Shit. Annie jumped forward as the ground around her exploded. The bullets from the turrets were leaving fist-sized craters in the ground, a single bullet that managed to hit Annie in the shoulder sent her spinning into a nearby tent and she was crushed inside, the fabric of the tent wrapping around her body. The armor held the blow, and the impact from the bullet was absorbed by kinetic absorbers within the armor, sparing the body of the scout from the powerful impact. But this could not last, for with a thundering sound, the line breaker moved after Annie. Blinded by the fabric of the tent, Annie saw through the lenses of pack members how the creature extended its pincers toward her body on the ground. Annie waited until the last moment before jumping upward from the ground, landing on the pincer and slashing nearby wire with her knives. Armor piercers, as knives were called, were a standard issue weapon for close combat for scouts and higher ranks in the packs of Dragena. Made out of a special alloy, with a cutting edge only one molecule thick, these were some of the deadliest melee weapons in the Reclamation Army, so much so that they were prohibited from use during challenges or domination among members of the Wolf Tribe.

And now they cut through wires on the left pincer of the foe, covering its swollen bulk with a shower of sparks as wire was sliced with ease. Annie moved her knives once more, biting deep into the humanoid bulk before her and slicing through biological and mechanical innards, leaving gaping wounds and falling apart cogs in the side of the being. Still holding knives in her paws, she reached for the grenades on her belt, throwing all five of them into the wound that she had just created. With a moaning sound of pain and rage, the line breaker threw Annie back with the fire of the turrets. Four bullets connected with the chest of Annie, sending her into the ground like a rocket, and she felt a tingle of pain, despite the kinetic absorbers of her power armor. The creature takes two steps before the grenades inside it explode.

A moaning sound coming from the loudspeakers changed to wordless noise, when the acid almost cut off the energy supply to the loudspeakers. The two spider-like front legs nearly fell to the ground, wires and cables on them melted away; and bonds between the torso and chassis were ruined beyond recognition. The creature stumbled backwards, flailing pincers, and was faced with acid grenades from Pack U, finally finishing off the being and reducing it to a pile of steel rubble and melted remains.

The eyes of Annie widened as she saw through the lens of Ultis. The line breaker's head is almost blown apart, and the brain is leaking out of the metal prison because of precision fire from Carty and Ultis, charged across the battlefield toward Annie, ignoring incoming fire. Lacking both eyes, the line breaker still knew the exact location of the scout, and the ground trembled as piston-driven arachnid-like legs brought the massive torso above downed Annie. Scout tried to stand up and understood that she simply too late. She couldn’t dodge this thing in time.

The left pincer moved to scout, ready to close around her body. Pack U members continued to fire in the back of the line breaker, sharp shards slowly piercing even the cogs and mechanical devices hidden within the oversized torso. But the creature was mad with rage at the death of the kin, it wanted to see Annie’s demise, and it would spare nothing to see it through.

The blade of the pincer closed around the torso of Annie, barely giving her enough time to block them with her knives. The blades bit, getting cut where knives were pressed against them, yet the remaining blade was pushing inch by inch toward the sides of the wolfkin, despite all her effort. She felt sweat come on her brow, and, to her shame, the scout felt fear rising up in her. Life, her life was about to end, being cut in two by this cruel weapon.

Annie gave the signal to the packs that were attempting to assist her in using the last acid grenades. Yes, from such close range, she will most likely be melted as well, but at least this foe will also…

A black energy arc hit across the pincer, burning away wires and cables, turning a once dangerous weapon into a stuck piece of metal. Pushing her muscles to the limit and bending her knives, Annie forced the blades of the pincer away just in time to evade the smash of the right pincer. Grenades hit at the back of the monster as Annie jumped back, melting away turrets that were rising from inside the flesh on the shoulders and causing them to explode as the line breaker tried to fire them none the less.

Lieutenant Angoro stood to the right of the line breaker, clad in pitch black power armor underneath his cloak, with only his faceplate of his helmet being the only non-black colored part of armor. The face plate was stylized after a mirror, reflecting the features of whoever looked at it. Angoro pointed his right hand at the line breaker, a crimson-colored ring coiled around his wrist. This weapon was known as the Judgement, the ring was capable of emitting an anti-matter arc of energy at the foe, once every five minutes. Judgement was a rare weapon, capable of punching through the tank. Due to its high cost of production and low rate of fire, it was rarely used by the military.

"Thanks, sir!" Annie shouted, preparing to charge at the towering line breaker. The monster was damaged, yet it was still very much alive.

"Don’t mention it, scout. I still have a job that I must do for y…" Angoro's words were cut short when the line breaker charged to the right, completely ignoring Annie. The pincer went up, ready to slice through the man. And Angoro was just a normie, power armor or not, he never had the speed to dodge something so fast. He could never have even hoped to block the hit from this foe.

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But Annie could block it. Almost as fast as a bullet, she leaped up forward, out-speeding moving pincer, taking a stance before the lieutenant, her back to his chest. She took the brunt of the incoming hit on her knives, gritting her teeth from the horrible force behind the blow. Finally, her new, but trusted weapons snapped in two under the pressure of the foe, the force behind the enemy blow made Annie spread her arms to preserve them from being cut away, and blades of pincer found their way to the chest of the scout, slicing through armor and marking her with pain, sending scout and agent behind her back a few steps. Blood ran down from the wound across her chest.

"Idiot! I am just a normie! Your life is far more valuable than m…" The lieutenant grabbed her from the back, trying to pull her aside. His effort was almost childlike, despite the help from his power armor, Annie was simply too strong for him.

"Normie, new breed, who cares!?" Annie smiled as grenades hit the foe in the back, joined with fire from border guards who had finally reached the hill and were now showering rampaging beasts with fire from their rifles, "All of us are humans. As a soldier, it is my duty, our duty to protect others, even at the cost of our lives. And because of this, I refuse to allow allies to die, not if I can save them!"

Her boast was cut short when the chest of a line breaker exploded. Something that resembled the tail of a scorpion shot forward, breaking the sound barrier and cutting deep into the body of the scout under her left breast. Annie gasped from pain while a stinger scratched across her bones, trying to find its way to her lung. The body of the scout was lifting in the air with disgusting ease, the long tail coming from the chest of the line breaker twisted itself, slamming her into the ground and retracting back to the chest of the line breaker. Through the pain in her eyes, Annie looked at the battlefield once more.

Lucendra and the Branded sneak up upon the line breaker that was pursuing Kayleen, oblivious to everything around itself. The massive being stomped around camp, crashing tents and turning people into paste underneath its massive legs. The wolf hag led the being away from the hostages, annoying the line breaker with shots from her shardgun. Pack K went silent for a moment, as Lucendra explained her plan to the males in a half-panicked voice. It took nearly half a minute, but finally they moved, firing shardguns at once, aiming at a single metal plate on the leg of the foe. The joined assault tore through metal, breaking something that caused the piston-driven leg to go numb and almost tripped the charged monstrosity. Lucendra almost squeaked from happiness, sending potential structural weak points to other wolfkins. Kayleen stopped in awe for a second, briefly glancing at the warrior. Even with one leg unable to move, the line breaker lifted the massive pincer arm above itself, covering Kayleen in shadow. The pincer moved downward, ready to cleave the wolf hag. Kayleen was in awe just for a second, but this was enough for the pincers to nearly touch her helmet.

The killing blow missed the wolf hag, who evaded it by ducking low and leaping toward the beast. A single kick found a metal plate, similar to one that was taken out by Pack K. It shattered from the impact of the kick, forcing the line breaker to limp on two legs.

Ultis and Carty were slowly, yet steadily, taking the last line breaker apart with fire from sniper rifles. Pack C used all acid grenades, making their foe resemble more of a moving pile of metal rather than a cadaver fused with metal. The flesh peeled off from the metal, the brain was splattered when the head was taken apart, one of the pincer hands had gone missing, and three of the legs had stopped moving. This foe was in his death throes, as much as it can be said about a cadaver like this.

Annie spat blood on the ground, feeling the burning sensation in her chest. Pain everlasting hit her, while the sickness of Chosen Prince tried to overtake her body. And yet a slow smile spread around her snout. They won, maybe at the cost of her life, but they took down four elite units of Chosen Prince. The Intelligence boldly assumed line breakers to be equal to wolf hags, yet wolfkins proved this theory wrong tonight.

The lieutenant stepped forward, shielding Annie with his own body. He reached for the pistol on his belt and fired twice in the open chest, while the scorpion tail thingy danced in the air before the line breaker, almost in a hypnosis like trance. As the first bullet connected with the bulk of sickness, the tail struck forward, with the sound of a cracking whip. And just as it moved forward, so did Annie. She pushed Angoro aside, taking the blow on her left arm, feeling how the tail tore open her armor all the way from wrist to elbow, leaving a long-lacerated slash across her arm.

"You idiot!" Angoro screamed in anger, landing on the ground.

"Just… follow my creed, sir," Annie responded in a strained voice, "Life is a precious thing, treasure it well. Now how am I going to…" Scout fell on her knees as her legs gave in.

Gonna be honest, I have no idea how to live through it. Annie thought, swallowing drool mixed with blood as the tail retracted back, ready to strike once more, hovering along the gaping hole in the being's body in a hypnotizing dance, as the line breaker began to move, advancing on the scout. Annie looked through the lenses of each and every ally in desperation, checking the sensors of the power armor. No luck, the wolf hag was too far and Carty and Ultis were still busy.

And then she saw through someone else's lens. Flying through the air, roaring sounds of a plane above, someone was falling on the battlefield with a cheer. Arms were tightly pressed to the body, shaping the falling form into a line in order to help speed up the fall. At the last second before falling, the body performed a somersault in the air, landing on both feet in front of Annie with the sound of a falling building and an impact that caused the scout to leap into the air.

"You seem to be having fun, mind if I jump in!" Virginia happily shouted, her paws moving before her almost like flowing water, catching the striking sting. Her power armor strained from the effort of such movement and from the strain of struggle as the sting tried to break free, the lenses of her helmet became two orbs of crimson sun for a moment, but the wolf hag of warlord Alpha overcame the physical might of her foe, tearing the sting away. She turned to Annie, sting still in hand. Unlike Annie, who had two crimson slashes, the mark of the scout on her shoulder, Virginia had three slashes. She was a wolf hag, full and through. Ferocity, speed unmatched power unbound. Seeing the smiling member of the Alpha team, Annie felt utter shame. Virginia never lost her position unlike Annie.

"Sure, the pool is open, the water is fine." Annie mumbled miserably, feeling a surge of humiliation.