It’s too bad I can’t use this phone as an actual phone to text them, Hiro thought as he perched near an art deco roof ornament meant to look like an eagle. Below, he spotted one of the horned tigers resting in the middle of a street.

Rather than take the kill for himself, Hiro slipped away and quickly moved to another roof, and from there to the street level, where he found Rena and Valeria in an alley.

“Just ahead, one of the horned tiger creatures,” he told the pair, who were crouched behind a dumpster. “The last two times, I’ve fought them with {Lupine Shift}, but I’d rather not do that if I don’t have to. There’s the rage and then there’s the hunger.” He shuddered thinking of the random rage that could come at any time. “Shitty side effects.”

Valeria, who had seen firsthand what the Roulette Skill did to Hiro, nodded. “Three of us should be able to do it.”

“Agreed. You two go ahead. It will hear me if I try to sneak up on it, but once the tiger is locked onto you all, I should be able to come down behind it.”

“You hit it from the back, I’ll shoot it from the front,” Valeria said as she turned to Rena. “If it gets close, you know what to do. Cook that fucker.”

“And be on the lookout for mimics,” Hiro reminded them. “They could be anywhere. And the tiger’s tail—I found out later the tail can release a poison.”

“Yep, we got it,” Valeria told him. “Let’s make this short and sweet.”

Hiro took to the roofs again, where he crept forward until he could see the horned tiger. He scanned the streets below for any signs of a mimic, hoping that a health bar would appear over an inanimate object.

Nothing yet. Then again, the mimic might not show its health bar until it actually attacks. Hiro tensed as the horned tiger’s ears twitched. It looked in the direction of Rena and Valeria. It knows.

The tiger slowly got to its feet. It crept forward and kept low to the ground.

Got you, Hiro thought as it rounded a corner.

Thunk!

The tiger was struck by Valeria’s bolt, causing the beast to jump to the right. It latched onto the side of a building and took off toward the archer, her arrow sticking out of its shoulder.

Boing!

Hiro used {Bounce} to land just behind it. He followed this up with {Blade Whirlwind}, this time aiming for the tiger’s paws and causing the beast to lose its grip.

The horned tiger crashed to the pavement, but was quickly back on its feet as it twisted around to address Hiro.

Thunk!

The tiger jumped as Valeria shot it directly in the ass with her next bolt. It would have been comical had it not been for the tip of the tiger’s tail, which opened and released a poisonous green gas.

Keeping his distance, Hiro continued to pummel the beast with {Blade Whirlwind}. Valeria did the same with her bolts and soon, the tiger gave up the fight. It fell, the poison dissipating as Soul Energy rushed into all three of them.

“Nice.” Hiro accessed his status to see that Soul Essence had moved up to thirty-seven, which was five points higher than it had been last he checked. As he looked ahead to Rena and Valeria, another thought came to him.

Valeria didn’t do anything in this fight, yet she got Soul Essence as well. Could this be the way to game the Doom System? As far as Hiro could tell, this was certainly the case. And it was one of those right questions as well, the kind that he knew his father would have been proud of him for asking.

“You really just jumped down from the roof,” Rena said after the three had moved away from the horned tiger. “Craziness.”

“I did.”

“And it doesn’t hurt your knees?”

“It doesn’t hurt at all. It’s like, maybe the equivalent of jumping up a single step. Or one of those workout step platforms.”

“That’s so cool.”

Hiro nodded and turned to Valeria. “I’m going back up—”

The three paused as they all heard the sound of something crumbling a few blocks away.

“I can only imagine what that is,” Rena said once a charred smell met them.

“I can continue on and check it out,” Hiro volunteered.

Valeria brought her crossbow up. “Let’s go together. It’s not very far. And I really should be the one with the bounce power. I’d be bounce-sniping so many motherfuckers. Not fair.”

Rena snickered at the way she said this.

“What?” Valeria smiled at her. “It’s true.”

“Just hang behind a bit and keep us out of your line of sight,” Hiro told Valeria. “We’ll see what it is.”

Two blocks later and they were met with a large cloud of gray dust, one that obscured everything ahead of them.

“Should we keep going?” Rena asked.

Hiro nodded. “We made it this far.”

“Yep,” Valeria said. “And maybe now would be time for you to take a look and see what we’re dealing with. We’ll set up shop here.”

Hiro bounced to the nearest roof, above the dust, where he saw several burned out buildings with smoke wafting away from them. He noticed a slew of dead bodies in the streets before the building, all of them black with char and covered in gray ash.

Beyond, seated on a makeshift throne of bodies, was what Hiro knew was a Hunter, especially after the skull appeared. The man was at least nine feet tall, with broad shoulders and blackened armor that looked like it had been constructed from…

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Is that football gear?

Hiro had played one year in middle school.

Seriously?

The Hunter’s health bar appeared as he placed a helmet on his head, one clearly made of bone polished to a dull sheen, cracks and fissures hinting at the piece’s battle-worn history. With a grunt the big Hunter strapped a portion of it around his chin.

A football made of fire appeared in his hand.

Upon getting to his feet, the charred bodies all around the Hunter came to life.

He tilted his head up to Hiro’s rooftop, pulled his arm back, aimed, and launched the fiery football in his direction.

Shit! Hiro bounced left to avoid the mana-laced football.

It hit the building he’d been standing on like a cruise missile, the explosion thwarting any hope Hiro had of landing without injury. He cleared the greater perimeter of the explosion, yet its power flipped his legs forward, sending him skidding on his back across an adjacent rooftop.

He scrambled to his feet and ignored the gaping wounds on his back, the way his landing had shredded his sweatshirt.

Boing!

Hiro bounced again as another football hit the roof, igniting the building. He managed to fly out of its blast radius this time, land on a balcony, and jump to the ground from there, where he saw Valeria already firing shots at the Hunter.

It dawned on Hiro as he glanced up that they were now covered by a red dome similar to a zone of influence. I thought only Sentries had these things… He wanted to whip out his phone and say something to his Companion, but he knew it was useless now.

Hiro needed to do whatever he could to stop the football tossing menace of a hunter.

He started with {Kore Nani Neko}, his phantom demon cats all charging toward the helmeted brute at once. The yowling cats would have reached the Hunter had it not been for the charred protectors that had been positioned around his throne, who beat back the phantom cats even as portions of their bodies crumbled.

Thunk!

Valeria cut a bolt through one of the charred protector’s heads.

The Hunter responded by flinging another fire-laced football in her direction, which sailed over her shoulder and exploded a building directly behind her.

Smoke and debris.

Hiro had no way of knowing if Rena or Valeria had survived. All he could do now was press forward, hoping that he could cover most of the distance between the Hunter and Hiro’s current position before he could lob another football at him.

He used {Blade Whirlwind} to clear any of the charred warriors out of his way. His attack blasted right through them as he triggered {Bounce}, which allowed him to leap toward the Hunter just as another football came flying in his direction.

It went wide, yet tendrils of fire laced against Hiro’s arm, the burn adding to the pain he already felt on his back.

He landed directly in front of his opponent, his vape pen in hand, Hiro going for his Corruption cartridge as he released a huge exhale. The sand-colored cloud of smoke wafted over his opponent, portions of the man’s arm cracking, and any exposed part of his darkened skin suddenly covered in rusty veins.

One of the charred protectors lunged for Hiro; he sent his blade wide, and cut it down.

How long until the corruption…?

The Hunter staggered toward him, the man’s big clawed hand on his bone helmet. He ripped it off his head and smashed it into the ground, creating a plume of fire that rippled toward Hiro.

Thunk! Thunk!

Valeria’s arrows zinged over Hiro’s shoulder, straight through the fire.

A roar met Hiro’s ears next as he narrowly dodged the row of fire heading right at him. He beat back another of the charred protectors and turned to find the Hunter staggering once again, this time with an arrow jutting into the front of his head.

The corruption had spread up his body, bits of his armor in shambles, his exposed flesh now with a golden hue to it, health bar dipping toward the halfway point.

Yet he was still going strong.

The Hunter wrapped his hand around the arrow and pulled it out of the front of his head. He sent his helmet back over his head as purple blood fell from the wound to his face.

“Goddamn you,” Hiro thought as myriad thoughts raced through his mind.

He didn’t want to use {Lupine Shift}, not with Rena and Valeria in the vicinity. His Buster Kunai was an option, but the armor protecting the man’s chest was still intact. It also annoyed him that this Hunter was worth the same amount of Soul Essence as one of the simpler monsters, especially with how difficult it would be to kill him..

Even with the multiplier they currently had going, this was a tough fight, and the reward is the same? Hiro knew that now wasn’t the time to process this bit of information, yet it bothered him regardless.

The Doom System had already proven that it wasn’t following its own goddamn rules, and this irked at something within him even in the face of calamity.

Hiro cast the questions that followed aside as a flash of red landed in front of him.

A man in a black bodysuit, one that he’d customized with flaps under his arms like that of a flying squirrel, pulled both his hands back and released a spinning orb of energy that drilled into the core of the Hunter, exploding his body and killing the Hunter instantly.

Hiro, Rena, and Valeria were also provided with Soul Essence. Hiro felt the instant shift in energy levels as the power came to him and faded. Around them, the charred warriors all fell to the ground, lifeless as before.

You have new followers!

The man turned to them. He was an Indian Survivor with a shaved head and red goggles over his eyes. Even with his beard stubble, he had a thick mustache that was curled at the ends.

“I’m not the main character,” Hiro said, sword at the ready.

The man grinned at him. “No, you are not,” he said, his English accented.

Valeria approached with her crossbow drawn, Rena behind her. “Thanks for the save.”

“You can fly?” Rena asked the newcomer.

“I can glide,” the man said as he showed her his makeshift wings. “I made these myself. There’s a clothing goods store, two blocks that way. They still have stuff, you know.”

“You could use something,” Valeria told Hiro. “Your back is fucked.” She aimed her crossbow at him. “Ready?”

“It’s fine,” he told the goggled man. “She has healing arrows.”

“Interesting. Please, in that case, let me see.”

Valeria fired a bolt into Hiro’s back. He felt the sting dissipate, leaving a severely torn shirt. He turned to show the other Survivor. “See?”

The man nodded, clearly impressed. “That’s good. I’m Kiaan, by the way.”

“Rena.”

“Valeria.”

“Hiro.”

“Ah, three of you, one of me. Perfect for a gate,” Kiaan said.

“We’ll be meeting at the gate near the Financial District,” Valeria told him.

“The Financial District.” Kiaan turned and stroked the stubbled black hairs on his chin. “Not too far. I haven’t yet decided on a gate. But that one seems as good as any.”

“And bring anyone else you can,” Hiro said. “We learned from the Doom System that we don’t each need to bring four people. We just need to bring as many as we can.”

“Huh.” Kiaan checked his phone, his eyes twitching in a way that told Hiro he was reading some of his Companion’s text. “Confirmed. In that case, I’ll see you there. I want to get seven more levels before then.”

“You can come with us if you want,” Rena asked.

“Nah, I’d rather do it solo. More chances for new powers that way.” He looked up in a hero-like way, flapped his arms once, and flew into the sky, where he soared onto a rooftop.

“That was certainly an exit,” Valeria said as she kicked at one of the charred corpses.

Hiro glanced in the direction of the clothing goods store that Kiaan had pointed out. “Weird, but he seemed powerful. Whatever he used to explode the Hunter, sign me up for that ability. Anyway. Clothing. I’ll grab something different to wear, and we can continue on.”

Valeria checked her phone. “Still plenty of time to grind.”

Hiro noticed something shift ahead. It looked like the shattered glass of a bus terminal had come alive as the creature repositioned itself. “Another mimic.”

“Has to be.”

Rena stepped forward. “If it’s a mimic made of glass, my Roulette Skill will help. Just get me in close.”

“Lay down some cover fire,” Valeria said, a message meant for herself.

Hiro nodded. “And I’ll distract it. Let’s do this.”