A figure rose from the darkness before her legs, and Yuki squealed in terror. She tried to stand up, jump, and fight but found her arms and legs useless. Long wounds run down her body, her tendons were severed, resulting in piercing pain at every move.
No! I got better!
Blaguna stepped from the darkness that surrounded her, playing with her knife. Yuki tried to close her eyes and found that her eyelids were gone. She felt blood pulsating in her temple while the knife slowly lowered to her right knee cup.
This isn’t real!
"It will always be real." Blaguna smirked, and the knife pierced into her flesh, causing Yuki to shout from pain, while the maniac was prying away her knee cup. Blood gushed from the wound, and Yuki violently shook her body, trying to do anything to stop the pain that was burning in her body, "You will always be mine, Yuki. Yuki… Yuki…"
She gasped and felt no air coming to her lungs, feeling an iron grasp around her lungs, suffocating here, while Blaguna…
"Yuki? Yuki, wake up!"
The warrior found herself staring into Sly’s eyes, gnawing at her own paw to muffle her screams, with tears running down her snout. She was still in the tent that she and Sly shared together, and her mate held her in his arms. Everything was fine. She could smell his skin and feel the beating of his worried heart even through her fur. So real. So safe. Sly’s left paw wrapped around her wrist, not allowing her fangs to bite her paw anymore and instead leaving wounds on his own gentle fingers.
"Sly, I am so sorry!" Yuki quickly removed her fangs, and Sly only smiled.
"It’s alright. Everything is alright."
I wish I was alright. Yuki let him hold her, not caring how pathetic she looked. Her body trembled from fear, she wet herself yet again and was sweating all over.
Aranea, Olesya, Tiny, and Hekanta convinced her to come out from hiding in her room, Sly supported her at every step, and for a while, everything was fine. She laughed, even had a small brawl with Carty, outdrank Ultis, and finally mounted Sly, spending the entire night wearing his endurance down. She laughed when Sly asked her if she was okay doing it now. No. She will never put off anything for later anymore. On that night and on many other nights afterwards, Yuki loved him, and he loved her back.
And then… Blaguna crept back into Yuki's dreams, reappearing after she fell asleep and tormenting her every night. Sly never left her side, enduring each nightmare and trying to wake her up. Sometimes Aranea replaced him, sometimes it was Leila who stood guard during her sleep, giving Sly a chance to rest. Sly and she even visited Blaguna’s grave, and Yuki took a piss at the bitch’s unnamed grave. Nothing helped. Night after night, Yuki whined in her sleep, reliving the horrors and seeing new ones.
With a trembling paw, she reached for the pills that Geldi gave her, swallowing two. She had already taken one the night before, and the medic had warned her not to overdo it.... But right now Yuki didn’t care. They helped keep the dreams away. Her heartbeat slowed down, and panic receded, allowing Yuki to sit down and collect her thoughts. She gasped in worry, grabbing Sly by the paw and quickly cleaning his wounds, before bandaging it, despite his objections. After this she took a moment to cleanse herself of filth. Then they turned on the light and sat by each other's sides for good five minutes before the warrior finally ran with her glowing paw over her hair.
"Sorry for causing a ruckus. I should have taken the pills before sleeping, but… Dammit, they make me feel weird."
"You are weird," Sly said, kissing her cheek. "Besides, what kind of man would be afraid of a little hardship?"
Yuki wanted to apologize again when the curtain of their tent moved and Kate came inside, yawning and stretching her entire body.
"S’up. Saw the light coming from your tent, lovebirds, and decided to check. What's going on?" Kate frowned, looking at Yuki, "Nightmares?"
"Let’s go to Leila." The warrior answered.
****
"No." Leila told them, sitting cross-legged in her tent.
The scout’s tent was surprisingly full of items. From the books that were thrown all around carelessly to the various sculptures and toys that Leila was buying at every occasion, this whole place was a mess. The half-wyrm was the only person in the pack who had the entire tent assigned to her, and she used the space to its fullest, mounting a large terminal next to her sleeping place.
"Just no?" Yuki asked with despair in her voice, and Sly wrapped his arm around her, "Kate told me what you did for her. And…"
"And surely she told you how it ended for her." The scout cut her out.
"Like shit." Kate added.
"Yes, and I am forever sorry about it," Leila said, scratching the bridge of her nose with her claw, "Yuki, I can't just take and... erase your memories."
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"Why? The other wyrms can!"
"No. Only the ones who work in the mental hospital can do it safely. I simply do not have their skills, and honestly, no longer want to," Leila reached out, taking the wolfkin by the paw, holding the paw gently between her palms, "I know that you have been through a lot. But Yuki, it is not safe. The ability to control the mind is dangerous. What if I accidentally erase your love for Sly? Or your whole personality?"
"I'm sick of living on pills." Yuki felt the ground crumble when her fist crushed into it. It was a nice feeling to be able to release her anger at something. Nowadays, she has to be very careful when sparring with someone.
She trembled when Kate’s arm wrapped around her waist, and she heard a chuckle from the wolfkin behind her.
"That’s right, get angry! When the nightmares strike, I always become enraged. Punching the ground, growling, instead of groveling. Face the nightmare with your rage! Kaleb says I'm adorable during this," Kate said softly, "But I know he's lying to make me feel better. It will get better, Yuki, I swear it. We'll get through it together, day by day, you got it?"
"Since when have you started acting all soft, Kate?" Yuki laughed happily, feeling how Sly hugged her. Deciding not to hold back, she grabbed Kate and Sly, pressing them to herself, feeling the warmth of their bodies and their breaths on her neck. We are alive. And Blaguna is dead.
"Screw you, I am just making sure that the day will come when Kaleb and Sly can sleep soundly."
"Don’t know about you, but I am never planning to let Sly have a rest at night. Not when we still have so many options to explore."
"Who said anything about sleeping at night? Night is for passion, silly."
"We are here for you, Yuki," Sly said gently, "Each and every one of us."
"Oh, what the abyss. Yes, we are." Leila spread her wings, covering the trio with the hard membrane of her wings, and hugged them too.
The half-wyrm’s body felt like a raging furnace, each and every scale on her body emanated heat from the inside of the spaces between them. It was a pleasing and soothing heat, almost like beckoning that everything would be alright. Yuki barely knew Leila, safe for a few drinks, she and the scout barely talked. But at this moment, she accepted her as her kin, as another member of her very extensive family, and she replied in kind, hugging Leila back. All three wolfkins trembled when Leila’s tail slithered around them, wrapping itself around their waists.
"Leila, I told you a dozen times, the tail is weird! Get it off us!" Kate protested.
"Yuki, I might just know someone who can help you heal better," Leila said, tightening her tail around Kate and making the warrior frown furiously, "If you want to, I can ask them. However, it will mean disclosing the secret to an outsider."
"Do it," Yuki headbutted Leila slightly, "I am tired of feeling weak."
"Good to see that you are awake. Sorry to ruin the party, we have news." Sonya said in an icy tone coming inside the tent.
The former wolf hag barely resembled herself. For once she no longer had any gray on her body, her black fur shone brightly in a lamplight, and the brown stripes were vibrant once more. Sonya gained weight and muscles, almost catching up with Aranea in height. The scout no longer bothered with her glasses and moved with the grace of a youngster, often sneaking up on people without even trying, seemingly getting even more youthful day by day. And these were just outside changes.
Now Sonya liked to read stories to the pack out loud, not caring how silly or stupid she might look, and she even started exchanging jokes with the males and females alike. This, of course, made all the wolfkins in the Aranea pack fearful of Iterna, including Yuki. Clearly, the iternians somehow stole Sonya’s soul or something.
"Sly we need you to check on something. All others with me, Aranea have an announcement to make…" Sonya closed her eyes, "It’s about the warlord. Janine is dead."
****
Jackal laughed, seeing how his tank moved down the trees before them. Three other tanks moved behind him. The broken branches were falling down, and the regulator was smashing them aside with his fist, clad in the power armor of his lost home.
He had every reason to be happy. The remains of the bitch, the one in charge of taking down his home and burning his sister in her apartment, were now strapped in front of his tank. The so-called warlord, bah! Now she was just a husk, missing most of her arms, legs, and face, mounted like a banner for everyone to see. King gave the order for him to deliver the remains to the reclaimers.
But Jackal had other thoughts about this. The memory of her sister screaming… The shock that he felt when the floor gave in and his sis fell down in the flame… The regulator stopped laughing, grasping his hand in a fist, feeling the anger rising in him. When Huntsman brought them this bitch, Jackal invited only former regulators to accompany his group, taking the tanks that belonged to his people instead of hover tanks belonging to the Soultakers.
Each of the tanks in his group weighed seventy-five tons and was armed with one main 150mm gun. Even despite the trees in their path and the outdated equipment of these roaring beasts, they still pushed a solid eighty kilometers per hour. Jackal and the others had torn restrain themselves when they passed by the reclaimers’ patrols. These were just normies and low-ranking warriors. No, they needed to figure out how to hit a juicy target...
The tank’s truck crushed the last tree stump before them, allowing the convoy to come out of the Ash Forest and onto the rocky plains. Instead of the welcoming party, a lone figure stood in the distance. The crimson lenses of her helmet shone through the night, visible even from nearly a kilometer away. Jackal allowed his own lenses to zoom in on the image, noticing the incredible size of their opponent.
She stood over five meters tall, at the very least, clad in black power armor with very smooth curvatures. From head to toe, her power armor was incrusted with the barbarian writings of these blasted doggies, a set of three gigantic claws, more like two-handed swords than natural claws to his eyes, were coming freely from her legs and hands. At each of her wrists were installed impressive-looking weapons that Jackal’s helmet identified as plasma dischargers. A topknot was coming from the back of her head, a fountain of crimson hair sticking out in the night.
Jackal felt his lips spread in a smile, jumping down and closing the hatch. A warlord. They send a warlord to meet them!
"It’s time," He patted the woman before himself and the crew laughed together, aiming the tank’s main weapon at this bitch. King might have had some other plans, but Jackal and his people were out for vengeance. These bastards took their country, destroyed their homes, and killed their family. It was time for a payback, even at the cost of their lives, "Fire!"
The shell barely left the tank’s barrel when the figure was gone, leaving an explosion on the ground because of the impact behind her movement. A moment later, the shell passed through the explosion of sand and dust, exploding behind it, while Jackal and the others looked at it dumbfounded, thinking for a second that they all had seen a ghost.
And then their tank was thrown to the side, and all hell broke loose.