It took the pack less than a minute to arrive at the northern part of the trading hub. Once, this place was filled with merchants' stands, as people from the Wastes and Ravaged Lands came here to trade. A makeshift stone roof, excavated from the ruined subway, was placed over the wide square, protecting travelers inside from heat. The Wastes and Ravaged Lands were poor regions, yet many traders were buying medicaments and food in bulk in the Core Lands and were selling them to traders of the Ravaged Lands in this place in exchange for excavated marvels of the Old World. Traders were interested in all kinds of marvels, from technology to long-lost books, even magazines and journals were of value. Aside from that, regular trade of resources was also going on here, cusacks exchanged owners on a daily basis, sweets were sold for ore, medicine for money. Four entrances were leading inside the building. Pack K entered the building through the south entrance, while Pack A was already inside, fighting with the leader of the brigands' defenders.
And now this was all a dream. Stands were cracked and ruined. Dead bodies hanged from the ceiling like broken dolls, ropes across their necks. The truck was parked in the center of the square, the tires were missing, and the vehicle bore signs of repair. Near the vehicle was a scrap pile, filled with half-rotten food, steel parts, tokens, and various valuables. Atop of this pile was a throne, made from countless steel pipes merged together. A man, looking disgustingly too ordinary, was sitting on the throne, unbothered by the scene of carnage right under his throne, as his bodyguards went against members of Pack A. Not even his anti-heat suit could hide his vast belly. His legs were spread wide, one elbow on his right knee, and his right fist was pressed to his sweaty cheek. His beard was receding, barely covering his lower jaw and showing scars underneath the hair. His round, pale eyes looked with boredom at the battle at his feet. Despite the fact that his own people were badly outclassed and were dying en masse, the leader of brigands did not even bother to lift a finger to help them.
Upon seeing the man, Kayleen threw up her shardgun, taking a quick shot at the man. Pale eyes shifted from the carnage at his feet, and shards stopped in the air. The man removed his fist from his cheek and extended his palm toward shards frozen in the air. He clenched his fist once more, and the shards were reduced to tiny balls of steel. With a look of disgust on his face, the man waved his right hand casually. Steel, frozen in the air, flew back with a booming sound, causing the wolf hag to jump away from their trajectory.
"Ya think we didn’t tried this!?" The wolf hag of pack A screamed, backing down from the man on a throne. He shifted his gaze at her and saw cracks run on the stone floor below the wolf hag. The soldier gasped as her armor trembled under the pressure of an unseen force. As if grasped by a mighty hand, something forced the wolfkin to stand on her knees.
"Good dog." The thin lips of the man smiled, as he saw how the wolf hag struggled not to be crushed by his power. Two more of his bodyguards died, leaving just five people. One of them dropped his weapon and lifted his hands in the air.
"I surrender, I…" He screamed in pain, when the leader of the raiders looked at him. Each part of the guard’s upper body was turned one hundred and eighty degrees. First his fingers. Then his wrists. Then his arms. Then his torso. And finally, mercifully, the head of the bodyguard turned around, his bones snapping with a loud noise, ending the suffering of the man.
"Either die for me or die for naught." The brigand’s leader spoke upon witnessing the demise of his man. The rest of the bodyguards, still in the open, lifted their machine guns at the wolfkins. People were obviously scared, yet their leader whipped them into action with his words.
"Annie. Place mines at the entrance. Rest, spread out, and take firing positions," Kayleen calmly gave command over a secure channel, unheard by enemies. As the wolf hag stood up, she looked at the bodyguards, "You will be spared, if you drop your weapons and run. If I were you, I would have taken the chance."
Annie hurriedly reached for three mines in her belt. These were the standard mines issued for wolfkins, explosives that trigger on contact with the built-in camo field inside. Once in place, these round and thin devices of death were able to unleash a field that allowed them to blend in with their surroundings. In the opinion of Annie, regular mines were almost always better. The charge in camo mines only lasted for three to four hours on average, after that, it was easy to spot them. Annie was unsure why she even had to place them, the wolfkins were meant to advance and break through enemy lines, not dig in and defend.
The brigand leader looked at his hesitant bodyguards once more, and the wolf hag of pack A jumped to her feet, breathing heavily. She spat blood on the stone floor, wiping the edges of her mouth with one paw. In the vision of Annie, the systems of her armor indicated that the structural integrity of the wolf hag’s armor was under threat. The system recommended an immediate retreat from the combat zone. The enemy looked at the wolf hag and pointed a single finger at her, sending her flying all the way into the wall of the building. Even from the entrance, Annie heard the wolf hag's armor start hissing due to countless internal damages within the armor. The wolf hag herself left a crater in the wall, falling weakly on her feet.
"Annie…" Kayleen said as she advanced at the brigand. He looked at her and lifted his hand, as if to swap out a fly. The wolf hag jumped back and half of the circle appeared on the ground where she had just stood.
"Fifty steps, Kayleen!" Annie shouted as she made a guess about the limit of the enemy’s power based on what she just saw.
"I know already, scout! "Help the injured!"
"Already on it, wolf hag!" Annie placed one last mine and jumped to help the wolf hag from Pack A.
As Annie ran toward the wounded, she felt the gaze of the enemy on her. Following his casual gesture, a massive steel spike lifted from the pile on which he was sitting. The spike, weighting at least several tons, started spinning in the air, following the gesture of a man. As the spike was spinning, one of its edges started getting sharper, as rusted metal was sliced from one end, making a thin and dangerously looking tip of a spear. start He blocked several shots from shardguns of wolfkins with his free hand, and then he made a throwing gesture.
Air screamed as metal was shot as if it was an arrow released from a bow. Still spinning, a massive chunk of metal flew at, still standing at her knees, the wolf hag of Pack A. The man smiled, sending two more wolfkins into the ceiling with gestures of his hands. The only reason why he hadn’t killed him was because he had to block shots from shardguns. The wolfkins fell to the floor, backing down at the command of Kayleen.
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Annie looked at how the spike was flying toward the wolf hag. Carty was right after all. Annie was getting used to seeing things in slow motion. The scout was still five steps away, as the spike was twenty steps away. As she took one more step, the spike covered a distance of ten steps.
Screw it. Annie decided. She will not, she refuses to let anyone else die, when she could save them. She felt how adrenaline shot through her body, as fear took a backseat to her decision. Annie was not strong. She just trained a lot, that’s it. But this time she pushed her fear of failure back and jumped in the air, kicking the spike into the side, just before the tip could touch the wolf hag’s chest. The spinning of the steel twisted the ankle of Annie to the point of nearly breaking it, yet her kick sent the spike aside, making the tip burrow into the stone wall, to the left of the wolf hag. Annie collapsed on the ground, gritting her teeth and raising herself on three limbs like a beast. She looked at the massive steel that she pushed aside with disbelieving eyes. Behind her, the wolf hag stood up, coughing out blood.
"Both of you, retreat from the battlefield immediately," Dragena calmly gave the orders, "Wolf hag Kayleen, allies bought you time. Finish it."
The wolfkins figured out the power of the enemy. They kept their distance as they surrounded the enemy leader, taking firing positions while others distracted the foe. Finally, all was in place, time had come for the final charge. Kayleen threw a grenade forward and the leader turned to her, his remaining bodyguards threw down their weapons and ran like madmen away from the field of carnage. Within ten steps of the man, the grenade got frozen in the air. The man smiled, lifting his left hand in a gesture when the scout of Pack A fired her shardgun. Several shards hit the grenade, and the eyes of the man widened in panic.
Fire and sharp pieces of metal came over him as he threw his hands up. The fire that was supposed to consume him stopped two steps away from him, hiding him from eyes of the wolfkin.
"Enough!" A roaring voice shouted from the sea of flames, and fire was pushed to the ceiling, harmlessly disappearing in the air. Veins appeared at the side of the head of the raider, his eyes were mad with hate. He moved his hands down, making a grabbing gesture, before jerking his arms upward. The pile of scrap underneath his throne shifted and the man nearly fell off, "You dared to anger me and now you will pay the…" Massive steel pipes were torn from the pile, lifting in the air, spinning in the air according to the will of the man on the throne.
He never finished his words, instead screaming in agony as a wolfkin behind him fired a shardgun, causing part of his left shoulder to disappear in a torrent of blood. As the man turned around and gestured at Wolfkin, the pipes fell to the ground with the sound of a falling building. Before anything could happen to the soldier, Kayleen shot him in the back, and the raider panicked, clutching himself with both hands, stopping the armor piercing shards an inch away from his body. Annie finished placing mines and turned around, noticing the wide eyes of the man. The moment he turned away from one wolfkin, another one was firing in his blind spot, forcing the foe to be constantly on the defense. A swarm of shards was surrounding him like a mist, sharp edges of projectiles, meant to pierce steel and stone, were looking menacingly in the face of the strained man, as he pushed his power to the limit, trying to keep them away. More and more shards were unleashed, some of them pushing the shards before them into the form of the raider.
"You are nothing but a miserable scum! Who do you think you are, daring to touch me!" The regal and stern voice of the foe disappeared in a flash, he screamed in a high-pitched voice, filled with pain. Panic gave him strength, and he spread his hands wide, forcing shards to fly away from him. He looked at the foe, his shoulder and wounds on his body bleeding, "If you want a piece of me so badly, then you can beg the devil for one as I smash you all into a bloody pulp!"
He raised his hands up and the stone ceiling, a relic of the past that survived the Extinction and following cataclysms, started trembling, straining under the immense force directed at it by the mind of the brigand. A few stones fell from the ceiling.
"Spread out!" Kayleen shouted, and the packs charged toward the exits. The wolf hag of Pack A grabbed Annie over her shoulder, easily overpowering the scout with a single movement, much like a grown up overpowering a cub. Then she darted toward the western exit of the room.
"Wait, the south exit is clos…" Annie tried to say.
"Shut it, scout. Watch and learn." The wolf hag spit blood as she was running.
The brigand jumped off his seat, running toward the south exit with a speed far unbecoming for such a bloated body. Annie’s eyes widened as she understood that he was using his own power to enhance his speed and stamina to a level that was equal to that of a wolf hag or maybe even above. His steps left cracks in the stone floor, a smile was on his lips as he ran toward safety. His suit tore itself, creating makeshift bandages around his wounds. With all the wolfkins at the other exits, he will…
Exit exploded when the foe stepped onto the mines placed by Annie. An explosion lifted him in the air, tearing off the left leg of a screaming man, searing his body with fire and setting his suit aflame. Gesturing like a madman, he pushed fire away from his body while falling to the ground, making the sound of wet meat. He looked at his missing leg, looked at the approaching wolfkins, and screamed in fear once again, trying to crawl away.
"No! You will not…" He pushed one hand forward, trying to block projectiles like before.
Nothing happened. Shards hit him in the chest, pushing his body away from the building. His body left a blood trail on the ground, and wolfkins charged after him. The wolf hag who carried Annie joined them, keeping fifty steps behind the main group. Kayleen approached the still breathing man, putting her leg on his chest. She pointed the gun at his face.
"No… Brother, don’t forsake me!" The man shouted with his last strength.
"Everyone, out. At once." For a brief moment, the voice of Kayleen trembled.
The roof of the truck near the pile of scrap flew up, crashing against the ceiling as the floor of the room started to violently shake. Two wolfkins jumped at the wolf hag from Pack A, grabbing her and Annie and charging toward the exit. Cracks run against the solid floor, all the way from the truck in the middle of the room. A moment later, cracks run along the ceiling.
"You… will all die," With bloody lips, smiled the leader of raiders as everyone charged outside, "Yes that’s it! This is what you get for making fun of me! Brother, show them true hor…" His body crumbled into the floor like a wet rag that was stepped on. Just a moment ago, he, person who could survive shards into his chest, was alive. In the next moment, life was snuffed out of him as easily as you can put off a fire in the desert. Annie’s eyes widened as the roof fell.
The building collapsed in the shower of stone. Stone slabs, bigger than vehicles, were slammed into the ground with the force of cannon balls, causing some wolfkins to lose their footing and fall on the ground outside of the building. While both packs managed to get alive just fine, they turned toward the rising pile of dust before them with fear and caution. Surely no one could survive after tons upon tons of rubble fell on that person? The sound of falling buildings could be heard even by scouts on the mountain cliffs, dust cloud from falling rubble was rising higher than most buildings in the area. Annie swallowed nervously, as her fellow soldiers held her, slowly backing up from the crushed building. Whoever was inside was dead, surely dead.