She tried to keep herself calm. The larger the predator, the larger the range they needed to roam. The food chain was like that. The higher up you were, the wider a pyramid base required to support you. After M-day, trophic levels were not guaranteed, but—even with magic-bending rules—that one stayed true more often than not.

  Too bad that this was the Croatan. One of the core dangers of deep forests was that they produced things very, very high up the food chain. Some things that were high enough that humans became targets of opportunity. On the other hand, something that dangerous would roam a vast area to get the amount of food it needed. The chances of them running into it were less likely based on statistics and how wide an area it might be in at any time.

  Still, it made her shoulder blades itch. If they ran into something in these parts, it was likely to be bad. There was just that feel in the flavor of the ambient magic. Hell, some predators were specifically tailored to hunt humans, even to predate from within human population centers. Vampires had been a very common and very politically fraught example in the old world.

  As they walked, Wade seemed to step louder, going out of his way to trod on branches. He even went so far as to pick up a rock and toss it against a bigger stone at some point. He was probably trying to alert and scare off the creature. Which worked sometimes. Though more often with mundane animals compared to cryptos.

  Maybe it was a good idea, though. Probably. Maybe?

  Her instincts were much less acute when it came to spawned cryptos. They were not as motivated by reproduction, seasons, and other normal factors. If they had a purpose—and many of them had no discernible purpose—it was not always aligned with what moved regular mortal creatures.

  Spawned or manifested creatures were just embodied energy imbalances. It was like static electricity. When enough power collected in one area, it needed to flood into another and create balance. An overabundance of electrons embodied into a spark of static electricity. For magic, that frequently spawned cryptos or weird environments.

  The metaphor broke down soon after that. Electricity followed rules. Its highest allegiance was to the natural order. Spawned cryptos could be normal, but they could also be profoundly strange. They were less tethered to common sense and the need to survive or even be vaguely coherent. Especially when the energy rolling through the world was tainted by something like rage, violence, rituals, or any of the other psychic gunk.

  That's when you got irrationally aggressive kaiju, strange predatory shadows, generous wind spirits, and, oddly enough, manatees (not able to cast magic, but still magical to behold nonetheless).

  "Really hope this imbalance was static and not lightning," she muttered under her breath.

  Jasque started whistling a jaunty tune, and Shilloh tried to relax. The thought of happy 'lil fat sea cows helped.

  These were professionals, she remembered. Hopefully, this territory was a nice, normal, magical creature. One that was reasonable and predictable. Odds were its range was too large to notice them. Even if it did notice them, it might not think a fight was worth it. Especially when it sensed the power coming off two combat-capable—

  "Wade, why are you and Jasque holding back your magic?"

  "We wouldn't want to scare it off."

  "But you're making so much noise."

  Before the Were could answer, Jasque perked up.

  "Annnd it's working. On my three, tree tops."

  Without another word, Wade spun around. He pulled something silvery from the case he had shuffled around earlier.

  A chain spear fell out. It was a leather handle wrapped in wire for superior grip. Its body was made of stretches of iron rods that were maybe half the length of her forearm. Each was attached to the others with two or three links of chain until it formed one long, bumpy line of metal.

  The thing clinked and fell to Wade's booted feet, the tip like someone had mated a spear tip with a mace head: round, a little bulbous, and oddly reminiscent of that one elf-lady's necklace from Lord of the Rings.

  Jasque grabbed her shoulder and hauled her until she stood with her back to a pine tree.

  "Stay still. Gun pointed on the ground unless it's within four feet and you can't run."

  With that, he shifted to the side and lifted a… rifle?

  But Jasque hadn't been carrying a rifle.

  She blinked, drew her sidearm, assumed a good shooting stance, and looked around for the machete she remembered him carrying. It wasn't there.

  On cue, Wade flicked his wrist to send a wave down the length of his weapon. There was a clean sense of power moving through the air: something subtle, clean, precise, and without any emotion behind it. The chain spear morphed into a true spear. The metal ran until it was one solid length. The head became sharp and stretched into several inches of cutting edge behind the point.

  The grey-eyed man spread his feet, bent his knees, and let out a slow breath. Were magic pricked through the atmosphere and tickled her nose. Wade didn't shift shapes, and obviously wasn't using his Mark. So, he must be enhancing or reducing something.

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  Her curiosity about the magic was satisfied when he blurred forward faster than his legs should have been able to propel him.

  Something big and furry hurtled through the air. Some part of her mind noted a tree in the distance that swayed with the force of its leap. In mere seconds, the grey-eyed Were was behind it and to the side, spear deep in its chest, having forced it to turn its side to her. Before the movement stopped, Jasque had fired twice, and the monster roared.

  It was definitely a spawned creature. It had the body of an anorexic gorilla. All short, bowed legs, long arms, and lanky black fur. But, divided in a perfect line separating its left and right sides, it shifted from a very tall and very unhealthy gorilla into a hollow creature of wood and burning fumes. The greasy gray smoke she could see through massive holes in its wooden side was lit with sullen orange and stopped like it was held inside invisible skin. The wood of its body looked like it had once been a fully articulated sculpture. Now it had aged, been blacked, and was left full of holes from the hellfire. The face was the only thing not bisected. It looked like a single wooden helmet shaped in the snarling facsimile of a male gorilla with fangs bared,

  One look was all it took for her to tell that this creature ate no food, drank no water, and had no mates: just a purpose. What that purpose was eluded her. Something in her gut told her that if she observed it long enough, she could find out the paradigm governing its foreign life cycle.

  The banes did not give her the chance.

  "No on nines!" Jasque called out before throwing his rifle to the side. It disappeared, and on his other hand, a polearm materialized like it had been tossed into his grasp from behind an invisible curtain.

  Wade yelled his confirmation before twisting his spear and pulling it out of the flesh and blood side.

  The monster swung its long arm and hissed. It would have slammed right in the Were's shoulder, but the spear jerked to the side of its own accord and blocked the looping swipe. Shilloh watched him let the magic spear defend him as he danced back, face calm to the point of looking dead. Some part of her wanted to reach out with her magic and do something. But she didn't. She tore her eyes away and scanned the treetops for any more of these things.

  There were none. The wood hand swiped with sharp talons, and Wade did something fancy. He tapped the wooden limb, so it missed him and overbalanced his attacker. Then, still maintaining constant contact with its arm through the haft of his weapon, he pressed in, crumpled its elbow against anorexic ribs, drew back the weapon, leveled the head of his spear like he was using its own arm to stabilize a pool shot, and stabbed forward with the full power of his legs and hips.

  Jasque ran to him, his polearm replaced with a new weapon. This one also had a long spear-length haft. Its head made her think of demon horns. It was like three-fourths of a circle with a segment of the front taken out and inward-facing spikes set inside the loop of metal.

  With insane coordination, Jasque stabbed the weapon forward and snared the flesh arm inside the barbed loop. Then he twisted his weapon and pointed the tip down like a pole vaulter. The partial circle buried itself against the ground and trapped one of those dangerous arms in the process.

  On the other side, Wade had his spear shift back into its chain whip form. However, this time, it was more true chain rather than solid lengths of metal. He twisted to the side and looped the chain around the creature's neck.

  More Were magic surged, and she could all but see the muscles of his arm bulge. He lifted a boot, pressed it to the creature's wooden shoulder, and hauled the loop tight around its neck. He leaned so far back that he went nearly horizontal.

  It had all happened so fast. Shilloh felt like she had just barely had time to flinch and start clenching her jaw. Now—barely a blink later—they were wrapped around a monstrous Halloween gorilla. It was listing to the side, immobile face snarling towards the sky as its smoldering wooden talons grabbed at the chain around its neck.

  Wade took a moment to calmly glance at her and scan the area around them. Once he was sure that everything was clear down range, he shifted the chain so it was gripped in a single hand and pulled the absurdly massive revolver from his hip.

  Shilloh was struck by how similar the width of the gun's barrel was to the size of his spear haft. Then that barrel was pressed against the back of the creature's head, his other arm still hauling back on the chain.

  The sound of the shot was loud enough that it felt more like an explosive than a gun.

  Just like that, the battle was over. A gunshot signaled the end of a race rather than the start.

  Some significant portion of the wooden head had just disappeared. Vaporized by the impact. What remained was still stuck in the rictus snarl it had been carved into. The fire and soot from the wooden side swirled with great intensity and then puffed away in a cloud of sooty steam.

  "Fuck!" Wade yelled, stumbling back and grinding his feet into the dirt. "Son of a succubus, that's hot!"

  His chain spear straightened itself, uncoiling from around the neck as he staggered back. Immediately, he regained his balance and lunged forward to spear the creature through the chest and pin its body to the ground. At the same time, Jacque disengaged and stepped away with a large silver handgun (hadn't his gun been black?) now sighted on the creature.

  They went through a strange process where they called out to each other like they were going through a checklist. As they confirmed the area was secure and checked for any other number of paranoid possibilities that might result in the corpse reanimating, Jasque recovered his man-catcher. He magically replaced it with a different spear-looking thing. All the while, they continued the process of ensuring nothing else was coming, confirming the kill, poking the body with alchemical-looking tools, and leaving her mind to boot back up from the shock of such sudden violence.

  "Alright," Wade finally called, turning back to her and using a rag from his backpack to wipe the blood off his weapon. "That thing is not getting back up. It's not our target for today, but I'm glad we got this one."

  "This one?" she said, her voice empty of inflection.

  "No name," he said, misunderstanding what she had meant." They're S4MH41N or something like that in the handbooks. Usually, they manifest more in autumn or winter, but it's good that we—"

  "GOOD?"

  Wade's head rocked back. He had been sauntering over to her, mostly focused on cleaning his weapon. The man had been throwing her small grins and rambling like they were still talking about what magic powers they daydreamed about.

  She took a big step towards him, not caring how loud she was being. "What kind of evil asshole walks unprovoked into another living creature's home intending to provoke it so they can stab it to death and then wipe away the still-warm blood like they did some great public fucking service!"

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