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After long time. After hard struggling. To take over responsibilities forged by bounds of blood. Nothing is like being...

Chapter 40: Back home

The destroyer they had captured had been named "Lucky" in Farsi language... and it had kept faith to its name. They had had the arguable honor of being so damn close to the center of a 550 kiloton nuke, and had survived. It wasn't a feat that many persons could list in their curriculum.

The shock had been massive, though... and even after many hours, it still seemed absurd and impossible that a nuclear explosion had actually been caused. Unfortunately, the slowly dissolving, immense mushroom of dark, radioactive smoke proudly announced the absolute truth. Another evidence of it was the state of the massive warship when they entered the bay of Zangwill: the destroyer had the color of the steel, and its features were faded and confused, because all the paint that had covered the walls of the ship had been burnt away and had all but vaporized, while the steel of the hull itself had had its surface melted by the tremendous heat. Besides, the antennas, the radars, the masts that had topped the superstructures had been torn away like toys. Basically, the damage was so great that the ship (baptized officially as "Lucky" for the Northern Empire fleet) likely wouldn't have ever served actively into the fleet, barring a major crisis.

That didn't mean that the destroyer had no value for the empire: the teams of the Design department of the navy were going to take the ship to a safe port, put it in a dry-dock and all but dismantle it, piece by piece, to find out every single secret of it, its weapons, its strength, its weaknesses, its electronics.

What truly mattered, anyhow, was that they had survived and reached Zangwill in one piece. The town was, as forecasted, in the hands of the soldiers of the 7th Armoured and of the 1th Predators divisions... but its utility as a base was almost none. The RA had put explosive charges to all the cranes and the equipments of the port, and destroyed everything when they had been forced to retreat. They had also tried to sink a couple of merchant ships at the entrance of the bay, in order to prevent any ship of any kind entering and trying to dock and unload.

The project had failed, but barely because a team of swimmers from the Predators division had assaulted and captured the second large container ship before the RA could maneuver it in position and sink it in the relatively swallow waters. That had saved roughly the 50% of the width of the entrance to the bay.

The town itself was a pile of ruins and wrecks: what had not been demolished in the fights had often be purposefully destroyed by the engineers of the RA, which had tried to block all the streets by filling them with the ruins of the buildings around.

And when the engineers had been chased away or killed by the advancing Kesteven troops, the warships sailing along the coast had completed the job with their huge guns.

Zangwill was like the epicenter of a earthquake: the soldiers had no buildings to use as shelters, and they were driven away from their tasks by the needs of the population: most of the people of Zangwill was trapped into cellars and underground complexes now submerged by mountain of ruins, and had to be rescued. The others were starving to death and suffering for the almost total lack of medicines and health care.

In other words, the soldiers now couldn't continue to fight, because new tasks had become their main focus. Even now that the RA forces had been chased out of it, Zangwill continued to be an obstacle for the progression of the campaign of Kesteven's troops.

It obviously wasn't the best place where to bring the already exhausted and shocked survivors evacuated from Argolis with the submarines... But there was no time to search a safer and less war-torn port where to drop the wounded and the civilians: they were all docked in town and then the submarines submerged again as rapidly as possible, sailing back towards the island to load up a second group of persons. Luckily, in fact, the bunkers built deep into the stone as a safe refuge in case of nuclear holocaust had protected the rebels from the nuke. Of course, now that the island was plagued with a tremendously high radioactive contamination, the good reasons to rapidly bring away as many persons as possible from there had all but grown more numerous. Also because the demons continued to surge from strange portals that opened here and there without any notice, and they seemed unfazed by the terrible pollution in the air.

Nothing else could have survived on Argolis without adequate protection for the successive few thousand years, so high was the contamination.

The only good item of news of the day was the arrival of Rika's son, who had been evacuated on the submarine Revenge by the same tigress that had took care of him when Killer had spent some intimate time with the courageous Royal Marine.

Tuomas, indeed, seemed to have appreciated the short travel on board the sub... one of very few passengers that showed any appreciation for the cruise in the depths. Killer had been present, and when Rika had handed him the cub, he had gladly taken him in his strong arms. Tuomas had happily snuggled close to his chest and rested there calmly, which had amused Killer and Rika greatly. After all, the huge liger usually scared people stiff just because of his imposing look and of his icy gaze... and that vulnerable cub instead saw him like a kind of gigantic teddy bear.

The submarines had left immediately after unloading, sailing towards Argolis at full speed to embark other people to bring to safety, and a message had been prepared on the satellites of the Navy, and an Extremely Low Frequency alarm had been launched from Kesteven. The ELF signal was capable to pierce into the water of the ocean and reach the submerged submarines, but it was so slow that it was merely used to call the vessels to the surface with a combination of a few words, agreed before the mission so that they made an exact and precise sense to the crew.

Sandy and the crews of the other submarines on chase around Argolis received the alarm and went up to periscope-depth, deploying their antennas and downloading the new orders from the satellites in a couple of seconds.

With eight submarines, they would have evacuated many more person in far shorter time, after all.

It was evident they couldn't stop in Zangwill for long time. The offensive had to continue, and be rapid to maintain high the pressure over the RA units: they couldn't afford to give the enemy a chance to breathe and reorganize its forces, since the RA had more of everything, and could have crushed them with the force of numbers, if it was given enough time to gather up.

They surely couldn't turn their backs on the people of the town, though... So they had taken a risk, leaving behind a large troop of rebels and a part of the logistic vehicles of the 7th Armored Division: the Terrier vehicles and the MTRV500 designed to tow and lift and overturn damaged tanks worked perfectly well even to clean up roads and dig into the ruins of the obliterated town.

That had thinned out their lines even more... But despite that, they had rapidly acted, moving north along the coast and advancing as rapidly as possible, forcing the retreating units of the RA to abandon great amounts of heavy equipment in their run.

They had had to deal with the strategic demolitions performed by the engineers of the enemy in the attempt to slow them down... And the MTRV500 vehicles of the 7th Armored had taken the spotlight, with their extreme mobility that allowed the offensive to continue off-road without serious slowdowns even when the streets were found torn by explosive charges that had made them inoperable.

They had to fight an harsh battle on the shores of a river after the RA blew up all the bridges, and again they managed to move onwards thanks to the MTRVs, which slowly but surely crossed the water of the river thanks to their amphibious capability, firing in the meanwhile over the enemy positions on the shore. The Predators had crossed the river sitting on the hulls of the tanks, suppling their own abundant and accurate fire to rip a passage in the enemy lines.

They headed north-west towards the capital. Glacial was in sight, and they were all eager to reach it... But first, they had met on their path a town controlled by Riaku's troops. Killer and Alexis had guided a small team of Predators in for a first reconnaissance of the area, ready for the battle, and had been pleased to find out that the local garrison wasn't going to fight them.

They had had a talk with the commander of the town, and he had ensured that Riaku himself had ordered to avoid engagement with Killer's forces: the Black Lightning had promised he would have waited Alexis in the royal palace of Glacial, ready to duel with her for the future of the kingdom, loyally this time, to make up for his past errors.

Alexis, on her part, had been icy in answering that doing so he would have merely made faster and easier for her to kick his ass. And hearing her voice, and the rage vibrant in it, Killer felt just so grateful of the fact he was on her side.

Glacial was on the horizon. There were left to overcome just a few kilometers of comfortable motorway, controlled by Riaku's troops that wouldn't have acted as obstacles against them... But unfortunately, that was just the appearance of it.

The truth was that the Suicide-Maker had recently been inserted by helicopter in the area, along with a strong commando of special RA troops with the task of demolishing the motorway and block the movements of Killer and Alexis in any possible way. Part of the structures of the highway had already been compromised or blown up, and deadly explosive traps had been repeatedly reported by coffins coming to the HQ in town. Besides, of course, the number of suicides in the garrisons lined along the motorway had risen by 600% in the last three days, and it was tremendously common now to see a soldier jump for no reason down from one of the high viaducts.

Riaku's officers, though, hadn't managed to be more accurate about the current situation, since every communication had been interrupted and compromised, and the little bit of news came from courageous soldiers that went back and forth along the motorway with motorbikes and with hand-written letters in their pockets. Unfortunately, such brave attempts lately were failing most of the time... and the number of braves was dramatically falling.

Sincerely, Killer and Alexis had to agree on the fact that the poor officers they had talked to were terrorized to say the least. Vera was causing a tremendous havoc, and she seemed absolutely unstoppable. After she exterminated a whole platoon in combat, ripping every soldier apart with her twin blades, Riaku's forces had tried to take her down with the use of a squadron of Harpy attack choppers, but they had all crashed because of failures in their electronics and computer systems. The few missiles they had been able to fire before falling down like rocks, besides, pretty much went crazy and hit Riaku's own forces. The Suicide-Maker hadn't even moved from where she had been, laying on her back over her powerful motorbike, hands under her head and legs crossed resting on the handlebars.

That had marked the end of their attempts to fight Vera and her powers... And probably signed the end of the garrison tasked with the protection of the motorway, even if they weren't sure about their fate, since not even the satellites were able to look over the area without Vera's hellish powers obscuring the screens. And pretty simply, no one had the guts to go in there and find out.

"So, where is my fucking bike...? I don't have all day to waste with you guys." Alexis called, thunder-striking one unfortunate Mottram soldier with a glare as she pulled in place a thick fingerless glove of black leather over her hand, flexing her fingers idly.

She had required a motorbike to the local garrison - to be precise, unilaterally claimed the most powerful one they had got as hers - just a few minutes earlier, but she had never liked to be kept waiting.

Blue Vixen was secured on her back, and she carried her twin Desert Storm guns in holsters of leather tied to her thighs, over the tight, form-fitting black pants. She wore her usual, high-heeled combat boots, which wrapped up to past her knees, underlining the absolute excellence of her long, feminine legs. Over the belt, she only wore a thick bra of black leather, that appeared strained by her sumptuous breasts even if was reinforced with steel insertions and thick metallic chain-links that kept it together, leaving a drop-dead sight over her amazing cleavage. Other than that, her breath-catching body was bare: she only wore a black jacket of leather, open on the front and loose, save around her arms, were the sleeves appeared evidently strained by her potent musculature. Her amazing abdominals were completely exposed, and the poor soldier facing her was probably frightened even more by them, since the difference of height left him staring at her abdomen. He had no intention at all to look upwards and meet her eyes, after all... he already felt her cold gaze pierce across his skull like a sword of ice.

Luckily, in that moment a team of mechanics brought out the motorbike, and Alexis walked towards it with a snort of impatience, eyeing it over as all the soldiers backstepped quietly away from her.

It was an awesome racing monster, jet-black and built for speed, and it was also pretty massive, which anyway came handy with how tall Alexis was.

"You truly hadn't anything better than this...?" The femme fatale asked with a bit of a grimace as she approached the bike and easily straddled it. No one dared answering, but looking over them she easily concluded that the answer was no.

Alexis sighed slightly as she turned the engine on and worked the throttle expertly, drawing out a deep roar from the bike. "Fine. I'll take the She had mostly raced with GT cars when young, but she hadn't left bikes behind, and her driving ability was rivaled only by her absolute mechanic competence. She knew there were far better bikes. She did ride some of them in the past, and still had one of the very best ones back home. And such was her experience that from that roar, apparently so potent and sure, she could already tell that the settings of the engine weren't half as perfect as they seemed. She had no time to remedy, but the glare she gave to the head of the mechanic team was a clear demonstration of what kind of thoughts she had at the moment.

She touched the rifle-holster that had been fitted to the side of the bike and held out a hand impatiently, grasping the heavy, military shotgun that a trembling soldier offered and pushing it in place, before she speeded up violently and turned on the spot, rising a cloud of dust and gravel as she shot out of the parking lot, standing up on the pedals as she drove out into the street, whizzing past the long column of marching Predators and vehicles.

She reached the head of the convoy in no time, overcoming the ruined toll booth of the motorway and then stopping with a vigorous blow of brakes near a massive military 4x4. Killer was waiting, sat on the front of the massive armoured car, and he looked up calmly even as she playfully stopped the bike only when the front wheel was at less than a quarter of inch from his legs.

Nigel, who had been seating beside Killer, didn't showed the same confidence and quickly pulled his legs out of the way.

"Moron. You should know how i use these." She said as she patted the side of the potent bike, and Nigel coughed embarrassedly.

"I know. And i had no doubt you could stop in time." He countered with a slight smile. "I only had doubts about your actual wish to stop in time."

Alexis looked at him flatly for a moment, and then she produced her Joint Warriors Visor from the pocket of her jacket, wearing the small screen on her muzzle. "Ok... we have a 23% of functionality for now." She observed calmly as she turned it on. "Not much, but I'll manage to warn you on the radio about the situation along the road. I'll make sure no one gets on a mine or into an explosive trap."

"Fine." Killer nodded, then looked out in the distance towards Glacial, staring at the explosions that every now and then littered the skyline of the capital. Lately, the Mottram soldiers had told, the RA was actively trying to invade the metropolis even if it was in the hands of Riaku... and the streaks of tracing rounds of the anti-aircraft artillery climbing towards the sky from Glacial proved it. In that moment, the doors of the jeep opened and the Praetorians descended, with Pamela taking as always the lead as she walked up to her master. The white tigress bowed deeply in front of Alexis, and Killer noticed the blush on the Praetorians' cheeks as they showed their submission to the queen. It came from the fact that the five warrior females had... invented one Glacial's inexistent tradition in order to be accepted as elite guard-slaves of Killer.

In Glacial's true traditions, the Praetorians were just guards, not guards and sex slaves as they had explained to the huge male to coax him in accepting their services.

Killer ignored it at the time. Alexis, of course, no. Later, Alexis had warned Killer about the gamble she had astutely ignored at the start... but the Praetorians didn't know it. They still believed that Killer was keeping them in their charges because of Alexis's silence.

And the huge male wasn't going to admit that he kept them because he actually liked to. Hell, he had still been gambled, after all... he was going to take his little revenge.

"We'll ensure that the convoy travels unharmed." Pamela resolutely announced, and the look on the Praetorians's faces, added to the enormous weapons they carried, inspired great reluctance at challenging their determination. Nikita was grinning and playfully pulling on the triple chord of her enormous bow. The arrows it fired could easily pierce a bullet-proof vest and had enough energy to throw backwards several feet the unfortunate man hit, like it was a rag-doll. The strength needed to pull on the chords was a nice clue to the force of the bow. And Nikita could fire up to three arrows at once with great accuracy over targets grouped up.

"You bet on it." The blond mare grinned, nodding confidently as she idly played with the bow.

"If we met Vera on the way, she's mine. Stay back and don't interfere." Alexis coldly ordered, glaring a bit at each of the five warrior females until they all deeply bowed to her, ensuring their obedience to hew word.

"That includes you, lover." Alexis added with a grin, and he nodded silently. Not really with happiness, but he nodded. He knew that Alexis and Vera were rivals in the deep... And he was also aware that Alexis was fighting for her home. This battle was going to be extremely personal... and she wasn't going to accept any interference.

Alexis smiled slightly, knowing well what Killer was feeling, and she leaned forwards over the front of the bike, her hands seizing his thick, muscular chest hungrily and her lips wrapping over his as she kissed him with passion, growling deeply with the thrill and the hunger that came from the kiss. He reacted with equal hunger, wrapping his arms around her shoulders, and then stroking his hands down the leather of her jacket, feeling the muscles of her body reacting to his touch like he was sending electricity down her nerves, and he massaged his palms down her form, until he squeezed on her perfect buttocks with a hungry growl, their eyes closed as they bit each other's lips teasingly and their tongues wrestled with a ferociousness almost scaring.

"I'll make it fast." Alexis said, grinning as she hungrily lapped at the mixed salivas on her lips, tasting a drop of her own blood and one of his on her ivory fangs. "I'll kick some assess, and when I'm done, I'll crown you emperor of Glacial and I'll fuck that mega-cock of yours on the throne, in front of everyone, and I'll ride it so hard they'll feel their own legs tremble."

"Bitch." Killer grinned. "Think well, Empress, before showing your people how much i can make you purr."

"You awesome, pushy, hot bastard." She snorted, grinning as she stood tall on the pedals and worked the throttle to make the engine roar at full power. "I won't wait your lazy asses. Listen well to the radio, I'll warn you of every threat... and I'll obliterate whatever obstacle i can take off while i move."

She didn't even wait for an answer. She winked to Killer and turned the huge bike on the spot, making the wheel shriek loud and rise a cloud of smoke before she shot down the motorway like a bullet, rearing up almost vertically and whizzing in the middle of a group of Predators that cheered her stunts.

"She's such a show-off." Alexander said, grinning amusedly from where he leaned half-out of the hatch of the commander's turret of a MTRV500 Centurion Infantry-Fighting-Vehicle.

"Worse than even you, big bro." Siegfried added, grinning as he lazily leaned his back against the open doors of the infantry compartment in the back of the same vehicle, his muscular, thick arms crossed on his chest, in a pose that Killer himself assumed pretty often. Inside the vehicle, that was a mobile command center, Murray was seating at one of the communications consoles, already talking with Alexis on the line.

"Hear who's talking." Killer snorted, looking amused. "'Wyvern-junior' and 'Perfect-Prince'. We could make cartoons on you two."

"They already do on you." Alexander grumbled. "I think it's something about 'Cock-king'."

Alexis looked around herself with coldness as she overtook the blackened wrecks of what had once been mighty Harpy assault choppers. A fourth one had smashed three hundreds feet below, into the deep valley under the viaduct she was running along.

She all but zigzagged between a carpet of corpses of soldiers with the uniforms of Mottram: they had all been sliced open by deadly-sharp blades, and they had wasted a whole arsenal worth of ammo, judging from the number of cases and empty magazines on the road.

Vera had cut into their ranks like a reaper into a field of corn during the harvest.

The motorway was ghostly, crowded with abandoned vehicles of any sort... from trucks left in the middle of the lane with the doors open, to cars abandoned everywhere around, to military vehicles of Mottram which had been damaged, set on fire, or disabled in any other way.

Alexis shot past them at suicidal speed, driving with naturalness even as her mind focused entirely on the analysis of the different energies around her: the last thing she wanted, after all, was to break a tripwire, hear an explosion and find herself falling into nothingness together with the ruins of the viaduct.

"IED, in the back of the dark-blue jeep abandoned to the side of the street at the kilometer 12." Alexis coldly listed on the radio. "The rear is filled with 155 mm artillery shells and there's a press-plate on the lane that actives the bomb. I can take care of it myself."

"Affirmative." Murray answered, while he reported the IED alarm over the map on the touchscreen in front of himself. Siegfried and two more officers sat at the remaining consoles in the dark room in the back of the modified Centurion vehicle, trying to keep the communications of the division working and ensuring that every useful piece of info was distributed to every vehicle. The old tiger looked up from his screen and eyed the other flat-screens lined up along the walls: they showed the world outside, on 360°... behind them, like he was looking straight across the thick doors of the steel in the rear of the IFV, he could see the armored jeep that followed them, with Killer inside, surrounded by the Praetorians. In the back, Nigel was probably working at the control console of the remote weapon station mounted on the roof of the 4x4.

Further behind, the rest of the 7th Armored followed, in two endless rows of tanks and armored vehicles of all sorts. The Predators of the 1th division followed, either walking along the convoy to give close protection or traveling over the tanks themselves, or over trucks and vehicles they had captured.

Please, Alexis, don't miss their traps. I don't want to leave other boys on the asphalt...

Alexis speeded up and veered violently towards the jeep filled with grenades, avoiding the press-plate that had been so expertly hidden in the ground, and gritting her fangs in a cold grin as she approached the abandoned vehicle, normal and innocent in appearance, but filled with perhaps as much as half a ton of high explosive ready to detonate and rip apart any soldier in a range of several hundred meters.

She whizzed close to the flank of the vehicle and lashed out her foot, kicking outward with a roar and smashing the door of the jeep like it was made of paper. The vehicle itself, even if made even heavier by all the artillery shells, was slammed violently to the side with enough strength to smash across the guardrails and fall in the abyss below the tall bridge.

Alexis steered to the side and stood on the pedals, drawing out a Desert Storm with a fluid motion, firing from over the thick guardrail and sending a single, massive round smashing across the bodywork of the jeep and straight into one of the shells.

The vehicle exploded in midair, disintegrating into a ball of fire and a hail of slivers and fragments and wrecks on flame that fell down to the ground so far below.

"IED 1 neutralized." Alexis coldly announced, and Murray, on the other side, answered with equal, emotionless professionalism.

"Affirmative. Confirmed."

Not everything was so simple, though... The RA Commandos lead by Vera had deployed pretty much every kind of trap along the motorway. The simplest, and still cruel trap was an empty rocket-launcher tube filled up with hand-grenades activated. They didn't explode just because the walls of the tube kept the arming lever closed, much as the spring inside tried to push. The tube itself was tied to an invisible rope at the top of a street lamp, and connected to a tripwire down in the road.

A soldier tripping in the wire would have caused the tube to move and vomit out all the grenades, that would have fell down and exploded between the people beneath.

There were even modern Self-Shaped Penetrators, little bombs that, once activated, would explode creating a spear of melted, incandescent copper, firing it forwards at up to seven times the speed of sound, piercing the armor of even a battle tank.

But the worst trap that Alexis detected and announced was an abandoned tanker filled with not even gasoline, but thousands of liters of White Phosphorous, and set up to work as an immense incendiary bomb with thermobaric effect.

Was it to be detonated, the effect would have been absolutely hellish. The RA had set up a remote control, but the vehicles of Kesteven were all fitted with devices capable to interrupt and disturb the radio frequencies, cutting off the signal for the detonation... So, the RA Commandos had also been generous in setting up multiple means of activation.

Alexis described every single detail she managed to catch up... and left the work to the skilled engineers of the army, trained and specialized in that kind of tasks. And well supplied with robots designed to do the job and keep the risk for the men as low as possible.

Alexis, meanwhile, scouted ahead of the whole convoy... and as she drove down the motorway like she was racing the final of the world championship, she secretly wished to find Vera somewhere.

Sincerely, she was surprised that the Suicide Maker hadn't yet showed up... And so she all but grinned when, from a tall building to the side of the viaduct, she sensed the presence of enemy forces.

A couple of soldiers on the roof popped up from behind the parapet of the roof, RPG rockets shouldered and ready, but they found Alexis standing on the pedals of the bike, her Desert Storms already drawn out and aimed towards them, two bullets already on the way.

They fell backwards in a bloody heap before they could fire their rockets: only one of the two squeezed on the trigger with the contractions of death, and the RPG he had been aiming fired skywards, leaving a streak of white smoke behind.

Machine guns and assault rifles flashed from the windows, and Alexis grinned as she felt the pressure in the air change every time a bullet whizzed closer, seeing the asphalt explode in fragments as the rounds smashed into it and ricocheted around her.

She steered to the right, bending the bike to an impossible degree and almost brushing the road with her body as the bursts whizzed over her and whipped the road to her left. She tilted her head with a grin, letting a ricocheting bullet sail past her uselessly, and she arched her back to avoid the round of a sniper as she straightened the bike and shot between two abandoned cars, whizzing in the narrow space between the two vehicles even as the brake levers nearly screeched on the bodyworks on the two sides.

Bullets tore across the vehicle at her left like it was made of paper, smashing into the other minivan as the enemy angrily chased her on the move... but when she emerged from the two vehicles, she was grinning, her palms held towards the building and blazing with sapphire light.

She fired a barrage of small spheres of energy into the large block of flats, roaring as she sent her blows exploding into the windows and against the walls, tearing the building apart and sending the balconies raining down in fragments.

A barrage of RPGs sailed towards her even as the building imploded and crumbled into ruins, and Alexis grabbed the throttle with a hand, speeding up violently as she grinned and steered to the side, just before one of the rockets exploded in the spot, rocking the viaduct.

She bent forwards over the bike as another rocket flew wild just above her back, and then she swayed rapidly between the remaining missiles, rearing up with a cackle as she emerged unharmed from the smoke and flames of the last barrage of explosions.

An Harpy helicopter of the RA Commandos emerged from behind the tall buildings of Glacial's outskirts, turning straight towards her as it hovered and then speeded past the roofs and towards the motorway, firing a couple of anti-tank missiles at her.

Alexis grinned and speeded up the bike until the engine could give nothing more, shooting forwards as the missile acquired her... and then braking at the last second, violently enough that the bike reared up its back, standing on the front wheel.

The missile, tricked, shot in front of her and smashed into an abandoned van, pulverizing it in a hail of fragments, just as she rose her palm towards the second weapon and fired a wave of psychic force against it. The missile exploded in midair just as the Harpy passed by, but the tough chopper was unfazed by the slivers and flew straight above the lanes, the gun-turret under the nose of the aircraft turning towards the side and firing a long burst towards Alexis, as the gunner in the side door fired its minigun at her, and the soldiers around him launched a barrage of RPGs.

The bullets from the two guns tore into the ground like a blade, coming down at such rate that the tracer-rounds drew two lines of light from the chopper to the ground, like the Death Laser of the movies. The first "laser" effortlessly sawed a truck in two on its way, and Alexis first veered to the left, tricking the gunner into moving its fire in that direction, while she steered lightning-fast to shot between the two broken halves of the massive vehicle.

The cannon-turret in the muzzle of the chopper tried to follow her moves, almost drawing a S as Alexis zigzagged between abandoned cars that the gun crumbled effortlessly as it chased after her.

The RPGs smashed down into the lanes and sent the wrecks of the cars jumping up like toys as fragments of metal on flames were fired all around.

Alexis speeded up again, shooting under the belly of the massive chopper, which immediately turned on itself and tilted its muzzle downwards to fire a barrage of rockets towards her.

Explosion after explosion shook the bridge as cars and vans and trucks were destroyed, and Alexis snarled as she felt the asphalt crack beneath the bike, shooting forwards with a roar and pulling on the handlebars to jump as a large chunk of viaduct broke down and fell to the ground, one hundred feet below.

She landed the bike on the back wheel after jumping the chasm just created, snorting before she overcame once more the chopper and immediately swayed to the side as the gunner at the other door framed her and fired his own minigun at her back.

Alexis grinned as the burst missed, cutting a furrow in the road to her right, and she immediately braked the bike, bending it for a violent turn on the spot that made the wheels scream and smoke.

The gunner hesitated because of a moment of surprise, and didn't redirected his fire rapidly enough, just as the pilot didn't manage to veer away from the beam of sapphire energy incoming.

The Harpy exploded in a ball of dirty orange fire, just as a transport chopper popped up from behind a block of flats, sailing in over the motorway straight over her, the loading ramp in the back opened completely, a powerful, fire-red customized racing bike roaring on the ramp, motionless, the front aimed at the inside of the chopper, the Suicide Maker standing as she straddled the bike.

The chopper's shadow sent Alexis in the darkness for a moment as it flied above her head, low enough that, as it flied above her, Alexis could have touched it.

Alexis grinned at the stupidity of the thought. Why touch it when you have a sword?

Blue Vixen flashed out of the sheath on her back with such rapidity that the move of her hand from the handlebar to the handle of the sword went completely missed on the eye.

It was merely a flash of sapphire light, and then sparks of metal against metal as the blade was pierced across the belly of the chopper, cutting it open in a straight line, from muzzle to tail, as Alexis squeezed the trigger in the handle and emptied a magazine of rounds inside the chopper, a savage grin on her features as the blade ripped free from the tail of the aircraft.

The chopper swayed ahead of her, flames erupting from one of the two engines on top, which had been reached by her bullets, and the transport helo immediately lost power, dropping violently down for a moment.

Had it been flying high, the pilot could have probably regained the control and the altitude, at least long enough to try an emergency landing... but it was flying merely meters above the asphalt, and there wasn't even the time to try and keep it flying.

The chopper tilted down violently with the muzzle, and the first thing that touched was, obviously, the immense rotor. The blades sawed the asphalt like God's sword, but at a price: the strong but thin blades broke, sending deadly-sharp fragments flaking away like oversized grenade's slivers that Alexis had to avoid with a breath-catching zig-zag maneuver at 180 mph, bending down over the bike as a section of rotor whizzed above and cut in two a street lamp like it was a blade of grass.

Vera, unfazed by it all, merely put her feet up on the pedals, letting the bike fall backwards down the ramp and then across the air, until the wheels bumped hard on the road and screamed loudly as the monstrous power of the engine fired the vehicle forwards like a bullet, assaulting the road with the ferociousness of a savage beast.

The two bikes shot down the motorway side to side while the chopper went ahead even faster, turning on itself now that the rotor had sunk in the asphalt. It turned upside-down and then smashed down onto its side, sliding on the asphalt with a scream of metal, cracking open neatly in half from the cut of Blue Vixen from earlier, and throwing up a wave of fuel that immediately exploded into raging flames in front of the two femmes fatale.

The two femmes fatale merely shot to opposite directions as the flames exploded in the middle like the fire-breath of a dragon, Alexis speeding up with furious expertise and gaining an advantage on Vera, even as the two both converged back to the middle of the lane, traveling side to side after overtaking the destroyed chopper.

In that same moment, a second cargo chopper came in from the left, and turned on itself as it hovered, the shockwave of air enough to turn an abandoned car upside-down like a toy as it lowered its back onto the road and opened its loading-ramp completely, vomiting out soldiers in front of Alexis.

They rapidly spread across the lanes, going into firing position and opening up against her with furious bursts, and Alexis's hand flied to the shotgun in the holster tied to the side of the bike, drawing it out in a flash time: before the soldiers could squeeze their triggers, Alexis had fired and was pumping another round in the chamber by moving the rifle over the handlebar.

The first blast threw a couple of soldiers backwards, shredding the front of their heavily armored vests and ripping deep gashes in their faces. The second blast was even more effective, as Alexis used her powers to force the pellets to open sidewise in a wide line that invested several of the lining-up riflemen, sending them crashing onto the asphalt in heaps.

She shot across the holes ripped in their formation, kicking her feet outwards as she whizzed past, sending the soldiers on both sides crashing away in broken piles as she snarled and rapidly turned from side to side, blasting a round in each direction and pumping the rifle loaded by leaning the weapon on her wrist.

Blood sprayed up from the shredded soldiers, and the few survivors fled rapidly down the motorway, hiding between the abandoned cars as Alexis turned backwards and fired once more, this time into the side of the cockpit of the cargo chopper.

The helicopter had Kevlar panels in position, shielding sensible points... but the rest of the fuselage, as in every aircraft, was essentially fragile enough that a child with a screwdriver could have torn holes in it: the pellets tore their way easily across the side of the cargo, and invaded the cockpit, ricocheting madly against the inside of the small space, knocking against the armoured glass and the protective panels... and tearing pilot and copilot to shreds, sending blood reddening the windows.

Alexis was already roaring down the lane when the chopper, left without guide, touched with its rotor the facade of a building and smashed into it, exploding in a ball of fire and a hailstorm of fragments. The femme fatale had already ceased to care about it... grinning instead as she followed with the corner of her eye Vera as she speeded up towards her.

The Suicide-Maker easily gained the side of Alexis, closing the gap between them, and grinned cheerfully... The idea of the battle excited and thrilled her, just as it did to the ligeress, and both were all but eager to cross swords, all but happy to fight again. Their matching grins were cold and ferocious promises of defeat and death to each other... but also sincere and evident signs of just how much they loved to fight.

Alexis smirked as she looked calmly to the side, observing first the bike and then the rider. As rider, Alexis could only admire the massive and super-customized motorbike that Vera was driving, and the blond ligeress couldn't deny her wish to try that red monster herself.

The Suicide-Maker herself was stunning, in excellent shape: indeed, at the moment she was as tall as Alexis, and her musculature matched the ligeress's potent one, just as her breath-catching curves mirrored the sumptuous majesty of the tigress's awesome body. Vera had long learned to control her size-shifting ability, so it wasn't much of a problem for her to size up to Alexis's impressive height and maintain that shape for even a few days in a row. Probably, truly wanting to, Vera could have made herself adjust to that shape in permanent way, with some training. Or get even taller and shapely, even.

"Taking example from me, bitch...?" Alexis teasingly inquired, and Vera shrugged a bit.

"I could make myself bigger and more beautiful, you know." The doberman answered, slight amusement coloring her voice. "But it felt cheap to do so."

Vera was wearing only short pants of black leather, tied with a thick belt with a silvery clasp, and long, high-heeled combat boots very similar to Alexis's ones, which reached up to above her knees as well.

Her upper body was mostly bare, with her powerful abdominals and the large biceps exposed, most of her cleavage underlined, and not hidden, by a criss-crossing top of black leather. Alexis could follow all of the swirling red flames of Vera's tattoo, along her back and left side up to the shoulder, and could even spot the small fire symbol drawn on her groin, just above her sex, thanks to the low fly of her pants. Her back was as much bare and exposed, all the way down south to further make precious-looking her shapely buttocks, wrapped tight into her leathers... what hid her the most were her two curving blades, that she carried in a special holster, so that the two swords were crossed.

Vera's jet-black hair waved behind her head, gathered in a long tail as always... and her emerald eyes gleamed with the same impatient battle lust of Alexis's sapphire ones. The ligeress and the doberman were born to be rivals... or, at least, that was what came to mind seeing them.

"I was waiting for you... I knew that Wyvern's bitch would come." Vera shouted over the noise of the wind and over the roars of their engines, grinning as she looked to Alexis with eyes burning with flames of a lust that was almost sexual. A good battle and a good fuck... the two things that made the eyes of the two femmes fatale gleam.

"You say 'Wyvern's bitch' with such envy in your voice that it doesn't even sound like an insult." Alexis replied calmly, grinning sharkishly as she licked her lips slowly, her blond hair arranged in a tall Mohawk, but long bangs still dancing in the wind. "Just kneel in front of him and suck him off. He won't chase you away. One more bitch would only make him happier."

"I know." Vera answered, grinning widely herself. "But it won't work. Not today."

"Your choice." Alexis countered with a shrug. "He'll get you anyway, one day. In a way or another."

"That's the day i wait for." Vera replied with a grin... and then she worked the throttle and fired her bike forwards, steering violently towards Alexis and drawing out one of her blades.

Alexis braked just in time to avoid the impact, bending fluidly forwards over the bike as the blade of the doberman whizzed above in wide cut, and immediately the ligeress steered away, shooting past the flank of a small abandoned car as Vera flaked on the opposite side. Both females turned and glared at each other, and two walls of tremendous psychic force smashed into the unfortunate car, as both females tried to slam the vehicle against the rival.

The city-car was the victim of the moment, and it exploded in a hail of small fragments as the two bikes swayed away in opposite directions. Alexis exploited the moment, and brought up the shotgun to fire, only to see Vera's blade slash down into the rifle, sending it crashing in pieces on the road.

Alexis quickly swayed off to the side, and one hand shot up to draw out Blue Vixen, one finger stretching forwards to click the little lever that sent the empty magazine flying away as her other hand grabbed a filled clip from the belt tied around her thigh.

The empty clip was just falling out when the full one was pushed into the chamber, the sword already aimed and leveled, the whole, elegant movement taking the time of a blink... and then a long flame flashed out of Blue Vixen as Alexis fired a long burst of rounds at Vera, who steered straight towards her.

Vera made an idle gesture of the hand, sending the bullets flying away to the side, riddling a parked van before the two bikes once again crossed path, the two femmes fatale slashing their blades out, swords clashing in midair with a cascade of sparks.

"Why he's so noble...?" Vera snarled as the two bikes almost smashed each into the other, the two females glaring at each other over their clashing blades as they curved at suicidal speed down a large turn of the motorway. "Why he lets this world be like this...? He could own all of this world, why he doesn't take it?" The doberman spat out.

"This world IS his." Alexis replied, her snarl turning into a grin. "But he won't admit it. He won't impose himself over people. Not anymore."

"WHY...?" Vera snarled, kicking hard outwards with one of her legs and smashing a hole in the jersey of concrete between the lanes as Alexis overtook her bike and then braked to stand at her opposite side, the doberman easily throwing her blade up and grabbing it with the other hand to slash against Alexis's blow and stop it.

"He did it in the past. And the only proof of it is blood, corpses and ruins." Alexis countered with her own fangs gritted in a growl. "He doesn't want it to happen again!"

Vera let out a roar of rage and turned towards Alexis with her eyes flashing deep emerald, firing off a tremendous blast of energy, forcing the ligeress to force back with her own psychic force as she fought to keep the bike on the road.

Alexis growled in the effort, half-closing her eyes on instinct as the jersey past her exploded in dust and fragments of concrete, as a truck abandoned on the road was crushed into a wreck and overturned like a toy... and when the ligeress opened her eyes, she found Vera flying high in the air, both blades ready to cut into her, the doberman snarling as it dived down like a hawk.

Alexis stood on the pedals and drew out one of her massive handguns, snarling as she fired towards the Suicide-Maker: Vera slashed her blades back and forth at unbelievable speed, knocking the massive rounds out of the air with her blows.

Alexis snarled as she saw the wreck of a car ahead, and the female used her powerful legs to force the bike in a turn, avoiding the obstacle even as she slashed Blue Vixen hard outwards, meeting Vera's blades in midair and knocking her assault back.

The doberman landed on the roof of the wrecked car and sprinted forwards immediately, with such speed and power to follow the speed of the bike, and she leapt again high in the air, sailing towards Alexis.

The ligeress herself kicked up and stood with her feet over the saddle of the potent bike, snapping one foot over to the handlebar to control the vehicle and speed up even more, raising Blue Vixen up to shield herself from the slash of one of Vera's blades.

The doberman turned in midair and lashed out a deadly turning-kick, forcing Alexis to arch her back backwards in impressive way, the ligeress's feet keeping the bike under control even as it tilted on the side.

In that same moment, Vera lashed her other blade forwards, and the ligeress bent her upper body out of the way, tilting Blue Vixen enough to force the rival blade away from her body.

Vera broke the contact and flipped backwards in midair, landing elegantly on the narrow top of the jersey barrier and running again forwards, easily keeping up with the suicidal speed of the bike before leaping straight for her own vehicle, that had somehow managed to continue its run forwards without falling.

The two females moved at a speed so high, that Vera had been in the air for merely a couple of seconds when the doberman straddled again the bike, standing on the pedals.

"Doesn't he see that this world is running towards its destruction?" Vera snarled, tilting her head towards the columns of dark black smoke that came up from the buildings of Argolis: tens of RA choppers were assaulting the capital, firing missiles over Riaku's forces and positions, while many more cargo choppers inserted platoons of infantry over the roofs and into the streets. "Are you all blind...? Don't you see Hell rising and taking over...?"

"We see it just as you do." Alexis growled back, angrily working the throttle to flake forwards against the rival. Vera slashed out her swords in a wide cut at her, but Alexis all but leapt off the bike and stomped over the first blade of her rival with a foot, kicking the other towards Vera's face. The doberman dodged the vicious blow, but Alexis was gone already when she slashed up her other sword, intent on cutting the rival's leg like a blade of grass.

The ligeress leapt off and kicked her feet into the side of a long bus, running along the wall at incredible speed, her feet smashing holes in the bodywork before she jumped forwards again, firing a sphere of energy down at Vera with a snarl.

The Suicide-Maker avoided it with a bold turn, speeding away from the massive explosion that followed and kicking off the bike when Alexis came diving down, slashing Blue Vixen in a downwards arc.

Vera grinned, crossing her blades on the path of the sapphire sword as she flipped backwards in midair... and when she landed with her feet on the saddle of the black bike that Alexis had been driving, the doberman fired a sphere of energy back at the rival.

It smashed onto the abandoned bus and disintegrated it, sending fragments of metal and slivers of glass flaking out in every direction, while the ligeress flipped twice in midair and landed with amazing grace on her hands, fingers wrapping around the handlebars of Vera's red bike.

Alexis grinned as she stood for an instant perfectly vertically, legs joined and stretched to the sky, scissoring them open with elegance to avoid another blast of Vera's energy, and then straddling the powerful vehicle.

She hadn't dared hoping to be able to ride that bike for real. Not that day, at least.

She shot down the motorway, easily catching up with Vera as they whizzed like arrows into Glacial. The toll booth leading out of the motorway stood before them, with a VTOL Cargo plane Titanus of the RA hovering over the roof and vomiting out soldiers.

A barrage of RPGs was their welcome, but Alexis only snarled angrily and slapped her hand outwards, sending the missiles smashing into the abandoned buildings along the street, her eyes flashing as she blasted her force forwards with fury.

It was like something solid, and enormous, had smashed like a hammer into the toll booth: the whole structure was disintegrated into ruins as the concrete cracked open , the pillars between the lanes exploding forth in a hail of fragments. The enormous stealth plane was rocked violently forwards and hit by the massive pieces of concrete, and it turned on itself violently before smashing into the facade of a building and exploding, just as Vera and Alexis flaked in the street below.

The ruins absurdly slowed their fall in midair as the two femmes passed by, time seeming to freeze for a moment, before returning to normal with the tons of fragments raining down onto the road with a roar of thunder.

"There's only a chance for us all. Either Wyvern takes control... or the others will." Vera shouted, glaring to Alexis as the two ran side to side once more. "And no one will like what the others plan to do."

"If we can't have it all, then nobody will." Alexis snarled back, her eyes burning with determination. "We decided we don't want it. But we will not hand it over to anyone else anyway."

"It can't work!" Vera angrily shouted back, veering to the side to slash her blades at the ligeress, forcing the blond femme fatale to block the blow. "No one will listen to you, if you don't force them to. You'll be alone, and the others will be alone too. And you'll all be taken over. One by one."

Alexis snarled back with rage as their eyes met over the clashing blades... but then she turned and brought her hand up as she saw the image of what was about to happen.

A massive super-tank like the ones they had seen on Argolis was in ambush behind the corner of the crossroad ahead, and it was aiming its enormous rail gun thanks to the thermal sensors, looking across the walls.

Alexis saw the round incoming before it was fired, and she immediately swayed to the side. And it saved her, because there was no way to avoid the shell at that distance once it was fired. There was simply no time to maneuver out of the trajectory of the dart, which flied at over 7 times the speed of sound.

The enormous shell pierced the building from side to side without any effort, sending the walls exploding outwards in a hail of fragments... but the dart met on its way a beam of Alexis's tremendous force, and it exploded in midair, in the middle of the road.

The two bikes shot past the corner, and the two femmes fatale turned to the side at the same time, looking at the tank with fury. No one could dare disturbing their duel. No one.

Vera and Alexis fired off twin blasts of force, at the same time, hitting the immense tank at the junction between hull and turret: the explosion all but obliterated the large turret, leaving behind a smoking, burning relict from which a couple of soldier on fire jumped out, shrieking in agony as they threw themselves to the ground and rolled back and forth, trying to suffocate the flames.

"Type 101 Warlord." Vera announced coldly. "Entering mass production this month. They'll be building over 5000 of those every month, soon, and the rhythm will only increase. And it's just the mildest between the nasty surprises ahead for this pathetic world. When the RA will move forwards with its plan, the world will fall apart in a matter of days. The time needed to crush the few that will try to resist... the others won't even try to fight once they see what kind of Hell lies ahead."

"You can help us stop it all." Alexis shouted back, glaring at her, but Vera snorted in derision.

"No, i can't. I'm their bitch." Vera announced with rage, spatting every word with cold, total distaste. "They own me, much as it disgusts me. And i won't betray them. Not even if i hate them all. And especially not to join a bunch of losers!"

She underlined her last statement with a tremendous blast of psychic force that invested Alexis's bike, slamming it to the side just as a bus full of people came down the street, driven by a shocked, terrorized driver that was trying to flee from the battle suddenly exploded between Mottram's forces and the RA Commandos. He had blood staining his face, coming from a wound in his temple, and he was wide-eyed with fear.

The blood on the front of the bus was a clear announcement that he wasn't going to try an evasive maneuver.

Alexis let the bike tilt violently down on its side, snarling as she dropped flat over the body of the bike, hearing the metal of the chassis scratching against the asphalt as she slid under the belly of the massive vehicle, her hair touching the underside of the bus before she emerged out of the other side.

Alexis kicked out a foot, forcing the bike back up as her hand raped the throttle with rage, forcing the motorbike to shot forwards down the trafficked street as she kept her eyes locked over Vera.

The Suicide Maker zigzagged through the rows of cars and slashed out her swords to tear in half the soldiers, both with the uniform of Mottram and of the RA, that rushed against her.

"Never call me loser, you fucking slut!" Alexis snarled, ferociously ramming into Vera's bike as her sapphire eyes flashed with frightening force. A solid wall of energy shot forth from her, throwing away like toys the nearby cars and slamming the Suicide Maker away, sending her crashing into a building along the street as the walls and windows of the first floor all exploded in slivers.

"But you are!" Vera roared back as she violently steered, turning towards Alexis even as the bike continued to move backwards as if Alexis's force was pushing at it still, until the wheels screamed as they finally managed to pull the vehicle forwards, leaving a black streak of tires over the floor of the kitchen they had smashed into. "You both are! Wyvern must impose himself, to stop this!"

"Force himself over who...?" Alexis inquired, glaring at her as their swords clashed in midair, again and again, while they both shot back out of the breach in the wall and into the street. "Over you, so you can make your rape-fantasies true?"

"As well." Vera snarled, and it surprised Alexis even though the ligeress had seen it coming even before the lips of the doberman had moved. "The RA owns me... And i can't leave. But i can be conquered."

"Your pseudo-sense of honor disgusts me!" Alexis spat, but it wasn't true. She could certainly understand it: Vera was a warrior, to the very end. And she couldn't betray her leaders and her side in such a way, simply turning her back on them. Besides, there were other ties that needed to the broken, to free the Suicide Maker from her bonds... and reasons that Alexis didn't knew, nor imagined. It wasn't cowardly. It was the need for a true answer to the questions of a whole life.

Alexis had found hers with Killer. Vera was still searching for them.

The two bikes shot up over the ramp of one of the overhead-roads of the modern part of Glacial, whizzing past small battles and moving between cars either destroyed and abandoned or full of civilians that tried to flew from the sudden hell that had broken loose into the capital.

Bullets flaked by, coming from every side, but the two femmes fatale were able to dance their way between the rounds, even as they savagely battled against each other: they leapt up at the same time, flying above the roofs of the cars that sailed by, between their running bikes, crossed swords in midair and then landed back on the saddles, switching bikes continuously.

Alexis leapt up against Vera, one hand aiming Blue Vixen up and the other drawing out Desert Storm as she framed a group of RA soldiers on a roof nearby, blasting them off with deadly, blood-curling accuracy... And then Vera was there, and Blue Vixen lashed out to meet a blade, blocking it between the curved spikes as the doberman forced the other sword forwards with a snarl, and Alexis twisted out of the way, gritting her fangs in a grimace as the long blade ripped a superficial gash in her shoulder and torn her jacket apart, leaving the ligeress with only the bra.

In the same time, she flashed up her legs as she saw in her mind the shadow-image of Vera's turning kick incoming, and Alexis slammed her own feet forwards, kicking hard into the doberman's muscular abdomen, ripping a bleeding gash in her form that matched the one she had taken.

But it was all missed to the eye, as they moved with absurd rapidity. They were already flipping in midair, elegantly diving for opposite directions, each landing on top of one of the two bikes, in time to twist the handlebar and drop down on the left to follow the turn of the road...

One Tiran tank with the Mottram insignias moved down the lanes, surrounded by nervous soldiers, and the two females shot towards it, swaying to the opposite sides to overcome it... before they both snarled and braked as they foresaw the events.

A barrage of missiles came in from the side, smashing into the massive tank, which exploded in a ball of dirty fire, tearing apart the soldiers nearby as a stealth attack chopper of the RA roared in, flying over the road and firing its turret-mounted gun at the Mottram soldiers remained.

The depleted-uranium bullets tore across asphalt and concrete, shattering the bullet-proof vests of the warriors and maiming the bodies, sending up spurts of blood and gore: the cars on the trajectory of the fire were torn apart like they were made of paper, and the chopper hovered above the lanes, turning on itself and firing a barrage of rockets into a building nearby.

The explosion torn the palace apart, killing everyone that had been inside... and the chopper turned again as a Surface-Air missile took off from a nearby roof, leaving behind a streak of smoke as it flaked up towards the aircraft, which fired a few cartridges of Chaff and a few blazing, hot Flares in front of the missile.

The helicopter was large and massive, even bigger than a Harpy, and its two immense engines worked at temperatures surely higher than those reached by the Flares.... but the helo was designed for stealthness: it had a streamlined silhouette, a tandem-cockpit and all the weapons hidden inside a large cargo bay in the fuselage, from which they were deployed, moving under the short wings, only when they were fired.

It had no tail rotor, to reduce the radar signature. It used two main rotors on top instead, which revolved in opposite senses. The heat of the engines was hidden with the injection of cold air and cooling jelly in the exhausts.

The Flares, instead, were hot and alluring, and the missile was seduced away from its true target, swaying stupidly to the side and diving to follow the fall of the decoys... while the attack helo turned towards the unfortunate soldier that had fired the SAM and obliterated him with a barrage of rockets that crumbled the whole building he was on top of.

A Titanus stealth cargo plane came roaring in, the engines at the extremity of its wings, arranged just like the smaller ones mounted of the Mantis fighters, turning to vector their potent thrust towards the ground as the massive airplane made a vertical landing and opened the back loading ramp to vomit out the platoon of soldiers and the Warlord tank it carried, as the combat helo hovered above to give protection.

Vera shot between the dismounting soldiers, and Alexis followed closely, roaring as she slashed Blue Vixen out, squeezing the trigger and unloading every round left into the magazine. The sapphire blade cut a couple of soldiers in half neatly, blood spraying up and splattering over Alexis's wonderful body, and five more men were slaughtered by the burst of heavy-duty bullets before the deadly blade found more flesh on its way, chopping the legs neatly off from under a soldier, who let out a shriek terrible enough to make Alexis grimacing for an instant.

Several more RA riflemen fell in bloody heaps on the asphalt before Blue Vixen clicked dry of rounds, and the immense Warlord mindlessly crushed the corpses into mush as it turned on its gigantic tracks to engage the fast moving bike.

The ligeress fired a barrage of small spheres of energy into the vehicle and the crowd of soldiers on panic as she shot away from the scene, and a series of monstrous, deep-blue explosions torn apart the RA ranks...

But the chopper above rotated on itself and fired a barrage of rockets in answer.

Vera and Alexis felt the explosions shake the whole overhead-road, and cracks spread rapidly under the wheels of their bikes, before there was a loud crack and something gave in: the whole section of road fell down from the tower-like pillars of concrete, and they fell down with it.

Alexis leapt off the bike, jumping straight towards one of the enormous pillars, flipping once in midair to slam her feet into the concrete, arms held wide outwards as she grunted at the rough impact, running up the column.

The ligeress looked off to the side to see Vera stomping her way up the nearby column, and the two traded a snarling grin at the sound of the chopper diving down in the chasm of the fallen road to chase after them.

It emerged from the cloud of dust of the fallen road, announced by the low, threatening growl of its rotors, hovering in front of the columns, and it turned immediately its gun over to Alexis as the gunner, sitting in the front place of the tandem-cockpit, framed her in the Head-Mounted Display of his helmet.

The gun turret moved smoothly to gain the correct angle, and the massive piece of artillery fired its burst of anti-tank rounds as the ligeress sprinted up the tall column.

Alexis closed her eyes, concentrating on what she could see in her mind with a few seconds of advantage: she saw the bullets leaving the bore and whizzing at her, smashing in the column and sinking in the thick concrete as she ran to the side...

And she sprinted, leaping to the left and stomping a few more long steps up the pillar, hearing the massive bullets sink into the reinforced structure as the gunner kept his eye on her, the computer in his helmet maneuvering the gun in the muzzle of the chopper to follow its eyesight.

Alexis roared and lashed Blue Vixen against the pillar, sinking the blade deep into the enormous tower and letting herself fall, hanging from it as her hands held into the handle of the sword, immediately forcing her body to rotate once around the lever made by the weapon, avoiding the bursts of bullets coming from behind and from above, as some soldiers opened fire against her from the edge of the interrupted road.

She threw herself forwards with a graceful flip, jerking the sword out of the concrete at the same time, and landed over the next column in line as a barrage of rockets fired by the chopper smashed into the pillar behind her and exploded, rocking once more the whole structure, but failing at destroying the enormous structure of steel and concrete.

Alexis grabbed the column in front of herself and snarled as she let herself slide around the cylindrical structure, hiding behind it and grinning slightly as she caught sight of Vera holding tightly into the column at the other side of the road, the tigress seeing clearly what was gonna happen.

The combat chopper confidently flied forwards, advancing between the thick columns that sustained the large road above as the gunner looked from side to side to find his target once again, the gun-turret under the muzzle of the aircraft mimicking the moves of his head.

The mortal machine carefully flied forwards, and as soon as Alexis saw it emerge in sight, she leapt against it from the right.

Vera jumped at it from the opposite direction, and the two females crossed path in midair as they lashed out their swords: as they grabbed the columns and let themselves slide down them, the chopper broke in two halves were their blades had severed its fuselage, and it crashed heavily down into the street below, going off in a massive explosion. The arson resulting from it joined the flames that crackled over the wrecks of the bikes the two females had earlier used.

Alexis leapt off to the side from the massive pillar, and a blast of her force effortlessly ripped a breach into the wall of a nearby building, allowing her to gracefully land on her hands inside the flat and launch herself in a graceful handspring, from which she landed on her feet in a ready position, just in time to block a double X-slash of Vera's blades as she followed through the hole in the wall.

"You could have sent it crashing by jamming its computers." Alexis grumbled, but Vera gave her a slight grin of bitter amusement in answer.

"I could not. They've been very clever lately, and they are slowly managing to protect their systems against my powers." The doberman said calmly. "Something even Siegfried is failing to do, so far. But then again... he didn't had a chance to tie me to a bed and "study" and "experiment" me inside and out from when i was a kid, so i guess he's justified." She added, spatting the statement out with a voice that dripped hate and disgust...

And Alexis had a sudden flash of Vera's memories... the sight of a dark surgery room filled with machinery... a blood-stained table of cold steel connected to a couple of electric batteries probably ripped off from a military truck... twenty or so men hidden by white masks and blood-stained coats, and a young, naked doberman girl beaten almost to unconsciousness that was forcefully dragged towards the table-bed by four bulky soldiers. The child-Vera was slammed into the bed, and roughly tied with chains of steel to the table as the coat-guys advanced over her...

The scream that followed made Alexis wince as her sight of the scene changed to first-person, and she saw the masked faces across the young Vera's eyes, that were her eyes now... and the scream came from her mouth, that was Vera's mouth...

"Yeah. Just like that." Vera snarled, and Alexis was brought violently back to present as the Suicide-Maker kicked her out of her memories, lashing her blades at her at the same time.

Alexis leapt backwards just in time to avoid being slashed in half, staring to Vera with a slight, horrified gape.

"That was my life after they captured me." Vera grumbled as the two females walked slowly in the circle, swords at the ready for the next move. "You weren't supposed to see that, though..."

"Excuse me." Alexis ironically replied, tilting her head to the side with fake sorrow on her face.

"Forgiven." Vera replied softly as they heard a chopper landing on the roof, surely deploying a team of RA snipers and missile-launchers. "I'll force into your mind in exchange. We'll see how well you fight when blind!" The doberman suddenly roared, charging forwards... And Alexis rose Blue Vixen in defence, snarling and backstepping instinctively as she felt clearly her rival pocking at her mind, trying to break though her defenses and into her brain...

Congratulations, queen bitch... You've developed excellent defenses... I can't pierce your mind. But what about your nerves...? The Suicide-Maker's voice echoed directly inside Alexis's mind, and the ligeress suddenly felt an agonizing pain somewhere in her head, over her eyes, and she groaned, stumbling backwards like she had been hit by a strong punch, feeling the world spin around her and the ground move under her feet... And, all of a sudden, a black curtain fell over her eyes, hiding everything into darkness, just as Vera grinned and lashed out her swords in front of her.

Alexis backstepped rapidly, trying to ignore the instinctive panic coming from her blindness as she focused completely over her "sixth sense", sliding out of the way of the double slash.

Her back touched a large table, and she immediately dropped onto it, flipping backwards to land on her feet at the opposite side of the furniture, just before Vera's blade cut it in half.

How is it to fight blind...? Vera's voice taunted, echoing in her pain-stalked brain as the Suicide-Maker silently charged forwards for another assault, letting out no words and no noise that could give her position away.

Alexis snarled in fury, whipping out with Blue Vixen and slamming one of Vera's blades out to the side, electing a grunt of surprise from the doberman. The ligeress elegantly slid her body around a corner, vanishing through an open door as the rival lashed her other sword, which ripped across the wall like it was made of paper, but missed its target.

Alexis walked backwards down the narrow corridor, gritting her fangs as she struggled against the terrible pain in her head, focusing over the energies around her and seeing Vera's blades moving with the rapidity of lightnings: Blue Vixen clashed into them, to the left, right, up, down, right again, the ligeress dodging or repealing the ferocious lash-outs of the doberman female.

"Fine. What about this other trick, then...?" Vera snarled, and Alexis felt the pressure on her eyes being suddenly removed... at a price, though. Something squeezed into the nerves of her spine, and sent searing agony burning in her form, making her scream in sufference as she felt her body slowing, barely managing to answer to her will as she fell onto the wall at her side.

Vera leapt straight forwards, and Alexis barely managed to dodge her blades, which pierced across the wall behind her like knives into the butter.

The ligeress's eyes slowly came back to life, but it caused her a terrible, confusing agony that threatened to break her head in half: flashes of light exploded in her vision, and she saw all the veins of her own eyes gleam bright red. The images came late, like the shots of a movie watched with slow-modem connection, and they overlapped each other in a confused, useless mess.

At a moment, five Veras were grinning down at her, motionless like photos at different stages of a vicious turning kick.

Alexis ducked forwards, moving almost goofily for the first time in her life, feeling the ruins of the wall raining on her back as Vera's foot smashed it to bits, and the ligeress grunted and twitched as Vera jumped up and kicked out her other feet as well, hitting her in the hip and knocking her to the side into the corridor.

Alexis landed on her hands, and threw herself back with a snarl, kicking both feet straight forwards and smashing into Vera's sumptuous chest, knocking her into the wall hard enough that she crashed across it and screeched to a stop into the room behind, growling threateningly as she lashed out a turning kick aimed at head-level.

Alexis had had the same idea in the same time, and their legs smashed together in midair with tremendous violence, and both females inverted the move with the grace of dancers, changing leg and kicking up with the other, again meeting in midair, foot to foot.

They forced against each other's sole, and sprinted off in opposite directions, to the opposite corners of the bedroom, glaring at each other as they landed in crouches... and the furnitures in the room exploded in fragments that burst immediately on fire, falling down into ashes as the walls disintegrated in an outwards blast.

The bedroom had been in the corner of the building, and now the room was open on the skyline of Glacial on two sides, with Vera in the exact corner, grinning as she held her blades at the ready, facing Alexis as the ligeress sprinted forwards across the room with a roar.

Their swords clashed together again, and Alexis leaned onto the blades, grinning as she swiftly rose her legs up and kicked forwards against Vera... who leapt backwards out of range, and out in the open air.

Alexis dived after her with a vicious grin on her enchanting features, and the two females clashed in midair as they fell down the many floors of the tall building. Their blades slammed together, and on the impact the two females shot off to opposite directions: they slammed their feet onto the facades of two buildings on the two sides of the street, and bursts of bullets smashed all around them, sending the windows exploding in fragments as the soldiers down below tried to take them down.

The two females shot forwards again, though, and Alexis rammed her shoulder onto Vera's chest, slamming the doberman against the wall behind. It shattered in pieces, and the two females landed inside the offices of the building, Vera smashing into a desk and breaking it in half before going into a backwards roll and screech to a stop in a crouch, blades reaching up lightning fast to stop Blue Vixen on its downwards path.

"Regina's death must have been so hot, though." Vera purred out, grinning teasingly. "Such a pity i couldn't assist to it. I had warned the bitch, you know...? But she did not listen... I've heard that Wyvern got the bitch crawling on the toilette's floor crying and begging to suck his cock."

"She lapped the ground at his feet." Alexis answered proudly, grinning in vicious amusement as she leapt high above the lashing blades of Vera. "And she thanked him off letting her suck the dirt of the floor he had stepped over."

"Awesome." Vera grinned widely, licking at her muzzle slowly even as she turned on the spot, twisting out of the way of Alexis's fist as their blades clashed thrice in the space of a blink. "When they heard that Regina had been raped and killed, they couldn't believe it. Hell itself it's been in a turmoil, lately... they didn't expect Wyvern to be SO powerful."

"He raped her so hard that her guts came out of her pussy wrapped around his cock." Alexis grinned, licking her lips in dark, merciless lust.

"What an image!" Vera answered, smiling of a ferocious arousal as the two females leaned against each other in a duel of might, Blue Vixen pressing onto the doberman's crossed blades as their potent muscles bulged. The dog leaned quickly forwards and lustfully lapped at Alexis's muzzle, surprising the ligeress even though Alexis could see in the future. "Regina's sister was furious... she went on a killing spree and raped to death all the bulky male tigers that she could get. Torn them apart like toys... Tough, strong guys... i had tried them myself, i know what I'm saying."

"She can come at any time." Alexis coldly growled. "Killer would love to rape her into pieces as well."

"That's why she does not come." Vera replied with a wide grin, even as Alexis slammed her back against a wall and they crashed across it and into another room, sprinting off to separate corners. It was a massive archive, and Alexis all but grabbed one of the enormous metallic shelves overloaded with documents and threw it towards the rival with a snarl.

Vera sent it burning into ashes with just a glare, whizzing across the flames with a turning kick.

Alexis answered with an upwards, chin-aimed kick, and their boots smashed together once more. Vera grinned down at her and rocked upwards from against Alexis's sole, smashing a fist across the ceiling and breaking effortlessly into the successive floor.

Alexis snarled as she saw what was about to happen, and leapt upwards after her... just a moment before the electric system of the building went crazy and exploded like a bomb, sending off a discharge of electricity that nearly melted the metallic furnitures as the floor and the walls crumbled, crushed by a wave of psychic force of tremendous violence.

"She's promised that she will avenge her sister, though. Tell the big boy to be careful... she's a true bitch." Vera resumed, smiling teasingly and talking to Alexis like to a friend met at the pub, even though the ligeress leapt at her with a punch strong enough to crumble a block of flats.

"Oh, he will be frightened." Alexis ironically said, grinning even as Vera ducked under her blow and elegantly slid off to the side. Immediately, a couple of Alexis-clones appeared in the two corners of the ceiling and dived down at the doberman with in-stereo roars.

Vera pierced across one of the clones with one of her blades, and it vanished into a sapphire cloud of energy, her second blade parrying the assault of the other clone, before the true Alexis smashed a kick into her side, sending her crashing onto the floor.

The Suicide-Maker was immediately back on her feet, though, and ready to cross swords once more. "Good to hear. Because there's no one else that could ever take over a demon of her level, power and experience. Wasn't it for Wyvern, she's be already ruling this world." The doberman stated. "Hell, i so hate having missed the scene. They say that he DESTROYED Regina."

"He torn a hole in her belly with his cock. Broke her pelvis like a twig with his girth. Snapped her spine like a toothpick with his thrusts. Obliterated her ass and inflated her like a balloon with his cum before tearing her head off with his cock as he hilted in what was left of her pussy. Is that enough for you...? He also fucked me and several more chicks to satisfy himself, and me and him actually ate part of what was left of the demon-slut." Alexis listed, grinning widely as she leaned in a slash of her sword for each point she made. Vera was forced to backstep and parry blow after blow, but she grinned wider and wider herself.

"Hell, YES! That rocks!" Vera exclaimed, grinning viciously as she suddenly shot forwards and tackled Alexis down onto the floor. The ligeress was ready, though, and immediately arched her back and kicked out of her hold and up to her feet. "That's the kind of power it takes to win a war like this one! Total, brutal and merciless power!" Vera added, grinning as she leaned outwards in a double cut, across which Alexis slid with a move so graceful to put to shame a step of dance.

Vera blasted her energy forth, though, and Alexis was caught and slammed backwards, crashing across a window and out in the open air, twenty floors above the ground.

The ligeress only grinned, unfazed of it, throwing Blue Vixen up and flipping in midair, gathering herself up as her hands grabbed the Desert Storm guns in her thigh-holsters.

She fired both guns, blasting out round after round as Vera leapt out of the building and towards her. The doberman grinned, slashing her blades from side to side and knocking the bullets away from her...

Before Alexis, in a move so fast that Vera barely caught it, holstered her guns away and grabbed Blue Vixen as it fell down in front of her.

The sapphire blade slashed up in perfect time to stop Vera's blades from cutting Alexis in half.

"That's why, overall, i believe in Wyvern. He has the power and the cruelty it takes to win this war!" Vera shouted as they flied across the road and towards the facade of another building.

Bursts of rounds riddled the building and shattered the windows around them as RA soldiers fired up from their positions on the roofs nearby, but the two femmes fatale all but danced their way between bullet and bullet, twisting out of the way with the smallest and most graceful of moves of their bodies.

They flipped in midair to slam their feet against the wall behind them, and both shot upwards, so graceful and coordinated that they seemed athletes doing team-work. Every GIURIA in the world would have been left gaping in front of such display.

"This is just the start of it, Alexis. The start of it." Vera warned. "You can't win this war in the usual way. You can't win if you fight following the concept and rules of "good". You'll have to be evil and powerful to survive."

"I don't need lessons on how to win a war. I do it from when i was a little girl." Alexis countered as they crossed swords once more and shot back against the wall to kick upwards again, flying up towards the top of the tall building.

"Angels fall first. Always." Vera snarled as she dived towards Alexis, viciously kicking out in a hook kick and slashing one blade off to the side. "That's why evil guys at times must fix things up, when they get messed up too badly." She shouted, and Alexis only snarled at her as the ligeress grabbed Vera's arm with a hand, seizing her wrist and using it as a fulcrum as she kicked her legs up.

The Suicide-Maker kick missed as Alexis rose her legs skywards, standing on a hand, head-down and feet up, over Vera's arm, their faces nearly touching as both grinned.

Vera's foot smashed into the wall of the building instead, shaking the whole skyscraper as many of the windows imploded, a web of cracks creaking open all over the facade. Vera's blade missed as well, clashing into the wall and cutting into it like it was butter.

"You are right. What you don't understand is that I'm no angel." Alexis replied, lashing Blue Vixen downwards, straight towards Vera's chest. It missed only because Vera brought forwards her second blade to stop the blow.

"I'm more like a demon." Alexis added, grinning as she lashed one of her long legs back down in a fluid, powerful motion, aiming to kick Vera in the nape of the neck. The doberman twisted out of the way at the last moment, looking up to the rival with a grin as she saw bullets riddling the wall behind the ligeress: Alexis had bent her other hand to let a burst pass above harmlessly. Vera saw the tracer round pass and the windows in the building exploding in slivers. Other tracers whizzed in the air around Alexis's form, but the ligeress absent-mindedly twisted her wonderful form out of the way every time.

"That's what gives me hope." Vera admitted, as she flipped backwards in midair so to kick her legs upwards, forcing Alexis to leap upwards with a laughter, out of her reach.

Below, Glacial was one immense battlefield as RA troops continued to came on board of their choppers and their gigantic VTOL planes.

Killer looked up at the sound of a missile taking off, turning to gaze at the cloud of smoke and the white streak left in the air by a SPEAR missile as it shot off its tube in the turret of the MTRV 500 vehicle.

The missile had already speeded up from zero to over Mach 3 when he was done turning... and he knew it well. But he had always been fascinated by military technology, and he still was every time.

The missile climbed to the sky of Glacial in the space of a blink, and at over Mach 4, the nose of the weapon opened, releasing three long and thin darts of steel. Each of those, guided by a laser beam invisible to the naked eye, could pursue a different target as the turret of the vehicle on the ground automatically followed the target as it moved, aiming a tiny laser against it, "illuminating" the path for the darts.

There was almost no chance to escape. Of course, the SPEAR was a short ranged weapon... but in the space defended by it, you were safe.

Killer had no difficulties in finding the target of the moment: a gigantic Titanus - truly adequate name... - Cargo plane had flied low above the roofs, and its shadow had brought an early nightfall in the street.

In that moment, though, the darts of steel pierced its belly, cutting across the fuselage like scalpels. At Mach 4, their kinetic energy was unstoppable.

A timer-fuse started its count in the moment of the impact, and almost immediately reached the zero: just long enough for the darts to sink deep into the targets.

When all three exploded, the Titanus suddenly burst into flames, and began to fall down. As it came low enough to be engaged, the Vulcan gun mounted on the MTRV vehicle automatically moved to frame it, and fired a short burst of Steel-Encased, Depleted-Uranium rounds. 70 or so rounds. In a single second.

The growl resulting from the shot was as deep and powerful as Killer's one could have been.

Nikita, standing at his side, brought her longbow up and fired three arrows at once, in that incredible way she mastered so completely: she hadn't the powers of Alexis, but still rarely missed, even with multiple launches like that.

Three RA soldiers that had emerged from the corner ahead fell down immediately as the javelin-long arrows pierced their helmets front-to-back.

Pamela was ready to maim the rest with her massive machine gun, while the blond mare reached a hand up to seize from her back three arrows between her fingers.

Anyway, the Centurion IFV leaded by Alexander had already speeded up to the center of the crossroad, after checking across the walls of the surrounding buildings with its thermal imagery sensors. The cannon mounted on the vehicle framed a couple of windows and fired one time for each, sending a grenade crashing into each of the rooms, where they exploded in midair, riddling everyone inside with deadly slivers.

Immediately after, the turret of the IFV moved again to look down over the lanes of the street to the left, and the cannon fired a short burst of rounds, again programmed to explode in midair, above the target: five black clouds appeared 20 feet above the ground, and the asphalt was plowed by a hail of slivers, that torn to shreds the soldiers that had been preparing a portable anti-tank missile for launch.

Four MTRV500 in the "tank" version, the Mobile Gun systems, advanced rapidly to offer their firepower for taking down the larger targets: each was equipped with a massive, 280 mm Rail Gun, feed by a robotic autoloader, mounted in a tank-like turret.

They were the only thing capable to take even on Warlord tanks... with some difficulty. They must be in two to be sure to win. Firing in the same time two rounds makes sure that not even the laser of the Warlord can stop both shells.

In fact, the rounds fired by the rail guns of those vehicles flied at over Mach 7.5. Even a beam of laser light couldn't focus rapidly enough to take down two incoming threats of that kind.

All the rest simply had no hopes at all against the Mobile Gun Systems.

Killer had spent most of the travel along the motorway in video-conference with Siegfried, Alexander and Murray. The latest news were both good and bad: the evacuation of Argolis was nearly complete, thanks to the support of Sandy and his submarines. Finally, the small fleet of subs had gotten back together and surfaced for a brief moment, and the days-long radio-silence had been broken: the old admiral had been immensely relieved to see all five the subs of the squadron emerge and report.

They had managed it: to prove the absolute quality of Kesteven's people, even above the excellence of the equipment. And now, finally, they were out of the battle, and the exhausted crews had started breaking the day in turns, so that everyone could hide in his bunk and get some tremendously needed rest. Hadley had been the first to be allowed to sleep. He hadn't slept for whole days, lately.

Killer had abandoned the idea of sending the subs chasing the RA fleet as it retreated... the crews were too tired, and had already risked and spent too much. And in any case, the chase would have been most likely a failure anyway: the last satellite images showed only darkness over the Glacial Seas. A true "fog of war", absurd and supernatural, was hiding the moves of the RA fleet from the eyes of the rest of the world. It was something out of understanding, magic and impossible to explain.

The radar sensors capable to see through clouds couldn't pierce the black fog. The Thermal IR cameras of the satellites couldn't see past the floating black goo. And naked eye surely couldn't. Even noise was muffled and sealed away from any ear.

The immense fleet had vanished into thin air. Like it had appeared. No one knew where their home port was. No one knew from where the ships came, where they had been built. No one, shortly, knew a thing.

The gods themselves are hiding the RA facilities and forces... spells so powerful that I can't even say you the names of the gods that support the RA... I'm sorry... Diana had said over and over again. And hell, it was all true. All entirely true.

Killer frowned a bit as he received a new call on the visor. He had dared hoping to be done with the planning and politic aspects... fighting with words was far better for him than any verbal battle. But he quickly accepted the call, resigning himself to his duties, even as the fight still raged all around.

"What's so urgent, Serene...?" He asked as soon as the panther's face came on the screen. The young female was obviously quite worried, and to be sincere, she looked exasperated as well. That mix of tiredness and resignation that comes from hours of tiring and unsuccessful attempts to make someone reason.

"Majesty, I'm so sorry of bugging in this moment, but we've been receiving calls from the whole world, literally. They are all scared by the nuclear explosion in Argolis." Serene immediately answered. In the background, Killer could see other members of his staff answering to people in video-conferences.

"They really shouldn't be asking us about it." The huge male grumbled bad-temperedly. He had been expecting it, though, admittedly. Since the RA was a shadow-organization which couldn't be located, nor identified, nor linked to any particular person, and that scared the world all over, everyone would blame Kesteven for the nuke, and for everything else.

After all, politicians and bureaucrats all over the universe were the same: very bad at dealing with mortal threats like the RA, they preferred to just ignore the existence of similar menaces, using their useless politic influence to blame other victims instead.

Killer hated politicians. And politicians hated Killer. It had been evident from the first moment he had stepped into the congress of the World Council organization.

He had pretty much forced them to accept his presence, to start with: the Northlands had always been kept completely out of the organization, ignored, or at the most defined "savage" and "primitive" areas. To enter the exclusive circle, Killer had used the only card possible: power. His own, personal, which was enough to scare every politician to death, no matter how numerous their escorts were. And the nuclear power. Kesteven, in fact, had ultimated its own nuclear deterrent in the form of submarine-based, intercontinental, multi-warhead missiles. And that, all of a sudden, had made evident that the Northern Empire wasn't primitive at all.

A rough way to demonstrate it, perhaps... but the only effective one.

Killer had hoped to be able to improve things in the world by sitting in there. But he had only been disappointed more and more, instead. The World Council was an organization of power-hungry, money-craving cowards, and was thus made useless and powerless by the matching, self-annulling domineering actions of the various leaders, that all tried to trick each other.

Understandable, if they at least made it for the interests of their respective nations. But they only do it to satiate their own dreams of power and richness.

Killer was potent, not because of the nation he leaded, but because he WAS strong and powerful. He was battle-hardened and scarred. He had a clear view of the world, of the real nature of wars and of the real value of peace.

The ones he talked to, instead, were unscarred, unarmed cowards. Weak and old for the most part, made powerful only by the strength that their money could buy. With no real understanding of the world around, of the consequences of their decisions. The World Council was a casino. Money, in the form of contracts and agreements and natural resources, were the prizes and the chips. The various leaders were the players... and the Major Powers were the croupiers. Which inexorably pocketed mostly everything at the end of the way. It wasn't just a casino. It was a cheating casino.

The leaders of the small nations, who came to the Council to try and protect their lands from the hungry superpowers always ended up being losers.

And the greatest losers simply hadn't a place at the table.

Killer had been accepted in with reluctance, and they had tried to make of him one of the many losers. Useless to say it, he hadn't appreciated the move.

And when kindness had proved to be useless and helpfulness had shown itself not just pointless but harmful, Killer had started using raw strength to get what he wanted.

The politicians around him did not know that using force was his Specialty. But they learned it rapidly.

Killer had started making clear that he was going to act on his own to protect the unique interests of the Northlands when possible, and of his homeland always. When Ire had refused to stop selling weapons to the troublesome, extremist kingdoms of the eastern area of the Northlands, Killer had answered that they had to "bear the consequences of such an action".

The night after, a couple of weapon-production plants in Eastern Ire had been sabotaged and most of the machinery of the productive lanes destroyed with explosive. Semtex explosive, to be precise. Very common, and very easy to find pretty much everywhere. Impossible to connect it to Kesteven's Special Forces, known, besides, to prefer PE4 plastic explosive.

Of course, Ire, and everyone else, knew the truth. But a law of politic is " no proofs, no answer". After all, Ire sold its weapons "secretly", with merchant ships registered in foreign nations and officially loaded with everything except arms. Everyone knew the truth. But no one could prove it and do a thing about it.

Killer merely adopted the rule in his own way.

Same was for the mysterious sinkings of the infamous merchant ships at sea. Killer, obviously acting masked by a thick curtain of fake paramilitary and PMCs leaders, had secretly brought a large furniture of torpedoes from Ire itself, exploiting the same black market he wanted to stop, and he had loaded with the new weapons a couple of his submarines.

When merchant ships loaded with stocks of tanks, choppers and everything in between had started sinking with alarming frequency in the Aburkirk sea, everyone knew why, but no one could say it openly.

And those were just examples of it. The leaders of major powers like Ire, Lunis and Ural had tried to murder Killer many times over, in answer for those acts... hiring Private Military Companies, helping the RA and the NWOA, or sending mercenaries and assassins in. They had sent some of their secret agents, even.

Kill a behemoth like Killer, though, wasn't easy. Even if, only one politic leader in the world, he walked around without an escort team. The liger had been able, instead, to annihilate entire PMCs potentially dangerous as they came to him trying to kill him. Far easier than hunt them down around the world, obviously... he considered it almost a favor. And in one case, he had sent back what he had left of one secret agent sent to assassinate him: the whole shipment had been little enough to fit inside a single match-box. A message very clear.

No surprise, then, that the nuke on Argolis was exploited to renew all sorts of attacks on him... who, technically, was already wanted dead or alive (possibly dead) for the monstrous rampages and the two or three millions of victims of his seven years of cruelty, and could walk around and even sit at the World Council just because he was simply too powerful to be forbidden doing so.

Most of the world only waited the occasion to get their vengeance, and get rid of such a major nuisance.

"Until they don't fire at us, let them babble." Killer coldly stated. "Who called so far...?" He asked after an instant. "Oh, wait. Let me guess. Ire called 30 seconds after the nuke happened."

"Pretty much." Serene admitted, smiling slightly. "Lunis beat them of a few seconds, just because Lunis has got state of the art of the state of the art technology and saw the nuke immediately. The others followed."

Killer nodded silently. Lunis was a small island west of Ire's coast... small, but extremely powerful, since from always it was the leading nation in terms of technology. Lunis was, for most things, years in the future. And the island state was considered pretty much impossible to invade, also because of the sheer strength of its navy.

"Obviously, they know we don't fired a nuke over our own people. But they still say we have." Killer bitterly observed, and Serene nodded.

"Actually, some of them, starting from Ire, say that we are fighting an unjustified war of invasion against a smaller, pacific nation. And they add that our imperialism won't be tolerated forever." The young panther underlined, looking over the many printed pages of messages in her hands before looking up with a tired smile. Killer could still see the affection in it, though, and he smiled back quietly.

"They threatened us with economic sanctions, and they all say they are preparing their troops for a confrontation if they catch wind of any other nuclear activity on our part." Serene reported, and Killer nodded.

"Of course. Nothing new..." He murmured. "Well, Serene... you've wasted already too much time with these dickheads. Send them this final message: we've not used nukes. We won't use nukes. We are fighting to free our people from a military invasion. And we'll continue to fight until we are done cleaning Glacial up. And, ultimately, if anyone fires at us, we'll fire back with everything we've got. Remind them that we've nuclear weapons. Never used. But ready to be used if they bring theirs out." He paused and smiled reassuringly to her as he noticed her evident shock. "They won't. This is political bitching... and they know by now that, differently from them, i do what i say. Put all our forces on Grade One of alert as show of force and as precaution... then go get some rest, Serene. And give Ewan a hug from his father."

"I'll do, Killer." Serene smiled and bowed her head gently, touching her lips with a hand and then the screen. "Good luck. And come back home soon."

"I will." Killer said, to himself more than to Serene as the link was closed... and the huge liger looked out towards a massive 8x8 truck that followed, flanked by a couple of MTRV500 Centurion. The truck, in fact, was only lightly armoured and defended merely by a Remote Weapon Station on top fitted with a heavy machine gun. Relatively little, to be left alone.

Besides, we need that truck intact. Absolutely.

The enormous truck in question was one of several, spread along the lines of the division, and was special because of the very particular cargo it moved on its long flatbed. The vehicle, standing on eight wheels each taller than your average person, with the cockpit tall over the ground, was fitted with an hydraulic erector system that could rise in vertical position eight massive, sealed canisters, each containing a long missile. With a particularity: it had no explosive charge.

The Interceptor was, in fact, a guided dart of depleted uranium fitted with a system of small rockets for guidance and route-correction, mounted on top of a massive multi-stage rocket booster capable to throw the dart out of earth's atmosphere.

The Interceptor was meant as a Hit-to-Kill defensive system capable to take down ballistic missiles on their course, either as they exited orbit or as they came back down towards their target. Outside atmosphere, there's no air... so, no fire, and no explosions. Direct-energy weapons, like laser, are potentially the best solutions for in-space use... but Kesteven wasn't so advanced yet. Their laser systems weren't powerful enough to heat up to "failure level" a missile flying thousands of kilometers above.

Besides, the kinetic energy of a dart flying at a few thousand miles for hour was "far easier" to use in order to obtain the same result.

The Interceptor had a thermal seeker for terminal guidance, but was mostly guided thanks to gigantic radars, either mounted on trucks like the one that carried the missiles themselves, or built in bases on Earth.

Kesteven had one of such radars, in the air-base of Flyngdales: it looked like a gigantic, black pyramid... but each side of the immense structure was actually an electronic-scansion radar array capable to detect a missile in its boost phase, as it took off from the surface of the planet.

And anyway, a couple of truck-mounted radars (those were rectangular, mounted on the flatbed of the truck and scanning side-wise) were active outside town, in the middle of a solid circle of defenses.

Killer did not want to take chances with the RA and their very consistent nuclear threat. NEST teams (Nuclear Emergency Support Team) and additional Interceptor batteries were deploying with maximum urgency along the empire's territory, while others were being urgently brought into Glacial by the cargo planes of the air force.

Other Interceptor missiles were always on alert instead, mounted on the destroyers of the navy, and they had been at sea to protect Kesteven against the unpredictable even before Argolis's nuke.

Larger and more capable missiles were based in underground bunker-silos in two locations, one in the north of Kesteven and one at the opposite extreme, in the south of Kendrew. From those points, the coverage was total... you want to be as covered as possible when nuclear warheads rain down from above, after all.

They said I was crazy at spending billions over such systems. We'll see who has been crazy the most between me and the politicians who pocketed equal sums from their nation's budgets to build miles-wide estates on sunny islands. There's no battle plan that survives the clash with the enemy... but if you have no plan at all, it's a major cluster-fuck.

Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum. If you want peace, prepare for war.

Laura passed by, carrying long belts of ammo over the shoulder and holding in her hands her usual, massive machine gun, and she grinned at him as he looked up.

"Alexis's been signaled ahead!" Laura announced as she ran forwards. "She's battling Vera... and they're near the gates of the Royal Palace!"

Killer grinned and nodded as he stood up and sprinted behind her, signaling to Alexander to speed the convoy up as the younger liger leaned out of the hatch on top of the Centurion vehicle he was on.

"She'll beat us on timing one more time!" Killer exclaimed. He wasn't surprised of Alexis's success. But still, he was relieved of hearing accurate news. Communications with Alexis had fallen again, probably when she had met Vera... but Killer had felt and shared the sharp pain of Alexis.

He did not knew what had happened, but for a few seconds he had been blind and deaf as his brain pulsated, threatening to explode with the agony it suffered. It truly had been a horrible moment.

And it scared the hell out of me.

Riaku grimaced in horror as an IFV loaded with troops exploded, hit by a barrage of rockets coming from one of the RA stealth choppers. It was only the last of several vehicles, which were now burning on the square in front of the royal palace.

Ahead, a Warlord tank was advancing, shattering with its enormous tracks the corpses of the infantry it had obliterated first. The gigantic super tank all but invested the wreck of a Tiran tank of Riaku's army. One of five that it had destroyed in rapid succession. The gigantic track of the far larger monstrous machine climbed up the vehicle and crushed it like it was a small car.

Three more artillery shells exploded in midair, intercepted by the laser on top the Warlord, and two more projectiles bounced off the impenetrable armor of the super tank.

The Tiran tanks of Riaku's army were powerless against the Warlord: their shells looked like tennis balls when they smashed into the target and bounced off, defeated.

The Warlord turned its turret, rapidly but with with calm coldness. The same that calm of someone infinitely stronger than its rival, and that is barely annoyed by the rival's blows... until he reacts and send the other knock out with a single blow.

The gigantic rail-gun fired, and the shell pierced a first Tiran tank from side to side, and it still had enough energy to pierce another one before smashing into a building and crumble most of it.

Gods...

Other Titanus cargo planes were landing on the square, protected by a swarm of stealth choppers, the Growlers, that angrily hovered above, firing their guns and rockets over Riaku's forces, maiming men and tanks and vehicles to shreds.

... it's a massacre...

Riaku was horrified and speechless. Attacked by his own allies... not that he hadn't feared it, and felt it coming in the last days... But gods. That was more than he expected. The attack was coming with a ferocity absolutely frightening. And the RA was using his troops as targets to prove their latest weapons and see just how destructive they were.

The 40 mm guns of the Warlord flashed and roared furiously, unleashing a hail of fire over a platoon of Riaku's infantry that was firing from behind the gates of the royal palace. The explosions shredded the wall to bits, and sent the massive gates of steel flying around in bent and burnt places.

The soldiers were obliterated without even having the time to shriek their agony. Blood sprayed as far up as the windows of the second floor of the palace behind them.

It was horrible. They were powerless again the new super tanks. Nothing could stop them. The first Warlord that had come had shattered the asphalt of the square in front of the palace with their mine-plows, detonating the mines that Riaku's soldiers had put in place... And nothing of what they had fired had been able to scratch the Warlords as they traveled back and forth across the square, clearing the way for the other troops to come.

Now, those two tanks were burning on the square... Riaku himself had struggled to stop them. He had torn the treads off the first with his hands, and shattered the turret with his fists... The other, he had stopped the other firing into it a blast of his energy.

He had been learning to use power-based attacks... The RA had ordered Vera to instruct him, and hell, she knew perfectly what she did.

Vera had been a ferocious teacher, implacable at punishing him for every error. Patience was something she had never used on him. But, as a definitely bright side, she had been pretty hungry of him. After their lessons were over, Vera would use him in a far more pleasant way.

She was a lover as angry and ferocious as she was a teacher... but gods, did she excelled at what she did! He had never tried anything comparable to the pleasure that Vera could give him. She was never satiated, and she was strong. So strong. Even too much... Riaku normally had to be careful with girls... he could hurt them badly if he forget who he was and what he pridefully sported between his legs... but holy hell, Vera could take it all. She CRAVED to take it all. Riaku could unleash all of his force, go at it as rough as he wanted, and Vera would only ride him all the harder. , and enjoy it all the more. And call for more.

Riaku was secretly a bit embarrassed of it, to say it all... he was used to toy with whoever he brought into his bed. But with Vera, it was a whole different world.

She could ride him to exhaustion. She often took the top position over him, and rode him hard, milking every drop he was worth of... And even when she let him stay on top, she made obvious just who was in charge.

Riaku had always easily dominated everyone. Vera, though, used him as she pleased, and dominated him completely. Almost easily... It embarrassed Riaku, in the deep. He never showed it, but he was both amazed and scared of Vera, of her strength and her hunger. He was astonished of how hard she could go, and just how much she craved.

For Vera, Riaku was "a decent fuck". A "good fuck" when he was particularly in shape and she was particularly generous... And that admittedly amazed him. It was barely a consolation the fact that she always clearly stated that he was "the only tough cock around" and thus her favorite toy.

The fact that she had raped and abused of nearly every strong male she had crossed the path of, and literally sent many of them at the medical bay, comforted him only a bit.

He was still astonished by being a toy to her.

He was used to be the one toying with everyone.

I just wonder who's worse. Vera or Alexis...?

Vera, though, had ceased teaching him when Riaku had started arguing more and more with the other High Commanders of the RA over the path that the Alliance was taking. His calls for a more controlled line of action, for the end of the unbelievable violence and for explanations on the relations between the Alliance and the demons had all but been ignored.

More sincerely, his protests had been irritating the other leaders more and more, and they had isolated him, pushing him to the very margin... and then directly out. And Riaku, who had been always treated as the main lead of the whole organization, had suddenly found how truly and painfully powerless he was into the Alliance.

I'm just being used. Just as Killer said. He had been tricked from the start... it was growing more and more obvious. He was a mean for the Alliance to get what it wanted... not the one that would have one day ruled a peaced world. How could I be fooled into believing it...

Lately, things had grown truly nasty. Vera had vanished... and then had reappeared at the head of an RA Commando unit that had taken control of the roads leading into Glacial.

Riaku's power, Riaku's troops, had been directly attacked by the "allies".

Vera had kept sneaking into his rooms in Glacial every night, though... surely the RA ignores it... She had never explained a simple thing about what was happening, much as he had asked. She had merely continued to use him for her own personal pleasure. Just like I truly was her cheered toy. And I've been unable to stop her from doing it... Also because I like it far too much anyway...

Riaku concentrated his energy towards his fingers, spreading the palm of his large hand and rising it towards the Warlord as he charged towards the monstrous machine.

The enormous tank turned its turret towards him and fired its Rail-Gun at him, just as he blasted his force forwards with a roar.

A beam of crimson light burst forth from his palm, and the shell coming from the tank's cannon melted into vapor, before Riaku, leaping forwards with a snarl, smashed his crimson-glowing fist into the front of the tank.

The enormous machine tilted forwards, and nearly flipped over as the back of the tank jumped up in the air as Riaku's arm sunk across the thick armor, smashing into the engine of the monster and shattering it as crimson energy spread into the vehicle and made it incandescent, killing everyone inside in a second, before the ammunitions exploded and the computers and electronics melted away.

Riaku leapt across the ball of fire that the Warlord had become, tearing across the vehicle like a shell of artillery and crashing out the back of the tanks's turret.

The RA soldiers that had been following the tank, advancing behind the protection that the thought-invincible vehicle offered, stared at this in horror and astonishment and reacted too slowly, either who turned and tried to flee and who tried instead to rise his weapon and fire.

Riaku was far faster. Resting on his right shoulder was the latest prototype weapon built by the RA. It had been handed to him shortly before the arguing over the Argolis events had caused the cooling down of his ties with the alliance.

The Heavy Multi Purpose Rifle 100 HMP - R100 was a whole army packed into a single device. Its main defect was the weight and bulk. The weight, in particular, made the weapon unsuitable for your average person... In fact, the new "rifle" had been designed to equip the exoskeleton-empowered supersoldiers, and not normal infantry.

But Riaku definitely wasn't normal. And his strength far dwarfed even the power of the most perfect exoskeletons. In his hands, the enormous hybrid weapon was a perfect weapon. Light as a plume, not that bulky seen his extraordinary sizes, and with the kick of a whole platoon of heavy weapons.

The HMP - R100 was, basically, a 100 mm Recoilless cannon, feed from the back by a revolver-drum that could contain six rockets ready to use: either High Explosive missiles with Air-burst capability, Discharging-Sabot Armor-Piercing darts capable to easy wreck battle tanks or Incendiary-Thermobaric rockets that, mixing oxygen and combustible generated a massive explosion, that killed thanks to the violent change of pressure in the air. Far more effective than any flamethrower, since it killed at once with overpressure, explosion and flames.

The revolver-drum fitted behind the shoulder of the man firing, and on top of the rocket cannon there were two rails that could be fitted with clips of small cubes of copper called Explosively Formed Rounds.

In practice, a small cube of copper attached to a tile of compressed explosive as propeller. When the trigger was pulled, an electric pulse ran down the rails and ignited the explosive of the first block in line: the explosion melted the copper and projected it forwards across a short triangular barrel, shaping the incandescent metal into an hypersonic bullet flying at Mach 4.

Two rails meant two clips, like having two machine guns at the ready, firing at once. The rate of fire could be as high as 4000 rounds for minute from each rail, or even higher. The rate of fire could be chosen by means of the small weapon's computer, acting on the number of electric impulses to give for second.

Those jets of copper had a piercing power tremendous: the principle of the EFR, after all, came from a kind of anti-tank projectile... and, even if on a smaller scale, each EFR could still knock holes even in armoured vehicles.

It was the worst thing that the RA soldiers could be called up facing... And Riaku grinned coldly as he squeezed the first trigger, aiming in the flat computer screen that jutted out from the side of the weapon, straight in front of his face.

The two triangular barrels on top the R100 flashed and growled as small explosions happened in two parallel rows. In a second, each barrel fired 70 rounds. No cases were ejected to prove it... but the jets of melted copper torn the soldiers to shreds, sending twenty corpses falling on the road in bloody, riddled heaps.

Riaku landed from his leap and turned on his heel, keeping the trigger squeezed and watering with fire other soldiers and an RA APC: the copper rounds riddled the vehicle from side to side, killing the soldiers inside and setting the fuel on fire.

A Tiran tank of the RA speeded up towards him, and he snarled coldly as he fired a long burst, from side to side, into the front of the tank.

It didn't stop. Its front armor was too thick... and Riaku's finger flied from the front trigger to the second one, just behind, squeezing on it as he selected "AP" with a clear vocal command.

The drum behind his back turned rapidly, and the selected rocket was fired down the tube by means of compressed air.

The missile's engine ignited after launch, at a safe distance, and the rocket crossed the square in a blink-time, smashing into the tank and blowing a hole in its hull. Flames erupted from the hatches, and Riaku grinned.

A Growler chopper turned on itself and fired at him with the gun in the muzzle, and the black tiger leapt off to the side as the rounds dug a crater in the asphalt. Coldly, he voiced a simple, short word: "HE".

He went into a roll and stopped into a crouch as the chopper turned to follow his maneuver, and he aimed the R100 skywards, firing the rocket up.

The laser in the rocket launcher calculated the distance, and ignited the grenade at perfect distance from the rotors of the chopper: the explosion torn off a couple of blades and riddled the others with slivers, sending the chopper twisting on itself, out of control.

Riaku ran behind the wreck of one of his tanks and crouched as he pushed two long clips of EFRs in the rails on top the rocket launcher, and he snorted as he felt an alarm signal directly in his mind, coming from the Spirit computer locked around his spine and connected to his central nervous system.

"I thought you'd never speak to me again, you bastards." He snarled as images appeared in the upper corner of his field of view, transmitted directly from the Spirit into his brain. Raja was looking straight at him from the other side of a long table that he could barely guess in the darkness. The other two leaders of the Alliance, seating on the sides of Raja, were mostly invisible, only their eyes glowing in the dark.

"Such cold greetings." Raja calmly observed. His coldness was unnerving... especially now that Riaku had spent the last hours seeing his men being killed and maimed.

"Why are you attacking me? Are you all completely crazy?" Riaku furiously shouted, snarling even though they could not see him.

"We don't like to attack our allied, Black Lightning. It's a sad thing to do." Raja coldly continued. His voice told very clearly that he was in reality absolutely unfazed by the consequences of his latest orders. The men dying weren't a significant problem for him. "But we must ensure that Wyvern is stopped and kept out of Glacial. And your..." Raja paused, seeming to think of a proper word to use, rolling his hand slowly in the air as he grimaced a bit. His golden eyes gleamed with distaste. "... chivalrous... plan of letting princess Alexis get to you without being opposed along the way endangers our whole strategy. We couldn't let it happen. We have large interests in Glacial, as you know well. And we must protect them."

"Your "interests" are in Walcheren, in the south. Not here in town. That area is yours, and you are defending it. I have a debt and a honor. Glacial's future will be decided with a duel, as the tradition implies. Either I win, or Alexis takes it back." Riaku paused and nodded, shutting his eyes tight. "As it should have been years ago."

"True." Raja admitted, but his tone was veiled with irony. "Walcheren is what truly matters for us at the moment... But you see, Riaku... If Alexis takes Glacial back, their focus will inevitably shift south, against our positions. Against Walcheren. And I don't want to take chances again with Wyvern... too many times people said me they were going to stop him, and then failed."

"He must be kept well far away from Walcheren." The other tiger, to the left of Raja, added, slamming a fist onto the table.

"Actually, he must be killed." The second tiger replied, hissing the last word.

"Not true." Raja absently countered. "He must be restrained... But not killed. Even as annoying as he is, he's far too useful alive to kill him. We need him alive."

There was a moment of amazed silence, and even Riaku found himself gaping, eyes wide in disbelief.

"Sorry...?" One of the tigers in the darkness murmured.

"Alive, Killer is very useful for us. Potentially so much useful to repay us for the damage he causes to our plan." Raja firmly stared, grinning a bit. "First off, he will shield us from the rage and even from the curiosity of the world, giving us the time we need to complete the Preparation Phase without being bothered. The "glorious leaders" of the world are already bugging him... they want to get rid of his bulky presence, and they are too coward to face the truth of the RA existence, when it's far easier to blame him. Far easier to believe he's the cause of every problem... And this works at our advantage." Raja explained, tenting his fingers in front of himself. "Besides, he seems to be developing godlike powers. He and Alexis contain an energy and a collection of supernatural capabilities that, much as they endanger us, may give us gains that go far past any dream and imagination."

"But we have tried to kill him until now!" One of the tigers in the shadow exclaimed, looking astonished.

"We don't take always the best decisions." Raja calmly said, nodding agreeably. "I've watched Wyvern's progresses with attention... and he is the key to powers that dwarf even the ancient gods. I'd far prefer to capture him alive and study his secrets, than killing him."

"I don't fucking care about your ideas anymore. You are killing MY men, Raja!" Riaku roared, snarling in powerless fury. Had he been in front of the golden-eyed tiger, and not thousand of miles away, he would have certainly leapt against him for the fight.

"Correct." Raja agreed, with horrible, frightening calm. "That's been another error on our part. "

Riaku frowned at that concession, and looked up from behind his cover as the sound of gunfire ceased over the square: the RA soldiers had stopped fighting, and Riaku's men were looking at them with diffidence and confusion, trembling hands gripping the rifles and hesitating on the triggers.

"I suppose you will not allow our forces to fight to defend Glacial." Raja observed, rising an eyebrow at Riaku as he drank some red wine from a golden cup.

"Glacial is my responsibility. If Alexis beats me, I'll hand it back. And that closes the discussion." Riaku angrily answered, hating how emotionless and peaceful Raja always looked. While here my men have been dying and falling away in pieces... you bastard...

"Correct, I suppose." Raja agreed, bowing politely. "In line with the glorious legend of the Black Lightning. Well then, I'll let it be this way." The tiger paused, resting backwards against the throne he was sitting in. "Troops, retreat. New target, Walcheren's defense."

Riaku fell silent. Shocked and disbelieving. The other two tigers tried to protest, but Raja silenced them with a glare...

And Riaku stared over the edge of the wrecked tank as the Titanus cargo aircrafts came back landing on the square, and the RA troops marched back into the black, immense planes. Just as they had come.

Regardless of hundreds, maybe thousands of useless deaths...

"What kind of game is this, Raja...? All those boys, dead... for what...?" Riaku asked, his voice low and bitter.

"For a mistake. A sad mistake. But still for building a better future, a whole new and better world." Raja answered, staring straight into the camera on the table.

For Riaku, Raja was staring straight into his eyes. Gold into crimson. There was no emotion in those golden eyes. No sorrow, no regret... no hate... nothing. Everything was hidden behind the cold, almost scary beauty of those golden irises.

"Nukes and massacres aren't the way we agreed for the New Dawn of this world." Riaku replied coldly, and Raja nodded firmly.

"No, indeed. I take on me all the responsibility for the sad mistakes committed... We'll have to rethink our moves, Black Lightning. Soon. I want to have a meeting with you as soon as possible. We'll decide how to remedy."

He is tricking me. Again...

"Obviously, I expect you to do your best to keep Glacial in your hands. I won't be pleased to see you ease things off for Wyvern." Raja stated, gazing at him firmly. "I know you've thought very seriously about telling him the secrets you are aware of, regardless of how the duel with Alexis will end. I can't let it happen, Riaku." He paused, nodding firmly. "I hope this point is very clear... I will use whatever mean I can think of to avoid such an event."

"Obviously..." Riaku grumbled. He would nuke every town in Glacial, most likely...

But he's messing with me again... He will never listen to me...

But what if he does...?

He won't.

But what if he does...? If you shamelessly help Killer against the RA, he sure won't talk to you anymore. Can you afford to let him do on his own, after seeing what means he's ready to use...?

Nukes.

Demons.

Hell itself.

He attacked and killed his own allies. What will be of the world if you let him do?

He won't listen to me anyway.

But you have to try.

"I won't talk." Riaku spat, closing his eyes with a grimace of hopeless distaste. Please, Gods... Please, mother... my mind is full of darkness. Help me make the right choice...

"I'll know, if you will." Raja simply stated, smiling coldly. "Good luck for the duel. Enjoy it."

Raja pressed a button on the keyboard built in the table in front of himself, ending the connection with Riaku, and grinned even as the other two tigers looked at him with horror and shock.

"He won't talk." Raja said simply. "And trust me, I've got great plans for the future ahead, my friends. We will probably suffer a blow and a delay in our preparations in Glacial... But that, ironically, will ensure the final success of the operation." The tiger grinned, tilting his head backwards and closing his eyes in an expression of relaxed, complete confidence. "Let me work it out... this will be the greatest gamble in history. Soon, we'll be high. High above even the Gods."

Vera grabbed the front van that a terrified citizen was driving crazily down the war-torn street, before the vehicle could crash into her.

The female grinned to the terrified civilian across the window as the poor van screamed its failure, engine roaring and wheel screeching uselessly on the asphalt as the doberman femme fatale restrained it without effort.

Vera cackled as she gave a pull up and lifted the van clear off the asphalt, lifting it high up above her head as the young boy that had been driving pushed open the door and fell off onto the ground, scrambling away in terror and screaming as he shot up to his feet, fleeting.

The Suicide Maker ignored him, turning instead on the spot and throwing the large vehicle towards Alexis.

The ligeress smirked sharkishly, even as her eyes narrowed, and she leapt up in time, lashing out a ferocious kick that smashed into the side of the van and sent it rocketing backwards, straight against Vera.

The doberman easily jumped to the side, ignoring the massive vehicle as it crashed into a couple of parked cars, flattening them, before smashing across the wall of a barbershop. Vera had already drawn her swords out again and jumped high into the air, following Alexis as the ligeress landed elegantly on the flat roof of a building nearby.

Vera lashed her blades at the rival, but Alexis slid between them with a grin and grabbed the doberman's potent arm for a shoulder-throw...

Vera immediately reacted as her back hit the ground, her legs scissoring to hit Alexis and make her fall before the ligeress could strike down a finishing blow. The blond female, though, went into an elegant roll and got to a distance to the side before springing back up in a ready position. It had been like that all the time... an incredible duel, the times of which were dictated by supernatural powers, and regulated by the fact that both females could, to a degree, foresee the immediate future.

The two traded a grin as Vera arched her back and jumped back up to her feet herself, ready to clash once more... But the doberman suddenly stopped her attack, staring off in the distance instead and then dropping her back to lean against the wall, crossing her legs and digging into the pocket of her shorts.

"Lucky you." Vera snorted, but she was grinning when she lightened up a cigarette with a golden Zippo. "They ordered me to stop you and your hot master from getting to the royal palace... but here we are."

Alexis grinned back at her, shaking her head slowly in amusement. In the square below, the destroyed tanks still burned in front of the shattered gates of the royal palace of Glacial.

"Well, I consider my job done for today, at this point." Vera said calmly, grinning as she took the cigarette between two of her long fingers and blew a cloud of smoke off to the side, trading with Alexis a grinning gaze that was almost... accomplice. "Just do me a favor, will you...? Don't ruin Riaku too much. He's the only good fuck I can get in this fucking bunch of pussies I must work for."

"I'll see what I can do." Alexis snorted amusedly, crossing her arms as she looked off towards the royal palace. _Home... "_Anyway, you should just drop the son and get to the father. Killer would give you far more than you can chew."

Vera grinned, nodding as she snorted amusedly. "Ya..." The doberman took another breath of smoke, then smirked. "Sie sind ein Weibchen, aber starke, Alexis."

You are a bitch, but a powerful one. Alexis grinned teasingly as she turned back to the rival, and she nodded. "Sie auch, Hure." You too, slut.

Vera looked surprised for a moment, but then she laughed, nodding. "Eines Tages können wir Weibchen desselben Meisters sein." One day we may be bitches of the same master.

"Wahrscheinlich. Sie lechzen nach ihm zu viel, um sich nach allen zu widersetzen." Alexis answered agreeably. Probably. You lust after him too much to resist, after all.

Vera grinned and nodded, crossing her arms as she looked up for a moment to see the cargo planes and choppers of the RA that leaved town, bringing the army south. "You Bitch, you even know my tongue."

"Along with a few others." Alexis absently agreed, before grinning as she looked back to the doberman femme fatale with the corner of her eye. "You are the living proof that with great power comes hot bitches."

Vera snorted amusedly. "Hear who talks." She grumbled. "Not my fault if Wyvern is so fucking hot."

"True." Alexis said, smirking with amusement.

"Prepare yourself... you'll have a merciless competition from me in bed. And tell the big, hot boy to ready himself, especially." Vera said, winking to Alexis as the ligeress quickly answered: "He's always ready."

Vera licked her lips at that, and she threw the rests of the cigarette away before elegantly leaping high up, flipping backwards in midair and landing on the roof of the building behind, facing in the opposite direction she had been looking before. The doberman quickly vanished from sight, walking calmly away... and Alexis gazed over the chopper that almost immediately after took off from behind the line of buildings. Vera made a gesture of salute with two fingers at her from the side-door of the aircraft.

"Bitch." Alexis said, but she was grinning slightly. Hell, the good side of it is that sharing a bed with Killer and Vera should prove... like... fucking gloriously-awesome.

The ligeress licked her grinning muzzle slowly as she jumped easily down in the square below. The Mottram soldiers, most of whom were helping the many injured comrades left on the ground, looked at her with fearful respect, and were very careful at avoiding stepping in her path.

None of them tried to restrain her as she walked past the ruins of the enormous gates, and no one approached her as she walked down the long straight road that crossed the park of the palace.

She stepped up the stairs of marble that lead in the Hall, and she found Killer and Laura and Murray waiting for her. The Praetorians and Nigel were lined up on the other side, and they all deeply bowed as she walked by.

Alexis traded a silent smile with her all-times friend Laura, and she traded a passionate kiss with Killer... but not a word was said. The eyes told it all anyway, better than any word.

They all understood how emotional it was for Alexis to be back, and to be walking in to claim back her home. They all supported her entirely.

Alexis walked past them and into the immense throne room. Between those ordered rows of gigantic columns, over that lucid floor of marble, she had fought the lost battle for saving Glacial. On that floor, her mother and father had been killed, and her little sister Ginevra had been forced to kneel down and suck Riaku's huge cock. He had threatened to suffocate her with his cock and kill her, if Alexis didn't agree to surrender.

And the proud ligeress had never forgotten it. She saw it all happen again in front of her eyes, in the exact spots of the room where she had seen it happen back then. And she felt her hand automatically gripping Blue Vixen with ferocity, squeezing the handle almost hard enough to crush the steel out of shape.

Riaku, shirtless, was expecting her in the middle of the room, a massive cleaver-sword in his hand, the large blade resting on his muscular shoulder. The cleaver almost matched Wyvern's enormous size and weight, which alone made the weapon scary: the sword had to weight as much as a city car. For sure, it was larger than most people was tall.

Riaku was in perfect shape as always: his potent musculature was full to burst with vigour and he had clearly kept training mercilessly, pushing himself constantly over the edge.

The Spirit computer-system that the RA had given him had part of the merit of the extraordinary rate at which Riaku's power grew: the studies of Roger Nellis and the other engineers had done over the captured device that Killer had torn off Aaron's neck, had proved that the Spirit, in its many functions, included sophisticated programs that, interacting directly with the nervous system of the host subject, dramatically improved both brain and muscular efficiency.

Riaku's body, helped automatically by billions of lines of computer code, was thus able to gain the greatest possible results from every little thing it did. Riaku's brain was a single entity with the computer, and it could easily execute all sorts of calculations and analysis, and, to a degree, thanks to a complex system of statistics, it could even see a few seconds in the future of a fight, providing him with an accurate projection of what the rival was going to do. Riaku could communicate with the world, sending directly his thoughts on the net. And he could get all the advantages offered by computer systems directly in his brain: receive and send data, video, information GPS coordinates, everything.

At muscular level, every single fiber of his potent muscles was enhanced electrically. Made stronger, less vulnerable to pain and damage, and, especially, worked better. Our muscles rarely, if ever, work at their best. Just like our brain, there's always a quite ample range of capabilities that aren't used, or at least aren't fully exploited.

The Spirit ensured that all those precious resources were used in the best possible way, in every moment. In training, Riaku's muscular power thus grew incomparably better and faster than normal, on top of the fact that he was monstrously strong by himself. And whenever he lashed out a blow, every fiber of his musculature gave its best to make it deadly.

It all worked to make Riaku an infallible war machine. A rival that even Alexis had to deeply respect.

"Welcome back home, Alexis." Riaku calmly said, bowing his head slightly. "I'm sorry that you had to actually fight to get here. I made my best to ensure that you could come and duel me freely..." He made a smile of bitter amusement as he pointed his arm at his chest, showing the sweat that shined down the curves of his potent muscles and the splatters of drying blood. "Things did not go as I planned. I had to fight myself, as you see."

"That's because you chose the worst possible allies ever." Alexis coldly answered as she stripped away the holsters at her thighs, throwing her Desert Storm handguns off onto the floor, ejecting the magazine from Blue Vixen and working the lever to send the bullet in the barrel springing out.

"Exactly." Riaku admitted, his voice emotionless as he nodded and looked over her moves with calm. He gave a polite nod towards Killer and the others as they entered the immense room and lined up near the doors. "That's one mess I'll have to fix. For now, I want to repay my debt to you."

"Your death still wouldn't be enough to repay me." Alexis ferociously replied, gritting her ivory fangs in rage. And since I won't kill Killer's son, I will be everything except satisfied.

Riaku calmly looked back at her, nodding slightly as his eyes expressed sincere regret. "I understand it. There's just too much I have to make up for."

"Have anything to say, Riaku...?" Killer calmly asked from where he leaned his back against the wall. He did not expect a positive answer, but he had to try nonetheless.

"Nothing other than I'm sorry." The black male answered quietly. "I'm... really sorry. I know what happened in Argolis, and all the rest... Believe me, I tried to avoid it happening."

Killer closed his eyes and sighed slightly, shaking his head slowly. "Riaku, they'll never listen to you. You can't fix this problem alone... You'll have to ask for help anyway, one day. The sooner you understand it, the better."

"Sorry... but I cannot talk. The consequences of it could be horrible." Riaku replied, looking straight at him... and Killer looked back up, opening his sapphire eyes.

"I figure it. But your silence, sadly, won't avoid those horrors becoming real anyway." Killer stated firmly.

There was nothing more to say... If Riaku don't wanted to talk, there was no way to force him to. Killer knew all too well that they could torture him, rape him, kill him... but he wouldn't have let a single word out.

"Let's get this over with." Alexis coldly spat, and Riaku nodded, bowing to her before springing into a ready position, swinging his enormous cleaver out before bringing the gigantic blade in front of himself.

Alexis leapt forwards with a snarl, punching the flat of the enormous blade off to the side and slashing Blue Vixen in the open space, at head level.

Riaku saw it coming, thanks to the Spirit and its forecasts, and ducked behind the lash, drawing his cleaver back in a low horizontal slash.

The femme fatale equally foresaw the blade coming, and jumped up, stomping her boots onto the flat of the large blade and growling as she lashed her knee up towards Riaku's chest.

The huge male lashed his sword in a rising arc, and the knee-blow went missed, hissing just above his head as he rose the cleaver up vertically above his head.

Alexis leapt off it, and Riaku turned on his heel to slash the massive blade out towards her, forcing the ligeress to roll under the slash and leap back up on her feet at a safe distance, a grin on her features as the black tiger flaked forwards with his usual, amazing rapidity, chopping his cleaver hard down at her.

Blue Vixen rose up to meet the blow, the two blades clashing in midair as the two rivals traded snarling grins, simultaneously tilting to the side to lash a foot up for a vicious turning kick. Their legs slammed together, and both leapt backwards to break the contact, before shooting forwards again.

Blue Vixen lashed horizontally out, clashing into the huge cleaver as Riaku drew it up, and Alexis grinned as she let one of the spikes of her blade hook the edge of the rival's sword, throwing her strength to the side as she leapt up and prepared her legs for a double kick on his muzzle.

Riaku figured the move, and he let her tremendous strength move not his sword out of the defensive position, but his body. He smoothly went into a roll on his shoulder, kicking back up to his feet as Alexis sailed above him and smashed her feet into an enormous column of marble, breaking it in half as she snarled and sprung backwards, flipping in midair and slashing her blade towards Riaku .

His cleaver rose up in time to stop Blue Vixen from cutting him in half from head to crotch, but Alexis grinned as two clones of energy flaked out of her form, leaping at Riaku from the sides.

He grunted in surprise, but was still fast enough to duck under the first clone as he shot his fist up towards the other, stretching a single finger out.

It glowed crimson, and a small, laser-like beam of energy shot across the clone's chest, sending the figure of energy crashing backwards onto the floor, before it vanished in a blue cloud of force.

"You've been learning so rapidly..." Riaku observed, grinning as he lashed out with his enormous cleaver and Alexis spun around the thick body of a column, following with her eyes the massive blade as it cut across the marble and sawed the column in two halves.

"You too, I see!" Alexis replied, slamming her palm into the upper half of the massive pillar and sending it rocketing forwards, crashing down onto Riaku.

The giant male had the same idea at the same moment, pretty much, and kicked hard into the lower half, sending it screeching towards Alexis.

The femme fatale easily leapt on top of it, and immediately sprinted up in a leap, rising Blue Vixen high above her head as she dived on Riaku.

The huge male himself charged into the falling column, smashing his shoulder into the pillar of marble and throwing the enormous structure up as he shattered his way across the marble with a roar.

He snapped the column like it was a toothpick, and he slashed his cleaver hard forwards to chop Alexis in half... but his eyes widened as Alexis suddenly grinned and simply dived above the blade, sailing over his head.

She landed on her hands behind him, and kicked both feet hard up, smashing her soles into his spine and sending him staggering forwards with a grunt.

Alexis, meanwhile, sprung into the air and spun on herself, landing on her feet and windmilling Blue Vixen around her waist. Riaku had already quickly slid out of the way, however, and he grinned as crimson energy glowed around his form as he charged forwards, swinging his cleaver hard out.

The blade clashed onto Blue Vixen, and Alexis grunted at the tremendous strength of the blow, that sent the sapphire blade outwards, surprising her and leaving her chest exposed for a moment. It's like his strength suddenly doubled...

The black giant immediately lunged at her, and Alexis sidestepped the straightforwards lash of his cleaver, before three clones leapt off her and jumped over to Riaku.

The first performed a flying-kick at head level, the second flied forwards to tackle him by the waist and the last energy-made Alexis whipped Blue Vixen forwards...

But Riaku moved at astonishing speed now, and attacked with devastating force: his hand snapped up and grabbed the first clone by the ankle, throwing the fake Alexis away. Simultaneously, the giant male lashed a knee up, smashing into the second clone's abdomen. The deadly spikes on his juncture pierced into not-solid energy, though... but he seemed to move faster than time itself as he lashed his other knee out this time, standing in midair like floating for an instant, while his blow torn across the belly of the clone as it solidified to grab his hips.

In the same move, the cleaver of Riaku flaked off to the side, point-down, and effortlessly cut a trench in the floor before smashing into the third clone's sword with such devastating force to send the fake Alexis flying onto the floor, the clone going into a roll to stand up in a crouch with a snarl.

The true Alexis followed, charging at him and lashing out a fist and a blow of her sword.

Again, Riaku was impossibly-fast, and he brought his blade back. The force of the blow astonished Alexis, as Blue Vixen was torn off her hand and spun into the air. Her fist smashed into Riaku's larger, crimson-glowing one, and again, she snarled in surprise and horror at the sheer might of his blow.

He feels... even stronger than Killer right now... he's able to increase his power at will!

Alexis was knocked backwards, and she collected herself to flip elegantly in midair to land on her feet instead of crashing ruinously against the wall at the other extremity of the immense room, stretching her sore fingers before grabbing the handle of Blue Vixen, which had sunk point-down into the floor of marble, such was the force with which it had flaked away.

Hell... I hope he can do it only for short time...

Nigel stared at the fight with a wide gape. He was sweating more than Alexis and Riaku were, and he made grimaces every time that Riaku lashed out his tremendous blows. He was so nervous that he nearly jumped from foot to foot on the spot as Alexis landed a slash-fist-kick-slash combo on Riaku... but the giant male was still glowing crimson, and he seemed invincible. He met each blow, moving at insane speed. And each of his attacks carried a destructive force.

Nigel was used to hard fighting. He could stop a tank in its tracks, such was his force... but he had currently no doubts that a single one of Riaku's punches would have crumbled him like a biscuit.

And it gave him an awe inspiring demonstration of just how powerful Alexis and Killer were.

Murray was apparently cold as always. His pose was martial and disciplined as always... But pearls of sweat could be seen along his temples. And his hands were torturing his Officer's Stick in a way never before seen.

Laura was silent, and apparently had ceased to even breathe. Absently (or hiding the purposefulness of the gesture very well), she had grabbed Killer's huge arm and was still squeezing it, eyes fixed on the duel and ivory fangs biting her lower lip in tension.

The Praetorians themselves stared to the battle with wide gapes of amazement. They were all exceptional fighters... but they were now realizing just how superior the powers of Alexis, Riaku and Killer were compared to their excellence.

Killer himself, even as he leaned his back against the wall, apparently with the usual coldness, was dying for the wish of joining the battle... And admittedly, he was disturbed by seeing that Riaku could, even if just temporarily, outclass even his supernatural force in such evident scale.

Alexis panted as she was knocked backwards once more by Riaku's slash, and she snarled as she saw the ghost energy-image of what was about to happen, and she sunk the point of Blue Vixen in the floor in front of her, forcing her hands up as the cleaver of the rival came down to chop her into halves.

If he can use his energy that way... I should be able myself, right...?

Alexis caught the flat of the blade between her hands, grunting as she fought to stop the slash and force the weapon backwards as she focused as best she could to concentrate her energy.

It was Riaku's turn to grunt in amazement as his muscles bulged mightily, and even though crimson flames glowed around him and his cleaver, Alexis was slowly forcing him backwards, her own powerful musculature bulging and flexing with all of her tremendous might.

She opened her eyes and gave him a shaky grin as she undoubtedly started to win their battle, sapphire light starting to gleam around her form...

Riaku snarled angrily down at her and lashed out a kick, but Alexis intercepted it rising her knee... and she suddenly used the blade in her hands as fulcrum to flip backwards, kicking her legs up along the sides of the cleaver towards his muzzle.

Riaku arched his back to avoid the blow, but as Alexis landed down again, she twisted her hands to the side with a grin, and the thick blade of the cleaver snapped like a piece of glass.

"I learn fast, indeed." Alexis said patronizingly, grinning widely as she threw the useless piece of broken sword away.

Riaku growled, and once more charged forwards as he gathered his force up again.

Alexis fired a sphere of sapphire energy at him, but he sailed across the tremendous explosion like he was invincible, unfazed by the blow.

The femme fatale drew her sword out of the floor, and she glared towards Riaku as he came to strike. He was halted in midair, his body caught in a net of invisible but frightening force. His muscles bulged like tires as he snarled and fought against the bonds that restrained him, but the invisible ropes tightened around him, twisting his body in a psychic grip as he looked to her in shock. Alexis grinned sharkishly at him before Riaku gritted her fangs, trying to suffocate a howl of agony at the way her force tortured his limbs... and a massive explosion suddenly generated from nothingness, a sapphire hell blowing up around the black tiger before he was hurtled through the room to crash to the floor in a smoking heap.

Alexis seemed to almost teleport, such was the speed she moved at as she crossed the hundred feet of the immense hall, reaching him as he kicked up to his feet, still holding the tip-less cleaver.

Before Riaku could gather up again his force, Alexis smashed a tremendous flying kick into his enormous form, knocking him onto a column, which crumbled in slivers of marble as he crashed across it.

Alexis was already there, behind him, grinning viciously as she smashed a fist into his back, arching her back as she forced him to slam face-down into the floor, the giant male letting out a howl of agony as his spine bent to an extreme.

He kicked hard backwards with joined feet, but Alexis parried the blow with her forearm, grinning sharkishly even as pain gripped her arm.

"Those were for my father. And for my mother." The femme fatale snarled ferocious, grabbing him by the skull as she straddled him. She smashed his face onto the floor, again and again, ignoring the blood that sprayed up from his face. "And as it's true the sky, I'd like to see Killer rape you right her and now. That would make you feel like my little sister when you abused of her." The ligeress shouted, snarling into his ear before forcing his face down onto the crater in the floor once more.

"You fucking idiot." Alexis snarled in fury, before grimacing as her lip trembled over gritted fangs. "I can't even find an insult that can suit you." She spat at the end, standing up and kicking him in the side to turn him up.

Riaku was panting harshly, blood and drool bubbling out his offended muzzle as he stared up at her with sad determination.

"I know." He coughed out.

Alexis shut her eyes, evidently fighting hard against her evident wish to kill the assassin of her family, and then pushed Blue Vixen against his throat. A fine rivulet of blood rolled down from the contact with the tremendously-sharp edge.

"Fuck off. Right now. Bring your ass off this town, and take with you every sign of your presence." Alexis coldly commanded. "You'll fix with Killer the details of your final withdrawal from Glacial.

And never give me again a chance to kill you... Because I won't be able to pull my punch one more time."

"Fine." Riaku assured, coughing up a splatter of blood, before slowly standing up as Alexis walked away with a last grimace of distaste.

Killer smiled lovingly to her as she came closer, and the Praetorians, Murray and Nigel knelled on the floor, bowing their heads to their queen.

"Welcome back home, Alexis Archer, queen of Glacial."