Aranea led her troops through the enemy's defensive positions inside the corridor leading to a large cylindrical tower on the Moon City's western side. The main corridor inside the inner wall was a vast place, well lit and with many potential chokepoints to meet the attackers head-on. Its walls were smooth, the floor was made of metal, and barricades were rising upward as the pack advanced.

The only reason why Aranea and her pack cut their path through the enemies with such ease was because the foes never expected to be attacked from all sides. Faced with a rebellion within their ranks, the outnumbered bentos and soultakers simply could not retreat in time and were now being gunned down or captured on sight.

Only the heavy assault team members could match the wolfkins in these tunnels, and those were spread too thinly. Each time the enemy mounted a secure position, they found themselves being struck in the back by another pack. Ivar never allowed the enemy command to put an order to the chaos, fully intending on crippling the enemy forces before they could retreat into the city and regroup.

A shot across the temple made Aranea throw herself on the floor, hiding behind a barricade meant to be used by the enemy. Two more warriors leaped next to her, looking out for a moment before firing at the soultakers further down the corridor.

The warrior to Aranea’s left lived for but a second before the entire exposed side of the woman disappeared under the heavy enemy fire. The warlord grabbed the soldier to her right, leaped out of the barricade just in time before it was moved down by the enemy’s fire. Tiny fired her missiles, guiding them by looking through the cameras of the soldiers ahead of her. The missiles flew above the pack, ready to annihilate the enemy's ranks. A hail of bullets ended their flight, exploding each missile and covering the corridor in smoke.

"Kate! Get behind the bastards!" Aranea snarled, turning the rail gun toward the hatch of the ventilation shaft and firing once. The scout nodded once before disappearing into the newly made hole along with her pack.

Down the corridor stood something truly massive. A towering giant made of steel, standing on three legs and wielding six oversized machineguns instead of limbs. The being had no head, instead, countless lenses were installed in his bulk, providing the cyborg with the ability to see everything around himself. On the left side of his steel body was a marking, indicating that this was one of the flesh carvers.

They are sending medics to fight us now? Aranea ducked, rolling to the side to evade another fury of bullets. Several bullets hit her in the head, with perfect surgical accuracy, cracking a plate over the crimson eye. The pack answered the rage of this medic with their own weapons, the shards hit the massive bulk, cracking some of the lenses and leaving tiny scratches against the hull. When Leila fired her energy rifle, the flesh carver simply activated an energy shield, absorbing the shot briefly and concentrating on Aranea, viewing her rail gun as the only weapon capable of killing or damaging him.

Gotta be honest, he or she is not wrong. Aranea gritted her fangs, crashing into the side of the tunnel. In her wake, three more soldiers died, bisected by the countless bullets. The flesh carver was supported by a small squad of soultakers, who were doing their best to stay alive by hiding behind the steel barriers and adding their own shots to the fury. These are not a threat. But…

The warlord heard a new sound and hid herself behind another barricade, seeing how a hover tank rolled into the tunnel, positioning itself right behind the flesh carver. The twin machineguns on top of the hover tank were immediately melted away by Leila and her pack, but the missiles fired by Tiny were exploded anew by the flesh carver. The tank aimed the main cannon at the wolfkins, preparing to reduce their cover to nothing.

"Acid grenades. At the flesh carver." The warlord said, standing up.

Aranea calmly took aim with the rail gun. The flesh carver got distracted for a brief moment, some of his lenses were destroyed, and his focus was still on Tiny. Aranea closed her amber eye, and time slowed down to a crawl. She saw a flash within the enemy's barrel, and her paws moved slowly, impossibly slowly. The halfbreed refused to give in to panic, watching how the shell was moving inside the cannon, adjusting her aim. With a deadly calm, she made a single shot.

The flesh carver activated his shield, thinking that he was the target. Instead, the plasma projectile shot across the edge of his shield and sliced its way through the tank’s main cannon, exploding both the shell and killing some of the crew in the process. The rear part of the hover tank’s tower exploded, spilling out fire and metal at the soldiers hiding behind the barricades.

The flesh carver’s machine guns roared only once, missing Aranea by the hair and tearing away the pauldron off her right shoulder. Keyl, Sly, Yuki, and Sonya, along with her pack, threw their grenades at his steel frame, forcing the cyborg to hide behind the shield again. The grenades exploded, spilling the deadly acid onto the shield, creating a half-sphere of toxic contents in front of the flesh carver, robbing him of his vision, along with draining his batteries.

The ventilation hatch behind the flesh carver exploded, allowing Kate and her pack to jump away. The scout allowed her troops to attack the soultakers, throwing two mines at the back of the cyborg. The metallic bulk started to turn around, its upper part created sparks upon scratching the top of the tunnel. Kaleb fired his shardgun just once, exploding both mines and allowing high-powered acid to melt away one of the legs.

Before falling, the cyborg shot three of his cannons, aiming at the scout. Aranea heard Kate’s screams and saw how one of the bullets made a finger-sized hole in the wolfkin's belly. The flesh carver intended to keep on firing when the tank exploded, throwing injured Kate and her troops aside from the line of the rail gun’s fire.

Kate, your power is freaking amazing. Aranea allowed herself a smile of relief, taking aim at the center of the enemy’s mass and firing three times. The shield screamed, stopping the first projectile, flickering before disappearing. The second projectile took away two of the enemy’s arms, creating a gigantic crack in the cyborg’s side. Finally, the last projectile exploded on the steel side, evaporating the contents inside and toppling the flesh carver. The cyborg’s legs twitched once before disappearing in the sea of flames, as Tiny ended him with her missiles.

"Subdue the enemies’ resistance!" The warlord shouted, leaping forward.

Her pack charged after her. Aranea let them face the enemy head-on, finishing off the few soultakers willing to fight and capturing the rest. She herself jumped through the flames, landing on the metal floor before Kate.

The scout was shot straight through the belly. Kaleb held her gently in his paws while Kate desperately ventilated, fighting for each breath. She tried to salute Aranea before allowing her paw to fall.

"Sorr…" Her helmet slid down, and Kate spat blood on her breastplate, "It stings a little."

Geldi pushed past Aranea, reaching out with her fingers toward the wound and cursing once.

"Shittings. Her stomach is pierced." The medic threw down her bag, reaching for something inside.

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"Geldi, is she going to…" Kaleb’s voice broke from fear.

"Of course not. You promised to name one of the cubs after me, I am holding you to this promise." Without warning, Geldi thrust a metal device inside Kate’s stomach, finding a piece of metal inside and pulling it out, causing Kate to spill out another surge of blood.

"Kaleb!" Kate tried to chuckle, frowning in pain. "Don’t go around promising something like that…"

"Too late, honey, already did it." The soldier kissed Kate in the eye.

Aranea reached out, grasping the scout’s paw, to calm the panic and pain in her eyes. Geldi continued talking, working on Kate’s insides without an inch of hesitation or mercy: "Kate it will hurt. Like a lot a lot. I need to stop you from bleeding out. Don’t bite off your tongue, Kate, or, God is my witness, I will feed you only with suppositories for the next month. Kaleb, hold her. Sly, keep her jaws open. We will work on your injury next."

"Sure thing!" Sly pushed the handle of his shardgun down Kate’s throat, earning a look of pure hatred from her. "Sorry, Kate, my fingers are too gentle." The soldier joked.

"Et… et… ou… is!" Kate managed to say, twitching from pain.

"Ursico, Alek I can see your group on the radar. We have wounded." Aranea opened the main channel, finding the closest allies among the regular forces. "Can you reach us and lend us a hand?"

"Affirmative, warlord. Moving out to the designation position," Marveni’s voice was accompanied by the sound of the working disruptors. "ETA five minutes."

"You owe us beers, ladies!" Alek laughed, earning a smile from Aranea.

"Sergeant, you will keep your mind on the task, unless you want to be responsible for cleaning the entire sewage system of this city." Ursico snapped at him.

"Yuki!" The warlord stood up, giving Kate an encouraging nod. The scout tried to give her a thumbs up, but she only ended up hiccupping from pain. "All injured are to stay here. Assume command over Kate’s pack and hold the position until our allies…"

"Aranea!" Annie’s voice joined the chatter, "The enemies got us pinned down. I have dead and wounded, and…"

Aranea heard the sound of an explosion over the communication and opened the video feed of Annie’s pack. They were being shot at by a group made of two heavy assault team members and one flesh carver with twin plasma cannons for arms. A host of steel tendrils rose in the air behind the flesh carver’s back, striking once and hitting Carty with enough force to send her flying through the car on the street, exploding it in the process.

"Carty, are you alive!" Annie demanded to know, crawling down the street to her downed wolf hag.

"I can still function." Carty tried to throw off the warlord’s paws. Annie simply grabbed her and jumped back into the cover. The left side of Carty’s helmet was split, a long, lacerated wound ran across her eye. The torn eyelid hung on a thread of flesh.

"Mia! Help her! Aranea, here's my plan," Annie said, looking at the foes and commanding her pack to keep their heads down. "We have a balcony over the armories. According to your location, your pack is close to it. Would you mind sending someone to rain abyss on these cretins who keep us out?"

"Of course!" Aranea found Sonya and Leila with her eyes. "Wolf hags, take your packs and aid our allies. Reach the balcony and use mines and grenades to distract our foes. Take care of the flesh carver first, these bastards pack quite a punch."

"Yes, warlord!" Both wolf hags reported, leading their soldiers away.

Aranea summoned the map once more, finding the entrance to the tower. It was less than four hundred meters ahead, just behind two turns of the corridor. The halfbreed doubted that the enemies would have time to evacuate the target, not with the chaos currently happening in the city.

"Keyl, ready for the final push?" Aranea asked the knight captain.

"Born ready, warlord." Keyl smiled to her before closing his helmet.

"Form up, pack," Aranea said, reloading her rail gun and walking forward. "Time to show our cousin how we win this."

****

"Incomprehensible." Scorpio said the words and felt his body coming apart.

The molecules of his body broke apart, darting up from the main camp, flying at a speed far faster than the one that he could achieve with his own wings. Following his will, his power reassembled him high in the skies, allowing the black wyrm to look at the Moon City from above.

He spread his massive wings, holding himself in the air with lazy flapping, and pondered the situation. First, a problem with miss Vincent. Solved: Scorpio never lied to his allies, only withholding information when needed. He found the perfect tool to deal with his uppity friend.

Next. Ivar’s strange behavior. Scorpio took himself by the chin and thought. A pattern, was it? Huntsman was ordered to kill the warlords. It was a logical decision, but why on earth did King return Janine's body in such a manner that was bound to enrage Alpha? Think deeper. Blaguna, no matter her temper, was a valuable asset. Why would King let her hide in the fortress instead of marching her to her doom in battle? Why was Chort allowed to serve under her command?

Pattern, pattern… The decision to wipe out all of Belaz along with Ivar was a sound tactical move, but it was pure insanity from a strategic standpoint. Until now, his excellency Wyrm Lord has avoided major battles in order to limit civilian casualties. In the event of the blatant destruction of one of the major cities, he would step in and end the war personally, regardless of the losses...

Scorpio always considered King to be a mere fool. What if I am wrong? What if his moves have a purpose? What if the Arena was meant to bait us into… According to Scorpio’s informants, King bought a passage to Iterna for Tehuoto. So why…

"You bastard!" Scorpio roared, flapping his wings and flying toward the cylindrical tower like an arrow.

Ivar kept the information secret once more! Scorpio never intentionally sent any of his soldiers or hired mercenaries to their deaths. Criminals, sure, he was not without sin. The mere thought about the fact that a potential warlord might…

His body came crushing against the shield around the city, and Scorpio roared from frustration. His Wordplay’s teleportation worked by sending his molecules forward, if something obstructed their path, like a shield, for example, Scorpio could not imagine himself bypassing it, thus saying the command was pointless.

"Energy." Lightning ran down his scales, gathering around his arms.

Scorpio let his claws out, breaking through the shield and pulling the force shield aside. Making a hole big enough to squeeze his body in, the black wyrm landed on the outer wall, sending the bento’s elder several levels below with a single step of his gigantic leg.

"Captain, she will attack our forces directly now," Zero told him over the communication, and Scorpio saw her icon darting from the place, running toward the wall. "Please, let me do my job."

"Captain Scorpio, what is the meaning of this?" Zero’s image disappeared from the visor over the black wyrm’s right eye, replaced with Ivar’s dissatisfied snout. "You are interfering with our advance."

The blue wyrm sat in the crawler, arms and legs tightly clasped to his body. The steel device, in the form of the lower part of an egg, enveloped the blue wyrm’s body. Countless tubes were visible around the upper part of his body, going under his scales and carrying food, water, and vitamins to his body, along with cooling Ivar down.

A metallic helmet was placed over Ivar's head, projecting images from hundreds of battle encounters onto his eyes, allowing the blue wyrm to change his strategy on the fly. All around him, the staff’s officers were busy helping the captain, breaking into the enemy’s communications, and sending updated maps to the allies.

"I am not going to let my soldiers die, Ivar." Scorpio hissed at him, leaping in the air once again.

The black wyrm noticed Ashbringer, who was covered in dried blood from head to toe; her armor had been pried off her body in several places. She was limping on one leg, a well-placed cut sliced through the ligaments that connected the femur and tibia. Her foe fared little better, losing several of his legs and a head.

The warlord spread her arms, allowing her sole remaining Labashi, as she called her flamethrowers, to spit out another torrent of flame, directing it to swirl around her body. The soldiers on the outer wall noticed the black wyrm and aimed their remaining weaponry at him.

"Fury." Scorpio gave another command. The air howled around him. Thick black clouds started swirling around his massive body, the might of a tornado was unleashed in full and concentrated only in the vicinity of his body. All missiles and projectiles unleashed at him were thrown aside, allowing the black wyrm to fly onward undaunted, resembling a storm cloud because of the lightning around his fists.

"You may want to change course." Ivar said it coldly.

Scorpio froze in the air for a second, noticing how Ivar’s personal crawler started powering up its main weapons, along with two other crawlers. And all of them were aiming at the same target. The upper floors of the tower.

"Ivar, what in the abyss are you doing!?" Scorpio let out a roar of anger, fighting between the desire to smash through the second shield and the desire to go back and gore the captain with his claws.

"Keeping our soldiers safe," The blue wyrm replied calmly. "Trust me on this one, captain."