Aranea left the warlords and went to the south of the city. She was ordered to rest, yet there was one more person she had to speak with.

The ritual of declawing.

She looked at her paws, releasing her claws. This was usually reserved for criminals. In the Wolf Tribe, natural claws are treasured. Way in the past, wolfkins used them to attract males for copulation, even in these days, some wolfkins were obsessed with them. And on top of all that, claws were a really good weapon. Declawing means removing claws for good, unless you can pay for a costly operation, the victim will never get his or her claws back. Aranea clenched and unclenched her fists, trying to memorize the shape of her claws forever. From what she knew, the ritual was extremely painful and was made like this on purpose.

"Guess I better start saving to buy these cybernetic replacements for claws," She decided. Surprisingly enough, there was a market for such things in the Reclamation Army. You could even order them all the way from Iterna, although the shamans would probably strangle her for this. Claws were not important. Who cares which melee weapons you use, as long as they kills? Only lives are important. Still, there was a problem with Sonya and her age.

"Maybe I can save enough to buy a full set of natural claws, get them declawed again, and then buy some cheap replacements? I wonder if this is acceptable…" Aranea intended to check the laws about it. She'll get rid of this stupid tradition one day, but for now she'll have to make do with what she's got.

Siri and her pack were put in charge of finding orphans in the town. Tomorrow, new settlers were supposed to arrive, along with forces to finally restore law and order in the town. Orphans will be given proper education and medical care as per the laws of the state. Siri took her assignment quite literally and left no stone untouched, as her pack was busy hunting after the scared cubs. Martyshkina told Aranea that Siri reported that the task was completed, then asked for additional time because a challenge had been issued. Aranea hoped it wasn't what she thought.

The chanting of wolfkin, as well as the sound of fighting, could be clearly heard from it. The roof of the warehouse was half gone, allowing light to come inside. For a brief moment, all sounds were silenced before someone roared triumphantly. Aranea hit the rusted gates and stepped inside. Unconscious Siri was lying on a floor, the stone floor was cracked under her body. Countless wounds covered her body, her ear was connected to her body with a thin layer of flesh. Olesya was standing over Siri, one leg on the chest of the fallen wolf hag. Half of her torso was covered with lacerations, ribs were visible on her left side, two fingers on her right paw were broken, and yet her smile was one of true happiness and joy. The floor and walls of the first floor were covered with splashes of blood, as if someone were butchering cusacks here. The wolfkins filled the second floor of the building, looking above and chanting the name of Olesya. Most of the wolfkins were holding one or more normie’s cubs under their arms.

"I can’t hear you bitches! Louder! Put your soul into it, will you?!" Olesya threw her arms to the skies, showing her middle fingers to the sun above, and chanting increased, "Who is the best?! Who is the strongest?!" Her new pack chanted her name, "That’s right, me, and don’t you dare forget it!" Olesya’s body began to increase slightly, as reward hit her, and the former scout roared again in ecstasy.

"Stop fooling around, you ridiculous idiot," Aranea laughed, standing outside the doors, "You are scaring the cubs."

"Bullshit! They enjoyed the show as well!" Olesya turned her head to the entrance and blinked, confused for a moment. Then she leaped from the fallen Siri and charged to Aranea, grabbing her in a hug, shouting happily, "Still alive! Still alive! You made it! I knew you would! And you are all grown up and muscled up now, what did you eat Sonya, or something?"

"Nah, she is alive, and all is well for now," Aranea grabbed Olesya into her own hug, and the two struggled for a moment, "You ain’t so soft yourself either, I need to watch out in the future, or you might beat me one day!"

"I can drop you here and now, if you want!"

"You are just a half dead buffoon! Know your limits!"

"Never! I will always aim to be at the top! Cause I was born to be a warlord," Olesya laughed, letting go of Aranea, "To become the strongest among the strongest. To dominate and win! To make my Dad and Mom proud!"

Olesya turned her head back to her pack and roared:

"What are you standing for, like a bunch of peons? Velka, take scout Siri to the hospital right now, the cubs are to be delivered to the base. Right now! Move it, move it lazy bums! The break is over!"

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

"Listen, Oles," Aranea whispered into the ear of her fellow wolf hag, "Can I ask you to come over. I have something I need to talk about. Please, if you feel like you can, put the hospital aside for a while."

"Why so serious?" Olesya lifted her ears in surprise, "You met someone? Some boy caught your eye? Or someone bullied you?" When the wolf hag saw Aranea's pleading expression, she simply shrugged and yelled for her pack to bandage her wounds as soon as possible.

Aranea let out a sigh of relief and hurried to her room. Janine pointed out on a map the building in which Aranea and her pack were to rest and sleep until the next mission. It was a three-story-tall, old-looking building. The first two floors belonged to her pack. Scouts and warriors are on the second floor, males on the first. As of right now, her pack lacked the numbers, fresh recruits are expected to arrive soon from the Uglo fortress. A half-ruined third floor with a single remaining room was the new home of Aranea. Her items were thrown in the corner, no one touched them. A simple looking bed was the sole commodity in the room.

"So, what’cha so scary happened, eh, girl?" Olesya stepped inside, looking to sit on the bed, but instead dropped to the floor.

"A lot, Oles. I think I started in the wrong order," Aranea explained to Olesya about how she snapped and mauled Kate, "I seriously have no idea what came over me! You know me, I never lost control before, so why now?!"

"Eh, who cares about a few scars," Seeing the face of Aranea, the wolf hag shrugged, "No, really, who? You and I bear our shares as well. No, there was something else that scared your birdie. Hm…"

"It doesn’t matter! What matters is that I snapped!" Aranea looked at her trembling paws and said, "What if it happens again?"

"Don't beat yourself up about it," Olesya dismissively waved her paw, "It's because of the power,. You can feel the rush of adrenaline when you win, right?" She smirked, seeing Aranea's puzzled expression, "But you bottle it down, forcing it to retreat. And then…" She pressed two paws tightly together, to the point of them trembling, and finally threw them away from each other, imitating a blast, "It exploded, right? All at once went out. You feel like you can fly right now. It's like a drug. This feeling is supposed to be short lived, but since you rejected it for so long… Well, you see the result. It’s unhealthy to reject yourself."

Aranea looked at a wall. Could the explanation really be this simple? She somehow doubted it. There was quite a distance from the dueling grounds to the town. Surely she would have come to her senses by the time she came back?

"There is... one more thing," Aranea forced herself to start the confession, "I… killed a person on this night. A living, breathing person." She expected Olesya to laugh, but the wolf hag was calm.

"You can come over to my place for the night if you want," Olesya suggested, "I remember my first kill well. We were taking over a makeshift fort of cannibals, I was sent to free prisoners. Here I am, breaking down doors, and then there is this blonde dude, barely older than a teen, with a dagger in his hand. So I gunned him down. Then I came to the cells of prisoners and found that the second team had already busted them open," Olesya looked at the wall. "I killed this dude and to this day I am not sure if he was a prisoner or an enemy. Even if he was one of the enemies, I could have easily taken him down without killing him, right?" Olesya was silent for a moment, before continuing, "Shittiest feeling, really. It was hard to overcome it."

Aranea remembered this story. Olesya asked to sleep in her tent for a couple of nights, screaming in her sleep. Olesya never showed any signs of weakness during the days, and they never spoke about nightmares, but there was clearly something that bothered her.

"It’s… it’s not like this with me," Aranea forced herself to speak the truth, "I… I felt nothing as I was killing them. Even worse, when we arrived at this city, I saw dead bodies. And I felt nothing either. Humans are supposed to feel sadness because of this! And yet I… Oles, do you think this is bad? Do you think I can be a monster?"

"No idea," Olesya shrugged, "All I know is that you tried to save people, this much I saw. Hell, you saved Sonya, if reports are to be believed. Twice actually, since you didn't kill her during the challenge. You may think what you want to, but no, I do not consider you a monster."

They spoke for nearly an hour more before Olesya finally left for the hospital and Aranea started to unpack her things. She placed a broken mirror on a wall, she messed up during packaging, and the stupid thing broke during march.

"Just another bad omen," Aranea said, letting out a laugh. From the mirror, an alien face was looking at her. Her snout was too big, both of her eyes glowed ever so slightly. Amber and crimson, glowing like dying lamps. The single scar was over her left eye, barely visible right now. In fact, many of her scars were missing. No longer did she have a slender form, now she was a creature of brute force. She opened her mouth and saw pristine white fangs. They too were bigger than usual.

"I am no longer myself." She chuckled and fell onto the bed. Aranea decided that she could finish setting up her room later. The wolf hag was exhausted, as if all of the damage from the previous day and night had suddenly returned to her. Yet no matter how she tried, she could not fall asleep. She was tossing and turning in bed, yet dreams refused to come.

Finally, she stood up and walked to the mirror. She froze in horror as she saw herself. A massive body was standing in the room, a single scar was over her left eye. And her fur was white. With horror, Aranea understood that Tilden was looking at her from the mirror.

A knock on the door woke her up, and she jumped up, biting her own hand in order not to scream. Ignoring the noise at the door, she charged to the mirror and saw her new self. Still black fur, still Aranea. She breathed hard and screamed:

"Who is it?"

"Repair team, ma’am. We need to take measurements from your body, orders came to adjust your power armor."

Aranea blinked and let out a laugh, opening the door. This was true. She was huge now.