Hiro bounced toward the colossal female hunter, vape pen in his mouth. He landed in front of her and exhaled a huge cloud of red smoke.

What happened next played out in slow motion as the Hunter brought both swords down at once, Hiro barely bouncing out of the way. Had he spent two or three seconds more in front of her, and he would have been done for.

Instead, he landed near a tree and summoned the phantom demon cats. They appeared out of nowhere as the Kore Nani Neko song played from some invisible speaker.

The cats rushed toward the Hunter, who swung both her blades at the horde. She managed to cut a couple away, but others broke through and were able to land scratches on her arms.

Thunk!

An arrow drove into the Hunter’s bicep. She threw her head back and roared with anger, revealing a blue-skinned face with yellow eyes, her jaw extending forward and producing two rows of sharp, shark-like teeth.

Fucking hell, Hiro thought as he hit her with {Blade Whirlwind}. Just got to keep the Bleed damage up.

It was already working, her wounds seeping, the Hunter’s health bar wavering. Not much had come off the top, but it was slowly starting to fall back.

The Hunter swung both her swords at Hiro, producing a burst of energy that cut down several of the trees behind him. He rushed to avoid the falling trees as he heard more bolts from Valeria’s crossbow peppered with the yowls of his demon cats and the grunts of the gigantic Hunter.

{Bounce} sent Hiro up and away.

He landed on the rooftop of a row of public restrooms.

Whoosh!

The Hunter appeared before him and drove both swords into the roof, which cut straight through the stone and severed some of the sewer lines connected to the toilet. Hiro jumped to avoid her, but made the mistake of landing on the pier rather than the other side of Battery Park.

Most of his phantom demon cats were gone now, but a few still clung to the woman’s arms, biting into her as she was struck by more crossbow bolts.

Thunk! Thunk!

Hiro hit the charging Hunter with {Bladewind} again and again. He needed to make another jump for it, but to do so would put him directly in front of her, and by the way she held her blades there was a real chance she would cleave him down.

To the water?

Hiro imagined what that would look like, and it didn’t look pretty.

His only other option, besides trying to hit her with his Buster Kunai, was {Refund}.

It took guts.

It took everything Hiro could muster to stand there on the pier holding his katana like a baseball bat as the enormous four-armed woman bum-rushed him.

Yet he hold his ground and—

Clank!

Hiro managed to block her next attack.

He triggered {Bounce} mere moments later and exploded toward her as she tried for another. She parried his strike, but {Refund} was enough to force her backward.

Hiro landed on the other side and glanced back to Valeria just as she released another bolt.

The Kali-like Hunter was now down to fifty percent health and bleeding profusely. Numerous arrows stuck out of her arms, even as her extra hands tried to pull them out. This only made matters worse as her wounds grew.

It all compounded in a matter of seconds due to the Bleed damage as her health bar went from fifty percent to twenty-five percent. She turned to Hiro, seething as blood rushed out of her.

Another staggering step and she took a knee, her face a mask of horror as she roared in pain and anger.

Hiro drew his Buster Kunai and tossed it directly into her open mouth. It bloomed out of the back of her skull and her health bar dropped to zero.

Soul Essence poured into Hiro a trail of it whisking away to Valeria’s position. He sheathed his katana as the prompts came.

Level up!

You have new followers!

Performance upgrade!

Hiro felt his phone buzz. He read the message from his Companion with a shaky hand:

A bonus? Hiro shook his head. Who doesn’t like a good bonus? Then he remembered the sound of the followers being sacrificed, and the fact that the Doom System was just assigning this shit to him randomly.

It was hard to ignore the sour taste in his mouth that followed.

Valeria reached him just as Hiro was retrieving his Buster Kunai. “That’s one way to do it. You good?”

“Leveled up.”

“Hell yeah.”

“Let’s get the bunnies next.”

Hiro was just turning back to the water when he noticed something move in the distance. “Is that the Statue of Liberty?”

A health bar appeared above her head, one rimmed in gold.

“What the fuck?” Valeria asked.

“Ummm…” Hiro’s heart pulsed once the statue removed her crown. She aimed it at the shoreline and released it right in their direction.

Stolen story; please report.

The Statue of Liberty’s copper crown twisted toward the pier, impact imminent. Hiro grabbed Valeria and the two flew through the air as he triggered his {Bounce} ability, which swiftly dislocated her shoulder.

“Fuck!” he shouted as the Statue of Liberty’s crown smashed into the pier, sending a tidal wave toward them just as they landed.

“You practically ripped my arm out of its socket!” she howled.

“The water. It’s—” Hiro turned back to the pier, to the wreckage, and saw that the Statue of Liberty’s crown had returned to her hand like a boomerang.

The water reached the two of them and trickled back.

Valeria held her arm, wincing as she looked up at Hiro. “My shoulder is dislocated. Fuck. Snap it back in. Can you?”

“I have no idea how to do that!”

“My crossbow,” she said with gritted teeth.

“Shoot you with a healing arrow?”

“No, don’t shoot me. Fuck, Hiro!”

“Sorry—” he stammered.

“Help me get it off. It’s in the way. I’ll fucking snap my arm back into place.”

Hiro helped her remove the crossbow from its holster. He could now see in the way that her arm was hanging that it would restrict her movement to some degree. It wasn’t light either.

“Guard me.” Still gritting her teeth, Valeria stumbled to a low-hanging branch of one of the numerous trees in Battery Park, where she positioned herself so that the back of her dislocated arm was against the trunk for leverage.

With a deep breath in, Valeria used her good arm to grasp the tree branch as she squatted down, letting her body weight and gravity assist her. She exhaled sharply and gave a final, firm push downward, effectively using the tree as a fulcrum.

Pop!

“Uhhhh…” she groaned. After a few moments, she gingerly tested the mobility of her shoulder. She finally locked eyes with Hiro. “It’s not your fault. It’s… I can’t believe I’m saying this. It’s the Statue of Liberty’s fault.”

“It’s a Sentry,” Hiro said as he glanced back out at the water. The statue was still staring in their direction, practically daring them to approach the shoreline.

“Apparently.” Valeria mouthed a few curse words and got control of herself. “But there’s nothing we can do about her now. The bitch.”

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

“I’ll be good. Just waiting for the tingling to stop.”

“I thought you would ram your dislocated shoulder into the branch,” Hiro said.

“And cause myself more pain? Nah. Rena used to be a nurse. And if you can’t already tell, this isn’t the first dislocated shoulder I’ve had since the Doom System appeared.” She turned back to the Statue of Liberty like she was going to flip it off.

“That’s probably a bad idea.”

“You’re right. Maybe I shouldn’t. I’d drop a {Wrecking Ball} on her head if I knew it would kill her. But I don’t know. And we’d also have to get out there. The Staten Island Ferry isn’t exactly running anymore.”

“We can deal with the statue later. Or just stay away from the water.”

Valeria started to laugh. “That’s some Ghostbusters shit if I ever saw it.” She glared at the Statue of Liberty. “But don’t you worry, we’re coming back for you, bitch.”

****

The subway system was dark as always, their path lit by a light on Hiro’s backpack and the one Valeria had placed on her crossbow holster. “This place is so damn spooky,” Valeria whispered as several rats scurried away, the rodents squeaking.

“We can still head up and take the streets.”

“More action that way, but if these Twin Bunnies are as hard as you say they are, maybe it’s best we stay down here.” She jumped back and stopped herself. “Sorry. A rat just ran past me.”

“They’re terrible creatures.”

“If you ask me, the Doom System could have done something to rodents and roaches. Deal with them and leave us the hell alone. But no. It had to mettle. And I already told you my theory.”

“That it’s some kind of Artificial Intelligence. I remember.”

“I know that sounds crazy, and it is crazy. But all of this is crazy.”

It was faint at first, but as they continued deeper into the subway system, both of them heard light music.

“Don’t tell me there are subway performers down here,” Valeria joked, yet she had her crossbow at the ready now.

“It’s coming from the next platform.” Hiro tried to get a better look around the train, but was prevented by the curvature of the tunnel.

The music grew louder. It sounded like circus music, or perhaps something Scott Joplin would have played. Hiro was familiar with his work. He had discovered the long dead musician, famous for his ragtime music, through an online recommendation engine. The music he heard now was similar, yet there was a dark undertone to it, like it was being played on a piano that hadn’t been tuned in decades.

“Let me go ahead just a bit,” Hiro told her. “You can cover me.”

“I wish there was room for me to crawl on top of the train. That would be ideal.”

“We’ll be fine,” Hiro said, even though he didn’t know if this was the case or not.

He reached the front of the train, where he immediately drew his katana. What the hell? Hiro thought as he saw a man seated on the platform clutching a harmonium between his feet.

A golden beam of light touched the man’s head, indicating he was a merchant.

“We’re good,” Hiro called back to Valeria.

The merchant, who wore a designer LV scarf wrapped tightly around the lower half of his face, was surrounded by nearly a dozen pigeons. A pair were on his shoulder, more on little perches that he had erected out of trash. As he continued playing his music, several of the pigeons turned to Hiro and Valeria, including the pigeon on his head that stood in the crease of a red fedora.

“This fucking place,” Valeria said. “Guess we should see what he has.”

Hiro and Valeria took the ladder to the platform. They approached the merchant, who continued to play his strange song on his harmonium.

He stopped abruptly, and the pigeons on his shoulders ruffled their feathers.

“Ah, some Survivors,” the pigeon perched on his fedora said. He glanced down at the merchant. “Please, a little background music. Make it light.” The man played a few long, waltz-like notes with his harmonium. “Good. Now, how can I help you?” the pigeon asked.

Valeria and Hiro exchanged glances. “Whatever,” Valeria said. “Just get what you need.”

“Bleed cartridges,” Hiro told the pigeon.

The pigeon bobbed its head left and right. “Ah, Bleed cartridges will be three thousand followers, please.”

Hiro quickly checked his follower counter. He was up past three thousand with the bonus he had received from his Interim Performance grade. “Fine.”

“Are you sure you wouldn’t like a pigeon or two instead? They are much cheaper. I can sell you a skill called {Blinding Swarm} for the same cost. It might be more useful than a vape cartridge.”

“Does that do what I think it will do?” Hiro asked the bird.

“If you think it causes pigeons to swarm around an enemies head, obstructing their vision and disorienting them, then yes, that would be {Blinding Swarm}.”

“That’s good, Hiro,” Valeria said. “As long as it isn’t a Roulette Skill.”

“It is,” the pigeon on the merchant’s fedora told her. It cooed to some of the other birds, who all responded. “Ah, you are in luck. It seems they have a better offer for you. {Blinding Swarm} is now off the table. Perhaps it will be on the table when you visit me next, if you survive.”

“Damn,” Valeria said under her breath. “So you’re that kind of pigeon, huh?”

Hiro shot her a funny look. He started laughing, and as he did the birds all cawed, the man they were seated on and around once again playing his harmonium. After they quieted down, the pigeon on the merchant’s hat spoke again: “Would you like to make a deal?”

“Sure,” Hiro told the pigeon.

“Are you familiar with the term One Hit Wonder?”

“Yes,” Hiro said. “A song by a band that only had that one hit. Like…” He exchanged glances with Valeria. “Turning Japanese. Now I’m wondering if the Doom System is fucking with me, or if I’m culprit.”

The pigeon spoke again: “You are incorrect. A One Hit Wonder is a powerful, one-use spell. They are arguably more powerful than most Roulette Skills, depending on the scenario. There is one catch, however.”

“Yes?”

“If you choose the One Hit Wonder we have for you, you will do so blindly. You won’t know what it is beforehand. And just like that, {Blinding Swarm} is back on the table.” The pigeon cooed and smoothed its feathers back. “What will it be, Survivor? Will it be {Blinding Swarm}, One Hit Wonder, or would you like to refill your Bleed cartridge? You have ten seconds to make a decision.” A timer appeared. “Choose wisely.”