roaring machine that mowed down all trees in its path. It moved at a slow speed, keeping a distance of half a kilometer, and the packs, hidden in the ground, had no visual on this foe yet.

A smile appeared on Yuki’s lips. Aranea was right. Had they left the approach undefeated, the enemies would have turned back, suspecting foul play. Now, they really are believing in the fact that the wolf hag has challenged the ice boy to a domination.

Yuki was lying on the ground, hidden by dirt and half-dead tree roots. Her power armor was in stealth mode, concealing every heat source, and a specially designed outer shell shielded her from being discovered by foes using night vision, unless they happened to stumble upon her.

Which they might. The soldiers were coming closer and closer to the buried wolfkins, and…

"Enemy!" A signal came from Olesya, and all abyss broke loose.

Sly arose from the ground beside Yuki, firing a single shot into the soultaker. The woman barely had enough time to even notice him before sharp shards pierced her head, smashing both the helmet and the brain within from such a close distance.

Yuki followed his lead, jumping from the ground and attacking two soldiers before her. Her shardgun was still behind her, but she was on them in under a second. Her first punch crashed a man’s head against the tree trunk before her arm went all the way to the shoulder, coloring her armor with brain matter and blood.

Too strong! Yuki had a panicked thought and kicked the last soldier in the knee. She only wanted to throw him off balance, holding back as much as she could. Instead, she shattered the poor sod’s knee, causing him to fall down, screaming in pain.

A crimson beam sliced through the night, taking the life of a soultaker, announcing that Leila had stepped into the fight. Sonya appeared behind two enemy soldiers, bringing her paws down. Strangely, instead of killing them, the scout shattered their helmets, using just enough force to give serious concussions to both foes, sparing their lives. Sonya moved forward like a moving arrow, throwing another soldier off balance and allowing her pack to tie up the rest. She was still the old Sonya, her every move broke bones, and she hit with deadly precision, but try as she might, Yuki sensed no bloodlust coming from the scout.

The forest was engulfed in flames and howls. Hidden until now, all packs charged out, led by Tiny and Leila's commands. When confronted at close range, the Soultakers had little chance against the Wolf Tribe's wrath, but no one could say they didn't try.

Their forward teams sacrificed themselves, entering into a desperate melee with the wolfkins and ending up being sliced apart or shredded by the shardguns, while the rear teams retreated behind the cover of several trees, firing with deadly calm and precision at the ambushers. The mix of gunfire and a heavy laser blast took the lives of two warriors and injured five more, while dozens of the soultakers’ bodies littered the ground, dying or bleeding out unconsciously.

Ursico landed on the battlefield with a roaring engine, bringing in the might of his mounted long-range cannons. The officer fired both cannons, leveling the makeshift cover of the foes and forcing the Soultakers into the open. Two more mechs landed behind him, firing at the distant vehicle, and were quickly joined by Tiny and her team, who launched heavy artillery at the enemy. Guided missiles flew through the night, aiming at the machine.

Yuki and Sly charged at them, her soulmate covered her with ranged fire, while Yuki attacked the plasma-wielding Soultaker, making a single kick with her leg and cleanly slicing away his head by tearing through both the gorget of his armor and his neck. She didn’t even use her claws, her armored heel moved at such speed that the soldier’s body failed to endure. Two other Soultakers fell to her left, downed by Sly’s shardgun.

The surviving foes reached for grenades, throwing them into advancing foes and trying to retreat to safety, escaping the ambush. The explosion failed to stop the wolfkins, and they charged forth when a torrent of fire came from the night, slicing through their bodies.

****

"So, it was the trap!" Jericho roared, looking from the crusher’s command center and seeing how heavy shells crashed against the force shield and missile explosions covered them in fire.

The officer felt genuine hatred and forced it down. His men were dying out there, being butchered in a close fight they couldn't stand; they weren't built for it. Quickly, what can be done?!

The crusher was a massive steel beast that moved on three massive tracks and was covered in armored plates that would make any tank jealous. Its caterpillar tracks alone could turn any smaller vehicle before them into a disk of steel and bring the machine through the entire district of reinforced buildings, making a whole new path for the soldiers to advance. Covered by thirty turrets, equipped with a force shield that blocked the enemy ammunition but allowed its own to pass freely, this vehicle was a product of the Soultakers’ genius. A single steel tower rose in the center of the machine, housing the command center and surrounded by missile silos below.

Yes, that’s it!

"Move the crusher," The captain, an elderly man bearing the marks of Jekaterina’s mercenary group on his uniform, shouted. He was sitting on a dais, surrounded by operators below and flanked by Anissa and Jericho, "And turn them into nothing more than a red mist beneath our tracks!"

"Belay this order," Jericho leaned forward, "Captain, our own troops will become mush if the crusher moves."

"But what then…"

"Think! Think, sir! We are in the crusher, this thing is meant to endure a crawler’s shelling! Diverge all the energy from the tracks toward the shield and expand it outward, pushing the enemies away from us. Then mow down the enemy with our turrets, while our allies retreat behind us. It matters not how many there are, if we cull enough, they will retreat! Use the turrets to clear out the area around us from the trees!"

Jericho laughed like a maniac, seeing how the turrets started speaking, spearing the advancing foes with bullets that were meant to damage heavily armored vehicles. Those stupid peons stood no chance—power armor, trees, or even the mech’s armor—everything that the crusher hit, it speared through!

This was a proper way to fight! They didn’t need King and his grand plans. Have they ever worked as they should? Her excellency should just ditch this idiot. By working together, Soultakers and Bentos both managed to turn the tide of war, after King lost yet another precious toy. Sure, Huntsman helped take down the warlord, but the crusher would have worn her down eventually. And now, as a result of this madman and this King, Jericho and his soldiers were caught off guard! They would have had a vital POW by now if it hadn't been for King's mad puppet!

Speaking of…

"Turret operators, forward teams! Avoid hitting the wounded foes, we will capture them after the battle! Oh, and unleash the napalm bombs at Huntsman’s location." Jericho said with a wicked smile.

I was born to command this army. Just you wait, my lady, I will prove my worth to our people tenfold.

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"What if we hit him?" The captain asked.

"Collateral."

****

Yuki pushed Sly to the side, saving him and herself just in the nick of time as a massive shell flew past them, slicing through several trees behind them.

One of the X-015 suits of Urscio’s team simply disappeared, torn apart by a concentrated fire of ear-piercing projectiles that never ceased to be unleashed, deafening all sounds of dead and dying and every single weapon. Through the cameras of others, Yuki saw how Geldi ignored the command, running toward the front. How Leila cursed, when a hole appeared in her wing. Gin screamed as a shell smashed into his arm, destroying the missile launcher and tearing a solid chunk of flesh.

The surviving Soultakers retreated behind the gleaming dome that surrounded the monster of steel, the monster that was spitting out death non-stop. They thought that they will only face one champion tonight. Seeing how the shield absorbed every missile, energy beam, shard, and shell, Yuki felt a tremor of fear.

Feeling like giving up? Blaguna appeared at the edge of her vision, laughing her ass off and sitting on a corpse. Come, give in to despair.

Missiles were unleashed from the crusher, and Yuki finally moved, feeling how goosebumps appeared on her skin. She was a coward after all. Well, so what? She died once. She will push on through the horror this time.

I will not let anyone hurt my friends anymore. Yuki made the decision, grabbing Sly and tossing him to Sonya and the others who were hiding. She will apologize later.

"Yuki, come back!" Tiny shouted.

Yuki ignored the order and ran forward. She felt… strange. The time slowed to a crawl, and she saw shells flying at her. Her body moved as if held by chains, allowing the warrior to only narrowly dodge the passing shells. Everything around her becomes muffled and extended, like a single note stretched into eternity. She ran forward, making zigzags to evade projectiles, feeling her own heart beat like a drum and hearing a subtle ringing in the ears, indicating that her blood pressure was out of control.

On this night, she stressed tested her new body to the limit, the light that emanated from her bones became like sunlight, covering her helmet and nearly blinding her. She issued the command to her helmet, allowing the lenses to slide into the steel and seeing the world through her own, new eyes. She was in a supersonic world, moving faster than the enemy could aim at her, almost as fast as the projectiles fired at her, which caused explosions of dirt and dried up ground behind her.

Yuki reached the crusher, diving into the ground, aiming to swim beneath the ground and get below the shield. Instead, she crashed against the shield and was thrown back, the shock from her collision was so great that it snapped her back to reality.

"Useless, useless, useless!" A voice laughed from the crusher, boosted by dynamics, "This is a sphere shield, idiot! Operators! Shoot off her limbs, but take her alive, she looks important!"

The turrets moved, taking aim at Yuki, as the warrior stood up. She breathed heavily, trying to snap herself back into superspeed mode but finding that she couldn’t. Her body was too exhausted, the drool was falling from her mouth. Meanwhile, turrets that were meant to shoot moving missiles opened fire.

A hand touched Yuki’s back, and she passed through the shield, leaving behind an explosion of steel and dust, ravaging the ground as shells hit against each other. Yuki felt a slight electricity running through her body, joining in with the nanomachines that merged with her bones. Looking around, she heard someone gasp next to her.

"I won’t… Let others… Die…" Geldi, dressed in a lighter model of power armor, said. Her body trembled from strain, and her cape left behind the force shield.

Without thinking, Yuki grabbed her with one arm and ran toward the crusher, jumping onto one gigantic track, covering three meters with a single jump. Still holding Geldi with the left paw, Yuki punched at the metal plating with her right, aiming at the small hatch just above the tracks. With all her might.

****

"Sons of a whore!" Jericho shouted in rage, seeing how the enemy entered his crusher.

"They are apparently females, sir." Anissa said.

"Daughters of a whore!" Jericho corrected himself. This chick had the markings of a warrior. Since when have simple warriors been so tough? "Not yet, we can still turn it around, we can still save our people!" Jericho felt an unnatural fear run down his skin, giving him goosebumps and turning him pale.

I am afraid? What?!

He pushed the captain off his seat, jumping down and overriding the controls, activating each and every defensive system within the crusher, sending a warning to all security teams, and turning on additional shielding around the main generator. Then he started activating inner turrets.

"What are you doing?" The captain demanded to know, "If you use this much energy, the outside turrets will…"

"The shield can withstand attacks." Jericho muttered as he wiped the drool from his lips. All around him, the operators looked at each other uncomfortably.

Are these veterans afraid of the enemy? Jericho bit his tongue, trying to think clearly. Behind him, Anissa stepped out of the door, taking a rifle to meet the enemy.

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