Sasha crept her way across the jungle with Mel and Lilly at her side.

  The rain beat a steady rhythm onto the sea of green stretching out above their heads, but thanks to Silent Step, the team crossed the verdant biome without making a sound—not even the pounding of their heartbeats could give their position away. Better still, after Sasha had advanced her skill to rank three a few days earlier, flaring it let her cover the three-woman crew without having to walk shoulder-to-shoulder.

  Mel’s contribution was a jar of scent-erasing ointment she had been issued while hunting in the Savage Garden. Lilly had a magitech device that concealed the crew’s body heat, and another that shielded them from magical detection. Combined, these countermeasures made the women almost impossible to detect by any means other than a direct line of sight—even for opponents who specialized in Perception and wielded sensory skills.

  It was a fortuitous synergy, since Sasha’s team needed all the help they could get. The impromptu crew was hunting dangerous prey whose numbers far exceeded their own—the army of jailbirds that was keeping the other survivors from the expedition bottled up within a network of caverns running beneath the mountain looming in the distance.

  It had been nearly three weeks since everyone had been driven out of base camp when the Crimson Claws launched their ambush. Most of the hunters had managed to stick together while the jailbirds chased them deeper into the biome, but Lilly, Sasha, and Mel had been forced to flee in another direction.

  Sasha had been all alone—lost in a deadly wilderness filled with creatures whose stages surpassed her own. Not to mention, the sadistic prisoners who were stalking her. It had been a terrifying experience, but she wasn’t about to run away and leave her friends at the mercy of the bloodthirsty gang. Besides, it wasn’t all bad news. While most of the Claws were stronger than she was, Sasha was a beast hunter of Ord—someone who specialized in living in the wild and evading deadly predators.

  Thus, instead of heading back to town, she had steeled her resolve, given her pursuers the slip, then followed the warband across the jungle until it came to a stop near the foot of the mountain. It soon became clear that the expedition had entered the tunnels below and the convicts had lost track of their location.

  The next day, Sasha ran into Lilly—who had left markings alongside the trail that only a hunter from Puppet Town would be able to decode. After putting their heads together, they had decided to see if anyone else had been separated during the attack before figuring out how they could help the hunters trapped belowground.

  After finding several bodies that had been brutally tortured, they eventually came across Melenia. The woman was having a rough time navigating the jungle, since her duties as a peacekeeper had led her to specialize in other areas.

  When they didn’t find any other survivors, the trio returned to the mountain and began waging war from the shadows. They didn’t have a chance of defeating over fifty stage-two killers in a head-on fight, but the women were far from helpless. After setting up a base of operations within a concealed cavern, they had proceeded to make the Claws as miserable as they could.

  They had freed beasts from the jailbirds’ traps, depriving them of fresh meat. Sasha had located two colonies of gnawers and led them to the convicts’ supplies, costing them a considerable pile of resources before they drove the voracious beasts away. Meanwhile, Lilly had left trails of meat to encourage the local predators to pay the prisoners a visit.

  Thus far, the hunters had only engaged their enemy on one occasion—when the women had come across a pair of scouts who were returning from a mission. It would have been game over for Mel and Sasha if Lilly wasn’t there, but the late stage-two shadowkiller was one of the most powerful people in Puppet Town and probably the best-geared warrior in the settlement.

  Lilly’s impressive stash of magitech devices—combined with her high-end boltcaster and a powerful collection of skills that specialized in its use—had overwhelmed their opponents, slaying both men before they could call for help or land a blow.

  While the women were lucky to be alive, the encounter had centered them in the convicts’ sights. They had been forced to lay low for days, although in the end, the Claws had concluded that their scouts had been killed by hungry predators and stopped hunting Sasha’s crew.

  As the trio drew near the base of the mountain, her thoughts turned to the conflict ahead.

  The jailbirds’ forces were concentrated in two key areas: the mouth of a giant cavern leading to the tunnels below the mountain and their campsite a few miles to the south. In addition to their siege operation, there were teams hunting beasts in the jungle and a group that made their way back and forth from the dungeon at regular intervals, passing along updates from the crews working inside.

  Something major had occurred within the last few days, and Sasha’s team was still trying to figure out what was going on. The convicts’ camp had erupted into a frenzy of activity, and their leaders were furious, judging by their expressions.

  The women needed to know what had changed, but even more importantly, they needed to break the Claws’ siege while they were distracted. After talking the matter over, the crew had agreed on today’s mission, which would bring them into direct confrontation with the prisoners.

  There were two other entrances leading into the cavern network, although it wasn’t clear if the survivors from Puppet Town knew about them. Both were guarded by a small group of convicts, and the women were planning to take one of them out sometime within the next few hours.

  Once we do this, there’s no turning back.

  This move would take their conflict into a deadly new stage, but it was too good of an opportunity to pass up. There was a reasonable chance that with everything that was happening, the jailbirds wouldn’t notice their missing members until the next day.

  With any luck, the women could enter the caves, find the survivors of the expedition, then lead them out through the entrance they had cleared, escaping to the Ivory Plains before the Claws knew what hit them. If they weren’t….

  Sasha shook her head to clear her mind. While her eyes scanned the jungle for danger, her thoughts turned to Edge. As far as she knew, he had been trapped inside the Savage Garden ever since the Claws’ assault.

  Any other stage-one hunter would have been dead within hours, but Edge’s core was special. With his ability to steal skills from the monsters roaming the Savage Garden, he could grow stronger at a mind-blowing rate. It meant there was a chance he was still alive. It was taking the Claws far longer to conquer the dungeon than they had anticipated, and she hoped Edge’s interference was the reason for the delay.

  Please. If anyone is listening. Let him be ok. While they weren’t in a committed relationship, her feelings for Edge ran deeper than friendship, and she didn’t want to lose any members of her family.

  Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!

  On the subject of emotions, Sasha had become increasingly certain that both of the women walking beside her had feelings of their own. It was obvious that Mel had a major crush on Edge. If he felt the same way, then Sasha was happy for them both. She cared for Edge, and their sexual chemistry was dynamite. But Sasha didn’t have anything to offer other than affection and intimacy right now, and he deserved to find someone who could.

  That being said, Mel didn’t strike Sasha as the jealous type. Maybe everyone can get what they need without it being a problem.

  Lillian played her cards much closer to her chest, but the woman couldn’t hide the way her eyes lit up whenever a certain hunter with a mysterious core was mentioned. However, Sasha had a hunch that the shadowkiller was more interested in Edge’s unusual powers than the man himself, although she liked him well enough.

  Sasha had known Lilly’s true identity for a few months now, and the woman had a fascination for the biology of magic that bordered on an obsession. The way she smiled when she talked about surgically installing Edge’s Heart-Guard was more than a little frightening.

  Accompanied by the patter of falling rain, Sasha’s mind returned to the task at hand. She had never killed anyone before, but she was willing to do what she must to save her friends and ensure their collective survival. Lilly and Mel had offered some advice, warning her that when the moment came, hesitation would be a short road to a certain death. Sasha gripped her spear and hardened her heart as the mountain grew to fill the entirety of her view.

  Half an hour later, they arrived at their destination—a deep crevice running alongside the base of the rise. The area was concealed by winding folds of earth, but when viewed from above, she could see the entrance to a tunnel at the end of the ravine.

  The trio came to a stop within a dense thicket, then Sasha switched off Silent Step, and each of the women activated a sensory-enhancing skill. Sasha had Enhance Hearing, Melenia had Enhance Vision, and Lillian was packing Sense Motion. Combined, their powers would allow the women to counter a wide variety of stealth skills.

  When they were done scanning their surroundings, they shared what they had observed. Since Lilly had the most experience, she was serving as the crew’s leader and spoke first.

  “There are two Claws blocking the entrance to the crevice, and their scout is hiding in a nearby tree. Only the lookout has a flare gun attached to his kit. If we take him out before he has a chance to fire it and don’t let the others get away, our plan should work.”

  “One of them is armed with a longsword and shield,” Mel added. “One has a war hammer, and there is a spear set beside the tree. The two on the ground have light crossbows strapped to their packs. The scout has a compound longbow, which might be magitech, given the design. His sidearm looks like a short sword, although it’s hard to be sure from this angle.”

  “I’ll drop the lookout, then help you kill the other two.” Lilly reached behind her back and patted the barrel of her magitech boltcaster.

  “I’ll keep them focused on me once the battle begins,” Mel added. “Hopefully, we can take out one of their warriors while you ambush the scout, then overwhelm the last Claw with superior numbers.”

  Now that they had come up with the general outline of a plan, the women pulled back to discuss the specifics—ready to put their lives on the line to rescue the people trapped belowground. Once they were far enough back that they didn’t have to worry about the jailbirds overhearing them, the crew continued hammering out their plan of engagement.

  They couldn’t afford to rush right in, since they were taking on a superior force. While some of the Claws’ support staff were stage one, the members of their kill-squads were all stage two, although only their squad leaders were middle stage-two and beyond.

  Thus, it was vital that the hunters were prepared to deal with a range of contingencies before the battle began. They discussed which role each of them would play in a variety of situations, capitalizing on their strengths and compensating for their weaknesses.

  Mel specialized in close-range combat. She had decent defense and staying power, but her skillset was best suited toward dealing damage with her oversized axe. She was approaching the peak of stage one, which meant that while she had to be careful when engaging the Claws in hand-to-hand, they shouldn’t be able to completely overwhelm her, especially with the element of surprise on her side.

  She was armed with Block—a skill that sapped a portion of the kinetic energy when absorbing an enemy’s blow. Mel had met the requirements to learn Second Wind shortly after joining Lilly and Sasha—the same power Jumo used to convert mana into stamina to operate at peak performance for extended periods of time.

  On the offense side of the equation, Mel could use Force Cleave. It created a layer of mana that increased the size of her blade and could be fired over a short distance. She also had Rend—a skill that made her axe adhere to the tissue it passed through, creating gaping tears instead of clean cuts.

  Over time, Sasha had gravitated toward playing the role of a mid-range fighter, using her padamas-spike spear and diamondback-leather shield to keep her opponents at bay before finishing them off with flame. She was still at the border of middle and late stage-one and would be in trouble if she engaged the jailbirds in a direct exchange of blows.

  Sasha was armed with Fire Breathing, which let her create a searing cone of blaze. Flame Imbuement coated her weapons with fiery mana that would spread onto her opponents after landing a direct hit. She also had Shield Bash, which caused a powerful shockwave to ripple out from the point of contact, although she would have to get dangerously close to her enemies to use it.

  Lilly was stronger than both women combined—roughly on par with the jailbirds’ elite strike leaders.

  The shadowkiller specialized in fighting from range and was armed with a variety of skills that enhanced the missiles she fired from the big magitech boltcaster strapped across her shoulders. She didn’t have enough Durability to fight on the front line, but she could dish out insane damage, overcome a range of defensive techniques, and launch a lethal ambush with her weapon of choice.

  On offense, Lilly was armed with Vortex Shot—a skill that made her bolts spin at an incredible rate. When the rapidly rotating missiles penetrated her opponents’ bodies, the projectiles fused with their flesh, transferring all the momentum into their soft tissue to create wounds shaped like a whirlpool.

  Next came Scattershot, which manifested 99 copies of her bolt at one-tenth the size, multiplying the damage of her attacks and granting them a spread like a shotgun. Scattershot had a short range, but in exchange, it dealt serious damage.

  Lilly also wielded a skill called Transparency. True to its name, the power made her missiles turn clear as glass while reducing their mana signatures, rendering the bolts difficult to detect by both mundane and magical means.

  On defense, the shadowkiller was armed with Redirect—a triggered skill that made incoming missiles change their trajectory and bypass her position. It had a limit to how often it could be used, but Redirect offered considerable protection from ranged attacks.

  Lilly also used Vanish, which made her turn invisible for a few seconds while she repositioned. Finally, she had Second Chance, a powerful conditional skill that created a potent barrier if she was about to take critical damage. It could only be used once a day but had saved her life countless times in her work as a monster hunter. To help her locate the monsters she hunted, she had Sense Motion, which detected subtle shifts in the air currents created by moving objects.

  She also had more magitech than anyone Sasha had heard of, thanks to her work as a shadowkiller and her income from running the Mortium exchange. Lilly’s devices offered the hunter incredible versatility on top of her amazing skillset, making her one of the most dangerous people that Sasha had ever known.

  In battle, Lilly wore an intricate fox mask, which kept her enemies from reading her expressions and divining her intentions by following her gaze. It was also quite stylish, and Sasha was considering having something similar made for herself when she made it back to Puppet Town.

  Now that they had reviewed their capabilities, the crew moved on to the specifics of their engagement. “My fire skills won’t perform as well in the rain,” Sasha began, “although Fire-Breathing will still function at short range. Shield Bash will work fine, although I’m not sure how effective it will be, given the disparity between our stages.”

  The women finished up a few minutes later, then got ready to make their move. “Does anyone have any ideas on how we can get into position to launch an ambush?” Mel asked.

  “My shroud device still has another charge,” Lilly replied. “If we combine it with Silent Step, we should be able to close the distance without being spotted.”

  With that, all that was left was to proceed with their plan, hit the Claws hard, and pray to anyone who might be listening that their luck would hold.