The forest exploded into violence.
Drexxon roared forward, Gravemaul cleaving down with seismic weight. Axel stepped into the strike instead of away, left foot twisting as he bent low, the hammer scraping over his back as it smashed into the ground behind him. Earth burst in a geyser of cracked stone.
Axel's fist snapped upward into Drexxon's ribs before the big man could reset, sending a ripple through his voidstone armor.
CLANG!
Halrix struck next. His Venomlace chain-sickles whistled from the right, twin arcs of gleaming neuro-flux. Axel ducked, spinning under the first, then caught the second with his forearm plating, only for the sickle to wrap around it like a snake.
Axel twisted, yanked the chain and launched Halrix over his shoulder like a flailing fish.
A crack echoed.
Sniper round.
Axel's head snapped sideways, just enough to let the cryo-round graze past his cheekplate. A layer of frost bloomed along his visor's edge. Too close.
"Frozen Veil," Black Wolf warned in his mind. "He nullified air friction. You'll hear no shot until it's too late."
"Clock him," Axel replied internally.
Vorn was repositioning already, cloak rippling.
Sylessa struck.
No warning.
No breath.
She dropped like death incarnate from the canopy, Wraithdrop in full effect. Her crystalline spider-limbs snapped outward for momentum. Silkfangs gleamed between her fingers.
But Axel's Lightning Rune flared just before impact.
He sidestepped with such speed that Sylessa seemed to land in slow motion, blades cutting only his afterimage. His hand grabbed her hood mid-fall and slammed her spine-first into the ground.
Mekk surged in, Flicker Fiend armor leaving behind a blur of illusion clones, Axel's sensors pinged five targets at once. Tonfa-blades spun, screeching with charge.
"Echo Phase. Visual confusion imminent."
Axel closed his eyes.
Heartbeat Veil activated.
One breath.
He felt only the real heartbeat.
He lunged sideways, not at the closest clone, but the third and caught Mekk by the throat.
The rogue's eyes widened behind his flickering visor.
"You're not fast enough," Axel said, and drove him into a tree trunk hard enough to split bark.
Then...
BOOM!
Drexxon was back.
The Gravemaul slammed into Axel's side, sending him flying across the clearing. He twisted midair, Iron Howl detaching from his back.
The greatsword howled as it locked into his hand, lightning racing down its edge.
"You wanted a real fight," Axel muttered.
He hit the ground in a slide, carving a shallow trench beneath him and raised his sword.
Iron Howl ignited.
Fire Rune Mode.
The blade burst into flame, and in the same motion, Axel hurled a wave of burning arcs toward the treeline.
Halrix ducked one, Sylessa backflipped the next but one arc brushed Vorn's cover and set half the branch ablaze.
"HE'S USING MAGIC!" Mekk yelled, staggering up.
Sylessa spat acid. "Humans can't do that, he's cheating!"
Drexxon's voice cracked the air.
"Then he's not human."
Lightning danced across Axel's limbs. His eyes behind the visor gleamed gold.
"Welcome to the new age," he said, cracking his neck.
Then he vanished.
Spasm Step.
He reappeared behind Vorn mid-reload, kicked the rifle aside, and swung Iron Howl...
... only for Vorn to shatter into ice.
"A decoy," Axel growled.
Behind him...
CRACK!
Cryo-round smashed his shoulder from behind, partially freezing his armor joint. Axel spun and threw his sword like a javelin. Vorn dropped from the branch to dodge.
Bad idea.
Axel Spasm-Stepped mid-throw, reappearing below and caught Iron Howl in-air. His uppercut slash caught Vorn mid-fall and sent him tumbling.
Mekk returned with a flurry of electrified strikes, forcing Axel into a tight defensive guard. Sparks lit the air as tonfa met greatsword, flash, clash, flash...
"Get back!" Halrix hissed, his Pulse Echo pinging wildly.
The sickle came from behind this time.
But Axel was done reacting.
Execution Window activated.
Everything slowed.
He turned to see Halrix mid-swing, sickle arcing toward his neck.
One breath.
Axel bent backward, the blade grazing his throat, leaving a hiss of melted metal but in the same slowed motion, Axel reached for his holster, drew Last Word, and fired three rounds into Halrix's gut.
The railpistol sang.
BANG. BANG. BANG.
The sickle dropped.
Halrix grunted and fell to one knee, his armor cracked, neuro-flux leaking like ink.
Then Drexxon barreled in again, faster this time.
The Gravemaul came down.
Axel met it with Iron Howl, blade and hammer colliding in a spray of light.
BOOOOM!
Shockwave.
Trees bent. Air warped.
Axel skidded back, boots carving twin trenches.
His breathing slowed.
"They're adapting…" Black Wolf murmured.
"And I haven't even started," Axel whispered.
The standoff cracked.
"Distract him," Sylessa hissed through her comms, circling behind Axel like a spider tightening her web. "He can't guard the pups and fight us."
Mekk chuckled darkly. "He's good, but even gods bleed when you stab their hearts."
Halrix, still kneeling, blood seeping from his cracked chestplate, raised his voice with mocking venom. "We kill the children. Simple math."
Drexxon said nothing.
He just moved.
The Gravemaul spun toward the druidlings.
The children screamed.
Axel turned, eyes wide.
Too far.
"Black Wolf!" he barked.
"I see it!" the demon responded.
The suit's runes flared.
Spasm Step.
Axel vanished in a ripple of dark lightning...
... and reappeared between the children and Drexxon, arms flared wide, Iron Howl clashing with the Gravemaul mid-swing.
BOOOOM!
The ground cratered beneath him. Bark flew. Dirt blasted into the air.
But Axel didn't budge.
He stood tall.
Shielded the children.
The little ones stared up at him in silent awe. One of them reached up and touched the edge of his armor. "We knew you'd come…"
The demon inside stirred.
"They tried to kill the druid children," Black Wolf growled.
Axel's voice was ice.
"I know."
"Make these demons suffer." Black Wolf replied with evil intent.
Something inside Axel snapped.
What followed… was not a fight.
It was a slaughter.
Axel didn't just move.
He hunted.
Mekk blurred in first, flickering clones peeling in every direction, tonfas spinning like twin turbines. "You're too slow now, freakshow!"
Axel's visor gleamed crimson.
Execution Window.
Everything slowed.
He saw it, Mekk's real heartbeat, twitching just slightly off-rhythm from the illusions.
One twist.
Axel lunged.
His fist crushed the rogue's chestplate mid-spin, bones snapping like twigs.
Before Mekk could even scream, Axel spun him midair...
... and ripped both arms off at the shoulder with a wet, metallic SHRRIPPP.
Blood sprayed. Mekk shrieked.
Axel dropped him like garbage.
"Not so fast now," he muttered, stepping over the twitching body.
Sylessa leapt from a high branch, Silkfangs in both hands, spider-limbs flaring...
... but Axel caught her mid-descent.
One hand around her throat.
She slashed wildly, acid hissed off his armor.
Didn't matter.
With a savage grunt, Axel drove her into the ground so hard the earth cracked.
Her limbs curled.
He didn't stop.
He slammed her again.
And again.
And again.
Until the forest floor was a crater of meat and shattered crystal, and her twitching form barely resembled a human frame.
"Too quiet now," Axel murmured, straightening slowly.
Halrix backed away, arm bleeding, sickles twitching nervously.
"Don't... don't come any closer..."
He pulsed his Pulse Echo...
Nothing.
Axel vanished from his radar.
"Wha...?"
Axel stepped from the shadows behind him.
"Your heart betrayed you."
Halrix turned, too slow.
Axel's hand entered his stomach, gripping something soft.
"Let's take this," he growled.
He yanked free, pulling Halrix's spine halfway from his back before slamming him into a tree with enough force to fold him backwards.
Ribs snapped.
Nerves sputtered.
Sickles fell.
"Three down," Axel whispered.
The sniper tried to flee.
He leapt branch to branch, cloak engaged, Frozen Veil active.
"HE'S NOT HUMAN!" Vorn screamed into the comms. "HE'S... HE'S A DEMON..."
Axel appeared beside him mid-jump.
"How right you are."
Iron Howl flashed, lightning and fire roaring in a spiral as the blade cleaved through Vorn's chest.
His torso tore apart midair, burned, cracked, split open like a brittle log.
Pieces hit the ground in opposite directions.
Only one remained.
Drexxon stood his ground, Gravemaul crackling with full kinetic charge.
"You've fallen far, Black Wolf."
Axel's voice came low, cold, and otherworldly.
"I've risen."
The runes on his armor all lit at once.
All of them.
Lightning.
Fire.
Earth.
Air.
Water.
Nature.
Overdrive initiated...
LONE FANG MODE.
The world bent.
Axel blurred, faster than Drexxon's eye could follow.
One blink.
And Axel was already inside his guard.
Iron Howl screamed.
The first slash took Drexxon's arm.
The second shattered his kneecap through voidstone.
The third...
... cut his Gravemaul in half.
Drexxon fell.
Axel loomed over him, elemental fire raging across his armor, glowing like a god of death.
"You came to kill children," he said.
"You thought you could bring death."
He raised Iron Howl one last time.
"But you will receive it."
SCHLNK.
The blade fell.
So did Drexxon's head.
Silence.
The forest held its breath.
Axel stood in a ring of blood, smoke, and broken trees.
The children slowly approached, wide-eyed, clutching each other. One dared to speak.
"...Are you okay?"
Axel looked down at them, suit still blazing, runes still humming. His suit slowly cooled down as the runes also stopped glowing with power.
Then, gently, he knelt.
"None of you are hurt?"
They shook their heads.
One tiny druid girl nodded and whispered, "I knew the Black Wolf would protect us…"
Black Wolf's voice echoed softly in his mind.
"You didn't just protect them, Axel. You avenged the ones those demons killed."
Axel said nothing.
He looked at the blood on his hands.
And clenched them.