The Confederates had raised a wall of bones out of the soil and retreated shortly after the strange man had come stumbling out of the portal, and done his thing with the weird bit of glass that made Kendra’s skin crawl from where she stood. The angles on it were just obviously wrong, and the way the man cradled it before putting it back into the satchel which seemed to be his only possession apart from the staff was just creepy.

Far above them there was a flicker of gathering fractals and Cuan swore, rushing forward towards the man. For his part, the stranger turned to regard the charging tank with a blank expression.

Kendra saw his muscles tense as he draw back an open palm. The fractals congealed into a blazing symbol in the sky, and the first lightning bolt of the day began falling out of the clear sky just as Cuan slammed his towering shield into the ground.

A sphere of protective energy surged up in a bubble, big enough to cover the party and the stranger.

“Idiot!” Lana snapped. “We’re trying to help you here.”

The man’s eyes drifted over, and he just nodded. He walked over towards them - awkwardly, as if he hadn’t used his limbs in some time. Or as if the muscles were broken and torn, based on the vaguely horrified look on her brother’s face.

Usually the subject of that gaze was Cuan after he did something stupid like throwing a train carriage at someone.

“Lead on.” The stranger rasped.

God, even his voice was creepy. Lana was on edge, her brother was on edge… Cuan roared “Get a move on, the Cons are still dropping lightning on us here!”

The following minutes of retreat from the centre of the Deathzone were hectic as long-distance Powers and spells began flying from the two sides of the conflict again, turning the sky above the ruins into a pulsating mess of colours.

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She could see other teams from both sides retreating towards their respective frontlines, the Confederates being screened by small hordes of the living dead.

Everything more or less went perfectly well until a skeleton burst up between them and the stranger, flinging itself at him. That, of course, wasn’t the problem. He crushed it with a single, vicious palm strike, shattering it into pieces.

The problem was the fact that his expression didn’t change. His every step was off, angular in a way that it had no business being. It was a common side effect of needing extensive healing when one came through a gate, but what was worse was that the man was very definitely only his primary evolution - which meant that to survive he had probably leaned very hard on his Skills.

Relying on that mish-mash of memories, some from the perspectives of people over a hundred years old did things to people. They would still be the same eprson, mostly. Just with none of the habits that made them people. No cues, no expressions, and overly prone to violence.

“Solo op?” She muttered to Lana. She blinked and looked at Kendra. “He was cut completely in half at some point.” Her friend murmured. “Probably the guy who was at the location that the gate opened.

Kendra frowned. “He didn’t seem like a Confederate though?” Lana shook her head, and looked bemused. “He’s got a plate of black glass that’s covered in dried blood, with skull motifs, that staff, and is walking around naked.”

“Don’t remind me.” Kendra grumbled, suddenly embarrassed. Second-hand, of course. The stranger didn’t seem to really be aware of the fact that his clothes were mostly gone, and Kendra had been trying hard not to think about it - they were in a Deathzone after all, and she couldn’t afford any distraction.

A moment later, a spike of bones erupted from the ground, angling towards Cuan. Her brother cut it in half, and grumbled “Lana, Perception”. The scout winced and waved apologetically to Ken.

The rest of the march back was quiet, and tense, until they finally passed the pair of tanks that marked the northwestern boundary of the Deathzone.

A moment later, they were swarmed by various officials and first aid workers. Ken and Cuan were led away by the latter, Lana… had apparently used [Nightwalk] and escaped somewhere. That left Kendra and the stranger to deal with all the officials. Thankfully, someone had given him a blanket to cover himself with, as the pair of them were shepherded towards the alliance command tent, for what was sure to be a lot of questions.