Bennett stepped out of the shadow and onto the rooftop.

The moon was bright and the cloud coverage was minimal, not that it mattered.

His abilities meant that he could practically disappear inside a well-lit room so long as there was a shadow.

Hunter’s instincts prickled the back of his unnaturally pale neck.

Red eyes flashed in the darkness as he spun and grabbed.

A kitchen knife sliced into his wrist.

His grip slackened just a fraction but it was enough for the small, cloaked figure to slip out and seemingly disappear from his supernatural sight.

Strange.

That wasn’t something that normally happened.

That same prickling.

Bennett spun and—

“Sorry. I didn’t realize who you were at first,” the cloaked figure threw back her hood to reveal a cute face, petite, almost like a girl if it wasn’t for those dead eyes that reminded him of those shark documentaries. The young woman held up her knife and the almost imperceptible trickle of his blood clinging to the edge. She brought it to her lips. “If I drink this, do I become a vampire?”

“No.”

“Too bad, it feels like it’d be a good combination with my class. It’d make a pretty killer consolidation eventually. My employer told me about you.”

“And what did he say?”

“To keep my distance and stay out of your way,” she shrugged, “I had to try though… it made me.”

“You must be Holly, the Slasher.”

“He’s got a big mouth. I thought I was supposed to be a secret. Maybe he was worried I’d get the drop on you,” her smile didn’t reach her eyes.

“He may have told me about you, but I didn’t make him any promises as to your safety. Especially, considering how you’ve attacked me, unprovoked.”

“That wasn’t an attack. That was me saying ‘hello’.”

“Hello,” Bennett said flatly.

“And goodbye… I’m off to stab someone a lot.”

“I know what you’re here for. I’ve sensed some of what you’ve been up to the past few nights.”

“I can tell you don’t like it,” she shrugged. “I’m doing what my employer instructed. I haven’t deviated from it this entire time. What else can you do besides stepping out of shadows? Stronger, faster? That’s boring. Better senses? Boring. Turn into mist? Bats? A wolf? Less boring. What else?”

Bennett gave her a slight smile to reveal sharp fangs.

“Sharp teeth are a given. How did you become a vampire? Will you turn me into one? I can trade expertise. I have a Domain Skill. It’d fit you. I can try to teach it to you in exchange—”

“No. You’re a murderer.”

“And you don’t kill?” she said flatly. “How do you get your blood?”

“Hospitals and blood banks. We aren’t similar.”

“I guess not. We’re both killers, but you’re a predator, like a tiger. You kill because you have to. For survival. It’s partially out of your control. Me? I’m in complete control of everything I do,” Holly shrugged before disappearing over the side of the roof in a rustle of the dark cloak that seemed to writhe with shadows.

The idea of kinship with that young woman disturbed Bennett.

Perhaps it wouldn’t have a few years ago, but lately, as his levels continued to rise…

He focused on his job.

One site down.

Several more to go.

All of them had contained the same things.

Enslaved people in forced comas being drained of some type of energy that was fed into a machine which beamed that energy up into the sky and toward the king’s castle.

Wireless transmission of power, just like Tesla had once tried to bring to the masses.

Instead, what they had here was the Slaver King draining what was probably the life essence of other human beings.

Slavery was bad enough.

A magic collar-enforced version took it up another level or down depending on perspective.

This…

Bennett felt his hunger keenly.

There were many people in this city that deserved the Slasher’s attentions.

Perhaps, they deserved his as well.

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

Miami, Florida, New American Republic, December 8, 2036

“Reflective Shield,” Adal pointed to Talia as they rounded the corner store and into the first set of monsters inside the mall spawn zone. Translucent red light lined the tall, lithe warrior as she leapt toward the human-sized gremlins. “Go! Mena, get ready to pull her back as soon as the shield breaks!”

“On it, Master!” Mena fixed a determined look on her youthful face.

Talia laid into the gremlins with wide, two-handed swipes of her sword. Adal’s magic shield removed the need for her to be cautious.

The gremlins struck with claws and teeth.

Adal’s shield absorbed the damage until it reached its limit and exploded outward with magical energy that raked the gremlins.

“Wind Whip!” Mena lashed a hand out from which a long whip of air appeared wrapping around Talia’s waist. Mena grunted with effort as she pulled Talia out from the midst of the gremlins.

Adal recast the shield on Talia and sent her forward to finish off the remaining wounded gremlins.

“Mena, I want you to make us quicker as soon as Talia’s done. We need to—”

Jake changed the channel.

“Hey! I was watching that,” Cara said.

Jake eyed the massive cat in the young woman’s lap and the massive dog at her feet. Both eyed him in their too-intelligent ways. There was displeasure there. Some disappointment. And perhaps, a bit of warning.

“We’re all on the same team here,” he said. “The Bronze Division stuff doesn’t matter. We don’t have any teams in the time trial competition anyways. We need to focus on the Silver Division three on three and the Gold Division one on one.”

“I know that. I’m actually on the Silver Division team.”

“And you guys have been doing great so far.”

“Del and Max are watching on the other TV’s. This is the only available one for me.”

“Shouldn’t you be resting anyways or at least scouting your potential next round opponents with Trevor and Amber?”

“That’s Amber’s job and she’s better at it than me and Trevor.”

“Bronze Division time trial is dumb anyways,” Jake shrugged.

“I’d like to watch it for myself to decide that.”

A massive golden eagle landed on the back of the couch behind Jake’s left shoulder. He felt the heat radiating from the bird. Its sheer presence loomed over him like the Sword of Damocles.

“There’s not much to see. The slavers set up, like, a course inside a spawn zone and the teams race to see who can complete it quicker. They don’t even race simultaneously, so it’s kinda boring to watch them mowing down gremlins as fast as they can. I’ve watched enough of it on the first day,” he sighed.

“I have so many questions about that—”

“They limit it to a single floor. There’s a maximum time limit. Spawn zones replenish monsters at a quick rate so they can run a three teams through it in an hour depending on how fast the teams finish the course. I think they basically created this to have an extra event for all the Level 20’s to 29’s that didn’t get into one of the better events. I mean, they’re letting losers of the other events enter this one if they want. No real limitations aside from a maximum team size.”

“Okay… fine. Thank you for the mansplanation. What are we going to watch instead?”

“Hey! Del!” Jake called out to one of the bedrooms.

“Yeah?”

“What channel are you on?”

“Channel 9!”

“Max!” Jake called to the other bedroom.

“I’m on 4!”

Jake consulted the printed schedule guide the slaver kingdom had provided. “I guess that covers all the live Gold Division one on one matches today.”

“Then switch back to what I was watching,” Cara said.

Her cat hissed what sounded like an agreement to Jake.

Her dog barked and thumped its thick tail on the carpet.

“Watch the 1st Round matches that have already happened,” Demi said from the kitchen counter top where she had her face buried in reports from the people she had scouting out locations in the city.

“You’ve got it, Commander!” Jake saluted.

“You’re not technically under my command, Jake… as I’ve told you repeatedly,” Demi said.

“Technically, I’m attached to the Watch for this Quest. So…” he shrugged. “Your word is command and I shall obey,” he flipped the TV to the channel devoted solely to replays, recaps and highlights.

Cara grumbled, but remained quiet.

“Oh… good timing. This fight was one of my favorites,” Jake said.

“That’s a girl!” Cara pointed at the screen.

“Uh… yeah…”

“I thought you had to be an adult.”

“That’s what I said, but she obviously made it through. They used truth spells and appraisal Skills at registration according to Rino. So, the only thing I can think of is that the girl has ways to trick those or it’s, like, that condition.”

“What condition?”

“Don’t know what it’s called, but it’s like a person stops physically growing or something. So, they still look like a kid, but are actually 30.” Jake grabbed the legal pad and pen on the coffee table and used the movement to subtly shift toward the middle of the couch and away from the looming eagle on his left.

The damned bird shifted over to maintain her closeness.

And now another cat squeezed into the space he had opened up on his left. He felt their displeased eyes on him.

On the TV a blue-haired girl that was supposedly an adult, but looked 14, stood across the arena floor from a big, biker-looking man.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

It looked like a mismatch.

On one side a slim girl and on the other a brawny, barrel-chested man with a power belly.

“Hell’s Angel?” Cara said.

“That is, was, is?” Jake shrugged. “A big biker gang from the old days. Makes sense that they’d still be around. The biker demographic is well-represented in this tournament,” he mused. There were several gangs represented throughout the different competitions, though mostly in Silver and Bronze Division.

As soon as the siren blared the blue-haired girl sprinted forward.

50 yards in a couple of seconds was superhuman.

The burly Hell’s Angel lumbered forward whirling a chain in one hand and holding a two-handed sledge hammer in the other.

The blue-haired girl opened her mouth and breathed out a thick, billowing cloud of mist that quickly engulfed a large expanse of space around Hell’s Angel.

She plunged into the obscuring mist.

The crowd cheered.

The drone cameras picked up the sounds of grunting, yelling and hard impacts on flesh as they failed to provide any images from inside the mist.

The mist dispersed to reveal the blue-haired girl standing triumphantly with her foot on the prone Hell’s Angel’s back.

“Arms and legs aren’t supposed to bend that way,” Cara said.

“Bastard’s going to get a lot of crap from his buddies.”

“Why?”

“He got his ass kicked by a girl.”

“She’s clearly superhuman at a minimum. Anyone in Gold Division is really powerful.”

The camera showed a close up of the blue-haired girl revealing dark, blue eyes that seemed to whirl with ocean waves.

She bared vivid white teeth with canines that were slightly sharp.

“Kinda like Bennett,” Cara said.

“But, she’s out in the sun, so definitely not a vampire.”

“Bennett can sorta handle the sun… for a bit. And she could be a different vampire. Like a daywalker or something.”

“Maybe…”

“How come she doesn’t have a name?”

“They interviewed her after this. Apparently, her true name is unpronounceable in the ‘inferior human speech’ and she’s not willing to pick a make believe name like the others because she’s ‘above such petty mortal concerns’.”

“I hope Rino won’t have to fight her.”

“Not till the finals, if they both make it. They’re on different sides of the tournament,” Jake handed Cara a printed out sheet containing the brackets.

“She doesn’t have a class listed.”

“Who?”

“The blue-haired girl.

“No idea, probably has a Skill or spell that hides it.

“Or she’s too high level for the appraisers.”

“Probably. A lot of the Gold Division contestants have only partial profiles. Rino said that they only got her class and a couple of her weaker Skills.”

A brutal display from one of our most enigmatic competitors, the broadcaster said, stay tuned for our next highlight after a short break.

“This cabal motherfucker,” Jake muttered. “He’s on every commercial break.”

“I don’t like them,” Cara said.

The dog at her feet growled at the TV.

“We might have to fight them later…”

“You’ve been studying the breakdown Cal gave you?”

Cara nodded.

“Good, then you’ll be as prepared as possible if that match happens.”

“They’re creepy and disgusting.”

“A lot of these people are,” Jake nodded sagely.

“I hope we don’t have to fight enslaved people.”

Jake didn’t have an answer to that, so he remained silent as the commercial break finished.

The broadcaster immediately threw it to the next highlight.

This match had been longer, so they didn’t show it in its entirety.

The Sadistic Warrior of Lust hacked wildly at a nimble fencer.

The latter leaked blood from a dozen wounds poked by the former with their rapier through gaps in plate and chain armor.

But, as time went on Skills were expended and stamina depleted for the quick, agile young man.

The sadistic warrior grabbed the rapier’s blade and pulled the nimble fencer off-balance allowing him to gut the young man with a slice from a thicker, heavier blade.

The sadistic warrior spat in the fencer’s face before holding his bloody weapon to the cheers of the crowd before licking it with a feral grin on his face.

Medics and healers rushed to the downed fencer’s side.

“Gross!” Cara said.

“Yeah, I don’t like the sound of that guy’s class.”

The next highlight featured a towering black woman shrugging off every dazzling spell fired at her by a mage. The woman strode steadily across the field, each thudding step seemed to shake the dirt ground. She reached the young man and shattered a hastily conjured magic shield with three punches.

The young man cried out as the woman lifted him up by his collar and flicked a finger on his forehead.

She laid him down on the dirt and walked toward the tunnel ignoring the cheering crowd.

“Her skin’s kinda shiny,” Cara said.

“Didn’t take any visible damage,” Jake nodded while jotting down notes, “Superstrong, metallic skin… is it just the skin? Or does it go deeper? Bones, muscles and internals have to be just as strong to withstand the concussions and her own superstrength. Possible weaknesses? Eyes…”

“Magnets? Electricity?” Cara chimed.

“Good ones,” Jake added them to the legal pad.

“Oh… how about mud! Or, like, quicksand. If she’s really heavy…”

“Depends on how long she can hold her breath or if she even needs to breathe… and someone with a spell or ability to churn up the arena floor. Although, I can’t imagine it being deeper than a handful of inches.”

The next highlight piqued Jake’s interest.

He hadn’t seen this match.

A woman in sleek green armor with purple highlights soared over the arena floor on a flat, angular wing powered by what looked like a small jet engine.

“Oh wow! That gear looks like magitech,” he scribbled furiously.

Thrusters on the underside of the wing fired visible puffs of air that appeared to help steer the flying machine in conjunction with the armored woman’s movements. She banked above her opponent, an axe and shield wielding man, and tossed a small globe containing a sloshing orange liquid.

“Improved Block!” the warrior took it on his wooden shield.

The explosion pushed the warrior back a few paces.

“This isn’t fair!” he called. “Why don’t you come down and fight?”

She ignored him as she continued to bank around until she reached the far end of the field. Straightening her flying wing, she lined it up with warrior.

“Shield Art: Attract Projectiles!” the warrior said.

An instant later the flying wing’s jet roared and the armored woman shot forward spitting bullets from the barrel set underneath the center of the fly wing.

Each bullet plinked off the shield’s wooden surface.

“I can keep this up all day!” the warrior called out. “You think you’ve got enough ammo?”

He turned out to be terribly wrong.

The armored woman tossed down a few more bombs and conducted two more strafing runs to knock the warrior out of the fight.

She did a victory lap waving to the crowd, while the unconscious man lay on the ground singed, concussed and with a few bullets in his muscular body.

“You should talk to her,” Cara said. “Find out how she made that flying thing. It’d be cool to fly with my eagles since we still haven’t been able to copy the rangers’ flying mounts.”

“Something about her seems familiar,” Jake muttered. “Nah… I bet you everything I own that she won’t share any of the secrets that went into her gear. Same reason I wouldn’t share how I make my best stuff with any rando that asks.”

The next match showed a short, stocky, hairy man with sharp fangs and fingernails trading blows with a tall, broad woman in full plate wielding a thick, metal heater shield and a heavy, spiked mace.

“Lots of the fighter-types appear to have the enhanced strength passive judging from them using two-handed weapons like they were one-handed,” Jake muttered.

The hairy man’s wounds visibly healed and he appeared to have a pronounced advantage in all physical attributes.

The woman’s armor was covered with dozens of dents from the man’s fists and her shield had been rent into two pieces when she finally fell to one knee and yielded.

The hairy man hesitated a moment before landing an earth-shattering punch to the side of her full-faced helmet.

The crowd’s cheers turned into boos while the hairy man looked up and sneered for the camera.

“What a dick!” Cara consulted the bracket. “Different bracket from Rino, but that ranger guy is in the same.”

“Let me see,” Jake leaned over. “Shrewed… yeah, he’s a ranger. Brawler, one versus one format should be good for him. He’s only the 10 seed though. Hairy guy is 1 in Shrewed’s bracket.”

The next highlight featured a red-eyed man or woman. It was hard to tell through the black, armored clothing, complete with a hood and mask that only revealed a sliver of their eyes.

“Blood-soaked Assassin class,” Cara said.

“Not a ninja, damn. I wanted to be a ninja when I was younger. This guy has an upgraded class… what seed is he?”

“Number 3 in the same bracket as that hairy guy and Shrewed.”

The assassin made quick work of their opponent with a pair of short blades that had a pronounced forward curve and a large belly, which made it a great cutter as evidenced by the gruesome wounds they made. They dipped a hand in their opponents blood and held it up to the cheering crowd before slipping bloody fingers underneath their facemask.

The next highlight was interrupted by the door to their suite opening.

Hands went to weapons, but relaxed when they saw who it was.

Hillary, Kare and Ginessa entered the large, luxury hotel suite burdened to varying degrees with bags of hot and tasty smelling food.

Though she was the smallest of the three, Ginessa carried the largest load.

“Lunch time!” Kare beamed as they placed the bags on the counter and table.

“Max! Del! Food!” Hillary bellowed.

“Watching a match!” Max said.

“Same here!” Del echoed.

“How’s Rino?” Demi said.

“She’s at the arena getting ready,” Kare said.

“Are we going to watch in person?” Ginessa said. “Do we have tickets?”

“I’m going to be in Rino’s corner,” Kare said. “Captain Doran’s taking twenty people just in case there are shenanigans and we need back up. We have extra tickets if you guys want to come along. The more the merrier!” she smiled.

“Do you think you’ll need the extra muscle?” Demi said.

“Nope! I think we’ve got things covered,” Kare said.

“Alright, then, I’ll leave it up to you guys if you want to go… except for Jake and Hillary I need you to keep working on the info Cal and Bennett brought back. I want to make sure that we’ve got each one of these sites mapped. I don’t want to miss even one of these goddamn places,” Demi said.

“I’ll go,” Ginessa volunteered.

“Oh good!” Kare threw an arm over the shorter woman’s shoulder. “With our supernatural senses combined the slavers definitely won’t be able to slip any tricks past us!”

“I’d go too, but I have a practice session with Amber and Trevor,” Cara said.

“No worries!” Kare said.

“Thanks for picking up some grub. I was getting tired of the hotel food,” Jake rummaged through the bags coming up with a few sandwiches and a carton of french fries before heading back to the couch. “Mine,” he glared at the assorted animals staring at the food in his hands with disturbing interest. “Cara! Tell them this is people food.”

“They can understand you.”

“Yeah, but they only listen to you,” he pleaded.

“Fine…” Cara rolled her eyes. “Guys, leave Jake alone. You’re scaring him.”

If animals could roll their eyes… some of them did.

Ginessa made her way to the fridge and pulled a few blood bags out to take to her room.

“Awww… I told her we don’t care about that,” Kare said.

“Leave her be. She’s doing what she’s most comfortable with,” Demi said.

“Yeah, I hate how you guys stare at me when I eat,” Jake said.

“That’s cause you chew loudly and with your mouth wide open, like some kind of goober,” Hillary said.

“Shhh… I’m trying to take notes,” Jake said with a mouth overfull with sandwich and fries.

The highlight was in the middle of a cagey tactical battle between two evenly matched fighters.

Each took potshots with submachine guns from behind ballistic shields.

“First one to run out of ammo loses,” Jake said.

The fight devolved into a slugfest with both fighters trying to hammer each other with their shields and fists.

It was the first one that went the distance and the judges had to decide the winner.

“I think the guy with the gun and shield won,” Hillary said flatly.

“Want to bet?” Jake said.

“Which one?” Kare said.

“The one with the gun and shield,” Hillary said.

“They both have a gun and shield,” Kare said.

“Exactly,” Cara said.

“Hey? Where’s Rebekah, Alexa and the other guys?” Hillary said.

“Rebekah’s checking something out and the others are watching her back,” Demi said.

“There’s a group claiming to be the legitimate U.S. Government,” Jake said. “Rebekah’s going to find out if they’re real or full of shit.”

“So, what if they are?” Hillary said. “It’s not like we’ll suddenly obey their orders. We can trace a direct line to the old California State Government.”

“They might think otherwise and even if they agree I can bet that they’ll pull the Federal card,” Jake said. His eyes widened. “Shit… that’d make us the ‘state’s rights’ guys,” he groaned.

“I don’t care about all that. They’ve been gone for years. I won’t listen to them now,” Kare said.

“They could be useful allies against the slavers. I mean, slavery was illegal back in the old country,” Jake said.

“They haven’t done anything so far,” Hillary pointed out. “I’m thinking that if they were strong enough then they wouldn’t have been hiding this whole time.”

“Strong enough to have a few fighters in the Gold Division,” Max said as he emerged from the room. “And as it turns out the one going by True Patriot is very strong… and she and Rino are in the same bracket. I just watched her demolish one of those Mongols from the team competition.”

“Notes?”

“Took a ton,” Max held up a legal pad in his hand of twisted wood and hard earth.

“Man, if we had more time and data I could write an algorithm that builds up a full profile. Strength, weaknesses, tendencies…” Jake sighed.

“Don’t forget what we’re really here for,” Demi said.

“Yessir!” Jake saluted looking like a chipmunk with too much food in his mouth.