The dark fields littered with waste, debris, and creatures hiding in the night shone of the skylights that still shone from the heavens above.

The light shone on my violet-blueish skin as well, but I was not reveling in it. My head was in full swing, for I was shaking like a leaf in the wind for planning my next move.

A Sun-blessed citizen of Sundoor had died at the hands of a Wastelands dweller.

There would be retribution. These things just did not happen to Citizens. They couldn’t.

“Guys…” I needed to get their attention, yet my voice was but a whisper. “You will run away now, take the roundabout way, do whatever in the Abyss you want, but leave this place, now.”

“What? The danger has been soothed; I don’t think that’s there's any need to...” Faruq didn't finish his sentence because he noticed my look and then understood.

“Fuck..."

He turned the other way, transforming into the perfect subordinate, “Alright. Roana, message as many of our people as you can. We need to run, now, as a group!”

“What? What is going on? Loke?” Nova called, confused.

“The Inquisition will be here shortly,” I said. “As soon as the people down there will start heading back where they came from.”

“Why? What’s happened?” Harlow asked, taking me by the hands.

I didn't want to admit it, but I had to. “I’ve fucked up." I shut my eyes in acceptance. "One of them died.”

Silence followed those words, then a heavy note of dread left the mouths of the two archers that had remained above with us.

The sound was soon followed by Alistar appearing from the broken stairs.

“I've received Roana's message, but I’m not going anywhere. I told you I wanted to be with you last time, didn't I?"

“No, Star, you have to leave, you have--” He didn't let me finish.

“I don’t care about what you have to say, Loke. I won’t live in fear anymore. I’ve healed from the Plague with my own strength. I’ve done that to live, not to survive. I won’t go back and hide from those bastards. I wouldn’t be able to live with the shame,” he shook his head. “No, I’m standing here with you. Wherever this might lead us. Just, someone get Lem home, please.”

“I won’t be leaving either,” said Roana after taking a long breath. “I would be leading them to my mother. No, I’ll stay right here with you. To the death, if that’s what it takes, besides," she added darkly, "I've already been there. It wouldn't change much if I died now."

“Ro…” I couldn’t help but be surprised by those words.

“Loke! What is going on!? What do you want to do?” Asked a terrified Nova.

“I’ll…” I took a big breath, “I’ll have to kill all those that managed to see us, fight down the rest while the others leave. Then I’ll find a place to hide.”

“What!?” said both Nova and Harlow in a chorus.

I gripped Harlow's hands even tighter, “Harlow, please, go home. I need to know you are safe. Those that have seen you will not live to tell the tale; please go back to your father. We’ll see each other again.”

I did not allow her to answer. Instead, I turned toward Faruq.

“Faruq, there are things I need to ask you, but this is not the time. I’m entrusting my sister and the other’s well-being in your hands. You are going to get them home, safe. I believe in your abilities.”

“I would love to fight together with you, but… you are my captain. I will do as you say,” after saying so, he beat his chest with his right hand three times in fast succession.

I knew that gesture; it belonged to an ancient memory, something I barely remembered. Something I had seen Venk, my master, do. He was saluting somebody, but I could just not remember who that somebody might have been. I just remembered the rainy day of training. But it was clear that it did not belong to the Sunguard or the Church of the Sun. It was something else, and I was sure, that Venk had used it for a reason.

Harlow followed the gesture with her eyes too, I saw her, yet it was not the right time to inquire; it would have to wait.

“No! I won’t leave you!” Nova shouted, but although I had heard her, I faked not to. I let her think that her voice had been eclipsed by the shouts that started rising from the road below. People had noticed Berthold’s death.

“Faruq, get them, and leave."

He took Nova, placing a hand on her mouth, then punching her in the guts to shut her down just as she summoned her Shade blade to counter the tackle.

I jerked at that, but it was the right thing to do, probably the only one.

“Loke, I will not stop you. I just want to say that If you can come to the hill. We have things that... may be useful to you… weapons, a hiding place, whatever you need."

“You don’t doubt I’ll make it out of here, do you?” I smiled.

"Not, at all. I've known you for a long time, Loke Nightfold. You are not one to disappear in the moment of need." Saying so, she took my head in her hands and drew me in for a kiss.

When she withdrew, I could see her arms convert into hammers. She turned to Faruq, “Lead the way."

I saw them dropping down the building with a jump.

I turned toward the petrified archers, “I’m sorry for the bow, Adam. I’ll bring you a much better one the next time I see you, but for now, I'll have to keep it.”

The younger boy just nodded.

“Go,” I beckoned more than said.

Then I turned to the others, “Are you sure you are up to this?” Alistar and Roana were the last ones remaining.

“Yes,” Roana simply answered; her face was a mask of decisiveness.

Alistar bumped my shoulder, “It’s gonna be one heck of a fight, but you need to take out the archers first, or it will be very short.”

I nodded to Alistar, then I turned to Roana, “Ro, tell me I can do it.”

She smirked, “You can. But, aren't you abusing this? What will happen when you don't have me around anymore?”

Just as I had done in the past, I did not fight the Command back with my Willpower; I let it sink in. Then I answered her, "Then I guess I'll have to keep you around forever."

"If you phrased that slightly better, I would have taken it as a proposal," she answered, snickering.

I turned the other way, too focused to chat now. I raised my bow up into the sky.

The increasingly higher shouts of indignity for the death of one of their own taunted me, yet I couldn't care anymore.

But as I let go of a Trick Shot, a moment of hesitation shook my whole being, even passing over the Command I had been imparted.

Was I about to slaughter a bunch of people all over again?

Was I ready for that? I forced myself, shaking the doubts away, now was not the time. I was ready.

I was not the best with a longbow, but I did not need precision with this one; I just needed a way through, and the arrow I freed into the sky would be exactly that.

The next thing I did was shoot another arrow at one of the two Hunters I had thrown down the building. The one that had not received any real damage.

The Hunter noticed it, he had been looking at me, but he had yet to understand how my ability worked.

When I transferred, I was right in front of him, and my Spectre’s Dignity found itself a house under his jaw, passing right through his skull. Next, his good-looking bow found my hands, and amid shouts of surprise and stupor, I transferred toward the first arrow I had shot, barely still in flight.

I found myself behind the other Hunter belonging to the group of bastards that had shone their lights on us. I reaped his life as well and stole his quiver as I did so. It took me a few more seconds than I wanted it to, but I took it and placed it on the back of my belt.

I pointed my bow on top of the building on which the Sundoorians had climbed, then transferred myself there. The whole ordeal had taken me barely ten seconds.

Calmly getting to the edge of the roof, I took in a breath and roared.

With my hood covering my face, I roared, “Whoever wants to live. Drop your weapon now, or face the consequences. Whoever stays, know that you WILL die today.”

Saying so, I started a barrage of Track and Trace, scaring the shit out of the almost forty citizens that had gathered near the two buildings; there were more around the place, but not everyone was interested in what was going on.

As I waited, I could see the people, my people starting to leave the clock-tower with the tail of my eyes. There were already monsters waiting for them, but they needed to face them by themselves. Still, as long as Harlow and Faruq were by their side, they would quickly get rid of pretty much anything the Dump could throw at them. It was still the Flow Season; after all, the very troublesome creatures came out during the Shade Season.

Knowing they would be okay made me grow steadier, my worries lessening by a great degree.

I could do this.

I could do whatever I wanted. I also discovered whispers that were pressing on my mind; it was likely that one of my Trace II Perks had been promoted after all those Track and Trace I had launched.

My attention was stolen by something else.

“Do you have any idea what you’ve done!?” asked the Aisha girl.

“I do, but they don’t call me the Night Hunter without reason, do they? I mean, it’s night, and I’m about to hunt you all down!” I said, crazed, always playing the part.

I had to show them that I was without fear while, at the same time, instill it in their heart. The less they fought back, the better our chances of surviving and the fewer people we would have to kill.

However, that moment, somebody made the mistake of Tracing me, it might have been a rare Skill, but that was already the second person that had it.

Soon, I had my arrow aimed at a Gunslinger that stupidly took too much time to raise his guns. Still, he had made the unlucky mistake of Tracing me. It meant… death.

My arrow found the Gunslinger who did it. But the moment my arrow left the bow, he dodged it.

However, he did not evade the arbalest bolt that Alistar shot at him.

Star had likely followed the exchange, and to hit at that distance, Roana had surely used Command on him to bolster his abilities. It was the only explanation. But I was thankful because it gave me enough time to end the Gunslinger with my following arrow.

The arrows I had taken were made with extremely smooth and high-quality wood. I had never seen one of them intact before. I had only found ammo of that kind broken in the wastes littering the Dump.

People shouted as another of them died, and I could see a couple of them starting to escape in the direction of their Flow-cart.

Screams of “No!” came from the Aisha girl.

I had no idea what such a diligent and intelligent girl, capable of seeing through my entire plan in a second, was doing among such disreputable characters and in such a shady place.

Answers to those questions had to wait, though. I could not allow those few to escape; it was too soon.

I aimed and released to the one running ahead of them.

It was a girl, but I would not let myself be stopped by that.

For them, our lives meant nothing; I would not let my principles discourage me from upholding my will for my people to survive this whole ordeal I had brought on them.

To fix it was my responsibility.

The regular arrow brought her down while I appeared from the Trick Shot. Slicing one of the other four Sundoorians’ hands and fingers.

It was only the start.

I took an arrow from my quiver and threw it to one of the escaping guys. Panicked as they were, they had stopped reasoning. Six of them would have been enough to corner me. More than enough, but they didn’t.

As I drove my knife into one of the other’s neck. I relieved him of his short saber.

When I threw it, the saber’s Shade copy exploded in an explosion of frost and ice that was much more dangerous than an arrow. It was almost as powerful as a grenade. Three down, one incapacitated, two to go.

They fell to my knife sooner than I thought possible. Panic played against them, lowering their fighting abilities. But then I felt a Flow-gun’s explosion, followed by a scream.

Somebody else had tried shooting at me, likely another Flow-gun user. They were common among Sundoorians. But once again, Alistar intervened.

The Fisher Sub-Class’s Perception was showing its worth.

Also, I saw the Half-Elf girl run at me with somebody else in tow.

Magicians were dangerous yet physically weak. They also shone at the medium range since, going further, their Magic lost its potency; it didn’t only if they were not specialized in long-range Magic. But that meant being an Ultimate Class holder. I doubted there were Ultimate Classes among these bastards.

There was no need to say that if a magician got too close, their Magic would hurt them as well, if not otherwise Skilled.

Judging from her momentum, the woman running toward me had no intention of slowing down anytime soon; she was whether crazy or had a Skill that made her immune to her own Magic.

Anyway, I did not aim at her, but once again toward the sky, then released the Trick Shot, only to nock another arrow still and shoot it at someone at random among those that seemed ready to fight; it luckily was one of those that had seen us.

I needed to inoculate them with the fear of the Night Hunter, or I would have to end up killing them all, which was not only crazy but also rather unlikely. My time was running short, the less they were and the more spread out, the fewer my chances of coming out alive and buy the others time to escape.

The Shade arrow transformed into me, appearing with a pirouette; I took out the man’s life by almost bisecting his throat with the noticeable scary sounds of air ripped apart by a sword.

As it seemed, thirty-four points in Strength were enough to make a dagger slash feel like a sword slash.

I reaped that guy’s life the very next moment.

I rolled on the ground, got in position, and shot another arrow toward the blameless sky; then I felt the pull of the previous Shade arrow descend toward the ground. I transported through it, and my knife found somebody else’s back.

I had no idea who I was hitting anymore, but not one among the people I was fighting was higher than level thirty-five; no one came even remotely close to level 50 and thus ready to ascend to the Ultimate Classes. I did not need to fear for myself.

I repeated the action once more, and then again; an arrow took flight, I killed, transferred, then freed another arrow.

It was like the coming of the Reaper of Souls of which the Church of the Sun talked about.

When I repeated the vicious cycle in which randomness stopped anyone from predicting my next coming, I had likely killed ten people already and instilled the fear of death among them.

That was when Alistar and Roana joined the fray.

I saw them come out of the building like bullets.

I expected that Alistar would turn out to be vicious in a fight, given his newfound love for warring given by the safety he felt from being the top of the class in Forms training. However, the hate I saw in Roana’s eyes was something I did not know about, something I did not expect to be there, not in that… sheer amount.

Was it that those who usually bought slaves were Sundoorians, or something older, related to her previous life?

She had never spoken to us about it. But I could see it reflected in the way in which she stopped someone from cleaving her in two by using Command.

I could see the boy turn the pointy end of his saber to his own guts, and Roana helped him push the blade inside. It was utterly terrifying.

Instead, when Alistar fought, I could see the magnificent and ideal ways of how a defender should fight.

The very nature of his Skills, Attributes, and Form, specialized in fishing for a target, to then surprise and destroy.

However, these people we were fighting were not delvers; they specialized in using Flow, in using their abilities during the day. They were regular Citizens, although of a higher level than us. I suspected that had we met true delvers, it would have ended up differently.

As I paused to stare at those I had allowed running away; I saw the Thermomancer of whom I had lost sight of, attacking Alistar.

She got close enough, then she raised her hands to her mouth, palms facing inwards, and she blew.

What came out of her hands was not a breathe. It was something looking like a solar flare.

It washed over Alistar’s entire body, he defended behind his shield, but the scope of the attack was much too wide to defend against and rather fast too.

I was paralyzed, and yet, I felt hopeful. It didn't seem like a killing blow, or at least not for someone with Alistar’s Skills and Constitution.

When, in fact, the flare dissipated, a barely red-hot spear hit the woman on the side of the head, sending her tumbling.

I don’t know why I said what I said then, but something was brewing in my mind, some sort of plan, and it required that young woman to live.

“Don’t kill her! We need her!” I shouted.

Alistar shouted back, “Damn fucker almost ignited my new armor and spear on fire! Harlow just made them!”

The Thermomancer had gone ahead of herself, but the only reason why Alistar had survived that attack and had not been cooked in his new, shiny armor was because of his massive Constitution, which paired with his Duress Skill, whose passive now worked even at night, gave him a colossal defense.

However, while we talked, people were starting to leave. Some of the other Sundoorians that were not present on the scene had likely understood what was going on and took the chance to depart on their Flow-carts.

Our time was running out.

I transferred to a nearby Flow-cart, letting the runners go and focusing on something else.

I had learned how to drive one in my long stay at the Hill-house with Logan and Harlow. It was straightforward.

So I got on one of them and brought it back toward us.

Roana and Alistar were still laying waste to scared shitless Sundoorians when I got to them.

“Hop on; it’s time to go. Bring the Thermomancer over."

“Wait, it’s important,” said Roana, who went toward one of the bodies, the another still, and another as well.

She was picking things up. I had no idea how she had noticed them, but her senses were different from mine.

When Roana came back, she had brought a new weapon, leather armor for herself, and bags with utilities.

These Sundoorians intended to stay the night. They had brought a lot of things.

“Alright, we are good to go now."

“Then pick a quiver for me as well since we’re at it, or at least some arrows."

She grinned, “I already did.”

When we were finally ready to depart, I felt and heard something that couldn’t else be but little Loki.

He literally dove inside of the Flow-cart.

I was a little disconcerted since Harlow was supposed to have taken him with her.

Did something happen to the escaping party? I sent the cub questioning feelings, with images of Nova getting hurt by a monster. But the cub answered with negative feelings.

He could understand me thanks to my Skill, though just a little.

“So you escaped; you were looking for me?” The answer was a positive-happy feeling.

“Damn, he’s intelligent.” I said to the others, “Much more than any other pet I had before, must be because of the peculiar way in which he was born.”

The cub purred as he took place on Roana’s lap; she stayed on the back of the Flow-cart with Alistar that looked after the unconscious Thermomancer.

“So,” the Kobold said, “What’s the plan now?”

“The plan is that we go to the Wide Peaks, where they cannot easily follow, then we find contact with the nomads. We’ll hide with them during the winter. If anything, we’ll learn how to survive thanks to them.”

“Seems like a decent plan,” he said, shrugging.

“Yeah,” Roana added, “as long as we don’t get gulped down by an Earth-Dragon, it seems doable.”

We departed soon after, speeding through the ruins that were the Dump.

As I sped through them, I tried to force my mind away from the many lives I had just taken; I found myself thinking about the Dump.

It must have been a city before, maybe a long time ago, but how had it gotten like this? It was much too old even for those with Logan’s knowledge to say.

However, as the Thermomancer had said, the Dump was not unique; there were others here and there.

If anything went wrong, we could hide in them too, at least until we found a better plan, but for now. This would have to do.

So we left behind everything we held dear, departing into the darkness for their defense and to fix my damn mistake.

I just hoped that my friends accompanying me in this crazy journey would not suffer too much because of me and my, once again present, misfortune.