Green sat cross-legged, watching how a group of greenies were assaulting the wolfkins caught in a small canyon. The blue who led this group had butchered a small caravan of traders, leaving two of them to bleed out. Their screams had attracted a group of thirty wolfkins to this narrow place. And now they were being butchered, assaulted by a never-ending horde of green bodies from both sides of the canyon.

She shook her head, disgusted at this butchered job. There was no finesse, no elegance here, the doggies were simply drowning in the bodies thrown at them. Had she been in charge, she would have picked up these mutants one by one, killing them before they could have so much as let out a squeak. Thirty enemies spread out in the open, seven minutes was all she needed to extinguish the flames of their lives.

And now everyone knows of the greenies' presence. The walls of the canyon were splattered with the blood of the fighters, the wolfkins formed a circle around the wounded traders, refusing to give in to the overwhelming numbers. And they had been doing quite a nice job of eviscerating these mindless flesh sacks. The attack started five minutes ago, and the ground was already littered with bodies of dead greenies, bisected, shot to pieces, or torn asunder. And only five wolfkins lay dead.

This is getting ridiculous. Green jumped off the ledge and made a turn in the air, evading a shot from one especially keen wolfkin. Green had rewarded the woman with twin blades that slipped from underneath her vambraces. The blades pierced the lenses, coming straight into the brain of the creature. Green had twisted the blades, ending the creature’s life for good, and moved on, killing any in her path.

Green has never been the one to torture anyone, except maybe for Grug when he misbehaved or forced her to save him. No, her every kill was quick and efficient. A cut on the shoulder, just deep enough to bury the blade in the lung. A surge of sonic vibration transmitted through the steel of her blade, and this overgrown werewolf’s heart exploded. She spun around, taking claws on her right blade and spearing the foe’s trachea with the left blade.

And just like that, with the mere two kills, a hole has opened in the enemy’s defensive lines, allowing the greenies to pour forward and tackle the wolfkins to the ground. Green followed in their wake, killing the downed foes with economical thrusts. Where greenies had struggled to pierce the enemies’ power armor, Green’s molecular blades severed most of the matter before them as if it were water.

I hate the Ravaged Lands. Green admitted it to herself, dodging a shot that killed a greenie behind her. She had darted forward, slicing off the doggie’s paws and finishing him or her with a single thrust beneath the jaw. Before the blood could taint her elegant power armor, Green pushed the blade out.

"Green, what are you doing?" Academician inquired about her communication. The man sounded bored, no doubt looking through her eyes.

"Killing mutants, sir," The woman replied, kicking with her left leg and snapping the neck of a doggie before her like a twig. Academician was silent, but she felt his question and boredom at these killings. "I am here to oversee our investments…"

"There are no investments, Green. We haven’t committed anything yet, and there is no need to. Come back and let this…" Academician made a pause before continuing with a chuckle, "King to do his part of the bargain. Come back and everything will be fine, Green, I promise this to you."

"I am not trusting this person with the glow crystal, sir," Green had half expected to die after these words. Academician was unlike other elders. He rarely implanted bombs in his servants, preferring to give them more freedom, even accepting and trading banter and insults back. But for all his carelessness, the man had safe measures in place. Green had seen how Orange died when she tried to usurp him. Her body had broken down in excruciating pain, the skin had become liquid, and the bones within had started growing, tearing the organs asunder. But there was no rebuke. "This is bigger than you or me, sir. For the Organization."

She meant that. The glow crystals played an important role in their fight to restore humanity to its former glory. No matter what, they always had to take priority, even if this meant going against the elder in charge of the region. The Organization took her in, fed her, and trained her. And for this, she will give her all to their noble goal.

"Do as you wish, Nora." The man responded with a hint of sadness.

Green paid his words no mind, advancing on the foes before her. She will chastise him for using her real name later. No doubt that he will fire her for disobedience, but this was fine. She heard that Pharaoh was hiring. Worst-case scenario: Green would have to work on some boring tasks, earning recognition anew, before one of the elders picked her up. Problems for later. For now, she had rushed past a doggie, amputating his leg with a swing of her blades. She caught the doggies head between the blades as he fell, making a clean cut through the brain. Green twisted her lips into a frown, feeling a push against her back.

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One of the doggies snuck behind her, firing three times into her back. This was what she was getting for relying on the greenies. Green wanted nothing more than to split, but overindulging in one’s power was a sign of weakness. No, she only used the power when a mission truly called for it or intimidation was needed. And now she needed to polish her skills, never once allowing herself to lose the edge.

The creature behind her had dropped the sliced-in-two shardgun, trying to gain distance as Green followed after it. Seeing Green’s speed, the doggie grabbed a flash bang from her belt, throwing it up in the air between the two. Green ignored the bright flash, charging straight through it. Her helmet's lenses didn't even detect the blinding flash, allowing her to maintain perfect vision on her adversary. Green struck out with both swords, aiming to bisect the doggie into four parts.

The doggie had surprised her, slashing forward with her own claws. The claws struck at the blades, evading the edge, and pushed them aside. Immediately after the doggie had struck with the left leg, aiming for Green’s abdomen.

The armor could withstand this hit, but taking a hit was humiliation beyond imagination. Green had stepped back, allowing the kick to miss, and advanced at the doggie, hacking and slashing as the fool retreated before her assault. Four hits—way too many—this creature had managed to survive. Her fifth thrust had reached its goal, and Green plunged the swords into the being’s chest.

"Hine, now!" The creature spat the words through a torrent of blood, and Green pushed the swords out in disgust.

A male. She was fighting against a male. The disgust coursed through her veins, forcing Green to turn around toward the person this mutant was shouting at. Sure enough, she saw the wolfkin, who had grabbed both traders under her arms and was now preparing to jump over the greenies to escape.

A mistake. This sensation burned her like no overheated iron could. She took pride in being able to discern every detail about a prey, power armor or not. She cared little about the creature that had fallen behind her, her blade struck close to his heart. Even if greenies won’t eat him, he will bleed to death. What bothered her was that she failed to recognize his gender, mistakenly assuming that the one who had managed to sneak up on her must have been the wolf hag.

Green was supposed to be one of the best! An elite among elites, and here she is, unable to identify the most dangerous foe of all! No matter, you will not…

The giant armored form came crashing down from the cliffs above. The armored knee had slammed into Hine’s head, throwing her to the side and making her lose the traders. The massive leg came down like a guillotine blade before the wolf hag could stand. Her chest was caved in under immense pressure, the doggie had managed a single cough before a river of blood poured out from her open lips, evaporating and hissing as it fell on the overheated ground. Her ruined insides soon followed, pushing from the opened jaws.

"Finally decided to show up?" Green asked, allowing the blades to slide back, "Because of your incompetence, everyone is aware of us, loser."

King straightened himself up. Gone was his intricate power armor with the gilded horn. Now he was wearing a gray chunk of metal, that looked rudely made. Each of his movements was accompanied by the sound of servomotors; the resistance's leader's regalia had vanished, leaving him standing like a small hill made of metal. Two purple lenses glared at her.

What a joke. She wished Grug was with her. The creature was far from useless, despite all his cowardliness, Grug never botched an infiltration this badly and always had her back.

"It doesn’t really matter," King raised his foot to kill the traders—a father and daughter—and stopped, seeing a blade before his faceplate. "Going soft, Green?"

"Our cover is blown up. Killing any more people is meaningless."

"As you wish." King moved on, gesturing for the greenies to follow forward.

He spread his arms wide, and a thundering roar answered him. Greenies roar. It ricocheted from the walls of the canyon, followed by tremors across the ground. She looked up and saw how several stones were falling from the cliffs above. Pushing King aside, Green had walked out of the canyon and stopped in disbelief.

Greenies were coming from the ground before Fort Uglo. Thousands of them emerged from the ground, hissing and roaring as they formed a half circle around the fortress.

Now, how did you manage to bring them all here? Green wondered. From what she knew, these creatures were made by Chort and him alone. And Chort was dead. These numbers could have really helped in the war… And above all, Fort Uglo was regularly doing sweeps, checking for underground caverns and secret entrances. After all, this was the main road into the wastelands.

"You got a bunch of bodies. And what are they supposed to do, aside from dying?" Green smirked, "Well, insectoids will feast on their corpses."

"Green, do you know how to use a wallet filled with money?"

"Is that a trick question?"

"Not at all. You spend as much as you need from it until you've bought everything you need," King turned to her. "And now they're the coins that will buy us precious time to reach our goal. All so we could steer the tide of this war in the correct direction."

"Uh-uh," Green said, looking at distant bastions with flashes of fire coming from them. "Pray tell me, how are we going to get past that?"

King had extended his hand toward her, spreading his palm wide. Two out of his five metal fingers dangled, like a pair of broken dolls, giving Green the impression that he had lost some parts of his body: "Take me by the hand, Green. And I will show you a miracle."

Green threw one last look at the moaning traders and sent a message to Academician, asking him to save them. She wasn’t sure why. Maybe because they reminded her of her own family being killed by a group of mutants so long ago. Maybe she was indeed going soft. It was a whim, but like the elder told her, it was important to indulge in one’s liberties.

She smiled as she took his armored hand in hers, vowing to herself that King would not live another day. He knew too much.