It has been one hundred years since the Outsiders, humanoid monsters who came from the stars, reformed the planet in their image. Civilizations fell, and empires were ruined after the Outsiders’ rampage through the land.

The Empire of the Divine Covenant was among the few nations to survive the Outsider invasion. It took them five years to rebuild from the ashes. The country was far from the heights it once held, even in its twilight years. However, it was the strongest nation on the continent.

The Empire was ruled by fourteen magistrates elected by a council to rule over fourteen regions that managed the nation; all were skilled military officials before receiving their stations. On the outside, looking in, the government appeared stable. Still, countless succession groups hide in conquered and oppressed regions.

In the heart of the Empire of the Divine Covenant lay the Darkwoods, one of the fourteen regions. This is an impenetrable forest stretching for miles in every direction. It was a dangerous trap for all but the strongest and most experienced warriors. Feeble creatures hid in dense foliage and used treacherous terrain to avoid predators. Among the dangers of the woods were shadowstalkers, reptilian pack hunters the size of a large dog, with dark scales making them almost impossible to see.

One such shadowstalker clung to the trunk of a massive darkwood tree, hungry and cold. It was separated from its pack while fleeing a fearsome beast. It desperately wanted to find a hole to crawl into but could not hide away, for prey had entered its domain.

Two figures trudged through the sea of vines and exposed roots, watching for shadows in the dark that could never be found. The shadowstalker had hunted many of these humans before. One of them was a man. His scarred, lean, and agile body exuded menace. He navigated the undergrowth with quick and precise steps, his deep blue eyes running on instinct where his rational mind failed him. Unlike most humans who passed through the woods, he wore a simple tunic tucked into dark pants rather than tough leather.

The woman with bright green eyes beside him was almost as imposing as him, despite being half a head shorter. Her athletic, muscular frame was partially concealed by loose-fitting leather, and she was also heavily scarred. Unlike the man, she had metal claws strapped to her chest and a long wooden shaft with a metal piece at the end in her hands.

The shadowstalker thought the woman had spotted it when it felt her attention on it. However, the feeling passed after long, tense seconds. It remembered the bite of those weapons too well, nearly dying once, so it avoided the woman and focused on the man. Hunger flashed in the creature’s eyes; there would be a feast tonight.

The shadowstalker stalked the duo for another fifteen minutes, hidden in the thick canopy above. It watched and waited for the appropriate time to strike and found it. The man and woman stopped and rested under the colossal darkwood tree the creature was attached to. They held a defensive posture but did not notice the beast twenty feet above them. It would be easy to grab the man and run deeper into the woods before the woman could do anything.

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Before any other thought could pass through the lizard’s brain, it launched at its unsuspecting victim below. With practiced ease, the shadowstalker swung at the man’s head. However, it encountered no resistance nor detected the metallic scent it craved. Before it could comprehend what was happening, the man seized the creature out of thin air and smashed it into a tree. This killed it on impact.

The man, Marcus, looked at the corpse in his scarred, bloody hands and frowned. He tossed the broken creature to his traveling companion, Raven.

“That makes it eight now. Remind me again why we took this job?” Marcus asked in a defeated tone. His voice was forceful and always projected due to years of military training.

He pulled a cloth from his pack and wiped the gore from his hands.

“Because we’re poor and don’t want to sleep in some back alley somewhere,” Raven said mockingly, a smile almost forming on her scarred lips. Her voice was deep and husky.

“Right,” He growled, “and who’s fault is that?”

Her only response was a shrug.

Marcus Waters, a former soldier of the Empire of the Divine Covenant, and Raven Thorn, a street thug, were lifelong friends. They did countless missions together in the Sinking Delta, just south of the Darkwoods. The last job was supposed to be like any other.

The mission was supposed to be a cake run, babysitting a Lordling while he had fun in town. However, the gods never smiled at them. Raven challenged the young Lord to a drinking contest and lost miserably. In a drunken rage, she separated the young Lord’s head from his shoulders.

They had to leave their former residence and go without pay for that job. They were now fugitives in the Delta.

They evaded capture only through Raven’s ex-partner and the man who got them the previous job, Jax, with whom she still had a surprisingly cordial relationship despite the circumstances, and he was the one who gave them their latest assignment. All they had to do was travel through the Darkwoods.

The job was relatively straightforward: people from Dunleafern disappeared randomly, and those who returned were gravely ill or insane. The village head requested a team to determine what caused the disappearances and stop them.

Jax informed the pair that he had already set up a team in Dunleafern that they had to join up with. The two didn’t like working with strangers, but neither wanted to starve for the rest of their lives, so they decided to embark on this mission.

This is how they found themselves battling overgrown lizards every few hours.

“If I die here, I’m haunting you,” Marcus said after ensuring his hands were clean.

“Well, you can’t be more annoying than you are now,” Raven joked, picking herself up from where she rested.

“So how much further do we have?” she asked.

He looked in their direction and pulled out a rolled-up piece of old hide; on it was a region map. The map needed to be updated by fifty years, but Dunleafern village was listed on it, so Marcus thought it would work.

“Based on our current pace, two hours.”

“Great. Shall we?”

Raven hefted her axe and headed deeper into the forest.

“Let’s see if you get attacked by any more creatures,” she said with a slight smile.

“Oh, Mother, please give me strength,” Marcus whispered a prayer to the Swamp Mother of the Sinking Delta. He followed behind his friend, grinning from ear to ear.