Fear gripped Hunter. His fur bristled as if it had a mind of its own, and his ears flicked back so fast it felt like they were trying to escape his head. He hastily coughed and waved it off to his troops as "just a little muscle spasm."

  They bought it. Probably.

  It was an odd thing to admit, but for a second there, he’d felt true fear shoot down his spine when that boy had looked at him. He felt like prey facing a superior predator.

  My mind is playing tricks on me. Don’t overthink it.

  He felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned to see his right-hand man.

  “Five minutes left, sir.”

  Hunter nodded. “Thank you. I’ll treat you to something nice after this for your hard work.”

  A few dry chuckles rang out around him. Of course, it was funny.

  After all, there was no way that would ever happen because they’d be put to sleep, then thrown right back into battle.

  He turned his attention back to the gates of the city. The mushroom people’s actions still puzzled him. He’d tried to send troops in to get a better look, but they’d surrounded themselves into some kind of fungi circle, and the scout couldn’t see anything.

  It probably isn’t important. They’re just mushroom people.

  But still… the brat’s eyes.

  He wasn’t very old for his species and most of the time, he seemed to carry himself with a closed-off, nervous gait. But for a split second there…

  Hunter shook his head. He was letting the brat get to his head. Focus.

  Time ticked away, and Hunter breathed slowly. His mind centered to a cool point.

  “Sir?” his right-hand man said. “It’s time.”

  Hunter nodded.

  “Let’s get to work,” he said. He raised his voice. “Shields up!”

  A chorus of repetition rang out. Hunter reached into his inventory and pulled out his shield, facing it toward the enemy.

  Then began the march. Hunter braced his legs with each step—it was only a matter of time before they started firing missiles and arrows.

  But the attack never came.

  A creeping sense of unease whirled in Hunter’s stomach. Why weren’t they attacking? This wasn’t how you defended during a siege.

  Hunter focused on moving. It wasn’t long before they came up to the town walls.

  “Siege ladders!” Hunter yelled.

  Soldiers passed and raised the siege ladders toward the castle walls. They bumped against the stone top and rested.

  No one was trying to push them off.

  The sense of unease grew stronger and stronger. Something was wrong. They’d obviously set up some sort of trap, the cowards.

  But what kind of trap would allow the enemy so close to breaching your defenses?

  One of his men rested his claws against the ladder. He took a deep breath, then climbed slowly up the ladder. Around Hunter, every single one of his men were watching, eyes fixed perfectly on the werewolf soldier.

  The werewolf got higher and reached the very top.

  There was a flash of red.

  The werewolf screamed at the top of his lungs. It was a cry of pure terror like nothing Hunter had ever heard before. The werewolf jumped away from the ladder and crashed into the ground with a loud thud, his body limp.

  Hunter stared at the scene.

  “What the hell—?”

  “They’re opening the gate!” someone yelled out.

  Hunter turned his head. He readied his shield and his sword.

  Don’t back down. We can face them, just as we’ve faced so many other opponents.

  The gate swung open, revealing mushroom soldiers, weapons extended.

  Screams instantly broke out. Werewolves almost trampled over each other to run away. Hunter felt three people bump past him in their scramble to the rear.

  Why were they running?

  Because the mushroom people were covered, head to toe, in rhubarb. Their weapons had rhubarb attached to them. Their armor had rhubarb taped on. They had rhubarb earrings, rhubarb spears, rhubarb EVERYTHING.

  “I think we’re screwed, sir,” the right-hand man said.

  Hunter watched as his well-trained mercenary force was reduced to a bunch of flailing, screaming children.

  That damn Lupim! He told them about our weakness… but how did they have so much rhubarb!?

  “It’s just a plant, you fools!” Hunter tightened his hand around his sword. “It doesn’t actually hurt you!”

  One of his men face-planted into the ground, then scrambled back up. “THAT’S WHAT THEY WANT YOU TO THINK!”

  Unlike the rest of his people, Hunter—along with his right-hand man—had never had a fear of rhubarb… but he was afraid of what it could do to his men.

  Damn it all to hell.

  “Sir!” his right-hand man said. “Look ahead!”

  Striding out of the center gate was none other than the lord of the town, Nathan. He walked like a conqueror entering the homeland after a successful victory. Flanking him on two sides were orcs, each of them built like solid brick walls, while around them chaos raged as the werewolves fled and the mushroom people advanced.

  A werewolf jumped at Nathan only to be stopped by one of the orc’s warhammers. The orc tossed the werewolf away as if he were nothing.

  Hunter grinded his teeth together.

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  This son of a bitch.

  “We’re not going down like this!” Hunter barked. “If I’m going to die, then I’ll at least die with honor!”

  He readied his sword, gaze fixed on Nathan. This would be the man’s end—that much, Hunter could do.

  He made to move when something caught his ear.

  A whirring noise. Like that of a large object falling from the sky.

  He looked up to see a barrel—no, a dozen barrels. With his perfect gaze, he was able to spot something poking out of one of the tops.

  Rhubarbs.

  The barrels exploded on impact, launching rhubarb in every direction like fruity shrapnel. One stalk hit Hunter in the snout, and he dropped like a sack of wet potatoes.

  Nathan stared around the field of rhubarbs. Although Mara had promised that it would be nonlethal, the ‘rhubarb bombs’ still had enough punch to knock out most of the poor bastards who’d been close.

  Bjorn and Kason—both of whom had insisted on coming with him, despite his protestations—were in a loose heap on the ground.

  Something caught his ear. A shift.

  On instinct, he reached into his inventory and pulled out his fishing rod. The metal clanged, and he was nearly thrown backward by the immense force of the blow that had struck him.

  Narrow eyes caught his gaze. Nathan reached out his leg and kicked the opponent hard. The enemy staggered back.

  Hunter. The leader.

  “You bastard!” Hunter said. “Using our weakness like this… how did you have so much rhubarb!?”

  Nathan rubbed the back of his neck. “Um, we didn’t.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “We grew it on the spot.” Nathan gestured with his head back toward the town. “They’re all druids and stuff.”

  Hunter growled. “Just my luck. It doesn’t matter—you’ll die today, Nathan!”

  Nathan’s eyes dropped into a glare and he shifted his legs. “No thanks.”

  Hunter leapt into the air and his sword slashed out. Nathan ducked and swung his fishing rod. The hook attached to the armor. Nathan pulled as hard as he could and Hunter slammed into the ground with a loud crash.

  In a surprising move, Hunter undid his armor with a quick movement and rolled to the side before Nathan could follow up. Now shirtless, glistening, and—Nathan hated to admit it—pretty shredded, Hunter aimed his sword with a snarl.

  Nathan blocked the attack, then swung his hook into Hunter’s stomach. The werewolf rolled through the ground before coming to a stop.

  “D-damn you,” Hunter said. “How are you so strong?”

  “Luck, mostly.”

  Hunter ground his teeth together. He reared his sword back and threw it forward. The sword spun like a top. Nathan threw himself out of the way and hit the ground hard, the tip of the metal brushing against his neck. A moment later, Hunter was already next to Nathan, a spear aimed for Nathan’s chest.

  Nathan rolled to the side. The spear embedded into the dirt. Nathan threw out his fishing rod hook and hooked Hunter’s leggings—

  But before Nathan could pull on the leggings, Hunter already undid them.

  “Not this time—!”

  Nathan sprang forward and let go of his fishing pole. His fist reared back and rushed forward like a bullet. It impacted Hunter’s nose, the soft flesh folded like paper, and Hunter fell to the ground.

  Nathan stumbled forward before slowing to a stop. He turned around and examined Hunter’s breathing.

  Still alive.

  I’m glad—I didn’t want to kill the guy.

  Nathan drew himself back up and took a few steps away.

  That’s when he heard a shifting to his side.

  Nathan turned around just in time to see a small knife heading straight for his face. It wasn’t Hunter—it was the werewolf who’d been standing next to Hunter.

  He’d faked being knocked out.

  Nathan started to move back, but he was too slow.

  Shit.

  Time stretched out like a rubber band. Nathan’s mind worked to find some kind of solution, but nothing was coming. He was too slow. The knife inched closer to his face.

  Looks like I’ll be losing an eye. I guess it’s only fitting.

  The ground rumbled.

  A green vine broke out of the ground and shot toward the knife. It slammed against the werewolf’s wrist and the knife flew into the air.

  The werewolf stumbled into the ground and stared at the vine. Nathan stared at it too.

  What the hell?

  The werewolf tried to scramble away, only for another vine to reach up and wrap around his leg. Vine after vine sprung from the ground and wrapped around every single one of the werewolf’s limbs and lifted him into the air like a rag doll.

  A larger vine than the others, thick like a tree trunk, wormed its way from the soil. It swayed up like a drunkard, a closed flower attached to the side facing Nathan. The flower unfolded, revealing the half-black, half-white flower petals of his familiar mysterious seed.

  Nathan blinked.

  It sped toward Nathan. He raised his arm up in defense and shut his eyes.

  Nothing happened.

  Nathan opened his eyes. The flower had stopped in front of him, it almost seemed to be tilting its head, if a flower could do that.

  “…good flower?”

  The flower stretched out and brushed its petals up against Nathan’s face like a weird cat.

  What the hell is my life?

  “HOLY SHIT, NATHAN’S GETTING ATTACKED BY A FLOWER MONSTER!” Mara yelled. “DON’T WORRY, I’VE GOT A MOLOTOV COCKTAIL!“

  “Wait, no, no, no, MARA NO!”

  "MARA YES!"

  In the end, no one was hurt, and Mara was eventually convinced that the plant monster wasn’t out to kill them all. Medics came out and attended to the different people. Nathan walked back to the meeting hall to talk with his allies and companions. Beside him, Hunter was led back to the meeting hall in chains. Every couple of steps, the flower would retreat into the ground, then pop back out a few feet in front of Nathan.

  “God help us all if you figure out how to walk,” Nathan said, staring at the plant monster.

  Before long, they reached the meeting hall. Just Nathan, a bunch of mushroom people, two werewolves, his companions, and the giant flower vine monster waving off to Nathan’s side.

  Just another day in the life of Nathan Lee.

  “Um, Nathan,” Vee said. “What the f—“

  “Do not blaspheme the Divine Seed.” Papim stared at the flower. “We are blessed, Vee.”

  Bjorn shivered. He’d recovered and followed Nathan back, but he’d kept his distance from the flower monster.

  “The fact that it follows you around,” Bjorn said. “Is truly terrifying, Chief.”

  Emi squinted her eyes at the flower. “Nathan, why is the weird flower inside the meeting hall?”

  “You only picked up on that now?” Chad asked. “We’ve been here for, like, thirty seconds.”

  Gius held up a hand.

  “Quiet,” he said.

  The whispered voices stopped.

  “We have serious matters to attend to,” Gius said. “Both foreign and domestic. I believe we should take care of the foreign ones first.”

  Everyone turned their heads to the werewolf at the end of the table: Hunter.

  “What is there to say?” Hunter said. “You’re going to execute me, won’t you? Just get it over with.”

  Casc’s nose twitched. “If only. Unfortunately, our leader is a bit too softhearted for that.”

  Hunter’s head looked up, and he squinted his eyes.

  “What?” he said.

  “You’re going to be spared,” Nathan said. “That isn’t the question. The question is how we plan to take care of you, right, Casc?”

  “Yes, my lord,” Casc said. “We don’t exactly have a dungeon. Even if we did, this is a massive force. Feeding them would be a great burden.”

  Nathan tapped his fingers against the table.

  Let’s hope this works.

  “Alright,” Nathan said. “We’re going to offer them a choice. Burrau, do you have any citizenship contracts? You mentioned something about that in the last meeting.”

  “Of course, my lord.”

  Casc groaned. “Why do I even bother?”

  Nathan stood up from the end of the table and approached Burrau. Burrau pulled out a pen along with some papers and set it in front of Nathan.

  Nathan picked them up. He waked to the end of the table and set them in front of Hunter. Hunter looked at Nathan with a distinct look of confusion, his eyebrows knitted together as he looked back and forth between the papers and Nathan.

  “What are you doing?” Hunter said.

  “You have two choices,” Nathan said. “You can become a citizen of this town, swearing loyalty to it. From there, you can do whatever you want. You could rejoin the military under Fuge, become a guard. Or you could become a farmer. It doesn’t matter to me.”

  “…what’s the catch?”

  “Well, you’d be monitored at first to ease the minds of the more conservative on the council,” Nathan said. “But you’d eventually have that removed. And of course, you wouldn’t be allowed to attack the town since you’d, you know, be a citizen of it.”

  “That’s it?” Hunter said. “Are you kidding?”

  “If you dislike it so much, you can take the other option,” Nathan said.

  “That’s not what I—okay, and what would this other option be?”

  “Leave. Figure out how to return back to the System and go back to your old life.”

  “And what if I end up attacking you again?”

  “That would be bad. But I don’t think that’s going to happen. I think you’re going to pick up that pen and sign the contract.”

  “What about my men—?”

  “They’ll receive the same offer, of course. Every single one of them—even the guy who tried to stab my face.”

  “Just like that?”

  Nathan’s fingers twitched. It was tempting to not include that person… but that would look bad.

  “Just like that.”

  Hunter pursed his lips. “But we’ll be left behind or put back in our old places eventually. The System won’t let us go, not unless you defeat all Nine Circles.”

  Nathan narrowed his eyes.

  “I can’t promise victory,” Nathan said. “But what I can promise is that each and every one of you are with me. We’re in this together, hell or high water. And I don’t know about you, but I fully plan on getting out of this shithole.”

  Hunter paused.

  He picked up the pen.

  Some of the fine details were hashed out, but it was over pretty soon. Nathan was almost certain that every single werewolf soldier would join the town now that Hunter had been convinced.

  With that done, Nathan had dismissed everyone except for Gius.

  The two stared at each other.

  It was time to have that conversation.