“Running will only make this worse!” Mel called out to him, cackling as she chased him down.

Mel took her time, letting the man think he could outrun her. He doubled back while she was noisily searching a false trail he had left behind.

The look on his face when she appeared in front of him was priceless.

Mel reached out and grabbed his cheeks, squeezing painfully. “You’re the only one who hasn’t tried to hurt me, so I’ll refrain from doing the same for now. Tell me what I want to know.”

Sweat broke out across his lean features. “I don’t know much, I wasn’t in on it, I swear!”

“In on what?”

The man started to jabber, but Mel squeezed tighter and held up a finger. Her patience was wearing thin. “Did something happen to the people who used to camp here?”

He nodded.

Mel’s tone was sharper than a freshly stropped razor. “Tell me.”

“I don’t know what happened exactly,” the Archer admitted. “Lisa was part of the group that did it. I heard them bragging about it, as if they were helping the boss out by taking out a group of ones.”

“Ones?” Mel asked.

“People with one aspect.”

As much as Mel wanted to crush his jaw, she kept her temper in check. “What happened to them?”

“I told you I–”

“That woman back at camp, is that Lisa?”

He nodded.

“You’re coming with me. Any sudden moves, and I will make you wish you were Kyle.”

“What happened to Kyle?!”

“Oh, you ran early, huh? You’ll see.”

He nodded silently. When they came back to the campsite, the Archer she held captive let out a gasp of surprise at Kyle’s corpse.

The woman, Lisa apparently, was nowhere to be seen.

Mel turned and pointed at the Archer. “If you move one inch from this spot–”

He held up his hands. “I won’t! I won’t.” Considering the smell–and the patch of rapidly cooling heat on his pants–he definitely pissed himself.

Mel patted his cheek, used [Omen Mark] on him, then put him out of her mind.

Mel stepped up to the bloody patch of grass. She nodded appreciatively. Leave it to a woman to know when to get the hell out of Dodge.

I almost feel bad for her, Mel thought. Almost.

Tracking her down was pitifully easy. She couldn’t move very fast with a wounded foot. She might as well have set a trail of burning road flares with all the blood she was leaving all over the place.

Mel saw her around a thick tree. She walked right in to the trap, raising an arm to block and then disarm the heavy stick the woman swung at her.

“I don’t have time for your shenanigans,” Mel told her as she stomped on her wounded foot, eliciting a scream of agony from Lisa.

The woman went limp, but Mel wasn’t buying it. She grabbed a handful of hair and dragged her back to the camp, through the woods.

Lisa screamed and howled, hands slapping and clawing at Mel’s, but they might as well have been trying to scratch marble for all the good it did.

Mundanes were nothing to a Copper.

Mel tossed the woman beside Kyle’s body. True to his word, the other Archer didn’t move one inch.

She looked over at him. “Name?”

“G-George.”

“This Lisa, George?” Mel asked.

Lisa glared at the Archer. “If you say a single word, Jimmy will cut your balls off and stuff them down–”

Mel kicked her hard in the ribs to shut her up. The name set off alarm bells in her head.

Through the white-hot rage, dread wound its way around her heart. Mel fell into a deep crouch beside the woman. “Tell me what happened to my friends.”

The woman spit at her feet. “They’re dead. We killed them all.”

Mel kept her face impassive, even though it felt like her heart was breaking. She looked up at the Archer, at George. He nodded, confirming the story.

“Why?” Mel asked, colder than the depths of a dead star.

“They had to die!” Lisa screamed. “You and your friends embarrassed the boss. Jimmy knew that we couldn’t leave any enemies at our backs. He only did what a good Captain would.”

“They wouldn’t have hurt anybody,” Mel whispered. “They were broken. All they wanted was to live in peace.”

“Then they’ve got their wish, didn’t they?” Lisa snarled. “They’re resting in pe–”

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Mel smacked her so hard a tooth fell out of her mouth, trailing a line of blood across the grass. “You know, at this point, most people say things like ‘I don’t like hurting women’ but honestly, I don’t give a shit. I’m not bothered by torture or guts. So go ahead and soil yourself if you like. Say what you want, but before this is over, I’m going to get what I want out of you.”

Something was slowly unraveling inside Mel’s mind. The flood of rage she expected didn’t come out all at once.

It festered like an undressed wound, and it blossomed with ugly rot.

The woman’s gray-blue eyes widened with tears as she searched Mel’s face for any hint of bluster and found only the cold, hard promise of pain.

She swallowed hard. “I’ll tell you where their bodies are!”

Mel stood up and put her hands on her hips. “I know you will.”

“No, I mean, I’ll tell you right now.”

Mel nodded, resolute in her course. “You will.”

Panic gripped the woman. She tried to get Mel to understand that she didn’t have to hurt her for the information, but Mel was deaf to her pleas.

She looked up at George. “Hey, George?”

“Y-yes?”

“Do you have some spare arrows I could borrow? You can have them back after I’m done. I just need…oh…” Mel deliberately looked at Lisa’s hands and feet. “Say...twenty.”

George tossed a full quiver to her. “No need to give them back.”

“You’re being very cooperative,” Mel pointed out. She looked at Lisa. “See? George knows how to be cooperative.”

“They’re in a cave near the upper plateau we all started at!” Lisa screamed at the top of her lungs. “We left them there. They didn’t even have anything worth looting! I’m sorry!”

Mel nodded thoughtfully. “Don’t wanna talk, eh?” Mel told her.

“What are you talking about, you crazy bitch?! I’m telling you exactly what you want to hear! I’ll draw you a map in my own blood!”

Mel looked over at George. “It’s really a shame when they don’t want to cooperate. Shame. She could’ve been spared so much pain. Oh, well.” She looked straight into Lisa’s eyes. “This is going to hurt you a lot more than it’s going to hurt me. I’ll make sure of it .”

Mel used every last arrow in that quiver.

You defeat the [Stolst Gang Archer (Mundane Rank)].

You gain runes of Divine, Mist, Blood, Serpent, and Omen aspect experience.

You earn Battle Points.

You earn the Title: [Vessel of Anguish]

(Title, Rare)

Earned by committing to an act whose only purpose is to cause untold amounts of pain. What sets you apart from common torturers is your conviction to see your threats through to their bloody conclusion. You do it not for your own sick, twisted pleasure, but as vengeance for those who can no longer fight back. The pain you cause may not bring your friends back, but the screams of those who harmed them will make others think twice before they take aim at the defenseless.

Your attacks inflict greater pain.

George was curled up into the fetal position by the time Lisa’s screams finally faded. Mel shook her hands free, not wanting even a single droplet of her blood for her [Sanguine Coat].

Mel stood up and loomed over the man. “She made it clear you weren’t involved,” Mel said. “You cooperated and didn’t attack me.”

“I don’t want to die,” he whispered.

“Then again,” Mel said, putting a finger to her chin. “You probably only did that because you were scared of me. Deklin would say this was a moral quandary. Does it matter that you were afraid, and that fear spurred you to do the right thing?” Mel shrugged. “Call me a softie, but I like to think that dire situations reveal our mettle. You may go.”

George peeked up at her. “You’re not going to kill me?”

“Do you want me to?”

“No!”

Mel motioned toward the forest. “Then you’re free.”

Faster than she would have thought, he hopped up to his feet and started to sprint.

“Oh, and George?”

He froze mid-stride so fast he fell onto his face. The look of terror he shot back at her would’ve been funny at any other time. “You do you, buddy, but I’m letting you know that everybody responsible for murdering my friends is going to be killed. Tell Warren and Jimmy that I’m a woman of my word. I’m going to make good on that promise I made them. I’m letting you go now. Tell anybody you want. If anybody tries to stop me from getting my vengeance, I’m not holding back. They’ll die just like all the lieutenants, captains, and whatever shitty pseudo-military ranks you have. I’m not going to bother checking allegiance when the killing starts.” She pointed at Lisa’s body. “What you just saw? That was me being nice . If you care for people, get them out. Or don’t. I’m done caring.”

George nodded emphatically and took off again, scrambling through the brush.

Mel held it together, keeping her rage tight to her breast. She looted the campsite for anything useful. She picked up a makeshift shovel and some supplies, but nothing else had much value. Not until she found the three [Small Health Potions] and one [Small Stamina Potion] stashed away in the barrow under a cloth.

She looked back at the bodies, then at her shovel. They didn’t deserve a burial. Mel spit on the ground and stalked off through the forest with purpose. “Let the animals feast.”

----------------------------------------

George Walker had never been more scared in his entire life. Lisa’s screams still rebounded inside his skull. He feared he would never stop hearing them.

He ran for hours until he reached the Stolst gang’s satellite camp many miles away. George feared for his life. Every snap of a twig made him think that serpent-eyed demoness was coming to claim his life, an inch at a time.

The fear drained away as he saw the comforting torches and tents of the camp. After Mel’s warning, George wouldn’t have been found within a mile of the Stolst gang, but he had to warn his sister.

She was everything to him. They had only joined because there was no other option. Jimmy had made that very clear when he propositioned them.

What should he have done? Said ‘no’ and gotten killed? He was just doing what he could to survive. Everybody was. But this was too much. He only knew a little, but after everything that Lisa spilled in her final moments…even if he was killed for desertion, he had to get Harriet away from these people.

Once he got to his sister, he told her everything. He threw up twice, recounting the story when she didn’t believe him.

Word spread like wildfire through the camp. By the time George and Harriet were leaving, they were joined by half the ‘useless camp people’ who never got to go out on monster hunts or aspect raids.

They were expected to stay back and work like slaves for the other, stronger members of the gang. Repairing weapons, armor, making food, and making their life comfortable.

Everybody knew, in one way or another, that the Stolst gang was doing bad things, but nobody felt there were any other options.

Once the story spread of what was done to Lisa in revenge for Mel’s fallen friends, those with a modicum of self-preservation fled into the night. The guards didn’t bother to stop them. Most of them fled too, taking as much loot as they could.

Mel Harper, the emerald-eyed demoness, was coming to end the Stolst gang.