**Eve of War**
Night fell like ink over the Morsh Mountains. Deep in the hidden camp, Grom stood on a high platform, staring into the darkness with brooding eyes, his beastman ears twitching constantly—a sign of high alert. His adjutant, Urken Shukes, stood silently at his side, clad in light armor studded with mana crystals, his curved sword glowing with cold light.
The scouts Grom had sent out days ago had not returned. The unnatural silence weighed on him.
"No word from the scouts," Grom said, voice low with barely-contained agitation. "They don't just vanish. Shukes—what do you think?"
Shukes narrowed his golden beastman eyes, sniffed the air, and answered quietly, "General, the scents in the mountains are wrong. I believe we've been discovered."
Grom turned, eyes flashing coldly. "Discovered? Impossible. Those scouts were hand-picked. Unless…" He paused, voice turning icy. "Unless Balg has already moved."
At that moment Rok stepped out of a tent, his stocky dwarven frame casting a heavy shadow in the magitech lamplight. Arms folded, he sneered. "Balg? That old mammoth's past his prime. What storm can he raise?"
"Never underestimate him," Grom growled. "Balg is the Iron Wall of the Fierceclaw Empire. His hundred thousand beastmen are no decoration. And I have a feeling… Kayla is still alive."
Rok's face changed slightly. "Kayla? Didn't she die in the prison explosion?"
Grom gave a cold snort. "That was Mias's scheme. I should have seen it. They've been plotting a counterattack in the dark." He turned to Shukes. "Put the entire army on combat alert. Six thousand elite troops must be ready to move at once. And activate the portal. If things go badly, we retreat through it."
Meanwhile, near the First Outpost on the side closest to Lavaforge City, Fa and her team were holding final war councils with Balg and Kayla. Campfire flames danced in the night wind, illuminating determined faces.
Balg stood before the map, warhammer flickering with violet light. "Grom's private army is deep in the mountains. We strike first."
Fa nodded. The star-pupil of her right eye flashed silver. "The plan is ready. TISK and Rex have returned from the mines with proof. The dwarven legions are prepared."
Kayla gripped her Thunderclaws, eyes burning with vengeance. "Tomorrow, I will make Grom pay with his own blood."
Arya gently took Fa's hand, soft but resolute. "We will succeed."
Salsa's soul flickered beside her mechanical cat shell. "I'll handle scouting. Everyone stay safe."
Rex spoke calmly. "Data shows roughly six thousand enemy troops. Well-equipped, but we have overwhelming numbers. If we coordinate properly, victory is almost certain."
Balg nodded. "We attack at dawn. Kayla and I lead the beastman host in the frontal charge. Signal General Amber—the dwarven legions will flank. Fa, you provide rear support."
The plan was set. The army dispersed to prepare, awaiting the break of dawn.
**Outbreak of War**
The horizon had only just begun to pale when Lavaforge City's gates were flung wide by Amber's troops. Silence shattered beneath the thunder of war drums.
Balg and Kayla stood at the vanguard of twenty thousand beastmen. War-wolf riders in rune-etched helmets led the charge, magitech jets on their mounts spitting blue flame, scorching claw-marks into the stone. The earth shook with their advance.
Balg's roar boomed through the magitech horn at his neck. Kayla leaped forward first, Thunderclaws crackling as they tore the air with shrill lightning cries.
"Slaughter the traitors who betrayed the Empire!"
"Stay close to the general! Straight into the heart of the Morsh Mountains!"
Like a flood breaking its dam, the beastman tide surged toward Grom's camp. Alarms screamed through the mountain. Six thousand private troops poured out—beastman rebels wielding glowing energy rifles, dwarven rebels shouldering lava-spewing mag-cannons—forming ranks amid Rok's furious curses.
**Kayla & Salsa: Lightning and Shadow**
On the battlefield, Kayla's claws flashed with electricity, her pupils narrowed to slits. She slashed out blades of lightning that shattered enemy metal shields. Three rebels raised their energy rifles—then black mist erupted at their feet. Ten shadow demon wolves summoned by Salsa tore out throats and gun barrels in the same instant.
"Thanks, Salsa!" Kayla vaulted skyward, tail whipping arcs of current that felled five enemies trying to encircle her.
From the high platform, Grom swung his greatsword, commanding the fight. Seeing that familiar silhouette made Kayla's fangs ache—he was the traitor who had personally stained imperial ledgers with the blood of border soldiers.
**Fa & Arya: Earth and Elemental Strangulation**
Fa gripped her shortblade. Her star-pupil flashed silver—she "saw" weak points deep in the enemy lines. The blade swept low; the ground split. Jagged stone spikes erupted, impaling rebels reloading cannons. The spikes carried static charge; nearby energy rifles smoked and died.
Arya drew her longbow to full moon. The five elemental crystals set in it cycled through colors. Light arrows pierced shields, dark arrows bound limbs, fire arrows detonated fuel stores, wood arrows sprouted thorny vines that locked enemy ankles, wind arrows whipped shards of stone into faces. Five radiant colors wove a gorgeous net of death.
Fa charged into the chaos. Her blade carved a circle on the ground—stone walls surged up, trapping a squad inside. A dwarven rebel reached for the mag-explosive at his belt; Fa flung her earth-infused blade. Sand poured from the wound, desiccating him in seconds, face frozen in terror. She retrieved her weapon and moved on.
As battle reached fever pitch, Madhammer Ston heard the alarm and arrived with a dwarven column.
Seeing Amber fighting rebels, he rushed forward. "Amber! What in the hells is going on?"
Amber spun her wind staff, hurling a tornado that sent enemies flying, then shouted back, "Ston! Rok conspired with Grom to smuggle crystal cores! They murdered Grin and massacred the mine garrison! We found hundreds of enslaved corpses—against every oath! We're purging the traitors!"
Ston's eyes blazed with shock and rage. "Rok—a traitor to the alliance!" He turned to his legions. "Brothers! Rok betrayed us! For Grin—for justice—charge!"
Six thousand dwarves roared and joined the fight, crushing Grom and Rok's forces in a pincer with the beastman host.
Balg's voice thundered across the field: "Surrender and live! Drop your weapons and you walk away!"
**TISK & Rex: Hammer and Drone Symphony**
TISK's hammer smashed a metal shield with a deafening clang. His thick fingers traced runes on the haft; the shattered shield melted into slag. "Time for a new trick, tin cans!" he laughed, beard sparkling with embers. "Rex—bend their barrels!"
Sixteen micro-drones swarmed from Rex's back, buzzing around the enemy. They scattered silver dust—nanobots that crippled weapons. "Lava cannon battery left flank," Rex said coolly. "Disabled in three… two…"
A squad of dwarven rebels with mag-rail cannons rounded a boulder. TISK slammed his hammer into the ground. Golden runes raced across the stone; enemy iron boots locked to the rock. "Time to strip your toys!" He waded in, ripping whole plates of armor away with every swing.
Rex's drones sliced comm antennas on the cliff. Fake orders flooded enemy channels.
"Rex—iron wall incoming!" TISK was pushed back by a moving wall of spiked steel.
Rex's visor zeroed in. His finger morphed into a flat energy lance, green light flaring. It punched clean through; the wall exploded from within. "Salvaged from the ruins," he said, scanning the wreckage. "You said 'crazy designs save lives.' Believe me now?"
TISK stared, then roared with laughter. "After this, I'm engraving a dwarven forge rune on that gun—gonna look badass!"
Magic and technology blazed together. Grom's army began to break. Three thousand beastmen and three thousand dwarves faltered—some threw down arms, others fought to the death.
**Final Duels**
Seeing defeat, Grom unleashed his third beast form—primal diamondback gorilla bloodline. His body swelled to ten feet, red-brown mane bristling like iron spikes. Veins glowed lava-hot beneath his skin. He abandoned his greatsword for a steel support beam ripped from the mine, crystal veins pulsing along its length. When he swung it, magma sprayed. Bone spikes on brow and neck glowed molten. His eyes were pure crimson.
"Balg! You old mammoth hiding at the border—come!"
Balg ordered everyone back and stepped forward.
He pressed both palms to the earth. Elephant third form erupted—skin turning to dark-gray stone scales, trunk splitting into three rock-spiked tendrils that could channel geomagnetic force. His warhammer fused into his fists, becoming massive magma gauntlets burning with deep-earth fire.
"Traitors always hide behind 'for our people,'" Balg's voice rumbled like collapsing bedrock. His tendrils lifted multi-ton boulders. "Enslaving our own, stealing crystal cores, colluding with foreigners—you trampled beastman pride. Today the Iron Wall crushes your arrogance."
Balg versus Grom. Kayla versus Shukes. The battlefield center became two arenas of life-and-death.
**Balg vs Grom: Magma and Ironblood**
First clash—Grom's steel beam screamed down, pressure wave pulping corpses in its path. Balg crossed stone-scaled arms; metal met stone in a shriek of sparks. The ground cratered thirty centimeters, but he held. His three tendrils whipped around the beam, channeling geomagnetic heat—steel melted to sludge.
"My turn." Tendrils lashed like meteor hammers.
Grom roared, grabbed the rock-spiked tendrils bare-handed. Rock thorns tore his palms—magma poured from the wounds, sealing instantly. He had fused crystal core energy into his marrow.
He yanked Balg close and headbutted with brow spikes. Balg's scales cracked in webs, but he slammed both fists into the ground. Magma erupted beneath Grom, burning legs to bone—yet the gorilla's wounds regenerated even faster.
"Old elephant, your geomancy is useless!" Grom licked magma from his palm. A burning gorilla war-spirit rose behind him. "I implanted crystal cores into my bones—I am the fourth beast form!"
Balg wiped blood from his brow, then drove his trunk into the bedrock. The entire mountain range shuddered. Crystal cores inside Grom went berserk—metal shards tore through his veins.
"You think stolen power makes you strong?" Balg's gauntlets formed a mountain silhouette of pure magma. "Beastmen grow with nature, not by stealing it."
Grom collapsed to his knees, eyes rolling white as crystals detonated inside him. Balg's final blow stopped an inch from Grom's chest. He saw not fear of death in the gorilla's eyes, but the despair of shattered ambition.
"You lost to your own greed, Grom." Balg's trunk plucked the crystal pendant from his neck. "Beastman strength was never meant to be built on the suffering of our kin."
**Kayla vs Shukes: Lightning Hunt**
Eastern flank—Kayla in cheetah third form: silver-gray fur crackling with lightning patterns, three bone spikes at tailbase acting as antennas, plasma jets from paw pads leaving lightning scars on stone. She locked onto the gray-black shadow leaping through the canopy—Shukes in jackal third form, lithe and venom-tipped, curved poison blades extending from claws.
"Little cheetah, can you smell death?" Shukes's voice came from three directions at once. "The blood of those I beheaded… sweeter than venison."
"Shut your mouth!" Kayla launched skyward, claws grazing his ear, burning fur to ash.
Shukes bounded through branches, tail spraying corrosive mist. But Kayla's electromagnetic senses tracked every droplet; she twisted mid-air, evaded.
"Coward!" Her roar carried thunder. "Did you think of running when you enslaved our people?"
Fear finally overtook Shukes's instincts. He remembered the day General Grin died—he had only handed the knife. Now facing a true hunter, he understood the eternal gap between cheetah and jackal.
"M-mercy…" he whimpered, then saw killing intent in her eyes.
He bolted for a hidden tunnel—only to find it blocked by fresh lava. Desperate, he scrambled toward the cliff.
Kayla fired a chain of lightning that wrapped his hind leg. He screamed as he fell, poison blades useless against living current. Dragged before her, eyes bloodshot, he choked, "Shukes says… General Grin's remains were taken to Shadowclaw Pass… I-I can lead you—"
"Liar! We buried General Grin ourselves." Kayla's claw pressed to his throat—then Grom's distant bellow cut through the din: "Shukes! To the portal! Tell them the plan has failed!"
Shukes's dying eyes focused. Through smoke he saw Grom pinned under Balg's magma fist, neck spikes broken, blood bubbling—yet still staring at him with nothing but command.
"General…" A broken whine left Shukes's throat. Fear turned to desperate loyalty. He smiled horribly and bit the blood-elf bone shard hidden under his tongue. Undead runes flared with his belt crystal—explosion hurled Kayla hundreds of meters.
She flipped mid-air and landed catlike, but Shukes had already limped onto the rune circle in the abandoned mine—West's portal array from a month ago. Kayla lunged, caught only a shred of blood-soaked cloth.
Shukes dissolved into red mist, vanishing to places unknown.
The battle was over.
The traitors were broken.
Dawn fully broke over the Morsh Mountains, and the Fierceclaw Empire's banner once again flew proud.