"That’s it. Calm down, everyone," Alsyn smiled, seeing that both sides had stopped fighting. While Annie and several arrived warriors raced toward the wolf hag, Tegrin jumped off the walkway to help Carty. Kayleen barely breathed, her own claws nearly shattered her shoulder. With the help of fellow soldiers, they pulled claws out, removing power armor on the shoulder to bandage the wound of the wolf hag. The mercenaries start gathering on the first floor, around their leader, climbing down from a few carts on the ceiling, "Hostages are safe and secure in a dome," Alsyn hit the steel dome with her knuckles, "Just a couple of minutes and we will all leave alive and well, no one needs to die anymore. Open the portal, we bought enough time just now!"
"Alas, I must decline." A cheerful voice came from an old-looking receiver standing near the steel dome. Miraculously, this thing endured in the incoming battle, standing on the iron barrel. Alsyn looked at the device with disbelief on her snout.
"You set me up? After everything that I have done for you?" She demanded to know.
"How quaint. You were the one who broke the contract. What part about not using a dome did you not understood?" A sly question came from the receiver.
"We got the thing!" Alsyn angrily pointed at the dome, "What does it matter if it is used or not, just get us all out of here, now! You paid us to get this…"
"This?" A laugh came from the receiver, "You think that I seriously care about this thing? This thing changes the life of a human being into energy, then uses said energy to prolong the life or heal any living being. Compared to life extenders and medicine that came after it, what good is it nowadays? Why do you think it was in a museum? I only needed you and your team to buy… a respite for Oathtakers to bolster their border. By buying into this mission, you handle the job superbly. The Reclaimers were distracted long enough and no longer had the chance to rush in and capitalize on the troubles of their rival. And if you had only played the role that was assigned to you, everything would have been fine, your team would be out well paid as well. But you chose to try and play for something bigger, right? All because you were too invested in the potential of this device. And for falling into such a trap, I adore you."
"You used us!" The mercenary shouted, looking for something on her belt frantically.
"On the contrary, my dear friend! We used each other. I gave you the choice and you broke your word, and thus I am free to act as I see fit now. Ah, but I can hear her approach," Doors leading to the hall screamed, when someone on the other side started tearing them aside, "Not an elegant this one... I almost disappointed. What do you think will happen to him, when you are gone?"
"I can buy my way out by selling you, A…"
"Ah-ah-ah!" The laughter of the voice cut off the outburst of the mercenary, making her freeze in place. "Not so fast, dearest Alsyn," he said, changing the tone of their conversation, "You are free to do as you wish, of course, but then I promise you. I will find him. On the other hand, if you keep your mouth shut, that's it, I promise not to touch him, ever. Ha!" The voice once again laughed, as if the unknown speaker could see how Alsyn was desperately looking around for some way out for herself and her group, "Don’t look so lost! You still have that thing that I gave to you, right? Power comes in response to need, not in response to desire. As your and his futures crumble all around you... Use the fear of loss and turn your fate around."
Alsyn faced the entrance just in time to see two crumbling pieces of metal falling into the room. Warlord Dragena walked into the hall, looking around. She saw injured and killed soldiers of the state, new breeds and normies alike. She saw dead mercenaries. For a brief moment, she looked at Annie, noticing her existence, but not saying anything. The shamans crushed through the roof of the hall, landing on the floor and crushing the stones underneath their feet. Dragena glanced at them as well. And then she walked forward, making the room tremble with each step. Alsyn stepped away from her troops, walking toward her former leader. They stopped fifty steps from each other, the helmet of Dragena sliding back, allowing her to look at the former soldier of the state with her own eyes. The projector on the ceiling behind Dragena made her shadow fall on the traitorous wolfkin before her, covering the former soldier in the darkness.
Alsyn said, gesturing behind herself, "The attack on this place was my decision and mine alone. Hostages are inside the dome. Give me your word that my people will be treated as mercenaries, rather than terrorists, and this place stands. No Torment for my troops."
"Agreed." Dragena responded and Alsyn pushed some buttons on the device in her paw, removing one of her fingers from the constantly pushed buttons. She threw the device toward Dragena, who briefly checked it, before giving it up to a nearby wolf hag and sending the officer away from the hall to the control room.
"The energy spike is decreasing. The robots are slowly shutting down as I speak." Said the voice of Kassandra in the helmet of Annie. The scout ignored her, helping her fellow soldiers treat the wounds of the wolf hag.
"Alsyn. You have made plenty of mistakes. Now you have a choice." Dragena said to Alsyn, but the mercenary cut her off with an angry voice.
"So now I have a choice? I hope it's the same fucking choice as the one that I had before. Let him be butchered and live on as if nothing had happened? Let me tell you this, I do not regret killing that bitch!"
"If you had just come to me or Alpha, we would have solved this situation without anyone dying. On the day of your disappearance, you betrayed your duty, took three lives from the Tribe and made us weaker…"
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"Solved? How? By banishing him? By allowing him to live in shame as an outcast?" Alsyn looked genuinely shocked. She raised her paws to the level of her chest, looking at them, "How… how would he even live, without anyone to help him eat? Screw you Dragena, you know nothing about the duty of being a mother!" Alsyn snapped out of confusion, stomping on the floor and making a dent in the metal.
"If you think so." Dragena merely nodded in the face of the outburst, raising her paw to stop the growling shamans.
"Angry, eh? Step on then, I will butcher you just like your sister," The lips of Alsyn moved into a wide grin as she noticed the anger of the shamans, "You declared my boy defective, but you seem to die way easier than he."
"Ignore her. She is stalling for time. Now you have the choice, Alsyn," Dragena continued as if nothing had happened, "Surrender now. I cannot promise you life, not after your terrorist attack. Your people will be released after serving their sentences, but the law of the nation states that as responsible for the attack, you must face punishment. You dared to attack a civilian installation. You dared to take civilians as a hostages. You ruined ancient relics. You killed your kin and soldiers of the state today. I will do what I can for your son and will try to persuade the court to spare your life. Given your crimes, it is a minor chance, but a chance nonetheless, to live and see how your son grows up one day. "This is your duty as a mother," Dragena said coldly, looking Alsyn in the eyes, "Try to live on for his sake. Surrender, and I will do everything in my power to save your life. Resist and I will butcher you right now."
“This…" Alsyn pointed at the dome behind herself, her lips trembled as she continued, "… this thing can heal him. Make him normal. Can you… can you please just let it finish its work? You can do anything you want with me afterwards. I can even lick your boots afterwards, be your slave, kill myself, anything. Just this one thing. Please? For old time’s sake."
"I must retrieve the hostages. We will examine the machine and if…" Dragena made a step forward.
"Then pox upon you and your state!" Alsyn wildly screamed, throwing her left arm up.
Dragena was faster, both of her knives struck out. Forty steps separated the opponents. The swing of the warlord could not reach the target. And yet a thin line appeared on the arm of Alsyn, air propelled by the blade of Dragena struck with such ferocity that it bisected skin, muscles, and even bones. Immediately, the physiology of the new breed, strengthened through countless victories, began to labor to arrest the hemorrhaging, but the damaged area was simply too big. The arm of the mercenary leader was cut at the wrist, and, beneath her elbow, an empty vial fell from her paw. The second slash hit Alsyn across the snout. A long line appeared on her breastplate, but the warlord's wind cut failed to bisect the plate made of nanomachines. The neck and head of Alsyn, however, were cut all the way through. First jaw, then nostrils, then a line of blood ran to the top of the head of the mercenary. The blood sprayed from the wound, the legs of the mercenary gave in, the tongue, now forked because of the ugly slice on it, fell from the left side of her mouth. Amber eyes lost reason, burning light of blessed blood slowly died down behind the pupils. The mercenary toppled forward, and Annie breathed in relief. The battle was over. The slice of Dragena reached all the way to the brain of the enemy. And bisected both the neck and head of the enemy in two. The right side of Alsyn’s head began to fall on her chest.
The knees of the mercenary stopped a few inches from the ground. The woman returned herself back into upright position with the sheer power of her toes, two sides of her head moved back into position, forming a whole head once again, horrible injury aside. Empty eyes looked at the warlord, ruined lips jerked when flesh all around the massive wound on the neck and head of the mercenary flowed across the wound. The edges of the wounds joined together, healing the damage before the shocked eyes of the soldiers. Pupils dilated and bright light, light that the scout only ever saw in the eyes of warlords, shot out of them, banishing the shadow of Dragena to seek cover behind the back of the warlord. The lips opened, loudly sucking air inside, and Alsyn smiled through the pain, living once more and showing her right paw and syringe in it to the warlord, the needle of the syringe was buried deep in the wrist of the mercenary.
"Not so perfect, eh?" The mercenary asked, her voice becoming distorted with each word. Her last word was almost completely undistinguished from a growl. The left shoulder of Alsyn hung helplessly, almost as if it was broken, while the remains of her lay on the ground in a pile of blood. This did not last. Red meat shot out from the arm of the resurrected mercenary, connecting with sliced away pieces of the arm and pressing them toward the bloody stump, reforming the arm once more. Alsyn clenched her left fist and opened it, testing her renewed arm.
Alsyn's chest expanded, exploding her armor from inside, her cape fell on the floor behind her. The ruined arm of a mercenary reformed, the flesh at the edges of her wounds merged together, allowing her to clench her paw. Armor on the leg cracked when flesh enlarged as well, making her legs look like a swollen column of flesh. And yet she charged forward with unseen agility, her body becoming four times her size, making her fur fall out, her skin turned gray and cracked, unable to adjust to the instant growth of muscle mass beneath. Even the ruined nostrils of Annie caught the strange odor that came from the ruined skin of the mercenary leader, it smelled like a mix of eggs that were boiling in spoiled milk. Four of the mercenary’s fingers merged together, the flesh of her body flowed like plasticine, changing her body structure on the fly. Alsyn croaked as the second and third spine became visible on her back, claws the size of normies shooting from her fingers. The mercenary made a swing with her left arm, wildly, madly, no longer guided by precision. An upward blow was dodged by Dragena, when the warlord leaned backwards, her helmet slid back onto her head.
The creature jumped, casting its shadow on the warlord. Alsyn's head morphed into a large sack of flesh; her amber eyes merged into one massive gray eye, and her snout slid deep into flesh. Countless rows of gray fangs were shown to the world when the monster smiled. Fangs that were shot from Alsyn's mouth like a host of snakes, each blade-like fang being guided by crimson-colored appendages. The paws of the warlord moved, disappearing from the shocked eyes of Annie. A blinding dome surrounded the warlord, covering her from attacks, slicing out flesh appendages and shattering fangs. Alsyn screamed from pain, unable to break through the dome of countless strikes, her body stuck in the air. The creature looked at the ceiling and roared once more, this time in anger and pain. Her legs spread even wider, cracking skin in the lower half of her body and forming a new mouth full of teeth. The arms of Alsyn struck down, pushing through the blindingly fast dome of strikes, aiming to hold Dragena in place and mount her, gobbling up the warlord.
"Keep your distance. She is mine. Rescue the hostages." The warlord said when she saw gigantic hands closing on her. The shamans stepped back with visible disapproval.