The matriarch’s final breath signaled the destruction of all she had ever worked to produce. No longer harried by the massive monsters, the hunters set about themselves with carnage and barely held contempt. No one held any reservations about killing the murk rats.

  It was strange for Ozzy to think that only just recently he'd been terrified of one of these monsters. A murk rat leaping at him his first day in the great swamp had been one of the most terrifying things he’d ever experienced. Now he slaughtered them in droves. Using the S.O.B. slugs Ozzy was more like an angel of death, keeping pace even with Myla, in terms of overall kills, as they went about reaping on the artificial hill.

  There was simply nothing the rats could do. If they stayed far away they were slaughtered via ranged attacks. Ozzy's shotgun wreaking havoc on their lines. If they decided to charge, they had to run over Myla's traps and face Lars, Patrick, and Frank in close combat something even the matriarch had trouble overcoming. Fighting the common murk rats turned what had been an adrenaline-inducing fight with the Matriarchs into little more than a chore.

  It only took 20 minutes and they'd completely emptied out the hill’s dens and burrows. Leaving them in an uncanny silence among a sea of dead rats.

  “Well, that was something.” Emil commented, taking a moment to wipe the sweat from his brow. Patrick and Ozzy nodded their ascent.

  Lars grunted in agreement, prodding the first matriarch’s massive corpse with his axe as he looked over the carnage that the two monsters coupling had caused.

  “I’ve never seen them do anything like this before.” Patrick said, stepping up beside Lars. “Never seen anyone try to ride a matriarch either, good job not getting yourself kabob-ed Ozzy.” He added with a snort.

  “It was a spur of the moment kinda thing.” Ozzy said, trying hard to breathe through his mouth to avoid the horrendous smells that were beginning to pour from the now dead hill.

  “I’ve got dibs on running the big circle!” Emil called, raising his hand high up in the air with a victorious smirk, looking down at the rest of them.

  “I’m with Emil!” Patrick was quick to throw his hand up in the air, a look of overjoyed relief crossing his face as he realized he’d just barely beaten Myla who had just barely thought to lift her own hand up, her mouth half open.

  Ozzy was left staring in confusion at Lars who just looked back at him and shrugged. Whatever was going on the big bear of a man could apparently care less about.

  “You should have raised your hand leaf child.” Lars grunted at him.

  Looking between the different hunters Ozzy wondered what they were calling spots for, and as he watched Myla, the previously completely unbothered hunter stamp her feet and glare between Patrick and the sea of dead rats he had a horrible premonition.

  “The rest of you sorry bastards are on corpse duty!” Emil shouted out gleefully, pulling a familiar token adorned circle of rope from his dimensional bag.

  ***

  In moments like these it was easy to remember just how for granted he took being clean, and he vowed to never do so again so long as he lived. Ozzy had been abandoned. His one true friend and brother opting to take Patrick on as an assistant over him. Even Frank had left, smiling evilly as he vanished into a shower of green motes. Ozzy had been cast down to hell. A furry, bloody, foul smelling, staining, rotting, hell.

  Corpse collection duty was much the same as it had been his first time out hunting with Emil when he had been made to wade out into the muddy filth and pull bloody rat carcasses out of the swamp. Between having to drag the carcasses through the sticking mud and wading through bloody water. It had been a horrible experience in and of itself. This job was its own hell.

  While they did have more loot circles to parse around, there were infinitely more rat bodies than they could handle. Initially Ozzy had held on to hope that once Emil and Patrick were done harvesting the matriarchs that they would come and help them. Unfortunately, he soon found out that whatever special looting circle they were using to get the most out of the matriarch’s harvest took about as long to set up as a bad joke, a bad joke which he was currently the butt of.

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  He was wholly and completely stuck with his lot, alongside a mostly mute barbarian guy and a very grumpy Myla.

  They set to work, setting up looting circles that were actually meant for this kind of mass cleanup. Lars had been very clear with Ozzy that he was to at no point or time step into or even get close to the circle when it was on. The barbarian had then given Ozzy a visual demonstration of the damage he could expect if he did trip and fall by throwing one of the rat corpses into it.

  The moment the rat passed over the edge of the circle it began to vibrate. Its fur sloughing in handfuls off to reveal the mangled and broken skin beneath. Skin went next, peeling and dissolving into motes of mana as the very flesh on the rat began to slip away into nothingness. It all took less than ten seconds for the rat to melt away completely, not leaving so much as a hair within the circle.

  “If you fall into the circle you’ll wish you hadn’t.” Lars told Ozzy, the two of them watching Myla stomp off angrily.

  “Stupid ******* pieces of ****. I’m gonna tie that sorry ******* up and leave him out here for the ******* crabs!” Myla muttered angrily, cursing under her breath. The elf glaring at anyone who even so much as looked in her direction, but saving her nastiest looks for Patrick.

  It wasn’t until Myla needed a hand with a specifically well-fed specimen that she relented her angry tirade and called Ozzy over.

  “Ozzy! Come help me move this thing before I blast it off the side of this gods be damned hill.” She said angrily.

  Hurrying over quickly to comply Ozzy reached down and grabbed a bloody handful of rat legs and heaved. Separating the rat from another it came off with a wet tearing noise. Bloody matted fur acting like gory Velcro.

  “You’ve got some interesting weapons Ozzy.” Myla said after a while, her words more accusation than statement.

  Dumping the rat into one of the glowing loot circles Ozzy let out a sigh and turned to face her. “Thanks,” he said, choosing to ignore her angry tone, “they get the job done.” Was all he really felt like saying on the matter.

  “I think that’s putting it lightly.” Myla continued, skirting around something, as she threw her own rat into the circle.

  Ozzy couldn’t help by sigh. If anything bothered him it was waiting for someone beating around the bush to get to whatever point hey had decided was important enough to tease. “I appreciate that, your powers were doing some serious work too.” He said flatly, opening up the avenue for her to change the topic before it got too awkward.

  Going ahead and making it awkward anyways Myla asked him, “I know the upper platforms might as well be other worlds compared to ours but even up there where does someone get powers like that? They’re practically alien.” She put uncomfortable emphasis on the ‘Other worlds’ and ‘alien’ part of her sentence.

  Nearly throwing a rat short Ozzy gave Myla a confused look. Like he didn’t quite get what she was putting down. “What do you mean?” He asked, absolutely understanding where this conversation was going.

  “How does someone like you get those kinds of powers. Then how do you do something stupid enough to get thrown down here with the rest of us?” She asked, leveling an unimpressed, I know you’re keeping something from me look at him.

  “I-” Ozzy began.

  “Or did you come from somewhere else entirely? It’d certainly make more sense about your overall weirdness and Trinidad’s interest in you.” Despite framing her sentence as a question, it came across as anything but.

  Ozzy dropped a rat in the circle and didn’t move to grab another one. “What are you trying to get at Myla?” He asked, hiding all of the anger and annoyance that was bubbling up inside of him under a calm and collected tone of voice.

  “Just something that Emil said the other day’s been bouncing around in my head. He called you a stranger from another world. I’ll give it to you, the upper city might as well be a different world, but I don’t think that’s what he meant, was it?” Myla asked, her eyes narrowing as she began to close the trap around Ozzy. Her eyes searching for any sign of uncertainty or guile on his face.

  “What?” Ozzy asked, the picture of dumb innocence.

  “I know that you’re a stranger.” She said, her narrowed eyes meeting a steely gaze.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Ozzy said, gritting teeth.

  “Maybe I should call up a friend from the college of science to be sure then?” She asked tapping her chin thoughtfully.

  Ozzy dropped his dumb and stupid act as he felt a cold anger make its way to his heart. “You’d never make it back to the train.” Ozzy said, his hand twitching at his side as he fought the urge to summon his revolver. “Don’t threaten me Myla. My weapons were made to hunt people, not monsters.”

  She raised an eyebrow at him, “You might be able to take care of me but what about Patrick and Lars? They would turn you into a bloody puddle before you ever made it back to the boat.”

  “They’d never see me getting back to the boat.” Ozzy said as he took a step forward. “You’ve only seen three of my abilities. Do you really think I would specialize in attacks that let the whole world know where I am without speccing into some stealth too?” Ozzy asked, completely bluffing.

  Taking a step back Myla rolled her eyes at him. “Relax killer, I won’t bite if you don’t.” She bent down and grabbed a rat, tossing it into the pile with a squelch as she resumed her work.

  “I just need a favor from you.” She said, not looking at him as she continued her grisly work.

  “What’s the favor.” Ozzy growled.

  “I want in on whatever craziness you’ve got going on.” She said. “My progression’s all but stopped in this hugs and smiles district. Someone like you can change that though. I want in on whatever team you make when you leave.”

  It was Ozzy’s turn to raise his eyebrows in surprise. “How do you know that I don’t just want to stay in the firelight district?” Ozzy asked,

  “Strangers never do.” She said with a shrug. “That’s why most people with any sense put them down whenever they pop up. You’re the worst omen a city can get.” She said, her face breaking into a wide grin. “The last time one of you got any momentum the city lost an entire trunk.”