Geldi made a step back, seeing how the malformed raced down from the mountain. She desperately searched for a way out—anything she could use as a weapon to help her allies. And jumped at the howl.
Tiny, Kaleb, Gin, Kate, Lucendra, and Sly howled. This wasn’t a howl of desperation or fear, but rather of fury and eagerness for battle. The challenge was accepted. Before Geldi could so much as blink, the wolfkins met their foes on the hill’s slope.
Kate grabbed the tentacles that reached for Kaleb's neck and kicked her leg into the malformed's face, tearing away his many limbs. Kaleb threw down the foe before him, biting off the face of his foe. Gin speared another malformed with his own claws, lifting the unlucky being over the head, before throwing the body into the advancing foes. Lucendra and Tiny fought side by side, thinning the horde with economical punches, barely using their claws at all. When their fists collided with their enemies’ limbs, the foes’ limbs gave in.
This…. This is massacre. Geldi thought in shock. She barely knew these people, but she shared food with them and worked alongside them. Seeing how they revealed themselves in combat, snarling like animals while tearing off limbs and crushing lives, was terrifying to her. Taking life, any life, was a horrifying experience for Geldi. Her new allies had killed at least a dozen by now, showing no concern or fear. The wolfkins attacked, gaining some ground with each kill, before backing off, luring the foes after themselves and allowing their allies to prey on undisciplined foes. There was savagery here, but there was also strict discipline forged in the crucible of many days of hellish training.
"I am going back to Yuki," Sly shouted, his artificial needle-like limbs piercing two malformed in their eye sockets. The eyes popped, while the sharp edges of his limbs went deeper into the heads, killing the foes, "And none of you will stop me! Not Annie, not you, not an…"
One of the malformed soldiers charged at the overly enthusiastic soldier who had separated from the team. The creature landed on Sly’s back, trying to claw away at his carotid vein. Without thinking or caring for her safety, Geldi found herself near Sly, grabbing the malformed by the inner side of the wrist and the outer side of the elbow. With a single move, the former regulator shattered the bone, tearing the screaming creature off his back.
"Hey, thanks…"
"Watch out, Sly!" Geldi grabbed a grenade with paint off her belt, pointing forward.
The beast of bone and muscle charged; the one who yelled something about a Plague Raven charged toward them on all fours, spreading his jaws wide and leaving cracks in the slope. Sly squeaked, all bravado gone from him, and pushed all four of his artificial limbs forward into the gaping maw. The limbs stopped the beast, briefly. Geldi used this moment to throw the training grenade into the maw.
"Choke on this." Geldi said, grabbing Sly. Geldi activated her power, phasing herself and Sly out of reality and allowing the massive charging bulk to pass through them as the jaws closed, breaking the artificial limbs.
Geldi has had her power ever since she was a child. Mom would often tell young Geldi how scared she was when her child slipped through her arms and through the wooden floor of their house, and how Dad tore through the floor in panic. The young woman often ended up falling into trouble, testing and trying to learn her limits. Before, she would often slip into the ground, being unable to hold herself in place after her body phased partially into a space between dimensions. She panicked quite often, finding herself in underground caverns. Other times she would phase out of the real world, keeping her position just fine, only to find out that she embarrassed herself in another very obvious way.
It took her years to learn how to control the phasing enough not to lose either her weapons or her armor. Right now, Geldi has taken a step even further, extending her power to another person, forcing her power to wash over Sly as well. She grabbed his arm with a deadly grip, too afraid to let go of him. Veins bulged on her forehead and neck. It took all of her concentration just to keep herself away from the world, and now she had to keep two people away from the world. Her body ached, begging to be returned to reality, but the regulator persisted, feeling how the skin on her neck cracked and blood trickled down. Hold on. Geldi saw the insides of the beast, his stomach was filled with human remains. If she slips, he and they will become one. Gotta hold on. A vein popped in her eye.
Once, Geldi let go of her purse in the space between dimensions, and it never came back, whisked away from the real world. Took her quite a while to earn the tokens back. Now she was afraid of Sly. Who knows what will happen to a person who ends up between dimensions?
The massive body moved past them, and Geldi let go of Sly, lowering at the ground and gasping with relief. Behind them, the malformed coughed, trying desperately to spill out the paint from his throat and breathe.
"My backpack!" Sly shouted, standing without any clothes. The ruined remains of his backpack lay beneath the back leg of the malformed, "It will take two or three hours to…"
"Dammit all!" Geldi shouted, grabbing herself and trying to cover up.
Her entire suit, cape, and even black shorts and shirt were left standing in her place and were torn by the trampling charge of the malformed. In her fear for the ally’s life, she forgot to control her power properly.
Gin and Kaleb fought their way to the giant malformed. Each soldier grabbed one of the front legs of their foe, then punched with all their might with the free arms, breaking the joints and pushing the thrashing head down.
"Tin tin!" Gin shouted.
"Stop calling me this!" Tiny shrieked like a banshee, allowing Lucendra to throw her up. The scout made a circle in the air before coming down like a comet, punching the temple on the enemy’s head. The malformed thrashed one last time before slumping on the ground.
"Pack. Come together and form a wall, a member is in trouble." Tiny gave the order, leaping from the downed foe and joining others in forming a circle around Geldi.
The wolfkins of the Wolf Tribe were unaccustomed to fighting in a defensive style. Their style was that of shock troops, strike forward, break the defensive lines of the enemy, and claim the head of the enemy leader. They also excelled at hit-and-run tactics, attacking hard and then retreating, bleeding the foes drop by bloody droop by forcing the foes to choose between sending a chase or enduring another assault on the terms of the wolfkins. Such choice came from their past: if the village stayed too long at one place, it will be in danger. To survive, one must move. Holding the position seemed insane to the wolfkins of the Wolf Tribe.
Partially because of their aversion to a defensive style of combat, the wolfkins suffered horrible losses at the battle of Chokepoint A. It was hard to change the habits of the troops mid-war and even harder with non-stop fighting, but persistence often bears fruit. The wolf hags, Aranea included, started training members of their packs in a defensive style of combat. Now, surrounded by waves of foes converging on them, the results of this training have bloomed. The warriors stood side by side with males, either blocking hits intended for their allies or taking them as glancing blows, while their allies launched a deadly counterattack. Gone was the usual ferocity, the group fought orderly, not allowing any single member to expose his or her back and treating each and every member as an equal. The bodies started piling up around the group, providing additional cover, and the blood and insides of their foes started making the incoming malformed slip in combat.
"The hell are you doing?!" Geldi shook her head, reaching out for her ruined clothes and trying to pull on the remains, "We are in the open!"
"The enemy forces are lacking in ranged weapons, which forces them to come for a melee." Lucendra swallowed, redirecting a hit aimed at Kate’s neck.
"Yeah, great, ain’t it?!" Kaleb smirked, disemboweling the malformed who tried to get to Tiny from behind, "They keep coming in, and we can keep knocking them down."
"Just leave me and run!" Geldi wrapped her former cape around her body.
"Aw, don’t be like that, we ain’t that bad of a company." Kate laughed, receiving a cut beneath her eye. Her blindingly fast counterattack tore out the enemy’s throat.
"I meant to say, retreat to safety! This was my mistake, don’t you dare die saving someone like me!"
"No one will be left behind, and you didn't make a mistake," Tiny said to Geldi, kicking a foe behind her with her elbow and sending the malformed flying several steps away, "Geldi, you are one of us now, so relax and let your teammates shoulder the burde…"
"For Spirits’ sake, scout, hold on to the motivation speeches until we win and keep on killing!" Gin howled, struggling with a malformed advancing on Tiny’s back.
"Ally or not, we're not leaving anyone to these psychos," Sly said as he headbutted a malformed in front of him, "No one is going to die tonight!" He followed up with a bite, tearing off flesh from the face of his opponent. The wolfkin stopped in place, chewing thoughtfully, before spitting out at the screaming foe, "Tch, they even taste like shite."
"What about Annie?" Geldi pointed at the hole. She saw how two malformed jumped into it.
"Indeed, it is a bit strange that it takes the wolf hag so long…" Lucendra said thoughtfully, grabbing the foe in front of her by the wrist and burying her own fist all the way to the enemy's sternum. The punch shattered the bone, sending sharp pieces into the enemy's heart.
Geldi failed to hear the rest of the warrior’s words. A shadow fell from the skies in the middle of the circle, kicking Kaleb across the head and nearly slicing off his left ear. Sly turned to face the opponent and was greeted with a headbutt that sent him into the horde of malformed. Kate leaped at Plague Raven, and the creature simply sidestepped, kicking Tiny in the back with enough force to send her flying and allowing Kate to crash into Gin and Lucendra. With a diabolical grace, the monster beat Geldi down with a wing, turning to face her and giving out a triumphant cry heard all around the battlefield.
The creature extended its clawed hand to the medic. Geldi gulped and took a step back, expecting claws and hungry fingers to burrow into her back .To her surprise, all the other malformed stepped aside, leaving her all alone while they converged on the wolfkins, grappling and snarling at them. Geldi saw how the arm of Plague Raven was closing on her, inch by inch, while the creature walked after her, keeping an exact distance of one and a half steps. Never more, never less.
The medic dashed to the wastelands, kicking the malformed who was gnawing at Gin's neck and allowing the soldier to free one of his arms. This was the most that the medic could do for her allies, and remembering the ease with which Plague Raven threw them aside, Geldi intended to lead the creature away from the battle. Out of fear, the young woman glanced back at the horror behind her and stumbled, landing with the back of her head on the stone. Plague Raven's shadow covered her entire body, and the clawed hand dripping with poison was closing in on her.
The ground shook, and torn bodies flew up from the hole. Heads, legs, and arms flew upward, followed by torsos, perfectly bisected, while the wolf hag jumped out of the trap, free and still covered in blue paint. The blood of her foes colored her fur even more, giving Annie uncanny and weird vein-like patterns around her fur.
Annie said nothing, letting her arms hang by her sides as she walked casually toward the crowd of malformed who were busy trying to kill Tiny and Lucendra. Geldi could have sworn on her life that Annie suddenly transformed into a blur, a blur that stretched from where she stood to the enemy ranks.
The mutants started losing their heads, their growls stopped abruptly, their eyes failed to notice the moment when Annie’s claws severed their necks. In the span of a second, six foes were dead. Annie moved her gaze further forward, hoping to assist the other soldiers when the malformed closest to her screamed in pain. A round hole was in his back. In a second moment, a crimson ray pierced the night, killing another.
The wolf hag walked toward Plague Raven with a careless gaunt, shrugging her shoulders and making soft pops, not looking for new allies. She dislocated her own bones. Geldi understood with shock. This is how she escaped the trap!
Plague Raven’s claws were almost at Geldi’s nose when Annie closed the distance between them, standing behind the mutant and burrowing her eyes into its back. Plague Raven's beak received a wicked leer, and the mighty leather wings moved, allowing the creature to turn around with unnatural numbness.
"Try me." Annie said simply to her opponent's face and Plague Raven screeched happily, extending her arm toward Annie.
A blurred line appeared before the wolf hag. A simple cut, made almost carelessly, sliced away all the fingers on Plague Raven’s hand, causing the creature to scream in pain and shock. The wolf hag beckoned her foe with the middle and index fingers of her left arm, inviting her to attack. This time it was Plague Raven who made a step back.
"I am going to give you a choice," Annie said to it, "I know that you can understand me, so listen well. Sit and live until the trial. Maybe even further. Maybe you can have another chance to turn your life around in prison. Or you can try again." She turned around, showing her back to the creature.
Plague Raven blinked, turning her head to the side for a better look. Geldi shouted a warning, seeing pure rage burning in these inhuman, dark eyes. The creature lunged, aiming her remaining good arm at Annie’s back.
The wolf hag stepped to the side, allowing the thrust to pass below her armpit. Annie’s arm wrapped around the Plague Raven’s hand, the sharp claws bit into the wrist, bisecting it clearly and allowing Plague Raven to fall backward. The creature shrieked with pure panic and pain, getting up on her feet.
"Don’t. Surrender." Annie gave the creature advice. The wolf hag's arms hung loosely by her sides, resembling living ropes.
Plague Raven ignored this offer. Her wings hit, lifting the maimed body into the air, and at this moment Annie stepped forward, becoming the blur again. She looked more like a ghost than a human being, almost phasing through Plague Raven’s body. But unlike Geldi, Annie’s was solid. Plague Raven's body was divided into several sections: the skull was cleaved clean with sharp claws, and the arms, wings, and legs were separated from the crisscrossed torso. The wolf hag landed on the ground with grace, turning to face the remaining foes, when a gigantic form jumped from the skies, landing amidst the fighters.
Warlord Janine ended the battle with a mere one swing of her axe, claiming the lives of the malformed’s front row and sending the broken remains of those who were unlucky enough crashing against the side of the hill. The rest, wisely, fell to their knees, hissing and whining in an attempt to admit defeat. In the wake of the warlord’s arrival, new forms, locked in their power armors, arrived on the battlefield.
Help has arrived.
