Alliance

Void everywhere. I’m not sure whether to activate it or to just attack without the help of my Gear.

Margaux Princeton glanced around her with a slight frown lighting her features, her fingers lingering over the orange gem on her chest. She hadn’t used the Gear when it came to her previous opponents, but in this case, she was wondering if now was the right time to activate it and attack in her N-State.

Part of her argued that without going into N-State, she would be able to defeat the Void.

Somehow.

But the other half snorted and told her that she’d die if she didn’t activate it.

So Margaux decided to take the word of her first half and immediately dodged the attack of the first Void, glancing up at the tree branch and seeing it combust into flames. A curse left her lips and she grabbed the two swords from the holder on her waist, using it to block the sudden wave of black that the second Void expelled. Twisting her swords, she reflected the wave back to the Void, stunning it for a few seconds.

Twirling the weapons repeatedly, Margaux started chanting. 

And the swords glowed a bright orange, she charging forward and performing an array of attacks on the Void around her. Just as she was about to finish off two, she didn’t realize the appearance of a third that sneaked up behind her.

Just as her eyes caught sight, a green arrow zoomed past and struck the Void in the chest, knocking it to the ground. The smell of burning reached her nostrils and she scrunched up her nose, using her swords to defend herself from the newcomer.

Margaux looked at the spot where the arrow came from.

A tree up high.

The leaves moved slightly and rustled, and a person came out, wielding a bow and arrow.

She looked at Margaux, her weapons, and found the arrow deep into the Void’s chest.

The woman jumped down and landed neatly on the ground, walking with a calm air and approaching the dead Void, ripping the arrow from its still chest.

Margaux couldn’t help but flinch.

The newcomer put the arrow back into her quiver, looked at the other two defeated Void, and then at Margaux. She had her bow down, which gave the other slight hope.

“If I were you, I wouldn’t relax just yet.” She nodded at the opposite direction, “There are others nearby and they’re having a bloodbath.”

“What about the North?”

“Might be safe, but you’d have to hold onto those for a bit longer before you can relax.”

The woman turned to walk away (possibly to the North), and Margaux noticed the glowing vial in her pocket that shone a soft, baby pink.

“That’s AphroArmor,” she said.

The girl glanced her way.

“Yes, it is.”

“And it’s in a vial.”

“Yes, it is.”

Without another word, Margaux took out a vial exactly like that, except containing a vivid violet kind of substance. “A-Gear. Artemis.”

This caught the woman’s attention. She walked back to Margaux, examining the vial closely.

“Who did you get this from?”

“The last person I attacked. He had this in his pocket and I took it.”

Her gaze turned cold.

“That wasn’t his.”

“I…It wasn’t?”

“No. That was Leona’s.”

The name was slightly familiar.

“Byzantium?”

 And the woman nodded.

Another one killed.

“So the one you have – the pink one – it was Roxanne’s?”

“Yes. But when I got this, it was from a person who got this from her.”

Leona Byzantium and Roxanne Amaranth, dead.

That sent shivers up Margaux’s spine.

There were ten out of twelve left, but who knew?

And then, there were many others aiming to kill them and take their Gear.

“The person I got this from – Bianca Blanc – told me she killed Penelope and Althea.”

“Penelope Vermiculus and Althea Goldenrod?”

Now those two, she was familiar with.

Penelope was an A+ student.

Althea was wild, gusty, and outgoing.

And now, they were dead, too.

Eight out of twelve.

“When does it end, exactly?”

And she glanced at the sky.

“When the full moon arrives.”

The full moon.

All they had to do was wait.

“I haven’t run into the others – just you, obviously.”

Newcomer looked a bit nervous.

Even awkward.

“So, er. I was wondering…”

“-teammates?”

She looked at Margaux, surprised.

“You’d like that?”

“Please.”

And she smiled.

“Skylar. Skylar Viridia.”

“Margaux Princeton.”

And they shook hands, forming an alliance that changed the Hunt.