"Death." King teleported away from Aranea’s back.
She saw him appearing above a group of soldiers, his clawed hand rising over his head. A ball of kinetic force shot down, gouging the concrete and people into a bloody crater. Fifteen wolfkins and seventeen soldiers all died in a flash. Propelled by his own force, King raised even higher, glancing around for the new prey.
They fired at him, only for the missiles and laser beams to hit the empty space where his figure was floating just a second ago. Huntsman, for some reason, could only reappear behind his victims. King had no such disadvantage when he used his inherited powers. He appeared before the front rows of soldiers, hanging in the air, and spilled out several dozen blues before teleporting again. He reappeared next to the seeker mech but was swapped away by one of the mech’s arms. The machine has crashed the arrogant mutant into the ground, allowing the weapons on its back to point at him.
King laughed, disappearing the moment the seeker fired, then reappearing behind the vehicle. Its torso began to turn to re-grab him, only to be sent flying by a flick of his finger. A flick, reinforced by the kinetic energy. King pointed his palm at the mech, and an incendiary missile hit him, creating a halo of flames around his bone armor.
"Death is what I bring you." His voice boomed again, and Aranea saw him looking at Tiny, who had fired the missile that saved the lives of everyone inside the mech.
He disappeared, leaving behind only embers of flame, reappearing like a demon from ancient tales, wreathed in fire and capable of melting down even power armor. Gin yanked Tiny away from the mutant, screaming from pain, when King grabbed the wolfkin by his left arm, tearing it away. The flames mounted on King’s fist cauterized Gin’s wound, melting his stump together with the metal of his armor.
Smiling, the monster turned to Tiny, beckoning her with two fingers to try and fire her missile launcher right into his face. The air before trembled, gathering kinetic energy to either block away the missiles, turn Tiny into dust, or do both. Tiny barked the order, and soldiers around them jumped back, leaving just two wolfkins to face the foe. In a moment, two became three.
With her right paw, Aranea gently lifted Tiny’s missile launcher before the wolf hag could doom herself. Her casual tap nearly sent the weapon flying. Aranea made a step forward, covering the distance, and attacked with her right paw, letting her paw flow from the upward position into a straight thrust with almost otherworldly grace and speed.
Her claws pierced the kinetic veil with no effort and sliced across the empty air behind her. King was already over Carty, aiming down at her. Two forms, one in the black power armor and one in silver, crashed into his sides. Annie had opened King’s ribs with her knives, letting Olesya tear at the ribs with her flaming claws. King let out a groan, landing on the ground and coming at both warlords.
As crude as his attacks were, now he had the speed and agility befitting a proper warlord, and Olesya along with Annie found themselves hard pressed. They dove and dodged, backing off from his massive fists, enduring the glancing hits that sent parts of their power armor flying, often with some skin beneath. Aranea charged to them, seeing how Annie nodded to Olesya.
The Dragena’s successor let go of her weapons, facing the foe head-on. King struck with his right paw and Annie’s paw slid underneath his hand, sending it straight back into his face. She grabbed her weapons, letting her arms hang as ropes, and allowed Olesya to open King’s side with her energy beam. A moment later, Annie charged forth. No longer disappearing from Aranea’s eyes, but moving with a speed that shocked the halfbreed.
The warlord had sliced tendons across King’s arms, her weapons had shattered a moment later, unable to endure hits at such superspeed. The warlord paid this no mind, burying both handles in King’s neck just as Olesya speared him with her fist.
King teleported away, refusing to engage Aranea in open combat, and reappeared above Kaleb and Kate. His leg struck down, aiming at Kate’s neck, and Kaleb tacked her, screaming once upon receiving a hit against his back. The inspector's form reappeared in front of her allies after King was thrown off them. Javenika made no gesture, she didn't even lift a brow, but King came down with the force of a cannonade of explosions. He got splattered between two walls of gravity, each aiming to squash the life out of him.
Hey, we are getting used to… Aranea thought happily and saw him teleporting away again. "Jump off the wall!"
King reappeared on the wall, this time directly behind Leila and her pack.A wave of mist came from him, filling Aranea with dread at the realization that she could not get there in time. She tried none the less, slowing time to a crawl and pushing every fiber of her being forward, utilizing every ounce of her newfound warlord’s power.
She was going to be too late. Her soldiers will die in front of her, and once more Aranea couldn't do anything, can’t do nothing and…
A wall of water rose before Leila, shielding her and the rest of the soldiers. Upon coming into contact with the mist, the water hissed, evaporating into clouds of steam. Leila and the others had already started to jump off the wall when the water hit them in the back, washing them across the concrete ground below and pushing them further and further.
"Your little speech was heard by all," King looked up, finding himself in the shadow. A blue wyrm was above him, beating with his wings. Ivar Murzaliev, captain of the Third Army, had come to their aid. Aranea’s eyes narrowed, seeing the wyrm’s bloodshot eyes, even the flesh around his eye sockets sagged a little, betraying the lack of sleep. But through it all, an unyielding rage was in Ivar’s eyes. "And now I figured out why I could not predict your plan in detail. Such a childish game… An insect like you dares to threaten my d… brother?! You kick started this whole war just for the sake of gaining powers?"
"Guilty as charged," King laughed, "What’s wrong with that?"
A wolfkin touched Aranea’s shoulder. She looked back and saw a soldier from her pack. He bared his throat to her, almost as if in reflex, lowering his head only when Aranea put her paws on his pauldrons to calm him down. To her new touch, the metal was like paper or clay—something to shape... or crumble. The soldier trembled, looking at the warlord with a mix of divine reverence and fear. And she could see his eyes. Her new eyesight pierced the crimson lens, allowing Aranea to see the panicked amber eyes beneath.
The male quickly tapped a code on her back, relaying the information via intervals and touches.
All forces are to retreat. The warlords and inspector are to stay. I will buy the time needed.
Aranea nodded to the male, gesturing for the soldiers to obey the order. The male next to her hesitated, it was custom for the males to lay down their lives in case of retreat. The soldiers’ instincts demanded that he stay and let his warlord retreat instead.
Is this how it's going to be from now on? Aranea smiled to the soldier and gave him a pat. Before the soldiers view her as one of them, rank or no rank. She wasn’t that strong when compared to others. Abyss, Olesya could’ve handled her with one paw! This wasn’t a case anymore. Problem for later.
The wolfkins lifted the wounded, carrying them back with care. Kaleb tried to stand up on his own and was mounted on Kate’s shoulders, who rushed to find Geldi despite his weak protests. Tiny checked on Gin, giving him a quick kiss, before allowing others to carry him away. She herself retreated last, always keeping her weapon pointed at the floating enemy.
"Power is a means to an end, you pest!" Ivar’s closed in, summoning more and more water around himself and King, causing a swirling maelstrom to appear in the air, not allowing King to see or hear what was happening on the ground. "How shallow can one being be? Power without an end goal is useless, pointless! Look at yourself! All that power, and you are flailing around like a buffoon, incapable of using it even at its tiniest!"
"Why, thank you for this trivial speech," King bowed to the massive head in front of him. "But don’t get overly worried on my behalf. I am immortal now, I am sure I can pick up a goal of two down the line. And I know, oh how I know! Learning includes failing at stuff and enduring indignities. As I fight, I keep learning more and more of my power. I and Grug are an apocalypse unbound, nothing and no one will stand in our way! The one who toughs it out to the end wins, and at that point all humiliations, all pain will be irrelevant."
"These are the words of divine commander Ravager," Ivar said calmly, "And the Savior came to understand that no war is ever won by a single being."
"I admit, I do have something in common with the Wolf Tribe. In fact, I admire their tenacity in sticking to their outdated ideas in the face of everything the world had to offer," King admired his own clawed hand for a moment, a wave of kinetic force engulfing his form. "Why talk? Are you under the delusion that I still need to fire the cannon and try to bide time for the golden wyrm to escape? If such, then abandon the fear. Because the Organization had failed to appear, the original plan failed, and it is time for the backup plan."
"Having a backup plan is just planning to fail," Ivar spread his wings, "But I forget. You do know a thing or two about failure, you are a living one, if nothing else. And you are yet again in my shadow, King."
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"Cheap bait, and not for long. You are scared, lizard. You are wasting my time, otherwise, you would’ve already attacked me."
"And you are foolish enough to let me do so, pest," Ivar chuckled. "Tell me, how does it feel, being outsmarted to the bitter end?"
"You tell me, since you are the one who’ll have such an end. I tire of this banter, time to die!" King laughed as the light shined in Ivar’s eyes.
Water and mind—all that Ivar had—converged at the point where King had stood just a moment ago. Torrents of raging water, capable of slicing through the entrenched defensive positions, came clashing against each other, halted for a moment by the cocoon of kinetic energy. Ivar’s mind, which could easily turn Aranea into a mewling, shattered mess, found nothing to influence when King teleported on top of the wyrm.
The mutant raised his arm, wreathed in the green mist.
"Predictable." The water changed course, circling around Ivar’s body and hitting straight into King, bisecting him. The mutant recovered, teleporting away before he could be fully engulfed by water. The blue wyrm turned around, trying to find his foe. "Here is a lesson," Another surge of water hit King before he could touch Ivar’s wing, "So listen to the teacher," A kinetic ball the size of Aranea smashed across the wyrm's snout, causing Ivar to blink to shield his eyes. The impact that sent the mech flying had failed to crack even a single scale. "No one is immortal. I will collapse you into a knot incapable of growing a brain, rewrite your mind to turn you into a drooling idiot, and evaporate the remains until naught is left. And this will be the end of it."
They fought, the wyrm and the enemy leader. Each time when Ivar almost encased his foe in water, King would slip away, either with his teleportation or with the use of an omnidirectional kinetic blast. King’s arms turned to tentacles, he purposely elongated his limbs, whipping across the blue wyrm’s body with his tentacles, covered by the matter-devouring mist. Small ravines appeared on Ivar’s body, seeping the blood on the ground, but each time the captain managed to evade a mortal blow. His attacks sliced off King’s body parts but failed to disable the foe.
"Captain!" Aranea shouted, "To the ground! Lead him to us!"
Ivar paid her no mind, stubbornly insisting on fighting this battle as a duel. Groaning from anger, Aranea raced atop the wall, spearing the reinforced stone with the claws on her legs. The warlord felt her heart beating, not out of fear for Ivar. She had no feelings for this... creature. But he was one of them nonetheless, a fellow soldier, fighting for the state. Seeing anyone die felt wrong on some level, it irked Aranea to no end. She was strong! And the strong keep the others safe… Even if they are scumbags.
She leapt into the air, only to be smacked back down by Ivar's tail. A green mist passed through the air where she was a moment later, leaving deep wounds across the wyrm’s tail. Aranea landed on both feet, seeing how Ivar’s water stream engulfed a figure that appeared just behind him. Fully. And collapsed it into a bloody dot.
The roar of pain filled the air. Ivar looked down, seeing King’s arm sticking in his stomach, the green mist pouring from his back. Ivar destroyed the wrong foe. The creature behind him was a greenie, created in haste by King. Ivar’s mind sensed this creature and concentrated his full attention, for a span of seconds, on the fake.
Ivar’s lower part became engulfed in the green mist. The wings made a beat before the mist dissolved them, first to bone, then to nothing. The right arm fell into the swirling mist, bisected at the shoulder by the green mist. Blood poured from Ivar’s mouth, turning his roar into a gurgling sound. His eyes shone with light; the insane will lacerate Aranea's psyche like whips against flesh. Ivar kept the remains of his body in the air by wrapping his own water around himself, creating a bloody cocoon.
Can’t believe that I am saving fucking Ivar! Aranea kicked at the bastion, created a crack, and tore a chunk of concrete the size of a battle tank. She sent it flying in the spin, aiming at King’s back.
"Ivar!" Aranea heard Leila’s shout, and the crimson beam hit King’s occiput, melting flesh and bone. King looked back, just in time to receive the stone piece that sent him away.
"I’ve had enough of your interferences for a lifetime, tool!" King's form appeared in front of Aranea, reverting to a humanoid form covered in bone plates.
The warlord reacted a moment too late, and his fist had found its way into her abdomen, sending her off the wall. He reappeared above her, raising both fists over his head, the green mist pouring from his hands. Aranea has taken the incoming attack on her own paws, still protected by Javenika’s gravity power. Propelled by his attack, she cratered into the ground beneath her far faster than Ivar’s body touched the sands behind the wall.
The cruel hit that could’ve killed her just a few hours ago merely choked her out, and Aranea was back on her feet in an instant, receiving a punch against her lower jaw. King was next to her, the mist was pushed away by the inspector, who hurried to them. He teleported, first right, then left, sending a flurry of blows across her body.
Can’t win on the defensive. Aranea spat out blood and swirled, slicing all around her. King stepped back, holding the insides of his ruined abdomen. She followed after him, thrusting the claws of her index and middle fingers into his eyes. This didn’t blind the King for long, new eyes sprouted across his head, gleefully looking at Aranea.
But he wasn’t teleporting.
"What’s wrong with being a tool?" Her claws still in his head, Aranea pulled him closer, spearing his open belly with a knee. "People use tools to build and create. The Reclamation Army wields me to bring about a better world, to create proper lives for all. What have you ever built? Nothing! You simply destroy nations with your lies, leaving empty graves filled with those who trusted you. You don’t care about anyone but yourself, and when you fall, no one is going to remember your name!"
"I will never be just a memo…"
"Never say never!" Her jaws closed on King’s neck, biting through both bone and flesh.
Aranea felt his frantic thrashing, sparing no thought as to why he didn’t teleport away. All that existed for her now was his neck. His revolting blood had filled her mouth and demanded to be spit out. It wasn't just the taste of human flesh; his meat itself tasted off. Poisonous, yet not poisonous enough to cause her discomfort. Something was present in his blood and meat to keep any animal from devouring him.
But she was no animal, but a raging beast wanting to exact righteous retribution upon the wicked. She gulped his blood down, closing her fangs. She heard his bones snapping, and this was wonderful music to her ears, followed by King's squeak of pain that speared Aranea like a jolt of pure joy. The halfbreed remembered Alpha’s words.
I will eat you alive if needed. Aranea closed her jaws once more, leaving King headless. His hands grabbed her sides, flinging the wolfkin into the stone wall. She emerged from the ruins, devouring King's head, and came to a halt in surprise.
King was retreating back, raising his hands to protect himself from Leila’s laser cannon, from the fire of the seeker mech, from Olesya’s cannon, and from Annie’s missile launcher that she appropriated from Tiny. Javenika was following after them, unseen gravity blows left by her power created whole new bubbles of flesh within King’s body.
And a little further away from them Ofelia floated in the air, her free sand cloak and hair billowing in the wind. She pointed a palm at King, smiling wickedly.
"Teleportation by dispersing your particles? Crude," Ofelia’s grin widened, "When I want to get somewhere, I simply tear away the space and step through…"
King lunged, turning into a six-legged spider. He skittered across the ground, trying to get to Ofelia. Aranea was faster than him, racing to stand before the ally. Her kick sent his oversized body splattering against the main wall, and when he tried to charge anew, Ofelia teleported an empty guard tower above him.
"Teleport him into the sun." Aranea commanded.
"Can’t do it," Ofelia replied, hiding behind the warlord’s back. "I can only teleport something or someone a distance of sixty kilometers in one go. I can chain this, it's how I got here, but I have to be near to..."
"Understood! Sonya!" Aranea roared out loud, "There must be a plasma reactor or two in the warehouse! Get us…"
She bit down on the rest of her words at the sound of a cracking space behind her. At first, Aranea assumed that the Organization had decided to jump in at last. But no, this time the black form swooped from the open portal, formed by Alpha, Zero, and Valerye Foulsnout.
"Have no fear, Scorpio is he..." A cheerful shout died as the black wyrm lifted higher in the air, seeing Ivar’s ruined body behind the wall.
"Coward…" Alpha landed next to Aranea. Fear engulfed Aranea—unnatural and undeniable. She tried, but something deep within, some primal call, demanded that she bare her neck. Aranea did so, feeling Alpha’s fangs on her neck. This time, she drew no blood. "No, not a coward," Alpha smiled, taking Aranea into a hug, sniffing her all over. For once, there was no fear, no rage. For once, Aranea had a glimpse of what Tiny sees in Alpha. A warm feeling, a feeling of acceptance despite any flaw, and a fierce desire to protect no matter any danger. "A sister. Welcome, warlord Aranea."
"Thank you." Aranea hugged her back, feeling all warmth gone, replaced by rage.
"Kalaisa would be so proud." Valerye came closer, putting a paw on Aranea’s shoulder.
"Drinks on me after we take out the trash!" Zero laughed.
"Don’t you dare to croak here, Aranea," Alpha’s fangs snapped before the halfbreed’s face. "An early death will shame the tribe and…"
"And I have a lot to do." Aranea rolled her eyes.
"Ivar was mine!" Scorpio let out a painful scream toward the heavens, "Mine to succeed! Mine to prove wrong! Cruelty and intelligence, two forces locked in never-ending combat. You took this away from me," Scorpio's gaze fell on King. "You denied me the victory. I will desolate you for this insult!"
"Try it, you fool!" King sent the ruins of the tower high in the air, "I became an apocalypse-class! None can match me! Struggle and fall, one after…"
"An apocalypse?" A voice cut him off and Wyrm Lord stepped through the portal, contorting his limbs to fit in. His golden eyes scanned the battlefield, and he nodded briefly to Leila before turning to King. "Invoke a horror in vain, and it just might answer. Warlords, push him out of our home. I need six minutes."
"At once, my lord!" Alpha fell on one knee, "Valerye, open a path!"
The Red Streak charged forth, turning into a blur of crimson for a moment, moving so fast that it strained even Aranea’s vision before she adapted. Valerye appeared before King, dodged a hit that lifted a house-sized chunk of concrete, and punched right back, sending King high into the air.
Alpha and Aranea were on him in a moment, kicking with their legs and sending King over the wall, far, far away from the fort. Like a falling star, his body left a trail of destruction on the bloody battlefield, tearing through sand and storm.
The warlords leaped after him, landing before the main gates. Aranea started to make a first step when she felt a feeling from the past. Cold. Here, during the day, under the cruel sun. Before her surprised look, the sunlight had started to dim, and the bloody remains of the greenies were getting covered by a thin layer of ice. The warlord exhaled, and steam escaped from her mouth, almost spearing her with a panic attack.
It’s going to be okay. Wintersong whispered to her, and Aranea breathed, regaining control. She turned around, trembling slightly from shock and cold, and saw him. Wyrm Lord. Even now, he was towering over the wall, his head turned to the sky. Light and heat—everything was seeping from the air, converging at one singular point, creating a ball of heat in the commander’s mouth.
"More, more, more!" King roared, his form distorted, his skin tearing under the onslaught of new and new muscles beneath. "We'll crush you like bugs!"
"Try it!" Scorpio landed behind the warlords.
"One last battle of this war!" Aranea looked at King, noticing a hint of horror and fear in his eyes. I am so sorry, Grug. It seems I just can’t ever repay those who saved me. "One last madman to be taken down! For the Reclamation and a world without war!"
"For the Reclamation and a world without war!"