The skinwalker made a leap to the reclaimers and was met with a wave of incoming fire from the lines of soldiers. Mechanical suits, wolfkins, sniper teams, turrets, almost every armed person among the reclaimers’ troops fired at her. Even for the skinwalker, it was impossible to dodge. And so, she almost didn’t try, instead pushing forward and weathering the incoming storm that ravaged her skin. One of her eyes was locked on Aranea, another on Olesya, and she was shifting her body to evade both the energy of Olesya’s cannon and shots from the rail gun. While the skinwalker could endure and regenerate wounds from the lesser weapons, she clearly had no desire to suffer any more damage from these two particular weapons. The skinwalker’s body mass was reduced ever so slightly after she regenerated her arm, but she was still a towering beast of might and muscle.
The skinwalker’s skin was covered with wounds, the weapons lacked the punch to shatter her bones completely. But with each step she took, her wounds healed, torn muscles reknotted, cracks in her bones were washed away, and skin flowed over exposed bone, allowing the skinwalker to move with the same ferocity she had before.
"Annie, the moment she steps on the rockies, aim for her leg," Olesya gave the command, "Virginia, you take her arm. Tiny, your pack is to fire the moment the enemy is pinned."
"This is not going to work! You plan to fight her like an adult skinwalker, but our sister is brimming with energy! Newborn skinwalkers are not supposed to deplete their reserves this fast in order to regenerate," Zero stated, "Our sister is focused on the member of your pack! She is not going to amuse herself by merely maiming others anymore! Stay back, Virginia, Annie, don't try to take her in a melee!"
"We have our orders. Sorry warlord Zero, you are not the one in charge." Virginia almost sang.
"This is not a joke! Our sister has no restraint of the adult skinwalker yet, she will not turn back unless she is killed! Ann… You two will be killed!"
"I am not wea… What, are we supposed to let her kill others?" Annie angrily snarled at the warlord, looking at how the skinwalker was closing on the turrets, "This might work for you, but I am staying. Virgie, I’ll take the right side."
"This was an order! Stand down!" The sounds of explosions that accompanied Zero became even more rapid.
"Warlord Zero, we can’t disengage at this point," Olesya replied, "It’s do or die. I take full responsibility."
"I am right-handed, An." Virginia complained, taking the metal pole in her arms in both arms.
The skinwalker closed her distance, disappearing briefly among the smoke and fire, before her snout pushed forward from the smoke, opening her jaws to bite two wolf hags standing before her. Even through the hellish sound of gunfire, Aranea’s ear caught the clicking sounds of countless rockies when the skinwalker stepped on them. Streams of acid shot upward, melting their way through the legs, reducing the feet of one leg to a skeleton and showing the naked bone of the knee on the other, making the skinwalker stumble forward.
Virginia and Annie attacked the skinwalker at the same time. One massive, clawed arm moved toward Annie’s head, only to be deflected back by a seemingly casual twist of the wolf hag’s arm. With her other arm, Annie sliced at the enemy’s knee, biting all the way behind the bone and twisting her blade within. Twin energy blades came into life from the upper side of Virginia’s axe, filling the air with a humming sound of working energy. A single slice made by her axe took away the enemy’s arm at the shoulder, forcing the wolf hag to jump away to evade the falling limb.
"Tiny, now!" Aranea shouted, but the scout had no need for her encouragement. Mortars spoke, followed by Tiny’s missile launcher unleashing all four of her missiles.
Each of the incoming aimed at the skinwalker should have hit her body in the back, falling in the arc, accompanied by the missiles that followed the wider trajectory. Meanwhile, Annie and Virginia both tried to gain distance from her, while the skinwalker was falling face down into more "rockies" type mines.
The remaining arm of the skinwalker struck forward, the claw on her index finger biting into the stone ground, suspending her body in the air. The skinwalker looked up, smiling when Olesya’s beam and Aranea’s shot kissed her across her body, hitting the place where her head should have been had the skinwalker was still falling on the ground.
The mortar’s round reached the skinwalker, and smoke hid her from the eyes of the soldiers for a brief moment. In the next moment, before the missiles and rest of the incoming shots could connect with her, the skinwalker jumped out of the smoke, regrowing her missing arm in mid-flight, her huge body propelled forward by the explosions behind her. The skinwalker’s claws struck forward, casually rendering one of the turrets into a pile of rubble, the claws on her feet found the space between the mines, allowing the skinwalker to land before Annie, bringing the massive arm down, in a downward swipe.
The wolf hag retreated no longer, instead facing the enemy head on. Annie tried to redirect the blow, only for the skinwalker to slide her own paw beneath Annie’s sending the paw with the knife in it backward, right into the wolf hag’s shoulder. Annie gasped quietly when the sharp knife pierced the armor plate of her power armor, piercing the flesh. The skinwalker twitched Annie’s arm, shattering the bone and twisting the knife in the wound. A leer appeared on the skinwalker’s face, the beast was enjoying the brief respite from being bombarded by the other soldiers.
"Carty, keep Sveta sa…" Annie managed to say before the skinwalker kicked her with a right leg, sending the wolf hag a good thirty steps into the nearby hill, making several soldiers on top of it shake from the tremors caused by Annie’s body.
Virginia broke through the flames and smoke, swinging her energy axe and aiming at the skinwalker’s spine. The beast did not even bother to turn, like a dancer, she kicked back with her right leg, standing on the claws of her left leg and leaning her upper body forward, spreading her arms wide. Her skin became slightly looser on her side while the skinwalker was burning through her inner reserves to regenerate.
"Keep firing, don’t stop even for a second, no matter what," Olesya commanded, while her cannon folded behind her back. Virginia disappeared in the smoke, sent backwards like a doll from a mere tap of the massive leg. The wolf hag landed on some rockies and let go of the energy axe, rolling to the side and cursing while streams of acid were shooting upward all around her. And the skinwalker charged after Annie, "Ultis get your pack off the hill!"
Olesya moved toward Annie at the same time as the skinwalker. The enemy was faced with explosions and gunfire, Leila melted one of her eyes with a well-placed shot, Aranea left a hole in the enemy’s shoulder, and still the damned beast closed the distance on the downed wolf hag almost at the same time as Olesya. Aranea knew and saw how fast her friend was, but against the skinwalker, she was as slow as a normal person. Before Olesya could even unleash her fiery claws, the skinwalker buried the wolf hag neck deep into the stone ground by stepping on her. Ignoring the pain in her leg when Olesya clawed at her, the skinwalker reached for Annie.
A beam of black energy hit her in the snout. The beam buried its way through her snout, almost bisecting her face in two. The skinwalker looked up, seeing a man in a black uniform at the edge of the hill. After a second, Aranea understood that this was Angoro, the agent that was assigned to him. The man’s personal weapon, the ring on his wrist, used all its energy, and the agent reached for a pistol on his belt when the skinwalker slashed with her claws at him.
The slash that should have bisected the man into several parts, only took his left arm away, along with skin along his left arm. The slash from the skinwalker caused part of the hill to disappear, and the man collapsed on the ground, trying in vain to stop the flow of blood from his shoulder.
"Sly, Lucendra! Take the wounded away. Zero, how far…" Aranea fell silent, seeing how the skinwalker straightened herself up, looking directly at Kate, "No you won’t." Aranea growled, "Tiny, fire at my command."
"This time we won’t leave even a smear of this bitch in this world." Tiny promised darkly, making Aranea smile.
"No, you won’t. I have another idea. Leila, I'm gonna need your help for this one, Kate keep your position." Aranea told her, sending the rest of the information via terminal and running toward Kate.
With thunderous steps, the skinwalker charged across the battlefield, forgetting about Olesya, Annie, or anyone else. In many ways, she was like a cub, once she saw something interesting, she forgot about anything in an attempt to get it. Annie and Virginia distracted her, and the skinwalker got distracted from Kate at first. But when Kate stopped her the second time, the skinwalker became truly angry. She wanted to get to the warrior and crush her life out.
The skinwalker frowned, shielding her eyes, when explosion rang out from both sides of her. She made no attempt to dodge, while two lines of hellfire started to her left and right side, the beast charged forward, aiming to reach Kate. This was when Aranea jumped forward, followed by two shots from Leila. Two beams of energy hit the skinwalker’s eyes, temporally blinding her, while the explosions by her side deafened the beast. Aranea used this chance to aim right between the eyes of this creature, firing once.
The forehead of the skinwalker disappeared. It was not an explosion of bone and blood, no, the flesh and brain behind it simply disappeared, as if wiped from existence by an unseen eraser. Before the body even toppled to fall forward, Aranea fired again, feeling how the rail gun trembled slightly in her paws, the weapon disliked being fired in rapid succession. But just like her, when the situation called, it pushed on, trying its best. Her next shot hit the ugly jaw, spilling the entire head in two. Two pieces of the gigantic head fell on the skinwalker’s shoulders, spilling brain matter on the ground while her body fell first on her knees and then toppled forward. Aranea felt a surge of something in her body, just now she killed a being that rivaled or was even greater than a warlord. She throttled this feeling, unwilling to accept the reward. The wolf hag accepted herself, all of her from now on, but she refused to change, refused to become… This thing before her.
"Tiny! It's time to fire the incendiaries and make your wish come true! Let the pyre be seen from the heavens but reduce the bitch to nothing but dust!" Aranea shouted, feeling exhilarated, her heartbeat sounded like a drum, her fingers were tingling and not from the pain, tears appeared in the corner of her eyes, and she blinked them away. They lived! All of them, well, Annie’s vitals were not great, Virginia had her chest broken according to the information provided by her power armor, but both of them were alive! Even Angoro should be fine. The man will need an augment, but he will survive, he has to. Aranea found Olesya with her eyes and bared her neck for daring to take the command, only for Olesya to laugh and wave her arm, "Escort the medics to the injured," The fire hell exploded behind her, while the skinwalker’s body started being devoured by the hungry flames, accompanied by cracking sounds that sounded like the best possible music to Aranea’s ears. She walked to Kaleb and Kate, grabbing them into a hug, "Sonya, Velka, take your packs and help Res…"
"To the left!" Olesya shouted at the top of her lungs.
Without thinking, the wolf hag obeyed, dragging both soldiers away with herself. Something touched her back, a minor tap that sent all three of them five steps away and tore a large part of the armor off her back.
The skinwalker charged from the flames, her skin resembling charred charcoal, sounds of cracking accompanied her each step. Her head reformed itself, the bones were still growing up, one of her eyes was enlarged and helplessly dangling in the eye socket, while the other one looked directly at Kate.
Olesya fired her cannon, taking away one of the skinwalker’s legs. On all three, like a dog, the skinwalker charged after the soldiers, raising her arm for the killing blow. Even Aranea’s crimson eye failed to see the moment the burned, damaged, and ruined arm of the skinwalker moved forward, aiming for Kate’s head.
And was stopped dead. All three of the wolfkins blinked, hardly believing that they were alive. Before them was an oval opening showing a spacious apartment. Green fields, highlighted by countless lamps, could be seen through gigantic windows. Orange sofas stood in the room, a large TV was on one wall, a working table stood in the corner of the room, with a still working terminal on it. An emergency signal flashed on the terminal’s display. The walls were covered in a soft light color, giving a stark contrast to the darkness behind the walls. The skies were filled with only a few lazy clouds and countless stars. One door inside the room was open, revealing a spotless white bathroom. With her tongue and nose, Aranea felt cool air coming from this strange room.
In a single blink, this image was gone, showing back the desolate landscape of the Ravaged Lands. The skinwalker stood, straining to push her paw forward, while a barefooted woman dressed in simple black shorts and a white strapless t-shirt stood before the beast, holding the claws with one arm, with the same ease a normal human would lift a loaf of bread. Claws, which shattered power armor, vehicles, and turrets with disdain, were now almost helpless against the pristine flesh that held them. All that the skinwalker had managed to do was to merely cut the woman’s fingers slightly, drawing blood that almost immediately clotted around the edges of the cuts.
Eugenia Mylli, the Redeemer, stood before the wolfkins. A towel was thrown over her neck, she spat out the toothbrush, her enormously long blonde hair was gathered into several knots behind her back and was held in place with black sticks.
"Everyone!" Eugenia shouted, pushing the beast’s arms down, her clear voice easily cutting through the sounds of fire that was unleashed on the beast. One armor-piercing shard ricocheted from the skinwalker’s head, leaving a small cut, and crashed against Eugenia’s cheek. The elite frowned and countless portals opened around her and the skinwalker, swallowing incoming fire, "Please stop firing! We received an urgent call for help, and now Iterna officially takes over this refugee camp a bit early! The situation is under control!" Following her words, new portals opened close to the facility, allowing medics and army soldiers of Iterna to step in.
With the sound of a fired bullet, a new bone came from the skinwalker’s wounded leg. It grasped Eugenia’s hand fully and used both legs to apply the full pressure against her fingers. The skinwalker was healing, albeit slightly slower now, her body looking like a famine victim’s body, with ribs pushing the skin. But the fire was in her eyes still. The skinwalker groaned slightly when the skin and muscle on her shoulder exploded from straining efforts, spilling blood.
"Miss, please, let us stop this game…" Eugenia tried to call for reason, and the skinwalker flashed a smile.
"Yes, let’s start a new one!" With her free arm, she grabbed the stone off the ground, crushing it in her paw and throwing dust into Eugenia’s eyes. A portal opened in front of it, swallowing the dust and disappearing. The skinwalker timed this moment to kick. The claws of her leg connected with Eugenia’s carefree face, causing the Elite to throw her head. Aranea felt a tingle of fear, noticing the four deep cuts on the Elite’s beautiful face. Aranea’s fear turned to shock when the bruises around the cuts almost immediately disappeared, and the wounds started closing. In this moment, the wolf hag truly believed that this woman held her own against the blessed mother. The Redeemer and Ravager, two champions who always locked horns in combat in the days of past wars.
"You are very athletic, miss," Eugenia straightened herself, still smiling, pressing her free arm to her nose and blowing the blood out of her nose, leaving blood traces on her shirt. The Elite looked into the wild eyes of the giggling skinwalker, "But I am afraid, I have to make you fall asleep for awhile."
