The wolf hag landed on her feet, Kaleb and Yuki were trying to free Kate's leg. Tiny and another warrior were saved from falling into one of the cracks by Kostya. Sly was busy trying to save one of the normie soldiers' from dying because of the blood flow. Alek and his team joined his efforts, while Ursico was busy trying to form his people into a retreat.

"Scout Siri here," The voice came over the com network from the south tower. "Wolf hag Olesya is not responding, what is going on?"

"Olesya is injured badly." Aranea quickly responded, reaching Kate and breaking ground around her leg, "We were attacked and are currently trying to retreat."

"Then you'd better hurry up. I can see the enemy, she is coming right for my team. The enemy is using some weird field of destruction, anything that comes into contact with the green fog just falls apart. Do not try to fight her," Siri went silent for a moment, "Tell Olesya that I am proud of her. And save her please, it’s bad enough that I won’t get my rematch."

"What are you meaning…" Aranea asked in confusion. She could see that Siri was still on the fiftieth floor of the skyscraper. No enemy was near her.

And then she saw and felt her blood turn to ice. The skyscraper in the south began to fall. The building that stood for centuries started falling down as the green mist licked its foundation. For a few moments, the enormous tower did not tilt, it did not fall to the side. But for a few moments, it fell straight down, as if an enormous maw was eating it from below. Yet finally, the inevitable happened. With a thunderous sound, the tower tilted to the north, causing Aranea's blood to turn cold. At the last moment, Aranea grabbed a few normies around her, including Alek and Ursico, screaming for the rest of her pack to do the same. Like a bomb, the tower crushed into the ground, the life signs of Siri and her team went dark a few moments later. Buildings were reduced to rubble as steel construction caused a sea of smoke and dust to rise in the air. The wolf hag was afraid to even imagine how many people were crushed by this superstructure, the tip of the tower nearly reached the square. The ground was shaking, parts of the ruined square went up, a few people fell into cracks as they lost their footing. Systems of armor send panic signal after panic signal, recommending escape from the zone of seismic activity, forcing Aranea to manually shut them down. Finally, the horror was ending, and the tremors were dying out.

People fled through the dust and smoke. Some had grievous injuries, some were unharmed. A few of them were without anti-heat suits, and Aranea saw pure horror on the faces of these people. Green mist came behind them, slowly enveloping those who were too slow. Those who wore suits lasted only a moment before their clothes were removed, nay, eaten away from them. Then they suffered the same fate as others, their skin was gone in a moment, revealing muscles and flesh underneath. Before even a scream could leave their lips, holes appeared on their bodies, tendons were ripped, and bodies fell on the ground, slowly disappearing into a bloody mist. A figure was walking behind people who were running. The armor was bulky, and the hands and legs of the armor were clearly oversized for the person inside. The helmet was in spherical form, and the faceplate was made of armored glass, revealing the face of a woman with short white hair inside. Her pupils were enlarged, giving her a crazy look. Yet her face was otherwise calm, her lips were in a thin line, and an almost bored expression was on her face. Green mist was coming from holes in the shoulderpads. Everything the mist touched turned to ash, but the armor of this new foe and the ground remained unaffected by the green poison.

"Fire! Eliminate the enemy!" The lieutenant commanded, breaking away from Aranea, "Sergeant, why are you still here? into the truck and leg it! Move it, people! Those who can’t fight, get the hell away from here!"

The tank advanced, the last massive vehicle still intact. It unleashed two shells at the coming foe, only for them to disappear in the mist. The flamer fired next, but the fire was devoured by green mist as well. The machineguns of the tank began firing, the wolfkins joined in an effort to kill the coming enemy, yet once again the blasted mist was devouring everything, allowing nothing to come through.

"How are we going to stop this?" Aranea thought in shock as the tank tried to move backward, yet the green mist leaped forward, like a hungry animal, licking the caterpillar tracks, ruining them, and enveloping the machine, turning it into dust.

"I have an idea how to slow down the enemy!" Sly shouted, "Fifty-fifty, it may work or not."

"On it, then. Yuki, help him and keep him safe," Aranea commanded, "Everyone, leave with our allies. Sly, Kostya, Kaleb, Yuki, and I will stay behind and try to stop her."

"I am staying as well." Kate grunted in pain. Aranea wanted to refuse, but there was no time. She simply nodded as Kate threw up her rifle and fired. The laser beam reached the walking figure but failed to penetrate the armor glass.

"But we need to somehow make her follow us!" Yuki screamed as she ran to the west with Sly. The rest of the group moved north under the command of the lieutenant. Tiny wanted to stay, but Yuki growled at her, commanding her to leave. Only Aranea and her team were left on the square, the green mist was coming close to them through a ruined tunnel made by the bulk of the former skyscraper. Kaleb grabbed Kate and carried her in his hands. For the first time, the scout ignored this and instead reached with her claws into the wound on her shoulder.

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"Kate, what the hell?" Aranea asked.

"Just trust her on this." Kaleb silently asked, as the scout was tearing flesh out of her shoulder. The walking figure stumbled, falling on her hands as the ground beneath her gave in. Slowly, she stood up, green mist still coming out of her shoulders. The foe mockingly removed dirt from her armor before resuming her advance.

"I can’t stop her," Kate said in desperation, "No matter what, she is simply way out of my league! Kaleb, open my belly, I need to pay more…"

"It’s ok," Kaleb responded, his voice surprisingly calm. "No need to hurt yourself anymore. I will figure something out.

Aranea wondered about this situation for a moment, and then she saw a silver rifle on the ground. It was a sheer miracle that this thing was unharmed in all the chaos. Without thinking, she grabbed it. The figure was slowly changing course, aiming to move after the military retreating to the north. Aranea took aim at the walking calamity. And pressed the trigger.

She felt as if something had hit her like a sledgehammer. The recoil of the gun surprised even the wolf hag. A tiny little crack appeared on the shoulder of the figure, and the woman looked at Aranea.

And then she began running toward the wolf hag.

"All set!" screamed Sly, "Lead her to this place." Sly sent an image of the street to the west.

"You heard the man, people, leg it. "Aranea took aim again, firing another shot. The figure threw up her hand just before Aranea could press the trigger. A crack appeared on her hand.

Mist almost reached the legs of Aranea, and she jumped away, running after the rest of her pack.

"Sly! The silver rifle was able to hurt the enemy. Explain!" Aranea shouted, picking up Kaleb with Kate still in his arms and pushing them forward. She sent records of the shots that were captured by the cameras on her armor to the wolfkin.

"I can’t tell everything right now… But you seen how this mist dissolves everything? This rifle accelerates projectiles to such high speeds that the mist fails to dissolve them in time, causing something to break through and hit the enemy." Sly made a guess.

"Sadly, not hard enough." Aranea grimly responded, pushing through the indicated place. She noticed that a few stones in the ground were hastily taken out and put back.

The halfbreed dashed across the street, almost carrying Kaleb, while green mist closed in on her. Buildings to the left and right were falling, the heart of the city was slowly becoming an empty place, as everything was turning to dust. Through cameras in Sly's armor, Aranea saw how the enemy stepped into the designated arena behind her.

Sly pressed the button on his armor and explosives hidden underneath the stones went off. Aranea turned and saw how flames engulfed the figure, causing it to fall underneath the ground. For the first time, a surprising expression was on the face of a woman, before she disappeared in a torrent of stone, fire, and earth.

"Yes!" screamed Sly, "There was once a subway in this place. The place is no longer working, but there is a pretty deep hole underneath! Hopefully she is either dead, or will be stalled long enough for us to…"

"ENOUGH" A voice boomed from the underground, and the ground all around the soldiers began to fall. Buildings started sliding down, the stones began to turn into dust. Everything around them was slowly crumbling, as the field of destruction slowly spread across the city. The ground cracked underneath Aranea’s legs, and she fell. A stone slammed the wolf hag into her face, breaking her armor, and darkness came upon her.

Aranea woke up, feeling blood on her snout. She tried to move her arm and understood that a stone was pressing her down. Half of her body was covered with rubble. In fear, she checked the signs of her armor and saw that her pack was still alive. Yuki and Sly were buried nearby. She could see that Kaleb and Kate were lying unconscious to her left. Kostya lay to the right, trying desperately to get out from under the rubble. The place surrounding them was half dark. Bright rays of light were shooting from above.

The woman in weird armor was standing before Aranea. The wolf hag heard a hissing sound, as the spherical helm came apart, revealing the face of the foe. The woman took a breath, which reminded Aranea of the hiss of a snake.

"Bitch," The enemy said, but her voice managed to sound bored, "I hate overextending myself.," Aranea looked up and saw that the skin at the corners of the lips of the enemy was torn. The woman lifted her hand, touching her lips, "Blasted recoil. I will make sure to make you pay for causing this," A foot crashed on the head of the wolf hag, smashing her into the ground, "What comes next is just your own damn fault. You could have died easily, but no, you just had to choose to incite blood debt."

"Lady Blaguna?" Aranea heard the noise and the sound of someone landing. By the sound of his voice, this was Chort, with two enemies from before, "Foes are on the run. King was expecting you to..."

"He will understand, mercenary," The woman calmly spoke in response, "I know him far better than you can ever hope to," Aranea felt her bones cracking underneath the pressure of Blaguna’s foot. "I owe this bitch a blood debt. Time to collect."

"Lady Nokto... City, the entire city was…" came the voice of the female silver mask. The woman sounded genuinely shocked. "People, so many had…"

"Acceptable losses. I always hated this stinking place, now we no longer have any need to protect it." Blaguna responded carelessly, increasing pressure on the head of the wolf hag slightly.

"But… This is no work of heroes…"

"Ah, relax my dear!" Yasen laughed somewhere nearby. "Heroes are the ones who are left alive to write the story. Don’t worry, history will mark you as a saint, if you want to."

"We surrender." Aranea forced herself to say. "We can’t fight anymore…"

The foot lifted from her head, crashing onto her shoulder. The armored heel pushed the metal of Aranea's power armor aside and pierced the skin of the wolf hag.

"And you think that I will simply accept your surrender? After you dared to make me bleed?" The woman mocked.

"Lady Nokto!" shouted the voice of the silver mask again, this time in desperation, "The enemy accepted my surrender and allowed me to keep my life! They are worthy of being treated as prisoners! The Reclamation Army may be evil, but they follow a code of…" She stopped as the cruel woman began to laugh.

"You are Geldi, right?" Blaguna asked, still laughing. "My, I have never expected you to be this wicked."

"Wicked?" Geldi asked in confusion, "Lady, these are the enemies who surrender, we ought to…"

"No matter," Blaguna responded to her, stopping laughing. "I will allow you to indulge in this impulse. I do have a blood debt to settle with this trash right here. Chort make some servants, I need someone to drag these scums into my fortress." The leg slammed into the back of Aranea’s head, knocking her out.