The army group “Spear Head,” comprising twenty thousand soldiers, seven crawlers, and four hundred heavy tanks, was on its way to the Sapon Duchy’s capital, Heaven Peak. They could already see the tall mountain looming over the city when the reconnaissance teams fell into ambush. Hidden underground, the Sapon soldiers broke free with weapons gifted to them by the elementalists and appeared in the midst of the enemy ranks. From above the clouds, the Royal Cavalry attacked, hitting enemy tanks with deadly thunder spears and destroying several machines before ground fire caused the Royal Cavalry to hide in the clouds and circle for another charge. The Reclamation Army scouts found themselves attacked by the best hunters the duchy had.

The Royal Cavalry launched another attack from above, but the intense, long-range fire from the crawlers’ anti-aircraft weapons killed dozens of Hawgrs along with their riders, forcing the knights to abandon the sky and land in the heat of battle, causing great confusion to the already engaged in battle forces of the Reclamation Army.

Disciplined ranks got broken; spears turned into a blur in the knights’ hands, their sharp blades sliced through even the thickest armor plates, collecting grievous toll upon the infantry. Trained to their utmost and boosted by the knowledge extracted from the prisoners, the knights dispersed, hunting the enemy officers and furthering the carnage.

The forces of the Sapon Duchy numbered nearly thirty thousand, reinforced by the Duchy’s finest knights, who numbered three thousand elite soldiers along with their hawgrs. Champion Ubion planned this attack in great detail, and with the help of Elementalists, his forces gained an element of surprise. Marcus Sapon’s power caused the enemy tanks to explode one by one. Whenever the enemy attempted to form ranks, the Duke unleashed a firestorm on their position or opened great chasms in the ground beneath their ranks, causing enemy vehicles to fall along with their troops.

But the main target of Sapon’s army were the crawlers. Fighting the enemy in long battles caused great losses for the duchy. Here and there, groups of enemies used heavy weaponry to wipe out hundreds of soldiers of the duchy. Bedecked in full-power armor, the soldiers of the Reclamation Army were faster and stronger than the Duchy’s defenders; despite having weapons made by elementalists, Sapon’s regulars were terribly outmatched. A simple blow from enemy soldiers could shatter bones; most of the enemy carried long-range weapons. Ubion led his troops to destroy the command vehicle, and a small group of Sapon soldiers were busy sneaking in, closing in on the great behemoths. Once close enough, Duke Marcus would annihilate great machines with his power, rendering the enemy army temporarily helpless without a steady stream of supplies. Retreating elements of the enemy army could then be picked off one by one. Without their supplies and commanding officers, the front lines of the Reclamation Army would grind to a halt, and would have to spend a long time reforming the front for help from the kingdom to arrive. At least, such was Champion Ubion’s hope.

***

Disgusting. Yuria thought, going over the increased reports in her vehicle. She was in the breaker, a large vehicle designed to serve as a mobile command center, when a crawler was unavailable. Thanks to superior communication systems and sturdy armor, this vehicle provided her and her officers with a fast and reliable means of traveling along the front lines. I warned him. We moved too fast and stretched ourselves too thin. She scowled. Torturer used the army for rapid strikes when this newly formed army was simply not up to the task. It was still too green, too inexperienced, and badly lacking in heavy hitters from the super-powered New Breeds. A glory hound like Torturer aimed to capture the duchies before the rest of Outsider’s special force arrived.

She snapped out of grim thoughts. Regardless of what had occurred, she could see that the situation was not hopeless. The enemy’s advance was already slowing, and the natives could only do so much against the state’s superior weapons.

“Order the heavy infantry to pin down the enemy force while the light infantry reforms the ranks. They are to open suppressive fire on the enemy ranks with firearms, avoiding the use of energy weapons if possible.” The small caliber firearms could be fired almost without regard for friendly fire; heavy infantry armor was almost impervious to light weapons. “The tanks are to break from the fight and use long-range weaponry to thin the enemy ranks. Aim for the knights; the Sapons have no means to replenish them soon enough. Order the crawlers to prepare the artillery. Have them fire at the farthest edges of the enemy ranks, as far away from our troops as possible. Our enemy is a rabble; kill enough and they will break.” Yuria quickly issued commands to the officers. Using artillery in close proximity to her own troops was risky, but the enemy force pushed the state’s troops back, leaving the bulk of their own forces not yet fully engaged in battle. If they could exploit it...

One of the two tanks guarding her vehicle exploded when a bolt of lightning pierced it, hitting an energy cell inside. She could see a group of enemy knights led by a pitch-black hawgr; the beast was noticeably larger than the others. The beast’s claws tore through two soldiers in light armor, ignoring steel plates as if they were paper. Atop the beast sat a warrior in armor the color of the darkest night, a long purple cloak draped over his shoulders. In one hand the warrior held a huge shield made of some strange crystal, and in his right hand he held a crimson sword. The warrior in black armor raised his shield as a group of soldiers opened fire on the advancing knights, unleashing a tornado in the ranks before him, causing even bullets to stop and fly back. The warrior jumped from his beast, leapt over the collapsed soldiers, and charged the tornado on foot, leaving his knights to mop up the state’s forces.

“Fool,” Yuria said, peering through the armor glass window of the breaker, just as the second tank fired at the charging warrior.

Impossibly fast, the warrior turned toward the incoming projectile, slashing with his sword and sending a heat wave that exploded the tank’s projectile in the air, while the warrior shielded himself from the blast. Without wasting any time, he charged the tank, moving too fast for Yuria to see. The tank crew opened fire with the flamers, but another gust of wind blew the flames away as the warrior appeared at the top of the tank, burying his sword in the hatch. Metal flowed from the heat released by the sword. Something crimson flashed on the hilt, and a crimson line shot from the sword into the slashed armor of the tank, setting fire to everything inside as the warrior jumped back. He did so in a few moments.

“Order our vehicle to begin our retreat. Inform Colonel von Bulow that he is to take my place in the event of my death…” Yuria calmly told her officers and the communications operator, seeing the black knight hacking his way to the breaker through heavy infantry soldiers who tried to bar his advance. He moved from the line of fire before the soldiers could pull the trigger; his sword decapitated soldiers or sliced everyone in his way in two. Flame from his sword dripped on the ground, creating a road of fire and marking his path.

“Belay order to retreat,” a calm voice said in the vehicle, coming from the highest priority frequency. “Commander Yuria, you are to stand here and assume command of this mess. I will remove the incoming problem.”

Yuria frowned in surprise. She knew only a few people who could use this frequency. The royal guards of the Dynast used it, but only one of their members on this expedition should be with Outsider and Outsider was still in Ospon…

A figure charged from behind the ruined tank, moving just as fast as the enemy warrior. The newcomer was armored in a purple power suit that moved with unnatural agility, as if it were a second skin to its wearer. The long glaive in the newcomer’s hands slashed forward at the open back of the black-armored warrior with blinding speed. Sensing the incoming blow, the warrior spun around, releasing the wind from his shield. Yet the new opponent was not moved even an inch back under the torrent of wind. A disruption field was activated on the blade of the glaive, a field that created sound strong enough to break the bonds between molecules. The glaive struck, piercing the gust with ease and leaving a deep gash in the crystal shield.

The warrior in dark armor threw down his shield as the Dynast’s personal protector advanced on him. His mechanical armor made no sound as he moved, so strangely different from the noisy armor of the heavy infantry. A knight of Sapon appeared behind the royal guard, riding a blue hawgr, his long spear aimed at the back of the royal guard. The knight charged, but in one fluid motion, the royal guard turned. His glaive left a slash across the ground as it moved; the blur left by the weapon formed a crescent in the air, moving too fast even for the advancing knight. The glaive sliced away the striking hawgr’s paw, cleaved through the beast’s head next, and ripped apart the knight’s lower body. An instinct alerted the guard about an attack from behind. The lower end of the glaive retreated quickly enough to strike the enemy on the chest plate, leaving a dent and sending him back a step. As the warrior in dark armor stepped back, he slashed with his word, releasing a wave of flame toward the royal guard.

The guard turned off the disruption field of his weapon, hitting the air in front of him with such force and speed that a loud boom rang out between the warriors. The force of the boom tore the flame wall apart. But when the flame cleared, Yuria saw that the left pauldron of the royal guard had partially melted; he was unable to stop the attack completely. His golden cloak was also on fire.

“Ubion Sapon, Champion of the Sapon House.” The warrior in dark armor saluted with his sword and took a stance. “No quarter will be given.”

“Guard of the Dynast, name long abandoned.” The warrior in purple armor saluted back, pressing his glaive to his helm, his free hand at his waist as the great hawgr and the knight died behind him. “No mercy would be aske...”

The guard was cut short when Ubion lunged at him, leaving a trail of fire in his wake. A gust of wind hit the guard; such was the speed of his enemy’s thrust. A crimson sword bit the guard, slicing through the ruined pauldron and cutting the flesh beneath. Yuria could not see exactly what happened next, but she saw that Ubion suddenly had a dagger stuck in his side. The guard attacked him at the same moment Ubion slashed him. The guard twisted the knife, and Ubion grunted, slashing again, leaving a deep gash in the enemy’s breastplate. Instead of parrying the attack with his glaive, the guard activated a disruption field and fired it from the tip of his weapon. His opponent saw this maneuver and leapt away. The stone and dirt floor on which he had just stood turned to dust under the pressure of the sound.

Ubion tore the dagger from his side with an almost respectful grunt, and his opponent nodded in return. The two warriors charged each other.

“Their skills are too close,” Yuria said in annoyance. “This will take too long to wait for a winner. What forces do we have nearby?”

“The fifth Orais ranged infantry company has reported that they broke away from the fight and are ready to deploy their heavy weaponry,” the officer answered.

“Good. Have them arrived at our coordinates and open fire on any knights that try to get close to us; they look like they might be elites of the enemy forces. Prepare to move us to...”

“Ma’am!” a soldier interrupted her, pointing at the window. A group of the Sapon knights had broken through the defensive lines and charged at them from the other side. Doubtlessly, the guard had seen this as well, but the man was hard-pressed with his own combat. They pinned them. The bastards never counted on a single strike to decapitate them; these Sapons knew that...

The Colonel-General grabbed a spare machine gun. They knew. Somehow, they got the captured officers to talk. She had told Torturer not to underestimate the natives! “Prepare the breaker’s batteries. If they want us, we’ll make them pay a blood price for it!”

“War!” A loud shout cut through the chaos of battle, and Yuria smiled. It wasn’t a battle cry or a warning. It was a cheer. She motioned for the rest of the officers to sit down and concentrate on organizing and coordinating the troops. The threat to their lives was officially over.

Two dozen brazen figures pushed through the defenders’ ranks, each clad in a marvel of technology, stained with repulsive tribal colors and adorned with bone fetishes taken from the strongest opponents. At their fore was a gigantic figure, carrying two eight-barreled gatling guns the length of his own body in each five-fingered hand. Thug Master Tegrin had arrived at last.

“For the eternal glory of Outsider!” he roared his challenge, resplendent in his heavy power armor, his lenses shining like newborn stars, and his hands aiming the gatling guns at the crowd of fighters. “Bow before the Dynast’s will or perish!”

“Wait!” a sergeant shouted. The man did his best to dodge a knight’s spear, but he saw the approaching Orais through the lenses of his soldiers. “You’ll hit allies…”

The gatling guns spoke their music. The first rounds left their barrels even before the weapons started rotating, deafening Tegrin’s booming laughter. Streaks of amber passed through the air; the Thug Master adored this color, for it reminded him of the eyes of his third wife, Ultis. His gatling guns were weapons designed to deal with heavy armored resistance and fast-moving New Breeds; when used against the knights, they simply tore the poor fools apart.

Not a single round hit an allied soldier, although a few had charted their path across the infantry’s armored plates, leaving cracks in the power armor. Orais were seldom known for their accuracy; the rest of Tegrin’s unit wielded short-range shotguns. But Tegrin had installed an intricate targeting system in his brain, and the state’s engineers linked it directly to his helmet, allowing the intake of information from hundreds of eyes to flow directly into his brain matter. His reflexes sped up by the ingenious augments and complemented by the Orais own impressive reflexes and immense strength, which allowed him to wield the oversized weapons without recoil, he became a Grim Reaper, harvesting lives.

Holes appeared in the heads, and a single round could punch through the skull with ease. Chest plates and thorax bones provided no protection against reactive rounds. A single round hit a hawgr in the beak and traveled all the way to the stomach, felling the mighty beast. Where he couldn’t kill a knight outright, Tegrin would take away a limb, saving his allies and fully ignoring Yuria’s request to preserve as many New Breed’s lives as possible. Be it a Normie or a New Breed, none who stepped up to the Thug Master could hope for salvation.

A knight leapt out of the attacker’s ranks, still riding a hawgr. Her spear was lost in battle, and her helmet was destroyed by several bullets fired by the infantrymen. But she was very much alive and got a drop on the Thug Master. The Hawgr swiped an Orais head off her shoulders, and the knight’s own spiked mace sent another Orais flying, opening the path to the Thug Master.

“A chick?!” Tegrin laughed. “A birdy and a birdy! Come and be riddled with holes!”

“Burn,” the knight responded coldly, and Tegrin dashed aside.

His action puzzled the colonel-general, but a second later the answer became apparent. A tempest of hell rose from the ground, brought into being by the Duke’s abominable power. Flaming tongues licked the gatling guns, overheating the ammunition crates at Tegrin’s back and exploding them, throwing the Orais face down before the knight. The hawgr opened its beak wide and shrieked in pain as the Thug Master uppercut the beast and sent it flying, and the knight rolled off her steed.

“I’m afraid of no birdy!” Tegrin rose, standing hunched, as two missiles fell out of the ruined launcher installed on his back. He stood like a beast, energy chords dangling from the back and one side of his body, a lens cracked to reveal a dilated pupil, and parts of his armor melted.

“I challenge you!” the knight shouted before the Orais soldiers could fire at her, and Tegrin raised his five-fingered hand.

“Accepted.” He shrugged and reached for an axe secured at his short leg.

Tegrin became enamored with the idea of having a melee weapon of his own after Wolf Hag Ultis once told him stories about the Taleteller, the legendary axe that belonged first to Janine Ironjaw and now to Aranea the Conqueror, the two famous warlords of the Wolf Tribe. The Thug Master paid the state’s scientists out of his own pocket to create an imitation of this great archeotech weapon, inferior in every way, even in size, but one that he himself enjoyed wielding. He and the knight came face to face, and flame poured from the mace’s spikes, obscuring the knight behind the fiery veil.

Where touches of that flame left molten marks on Tegrin’s armor, his axe, that gigantic single-bladed tool of murder, glittered with blackened metal, facing a pillar of living flame. Woebringer, the name Tegrin given to this weapon, flashed with a speed equal to that of the knight, and the ground between them cracked as the sheer force of their impact failed to move them a centimeter. Tegrin fought with mad laughter, swinging his weapon almost at random. The knight faced his onslaught with the calm precision of a trained fighter. The two combatants fought viciously, filling the air with the thunderous blows of their fast-moving weapons. Neither used their footwork out of a stubborn desire not to retreat. Around them, the hawgr stood, watching the two remaining Orais with barely concealed hunger for a battle. The rest have charged to the allies’ aid.

The Thug Master swatted aside the deadly spike aimed at his face, and the mace landed on the ground, creating a crater several meters wide. This wasn’t made by mistake; the edge of that crater went under Tegrin’s leg, causing him to slip. The knight capitalized on the advantage of diving to evade a cruel slash that took away part of the skin off her scalp and almost all her blonde hair. But at the cost of that wound, she struck her mace against the Orais’ leg, piercing it with a spike, bringing him down and ramming her weapon against his, setting fire to the fur on his snout.

“Is my might unexpected to thee, beast?” the knight inquired, matching the Thug Master’s strength.

“Unexpected,” Tegrin agreed eagerly. “All more fun for me!”

He headbutted her. Yuria could hardly believe her eyes. Rather than surrendering or reneging on the deal, the fool struck through the flaming veil and had his exposed eye boiled by a superheated stream. His forehead landed on the knight’s nose, not only wounding her on impact but also leaving molten metal on her face. The pain made her stagger, and Tegrin broke the stalemate with an overhead strike on the woman’s shoulder.

She screamed in pain, losing an entire arm, and reached for a dagger. Tegrin kneed her in the chest plate, shattering it. The knight recoiled in pain, hands closing on her, the axe thrown aside. The woman found herself on a knee, and in a single violent push, Tegrin shattered her spine, lifting the paralyzed foe to his fangs.

“Do this, and I’ll have you shot and dragged after the crawler for everyone to laugh at, Thug Master,” Yuria warned him, distracting herself from giving orders.

“Is this what passes between the Normies for thanks for rescuing your bacon, Yuria?” Tegrin growled, holding the knight by the neck.

“It’s Colonel-General to you, Thug Master Tegrin,” Yuria told him with steel in her voice. “I thank your unit for the timely aid, but dare to shame the state, and I’ll see you dead. Stop fooling around and assist our troops.”

“You have a backbone after all, Colonel-General!” Tegrin dropped the prisoner. “You heard the boss, girls and boys; the slaughter won’t do itself. No duels; these kiddies are tons of fun, but they pack quite a punch! Dislocated me a bone or two and cost me an eye. Ah, what a lass… And don’t you screech at me!” He snapped at the hawgr. “I won! Fair and square! Meaning you are now, what’s the word… prisoners of war!”

“Can an animal even be a prisoner?” An Orais asked.

“I don’t fucking know; I’m not a lawyer! Make an exception if it can’t! Guard the birdy, Birdy!” The Thug Master picked up the axe and charged into the fray.