“Mark is that you?”

A familiar voice shouted outside. Liam couldn’t place the voice, but he had heard it around the campfires a few times.

“Mark?”

The steps were coming closer.

Liam panicky looked around the room. There were no escapes to be seen. Could he break through the roof window? Maybe if he could break it somehow he would be able to jump through, but that would be loud enough to alert the whole camp.

His eyes fell on the loose wooden plank on the floor.

“Ohh this better work.”

Liam hastened over to the hidden compartment. He reopened it, and crawled inside in one fell swoop. Then he drew it over himself without making any noise.

The stench down inside the big pile of rubar and the other leaves was overwhelming. Slightly acidic and herby, it made Liam almost dizzy. But he had to keep his nerves as he heard the door scrape open.

He could almost feel the man casting his eyes through the room. He saw the lantern swing around. After a few seconds, the man mumbled something about Bilby forgetting and left again.

Liam waited until the steps had faded away before he breathed a sigh of relief. Unfortunately, he made the mistake of inhaling a big wisp of the fragrant air. It felt like his lungs were on fire for a second, and he had to fight to keep down a cough. Luckily the feeling vanished again quickly, leaving Liam a little out of sorts though.

He counted to a hundred and eleven before he carefully sneaked his way out of the hidden compartment. From his angle, he couldn’t avoid the wooden plank scraping over the floor. The noise was almost muted, but Liam cringed along the way anyway.

He got the linen bag he had brought out of his pocket and started shoveling piles of the leaves into it. There were way more than he had expected though, and Liam soon needed to take out his second bag to heap even more drugs into it.

Even after both his bags were full, there was still a decent amount of drugs left underneath the fake wooden floorboards. Liam had managed to shift a big chunk into his bags though. An undoubtedly noticeable chunk.

For a moment Liam wondered how Bilby would react upon finding out. He hadn’t spent much time thinking about it and hadn't cared. But now he was almost curious.

On his way out Liam raced through the caravan wagon at a quick pace.

He was still as quiet as possible, but his steps were more sure, and he was at the other end of the wagon in moments. He knew that someone was around now and that he had even more discriminating stuff on him now, but he could almost taste his escape.

He saw the backdoor still being a little open. Liam carefully drew it a little and slipped out into the wide-open night sky.

He quickly took a step away from the wagon and breathed an inward sigh of relief, when a voice behind him stopped him.

“I knew that door had been locked before.”

He fought down his instinct to turn around. The person hadn’t seen his face yet, hidden under that black hood of his. It was dark, but he could still hope. He started channeling mana.

“What do you have there?” The voice was raised now.

Without waiting for the person to say another thing, Liam activated his [Gravity Jump] skill and propelled himself forward. The ground blurred beneath his feet. He did two more jumps in quick succession, dashing through the maze of caravan wagons at breakneck speed.

Once he reached the end of their encampment, he started running as hard as he could and only stopped when he reached the edge of the small forest they had camped next to.

He leaned against a tree and listened intently for any shouts of warning or alarm.

After no shout nor any sign of pursuit had come for over half an hour, Liam allowed himself to relax a little.

They had probably been too scared to raise a big alarm. Too scared Blue would catch interest in what had happened. Understandably so.

Liam had been lucky. Multiple times this night so far. He hoped that streak would hold, as he wasn’t yet finished with his plan.

He marched off deeper into the forest. The dark shapes of the trees welcomed him, as Liam made his way through the thick undergrowth. Only a few lines of silvery light managed to penetrate through the canopy, but Liam used his old trick to navigate through the foliage.

Guided by the purple lines springing up around him, Liam made good progress. His heart was still beating quicker when he thought back to how close to being caught he had been.

He chided himself for his foolishness. Of course, the man would’ve noticed that the door hadn’t been locked anymore. Not relocking it had been an amateur mistake. Liam used to be better.

Liam had no idea what would wait for him when he returned to the camp. Would Bilby and his man be waiting for him? Did the man on the outside maybe glean more than Liam hoped?

Well, he would only find out later. Now he had his task to finish first, otherwise, this would’ve been for nothing.

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Finally, Liam found a perfect place. He stumbled upon a small clearing of the forest, illuminated by the unobstructed moonlight. It was bright enough and big enough. And, most importantly, it was far enough away from the caravan place.

Liam emptied his bags on the floor and built a giant pile of the brownish rubar. He still had no idea what the big red leaves were, but he had still grabbed a handful of them.

Once assembled, his pile reached almost up to his knees. Liam shook himself at the amount of drugs in front of him. Back in Charville, this much would’ve been worth a small fortune on the streets. He had seen enough people dying in pursuit of it.

Liam pushed away his memories and the thoughts that followed. Instead he grabbed the box of matches in his pocket.

With a single stroke, he lightened one of the matches and threw it onto the pyre. It caught fire readily. Then Liam stepped as far away from the pile as he could and watched its unnatural smoke rise towards the sky.

Even at the edge of the clearing he could smell the sick sweet smell of it burning. It was almost enough to make Liam walk back again, but he wanted to see it burn all the way down to the end.

When it finally did, the smoke stopped and the flames died, Liam walked over to the drugs and kicked dirt over the ashes. Just to be sure.

As he turned away, he saw a single sticky leaf still being glued to his pants. It was one of the blood red ones had hadn't been able to identify. Without thinking too much, he put it into his pocket.

On the way back towards the caravan, Liam's mood started lifting a little, the cool night air of the forest cleaning his anxieties away. The silence around him was good for his thoughts. He got lost in it, only having his own head to listen to.

Strangely he felt proud of what he had just done, no matter the consequences. Even if it was mostly for personal reasons, there was no denying that his act had been good, and would hopefully benefit others.

Liam passed another clearing and enjoyed the cool breeze that drifted through the trees. There was a gentle rustling of the leaves, but no other sound in the forest. How relaxing…

Wait. There was no other sound in the forest. Liam wasn’t an expert on nature, but shouldn’t there be at least some birds chirping or something? He stopped in his tracks, scanning the dark trees around him. He suddenly got the feeling that something was wrong.

Just as he realized that the bushes behind him rustled heavily. He turned around in time to see a giant black cat entering the space.

In the dim light, it looked like a shadow gliding along the forest floor. It started circling the clearing, a careless predatorial gait to its movements. And while doing that, it never left Liam out of its eyes.

It was at this moment, that Liam realized he was fucked.

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

A big explosion rang out as her fireball crashed against the wall of the house. Huge waves of flames swallowed the building in an instant, but her target was unscathed.

Just in the last moment he had thrown himself to the ground, evading a fiery death by hairs edge. Before he had even come up fully, his figure blurred away in a flash of smoke. Leaving Katarina staring at nothing but a burning house.

She glanced around their small street intersection, but the man was nowhere to be seen. Luckily it didn’t take long to get a whiff of his mana signature. She turned her attention inwards, until she sensed it. Weakly disguised, the man’s aura stood out like a beacon as he used his divine skills.

Katarina began running. The man wasn’t far away, but he was moving quickly. She had to hurry if she wanted to finish things before other people would get involved. If some of the more advanced cultivators in this shithole would show up, she would be in big trouble.

She began cycling her mana in a strengthening pattern. Immediately her legs felt more powerful and she moved faster. It didn’t take long until she saw the man running in front of her.

He was swerving from left to right like a panicked bunny, glancing over his shoulder like the devil was after him. And in a way he’s right, Katarina thought.

She raised her arm and activated her [Infernal Lasso] Skill. Heat began building at her fingertips as flames licked over her palm. After two seconds of charging she let the skill loose, just like she had learned. A thin stream of fire shot forward, hurling through the air at an almost impossible speed.

The man had barely enough time to hastily erect a mana barrier in front of him. But the soft blueish shimmer wasn’t enough. The shield shattered as Katarina’s skill slammed against it, hitting the man in the back.

He was sent flying through the air and only stopped after tumbling through the dirt. With a quick mental command she willed the flames on his back to extinguish. She needed him alive. The man looked up in shock as Katarina calmly advanced.

„Where is it?“

„I told you, I have no idea!“ The man whimpered.

Her voice was cold. „Bullshit.“

„Seriou-“

The man was interrupted mid sentence by a dagger imbedding itself into his face. His forehead slumped to the side, half formed syllables in his mouth.

„What a talker, eh?“

A shadow stood on top of one of the buildings.

„There you are, my little Seeker,“ Katarina smiled. “A little foolish of you to come directly to me, don’t you think?“

„Don’t flatter yourself, I was just looking for some productive way to pass the time. So I thought I would clear the streets of some of the trash walking around here.“

„Really?“ She raised an eyebrow. „Let’s see about that.“

She activated her [Ignition] skill and exploded toward the man. In the blink of an eye she was in front of him. Flames engulfed her hand as she punched.

But she hit nothing but air as the man transformed into a cloud of thick grey smoke in front of her. Katarina really hated dealing with cultivators of Bellator, the god of shadows and trickery. His divine blessings were always nasty.

The man's voice rang out from the rooftop next to her.

„You really should’ve left the city when you had the chance, Vanguard slum.“ There was venom in his tone now as he spat the last words. Silly pride only gets you killed.“

„Oh yeah? Come here then!“ Katarina challenged him.

Suddenly the ground around her erupted in smoke. A thick gray mass enveloped her, cutting off her sight and disturbing her senses. It was like she was in a completely different realm now.

A sharp pain erupted in her lower back. She cursed and reflexively activated her mana shield, only a split second before another attack would’ve cut through the mana layer that she kept over her skin against surprise attacks.,

She spun around and threw another stream of fire out of her hands. It churned through the smoke, pushing it away in a little cone in front of her. But the man was missing again.

Katarina cursed and broke off her skill. There were steps behind her and she spun around, firing into the smoke screen once again.

This time she saw a brief flash of movement, but that was it. In return a kick exploded against her rib cage and sent her flying a few feet.

When she propped herself up, she was pissed. Really pissed.

Without any rational thought she started collecting her mana and increased the pressure of her cycling. She switched to a different pattern, feeling the effects almost immediately. She heard steps behind her again, but this time she didn’t care.

She activated her [Supernova| skill and let the world be engulfed in flames.