Her first chop at the tree bounced off it.

"Damnit," Grim said.

"Maybe if I— " Hazel said before being interrupted.

"— No, I'll do it. Just keep an eye out."

"Uhh, I am, and there are like twenty people watching us. And that old lady there, is calling the Stripes.

Grim paid her no mind. The tree was old and decaying. It looked like it should have already fallen over, but it was stubborn and clung to its last roots of life. It was twenty feet off the trail and in clear view of most of the park. Trees were in a horizontal line, providing shade to those who came here to relax. This one was instantly recognizable; it stuck out compared to the bright and vivid trees surrounding it.

She brought her arm back and swung the hatchet down into the side of the tree. This time, the bark gave, and it sunk in nearly half the blade.

"Hey! You can't do that."

She turned to see a city employee jump off his cart and start heading toward her. He was an old man, nearly bald and sporting a belly. He wore an ID tag that identified him as a park employee.

"Yes, I can," Grim replied with another chop. A divot formed as a piece of wood fell out. It sagged dangerously to one side, nearly cut through.

Phil, according to his name tag, shouted, "Stop! That is a protected tree. The Watchmen are on the way, and you’ll get into a lot of trouble if you continue."

Grim turned around and faced him. He stood a decent distance away, close enough to talk but far enough away from the axe she was wielding. Hazel held her face and stood off to the side, deeply embarrassed.

"If I stop, am I still going to get into trouble?" Grim asked, putting the axe down by her side.

Hazel tried to interrupt, "Don't answer that."

Phil stuttered, face red with anger, "Yes! That is a protected species you are damaging."

Grim smiled, "Then I might as well finish."

She turned and smashed the axe into the side of the tree, cutting off enough of it that it started to tip. The bark split and cracked before smashing into the ground. Phil stared at them with his mouth wide, at a loss for words.

"I told you," Hazel said to Phil. "Your fault."

Phil turned on her, "How is this any of my fault? Your friend here is going to jail, and you too, if you don't keep your mouth shut."

"Hey! Drop the axe and put your hands up," a woman ordered. She was in uniform, which consisted of a white breastplate with one orange stripe running down the side. Denoting her as one of the watch's lowest and most prominent members. They were meant to deal with the more mundane threats in Eternity. A male partner was beside her but was content to let her lead.

That was going to be a problem.

Grim dropped the axe, "Oh, wow, you guys got here fast."

The woman sent her a look and turned to Phil, "What's going on here?"

Spittle flew from his mouth as he spoke, "This little Eco terrorist is destroying a protected species of Wither tree, chopped the whole thing down right in front of me. Some sick joke to her, I think."

"If it helps, it was dead already," Hazel added.

The officer pursed her lips, "You know kids usually drink in a park or climb buildings, right? Is this some video challenge thing going on?"

"Yeah, for a video. Everyone's been talking about the ugliest tree in the park, and I got dared to do it," Grim said, lying through her teeth.

"You've got to take her to jail. Walking around with a weapon like that," Phil said.

The woman looked at her partner for a second and shrugged as she brought out a pair of cuffs and stepped towards Grim.

"Wait! I've got shards; we can figure this out," Grim said, throwing her hand in front of her. "Besides, that's not going to fit me anyway."

She held up her empty sleeve. The woman stopped, sighed, turned to her partner, and nodded toward Phil; he grabbed him and made him walk away.

“You can’t do this, I saw her with my own eyes. I’m a witness, there’s people recording.”

“Shut up and walk,” The male watchman said, unconcerned about the people watching.

Once he was far enough away, the woman raised her hand and whispered something she couldn’t hear. She traced a square around them in the air, and glowing orbs left her palm to form a translucent box. Phil’s voice became muffled as the box distorted the outside world.

This definitely wasn’t her first time doing this.

"Standard fine for this is thirty thousand and three months in a cell," the woman said, almost bored. She held the cuffs beside her as her partner walked through the wall. It shuddered as he did so.

Grim was just now realizing how badly she’d miscalculated. She was alone, except for Hazel, with the two stripes, who were very comfortable with bending the law. As if being punished for their corruption wasn’t an option at all. Which, to be fair, it probably wasn’t. It wasn’t legal but it was well known a few shards could lend you some leniency with the Stripes.

That was why she’d offered in the first place. She hated to give up her shards, but she’d rather be poor than arrested. That was not an option for her. She didn’t know how, but they had some sort of device that could interact with the system to display your boons. And if they found her with an unregistered S-rank, well… she’d either be sent to the crater or conscripted. Both of those options were a death sentence.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Registering herself wasn’t an option, either. Not if she wanted to keep her freedom, they wouldn’t let someone with an S-rank just run around. Add in [CEDE]? She’d be lucky to see daylight. No, if she wanted to be safe, then she needed to become a Witch. They worked with the government but were a separate organization. One almost entirely dedicated to responding to incursions and infiltrating Gate worlds.

The only requirement to join them was to survive the Witching, a selection test. What that entailed was a closely guarded secret, but it was highly lethal, whatever it was. It was rumoured only 10% of people survived but if you could? It didn’t matter what rank or abilities you had, you were in.

They had a selection every year, which was coming up in the next two months. She’d planned to try in a couple of years, once she’d gotten to at least C-rank. But it was only a matter of time until someone found out about her, not to mention she needed to find out who fucked with her family. Whoever they were, they had to be powerful, and she needed to be strong enough to get revenge.

So, if she wanted to live, she needed to pass the next one.

"I've got twenty thousand in E rank shards," Grim said.

"Where'd you get all that?"

"Doesn't matter, it's what I got," Grim explained.

"We could just take you in, instead. Forty." The male officer said.

"Forty? Fucking pig," Grim said before she could stop herself.

"Oh, now you've done it," His eyes lit up with anger as he grabbed his baton from his belt and advanced on her. Hazel tried to mediate, but he swatted the stick into her side and knocked her to the ground.

“Hazel!” Grim shouted as she scrambled for the axe.

She slid towards it, but the Stripe kicked her in the stomach, sending her rolling away from the weapon. The hit flared up all her still-healing injuries and paralyzed her for a moment as she lay there, sucking in a breath, "Ah, that hurt."

"Oh, we're just getting started-" The male officer gagged as a burst of blood flew from his mouth and dribbled down his chin; both he and Grim looked down to see a spear perforating his chest. He went limp a moment later as the spear and several green shards were ripped from his body. A giant purple bipedal lizard stood behind him; cracks ran throughout its muscular torso, and purple energy emanated from them.

The creature picked up the shards and opened its mouth, it’s tongue drooping out.

"Mack!" A few feet away, the female officer drew a small calibre pistol as she turned on the Lizardman. "Officer down. We've got an incursion at Centennial Park! At least C rank, requesting backup."

A barrage of shots erupted from her pistol and struck the Lizardman, each leaving a small trail of blood to run down its chest. It flinched as it was hit, dropping the shards as it moved towards her. The gunshots continued, each one deafening Grim as she lay on the ground. She tried to muffle the noise by putting one ear on the ground and covering the other with her hand. It barely helped.

The woman's radio went off, confirming that backup was coming, but she knew it would be too late as she heard the weapon run out of ammo.

She turned to Grim, "Run!"

The woman dropped the gun and drew her baton as she charged at it; she swung the weapon down, aiming at its face even as it towered over her, but was intercepted by the creature grabbing her forearm. A twitch and it snapped; the baton dropped to the ground. Her scream was cut short as the Lizardman bit into her throat and tore it out; it swallowed and turned to Grim. A row of bloody teeth salivated as it crunched on the broken shards.

"Hazel!" Grim yelled. "Where are you?

Grim flinched as she felt a hand on her back, "I'm here. It's me." Hazel said.

She let her help her stand as the Lizardman approached them; she watched the pointed tip of that spear and felt a spark of fear inside her. With the reach of that, it could clear the gap between them in less than a second. She looked around for help and watched as a massacre occurred around them. The purple rift of a Gate World blared in the middle of the park as more creatures hauled themselves out of it and attacked the people around indiscriminately. A couple of orange stripes were at the far end of the park firing shots, but they wouldn't get to them in time; they'd have enough trouble keeping themselves alive if a Boonwitch didn't get here soon.

She still had her boot knife on her, but she already knew that wouldn't help her here. There was still a pistol on the male officer, but they'd have to get past the Lizardman without being killed first.

"Hazel, run to the right and distract it. I'll call you back before it gets to you, and I'll grab his weapon. The bio-lock should be disabled during the incursion."

"Are you sure? You could just run for it; there’s no need to risk yourself. I'll try not to die too quickly."

"I'll never get away from all of them; we just need to buy ourselves time for a Boonwitch to come."

Hazel nodded and took a deep breath, "Go!"

Grim took off a half second after Hazel, just long enough to confirm that the Lizardman wasn't chasing her.

It didn't matter.

The creature’s eyes locked onto Hazel, crossed the distance, and lunged at Hazel’s heart with its spear. Grim called her back right before it landed and she dissolved into a mass of shadow and crawled across the ground back to her. The Lizardman turned and followed the mass.

It wasn't enough time.

It had caught Hazel too quickly, and she wasn't halfway to the weapon when the creature leaped in front of her; a spear thrust followed, and Grim instinctively called Hazel forward.

The blood was warm as it splattered across her face.

“Oh,” Hazel said as she was impaled in her stead.

The spear's point passed through Hazel and stopped an inch from Grim's belly. She fell backwards as Hazel coughed out a lungful of blood. She held onto the spear inside of her as if trying to keep it from moving, but after a second, she went limp, and the only thing that kept her up was the spear.

"Hazel!" Grim screamed.

The lizardman ripped out the spear and stepped towards her. Behind it, Hazel fell to the ground with a heavy thump and dissolved into shadow. Her blood remained.

Grim closed her eyes as she crouched. She knew she had no chance, but she reached for the knife in her boot anyway. She could feel its presence above her, its hot breath like a corrupted summer breeze.

Her fingers scraped the edge of her knife, caressing the handle.

She grabbed it as it loomed over her, her eyes were still closed as she coiled herself like a spring.

It was close enough she couldn’t miss.

She leaped, looking up and opening her eyes to see it was right there.

Close enough to be almost eye-to-eye with her.

It’s hand wrapped around her torso and squeezed, robbing her of her momentum. Its grip was hard enough to crack her rib cage, and she screamed out from the pain as her vision darkened.

Her legs kicked against the air as it lifted her, its jaws opening wide to bite into her throat. She tried to jab the knife into its neck, but it squeezed again, and it took everything she had just to hold onto it.

With its other hand, it grabbed onto her hair and tilted her head back to expose her throat.

She activated [FRIENDLY SHADOW], but her shadow did not move. In the brief time their connection was activated, Grim could only feel Hazel’s confused despair, before that, too, was shut off from her.

“Fuck you,” She said as she used [CEDE].

The skill didn’t reply. There was nothing to latch onto, nothing that was surrendered to her.

It put her throat between its teeth as a low warbling sound came from its throat.

Was it—

— LAUGHING.

[FRIENDLY SHADOW]

[FRIENDLY SHA—]

[FRIE—]

[—]

Her shadow ceased answering.

She screamed, not out of terror, but rage. That sick warbling was in her head, rending her thoughts. It was maddening. She wouldn’t let it kill her for nothing, she wouldn’t accept that.

She knew she couldn’t kill it, but she would take what she could get.

Its jaws snapped shut at the same time she brought her knife down; both of them knowing she was going to lose that race.

Vines erupted from the ground and wrapped themselves around the creatures head, like a bridle on a horse. It stopped the teeth from puncturing her throat.

Blood erupted from its eye as her blade sunk deep into its skull.

"Leave the little terrorist alone!" A voice shouted.