She took a detour, running toward the shield generator room. Fire was still raging in the kitchen, but this station was made of stone, even with the firefighting system off, this place should endure a small fire. Aranea charged all the way to the shield generator room, arriving just in time to see that the battle within was nearly over.
Six soldiers and three wolfkins from Leila's pack stood near the entrance, at their feet lay the broken forms of two cyborgs and three greenies. The north wall of the inside room was broken, and a man in silver armor was backing away to breach it while one of his hands dangled like a rope. His shoulder was sliced apart, while the shaman was advancing on him. Wolfkins from Tiny's pack pushed the woman in light power armor back to the breach. While the enemy dodged every single shot, she was forced to back off, her attempts to reach any of her foes were blocked by the coordinated teamwork of the soldiers. Six greenies charged at the shaman from the breach, and the man in silver armor saw his chance, turning and running away, leaving the cyborgs and woman behind. Out of the sixty cyborgs that came to help regulators, merely five remained.
Greenies? Here? Aranea thought in confusion, allowing Tiny and Gin to gun down two of the creatures. Tiny’s pack abandoned their heavy weaponry, returning to trusted shardguns.
"Coward!" The woman shouted to the man in silver armor, "The hell are you…"
"Run, you idiot! We can’t beat them! Let him take care of them!" The man angrily shouted back, and the woman paused for a moment, almost getting shot by Gin, before finally jumping and running away, throwing a glance back to see how the shaman tore through greenies. Leila swooped from the ceiling, landing between two cyborgs. Her tail has smashed the hands of one enemy into pieces, while she has used her free hand to disable the hands of the second foe. Moving just as fast as a shaman, she left two broken forms behind herself, but as Aranea noticed, the foes that were beaten by her were still very much alive, just rendered helpless.
We won. Aranea decided, coming to the center of the room. She contacted Ursico, asking what the situation outside looked like.
"We can’t hold them back for long. Yasen is com…" Words from the lieutenant were cut off. The building began to shake, a few stones fell from the ceiling, while some force was slammed into the reinforced stone. The light blinked briefly before the violent tremors stopped and everything returned to normal. The only thing that was out of the ordinary was the slight trembling of the floor.
"Another enemy attack is incoming! Finish off the enemy's resistance!" Aranea commanded over the secure channel, before turning to the remaining cyborgs and saying out loud, "One chance. Give up, and we will only restrain you. You will be treated with respect, and your wounds will be treated. Resist, and we will destroy you…"
"Your victory was just snatched away, girl." A calm and awfully familiar voice behind her said. Aranea began to turn back when someone crashed into her, throwing her off her feet.
A wolfkin warrior from Leila's team was sent flying into her by the human form that appeared right behind her. The wolf hag blinked in surprise, understanding just who was before her. Chort, dressed in a black armored jacket, black pants, and expensive-looking shoes. His hands and head were free of any armor. Green eyes looked at Aranea mockingly. He moved his old-looking body with casual fluidity and slammed his palm into the back of the warrior who was on Aranea. This looked like a simple slap, and yet a weird, shocking sensation ran from the trembling body of the wolfkin to Aranea’s body. Sudden vibrations all around her body caused her teeth to tremble. The wolf hag lost her footing once more and nearly fell.
"It goes much harder through full armor," Chort said thoughtfully, and slammed his hand into Aranea's head, sending her flying into the wall. She crashed into the wall at the speed of an arrow, leaving cracked stone behind her while she was sliding down, "Without armor, you would have lost your conscience, like this girl here." He lightly kicked the still-trembling form of the wolfkin at his feet. He stepped on the right shoulder of the wolfkin, breaking it, and kicked the still-unconscious soldier away.
Wolfkins and soldiers at the entrance lay dead on the floor. So fast. Just a moment ago, they were alive, and now the threads of their lives have been cut off. Their armor was pierced through with clean cuts, indicating the work of the sharpest blade, wielded by skillful hands. However, Chort's hands were devoid of all weapons.
"You will pay for…" Aranea growled, trying to stand up. Her body was mostly unharmed, new armor protected her from damage, yet strange vibrations from before rendered her immobile. The very organs within her trembled, her heartbeat was reaching new heights, the world was spinning before her very eyes.
"Yeah, yeah, heard this one before. You just lay here, Yasen wants to play with you himself," Chort said dismissively as he walked toward Leila. The skin on his palms flowed onto the floor, falling like a torrent of water. He walked unbothered by this, leaving behind the small lake of flesh that squirmed around the floor, splitting into four pools. Four forms of greenies rise from the floor, hissing at the empty air. Aranea finally understood just what the source of these strange creatures was. Chort smiled at Leila, seemingly glad to be finally noticed by her. The half-wyrm turned toward him along with the shaman. "I could have killed you several times by now. But no. You, wyrm girl, deserve to be killed fair and square by me, or I will never have my inner peace."
"Do I know you?" Leila asked carefully, aiming her weapon.
"Not personally, no. We never met. And yet you managed to steal from me," The usually cool demeanor of Chort cracked, revealing cold fury underneath, "Each living being wants to leave some sort of mark on the world. My mark was my reputation. For years, I worked hard to gain recognition through Ravaged Lands. Normies, abnormals, wolfkins, abominations… You can name almost any species, and I can describe how I kill it. None could escape me. People refer to me as a "one-man army" and a "perfect mercenary", the one who never fails or betrays his employes. And yet, here you are, you who were so insignificant, in just five years of killing some worthless cannibals here... And yet people started to talk about you, comparing you to me. A silent winged killer, she appears out of nowhere, kills her target, and flees into the night without saying anything...", Chort spat on the ground, "Stupid people elevated you to the same level as me, and people began to look after you in order to hire you instead of me. Today this... affront to my legacy will come to an end. I will end you. I will kill the "Silent death" and, by doing so, I will also kill a wyrm. I will mount your head on a wall in a tavern for everyone to see who the greatest killer in these lands is. Two precious goals in one day. I must say, King made me feel this one-of-a-kind present."
"You are pissed on me because of something as shallow as this?" Leila asked in disbelief. A hint of true anger appeared in her voice. "You killed members of my team because of this?!"
"This and the money are my primary reasons to join the war, yes," Chort pleasantly smiled at Leila, "Originally it was the money, but because of you..."
"People are curious about new things, so beat it, grandpa. Take your pills, piss off somewhere, and keep your first place…" The half-wyrm took aim at his face, "… is what I would want to say. But you just had to make it personal between us."
"Grandpa?" Chort raised his brow, cracking his fists, "Just for that one, I will tear off your wings, one after another."
"Don’t lose your focus, wyrm spawn. This one is dangerous." The shaman warned Leila, circling around Chort.
"Run along, doggie. I killed plenty of your kind in my youth. Find some other prey, and I'll leave you alive…" Chort became aware of Leila's movement and dove. He dodged just before she could press the trigger, and yet the red beam still scorched his shoulder, removing skin and part of the bone. To the surprise of Aranea, Chort’s hand didn't hang up like a useless piece of meat. Instead, he closed his hand into a fist and smiled, "Yes. Yes, this is how it is supposed to be. It would not be as fun if I never tasted pain from you…"
He disappeared. Try as she might, Aranea failed to see his initial movements. One moment he was standing still, the next he left footprints in stone, charging like a projectile from a cannon toward Leila. The greenies created by him charged at Tiny’s and Leila’s packs, while Chort himself only cared for the half-wyrm. Leila took aim again, but this time, Chort read her aim perfectly, dodging the beam. A red knife slid from his sleeve into his hand, and he sliced the barrel of Leila’s weapon in one smooth motion. The half-wyrm backed down to gain distance to throw her now-useless weapon away. Chort made a step to advance after her but was forced to retreat back, evading the blow of the shaman, who jumped to the ceiling and then onto him. He dodged, leaving a deep cut on the shaman’s left arm, damaging the armor but failing to reach the body. The stone floor cracked because of the shaman’s landing, and two stone plates rose in the air, hiding her from Chort's view for the moment. He sliced the first stone in two and dodged the punch of the Scarred One. Before he could counterattack, Leila appeared to his left, kicking him in the left knee. Chort's leg gave way, and he fell to one knee, striking forward with his knife. Scarred One retaliated with her right paw, her claws slipping beneath his blade.
This attack would've shred Chort's arm. It should have shredded his arm. Chort let go of the handle of his knife, moved his arm back, and the flesh around his hand flowed once more, circling around his bones like water around a cube of ice in a cup. His palm elongated, the very bones changing their structure, turning into a solid bone blade. The blade that shot toward the shaman like a piston. Leila tried to slam her claws into Chort's neck to stop his attack, but the mercenary stood up and her claws ended up stuck in his shoulder. His attack was not stopped. The bone blade hit in the space between the claws of the shaman and tore through her hand, slicing her paw in two. Chort smiled and hit Leila with his elbow, sending her into the wall. The shaman made an attempt to drop him with a low kick, but the mercenary jumped up and slammed both of his legs into the shaman’s knee, cracking it. Scarred One did not allow a single growl of pain to leave her lips, but she failed to dodge the next attack. Chort's hands transformed into bone blades, which he thrust into the Scarred One's chest, piercing her armor, piercing her skin, penetrating her lungs, and finally twisting his hands to expand the damaged area even more. The shaman grabbed him by the wrists just in time for Leila to charge again. Her wings, covered in steel, pierced the left side of Chort’s body while her claws were closing in on his head.
Chort smiled as he tore his hands free from the chest of the shaman, the bone blades reforming back into human hands. He grabbed Leila by her wrists, stopping her claws inches away from his head. Leila tried to hit him with a knee, but Chort blocked the attack with his own knee. The tail of the half-wyrm moved forward, and Chort simply threw Leila over himself, slamming her into the wall once again.
The shaman tried to stand up with blood on her lips. Chort smiled and lifted his leg to finish her off. His facial expression changed the moment he heard the shot of the shardgun. He managed to lift his right hand before himself as armor-piercing shards hit him, leaving injuries on his shoulders, belly, and hand. Tiny was standing against him in the open, taking aim for another shot at him.
"Impossible…" Chort whispered in a surprised tone, ignoring his injuries, "I saw you as I came here. I knew that you were here. So how… how could I forget about you? Who are you, girl?"
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Tiny prepared to fire again. The wounds on Chort’s body slowly started closing up, the torn flesh spitting out the sharp shards, the edges of the wounds moved toward each other like clay, closing the damaged area, not leaving even a scar behind.
"Miracles do not happen twice!" Chort roared, charging forward. As Tiny’s finger pressed the trigger, his form disappeared, appearing to her left. He dodged just before shards were unleashed, and Tiny's shot penetrated the empty wall, leaving the mercenary unharmed. The right hand of Chort changed back to blade form once again. Gin threw himself before Tiny, and the blade pierced his right shoulder, almost cleaving off his hand, piercing through both bones and muscle alike. Tiny fired from underneath the left hand of Gin, causing Chort to roar in anger at this humiliation. The impact of the shock sent his body backwards, pulling the blade out of Gin's arm. His light armor did little to protect his body, the armor-pierced shard came all the way through his body, tearing the cloth and armor on his back. Chort spit out blood, his flesh already moving, closing the wounds, while the mercenary circled around Tiny, evading her aim, taking no more chances.
Aranea tried to stand, but it was in vain.
"Release it." The voice chuckled inside her head. Ravager. A low growl filled her head. "Come on, do it, you coward. If not now, then when? They are going to die…"
Aranea wanted to follow this advice, but then remembered what happened the last time she accepted her power. She maimed Kate. She nearly killed Sonya.
Screw you. I don’t need your help. The wolf hag replied to the beast within and forced her suit to inject her with adrenaline, standing up on trembling legs.
When Chort was almost on Tiny, he punched with his left hand, shattering Tiny's helmet. The upper half of her head was revealed, but aside from a few cuts, she received no damage, saved by the sturdy armor. Yet the bone blade was coming next. Leila jumped between two opponents, and Chort pierced her belly, the tip of the blade came from her back. Not even armor protected her.
"Tch. Missed the vitals," Chort grinned, as Leila grabbed his wrist with both hands, attempting to pull his arm off. The muscles of his arm bulged, the bone blade was turning steadily inside the body of the half-wyrm, widening the wound. "Let’s fix it all right…"
The steel wings crashed into his shoulders, piercing them. Chort has ignored the pain and kept twisting his blade in the half-wyrm's belly. Leila's helmet moved forward, moving closer to the mercenary's face, eyelids of the helmet slid away, revealing the light of the half-wyrm's power. The mercenary hit with his left leg, kicking Leila’s left leg off the ground, and grabbed her by the shoulder with his left hand, throwing her over himself. The half-wyrm collapsed to the ground, leaving a blood trail in the air. Chort ducked low, evading the shot of Tiny, who circled him to the right, waiting for a safe opportunity to fire at him without putting Leila's life in danger. The leg of the mercenary hit Tiny's knee, breaking the bone like a straw.
"A word of advice, girlie," Chort said smugly to the screaming from pain Tiny as she fell, "Give no shit about your allies' safety. Shoot when you can…"
The building shook again, and the tremor threw Aranea to the floor just short before she could reach for her rail gun. The breach exploded, and the broken form of the mechanical suit was thrown inside. Sonya jumped inside, her armor covered in cracks and blood dripping from breaches in her armor. Her left arm was hanging uselessly, clearly broken or twisted. The metal suit was missing his weapons, the left arm and the right leg were torn, it was so badly damaged that Ursico could not even open it from within. Laughter filled the room, announcing the coming of Yasen before he even stepped inside. His armor was covered in cuts, his cloak was in tatters, but aside from the melted armor on his leg, he had no damage on him. He spread his hands wide, welcoming everyone.
"I do like it when things end up well," He happily said, his lenses had found Aranea, she could almost see his smiling lips behind the faceplate. "It seems each time we meet, you let someone down. Your people follow your lead and what can you offer them? Misery and death! Hahahah!"
"You are the one to lose hundreds on this day." Aranea snapped at him, reaching for the weapon. Yasen smirked and snapped his fingers, sending a ball of kinetic force that splattered her against the floor.
"Ah, but ya see, hon," He pointed to the form of the shaman. Her body was no longer moving, a large pool of blood was under her. Then he pointed at the dead wolfkins near the entrance, "You are the only one who gives two shits about extras. And I do adore your efforts, but alas, your encore took a day too many." His finger rose, a ball of force began forming on the tip of his finger.
"Kill whoever you want, but keep in mind. The half-wyrm is mine. If anything happens to her…" Chort started talking but then stopped. Yasen looked at him in confusion, while the mercenary jerked in place. Chort slapped himself across the head. "A miracle has almost happened twice. But I am not a kind deity."
The mercenary laughed like a maniac, walking toward the shield generator. He walked all the way up the metal stairs.
The doors that led into the shield generator room exploded into a torrent of steel shards, allowing a bright red line to charge forward. The line crashed into cyborgs who were busy finishing off the last normies soldiers in the room. It tore through cyborgs, leaving behind dead bodies and surprised allies. The greenies who were attacking wolfkins were turned into paste the moment the red line charged past them. The sheer movement of the red line created a wind strong enough that it threw dead bodies around the room like dolls.
"If not for this girl, I might have fallen for this," Chort said, coming to the generator, his hand turning to the bone blade. Yasen screamed, trying to warn him, but the mercenary seemed to be oblivious to the red line that charged direction to move at the mercenary, "But as a professional, I do not fall into the same trap twice!"
The red line ran across the stairs, stopping before the generator. It was at this moment that Chort struck. He was not aiming at the generator. His aim was at the newcomer.
A paw lightly touched his bone blade from below, and the deadly weapon went up. Chort’s face became a mask of shock and surprise, changing to a mask of pain upon seeing the dent on his own chest, when the second arm of the newcomer punched him, sending the mercenary cartwheeling toward the entrance. He landed on the ground and still moved backward, leaving traces on the stone with his feet. Finally, stopping near the entrance, he fell on his knees and finally on his face, wheezing and spitting blood from his mouth. An enormous trace of the hit was on his body, the entire left side of his body was pushed deep within his body. The white bones of the ribcage tore through his armor, blood was falling from the edges of the bones.
A small figure was on the metal platform that surrounded the generator, standing a bit shorter in height than Aranea. A black, torn cloak was flowing from her shoulders. A golden circle, broken in one place, was painted on the cloak. Armor of crimson, covered with dust and dirt, protected the figure from head to toe. While the figure was clearly that of a wolfkin, there were no open places in the armor for fangs or claws, so it protected the newcomer fully, like a capsule, looking elegant nonetheless. Instead, there were retractable metal claws on the wrists of the newcomer, similar metal claws were on her legs. The figure looked at her opponent through the lenses of a green color. The snout of the helmet looked small, even for such a slender figure.
Valerye Foulsnout, known as the perfect warlord, has finally arrived.
Aranea blinked in surprise as the metal platform crashed under the weight of Valerye. She landed below and tore metal stairs away to get free. At that moment, Aranea remembered what Kate told her about Valerye.
****
"She is unique, you see," Kate sipped coffee from her cup, frowning. Kaleb offered this new treat to her, and the scout was still unsure if she liked the stuff or not. But it kept her awake, so she consumed it in droves. Kate lifted the photo with her metal spider limb, showing the back of a wolfkin in a black cloak, her paw was raised in triumph, thanking the crowd of both wolfkins and normies around her who cheered for her. The face of the warlord was hidden, but Aranea noticed the unusual red fur of this wolfkin, "Valerye Red Streak, nicknamed so because of the trace that she leaves in the air as she moves around. The soldiers gave her this nickname after Valerye accidentally fell into a vat of crimson paint before charging back at the enemy forces. It was just a blur of her armor, but you know how soldiers and us are. Valerye liked the nickname enough to paint her entire armor crimson. She became a warlord at merely twenty years old, the youngest person to become a warlord. She was ranked eighteen, the last in power."
Aranea nodded, listening to Kate. Janine was ranked ninth in power among warlords. After Janine was injured by Kalaisa, she fell to eleventh place. Ranks were relative, and warlords themselves cared little about them.
"Her charisma and leadership skills were unrivaled. Almost everyone liked her, she tried to help both normies and wolfkin males. Even now, she forbids physical punishments in her forces. The shamans grumble about it, but when Valerye commands, they must obey. Then, at the age of twenty-two, she issued The Challenge of the Warlord."
"What?!" Aranea asked in confusion. The Challenge of the Warlord means that the warlord has to beat every single warlord that was above her in a series of one-on-one fights. It was only used when the warlord needed to make a change and the Gathering was too far away. During the entire existence of the Wolf Tribe, it was won only twice, both times by Alpha. For the first time, she banned the sacrifice of members of the Tribe to the Spirits. Next time, she allowed Tribe members to use power armor. Both times, warlord number one, the Zero, simply gave up without a fight. Lacerated One, the leader of the shamans, surrendered as well, unwilling to fight her sister. The rest of the warlords put up but a modicum of resistance, throwing the fight. "No way. Is she an idiot?"
"You wish," Kate smugly responded, enjoying knowing more than the wolf hag, "She cleared all the way to Alpha in a stomp. None could match her. Her blows broke bones, her punches sent other warlords across the arena, her speed was unrivaled…" Kate produced a medical record and showed it to Aranea, "It all because of her body. You see, without power armor, Janine weighs two hundred and ninety-five kilograms. Alpha weighs three hundred and fifty-two kilograms. How much do you think Valerye weights?"
"I dunno. She appears to be small, maybe a hundred kilos at best?" Aranea tried to guess, looking at the image of the warlord. She looked skinny.
"Ha! She weighs four hundred and seven kilograms," Kate laughed, leaning back on her pillows. She saw the confused face of Aranea and explained, "You see, scientists made a theory. You know about myostatin, right? It is a protein that inhibits the growth of muscles, it is produced by your body, and, thanks to it, you can sustain the growth of your muscles just fine. However, if you decreased the amount of this protein through training, you could wildly increase your muscle mass. Her body produced almost no myostatin."
"Bullshit!" Aranea almost jumped at these words, "You can see her photos, she barely has any mass in her! Where is she hiding all her muscles!"
"Inside of her. They are compressed like a..." Kate tried to show something in the air with her metal hands, but gave up. "A sheer mass of muscles that should be visible, but yet can’t be seen. Her muscles, tendons, sinews, and bones are so tightly compressed that it is insane to even try to imagine. Even before she started powering up through the gift of our blessed mother, her muscle fibers easily put her in the ranks of a warlord and yet still provided enough elasticity for her to move around at crazy superspeed. Red Streak Valerye. She was a warlord material before she was even born, destined for greatness."
"So, did she win?" Aranea asked, curious for the first time. Sonya always chastised her for not learning much about the Tribe's history. Clearly, the scout was right, it was foolish of Aranea to ignore the history.
"How do you think she got the nickname Foulsnout?" Kate became gloomy all of a sudden, "Alpha slept through the entire challenge, she was sparring with skinwalkers prior to the challenge and was still badly injured. The warlord number two was sitting on her throne, bleeding like a cusack, while Valerye was clearing her way through the ranks to her. The viewers later told the other wolfkins that there was a literal pool of blood underneath Alpha's seat. She finally opened her eyes when her turn came. This apparently freaked out Valerye enough that she missed the first hit of Alpha. It punched through the left side of her skull, leaving brain damage. After this, Alpha punched and punched her, Zero had to shout to stop the fight. Zero even threatened to step in if Alpha would not stop. According to the medical record, Valerye's arms were shattered, her right nostril was missing, her ribs were broken along with her legs, and her left ear was bitten off. Alpha declawed Valerye and devoured the claws and missing ear in front of Red Streak. Zero had to rush Valerye to the hospital in order to save her life, almost every single bone in her body was broken, organs were ruptured, and her lungs were pierced by the broken ribcage. Alpha, meanwhile, only had a couple of bones broken from the few times that Valerye dared to strike. Even the shamans were confused by how scared Valerye was during the fight. The woman is by no means a coward, but against Alpha, all her bravery was gone. Valerye's face was covered in ripped wounds, and Alpha forbade her from ever repairing it. Since then, Red Streak has changed her nickname to Foulsnout and always keeps her helmet on. Her personality was changed as well, she was no longer as charismatic as before. Now Valerye is ranked third in overall power and knows her place. As do we all. Alpha and Zero are far beyond us all."