Hundreds of miles east. Kragg, alongside a small retinue of clan Dinnac, who understood his philosophy, were traveling to another base, where resources were abundant.

Kragg was in his mech and watching the state of the siege through cameras all around the base. The Drakoshi were being annihilated. That was not normal.

Phalanx never had this advantage over them. They were never able to siege a fortress of such scale in less than a day and with so few casualties. This was unprecedented. Though, he had a hunch why.

A human. 8ft. Quite tall for their species. With a banner on his back had been in the fight the entire day, not tiring. Killing Drakoshi left and right with triviality. It was the same human that destroyed the Thermobaric annihilator after he just left.

How the human had recovered from the wounds he saw it take were lost on Kragg. The only thing he could think of was that the human had more than one quirk...

That thought did not sit easy with Kragg. Even though he secretly had one, his species did not like things that could break reality. It paved the way for monsters. For devourers. For things not right.

However, there was more than one anomaly inside that fortress. Over a dozen quirked up humans alongside a Praetorian, a human force famous for killing Drakoshi leadership quite frequently if his data was correct. Even in his war mech, Kragg knew with the finite munitions he had at his disposal, he would not have won that battle. Sure, the humans’ victory would have been considerably more bloody was he there. He would have been able to kill multiple of the quirked humans in an all out attack from them, but he would still lose, still die. And he did not have the same values of the other clans when it came to his own death.

The further he walked, the less that sense of danger to his life he felt. He would follow this to a base or a group he could take over and start again. As this was just the beginning.

He would rather lose the battle to win the war. All he had to do was bide his time and he would come out on top. A longer war was preferred after all. It gave more time for a Warlord to grow, or for one to arrive after hearing about the good scrap happening here. And when that happened... The war would be won.

...

The Drakoshi long ago ran out of ammo, but it did not deter them. In fact it sent them crazed. They seemed to know hours ago that they had lost this battle, but they held out. In fact, they got even harder to fight, like a bloodlust had overtaken them all. Increasing their speed, strength and ability to do stupid shit to deal as much damage to the enemy before their end.

But we continued to fight. For hours my Zircon gorged on Drakoshi blood and guts, her fuller in a perpetual red hue as I barely gave myself a moment to rest. However, unlike yesterday when I was injured, I still felt fresh all these hours later.

My allies, aside from Nerissa and Gabrielle kept on having to make tactical withdrawals to rest and recuperate while I continued to lead the Phalanx further and further up fort until we reached the top.

A group of Drakoshi mechs, twenty feet tall, were waiting for us, mechs with ammo that was all trained on me. I took cover behind my dented, yet still shockingly sturdy, shield and held my ground. Nerissa and Gabrielle also took shelter behind me, but a great deal of Phalanx began diving for cover, some were unfortunate to find none.

As I turtled up, I saw a shadow blur past me and I flinched in reflex before realising it was cast from above me. Looking up just in time. I watched as Skaja, spear pointed dead ahead. Dived down towards a mech and ran it through.

It was a sight to behold.

She then dropped her spear and realigned herself and thrust out, her spear rematerializing in her hand as she thrust it through another cockpit with ease.

With two down, Nerissa stood up behind me and threw her own spear towards one of the still firing mechs. Its flight was true and its impact through the cockpit jolted the mech, disrupting the mech to its left. Allowing me to move.

I charged forward and so did Nerissa and Gabrielle. Skaja with her aerial advantage was now taking on another mech, leaving one more for each of us.

I took the closest one to me. Its guns still trained on me. Reaching out with my Gyrokinesis and Telekinesis. I exerted great force to my left and its weapon began shooting far away from me for a moment. But a moment was all I needed.

Like an extra large discus, I used a spin to gain extra momentum before hurling my shield at the mech before I initiated a full sprint, something that looked wrong to the phalanx. Something so heavily armoured, shouldn’t be able to move this fast after all.

My shield, by some miracle, landed and implanted straight in the Drakoshi’s firing arm, rendering it useless.

The mech then proceeded to take a combat stance as a blue laser sword emerged from the end of its arm.

I didn’t slow down though, even as it swung at me with incredible speed. Using my momentum, I went to my knees and slid underneath the blade. I watched as it passed inches away from my face before getting back to my feet and holding Zircon with two hands. I lashed out with full strength against the Drakoshi mech’s leg.

I then slashed at the second leg before jumping backwards as it tried to squash me with its body.

The final mistake.

With its Chassis lowered I raised my arm and my Minigun began to whir as I proceeded to fire dozens of Pyrokinetic bullets into the cockpit. I immediately heard the Drakoshi scream in agony as it began to flail about in a desperate last attack. But I ran forward, jumped into the air and kicked its Chassis with all my might, sending it hurdling backwards dozens of meters before it fell off the wall on the east side.

Looking around to aid my allies, it looked like they had already dealt with their opponents. Nerissa’s kill was clean, effective, Skaja’s too. Gabrielle’s mech opponent now looked like scrap metal, making me question how she managed to do that so quickly.

"Is everyone good?" I shouted and retrieved the shield that had fallen from the mech while simultaneously planting Zircon in another for a moment’s feed.

Everyone nodded before I noticed the Phalanx looking at me. I could feel their awe... I didn’t like it while on my stims so I yelled authoritatively.

"Why are you all still standing there? We have secured the top! Man the walls that are still intact! I still hear fighting below!"

The Phalanx moved on reflex and took the walls and began firing from a great vantage point.

"Apollo, I’ve been meaning to ask for a while now and it’s been eating at me." Gabrielle started as she approached. She then pointed all over my body. "Is any of that yours?" 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

The ’any’ she was referring to was the mix of dried and wet blood and gore that was encasing my armour.

I took stock of my internals, checked my body before shaking my head. "No, I had a few unfortunate blows that landed past my shield, but nothing got through my armour. How are you? Is that gash on your head serious?"

Gabrielle shook her head. "No, I’ve survived worse."

"Nerissa?" I asked.

"All in one piece." Though my armour is in dire need of repair, too many dents since the wall. I can feel some parts against my skinsuit."

"Skaja?"

"Wings are basically holes at this point, running on Psionic fumes as well. Injured all over. Broken rib. But nothing fatal

I nodded satisfied hearing everyone was fine. I knew Sithrik had taken a nasty attack earlier, so I ordered her to fall back and recover.

"Skaja, you manage the Phalanx from up here. Nerissa, Gabrielle. Victory might be assured , but we continue to fight until this fort is truly ours."

I didn’t wait for a reply, I walked over a short distance to the wall parapet that was on ground level at the top. Gently pushing past a Phalanx that had been shooting and I looked over the wall.

From what I could guess and with shit I’ve been hearing over comms the last few hours when I was required to check in, though Skaja had been a big help in that regard reporting everything else as I was locked in constant melee, the east and south were basically ours. The north was a battlefield that was in our control, but the remaining Drakoshi looked like they were trying to retreat and escape through the east...

I had watched too many under my command today perish. If the Drakoshi thought they had a chance to escape. I was going to make sure that wasn’t the case. This fortress would become their tomb.

Turning slightly, I addressed Nerissa and Gabrielle and smirked under my helmet. "Try and keep up."

I then called Zircon back to my hand and jumped off the parapet.