Edge crept between the towering ferns, in pursuit of the boar that would soon be his dinner.

  Thanks to Penetrate Foliage, he could see the creature coming from a considerable distance while remaining hidden within the prolific vegetation. Even if the beast was perceptive enough to notice him, it was focused on Mel—who was driving it toward the rest of the crew. He was bringing up the middle, and Lilly and Sasha were hiding along both sides of the trail in case the pig turned before it reached his position.

  When his prey drew near, Edge dropped Conceal, hit the beast with Intimidating Roar to stun it, then killed it with an Elemental Blade–infused Slash of his naginata. The move cost him a fair amount of mana, but after putting so many points into Generation, the price of using his Epic skill and a combo or two wasn’t nearly as prohibitive as before.

  The women came walking up to him a few minutes later, nodding in satisfaction at their kill. “Nice work, Mel,” Lilly said. “You snuck up on the boar, spooked it in the right direction, and kept pace after it bolted despite the rough terrain.”

  “I think you’ve improved enough to make it official,” Sasha added. “From this moment forward, you are qualified to call yourself a beast hunter, although you should take a few lessons with Riller and Trapper to complete your training.”

  “Thanks, guys.” Melenia broke into a beaming grin. “I really appreciate the help. I never would have survived out here without you.”

  “Don’t worry.” Sasha clasped the guardswoman’s muscular shoulder. “All those combat drills you’ve put me through will be just as valuable during the days ahead.”

  Edge smiled as he listened to their banter, scanning the jungle for danger before deciding the coast was clear. He took a rope that Lillian handed him, then everyone worked together to hang the massive hog by its hind legs from a nearby branch. After making a few cuts to let the blood drain, he used the techniques he’d learned from Izzio the butcher to remove the entrails. Then he circled around to the clean side of the carcass, braced himself, and wrapped his arms around it.

  When he gave the signal, Mel untied the rope. His body shook as he held the bulky carcass for the five seconds required to store it in his vault, sighing in relief when the bloody remains vanished with a snap of displaced air.

  While the crew walked back to their shelter, Edge reflected on their recent accomplishments. Today was their fifth day working together, doing whatever they could to make the Claws’ lives miserable while cycling up, training their skills, and waiting for an opportunity to rescue Trapper’s team to appear.

  Their first mission had gone well—an operation designed to deal psychological damage while drawing trouble to the jailbirds’ doorstep.

  After looting the convicts they had killed at the foot of the mountain, Edge placed the bodies in a deep gully running along one side of the Claws’ camp. Most of the gear was low quality compared to what was available in Puppet Town. Even the good pieces were in poor repair. The Claws didn’t have access to a skilled crafter, which meant their gear would continue to deteriorate the longer the war dragged on.

  The rotting remains had drawn a variety of predators and scavengers to the area—not to mention millions of insects. It had taken the jailbirds several days to locate the source of the problem. In the end, the strike leaders had dealt with the bodies by incinerating the entire area, trusting the rain to stop the fire from spreading and setting the jungle ablaze.

  Having their missing members returned as naked corpses had spooked the prisoners, ramping up the pressure and encouraging their imaginations to run wild. Most of them believed it was the work of a powerful monster—one of the nightmares made flesh that had escaped from the Savage Garden. After finding the remains, the Claws had tripled their watch and begun supplementing their scouting crews with a group of heavy hitters.

  While the redundancy had lowered their productivity, it had also caused some problems for Edge and his team. Going forward, the jailbirds’ warbands would pose a lethal threat. In addition to their superior numbers, the convict crews now carried multiple flare guns, which would make eliminating them before someone sounded the alarm tricky at best and impossible at worst.

  He had considered hitting them with the portable monster he’d received for defeating the hydra or simply killing the creature and stealing its skills. But he didn’t have a way to make sure it attacked the prisoners after he released it, and since treating the bound monster like an ordinary opponent seemed like a waste of the reward, he had decided to wait until the convicts entered the tunnels before letting it loose.

  On the days they didn’t find a way to interfere with the jailbirds’ operation, his crew hunted in the jungle instead, taking on a wide range of beasts and an occasional monster that had broken out of the dungeon. Split four ways, it wasn’t a ton of experience for Edge or Lilly. But Mel and Sasha were still at stage one and had gained several cycles in the process.

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  That being said, he hadn’t come away empty-handed. In addition to the heaping pile of valuable parts sitting in his vault, he had stolen some decently-ranked Commons and Uncommons. He put the skill experience he’d Absorbed into Double Slash, in the hopes of taking the Rare skill to rank three relatively soon.

  The women had advanced several of their powers the regular way—using them repeatedly in challenging situations. Mel had unlocked the requirements to learn Second Wind before Edge arrived and had taken it to rank two today, adding a minor regenerative effect on top of the stamina it restored.

  Sasha had advanced Fire Breathing to rank two after their battle with the Claws. Her upgrade granted the mana-infused cone of flame a property that made it cling like napalm, burning long and hot even after her breath had ceased.

  On the intelligence-gathering front, the crew had crept close enough to eavesdrop on the jailbirds on two separate occasions, learning more about their powers and plans in the process.

  The Claws had eventually figured out that One-Eye had betrayed them and placed a bounty on his head. Edge wished the hunter luck. After becoming intimately familiar with the Claws’ casual cruelty and propensity for violence, he didn’t blame One-Eye for betraying them and felt bad for everyone who had been forced to join the gang at the point of a blade. Hopefully, his revolution is successful, and we can add his friends to our forces.

  Yesterday, Edge had the opportunity to take his first good look at the elite Claws who were leading the jungle operation—their most dangerous members and the convicts sitting at the top of his hit list.

  Their names were Tiburón, Roth, Ripper, and Ella. All four leaders were late stage-two and had reputations for brutality and sadism in one flavor or another. Even the other jailbirds comprising Yussuf’s kill teams spoke of them in voices thick with fear, especially the leader of the strike force, Tiburón.

  Roth was a woman who wore heavy black robes instead of armor, with a hood so deep her face rarely showed. A host of summoned beasts followed in her wake—venomous centipedes the size of his arms. At present, she posed the biggest threat to Trapper’s team and was a perennial source of danger for Edge’s crew.

  Roth could summon hundreds of the killer bugs at once. Making a bad situation worse, she could command them from a distance and see through their eyes. It meant she could scout almost as effectively as the rest of the jailbirds combined. Her mana-forged beasts were harder to spot and better suited for jungle reconnaissance than all but the most agile of hunters.

  The summoner was brutal, short-tempered, and merciless. Edge had watched from a distance as one of her scouts reported bad news—apprehension clear in every crook of his features. Face twisted with rage, Roth had gestured, and the man started running. Before the scout could hope to escape, a score of centipedes emerged from all sides, falling upon him in a tide of bladed mandibles before devouring him down to the bone. If that wasn’t horrifying enough, some of the venomous insects had come boiling out from beneath the hem of her robe.

  Moving on, Ripper and Ella had been leading the crews working inside the Savage Garden until Edge defeated the boss. Ripper was a short man with black hair and a dark complexion that was marred by ritual scars covering every inch of his skin. It turned out that Ripper was the one who had shot Edge with a poisoned dart—almost killing him after their unexpected run-in.

  In addition to being a deadly warrior, Ripper specialized in wide-range Disruption-based skills that were capable of erasing enemy magic from the battlefield. He would be a dangerous opponent in any situation, but his true strength lay in large-scale engagements since his powers could differentiate between friend and foe.

  Ella was a thin woman with long blond hair. She lacked the athletic build shared by most people her stage, indicating that she had invested her points almost entirely into Generation and Amplification. After eavesdropping on the Claws, Edge had learned that Ella specialized in powers that affected her enemies’ minds. Although he hadn’t been able to learn any details, the deference the gang of hardened killers showed the woman revealed that Ella’s magic was lethal and terrifying.

  The last elite Claw operating in the Sweltering Green was Tiburón—the official leader of the strike force. He was a mountain of a man with a body covered in rippling muscles, with short brown hair and bright blue eyes.

  He was agile for his size, but his movements revealed a build that specialized in Power and Durability over Reflex and Speed. Edge had watched from a distance as Tiburón strangled a massive serpentine monster with his bare hands—not even bothering to ignite his core or reach for the colossal battleaxe strapped to his back.

  While it was clear he was a combat specialist, Edge had no idea what skills the man was packing. However, even the other elites followed Tiburón’s orders without question. Whatever powers were lurking in his core, they were certain to be immensely destructive and difficult to counter, since he was still leading the Claws’ army despite the multiple setbacks they had encountered after entering the dungeon.

  In addition to those four, there were two elites stationed on the Ivory Plains, along with Yussuf the Red, who was orchestrating the war from within the Gilded Heights. These seven jailbirds comprised the Claws’ leadership, since all positions of authority were assigned based on strength and subject to challenge at any time.

  Any of the seven would be lethal opponents if encountered alone, and Edge had severe reservations that his crew could handle more than one of them at a time—let alone the other 70 Claws comprising the strike force camped at the foot of the mountain.

  That being said, he knew it was only a matter of time before he met the gang’s elites on the battlefield, and he intended to do everything in his power to make sure he was ready before that happened.

  As Edge put the miles beneath his boots while fantasizing about a grilled-pork dinner, he let his mind wander while wondering what the future held—glad that no matter what challenges were coming down the pipeline, he didn’t have to face them alone.