"Decrowning…" King coughed out the words along with blood. His remaining eye rolled under the eyelid, the blood was pouring from the horrible injury that ate away half of his face. And through it all, he smiled. "Me?"

New bones shot out from the wound, forming the shape of the missing skull. Muscles, blood vessels, and flesh had followed suit, healing the damage. His bruised and swollen features spread; the bones retreated beneath the skin; and new fangs sprouted in his mouth. King raised a hand, clenching the fist, and the sword in his body snapped, the pieces slipping from his body. Aranea felt a tingle of sadness at seeing her father’s sword ruined. She calmed herself, never leaving her eyes from King. At the end of the day, it was just a hunk of steel. And steel can be reforged. Keyl’s life was far more important than any family relic.

Aranea could hear almost everything. She heard blood dripping from Keyl's mouth and blood splashes on the floor. The pleasant sound of his power armor working, along with some hisses and cracks from the place where it was shattered. His hard breath, his muscles contorting and relaxing in response to his lungs tearing at the damaged ribs. Dangerous wounds, but nothing life-threatening. Keyl is way tougher than most.

Hold it, Keyl. Everything is going to be A-okay.

"Still my heart? End my ambitions?" King shook his head, a new bone crown growing over his head. His shoulders cracked, becoming bigger under the pressure of the new, larger muscles that formed under his skin. "A fool to an end. I am immort…"

"It’s a good thing that you can regenerate," She fired again, feeling no recoil, placing Keyl behind her body to shield him from the shockwave. King stepped back with a gaping hole in his chest. "Before I end you, I plan to collect all the blood debts you owe me."

Despite his messed-up lung, King roared, his hands extending far beyond their natural length. Accompanied by the sound of a cracking whip, the limbs almost closed on her in a blink of an eye. Blues poured from the living bio-whips a split second later, aiming to swarm Aranea while limbs tried to tie her up. And it would have worked before.

"Gregor Winterson!" She roared.

Not anymore. Aranea struck out with her right leg, hitting a perfect arc in front of herself. Her new claws sliced through King's wrist, leaving the blues with just bisected forms that hung in the air for far too long before collapsing. The warlord leapt on King before a groan of pain could leave his lips.

Aranea/Ravager took over for the briefest of seconds. The kick with which the warlord speared the body of her hated foe was not just dealt with at the peak of her might. No. Every living being is holding back, unconsciously, to preserve his or her own. Aranea/Ravager had no concept of such things. Nor did she deem it wise to use claws. Her kick simply speared King’s body, bringing him to his knees the moment all his bones, including his spinal column, were liquidating. In a shower of hissing blood and bone dust, the leg came from King’s back. And tore right back, exploding the left lung and leaving King gasping for air.

"On your knees for the dead." Aranea growled, feeling her arm tremble around Keyl’s body.

King said nothing back, jumping on two feet. A green, all-devouring mist came from his fists, and in this moment, Aranea/Twins took over her body. The time slowed to a crawl, and the warlord weaved among the flurry of hits, evading not just the fists but the green mists as well, never once backing down or retreating.

"Just once won’t do." Her snout appeared in front of King's face. "Kalaisa Winterson!"

Her first kick tore through his knee, forcing King to balance on the sole remaining leg.

"Kostya."

Aranea never stopped. Her second kick landed in his just-healed belly, rupturing it anew with her own claws. She felt his heart in the path of her kick and mercilessly sliced it asunder.

"Scarred One!"

The next kick came against his throat, ruining the trachea. King was almost immortal, this was true. But unlike Jekaterina, he never had a lifetime of war behind his back. An animal fear came into his eyes at the loss of oxygen. And Aranea enjoyed this look, twisting her ankle and almost slicing off his head. His look changed, rage took the place of fear. The air before his face started trembling as he readied to unleash a kinetic bolt at her.

"Janine!"

Aranea’s jaws closed on King’s snout, tearing through the shield and biting away his flesh, leaving just wet flesh on a gleaming skull. He tried to step back and received another kick across his face—the kick that tore the entire upper part of his head away, leaving only his lower jaw in place. The massive body shook and fell on its knees.

"Decrowned," Aranea chuckled. Good. Keep the fool enraged and scared. "Now to end you."

The torso split in two before her very eyes. It opened like a suitcase made of living flesh, revealing a maw filled with countless bone fangs within. Two hungry eyes gazed at Aranea from the dark depths of King’s body, and he had lunged at her, aiming to gobble her up.

The fangs closed on the empty space. Still wearing her smile, Aranea reappeared a good dozen meters away from him. He wasn't Chort, there was no subtlety in his attack, each transformation was telegraphed by bulging veins beneath his skin. Neither King was Jekaterina, there was no cold precision in his attacks. Aranea’s words had enraged him, and this was exactly what she had hoped for.

A single shot of her rail gun tore at King’s legs, leaving his torso flying in the air. And with this, the devastation cannon came to a grinding halt. His legs were still merged with the cannon, still sticking out from the armored plates that covered the superweapon, but without connecting to the larger mass, they were no longer controlling the weapon.

Good to know. Aranea charged forth. She still had no idea how to kill King, but right now she had learned a way to deny his plans. She can work out the rest in the meantime.

King’s body sprouted a tendril of flesh that connected him with the lost legs, his arms came back to life, reaching out for the halfbreed’s neck. She jumped back, evading the kinetic energy that came from his fingers and the green mist coming from his palms. The gaping maw closed with a wet popping sound, and King looked at Aranea with a new head, healing all damage in a flash.

The cannon came back to life, moving upward. Throwing her glance to the side, Aranea saw that they were almost at the upper level. She calmed herself, forcing herself to breathe. Righteous anger, fear for Keyl’s life, unrestrained rage, and the fear that she might be too late had risen in her. Emotions tried to whip her into action, to spur her into the face of the waiting foe. It was Aranea Wintersong who quenched them, almost pouring a bucket of cold water on Aranea’s psyche.

Trust in your comrades. And they just might surprise you. Wintersong whispered words into her ear, reminding Aranea of what they had heard above. They weren’t alone here.

"End me?" He laughed, spreading his arms. "You and whose army!?"

He was still laughing as the cannon started leaving the underground hangar. The laugh soon changed to a cough of surprise, his eyes flashed with confusion, seeing rows of soldiers around the rising cannon, all pointing their weapons at King. There were wolfkins, normies, vehicles, and even a seeker-class walker present. The hatch of the seeker mech had opened, and Aranea saw Lucendra, Yuki, and Sly within. The male jumped out, carrying something in his paws.

“This one.” Aranea told him and roared, “GET HIM OFF THE CANNON!”

King’s panicked face changed into a mask of fury. He roared in pain when Olesya’s laser beam speared him. He howled in indignation, feeling thousands of shards piercing his body. Kinetic force left his hands, only to be stopped by Javenika’s gravity walls, keeping the soldiers safe from harm.

"Sly, keep Keyl safe!" Aranea threw the ice fang into the soldier's arms, seeing King's body expanding. Like a bubonic plague balloon, his pale body lost all semblance of humanoid form, spearing like cancer across the cannon’s metal. Hordes of blues and greenies tore through the walls of rising flesh, leaping at the defenders.

"Damn, Aranea, must you always bring party with you?!" Olesya laughed, meeting the hordes of new enemies with her burning claws.

"Less talking, more killing!"

"Warlord!" Sly caught Keyl and allowed Yuki to take him within the seeker. "Catch!"

Aranea has grabbed the object he threw to her without looking. It turned out to be an exact copy of her own rail gun, brand new and still shining from the recent polishing. Feeling her smile turn into a stupid grin that spread all the way to her ears, Aranea took aim at the center of the wringing mass of flesh with both her weapons. And fired.

The destructive force that left her weapons made a round hole in the mass. A shockwave that followed soon after tore the sack of flesh off the devastator cannon, lifting King’s body into the air. Without a halt, Aranea charged at King, intending to knock him off the cannon.

The bloody rag of flesh reformed before her very eyes, turning back into Grug’s body. The left leg shot from the knee, connecting back to the cannon like a leech, carrying the body behind it. King landed before Aranea, his hands grabbed the rails of her weapon, melting them with Blaguna’s green mist.

"And now," His hands moved forward, leaving ruined weapons in Aranea’s paws, "You die."

The halfbreed didn’t think much of it and slammed her knee into King’s abdomen, sending him backward. Yes, a mistake was made. So what? Aranea was still alive, and now was the time to rectify this mistake. One way or the other, King was going down.

The impact behind her attack had sent King five meters backward, causing him to spit out blood from his mouth. His left shoulder immediately disappeared, burned away by the seeker’s fire. The mutant made two more steps back, regenerating the missing arm and trying to encase himself in the aura of swirling kinetic force, shaking with his body each time a laser beam found its mark against his body.

The cannon beneath Aranea grumbled, giving out the sound of a charging weapon. The weapon was still rising higher and higher, partially hiding King from the fire that was coming beneath. And whatever gunfire was still hitting his body was being devoured by the green mist that had begun to envelop his upper half, leaving his legs defenseless.

"Warlord," Javenika landed next to Aranea, "Use your paws, please."

Aranea was wondering what the woman meant when she felt herself rising slightly in the air. Looking down, she saw that she was standing roughly one centimeter above the cannon, suspended in the air by some unseen power, almost as if she were wearing a pair of invisible boots.

The inspector pointed a finger at King, and he was pushed back, his face went deep within his skull, the eyes popped, the green mist around him dissipated, flying further behind him at rapid speed. Cursing and shouting, King sprouted a dozen new, four-jointed arms, grabbing the cannon and trying to keep hold.

Trust the comrades, huh? Aranea leaped at him, smashing her fist into his lower jaw and sending his head flying. She expected to feel a familiar searing pain upon encountering the mist with her flesh. There was none this time, and Aranea burst out laughing, cratering King's body with her fists. This was Javenika’s doing. The mist circled around her fists, bending in accordance with the new rules of nature. I have freaking gravity gloves!

A new head replaced the lost one, and King’s tongue has struck out, covered in the green mist. It missed Aranea by some miracle, and her next punch closed her enemy’s jaws, causing him to bite off his own tongue. The warlord smiled, seeing Kate and Kaleb standing near a wall, Kate showing her a V sign. Kaleb simply aimed and fired a laser rifle, burning away King’s ear.

The halfbreed and mutant came at each other with full force. She was weaving and dodging the rain of blows that he tried to bring upon her. Each of his punches was death incarnate, and dozens of his arms were covered in bone shards poking out from beneath the skin, the green mist encircling his hands. And none of the attacks were landing. Aranea trusted in her skills, nurtured by her countless battles, losses, and victories. She wasn’t the strongest, she wasn’t the most skilled, but she was fast and had a sense of combat, never giving up the ground and always pushing King back.

Her opponent was an amateur. She remembered this well from Belaz. King rarely took the field himself, always hiding in the rear. And when he took the field, he relied on technological marvels and the element of surprise to carry him through the battle. And now she has forced him to fight in the open and found him wanting.

"My friends keep me safe!" Aranea kicked King, driving him back. "Janine taught me how to survive, Sonya taught me how to fight, Kate educated me on how to shoot, Sly showed me the value of technology, Kostya taught me the meaning of loyalty, Yuki taught me how to take care of cuts, Kaleb showed me true dedication, Keyl showed me how to use blades… I learned so much from my friends! You drank yours like a parasite! Even Blaguna at least knew how to fight, dammit!" She dodged a flurry of King’s hits, caving in his skull with a single punch. "Because of your selfish reasons, you are all alone!"

"Yet here I stand," King’s face straitened up, and a smile came onto his snout. More and more hands came from his back, threatening to swallow Aranea like a moving forest. "Confident in my selfish powe…"

She didn’t retreat, embracing all her inner selves at the same time. Her first kick broke his groin. Two more kicks broke his knees, leaving him standing on the wobbly legs. Her elbows smashed both sides of his head, and without stopping, Aranea replicated a move that she once saw from Annie. Flowing back into her initial position, Aranea slammed both palms into King’s chest, sending him off the cannon. With a surprise on his face, King flew for a good four hundred meters before spattering against the stone wall and falling down in the torrent of stones.

"Correction. You are lying over there, beaten and worthless." Aranea jumped off the cannon and began walking toward the rubble. "Grug is ten times the man you are, King."

"He is nothing more than a pathetic coward!" King tore himself free from the stones, turning them to dust in his green mist.

"Think so? Each time he was pushed against the wall, he tried to help me despite being scared," Aranea shook her head, "Small wonder that he is the rightful owner of all your powers. I was right, you are just a parasite. You take from your people, from your friends, even from the being that birthed you, giving nothing in return."

"I will endure this inane blabbering no longer!" A wave of force hit from King, rocketing the concrete in its path. Aranea beat the kinetic wall aside with a paw, feeling no pain. "I will set the world right! I will butcher Academician, destroy the one who whispers in our ear, bring ruin to the Organization, and ensure that no one ever hurts Grug ever again!"

"Grug asked you to stop, didn’t he? And you refused. The world will never be safe enough for you, you will never stop collecting the powers of others," She sighed, feeling pure rage. "I pity Grug, truly. My inner selves are always trying to assist me. And you are bringing nothing but misery in your wake."

King’s face twitched in anger. He took a deep breath and approached her in a casual and relaxed manner. Aranea frowned, feeling worried all of a sudden. King's body began to bulge with new muscles, and bone plates, like power armor, began to cover his body, tearing from beneath his skin and covering him in hissing blood. They stopped two steps from each other. Saying nothing.

Aranea took the lead, punching at his face. King disappeared into thin air. Huntsman’s power… A hit from the left landed at Aranea’s solar plexus, a hit that was hard enough to match any of Janine’s serious punches. She took a swing with her claws and felt a fist against her left ear, with King standing behind her.

"Grug…" The fist was trembling. "You are missing the point. I am doing this for you," King spoke in an annoyed voice. Aranea rolled away from him, hungrily breathing the air. A look of annoyance changed to a smirk on the opponent’s face, and he unclenched his fist. "But you gave me a wonderful idea. For the pain that she caused us, we will kill her precious friends in front of her."