With a knife still within her heart, the witch's fist slammed into Myers before he could even react. Sending him hurtling backward into a tree. Afterwards, she casually pulled out the blade out her chest with cold composure.

Blood began to bloom across her dress from her open wound, yet she stood there unnaturally still. I stared in disbelief, as I noticed her pale skin and red flesh knit themselves back together beneath the torn dress' fabric, the wound almost instantly sealed itself as if it had never existed. Her file warned us that regeneration was her resonant ability, however we didn't have details on its extent.

"You're like a damn cockroach with that persistence. How are you still alive?" she clicked her tongue as irritation sharpened her voice.

Grimacing through the pain, Myers forced himself upright. His pistol rose in one hand, with another knife clenched in the other, both aimed squarely at her.

"Does that matter right now?"

His neural link must've been damaged by the RPG blast right before his M.T.'s head was fully decapitated. Normally, his brain would've interpreted that as his death too. The fact that he was still standing was pure luck.

No time for theories. In a few seconds, those anti-tank rifles will tear him apart. I had to act now.

From the forest floor, I scanned my surroundings and saw the white cylinder I had dropped lying near the witch. With that battery cell's electricity I could damage her runes, or disable her Nova Flight Unit which was my original plan but now my rifle was too far away from me.

BANG!

Myers' pistol round deflected off the witch's shield, however a second shot's round pierced straight through the battery beside her. Sparks of violent electricity suddenly erupted outward, arcing wild bolts of electricity which lashed the witch's body.

I wasn't safe in this proximity, and I barely managed to dodge the bolts which hurled at me.

"Damn it, Myers. You could've warned me that we were thinking the same thing." I managed to well up a scream however a louder shriek smothered its noise.

The Iron Witch howled in pain as waves of torturous lightning engulfed her, frying her equipment and distorting the air around her. Her shield was down, and she knew it. In panicked retaliation, she fired her anti-materiel rifle toward Myers' position like a mortar shell sending him flying.

The shot shredded the forest's trees, filling the air with dirt and smoke. However it wasn't as powerful as before. Maybe it was the range or her fractured focus, but this was my opening.

Ignoring the pain in my stomach still bubbling with blood, I forced myself off the ground and staggered toward the dark forest, falling down on my knees where my rifle was and commanded my trembling hands to pick it up.

After barely managing to chamber my rifle, I aimed at the witch and fired several burst rounds in her general direction. Without an active shield I was bound to do some damage or slow her down at the very least.

But of course, I was fighting a Caller, nothing ever goes to plan with that. To my dismay, her rifle began to spin like a fan, rotating in front of her like a living barrier. My rounds sparked and deflected harmlessly off the whirling metal, my attack was rendered completely useless.

The fight still wasn't damn fair, even after all that. However, I did notice that two of her rifles remained inactive, if I played this smartly I could recover the black box.

I began to push my implants to their maximum output and rushed towards the darkness, firing shots from the shadows in a desperate attempt to weaken her. The lights beneath her dress were completely off now, so I assumed she would only stay in the light of the flames to avoid being cursed and used that to my advantage.

Then a sudden rush of movement shattered that thought.

The witch sprinted straight toward me with her pistol retaliating with an entire magazine while her spinning rifle shielded her from my shots. She probably used the muzzle flash to pin point my location but...

How was she moving without light?

Has she gone mad?

I tried to run again, but my metal implants suddenly poked out of my ankle. Pain locked my body in place, and within seconds she was already on me. Her body moved quicker than I could process, before I knew it her hands were already closed around my neck, crushing down as she began to choke me.

"I'm taking you with me!" she snarled like a wild beast with eyes burning with blood-red rage. I could see them clearly through the dim glow leaking from inside her mask.

An emergency light! Damn it—that's why— she's—

As she tightened her grip, the pressure felt like there was a vise around my neck—

A bullet from Myer's pistol tore into her shoulder, chipping away her flesh. She released her grip, and I collapsed, gasping for air as my lungs screamed for breath.

Myers began to unload his entire magazine on the witch; however, her rifle's defense prevented any more damage.

Through blurred vision, I could see a faint glimpse of Myers abandoning his pistol and going into a combat stance with his knife in an attempt to engage her in close combat. He moved towards her like a shadow, using the surrounding trees as cover to set up his ambush.

"You think I'd play fair with you?!" the witch roared as she commanded her rifle.

In an instant, a blinding white laser perfectly sliced all of the trees surrounding us, exposing Myers' position for a fraction of a second as their trunks fell to the ground.

With a single, silent command, the witch hurled her floating rifle forward, striking Myers with brutal force. He raised his arm on instinct, but his bones gave way with a sickening crack. His guard shattered, and he hit the ground hard with a flailing arm.

While her only active rifle was still committed to a command I could strike now!

I lunged towards her, swinging my left hook to strike with all my remaining might, in a desperate gamble to rip her mask off her face and expose her to the darkness.

But to my despair, it didn't break, it didn't even come off, it barely even moved.

It only enraged her further.

She retaliated instantly, striking me with her fist with such overwhelming force that I felt my ribs shatter on impact. I collapsed, coughing up a painting of blood onto the dirt as a cold numbness spread through my chest.

My body felt like wood as the world began to darken.

Through the haze, I could see flashes of light flickering between the trees. Followed by the distant rumbling of tanks and the heavy rhythm of approaching footsteps. Every instinct inside me screamed at once.

<Kill the enemy.>

<Complete the mission.>

I tried to move, but my body didn't listen. It felt like a foreign object as it lay there, useless.

It was then that I realized that—this was it. I had to use the rune bomb in my head to kill the witch.

"I surre–"

However, as I was about to activate the bomb,the black box presented itself right in front of me. If I died now…then the objective would be destroyed.

I had to—

I needed to get it out of here.

With everything I had left, I dragged my fingers toward her, my nails barely scraped the box's edges as my fingers weakly faltered towards the box. So close. Just a little more—

Pain exploded across my face.

The witch's iron boot struck my head aside with a kick before pinning my arm to the dirt. The weight of her foot grinded down on my hand like I was an insect.

"Forget about your mission, you can finally rest now."

Her voice was blurred, distant—and yet somehow impossibly clear.

The noise began to fade. The lights dimmed. The world grew quiet.

And in that silence, for the first time I dreamed.

Of the wind brushing against a wide stretch of farmland under an open sky.

Of an old schoolyard's walls filled with voices and laughter.

Of the warmth of a family whose faces I could no longer see.

I felt like everything was slipping away.

Like I've already lost to time and lost to myself.

But before I could drift any further, an unexplainable hatred began to well within me, forcing every fiber of my being to open my eyes.

Pain. Heat. Blood. Screams. Flames.

Everything came back all at once.

I was back on the forest floor. My chest still throbbed from the witch's punch, her boot was still placed on my arm. Faint sparks of electricity still sizzled around her silhouette and as I tried to look around, Myers groaned in agony beside me, clutching his broken arm.

The witch casually reloaded her pistol on top of me, purposefully dropping the empty magazine on my shattered ribs, I could feel its cold metal kissing my lungs.

I bit back a scream as she steadily raised her pistol, and aimed for Myers' head.

I tried to move, to reach him, but I could barely even move a single finger. Myers also saw her approaching and tried to stand but—

BANG!

A hollow silence crushed my ears, heavier than the gunshot itself, as the realization hit me.

I was next. I knew I was next.

The witch had turned, and the barrel of her pistol was already aimed at my head.

However, before she could pull the trigger the forest around us erupted.

Multiple missile strikes tore through the surrounding patrol; its deafening booms began to shake the ground beneath us as plumes of smoke and debris soon erupted nearby.

One missile slammed into a tree beside us, the shockwave from its explosion soon crashed into Anya and I, sending us hurling through the air.

As I slipped in and out of consciousness, all I could register were the roaring engines of metal terrors, grinding at full capacity, and the distant staccato of the witch's rifles echoing through the scorched forest.

…

Hours later, I fully awoke, coughing up blood. Before I could even gather my bearings, something caught my eye.

The black box. It lay there, broken.