An ashen dome covered a wide swath of nd near Quatindor. The occupying forces, the ensved popution, and the fn borers dared to show their faces from the cover, relieved that the raging firestorm had passed. Their world became a mix of gray and dark as heavy drops of dirt rained down from above and silence filled the streets. It didn’t st long, and the methodical thud of artillery drove a ake of ay into the hearts of the people.

  Is it the Recimers? The garrison and the captives thought the same, though no one dared speak their minds. One side hoped for their arrival; the other rushed to prepare defenses, just in case. The shockwave had ripped through the town, colpsing several wrecks, and the khan in charge of the defense was busy the rubble cleared, trying to shake his troops out of their indecision. Brood Lord had gifted him the pce, and he had humbly petitiohe Merts for rebreathers for the general popution. Though he abhorred the idea of saving weaklings, they were now the source of his wealth, and the khan wanted prosperity for his modest .

  No one khe reason why the Merts had sent not only the supplies but also the medical teams free of charge.

  On the bridge, the Gilded Horde resumed their advaheir losses weren’t that great, and the survivors climbed out of the overturned engines, ughing at the incredible act, and some soldiers began to pose songs. Life was cheap oeppes, while wealth and legacies meant everything to the champions. Though siments mourhe loss of their loved ones, and borembled at the prospect of walking into another bomb field, the raiders eagerly awaited their ce for payback.

  Steel boots stomped across the ravaged ground into the veil of darkness, cheg for possible minefields, and behind them, advanced mobile artillery, firing suppressive bsts to flush any ambushers out of hiding. No one really expected to meet aance, and the first hordeman gasped in surprise as a shadow passed her, opening her belly all the way to the spinal n.

  Onyxia burst into the search parties, moving faster than a bullet; her cws mutited bodies beyond recovery. An explosion of ash announced her preseo the panicked soldiers, who fired in vain as she was already behind them, slig through their backs. Six gravity grenades dropped, exploded, and dark orbs fshed into reality, sug dozens into their ter and colpsing the bastards into wet dots.

  She huhose who tried tanize order for the officers and the clever individuals shouting ands to form a circle and stop firing blindly. These she murdered on the spot, slitting throats or splitting skulls. She spared the lesser soldiers, leaving them to bleed out on the scorched ground, their screams of despair and gurgling blood adding to the beautiful opy of horror the warlord was weaving.

  Two thrusts raised the gasping hordemen in the air, and their bullets riddled their bodies into tatters, flying past Onyxia’s disappearing afterimage. The lenses of her armor were dead. The suit itself had long since goo infiltration mode, sealing any sound from leaving its fines. She was moving too fast to be tracked by their cameras, and the dissipated heat lingering in the air made it impossible to detect her with thermal sensors. Streaks of liquid darkness covered the surface of her battlepte and fangs, blending the Wolfkin into the shadows.

  “Keon,” she said to a hordeman frozen in fear, cws raking against the woman’s skull, elig terrible screams from her panions. Terrific boasted of being the master of psychological warfare, and Onyxia allowed the girl to keep her delusions, knowing full well who the master was.

  “P-please…” yelped an enemy, throwing his rifle, and a rger man near him turned, ready to shoot the coward.

  “Zta.” Blood poured from a gaping wound in the chest, and the shooter looked at his still-beati, held in a paw in front of him. She tio kill, whispering the names of her fallen rades, sparing those who disarmed. She was a wind, stealing breaths, a specter rising from the ashes, inhuman, unseen, unfeeling, and impossible to overe.

  There will be hs worthy of song lory left for those who stand in her way. Just despair and helplessness.

  Warmth. Onyxia e, joyful despite all the deaths of her kin and citizens. It was a selfish feeling, but one she cherished. Her body had geed since she challenged Alpha at the dawn of their tribe, uhe unblinking gaze er. Everyone instinctively bowed to Alpha, reizing her superiority, but Onyxia had always sidered herself a bit of an oddity. Why should she kowtow to someone she wasn’t afraid of? She studied the pale woman, reizing the patterns of her muscles t and releasing under her skin, even stealing her medical records, hungrily ing information about the near-perfect body.

  Then it happehe two entered an a ruin in the Ravaged Lands, and their duel sted sixteen hours. Alpha’s physical strength far exceeded Onyxia’s, and the smaller woman abused the pce, hiding from sight, striking, retreating, and dodging eviscerating stabs. She had read the warlord’s body nguage, dodged and weaved iting storm of attacks, and raged herself, trying to sever Alpha’s tendons.

  Her oppo had truly etched herself into the memory; no matter the damage, she kept going, often healing the torn wounds during the openings when Onyxia had withdrawn to catch her breath. A single blow could be enough to murder the smaller woman, but that oed the younger warlord; she was thrilled to have to use every ounce of her skill to win.

  The eribe had held their breath, watg the impossible duel at first, theing bored and yelling at Onyxia to fight fairly, but she paid no attention, and even the Blessed Mother had jokingly asked if the two would like to stop and have a snad a drink. They had growled in indignation and redoubled their efforts. That split sed of frustration, an insignifit irritation, had shattered Onyxia’s tration, and she slipped.

  Alpha had seized her by the throat during an ambush, the jaws had closed, and Onyxia had heard a d the sharp pain of a torn windpipe. Then her body had vulsed, the light had left her eyes, and she had fainted. She had woken up two days ter, blinking surprisingly at Alpha’s attempts to burn her, and the two sisters had embraced. The older sister had apologized for her carelessness, and the younger sister had accepted her p the pack, satisfied that she had tried her best and lost.

  Almost dying sucked! Since her resurre, tendrils of darkness had enveloped Onyxia, as if Death itself had tried to lure the stubborn woman bato its realm. Her body no longer radiated warmth, and she had seen the disgust in her soulmate’s eyes wheouched her fishlike skin. He had never said a word, had givehe same unditional care and love as before, but she wasn’t stupid.

  At the Blessed Mother’s permission, they had left the tribe for months, mating i, and her worst fears had had been proven true with the birth of a litter. Her cubs had cried in Onyxia’s embrace, refusing her milk, frozen by her sin, and she had to ask Lacerated Oo be a wet nurse. Spirits be blessed, the only legacy of hers they shared was the thick, lush, almost silken fur so clearly visible in each of her distant desdants, maing most in Martyshkina, Anji, and Ashbrio preserve their honor, Onyxia never revealed the kinship. Except for the shamans, no one even knew of her soulmate. She had already brought indelible shame upon her precious adopted baby, and to tarnish the legacy of her biological cubs was unthinkable. Onyxia had failed as a mother.

  Lacerated Ohought her cursed, but Onyxia and her soulmate doubted it. Six times she gave birth, and not one of her cubs was borhless. Forty boys and thirty-five healthy girls she had gifted to the Tribe. What else could it be but a blessing, a sign of the Spirits’ mercy to soothe her soul after the folly she had itted? But after her soulmate grew old and seo be culled, no male would ever look at her, repelled by the icy ess of her touch, even in the Ravaged Lands. She was a walking ghoul, and soon she had stopped g about finding a partner.

  I wish I could be warm all the time. Onyxia exhaled, saddened by the chill that crept up her spine. Nothing sted. Ashbringer had built a private furnace for her, and she snorted happily amid the crag fmes, but the moment she stepped outside the square structure, the icy tingliurned.

  She ducked, letting the bullets fly above her, and sprang into a, flying nimbly between a hordeman’s legs without even toug the man. A plea for merd cries to his gods left his lips as she rose behind him, and he soon died as the air ceased to flow from the severed parts of his body. The soldier fell apart in pieces, and she picked up his grenade belt, fastening it around her waist. The decapitated head crashed into a rocket fired by the soldier, and they both disappeared in the ensuing explosion.

  The bck arm swung through the rising wall of fme, blinding the crawling soldier, and the whistle of approag shells alerted Onyxia that the artillery had finally taken note of her age. A single lunge carried her away from the wounded, and a shell fttehe man. The warlord zigzagged across the battlefield, her legs beating up rge swaths of ground and ashes, furthering the chaos as dying troops halluated ghosts and reyed false coordio their allies. The artillery crew, believing a whole squad of Recimers had attacked them, began firing blindly, pig off their own troops.

  Satisfied, Onyxia crept past the enemy lines, keeping her snout almost kissing the ground, her nimble fingers easily carrying the wide warlord to her desired target. Ten self-propelling siege artillery tanks, adorned with the golden, world-dev teeth. Loaned by the Khatun to her two subordinates, Brood Lord and Iron Lord, the soldiers sworn to Mad Hatter’s khaganate operated them. Veterans of numerous quests, they alone refused to fire blindly, and aru wrought upon them would cast a doubt on the Khatun’s leadership.

  Which meant that Janine’s bold pn would be all the easier to carry out.

  “There!” A hordeman rose from the open hatch, pointing at Onyxia, dedug her location without error. He removed his visor, his eyes shining green. “Bury the interloper!”

  “For Mad Hatter and to the world’s end!”

  Onyxia smirked, anticipating the barrels leveling at her, and dove to the left as the front ptes of the artillery tank exploded, sending shards of steel flying at her. Some kind of reactive pting? An anti-infantry on? Ign the slig sound of the shards hitting the ruined ground, she darted forward, slipping to the soldiers guarding the vehicles. Her paws grabbed two by the ankles and dragged them uhe belly of a beast. Cws dug uheir armpits, drawing desperate screams, and she disappeared, cutting a path through a tinuous track.

  Gunfire roared behind her as the guards assumed she was still uhe vehicle, but she focused on the d with the green eyes. Onyxia threw up a grenade.

  “As expected,” he said as the ptes of his vehicle exploded outward, blowing the grenade away. Then he blinked, felt the heavy paws on his shoulders, and tumbled ihe warlord nding on top of him. She had already circled the vehicle, using the fsh as a distra.

  The hordeman lunged with his knife, missing the swaying and mog head. To their credit, the rest of the crew, six soldiers in all, had already reached for their rifles, not panig in the slightest and ready to fight. Onyxia took the stolen grenade belt, pulled out every safety pin, scattered them around, and stabbed the man in the neck, then bounced off him and into the main on. A single blow sent the shell flying from the barrel, and the warlhed as he heard the eruption behind her. Grenades detonated shells and ruptured the engine, adding its deadly potency to the ongoing explosion.

  The impact caught her and pushed her up the barrel, her armor scraping against the narrow fines and tongues of fme lig at her exposed cheeks. The walls of the vehicle welded and burst, uo tain the destru as the warlord was ejected from the on, calg her move. One down, but she noticed the officer’s robustness after she had inteo break his arms. No risk, slow and steady…

  Pain struck her back, widening her dim eyes. Not a shot. She was thrown out of the trajectory and nded face down in the ashes, rolling away from the mae gun fire and searg for shadows. But there was not a single one nearby, and her own stretched out, reag farther as the light engulfed her.

  Iorm of the artificial night, a living sun desded to the ground, banishing fear and uainty. The newer had the appearance of a burnt victim; his darkened skin g to his bones, cracked in pces, spewing gleeful fire that formed a reddish mantle around the man. He had no lips; his ember eyes sunk deep into the smiling skull; there was o be seen, not even holes iorhat covered the head. A soft crack apahe newer’s quick jerk of the neck, and he walked toward the warlord, leaving burning footsteps in his wake.

  “I’ve had friends and rades who got caught in that explosion of yours,” the man spoke calmly, his voice still resembling the rumble of a swollen mountain e of magma ready to erupt. “Pay up.”

  I ’t get a read on him. Onyxia watched the man cautiously, uo detect the slightest movemeh his leathery, dry skin. It stretched and broke occasionally during wide strides, causing the man no disfort. Freaky.

  She jumped back, pnning to find cover in the darkness, and the man broke from the spot, red wings spreading behind his back. He soared into the air and nded like a et, sending waves across the ground and knog Onyxia off her feet. His hand struck, aiming to strike and grab her throat, and she twisted her body, weaving away the blow and hearing a hiss of fmes against her ptes as the arm grazed her. The oozing darkness of her body retreated, hiding in the joints, and she tered, stabbing at the grinning skull.

  The cws stopped just short of his missing nose as the warlord’s eyes caught sight of lines f on the head. He reshaped the skull, each bone and piece of skin turning into perfect pieces of a bear trap that tried to snap at her wrist. Taking a step back, Onyxia found her footing and raised a paw, hearing the crack of the reshaping arm. The hordeman’s arms broke apart to bee long, curved swords.

  Wind blew into the approag soldiers as the two champions faced off, fming bdes against armored paws. Cws raked the darkened surface, tearing away ks of flesh; bdes scratched armor, melting it in pces. What is he? A structor type? A regeor? Onyxia pondered, blog a stab and immediately dodging the returning bde. She had sliced the man’s wrist to the bone, and he didn’t even flinch, regaining his skull. His mouth opened, sh her with fme too weak to melt the armor. It was a triake her dodge into a stab. That much she could read, and his attacks slipped off her vambraces or were deflected by the cws.

  His flesh moved, closing the damage and fusing her even further. Sure, meors eventually developed a high tolerance for pain so as not to be distracted in battle, but they still felt something. They frowned, jerked, spasmed, or twitched depending orike. Here, she stabbed him right iernum, and it caused io not to linger. She decided, gng at the approag troops areating artillery.

  The fming hordeman stepped into her range, ign the slice that ripped his head off and ahat burrowed into his chest, tearing off scorched ribs. His left arm morphed bato a fist and smmed into Onyxia with enough force to dent part of her armor into her stomach, f her to cough up blood. Strong. Nah, not worth the risk. His fist opened and sshed upward, almost nig her exposed snout with the smoking cws. Leaning back, she kicked at his torso and sprang away.

  A wall of fme rose in her path at the man’s snap, and Onyxia rolled through it, ging dire to avoid the shots to her back. An explosion threw her to all fours as the fming man crashed into the fiery veil carried by his wings. His eyes fshed, betraying surprise as Onyxia hurled her emergency gravity gre the bastard, and she noticed a tiny sphere, ner than a palm, streak away from the burning body as it began to disie uhe pull of the gravity vortex. Bed bones and fire spread from the sphere, answering the warlord’s question as to the nature of her enemy.

  structs. She headed east, summoning her HUD and sharing the information with her sisters. No wonder she had failed to predict the man’s movements; every part of him, except for the orb, was created by his power. An impressive bination of fire manipution, transformation, and matter creation grafted onto a single individual. Let the egghead examihe material, but she was willing to bet that destroying the tiny orb would put ao the bastard.

  Onyxia slowed her escape when she heard the crackle of fmes heading south, stopping, then heading north. He lost her. She smmed to the ground, her heartbeat silenced long enough for the st of dark cover to show from under her armor. She disliked relying on that inplete power of hers, preferring to trust her own abilities, for it often atuated form and made her stand out on a horizon, but in the current situation, covered in fkes of ash, it served as adequate camoufge.

  Something stirred in the sand, piquing her curiosity. She approached the source of the noise and noticed badly burned and torn pieces of the Oaksters’ nd train. Most of the golden foliage and purple paint had disappeared from the hull, but her nose caught the familiar st mark, and she halted, listening to the crawling of a small body struggling uhe falleal, climbing stubbornly to the surface. The warlord assumed it was a surviving i when a pale, soft tip of a wormlike appendage pushed up from the ashen surface, its skin parting at the top to form a hungry mouth that swallowed and spat ash. The thing thrashed about, searg blindly for something to eat, and Onyxia smiled, reag for her belt.

  “Would you look at that?” she whispered, pulling out a small ration and shoving it into the mouth. A series of needle teeth grew from the pate, and gastric juices frothed, dissolving the ground paste into nutrients. “Regional anders are impressive!”

  She paused, deg on her course of a. There was no guarahat Lugal-marada would have his memories, or if he would even be able tain his body. The officer had seion, but nothing too impressive. Her inal pn was to haunt the advang forces of the Gilded Horde, pig at them from their weakest point and maybe killing that fme guy now that she thought she knew his weakness. This would require leaving the officer here, and his ces of survival…

  Are noing. No point in lying. Admit it, Onyxia, you want to rescue the man and are searg for excuses. She folded her arms and hen picked up the tentacle. Her little girl had traveled to Iterna to study medie because she wao help patients get better. Well, the warlord was more on the side of improving society through social engineering, whivolved sughtering the state’s ehan physical treatment, but she could honor her daughter’s memory by at least trying to save her ally. Besides, she risked attrag Mad Hatter’s attention and losing her life.

  So off to Houstad she went. She’ll murder her share of scum when they get there.