Nyon crushed a bunker and ended the life of 4 marines within. The terran didn’t stand a chance against the ascendant. Psi units like ascendants could be extremely precious and rare, but when uncontested they could do real damage. If there were a few siege tanks or goliaths present they could target Nyon down, but all of them were sent to the geysers. The bio forces couldn’t even break the ascendant’s shield before being wiped out.

A group of marines that were left behind charged forward to the frontline, only to see a red psionic orb approaching and smashing into the crowd. The dozen marines exploded into a thick of blood and bones. Their CMC armor had no effect.

Nyon grinned at the effect. He had been beaten by Jean so much that it felt surprisingly good to get so revenge. Dozens of elite zeolets and supplicants followed him and poured into the terran camp.

Jean suited up and exited the command center. Her guards were already assembled outside. They were good at what they do, and none of them was frightened by the dire situation. Their eyes were trained by the slant figure in blue suit. Jean raised her plasma sword and yelled. “Wolfpack, on me!” She charged headon toward the incoming protoss, and wolfpack guards followed her. Five goliath that Jean kept in the camp for safety followed them.

Nyon sensed the terran female approaching and grinned bloodthirstly. He stabbed a brave but suicidal marine in the chest and pulled his blade out, ignoring the man as he fell on the ground, choking in a pool of his own blood. He frowned at the amount of enemies approaching. The number of foes that remained were much more than he imagined. Shouldn’t commanders send every men they have to the front? Who would keep a powerful mobile force at the back?

Jean tossed an emp grenade at the protoss units, which apparently weakened them as the protoss depended on psi energy to combat and the emp round weakened all psi usage. Most of the shields of the tal’darim were gone. Jean injected a stimpack and smashed into a zeolet. Her sword ignited with the first contact and was plunged into the zeolet’s chest. The warrior was reduced to ashes as Jean landed on the ground. She groaned and looked for Nyon.

The two armies clashed. The Wolfpack was an elite squadron. Every unit stimmed. The marauders, with the help of computers, moved quickly and somehow managed to dodge all the zeolets. If some of the zeolets came too close they would hit them with a stimpack and then back off and keep a distance. Marines dodged and fired at the zeolets. All of the protoss units were melee, and the basic zeolets weren’t powerful enough to use psi energy to form ranged attacks. Still, the protoss fought with amazing will. One of the goliaths was too slow and was ripped open. When the AI declared it was impossible to escape it overcharged the reactor, which caused an explosion that wiped out all 20 zeolets surrounding the goliath.

Nyon noticed his men were decreasing with astonishing speed. He was worried, not because his people were being slaughtered but because the longer he waited the less likely he could kill Jean. If he failed to stop Jean this time then the best thing that would happen to him was becoming a vanguard. He couldn’t allow that. The ascendant stayed back and scanned for Jean.

Unknown to Nyon, Jean was doing the same thing. Unfortunately her computer was able to call down a scanner sweep from Hyperion, which instantly discovered the ascendant.

Nyon suddenly focused his psi energy and gave a boost to his speed. He disappeared and reappeared five meters back, and an emp round exploded on the ground he was floating at. If he was a second slower he would’ve been EMPed and be in a terrible situation. Jean walked out into the open from a cover after seeing her surprise failed.

Nyon threw a mindblast at Jean. Jean ignored his movement, and a second later the mindblast was blocked one meter before Jean’s body. Nyon frowned. The girl didn’t even dodge against the attack. How’s this possible.

Jean had no intention of explaining to him how she and Swann reengineered the protoss plasma shield and developed a personal shield for her and her guards that was powered by circuits. She jumped at Nyon. The ascendant drew his blades, and the two fought.

As the two fought, the terran had already cleared out most of the protoss on the planet. The main escort wiped out the main protoss decoy. The small squad of elite tal’darim were kited to death by the Wolfpack. All that was left of the battle was the fight between Jean and Nyon.

With a swift stroke, Jean pushed Nyon’s blades aside and punched him in the face with her left fist. The ascendant had lost all his shield, and he was paralyzed for a second by the punch. Using the chance Jean cut off his psi blade focusers. Again.

Nyon went silent. Things were almost an exact copy of what happened on Xil, except this time the terran held an overwhelming advantage and the protoss were wiped out. He was doomed.

Nyon couldn’t understand how he dropped from a powerful ascendant with thousands of protoss warriors and dozens of ships into a prisoner at the mercy of a terran female. The first battle on Xil was reasonable. He was careless and undermined Jean, and he paid the price. But this time all he felt was unfairness. He was no longer angry at Jean. The tal’darim worshipped the strong, and this time Jean had proven her strength to him. He was angry toward Highlord Ma’lash. If Ma’lash didn’t take away most of his army he would still be high on the chain of ascension. Now, because of Ma’lash, he became a weakling at the mercy of the others. He fought hard and tried to trick Jean by holding out most of his army as a bait, but he nonetheless failed. Nyon wanted vengeance on Ma’lash, but he realized he would never get the chance. Jean already had her blade on his neck. Nyon closed his eyes, waiting for his end.

Then he heard the somewhat charming voice of the terran female. “Wolfpack, spread out.” She ordered. The terran guards were confused but nonetheless obeyed. Their faith only grew after Jean demonstrated her strength and crushed the tal’darim army. Nyon opened his eyes and was surprised to see that Jean pulled back her sword.

“Do it.” Nyon said, looking into Jean’s goggled eyes. “I don’t need your mercy.”

Jean’s goggles automatically came off, revealing her blue eyes. “I told you from the start we don’t need to be enemies.” She said. “You didn’t listen at first, but I am going to make this proposal again. We don’t need to be enemies.”

Nyon couldn’t believe his ears. “What are you talking about? Is this a joke?”

“I am dead serious executor Nyon.” Jean said, staring into Nyon’s red eyes with her blue ones. “I am offering you a deal. I will make you the Highlord of tal’darim. In return, you will lead the tal’darim to my cause, whatever that is.”

Nyon laughed. “There are tens of thousands of tal’darim willingly to die for Ma’lash. He holds the essence of the death fleet. He has motherships that can burn down planets! Do you really think by destroying my forces you have what it takes to take him down?”

Jean was not taken back by the outburst. “A week ago I was just a girl that had never led an army. Now I have the blood of thousands of tal’darim on my hand and I have just defeated a tal’darim with hundreds of years of experience.” She stated not proudly but more as a fact. “Your people are brave, but they can’t fight.”

Nyon wanted to make a rebuttal, but he knew he had no place for a counterargument after being decisively defeated. The tal’darim valued bravery and not battle tactics. They preferred to stand together and charge at the enemies without real planning and whoever wins is the strongest. Nyon’s brilliant plan of holding out his main army as bait and hitting the enemy command with a small strike force was enough to take down most tal’darim commanders, but Jean simply thought of that possibility and made a counter. But that also made him think. If he could combine the bravery and strength of the tal’darim and the battle tactics of Jean, than perhaps Highlord was not a dream. “If you can help me defeat Ma’lash, then I will fight for you and you alone.” Nyon said, slightly hissing as he thought of the image of Ma’lash.

“Good, but before that I need to deal with something.” Jean said casually before throwing an emp grenade at her left. A figure in slant suit and ghost mask exited cloak mode. A psi blade fell on the ground. He was a terran specteur. “I hope you were exhausted after the battle and didn’t sense him in comparison to sensing him and hoping for him to kill me.” Jean spoke casually as if she wasn’t being assassinated. The Wolfpack had backed off far enough for all of this to go unnoticed. Jean issued that order on purpose after seeing the specteur. She wore a personal detector on her that nobody knew about.

Nyon frowned and didn’t reply. Jean walked to the specteur and punched him in the face. The specteur was powerful in terms of psi energy, but the emp cleared off all his energy and made him as weak as any other terran. True, with psi specteurs and ghosts could literally tear CMC armors open, but now the specteur was even weaker than a marine. At least the CMC armor was designed to enhance the strength of the wearer. The specteur fell on the ground and Jean casually snapped his neck.

“Remember, you fought off the terran on Bel’Shir and protected the terrazine from the thieves. All of your warriors died, but they died for a cause. You should gain some fame from this. When we leave open the first recording. Follow the directions.” Jean looked at Nyon and tossed him a recorder before picking up and psi blade of the dead specteur and igniting it. Nyon was surprised to see Jean slicing herself across the chest with the blade. A large wound was formed and blood poured out. Jean collapsed on the ground, and the Wolfpack approached to help.

A medic injected Jean with something that helped with her wound. The marines and marauders looked at the ascendant with menacing eyes. One of them knelt down beside the dead specteur and examined the body. “It’s a specteur.” He said, surprised. “He’s one of Tosh’s man. Why would he attack commander?”

“I guess Mr.Tosh has some explaining to do.” Jean said with a pained look and picked up the ghost’s comm. “Drop the terrazine and return to the Hyperion. I am not doing work for someone whose man almost killed me.” The SCVs dropped the terrazine. Non of the terran units objected. The authority of Jean was high enough among the raiders to make such decisions.

“What about him?” One of the Wolfpack marines asked, pointing at Nyon.

“Leave him.” Jean replied. The Wolfpack units didn’t understand why Jean showed mercy but ultimately obeyed. Nyon watched as the terran entered their transports and left the planet.