Mary always had mixed feelings about fighting humans.

  For all her love of fighting, for all that she tended to go out and kill something whenever she was bored, she did have morals. Oh, she'd killed humans before, no question, and she'd do it again. But she was well aware that her job, as a person in general and as a follower of the Immortal Archer specifically, was to kill monsters. Shooting some fresh-faced mercenary who was younger than her didn't feel good. Watching him fall to the muck, his shroud broken and his body riddled with magical bullet holes, felt worse.

  On the other hand, she did like fighting. And humans were certainly a more unique opponent than just more monsters. They were intelligent, resourceful, and she never knew what to expect. Sometimes she had to enjoy the little things like a fun fight. Especially when she was fighting for her life.

  She just had to ignore the way she felt when she killed a fresh-faced mercenary who looked like he could be one of her brothers.

  She had started the fight on the walls, shooting down into the crowd, but unfortunately she'd been forced to flee to the ground. A mercenary had climbed up and started laying about with a sword. A few big spells in his direction had distracted him enough to let everyone get away, but the line had still broken.

  That was what was both fun and annoying about fighting humans. When fighting monsters, you largely knew what each one was capable of. The one with wings could fly, the one with stubby claws could dig or climb, or both. With humans, you could see someone who looked like a generic swordsman, and then he'd suddenly start scrambling up the wall like a spider.

  Things were more chaotic on the ground. That worked out for her. She turned to face the wall, as if she was one of the mercenaries, and carefully shot spells at the mercs who were assaulting the town. At a casual glance, it looked like she was just another invader, and with everything so confusing, no one had a chance to see where the shots were coming from.

  She set a woman on fire—that would eat through her shroud and give the defenders a better chance—when she paused due to low mana. The density in the area was low due to the battle, so her passive regeneration was having trouble keeping up. She took a few deep breaths to speed her recovery.

  This saved her life.

  The battlefield was loud. Even putting aside her own shots, there were more guns, the clash of steel on steel, grenades exploding, cries of pain and rage. She had in her earplugs just to make sure she wouldn't be deaf tomorrow. Therefore, she didn't hear anyone sneaking up on her. She just happened to look behind her, hoping to find a safe spot to hide for a moment, when she saw a woman dressed all in black raising a knife to stab into her back.

  Mary yelped—uh, gave a strong battle cry—and spun around, firing a few shots with the last of her mana. The woman bent like a shadow, and all the shots missed. Mary scrambled backwards, desperately trying to keep to her feet, fire her guns, and think of a better plan all at the same time.

  Time. She needed time.

  “Oi!” Mary called, even as she blocked a knife with her guns. “You're supposed to be the orc's new pet, yeah? Shouldn't you be off with him barking at anyone who gets too close or somesuch?”

  She realized she didn't actually know where the orc was. He had disappeared from the battlefield, and she hadn't seen his powerful buff spells recently. If past experiences held, he was probably alone with Josh in a cave somewhere, ranting about something. She put that out of her mind. A distracted archer was a dead archer.

  Jael ignored her question, and stabbed again with two knives coming down like snake fangs. She pushed the knives against Mary's block, getting in uncomfortably close. “Where,” she hissed, “is my niece?”

  “Archer's tits, lady, I don't know!” Mary kicked out, and Jael dodged, giving Mary some more breathing room. She fired a couple normal shots, but they hit her shroud to no effect. “Probably defending this town from the army of fourth-rate mercs you brought to kill it!”

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  Jael visibly paused, but her hesitation only lasted a moment. “One town is not worth the world. Besides, every chance was given—”

  “I did not ask for your life story!” Mary shot from both guns, one a [Pyro Shot] and one an [Electro Shot]. Casting two different spells at the same time was a trick she was still getting the hang of.

  Jael disappeared into her shadow again, and Mary cursed up a storm. Bloody shadow classes. How could she be expected to fight when her opponent could just drop into a shadow whenever she wanted?

  Then a thought occurred to her, and Mary smiled wickedly. There was one reasonable way to fight anyone with any form of shadow magic: Light. Mary didn't think that Jael had an actual Noxos-element class, so this wouldn't be as effective as it could be. She still thought it would be effective enough.

  When Mary felt motion behind her, she didn't hesitate. She closed her eyes, then pointed one gun behind her and one in front of her, and cast her [Luxos Shot] spell from both. The spell was still at a low rank, as she had little use for it.

  It did enough.

  Light flashed like she had flipped on a floodlight for a moment, chasing away all shadows. She could see it even through her closed eyelids. As she opened her eyes, Mary spun around to bring both guns to bear on the assassin. The shadows wouldn't be gone for long. She half expected her to already be gone.

  Instead, she was surprised to see Jael stumbling away. Her black outfit was marred by a glowing spot in her gut. There wasn't any blood that Mary could see. Had the effect of her shot somehow bypassed the woman's shroud?

  They both recovered near instantaneously. Mary opened fire with normal shots, mana roaring from her guns almost as loudly as normal bullets. The air filled with the scent of burned sugar.

  Jael's form blurred like a shadow, just as expected... and then nothing happened. She stayed solidly where she was. Mary's shots impacted her shroud, making it visibly weaken.

  It was a credit to Jael's experience that she didn't hesitate. Upon realizing that her trump card had failed, she didn't panic. Instead, she lunged forward, trying to get inside Mary's range and finish this quickly.

  Mary had plenty of experience too. She stepped back calmly, dodging swift knife strikes where she could and accepting hits on her shroud where she couldn't. The area outside the wall had been cleared of obstacles, all the trees cut down and all the dead cars dragged into town to be repaired or recycled. There was nowhere for Jael to hide from her.

  The shot lodged into Jael's clothing was dimming. Mary didn't know how much longer it would last. She fired another [Luxos Shot], even though it dipped too far into her mana reserves. She cursed when Jael dodged. “Bloody balls, lady, just stay still and let me kill you!”

  Instead, Jael threw herself forward, sliding under Mary and between her legs so fast that she couldn't even get a bead on her. No one had tried that move on her any time recently. Before she knew what had happened, Jael knocked her to the ground. She stabbed down with her knife, but it was blocked by Mary's shroud. It seemed almost perfunctory.

  “I don't have time for this,” Jael hissed. “I need to find my niece.”

  She ran off towards the walls. Mary raised her guns from the ground, but before she could even pull the triggers, Jael disappeared into the shadows. She didn't reappear anywhere that Mary could see.

  She ground her teeth, then forced herself to relax. Darius had plans for Jael. Light traps better than her little trick with one spell. If Jael crossed into the town, she'd regret it. Mary climbed to her feet and looked around. She wasn't sure why Jael had returned to the town, though. Had Ruth gone back in that direction and Mary hadn't noticed?

  Just then, there was a huge boom. Mary looked over to see that Ruth had crashed through another tank, crumpling its top down as easily as a kid stomping on an empty soda can. Mary had to admit, she was impressed. When she had seen four tanks rolling up outside the town, she had not expected Ruth to be the one to take them out, and to make it look easy. She didn't even have her hammer.

  Through the chaos and the shouting, Mary spotted a squad of mercenaries point at Ruth. They picked up their weapons and ran after her. They wouldn't be the only ones. Ruth had made herself a target. Whatever had happened to her hammer, whatever new tricks she had learned, she'd be at a disadvantage against so many people without her weapon.

  Mary smirked, raised her guns, and started jogging over. Fighting humans was so much fun. Now all she needed was for Jael to come back, and she and Ruth could fight her together.