“Are you sure this is a good idea, Donny?” Eloise asked.

  “You saw what this monster did to our friends!” Donny hissed at her. “You want to let her run free after all that she’s done? She’s a goddamned serial killer, Eloise! Do you remember what she did to your brother?”

  Eloise turned away.

  Donny looked at his band of assassins. “Do any of you lack the nerve to kill this demoness? She terrorized the grasslands for weeks . The corpses were piled so high you could have made a road out of them! Do any of you doubt that she doesn’t deserve this?”

  Nobody chickened out or had anything more to say. They had been over this before. The Emerald-eyed Demoness had to die. Some people were calling her Mel Emerald eye, but Donny wasn’t buying into it.

  He had seen firsthand what she did to his outpost. A single woman, murdering and killing with lustful glee. She was nothing short of a monster now, and she had finally stopped running.

  Donny shut his eyes and held up the bloodied scrap of cloth he kept in his inventory.

  Aspect Skill: [Blood Trace]

  A glowing green line of light traced its way through the trees toward a clearing and a cave. Even from here, they could see the glow of a fire.

  Andrew came back, dismissing his bow with a flurry of ash. “No traps set.”

  There was an edge to his voice that Donny didn’t like. He turned to him. “Monsters don’t set traps. They don’t watch for people coming after them. We are the ones who set watch for them.”

  “She’s still a person though,” Andrew argued. “No matter what she’s done, this doesn’t–”

  “There are fifteen of us,” Donny snapped. “I don’t care what her reputation is, there is no monster out there that can withstand fifteen Coppers. We’ve killed everything that’s stood in our way, right?”

  Andrew nodded.

  “Then sack up and report to Timothy. He’ll be your team lead.”

  Eloise came up alongside Donny. “Andrew’s got a point,” she said softly so nobody else could hear. “This is too easy. How many weeks have we been chasing her? Every single time, we’ve found a scene of utter destruction and carnage. But the last place, and now this, had nothing.”

  “She’s gotten smarter,” Donny said. “That’s all. Maybe she’s scared. She’s been on the move a lot more lately than usual. There have been less bodies for us to find. Maybe she’s finally bored of hunting her own kind. Does it matter ? ”

  Eloise shook her head.

  “This is for all the people she killed. Our home might not exist anymore, but that doesn’t mean we need to turn into monsters ourselves. Law and order must still be upheld.”

  Eloise slipped back into position. Timothy’s team split off to one side while Allen’s went around the other way, leaving Donny’s team to go straight down the middle.

  It was the most dangerous position, but Donny wouldn’t have anybody else taking his kill. The Emerald eyed Demoness would die tonight.

  [Gloom Vision] illuminated the entrance to the cave in shades of gray, purple, and blue. Two figures were stretched out past the entry, one much larger than the other.

  Curled up in their sleeping bags, it couldn’t have been any easier to slit their throats. They weren’t fully armored. There weren’t even any weapons lying around, but that didn’t mean anything when they were so easily summoned.

  There was nobody else, but the cave was deeper and twisted toward the end, hiding potential adversaries.

  Donny made a motion, instructing his group to be aware of anything going on at the rear of the cave. He just wanted Mel’s head. Donny crept closer, trying to get a good angle around the second sleeping bag.

  He took out his wide knife and stabbed into the smaller sleeping bag. If he could prevent it, he wouldn’t kill anybody else. He wasn’t like Mel. Her small stature was well known to him, though many stories made her out to be some seven-foot-tall picture of blood-drenched horror.

  The knife went in too easily. There was no satisfying thunk of meat. The hairs on the back of Donny’s neck stood on end.

  At first the feeling was subtle, but as he pulled out his knife and saw that it was bloodless, it ballooned into icy, teeth chattering terror.

  A husky voice whispered into his ear. “You just ruined my friend’s sleeping bag.”

  Donny shut his eyes. He didn’t wait for the woman to strike. It was coming no matter what he did. Anybody able to bed down next to a monster like Mel was no less a monster.

  He watched as the tall woman with a mane of thick red hair slashed out with her hands, rending the air with shining bladed claws that glinted in the firelight.

  Luckily, Donny wasn’t there.

  Aspect Skill: [Fade]

  His afterimage took the hits while Donny reared back and launched an attack at the woman’s vulnerable back.

  If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  Ice gathered in Donny’s hand. He pressed his palm to the ground, sending icy tendrils through the dark soil beneath the woman’s feet to root her to the spot. Ice climbed up her boots, freezing her in place.

  Aspect Skill: [Freezing Root]

  She laughed darkly at his techniques. “Is that all you have, little man? All you have to muster at the end of your life?”

  “Laugh all you like,” Donny said, making another gesture.

  Eloise made a complicated motion with her wand, and the woman lit up like she was under a spotlight.

  Aspect Skill: [Focused Target]

  Three of the Archers Donny had with him were waiting for just such a signal. They took aim at once as the woman was frozen in place.

  Streaks of green, red, and black energy whistled into the cave, slamming into the red-haired beast of a woman.

  Donny whistled, and the Archers took lobbed their most powerful skills at her. Curse, Flame, and Insidious aspects flew into the cave, adding to the plume of dust and debris. Nobody could survive so many attacks at once.

  Ice cracked and was followed by a meaty thump . No doubt the body had fallen over. There was no notification, which meant she was still alive.

  He did not like what he had to do, but it was necessary. Donny turned to his group. “She’s not here,” he said. “Go meet up with the others. I’ll finish this one off.”

  Cold sweat plastered Allen’s leather armor to his back. Why did nobody ever talk about how leather never breathed? It was horrible armor, making him sweat when it was cold, and broiling him alive when it was even slightly warm.

  He envied the Mages with their silken robes and gowns. As team leader, Allen’s job was to make sure nobody escaped the noose once it was set.

  He crept around the side of the cave, intent on the surrounding forest for any hint of late night poopers. People always snuck off to have a little private time to handle business. Nine times out of ten, they would finish up just in time to come across a group sneaking up on them.

  The forest was deathly silent, which was enough of a tell that somebody else was here to the learned Archer. A figure dropped to the ground on Allen’s left.

  He raised his bow, drawing fletching to his cheek in one smooth motion, and let fly a streaking arrow of light.

  Aspect Skill: [Tracing Shot]

  The arrow flew true and should have stuck in the lean, dark figure. The Mages waiting in the wings would be looking for the arrow to mark their target. Each group had such a marker. Donny had made that abundantly clear after watching Mel murder his entire family.

  A rich, resonant laugh filled the woods. There was a flash of light, and the streaking arrow ricocheted off into the canopy high above.

  “Oh-ho-ho- man ! I love this skill!” The man leveled something at Allen. He had just enough time to recognize it was a wand and dove to the ground.

  A roaring corridor of flame scorched through the air right where Allen had been standing a moment before. His back was burned and blistered, but he was alive.

  More importantly, the flames illuminated the Mage that had cast the spell.

  “Now!” Allen shouted as spells from four Mages demolished the lone Mage who thought he had gotten the upper hand.

  Allen watched with grim satisfaction as the Mage’s body was enveloped in total destruction.

  Timothy crept through the underbrush on the other side of the clearing. He looked back to see Donny give the signal. A bright flash of light illuminated a tall red-headed woman.

  “Poor bastard,” Timothy whispered, shaking his head. The woman was obliterated with aspect skills a moment later.

  Donny might be a little over the top, but he was skilled and knew what he was doing. Fifteen Coppers might seem like overkill, but with each group having a marker and three to four heavy hitters, they could take out targets much stronger than they were.

  Many of them were point takers. They specialized in going after individuals on the top 50 list, killing them with overwhelming force, and splitting their Battle Points amongst them.

  Most of them were happy to keep that up until Mel’s name appeared on the list. That was when Donny went off the deep end.

  Almost everybody in the group had been hurt or had a loved one killed by Mel, so it had been an easy sell. Two birds with one stone, as Donny put it.

  With his unique ability to analyze blood and divine not only the person’s name, but their location, he was the perfect tracker. They could survey an entire battlefield and pick out the victors.

  A simple thought brought up the ratings of the top 50 contestants, and from there it was as easy as cross-referencing a name.

  As Mel climbed the ratings, anybody who might have gainsaid the decision to hunt her was quieted by the thought of such a pay day. It was just too juicy to pass up.

  Marrying greed to revenge was a heady combination, and even Timothy found himself salivating at the possibility of taking out somebody who was sub-20. They had always stuck to the 40s, but Mel was a special case.

  The fact that she jumped up in such a short time meant she would be weak. Whatever battle she must have won would leave her tired and in need of rest.

  “Movement on the left!” Andrew hissed on Timothy’s flank.

  Thick mist sprang up from the ground all around them. The figure Andrew pointed out quickly faded into the darkness all around them.

  “Mist killers!” Timothy shouted.

  Torches soaked in oil were ignited and tossed to the ground. They burned merrily, spreading their flames easily to the surrounding vegetation.

  “Masks!”

  Timothy and Andrew pulled on their [Fire Monk Masks]. The thin piece of red cloth they pulled up over their nose and mouth was useless except against fire users.

  The armor gave an incredible fire resistance buff and filtered out smoke. Firefighters back on Earth would have loved to have something like this.

  Flames roared across the underbrush as the oil on the torches spattered and spread faster than the mist could put them out. The flames burned up the mist, creating overwhelming, oppressive heat.

  Robbed of her signature cowardly tactic, the Demoness was revealed in the thinning fog. Timothy raised his staff and sent a streaking ball of light at her body.

  It struck true, outlining the small stature in multicolored but harmless flames. Timothy had to give it to the Demoness, she didn’t bother to bat or swat the flames as so many others had.

  Aspect Skill: [Declaring Flames]

  Too bad it wouldn’t matter. Two Brawlers approached in a pincer pattern from either side of her. Andrew and Candice took aim with their bows, and Timothy readied [Piercing Light].

  There was nowhere for her to go. Timothy’s only regret was that Donny would be robbed of his vengeance, but he’d forgive him when they had the Emerald-eyed Demoness’ head on a pike.