“Only $500? Are you kidding me?” Dante muttered. He glanced up from his phone and looked out from where he was crouched behind a fence. It was an overcast day at the Rashad family farm, and prime time to harvest the corn growing in their fields. Not that any of the Rashad family was home – they had all evacuated to a motel in the nearby town. Dante stared at the reason why.

  In the large, fenced enclosure that their pair of horses usually roamed stood, simply, a monster. Specifically, it was a Coyotespike. A canine creature that traveled alone, larger than a normal coyote, with spikes protruding from its back like a stegosaurus. At the moment, its snout was buried deep inside the gut of one of two now-dead horses, eating its fill. The stink of iron was strong, and Dante felt like his nose hairs sizzled with each breath.

  Monsters had come to Earth. Dante didn’t really know why; there were papers on the subject and the global science community was in a tizzy trying to learn how and why it was happening, but he didn’t particularly care. It wasn’t relevant to his day to day life, except for in a couple of key ways:

  One. With the monsters came aspects: three dimensional shapes of condensed energy related to a specific ‘thing.’ Stuff like fire, wind, earth, or more esoteric things like ‘magic’ or ‘growth.’ When a person took an aspect into themselves, they gained powers, and after that, Levels.

  Two, and perhaps most importantly, monsters are worth money. Sometimes lots of money - enough, say, to pay Dante’s rent for the month, or make a dent in the mountain of debt his father had left him. Monsters were pretty awful for society, but pretty good for people like him who needed money fast and didn’t have much regard for their own safety.

  Last thing on aspects. After taking in an aspect, that aspect begins to ‘level.’ The more it’s used, and seemingly the more danger one put themselves in, the more levels. Levels grant more power, stuff like passive ‘Skills’ that make someone stronger or faster, or active ones that let you do something superhuman. Shoot a fireball, turn invisible, cut something a dozen feet away-

  Look, it doesn’t matter. You can get magic superpowers. There are monsters. Dante is broke.

  And now, he hunts them.

  He stood from behind the fence, checking his gear while he crept forwards as stealthily as he could. The Coyotespike was preoccupied, its face filled with gore, and its nose filled with blood. It couldn’t smell nor hear him: he had the advantage. At least, that was the theory.

  He crept up behind the Coyotespike, and pulled out the sword at his side. Why not a gun? Guns worked poorly on the monsters he was after. At least, the easily accessible firearms with their relatively tiny bullets. Besides, guns are expensive. A decent sword would last him a while and could be resharpened and repaired.

  Plus, it worked well with his aspect.

  The Coyotespike tore another chunk of meat from the horse, and Dante struck.

  He lunged forward, the sword piercing deep into the Coyotespike’s side. The creature tore itself from the horse, snarling in pain. It turned to snap at him when Dante activated one of his few abilities. He stepped back, the blade of his sword becoming unnaturally long as it stretched from him, and he pulled it from the wound. It fell out like rope. He slashed the monster across its side, and it almost looked like he was holding a whip. The ability was called [Tail Strike], and it made his weapon act like a – you guessed it – tail for a short period. The Coyotespike reared back in pain, surprised at the follow up strike it had endured. His sword snapped back into place, rigid once more.

  It was an underwhelming ability from an underwhelming aspect.

  The Opossum aspect, to be exact.

  Most people thought it was useless. Dante didn’t necessarily disagree – but what it was, was cheap. Very, very cheap in fact. He had gotten it for a fraction of what other aspects go for – even relatively common ones like a sword aspect go for tens of thousands – and it’s only going up. Opossum aspect though? A few hundred. And some jeering laughter. A small price to pay, in his mind.

  Still, the Coyotespike was far from dead. They were hearty creatures, ones that could take an annoying amount of punishment before dropping. He circled the Coyotespike and it did the same, his grip on the sword slick with sweat but unwavering. He had been here before.

  That didn’t make it any less terrifying. Just more manageable.

  The Coyotespike had enough waiting. It ran forward, its jaws seeking an arm. Dante stumbled back with surprise, too late, and the jaws found their mark. It clenched down, the teeth tearing through bone and muscle like paper. It tore the arm away with a fountain of blood, but it wasn’t finished. Dante tried swinging his sword, but there was no force behind it. He was losing blood fast. The Coyotespike lunged for his neck, and the teeth found their mark. It felt his throat crumple, and it let his lifeless body drop to the ground. The monster’s snout pointed to the sky, and it let out a howl of victory.

  Dante’s sword pierced it straight through the skull, into the brain. It twitched twice and stopped moving, lifeless. Dante’s body on the ground dissipated, melting into black tar which too began to vanish. He reappeared, panting, on top of the beast. His sword was still embedded in its skull, and he wiped an errant spray of blood from his cheek. [Play Dead]. The second of his three abilities. Despite himself, he smiled.

  It always worked.

  * * *

  The town of Woodsboro, Georgia wasn’t a large one. It used to be a mining town until the coal dried up, and now it stuttered along soaking up the excess traffic from people headed to Augusta. Recently, it had become a kind of hotspot for mercenaries – people like Dante who took up aspects and went out killing monsters. The burgeoning Mercenary Guild – of which Dante wasn’t a full member – had a branch in Woodsboro. Since the next closest branch was in Atlanta, most mercenaries like himself stuck around the more rural area, taking out monsters and delivering their corpses to the guild.

  Dante entered the town sweaty, in pain, and absolutely exhausted. He dragged the Coyotespike’s corpse behind him, and nearby passersby wrinkled their noses and hurried off. It wasn’t a pleasant sight, but it wasn’t so alien as to horrify them, not anymore. Monsters hadn’t been here long, but they already had a significant foothold in the world’s minds. Especially small towns like Woodsboro - they had the worst of it when they first arrived. Or, that’s what Dante heard at least.

  He had been...indisposed, so to speak, when they first started to appear.

  He made his way down the street, the corpse dragging across the dirt road that lead to the Mercenary Guild’s headquarters from the chain he had tied around it and attached to the back of his truck. It used to be pavement, but after monster blood was perpetually making the road stink – and attracting other unsavory creatures – the town had busted it up, leaving an easier to maintain dirt road instead. It was an odd path through the otherwise modern, paved town, but Dante paid it no mind. It was fitting for his line of work, he thought. The new mixed with the old.

  The Mercenary Guild was a former office building at the edge of town, surrounded by nothing but empty structures – warehouses, stores, and more. They hadn’t been bought out: the people just…moved away. Some moved as soon as the monsters arrived, seeking safety in numbers, while others didn’t want to deal with the unholy smells and sounds coming from the building every day.

  On the flip side, the people who were near the guild tended to be mercenaries themselves, people who wanted the first dibs on any particularly profitable contracts that popped up. Contracts that, for example, gave more than the pitiful five hundred he was going to get for the Coyotespike.

  “Morning, Ed.” Dante said when he walked in. He filled up a paper cone of water from the nearby jug and approached the counter. He downed it in one big gulp, crumpled the cup, and tossed it into a can.

  Ed was a man in his mid-forties, his hair receding although you wouldn’t know it from the constant rotation of baseball caps he had on with no allegiance to any team. He was old enough that he considered himself a kind of father figure to the relatively young Dante, guiding him through the new world they inhabited.

  Dante did not share the same feeling.

  A friendly smile spread across Ed’s face, wrinkles forming at the corner of his eyes. “Hey, Dante.’ He eyed the blood stains he couldn’t manage to get off. “Looks like you’ve been working already, huh?”

  Dante forced a smile. “I try. I have a Coyotespike out front, I think Mike’s bringing it in.”

  Ed nodded and started typing away on his keyboard. “Want the money wired to your account?”

  Dante nodded, and Ed continued clicking through. He handed over his driver’s license, and after the required verification, Ed gave it back.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  “Alright, that’s $475 sent to your account.” A machine chirped, paper tore, and he handed back a receipt.

  “$475?” Dante spat. “Are you kidding me? The site said a Coyotespike is $550. Even with the Guild’s cut, that should still be $500.” He put his hands on the counter eyes furrowed in disbelief.

  Ed clicked his tongue. “Sorry, kid.” One of the man’s favorite things to call Dante, “The guild’s taking a bigger cut these days from the ‘safer’ monsters. Government is pushing down hard on us – they don’t want the powerful ones running free causing havoc just because it’s more efficient money-wise for the strong to bring in a dozen runts instead of a single big one. They can’t kill them all, they say. Need us to pick up some slack.”

  Dante ran a hand through his hair and paced back and forth.

  “I’m doing you a favor here, you know.” Ed replied defensively, “You should be getting $425, but I bumped it up. Added some cash for the ‘danger’ of it. I had to put my name on that, you know.”

  He rolled his eyes and sighed. “Yeah, thanks. Got any more contracts?” The $500 wasn’t even enough to scrape by this week – he’d be giving up meals just to keep Lou of his back. But $475? That didn’t even cover his weekly installment.

  Ed jerked his head to the other side of the room. “Check the wall, might be something you’re interested in.” He went back to scrolling the computer, giving Dante the cold shoulder. Sometimes he would save contracts especially for him – this time, no dice.

  Dante walked to the wall, a large bulletin board that had sheets of paper detailing local monsters and their locations. It had statistics on the monsters – what was recommended for taking them on, the associated dangers, pictures if they were available, and most importantly – the pay.

  He scanned the list, lifting a few sheets before tsking and moving on. All of the contracts were either too dangerous for him – recommending higher fire power, magical weaponry, non-magical weaponry that was stronger than what he had (guns, typically), and above all – more aspects. Half of the contracts recommended either one level 20 or higher, or several around level 10. A few even got into the ranking system that had been created, made for people who’d had several aspects that ‘consolidated’ into one, and evolved thereafter.

  Even a full set of aspects wasn’t enough for some of the monsters that had come to Earth. They required people who had pushed themselves to their limits and surpassed them, their aspects evolving, abilities growing, bodies remade.

  Either that, or an ocean of people like Dante.

  The other half of the list was too easy. The kind of stuff anyone could take on, aspects or not, just to make a quick buck. Monsters that would pay $100, $250, or barely $300. They would get Dante past the threshold, but not comfortably. He wanted enough money that he could start putting some away to get new equipment: A better sword, maybe some protection or healing potions to keep him on his feet instead of bedridden for a month at a time after an injury. Hell – if he could afford it, another aspect.

  He didn’t want to keep scraping by. To quote one of his favorite songs – “Alive ain’t always living.” The world was a big place, and he wanted to see it. He didn’t want to be stuck in eastern Georgia forever.

  While flipping through, one caught his eye. It was sparse compared to the other ones, and that was what interested him. Most of the contracts were posted by the Mercenary Guild themselves on the behalf of someone, or the government. As a result, they tended to be researched, strictly regulated, and fairly uniform when it came to pay and danger.

  This one, though, wasn’t. It didn’t list who posted it, only that they lived near the affected area, and its information was odd. It didn’t have a picture, and it didn’t even say what monster(s) to expect, and yet the threat level was listed as low, and the pay matched it. $350 for proof of fulfillment, redeemable at any Mercenary Guild branch. A note at the bottom added an “additional reward” for the adventurer who successfully completed his request. Whatever that meant.

  “Hey Ed,” he called out.

  “What?” The man replied, his tone short.

  “What’s up with this contract?”

  Ed squinted, and pulled up an electronic version of the bulletin. “What number is it?”

  “#221.”

  He started scanning the document, his mouth moving while he read through. In the end, he shrugged.

  “It was posted by some rich guy who owns a couple dozen peach orchards. He claims that his crop has been getting eaten by a monster, but everyone who checked out the contract couldn’t find anything. Still, he’s adamant that it’s a monster. The price has bumped up a few times; this is the most it’s ever been worth.”

  “Huh.” Dante said. He looked over the sheet again, and made what he would, most other times, consider to be a dumb decision. “Print a copy for me. I’ll check it out on my way back from…#32.” The latter being a contract to kill some slightly mutated boar that was bothering a nearby town. It was less dangerous than the Coyotespike he killed earlier, and paid less too.

  He took the papers from Ed a minute later, and left the building, squinting at the sun. It would be noon in a couple hours, he guessed. Enough time to finish them both, if he was lucky.

  He exited the building and made his way to his truck. He wasn’t ten feet out the door before he was stopped.

  “Dante.” A male voice called out from across the lot. He paused, closing his eyes and letting out a deep breath. Boots scuffed against the pavement, three pairs. They came to a stop a few feet behind him. Dante turned and tried to look anything but annoyed.

  “Hey, Lou.” He replied. “Having a good morning?”

  Three men stood in front of him. The man in the center was a bald Italian man wearing a construction jacket and a pair of heavy duty boots. He had jeans on, just like the other two – and Dante himself, but they were very clearly nicer. He sniffed and shrugged.

  “I’m alright. Just taking care of business.” He jerked his head to the man at his right; muscle, just like the other one flanking him. Leather jackets, steel toed boots, each at least six feet tall and made of muscle. They looked like stereotypes, because they were. Lou liked them that way; he said everyone understood each other’s roles much better the closer to fiction he strayed.

  Dante grit his teeth. “You’ll get your money. Due at the end of the day, isn’t it?”

  Lou shrugged. “It’s due when I say it’s due, but usually, yeah. Why, need more time?” he examined his nails, flicking some dirt out.

  “I’ll be alright, thanks Lou. I’ll drop the money off tonight.”

  He nodded, his eyes meandering around the parking lot. Dante hesitated, seeing if he could leave, and once he took a step-

  “You headed somewhere?” he rolled his tongue around his mouth, pulling out a cigarette and tapping one of his muscle for a lighter.

  Dante paused, his hand twitching in irritation. He could handle Lou. In small doses.

  “Got a couple contracts to take care of, you know how it is.”

  He took a long drag and nodded. “I know. Dangerous job, being a merc. Pay must not be all that either, if you’re needing a couple more just to pay your installment.”

  “I never said-“

  “Yeah, yeah.” Lou waved it off, “I know. Just getting some extra cash. Whatever.”

  “They don’t pay much if you only have one aspect.” He said, feeling strangely defensive. “The chaff doesn’t make as much as I’d like.”

  Lou nodded, like an understanding father. “At this rate, you’ll be paying off your dad’s debt forever. Ain’t that right?”

  Dante suppressed a sigh. He knew where this was going. “It will…take a while, sure. Not impossible, though.”

  “No, no, not impossible. I don’t play like that.” He agreed, and leaned in.

  “Hard, though. Real hard, especially for a young man like you. You want to be chained up out here for all your life? Paying off a debt that isn’t yours?” He shrugged. “I know I wouldn’t.”

  “Cut to it, Lou.”

  He flicked the cigarette onto the pavement and smeared it across the pavement. “Same offer as always. You work for me, I’ll waive the debt. Don’t even have to be long – a couple years, you’ll be out of here a free man. I pay pretty well too. Ain’t that right?” He asked, tapping the man on his right on the chest.

  “Pretty good. Better than Manny did.”

  Lou scoffed and scowled. “Damn right I pay better than Manny.” He turned back to Dante.

  “Listen. What I’m saying is: You don’t have to live like this. Take my offer. Aspects are hard to come by, especially for a guy like me. You got in early, and you like being your own man; I can respect that. I’m not gonna ask you to do anything crazy, just a job here or there.”

  It wasn’t the first time the offer had been made – and it definitely wasn’t the last.

  Dante forced a smile. “No thanks, Lou. I appreciate the offer.”

  Lou sighed and ran a hair through his nonexistent hair. “Alright. I won’t force you.” Dante didn’t like the implication in those words. Namely, that if he wanted to, he could. “Just keep it in mind. You don’t have to fight monsters forever.”

  Dante started walking away, his shoulders tense at the stare he felt on his back.

  “You know, I was sad when your father passed.” Lou called out from behind him.

  He froze mid stride. He bit back his first response:

  Of course you were. You couldn’t bleed any more money from him. Couldn’t exploit his addiction to dig his hole deeper and deeper until there was no chance of him getting out.

  Until it killed him.

  “Yeah.” He replied without turning around. “I bet.”

  They parted ways, neither one happy with how the interaction had gone. Dante climbed into his truck and slammed on the gas.

  It was time for him to make some money.