No one ever said hunting monsters would be easy. Or maybe it would have been if she could actually make a spell. Use any of her holy powers. Alice sighed, sitting back to reminisce on times gone by. Oh, how she missed being able to throw out spells out whenever she wanted. Her stun attack, especially. It would have solved the majority of the PIC's monster problems.

"Look alive, Morino. Target's coming in hot."

She glanced at her partner, a mage slightly younger though he stood much taller at six feet. He leaned against the edge of the roof, peering at the streets below through his PIC-issued binoculars. What was his name again? Alice laid back, legs propped up against a nearby ventilation shaft.

"Here it comes. Morino?"

She kicked a leg up.

"Present, Mr. Mage," she said.

He didn't so much as crack a smile. A true boy scout. Alice sighed, rolling herself into a standing position. Beasts were her least favorite enemies, but Uncle Brown usually frowned upon her lazing on the job. And this was her first excursion with Mr. Boyscout.

"Hey, what's your name again?" she asked, kicking up her carved bat. "Erin? Edwick?"

He frowned. "Eric."

"Right. Eric. Do me a favor, would you?"

She sat on the roof's guard rail, gazing out at what she could already see were her fellow mages getting to work. Trash cans and mailboxes were thrown aside as their targets tried to escape, trails of green blood and crushed garbage left in their wake. She groaned.

"Have my towel ready."

And then she was hopping off the side, making the quick three-story descent.

Wind blew against her face, the scaly bodies of her targets racing below her accompanied by three of her colleagues. She never bothered to learn their names. The beasts turned to roar, which Alice took full advantage of. Very few monsters ever expected a bushy-browed blonde to drop from above. And the scaly beasts were no exception.

"Morino!"

Eric's scream did alert one of them to her presence. But it was already too late for the other.

Here it comes.

Her bat came smashing down like a hammer, Alice shutting her eyes as the usual mess of monster guts came flying over her. It made her want to gag. With her charm embedded in the wood, the bat might as well have been a shotgun. It certainly made the second beast freak out, its roars tinged with fear as it fled away from her. Two of the other mages gave chance, though the third regarded her with a slightly concerned look.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

"Um...are you..."

She waved a hand expectingly to Erin. As instructed, he tossed down a towel, of which the wind nearly carried away. It was her least favorite part of the job, but one that couldn't be helped given someone took away her powers. With a groan, she started wiping off her face.

"Yep. Perfectly fine."

The towel came off dripping green. Such was a common occurrence for PIC missions.

***

Between the night stakeouts and afternoon patrols, being a mage was about as terrible as Alice had always expected. It would have been one thing if she were simply tasked to kill monsters and go home for the day. But no. The PIC was all about secrecy. Hence after every operation, no matter how small, there was a subsequent scrub for witness dangers. Anything that would tip the common populace to their activities had to be eliminated. Hence why they always sectioned off trapping points for catching prey. It made the clean-up much smoother. Usually.

"Nice work out there, Ally," Uncle Brown said as she sat in his office. "Shame we couldn't get them both, but you did good taking out the one."

She smiled. After a long day of scrubbing sidewalks, it was always nice to get recognition. Uncle Brown was her silver lining in the whole mage situation. As long as she wasn't slacking off, he would always tell her how good a job she was doing. Why couldn't her own dad be more like him?

"I think I freaked out the rookies," she said, gesturing towards the mages she could see trying to hide behind computers. All but Eric, at least. "Any reason you keep sending me with newbies?"

"Well, you are technically a newbie too, Ally. It's only fair."

"I guess." She sat back in the chair. "How many missions before I can take on a real demon?"

"If we're lucky, you won't have to. But you're down to 50."

She nodded. It was a bet she'd made with her Uncle to help speed up the process of integration. The sooner she stopped being a rookie the faster she'd be able to recruit strong mages to her cause, preventing that hellspawn monster from taking over the world. Wherever he was. The junkyard had been quiet for weeks, but she doubted he'd give up his grand quest that easy. And even if he did, she'd still end him. It was better to be safe than sorry.

"Ally, I know you're eager, but try not to scar the rookies too much, okay? We were all like them once."

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah yeah. As long as I keep getting missions, I promise not to upstage the noobs too much. Deal?"

"Deal."

She shook her head. As if it mattered anyway.

No matter what she or anyone else did, it wouldn't change the facts of their situation. The moment that demon showed up, their fates were all as good as decided.

This was Luizitine's world now. And they'd all have to keep up with her if they wanted to survive what was to come. Even if she'd only seen him once, she had a feeling the demon wouldn't take any prisoners. Especially not humans. Uncle Brown kept on with his debrief, but the words drifted in and out of Alice's ears, her attention returning to the ancient demon as it usually did.

How long did they have? Months? Weeks? It was all up in the air. But she'd do her best to stop him, anyway. She was the only one who could.