Sasha crept across the forest floor, sticking to the shadows as she followed the beasts’ trail away from base camp.

  For this assignment, she was working alone, although there were several crews within earshot if she ran into trouble. Not that she expected any. Sasha was hunting inside the scouts’ perimeter, so there shouldn’t be any aggressive predators in the area, though she wasn’t taking that for granted.

  The reason why she was operating solo was simple. Her quarry wasn’t particularly dangerous, just annoying. For her last assignment of the day, Sasha was hunting an aggravating species that was native to Ord—voracious possum-like beasts known as gnawers.

  True to their name, gnawers could eat just about anything. The insatiable critters had already helped themselves to a portion of the expedition’s supplies, and more critically, had damaged several wagons and a section of the wall.

  The little bastards were stealthy, which was why Gram had asked her to track them down and take the pack out. Sasha had spent the last two hours painstakingly following the gnawers’ trail across the jungle, and she was confident that she was drawing near their lair. Sure enough, the faint line of pawprints came to an end a bit further ahead—where a small cave was set into the side of a low rise.

  Gnawers weren’t burrowing beasts, so they should all be huddled inside, waiting for the fall of night to launch their next raid on the camp’s resources. “Sorry.” She reached into her pack and pulled out one of Violet’s poison-gas grenades. “This mission is critical to the survival of Puppet Town and you guys are a real pain in the ass. I don’t have the luxury of evicting you the nice way, so we’re going with the direct approach.”

  With that, she pulled the pin and lobbed the metal sphere into the cave. By the time that the hiss of compressed gas reached her ears, she had already ignited her core and was ready to use her skills.

  A few seconds later, a cloud of green smoke wafted out of the cavern, followed by a round of squealing coughs. A dozen gnawers came scampering out of the haze, hissing in agitation as they got ready to disperse into the overgrowth.

  Before they had a chance to escape, Sasha cast Fire Breathing. Mana surged out of her reactor and gathered in front of her throat. When she took a deep breath and blew, the magic ignited, transforming into a cracking cone of flame that extended a good twenty feet from her position. She panned the fire across the creatures, catching their fur alight.

  An unpleasant ten seconds of screaming later, the last gnawer lay dead in the dirt. She didn’t normally use her flames on a hunt. But these beasts didn’t have any valuable parts to sell, and each marsupial could devour its own weight in resources every day. She stomped out a few small fires that she had inadvertently started, then got ready to report her success. That was when another beast came charging out of the cave, heading straight for her with murder gleaming in its eyes.

  Shit. The others were early stage one, but that one is closer to late. It must have enough Durability to withstand the gas. I’m in for a fight after all.

  Sasha raised her padamas-spike spear and activated Flame Imbuement, causing searing mana to congeal along its tip. She didn’t need help but called out for it anyway. Gram had issued strict orders not to take unnecessary risks, and fighting beasts near her stage was never completely safe.

  They traded a fierce exchange of blows before Sasha kicked the creature to distract it. Then she drove her shield into its face and Shield Bashed. The intense shockwave rippled throughout the gnawer’s body, stunning it long enough to skewer it with her weapon and set its body alight.

  By the time that backup arrived, nothing but a charcoaled corpse remained. She waved to the warriors, let them know that the situation had already been resolved, then walked back to camp to report her success.

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  The second day of the expedition was winding down, and the clear teams should be coming back out any minute. Violet had whipped up something special for dinner, and Sasha was looking forward to sharing another meal with Trapper’s crew, since they were working independently for most of this mission.

  Sure enough, by the time that she walked through gate set into the perimeter wall, the members of Teams Hammer, Spear, and Sword were stepping through the fog door. They looked like they’d had a rougher go of it today, and were covered in grime and minor wounds. Fortunately, nothing looked too serious. She stopped to listen to their reports while waiting for Edge and Jumo to appear.

  Twenty minutes later, Arrow still hadn’t arrived, and Gram was growing nervous. If they didn’t make it back before dark, he was going to mount a rescue operation instead of sending in the night crews. Come on, guys. Please be ok.

  That was when Jumo stepped through the dungeon’s entrance, followed by Tessa, Mel, and the shadowkiller wearing the Fox mask. The instant she saw the expression on Jumo’s face, Sasha knew that something was wrong. The man was deeply disturbed, and his body was covered in cuts and bruises. They must have run into something nasty in there.

  The members of Team Arrow were battered and bleeding—wounded worse than the other crews. She listened with her heart hammering in her chest as Fox made her report to Gram. “We ran into another stage-three monster in there—mini-boss class, judging from the quest we received from the System.”

  “Where is Edge?” Sasha couldn’t take the suspense any longer.

  Jumo turned to her and said, “We were separated when a swarm of monsters arrived mid-fight. Edge is still in there. I think he did something amazingly brave and really dumb at the same time. I lost track of Snake in the fog too.”

  “We need to help them. Now, before it’s too late.”

  “I know how you feel,” Gram replied. “We’ll send in a rescue team right away, and you’re more than welcome to join it. Give me ten minutes to make the necessary preparations and get everyone lined up by the entrance. I think I know how to counter that mist, and I promise that it will be worth the wait.”

  Sasha didn’t want to wait. Not with Edge trapped in a deadly dungeon, surrounded by a bloodthirsty horde.

  Jumo limped over, put an arm around her shoulders, then whispered into her ear. “I’m worried too. But Edge has Conceal and ‘you know what’ on his side. He’s perfectly capable of holding his own for a little while. He has already survived encounters with powerful monsters that were way above his stage. If anyone can pull through in a pinch, it’s Edge.”

  Gram wouldn’t let Jumo go back inside while injured, so the hunter went to find Trapper instead. As the expedition’s leader had promised, less than ten minutes later, a team had gathered in front of the fog door.

  He provided a rapid-fire briefing followed by, “We are missing two members and we’re going to get them out. But we need to play this smart. We can’t afford to compound the emergency by running in half-cocked. Don’t lose your cool and think before you act. Keep your wits about you, find them, and get back here on the double. Good luck.”

  Sasha was first in line—limbs shaking with nervous energy as she got ready to rescue her friend. Just before she stepped through the swirling pane of mist and entered the Savage Garden, a flare erupted a quarter mile out, followed by two more back-to-back. Yellow flares. That means…

  “We’re under attack,” a scout called out. “Jailbirds are assaulting the base camp! To arms. Everyone…” His words were cut off when a section of the wall exploded, sending dirt and burning wood raining to the ground. Everyone grabbed their weapons and turned to face the breech as the expeditionary force engaged the assaulting convicts.

  Dozens of cored warriors came striding through the smoke—all of them D-class prisoners or above, judging by the tattoos running along their forearms. As Puppet Town’s elite forces fell into formation, a fierce battle ensued.

  Sasha was tempted to head inside anyway, but she couldn’t leave the others to fend for themselves. Besides, as worried as she was about Edge, if she entered dungeon alone, she would only wind up getting herself killed. And if the jailbirds wiped out the expedition, he’d be dead the moment that he left the Savage Garden.

  She took one last look at the fog door, then darted off to join the other members of Trapper’s crew while bracing herself for a fight.

  As hundreds of spells lit up the sky, explosions and screams rang out—punctuated by the chiming clang of blade striking blade. She fell in beside Riller and Jumo, who were facing off against a trio of convicts, then ignited her core and let loose with everything she had.

  I’m sorry, Edge. It seems that neither of us is having a good day.