Jack's unblinking eyes gazed up at the ceiling. Blood trickled down from his forehead, where I shot him.

Clack. I dropped my gun; my hand had gone numb and rigid.

[HP: 30/1150]

That was Jack's HP.

Exactly 30. It was just like in the tournaments Hei used to attend in Silvercreek.

To win against your opponent in those, you needed to get them below 200 HP. At first it sounded way too scary to me, considering 200 was just a few hits away from death. But, as it turned out, it was impossible to drop an opponent below 30 HP without actual killing intent. Hei had assured me it was failproof, that it really was impossible to accidentally kill anyone without really, really meaning to. It was some sort of special safety net, baked into the fundamental workings of this world.

So why now?

After how far he had gone. After how far I had gone. Why, still, didn't I want to kill him? He wasn't a good person. Neither was I.

My legs gave way under me, and I fell to the floor. My wounds ached at the jolt. There was no response from Jack. He had gone unconscious, though his HP indicated he was stable for now.

In a twisted way, I liked it here. The two of us. Safe, and together. That was all I really wanted, wasn't it? It hurted to ponder such things. I hated this world bitterly, hated this guild, hated myself for how pathetic and helpless I was.

I sighed. Slowly, I eased myself back up, and I picked up my gun. Mr. Atlas and Reens were still waiting for me. We had a plan together.

I took out my Team Notebook and left them a message:

Got into a fight. I took damage, but managed to neutralize the threat. Am alright for now.

I looked around. Blood stained the floor, the walls, and the shelves. And of course, Jack and me. If anyone discovered things as they were, it'd be considerably troublesome.

I conjured a Vortex Shield and launched the swirling wall of water across the room, as gently as I could. It soaked everything, diluting the blood into a translucent crimson. Then, I planted my palm on the flooded floor. My Ring of Water Purification began to vibrate on my finger. A shower of sparkles burst from it, cleansing all the liquid in the room. The blood-laced water all around turned clear. Some stains remained on our clothes and upon the grooves of the wooden shelves, but it wasn't anything too noticeable.

Looking around, I found a large, beige tarp of a coarse weave. I dragged Jack's unconscious body into a corner, behind a shelf, and draped the tarp over him. That would keep him hidden for now. It wasn't secure, but time was scarce. I checked my Team Notebook. Reens had left me a message.

Be careful. We probably need to hurry along.

I wrote in reply, What's the plan?

After a moment, came Reens' reply:

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them.

That was clear enough to me. We had discussed things through, on our way to the Bounty Hall tower. And that little poem, which Reens borrowed from Tolkien, was both our code-phrase and our mnemonic.

Reens, Atlas and myself – the three of us were the ring of usurpers who would soon rule over the Bounty Hall. Our first step was to find the current three leaders, in order to initiate a 3v3 PvP match against them.

The exact conditions for initiating a PvP match were a bit ambiguous. For example, could a party of 3 players initiate PvP against 3 other individuals, who were part of a larger team of 5? Apparently so, according to Reens; you could challenge a subset of a larger team to PvP. On the other hand, could a team of 3 initiate PvP against 3 other individuals, all of whom weren't on the same team? That got tricky. It'd only work if those 3 individuals were "allies" in some sense. This was to prevent 2 exploits: First, it prevented player parties from avoiding multiplayer PvP just by disbanding the party temporarily. Second, it prevented parties from initiating PvP against arbitrary groupings of players. For example, if a party of 3 tried to initiate PvP against 2 individuals, plus an incapacitated hostage of the party's own choosing, they would be unable to do so. This was because the hostage wouldn't count as an ally to the 2 other enemies.

"The leaders certainly count as allies, I'm sure," Reens had assured us during our travel. Considering her own life was on the line, I'd trust in her assertion.

The last complication was the issue of distance: If the three leaders were in different locations, we wouldn't be able to initiate 3v3 against them, even if they were allies. To initiate PvP, all participants had to be present; you couldn't just start PvP with someone a mile away. That's why we had to "bring them all, and in the darkness bind them." One way or another, we had to get them all close together. Close enough to be in earshot, at least.

I exited the narrow room, leaving Jack behind. I found no one waiting outside the door, thankfully. Perhaps Jack's Ultimate helped silence the loudest parts of our fight. I hurried downstairs, and was relieved to find Mr. Atlas and Reens waiting for me.

"Sorry," I whispered.

"Welcome back," Reens replied. She checked my already-cleaned injuries, then she traced a glyph in the air. A gentle stream of healing light flowed out of her chest and entered me. Just like that, the worst of my wounds closed, and the pain soothed.

"Thanks," I said with a smile. "Save some mana, though."

Reens gave me a pat on the back. "We heard that two of them are together on the bottom floor," she informed me. "We'll just need to find the third. Are you ready?"

"Let's do it," I said. Reens returned a stern nod.

It was time for the hunters to become the hunted.