Obviously I didn’t just go back out and wander the Labyrinth. I didn’t have a map of the way back to the city, and I don’t know if Jaharv would even let me back in the house if I had left Gero.

Not only that if there was a danger out there then it would be better to know what that danger was. As for helping random people, that sounded great and all, but I didn’t have the power to protect myself right now.

I followed Gero further into the encampment, while there were plenty of people that looked worried and scared a few that saw Gero seemed to light up when he passed so obviously he was well known.

‘We find out what the danger is then we decide what to do next. No hero work for us.’ I signed aggressively to Gero.

‘Fine fine, I just wanted to kindle your fighting spirit.’

‘My fighting spirit is about as bright as a candle in a rainstorm.’

He rolled his eyes then began to look around the camp.

‘I have a few friends here that should be able to tell us what it is. I’m almost certain it’s not a tribe war, they don’t like Zoners getting in the middle of those. So they would have told us to just leave. Its not disease because people are still walking around casually. They let us in easily enough so I don’t think its a Card Killer.’

‘Monsters?’

‘Monsters.’ He agreed.

A Card Killer was exactly as it sounded. Someone that would either kill other people just for their Cards or someone who killed others to test their own Cards powers.

We passed by a large closed tent and Gero froze. I heard him take a deep sniff.

“What?”

‘I smell blood and medicine.’ Then he pointed to the tent we were next to.

I tried to catch a any scent as well, but only got a vague sense that might have been my imagination.

‘Want to check it out?’

He nodded and instead of sneaking closer to take a peak, just calmly walked inside the tent. I stood stunned in place for a moment then quickly followed.

Inside the tent I saw two women stand up suddenly and start speaking to Gero in slightly angry tones. There were seven adults lying inside the tent and I could now smell the strong odor of blood and medicine.

As for the people themselves, they were sliced and cut up to ribbons. One woman had her chest caved in, and was giving the breaths of someone on their last legs of life. A tall thin man had a gash from his wrist to collarbone and I could see the bones in his arms. Three more were missing limbs, one more seemed to be holding their guts in so they wouldn’t fall out and the last one had a portion of their face peeled off.

I remembered, I remembered the pile of dead children, some having barely been able to walk. My sister Misu her hand still clutching her favorite doll that had once been mine. I remembered chasing down a group of people much stronger than me and suffocating the prince in his sleep. I remembered my tribesmen attacking the knights in the night, Pitch’s wolf like face covered in blood with bone sticking out.

I remembered the terrible Card that I still had, the one which was made from the deaths of children.

A hand landed on my shoulder and instinctively I twisted and punched out with a giant green fist. The blow crashed into the body of the person behind me and crumpled like grass. The hand tightened and I realized I wasn’t alone in the Labyrinth with monsters ready to kill me at a moments notice.

A second hand landed on my other shoulder, this time from Gero as he pulled me back. He spoke some words to the newcomer but my mind wasn’t in the right state to translate the words. Gero looked back to me while speaking, but froze as he caught sight of my face.

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Then he completely ignored the newcomer and focused on me.

‘Lux? Are you okay?’

He looked to the wounded people on the floor and pulled me out of the tent. The newcomer following behind us. Gero took me around so I was between two tents and waved off the follower to stay back. He pulled out a small cloth from his ridiculously large pack and wiped my face.

I sniffled and took the cloth to do it myself. I had to lean forward and remove my eye patch to let the tears in my empty socket out. Which embarrassed me further as I had never shown Gero or Jaharv my eye. They had wanted to check it out, but I had refused.

“Thank you,” I said to Gero.

He nodded.

‘Stay here.’

Gero moved away to talk to the person who had followed us into the tent. It was a willowy older woman with graying hair and bright purple eyes. She looked to me with some worry, but moved a bit away with Gero to speak with him. I let them go and sniffled, wiping my eye and nose.

Going down to my haunches I gave a shaky breath out. That had been unexpected. I had killed so many monsters in the past six months that I hadn’t expected to feel like that from seeing dead bodies.

I felt… weak, pathetic. My dreams were to be able to go back to the prince’s city and butcher every knight responsible, but I couldn’t even stand inside a tent with dying people without bursting into tears.

I knew inside that it wasn’t the bodies themselves that had caused the reaction within me, it had been the memories those wounded people had pulled to the surface.

A few minutes later Gero came back, but gone was the worry for me and the chipper attitude, now he looked serious and grave.

‘What’s wrong?’ I signed.

‘We’re staying here for a while.’ He declared.

‘What? What about saving the people and fighting spirit?’ I asked back with a smile, trying to put the embarrassing scene from a few minutes ago out of his head.

‘We were right, its a monster. We’re already lucky enough that it didn’t catch out scent on our way here.’

There was no crack in his stony expression so I knew it must be serious.

‘What is it? A monster horde? A dragon?’

‘No, not that bad. It’s a Headhunter.’

The woman than he had been talking to walked up to us and held out a hand to help me up. I looked to Gero who nodded and gingerly took her hand and stood.

‘Sorry for attacking you.’ I signed to her.

She shrugged and gave me a motherly smile.

‘I could tell something was bothering you. Luckily it was me that caught you and not someone else, you might have killed them.’

That didn’t make me feel any better. I turned back to Gero.

‘What’s a Headhunter?’

‘A very dangerous monster.’ Gero signed gravely.

“No shit.”

He rolled his eyes.

‘It’s low-Epic ranked.’

‘Like the Card?’

‘Yes like the- wait you never heard of- never mind. Yes like the Card. By that we mean that generally it would take someone with one or two Epic Cards to deal with. It is a tall humanoid monster with dark grey skin and a deer like skull for a head. They are born from the Labyrinth themselves and their entire existence consists of hunting and killing humans. The monster will then take the heads of those it has killed and stab them into the antlers on their head. When all the antler points have a head the Headhunter transforms.’ Gero explained.

‘It transforms… like a caterpillar?’

‘Actually yes exactly like a caterpillar. Once that happens they can rank anywhere from high-Epic to low Legendary.’

‘And that’s better than it being a dragon?’

‘I mean a baby dragon is low Epic, most adult dragons are low-Legendary to high-Legendary. As in very very few people have the ability to kill an adult dragon, and no baby dragon travels alone.’

I remembered the red dragon that belched crimson flames at the me during the Shuffling. That thing could have gone toe to toe with someone with a Legendary Card. That was terrifying. Also the idea of hunting dragons sounds awesome, but they look so cool so why would you want to kill one?

For the better chance at a Legendary Card I’d imagine.

‘So we are staying here with a Headhunter instead of leaving because…?’

‘Because Headhunters like tracking down prey that is alone. They are incredibly intelligent and know that hunting down fifteen individuals and taking their heads is better than just rushing up to a tribe and hoping it survives.’ The woman signed.

‘What about those people inside the tent?’

‘They were the ones who initially found the Headhunter. Four died and we only recovered the bodies of two, both of which had no heads.’

I felt my mouth go dry even though I hadn’t been speaking.’

‘How many horns does it have?’

‘Twelve. It already had one head when they first found it.’

So seven more people.