Ravens of Eternity

325 Force of Nature, Pt Amarok reared her head back and howled, but unlike the enslaved wolves, hers was haunting and beautiful. The note pushed back against the Director’s tone, and kept it from taking full control of her. And as her mind cleared bit by bit, realized that Lucifer and Freya were still by her side.

They were still connected to her, even though she nearly lost herself.

And she realized that they were helping her resist the tone as well. They certainly heard it as well, and they were most certainly affected by it. All three were affected by its pull, its insidious influence.

All felt overwhelming amounts of base desires triggered within them, thanks to their connection to Amarok. They felt their natural instincts slowly eroded by the Director’s tone. Although they were affected because they were connected to each other, it also meant that they could resist the tone together.

Freya and Lucifer countered it easily – they had shifted their eardrums ever so slightly and muted that particular frequency. Although the tone was still there, it wasn’t nearly as sharp, and felt as though it was more distant than it actually was.

With the two of them by her side, Amarok shifted her own hearing as well, and began to resist it on her own accord.

The Director’s tone dulled to the point where it sounded like thick white noise to all three of them. And within moments it was all but rendered harmless.

He watched with absolute astonishment and shock as Amarok ended her howling, then lowered her head predatorily. Her golden eyes stared at him with an unnerving amount of hatred. It was accompanied by a low growl which seemed to shake the ground beneath their feet.

The Director took a step back out of fear. He suddenly scowled in frustration as he deactivated his gauntlet, then pointed angrily at the trio down below.

.....

“Kill them all!” he screamed. “Erase them from existence! Especially that giant failure! Feed it to the hounds!”

The power armored goons immediately stepped forward, and swung their guns towards the trio. They solidified their stances even while their barrels spun up and whined. When they squeezed their triggers, thousands of rounds spat out in mere seconds.

Despite the sheer amount of bullets they fired, they didn’t hit their targets, who long since sped out of the way. Long before the first bullet even exited the barrel.

The three of them shot out in different directions, each one with their own targets to kill.

“The wolves are mine,” thought Amarok as she circled around, then charged the nearest one. She leapt with grace and power, and slammed right into it with all of her might. She clamped down on its neck and bit down, which caused it to yelp in pain.

Her teeth dug right through the skin and muscle, and shattered much of the bone. Then she yanked up and away sharply left, then right, then left again, over and over as she attempted to tear its head right off.

And with a final, powerful tug, did exactly what she wanted. Its flesh and bone ripped apart, loosened by her razor-sharp teeth. Blood gushed out of the gaping wounds in its neck, which dripped down and spread all over the floor.

She dropped its head on the ground as its body tipped over and fell, satisfied with her kill. Then, she charged the next one with equal ferocity and strength.

While Amarok dealt with the remaining enslaved wolves, Lucifer leapt towards one of the power armored goons that was aiming at Freya. Ze eagerly poured energy through hirself and struck him with a flying kick strong enough to severely dent his chest armor.

Not only that, but he was thrown all the way to the other side of the room, smashed into the wall, and crumpled to the ground helplessly.

Ze immediately sped to the next closest goon, hopped up slightly, and thrust a fully-powered fist right into his helmet. The force of it severely dented his helmet inward, and shattered every bone in his face instantly – it was as though he had been hit by a truck going at full speed.

The goon was also knocked straight to the ground, dead. Or almost dead, and most certainly wishing he was. Shards of his own bone bit into his brain and face, which also made his death slow and excruciating and all but assured.

The other three were completely astounded at what they saw – an unarmed human literally tossed them around in heavy power armor. As though they were merely dolls to be toyed with.

It was certainly true to some degree.

Fear swept through them in waves, and they quickly turned their barrels towards hir. As they did so, their bullets sprayed all across the room, and tore at the delicate machinery and terminals that surrounded them.

But no matter what, they simply couldn’t hit Lucifer. Ze zipped back and forth with such speed that they simply couldn’t keep up. Not especially with their lumbering armor and heavy weapon loadouts.

Lucifer easily circled around them in a mad dash, a playful grin etched on hir face. It was evidently clear just how much ze was enjoying this slaughter, and hir emotions poured out in waves for the other two to feel.

Ze then poured just a bit more into hir muscles and sped around them with ridiculous celerity. And with the blink of an eye, flanked the next goon. Ze kicked his minigun from the side, which caused him to stumble to his right.

Worse, it caused his aim to shift towards the goon next to him, and inadvertently sprayed him down with a heap of bullets. They tore through his armor at point-blank range and riddled it full of holes. The goon himself flinched and flailed as bullet after bullet tore into his body.

By the time he stopped squeezing the trigger, it was far too late. The damage was done, and his fellow comrade was completely perforated. Blood oozed from the holes in his armor before he fell face-first onto the floor.

While ze busied hirself with hir playthings, Freya had leapt up onto the platform with boundless ease. The already frustrated Director was filled with surprise at how easily she had done so, and scrambled backwards out of fear.

“Don’t just stand there you idiots!” he screamed. “Get rid of her!”

His personal guard immediately leapt into action from behind him. Each wore impressive combat armor and wielded dangerous electrobatons. More than that, they were highly trained combat veterans, and moved with grace and strength and precision.

They surrounded her on all sides and constantly pressed their attacks. At least four of them went on the offensive at any given moment, which kept Freya on the defensive. Because they were literally all around her, she had no choice but to keep evading and parrying their strikes.

The Director was even more astounded at what he was seeing. She was literally fighting off his squad of professional killers, as though she was merely exercising. And it was even worse down below.

Lucifer handily tore through his very expensive power armored team using bare hands! And Amarok easily dealt with the enslaved wolves.

“What in the hells are you all doing?” the Director yelled out. “Can’t any of you deal with these people? There’s so many of you, and only three of them!”

As though propelled by his anger, the remaining enslaved wolves doubled down on their viciousness. They attacked Amarok all at once, from all sides, and tore into her with their jaws. Every time she would try to evade one, she would end up in the jaws of the others.

And their teeth were as sharp as hers – they left huge gashes in her haunches and her sides with every attack.

They snapped and tore at her bit by bit. But even then, they couldn’t manage to outright kill her.

“You gods-damned useless slagheads!” the Director continued screaming. “I always end up doing everything myself!”

He drew a handcannon from his clothes and pointed it straight at Amarok. He gripped it with both hands, steadied his aim, then fired a single shot aimed straight at her eye.

But at that exact moment, Amarok shifted her body. However, she didn’t turn into crystal or bone or stone like the others. Instead, her entire body shifted to a metallic state – a dull titanium gray to be specific.

Not just her skin, but absolutely everything. Her eyes, her claws, her teeth. Every strand of fur became as strong as titanium. The Director’s bullet bounced off her skin and embedded itself into a nearby terminal.

And on seeing the transformation itself, he fell to his knees in utter surprise. And in incredulity. He simply couldn’t believe his own eyes. Everything he was working towards was right in front of him.

“Y-you can shift at will?!” he cried out.

“Not just her,” Freya answered.

When he turned to look, shock was etched on his face, along with the faces of his security detail. Freya too had shifted her body into a pure metallic state. Because she and Lucifer were mentally linked to Amarok, they directly saw how she manipulated the energies in her body and transformed.

She had internally broken down the titanium armor she had been consuming, along with the humans, and shifted her body to resemble its structure. That same understanding spread through to the other two, who used a similar technique to mimic it.

Though they were burning through great amounts of energy to sustain it.

One of the Director’s personal guards swung his electrobaton at Freya out of fear, but it simply bounced off her body harmlessly. In response, she struck him with a dismissive backhand, which caused his skull to collapse inward from the impact.

He was flung backwards from the blow, and was dead before he hit the ground.

The other guards looked at him in horror, then ran away as fast as their legs could take them.

Not that Freya cared in the slightest. She instead walked straight towards the Director with their collective anger deep in her eyes.

She grabbed his gauntleted hand and crushed the device with ridiculous ease. The gauntlet itself crumpled into itself as his hand shattered and broke inside. He screamed as he fell to the ground and clutched his damaged hand.

“Now,” she told him, “let’s talk about your little facility here, and all the little experiments you’ve been conducting. I’d like to know exactly how long you’ve been doing this, and how many wolves you’ve created. Really, how many wolves you’ve tortured this entire time.

“And of course, we oughta talk about whoever it was that hired you in the first place. The ones who want the Corvus Republic ‘removed’. Can’t forget about that, can we?”