Black Wolves

(Celladonia - Abandoned plantation)

(Yin Yue's POV)

It had been days since we landed on the Ice King and one could say; things were BORING AS FUCK!

Both Claudia and I were stationed at an abandoned plantation on the planet's northern zone. Surprisingly, every piece of tech in that old glass dome was still intact despite the signs of explosions.

The plantation was said to have been destroyed by a large and organized group of cyber punks. For some reason, they didn't run off with any expensive item to sell at the black market. Instead, they freed the seedlings and took them to who knows where.

And Celladonia wasn't the only planet to suffer attacks from those useless punks. Plantations on Scorx and Faunaria had been completely obliterated, leaving Scorx most damage.

It was said that their leader had one of the 'Legendary blades' in his possesion, but I didn't care about that shit anyway.

Operations on the planet were brought to a halt after the population of female celladonians had reduced drastically. It was weird how our organization only used females for their experiments but once again, I didn't care.

Why would I? They weren't related to me!

At least the western part of the plantation was still intact and the lounge areas were... Well, acceptable. The lights were dim, debris from broken down bots were scattered all over the ground and most of the environment-improving tech were obliterared.

I would've snapped harder than a branch if we had to stay in the wrecked areas, so this was a bit okay. The couch was still intact for some reason though and that meant only one thing...

A home for my lazy ass self!

but then

"Aaah, miss hotstuff", several holographic screens were projected before me as I laid on the couch with a lazy sigh. "When are we gonna leave this piece of junk!?"

"...", Claudia kept silent, staring at the night sky through the glass.

She had been looking up for hours now!!

"Oi, Claudia", I sat up. "What, are you going nuts? Freezing in place? homesick?"

(They're here)

She sent a mental message zapping into my mind.

"Huh?", a puzzled expression appeared on my face. "Who is?"

(And the young mistress is with them)

Claudia looked back.

"Bruh, I don't freaking get you", I returned to my holographic screens, switching between tons of Eastern drama.

(We'll send out scout bots tomorrow. Sleep early)

That was the last thing she said before leaving to her room.

"Okay", an orb-shaped bot brought a bucket of popcorn to me as I glued my eyes to the screen.

Wait

Did she say the young mistress had finally landed on the planet!?

Finally! After weeks of waiting, they had arrived. Now I knew I was a lazy ass, but I didn't get any fun for the past few months and according to Claudia, the young miss seemed to be in the company of a certain 'strong' person!

Perfect! It had been long since I let my trusty tech gear run on a rampage... a hunt, to be precise.

"Ragnea", a sinister grin appeared on my face.

My uniform began to glow an eerie colour as it began to speak in response.

[Ragnea: Miss], the female voice from my tech gear reverberated in the dome.

"Get ready. Tomorrow will be fun"

[Ragnea: Understood]

A light chuckle escaped my mouth as oceans of thoughts gushed into my mind. There were so many options, so many ways!

Problem was, how to give our little prey a painful hunt.

Silence took complete control as I carefully picked the right way to approach the so-called 'strong' person.

"Ah fuck it!", I flung myself on the couch. "I'll think about all that later-"

My eyes sharpened, landing on a scene that unfolded on one of the holographic windows.

"Oh my! He rejected her!", I grabbed my popcorn.

*Crunch*

"Ooo, butter"

(Winter woods - Shyza's POV)

...

"... Sekky?", my voice broke the foggy silence as big sis and I stood a bit farther away from Sek.

He seemed to have come to a sudden stand still and for some reason, he didn't want us close at all. It was like, something was controlling him.

The manner in which the atmosphere suddenly changed also started to send chills down my spine as an invisible figure wriggled around my right arm.

"Cheeky", I muttered, staring at the little slitheryon.

It must've felt the sudden shift in the air as its skin began to harden. I didn't realize the strain on my arm until its body began to reflect lights from the snow flakes. It hurt, but that didn't matter now.

"Is he, okay?", Big sis could barely talk.

There was a horrid look on her face, fear gripped her tightly and her breathing heavily increased as she tightened her fists on her chest.

[Beginning area scan]

A female robotic voice echoed in my head, followed by tiny beeps.

"Sliza?", I muttered.

[Sliza: Seksulfur is beginning to synchronize with the current environment]

"Huh? what do you mean?"

[Sliza: Prolonged exposure to a different environment changed his behaviour entirely, landing on this planet has began to increase the activity of the carnivorous section in his brain]

"You mean..."

Sliza, was she trying to say that Sekky wasn't going to be himself? That he was going to become a full wolf?

Maybe the rigid air is simply a reaction that's emanating from him.

[Sliza: Scan complete, five figures approach from the woods]

"Huh-"

Just then, five shadows burst into the air from the trees and immediately surrounded us. There was something off about them.

They had humanoid forms but gave off a similar aura to Sekky. Just, this time it seemed even more sinister. This didn't spell any good news. Their appearances were also hidden in the black cloaks they wore.

"Big Sis!", I lunged back. "These people are bad company."

"Wha- huh?", Big Sis was instantly startled. She didn't seem to have noticed them at all. "Wh- Who are they!?"

"Oh? So that's the other lone wolf", a little girl pulled in from behind one of the cloaked figures. A sense of dominance promptly weighed on us as she walked foward with not a single glimpse of emotion.

My glare sharpened, "Who are you?"

She might've been a little girl, but I could tell that she held more authority.

"Hmm?", her pure black eyes shifted to meet mine. "And to whom do I owe an introduction?"

The strain on my right arm slowly became unbearable as the girl greatly frightened Cheeky, forcing it to take a crystal-like appearance.

"You're of no worth to us", the girl said as she walked towards Sekky. "We're here for him."

Without a second thought, I sprinted between Sekky and the girl. There was no way I was letting some strangers take Sekky for whatever reason they had!

"You'll have to kill me first!", I spread my arms apart.

The little girl's eye brows lifted in slight surprise. She didn't seem to be expecting anyone to interfere.

"My presence wasn't enough to faze you?", she muttered to herself, staring at me emotionlessly. "So be it."

She raised her palm and immediately, one of the shadowy figures blasted towards me from above.

"Shyza!", Big Sis tried to step in, but was halted by the little girl's death stare.

[Sliza: Charge vents]

Spaces opened up on my body, blowing out powerful steam that sent the attacker flying onto the ground unconscious.

"Sliza!" I slammed my fist on my chest, pressing a hidden switch.

[Sliza: Soul switch]

My body began to increase in height and my clothes changed into a custom battlesuit Ed created. Having to bring Sliza in put a lot of strain on my body since a significant amount of brain charge was needed to supplement the system reboot.

Ed created the custom suit with reserved charges thus, allowing Sliza's system to use that instead of completely draining my brain energy.

Heh, who'd have thought Ed actually had decent psychic power for a mech fabricator. With the new power up, there was no way I'd be easily worn out!

(You didn't expect me to just stand here for you to kill me, right!?), I shot a mental message to the girl.

"What's this?", she immediately withdrew. "Telepathy?"

"Current objective: ...", Sliza ejected the scythe from its cube, melting the snow around us with the radiation it emitted. "Annihilation."

The little girl regained her composure, "Get rid of her."

The remaining figures lunged at the same time, releasing some kind of dark energy as they got closer.

(What's that!?)

Sliza swiftly weaved through them, successfully knocking one of them out with the scythe's handle.

"My scan suggests traces of neo shard energy", Sliza responded.

Neo shard energy!?

How did those people have neo shard energy seeping out from within their skin? Come to think of it, did Sekky also emanate Neo shard energy whenever he let his aura run wild?

If so, how did he manage to merge it with menergy when both work on principles of destruction and creation? Something didn't seem right.

So far, two of those shadows had been takem down. Taking down the other three seemed hectic as they seemed to blend in and out of thin air.

They were impossible to land a hit on!

Unless-

(Sliza, I've got a plan. Lure them to a good distance away from you, maybe three feet)

"Understood", Sliza stood stood still.

The shadows circled around us, they seemed to be extra careful about getting closer.

(Tch! They're too careful! It's like they have a sixth sense)

"Then, allow to pull them in myself", Sliza slammed the scythe into the ground.

(Huh? What do you mean?)

All of a sudden, mechanical arms ejected from Sliza's back and grabbed all three figured in one shot.

(How-)

"These arms detect and follow traces of neo shard energy", She explained.

(Uh- Why didn't you use this earlier?)

"Releasing them requires large amounts of energy as well as sufficient cooldown time. Giving out a sense of danger made our enemies careful not to get close"

Ah, I understood it then. If they had used Sliza's sudden pause to get closer, my plan to get rid of them would've obliterated them and even though they were careful, it only gave Sliza more time to charge and cooldown.

Pfft, the ball was in our court now!

"Release them, or this woman dies", a cold voice scratched through the cold, eventually reaching us.

(Big sis!)

That little midget had taken the chance to bind Olivia in an ominous aura while we were immersed in our fight!

"I-", Big sis stammered. "I'm s- sorry... for being weak."

"Shall we abort our plan?", Sliza glared at the little girl.

(I...)

It was too risky, everything was!

Who knew what the shadows would do if we let them go!? plus, that little midget could easily kill big sis even if we let these figures go.

Damn it! We let the ball slip out of our court!

"Shyza", Sliza called out.

(I... don't know)

"Hm, I'll simply kill you both", the girl proceeded to raise her left palm, engulfing it in a blade-shaped energy. "Time has already been-"

*Slice!*

A rapid line slashed through the little girl's arms, causing them to blow out in an explosive blood fountain.

However, she seemed unfazed

(Who-)

"Hmm?", the girl looked around, but couldn't find the source of the attack.

*Slice!*

Another smooth blade line cleanly made its way through the girl's neck, sending it rocketing into the air with a larger blood fountain gushing out from her decapitated neck.

The girl's head fell to the ground, rolling until it was stopped by an unknown person's feet.

Big Sis slowly looked up, fear suddenly choking her as the very sight of heartless reddish-blue eyes struck a bolt of shock into her.

I paused and took a while to examine the figure...

It couldn't have been... but it was.

(S- Sekky?)

An ominous dark blue aura burst open as Sekky stared at the head's emotionless expression.

The three shadows we had in our grip suddenly disappeared, but I paid no attention to them.

No, that wasn't him.

That wasn't the Sekky I knew.

It was-