The blast was like nothing War-Maw had ever felt. And that was saying something considering the fact that he'd survived at least six bombings and twice as many warzones in his lifetime.
The Pentex and allied corporation operatives were none the wiser. Grinning smugly with wyrm and weaver tainted forms as they shot down both Garou and Mockery Breed alike.
They had their trump card. It was a first of its kind thanks to mankind's technological advancements. A false-Garou. Something they never saw coming.
It felt ironic since they never saw War-Maw and his repurposed warhead coming either.
One second they were unleashing hell. The next, they were in it.
The heat was so scalding it was ice cold. The flash was faster than a lightning bolt. The impact sent War-Maw flying, rolling in a blasted mass of crumpled cars, melted operatives and burning earth.
He was out of it.
Elsewhere.
Then, by some way of the spirits, he was in Fire-tongue's mind.
"Don't worry, Future-Fang. I am a fast runner. They will never catch us. Your fight is much like your namesake, pup. It's ahead. Not now. You may snarl and rage now, but this is a fight of fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters. A battle the children must learn from. For I believe, your world will be entirely unlike what we've known until this point. So, for now, we run. And we don't stop until the sun greets us."
Through Fire-tongue's mind, War-Maw could hear the doggish monsters giving chase. One hundred strong. Massive malformed mastiffs and long legged grey-hounds with colorless oozing eyes.
The physical manifestation of death was hot on their heels.
War-Maw's eyes shot open.
Correction.
War-Maw's eye shot open.
The world welcomed him in half of what it was. His entire left side was bathed in black. Old habits came back to him as he began flexing and moving his muscles and joints from head to toe. Cataloguing his injuries in a high speed efficient manner.
"Jaw shattered. The left side of my head is destroyed. Missing an eye. My lungs are filling with blood. I lost an arm and foot. There was pure silver in that warhead and the shrapnel hit my organs."
The pain and notation of his injuries was the only thing keeping him going.
Then he remembered.
"My son…. the false ones are chasing him. They're hunting my son!"
War-Maw exploded to his feet in an ashen husk of a warzone. Steaming bodies lay in lumps amid the dirt and rubble. Crumpled cars and weaponry melted from the warheads immense heat.
Even so, more enemies approached on the horizon.
But they weren't who grabbed War-Maw's attention.
It was the man behind him. Watching. He was slight in build— even with his unmarked military gear. Despite this, he stood tall. Visibly tainted by a Bane— a spirit in service of the Wyrm, that War-Maw didn't recognize.
It was little more than shadow that stood over him. Resting a massive hand on his shoulder, holding him in its shadow. It looked like a massive gorilla.
They had the same avaricious grin as War-Maw stumbled, turning to face them fully.
"Fascinating that you still stand. The Garou— if nothing else, are physical specimens worthy of praise." The man spoke with an accent. Mandarin. He was chinese if War-Maw's memory of man served him correctly.
He continued, "Clever when they wish to be as well. Teleporting a bomb you stole out of the sky. Hah…. You probably would've been a god in the old times. Back when your kind wasn't relegated to chem-blasted forests on the outskirts of the world."
"General Jin, you should avoid being so close—" General Jin took out his ear piece and threw it to the ground all while eyeballing War-Maw with a mixture of both contempt, fascination and jealousy.
The apish shadow standing behind General Jin huffed and beat its chest as he spoke, "They think you're still dangerous. They think I can't take you. I've taken all of you already. My Batch of War Wolves have outclassed you. Thanks to ME! I'm better than you. I don't need to hide. I've erased the last of the Wendigo, Uktena and Red Talon Garou Tribes in America. I'm a hero. I'm…. A winner."
He shuttered— seemingly caught between the euphoric high of victory and something else. Some dark wanting that went unmet and drove him insane as he faced War-Maw.
The ape shadow behind him beat its chest and roared, flinging excrement and volleys of spit in a beligerent rage.
War-Maw stumbled towards him.
He saw the madness. The violence. The end.
And he did what all Red Talons did.
He raged.
He raged at modernity. At its poisons and evils. He raged at man— at his propensity to embolden and feed on it. He raged at his world fading— knowing for all the life he lived, he did nothing to change it. He raged at the inevitable with a will unbroken and body half slain.
General Jin must've seen something change in War-Maw. The massive nine foot tall red masked Garou alpha shouldve been a sad sight with his half gone body and silver poisoning. Instead, he was scarier than ever.
His eye burned with madness. His muscles bulged with blessings from the spirits hidden in the umbra. Green-blue fires of Gnosis rippled in a wild-fire aura framing his body.
"Y-you're nothing! I'm better than you….. I'm more than you." General Jin raised his rifle and fired.
The bullets bit into War-Maw's chest and arm. Pure silver. It burned and melted his flesh down to the bone.
He pushed on. Walking like the dead risen as his pack fell all around him.
"Stop! No!" General Jin continued to fire— visibly upset by War-Maws perseverance. It seemed to not fit his mental image of dominance.
War-Maw grinned with a snout missing teeth.
General Jin looked ready to implode by the overflow of dark emotions but he was stuck as he marveled at War-Maw.
"That's it. Watch me." War-Maw took another step until he was standing over General Jin.
They both knew he wasn't strong enough to fight.
At least not physically.
With everything left in him, War-Maw threw his head back and gave a final howl.
A Shattering Howl. His last Gift to Gaia.
The already trashed cars and weapons broke some more as the manipulated Gnosis flows warbled and crunched the manmade technology.
Additionally, the War Wolves— manmade Garou, began to rapidly degenerate all around him, turning into foul furry bubbling masses of steaming liquid and bone.
General Jin— who was once stunned by the audial blast, recovered angrily and unloaded his magazine in War-Maw's chest.
The massive Garou Alpha fell backward, facing the sky. The moon his son was born under.
It was better than nothing.
At least until the man with the ape shadow was standing over him.
"What the hell did you do??!"
War-Maw reached for him with his remaining arm. Slowly. Weakly.
He threw up the middle finger.
General Jin fumbled with his belt to reload his magazine.
Seemingly from out of nowhere, a shot rang out and hit him square in the chest.
He stumbled backward in shock.
It was then that Cat-Eyes— with a missing leg, came out of nowhere, tackling the man out of sight.
War-Maw was back facing the moon. Dying. And the closest thing he could see to his son was the phase of the moon he was born under.
Ahroun.
War.
War like what he heard in the distance as new gunfire echoed across the forests. New spirits intermingled with the old in the umbra, brought in by new Garou.
Garou of technology and modernity that rivaled the evil operatives.
Glass Walkers. He recognized their city smell.
He died begging. He died pleading to the wolves hated by all.
"Please….. please save my son."