The forest around Juniper Grove was old and wild. The climate was temperate with mostly pine trees. These trees were large, and they created an environment under them where humans and beasts could move on moss-covered ground.

  A while after waking up and quickly packing up, Lester was in the forest with the rest of the monster hunting group, and he experienced the full weight of the backpack that contained all the group's additional gear, which included a lot, from tools used in harvesting dead monsters to explosives used in killing the bigger beasts. It must have weighed around a ton. Maybe not in reality, but still it weighed a lot.

  Lester glanced around. He was in the middle of a column of five. In the front there was Whiskers armed with an assault rifle followed by Armie with her heavy machine gun. Behind Lester, was Lance with his big sniper rifle. Last on the line was Red. He held an assault rifle with a grenade launcher attachment.

  Suddenly, Whiskers, at the front, lifted his hand and everyone stopped. Armie approached him, then she signaled the others to come closer.

  "Some kind of a cat, I don't recognize," Whiskers said. "It came through here ten minutes ago. The thing weighs around one ton, but seems to move with grace despite this."

  Lester tried but couldn't see anything that would indicate that a big cat had been anywhere around here. But Whiskers still seemed to be confident about his stuff. It might have been some kind of a superpower.

  "Sounds like a payday," Red whispered. Then he asked, "So, what's the plan?"

  "We could use the new guy as bait," Lance said.

  "You're just saying that because you're betting on him dying," Red said.

  "Yeah, but the new guy is always bait," Lance said.

  New Quest: Act as bait to lure in the monster.

  Award: 1 point.

  Lester considered the one point-award. Acting as bait might not be that safe in this case. The cat monster in question weighed a ton and could probably kill him quite easily despite his powers. And on top of that, there was the chance of friendly fire, and the guns his new colleagues carried could definitely kill him.

  "Why do you guys even need a bait?" Lester said. "Couldn't you just track it and shoot it?"

  "We'll do just that," Armie said while holding up her heavy machine gun.

  Quest Canceled: Act as a bait to lure in the monster.

  "Fine," Lance said. Then he turned to Lester, "Sorry I got carried away there. I'll only lose two hundred if you live. It's just that I've been on a bit of a losing streak with these who-dies-when bets recently."

  Lester caught the implications of the use of streak and who-dies-when bets. It really didn't bode well.

  "That's okay, I understand," Lester said.

  After just a minute of following the tracks, Whiskers signaled again a stop. He motioned for everyone to be quiet and come closer.

  Lester closed on Whiskers's location, and there he saw, a hundred meters away, down in a small clearing, the animal. It was a black panther-like creature, and it was large, like the size of a car but narrower with ripped muscles visible under its short black fur. It certainly had been a good thing he'd not come across a monster like this when he'd been alone in the forest.

  "Something's not right," Lance whispered as he stared at the thing through his sniper scope. "The thing's just standing there."

  "Let's just shoot it anyway," Red said. "Figure stuff out later."

  "Lance, on you," Armie said.

  They all took aim, except for Lester, who didn't have a gun. He just put his hands on his ears and watched Lance fire and the others follow. Bullets slammed into the panther from the huge sniper rifle, from the heavy machine gun, and from the two assault rifles. And the thing just slumped down and vanished into the earth.

  Lester let out the breath he'd been holding and looked at the others for answers. The others seemed to be as confused as he was.

  After a while, Armie said, "Let's go see what happened."

  They headed down toward the place where the panther had gone down, pushing through the vegetation and going over fallen tree trunks and stones. Lester kept the pace, all the while carrying the heavy bag. As they arrived there they all stared at the place where the monster had fallen. There were several bullet fragments on the ground there. But no corpse and no blood.

  Whiskers surveyed the area, then poked at one of the bullets with his gun barrel. He said, "It wasn't all an illusion. There was a big cat here a moment ago, and the bullets definitely hit something and then dropped to the ground."

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Lester noted the other's expressions. Grim and with a hint of fear. The disappearance of the not-totally illusionary cat had definitely freaked them out. It had freaked him out too.

  Something is definitely wrong here.

  "Lance," Armie called. "Where's Lance?"

  They all looked around, realizing there was one less of them. Lester knew he was supposed to be silent in these kinds of situations. It had been told to him several times. There had been threats that if he messed up he would be left in the forest. But—

  "What the fuck is going on?" Lester said.

  "We're going back to the camp now," Armie said, all the time scanning their surroundings.

  Lester went with them, as the team traced back their own steps. He, like the others, constantly searched for whatever had gotten Lance. The forest under the large trees was full of shadows, bushes, stones, and places to hide. This meant there might be something just around the corner.

  Suddenly, a crack sounded from their left, and, some twenty meters away, a shadow fell from the trees. Gunfire erupted, bullets flying in the general direction of the disturbance, tearing into trees and vegetation.

  Lester crouched down, looking at the others as they messed up the wilderness with their guns. Whatever had been there was probably dead now. And maybe a couple of collateral casualties too. He saw a huge tree fall down unable to support itself after getting chunks torn out of its trunk.

  After the weapons clicked empty, and they quickly changed magazines and belts, Armie said, "Keep moving."

  Lester looked around in the other direction, and he noticed a big puddle. It was like any other puddle of water he'd seen except that it moved slightly, inching toward him, like rippling very slowly. It definitely was not a normal puddle—not as far as he knew.

  "Can forest puddles move?" Lester said.

  The other members of the party all turned around pointing their weapons at him. At that moment the puddle transformed into a jumping panther, heading Lester's way with claws extended. Lester, still hampered by his heavy backpack, managed to dodge to the side as bullets flew, hitting the panther and making the things flesh ripple like a surface of water being hit by stones. And the panther changed into clear water, flying in the air, like someone had thrown a big bucketful.

  The water passed Lester, and as it reached Whiskers, a claw reformed, catching the hunter on his forearm that had been raised in defense. Whiskers let out a grunt as blood was sprayed on the forest, and the cat again became fully liquid.

  Lester managed to disengage himself from the large backpack just as a grenade hit the flowing water, splashing it and some fragments all around. One small piece hit Lester in his leg, making him fall down as he felt the burning in his thigh. Right at that moment, he decided to stay still on the ground. This was definitely not his fight. Maybe if he had had a gun. But his role, as far as he was told, was to carry the heavy pack. No heroics were expected from him. He would just stay here and let the others do their thing.

  As liquid flowing together, the cat materialized in front of Lester, who forgot about his pain and grabbed the heavy pack from beside him. He threw it with all his might toward the panther as the cat attacked him. The pack, which weighed several hundred kilos, came crashing down on the cat, turning it again into liquid.

  "Out of the way," Lester heard Red and Whiskers yell and saw them pointing their guns his way, both having their hand on the underslung grenade launchers. Life didn't flash before Lester's eyes. Instead, he moved faster than he had ever moved before, jumping to the side as two grenades flew toward the liquid that now flowed from under the backpack.

  The explosion hit the panther just as it had materialized, making it screech in pain and throwing its body to the side. And at the same time, the blast wave hit Lester in midair, sending him flying even faster into the forest.

  As he was flying, Lester caught a glimpse of the monster being torn apart by bullets from Armie's heavy machine gun and the two assault rifles. The beast, it seemed, had lost its ability to liquify.

  And then Lester crashed head-first onto a large stone.

  A moment later as the gunfire had stopped, Lester got up, feeling his head with his fingers. It hurt a bit and he might get a bump. The cat was definitely in a far worse condition though. Having been pumped full of bullets, it lay on the ground as a bloody mess.

  Bonus: You have survived and defeated a B-rank opponent—two ranks higher than you. Even though your contribution was low, you get 1 point.

  Lester stared at the text and the surrounding carnage. Then he said, "Wow."

  Armie said, "Okay people, small break, patch up, have a rest, then we'll look for Lance, pack the animal, and head back to the camp."

  Lester sat down on his big backpack, which now had several holes in it. He watched as Whiskers got his arm patched up by Armie. Watching Whiskers get his arm all wrapped up reminded Lester that he too had been wounded.

  There was a small piece of metal sticking out on the side of his right thigh. Lester ripped his pants slightly, revealing the thing. It was a narrow sliver of black metal, and it was stuck in his flesh like a thorn. A small trail of dried blood had come from the wound. It had not gone deep, thanks to his Might of six, which made him a bit bullet-resistant—probably far from bullet-proof though.

  Lester pulled the piece out, grimacing from the slight pain. He saw some blood ooze onto the wound. Thanks to his Vitality attribute, the wound would likely stop bleeding in less than an hour and be mostly healed in a day.

  Lester put the piece of metal into his pocket as a reminder.

  After a while, his thoughts turned toward the point he'd gained and the one point he'd gotten when he'd joined the monster hunting party earlier. The thing that had saved his life today, even if his Might had helped, had definitely been his Reflex. With it, he'd been fast enough to avoid the monster twice and been able to jump out of the way of the grenades.

  Lester whispered, "Put two points into Reflex."

  Reflex increased to 5.

  Lester braced himself for the upcoming changes. Then he felt it. Lightning flashing through his nerves. Blinding pain. Unbearable. But it was over almost immediately.

  He let out a sigh, glancing at the others. They had not noticed anything wrong with him and were occupied with just trying to relax after the battle.

  "Interface, status."

  HENCHMAN INTERFACE

  Name: Lester Rigby

  Super Rank: D

  Status: Freelance Henchman

  Attributes:

  Might 6

  Vitality 3

  Reflex 5

  Intellect 1

  Will 1

  Energy 0

  Powers:

  Locked

  Status Effects:

  Mild Muscle Atrophy

  Quests:

  Get rid of the negative status effect Mild Muscle Atrophy.

  Award: 1 point.

  Survive for one month as a monster hunter.

  29/30 days remaining.

  Award: 3 points.