Alpha was the first to reach King. He stood taller than any warlord, his muscles like bridges beneath his skin, and his new fangs ready to gulp down any foe in his path. With contempt, he looked down on the smaller being before him.
And screamed in agony as he faced the entire wall made of never-ending cuts and thrusts, a wall of dark void that had suddenly appeared in front of him. Alpha, already fast, was now sped up by her power armor and her own bloodlust. The warlord was hitting so fast that even Aranea saw only the afterimages of her movements.
King’s body was ravaged by her blows, the bone plates were flung away by the irresistible rage that flowed within Alpha’s attacks, tons upon tons of bone armor were unable to protect the flesh beneath. His roar of pain changed to a mocking chuckle after another of Alpha’s thrusts speared him, though.
"Got you."
The edges of King’s grievous wounds closed on the warlord’s right arm, hundreds of bone fangs pierced the armor, trying to tear away the arm. His fists came crushing down on the opponent’s shoulders, shattering them.
A moment later, Zero fired, and King’s head had a new hole in it. The destruction of the brain gave Alpha just enough respite to tear her bloody arm free from the momentarily weakened fangs. The flesh on King’s shoulders shifted, and new heads appeared, each one a mockery of a wolfkin’s head.
With almost unbelievable speed, they had charged from King’s body on streams of elongated flesh and muscle, circling around Alpha. Aranea was pursued by a pale-looking monstrosity with no eyes, its open maw filled with thousands of fangs. The halfbreed barely had enough time to grab the lower and upper jaws of her foe before they closed around her body.
Aranea felt fangs biting in her arms and legs, felt her skin, tough as it was now, slowly cracking down, and felt her own blood splashing from the wounds. Despite the stench coming from within the head and the fact that King had lifted this head up, aiming to swallow her, Aranea was calm.
I’ve endured worse. The halfbreed reminded herself of the utter horror in Blaguna’s lair. And yanked the jaws apart. At first, her only reward was pain from the fangs digging even deeper into her flesh. Aranea ignored it, refusing to give up, pouring every ounce of her strength into this struggle. With a violent push, she felt the fangs around her body break and heard the loud snapping of a bone. She had shattered the jaw of this gigantic head.
Aranea looked down, seeing green waters rising from the bottomless darkness that was this neck, and her nose caught a tearing smell of acid. King was vomiting acid at her, and something told her that this will not be something that she can endure.
A flash of lightning had separated the neck in two, leaving the head dead and allowing Aranea to break free. She leaped away from the hump of flesh, seeing Scorpio in the distance, several orbs of lightning above his head. The black wyrm gave her a wink before turning his attention toward King.
The next head fell, biting Warlord Valerye. Or tried to. Red Streak never stopped; she simply jumped inside the open mouth, tearing through the back of the head, and charged atop the neck, far too fast for the acid to even touch the cloth of her cape. She jumped off the neck to evade the green mist and closed on King along with Aranea.
There were no words here, no planning or strategy. Both halfbreeds gave in to their animal instincts. The foe was towering over them, so they went for his legs. Aranea tore through the armor on King’s left leg, reaching into the flesh beneath. She ripped the skin away, burrowing her own head down. Aranea closed her eyes, disgusted by the acidic blood tearing at her retinas. The warlord pushed on, finding what passed for a muscle beneath. And bit.
Aranea felt a contortion in the leg, felt the flesh around her shifting, aiming to swallow her whole. The halfbreed clawed her way out, jumping away from King, who fell on his knees. The mutant’s left arm trembled and turned around, grabbing Aranea. The wolfkin let out a painful gasp, feeling herself being squeezed by King's fingers, each of which was stronger than she was. The warlord thrashed and bit, clawed and struggled, trying to break through the hold, feeling the air leaving her lungs, feeling the blood running up her throat, ready to…
"Don’t give up," A familiar voice whispered behind her. Aranea twisted her neck, feeling the pain lessening for a moment, and looked in Grug’s face sticking out from the bone. "Up, Aranea. He must go up. And… I am so sorry for everything."
"Gruuuug!" King unleashed a roar that broke the frozen blood on the ground, "Stop it! Stop… struggling! I am acting in your best interests, you’ll see, you’ll thank me in the end! Grug! This is all for you! We can do so much good, we can make so many people happy if you would only… stop… struggling and trust meeeeee!"
"Not this time." Grug whispered, and pain ran across his face. His head shook. The mutant bit his lower lip to draw blood, and Aranea felt the hold around her go limp, no longer threatening to liquidate her.
"Grug?" Aranea broke the weakened fingers, "Shut him down! He is just a figment of your imagination! You are the one in charge! Pull yourself together and crush this son of the abyss!"
"I… can’t…" Grug's voice became distorted, and tears streamed down his cheeks. "Never... was strong... enough. But not stupid," He looked into Aranea’s eyes without fear for the first time. Only determination was in his different eyes. "End this nightmare, please. Up! Send him up, Aranea! Otherwise, the people in the line of fire will…"
Grug’s head got sucked into the bone, disappearing in it as if it were water. King’s fingers twitched, and Aranea had leaped away before his fist could clench. She landed on King’s oversized head, kicking once to send his brain into a spiral, and jumped off him, landing next to Alpha and feeling the cold ground beneath.
"We need to kick him into the sky!" She pointed at King. The mutant fell on his knees, Valerye had simply torn away his knee, leaving a gaping hole. Aranea damaged tendons, and for some reasons, King wasn’t regenerating.
"Give me a sec." Alpha responded without a hint of hesitation.
The warlord appeared before the downed King, against Aranea’s worried shout. Her arms were broken, pieces of white bone were sticking from underneath heavy armor plates. The warlord kicked King in the groin. She kicked with such force that her leg armor shattered against King's bone plates, and her leg snapped from the impact. But what she said has happened. King flew up. His impossibly tall body was sent flying a good dozen meters by Alpha's kick.
"Not high enough!" Aranea threw a glance back, briefly calculating the Wyrm Lord’s line of fire. "Warlord Valerye, Warlord Zero…"
"Just call us sisters!" Zero laughed, appearing next to Aranea, "All together, now!"
They jumped as one. Valerye, Aranea, and Zero covered the distance between them and King. Like spears, their fists landed in King’s abdomen. Aranea could feel the flesh on her knuckles tearing, and she could see how the bone plates had simply shattered under Valerye's punch and how Zero's armored fist had shattered from the force behind.
And King flew upward. They had made it; they had sent him even higher, his limbs thrashing; panic entered his massive eyes, shielded by armored eyelids. Panic quickly changed into glee. A pair of wings sprouted from his back, making a beat. With despair, Aranea expected the foe to dart away in the sky, but King found himself locked in place.
"You are not going anywhere." Aranea heard Javenika’s strained voice from the wall.
"I will endure! And if not…" King pointed his palms at the warlords, creating a kinetic ball bigger than his entire body, "…I will at least take you lot with…"
"Cut." The ball disappeared, and a line appeared across King’s body, silencing his words. Slowly, far slower than before, the edges of his wounds flowed toward each other, healing the ruined body.
A new sun rose across the plains. Wyrm Lord lowered his head, opening his jaws wide and unleashing every ounce of the collected heat and light, restoring sunlight to the area before Fort Uglo. All in the singular line. All directed at King.
There weren’t any bombastic speeches or last acts of defiance. King simply didn’t have time for any of that when a light of shining gold hit his body, engulfing him whole. His entire body—every millimeter, every drop of blood, every cell—was met with the otherworldly heat of a newborn star, a heat so potent that King burned away in an instant, not leaving even a trail of ash behind. The gold ray kissed the top of a distant mountain, reducing it to nothingness, and then vanished into the sky.
And Aranea landed on wet ground, feeling the heat that was flying above her dissipate in the water below her. Several of her fur strands caught fire, and she slapped herself across the body to stop the fire before standing up and finding herself in a hospital room.
Ofelia. Aranea understood and laughed out loud, ignoring Alpha’s angry roars. She even helped the medics tear away the power armor from the warlord before leaving to check on her pack.
Leaving the room, Aranea looked at the ceiling briefly, wondering why she didn't feel any satisfaction. King was dead. The man who was involved in killing her family was sent straight to the Abyss, hopefully without Grug. And... she didn't feel anything. No, that was wrong.
Aranea felt quite a lot of things. Fear and worry about her pack. Worry about Alpha of all things. Eagerness to meet and tease Keyl for "sleeping" out the entire fight. Fear and determination at the thought of trying to bring about changes in her Tribe. It was simply…
She simply didn’t give two shits about King. He died, and good riddance. The warlord pressed her paws together and whispered a quiet prayer, asking Spirits to watch over Grug’s soul and send him to a kinder time in his next life.
Enough with the vengeance, brooding, and rage for now. Time to live. Aranea nodded, scaring a medic who turned from the corner. She excused herself and raced to check on her soldiers.
****
"Shit, one of her lungs is pierced!" Danulka coughed out blood, looking up and wondering why exactly the room was spinning above her. Her nostrils picked up on the odors of blood, piss, and released bowels. She realized, with shame, that she, too, had contributed to these odors. Above her was a… bug?
The creature, covered in chitin plates, wore a medic coat. It donned two gloves and helped in restraining a wounded soldier while an orais, dressed in a medic uniform, stopped the bleeding on the soldier's neck. Everywhere she looked, she saw a similar picture. Unknown, bald people in field medic uniforms were bandaging and stitching the injured and doing their best to stop the bleeding. Danulka’s tension lessened a bit when she spotted a few familiar faces. Geldi, Mia, and Marco were busy operating on a soldier whose neck was open, his adam's apple torn away by something clawed.
In a burst of motion, the bug turned to look at Danulka with his compound eyes: "How many fingers do you see?" He raised his limb, and Danulka counted at least a hundred fingers.
"A talking… insectoid?" Danulka tried to release her claws to defend herself before this creature started devouring her and then everyone else inside. It took her a moment to remember the Insectoid Commune and relax.
The creatures’ mandibles made a click at her words: "The patient is delirious due to the extensive blood loss but is able to breathe. We need to stop the bleeding and prepare a blood transfusion ASAP."
"More wounded!" Came a shout from somewhere. "A missing arm and a cracked spine! Need painkillers and a surgeon’s help right now!"
"Coming!"
"Just a fucking great start for our first month," The insectoid cursed, injecting Danulka with something that stopped the pain, "Is this usual around here? Ah, don’t answer, your stomach is ruptured. Did someone try to turn you into a shish kebab or something? Hold her down, people, I need to start working!"
****
Leila allowed her laser rifle to fall to the ground, walking toward the bulk of her father. Ivar was lying on his back, looking up at the night sky silently. Each breath was a wheezing struggle filled with pain, the crimson blood poured from his ruined body, creating a pool of blood around the blue wyrm. His arm, both legs, lower torso, and wings—everything was gone, spilling the wet insides like worms on the ground.
Leila walked through the blood that reached her ankles. With a breath, she sat next to him, leaning her back against his scales and frowning from the pain of a few broken bones. The blood pool was ever expanding, in a short while it started swirling over her weapon.
Leila simply sat, unsure how to say what she felt. They were never like this. Ivar never took her for any stargazing, he never took her anywhere like a normal father would. Sitting here, side by side with her trash of a father, looking up at the skies above felt almost… Strangely comforting.
"Now…" Ivar gasped, coughing, "Now is a good time. My eye. Or maybe the flesh beneath my scales. Or even insides. No one would notice, wolf hag. Feel free to extract your recompense."
"Old demon… Ivar," Leila said finally, hearing how his breathing was slowing down, "Don’t die, okay?"
She felt his heart beating more strongly, followed by a loud inhale. Looking aside, she saw his eye focused on her.
"Weren’t you supposed to hate me, wolf hag?" Her father rasped.
"Still do," Leila admitted honestly, "I can never forgive you for all that you put me through, for trying to kill me, for ruining Mom’s happiness, for hurting and using my friends… But… I refuse to become like you. You are my family. A vile, disgusting, but still family. I want to hear you say, ‘I was wrong’…"
"I was wrong. Happy now?" Even now, Ivar had managed to sound annoyed.
"Not like this!" She hit the pool of blood with her fist, creating splashes, "No. I want to see you change back to the person that Mom once genuinely loved. I want you to live and regret that you can’t mend the hole between you and I. I want you to read my book one day!" Leila felt water running down her cheeks and, to her surprise, realized that she was crying. "I want you to try to atone for what you have done, Ivar. We… Fuck revenge! An eye for an eye, will leave the whole world blind. You have a chance to change yourself! Please, for once, try to work and live for someone other than yourself! You're lying here, unconcerned about living, simply because you lost! Who cares about such things? Abyss, who even keeps the score? No one! So try to… I dunno, try to build something instead of tearing down everything and everyone in your path in order to fill the insatiable hole in your soul! I want to see you genuinely happy one day!"
Ivar fell silent, and Leila looked down, too afraid to see his eyes closed. His lungs no longer worked, even his heartbeat was slowing down while the red liquid was leaving his body. The half-wyrm was unsure if the medics could even save his life now, not with this sea of red…
Thumb. Thumb. She heard the drums of his heart beating anew. The blood stopped flowing away from his body, countless plugs made of water appeared in the air, stopping the blood flow. Ivar’s chest bulged forward, something within moved, and Leila understood, with both horror and amazement, that the blue wyrm was doing self-CPR with his own water, restarting his own heart, and flushing the blood away from his lungs. Ivar croaked, struggling to take another breath.
"If that’s how you wish it…" He breathed heavily, "You won. Guess I am leaving the army, Leila. Care to visit a therapist with me?"
"After you visit a surgeon?" Leila chuckled, seeing the golden form of her uncle approaching. "Sure. I have tons of problems to work through."
