The Black Wolf Rises

The air inside the mining yard quivered.

Ash floated like feathers. The glow of broken machinery flickered in dying pulses. And at the center of it all, Axel stood, calm, steady, staring down the four members of Iron Brand.

Kael's plasma axes hissed with arcs of chain lightning. Glint's cloak rippled as he disappeared from sight. Mavax cracked his neck, the drill-arm on his right shoulder spinning slowly. Cylis vanished in a blink, a black streak moving into the shadows.

Axel's grip tightened around Iron Howl.

"They're going to try everything at once," Black Wolf whispered in his ear. "Don't go easy. We're not facing rookies this time."

"Didn't plan to," Axel muttered.

Kael lunged first.

Twin axes slashed across Axel's chest, leaving shallow scrapes as Axel twisted, countering with a downward slash. Kael jumped back as Iron Howl gouged the ground.

"Still fast," Kael growled. "But not faster than lightning."

Mavax thundered in from the left, drill screaming. Axel side-stepped, barely, feeling the air split beside his ribs. The ground exploded behind him.

Axel ducked low, pivoted, and fired Last Word mid-spin. A railshot pinged off Glint's cloak mid-air, revealing his shimmer a second before it disappeared again.

"Sniper," Axel muttered.

"Right ridge. I sense the heat," Black Wolf warned.

CRACK!

A beam of focused light seared past Axel's head. He dropped, rolling behind a metal loader as it melted clean through a support beam.

Cylis appeared behind him.

Wrist-blades stabbed for his neck.

Axel turned at the last instant, Spasm Step activating, his body flickering a few meters sideways through solid steel.

He reappeared with a burning swipe of Iron Howl.

Cylis dodged, barely, vanishing again into shadow.

"Focus, Axel." Black Wolf's voice was steel. "Your body's keeping up, but they're coordinated."

"Then let's get serious."

Axel's runes lit.

Yellow. Red. Blue.

Lightning for speed. Fire for damage. Water to calm the blood.

He blurred forward, smashing into Kael. One axe flew from Kael's hand. Axel kicked him in the chest and sent him tumbling.

Another shot. Sunpiercer.

Axel leapt high, flipping midair. The beam scorched the air beneath his boots.

He landed, only to have Mavax tackle him full-force.

They crashed through a mining rail. The drill slammed into Axel's ribs... hard.

"Brace..."

The kinetic shield deployed in time. Still, the blow winded him.

Axel gritted his teeth, drew Last Word, and emptied the clip into Mavax's shoulder joints. Sparks flew. Mavax roared, stumbling back.

Then Kael came again.

Both axes this time. Lightning danced. Axel parried, blades clashing in a storm of plasma and steel.

BOOM!

Axel's armor sparked. A glancing hit.

Another.

He slipped, only slightly but Cylis reappeared instantly and drove a blade into his side.

Axel roared, spun, and hurled Cylis into a wall. Blood ran down his ribs.

"You're slowing," Black Wolf said. "Overclock your reflexes or die."

Axel activated the Lightning Rune again, pushing it harder. Vision stretched. Time slowed.

He moved.

Dodged left, elbowed Kael. Blocked right, kicked Mavax.

Cylis blinked in and Axel was already gone.

He reappeared behind her.

SLASH! Iron Howl tore through the edge of her stealth field. She screamed and vanished again.

CRACK! Another sniper round. Axel ducked, too slow.

The shot caught his shoulder and slammed him backward.

He flew into a rusted mining machine...

... and didn't get back up.

Dust settled.

The orcs watching from the ridge gasped.

Silence.

Then a small voice shouted... "Come on! Get up!"

Another..."He's the Black Wolf! He's not dead!"

Then a chorus.

"He's the monster's protector!"

"The Black Wolf can't fall!"

"He's one of us!"

Axel's body twitched.

Inside the armor, blood filled his mouth.

"Even if you use Lone Fang," Black Wolf said coldly. "I'm not sure, we can win."

Axel coughed.

"I'm not done."

"They're going to kill the orcs. And you hear their cries of belief."

Outside, the Iron Brand paused.

Kael looked toward the shouting monsters with disgust.

"Shut them up."

Mavax turned.

Glint's rifle charged.

Axel's fingers clenched.

"Then rise, monster," Black Wolf growled. "Let them see the real you."

The beam of light carved through the smoke.

Glint's sniper shot, Sunpiercer, screamed through the air like divine judgment, aimed at the heart of the closest orc child scrambling for cover.

Then it stopped.

A sound like metal shrieking against reality.

A black gauntlet, glowing with runes of all colors, intercepted the beam and deflected it upward, splitting the sky.

Axel stood there.

Alive.

Changed.

Runes across his armor blazed at full brightness, earth, nature, water, fire, lightning, air, all pulsing at once. Power surged through every plate of his exo-suit. The crimson visor of his wolf helm burned like the eyes of a demon.

"Lone Fang Mode," he growled. "Activate."

Black Wolf's voice echoed from the suit, deeper now, layered. "All runes at one hundred percent. Prepare for overload."

The elemental surge exploded outward.

Fire spiraled from his shoulders. Wind howled from his calves. Lightning cracked across his arms. The earth cracked under his boots. His wounds sealed as nature pulsed. And his blood ran cold, perfectly controlled.

Orcs all across the ridge screamed in joy.

"He's up!"

"He blocked a sniper shot with his hand!"

"THE BLACK WOLF IS ALIVE!!"

Kael staggered backward. "He's… using magic?"

"That's not a man," Mavax muttered. "That's a monster."

Axel stepped forward. "You're not touching a single hair on their heads."

The orcs roared, beating fists against rusted beams. "MONSTER PROTECTOR! MONSTER PROTECTOR!"

Glint aimed again.

Axel vanished.

He reappeared behind Glint.

A silent blur. A living storm.

Axel backhanded Glint into the side of a metal structure. His cloak flickered, malfunctioning. Glint's helmet cracked as he fell.

Kael and Mavax lunged in.

"Kill the orcs!" Kael ordered. "He can't protect them all!"

Mavax charged a nearby yellow-skinned elder, drill raised.

Then Axel was there.

The drill stopped an inch from the elder's face. Iron Howl was between them, unmoving.

The elder blinked.

Axel's head turned slightly. "Run."

The elder ran. Mavax snarled.

Axel twisted, drove his fist into Mavax's helmet. The impact dented the tank-like armor and sent Mavax flying through two walls.

A child was about to be cut down by Cylis...

... but the moment her blades swung, Iron Howl met them.

Sparks exploded.

The orc child stared up in awe.

"W-Wolf…"

"Don't blink," Axel said.

He twisted his blade and kicked Cylis backward, her armor cracking at the joints. Then he was on her ...

... Iron Howl cleaved through her stealth field and kept going.

A leg flew free.

Then an arm.

Cylis screamed, her blood spraying in black arcs as her stealth field shattered completely.

Axel plunged Iron Howl down.

CRACK.

Her helmet split in half.

Her body twitched once.

Then nothing.

Glint raised his rifle again ...

... but a metal wire wrapped around it. Axel yanked. Glint flew off the ridge, hitting the ground in a limp heap.

Kael screamed, his axes humming with redirected lightning.

He clashed with Axel in a frenzy, sparks lighting up the yard. The clang of plasma against rune-forged metal echoed like thunder.

But Kael was losing.

Every swing, Axel matched. Every feint, Axel read.

Then Kael slipped.

Axel punched through his gut.

The armor caved in, sparking violently.

Kael screamed. Axel didn't wait.

He grabbed one of the plasma axes mid-swing...

... and decapitated Kael with it.

The head hit the ground with a thud. The body crumpled.

The orcs were deafening now. Chanting. Screaming.

"The Black Wolf!"

"He's the Reaper!"

"He's OUR SAVIOR!"

Axel turned to Mavax, who was limping up from the rubble.

The last one.

Axel sprinted, supercharged, runes screaming.

He drove Iron Howl into Mavax's chest.

The armor cracked.

Axel lifted him into the air with one hand.

Then he ripped the Grinder Core clean from Mavax's arm, and swung it like a flail, caving his head in.

Blood. Bone. Gore.

Silence.

Only the orcs cheered.

Axel's runes began to flicker. One by one.

Then he dropped to his knees.

"Black Wolf…" he whispered.

"Too much," the voice rasped. "System burn… stand by…"

He started to fall...

... but rough, strong hands caught him.

Three orcs. Then five. Then more.

They held him up, steady.

One of them, the elder he'd saved, smiled. "You've done enough."

Axel stood with their help, blood dripping from his armor.

He raised his voice, weak but steady. "You're free now. But you can't stay here."

The orcs moved without hesitation.

Chains were broken.

Tunnels opened.

Hundreds of orcs streamed into the woods beyond the mines, carrying the wounded, the old, the young.

Axel watched them go.

Until he was alone.

The smoke curled.

The silence returned.

He stood in the empty kingdom of chains...

... alone.

The Black Wolf.

Waiting for the next hunt.