A man in tattered black burst out the back door, Kragg launching from a shattered hole in the second floor of the crumbling ruin to run across the rooftops.
Kragg used [Pretator], the smells of sweat and fear, the heat in the frantic steps, and the sound of exhausted breaths coming sharply to him as he lunged from building to building. His quarry as fast as humans could be, like flowing ink along the alleyway below, the only one of a dozen to escape the initial ambush.
Kragg chased, outrunning the man, shepherding him to a dead end. Not now, a little longer...
His prey turned the corner and found a looming wall, solid buildings to each side. The enemy ran up the wall and onto the roof, where he found Kragg's claws waiting for him.
Crunch.
Pulling the mangled corpse along with him, Kragg swiftly rejoined the shadows of the alley, certain the man's screaming had drawn attention. But in the slums, there were no trumpets or cries to musters, and what fast-moving feet Kragg could spy in the closest street only became faster.
In these parts of town, the people must know the gang did what they would, and howls of the wounded were commonplace. Kragg felt the urge to let loose a real howl, one that could shatter fragile human glass and send their children running home in a fright.
But to announce yourself was not the way of the hunter, only when battle was certain, and your presence known would you announce your status as the predator and the hunted as the prey.
The ruinous building they were using as a base was now crawling with shadows.
Re-entering, Kragg found his rogues stabbing the dead in the head to make sure they stayed down, then again in the neck to deal with the spider parasite. Not all had it, but those that did had the annoying ability to start fighting again - some even without a damned head.
"Report," Kragg muttered, one of the werewolf rogues lopping on over to him and snarling.
"The hunt went well Alpha, we were able to catch all those who tried to escape. But before we move to attack the next location, there's something you need to see," without a word the werewolf turned and led Kragg to the basement. A cabinet had been shoved aside, and within was a mined out alcove filled with odds and ends. Vases with a spider drawn on, crystal spiders in jars, crimson eyes in pouches and the fossilised remains of bladed spider chitin from ages past.
"Bring it all back to the base, let the Grand Master make sense of it," Kragg rumbled. "But be careful, I don't like the look of these things."
Steering his head aside, he found a hulking man with ash-black skin, muscles like a champion, and with a spiderweb made with white ink tattooed along his shoulder. Just like the other hideouts he had some ring made from precious metals and was found in the room with a book detailing all the information of their little operation. .The damn thing was just jibberish to Kragg, but the Grand Master would no doubt make good use of it.
"Does anyone know who these black-skinned humans are?" Kragg muttered, still nursing the wound from the first he had fought. The strange human had thrown punches like an orc, yet had the high reasoning and skill of a man, a hybrid?
"They are a human tribe called the Sidkhan, from land now largely conquered by the Xeno empire," whispered a Sun Elf covered in so much cloth and veil Kragg could only tell by the smell. "They were strong enough to fight their way out, and now are considered fantastic mercenaries. But their loyalty is hard-won, to have found three in three hideouts is...strange. These were low ranking brutes too, their fighters and champions are said to be far stronger."
Turning the human's palms outward, the Sun Elf pointed out the closed eye tattooed on one palm, and the tribal tattoo on the shoulder opposing the white web. "The Sidkhan are great practitioners of the bodily arts, their women are said to be walking masterpieces, their men adorned in the history of their wars. This white web is where they usually ink themselves with their faction, and its design is somewhat in line with Sidkhani tradition. I would expect then, that the Crime Lord of this gang is Sidkhani themself."
Stabbing the Sidkhan in the spine, a screech caused Kragg to clutch his ears. In a moment the Sidkhan without a working heart turned and wrestled his muscular arms around the Sun Elf's Neck and squeezed - Kragg tore open the human's arms, the monsterous strength by human standards nothing compared to that of a werewolf.
The human then grinned and began to whisper what sounded like one very long word.
"What's it saying?" Kragg grunted and threw the Sidkhani around to tear out a huge black spider nestled in its neck. The thing was all pincers and poison, yet Kragg crushed it in his claws all the same.
"It was a...death poem?" the Sun Elf frowned, "but that meant it still had higher reasoning ability without a heart...what if the spiders don't just control the body's muscles after death but can fully animate them too?"
If true the implications were enormous, and this was supposed to not even be a warrior?
"I suspect that spider is awarded to any Sidkhani about to be elevated to the rank of warrior, it would explain why the other bases failed to have one. Did anyone see another of their kind in this ruin?"
A rogue put his hand up, "no spider though, thinner arms too. A female?"
"Show me," the Sun Elf inspected the body they presented, with only a regular amount of muscle for a human and without the powerful sense of presence. "It's a youth, a teenager. Just like some monsters, the Sidkhani can evolve their physical form much faster in times of conflict, I'd bet then that they put the young on the front lines to expose them to violence and force their evolution faster."
"Makes sense," Kragg nodded, "werewolf pups are the same way. With enough of what the humans call 'levels' and with great need, they can forcefully evolve into an adult body. They are never as strong as those that waited, always hunting, and never thinking. With all the food we could eat many of our pups have forcefully evolved over the last few months, if these humans can do the same...there will be many of them somewhere. Full-bodied and strong."
Pondering for a moment, Kragg decided.
"We go on to the next base. Rogues, get all this back to base discreetly. Veterans, with me," Kragg turned away, the Sun Elf raising her hand. Her throat was bruised, her lips raw and her eyes still watered from where she nearly had the life choked from her.
"And me?" she said.
"You're a veteran rogue, right? With me then," Kragg growled and stomped up the stairs, "and do try to keep up. I don't want to have to save your life again."