The mysterious hunter stood over a perfectly stamped boot print in a patch of mud and frowned down at it, showing that he wasn’t stupid. Velik had left it there as bait not two minutes earlier, reasoning that it was easier to provide the man with a reason to stop than to try to catch up to him without being noticed.

The hunter had immediately recognized the trap for what it was, but it was too late already. The night was Velik’s time. He activated the [Shadow Step] enchantment on his cloak and rushed through the dark mirror of the world he’d slipped into, only coming back out when he was within arm’s reach of the hunter.

The man reacted immediately, and was already spinning in place with a pair of short swords in hand to slice at Velik. Now that they were drawn and visible, he saw whispers of mana running through them that he recognized from his own weapons. [Sharp] and [Mending] were standard weapon enchantments, along with [Durable] once the wielder’s physical got to the point where metal couldn’t stand up to the amount of force they were capable of bringing to bear.

The man was faster than a striking viper, his blades barely even a blur as they whipped through the air. For someone that [Apex Hunter] put solidly in the low forties, he was quite possibly the fastest human Velik had ever met, besides himself.

Unfortunately for the hunter, Velik had the initiative in this contest and was already moving before the man even realized he was there. That, combined with his higher level and a physical of over 200 meant that it wasn’t a real contest.

Velik slapped the leading short sword down with his bare hand, forcing it into the path of the trailing weapon and tangling them both up in a single motion. A twist of his hand broke the hunter’s grip, knocking one sword loose to hit the dirt. A flashing kick flung the other sword away, leaving the hunter disarmed. He tried to dance back but was too slow to avoid being grabbed around the neck.

“Ssshhhh,” Velik hissed. Only his iron grip prevented the man from doing more than quietly gag. “I’m not going to hurt you. I just need to know what you’re doing out here. We’re going to walk away from your friends’ camp, just a few miles in that direction. You behave yourself and answer my questions, and you’ll get back to them unharmed.”

The hunter clawed at Velik’s hand, but his nails failed to even scratch skin, let alone loosen his grip. He kicked out with his legs, catching Velik’s stomach with repeated blows. They had no effect. Or rather, they did a little bit of damage, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the healing Velik’s ring pumped out every second.

Four throwing knives descended from the air, held up by [Telekinesis] and spinning lazy circles as they approached the hunter. As one, all of them pointed themselves at the hunter’s face. In the wake of the implied threat, Velik softly said, “This doesn’t have to be painful for you. I suggest cooperating.”

The man’s eyes burned with anger, but he knew he was outmatched. He nodded once, and Velik released him. The hunter reclaimed his weapons, sheathed them in sharp, forceful moves, then turned and strode off away from the camp.

“You are foreigner,” the man said in a sharp accent a few minutes later after they halted. “You should not be here.”

“I’m leaving as soon as I can,” Velik said. If you’d let me.

Somehow, he doubted the local hunters were going to be so accommodating. Everyone had told him that Slokara was heavily militarized. It was entirely likely that this group would either attack him or report back to their command for reinforcements.

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“Do you have papers?”

“Papers? You mean a border pass?”

“Yes, from before the gates closed.”

“Not on me,” Velik said. It was kind of a lie, but technically, that pass had existed at one point. Back before the corruption had been discovered, he’d been on his way to Slokara as part of a vault seeking expedition. They’d never made it far enough to actually claim and use those passes, but supposedly, the paperwork had been completed.

“It is illegal for foreigners to travel without their papers,” the man said immediately.

“Well, I don’t have them. What are you going to do about it?”

“Me? Nothing. I am not patrol. Not my job.”

“Then what is your job?” Velik asked.

“Warden. Protect civilians from monsters. Something changed here. Valuable land.” The man paused for a moment and tried to come up with the words he wanted. “Shika… Parts. Um. Resources? Disappear. We come see why. Find you. Foreigner.”

Velik wasn’t buying the act. He’d heard the other two speaking a fluent mix of languages, though mostly Slokaran with some Ghestalese mixed in. There was no reason to think this one wasn’t equally capable. It was far more likely that the hunter was trying to get Velik to underestimate him, to bluff in some way.

Whether that was malicious or just the man doing whatever he could to survive against someone stronger than him, Velik didn’t know. It didn’t matter much, either. “If I said I’ll be out of here in the next few days, and that I have no interest in messing with anybody here, would that help?”

“No. Foreigner must be taken to edge of country and returned home.”

That was a lie. Torwin had warned him in no uncertain terms that if they were attacked by Slokaran soldiers, that it was a fight to the death. They wouldn’t be deported if they were captured. They’d be executed, possibly on the spot. Velik was hoping a warden wasn’t necessarily attached to the Slokaran military, but he kind of doubted it.

“I can’t leave until I finish my work,” Velik said. “Only a few more days. Then I’ll go on my own. Perhaps we can come to an agreement?”

He held out a hand and materialized a small stack of decarmas, then a second one next to it. It wasn’t that he expected to be let go. Likely, the three hunters would still try to kill or capture him in the end, but they wouldn’t get any of his decarmas if they killed him. His hope was that their greed would win out, that they’d let him pay them off for a few days until he found that damn seed, and then he’d simply disappear.

The hunter weighed the decarmas with his eyes, then shook his head. “No, I have duty. Law must be bound for.”

Velik struggled not to roll his eyes. Translation: offer a bigger bribe. He manifested another fifty decarmas. Naked greed glittered in the hunter’s eyes. “That much, for each of us, for every day,” he said. “You finish, we escort you to border. You leave.”

A part of Velik wanted to believe the guy. If he’d thought the bribe had actually worked, he’d have happily handed over the money to avoid the confrontation. Unfortunately, there were two very good reasons he was sure the man was only pretending to cooperate. They were sneaking up behind Velik while their companion worked to keep Velik’s attention pointed forward.

Maybe the greed was real, but it was more the greed of claiming a hundred decarmas off the books after they killed him. Or maybe all three of them would actually accept the deal, once they knew about it. Considering one of them was lining up a pair of arrows in parallel on his bowstring and aiming them just behind his left ear, Velik didn’t think he had good chances here.

“You should have cooperated,” Velik said.

The man’s brow furrowed. If Velik hadn’t known any better, he’d have believed the acting. The hunter was good at it, possibly even with a skill devoted to it. But, at the end of the day, he was a hunter, and a damn good one. There was no way he didn’t see the other two hunters positioning themselves. If he was serious about taking the bribe and not just stringing Velik along, he’d have done something to call off their ambush.

Maybe I should have taken him a few more miles out. Or maybe I forced him to miss a check in. If he’d been truly alone, he might have actually taken the bribe, but he’s not going to do it in front of his buddies. They might string him up, too.

“Last chance,” he said quietly. “Calm them down. Everybody can walk away happy here. This doesn’t need to be bloody.”

“I do not follow your words,” the hunter said with his fake, stumbling accent.

I guess this is what I get for trying to be nice. I should have just killed him five minutes ago so it would have been two-on-one instead of three.

The decarmas vanished back into Velik’s status and his spear slithered down his arm to form into his hand. The hunter jumped back, his swords appearing in his hand as if by magic, and the fight was on.