The half-ruined watchtower loomed ahead, its silhouette jagged against the Citadel's crimson glow. For Elin, it looked like salvation — a way out, a chance to scale the wall before the Draugr tide swallowed them whole.
She sprinted across the broken flagstones, Brynhild pounding beside her, their boots slick with melted snow and oil. But just as they reached the base of the tower, the ground trembled with a heavy, deliberate rhythm.
Thoom.
Thoom.
The vibration rattled Elin's teeth, her heart stuttering as shadows lengthened across the courtyard. Then it appeared.
A Juggernaut Draugr.
Three times the height of a man, its black-alloy plating gleamed like obsidian under the courtyard lights. Its broad shoulders bore mounted cannons, glowing with the sickly pulse of charged plasma. Steam hissed from vents in its chest, each exhale a metallic growl.
Its crimson optics locked onto them. The voice that followed was a mechanical bellow, deep enough to rattle the tower stones.
"Anomaly detected. Eliminate."
Elin cursed under her breath, leveling her rifle. Brynhild, by contrast, only grinned — a wolfish flash of teeth in the chaos.
Brynhild rolled her shoulders and cracked her knuckles, her gauntlet humming as unstable arcs of energy danced across its surface. She looked up at the towering machine as if it were simply another obstacle.
"Finally," she muttered. "Something worth breaking."
She launched forward, the ground cracking beneath her as she slammed into the Juggernaut's leg. The impact echoed like thunder. Alloy buckled, a shallow dent forming, but the machine barely flinched. Its cannon swung down, plasma charging with a blinding light.
"Brynhild!" Elin barked, already diving for cover.
The cannon roared, a lance of molten energy searing through the flagstones where Brynhild had stood a moment earlier. Heat washed across her back as she rolled aside, laughing like a madwoman.
She surged forward again, her gauntlet striking the Juggernaut's side. Sparks screamed as metal folded under the force, fragments raining to the ground. The machine staggered one step, then retaliated with brutal efficiency.
A piston-driven fist the size of a cart wheel slammed into Brynhild's chest. She flew backward, crashing into the tower wall with a bone-shaking crack. Dust exploded from the stone.
"Elin—!" Brynhild coughed, blood at her lips, but her grin remained. She planted her feet and shoved off the wall, charging once more.
This time, she aimed for the cannons. As the left arm swung toward her, she grabbed the barrel mid-charge, her gauntlet screeching against heated alloy. With a roar, she twisted and ripped it aside. The cannon shrieked, servos snapping under the torque.
Brynhild slammed her fist down, shattering the weapon in an eruption of sparks and molten shrapnel. The Juggernaut staggered, plasma dripping uselessly from the ruined arm.
"That's one," she growled, breathing hard. "Come on, you bastard."
Elin didn't waste the opening. She darted to the side, keeping low, her rifle braced tight against her shoulder. While Brynhild drew the machine's attention, she hunted for weak points.
Every construct, no matter how monstrous, had them.
Her scope glinted — a seam along the Juggernaut's knee joint. Crack. The round punched in, sparks flying. The giant stumbled half a step, servos grinding.
She shifted aim. The neck seam, just under the optics. Crack. The shot glanced, ricocheting, but forced the Juggernaut to raise its remaining cannon in defense.
Elin switched weapons mid-motion, her sidearm flashing as she unloaded rounds into the vents glowing faintly along its chest. One struck home — a coolant line.
With a hisssss, scalding steam exploded outward, clouding the air. The Juggernaut reeled, servos stuttering, its movements sluggish.
"Brynhild, now!" Elin shouted through the mist.
Brynhild didn't hesitate. She leapt, legs coiled with the serum's unnatural strength, vaulting up the Juggernaut's torso. Steam bathed her, but she didn't falter. Her gauntlet blazed, runes flickering dangerously as she drove her entire weight into one devastating punch.
The gauntlet sank into the Juggernaut's chest, alloy shrieking as it gave way. Brynhild snarled, twisting, then tore free a pulsating power cell — a glowing core of volatile energy.
For an instant, everything went silent. Then the Juggernaut convulsed, crimson optics flaring wide before dimming to black. The giant collapsed, shaking the ground as it fell, dust pluming like a storm.
Brynhild landed in a crouch, clutching the ruined power cell before tossing it aside where it exploded in a flare of sparks. She stood, chest heaving, and spat blood.
"Ugly bastard's down," she rasped, grinning through her exhaustion.
Elin lowered her rifle slowly, eyes fixed on the wreckage. The ground was already trembling again. More Draugr, marching from the gates.
Patrol drones were already spiraling overhead, crimson eyes scanning the wreckage. On the ground, fresh Draugr squads poured from the gates, their synchronized steps clanging against the stone.
"That cost us precious minutes," Elin muttered, bitter. She wiped sweat from her brow, eyes on her stopwatch. The ten-minute window was long gone. "They'll swarm us any second."
Brynhild stood over the wreckage, her gauntlet still smoking, blood staining her lip. She spat a red glob onto the stones, then grinned like a wolf.
"Then we climb faster," she said. Her voice was hoarse but unshaken.
They ducked inside the ruined watchtower, the old stone stairwell yawning before them. Once it might have been a proud bastion of Skjoldur's wall, banners fluttering from its balconies. Now, it was little more than rubble stitched together with rusted Draugr plating.
The climb was treacherous. Half the stairs had collapsed, leaving jagged gaps over a black abyss. Elin led the way, rifle slung as she scrambled up fractured stone, her boots scraping for purchase. Brynhild followed close behind, smashing aside the Draugr drones that crawled through breaches in the wall, their claws clattering against stone.
"Go!" Brynhild barked, slamming her gauntlet through a drone's skull. Sparks sprayed across the stairwell, the carcass tumbling into the darkness below.
Elin forced herself upward, fingers raw on the stone edges. Her breath clouded in the icy air, lungs burning. Then—her foot slipped.
The fractured step crumbled beneath her, and suddenly she was hanging, her legs dangling over the void.
Her heart lurched into her throat. The abyss yawned below like a grave.
"Elin!" Brynhild roared, lunging forward. Her hand shot out, gauntlet closing around Elin's wrist with crushing force. For an instant, Elin felt her arm might snap from the grip — but Brynhild's strength held.
With a guttural growl, Brynhild hauled her upward in one brutal pull, dragging Elin back onto solid stone. They both collapsed against the wall, panting.
Brynhild leaned close, her eyes wild but steady. "Don't you dare fall," she growled. "I'm not carrying your ass the whole way."
Despite the terror, a shaky smile tugged at Elin's lips. "Noted."
They pressed on, climbing higher as the tower groaned under their weight, stones raining into the darkness below.
They burst onto the summit at last, stumbling into the open air.
From this precarious summit, Elin and Brynhild stood with nowhere left to run.
Behind them, the stairwell they had climbed was already lost—sealed off by collapsing stone and the thunder of approaching drones. From the sky above, Draugr skiffs circled like carrion birds, their engines whining, spotlights spearing through the dark. Every second, the circle tightened, luminous eyes focusing on their prey.
Ahead, the adjoining wall of the Citadel loomed. A wide stretch of open air divided the two structures, no bridge to cross, no rope to cling to—only a yawning gulf of ice and death. Between them and freedom lay an impossible gap.
And below… below stretched the courtyard, a sea of red. Hundreds—perhaps thousands—of Draugr filled the square, their crimson eyes glimmering like a field of coals. The army shifted and clicked as one, weapons lifted skyward, tracking their every movement. From up here, Elin could hear the hiss of servos, the metallic scrape of alloyed feet on stone.
It was a trap, perfect and absolute. They were penned at the tower's peak, backs to the abyss.
Elin's breath came ragged, visible in clouds. "We're cornered. No way across."
Brynhild, however, didn't waste a glance at the gap. Her chest heaved, muscles bulging beneath her torn coat. The serum she had injected minutes earlier still burned through her veins, glowing faintly beneath her skin like molten lines. Her gauntlet hummed in sync, responding to the unnatural strength coursing through her body.
Her grin cut sharp and wild in the icy dark. "No way across? There's always a way. You just don't like mine."
Elin's eyes snapped to her, already knowing what that meant. "Don't—Brynhild, no. It's too far."
The Draugr skiffs screamed overhead, one unleashing a burst of fire that shattered stone inches from their feet. Brynhild didn't flinch. She bent, grabbed Elin by the waist in one smooth motion, and hoisted her like she weighed no more than a rifle.
Elin thrashed, sputtering, "Put me down! Brynhild, this isn't a plan—it's suicide!"
Brynhild chuckled, her veins glowing brighter as the gauntlet's gears whined, feeding off her surge of strength. "It's called improvising. Hold on tight."
Then she ran.