Forty-two kilometers from the Teo-Queen’s former capital, a raiding party flowed into a. These men and women seldom dared operate so brazenly in these nds, haviaught a harsh lesson by the madwoman as to what exactly awaits those who dare ensve her subject without her permission. But she died, and the querors demonstrated a stunning ck of awareness.

  Raiders and marauders often followed the Recimers, satisfying their greed with the scraps left in their wake. An occasional family here, a hundred runaways there, had earhem the gratitude of the sve masters of the Soultakers, the body tinkerers of the mystic west, and the pleasure seekers of the far east. More importantly, the sves brought rich bounties and the unparalleled thrill of the hunt.

  But today, the raiders’ leader wanted more. The humiliation she had suffered at the hands of the accused doggies burned into her soul. Two months ago, a horde of parasite-ridden filth had tracked a smaller party to its ir and assaulted it, dismantling the raider alliance. Such alliances, ofteing in gangs backstabbing their fellows, held no significe. The raider even respected the way these Abnormals had tracked them dooached the poachers.

  No, what ehe leader was the loss of precious young children, ripe to be sold in the eastern pleasure markets. She had goo such lengths to keep the children unspoiled, even stopping herself from tasting their virginity in hopes of getting the highest price, and these disgusting mutants took them all! They didn’t evehem or anything. The leader was no fool; wheuation turned ugly, she escaped and waited for a ce to take revenge. She found other survivors, quered marauder gangs, and whipped her new soldiers into the rgest warband she had ever anded.

  Her patience paid off today. An armored transport took a detour off the regur road. Fools, looking for a quicker way; assured of their safety thanks to a small group of doggies esc the transport. They should have never uimated dangers. Their prey had noticed them and, like a cusack calf after notig an approag ioid swarm, had tried to steer away. But like a cusack calf, it too won’t save them, for this swarm is about to swallow them whole.

  The leader waved a tentacle, and armored buggies broke sand mounds in their path, speeding up toward the prey. Three heavy-modified scout tanks bristling with ons followed in their wake, f a triangle around the sve wagon housing the raider leader’s aer. She smiled thinly as her buggies opened fire. Each mae mounted a harpoon uncher and two rotating ons. The ons’ bursts sent shells ih of the disgusting freaks, hiding them behind a wave of exploded sand and stone, no doubt fusing the morons by the iy of this ambush.

  Slender harpoons pierced the armored side of the track, sending a surge of electricity that temporarily fried the mae’s engine and unleashed a paralytic drug cealed in the partments behind the arroed harpoon tips. This drug affected the muscles of the future sves, forcibly rexing them for four hours to the point where it was impossible to even lift a hand, and it also kept the humans scious so that the realization of their fate could fully sink in. Aside from being cheap to mass produce, the raider appreciated its use in morally breaking their prey.

  A siransport of the Recmation Army could carry up to two thousand people. She didn’t hope it would be full, but a rare smile graced the leader’s lips at the thought of earning four to six months’ worth of ine in a single ambush. The cages of her wagon have stood empty for too long.

  But there was o stop at that, was there? Her tentacle sighe tanks to move ahead, and the mortar crews of her wagon fired their deadly load, sending ruins at the fifty dogs. The buggies’ crews will take care of whoever’s still awake iransport, and they’ll have a field day dismantling doggies’ pack from afar.

  It was good that these Abnormals could endure impressive damage. The idea of selling members of the Wolf Tribe pleased the raider to no end. As her buggies closed at the transport, carrying crews of hardened cutthroats the fi exoskeletons and armor money could buy, she hoped there would be Abnormals among the refugees. Children. Preferably. Their ached a high price tely, due to a war the Oathtakers had waged against the Bio-Tinkers.

  A sudden explosio a buggy skyward, and a force shield rising from the ground ripped her from her happy thoughts.

  She wasn’t a hunter on this day, not even close.

  ****

  “Perfe!” roared Leonidas Summerspring, a sword saint of the Summerspring Household. “Onward, my knights! To the world’s salvation and a better tomorrow, we charge!”

  “Trampling our foes underfoot!” his personal guard shouted back.

  They rose from the trenches, sand and stone dripping off their battle ptes. The first buggies had made a rough turn, smming their sides into the supposedly helpless transport when it stopped, opening the side door, and Sword Saint Macarius Voidrunner desded from the fumes steaming from the inside, bringing his bck sword at the idiots. His guard formed orderly ranks, hunters firing at the buggies damaged in the mines’ explosions, and knights surging and encirg the b parties.

  The ill-fated marauders drove straight into a well-prepared minefield, and at his and, the hunters primed it. A series of eruptions fshed beh the vehicles, halting the tanks and f the lighter vehicles to close in oransport or perish with their crews. The Ice Fangs left this path open on purpose, as the buggies could’ve attempted to use their potent ons at the distance, raking in a few kills, but when given a potential ce to save themselves, the fools took it.

  Defenders rose behind the knights, smming their shields and activating them. Their sheer bulk protected the hunters. Hunters, masters ed bat, and expert ambushers—these brave sons and daughters of his household—fought in the open today, firing rocket unchers at the trying to retreat wagon. Their heat-abs camoufge cloaks successfully cealed the group from dete. The precision fire from their ser rifles disabled some ons oanks, whose crews, in a brazen show of loyalty or fear, moved ahead of the primary target.

  “Wolf Hag Arruda is trying to tact us,” said Knight Captain Osiris, a leader of the honorable Summer Guard.

  “Keep our inferior cousins in the dark for now; we have work to do,” Leonidas asked, closing the gap on a tank.

  The rabble that Ashbringer called soldiers had charged from the city at the news of a transport’s ge, of course. Leonidas chose not to disclose anything to them. What’s the point? The Order and the Wolf Tribe shared a on aor, but only one group received superior intelligence.

  “They won’t like it,” Osiris warned.

  “It’s not my fault that our pitiful family is so gullible,” Leonidas sang.

  His tactical a predicted the possibility of a raider’s attack, and rather than stretg his forces, the sword saint decided to solve the problem at its root. A simple feint was enough to draw the ignorant masses out into the open, and the transport’s crew masterfully executed their own maneuver, leading the raiders into the ambush area. As he had expected, a pack was dispatched to retrieve their lost mb, and this helped vihe vilins of the truth of their good fortune. Of course, Leonidas had sidered the potential damage to his allies, and well-pced shield geors spared his kin from harm, though the wolf hag might not appreciate her pack crashing into an energy wall. Then again, who cares what the inferiors think?

  The tanks targeted them; the disgusting opy of stacked automatic turrets oowers spat fire, and Leonidas eyes fshed, adjusting to the ate of being. His perception of time sharpened, allowing him to see individual bullets in the air. Sounds muffled, stretg so that he could pick up even the slightest clues, orienting himself freely by hearing alone. He pushed his shield forward, breaking through the ining wave.

  Osiris never gged behind, setting an inspiring example even for his sword saint. The captain exhaled, entering the same state, and sshed his curved bde, biseg a shell in two. His on turned into a blur, sending bullets flying, and his keen observatioed him to the accumution of energy in the psma ounted in pce of the main on.

  A burst of energy raced through Leonidas’ cws. He rammed his shield into the ank, lifted it off the ground, and sshed, opening the vulnerable belly. The disgraced mae toppled to the side; its searing hot shot missing its mark and hitting a stone formation. Not giving the panicked crew another ce, Leonidas stepped inside and hacked at the criminals. A line appeared oerrified loader; the energy of his cws had already ruptured the man’s brain even before his body fell apart. His shield turhe tank’s captain into a stain, and a flick of his wrist sliced an arm holding a grenade uncher in two. The rest of the raiders screamed in panic, raising their hands in surrender.

  “Foul animals.” Leonidas turned off the power to his gau, fighting against the disappoi in his chest.

  The Summer Guard had already hollowed out the ank, and Osiris took care of the third. His bde bisected the psma ons, and the knight captain gracefully jumped off the tank as its crew frantically tried to fire them, regardless. The geor feeding the advanced on shorted out, and the psma remained in the barrels, overheating the mounted ammunition of nearby ons aing the tank’s tower on fire.

  “Bravo! This is how you wage a battle!” Leonidas’ ughter boomed over the battlefield, lifting the spirits of his troops.

  Ihan five mihe enemy’s heavy armor was gohe noble Macarius and his guard had turhe tables on the b party and taken prisoners. Raised by the Twins themselves, the Ice Fangs possessed an unparalleled knowledge of strategy, teology, and coordination. They are Ravager’s true heirs! The ander should never have trusted the vulgar and inpetent bck-furred brutes…

  A shell struck the left fnk of his forces, killing two noble knights and spttering the remains on the bleached rock. Only their legs tried to stand defiantly before falling as well. Another shell shook the rear of his forces, killing three hunters and mortally wounding a defender.

  The wagon. It defied expectations, making its way through the minefield. Explosioroyed its treads, but the maa had a surprise in store. It hovered a meter above the ground, thanks to a es crew had ibalized from somewhere. Laser beams and rockets spttered against the energy shield that encapsuted the wagon. Shells and mortar rounds passed freely through it, while the trembling in the air blocked ining projectiles.

  “Sword Saint!” the roar of Wolf Hag Arruda joihe unications.

  “This is not a time for bickering…”

  “The transport! The damn thing is targeting the transport! By the Abyss, spread out, you simpletons!” Arruda cut him off.

  Leonidas ighe insult as he realized the potential disaster. The wagon’s engines moved it backward, and its main ons prepared to fire on the army’s transport. Macarius’s bde sliced, creating a dark pilr beside him. The sword saint jumped, calg the trajectory of the on aimed at the pilot’s . His bde sliced through the empty air, and another bck void pushed back the sunlight, swallowing the shell whole and spilling it through the first portal onto the ground.

  Leonidas hurried to the wagon, using his aral shield to weather the damage. It was not a piece of teology crafted by the on smiths of his house, but a gift from the Twins themselves after young Leonidas defiantly defended a small i the Malformed. Energy geors built into his shield created a shield bubble that deflected ining shells.

  Wolf Hag Arruda and her scouts reached the edge of the shield surrounding the behemoth and dug underh it, using their cws to climb onto the walls. Paws tossed acid grenades into its barrels, setting off its ammunition that rocketed and halted the wagon’s retreat. Leonidas almost closed at the shield when Arruda reached for one of the remaining ons, uanding too te that she was out of grenades. Undauhe Wolfkin pushed the on upward, and the arc of the shot missed the transport. The woman cried in pain as the recoil and the meism trolling the on broke her arms, ruining her power armor and pushing the brave woman’s elbow bones out.

  “You dare?!” Leonidas’ voice shifted into a howl. This was supposed to be a victory! No ally was meant to be hurt today, aainly not their kin.

  He embraced the frustratioing it fuel his might. His cwed gauruck the shield, trating more force than a siege artillery barrage on a single point, and colpsing the energy long enough for him to eheir cousins often teased the inferior cws of the great Ice Fangs, and Leonidas designed his on to remedy that deficy. Lightning danced across the great talons of the gau, burning its way through a hatch.

  Inside was a corridor, already filled by the frightened raiders in a pointless attempt to stop him. Leonidas paid them little heed, battering those standing in his path with his shield and slig and dig the rest. Two autoons on the sides of his neck spat bullets, pierg a raider’s heart before the man could use his grenade uncher.

  The frustration intensified as more is, symbolizing the life signs of his troops, went dark. Sweet Malerata, a young and somewhat shy twenty-five-year-old girl who had just left the squires’ ranks, breathed no longer. She was his great-great-granddaughter. The death of one of his retives infuriated the sword saint close to experieng a genuine rage, aormed toward the probable location of the aer, tearing through the doors of the partments and ending the resistance.

  He arrived at exactly the tawdry se he expected. Food and drink were strewn about the room that taihe terminals belonging to various vehicles, ranging from a train trol pao the navigation system of a pne. A mutated figure rose from the dais; slitheriacles caught the bullets fired at the cyclopoid head. The leader’s single humanoid head lifted a mace the size of a cusack, raising it for an overhead strike as the tentacles propelled back his projectiles at a bullet’s speed.

  “No courtesy!” Leonidas snarled, denying the honorable duel. His cws left burning trails ierminals and people as he closed the hall and opehe leader’s oversized belly, spilliinkirails. “Surrender or die!”

  The mutant spat something in the unknown nguage; her mace fell off her hand, and a grenade slid from underh her mismatched suit of armor. The sword saint ighe explosion’s fsh and turned around, finding several surviving and injured raiders.

  “You.” A talon crag with energy pointed in aor’s face. “Shut down the ons. Or else.”

  ****

  “What did you think you were doing out here, pompous fool?” Wolf Hag Arruda growled into Leonidas’ face.

  Around them, Voidrunners and Summersprings were busy binding the raiders and tending to the wouhe hunters spread out, accepting the scouts’ help and f a defensive circle in case of an ued attack. The transport’s repair crew cursed uheir breaths, patg up the holes aarting the geor.

  Happiness blossomed in his weary heart at the news of Malerata’s survival. The girl had lost everything below her waist, but a Wolfkin had tackled her, saving her life from the bst that destroyed the hunter’s lighter helmet. She rested iransport, unscious and awaiting an honorable retirement. Leonidas po pay for the ed ans himself, then ence his distaive to pursue her dreams of being an engineer and living a happy and prosperous life in the service of the Order. She had done her bat duty.

  Arruda refused treatment for her wounds. Bones protruded from the cracks in her armor, and the woman clearly suffered, using ao keep her mind clear. Her scout removed the woman’s helmet and neck guard, and her yellow eyes sed Leonidas’ muzzle, no doubt searg for weakness.

  “Wolf Hag Arruda, this is no way of speaking…”

  “It’s all right, Osiris.” Leonidas smiled magnanimously, not holding it against the poor creature. It wasn’t her fault for being born into an inferiroup. “We are tired and injured. I will overlook your repeated insults, child, but I insist you watouth when speaking to a superior officer. Perhaps savagery is acceptable among your kind, but let us maintain some civility, shall we? How about prostrating yourself before a grandson of the legendary Twins themselves?”

  “What. Were. You. Thinking. Sword Saint?”

  No, obviously they will not settle their differences peacefully.

  “My job.” Leonidas sighed tiredly, addressing the boorish woman. “We kept you off the s to avoid your typical…agitation. This operation required a touch of perfe.”

  “Your job was to escort the refugees, ensuring the speedy evacuation process, Sword Saint. Your as nearly caused death or injuries to the crew. We risk having dead people at our paws…”

  “We risk nothing of such, savage!” Leonidas exploded, leaning in to press his forehead against hers. How dare she presume to know better than an Ice Fang? Such impudence, such arrogao even suggest that he didn’t know best! “The risk I took was calcuted. We equipped the crew with first-css survival suits. The natives have lived here for decades; they st another day or two. Would you rather we leave the raiders untouched so they rape and pilge to their hearts’ tent?”

  “Warlord Onyxia had decimated them once, Sword Saint. She would do so again if you had followed your orders instead of pying a hero. This…” Arruda tried to raise her arm but failed. The woman swung her arm instead, shog him with such disregard for her health. Her limb made a disgusting g sound and briefly poi the deceased Ice Fangs. “Looks like casualties to me. None of them had to die. Warlord Onyxia is an expert at wiping out raider bases without unnecessary losses.”

  “How quaint. The way you lot fought iy had imparted an opposite impression on me. Were it not for the great Ravager, your kind would have caused a catastrophe through your inpetence.” Leonidas heard Macarius cough and uood that he had gooo far. He let his frustratiohe better of him. “My si apologies, Wolf Hag Arruda,” he told the stiffened woman. “I will ehat your pack is properly credited for today’s invaluable assistance.” Immaturity. Vanity. Leonidas despised admitting it, but his immature behavior had offended everyone, once again proving that the Twins were right to warn their children against giving in to their urges. The Ice Fangs often looked down on others, where their parents tried to teach them to appreciate the differend help guide less enlightened people toward betterment. “Your remarks tained a grain of truth. heless, the transport will be underway again ihan an hour, and the rest of the repairs be done en route. And we have just requisitioned another vehicle to assist in the evacuatioing the loss of time.”

  “You ’t be serious, Sword Saint.” Arruda sized up the h wagon.

  “But I am. We have spare treads ba the city. e, let us treat your wounds.”

  “Bah! I ain’t paid enough tue. A truck is a truck, Sword Saint. This much is true. We’re leaving.” Arruda tried to turn to her pack when Leonidas took her by the shoulder.

  “This wasn’t a request, Wolf Hag.” He chopped her on the neck, using just enough force to knock her out, aly caught her falling body. “My word,” he addressed her pack, ign the paws reag for shardguns. “Wolf Hag Arruda has fainted in the line of duty. Her bravery and dedication deserve the utmost respect. As a superior officer, I will temporarily take and of your unit until we rendezvous with the noble Ashbringer. Glory to the brave soldiers of the Wolf Tribe! Cheer to our allies!”