Aranea and her pack followed Sonya across the mountains. Thirty wolfkins in total were out today under the command of the wolf hag as she led them toward the canyon ahead. As the state slowly expanded its influence within the Ravaged Lands, this place became a point that connected three different towns. Yet this road was considered neutral ground, territory not owned by either of the sides. Tonight, a convoy was supposed to bring goods to one of the towns. Never before has the Resistance dared to attack the convoys of the state, not during the current truce between the two sides or during peacetime before. Even so, the warlord had a feeling that tonight would be different.
Sonya stopped, lifting her head to the sky, the helmet of her armor sliding backward, revealing her snout. She sniffed, stretching up, lifting her hands to stand in the moonlight.
"Tonight," She said, looking at Aranea. "Tonight, we will finally settle this. You and I will fight."
"I made no challenge. What’s the hurry?" Aranea blinked in surprise. Even now, she was smaller than her commander.
"Can’t you feel it? This presence in the air, sense of dread all around us. A presence that makes your blood boil, a presence that demands the death of one of us," Sonya sighed as Aranea shook her head. She continued, almost with pity, "A cursed child indeed. Your tainted blood prevents you from feeling her call."
"Call? Whose call?" The scout demanded to know.
"Are you really this stupid?" The face of Sonya changed into the mask of anger, lips moved, revealing the fangs, and drool fell onto her armor. And yet there was some content behind her amber eyes, as if some ancient fear was going away, "We left the city hours ago. Where are the animals? Where are the insectoids? No prey, no hunter in sight, no life to be sensed… Divinity descended upon us on this night. My journey is finally at an end. No fear ahead, just peace at last." She took a deep breath.
Aranea looked around and saw that the rest of the pack had removed their helmets. Confusion was on the faces of some, fear and horror were on Kate’s face, the rest simply stood calm. And yet one thing united them all. Some sort of longing was in their amber eyes. It was as if they did not fully understand but felt that something magnificent was about to fall on them. Even Aranea felt some weird tremor in her paws, like someone was trying to nudge her to go forward.
"You can feel her too, can’t you?" Sonya smiled warmly after witnessing this reaction, and said, "From this day, you truly are our kin. Don’t let anyone call you cursed ever again."
The wolf hag took a step forward, as if to embrace Aranea, when a loud explosion caused all of them to look toward the road. An explosion happened some half a kilometer ahead. One side of the canyon began falling, closing the road to a moving convoy and trapping it.
"How could we not have noticed them" Kaleb screamed, his voice filled with half fear, half a desire to charge forward. He ducked low, preparing to charge, forgetting to put on his helmet. Aranea stood before him to stop him, and he nearly charged at her, his body twitching as he growled. Kaleb was never the one to throw himself into the fray, yet right now he was close to a battle frenzy.
"Calm yourself, you idiot," Kate put her paw on Kaleb's shoulder pad, holding him in place. The scout reached for her beads and clenched them to her chest, trembling, "Don’t charge ahead. Everyone be calm! She is not here! No one had seen her in years! Breathe, breathe, breathe, or the Spirits will damn you! Don’t let that damned ghost drag you into madness! We are better than this!" Aranea was shocked by the concern and the genuine fear in the voice of her fellow scout. Just what was going on? What made Kate so afraid tonight? What made everyone act so weird?
And then she felt it. Someone was looking at her, same sense of dread as before came back. She turned around and looked into the wasteland. She thought she saw an enormously tall wolfkin standing in the wastes, far away from the group, the fur of the newcomer had the color of the darkest night. However, the figure vanished in an instant. Aranea blinked. Nothing could have moved away so quickly from the open field. She convinced herself that her vision was playing tricks on her, she saw a mirage, nothing more. Whatever it was, the presence was gone, Aranea was clearly mistaken.
"Helmets," Sonya commanded, while she was calling the warlord. Sounds of gunfire and sounds of energy weapons could be heard from the direction of the stopped convoy, along with screams, "Form up. The warlords will arrive shortly. We will save whoever we can."
The pack charged across the stone toward the sounds of battle. Like beasts, they leaped from stones above the canyon, using claws to help themselves run down the stone wall of the canyon.
The enemies ambushed two large trucks and six cars. Aranea could see foes dressed in leather uniforms of gold and black. These uniforms covered them from neck to toes, their faces were hidden behind silver masks. Their heads were covered by cowls of black cloaks. They were moving in groups of three, two were armed with rifles, and the one in the middle carried an energy weapon in his hands. Before the eyes of Aranea, one of such groups approached a car. The person with the energy weapon melted the door, and his fellows showered those hiding inside with bullets. Aranea felt rage boiling in her, she broke the formation, jumping ahead of her pack. She charged forward instead of using the lower ranks to take the brunt of enemy attacks. Her legs collided with the shoulders of two enemies who were shooting into the vehicle. She felt armor underneath their uniforms and cloaks, and yet the force of her hit easily crumbled the armor underneath the clothes. She felt how the enemies’ bones snapped under the pressure of her legs. The injured foes screamed, falling to the ground. The last one pointed his energy weapon at her, and Aranea kicked him in the knee, breaking it. She tore the weapon from his suddenly weak hands and slammed it on the enemy’s head, knocking the foe out. She glanced inside the car and saw blood, an unmoving body, and a couple of moaning people, all of whom were covered in wounds.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Something landed before her. The creature was green in color, and chitin plates covered it from head to toe. Instead of eyes, a massive plate covered the area where they and the nose should have been. Fangs, too large for the jaws, were visible from the mouth, each hand of the creature ended up with five long claws. Nothing but mindless hissing came from the mouth of the new foe. It took a swing with its left arm, tearing through a part of the car’s roof and nearly slicing Aranea in two. She took a step back, evading the blow. Claws left scratch marks on her armor. She reached for the shardgun with her right paw, taking it just as the creature struck with its right arm, closing the distance at a fast pace. Aranea let it move past her, grabbing the right hand of her foe with her left arm and pressing the barrel of the shardgun to its side. She pressed the trigger, and the torso of the enemy exploded. Green blood shot from holes in the left and right sides of the weird creature. It stumbled, but then spit something out of its mouth. Aranea dodged to the right and the the spit landed on the truck behind her. Armored doors, which withstood the attack of the energy weapons of the enemy, began to melt. The creature tried to launch another spit on her, and Aranea took a step forward, pressing the barrel of her gun to the lower jaw of the foe, firing once. The upper head of the creature disappeared in a torrent of green slime. Adrenaline surged through Aranea's veins, and she turned down the gift once more.
A bullet hit the truck near her, and Aranea ducked, rolling behind the truck. Another trio of enemies were taking aim at her. But the one on the left disappeared as Kostya jumped onto the truck, shooting away the head of the foe. The last two aimed their weapons on a new enemy, and Aranea charged from her cover, smashing the head of the enemy with the energy weapon into the ground, knocking him out and breaking the helmet of his armor, along with the silver mask. She heard movement and turned to face the barrel of her last enemy.
"Use your weapon!" Sonya angrily snapped, landing nearby. The shardgun in her hands shot a hole in the side of the enemy, killing him nearly instantly, "Stop trying to take them alive!" Sonya leaped away, landing near Yuki, and saving her life by shooting at the weird green creature who sneaked up on the scout from behind while she was busy taking down silver masks in front of her.
I am trying to take them alive? Aranea thought to herself, briefly looking at the shardgun in her hands. Sonya was correct, Aranea had never killed a human, only monsters and creatures up to this point. But…
She saw how a wounded man came from the car, his eyes mad with pain and confusion. One of the enemies in a black uniform pointed a rifle at him. Without thinking, Aranea took aim and fired. Large holes appeared in the torso of the enemy, and he was thrown back like a rag in the wind.
I took a life. Aranea thought, while jumping to a wounded member of the caravan and shooting again, killing another enemy armed with an energy weapon. It was a weird feeling. As a bullet hit her in the back but failed to penetrate her armor, she grabbed the injured and forced him back into the car. She turned around, her shardgun blasting away the foe behind her.
This was her first-time killing a human being. Not a monster, not an insectoid, not some mad machine, no. Actual human. Someone who had desires and dreams, a living, breathing person like her. Aranea saw how even her fellow wolfkin were sometimes shocked after their first kill. Olesya was weird for a week after she was involved in taking down a gang of cannibals. And yet Aranea herself…
She felt nothing. All her thoughts were about how to keep her pack alive, where the enemies were, where the enemies were, how to save people… This scared her. Not the fact that she just killed another person. The fact that she felt nothing about it. Her parents would be disgusted with her.
I should feel something! She angrily thought. Aranea remembered the hanged priests, the dead people in the town, scared and dead cubs… Yes. Something primal spoke to her. Etch this in your memory. They deserve to die. Just like Tilden. Let it go. Slaughter until the night turns to day, and rain rage and hatred on those who...
The scout snapped out of it, noticing how a wolfkin nearby ended up being attacked by the green creature with claws. The wolfkin warrior had her chest pierced, the creature pushed its hand all the way through her. Kostya landed nearby, gun aimed at the head of the creature, but it swung its still-twitching body, crashing a wounded wolfkin into Kostya and pressing him toward the stone of the canyon. Aranea charged forward, taking aim at the left side of the creature and shooting, injuring it. She placed the next shot very carefully, trying not to hurt the warrior or Kostya. The creature twitched and fell, Kostya took off the body of the wolfkin from its limp hand and shook his head. The warrior was dead. Aranea did not know this woman, but her death caused a surge of hate and rage in her. A pack member, someone who would have had her back in any situation, just died.