The wolf hag raised her paw, leading her troops toward the doors. Aranea admitted to herself that she was scared shitless. Not for her life, although it was a concern. No, she was scared of these massive weapons along the wall that started taking aim at her soldiers. She was scared for the lives of her troops and allies. Thousands of them, wolfkins, new breeds, and normies alike—poured toward the inner wall, wiping out all meager resistance, moving like a sea of utter darkness.

And this sea suffered from splashes. From time-to-time, heavy shells fell upon them, taking the lives of dozens and injuring just as many, confusing the ranks and leaving the soldiers exposed to the never-ending machine gun fire and sniper fire of their foes. If someone fell, you could not stop and help, you had to keep moving, hoping that your allies would pick up the wounded. To stop is to die. You had to move forward in order to live. There was no longer an option to retreat, and the path ahead seemed to be cut off!

I can’t let my soldiers die in vain, being butchered with no chance to fight back! Aranea bit her own tongue, shouting commands in a confident tone and leading her troops ahead. The foes were firing at the advanced pack, throwing them off their feet. Aranea herself stumbled, enduring a sniper shot against her pauldron. The power armor held, only a small crack appeared on the surface. Keyl helped Aranea stand steady, and both of them ran further, gunning down the soultakers who were throwing themselves at them in a desperate attempt to halt their advance.

Missiles rose in the air behind them, making a turn and coming crashing down on a few pillboxes that stood in their way, exploding them along with machine gunners. Tiny and her pack finally made it across the breach and started working with their heavy weapons. Laser beams struck the snipers hiding in alcoves and balconies, indicating that both Leila and Kate joined the fray.

A searing white beam melted the entire balcony, the concrete flowed onto the people on the lower balcony, enveloping them in the overheated stone. Olesya pushed on, her cannon on the shoulder, twin energy rifles in her paws. The warlord easily kept pace with the fastest soldiers in her pack by simply walking. She was firing non-stop, never missing her mark. Olesya’s shots took the lives or limbs of soultakers and bentos, taking a grievous toll on anyone who dared to attack her pack.

A combat battle vehicle was thrown aside, a mighty six-wheeled beast of steel with twin cannons on top of it had its front crumbled by Annie’s hitting it with both paws. Carty leaped on top of the vehicle, tearing off a hatch and throwing a grenade down. Her warlord moved onward, the explosion painted her armor red.

Virginia moved ahead of Alpha, her energy axe took a leg from the heavy assault team member. Falling down, the cyborg grabbed Virginia with one arm, trying to crush her in vain. Seeing how the wolf hag was prying open his finger, the cyborg lifted a plasma cannon in his free hand, aiming the weapon at her head. In an instance, his body became riddled with five gigantic molten holes, and the cyborg toppled, falling face down. Virginia’s own heavy assault team, five wolfkins armed with plasma launches, rushed to help her wolf hag who just laughed and gave them pats on the shoulders.

A large, truck-sized figure leaped from the top of the inner wall. It looked like an egg made of solid steel, and Aranea assumed that it was some sort of bomb at first. Reacting on instinct, the wolf hag took aim and fired right at the steel mass’ center. A moment later, laser beams and missiles joined her shot, creating a small ball of flame and smoke above the troops.

The sound of explosions around the steel egg was cut by the sound of a roaring engine. The smoke flew away, pushed aside by the six metal wings, revealing the undamaged steel form within. Its wings resembled those of a fly, and countless lenses covered the round head, shifting constantly across the head and surveying the surroundings. The cyborg had eight legs, each made of countless segments with a dangerous-looking blade at the end of it. The cyborg moved in twitching motions, held in the air by gravity engines installed at the edges of its wings. Its round body opened, showing a blinding white light within.

The cyborg hovered above the battlefield for a brief moment, unbothered by the attackers. Laser beams and missiles directed at him were deflected by the shield that popped into existence around the flying form. From within its belly came white orbs, no larger than a phalange. They rain on the soldiers below, passing through their armor and entering the flesh.

And caused an explosion. The explosion that shook the very ground when living beings were turned into human-sized explosives equivalent to a small charge of TNT each. Their comrades were flung to the side, revealing a gaping hole in the advancing front. Alpha herself landed in the midst of the newly discovered devastation, taking aim with the massive plasma launchers implanted in the wrists of her power armor. The moment the deadly heat left the barrels, the elder moved aside with a buzzing sound, stopping Aranea and her troops.

His wings moved, and a cloud of nanomachines came from behind them, descending on the left flank. They dissolved five soldiers all the way to the bones in an instant, not allowing the poor souls even a chance to scream. Their power armors, their clothes, and their flesh were all stripped from them, leaving behind just five skeletons that collapsed on themselves.

A single enemy! A single enemy, and he still outnumbered us! Aranea quelled her panic, planning a route for her pack to retreat. No matter what anyone says, they had no warlord. Not even Olesya could match an elder of the Bento tribe, one of them easily forced a warlord to retreat.

The nanomachines flew back, circling around the elder and devouring the incoming projectiles, reducing them to nothing before they could even reach his shield. Only laser beams and Aranea’s rail gun hit the elder’s shield, popping it for a moment. The many-lensed head jerked aside, stopping to look directly at Aranea, identifying her rail gun as the main danger. Wreathed in the cloud of nanomachines, the cyborg prepared to descend on her…

And was pushed behind when another figure, encased in both power armor and a halo of flame, came crushing into it. The flamethrowers on the warlord’s paws unleashed torrents of blue flame after torrent of flame, causing the warlord to look like a blue star. The flames moved unnaturally, circling around the wolfkin, licking the surface of her body instead of following an expected trajectory. The nanomachines were turned to ash, unable to reach the enemy, and Ashbringer carried the elder all the way into the wall, coming crashing down on one of the balconies.

The warlord stood up, holding four wings in her paws. Her foe was covered in flame from head to the very tips of the legs, rolling around, thrashing madly with his many legs. The stone beneath him gave in, slowly making the elder’s body sink in deeper.

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"One chance," Ashbringer said with difficulty. The warlord raised her paw, biting through the steel and drawing blood. The flame still poured from the flamethrower, miraculously leaving her fangs and mouth alone. She looked at a few surviving soultakers on the balcony and nodded once, allowing them to retreat without weapons. "Bu… Surrender and live."

A leg appeared from the fire veil, striking the warlord in the shoulder. The figure covered in flames stood up, holding itself on four legs, through Ashbringer’s cameras Aranea saw that the elder was barely damaged at all. The smooth surface of the metallic body endured the raging flame, refusing to melt. Only a couple of cracks covered the bulk of the steel.

"Am I being underestimated, mutant? You surrender, and I will let you live." The elder spoke in the mocking tone of a frail hundred-year-old man. Despite the elderly trembling in his voice, complimented by the imitation of a toothless person’s speech patter, he drove the warlord back, almost dropping her from the balcony. A gigantic metal stinger came from his back, aiming for Ashbringer’s head.

"Thank you." Ashbringer tore the leg from her shoulder, closing in on the elder and evading the stinger. Her own flames cauterized the wound at once.

The steel legs tried to catch her, locking behind her back instead. Ashbringer landed a single heavy punch into the enemy's torso, straight into the opening from which the strange bombs came out, disabling the strange weapon and sending the elder crashing into the opposite wall.

"I needed this." Ashbringer told him, standing up and becoming a pillar of fire.

A beam hit from the outer wall, piercing the shields around the crawlers. The stream of particles hit one artillery piece, exploding the ammunition and then moved on, bisecting six more. The elder, armed with the gigantic cannon, wanted to keep firing but had to jump away, evading a beam of darkness that reduced the wall behind her to rubble. Warlord Zero and the elder of the Bento Tribe started their own fight, firing at each other and evading the artillery attacks of the enemy.

"Now!" Aranea helped two of her soldiers onto their feet, charging toward the massive doors. One of the turrets on the wall moved, pointing the cannon at her troops, and Aranea’s heart almost jumped from her chest.

The turret came apart in the blinding explosion. The massive cannon fell down, breaking the legs of one of Aranea’s soldiers and nearly turning Sly into a red paste. A series of explosions followed, creating chaos above the outer wall of the Moon City.

"What is this?" Aranea heard Scorpio’s voice over communications. "This wasn’t one of my fr…"

"These were my people," Ivar replied coldly. "As if I would leave everything to mere chance. Soldiers! Advance, on the double!"

"Yes, sir!" Aranea and all the others shouted in unison, feeling a bit happier after all these days of siege. Finally, finally, these blasted, cursed, Spirits’ forsaken cannons fell silent! Carrying their wounded, the pack charged toward the massive gates, and Aranea prepared her rail gun, attempting to shoot through it if needed.

The doors moved. With rumbling and the sound of working gears, the gates started sliding inside the stone wall. Aranea immediately took aim at the opening, her rail gun joined by hundreds of shard guns, several laser rifles, and even Tiny’s missile launcher.

"Weapons down!" A familiar voice shouted from the other side. "Friendlies here!"

"This is true." Ivar grumbled, sending new identification signals to Aranea and several other packs.

Behind the door stood a soultaker dressed in pitch-black power armor. A long black cape, with several gun holes in it, was flowing from beneath her pauldrons. Twin identical looking pistols were in the soultaker’s holsters, and her entire power armor bore the marks of recent battle, with the helmet’s left lens going off and on occasionally.

Behind her was a group of five soultakers, armed with rifles, all wearing the same power armor as the first one. Every single one of them had some wounds on their bodies, on the corridor’s floor lay several dead bodies, and several tied up soultakers were sitting next to the wall, their power armors depowered.

"Greetings, warlord," Katriana Vincent nodded to Aranea, looking briefly at Leila, "You too, mutant. Nice to see you all live and kicking."

"What are you doing here…"

"Katriana Vincent switched sides to save her people's lives," Ivar cut off Aranea's questions. "Warlord, we don't have time to waste. Warlord Olesya will capture the enemy’s leader, warlord Annie will secure the armories. Warlords Alpha, Valerye, and Ashbringer will secure the streets and put an end to this foolish resistance. And you are tasked with preventing Jekaterina’s son from escaping."

"She has a son?"

"Yes, a mewling brat named Tehuoto. Follow the designated path and make sure that pipsqueak won’t leave the Moon City."

"You are to take him alive," Scorpio joined in again. "The boy is around four years old."

"If this would be possible." Ivar hissed.

"Alive, warlord. You are not to harm him or his grandmother. This is an order." Scorpio spoke with a steely tone. "A moment. Ivar, what did you mean by your remark? What is going on in the town? What exactly are you hiding from me?"

"Not relevant right now. It is your fault for not seeing the picture. All that is important is that our soldiers are safe."

"Of course, we'll take the target alive," Aranea responded, noticing from the corner of her eye that Geldi had already begun treating the injured. "Who do you take us for?"

"Not all of you, just you, warlord." Scorpio coldly replied to her. "I expect exemplar behavior."

"A moment!" Katriana grabbed Leila by the hand, "I need your help, mutant," She nodded at the prisoners. "Get rid of the imprints. Starting with this bitch, pretty please."

The former soultaker grabbed a prisoner with a gunshot wound in her shoulder. Katriana almost tore the helmet off the woman’s head, showing a green-haired woman. The woman looked around with horrified eyes, trying in vain to jerk away from the half-wyrm. Leila did not allow this, grabbing her by the cape and allowing the lenses to move aside. A light shone in the woman’s eyes, removing the imprint.

"Capital!" Katriana threw the woman over her shoulder, ignoring the desperate struggles. "Now, I am off my way."

"Please!" Her prisoner whimpered, trembling in horror. "She is going to torture me! Please, just kill me, don’t let her…"

"What is the meaning of this?!" Aranea pushed forward, allowing Leila to work on other prisoners.

"Zose here was one of the people who sent my group on patrol the day you took me apart," Katriana took off her own helmet, smiling to Aranea. "Chort and she collaborated to get me and my people killed. Now, I am a kind person, I can forgive a crime against me but not against my people. I am going to give Zose a lesson she will never forget for this."

"This is a lie! Chort was my commanding officer, I had no choice but to follow his orders!" Katriana utterly ignored the struggles of her prisoner.

"I will not let you kill the prisoners." Aranea grabbed the soultaker by the gorget.

"Don't worry, no killing," Katrina said cheerfully to Aranea, patting the prisoner on the armored greave. "I want Zose to live and regret what she has done every day of her long, long life."

"Torture is forbidden by the law, Katriana," Ivar interjected, his voice coming from Katriana's gorget."I will personally see you dead if you dare…"

"No physical harm, honest," Katriana broke free from Aranea's grip, taking a few steps back. "I told you, this will be a lesson, one that Zose will remember for a long, long while."

Aranea stepped after her, intending to take the prisoner away by force if needed.

"Warlord Aranea!" Scorpio’s voice brought her back to reality. "We are in the warzone. Leave this matter to me and move on to your objective."

The black wyrm switched off from the main communication channel, connecting Aranea and himself through the personal channel.

"Trust me on this one, warlord, and I may just trust you back. There is something fishy going on here, something that slipped out of sight," The black wyrm told her unhappily. He took a breath, calming his wounded pride. "Ivar is plotting something. Get Tehuoto to safety."