“Alright alright, makes sense.” Anastasia grumbles. “Keep your desires to yourself by the way. I won’t share mine either since you’re all so petty. I’ll share my power, but someone has to go first.”

“I will.” Bunny says. “As a show of faith.” She leans down her side and pulls out a staff she’d been hiding behind her back. With a thin and elongated length, it widens out at the top to form four prongs in a criss-crossed U shape. Held by the prongs is a clear orb, with a map of the starry sky within. As if someone took out a section of space in the starry sky and transported it inside.

“It’s called Starcaller.” Bunny continues as she holds up the staff. “I believe depending on the star formation I can do different things. But right now I only have this one.” She draws her finger over the stars route. “It forms an eye.”

“What does it do?” Anastasia asks.

“It can change what someone sees with their vision.” Bunny says. “Like putting ground where there is none. It doesn’t last long, but I can use it multiple times on the same being.”

“I see.” Anastasia nods. “As for me, I have this.” She pulls out a small glass tube with a stopper on it. Inside is a disturbing concoction with a luminescent glow. It shifts hues constantly, from purple to green to orange, in an alluring mix. “It gives me a random boost.” She looks at it pensively. “And I mean random. One of the boosts I got was vivid sight. Green felt really green for a bit.” Anastasia shakes her head.

“I can at least guarantee it’s positive.” She continues. “The boost lasts until I take a swig again. It’s pretty hard on my body each time I take it though, so I can only do it so much. How about you Ambrose?”

Ambrose looks down and reaches to her deck pouch, pulling it in front of her. She hesitates for a moment, but forces herself to open the clasp. To her relief she finds the card resting back inside. “This.” Ambrose pulls it out, showing it to them. “The Magician. Replace ‘normal’ condition with ‘abnormal’.”

“What sort of abnormal?” Bunny asks when she sees Ambrose not continuing. Ambrose looks at it for a moment before continuing.

“Unnatural.” Ambrose says. “I couldn’t replace ‘speaking’ with ‘not speaking’. I could replace ‘sound’ with ‘touch’.”

“I see. So before?” Anastasia asks, and Ambrose nods her head.

“That one will have to be trial and error.” Bunny sighs. The three of them look at each other for a moment before all turning to Meize. He stares back, and the group simply stare at each other for a few minutes.

“Fine!” Meize caves, shaking his head. “I get it. Teamwork. Look, isn’t it obvious?” He raises his arms, shaking them around. Ambrose observes them. Muscles upon muscles strain from its surface, with angry veins running across his skin. This time she notices that his arms aren’t pinkish white like the rest of him. Its surface is a dark purple that extends up to his shoulders.

“We see it. But what does it do?” Bunny asks.

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“Well. I'm strong.” Meize says. He punches the ground to prove his point, but he fails to even cause dust to fly up for his efforts. The three of them stare at him. “I am strong.” Meize mutters. “I'm also tough, hard to damage.”

“Okay. We get it. But what does it do.” Bunny presses.

“They build momentum.” Meize finally relents. “Each hit is stronger than the last. Drains me more though. Haven’t found a limit besides myself so far.”

Brute then.” Bunny nods.

“This is why I didn’t want to answer.” Meize groans. “Look, let’s set something straight. I don’t trust any of you. I sure as hell don’t believe you trust any of you. So let’s call this more of an…alliance…then a team. I’m not going to be showing my back to you at least.”

“Well, I’m of the same mind.” Bunny answers.

“Hey! I thought we had something going.” Anastasia pouts as she swings her glass tube back and forth. She turns to Ambrose. “How about you Ambrose? Any trust?”

“Earned.” Ambrose says quietly. The other three look at each other before nodding.

“Fair enough.” Anastasia continues. She points back to the stone slate. “So we have a mission. Locate and kill. We should figure out steps to take before we do anything else.”

“We don’t know anything.” Bunny shakes her head. “What can we plan?”

“How to use our powers.” Meize responds immediately. They turn their heads to him. “Strategy is built on knowing ourselves and knowing our enemies. We can’t know our enemies. We can know ourselves.” They all stare at him silently for a moment. “What?” He asks, look around with confusion.

“Brute has a brain.” Bunny scoffs.

“Who said I didn’t!” Meize retorts. “Don’t make assumptions!”

“Alright let’s all get along.” Anastasia claps her hands together. “I agree. We should figure out how to use our powers. First is locate, second is kill. So, how do we locate?”

“No.” Ambrose interrupts. They turn to her. “Deception first.”

“Right.” Meize’s eyes narrow. “You’re goddamn right. We’re acting on a flawed assumption.”

“What assumption?” Bunny asks.

“That we’re the only hunters.” Meize says softly. “We’ve all had our first experience. Let’s see that as a warning. Whatever we’re hunting isn’t just going to sit around waiting for us. We have to assume that if it learns of us, it will aim to kill us in turn.”

“Okay. But how do we hide ourselves? We don’t know anything about how we’ll show up, what is there, who knows what. We only know it’s a village. So people are a good bet. Buildings too.” Anastasia asks. “We have no information.”

“We can figure out ways we can use our own powers for deception.” Meize continues. “So we have three goals-“

“Time.” Ambrose interrupts them. They turn to look at her, before seeing she’s staring at the stone slate.

Eternal Hunting Decree

Mission

Locate and kill the Arthreeki hiding in Sumi Village

00 : 01 : 08

They watch the ‘08’ ticks down to ‘07’, ‘06’ and onward.

“One minute.” Anastasia says, her eyes going wide in panic. “Why couldn’t it have shown up earlier? Oh Messarah.”

“We have no time.” Bunny turns back to everyone. “Look. I can use my ability to change how people see us temporarily. Remove abnormalities. Hopefully it’ll give us some time when we get there.”

“That’s our best hope.” Meize says, shaking his head. “Ambrose also has a power useful in that regard. But we need time to figure out how to use it.” He sees the time ticking down to ‘10’. “We make ourselves look normal when we get there. Then find somewhere to lay low and figure things out. Sound good?” Everyone nods their heads.

Ambrose looks at the three of them, her deck holder long rested back against her waist. She turns her eyes down to the card gripped in her hand. ‘02’. The woman with her uncanny grin almost seems to be smiling back at her. ‘01’. A hint of mischievousness in her face. It reassures her. ‘0’.

The endless fog from before rushes out of the ground and swallows the group whole. As it recedes, only bare ground is left where they once were.