Seth’s eyes fluttered open, immediately filling with ice-cold rain. He forced himself off his back to a seated position and felt the back of his head. Only a little blood. He didn’t feel like he had a concussion. He’d gotten lucky.

“Freeze, fucker.”

Seth turned to see a line of twelve soldiers in full kit with assault rifles leveled at him emerging from the treeline. All of them had night vision goggles flipped down over their ballistic masks. He swallowed and began to stand.

“I said freeze, motherfucker!” Came the voice again. It was unclear which one spoke.

“Hey, this is one of them.”

“Yup, sure is. Just like Missouri kid. Echo Three. You’re up.”

One of the soldiers glided forward from the right end of the line, muzzle still trained on Seth. “Let me make this easy on you, kid,” came a growl from beneath the mask.

No. The demon raged.

Seth surged forward to the left of the soldier, hand sweeping the muzzle aside hard and putting the soldier between him and the line. The soldier reacted fast, lashing out with his left leg and jamming the heel of his boot into Seth’s stomach, knocking him back against a boulder. The gun trained on him a fraction of a second later. Seth threw his legs out from under him as three rounds shot out and impacted where his skull had been only a few seconds ago. Seth hauled back and kicked hard into the soldier’s kneecap, sending him sprawling. Seth jerked himself forward, placing his feet on the hips of the soldier and grabbing the shoulder straps of his plate carrier to lock him into a guard that also served as a meat shield.

A knife glinted in the darkness and the soldier stabbed Seth in the side. Seth’s vision went red as the pain engulfed him and his mind left him. Twisting his hips sideways, he put his right foot in the soldier’s armpit and the left on his knee. Seth executed a violent guard-sweep, slamming the soldier into the ground and taking top mount. Knife still buried in his side, Seth gripped the bottom edge of the ballistic mask and shoved forward, cranking on the soldier’s neck. He let out a cry of pain, but it wasn’t what Seth was looking for. A thick ballistic collar protected the man’s neck.

No matter. Seth moved forward, placing his knee under the soldier’s chin, and dropped his weight.

CRACK!

Seth’s skull bounced off the rock in front of him as something struck him in the back and slammed him forward. Seth reeled from the blow, throwing up his hands to defend himself. The knife still screamed in his side. His vision still blurred, he felt something slice across his forearms, metal blade chipping bones in the process. Seth shouted in pain and rage and charged forward, arms outstretched. His vision returned and he was able to secure the weapon arm of the second soldier, keeping the knife from making a second attack. Seth smashed his palm into the ballistic mask and drove forward, swinging his leg up and back hard. His calf cut across the back of the soldier’s knees and swept him to the dirt, the force from Seth’s arm ensuring his head hit the ground first.

“End him.”

Ten barrels blazed. Seth covered his head with his arms, turning away from the silenced pops.

Nothing hit him.

Seth uncovered his face to see a translucent violet barrier in front of the line of soldiers, cutting them off and absorbing every round into it. Seth looked up. Ben stood there, staff in hand. Lightning flashed behind him. “You want to do this? Wrong bloody magician!”

“Change of targets. Magic-user is priority, assume unaffiliated hostile.”

“Seth, you got those two?”

Seth nodded.

“Then let’s play bloody cricket,” shouted Ben from atop the cliff. Light began to coalesce in his free hand. The line of soldiers aimed up and began firing.

Seth turned to face the two soldiers both standing up on shaky legs. He snarled and pulled the knife from his side, heedless of the fact that might do more harm than good. He felt blood leaking into his clothes, but the rage and adrenaline kept his veins on fire and his mind sharp. The soldier in back drew and raised his pistol.

Seth pivoted left, putting the other soldier between him and the gun. The soldier lunged with his knife. Fast. Trained. Precise. Seth flung himself backwards, losing his knife in the process. Weapons were not something he trained with. A flurry of swings came his way, each taking place inside a small two-foot box. This soldier had control of his actions and he was out for blood.

Seth stepped to the outside of a swing, using elbow on elbow to block.

BANG!

A bullet narrowly missed Seth’s head. He could feel it rush by his ear. He latched on tight to the soldier’s arm and back-pivoted in the same direction he’d been going, completing a full circle and forcing the soldier back a bit more. Space to think.

The other soldier stepped to the right. Seth had no choice.

BANG!

Seth closed the distance with the knife-wielding soldier, avoiding the line of fire, but stepping into the range of a trained knife-fighter. The flurry of attacks came again and Seth struggled to keep his ground to avoid getting shot and defend. A cut opened on his left bicep and his left leg. Seth growled in pain, trying to trap an arm, but each attack was snapped cleanly back. The soldier’s body armor protected him from any blows-

KABOOM!

Brilliant white light exploded to their left, and Seth saw the line of soldiers being flung in every direction. That violet barrier absorbed the force, though, and left them unscathed. Seth’s attention returned a fraction of a second faster than the soldier and Seth took the opportunity, slamming his left shin into his enemy’s groin.

A protective cup greeted Seth’s shin and he snapped his leg backwards, growling in pain.

Seth’s stance shaky now, the soldier stabbed straight for his chest. No, he lunged. Overextended. Aggressive.

“Yaaaaaagh!”

Seth took a half shuffle backwards, pivoted on his now injured left leg, and swung his right leg like an axe. The inside of the soldier’s knee was the tree. Seth heard a horrifying snap as an ACL and meniscus were ripped from the bone. The knife went wide and Seth wrapped both arms around the soldier’s, then back-pivoted to the right as the soldier fell to the left.

CRACK!

The soldier’s elbow folded backwards, wrist jammed all the way to shoulder. Seth ripped the knife from the soldier’s palm and flung it before the one behind him could get off a shot. The knife clattered harmlessly off ballistic armor, but the soldier instinctively flinched. All the time Seth needed. He surged forward, planting one foot on the boulder to his right and launching himself through the air as he brought both feet into his chest.

At the last second, he shot both feet out, smashing them square into the center of the soldier’s plate carrier. They both fell in the mud and the gun went flying. The mud stung every cut on Seth’s body as he scrabbled to his feet and drew the gun from the drop holster on his hip. He trained it on the soldier, slower to get up due to the forty-five pounds of gear on his body.

BANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANG!

Seth emptied every round until the slide locked back in place to indicate an empty magazine. The soldier fell and lay still. Seth couldn’t tell where, but either the force of the bullets into his ballistic mask and face had knocked him out or one round had gotten through. Blood began to pool on top of the mud, mixing in with the rain and grime.

It was the latter.

Seth fumbled with one of the magazines, first trying to put it in backwards, then wrong side facing forward. On the third try, it clicked satisfyingly into the gun. The slide stayed locked back.

“Slide release on the side,” called Ben from the top of the cliff. His eyes were closed and he was holding his staff parallel to the ground, turning his head left and right like he was looking for something.

Seth pressed a small lever and the slide snapped forward. He holstered the gun and looked back up to Ben. “Did you kill them?”

“The ones down there. I’m scrying for more.”

“Where’s Nicole?”

“Scouting.”

Seth looked at the bodies scattered around him. His left leg felt suddenly weak and he sat down in the mud, splattering it everywhere. The cut was deep enough to affect the strength of his quad. Only his anger and adrenaline had allowed him to do anything he had done after receiving it. In fact, the fight had probably made it worse. Blood leaked from his various wounds, and his brain took the mental block off the stab wound in his side.

“Oh, fuck,” growled Seth, doubling over as it hit him.

“Seth, you alright?”

Seth opened his eyes to see Ben stepping down from the cliff as if there was a staircase there. Of course, why couldn’t the man levitate? Seth was on the ground in a few seconds and kneeling in the mud beside him. “Let me see those.”

Seth leaned back against the boulder and held his arms open. “Hurts… pretty damn bad.”

“Yup. That one’s deep. Probably pierced your kidney, so you’re in for a painful couple of days.

“I’m not gonna die?”

“No. I know Nicole has told you you’re not entirely human. You’ve got something else in you. She told me you’ve recovered from life-threatening wounds twice now. I can’t see auras like her, I’m not a divination specialist. But. Her description of your abilities gives me several things you could be. Alright, no. I lied. There’s a lot of things you could have mixed in you. Lamprey, vampire, lycanthrope… of any variety… ghoul, ghast, Nephilim…”

Seth lost track of the various monstrosities as Ben calmly listed off all things possibly wrong with his genetics. He was in too much pain to protest, but it horrified him how calmly Ben was talking about all these things that weren’t supposed to be real with the precision and serenity of doctor discussing various well-known diseases.

“Hell, you could even be- Ah. I know that look.” Ben sat down and leaned against the boulder with him. “Listen, lad. First thing about being a part of the real world now. Being a monster doesn’t mean you’re bad and being a human doesn’t mean you’re good. All it means is how statistically likely you are to be eaten by somebody if you fight them. And, for what it’s worth. Sometimes you have to be willing to be a monster to survive in this world. This real world you now occupy with me.”

Ben sighed and surveyed the battlefield. “Look around. See there? I killed ten men. Instantly. They had no hope of surviving what I hit them with. But they were going to kill me, and they were going to kill someone in my charge. So I had to be willing to do worse than them to survive. It’s cold. It’s cruel, it’s not the way the fake world likes to be. Turn the other cheek and all that. Turning the other cheek gets you killed. Trust in your fellow man, or monster, gets you killed. In my world, if someone attacks you, you have to assume they mean to end your life. Not mug you, not rob you, not scare you. End. Your. Life. And if you’ve still got things to do in this world, then you’ve got to be ready and willing to do the same.”

Seth nodded. It was all he could do with the overwhelming pain in his arms, side, and leg. He noticed now his fingers weren’t working properly, courtesy of the cuts to his forearms.

“Look, we need to get out of here. Nicole knows where to meet us, can you walk?”

“I can try.”

“Here.” Ben stood up and held out a hand. Seth took it and Ben hauled him up with a surprisingly strong grip. Seth wobbled on his feet, his left quad angry any time he gave it weight.

“I can limp.”

“Hm. No good. Here.” Ben grabbed a couple of small items out of his satchel and closed them in his hand. A puff of smoke escaped the sides. “Hold out your hand. Rain will wash this away, so be quick about it and snort it fast.”

“Snort it?”

“Adrenal powder, also known as magician’s coke. It’ll block the pain for twenty, maybe thirty minutes. Long enough to get to our ride.”

Seth held out his hands and a pile of black dust poured into them. No point in hesitating now. He buried his nose in the pile in inhaled, feeling it suck through his sinuses. Within seconds, a tingling numbness settled over his body. It made it a little hard to coordinate his movements, but he no longer felt his wounds screaming at him. Ben was already wrapping a bandage around his stomach. He cinched it tight and then wrapped his thigh just as quickly. “That’ll keep your blood where it belongs. Come on, let’s go.” They set off downhill through the forest.

Half a mile away, a Sergeant of Hunter-33 lay in the prone, covered in a thick ghillie suit. He adjusted his scope two clicks and then breathed out slowly, deeply, settling into the bottom of his respiratory cycle to take the shot.