Saturday, March 10.
It was past 1 AM. The streets of Nightcrest were nearly empty. The city's few awakened residents could be easily categorized: some walking their dogs, others working night shifts, some browsing the internet, others at parties... But she didn't fit into any of these groups.
In one of the city's remote districts, across from a large two-story mansion, stands a 19-year-old girl named Veronica. Light blonde hair cut in a bob peeks out from under her beige cloak's hood, along with bright blue eyes.
She isn't worried about attracting attention from local residents who might call the police upon seeing someone suspicious. Or running into some psychopath hunting for his next victim.
Even if they wanted to, ordinary people couldn't spot her. Her cloak possesses the ability to conceal its owner from those who can't sense magic, as long as there's no direct contact.
And if anyone does see her—they'll instantly get a bullet. That's what happened to one of her competitors a couple days ago, who was handing out flyers, completely unaware of the danger.
In her right hand, Veronica grips her beloved Beretta 92FS pistol, which hasn't left her side for years. It's loaded with special ammunition created through forbidden magic, specifically designed to counter other mages like her. When these bullets hit a body, they absorb its mana and detonate its magical construct, dealing significant damage.
On that same wrist sits a small bracelet that shimmers with a black glow. This item marks her as a participant in the Game, where only one will win and earn the right to a dignified existence within the strict hierarchy of the magical world. Veronica considers herself the most deserving and steadily moves toward her goal—in two weeks, she's already eliminated three opponents, giving her unwavering confidence in her victory.
The only problem is that the Game hasn't officially started yet. Premature tracking and killing of other participants could get her disqualified. Best case scenario—they'd simply remove her bracelet and erase her memory. Worst case—they'd incinerate her. The odds weren't in favor of the former...
However, the observer shows absolutely no activity, even though he's supposed to have been monitoring order for a month now. Veronica understood the risks she was taking, but after successfully eliminating opponents, she physically couldn't stop. Her entire life depended on winning.
Initially, Veronica hadn't planned to act this way. Her first rule violation was accidental: due to absent-mindedness, she forgot to hide the box with the bracelet and left it in the kitchen. A few days later, she was groggily searching for coffee when she accidentally bumped into the box and reached inside. As soon as she touched the bracelet, it instantly activated, fitting itself to her wrist.
According to the rules, putting on the bracelet was only allowed on the evening of the Game's official start. When Veronica realized what had happened, primal fear overtook her. She frantically tried to remove the bracelet by any means while making up excuses for the observer who should have appeared due to the broken rule.
All attempts failed. She desperately slid to the floor and waited, clinging only to the hope of explaining the situation to the observer.
Veronica trembled in terrible fear for about an hour... But no one appeared. Not after two hours, not the next day, not even three days later. This threw her into stupor. She was glad there was no punishment, but still couldn't fully relax.
Trying to find an explanation for the observer's behavior, Veronica pondered the acceptable limits of rule-breaking and what huge advantage she'd gain by going further.
After much deliberation, she went beyond her characteristic extreme caution and broke a few more rules. Again no one appeared, but doubts remained.
Only after killing her first enemy, whom she tracked down with help from a hired informant, did Veronica breathe easily and realize nothing was likely to happen.
Thus, this strategy led her to the mansion across from her. She bought this address from the same informant. According to him, a revealed bracelet owner lived here, one whom Veronica could kill without any trouble.
Her innate super-sensitivity to magical energy, allowing her to detect it down to individual units, confirmed the informant's words. The enemy wouldn't have enough power even for a spell capable of causing medium damage. Mentally, she already added a fourth opponent to her elimination list.
The only obstacle was the high fence. Previously, Veronica hadn't needed to break into private property, she killed other participants in neutral locations. However, the informant said that this particular bracelet owner rarely left his home, so there was no other way to eliminate him.
Before arriving at the location, Veronica had doubts and decided that if she noticed anything suspicious, she'd immediately run away. That hadn't happened, and externally nothing suggested danger, but a note of concern remained in her consciousness.
Veronica closed the map on her cell phone, tucked it into her cloak, and thought about how to get over the fence.
Magic would be the easiest way, but she didn't know if her enemy was asleep. Otherwise, even he would sense the spell, so she didn't want to use it to avoid ruining the element of surprise.
After careful observation, she noticed several tall garbage containers along the road. An answer immediately formed in her head.
Veronica dragged three containers to the fence, placed two side by side, climbed onto one of them, lifted the third and placed it on top of the other. Gripping the bars, she managed to climb onto the top container, carefully maneuver over the sharp tips, and jump onto the mansion's grounds.
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The landing wasn't particularly pleasant. But the main thing was that she'd successfully accomplished her plan, and the mansion's resident would only know about her if he also possessed super-sensitivity, which was practically impossible.
There was nothing special about the grounds. After ensuring her pistol was loaded, Veronica immediately headed for the main entrance. She grabbed the handle and gently pulled the door towards her. It opened without a creak.
Yes! Veronica thought happily. The hardest part was over.
She went inside and quietly closed the door. The first floor greeted her with a spacious hall featuring marble columns, multiple rooms, and stairs leading to the second floor. Carefully tuning into her senses, Veronica realized the source of magical energy was on the second floor, somewhere in the left wing. Once again, she was happy that she'd been born with this unique ability.
While climbing to the second floor, the girl searched the side tables and shelves for anything valuable but surprisingly found nothing. She didn't want to waste time on theft since there might be ordinary people in the house, on whom she couldn't waste magical bullets.
Her sense led her to a corridor with windows overlooking the grounds. Absolute silence reigned, with the moon weakly illuminating the space. There were three rooms here, the door to each closed. Veronica clearly sensed that the person was in the second one from her.
Final touch, let's go, she thought and started sneaking closer.
Soon she was at the door, gripping its handle. The magical energy radiated from one motionless point, meaning the person was asleep. Veronica felt no pangs of conscience, since he knew what he was signing up for when he decided to participate in the Game. She had no doubt he would just as coldly kill her in her sleep.
One less enemy, one step closer to victory and a decent life, she thought and suddenly opened the door, aiming her pistol at the energy source. It was a medium-sized bedroom, clearly belonging to a teenager. Seeing what the pistol was pointing at, Veronica's jaw dropped.
"What the fuck?!" burst out of her. Instead of a person, the magical energy came from a small smiling teddy bear.
"Well hello, stupid bitch," In that same second, Veronica heard a mocking female voice behind her. She turned sharply and fired several times in the direction the voice came from.
At the opposite end of the corridor stood a girl watching Veronica with a sarcastic smile. Somehow incomprehensible to Veronica, she easily dodged the bullets.
This was Lily, an 18-year-old girl with brown eyes and dyed light red hair, wearing a red t-shirt and dark skirt.
Veronica jumped away from the room and fired a couple more bullets at Lily, but she dodged those just as inexplicably. For several seconds, Veronica didn't understand what was wrong with this girl, but then realized she couldn't sense a single unit of magical energy from her, which shocked her.
"What kind of shit are you?" Veronica aggressively shouted, not lowering her pistol. After a quick analysis of the situation, she started to suspect that the informant had played her for a fool.
"I'm just like you. Only not stupid enough to put on the bracelet early," Lily giggled. "Did you really think you were the only one who thought of breaking the rules?"
Veronica stayed silent, though the girl's words stung her. Such a possibility really hadn't crossed her mind.
She concentrated all her power on watching the opponent's movements and planning her retreat. Fighting was dangerous since the girl somehow concealed her magical energy, which prevented Veronica from assessing her strength.
"Don't be upset, you're not the first one who thought that way," Lily continued laughing. "I've already killed two other idiots like you, but... You surprised me by going straight to the teddy bear. You must have some special perception of magical energy. Haha, you're amazed that I'm not giving off any magic, aren't you?"
Veronica felt a slight panic as Lily recounted her thoughts. This convinced her of the girl's danger, and she started eyeing the windows, thinking about the best way to break them.
"Don't worry, I'll satisfy your curiosity now. Too bad it'll be the last thing you learn in your pathetic life," with these words, Lily waved her hands, materializing a long sharp spear. Veronica immediately read its magical energy, and her heart started racing in fear—the amount was three times greater than her own. This meant she had zero chance of winning.
Gripping the spear with both hands, Lily shot toward Veronica like lightning. The latter started frantically firing her pistol, hoping to wound her enemy somehow, but the attempts proved futile.
In two seconds, the distance between them closed; Veronica barely managed to pull out her knife and deflect the lethal attack, but still slammed into the wall from the force of the blow.
Need to get out, now, clearly flashed through her head.
Through terrible pain, she jumped to her feet and prepared to block the new strike. This time she had better luck—Lily over-swung and Veronica managed to roll in time, getting away with just a cut to her thigh. Finding herself closer to the center of the corridor again, she fired several bullets at the nearest window, and it shattered completely.
She immediately tried to jump out, but Lily managed to knock her back and throw her against the wall.
"You're smart, since you're not trying to fight me. But too weak to leave alive," Lily laughed loudly, making another swing.
Damn it, last bullet in the magazine. She won't let me reload, I can't waste it, Veronica thought.
The girl gripped her knife tightly and attacked Lily preemptively. Surprise flashed across Lily's face at such reckless action, she easily knocked away the knife and slashed Veronica's arm to the elbow... but this was exactly what Veronica had counted on.
Seeing that Lily was distracted from the pistol, she shot her in the leg. On reflex, Lily jumped back, but the bullet managed to graze her knee, which proved sufficient. The girl cried out in pain, feeling the damage to her magical structure.
"Fucking bitch! For this, I'll cut off your arms and legs first, then kill you," Lily screamed, charging straight at Veronica.
During the small time she'd gained, Veronica pulled a packet of dark blue powder from her cloak and detonated it—the entire corridor instantly filled with dense fog of the same color. This blinded Lily, and the girl managed to jump out the window.
"BITCH!" Lily screamed, swinging her spear in the fog.
Veronica landed badly face-first and felt her nose crack, but that didn't concern her now. Getting up, she quickly ran to the nearest fence, reloading her pistol along the way. Suddenly, she felt a great surge of magical energy behind her, killing any desire to look back. Most likely, her opponent had dispersed the fog.
Reaching the fence, Veronica reached out and poured half her mana into a deformation spell—the bars bent far forward, allowing her to slip through. Leaving the mansion grounds, she immediately darted out onto the road and rushed into a poorly lit area, hoping to confuse her trail.
##
Veronica only stopped a few districts away from the mansion, due to physical exhaustion. Unable to move, she collapsed on the grass near a house. After making sure there was no pursuit, she sighed with relief and began to catch her breath. For the first time in her life, she had come within a hair's breadth of death.
She decided she had to get revenge on that bastard informant who, apparently, had sold her out to that girl. Next, she worried about her injuries, healing which would consume valuable resources.
Suddenly it seemed to her that something flickered in her peripheral vision. She looked in that direction but saw nothing. Deciding she had imagined it, Veronica again stared at the night sky—
—but a silhouette loomed over her, blocking her view. The next second, she received a powerful blow to the head, causing ringing in her ears and double vision.
The last thing Veronica felt before losing consciousness was colossal magical energy, tens of times greater than what had emanated from Lily's spear.