The curved bde came down, scraping against the ceiling, screaming as it passed through the air and nded on the shaft of the give that the sage had hastily hao Janine. Such force! Brood Lord used a single arm, ahe impact of this collisioed a sound explosion and rippled the water’s surface. The metal give bent and sharp edge cerated Janine’s shoulder as she tried her best to stave off the immense weight. Power armor. The strength given by it was overwhelming; there was a reason using an active bat suit during a domination match was sidered cheating iribe. Even when damaged, it reinforced the invader.

  “Cute,” Brood Lord hummed. Three of his legs burst out of the water and closed in on Janine. “Arm first.”

  They pulled her down, dragging the warlord beh the dark and murky surface briefly. Then Brood Lord’s bulk shifted, driving the water aside, and she found herself pio the floor, held by his nar chitin limbs. He raised his bde, and another irises spread from beh the lower lids of Brood Lord’s excited eyes. These new irises were e in color, perfectly betraying the thirst for mutition burning within the man. He wao tear her apart, drooling in anticipation.

  Explosions blossomed over Brood Lord’s armor, ahrew up an arm to shield his eyes from the bullets. A hiss escaped his lips as a cw—Janine’s own severed cw!—pierced his vambrace at a wrist, and the warlrinned, lifting his legs in the split sed of distra. She wasn’t alone, not this time. The bde cut in a downward arc, drawing a line where she stood, but Janine was already waist-deep iurning water, and she met the blow head-on, shattering the give against its edge.

  Sharp shards of steel flew everywhere, creating mirrored red spots on her and Brood Lord’s cheeks. An kick broke through the remnants of the give and flung Janine against a wall, knog the air out of her lungs. It wasn’t a blind attack; the invader aimed directly for her sor plexus, and if not for Marty’s timely intervention, the battle threateo end here for her.

  Bullets fshed from Marty’s paws, f Brood Lord to cover himself with his pio shield his eyes. Several of his gold s shattered uhe pressure, and a few bullets deftly slipped into the open cracks of his unorthodox armor, spurting all-too-human crimson blood from his body, but no serious damage was done. Brood Lrunted a chuckle and swung overhead, this time wielding his curved bde in both human hands.

  Martyshkina rolled as the cut tore a wide gash ione, which began to su water. The hordeman twisted his bde, jerking it free and sending a hail of sto Janine. She didn’t block them; a ssh followed, and the warlord retreated, hearing a wall crumbling.

  “Warlord Janine! Catch!” a knight-captain yelled, tossing something at her, and before she k, two cymores were in her paws, just in time to block the returning swing of the whirling hordeman’s body. Cracks as appeared oeel, but it held, and Janine kicked to keep his leg from attag during the bind.

  They parted, the air shaking uheir blows. Two-hayle wasn’t Janine’s forte, but she’d be a poor warlord if she hadn’t practiced in every form of bat. Right arm to take his blow, left arm to stab the cymore into the arm holding the sword saint’s head and wound the bastard. She was not going to let him defile his cousin any longer. It wasirely effit, and all too often the warlord had to use both swords to withstand titanic swings, but the goal of felling her oppo alone wasn’t on the program today.

  For she was not alohe Ice Fangs and Martyshkina fired, shattering the shell c Brood Lord’s torso. He grunted and hissed, did not close his facepte, and never wavered in raining down attacks on her. Her allies obeyed Martyshkina’s and and hauled knights and wounded away from the fighters, for the dishonorable cur could’ve easily replicated what the sage had told Janine. Ground exploded beh the warlord’s legs; her bones ached after each block, but the battle entered a stalemate phase. Or so it seemed.

  Brood Lord was no unskilled oppo; she uood that much at ohe sheer speed and precision behind his ofteively wide strikes, his quick adjustment to Marty’s interference, his ing eyes sing the enviro—everythirayed years of frontline bat. Even the initial swat with his legs was intended not only to immobilize her, but to spsh water at the Ice Fangs, obsg the fighters long enough to hack off her arm.

  But this isn’t it, right? Ign the pain in her limbs, Janine remembered the Sage’s words and raised an arm as Brood Lord’s lips formed an ‘O’ and a stream of aded on her forearm, spshing lightly against her right eye. The accused acid had eaten half of her world for a sed, but she fought on, refusing to let in even a hint of panic. The eye was in pce; she could feel it.

  Blessed by the Spirits, Wolfkins grew stronger with every received injury. A ruptured heart ended up being tougher upon healing, often gaining new chambers. A punctured lung, a fractured bone, or a scratched eye—all of this led not to detriments but to improvement among the Wolf Tribe. Her trainings and sparrings—when Martyshkina nded a knuckle against Janine’s eye in their brawls, headbutts from Terrifid kicks in the snout from shamans—had ged Janine’s body forever.

  She didn’t blink, trating on her oppo. Even as the right side of her body went numb, Janine willed herself through the weakness, raising up the on of her foe to break another bind. Brood Lord dragged his bde over the edges of Janine’s cymores, widening the gash on her shoulder, before jumping back, eyes wide, and weaving a sphere of blurred sshes around himself.

  Martyshkina kicked spears, swords, and axes of the deceased Ice Fangs into her paws, uanding immediately the thiess of Brood Lord’s armor. She uhem like darts, oer the other, f each projectile to exceed the speed of sound. Ba their childhood, Marty had always loved to get up close and personal with Janine, shredding her hide and receiving brutal beatings iurn. That soon ged after Terrific had introduced them to shardguns. Marty’s eyes lit up with joy when she fired her first shot at a practice dummy; a glimmer of her future divinity shone from those amber eyes, and she cradled the shardgun, holding and g to it as if it were a little one. On that night, she slept, hugging her shardgun like a lover. Later, the grown-up woman heavily modified her first shardgun using discarded archeoted gifted it to her cubs, and prese to her cubs, and it assed down like a family relic, always ed and loved when its wielder’s paws grew too big.

  In the years that followed, Martyshkina was busy honing her skills at killing at a distahrowing knives, guns, explosives, energy ons, darts, rocket unchers… If it could kill at range, Martyshkina mastered it, abandoning melee bat altogether, sidering it an outdated thing of the past, a chore unworthy of a soldier.

  And now her skills made a difference where Janine’s might had faltered. A bde exploded against Brood Lord’s sword, only to turn into a hail of hundreds of smaller shards that stabbed into the exposed parts of his body. His pincer arm dropped Tancred’s head, hastily proteg his eyes. Marty hurled another on, an axe, deliberately shattering it against the tough armor. Another on broke, its shards flying aimlessly against the walls…

  No. Not aimlessly. Janine uood. The shards bounced off the Ice Fangs’ ptes, hitting no exposed body parts, ricocheted off the walls, and came back at Brood Lord, pressing him even farther back. And more ons came in their wake, this time biting deep into his armor ptes aing his flesh. Martyshkina, without her ade revolvers, drove the enemy back.

  Janine inhaled and wiped the acrid, irritating liquid off her eye. There was something else in his spit, a toxin of sorts, that clutched her lung in an unseen iron grip and tried to wrestle trol over her body, strig muscles against her will. Breathing deeply and calmly, Janine pced a paw on her chest, pleading with her immune system to overe this poison sooner.

  “Cowardice!” Brood Lord said, blog and dodging. “You assault me together, knowing full well that you are too weak to challenge me in any other way. Animal looks suit you well, freaks, since you even fight like a pack of rabid dogs!”

  “Whine more. You hurt my friend; you killed my kin and massacred people under my prote,” Martyshkina growled, and Brood Lasped as a sword nded on the axe stu his armor, sending it deeper. “A single death is too good for you, so the least you do is give me a little sport as I take away your limbs one by one.”

  “If you so insist, dog,” came the calm answer.

  The pincers struck the ceiling, colpsing the ceiling. Through the avanche of stone and steel, Brood Lord dashed forward, his own body pulverizing rubble into dust. The curved sword sshed out in a blinding arc, aiming for Martyshkina’s neck. Janine barely had time to block the ining blow when his pincer arm struck, snapping close heir bodies.

  Pushing himself into the space betweewo warlords, Brood Lord kicked with his legs, onballing Marty into a wall and unleashing his full fury on Jahe battered cymores faced the mighty sword. Sparks flickered in the air, stifled by the sonis created by their cshes. Cruel and effit, Brood Lord brought his pio bear, ripping ks of flesh from Janine’s sides, tearing at her hide, and using the clouding of her wounded eye to his advantage.

  And like a ghost, he disappeared from view, and Janine swung blindly behind her. But he wasn’t there. Brood Lord’s legs hooked into the damaged ceiling, and he scurried toward Martyshkina, nearly cutting her in half with a wide overhead blow. On pure instinct, the warlord dove to the side, losing her collected ons and earning herself a wide gash across her chest.

  “Warlords, sword saints.” The hordemen spat. “Bumps in a road. Stand arangled!”

  “Now would be a lovely time,” whispered a hoarse voice, and everything slowed down. Pieces of rubble barely moved, stillness gripped the waters, and Janine’s blood turned cold as she brushed fingers down her back. “No, stupid girl. Rage, not cold. Rage against the impossible.”

  “Nothing is impossible! If you want to punish someory me first!” Janine roared. Fear tried to creep into her psyche, and she shook it off, embrag adrenaline. “I am the one who took your life!”

  “A bit premature, don’t you…” Brood Lord, thinking she was addressing him, spoke and hissed in annoyance as the damaged cymores impaled the spot where his legs were hooked into the ceiling.

  The stone gave in, and his body fell straight into Janine’s wide hook. Her w cws failed to pee his helmet, but the force of the blow cartwheeled the hordeman away from Martyshkina. A sed ter, Janine was on top of him, ign an elbow that smashed her snout and broke one of her fangs. Slugfest. This close Brood Lord could not use the sword, and the Ice Fangs stopped firing, worried about hittihe two of them exged blows, pincers and cws raking over bodies, bruises growing, welts appearing, aher giving in the slightest. Enraged, Janine smmed his bulk against the wall every time Brood Lord tried to shove her aside.

  Brood Lord’s eyes gnced back worriedly wheone gave in. Janine used this distra to slip under him as they fell into aunnel, located at a lower level. Her arms ed around the armored waist, and Janine smmed the huge body into the floor, sending an explosion of water upward. A kick that tore through her cheek and a pincer closed around her paw, trying to take it away. Undaunted, Janine headbutted Brood Lord, breaking his nose, and the pincer released her as he ihe returning water. In respohe sword’s pommel her poor belly, f the warlord to cough, and the sed blow with the pommel threw her off him.

  His blows were i was as if she was hammered with by hundreds of pile-drivers simultaneously. Her zygomatie cracked uhe pressure, and a sizeable bruise bubbled over it immediately. Rarely had Janine fought against an oppo in power armor without her own trusted suit, and today she uood the differehis piece of teology made. She won’t be mog hostile Normies during the invasion anymore.

  ? The thought seemed ridiculous in its certainty that she would survive this battle, yet her heart umping, her body wasn’t broken, and the prey was breathing. There was no time to think of peril.

  “on!” Janine roared, stepping back while her allies above fired at the advang Brood Lord, bleeding him. He won’t let her gain distance again.

  “Here, dy!” She caught a thrown sword.

  This has got to be a joke. Janine ughed sourly, blog the foe’s swing with the tiny toothpick. A knight’s sword! It was a mere dagger pared to her height. In a situatiorue might was needed. Not even a sage’s give, a cymore, or, at the very worst, a shield. Seeing the bdes ing against each other and time slowing down, Janine bristled and decided to overe the iable.

  Her dreams weren’t big, but they were precious to her. Jaeo see Anissa exceed and bee a shaman; she wao see Ignacy marry his soulmate and help Marco find happiness in life, hopefully ving him to exile himself and join this weird, white-furred girl of his. She wao fight beside Impatient One again, to apologize properly to Soulless One, and hold Bogdan’s cubs again and again. There was also the matter of the politid the safety of her pack.

  What right do I have to die?

  True, death came for everyone, and sometimes a person lost through no fault of her own. That didn’t mean she had to lie down and take it. Janine heard Marty, knowing full well her friend would be too te to save her again today. The bdes collided, and immediately a crack appeared on the knight’s sword, widening rapidly. It won’t hold. Which part of her body should she give to survive the iable bite…

  Janine was still p about the dilemma when the sed irises disappeared behind the first, fusing her. Brood Lord jumped, getting away from the circle of light shining down at them, and the warlnced up; she saw an angel of death desd, the gigantic cws swatting aside a quick ssh aimed at Janine’s nose.

  White, so white that she looked more like a moving abaster statue than a living being, Warlord Alpha nded heavily, dressed in a tattered e prison robe that her crimson hair covered like a cape. It was unbearable to stand in her presence; fear oozed from every pore of that titanic body, w its way into everyone around her, f every nightmare to resurface, filling minds with doubts and worries.

  “Alpha,” Janine gasped, happy as never before to see her unusual sister.

  “Rest, sister.” An elbow blow, more of a geap by the stro warlord’s standards, nontly flung Janine away.

  Another swing, an almost zy move, and Brood Lord retreated further, shocked that his attack had been deflected with such childish ease. Alpha opened her maw, spewing white steam, and the hordeman lifted the dented and shortened bde in his hands, g out in pain as he finally noticed three deep and tashes on his chest where his armor had been shaved away.

  “Drozna! Py a tune again, direct it inward this time!”

  A roar of fury answered as Brood Lord scuttled bato the tunnel, heading for a rge steel ptform that hung over a waterfall that cascaded into deep darkness. Alpha strode after him, her long crimson hair flowing freely in the dirty stream, her paw raised in and for everyoo stay behind.

  Several hordemen rushed out of the darkness, taking aim at the pale monstrosity following their master. Alpha didn’t stop. Her form flickered for a moment, and in an instant she was among the hapless fools, g and biting them. There was no roar, no aggression. The stro warlord sughtered six armored oppos with almost mundane movements.

  Lights of the Ice Fangs knights lens illumihe tunnel, revealing the steel ptform overlooking a small waterfall. The familiar s and more hordemen emerging from portals were there, guarding Phaser as he scampered around the edges, gestig wildly with his cws and sweating profusely. With heavy treads that shook the ptform, a muscur beast of a man stepped forward, standing taller than even Brood Lord. His taloned hands grasped the remains of a half-eaten Ice Fang. The poor soul had been chewed to pieces while still armor. Sug irails, the beast hunched his shoulders, dropping the corpse and flexing his muscles, ballooning arms and legs.

  Drozna—Janine assumed this was who Brood Lord called—grinned his crimson jaws, and Janine experienced searing rage in her blood, an urgeo leap at Marty and prove ond for all who was the stro warlord between them. A vessel popped in her eye at the memory of hoha had dared to humiliate and mock her before. And all arouhe others suffered the same effect. Her cousins gred at their fellows; one even spat on the ground.

  “Barbaric filth.” A knight captain ched his knuckles, apanied by the wheezing sound produced by his power armor. “Had you only been faster, our liege would’ve…”

  “Be silent, male.” Janine had to physically restrain Marty from lunging at the man. The captain drew his pistol, only to have the sage sp it from his paw. “Marty, it…”

  The rage intensified, bringing back memories of every humiliation, every missed promotion, every injustice, real or imagined, sparking every bitter memory and stoking the bonfire of long-buried grievances. I killed Terrific. Janine looked at her shaking paw. Terrific was the only one who truly gave a shit about her, and she broke her neck! And for what? For some useless, bsted, mewling cubs? For the offspring of the worst people possible?

  I don’t deserve to live. Crity desded upon her. Several Ice Boys began lifting their bdes, nearing their edges closer to necks. What are you waiting for, you coward? Raise your cws, gouge your eyes, and drag your brain out! Do it! It is the least you deserve for…“

  “Curious,” Alpha spoke in a tone resembling grinding gears and unleashed her fear.

  Janine had a close acquaintah experieng the fear wave, Alpha’s power. Once, as a cub, she snuto the general store to steal treats. On her way out, she came face-to-face with Alpha. No cw touched the young and foolish girl on that night, but she still y in her bed, pissing and g all night, tormented by the unspeakable horrors that haunted her for a week. Even some of her fur had turned gray. At the end of the week, the shaman in charge of overseeing the cubs came to Alpha, demanding mercy, and the Stro Warlord showed it, asking young Janine why she did it. Upon receiving the answer, Janine was sent to watch over cusacks for a month, apanied by Marty, who volunteered to share the punishment, and her fur returo its lush bck idst ambushing ioids. By the end of the month, Alpha had given them double the amount of the very treats Janine had tried to steal, rewarding the girls for ho bor.

  In other instahe fear wave worked more directly, stopping the hearts of aanding in Alpha’s way. But on this day, the fear rotected them. The anger and self-hatred dissipated, bringing up shameful doubts. Were their crimes truly beyond redemption? If so, how dare they seek an easy way out instead of w to atoil the day they could walk no more? Were their oaths so weak?

  “No!” An Ice Fang roared. “We will fight!”

  “Wise words, brother.” Martyshkina patted him on the shoulder and blinked away tears. “That wasn’t very nice. I usually cry after a bottle…”

  “Just one? Pathetic.” Jaeased and received a hard sp.

  “Curious indeed.” Brood Lord pushed past Drozna, guiding him back to the ptform with one arm, and Alpha walked toward them. His surviving troops shuddered; even the assassins were unfortable, but no one died ht. “I’ve always wondered what happens when the brainwaves of two emotion maniputors interfere with each other. It seems that they cel each other out. Thank thee, the Foolish Warlord.” Brood Lord bowed mogly, hiding his nervousness, but his skin paled. “You gave me useful knowledge. Now I knoill hunt you down.”

  “What good is knowing the answer if you are dead?” Alpha ughed.

  “Let me eat her,” Drozna rasped, spewing out a paw. “I take her. I know I !”

  “No doubt, but more roaches are closing in, and we have had enough thrills for one day, my friend. I had hoped t Janine’s broken carcass along, but as. No matter, we will meet again soon enough, my dears. Phaser, open it now!” Brood Lord anded.

  Alpha charged at them, and Droz her halfway. Giant cws sshed, leaving deep gashes in the man’s arms, and his talourhe favor, bleeding the warlord’s arms. Alpha pushed her oppo back, ign the hordemen’s shots. She was about to close her jaws on Drozna’s shoulder when the giant stomped and Janine yelled a warning. The ptform shook, ing off the wall with a screeg sound of tearial and falling stones. Janine rushed to the edge, just in time to see the structure colpse into a much rger cra reality, which led to a vast field in an unknown rod. Alpha stopped calmly beside Janine, hungrily looking down.

  “Hope he picks an iing one,” she said.

  Janine faced her. How could she? So many civilians, so many cubs, their cousins, and finally their own soldiers have perished today. And this… This monster only thinks about the thrill of an individual duel?

  Calm yourself. Alpha has saved your life. The stro warlord has her own ways. Janine chastised herself.

  “Gather up!” Janine snapped. “We have wounds to lid preparations to make. Secure the injured.” She saw shame in the Ice Boys’ faces and added warmth to her tone. “Lift your heads, my kin. Marty and I also succumbed to the mental assault, a you e far lohan we did. Be proud and act, for we have work to do!” She hoped it would soothe their souls; the Spirits know it was Tancred’s foolishhat led to these losses, not theirs. Damn it, why was it forbidden to use cws to motivate her feeble kin? Nothing cheered up soldiers’ souls like a proper brawl. Drinks helped too, but not everyone liked them. “The foe dared to assault our city! Death aru have been brought to our nd! Will we stand and take it?”

  “No!” The Ice Fangs roared.

  “Damn right, we won’t. We are not priests to show another ! Their leadership we’ll sy and topple their nation, and recim their people for the Dynast ahead of the Sed and the First! Nothing is fiven; every grievance is awaiting to be repaid, but the living are more important than the dead!” Janine raised a paw and ched it. “Let their hearts beat. For now. Assist i the order and saving citizerusted to our care. Then,” she bared her fangs, “we’ll hunt them to the edge of the world aheir spines broken against our knees. Vengeand honor!”

  “Id heat!” It wasn’t something she had taught them. She had never heard such a cry before, but accepted it anyway, gd to be accepted as kin.

  “Shall I call you Sword Saint now?” Martyshkina whispered. “Midy Janine Ironwill. Sounds cool, won’t lie.”

  “Screw you,” coughed Janine, imagining the horror. She didn’t take over the Ice Fangs’ pack, right? Things don’t work that way in the order… she hoped.

  “Oh, Lady Janine, I never khis side of yours! Unfortunately, I ’t return your feelings; I’m into males…”

  “Marty, I’ll murder you if you don’t stop!”

  “You’ll try,” Martyshkina stated arrogantly.

  “Where is Sword Saint Tancred?” Alpha demao know.

  “Dead,” Janine replied sorrowfully.

  “Uood, sweet dy.” Alpha bowed her head in a brief show of radeship. “Find his remains arieve his on. I have ao find.” She reached out for a dead hordeman.