Three days went by in a way at Revenants secret Spire sanctuary. It felt like Kaito was, in a dream. He spent most of the time lying down. His body was slowly getting better because of the nodes he found. These nodes helped his body heal. The bad thing that happened with the Void Surge made him feel really bad. He did not have all his health back. He could only get to 90 percent of his health until he felt better. Everything he did was slow. His thoughts were not clear because of the pain he still felt even though it was not pain. The Revenants Spire sanctuary was still helping Kaito and the regen nodes were still working on his body. He made himself practice in the room. He boxed with the shadows on the wall. Kept pulling out his dagger until his arms were really tired. He thought about Shade. That little smile of his. He imagined what it would be, like to crush that smile under his foot. He thought about Shade a lot trying to make himself stronger so he could beat Shade.

  Revenant watched him without saying a word sometimes giving him protein paste to eat or fixing the Node patches on his skin. She did not talk about her life but the tattoos of circuits on her body said a lot, about her: the Revenant was someone who used to be connected to the system then she was suddenly cut off from it. The Revenant had these tattoos that showed she was once part of the system. Then she was not.

  On the morning she put the plan on a broken holographic table.

  "Shades next supply convoy is going to leave Rusthaven at dusk tomorrow " she said, drawing a glowing line through the misty lowlands. Shades convoy will have three armored trucks and twenty guards. Most of the guards are people who owe money and are working to pay it back. They are taking Node cores to Shades vault in the Brokers Spire.

  We should attack them here. Her finger pointed to a space, between two old broken bridges. We will cause some trouble take what we can and then leave before more guards come.

  Kaito looked at the map closely. He then asked "What is my role, in this?"

  She looked at him straight. "You are the bait." She did not look away. "Shades mark is still on you. It is like a signal that everyone can see. They will find you. They will come after you. I will go to the ground and attack the people who are protecting them. We need to catch one of those crawler things if we can. If not we will just destroy the rest. Shades mark is what they are looking for. That is why they will see you and chase you. I will help you from the ground. We will do this together. We have to get one crawler or destroy all of them. Shades mark is the problem. It is, like a sign that says come and get him.

  He nodded slowly. "This is risky. If I go down again. I do not know what will happen to me going down again is a risk."

  She said you will not be able to do that. She tapped the table with her hand. You are in charge of the Surge this time. You have to use it for periods of time. The Surge should not be used for than ten seconds at a time. You should save the sixty seconds for when you really need it. The backlash from the Surge is still going to hurt you. You will survive it. The Surge is what matters here. You have to be careful, with the Surge.

  Kaito flexed his hand. The crimson-black energy was moving under his skin. It was really tempting and also very dangerous. "Understood" Kaito said.

  They left at noon going through paths until they got to the lowlands. The fog, in this place was really thick it smelled bad because of something burning and machines that were away. They got down low behind a broken pillar that used to hold up a road and they just waited.

  The sun went down. The sky turned a deep purple color. Then you heard a rumble. It was three machines moving forward on big metal tracks. Each machine was as big as a house. They had armor with big guns on them. There were also people with the machines. Twenty people were walking around them wearing different kinds of clothes and carrying guns and knives that shone in the light. The machines, these crawlers were really something to see. The crawlers had tracks and heavy armor and the people with them were ready, for a fight.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  Kaito walked out into the space. He was finally outside. The open area was right, in front of Kaito.

  He did not shout. He did not need to.

  The mark on his chest started glowing bright. You could even see it through his cloak. People turned their heads to look. Some of them shouted. They said "It is him, the guy, the one that Shade wants to catch the one with a bounty, on his head."

  The convoy slowed down. Half of the escorts. Went towards him. They had their weapons raised and ready to use. The convoy was still moving,. It was moving very slowly now. The escorts that were heading towards him looked like they meant business. The convoy and the escorts were focused on him.

  Kaito turned around. Ran straight into the narrow passage and it took them deeper into the place. His heart was beating fast but the fear he felt was actually helping him now. Kaito felt Revenant moving quietly along the top of the ruined buildings like a shadow hiding among other shadows.

  The escorts charged at Kaito. He let the escorts get really close, to him. They were twenty meters away then ten. And then Kaito triggered a short Surge on the escorts.

  “Surge.”

  The crimson void energy was pulsing in a rhythm. This was a strange feeling. Time seemed to be moving. He turned around quickly his dagger shining in the light. He cut one guys throat. Then he kicked another guys knee. It made a weird cracking sound. Luckily his health points were still okay, for now. The void energy had not started to drain them yet. The crimson void energy was still working for him.

  It took five seconds. He ran fast between them and that is when people started bleeding and screaming. The men who were supposed to protect them got really confused because everything happened suddenly and there was a lot of blood and screaming all of a sudden.

  The Revenant struck.

  Violet was really going at it. Her whips came crashing down from above. They were snapping those big turret barrels. They even yanked the riders off their perches. Then Violets blade came slashing down cutting through the armor like it was paper. One of the crawlers turned sharply to the side as Violet jumped on its roof. She drove her sword through the drivers hatch of the crawler. Violets sword just kept on going tearing through the crawler.

  Kaito pushed forward. He did another burst of energy that lasted for ten seconds and this cleared the way to the big machine in front of him the lead crawler. Kaito jumped up onto the side of the lead crawler. He punched a weak spot on it with his special fist that had a lot of power. This made sparks go flying. Then Kaito pulled out some wires. He also pulled out a fuel line from the lead crawler. After that flames started coming out. Everything was, on fire.

  The convoy came to a stop and everything turned crazy. Two of the vehicles were on fire and the third one was trying to back up. The cars that were supposed to be protecting them were, over the place. Some were running away and some were even fighting with each other because they were so scared.

  But Shade’s people weren’t amateurs.

  A sniper shot came out of the mist. Hit Kaitos leg. Kaito had 72 health points. Now he has 58 health points. He quickly got behind something to hide. He was very angry.

  Revenant showed up next to him really out of breath. "We have gotten what we came here for" she said. She was holding a sealed case with three Node cores that were glowing. These Node cores were, from the haul they just did. "This is enough to get us some people to help us or to buy some weapons. Maybe we can even get both."

  Kaito was smiling even though he was hurting. He said "Let us go."

  The people retreated into the mist as the remaining crawler limped away trailing smoke. Behind the people the overpasses burned like fires that you can see from far away.

  Back in the Spire hideout hours later the people sat across from each other on crates. The stolen Spire cores were pulsing softly on the table, between the Spire cores and them.

  Revenant cracked one case and looked at the orbs. He said "This hurts Shade it does not hurt him badly that he will die but it still hurts him a lot. He will pay money to catch us. You should send the people to catch us."

  Kaito leaned back. His thigh was all bandaged up. He was really tired. "That is good " Kaito said. "Let the man sweat."

  She really looked at him. She looked at him in a way that made him feel like she was seeing through him. "You did not lose your temper today" she said. "You were, in control of your emotions. You did not have a breakdown like you usually do."

  The man said this quietly. He is talking about learning. He said that he cannot afford to break every time he gets into a fight. Learning is what he needs to do so he does not break every time he fights.

  There was silence. Then the Revenant spoke his voice was softer than it usually is.

  You are not just getting by anymore. You are actually building something for yourself. You are creating a debt that belongs to you. This debt is, against him.

  Kaito looked at her. "Yes.. When I get paid Layer 0 will remember the name Amamiya. They will know the name Amamiya."

  She almost smiled. "Then rest. Tomorrow we start finding people to join us. We will look for people who do not fit in. People who are not liked by others. Anyone who hates the brokers more than they're scared of the brokers.

  Kaito closed his eyes. The sound of the cores was, like a song that was very quiet. It was nice to listen to. The cores just kept making this humming noise. Kaito liked the sound of the cores.

  The game had really changed now. The game was not the same anymore. The game had shifted.

  No longer just hunted.

  The hunter was bleeding now. He had gotten hurt and blood was coming out of his body. The hunter was losing a lot of blood.