A talon-tailed beast jumped through the air toward the brunette. Katie, completely unfazed by the stink from the beast’s mouth that she could already smell, raised her handguns and pumped two bullets into its eyes in a brutally short-range, killing the deadly monster. 

“Nice shot!” Katie complimented herself, because why wouldn’t she? She turned around with superhuman reflexes and shot another beast in the eye three times, marking another brilliant kill. 

Moss wasn’t enjoying this as much as Katie. Not even close. Every scream he heard shook him to the core. Every familiar figure that was devoured by those damn beasts made his heart bleed. These were all veterans who he had known and fought alongside with for months, if not years. Yet, they were being cornered and slain on a battlefield where their skills and training amounted to very little. 

They were dying, slaughtered like sheep, and he was the only one to be blamed for this. It was his ignorance that led to this senseless slaughter. His arrogance. 

But no one had a time machine...at least he didn't. All they could do now was fight, and perhaps some of them would live to see daylight again. 

“Use the grenades!” He called out after blowing open the brain of another filthy beast. “Blow these fuckers up!”

Originally, no one dared using explosives underground. After all, if the grenades damaged the integrity of this structure and brought a hundred tons of rocks collapsing on them...it would be rather counterproductive. Then again, at this point, it was worth a try. 

A dozen mercenaries who weren’t busy keeping the beasts back pulled out HE grenades from their tactical belts. They pulled the pins and threw the grenades as far into the beast horde as possible. Seconds later, the grenades exploded, tearing bloody chunks out of the dense layers of beasts. Blood and limbs flew into the air due to the shockwave of the blasts, followed by the agonized shrieks of the vile monsters.

That wasn’t the only good news. Moss stole a glance at the tunnels and was all too thrilled to see that they were no longer spitting out fresh reinforcements. In other words, all the mercenaries had to deal with were the beasts in the cave right now. 

Still problematic, but at least they had some hope. 

As if good news came in groups, the mercenary leader noticed Katie starting to approach the frontline, walking as she was shooting. At first, he wanted to pull this girl back. Closing the distance with the beasts? To do what? Engage them in melee? But he quickly changed his mind. The fight between him and Katie was still vivid in his mind. 

This girl was weird. Perhaps she had some trick up her jacket sleeves that could get them out of this mess? 

Katie slowly walked toward the beasts, her handguns constantly spitting fire. Enemy after enemy fell before her before one of the beasts got close enough to strike. Its tail darted forward like a lance, going right for Katie’s throat.

Katie noticed it a little too late, which wasn’t surprising considering she wasn’t exactly trying to be careful or observant. By the time she saw the beast coming, its tail was already in front of her. She tilted her head and the tail slit across her neck, severing it and spilling blood. 

The beast growled victoriously. Believing it to be the victor of the duel, it pounced on Katie, ready to feast on her flesh. 

When Katie dropped her handguns, grabbed onto the beast with her bare hands, and started pulling its teeth out of its mouth with her bare hands, the victorious growls turned into pained whimpers. 

“What the...how?” On the side, Moss, who had been paying attention to what Katie was doing, found himself beyond amazed. Oh god...was he hallucinating or something? Somehow, a girl as thin as Katie was dismantling a bloodthirsty beast that could tear a person’s head off in one swift bite! He saw the beast struggle in Katie’s grip, futilely. 

With one final crack, the beast was no longer moving. Mercy, in a sense. 

At this point, Katie was fully throwing herself into combat. She no longer bothered with hiding her true capabilities with her puny handguns. Instead, she drew her Knife and started dashing across the battlefield. 

One mercenary was just about to be struck by a piercing tail. Katie popped up in front of him, tanked the tail with her chest, stabbed the beast in the eye, and then dashed away. The tail that was buried in Katie’s body a second ago collapsed on the ground, never to move again. The mercenary, still confused by what was happening, shot the beast on the ground for a full two seconds before realizing it was dead already. 

Another mercenary screamed as a tail slashed across her leg. Her automatic rifle fell on the ground as she reached down and tried to stop the bleeding with her hands. One of her main blood veins was hit and she would bleed out soon. But bleeding out didn't seem too important when there was a carnivore merely steps away from her about to strike again. This time, it was going for her head. 

Katie entered the fray at the last possible second. She popped up behind the beast and grabbed onto its tail with her left hand. The beast struggled, but Katie tightened her grip and crushed the deadly weapon with her bare hand. All the pain she had experienced for the past months enhanced her strength to a terrifying level. Snapping the tail wasn't any more difficult to her than breaking a twig.

Struck by sheer agony, the beast launched itself forward, only to be stabbed in the eye. 

Katie dropped the dead beast and pulled out her bloody Knife. Before she left, her eyes glanced across the female mercenary and her injury. She wouldn’t last long without proper medical help, which would be hours away at least. 

For a second, Katie thought about just leaving, but instead, she knelt down before the woman and used her power. The next second, the bleeding stopped. 

Most of the powers Katie got from the vampire essence involved controlling and manipulating blood. Forming some blood clots at the wound wasn’t too much of a challenge. 

Just before the female mercenary could thank her, Katie dashed again. This time, she took off the head of a beast that tried to sneak up on Moss from behind. 

“You’re very welcome.” She patted herself on the back once again and continued to work before Moss could say a word. 

For the next minute, the mercenaries watched in awe as Katie did what she did best. Kill. One second, she was on one side of the battlefield, cracking heads with kicks. The next moment, she was 5 meters away, removing heads from bodies with her blade. She was moving so quickly that many of the mercenaries couldn’t even keep track of what she was. The only thing they could see was the red smoke from every time she blinked that was all over the battlefield. 

Some of the mercenaries have stopped firing by now. All the beasts in front of them were dead. 

In the middle of the mercenaries, Jake Cull frowned at the sight. Just like his father, he didn't have a scratch on him, although some parts of his clothes were indeed ripped. Still, his brows lightened up when his hand reached into his pocket and touched something. 

Katie kept on moving. Appear. Attack. Disappear. Rinse and repeat. She was unstoppable. The beasts tried to surround her and overcome her combat capabilities with their numbers. At the very least they wanted to slow her down, but even that became impossible. Katie was already deadly before, and after she learned how to teleport, well...

From time to time, Katie would take a few hits on purpose. Dashing wasn’t easy, and she needed refreshments in order to keep this going at such an intense frequency. For her, pain was the refreshments, and the unsuspecting beasts were all too happy to offer that to her. 

Katie’s Knife once again pierced through a beast’s skin and buried itself in its skull. The interesting thing was that Katie was ten times more effective with a blade than with a gun. The explosive physical strength that her body held meant that, with a weapon as sturdy as her Knife, she could tear through the beasts like paper. 

Gradually, more and more beasts were reduced to corpses. Their blood formed a river beneath the feet of the mercenaries. It was clear that they were doing anything but winning, but the beasts kept on advancing. They fought and fought until Katie beheaded the last of them with one swift strike. 

And then it was all over. 

Or was it?

---

At the end of the day, it was a victory, but a costly one. Half of the 50 or so War Wolf mercenaries were dead. Their deaths were anything but pretty. It was impossible to find anything bigger than a few minor chunks for many of the fallen, likely because they were torn to pieces by multiple hostiles. The rest of the victims with bodies left were still severely mauled. It was just a nasty result in general. 

A large number of the survivors were wounded. 

As the leader of the War Wolves, Moss knew he had no one else to blame but himself. He led his men into a trap set by these vicious beings, and if Katie didn't reveal herself to be an absolute terror with supernatural strength and power, then he and his men would be in the bellies of the beasts already. 

For that, he and his men owed Katie their lives. 

Yes. Moss had a million questions about who this Katie Lockwood really was and how she could do what she did, but he wisely ignored it. As a mercenary, he knew all too well that sometimes the more he knew, the more dangerous his situation would be. As long as Katie was friendly, he didn't give a damn where she got her powers from. 

There were still gunshots across the battlefield. This was his men cleaning up the carnage and pumping rounds into the skulls of any beast that they thought might still be breathing. Of course, that wasn’t of Moss’s concern as he slowly approached Katie.

Katie was not happy. Well...at least not anymore. When the thrill of the slaughter passed, she was left with another mostly ruined black jacket and a torn tank top. Oh how she wished she had the clothes of comic book heroes and villains that wouldn’t break no matter how many hits they took! She wasn’t really scared of revealing her skin, but she had no preference for it either. 

Moss made his way up to Katie. He lowered his head before offering her his gratitude. 

“Ms. Lockwood...I just want to say thank you on the behalf of the War Wolves. We wouldn’t be alive right now without you. For that, you have our gratitude.” He paused. “I know it probably doesn’t mean much to you, Ms. Lockwood, but all of us owe you one. If there is anything you need us to do in the future, just give us the word, and we will be there.” 

Katie raised her eyebrows. She didn't really expect the gratitude, especially since she and Moss didn't really start off on the best terms. Then again, Moss only disliked her because he thought she was unfit for the job and might get everyone in the team killed. Once he saw how tough she was and what she could do, well…

Still, she had a question for him. 

“Aren’t you pissed off at me? I mean…” She glanced at the mercenary bodies the survivors were doing their best to put together. “If I stepped in sooner, maybe a lot of you would still be alive today.”

“I am not a good person. I have killed a lot of people and hurt a lot more, but I am far from ungrateful.” Moss replied quietly. “We didn't hire you. We didn't pay you. We’re colleagues, nothing more. You don’t owe us anything. You could’ve sat back and watched us all die before stepping in and even that would be within your rights. We’re thankful that you intervened when you did. Plus…” His eyes darkened. “If there is anyone who’s responsible for this carnage, it is me. This should’ve been a simple mission. A cakewalk. Yet...”

The large man sat down beside Katie and sighed. Yes. Mercenaries were in a career where they risked their lives for money. Even so, it was relatively rare to lose half the combatants on one mission. In most cases, if everyone did their job well, especially when hired against other human combatants, there would only be a few casualties and the rest would live long enough to enjoy their reward. 

This trip down here was an absolute disaster, and Moss was blaming himself for it. 

Katie raised her eyebrows. Wow...this man was much more sensible than she expected. For a while, she thought the mercenaries would come over and blame her for slacking off for the first half of the engagement. Then maybe they would try to kill her and in return get mowed down themselves? These men were much smarter than they first appeared. 

Katie slowly took off her black jacket and frowned at the number of holes in it. Still, it was relatively intact. She tossed it to Moss, who looked at her and frowned in confusion. 

“Hold it for me.” Katie said quietly before standing up in her ripped tank top and making her way to a pair of men not far away from them. 

The Culls. 

“So, boys!” She called out, attracting the attention of everyone. The Culls looked up at her. Harrison could still manage a polite smile, but Jake threw her a cold, cautious glance. 

“Look...as much as I want to remain professional, I’m afraid there are some issues we must address.” She declared loudly. More and more mercenaries have gathered around her, weapon in hand. As all the attention was upon her, Katie continued at the Culls. “Anything you want to tell us, gentlemen?”

Jake Cull glanced across the expression of the mercenaries before standing up. “I am sorry for what happened here. I truly am. We did provide some possible intel about the number of potential hostiles based on our first encounter. Clearly, the numbers were wrong. My father and I are willing to acknowledge our faults here.” 

He glanced at the mercenaries before making another announcement. 

“Because of our mistake and the consequences, we are willing to double your compensation, including those to your fallen comrades.” 

The mercenaries gradually relaxed. Money couldn’t bring back the dead, but it was still comforting. Many of the dead would die well knowing their families would be well taken care of. But Katie wasn’t speaking up about the money. No...she had something much more important to ask. 

“4 million dollars for me alone. How generous.” She scanned across the mercenaries, noticing that most of them were at least minorly injured. That was when she snapped back to the Culls. “Look around you, gentlemen. Most of the people here are wounded. They have bulletproof vests and automatic weapons and a fuck ton of training, yet here they are, dead or injured. After all, they were surrounded by at least twenty times their number of enemies. A few wounds are unavoidable no matter how good they are.”

Her eyes scanned across the two men with all the suspicion in the world. 

“So tell me, gentlemen...how in the world did the two of you survive this onslaught...without a single damn scratch?”

---

My thanks to Kyle for his Patreon support! We're around $14 of pledge away from our first goal, which is $100 in pledge a month. If we get there, I'll be able to look into commissioning artwork based on what the readers want.