Chapter 5 Two Against the System

Two hunters stepped out from behind the rocks. Their armor looked heavy. I caught quick flashes of their panels when they got close. Rank C. One grinned under his helmet. "B-rank trash. System's got your combat flagged. You can't even use your skills properly."

Lyra raised her sword with her good arm. Her bad shoulder stayed stiff. She breathed through her teeth. "Come try me then. I have faced worse than you two."

The hunters split up to circle her. They moved like they had done this many times. No rush. The right one laughed. "This will be easy money. Nulls never last long."

"Why do you hunt people like this?" I called out. They did not hear me. They did not look my way at all.

Lyra swung at the right hunter. Her sword clashed loud against his. She pushed back hard. "You bastards always come in packs. Cowards."

The left hunter tried to get behind her. I saw my chance. I moved quickly through the ash and pressed my knife into the gap between his helmet and chest armor. My hand shook a little. My heart pounded hard.

"Tell your friend to stop right now," I said quietly into his ear. "Or this gets ugly."

The hunter froze. His body went completely stiff. "What the hell? Who is behind me? I cannot see you."

His friend stopped swinging at Lyra. The sword hung in the air. "What are you talking about? Garr, stop playing games."

"Talk to him," I told the hunter I held. I pressed the knife a bit harder. "Now."

The hunter swallowed loudly. "Stop, Garr. There is someone behind me with a knife. I cannot see him but he is real."

Garr lowered his weapon slowly. His eyes darted around. "Is this some kind of trick? Show yourself, coward!"

Lyra stepped back, breathing hard. Sweat ran down her face. She kept her sword ready. "Kane, what are you doing?"

I kept my voice calm even though frustration burned inside. "I do not want to kill you. I want answers. How long until the next purge wave comes?"

The hunter under my knife shifted his weight. His breath came fast. "You are a Null. How are you even talking? The System should have flagged you already."

"Answer the question," I said. I glanced at Lyra. She nodded once, her eyes sharp with pain.

"The hound is with the other four to the west," he said quickly. "Not here. The purge timer runs from the central Registry. We cannot stop it. It just marks targets."

Lyra spoke up, voice tight. "What about the north? Is there a real way out of the Ashfields?"

The hunter hesitated. I pressed the knife again. "Talk or I cut."

"There is a checkpoint three days north," he muttered. "Gate into the connected territories. But they check everyone hard."

I took in the words. My mind turned them over fast. "Good. One more thing. Does the hound track movement or just System pings?"

"Mostly pings," the second hunter said. He looked scared now. "Who are you people? This is not normal."

I stepped back slowly. "You can go now."

The hunter spun around fast. He looked right where I stood. Four feet away. His eyes went wide then blank. He blinked hard twice. "Where? I do not see anyone. What is this?"

His panel kept flashing like it tried to find a target and failed. He made a choking sound. "This cannot be. My skills say nothing is there."

Lyra moved quickly. She swung the flat of her blade against the first hunter's head. He dropped like a sack. The second one turned and ran west, shouting into his wrist device. "Null here! Some ghost! Send help now!"

We did not wait. Lyra and I took off north fast. Her steps looked painful. She held her bad arm close. I stayed right beside her. My legs burned. We ran for twenty minutes.

Finally she slowed. "They could not see you at all. Not even a little."

"No," I said. I wiped sweat from my eyes.

She stopped and turned to me. Her chest rose and fell fast. "The one you held had System Detection active. Rank C skill. It should have flagged any Null within ten meters."

"And?" I asked. I watched her face closely.

"It did not flag you." She rubbed her bad shoulder. Pain showed in the way her mouth tightened. "Kane. What exactly are you? Tell me straight."

I did not answer right away. We started walking again. My mind raced. I felt the old frustration rise. Back home I fixed systems. Now I lived in one and it hated me.

"I am unregistered," I said after a minute. "Not invisible. The System does not process me as a real participant unless I poke it. Like a bug in the code that the engine skips over. The hound tracks pings from System use, not just me standing here. That is the difference."

Lyra looked at me sideways. She stepped over a rock carefully. "You talk about the System like it is a machine you built yourself."

I gave a short laugh. It sounded tired. "Not exactly. But I have built things like it before. Long story."

She opened her mouth to say more but stopped. We both looked north at the same time. On the horizon a thick column of black smoke rose straight up. Too straight. Too controlled.

"That's the northern route," Lyra said. Her voice went hard. She gripped her sword tighter. "Something is burning. They might have blocked the path already. This is bad."

I stared at the smoke. My stomach twisted with worry. I cracked open one System window for just a second. Long enough to catch part of a new broadcast. Then I slammed it shut fast.

The fragment burned in my mind. Red letters flashing strong.

[SYSTEM BROADCAST: NULL ANOMALY DETECTED IN ASHFIELDS. ALL REGISTERED UNITS CONVERGE. REWARD TRIPLED. TERMINATE ON SIGHT.]

The ground under us started shaking again. Far behind us, more monster screams rose up. Lyra's eyes met mine. Wide and full of questions.

"What did you just see?" she asked, voice low and urgent. "Kane, talk to me."

Before I could answer, heavy horns blew from the north. The smoke column grew thicker. And right at the base of it, I saw dozens of figures marching straight toward us. Armored. Organized. Way more than two.

"This is no small squad," Lyra whispered. Her hand shook on her sword. "They brought an army for you."

I felt the weight of it all. My fists clenched. One mistake and we were both dead. The horns blew louder. They were coming fast.