"Sly, Kaleb, Kostya, secure the injured. Yuki, Kate, cover them," Aranea said, sending the image of the car full of wounded caravanners to her pack. Kostya hesitated, shoving aside a warrior, and a superheated ball licked his side, melting the plate armor and creating a nasty burn. Aranea fired the shardgun, beheading the black-clad bastard. "Kostya, this wasn't an invitation. Sly, treat his wound." The warrior had an ample opportunity to dodge on her own; Kostya's support was unneeded. What was up with him?

Aranea linked her vision to the group's, tearing herself a path to the pried-open truck. The attack caught the enemies by complete surprise, and the bastards failed to mount a counterattack. Several had already dropped to their knees in surrender. The Wolfkins expertly ripped off the generators from under their cloaks, trapping the murderers inside their own steel and tying up their limbs to restrain them. Mop up the remaining stragglers and…

A crimson ray pierced through a warrior's chest a dozen meters away from Aranea's position, killing the woman instantly. Her partner, a male Wolfkin, whirled around, searching for the target in vain. His head twitched violently, the gorget tearing, and his neck snapped like a dry branch. So fast. I… my pack could've been there… Enough. Aranea growled, her perception heightening.

What did I know? A kinetic force had murdered her ally. From afar? Negative, her crimson eye picked up fingerprints bulging into the helmet. Power or camouflage? Not relevant. The shardgun boomed, sending a fanned spread of shards that violated the dead male's body and drew sparks from the thin air. There! She sent the update for the troops about her hunch when a stomp distracted her.

A slick, shining chromium shape landed near a male, rising from a crater. The newcomer had the appearance of a bald-headed woman coated by an alloy that solidified seamlessly over her every part: lips, nose, fingers, waist. Blue lenses focused on the Wolfkin, who leveled the shardgun at her.

"Name, rank, and reason for being here, right now!" he barked, taking a step back.

The perfect head tilted, examining him with curiosity, and curled her lips into a sweet smile. Then she darted, dropping her left shoulder so the shot would pass over it. Her swipe left a brief afterimage shimmering before the surprised snout as the male tried to comprehend when exactly the barrel of his weapon had fallen. He gasped in disbelief, watching an arm that speared him. The palm stuck out from his back, holding his still-beating heart. With a grin, the woman crushed it.

"Caught her…" he wheezed, gripping the limb to the intruder's scowl.

Too far to assist, Aranea noticed a warrior pull the trigger without hesitation. The scout agreed in her mind that it was the right thing to do; the soldier was dead, and the least they could have done was honor his brave sacrifice. But her heart refused to accept the kinsman's death, wondering if there was any way to get him to the operating table in time.

The woman tore her limbs free, breaking the servomotors in the male's wrists alongside his fingers. She dodged, so fast that the road under her exploded, escaping the deadly blanket of armor-piercing shards. A next burst of motion timed with the exact moment the warrior's finger was pressing the trigger carried her up close to the woman, and the shot missed, while the steel palm sliced across the Wolfkin's throat, cutting through the neck in one move. The head struck fell before the body toppled as the steel creature shrugged, throwing arms up.

She didn't smell anything besides the blood marring the chromium surface. Aranea narrowed her eyes, catching the faintest, familiar whine of artificial muscle fibers straightening.

"She is…" Aranea began.

"A cyborg!" Sly shouted over the communications. "Watch out! The bitch's perception and reaction time let her move the instant she spots an opportunity…" A ray of red emerged from nowhere, striking another Wolfkin in the back of the head and melting a round hole in his skull. "And another has an optical camouflage! Scout Aranea, I have an idea how to stop it, permission to…"

"Yes," Aranea said, placing a paw in the belt's pocket. "Kaleb, Kate, break from the fight and evacuate the civilians." The shards fired by her sent the chrome woman away from the car with the wounded.

"Yuki! Kostya!" Sly called. "Need your help!"

"Just a…" Yuki rolled on the road, kicking and biting at the greenie trying to claw at her collar. She twisted, evading a swipe that stuck in the stone, and pressed the shardgun into the open mouth, blowing the monster's head off. Sonya caught a greenie leaping at Kostya's back and folded it in two. The male returned the favor, shooting at the five creatures closing on the wolf hag. Her snarl propelled him toward Sly. "Free!"

"You noticed how that bastard never fires from longer than five steps away? He even broke a head after the first shot, but why do so if he has a gun? Obviously, its battery needs to recharge itself, and my hypothesis is that the beam can maintain its potency for a very short duration…"

"Cut the crap. What do you want us to do?" Yuki said.

"Marauding! To the truck…"

The cyborg smoothly reversed her withdrawal into a straight fly toward the scout, using her legs to cover the vast distance in a single leap. A kick sent rubble striking the shardgun, sending the shards upward. Rather than standing her ground, Aranea took a step back and heard the scrape of metal fingers slicing over her collar. She fired from the waist, hoping that, up close, the abomination would fail to spot the attack. In vain. On her toes alone, the metal woman sidestepped the opening cylinder, her arm coming down at the pauldron.

And stopped, twitching, ruining the smooth motions as Aranea dropped a grenade. She didn't resist the impact, letting it carry her away, but sealed the armor shut. In the south, the military often used incendiary grenades. The Third favored a more lethal approach: an acidic compound that infiltrated the overlapped chitin plates of various insectoids and the occasional gash in raiders' poorly assembled armor in addition to being useful for overcoming the natural heat resistance of local beasts.

The cyborg tried to follow the scout to sever her arm when she entered the expanding caustic cloud. Though she somersaulted out of range, brown, sickly patches covered the left side of her chest, and tiny bubbles formed on one of her lenses.

"Didn't expect that, eh?" Aranea leveled the shardgun.

"Aranea, do you need immediate assistance?" Sonya said. On the video feed she hooked a greenie's head, ripping it off the shoulders, and kicked another hard enough to smear it on the slope. Two more remained, facing her and a warrior.

No more risks. "Negative, Wolf Hag! Eliminate the remaining opposition. I'll stall her…"

A faint, strained giggle escaped the chromium lips, and the cyborg waved a finger in the air, pointing it at the pile of rocks blocking the road. Her mouth opened to reveal a dynamic interior, and a roar of revving engines swept through the area. The landfall erupted forwards, jagged stones rammed the cars, turning several over as a behemoth of silvery steel stepped through it, jumping and flattening an empty vehicle along with a Wolfkin's arms. No cry came from the male's lips. A flick of the fingers—larger than his head—had squashed him.

The machine, shaped to resemble a man, stood close to six meters tall. Its single arm was thicker than Aranea's torso. Flashlights opened on its towering carapace, illuminating the pillars of steel serving him for legs, an artistically crafted spinal column on its back, and the barreled, cage-shaped chest with a fused ribcage. Where most of his body had a skeletal appearance, his head was sculpted to appear humanoid, and an eternal, somewhat warm smirk adorned the immovable lips. Two red lenses served him for eyes, and a series of red lights dotted his shell. She noticed long spikes installed behind the behemoth's legs, extending from the knees to the feet.

"Abnormals of the Reclaimers?" A male voice boomed from the entity's chest. The leg went up, with a speed unbecoming for such a giant, sending a broken warrior into the cliffs. "Pheh. Fleshbags all the same." He advanced at the Wolfkins, quaking the road with every step. "Misbegotten mutants, taking pride in simple genetic deviance, try to provide the barest inconvenience for Allahkoliken! Support team, bring me their scalps for banners and their skulls to mark the graveyard of their arrogance!"

"Incoming!" Aranea cried out, spotting dark figures jumping into the canyon as the steel woman rolled away. The scout fired once, hearing the tear of metal as a half-man, half-machine landed before her, sending rocks upward.

A protective suit spewing crimson from open gashes covered the cyborg's left side, while his right side was bare and glittered with chrome. Unlike Aranea's previous opponent, who had no exposed cables or parts, the one who lunged at her had visible gears and wires around his joints and brought up crackling, electrified talons that replaced his fingers. A blue lens glowed with barely contained energy.

Aranea dodged the swing that sent dust and sizzling sparks into her snout and grabbed the cyborg by the wrist, crumpling a moving piston. A jolt of electricity shivered through her arm, and she let go, cursing as another swipe sheared the pack emblem from her chest. The cyborg rammed an elbow into her, driving the scout back with surprising force despite his smaller frame.

"Lesson learned, no hand-to-hand with the machine. Or are you human?" Aranea exhaled, shaking her arm.

"Yes." The cyborg coughed out the word, accompanied by a single static noise, as if a cold had swollen his neck. His rubberized lips joined with the biological lips in twisting into a smirk.

"Smartass. Don't lose your…" She stabbed her claws into his sweeping hand, pinning it in the air. The cyborg's natural eye widened in surprise when the electricity didn't pass through her claws.

With a click, a two-barreled gun appeared on his other hand, but Aranea moved faster, ramming the shardgun into his neck and pressing the trigger. The shot opened a yawning hole in it, sending the head dangling at his back, connected to the torso with several wires. Oil, hissing sparks, and blood spurted from the mesh of flesh and metal around the shattered vertebrae. His leg moved, trying to slam at her feet, and she fired into his chest, cartwheeling the body. He landed with a stomp, the separated head watching her with pure hatred, its lips trying to speak a curse or claim of defiance.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"…Head. Huh, sorry, should've warned you sooner," Aranea said, shrugging off the reward as the life left her opponent.

Allahkoliken pointed his hand, unleashing a burst of high-caliber gunfire from his palm, which reduced a scout and an injured Wolfkin she was dragging away to a bloody wisp. He moved his arm, exploding another soldier, while one of his helpers crushed a male's head like a pebble. Warriors fired at the giant, killing a cyborg near him. The shards failed to gouge lines in the thick chest, bouncing off Allahkoliken's alloy. His eyes flared, releasing rays through a male's body. The Wolfkin twitched, trying to hold the viscera coiling around his legs when the fist cratered him.

"Simpletons! Your bodies fail technological sanctity. Where steel is capable of prevailing, your fear, your proclivity to limiting pain, leads you astray, betraying the suits created by ingenuity! Oh, how the need to destroy marvels in the process of removing your kind disgusts me!" the behemoth laughed.

They are butchering us! Aranea surveyed the battlefield. The open warfare promised limited success, but in the stretch between death and survival lay a potential victory in the next engagement. She opened the communications: "Change of plans, everyone. Pick up our wounded and the caravanners and off to the hills. We lack heavy weaponry to tackle this target."

"What about you?" asked Yuki.

She stood in the truck's shadow, close to the place where an unseen foe had snapped the soldier's neck. A net of cables woven together covered the space around her for several meters. Aranea was about to ask what she was doing when the net sparkled, sending electrical currents through the spasmodic figure of a black-clad man that suddenly appeared in the view of cameras located on Yuki's back. She jumped, completing a full circle, and the claws of her leg cut through the man's elbow. The hand holding an energy pistol dropped to the ground, and he reeled back, yelling in pain.

And Kate called our boys dumb! I'm going to buy Sly a cake! "I'll be distracting the big guy and join you later."

"It's our job…"

"No second-guessing, Kaleb! Obey!" No way in the Abyss will I lose anyone I care about anymore.

Kostya and Sly joined Yuki in gunning down the man as he tried to phase back into invisibility. Sly sliced through his clothes, cursing at the damaged vestment beneath them. He pulled it free and clamped it to the maglocks on his back.

Kaleb was busy helping two Normies out of the car when he heard the clank approaching. He whirled, not abandoning the civilians, and faced the metal woman, leveling the shardgun a fraction of a second too late. The cyborg closed in on him, twisting his arm and breaking the bones in his shoulder, wrist, and elbow. Yuki's team charged to his help, blasting another cyborg off their path as the metallic hands grabbed Kaleb's jaws, prying them apart. Aranea heard the crack of skin.

The cyborg bounced off the male, evading the shards scraping her nose. Kate, hiding behind a car, missed her mark and fired again, but the smiling woman dodged the second the scout's finger pressed the trigger, calculating the best approach route with automatic accuracy. She almost flew past the shards, carried by her initial jump. She stabbed and landed a palm into the shardgun raised in defense.

It discharged, hitting the car's energy cell and exploding it, swiping both Kate and her foe off their feet. The scout rolled away from her opponent, groaning from a metal spike that had lodged in her lower back. The plate stopped the worst of it, preventing the spike from rupturing a kidney. Her opponent fared worse. The flung door struck her hard enough to bend the area damaged by acid, and a red-hot door handle speared one of her lenses. She stood up, tore the handle away, and fell again as Kaleb fired into her back. Kate stopped her from getting up by stomping on her head.

Blood and brain matter underfoot, Kate grabbed her sides, enduring the bulging of her muscles produced by the reward. Still catching her breath, she helped Kaleb stand and handed him to Sly. Then, she picked up the caravanners and ran after Yuki, wheezing with every step.

Aranea's shot landed upon Allahkoliken's arm as he was reaching for a wounded Wolfkin. The behemoth ignored it, and then she kicked the decapitated cyborg head to his feet. He turned to face her, and the lower jaw of his sculpted face split open, letting out a twin turret hidden within. Aranea darted aside, hearing the craters appearing on the road behind. Allahkoliken jumped, sending a tremor through the area as he closed the distance. Blades slipped from his fingers, and he slashed, catching Aranea despite her attempts to escape. The blades broke through her armor as if it were paper, lacerating the skin over her ribs and slipping closer to her belly. Through the pain, she fired at the grinning face, scratching its sides.

"So fleas infesting the proud suits can run," thundered the voice from his chest. "Poor sport, but at least useful for the purpose of gathering hard data. You escaped me twice, but how long will your luck last? Muscles tire and tear, bones crack and fall apart, while the steel marches on. Heed my wisdom and stop! It'll be less painful." He aimed his hand at her, and she saw a fire forming inside his palm.

She somersaulted backward, and the flame followed. The searing cloak touched her feet, failing to bring harm thanks to her armor. The systems screamed a warning, advising her to escape the "hazard area," and she shut them off, desperately trying to think of anything. There was no way she could harm this foe with her weapons or claws.

"Your craftsmen deserve praise. You, not so much," Allahkoliken said.

At least I am faster than… She heard a series of clicks coming from behind his back and legs. Thrusters spewed flames, gifting him a fiery mantle and propelling the impossible figure into a straight line. With the same ease a kid could toss a cardboard box, he swatted aside a car, reaching Aranea. She backed away in horror.

No. I refuse. She thought, looking for a way out. There is still so much to do. Tribe. Mother. I can't, I must have my revenge and set things right… She blacked out as he struck, cleaving through the sleeve of her left arm and creating torn wounds. She rolled to the side, ending up near the truck, shaking her head to clear her mind and trying to crawl.

"Why flee? What motivates you to cling to this flawed existence?" Allahkoliken said. "I have a myriad ways to end you. And you have none. Be honored to have the privilege of being smeared by the future."

He raised his hand for the final hit, and Aranea tried to stand up, forcing her body to keep going and keep trying to escape the danger zone, but it no longer obeyed her desires. Her arms and legs trembled; every bone hurt; blood spilled from open gashes; and the end was falling upon her.

Sonya elbowed her aside, tossing aside the dismembered remains of a cybernetic soldier. A force field bubbled around her, deflecting the dooming blow that crashed into the ground. She slashed, tearing chunks from his limbs, and fired at the grinning fool.

"Once I scrape your liquids out of your armor, I'll weld the suit as a patch," Allahkoliken promised, tearing his arm free. His lasers bounced off the shield. "Wonders never cease. That toy of yours is mine." He pushed the hand through the shield, slashing across Sonya's breast, and then kicked her into the car.

Standing up, Aranea thought about the situation.

Tonight, we will settle it. You and I will clash. She was weaker than Sonya and risked dying in their battle. The behemoth coveted the wolf hag's archeotech and was no longer focused on her. If Sonya died, Aranea would be promoted, and it wasn't like that woman didn't deserve it. You are a disgrace. I can see that a punishment is required to improve morale. How many scars had she inflicted on those not strong enough to resist her? Surely, I am a better and more valuable person than the spiteful, merciless bitch. For the sake of the Wolf Tribe, she must survive at all costs.

And rise I must, for I have a great many things that I want to change in our order. Tilden said in her head. There is no harm in crying. The scout broke into a run, reaching the truck. One of the greenies had melted its side, and she dived inside, shoving the crates out of her way until she found the familiar sign marking the dangerous equipment. She tore the lid from the crate, smirking at the rows of industrial energy cells. These long objects, around half a meter in length, were encased in bulletproof glass, and their yellow glow was reflected in her lenses. Metal casings with buttons and sockets at the top were at the end of each cell.

What am I doing? Aranea asked herself and admitted. I will win in my own way. Screw it all; I won't become him or as cruel as her. I'll be a protector, the one who helps others. Tilden won't drag me to his level! When I see his guts spilled, I'll stay myself!

"Sly, need advice," she said, calling the Wolfkin over the communicator and grabbing two charged energy cells. "You once told me that if an idiot smacks industrial energy cells together and presses red buttons, a cataclysmic event will occur. You meant running for your life to the hills type of cataclysm, yeah?"

"Correct. It'll release the stored energy simultaneously… The Abyss are you asking about it?" demanded Sly.

"Want to cook an asshole, no biggie." Aranea responded, picking up three more cells.

"Aranea, whatever you do, do not use more than four energy cells at the same time or there won't be left anything of…" She turned off his warning.

Outside, Sonya's shield burst, and smoke poured from her devices. Bullets struck her in the left arm, piercing the plates. She growled but kept retreating, evading the wide swings and leading the behemoth away from the pack as they climbed up, carrying prisoners and wounded. More gouges covered her armor; a trail of blood followed her. The cyborg laughed, his voice breaking between an assured tone and a high-pitched one.

Aranea swallowed and crept to the beast of steel, evading a random greenie that tried to slice her. Another scout took care of the creature, and Aranea silently wished her luck as she snuck up on the mound of steel, timing her steps with its own. She slapped the ends of two energy cells together and pressed a button on one of them. The capsule began to shake, spewing sparks from one end. Without waiting to see what would happen, she repeated the process with the other four cells, jumping and shoving them into the space at his waist. Suddenly, the torso turned around one hundred and eighty degrees to face Aranea.

"Impatient, little beastie?" Allahkoliken mocked, walking in reverse at the scout.

"Oh, to the Abyss with it!" Aranea dropped the first cell and ran back to the truck.

Allahkoliken stepped on the shaking cylinder, and it exploded, coloring Aranea's world orange. The shockwave carried her all the way back to the truck, slamming her into it and turning it around as she rolled to the mountainside, croaking in pain. Cars and the nearest fighters were tossed away, while Allahkoliken dropped knee-deep into an appearing hole. Dust and smoke covered him from the view, but then a hand cut a slit in the cloud, and his speakers outperformed the rolling echo of the eruption.

"How pitiful the unenlightened are for thinking that such a meager impact could possibly halt me…" he cackled in the voice of an old man, climbing out of the molten hole. Black soot covered his leg up to his knee, but otherwise, he was unharmed. "One won't do anything, bug."

"How about four more, freak!" Aranea said.

"Bitch, you didn't!" His voice broke into a high-pitched shriek. The rod dots covering his body shot out of their recesses, revealing themselves to be cameras mounted on elastic tendrils. They drifted around him, surveying his frame.

He failed to spot the danger in time, and a white star erupted in the canyon. Aranea's lenses struggled to discern what was going on as she herself was shoved into the rock, which was rapidly softening and melting. Several corpses turned to ash, cars exploded, and trucks fared a little better. Allahkoliken's form waved its arms at the epicenter of this catastrophe, then fell to the side, plowing a wide trail worthy of a fallen comet. The ground swallowed him as if he were a stone thrown in a river. Soon she could hear nothing but the roar of the explosion, scowling in agony as the gashes' edges bent into the lips of her wounds, widening them further. The truck moved, dragged by the shockwave, and slammed into her. It squashed her even deeper, filling her with a fresh fear: What would happen if the rest of the energy cells went off? The end came abruptly as the white color disappeared. She slipped off the molten stone while the vehicle turned onto its other side. She breathed in a full lungful of overheated air, uncaring about the molten traces in it, and lay on her back, watching the firmament, feeling too exhausted to stand up.

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