Jaomped. A ripple passed through the damaged crete as if it were water; the impact shook the closest wreckages and drew groans from the wouhe s merely leaped a little back, filling the air with their melodic ughter at what they perceived to be a futile attempt to stagger. But Janine never sought to achieve that. Her paw spped a head-sized rock, spat into the ground by her stomp, into Heika’s face, and the warlord closed in on Adonis, hidden by a veil of dust.

  Wide, precise arcs of blurry, fast-moving daggers rose in her path. Adonis never once dropped his guard, and he pnned on cutting her arms and neck. But cws met the edge of his bdes as the ctter of metal against stone behind Janine annouhat Heika had blocked the projectile. It was fine; Janine ig for a time and bore down her entire fury at Adonis, hewing and sshing, trying to bypass his defense and drive him away.

  She could see it clearly now. A green sludge, almost invisible to a naked eye, coated the entire length of her enemy’s bde. An unknown substahat easily overcame even a Wolfkin’s immune system and brought Anji to her knees. Jani bad forth with the killer, equally growing a the man’s resiliend taking his measure. Anger wasn’t a problem. When wasn’t she angry? Her biological mother had abandoned her; Jaed herself for letting Terrific get away with so many atrocities; she despised her paw for ending the life of the one she had e to call her mother. Every mistake, every dispy of weakness fueled the fire burning in her chest, never allowing it to bee dying embers.

  But embrag that furnavited dangers, as Eled clearly demonstrated times and times again. To protect her family, her nation, Janine had ed that anger, eling its energy to sustain her endurand denying herself the rest to keep a cool head in battle. It didn’t always work, but today it saved her hide when Janine sensed Heika approag from the rear and rexed. Adonis refused to stand and fight, wisely dang out of her reach so the s could perform a cssicer maneuver.

  And something else, a tactic that had eluded her for so far, but the previous as had told enough. Fihen. Slow way it is. A growl left her lips, anding to tend to the wounded and prepare for an ambush. Kaisa reyed the message to the Ice Fangs while Martyshkina paused on the roof, her eyes fixed oense Bogdan. A dagger flew at her bad Janine blocked it, trusting her instincts and ears more than her skills. Her oversized and long arms easily reached the middle of her back. Her speed was superior to that of her oppo. They k too.

  So where was the trap?

  Heika and Adonis grew frustrated that their baits aions no longer worked. Janine held her ground, trating on the defense. Adonis stabbed at her, and she terattacked, stoppihrust when his impeccable footwork carried him out of harm’s way. The warlord elbowed the , no doubt bruising him, but refused to give chase, blog Heika’s cuts. Again and again, the two tried to lure her in by exposing themselves, and she disappoihem each time.

  No lohey attacked her alohe two teamed up and multicolored lines raced past her, from left and right, from bad front, stabbing and sshing, and iably retreating when a cw met a bde. Janine kheir type: youngsters gifted with incredible potential, their blood running hot in their veins. These s wao turtle into a spectacle, to take the leading role and end it oerms, winning through coordination and cooperatioheir individual skills could not prevail.

  Only Jaood her ground. Immovable. Indomitable. By denying them satisfa and thrill, she made the battle dull aitive. Their speed failed to overe her defenses, and when Janine saw the frustration in the slits of their masks, she allowed herself a smile, fanning the desire in their souls to end her soon.

  Perhaps there was no trap? Janine disregarded the doubt. For better or worse, she had chosen the approach.

  There were many ways to win a battle. Throwing your foe off their game, ruining their rhythm, aing their frustratiohem into making mistakes was one of the most basies. Anything from simple insults to attag the enemy‘s allies was beneficial to this. Kaisa and Anji lost because they pyed the s’ game and fot who the hunter was. It mattered not how long the hunt sted, as long as yht home the body. Oh well, it’ll e to them with experience; don’t be harsh on them, Janine. She chastised herself, remembering her own failures.

  Kaisa stepped away from Anji, and Janine eased a bit. Rather than rushing bato a fight, the wolf hag decided to help the Ice Fangs save lives and was currently perf CPR on a civilian. I didn’t even know she could do it. The girl was learning from her past mistakes, and that widened Janine’s smile even more, finally crag the s’ posure.

  They came together as before; the male aiming for Janine’s legs and the female aiming for her spiheir daggers were met by the cws, and ringing sounds filled the street. Only this time, the fools chose not to retreat. Heika jumped over Janine, and Adonis tried to slide underh her swing on his knees. He was met with a ko the fad an elbow against the back of his neck. Janine whirled, slig Heika’s shoulder, and the screamed, ruining the ughing melody.

  “Beautiful enough?” Janine asked, tensing up when she realized that Adonis’ body wasn’t at her leg.

  She he blow with her entire might. The man’s mask partially shattered upon the ground, yet he himself was already beside Heika with his head tilted and anger spshing in his blue eyes. There was a crag noise, and the set his head straight. He separated his vertebrae to spare the bone. Janine uood. She knew of methods to go limb to limb to disperse damage, even to dislocate joints, though such a master was beyond her. But vertebrae? That was too dangerous.

  The man stood, legs shaking, left hand pressed to the ruined face, his nose caved in. “Sister.”

  “Brother,” Heika responded.

  “We are being uimated.”

  “Humiliated.”

  “Bogdan!” Janine and Martyshkina yelled in unison, hearing din in the air.

  There was a line above the soldier. It floated in the air, created by nothing, but Martyshkina tossed the sharp rocks at it simultaneously with Bogdan rolling to the side. It was what had saved him when the line widened up, creating a blue window. This tear swallowed the stones, and an arm scooped at the pce where the soldier had been a sed ago. Bogdan was already firing back, but another window opened and swallowed the bullets. Martyshkina cursed, sidestepping a hole iy that opened behind her, spitting out Bogdan’s bullets, and a thin arm ing from a new portal grabbed Bogdan’s ned pressed him tightly against a blue body while a finger ran over his gun, cutting it in half.

  “Move an ind the dog gets skinned,” the newer chuckled, ing fully from the shimmering blue portal, keeping it at as his back to shield himself for a sudden attack.

  Thin as a scarecrow, his ribs threateo break through the paper-thin blue leather skin. His eyes were sunk deep into the skull, the nose sucked in air loudly, and the mouth grinned, showing needle teeth. The tear at his back showed sewers and several corpses of the Ice Fangs. Gunshots, roars, and curses echoed from the walls of the tunnel.

  “I don’t recall asking for help, Phaser.” Heika hissed. “You’ve been hiding the eime, and now you decide to step out?”

  “Recklessness only purchase you an early grave, silly girl,” the blue-skinned man, Phaser, said in a voice that needled Janine’s ears. “The deed is done, but we might as well add ao the tally.” He smiled, standing naked, covered just by bck tattoos in the shapes of flying birds that covered his arms, legs, and waist. “Yes, imagihe reward Mad Hatter will give us when we bring a warlord’s head to her knees! You!” he told Janine. “Stay and die. Otherwise, this thing.” He shook Bogdan aended his arm to Marco, “and the puppies will die.”

  “Stay away from the children,” Adonis ordered icily. “The adults are fair game for us.”

  “But killing kids is too low,” his sister added.

  “Oh, I wouldn’t dare to trouble you,” Phaser chuckled again. “I’ll be more than willing…”

  Janine gave a deep groroving a cheeky glint in her son’s eyes. Marco teoo, ready to dart away, and only stopped out of for his rades. The Ice Fangs didn’t know. Jaie didn’t kher wheried to stand and fell face down from exhaustion. They had to stay away. Oher side of the street, Malerata pulled a string of wires from the pce where her steel legs were ected to her torso and tossed away her damaged foot, looking decisively at Bogdan.

  Don’t do anything reckless, girl. Janine pleaded. Nothing was over.

  “Touch a child and you’ll die,” Heika promised, surprising Janine. What were they talking about? A body of an Ice Fang cub y on the ground; there were little ones scattered around, dead or wounded, and these creeps tried to pretend to have principles now?

  “How dare you talk to me like that?” Phaser took his eyes off Janine. “You weren’t so eager to say anything to Brood Lord!”

  “Unlike you, the khan we ’t stop,” Adonis said.

  “You seem tet who is your way out of this pce,” Phaser struggled to speak calmly. “And speaking of Brood Luess who is under his prote? Unlike you, unlike his whelps, unlike anyone, I am too valuable to lose!”

  “ he protect you all day long?” Heika inquired. “What will the khan say after he hears how casually you address him, mhhhm? Or what about giving gifts to the Khatun? Nasty, nasty Phaser. Your pns are obvious to ah a half of a brain.”

  “Do it,” Adonis asked. “Leave us. Cross the line if you dare, Phaser. See how long you’ll live afterwards.”

  Whatever response Phaser had po give died in his desperate screams when Bogdan grabbed his hand. He didn’t use his cw, or a hidden kwo bck round disks were attached to the palms of his hands, each capable of releasing a surge of electricity strong enough to knock out even a scout.

  Bogdan had always been a troubled boy. He was biting Janine during feeding too hard; he was the first of his litter to stand on his feet, to her and Colt’s delight; and he was the first to almost kill another Wolfkin. Not is. A girl was relentlessly throwing Bogdan and Ignacy to the ground, trying to get the males’ attention, not yet fully uanding that she was doing it the wrong way because of her youth. Well, she got her wish for attention when Jauro her tent after a day of service to find her grenades and explosives missing. All forty of them, and the answer as to where they went, came in a series of booms at the vilge’s edge.

  Her son had challenged a girl to a duel and had no iion of fighting fairly. He forced the terrified cub through a line full of acid and fire, burying her under an avanche of stone, and then found her uhe rubble and dragged her to the surface by her ears, allowio breathe but still trapping her arms and legs. He repeatedly smashed her face repeatedly with a rock, asking what more he o do for her to get the message and leave him and Ignacy’s brother alone.

  Janine and Soulless Oopped what was about to end in murder. They cealed the information from the tribe at rge, sharing it only with the warlords and shamans, for it was unthinkable that a male could defeat a female. Elsewhere, Bogdan would face punishment. The ws of the Recmation Army were strict, but the Wolf Tribe was given the privilege of living by their own ws, and Lacerated One herself absolved the boy of all guilt and redirected the boy’s mischief in a productive dire. The wounded girl ter apologized and held ne for the defeat.

  The girl herself told her friends about how awesome a tricker Bogdan was, and soon there was a cave named ‘Bogdan’s Great Den’ in the vilge, a training ground of sorts created by her son. In the darkness of this pce, her boy put his natural reluce to be bullied to work, strug the most exquisite traps he could fathom for the girls and boys to overe. Ignacy helped, but his duty was limited to making sure no one died in this hellish maze of acid grenades, swinging stones, pitfalls and colpses. It was a badge of honor for the youth to overe these insidious traps.

  But as he grew older and found a soulmate, Bogdan faced a natural barrier. Warriors he could stop, but what about scouts and wolf hags? His cave of wonders still existed, although he was now far more careful not to harm any cubs. Anissa made a mockery of his test, passing it at a walking pace, and ter Elzada raced through the course without getting hit ohis caused Bogdan to sit and read, studying the ws of Wolfkins’ bodies. He dismissed the use of gas, as it cost an arm and a leg to get a ister of nerve gas for private use, and many scouts showed incredible resilieo toxic effects, but electricity intrigued him. He added grids to the parts of his cave, and Jaook pride in her role as the first ‘test subject’ when her sweet boy’s traptions tickled her a little. Later, the shamans even copied it to other vilges, so that the cubs and adults everywhere could hoheir skills.

  This was what Bogdan used. It was his trump card, a device looking so non-threatening that when his charm and trickery failed to pit one female against another, he would offer to shake his paws or desperately grab his oppo, shog her just long enough to press a pistol to her eye or a cw to a jugur vein. It had a lesser effe wolf hags, but Phaser yelled and writhed as the electricity shook his internal ans.

  Janine was distracted by this event, and it almost cost her her life. With the stone explodih their legs, Heika and Adonis disappeared out of sight, turning into a whirlwind around the warlord. Left, right, a strike aimed at her right knee, immediately followed by one aimed at the back of her left khis time, Janine had to move, walking back across the street, blog strikes from the maddening whirlwind of steel and rage. Their speed, the accuracy with which these two were striking, and their sheer endurao maintain this assault without slowing down were sublime.

  This was a dand one in which they took the lead. Their blurred forms almost overpped; the non-stop onsught of stant dashes, cuts, strikes, and graceful evasions was mind-blowing. Even in her power armor, Janine would be mildly challeo keep up with this speed. Without it, worried about the safety of her sons, pgued by thoughts of the dead and dying around her, she had known fear.

  She eled her fear into power, releasing adrenalio her bloodstream. There were many iribe who viewed fear as something to be shunned, an unworthy behavior. Not her. Fear was a natural humaion—it was ho, if nothing else. She was outmatched, but she had to win. Accepting fear sharpened Janine’s senses. By relying on her skills, honed by years and years of bat, she knew when to defend and when to push back. And now it was time to defend.

  Even though Bogdan’s devices had an energy supply, they gave him enough time to free himself and dart away, trying to save himself from Phaser’s long fiab. But it was of no use. The differen speed betweewo was too great, and the stab that was destroying the very spaeared Janine’s son, and Marco cried out his desperate warning. That’s when Malerata took flight.

  The absurdity of it shocked the s and the warlord, halting their struggle for a whole sed. Malerata Summerspring bzed raging fmes and sparks from her damaged legs, somehow turning herself into a living rocket, overloading the internal reactor supplying her artificial limbs. Carrying a round shield in her paws, the knight crossed the street in the blink of an eye, spinning in midair to douse Phaser in the searing fury emanating from her stump.

  Phaser stopped his stab and swung his hand, opening the portal to block the fme. He moved his other arm, and another rift cracked and opened above Malerata, engulfing the Ice Fang in her own fme. But the smirk on the Horde’s teleporter didn’t st. Malerata, hidden ihe fmes, cast her shield at Phaser’s ankles, and the man tumbled into his own portal, disappearing inside.

  “Reckless like us,” Bogdan cheered, pulling Malerata away to hide behind the car as the portals disappeared and the woman nded heavily on the ground, uo move her legs. The sparks and fiery stream ing from her aopped. Once she was safe, Bogdan blew on his paws.

  “But not useless.” Malerata said. Her armor bed but held. The woman was shaking from the burns from several holes in her bat pte, but her voice was clear and as cheerful as Bogdan’s. “She was right. I am not cursed at all!”

  “Thank you for saving our hides! You’re the best, cousin!” Bogdan humorously g her. “But just to be clear. I have already found my soulmate. So if you had any ideas…”

  “I would never have dared to hint, sirrah,” the knight mumbled and leaned against the car, gatherirength to help Marco.

  Time to win this. Janine beamed, unbothered by her worries any longer, and stomped again. Caught by a tremor during their fierce assault, both s tripped, their overpped shared blurry form separated in two, and the warlord cwed at Heika’s mask, fully intending to shave the woman’s head off this time, when a loud crack to her left annouhe arrival of the new enemy. Janine’s cws, her pride and joy, left her left paw and drummed against the ground, leaving just stumps on her fingers.

  “Enough toying around,” Phaser roared, stepping out of a portal. “Warlord dies!”