Erin streaked low over the ground and landed with a muffled impact in the snow, her wings fading from view as the small group of qek turned, astonished to find her suddenly amongst them. As one, they turned toward her, preparing to leap upon her and tear her to shreds.

Erin’s Binding Point spell locked into place under her feet and qek stumbled toward her, pulled under the force of the magic. Fireballs flashed out from her right hand, and she worked through them quickly, burning each in turn. Once she had them off-balance and disoriented Erin plucked a short spear from her inventory and took it in both hands. Her eyes glowed with an amber light and she dug in, bending her knees and coiling her body like a spring.

As the first of the monsters drew close, she lunged. Muscles infused with power, her coordination enhanced by magic, and reflexes that felt sharpened to a razor's edge. With blurred speed, she dispatched the monster, ignoring the notification that sounded in her mind.

Deep in the sense of power that tapping the bronze state conferred, she cut down the qek, one after the other. Her movements were cold and precise. As the last one gurgled at her, impaled on her spear, she growled at it. She kicked the creature with a booted foot and sent it tumbling off the end of her weapon to writhe in the snow.

Suddenly, the anger in her swelled and stepped forward and kicked the monster again, and again. Before she knew it, she’d reduced much of the monster’s torso to mush in the snow.

“I think he’s dead.” A voice brought her back and Erin’s head snapped up. Kiran stood just past the ring of bodies Erin had created, watching her.

“I-” she started, but didn’t know what to say. She looked down at the mutilated corpse, horrified at her actions.

“It’s alright,” Kiran said, moving up to stand across from her. “It’s the battle.” He said, looking at her. “We were all pushed pretty hard, and we thought we were going to die. I think you’d have to be made of stone to not have some reaction.”

Erin had no words. It didn’t matter if it made sense. She could still feel the anger boiling in her chest, and she didn’t know what to do with it. Ever since the fighting had stopped, and she’d woken up. It had been with her, like a disease that she’d picked up in the battle. This was just the first time it had spilled over.

“I’d never been so scared in my life, ya’know?” Kiran said, breaking the silence. “I used to dream of fighting in battles when I was a kid. I imagined it’d be heroic, but in the whole thing I only remember feeling terrified. When something makes you that afraid, sometimes your only defense is to hate it.” He kicked the mangled corpse of the qek with the toe of his boot.

Again, Erin didn’t know what to say.

“You should loot this group. There might be another one on the north side.” Erin nodded, and refocused, and as much as she hated to admit it. It was at least in part at the prospect of fighting more qek.

Qek Scavenger

1 of 5

Default:

8x copper Maefars, 2lbs of qek meat, 1x augment rune

Equipment:

Select this option to discover loot.

Qek Scavenger

2 of 5

Default:

7 copper Maefars, 2lbs of qek meat

Equipment:

Select this option to discover loot

Qek Scavenger

3 of 5

Default:

10 copper Maefars, 2lbs of qek meat

Augment Rune:

Select this option to discover loot.

Qek Scavenger

4 of 5

Default:

8 copper Maefars, 2lbs of qek meat.

Equipment:

Select this option to discover loot.

Qek Scavenger

5 of 5

Default:

13 copper Maefars, 2lbs of qek meat.

Equipment:

Select this option to discover loot.

Relieved of the burden of making any selections. The 5 corpses glowed with a white light that quickly faded. Leaving behind an assortment of money and items. Erin had learned early on that equipment looted from monsters was always of the relentlessly practical variety. Things like torches, cookware, or even mundane weapons. This was much the same. A torch, a small sack of cloth bandages, a boot knife and another tent. She tucked most of it into her inventory, except for the bandages which she passed on to Kiran.

There had been two augment runes in the mix, and she was happy enough to see them. Now that she had a full set of spells, it was time to start thinking about their potential.

[Augment Rune: Defiant]

[Augment Rune: Resilient]

“Well, these look interesting.” She said, trying her best to sound normal.

“You’ll have to tell me about them later.” Kiran said, turning away. “We’ve got to get back to it.” Erin nodded, and stowed the augments away, and the pair of them set off.

The largest portion of the qek had seemed to vanish after the battle, but small groups had been spotted beyond the wall. Many of the Monster Hunters, along with Erin, Liam and Arthur, had been set to clearing them out. The qek had entirely returned to their normal behavior, hunting in small groups. Almost mindlessly attacking anything that came into their line of sight. The work brought those doing it a grim satisfaction. Without the overwhelming crush of their fellows, the small monsters had become little more than a nuisance, easily dispatched. After regrouping with Liam and Arthur, the four faced a small pack of qek and slew them swiftly.

“I wonder why they retreated.” Liam said conversationally, but Erin looked around, confused. There were several dead qek on the ground and all of them had charged headfirst to their doom.

“Who retreated?” Kiran asked.

“The qek, after the battle.” Liam answered, making a sweeping gesture with his arm to encompass all the corpses. “We had this group at almost even numbers. Less than half our size, no magic to speak of. No weapons. Bad fight for them all around, but they came right at us. No fear.”

“Well, these are obviously behaving as one would expect.” Arthur said, pointing at one corpse with his sword. “The ones that attacked the town didn’t.”

“Not that you’d know anything about it.” Kiran said, with barely repressed scorn. Erin reached out and put a hand on his shoulder, raising an eyebrow at him. Kiran looked at her and then down, his cheeks flushed. To Arthur’s credit, he ignored the tone of the comment entirely, focusing instead on the content.

“True enough. I’m unfamiliar with this breed of monster. One of my men recognized them when we arrived at Dangole.” Arthur said, as he carefully cleaned his sword before slipping it back into the sheath.

“But the ones we’ve been hunting all around the village must be some of the same ones that attacked Dangole. I’ve yet to see anything that even resembled the good sense to retreat. So why then, but not now?”

“Maybe it’s the magic.” Erin said thoughtfully. “There must be a dozen Mages or so in that group that showed up. Setting off explosions and such, maybe that much magic put them off.” Liam looked contemplatively at the body on the ground, as if willing it to give up the mysteries of its behavior.

“We need to report back to Sigrid.” Kiran said after a brief silence. “See if there’s any more of these things to run down. Erin and Liam looted the kills, and dispersed the returns where they would be most useful, and then the group set off.

They arrived to find a flurry of activity around Dangole’s gate. Sigrid had decided that the town’s double-door gate would be replaced with a portcullis.

The citizenry of Dangole were not unfamiliar with hardship, nor were they afraid of hard work. Both were part of everyday life this far north. It was Erin’s opinion that the cleanup and repairs were happening at breakneck speeds. Sigrid however behaved as if the work wasn’t moving fast enough, and Erin could understand why. Since the battle had ended, she’d been the de facto mayor. Which was not a position she’d ever wanted, but a sense of obligation saw her spearheading the town’s recovery.

“I am going to check in with my men.” Arthur told them as they crossed the town’s threshold. “I will meet up with you again soon.” Kiran muttered something under his breath as the prince split from the group and headed down a separate street. Erin shot Liam a look, and the big man shrugged and nodded, before following Arthur.

“What’s the problem?” Erin asked, stopping them in the street, and putting a hand on Kiran’s arm.

“It’s nothing,” he answered, not meeting her eye.

“It’s very obviously not nothing. What happened? Did he say something to you?”

Kiran clenched his jaw, and Erin could see him struggling with the decision to tell her. He met her eyes and sighed.

“It’s not him. It’s his father.”

“The King?”

“Yeah, my family is originally from Strath. It’s kind of a long story, but the quick version is me and my mother left Strath because of the Mage Slayer.”

“The what?” Erin asked, her eyebrow raised.

“That’s what they call him. He won a duel to the death with a Mage back when he was still the second prince. It was before my time. They say he’s a righteous king, a real man of the people, but it’s all lies. My dad’s dead and it’s the Mage Slayer’s fault.” Kiran spoke with heat, his cheeks flushed and his expression stern.

“Arthurs not his father.” Erin said. "it’s not fair to judge him for what he might’ve done."

“I know that,” Kiran said, shaking his head. “He seems a decent enough sort, as far as royalty goes.”

“Then why the hostility?” She asked, genuinely confused now.

“It ain’t about him, it’s about why he’s here. He’s trying to drag you all into his father’s schemes.”

Erin had promised to discuss with Arthur the reason for his coming to find them at a later date. Every hand was needed to get Dangole back on its feet, and so as yet, no decision had been reached.

“So you thought you’d resolve the situation by being rude to him and not telling me what you knew about his father?” Erin had tried her best to be diplomatic in her tone, but even stated plainly there was no hiding the incredulity she felt. Kiran took the rebuke in stride.

“If I was smart, I wouldn’t have signed up to hunt monsters, so let’s not pretend the fact I ain’t is news to either of us.”

“I hunt monsters,” Erin pointed out.

“Yeah, with magic.” He retorted smoothly, and Erin shook her head, but before she could make a reply, an old woman who was passing by spat at her feet, glaring all the while. Erin was shocked at the display, so at odds with the general sense of respect the villagers had shown her, for her part in defending their town.

“Hey now,” Kiran snapped, stepping past her to confront the woman. “What’ve you got in your head that you think you can act like that?” The old woman turned her glare on Kiran, but turned away without answering, moving briskly away from them. Kiran made as if he was going to go after her, but Erin put a hand on his shoulder.

“Don’t worry about it, it doesn’t matter.”

“Why is she spitting at you!?” Kiran turned back, angry.

“I don’t know. Maybe I offended her or something without realizing it.” Kiran said nothing, turning to glare at the woman’s back as she carried on down the street. “I’m sure it’s nothing. Come on, we need to find Sigrid.”

The pair of them set off down the main street, headed for the mayor’s house, where Sigrid had taken up residence, a ‘temporary situation’ she had insisted vehemently. As they walked, Erin had the feeling that more than a few people were watching her pass, with less than friendly expressions.

Noticing nothing, Kiran spoke at length about plans he had for the Monster Hunters, such as a memorial service for the fallen commander, and getting them back to work as soon as possible. The village depended on the gems they extracted from the region’s monsters. There was a lot of work to be done, and the village would need a lot of new materials to do it. That meant they needed every gem they could get before the next caravan arrived to trade.

Erin listened with half of her attention. The other turned toward the people passing her on the street. With every step she took, she was more certain of it. She seemed to have become very unpopular all of a sudden. No one else did anything as overt as spit at her, but she could sense it in the hostility of their gazes, or how they avoided her as she approached. It wasn’t everyone. In fact, the dirty looks came from relatively few, but still many more than she could account for earning, unless she’d seriously misjudged her interactions with the villagers in the last week.

What is going on?

Erin redoubled her pace, which left Kiran scrambling to catch up.

“What’s the rush?”

"I need to talk to Sigrid.”