I knew that casting Mist would likely bring me trouble. With so many Hunters interested in snagging a unique kill, being found was bound to happen. I just didn’t think that it would happen so fast. Unfortunately I didn’t have a way to explain why a Melee E Hunter would have magic. Even if I shouted through the mist, let them know about me, it was a real possibility I’d be dead before they understood they were killing one of their own.

I would run away, but after looking for so long, I didn’t want to let the Aero-Teuthida get away. Unfortunately, there were ten Hunters inside my mist, three of which were between me and my target.

A Mage on the branch fifteen feet away thrust out her hand towards me. I moved at the same time that foot-long icicles formed and shot at me fast as arrows. Two of the icicles missed me entirely. The third brushed my cheek, leaving behind an icy hot pain. A second later, I felt a cool drip of blood sliding down to my chin. The icicles kept going behind me until they smashed into trees, leaving huge holes as they exploded on contact.

I gritted my teeth and cast Stealth, and jumped off my ledge. Hopefully it was enough to hide me from them. Just as my toe left solid mist, a fire blast from the north and south landed where I’d been. I dropped ten feet but kept the center point of my mist at its original starting point. If I moved it with me, the Hunters would follow. And I wanted them as far away as possible away from the Aero-Teuthida. I already lost one to a random show of, well, pride. I didn’t need to lose another one for another stupid reason. Two feet above the bottom of my mist, my foot landed on solid mist and I sprint towards my target hiding at the edge of my cloud. There wasn’t even a ripple in the vapor around me as I moved.

“I didn’t hit it, did I?” A woman yelled.

“Wait, where did it go?” A man gasped.

“Is it gone? Why is the cloud still here?” A different man asked.

The Hunters shifted around, trying to see around me, as I slipped right under them.

One of the Melee Hunters turned in my direction. “I think I can feel something?” he muttered. Luckily, he was part of the north group and too far from me to do any damage.

“Where?” A female Mage asked. “God, this mist is so thick! And it's distorting my perception.”

“That way.” He lifted his hand and pointed.

Since I had ‘eyes in the back of my head’ right now, I knew exactly where he pointed. I was already out of the way by the time a fireball lit up the mist. I slipped around the tree and put the thick trunk between me and the other Hunters. Technically, I could easily cancel Mist right now since Stealth was doing a good enough job of concealing me, but it would reveal my monster — my kill. I wasn’t sharing.

I looked up through the tree. A couple feet above me was a bushy fan of fat, green leaves. Just under the bush, where I wouldn’t have even seen it if I wasn’t searching from this angle, was a hole that was only three or four inches wide. The monster was in there. I gripped my kindjal and got ready to stab into the hole. If I was fast enough, I should be able to critically injure it before it flew away.

“So frustrating!” A man roared. “I know it's here somewhere! Damn ghost! Damn cloud!” He swung his sword and struck the tree that I was hiding behind.

The tree groaned as a violent shudder rained leaves down from above. A crack appeared in the trunk below me and the whole tree tilted a couple inches toward me. Startled, I pushed my hands out against the tree, I didn’t know if I was trying to right the tree or keep it from falling. I couldn’t do either, anyway. Although the Hunters weren’t standing on this particular tree, wasn’t he worried that the tree would fall and hit the branches they were standing on? If they fell, who knows who would survive?

The vibrations shook the cluster of leaves over my head. Suddenly, the Aero-Teuthida burst out of its hiding hole and shot through the mist like a silver torpedo, right out of my cloud.

Ah, damn! I lunged after it, pulling my mist with me.

“What? After it!”

I could hear the yells of the Hunters that I left behind me, but there were more important things to worry about it. Like the absurd speed of the flying squid as it darted around trees. Seriously, between me and the monster, I knew which was more like a ghost. If it wasn’t for the mist that I kept ten feet ahead of me, that the Aero-Teuthida kept slipping in and out of, I would have lost it long ago.

The Hunters were still loudly running after me, shooting magic into my mist. I guess the one good thing about the Aero-Teuthida zig-zagging around the trees was that the Hunters kept running into dead ends. The bad thing was it only hung them up for a second before they jumped to another branch and kept coming for me. And it wasn’t just a dozen Hunters chasing me anymore — the group had doubled in size within a hundred feet of the chase.

The silvery squid slipped around a tree, trying to throw me off again.

I formed a solid block at an angle just past the tree and landed on it, using it to shoot off and change my trajectory. All the while, I kept my eyes on the prize. I Mirrored my kindjal and got ready to throw it. If I used Critical Hit, it would make things a lot easier, because I was guaranteed to hit the monster. Unfortunately, if it targeted the energy crystal, it would make the whole monster disappear. And I’d be back to square one. I was going to have to hit it with my own skill, no cheating allowed.

I took aim and threw my kindjal just as the monster darted in front of a wide, wet tree. The short sword cut through light rain and hit the flying squid, piercing through one of the arms and nailing the monster to the tree.

Elation bubbled in my chest. A perfect hi—

My eyes widened. Two icicles shot toward me, the first skimmed my left side, slicing right through my armor and leaving a frigid, burning gash. The second embedding in my left shoulder, just under the clavicle. The sharp point tore through my skin and muscle. A second later, the ice, so cold that it was burning, spread over my skin, forming an inch wide ring around the wound. It stopped the bleeding, but jolt after jolt of agony shot through my body, racing from my shoulder down to my toes.

A scream ripped from my throat and the momentum of my jump faded, causing me to drop. My mind was semi-numb with pain, but I was conscious enough to create a solid platform to land on. Crouched on my hand and knees, my left arm jostled and sent another intense agonizing pulse tormented my body. I screamed again and knelt there, gasping in pain.

“Stop shooting at me, you sons of bitches!” My voice was distorted with pain. “I’m not a monster!”

Silence greeted my words as twenty-five Hunters stopped running, about half just inside my mist cloud. The ones in my mist, that I could actually ‘see,’ looked at each other.

“Did you hear that?” The Mage that shot me asked, her eyes wide. “Could the Josu Ghost be a person?”

“It’s a trick!” The Melee Hunter next to her insisted, his beard wafting with each heavy breath he took. “The monster is trying to trick us!”

Other Hunters joined in the argument, throwing options around.

While they were stalled, I shifted back onto my knees, biting back a painful groan. My right hand shook as I reached up and gripped the icicle in my shoulder. About two inches were in my body, leaving six inches sticking out of my shoulder. With a quick jerk, I snapped the icicle in half. It wasn’t a clean snap at my skin, so there was an inch stub sticking out. It hurt when it rubbed against my armor, but the ice had stopped the bleeding, so it was okay to leave in until I got healed. As soon as the ice was broken, the pulsing pain that it kept emitting disappeared and gave me a second to breathe. I was still in intense pain, but at least I felt like I could handle it.

“But monsters don’t have a language!” another Hunter spoke up, looking just as concerned as the Mage.

“If it wasn’t a monster, why would it hide?” the first Melee Hunter demanded.

I gritted my teeth and threw the broken piece of ice at the Melee Hunter. “Because I want some peace and quiet!” I gasped out, almost regretting my actions. Just moving like that hurt, but god, if I didn’t want to peg him between the eyes with that ice.

He jerked to the side barely fast enough that I missed his face. The ice dinged off the side of his helmet and fell to the ground. “It’s attacking me!” he gasped and brandished his sword.

Instantly, the other Hunters, especially the ones in the back, went into attack mode.

I jumped forward towards my Aero-Teuthida hanging on the tree. Just as I flattened myself against the tree, two fire blasts, an arch of lightning and another round of icicles filled the space that I used to be on. The magic hit each other and exploded, illuminating the mist with brilliant colors.

Fury boiled in my mind and overflowed in an eruption of spite. “Damn you! Leave me alone!” I snarled and thrust my hand out towards the Hunters. You wanna ghost? Well, eat it!

Three solid mist walls appeared in front of the line of Hunters lined along the tree branches, one on each group. With the movement of my hand, they shot towards the Hunters. I didn’t know I could even do that, but I wasn’t thinking rationally right now. They couldn’t see or feel the presence of the walls and were caught completely off guard. Since I was a lower level then them, they should have been able to break through my barriers. Because I had the element of surprise, several Hunters were pushed off the branches in each group before the walls disintegrated in a puff of smoke. Hunters reached out and grabbed at their falling companions and caught all but one. The loudmouthed, unlucky Melee Hunter that pissed me off so badly, dropped to the ground like a pile of steel.

With just a moment of hesitation, three other Hunters jumped after him. I guess he wasn’t too unlucky if his team was willing to take on Velociorheas for him. There weren’t any under us right now, but I could feel them coming.

I didn’t have any time to revel in my new ability because all thoughts were cut off when four sharp hooks stabbed into my right arm. I hissed and focused on the manus at the end of the Aero-Teuthida’s tentacle, the four barbs along the flattened area, digging into my skin. With a jerk, the silvery squid convulsed against the blade pinning it to the tree. Just as I stabbed my second kindjal towards the monster, it ripped away from the tree, leaving its damaged leg still nailed to the bark. My attack sank uselessly into the trunk as my target slipped through the air and out of my mist, leaving me with four throbbing gashes on my arm as it pulled away.

Oh no you don’t! Like a woman, I lunged after the Aero-Teuthida and chased it, dragging my mist with me to hide my monster from unwanted eyes. Fading into the distance behind me was the chaotic group of Hunters, still trying to pull their companions up, while others in the back of the group were trying to get around them to chase after me. On the ground, I could hear the sounds of fighting and Velociorhea screeched. But they could all kiss my ass for all I cared.

What mattered was catching that flying squid.

As I ran, I couldn’t help notice that there was something wrong with the cuts on my arm. The blood wasn’t coagulating. The bright red liquid just kept leaking through the holes in my armor and leaving a trail of drops behind me — a trail that was quickly gathering a growing group of Velociorheas. These things just didn’t stop, did they?

It hurt to move my left shoulder and my right hand was slick with blood, but I kept chasing. The Aero-Teuthida darted around a tree, trying to wiggle away again. I thrust my right hand up and a solid barrier shot out and smashed the squid against the wet bark. It was momentarily stunned before it started to wiggle and push through the barrier towards freedom. But that moment was all that I needed.

I landed in front of it and raised my foot. My boot crushed the flailing arms and tentacles, holding the monster in place while I stabbed into its large, circular eye just like how Maveric instructed me to. My blade sliced through like the monster was made out of warm butter until the tip hit the trunk. I had to be careful on the angle that it went. The energy crystal was between the eyes. I didn’t want to hit it and make the monster disappear.

The Aero-Teuthida struggled for a couple seconds before it finally died.

[+85 EXP]

[Task: Collect 2 Aero-Teuthida. (1/2)]

Breathing heavy and hurting all over, I took a second to simply lean on the tree. Even though it wasn’t from the ocean, the monster still gave off a strong fishy smell. Combined with the rusty smell of my blood, the already muggy air smelled nauseating.

I glanced at my still freshly bleeding arm and sighed. When I was ready to move again, I took out the special container Maveric gave me and carefully put the monster’s carcass in it. I knew that the System wanted me to destroy the energy crystal without it even asking, but I didn’t. It would be counter-productive.

Now that I knew about the crystals, it felt wrong to purposefully bring one out of the Gate. But I hadn’t been thinking of that when I took the post. I’d only been thinking about money.

I condensed the mist to a thin strip under me and sat down with my back against the tree. My Stealth was about to run out, but it was worth it to pay the MP again. I glanced at the giant bird monsters under me and the Hunters above me who were trying to figure out where the Josu Ghost went.

Next time, I needed to think a little harder before I sold myself into a difficult situation. My lips pulled up in a sneer as I tipped my head back and let the cool rain fall on my face. Psh, yeah right. I can’t resist jumping head first right into these stupid situations, can’t I?