”Arrrr!” All the corpses charged at Katie, but they were beheaded one by one. Katie sat down and crossed her bare legs and mentally controlled the blade to finish the job. Of course, she wasn’t completely relaxed. She was still having a conversation with her new found friend.

“You’re naked.” Now that they were no longer in the heat of battle, Kyle noticed the awkward moment. Katie’s clothes have been reduced to ashes when she was set aflame by one of the corpses, and she didn’t really have any backup. He didn’t realize anything when they were about to die, but now...Kyle immediately took off her jacket and handed it to Katie, who respectfully declined.

She was never a modest type.

“If you want to know what’s going on, then don’t even ask. I don’t want to explain everything to you. It’s boring.” Before Kyle could ask anything, Katie cut him off. There was no fun in inserting a brand new world view into someone. If she had the time to do it she might spend it on dissecting her own arm. Unfortunately, her weapon was occupied for now, and her other daggers were either left in her hotel room or melted along with her clothing.

Kyle nodded slowly. A distance away, the corpses still charged at Katie and Kyle relentlessly, but they never made it close enough. They were beasts, and their primitive conscious were incapable of recognizing the threat the supplicant blade posed. When the blade struck, it was already too late.

The driver of the bus walked up from the driver’s seat. Unlike the corpses, he wasn’t completely mindless. At least he could swear.

“Why do you get to live? Why do you get to live while we have to burn and die? You will die! You will scream and burn, along with your boyfriend!” The driver cried as the last corpse disappeared. As he screamed, his brain content was still flowing out.

Katie smirked as Kyle turned and threw up. “Trust me. If I burn, I will not scream. I will probably moan, but if I do scream, it will be from pleasure. Unfortunately, I don’t want to do that now, so…goodbye.”

The supplicant blade flew toward the driver, but the driver wasn’t like the low level puppets. He raised his arms, and a stream of flame came out and knocked the supplicant blade off its course.

The blade went at the driver again, and was deflected again. Katie suddenly felt her head exploding. She touched her nostril and saw blood. She was using her psychological power to control the blade, and the damage the blade received would be reflected upon her.

Katie smirked and directed the blade forward again. She was already considering reforging the blade. If getting knocked back could make her head feel like it was being penetrated by a nail, then she couldn’t wait to learn what completely destroying the blade would feel like.

Once again, the blade was knocked back, but Katie did the same thing again, expecting the same result.

...

Katie’s face was already covered in blood when the driver’s head suddenly exploded. Black energy flowed from the hull of the bus into the driver, mending his wound, but the next second Katie’s supplicant blade went through the driver’s head. The girl tried to stop it, but everything happened so fast. She expected the driver to knock the blade back and the faster the blade was, the more damaged it would be when it was hit back, but things didn’t really go as she expected.

Behind her, Kyle had a pistol in his hand. It came from Katie’s duffel bag. Luckily, it survived both the fire and the explosion. The man managed to reach it and use it when both the driver and Katie had their attention trained on each other.

“What the fuck was that?” Katie frowned and walked back to Kyle, yanking the gun away from him. She was completely naked, but Kyle was intimidated, especially when her supplicant blade, damaged yet still sharp, returned to her side.

“What do you mean...I was helping you…”

“Can’t you see I was having fun?”

“You’re bleeding! Look into a mirror! It looks serious!”

“I know I’m bleeding! Didn’t I tell you I was having fun...never mind.” Katie suddenly realized the pointlessness of arguing with the man. With the spirit dead, the bus was already melting to ashes. Katie grabbed onto her bag and started walking away, leaving Kyle alone. She didn’t bother with receiving thanks or comforting him. She was here for some fun, and despite the interruption, she had some fun. The teenager meant nothing to her.

The return to her hotel was rather interesting. Apparently, not everyone was comfortable with seeing a fully naked girl walking across the streets at midnight. A couple of thugs even tried to violate her.

Well, at least they don’t have to worry about getting arrested for sexual assault.

After walking by a blushing front desk who did her best to act normal and respectful, Katie entered her room. She sat down on the sofa and started running through everything she knew in her head while running her supplicant blade across her chest, curving a bloody yet temporary picture.

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As far as she knew, there were two types of supernatural beings.

The first were wraiths, or rather vengeance spirits. They usually came from souls that were wrongfully killed. From what she saw from Jaison, these spirits tend to go after their killers first, but sometimes they would go after the innocent as well, which was what the bus did.

Conventional methods like grenades and guns struggled against these wraiths. Weaker ones like Jaison could be killed by a dagger to the heart, but stronger ones like the bus driver were less easy to take out. Back on the bus that boy Kyle shot the driver in the head, but he was merely grazed. There was no long term effect done.

Thankfully, there was another way Katie could settle the matter. Apart from conventional methods, there were also supernatural attacks available. Katie’s supplicant blade was one of such examples. Itself being forged by the essence of a supernatural entity, the blade effectively killed both the corpses and the seemingly impervious bus driver. At this point, it was her best weapon.

Katie classified the second type of supernatural beings simply as those who weren’t spirits. That included the Blade of Kassar and whatever vampire or werewolf or demon she might meet in the future. This type of supernatural entities could be damaged by physical means. After all, she just maimed the Blade of Kassar by a bag of grenades.

Satisfied, Katie jumped onto her bed and tucked herself under the sheets. Tomorrow would be an even better day.

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

The next day, Katie got up, got dressed, and went down to the lounge and grabbed some food. As she put a piece of bread just out of the toaster into her mouth, she logged into ShadowNet. She didn’t really have anything planned, but with any luck that was going to change.

“Threaten an ex? Intriguing but no thanks. Provide information on a kidnapper? If I’m not the kidnapper then there’s nothing I can do. Protection detail? I’ll probably get bored to death before any threat appears. Hell I might even take out the employer myself. Wait a second.” She suddenly glanced at one of the pictures the employer sent. It was a body. The body itself didn’t matter to Katie, but what was interesting was how pale the body was. The man was six feet tall and had packed muscles all over his body, but his skin was white as paper.

Vampire? Katie rose her eyebrows. Out of all the ways she was hit, she has never experienced being sucked dry, at least not like this.

She tilted her head, smiled, poured a cup of boiled coffee down her throat, and accepted the mission.

The employer was a mob boss. Katie didn’t know what his real name was, and she didn’t really care. Caring was boring.

“ID!” Two men in black were at the gate of the manor of the boss. They were obviously packed. Katie took out her phone and flashed her interface at the guards, who immediately backed off. One of the guards said something into the walkie talkie, and a man in his forties walked over. He had a solid look, and even the grey hair on his head couldn’t cover his fierceness.

“Call me Mr. Hunter. I’m Boss’ butler.” The man wasn’t the boss. From what Katie knew the boss was hunted. There was no reason for him to come out of the safety of his safe house and into a potentially risky position. “You must be the Queen of Spades.”

Katie nodded. This mission wasn’t limited to her alone. Anyone with a clearance level above 5 could join. ShadowNet adopted a distinct clearance level that evaluated the individual users based on their successfulness in terms of completing their mission and the comment the employers made. The levels went from 0 to 10. Katie was at level 8. Her mission success rate was 95%. If she actually tried, she might get even higher.

Boss promised not only a handsome basic payment but also possibly additional reward. This was more than enough to bring a hell lot of guns for hire to the mansion.

Mr. Hunter led Katie into the mansion. As she moved, she saw dozens of mob members patrolling around. All of them were carrying weapons, and Katie could tell all of these members have blood on their hand. Katie smiled. This was interesting. The boss not only spent a substantial amount of cash on ShadowNet but also fortified his mansion extensively. This meant one thing. The boss knew the attacker held supernatural power, and since he didn’t have supernatural means to counter it, he had no choice but to get as much firepower as possible.

If it was someone else here, #JeanTurner, she might try to capitalize on that knowledge and find a way to use it to her advantage, but Katie...like she always said, thinking is boring. She was here for the fighting. Trying to use tricks to her advantage would be against the point.

Katie and Mr. Hunter walked by four SMG wielding men and into a large room. There, at the top seat, sat a large man. The suit he wore seemed to be incapable of holding back his giant form. The black tattoo of a dragon was on the back of his right arm. Two lines of seats were along the hall. Some of them were occupied while others were empty.

As Katie sat down in one of the seats, Mr. Hunter went to Boss and whispered a name. Boss nodded and glanced at Katie, but the worry in his eyes didn’t lessen.

For the next ten minutes, more guns for hire kept on walking into the room. As more entered, Katie keenly noticed the amount of guns for hire was much more than the amount of seats.

This meant the ones who came in late would have to stand while waiting for trouble to arrive. For one thing, this was tiring, and fatigue in the legs could make them more vulnerable when the inevitable attack comes. For another, this would be embarrassing. None of the outlaws would say yes to standing up while others had a chance to sit.

This led to some small scale conflict. Katie saw a man previously standing punch a seated man in the back of his neck and knock him out and took his seat.

Boss didn’t even bat an eye. He merely waved his hand, and two mob members walked in and dragged the unconscious man away. If anything, he was glad this happened. If these guns for hire couldn’t even get a seat, then they were obviously not worth his money. How could he trust them to protect his life?

The boss was desperate for firepower, but someone as experienced as him knew a few idiotic allies might do more harm than good. He might just get them out of here now. He wanted the best of the best.

At first Katie was gladly observing the fight around her, and when a man walked up to her, her smile grew even wider.