Victor crouched behind the boulder, gripping his hunting knife tight. From beyond his shelter, he saw the curving wall of a shallow gully which had once been a riverbed, but now was as dry and sun-baked as the rest of the wasteland.
Thanks to the curve, Victor couldn't see very far down the gully, but it didn't matter. If he focused, he detected the subtle scent of rose petals drifting across his contract.
When a skittering sound reached his ears, his muscles stiffened. He shifted his weight to his front foot, prepared to spring.
Soon, the source of the noise appeared: an enormous creature made of bone-white segments bristling with knobs and spikes. Its legs clattered across the ground so quickly they were almost a blur.
During the day, bone phages preferred to hide in their dens, but Mirage had flushed this one out with an illusion that its home was flooding. Now Victor had to do his part.
As the phage came within a couple meters of his hiding spot, Victor leaped out. He landed on the monster's back, far enough that it couldn't reach him with its scissor-like mandibles. Raising the knife high, he plunged it into a gap between its segmented plates.
The metal sliced deep into tender flesh, splattering stinking pus all over Victor's hands. Ignoring it, he stabbed again and again.
But it wasn't easy keeping his balance atop the thrashing monster. As it flung itself to the side, Victor lost his footing and hit the ground on his back. The next thing he knew, the phage's mandibles snapped inches from his face.
Victor's heart froze. Instinctively he flung up his knife to block, and this drove the phage back for a moment, only for it to lunge at him again. If he'd been wearing his armor, its mandibles would glance right off.
But he wasn't. He rolled to the side, trying to put more distance between himself and the beast. Not quickly enough – not before its mandibles filled his vision.
A whoosh of air, an earsplitting crack. The next thing he knew, a whip wrapped around the mandibles and forced them shut.
"Victor, now!" a voice shouted.
As the phage writhed, the whip creaked and strained. It wouldn't hold for much longer – but that gave Victor more than enough time.
Hauling himself upright, he charged at the creature. A single swift stroke of the knife caught it in the gap between its head armor and the rest of its body. Forcing all his strength into his arms, Victor sliced down.
A sickening squelch, a shower of pus, and the phage's head hit the ground with a dull thunk. The body thrashed through its death throes, spraying pus everywhere.
Victor stepped backward, hastily wiping his knife off. Though not very strong, the pus had the potential to corrode metal over time.
Meanwhile, Mirage unraveled the whip from around the phage's mandibles. Flipping his hair, he faced Victor with a smirk.
"Target acquired. Nicely done."
Victor opened his mouth, then shut it. He'd been about to tell Mirage to be more careful, but he knew it would only fall on deaf ears.
Something had changed in the captain since they'd left Ziegler Castle, Victor thought as he watched Mirage cheerfully pick up the phage's head. Not a month ago he'd have never dared put his hands on something so filthy.
Monster head in tow, the two climbed out of the gully and headed back to their waiting leema. This one Mirage had named Jello, thanks to its translucent outer layer in a very appetizing shade of lime-green.
It didn't take long before they made it back to the outpost. Not much of a place, just a hardscrabble collection of shacks around a tiny oasis in the middle of the wasteland. Everything centered on Orvi's shop, the rusting hulk of what had once been a skycraft.
Orvi paid decent bounties for monsters, so that was how Victor and Mirage had been getting by these past few weeks. Day by day, they traded monster parts for traveling supplies.
By now they'd built up a respectable stockpile, though Victor felt certain they would have already gotten more than enough if they took on the highest bounties. While those might be for dragons, Victor knew he could easily defeat them with his armor on.
However, Mirage had forbidden him from wearing the armor. An order was an order, so Victor hadn't put it on since leaving Ziegler Castle. He could sense its Levia impatiently throbbing from the crystal in his pouch, but it was easy enough to ignore. Not like he needed it for the weak monsters they went after.
Once at the outpost, Mirage made a beeline for Orvi's station. He slammed the phage's head onto the counter, making the flimsy metal buckle and groan beneath it.
Orvi, a stout nephilim with a veritable forest of chest hair, grinned at him. "Fast as ever, eh?"
"Yes, yes, now hand it over," Mirage said, waving a dismissive hand. Orvi obliged, plonking a huge package of dried meat into his arms. When Mirage sagged under its weight, Victor quickly snatched it from him.
They headed for their quarters, passing a few lounging bounty hunters with whom Mirage exchanged quick greetings. Somehow he'd gotten quite friendly with a few of them, to the point where he'd suggested to Victor they do joint missions to take down bigger bounties.
Whatever his long-term plans might be, though, he hadn't breathed a word about it. Sometimes Victor wondered if Mirage just wanted to stay here forever.
Well, if it was what his captain wanted, Victor wouldn't object.
~*~
As usual, Victor awoke at the crack of dawn. To his surprise, the pallet beside him was empty.
Mirage had taken to clinging to him at night, digging his fingers in so deep they left bruises on Victor's skin. Earlier he'd suffered from nightmares, but over time they had died down. Now with Mirage nowhere in sight, Victor couldn't fight down a vague sense of unease.
Actually...if he focused, he realized the feeling didn't only come from himself. It stirred across their contract like a weak, sour wind.
Frowning, Victor climbed out of bed and stepped outside. At this hour, night blanketed half the sky and the sun was a faint pale band at the horizon.
When Victor saw Mirage standing outside their quarters, cool relief flooded him. But Mirage's discontentment didn't die down an ounce, and Victor's trepidation grew when he saw the demon fixing his gaze on the sky, as if searching for something in the approaching sunrise.
"Captain," Victor said quietly, stepping up to Mirage's side. "What are you doing?"
Mirage didn't reply, just kept staring at the sky. This close, Victor saw the ashen tinge to his pale skin, the sweat beading on his neck.
"Captain." Taking a chance, Victor put a hand on Mirage's shoulder. "Is something wrong?"
Finally Mirage acknowledged him. He whirled toward Victor, his hair a pink blur, and the next thing Victor knew Mirage flung off his hand and started marching toward the center of the outpost. Toward Orvi's station.
Orvi was already up, humming to himself as he swept the ground. When Mirage approached, he looked up and waved. "Morning, boys! Got any big plans for the day?"
Mirage froze mid-step. Victor's confusion mounted – and it did not help when he felt the demon's Levia spike through their contract like a whirlwind of rose petals.
"Wait, Captain," Victor began, but Mirage had already started toward Orvi again. This time his strides were firm and confident.
Orvi blinked, looking as confused as Victor felt. Then his eyes widened in shock, the broom clattering from his hands.
"What...what is that?" he whispered, hushed with awe. "Where did you…?"
"Just this morning," Mirage said smoothly, extending his hands. Though he held nothing in them, Orvi couldn't seem to tear his eyes away. "What do you think? Lovely, isn't it?"
"The amethyst dragon? You two, all by yourself?" Orvi babbled, lurching closer like a drunken man. "Impossible. Incredible. I can't believe – "
Amethyst dragon? A chill prickled Victor's spine. That was Orvi's highest bounty, an ancient beast that dwelled in an underground cavern in the nearby mountains. Orvi had been seeking it for years, and according to the other hunters, every team that had set out to take its head had never returned.
Now Victor understood what Mirage was doing – showing Orvi an illusion of his prize. But why?
"Oh, oh, I can't believe it, amazing, incredible." Orvi kept up the stream of nonsense as he stepped closer to Mirage, trembling fingers outstretched. "This is...ah!"
His knees buckled as Mirage made a motion as if depositing something in his arms. Orvi wrapped his arms around empty air, tears glimmering in his eyes. "It is – it really is! Oh, anything you want, I swear I'll – "
"Hmm?" Prowling like a cat prepared to pounce, Mirage swerved behind Orvi. "Anything? Then how about this?" He reached out, fingers curling delicately around Orvi's shoulder, stroking a trail down the hairy skin toward his throat.
Victor's heart slammed against his ribcage. He stepped closer, mouth open, but had no idea what he wanted to say.
"This?" Orvi's eyes were still riveted on the illusion in his arms.
"Yes...this." All of a sudden, Mirage's grip tightened, fingernails digging into Orvi's skin. Metal flashed in his other hand, slicing a swift path across Orvi's throat.
Blood spurted down Orvi's front, staining his chest hair shockingly red. He lurched on his heels, eyes huge and stunned. As Mirage stepped away from him, he collapsed to his knees, then hit the ground with a thud.
Mirage seized a fistful of his hair, lifting his head. Blood still gushed from his throat, splattering the ground he'd been sweeping not a minute before.
"Listen up well!" Mirage yelled, his voice cracking like a whip. "From here on forth, I claim this outpost for the Infernal Legion!"
Even as he spoke, even as people started emerging from their quarters to see what was going on, Victor sensed something at the edge of his consciousness. An approaching Levia, deep and dark as a void.
Something he had not felt once since arriving in Tielos. Until now.