The creature dropped her before it could go for another stab, seeing no other way to avoid another ruined eye.

She dropped to the ground and rolled, putting some much-needed distance between them.

Grim watched as the Lizardman strained its neck to see who had restrained it. The roots splintered and cracked as it did so, straining under its immense strength.

Phil, pudgy belly and all, was standing there, hands outstretched as the roots tightened around the creature. A bead of sweat rolled down his face as it got redder.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Get the gun," Phil said.

Grim was stunned, out of everyone, Phil had come to her rescue? And what was most confusing of all, he was doing pretty good. Hazel’s blood on her face was also existentially alarming, but she was trying to ignore that.

Phil screamed, and she started running for the Stripes corpse. The sound of wood groaning amplified as the lizardman fought his restraints to get to him. Progress was slow, but it was getting closer.

As she approached the officer's body, she looked up and saw the lizardman take one last decisive step, dig its heels into the ground, and push. With a final cry, the roots splintered, and it was free.

Phil collapsed to his knees from the strain, gasping as he tried to catch his breath.

The creature looked between them, trying to decide which was more of a threat. It turned towards Grim, and its eyes narrowed, locking in on her. Its rage over its destroyed eye clouded its judgement.

“Over here, you big dumb animal!” Phil shouted.

That did it. The creature charged at Phil with a roar, bounding forward in powerful leaps. Phil threw himself forward like a wave, bringing roots out of the ground and towards it. With a twist of his hand, the roots sharpened into points, but it parried it with the spear before it could be impaled, shattering the last of the living wood.

The old man fell on his face, exhausted. He tried to get up, but he hadn't recovered yet. In his final act of defiance, he lifted his head just enough to look his death in the eyes.

Grim disagreed and raised the pistol. A small screen on the side of the gun showing the ammo count flashed a warning that the biometric lock was engaged, but a second later, it flashed green, indicating that an incursion override had disabled it.

She fired the first shot and missed, the gun nearly kicking itself out of her hand. It was hard to fire a weapon one-handed; she hoped it looked cool at least.

Phil was behind the bulk of the creature, so she didn't fear hitting him as she let loose, unloading the pistol until it clicked empty. Most of the shots had missed, but a few had sunk into the creature's flesh.

It was bleeding and limping now, every breath ragged as it turned and roared at her. It wasn't dead yet, and it seemed like it still had enough energy to kill both of them. It raised its spear like a javelin and prepared to throw it at her. Its eyes followed her every movement as it coiled back its arm like a spring.

Phil yelled again, which turned into a dirty, ragged cough halfway through. Blood dribbled down his chin as he sent forward a massive tendril of roots.

The lizardman tried to dodge, but it stumbled from its injuries, which gave the tendril enough time to tear through its stomach.

It shuddered and brought down the spear to use as a cane to prop itself up.

Viscera covered the ground as it bled, holding on to its life only through sheer unerring hatred.

Grim stared back, knife in hand.

Begging it to try.

It took a single step towards Grim as a torrential flow of blood gushed out of its stomach.

Her ribs screamed at her, but she took a step as well.

The spear flexed and bowed underneath the weight, but it was strong enough to hold the creature up as it approached Grim.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“Come on, are you done yet?” She taunted. One more step.

It shuddered and tried to take another one before it finally slipped and slumped over, falling face-first into the ground.

The thing was finished. Its chest heaved as it tried to keep itself alive.

Grim stood over it, the creature too weak to even look up, “I win.”

The creature raged, but its hiss was silenced by her knife entering the back of its neck.

The purple cracks in its body faded, and several bright blue shards materialized on top of the corpse. She knew they were C-rank shards by their colour.

Grim laughed, a deep, manic energy escaping her. She should be dead right now, but instead, they'd done it. They’d killed a C-rank.

Phil looked to be half dead as he picked himself off the ground, and Hazel was actually dead. Well, as much as she could be.

The two Stripes had also been killed; their bodies rested in the field. The woman had tried to save her in the end. She didn’t know how to feel about that, or how it contrasted with the woman who was so ready to take a bribe.

She looked around and saw that most of the other C-rank creatures were now occupied by a response force and were slowly being whittled down. A new squad of dual orange stripes had moved in, armed with heavier assault rifles that were doing much better against the Lizardmen than the pistol had.

"Are you alright?" Phil hobbled over to her as fast as he could, holding his back in a way that suggested he'd injured it.

Grim turned to him, smiling, "I feel great."

That did not reassure him, "It's the adrenaline; you’ll come down. What happened to your friend? I saw her..."

"Get impaled?" Grim asked with Hazel's blood still covering her face. "She'll be fine; it was… an illusion."

[BONE GARDEN]

She felt the notification inside her, as instantly half of the invaders in the area were slain by a mass of bones that jutted out and impaled them like they were pieces of modern art.

Two people touched down from the sky in the middle of the field. More bone growths occurred, separating the creatures from the remaining civilians who were alive with a large barrier of bone. Separating them like that made it easy for the Stripes to start cleaning up the rest of the invaders.

The effect was massive and debilitatingly effective. She knew there were only two people who could do that.

Valorant and Aegis.

They each wore heavy armour, entirely covered by a white cloak. The white was pristine, without a speck of dirt, and shone in the light. They wore deer skulls on their heads, and no skin was shown anywhere. They faced away from each other as they scanned the battlefield.

Grim was in awe; those were true S Ranks. That was the type of power she needed. That would let her get revenge.

She turned back to Phil and saw him limply use his power to knit the grass back into an acceptable presentation. It was painful, watching him work. Feeling a spark of pity, she went over to the blue boon shards and tapped Phil on the shoulder. He turned around, and she tried to give him the shards, even though it hurt her soul to do so. They were so valuable. Her eyes opened wide as he pushed away her hands.

"You killed it, besides I got no use for something like that. Grab that spear, too, while you’re at it; it’s enchanted." Phil said and turned back to his gardening. “Don’t worry about the Stripe’s shards either, I’ll make sure they get to their families.”

Half of them at least, Grim had seen the creature eat the womans.

"What? You can't just give away something like that; you did most of the work, and it's yours by right. That's law."

"Did you start caring about the law before or after you chopped down that tree?"

Grim raised a finger and put it down. He had a point. She put the shards in her pocket and grabbed the spear from the creature's hands. It hummed in her hand, and she felt her vision sharpen. That would be useful.

When she was done, he was still working on the grass, using his power patch by patch to restore it to its former glory.

"You should probably get some rest; paramedics will be here shortly," Grim said.

"Don't need them," He turned around and faced her. "But now that you bring it up, I need your name for the damage report for the tree you savagely cut down."

"What? Really?" Grim asked. "We almost both died, and you still care about that?"

Phil smoothed over a patch of dirt, and some flowers grew in it. "If I don't, who will? Someone needs to keep people accountable; that's the only way this world works. Consider the shards payment for your name if you have to. It doesn't matter to me."

Grim considered it, those shards, while not enough for a Boon, were still worth quite a bit, and she doubted anyone would care about one tree in the aftermath of an incursion. If someone did, she'd say it happened during the invasion.

The other option was to lie or walk away, but she felt like she owed him, as much as she hated the thought of that. The truth was that she would have died if he hadn't come to save her; Hazel had died.

She felt around her skill, and it was still burnt out. That was worrying, but it had only been a few minutes. It would probably take days for her to recover fully.

"Fine, my name is Grim."

"Grim? Have you no respect? You’re giving me a fake na—wait, Grim? Are you a foster?"

She backed away, unsettled by the sudden interest in his eye, "Yeah, I am, and it's not a fake name."

Phil looked at her, at the burns on her face, her missing arm, "It's been nearly ten years; how could I have forgotten? I should have recognized you, an axe? HA, I didn't expect you would go for that. Right in the open, too. It was nearly dead! A little bit of weedkiller would have toppled that old broad down, and you wouldn't have had any conversation with me."

Phil wiped his eyes and mouth as he recovered from his laughing fit. Grim stared at him. Had he gotten his old brain rattled by that creature when she wasn't looking? He'd gotten so upset before about the tree, and now he was telling her to use chemicals?

How would he even know her? The answer staring her in the face didn't seem possible, but it had to be.

"Are you M?" She asked.

Phil got serious, "You shouldn't have found me."