Chaos began with Thilláila, dressed in torn uniforms of defeated soldiers, mentally knocking out soldiers on one side while, on the other side, Kowalsk struck without mercy anyone who crossed his path.
"Mr. Kowalsk, can you hear me?"
It was Thilláila entering Kowalsk's mind from a distance.
"I've already told you not to do this to me. Get out of my mind right now."
"Mr. Kowalsk, it's important. They have more than twelve hundred civilians as prisoners scattered throughout this area."
Kowalsk was stunned. How could someone of his kind keep prisoners in such times? And how many do they have here?
"Only 100, sir, maybe 120, no more than that. What should we do now?"
"Pass this information to Gareno and ask him to come in destruction mode. Those who do not surrender will become dreiki food."
"And what about Drakissa, Mr. Kowalsk? She is quite impatient."
"First, order her to bring about two hundred pups to surround the entire outer perimeter of the base. Then tell her to come here, and that no one should prevent her from reaching me."
"Understood, Mr. Kowalsk. And one more thing, sir."
"What is it, Thilláila?"
"Stay alive, sir, and be very careful because there aren't just human soldiers here. Most of them are snakes preying on humble people who are in the deepest poverty."
"Thilláila, I've changed my mind. Find out where these civilian prisoners are and ask Drakissa to fetch them using position four and one. If anyone tries to stop her, tell her that her guardian pups have permission to feed."
Thilláila's mental silence showed how worried she was.
"Mr. Kowalsk, are you really going to push your limits?"
"If you knew how to read and interpret my mind correctly, Thilláila, you would know that my limits were surpassed a long time ago. I could even ignore the unjust beating I received and the Colonel's controversial orders, but keeping civilians as slaves who can be used and discarded whenever and however they want—that I will never forgive."
"Are you planning to dismiss the Colonel, Mr. Kowalsk?"
"If he is merely a victim of circumstances, I can let it pass this time. But if he is involved in this, I will make him a slave to all the civilian prisoners I find."
Kowalsk was recovering quickly, and anyone who looked at him wouldn't suspect the severity of the beating he had taken moments ago. The old soldier seemed out of his mind; even young Thilláila had never seen him like that. Every time he went through the corridors, it took no more than five or six minutes for him to return dragging two or three soldiers, routinely opening the cell and throwing them in any which way.
Isolated in one of the cells, Colonel Cleaner was stunned. He had never imagined that Kowalsk, besides being fearless and skilled, was extremely strong. The two cells adjacent to his were filled with knocked-out or dazed soldiers, all with very sore bodies.
"How long are you going to keep up with this madness?" asked Colonel Cleaner, frightened by the old soldier's actions.
Kowalsk didn't even bother to answer; he just gave a long stare and then left. Meanwhile, Colonel Cleaner asked his subordinates, who were already conscious, to wake the others and do a headcount. In one cell, there were 27 soldiers, and in the other, 32—so, in total, 59 soldiers had been captured with little effort by a single man.
"Has Kowalsk really found a way to defeat the dragons? And how did he acquire such strength?" thought Colonel Cleaner, regretting again for not listening to Kowalsk.
Despite having the power to defeat his enemies without using physical strength, Thilláila tried to conserve her mental energy; it was very tiring and stressful to use that ability continuously.
Meanwhile, outside, gunfire was being exchanged all the time. It was soldier Gareno using anything in front of him as a shield from the bullets and then throwing it at the soldiers. Drakissa also began to act and, with just one jump, knocked down and stayed on top of her opponents. This was enough for her toxin to take effect, once released beneath her neck, among her thick fur, putting many soldiers to sleep without causing further damage.
However, when caught off guard by a hail of gunfire, even if the first or second shot hit her, she did not retreat. She advanced with fury, not forgiving or giving a second chance to the soldier, tearing them apart with her relentless fangs immediately.
There were at least 70 soldiers fighting against Kowalsk and his team, and gunshots echoed all around the base's walls. Still, Drakissa heard Thilláila's telepathic message warning:
"Please, Drakissa, don't eliminate any more soldiers; just immobilize them."
Drakissa only had the intelligence to understand about 40% of what humans said. So, from the sentences Thilláila told her, she understood only "don't eliminate the soldiers," which was enough for her to act differently.
She positioned herself in a blind spot of one of the internal walls and howled like an alpha wolf. Immediately, an exorbitant number of howls responded from outside the base. Even amidst so much gunfire, all the soldiers fighting heard and shivered, trying to imagine what was coming for them.
The answer to that question was hundreds of dreikis entering through the walls and gates, invading every place in the base. Any opening large enough for a dreiki, there they were. Some soldiers, with quick reflexes, managed to shoot and hit about four dreikis, but against the rest of them, the soldiers had no chance. So, of the 70 combatants, 20 were massacred by the dreikis, and the others had their weapons roughly ripped from their hands and were immobilized on the ground, with dreikis drooling over their heads.