A storm front of ruinatiooward the Recimers, and house after house colpsed, uo withstand the stampede that rocked the very ground. Pebbles and steel ks jumped up and down, waves ran in blood pools, and a yellow fsh in the building ahead firmed Janine’s suspis. A trap was closing in on them. She elbowed an Ice Fang away, denting his gau but saving the woman from having her head melted by a particle stream. Nearby, a defehrew up his shield, proteg Anissa from a simir fate.

  “Kaisa, Anissa, find a way inside ahe survivors to the ventition shaft. We’ll hahe situation outside.” She stopped their arguments, ordered the packs to split evenly to the north and south uhe leadership of the scouts, and marched off to face the enemy alongside Bertruda and Martyshkina. A tap of her foot sent Impatient One off the front lio skulk behind a warlord.

  And the buildings fag them exploded; the der blocks themselves, crushed by hide and steel, were reduced to dust, and out of them burst brightly ored forms: thunder bulls carrying riders entombed ihickest armor, their ptes shining purple, gold, green, and every other aginable.

  At their head was a truly enormous figure, the gray-colored bastard who had murdered Eled. Where the ptes of the other riders had smooth surfaces and curves, the leader’s was covered in dozens of bck spots that covered his legs, elbows, and shoulders. His fingers gripped the handle of a long give, dragging the bde across the ground, where a shimmering gray field around its edge devoured the pavement. The lenses on his helmet focused on the Recimers, his armor more suited to a heavy assault tank than a battle, and the ons on his shoulders stirred.

  Martyshkina spun revolvers in her paws and fired, aiming at Iron Lord and a rider to his left. The bullet tore through the smaller rider’s helmet, exposing wires, bone, and brain matter, and the man shook in his seat but still tried to maintain the charge. The give swung up, erasing the bullet, and the khan snapped his fingers, sending the wounded back. His on gathered energy and fired, f Marty to dive to the side, dodging a bst capable of pierg even a warlord’s armor. A small sizzling orb struck a pile of rubble and expanded into a huge sphere, melting the ehing.

  “His movements…” Albert muttered.

  Cle it was. Janine leaped ahead, creating a soni that fpped the knights’ cloaks and trusting the scouts to lead the troops. Like a flying missile, she collided with Iron Lord, bringing her axe against the shaft of his on, and a thunderous bang rattled the remaining windows, briefly dispg all oxygen and creating a momentary vacuum. As the air flowed ba, she heard the whine of their servomotors and found herself in a deadlock. The man withstood the blow by holding his on with both hands, but as Janine’s snout closed for a bite, he let go of his on and pushed her head up, exposing the throat.

  “Predictable.”

  “Best things in life usually are, creep,” Janine growled, pnting her feet firmly on the bull’s head. N to wirength test, she simply grabbed his side, pulling the khan from his steed to the ground, and the deadly shot from his on flew into the sky.

  Iron Lord rolled aside, blocked a kiss of Elegah his give, and nimbly retreated from a swing of the Taleteller. Bertruda gracefully dodged a spear aimed at her head; the afterimage left in the wake of her perfect dash faded before the rider’s eyes. A lightning-hot ssh severed the animal’s jugur, and it stumbled, disbelieving its own mortality. But its rider had already slipped from the dying steed, and two spears met in the air, weaving and striking past each other. Deep gouges and cuts covered the hordeman’s armor, while Bertruda’s own armor remained unblemished as she drove her oppo back.

  Martyshkina straight up bit a ing axe, scowling at electrical discharges irritating her lips, but stopping the on dead as she fired into the bull’s knee, bringing it low enough to fire at the ironcd sitting on it. The man was thrown against his seat, letting go of his on and reag for his rifle. The warlord batted the on aside and elbowed the enemy in the face, shattering his helmet.

  In the chaos of the battle, Jaepped behind Iron Lord as he aimed his shoulder on at Bertruda. She raised the axe for the blow, preparing to slice through the bastard’s neck while he was occupied.

  “The position of his helmet lehe bck spots… Sword Saint Jahis isn’t a suit! He knows!” Albert yelled as blue fmes spat from the rear of Iron Lord’s backpack, rapidly turning him around.

  It was her ally’s warning and her own instincts that saved Janine’s life. Iron Lord pressed his give tightly to his chest to hide it from the warlord, and the scraping of the shaft against his bulk apahe impossibly swift stab that shaved off part of her greave. She dodged the fatal blow by a hair, wreg one of his two ons, areated a step, ready to face the khan head-on.

  “His is piloting his armor, not wearing it,” Albert said.

  “Or he is a mae,” Janine said. “Like that boy, Mehmed.”

  “Hmm?” Iron Lord stopped in the middle of the fight, blog a shardgun shot with a swing. “You’ve met him? How were his st moments? Was his performan battle after the upgrade ae improvement?”

  “Upgrade…” Janine whispered. “You. You are the one who did it to him. How could you viote your own flesh and blood so much?!”

  “Father.” The rider who had fought Bertruda escaped their duel to let two other ironcds fire at the sword saint. The t figure asked in a familiar female voice. “What is the mutant talking about?”

  “It is nothing important, Zulfiya,” Iron Lord answered. “Your brother died, and I used his remains for one of my pet projects, trying to resurrect him and further my knowledge. It was in everyone’s best i.”

  “You used him, took away his ability to feel, drove him insane, and discarded him, you monster!” Janine reached for her bad aimed the ser rifle at Iron Lord. The beam spshed against a force field that appeared around the khan.

  “The only monster here is you, ibalistic filth.” Iron Lord’s figure charged forward, propelled by the force of his engines. Janine blocked his give with the Taleteller, heard the dev field choke as it tried to damage the a alloy of her on, and then his fist crashed into her .

  It was as if she had taken a siege artillery shell head-on. The blow broke one of her fangs, cussed her brain, and cracked the side of her visor. The damaged area swelled instantly, and the khan shoved Jao the ground, with Albert trying to shout a warning as Iron Lord k and raised his give. She deflected the thrust with the Taleteller, and Janine forced herself to move after notig the energy gathering in the remaining shoulder on.

  She headbutted him. Weakened as she was, it didn’t do much damage, but it moved her off the on’s trajectory, and the orb dug itself into the ground, ready to explode. Iron Lord’s force shield bubbled back up, trying to shake Janine off, but she g to him like glue, and the khan activated his thrusters, esg the danger zone of his own on.

  Blinking through the pulsing agony of her trembling mind, Janine climbed behind the khan the momeopped and chopped at his back, ruining a set of thrusters, and puhe bastard in the jaw, denting his helmet a bit and f Iron Lord back.

  “An iing alloy,” he said in a muone, oblivious to his predit, blog two ining swings and holding his ground. “Tell me, if the Recimers produce such ons, why is your armor not up to par? Who among you has the knowledge to replicate the material of your axe? Answer me holy, and I promise to treat your prisoners humanely and give you a death,” he chuckled. “The same as I gave that other mutant… Eled.”

  “Not even going to offer me a ce to survive?” Janine grinned. “Afraid I will escape?”

  “No, my wife wouldn’t uand. Not after what you did to her son.”

  “His name is Mehmed!” Janine snapped, growing infuriated against her will. A family was one of the most important things in Wolfkin society. And this creature treated his offspring like an afterthought! “He was your son, too! Say his he downward swi his boots deep into the ground.

  “Why waste words on a broken tool?” Their ons cshed, spewing dissipated pieces of the field around the khan’s ons.

  Devastation widened around them, brought by the colliding forces. The shardguns had a partial effe the enemies; most of the armor-pierg projectiles stu the thickest ptes or barely hem. The Ice Fangs fared little better, and the battle spilled to the outnumbered defenders and knights. Betrayers though they were, the Wolfkins never abaheir allies, and the packs rushed into the fray to support their hard-pressed allies. Even trapped in the open and outnumbered, these hordemen proved to be incredibly tough oppos, trapping the Recimers.

  The gyrating and stomping forms of the thunder bulls struck harder than a speeding truck full of ore; their simple treads occasionally broke limbs ht death. Their riders unleashed their own energy ons, melting the state’s alloys and immoting the soldiers inside, f the soldiers to retreat from the academy’s exposed mairance or risk endangering the APCs carrying civilians. Two knights, smoke billowing from their bodies, colpsed to the ground dead, followed by seven Wolfkins, and the invaders lost two soldiers. Kaisa and Anissa gnced down against their will and resumed climbing to the rooftop of the plex.

  Relying on training and decades of experieo fend off Iron Lord, not even trating on him, Jaurned her attention to the battlefield and closed her helmet briefly. Albert reyed her instrus for the Wolfkins to aim for the animals’ eyes and for the Ice Fangs to break up the fight and use their own ons to trate on the woueel-cds. The Wolfkio create gaps for the Ice Fangs to destroy the meat within.

  The give sshed, and the warlord nontly sshed upward with his axe, sending the ining bde flying. Iron Lord calmly adjusted his grip and stabbed three times with the lower end of his oing Janine’s shoulder and chest armor into her body, before firing his on. As she stepped away from the deadly orb, he unched a horizontal swing to decapitate her.

  “Die, ghoul!” Elegaip near Janine’s helmet, striking the haft of the give and stopping the blow. In a moment’s notice, Bertruda and Janine fought side by side, assaulting the khan while Impatient One repced the sword saint ahe hordemen from helping their leader.

  “Ghoul?” Iron Lord’s dynamics betrayed not a hint of panic as he retreated, trying to keep them at range. “You find my methods inhumane, not out of disgust, but out of fear. Born a Pureblood, a being superior to humans, you are naturally dreading the possibility of a genius mind capable of overturning your world and raising the on folk to your level, girl…”

  “I view you as scum regardless of your siventions!” Bertruda said her psma casters fired, and the orb fired by the khan exploded. Jahought that she’d seen the womahought to be a sister once again as they both darted to the left and right, cirg around the growing sphere of death and fme that danced on the Ice Fang’s cape. “How dare you threaten children?!”

  “Woe to the quered,” Iron Lord parried, stepping back heavily. “I must admit the inadequay knowledge. I thought that after the Ice Fangs’ callous disregard for cooperation, no Wolfkin would ever fight by their side. Yet here you are, unafraid that one might sacrifiother…”

  “Because you are worse!” Elegand the Taleteller joiogether in a utack. The bde of the spear, surrounded by a searing hot aura, sshed at the destructive field of the give to the khan’s left, and the axe sunk deep into his forearm from the right, trapping the man.

  “Wrong. I am better,” he answered without a hint of pain.

  Metal legs left the ground as Iron Lord spun in the air, carried by his remaining engines. He kicked Bertruda away and brought the give down on Janine, f the warlord to block or be cut in half. The ground cracked around her legs, and the khan’s steed crashed into the sword saint, sending her flying. Janine smmed a shoulder into his kopping the man’s attack, and pushed hard, bringing him back to the road.

  “Warlord!” Albert said, distrag her from the battle.

  She was about to order him to shut up when the remaining part of her visor ged, showing the retreating APC. Marco. He dropped from underh the vehicle’s belly and ran on all fours towards the Academy.

  “Marco!” Janine screamed. “Get ihe transport!”

  How was he here? Betrayal, obviously; the traitors had set the Wolf Tribe up again. But how exactly did Marco get here? The exosuit… Nonsense! A healthy female could have g to the bottom of the transport long enough to weather every bump in the road, but her boy wasn’t that strong! He should have fallen off long before they reached Opul! Marco was supposed to be safe.

  Her son. Marco was in dahe thought stopped her long enough, but Iron Lord didn’t stop her, shifting his bulk towards the entrance, perhaps puzzled by her strange behavior.

  “I’ll help!” The boy shouted, climbing to the airway. “It’s going to be okay, Warlord! I’ll lead everyoo safety; trust me.”

  Light appeared in the khan’s on as it tracked the arget, and Janine lunged, ending up in a stalemate against his on and trying to push the giant aside.

  “Marco! It is not safe; get back!” she shouted, straining her body to the limit and hearing the whine of the yielding motors of her oppo’s armor. Slow, not fast enough…

  “Khan! Why are you targeting the flea?!” Zulfiya shouted, peeking from behind a thunder bull and firing a shot at the Wolfkins, melting Kirk’s pauldron. He gritted his fangs and rolled to the cover, supported by the fire of his family.

  “I…” Iron Lord’s helmet shook, and the on stopped aiming at Marcht you are, Zulfiya! Surprising and irritating. Ighe gnat; he’ll die to the degees inside, anyway. We don’t care for children.” He heaved against the give, intensifying the pressure, and sparks jumped from the cut in his arm. “It’s the adults that matter.”

  “Even, bitch.” Janine heard Zulfiya’s hiss. “I’ll make you pay tenfold for what you did to Mehmed and my humiliation!”

  The danger ierrifiifested into reality again, sitting on Iron Lord’s shoulders and g at his helmet. The dull eyes scowled at Janine, insulted by her choice of armor. Her withered lips curled, ahroat forced out a single word in a barely audible whisper.

  “Restraint…”

  Correct. Janine gritted her fangs, accepting Marco’s shoulder camera into the pack view and witnessing the darkness of the corridor unfold before him as the boy climbed iraint. It was impossible to ge what had happened, and her duty demanded her full attentioo preserve the troops ahe danger.

  “I guide the boy,” Albert offered.

  “Do… don’t,” Janine said wearily. “You are an Ice Fang. And they don’t care about our young.”

  I trusted them with one of my most precious…

  “Lady, I’ll never…”

  Terrific stirred and stood up as the time resumed back to normal, her lips fpping as she tried to say something as fear swept over the battlefield, shaking both fighters. Everuda missed a step, and the thunder bull rammed her into the building with its ugly head.

  “Ah…” Iron Lord said, and his shoulder oved, pointing at Janine’s face. “The reports were inaccurate. Die.”