“I don’t get it,” Clara whispered. “What are they doing? Who are those girls?”

  “If I had to guess, we’re looking at what Graves does to the people they kidnap. They force them to work for the company.” I popped back out of cover and scanned the entire group again.

  The two fake Witchhunters were both well armed. I was pretty sure one of them even had an alchemical repeater, while the other had a full suppression rig on their back. That was some heavy duty hardware. They were definitely looking for a fight.

  The girls, on the other hand, didn’t seem to have much beyond the clothes on their back. That didn’t mean they weren’t dangerous. If the Graves hunters, as I decided to call them, could force them to use their magic against us, they could rapidly turn things in Graves’ favor.

  “Fuck…” I whispered as I dropped behind the outcropping again.

  “What are they doing here anyways?” Clara asked.

  “I don’t know,” I admitted. “They were forcing one of the girls to summon what looked like wolf spirits, and send them towards the coven.”

  “But spirits can’t enter the coven’s lands, the wards prevent that.”

  I frowned. “Then why the fuck… Wait, do the wards go off when a spirit approaches the perimeter?”

  “I’m not sure, they’re not my area of expertise. Why?” Clara asked.

  “I’d bet they don’t, so the guardians don’t have to investigate every time a wild nature spirit wanders too close. And if that’s true it means they’re probably using the shaman to probe the perimeter. Look for weaknesses in the coven’s defenses.”

  “Why the hell would they do that?” Clara hissed.

  “I don’t know!” I nearly shouted, before remembering the situation and controlling my voice. “Attacking a strong Coven would be suicide. Even for Witchhunters.”

  Clara bit her lip, and started rocking back and forth in agitation. “So what do we do? I don’t like the idea of just letting them collect information about our defenses and walk away scott free. Plus, we should help those two girls, if we can.”

  I gripped my rifle tighter. “Do you know about Witchhunters? How to fight them? Because fighting them is completely different than fighting a mundane, or another witch.”

  Clara shook her head. “I’ve taken basic combat training, for self defense, but nothing specific.”

  “That’s still better than most of my previous coven,” I snorted quietly.

  “Look, the real Witchhunters are an order of alchemists run by the government. They create various tools, armors and weapons that are designed to be highly resistant to magic, while being extremely effective against casters.” As I was talking I popped up and checked out the nearest Graves Hunter through my scope. “They were created to find, and exterminate the diabolists, but are capable of fighting most casters. You can’t attack them directly, their armor will dissipate the magic, so you need to attack them indirectly. Entangle them with vines, create rock spears, animate the trees, whatever you can with the surrounding environment.”

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  “It sounds like you’ve fought them before,” Clara said quietly.

  “Actually, it was the opposite. I worked with a pair when a cabal of diabolists moved close to my old coven. They were stone cold professionals, dedicated to their cause.”

  I watched as one of the Hunters turned towards the other, and said something. A joke? Were they laughing?

  “A real Witchhunter would never abandon their order, which makes me think these bastards are just imitations. It’s a big risk. I can’t imagine that the Witchhunters, or the government, would be happy having someone running around using their secret formulas without their knowledge.”

  “That’s great and all, but it really didn’t answer my question,” Clara mumbled.

  I paused, pulled back from my scope and looked at her. “Right, sorry. Could we take them? Maybe. This pair doesn’t seem very professional, but that doesn't mean they’re packing heat. The one in the front has a gun that can fire sixty rounds a minute, each one designed to debilitate anyone hit. The one in the back is wearing a device that weakens magic within a certain radius. In addition to that, there are the girls, who they may be able to force to fight us.”

  “That doesn’t sound like a fight we can win,” Clara pouted.

  “It is if we strike first…” I muttered. “I could just take one out from here, maybe even both, but it’s more likely we’ll end up in a firefight with the second one. Our other option is to wait for backup to show up, but that’ll probably take at least another hour. There’s always a chance that we get spotted before then.”

  “And if we strike first, what would you suggest?”

  “I’d take out the second one, completely take the suppression rig out of the fight, then you could try and entangle the one with the repeater until I managed to get a shot on them. It’s more dangerous if the repeater gets loose, but I’d rather that than have the suppressor completely take you out of the fight,” I explained. “What do you think?”

  Clara sat there, fidgeting for several seconds, before sitting up straight and nodding. “Let’s do it.”

  Since she seemed resolved, I nodded back. “Then we should split up a little bit, just in case that asshole manages to get some shots off. Go around to the side of the formation, and try to stay out of sight. Even when you’re casting, try to avoid revealing yourself. If worse comes to worse, I’ll draw their fire. I’ll give you a minute before I open fire.”

  Clara seemed a little less sure about that, but still nodded before slowly lowering herself off the rock we’d been sitting on, and making her way around the outcropping.

  I waited silently, hiding in the shadow of the rocks, counting the seconds. When I hit sixty I popped up, pulled the stock of my rifle to my shoulder, and prayed that I was doing the right thing.

  I slowly centered my crosshairs on the second hunter, released my power and let it gather around the barrel of the rifle, let out a long low breath, and pulled the trigger.

  The hunter exploded.

  Literally.

  I’d pushed a little bit of power into the rifle to help it punch right through the hunter’s armor, which it did, but apparently that was more than enough to cause it to punch right through them and out the other side. The suppressor wasn’t a delicate machine, but that didn’t mean it didn’t have some volatile parts, and hitting it in just the right place apparently caused it to go up like a stick of dynamite.

  I was so distracted by the spectacle that I missed my chance to hit the second hunter. The horses reared, up threatening to scatter, but the hunter expertly brought their big horse under control within seconds. Forcing the horse to lay down they rolled out of the saddle and disappeared behind its bulky body.

  They reappeared a second later, propped their oversized rifle on the horse’s saddle aimed directly at me and pulled the trigger.

  I yanked my rifle back and dropped to the ground as the hail of rounds completely destroyed cover. Rolling further away, and dropping to a lower level I just stared in awe at the devastation.

  Those were not debilitating rounds. Explosive? Whatever they were, they weren’t standard.

  Sprinting around the outcropping I desperately looked for another vantage point. It took several seconds, much longer than I wanted. Hopefully Clara hadn’t started her magical attack yet. Or drawn attention to herself.

  Throwing myself into the small cleft in the rock I tried desperately to get a beed on the second hunter. Even after moving I didn’t have a shot. The horse was providing too much cover, and the repeater was putting up too much smoke for me to get a clean shot. As I watched, vines shot out of the ground and grabbed the end of the repeater, and pulled it down. They nearly managed to wrench the weapon out of the hunter’s hand, but somehow they managed to hold on.

  I was still trying to get a clear shot when the screaming started. Visceral, filled with pain, which meant the bastard was probably torturing those girls to get them to help.

  That sealed it. If I couldn’t get a clear shot around the horse, I’d go through. It wasn’t an ideal choice, and I felt bad for the animal, but I couldn’t delay any more.

  Putting my crosshairs over the hunter’s approximate location I pulled upon my power, held my breath.

  And the Hunter was hoisted into the air, screaming. Even at this distance, without the help of my scope, I could see blood pouring out of several deep punctures. Their body whipped back and forth several times, before being smashed into the ground.

  After several seconds a form slowly appeared above the dead hunter, one of a massive wolf. The twelve foot tall creature pawed the body for a moment, before turning to look at the girls. I don’t know what it was really looking for, but it sniffed them both briefly before turning away and vanishing back into the forest.

  I dropped my rifle, hands shaking. “Fucking spirits,” I mumbled.

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