Cw met steel in a burst of sparks, and the resulting collision pushed the air aside, briefly trapping Kaisa in a vacuum prison. Widowmaker held one arm behind her bad attacked in a swashbug style, a sort of mixed martial arts version of onized bat. Her blows were sful and mog, yet skillfully executed without adhering to any single known dueling form. Sshes to stabs, stabs to parries, and back to sshes again, with the addition ing the bde across the arms to damage armor. The grenade uncher fell, split in two.

  And Kaisa faced this storm, parrying swings ing from different angles, exging over thirty attacks per sed, holding her own in a match where a single misstep meah, her heart pounding with excitement. She abahe theatrics, stig to a mundane and basic style of parrying and tering, and Widowmaker was the first to retreat, lig a deep gash on her that exposed her por teeth with an impressively long, throbbing purple tongue, her eyes squinting with pleasure.

  Arruda’s murderer took the sword in both hands. Names.

  Why are you always in such a hurry? Ygrite’s words came to Kaisa’s mind as she blocked the thrust r through the air. The impact shook her cws and reverberated in her forearms, stopping at the elbows. Great! Still evenly matched. The tip of the sword escaped the cw vise, raced skyward, chasing the nose aing an equally swift ssh, recoiling and then stabbing at Kaisa’s knees as fast as quicksilver. Double swipes stopped both attempts, sending the bde far away, and it returned in a wide arc, resuming the dance.

  The wolf hag could barely see half of the ining attacks and still blocked or parried them all. Kaisa had never had a close bout in her life; it was always either dominating, which was most of the time, or being dominated, and the sole middle ground was her py fight with Anji, in which they both held back, enjoying, bonding, and learning at the suggestion of her therapist. Instind releraini her alive. The body moved on its own, itg not only to match but to surpass an oppo, and the guiding mind refused to lie down and die, tempered by the resolve of responsibility for those under her and.

  You always act like you are trying to impress someone. Who are y to impress? Alpha had visited the pits once, back when Kaisa wasn’t a monster yet, and the t hill of might asking questions scared the young girl into mewling. No, it’s not useless. The timing was wrong. Anji had told her after she had sulked about how the Supreme Shaman had failed miserably with Kaisa’s ultimate move against Janine. Keep it simple. You are a Wolfkin; you do not rush or impress; you proted kill. The right move at the right time, cub. Kaisa remembered Janine’s lessons.

  Simple? Let’s overwhelm her! Kaisa grinned, mirr Widowmaker’s smile, and leaned in, stepping into the khan’s zone, f her to go on the defehe closer you were, the less room there was for the eo swing a on and apply more force to a ssh or stab. Her own o longer hurt from blog, and she took a step ahead, advang through the cloud of sparks flying around the two batants.

  “Wondrous. Don’t stop. Show me more, and I’ll do the same. I am not afraid to die,” Widowmaker said.

  “Good. Because I have reasons to live for,” Kaisa replied.

  “Silly girl,” Widowmaker ughed, unmindful of a apping in front of her face. “Have you fotten we are at war?”

  Right! Kaisa spotted a blur approag her head areated, taking a m star aimed at her head onto the vambrace. The blow dehe armor, and the sharp spike cut a crack to the hordeman’s approving grunt, and he pressed on as lightni from his on and died on the resistant surface of her suit. Kaisa twisted her arm, slipping the blow off, and stabbed at the man’s visor. Her cws ged, stopped by the ft of the sword, and the return swing drove the wolf hag two paces back. Widowmaker, fnked by two hordemen chased after her, ready to end her.

  All is fair in love and war. And I am not alone!

  Shards flew from under her arms, fired by her family, and the hordemen took them on their shields, while a flicker of Widowmaker’s wrist directed her sword to collect three armor-pierg projectiles, and she sent them back, aiming at Kirk’s head. As if! Kaisa swatted them aside and resumed her advance, merging her family’s vision with her own. Not alone. Broken and refed. There was a future waiting for them, and she would cut a path right through that arrogant thing’s body if she had to.

  They faced off in their own private er of the battle, three against four, pag bad forth in a never-ending burst of a. Widowmaker’s bde swung at Kaisa’s sister, and Kaisa grabbed the bde, almost paying with her ribs as one of the hordemen closed in. Her brother fired at the bastard from closer range, and Widowmaker again saved her minion by swinging at Kaisa’s brother. Once again, the wolf hag blocked the strike, and the khan danced back, rescued from shots by the tower’s shields, which had been crushed into crete.

  Left, right? Kaisa thought feverishly, waiting for Widowmaker’s move. Up! The khan jumped, spotted by Kirk’s lenses, her desding sword aimed between Kirk’s eyes. Kaisa kicked to eviscerate the khan as she elbowed the sword away, but Widowmaker nded on her men’s shoulders a go of the on. Her hands closed around the wolf hag’s awisting Kaisa to the side and pnting her on the bridge, right ih of the ining m star’s blow.

  Kaisa rolled to the side, g at the man’s legs and tearing muscles through a joint in his armor. Widowmaker was already leaping from her soldiers, kig the falling sword bato her hand and f a blurry sphere of sshes around herself, defleg every ining shard from herself and her allies. She closed in, the sword sweeping in a horizontal arc to decapitate the siblings.

  A ball of fury crashed into Widowmaker, knog the air out of the woman’s lungs despite her armor. Her legs scraped the surface, leaving wide marks; her sword danced, blog the relentless onsught of sshes from every side and seeking to damage tendons.

  Never. Never had Kaisa timed her secret attack so well; never had she gone so far and so . She hadn't even realized it at first; she had simply moved to save her family, striking much faster and precisely than before, and still Widowmaker had denied her victory by stepping into her path and f the headbutt. Kaisa’s pn was to run past the woman and take her arm, but the current situation satisfied her as well. She dragged the monster away from her family, away from the battle, ramming her with the forehead, looking through the soldiers’ leo attaever parrying, f the khan to stay on defehe whole time, and sparks glittered around them like stars.

  The sudden stop caught Widowmaker off guard, even more than the sweeping kick that khe khan off her feet. Kaisa jumped, dodging the whipping blow aimed at her ankles, and ended up above her enemy. This was it. An ideal position for a killing blow, and she thrust down at the nape of Widowmaker’s neck.

  Her eyes widened as the bde blocked the stab. The woman’s skills were incredible, her every movement filled with liberated strength as if her limbs were released springs. The khan nded on her left shoulder and rolled away, cutting a wide scar across Kaisa’s chest armor, and the wolf hag retreated, her back to the south.

  Widowmaker sshed, and pain gripped Kaisa’s eye. Air. The edge of the sword never reached her; she was stronger and faster than the khan, but the differen skill and her own immaturity brought about a ge in their battle. She knemaker was quiough to create waves of propelled air, strong enough to push even fmes aside, so why didn’t she pay attention to watch out for such a teique!

  There is no point in self-bme. Kaisa almost reached the edge. For this mistake, I five myself. Her left eye wasn’t w, narrowing her field of vision. It was still there; she hadn’t lost the eyeball, but the arc of air cut her skin a little and damaged her vision. What would the granny do…

  The idea came to her, and Kaisa smiled into the face of the charging Widowmaker. Back to the south. Left eye. Why, Janine wouldn’t fight at all! She would block! Widowmaker unched an overhead ssh, no doubt pnning how to catch the wolf hag after a dodge. But the ft of the bde was caught between the palms, and Kaisa smiled fiercely as she struggled to keep the edge at bay in su unusual position.

  War was a collective endeavor. Sure, champions often turhe tide of battle, but even a warlord would eventually fall, and a small tribution could ge the course of a war. From the dawn of their existence, humans baogether to overe trials, and Kaisa surrehe idea of winning on her own arusted her life to her family, who had already fihe hordemen. The oh the crippled leg fell first, and his panion soon joined him.

  Wide eyes betrayed Widowmaker’s surprise as the first shard kissed her cheek, passing through the flesh to the other side, scratg the openih. The khan spun, twisting the bde free, sshing at Kaisa’s knees, and parrying the ammunition aimed at her. Panic led to an adrenaline rush that gave her an impressive burst of strength, catg the Wolfkins pletely off guard, and if it weren’t for her armor, Kaisa’s kneecaps would have been dusted.

  What does it take to defeat her?

  “Aw, guys...” growled and mused Widowmaker, anger aement mixed ione, her eyes narrowed, her gaze trag everything. “Couldn’t you st five minutes? My me mbs to be sughtered.”

  “Then they should flee or surrender,” snarled Kaisa, advang in the whirlwind, the shards fired by her family drumming against her pte. “Otherwise, death.”

  “Death indeed, but…” Widowmaker leaned back, dodging a swing at her nose, her head bleeding from several stuck shards. “Not for me. You should sider surrendering.”

  Blood spshed in the front rows of the Wolfkins. A scout and a warrior lost their arms; the speed of the cut overloaded their cameras. A punch followed, crumbling the warrior’s ium into the back of her helmet, breaking her ned jerking her head back. The scout barely had time to open her jaws for a bite; a headbutt cracked her chest pte, sending broken boo rupture ans. Another khan drew himself up, his helmet in the shape of a tusked boar, the dim lenses of his helmet whirling.

  Svetaker, one of the bastards who had wounded Packs Janine and Ashbringer, swatted the Wolfkins out of his way, swinging his cleaver zily. His elbow knocked Sheeren aside; one blow nearly knocked a male off the bridge, and his cloak of fyed skin fpped behind the man as he advaoward the APC.

  Shardguns fshes illumihe man, hundreds of metal spikes sunk deep into his heavy ptes, turning the man into a weird version of a bipedal pore, and he paid little attention to any of it, killing or beating aside those trying to bar his iable passage, and the hordemen followed, denying the Wolfkins an opportunity to close ranks and spreading further chaos of the melee.

  Why? Is he after the wounded? Kaisa’s hesitation allomaker to retreat and hide behind her own vehicle, disappearing from the fray. Svetaker sshed at the APC, slig through its hull, and thrust a hand inside, reag not for a wounded wolfkin but for an rown fat boy inside.

  How did he know? When the children told her about the stalking creep who noticed their every move and found them iown's ruins, she thought they were hysterical. His visage hauhem during the brief time they slept, and a wounded officer donated his p the evacuation to the children, choosing to try his lu Hunter’s Den. A betrayal? No, an idiotic suggestion. Still, they were in a carrier; he had no way of seeing them!

  “No one escapes Svetaker.” Kaisa heard as she ran back, her heart pounding with that they had no oo stop another khan of Widowmaker’s level who didn’t disregard basic prote.

  “Then I’ll be the first, sucker!” The kid ughed as the steel fingers closed around his head.

  A loud crack reached her ears, filling her with fear and crushing guilt for failing to protect a civilian. But instead of spilling blood and brain matter, the child’s body vanished into the air, and Svetaker roared in anger, shoving the APC aside and lunging after two tiny figures runni.

  “The fuck are you doing here, Jay?” yelled the unharmed fat boy. “I told you I lead the freak away from everyone! You should have stayed and hid!”

  “Screw you, T!” snapped another kid, helping his friend run. “What we start together, we end together!”

  “You’ll end up on my cloak, you misbegotten, cheating cockroaches!” Svetaker was gaining on them, saved from the fire as the Wolfkins were worried about killing children by act.

  He pursued them, a giant chasing mice, his legs tossing wreckage aside, sending broken cars flying, and shaking the ground. T screamed and stabbed himself in the arm with a pocketkears welled up in his eyes, and a perfect copy of the boy climbed out of his baot even tearing his jacket or shirt. Another fat boy ran to the side, but Svetaker ignored him, his tusked helm gring at the two kids.

  It ged into a blur as a Wolfkin of parable size to Kaisa slid to his legs, apanied by her refle in a suit covered in engraved letters. The two grabbed the sver’s legs from under him, pnting the bastard into the ground, and one fired a shardgun into his back while the other stabbed him mercilessly in the back. A roar of unhinged rage left the man’s dynamics. He shed out, smming Anissa and Impatient Oo the ground, and rose to his feet, delivering a knee kick to the wolf hag’s stomad knog away the dodging Impatient One.

  He crept closer to the children through the resistance, iable and merciless, a mass of death, his fiwitg with the o tear and break. Jay stood defiantly in front of T, g his small fists and blinking tears of horror. Kaisa speared a hordeman in the back, saving her soldiers, her eyes on the big bastard’s back against all reason, her family c her own rear, but she was far, so far away, and Anissa and Impatient One could not stand against Svetaker in open bat.

  As if answering her prayers, a line of metal struck past Jay and T’s heads, nding squarely into Svetaker’s groin and stopping his approach food. Another kick to his helmet knocked him back, and a rger wolfkin stepped past the kids, eyeing the sver through her gray lenses.

  “Puny creature!” Soulless One ughed. “Now you face a butcher maiden!”

  “You are…” Jay swallowed.

  “Hey, it’s that furry lunati Houstad!” T ughed.

  “I promised to be yuardian, right?” the shaman said. “As long as I stand, no harm will e to you. The spirits have decred his life forfeit! Do you hear their indignation, mooday you fall, all the way to the bottom! And I am a duit of their will!”

  “Divine or mortal, it matters not,” the khan rose, missing a tusk, and the swing of his cleaver drove Impatient One away. “No one cheats Svetaker and lives. None!”

  Kaisa let out a howl of joy and sshed at another hordeman’s throat, blinking in surprise as sparks flew into her snout, and the man was unharmed. She leaned back, dodging the bde, and a kick hurled her aside.

  “Told you, my me mbs,” said Widowmaker. She had sneaked close in the chaos of battle and unched her strike. “Faeone your own size!!”

  “Sure,” Kaisa answered, dodging an overhead ssh. “Drop dead!”

  “Good idea! Do that!”

  Howls filled the field, and the Anissa pack came out in full for the east side, running on all fours to join their wolf hags as fresh reinforts showed from the smoke cloud on the western part of the bridge. The Horde and the Recmation Army closed in melee, filling the air with the snaps of bohe tear of flesh, the cracks of cables, the barking of guns, the whines of twisted metal, and the gasps of the dead and dying. In the ter of it, Svetaker ran at Soulless One, dragging his cleaver across the road and shattering crete.