Aranea leaped in front of the cylinder, the claws on her feet grating against the stone, producing sparks while her heart raced non-stop.

I refuse. Her temples throbbed with blood, and her right arm ached like hell. Time stopped. Everything Aranea saw were twin crimson stars forming at the tip of the cruel-looking tendrils. The cylinder behind her was built with the capability to contain W-venom inside, using a specially made alloy. If this thing has a single puncture, a single leak, and gas leaks out, mixing with the water dripping from the pipes above the hangar...

The warlord had no clear idea what she was going to do now. Her rail gun was out of ammo, Olesya was busy unleashing the anger of her energy cannon on Academician with no effect, the laser beam harmlessly splattered against the enemy’s shield.

"Shield." The familiar voice thundered above Aranea, encasing the space before the warlord with a limpid wall that stopped the energy beams. The wall flashed before Aranea, forcing her to close her eyes to endure this blindingly powerful explosion of energy that melted the very ground before her.

She realized she was still alive, unharmed by the energy that was supposed to flow straight through her, unopposed, into the cylinder. And in the next moment, she understood that the hangar was far more cramped than before.

The pipes started falling from the ceiling, creating new small waterfalls that began to wipe away the blood from the platform, tainting the precious water supply beneath. Two massive wings spread wide, covering everyone beneath in the massive black shadow. The purple eyes flashed behind the biggest waterflow in front of the black wyrm. His massive head pushed forward, spreading the flow like a ram.

"You called, and here I am, warlord," Scorpio smiled to Aranea, his eyes glanced at her shattered elbow, then shot out to look at the dead and injured across the platform. Deliberately slowly, he turned his gaze to Academician, "You treated my people real nice. You were the one who spoke with Dragena during the attack on the archeological center, am I right?"

"The one who correctly deduced her fate, you mean," Academician stood undaunted in the face of the gigantic wyrm before him. "Would you like me to tell you how…"

"No," The light poured from Scorpio’s eyes, shining on the man, "Show me everything."

The smirk left Academician’s lips. He stumbled back one step, and Scorpio leaned his head even lower, using the claws at the ends of his wings to position his massive body just behind the stone portal, looking unblinking at the man. A sweat ran down Academician face, he waved his hand before his eyes.

"Surprised, mutant?" Academician clenched his fist, gritting his teeth. A single long vein appeared on his lean neck, "I already modified my brain, making sure…"

"To turn yourself into a psychopath, yes. Your heart rate speeds up," Scorpio’s last words no longer sounded like the speech of a bored person. It was a command, a demand for action, a challenge to the very nature of things. Something came from his body and spread in a circle around him, causing even Aranea, who was standing outside of the light, to feel a tingle in her chest. "Twice. Four times as fast. Eight times. Feeling tachycardia, yet?" Academician reached out for his chest with one hand, "You are getting paler, my friend, what’s the matter, not enough blood going to the rest of your body? How sad. Your heart bursts."

Wyrms controlled the minds of others by looking into their eyes. It was not hypnosis, as much as Aranea knew. Back when she was worried over the potential harm that Leila could cause, Aranea watched several videos about wyrms. One particular case, about a man born with no sensory organs to serve as eyes, attracted her attention.

The man was suffering from chronic depression and nightmares, a result of being raised among slaves until the state freed him. Finally, the man decided to ask the mental clinic run by wyrms for help, asking them to erase his most potent memories. Wyrms agreed to treat him, and the therapist in charge of the man’s rehabilitation, a wyrm with emerald scales, simply shone the light from his eyes at the patient.

The man never saw anything in his life, relying on a sense of smell, touch, and hearing to live by. A smooth skin covered his face in the place where his eyes were supposed to be. The wyrm’s light touched the patient, and to the surprise of doctors from the ranks of normies, it worked. The wyrm simply rummaged through the man’s head, alleviating some of the harshest symptoms and removing the barest minimum of memories needed to ensure the patient’s well-being.

Wyrms didn't need to make eye contact to use their power. It simply made things easier for the less skilled among them.

Scorpio unleashes the full force of his mind upon Academician, wielding it like a sledgehammer. Academician’s legs trembled, he grasped his chest with a painful expression on his face. He opened his mouth, and only wheezing sounds left his lips. His eyes looked like they were about to bulge out of their sockets and fall to his feet. The man opened his mouth, sticking out the tip of his tongue…

And bit it out, allowing the blood to paint his lower jaw red.

"Ex.Qui.Si.Te." Academician coughed out blood, his fingers digging into his own chest. The pain-filled eyes looked at the wyrm, "A rare pain indeed. For this indignity, I can set aflame your every nerve receptor, mutant," He managed to force the words, straining and fighting for each breath. "But in light of the recent development, I will spare your life."

"How generous of you," Scorpio said, tilting his head, his gaze still fixed on Academician. "Pray, tell me what new information you learned, good man."

"Jekaterina… She said something funny before her demise. A whisper of sorts… Listen to me, mutants. "My goal is to wipe out all of you, leaving no one with even the slightest genetic flaw caused by the glow," Academician smiled. "None of you should have existed. But the one who spoke with Jekaterina. This inhuman filth plans on wiping out all of us, leaving this planet nothing but a speck of dust. Should you ever hear a whisper calling for destruction, reject this deal. This is my gift to you for this pain. A glimpse of the true enemy of us all. My ultimate prey."

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"Thank you, you are too kind," Scorpio replied pleasantly, moving his head left and right in irregular motions, "Your lungs bu...."

Before Scorpio could finish his speech, Academician snapped his fingers, closing the portal and leaving only emptiness in his wake.

"Is he dead?" Aranea decided to ask.

"If only," Scorpio closed his eyes for a moment, opening them anew with no light in them, "No, parasites like him tend to survive quite a lot. No matter. In time, we will deal with him, warlord. I have some new information for our liege and for the Dynast to deliver. As for you," His eyes shifted to look at Aranea and she felt her will leaving her, "Sleep well for two hours."

****

Carty patted Lucendra on her shoulder, giving her an encouraging tap beneath the lower jaw. The woman was feeling a bit down. In the middle of the battle, a mutant nearly introduced the warrior to his fangs before Carty took off the bastard’s head.

Lucendra had no reason to feel bad about her performance. Annie tasked Carty with watching over the rear troops, taking all the wolf hags with her to the front to decimate the advance forces that threatened Alpha’s flanks. This was a sound theory, Annie planned to hold the main breach, allowing her soldiers to fire at the foes from safety.

Alpha wandered into the hordes of mutants, walking knee-deep in slashed flesh and blood, popping bodies beneath her armored legs. Virginia wanted to join her in this glorious slaughter, but she was stopped and told to assist warlord Annie. Soon after that, fifteen mutants joined together, becoming a single entity that crashed another section of the wall, allowing lesser foes to strike Annie’s pack from the side. With neither Olesya nor Aranea at their sides, the pack faced the brunt of enemy forces head-on.

Valerie Red Streak, whom Carty refused to call by any other name, was the one who saved them from losing too many soldiers. The warlord came down like a meteor, punching a hole in the gigantic mutant and turning the tide of battle.

Carty dropped to one knee and silently prayed to a young soldier whose head had been pummeled into a bloody pulp, leaving Lucendra in the care of the boys. She knew this one, he was one of the Branded from Lucendra’s group, back when they first joined the pack. With sadness in her eyes, the scout looked around, noticing the dead of her pack.

The pack was getting smaller. Such was life, some died, and new blood would come from the villages. Carty could handle it if that was all there was to it. She was used to losing comrades. No, what really hurt her heart was that they had some recruits now who never even knew Dragena, who had never served under her. Time will pass, the veterans will slowly die out one after another, and the day will come when no one will be left to keep Dragena’s memory and teachings in their hearts. And on this day, the warlord would truly die.

And no one seemed to be bothered by this. Annie was busy checking up on the wounded and giving commands to the survivors. Ultis was busy cheering up her fellow soldiers. Lucendra still had her own problems and tried desperately to find a way to excel. Kayleen was still far away. None of them seemed to care that much about Dragena. Almost as if they outgrew her, moving on their own. They had their own battles, troubles, grief, and happiness.

Carty was afraid to talk about it with others because she was afraid they would dismiss her concerns as trivial. To Carty Dragena, the warlord was everything. She helped her become a productive pack member by always lending her an ear, giving her advice, and never lying to her. She was a pillar. A pillar that was no more, leaving the scout behind, lost and confused.

Live, Carty. The scout turned around, hearing Dragena’s words all of a sudden. Day by day. Death is finality, explore life while you can.

Spying a familiar form coming from the wall, Carty stood up, allowing a helmet to slide from her head. With the helmet lens no longer helping her damaged eye, half of her world immediately became blurry. She blinked, forcing herself to move on to this arrogant, smug, annoying…

"Need a paw?" Not waiting for a reply, Carty pulled Leila’s arm over her shoulder, helping the half-wyrm stand up. The woman was a mess, one of her wings was broken, and a large hole seeping blood decorated the armor above her belly. "Come. Let’s get you to the medic, liz… Leila."

"Thanks, Carty," The woman smiled to her weakly, and Carty understood just how weak Leila was at the moment. Back during the sparring session, the woman mercilessly pushed Carty’s head into the stone, with one arm, toying with her the entire match and forcing Carty to admit defeat in front of everyone. The idiot was hiding the true extent of her injuries from the allies. "Does this make us friends?"

"Comrades," Carty corrected her, looking around. The medics were transporting badly injured wolfkins and the soundly snoring Aranea from the underground. The warlord’s arm looked like a broken, dried-up twig, "That and I want to enjoy seeing you helpless on a hospital bed."

"Oh, Carty, my dear, you should have told me you were into that earlier. We would have had such a great time together…"

"Piss off." The scout cut her off, ignoring Leila’s laughter.

Good, laugh. It will help you stay conscious. Carty carefully led Leila toward the medics, snarling back to encourage further teasing rather than trading insults. Sometimes it was proper to sacrifice your pride to preserve the well-being of your comrade.

"Sorry for being an ass," Leila said suddenly, "It’s just…" The wolf hag moved her free arm weakly, "… I thought you were going to ruin Tiny’s life somehow. No, it doesn’t excuse the way I walked over you."

"You are not dying on me." Carty told her, hating herself for slipping in a worried note in her speech.

"Of course, I am not!" Leila’s face turned into a grimace of pain, "Wyrms are built differently. But I am going to spend a week or two in a hospital. We don’t heal as fast as wolfkins."

"Tell you what. You let me have fun at your expense while you recover, and we are even. Deal?"

"Deal," Leila coughed out a trickle of blood, and Carty wrapped her other arm around the woman’s waist, leading her toward the medics’ tents. Feeling someone’s eyes on her, the scout looked up and saw the proud form of captain Ivar sitting on the wall, looking down on them. "Carty, why are you always so cold and assholish to others?"

"I am not cold," The wolfkin raised her brow, "And I can be nice, sometimes. I am the one who prepares birthday parties for everyone in my pack. It just…"

"Yes?"

"What kind of soldier will I be if I lie to my soldiers about my true feelings?"

"A good one. You really can't exist without other people. By pushing others away, you can't figure out who you really are and where you stand," Leila told her.

"I am standing on the ground right now, you delirious fool. Trust me, I can still see where I am."

"Listen, your pack values you…"

"Values me, sure," Carty spat on the ground, "My birthday was two days ago. Guess who congratulated me?"

"No one?" Leila suggested quietly.

"I am not that unpopular!" Carty laughed in response, gently leading the woman forward, "No. My father, mother, Lucendra, and Zeke were among those who called. Meanwhile, Annie, Ultis, Tiny, Boys, and all the others kept silent. Nah, Leila. I bore them no ill will, but we are just comrades in arms. It would be nice to talk with someone about my fears, but… Lucendra has her own problems, my parents are... busy. And I will sooner die than admit weakness to Zeke."

"I can lend an ear," Leila smiled, gripping Carty’s pauldron, "Least I can do for a friend. Visit me tomorrow, let’s talk our hearts out. No lying, just say whatever you feel like, and I will do the same."

"I’d like that." The scout responded, giving Leila to Geldi for treatment and stepping aside from the medic.

When she looked up, she noticed that Ivar had already taken to the skies. Carty ran with her paw over her hair and, to her surprise, understood that she wasn’t lying to Leila at the end. It would indeed be nice to admit her fears to someone openly. She needed to get this fear out of her system.