Aranea reached the square, which was now cleared of smoke. Soldiers of the state were busy dragging the dead bodies of the enemies into a pile nearby. One of the trucks was put back into action, food was being unloaded, wounded members of the convoy and wounded members of the wolfkins were put in the back of the truck to transport them back to base. Ashamed-looking Tiny was sitting near a building nearby, furiously cleaning her shardgun. Yuki was busy cheering her up while at the same time holding Sly by his ear, ensuring that he wouldn’t disappear while searching for something. Kaleb was trying to tend to Kate's injury, but she pushed him away, trying to bandage her own wound. Olesya approached them and sat on the ground, beginning to bandage Kate's wound despite the scout's protests. Kostya was talking with a short man in a military uniform with the marks of a lieutenant, two soldiers in full armor were standing behind him. A large tank was standing in the middle of the square, along with two more new tanks. One more tank was on the street nearby, with two all-terrain vehicles nearby. Soldiers were busy trying to get one of the badly damaged tanks back into action.
"Wolf hag Aranea!" Ursico threw his arm up in welcome, "Come, join us."
Aranea put the prisoner on the ground, pressing her back to the tracks of the tank. Then she took the rifle off her back and threw it to Sly. The wolfkin grabbed the unknown weapon greedily.
"Yuki, let go of Sly and watch over the prisoner here. She has some weird power, I saw her pass through solid matter and through my body as well. Also, don’t let her appearance fool you, she is by no means slow. Treat her wounds" Aranea pulled the cowl of the silver mask over her head to protect the woman from heat and leaving her in the care of Yuki. She turned toward Ursico and saluted. It felt weird to report to normie, "Greetings, sir, wolf hag Aranea ready to…"
"At ease, Aranea," The man pulled the helmet from his face, revealing a smiling brown face. Aranea was surprised to see that the man was smiling without showing his teeth. The officer clearly knew some of the customs of the Wolf Tribe. He also bowed his head, showing that he had no intention of usurping power from her, "I served with warlord Valerye Foulsnout before, so I know some of your customs." He explained as Aranea's helmet moved back, revealing her surprised face.
"My thanks for your assistance, sir," Aranea bowed, "pardon me for asking, but how did you arrive here so quickly?"
"Captain Scorpio gave us the order to patrol this area." The man shrugged, "He noticed that the blue wyrm changed patrol routes, putting your packs in this area. So he sent us as well, since last time he left things to the blue…"
Aranea nodded grimly. Yes, this would be something that Murzaliev would do. She has never faced the man in her life, yet she starts to hate him like Janine. Would it really kill the blue wyrm not to use their allies as bait?
"Everyone is packed and ready to leave, sir!" A bulky man in half-ruined power armor approached and saluted the officer. Signs of sergeant rank were still barely visible on his shoulders. Red hair could be seen through the shattered helm, and one of the lenses on his helmet was missing, revealing a blue eye beneath.
"Thank you, Alek," Ursico said, nodding, "By the way, say hello to your savior. I heard wolf hag Aranea was among the first to arrive here."
"Hey, we worked hard as well!" Olesya said smugly. Kate made an attempt to jump away from her, but the wolf hag easily grabbed her, holding her in place, "You will stay right here until I finish my work."
"My thanks, ladies," The sergeant bowed to them, and Olesya giggled like a girl. Alek looked at the prisoner. Yuki was busy changing her improvised bandages for proper ones. The silver mask frowned when the wolfkin checked her ribs. "This is one of the bastards who tried to kill us, eh? Kinda wish that she would be dead, along with the rest of the scum." The prisoner shivered under the gaze of Alek.
"I will ride in a truck with the prisoner," Aranea started calmly, "I fully trust you and your soldiers. But I'd like to avoid any possibility of anything happening to our prisoner."
"Hey, sorry for the bad impression, lady!" The sergeant lifted his hands in a gesture of peace. "Me and my people are from the corps of his excellency Murzaliev. We don’t have these kinds of people among us, the blue wyrm is very through with anyone who dares to break laws. We may be a badmouthing bunch, but we ain’t criminals."
"I believe you, sir," Aranea said, smiling. "However, this prisoner has some nasty power. I would prefer to keep an eye on her, if this is okay with you."
As the report came through, Ursico suddenly lifted his hand to his ear. He started asking about something when a loud explosion was heard in the southern part of the city. From the sound of it, one of the tanks was firing at something.
"What is going on?" Ursico demanded to know. "Who is…"
"A direct hit!" A new voice came through the com network. "No one could have…"
"The enemy is still on the move!" A woman's voice shouted.
"Impossible, I hit her dead ce…" The rest of the voice disappeared in a short scream of pain that lasted barely a second. Icons of several troopers and the tank team in the south have gone dark. As impossible as it may seem, a new enemy wiped them out in a matter of seconds.
"Report! What is going on?!"The lieutenant demanded to know as the sound of gunfire erupted from the southern part of the city.
"A single enemy approaches our location, sir!" The woman's voice responded, and the sound of gunfire could be heard in the background. "From the looks of it, she is…" static cut the rest of the words, and rows of buildings in the south started to fall. Three-and four-story tall buildings crumbled like paper, green mist showed up over their roofs. "... impossible to kill." The same voice of the woman from before breathed heavily, holding back the panic, "Sir, retreat now, before she..." Screams cut off the rest of the words as green mist covered the source of the transmission.
"Get injured in the trucks, prepare to retreat!" Ursico snapped at his troops, "Alek, you and your people are to evacuate as well, wolf hag Aranea, wolf hag Olesya, you are…"
"You are all going to die eventually, what’s the point of running away?" A calm voice asked from a nearby building.
Aranea turned around to see the same old man that she saw during the night when the convoy was attacked. The same green eyes, same outfit as before. His hands were up in a mocking gesture of surrender as he came forward from the building. Three wolfkins were on him in moments, aiming their shardguns at his head, but the man only smiled.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
"There were two warriors from my pack stationed in there," Olesya snarled at the old man, standing up, "Where are they?"
"Today I am here as a mere messenger of my lady," The man nodded to the south, "Came to…"
"Where. Are. My. People?!" Olesya closed in on a man, pressing a shardgun to his face, and the old man only smiled in response.
"There is no one alive behind me. Alas, you no longer have…" The man tried to calmly respond.
"Olesya, stand back!" Aranea shouted, remembering just how fast this demon was. But Olesya’s finger was already on the trigger.
In next moment the impossible happened. The man stood calm, relaxed, as Olesya halfway pressed the trigger of her shardgun. Suddenly, the man's left hand moved, slicing through the shardgun, leaving half of the weapon in the wolf hag’s paws. She cursed as the remains of her weapon exploded in her arm, breaking her fingers. With her good left paw Olesya punched forward, her claws nearly touching the smiling face of the man as he stood still, unharmed by the explosion in Olesya’s hand. Kate unleashed her claws and pushed them deep into the wound on her shoulder, frowning from pain as blood poured from her wound. Claws almost scratched the face of the man, when his hands moved again. Aranea could barely see the movement; it was as if the man's hands had transformed into two elongated whips, striking Olesya's body with impossible speed, causing the air to scream at each hit, while Olesya stood still, as if frozen in time. Both arms of the wolf hag crumbled, bones snapped in different places, the paws and legs of the wolfkin became rag-like as tendons and muscles were torn. One hit crushed Olesya's helmet on her left side, causing a large dent on her head as she finally flew backwards.
All of this happened too fast for the normies to see. Even most of the warriors could barely see it. Only Aranea, Yuki, and Kate saw this beatdown in its entirety. The body of the wolf hag fell into the arms of Kate, who looked in shock at the ruined body of Olesya. Wolfkins around the strange man tried to shoot him, but his form became a whirlwind, as he struck with his legs and hands once again, wielding his limbs as spears and piercing the armor of the soldier and tearing through armor and flesh. Three dead bodies fell around him as he smugly looked in the direction of Olesya. He frowned when he saw that she was alive.
For the first time, shock could be heard in the man's voice as he asked, "How..."He looked at the body of his defeated opponent as if a miracle had happened before his eyes, "… Are you still alive?" He stepped forward, and Aranea prepared to lunge at him, fully understanding the uselessness of such action. She was simply too slow. The man shook his head, ignoring the weapons pointed at him, "No. I am a professional, I have my honor. I aimed to kill her, yet she survived. You have my permission to leave. I won’t try to stop you anymore today." He looked at his arms as if in doubt. "Am I really getting too old? Can nothing stop the flow of time?"
"What is the meaning behind this attack? Do you understand the implications of your actions, mister…?" Ursico asked in a deadly serious tone, quietly gesturing for Alek to put Olesya into the truck at once.
"I am known as Chort," The old man bowed politely. "A mercenary in the service of the Resistance. By the orders of lady Blaguna Nokto, I am here to announce open hostilities between the Resistance and the Reclamation Army as of this day. Remove yourself from our lands or be removed."
"By you?" Ursico asked, putting on his helmet.
"Oh, not at all. The lady is already here for the demonstration. If your warriors had just allowed me to pass, they would have lived a bit more." Chort shrugged his shoulders, "But alas, we work with what we have. I am not the one who will kill you. She and he are the ones who will kill you."
"He?" Aranea frowned.
A tank on a nearby street moved backwards as something hit the machine in the front. Nearby vehicles were crushed into buildings with insane force, smashing people inside. A figure leaped onto the tank, dressed in silver power armor. The long yellow cape was behind the new enemy. Each segment of his armor was carefully tailored and looked like a work of art. The faceplate of his helmet was encrusted with gold and jewels, the lenses of his helmet glowed with a soft blue color. The figure pressed his fingers to the hatch of the tank, and the metal underneath pushed down, as if some force shot from the hand of the man. The metal struggled for a brief second under the pressure of the unseen force, then broke, the force unleashed by this new enemy crashed people inside as he jumped from the tank, landing on square, his face looking down, his cape slowly falling on the ground behind him. Warriors to his left and right lifted their weapons and fired at him. And yet, projectiles flew backward as with a loud "thumb" sound, the very air around the man staggered, Aranea could see barely visible waves that spread in all directions from the shoulders of the armored person, crashing into warriors, slamming them into buildings, breaking bones and the metal of their armor.
"Yasen Wolansky, second in command of the Regulators, has arrived. The man stood up and struck a pose, pointing his finger at lieutenant Ursico. "You are prey far unworthy of my presence, but true heroes always perform their duties, even if it means performing humiliating chores!"
"Sir! You've really arrived!" The prisoner screamed happily, and Yasen pointed two index fingers at her jokingly.
"Yeah, I am not doing it. Kill him. All forces assemble and prepare to retreat!" Ursico gave a command, hitting the armor of a nearby tank with his fist.
The guns of the tank turned toward Yasen, who still casually stood in place. The twin barrels unleashed projectiles—two long rounds aimed at the man before the tank. Once again, the air before him staggered, stopping the large metal projectiles before him, crumbling and exploding them. Shockwave and shards of metal moved backwards, leaving slashes across the tank's armor. Alek grabbed the lieutenant, dragging him away as a wall of force hit the tank, leaving dents in the front armor and moving the massive vehicle backward.
"Weaaak," The man stretched out the word mockingly, "So weak. Surrender evildoers, before I will be forced to turn all of you into paste…" He stopped as Kate threw up her laser rifle, leaving a scorched mark on the armor near his left eye, nearly punching through the lens.
"Ain’t fast enough to block this, hero." Kate sighed angrily. Aranea could hear the strain in her voice, the scout was angry and ashamed of her miss, she aimed at the eyes of her foe.
"Ain’t worth shit to block this pee shooter." The man reacted angrily, smashing his palm into the ground. Tremors run across the square, causing soldiers to fall from their feet. Aranea jumped up, closing in on Yasen and taking aim at his head. She pulled the trigger on her shardgun, but the air around the enemy shifted in barely discernible waves, and a powerful force slammed Aranea into the chest, knocking her backwards.
The armor on her chest cracked upon the impact. Aranea felt drips of blood falling from her mouth as she flew backwards and landed on the roof of a nearby building. She rolled around, regaining her balance, and stood up. Kate growled as her leg fell into a newly formed crack in the ground, and the still moving earth broke her leg as the crack's edges came together. Two warriors jumped in front of the scout, trying to protect her as Yasen charged. Strange distortions in the air stopped shardgun shots and forced warriors to take a step back. Yasen landed before them, ducking low and making a round kick, causing both warriors to fall. He grabbed one warrior and tore her in two, throwing still-twitching parts of her body away. The second warrior tried to stand, but Yasen placed a hand on her helmet.
His hand made no movement, yet the helmet of the warrior crumbled as an unseen force sent the head of a wolfkin deep into her chest, killing her. Casually, Yasen threw the dead body away, knocking Yuki off her feet with it. Kate tried to take aim, but Yasen appeared over her, his fist stopping mere inches from her face. He tilted his head to one side.
"My lady?" He asked, listening to something. "Understood, I will obey." Kate tried to shoot him, but he was already gone from the place, grabbing the silver mask in his hands and jumping up with her. He landed on the roof near Aranea, with Chort appearing next to him, "You are in luck," Yasen said sarcastically, ripping off restraints from the woman in his hands, "My lady wishes to grace you all with her presence. Feast your eyes on her power and feel despair, for today you are in the presence of one of the leaders of the Resistance. Understand the full futility of your stupid ambitions and make peace in your mind, for you are about to die." He lightly kicked Aranea, moving fast enough for her to fail to block. Yet this kick was merely to throw her off the roof, not to harm her.