Your name is Ben, huh? Are you okay?

...

Don't worry. You can stay with us! You can have a home there!

..!

What? Did I do something wrong?

...

...

Oh. I'm sorry...

Cassie, what are you doing?! We told you to stay with us!

But I saw fire! I thought I could help . This lost boy is Ben. He... he lost his home.

Oh dear. Honey, we can't just leave him here.

...Of course. Of course. Come, little one. We'll take you back home.

...

Don't cry, Ben! I'll be here watching your back the whole time!

Days later...

As Pip properly parks their Rust Bucket nearby, Cassie and Ben are looking around in the market for food and supplies on their journey. For the past few days, they managed to get themselves some gold by doing some jobs and quests in every village they pass by.

It was mostly typical quests, like goblin slaying, escorting the daughter of a village leader, beating up bandits, and a whole lot more. While they'd be more than happy to do massive jobs that pay really well like slaying a dragon or killing demons, they're looking out for people who can't pay enough but really need the help. After all, before a dragon could burn whole countries, bandits would get small town folk first.

Right now, they plan to just buy some supplies before heading out properly to the Snowstorm camp. Ben is currently looking at some fruits as Pip approaches him after leaving their vehicle, while Cassie, with Ziggs, her bird, had just bought a few pieces of sliced fish.

"Do they have any mangoes?" Pip asks while Ben takes a green apple and examines it.

"Yeah. A couple. How many do you want?" Ben asks back before putting back the apple into the rack and looks at more fruits.

"Eh, four will do." Pip responds as he jumps onto a nearby box to gain height so he can see what the fruit vendor was selling. He was too short to see all of it earlier. "One each for you two and two for me." He adds as he picks up a sweet smelling, ripe mango.

Ben could only roll his eyes as Cassie approaches them. "Two for you? Seriously?" He asks his best friend with a scowl visible on his face.

"Hey, if it wasn't for me, we wouldn't have caught those bandits at Splitstone Quarry. Turning them into chickens while they were vulnerable helped hastened our work." Pip boasted as he places the mango back onto the rack.

"He's got a good point there, Ben." Cassie says after reaching her brother and best friend, handing her basket of fish to Ben. "After all, we didn't just catch regular bandits. We caught some Thousand Hands Guild bandits. They're as dangerous as they can come. I'm just surprised we actually made it out alive there."

"Fine. You get two mangoes. But any more favors like this requires good behavior beforehand." Ben conceded, the good news causing Pip to pump his fist and utter a small "Yes!"

After a successful thirty minute trip in the market, the trio and their pet bird head back to the Rust Bucket. Ben and Cassie place their groceries at their counter inside the vehicle while Pip starts the engines via crystal and Ziggs just perches on a horizontal bar hanging from the ceiling with two chains attached to each end of the bar.

Once Pip was done prepping the Rust Bucket and drives off, the brother and sister duo recheck what they had bought just to make sure they got what they came for.

"Fish?" Cassie spoke while Ben ruffles through their baskets and bags.

"Yep. Enough for two and a half weeks." Ben responds after checking.

"Meat?" Cassie adds.

Ben checks once more and gives Cassie a thumbs up and says, "Check. Pork, beef, poultry and mutton chops. All here. And if we run out, we can always go hunting. I miss hunting with you."

"Yeah..." Cassie agreed as she gives a genuine, longing smile. "We got used to being provided with food by the Resistance, that we haven't hunted our own food for a long time."

"Remember your first hit? Man, through the branches of trees, leaves and a small crack in a wall, you still managed to hit that deer!" Ben comments, making Cassie giggle in both pride and embarrassment, out of being praised.

"Well, I was trained by the best. Dad couldn't stop talking about me that day." Cassie reminisced.

Pip's laugh at the driver's seat caught the siblings' attention. "Oh man. Ben's first hunt though. Haha! Classic! He had a clear shot and BLAM! Missed anyway." Pip openly mocked his best friend.

"Hey! I could have had it! ...If I was Heatblast..." Ben responds, albeit sheepishly.

"Ha! You never were a good shot with guns. You actually need to be close to hit anything, or you just start spraying bullets everywhere until you hit something!" Pip continued to tease Ben. "You're so used to that watch of yours, you can only hit stuff when you're shooting large walls of flames!"

"Pip, that's enough." Cassie scolded the Rogue Alchemist.

Pip continued laughing before slowly stopping and sighs in relief. "Sorry. It's just hilarious that I have better aim than the most powerful member of this team."

"Oh haha. Congratulations." Ben sarcastically says to his friend.

The trio continue to argue as Pip drives them out of town.

Unknown to them, back in town, a woman with short, unkept hair, dark skin, a big, yellow scarf, green camo pants with silver greaves, boots and gauntlets, a pouch and a belt buckle in the shape of a toothless skull with a hole above it's right eye arrives by an onyx stallion and looks around. She seems to be carrying a rifle of some kind on her back while three circular mine-like objects hang on her belt.

The woman ties her horse to a nearby tree while she looks around town before seeing what seems to be the town's guards. She approaches them as she brings out two pieces of paper from her pouch. "Hey hey. Pals. You got a minute?" The woman says. She unfurls the pieces of paper and reveal to the guards they're accurate sketches of Ben and Pip's faces, with Ben still having his 10,000,000 gold bounty while Pip has 7,000,000 gold. "You seen these fellas? They're people that the Magistrate are looking for." She added, a small smirk forming on her face.

"Oh, they just left town." One of the guards told her.

"Yeah. Heard they were headed to some kind of old encampment. At the Snowstorm graveyard." The other commented.

"Thanks, strangers." The woman responded with a big smile as she puts away the sketches before heading back to her stallion.

The two guards look at each other in confusion before one of them asks, "Are you part of the Magistrate?"

With a big, smug smile on her face, the woman kept walking as she raised her left hand with her index and middle fingers up, saying, "You'll know."

Snowstorm graveyard. The old encampment of the long gone Snowstorm orc clan now reduced to ashes as all that remains is scorched land, burnt black by the flames of a beast while the remains of their tents are torn and burnt as well while also filled with moss over time.

This is where Ben, Cassie and Pip had stopped by. With the Rust Bucket parked nearby, the trio head to the middle of the encampment as Ben kneels down at the center where a Snowstorm flag bearing the clan's sigil resembling a snowflake with a wolf's head in the middle standing proud and embedded on the burnt soil.

He clasps his hands as he stays knelt, closing his eyes as he prays to the spirits, before saying, "Spirits... I come here asking for a message to be delivered. To my brothers and sisters... to my old friends... to my mother... to my father... I visit you all in our old home, asking guidance. Me, my sister, and my brother, will journey throughout the Realm. A quest of self discovery. I know not my past, and for so long, I did not care, for the clan was my family, and my past mattered not to me, for you are all my present and you were all that mattered. But as of recent..."

Cassie and Pip noticed that Ben paused. They look at each other in worry as they notice Ben look down, his head tilting downward a small bit as he slowly opened his eyes.

"I met someone. At my time of need, she healed my wounds, as well as the wounds of my companions... And the way she held me... It felt familiar... It felt like she knew who I am." Ben finally spoke again. "Now I walk a path to find myself... to find my past... I must know who I was before you... Before all of this... I must find her again... I only ask you guide us in our journey and protect us from those who wish harm upon us."

As Ben spoke his final prayers, Cassie places a hand on her brother's shoulder as a cold breeze passes by, making some fallen leaves fly of into the wind as the Sun sets. Cassie then proceeds to hug her little brother from behind as Ben himself stops praying as he unclasped his hands and holds onto Cassie's arms while Pip walks up to them to put his hand on Ben's shoulder too.

The wolves howl as the shattered Moon shines down upon our heroes while they sat on logs around a warm campfire while their meal for dinner, a big chunk of pork, is being cooked on the campfire. Ben is reading some of the spell books he brought with him while Cassie tends to their food, with Ziggs sitting nearby, all the while Pip is preparing a couple of potions just in case. He's currently made 11 health potions and 5 for his special Evil Mojo potions that he saves for special occasions. Cassie noticed how excited Pip is as he shook the orange potions containing the Evil Mojo liquid in his hand.

"Pip, what is that?" Cassie asks the Vulpine just as he places his 5 Evil Mojo potions in his bag before following up by putting his 11 healing potions next.

"Why it's none other than the very potions I used to help turn those bandits into chickens!" Pip boasted as he puts his bag to his side before stretching his arms to get rid of his fatigue. "Quite the genius invention of alchemy, don't you think?"

Ben snickers as he turns to the next page of the book currently in his hand titled, "Where The Magic Happens" by an author named Bezel. It's all about the history of many extinct races that were once the very first beings in Realm, wiped out by unknown reasons. Some of them are even creatures Ben could turn into. However, Ben stopped reading for a moment to ridicule Pip as he says, "Come on, Pip. It's not entirely alchemy. You stole a special ingredient just to perfect it."

"Hey! My special ingredient was a generous gift! ...Okay, it was loaned to me... Fine! I stole it!" Pip finally admitted as he stands from his log to tear off a piece of the meat they're cooking and starts eating out of stress. "Everyone's a critic." Pip mumbled as he chewed the food in his mouth.

However, he was interrupted when Ben suddenly walks up to his spot and pinches on his large left ear, pulling it close to his lips to yell at Pio, saying, "Of course everyone will criticize you if all you do is steal stuff and claim it's yours!"

"Well it's my genius that makes stuff I steal even better than they already are in the first place! Those grenades I stole days ago are now modified to be Cassie's explosive bolts! So, hah! Take that!" Pip argued back as he backhands Ben's hand before the two boys start glaring at each other.

Cassie just giggles as she watches the two argue. The three of them have all been together for 10 years, and despite the times changing, their relationship hasn't.

She could not imagine how boring her life would have been if she never met either of them, let alone both of them at the same time. "Alright you two. No arguing while having dinner. That's bad manners, like dad always said." Cassie says as she got up from her seat and pulls Ben by his arm away from Pip and brings him back to his seat before handing him his own piece of meat, which Ben begrudgingly takes before chowing down as his sister goes back to her log.

As Cassie watches the two brothers do their own thing while eating, with Ben still reading "Where the Magic Happens" and Pip placing his potions back in his bag, she is joined by Ziggs as he perches on her shoulder as he squawks a small bit before his master takes a piece from her own food and lets the bird peck and eat it.

"We should probably get some sleep soon. It's getting late." Cassie points out as both her brother and best friend continue to eat, but only Ben paid attention as he looks up from his book and looks at his sister.

"Who will take watch while we're all out asleep?" Ben points out.

Pip swallows what he was currently chewing before replying to both siblings, saying, "I'll take watch for a few hours. Then I'll wake one of you up so you can take your turn."

"You sure you can stay awake for that long?" Cassie reasonably questioned him as Ziggs squawks as if he was agreeing with her.

Pip only chuckles and scoffs as he jumps off his log and stands proudly, before responding with, "Please! I'm a Vulpine! I'm a night person! I won't fall asleep that easily!"

Pip fell asleep, to no one's surprise.

As the anthropomorphic fox lies down on his own log earlier just beside the camp fire, his drool seeping from his snoring mouth, Ben sleeps atop the Rust Bucket alongside Ziggs while Cassie, the only one awake, sits on her log, which she had placed in front of the vehicle, as she assembles an explosive bolt for her crossbow. Once she's done, she places it in her pouch for her explosive crossbow bolts on her belt, just next to her pouch of normal crossbow bolts and some bolas she uses for hunting. As she buttons up the leather cover of her pouch, she looks at the late night sky as the shattered Moon above their realm sits behind the clouds. The huntress ponders about what her life has lead to.

From the day her father gave her the crossbow she wields now, then when she learned that her father lost his right arm from a mysterious monster and could no longer hunt on his own... And then... that night...

That fated night, the smoke from the fire rising into the clouds above, the burning camps, the slain orc warriors, a single, crying child, lost and alone...

She recalls everything in her head as she slightly turns her head to her side and side eyes her brother atop the Rust Bucket. In her head, only one question remains in her mind...

What would have happened to either of us... if we never met...?

Back in the town once more, at the coldness of the night, a man in a dark brown cloak covering his entire body, with only his glowing red eyes being the only thing visible about him as the shadow of his hood covers his face, walks around the nearly empty streets as he towers over anyone else he passes by. With him seems to be his pet, which looks like a mix of a sabretooth cat and a hyena, with large saber-teeth and a horn on its dog-like nose. Its stomach hair is a crimson red, while it's back hair is black. Once they found a guard, they approach him with no warning. The guard, surprised at this large man walking towards him without uttering a word and his gigantic cat creature pet with knives for teeth, is understandably paranoid as he places a hand on his sword's hilt and says, "Wh-What do you want?"

"A simple question, friend." The mysterious man said as he approaches him before taking out a scroll. He then unrolls the scroll and reveals an image of Ben's headshot similar to a wanted poster but without his bounty. "I am looking for this young man over here. I am one of House Aico's many mercenaries and their Primus, Khan, has ordered me to hunt down this person. Have you seen him?"

"Oh. That kid was here in town early afternoon. Someone else asked about them earlier." The guard responded.

"Is that so? Pray tell. Where are they all now?" The large intimidating man asked once more as his giant pet sabertooth-like beast growl as it walks up to the guard to scare him into responding.

In the next morning, Pip yawns as he sits up from his log and stretches his arms to his side before making chewing noises in his mouth as her rubs his eyes to wake himself up. He looks around to see that the camp fire had finally died overnight. He jumps off his log and grabs his nearby Potion Launcher and pulls it around lazily, heading back to the Rust Bucket.

He spots Ben is still atop the vehicle, sleeping with Ziggs and noticed that Cassie is nowhere to be found. She may have woken up early than all of them and went out hunting.

At least she has something to do.

Pip said in his head before yawning again. But just as he was about to open the door to the vehicle, a circular mine sticks to the side of the vehicle, just to the right of the door. Pip was finally awoken by this sudden appearance of this mysterious device as he finally has wide eyes and starts scratching his head as he stares at the mine, when it suddenly blasts him with a small spark of electricity that zaps him on his nose, causing him to yelp and accidentally drop his Potion Launcher.

"Ow! I'm awake! I'm awake!" Pip started yelling, which caused Ben and Ziggs to finally wake up as well.

"Pip! What's.." Ben tried to say but paused to yawn for a second, before continuing, "What's going on with you?"

"This stupid thing is zapping me! Ow!" Pip tried to respond before the strange mine zaps him on his chest this time and caused the Vulpine Alchemist to reel back in pain. "Stupid little-!" Pip started ranting before grabbing the mine and throw it down on the ground before he starts stomping on it in anger, despite his foot not doing anything.

Ben was about to reply until Ziggs began freaking out, much to Ben's bafflement. However, he knows that Cassie had trained Ziggs to not only track, but sense danger as well. So in response, Ben looks around where danger may be coming from until he noticed a glimmering light in the distance, located between two trees. Ben immediately recognized what was going as he then activates the watch on his wrist.

As Pip continues to uselessly stomp on the mine, a brief flash of green light emerges from atop the Rust Bucket that caught the Rogue Alchemist's attention and he is immediately grabbed by vines by his tail and is lifted away from the ground in high speed as the sound of gunfire echoed in the valley while a sniper shot almost hit Pip, the shot ending up shooting the vehicle's tire instead, rendering it flat.

As Pip yells as he is flailed around by the vines that have caught a hold of him, he finally found himself at the other side of the Rust Bucket with Ziggs and Ben as a completely different creature.

He is now a creature with five vine-like legs, four long fingers on his hands and flytrap-shaped flaps covering his head. He had seed pods on his back that stick out like ripe fruit. He has one blue eye in the middle of his face and one on both of his shoulders. He has the same hourglass symbol on his chest as his many other forms.

"What the heck was that for, salad roots?!" Pip angrily yelled at Ben's current form as he pulls away his tail from Ben's vine fingers.

"I literally just saved your life from a sniper, fang face!" Ben spoke in a rather deep and guttural voice as he retracts his long fingers back. "Also, for the last time, I'm not a root, I'm Wildvine!"

"Oh. Well, you could've just yelled out–" Pip was about to say until they hear another shot and mere seconds later, the sound of a tire turning flat as it squeezes out all of its air, signifying that the assailant had just shot out their tires. "You know what, nevermind. He probably would have shot me before you even did anything."

"I'll draw their fire. You and Ziggs locate them and shoot them down!" Wildvine, as Ben called his form, spoke before extending his right arm to try and grab a tree to swing towards to. But before he could even reach a mere branch, the sniper fires again and their next shot tears through Wildvine's arm, cutting it in half and forcing him to retract his now shortened arm. As his arm regenerates, Wildvine looks at the disappointed look of Pip and confused, tilted head of Ziggs.

"Okay... I guess that wasn't such a good idea..." Wildvine lampshaded.

"Yeah, no flip, shrubby." Pip responded as he stands back up. "Not only are you in a fragile form that a sniper shot will tear through your body like a pin through paper, but how am I supposed to cover you when you didn't grab my Potion Launcher?!"

"Lemme remedy that." Wildvine spoke before extending his fingers and slides them underneath the Rust Bucket and has them sprout on the other side before grabbing the Potion Launcher and retracts back his fingers to take the weapon back for Pip. As he hands the weapon back to his furry friend, he responds with, "There. We good?"

Pip grabs his beloved launcher and starts hugging it and even kissing it, to the disgust of Wildvine. "Yes. We are good. Come here, my sweetheart." Pip responds to his friend before speaking weirdly to his launcher.

"You can marry your weapon later. Right now, let's do the plan again..." Wildvine commented before slapping the symbol on his chest, causing it to flash green. In mere seconds, Wildvine switched to a completely different form. Now, he is a silicon based alien made of extremely durable crystal. His body is overall purple, with several dark lines and spots. His hands and face are magenta, and he also sports six magenta shards on his back, two on his chest, and one on the top of his head that resembles a horn. His face consists of a mouth and one large green eye at the center. The hourglass symbol is found on his chest.

"CHROMASTONE!" Ben in his new form, Chromastone, suddenly yelled, to the bewilderment of Pip.

Pip understandably responds, "Why did you yell your name? You never did that before."

"It strikes fear into my enem– You know what, I'm kidding myself. I literally just did that so I can remind myself my form's name. I've been getting too many to keep track off. Remember when I only started with just 5 when I was a kid?" Chromastone replied.

"Enough nostalgia, more fighting! A literal killer is after us!" Pip says as he loads a potion into his launcher before heading to the back of the Rust Bucket to give Ben cover fire. However, the moment even an inch of his foot stepped out, a sniper almost hit him again, causing him to yelp and jump back to cover.

"On second thought, maybe you should go out first." Pip points out.

Unbeknownst to them, the sniper hunting them down was the woman from earlier. She keeps her scope up, her rifle steady and the trigger cold as she joyfully whispers to herself, "You can run, but you'll only die tired."

Meanwhile, in the nearby grassy plains of the Snowstorm encampment, Cassie had just finished hunting a deer. She is now currently trying to pull her hunt back to the camp but alas, the weight of an animal does not change when it dies as she struggles to move it beyond a few inches. She's good at hunting her prey, but she's still human and does not have the strength to lift or even just pull her game.

Cassie finally gave up as she sat down on the ground next to the dead deer while placing her crossbow beside her. "Why didn't I just wake up Ben?" She scolded herself while wiping away sweat from her forehead while the morning Sun is still rising from the horizon. "Well, it's not like there are any predatorial animals here that will take this deer away when I leave to go get him."

She sighed after saying so before lying down on the ground to rest and look at the bright blue sky filled with puffy white clouds.

"...I wonder... I've been there for him a lot when we were young... But now... Does he need me... or do I need him?" Cassie thought to herself, watching the clouds slowly drift away as her ginger hair is spread across the ground while her hand still has a finger on the crossbow's trigger.

Each day, she would ask herself this question every time she saw Ben grow up and grow stronger. The day they met, he didn't even know how the watch on his wrist worked and when he finally did, he started out with 5 forms. And now, he's rocking 10, and everyone who knows Ben personally can already tell he'll most likely gain more. It really makes her wonder if eventually, she and Pip would become obsolete. All they will be are either mere hindrances... or mere memories.

She herself can recall memories of looking out for Ben like they were only yesterday as she closes her eyes.

Ready or not, here I come!

Okay! Try and find me!

Aaaaand gotcha!

No fair! You tracked my footprints again!

Nope! This time I followed your scent!

Hey, I took a bath this morning!

I didn't say you didn't! You smell like strawberries.

What? I told mom to give me the banana ones!

Hah! Looks like you're a... Straw-Benny!

Booooo! Lame!

You're such a doofus!

And you're such a dweeb!

Come here!

Ah! Mom! Cassie is scratching my head again!

BANG!

The sound of loud gunfire woke Cassie up from her daydreaming stupor as she opens her eyes wide open and gets back up.

The sound came from the camp!

In a hurry, Cassie picks her crossbow back up and runs off, heading towards the encampment and leaving behind the dead deer, prioritizing the lives of her brothers.

Back at the camp, Chromastone, thanks to his extremely durable body, takes several more sniper shots from the mysterious hunter after them before retaliating by firing a rainbow colored energy beam at where he thought he saw the sniper fire came from. The beam comes into contact with the trees he thought the assailant was using for cover, causing a small explosion of dust and energy. When the dust settles, however, the one eyed crystalline being is surprised to see that there's no one there as the area where he fired the beam is now just a bunch of leaves and a small crater made up of soil burnt from his attack.

"What?! I was sure they're–" Chromastone tried to say until he was shot by sniper fire once more, but from a completely different direction. He looks to where it came from and it's from the northern part of the forest. He attempts to blast the area where he got shot from, and just like before, he cleared the area but the assailant is gone once more. Before he could even ask himself if he's going crazy or not, another shot hit him directly in his singular eye, causing him to close it in pain and clutch his face. While his eye is a lot tougher than an average living beings's eye, it's not as durable as the rest of his body, so his eye getting shot directly is the equivalent of a person getting dust in their eyes: it hurts but it's not gonna blind him, at least, not permanently.

Back in a completely different part of the forest, the sniper laughs to herself as she pumps up her left fist while her right hand holds her gun over her shoulder. Somehow, even after everything Chromastone had been throwing, she is completely fine, without a single scratch. "Hah. That big ol' eye of yours is just another bullseye. No, if I just keep hitting it, I'll eventually reach your brai–" The sniper started telling herself before crouching back down and aiming her rifle. However, to her surprise, Chromastone suddenly slams the symbol on his chest and turns into Big Chill. "What the...?!" was all the assassin could say in surprise as Ben confused her by turning into something different. She only ever heard of rumors of her current target, but she didn't listen enough to know that he actually turns into multiple creatures.

"Okay. This is new." The sniper told herself. "Don't panic, Kinessa. Just stay focused and observe your new target." She added, referring to herself as Kinessa, apparently.

She aims at the blue moth being and fires, but to her surprise, Big Chill becomes translucent and her shot passes right through him, as if he went intangible. "What? Now he's a ghost? Not getting paid enough for this!" Kinessa complained.

Big Chill, however, saw where the shot came from as he changes his neutral expression into a grin as flies at the direction of Kinessa in blinding speed. Once he arrives at where he thought the dark skinned assailant was, he phases through several trees before stopping to yell, "Gotcha!"

Unfortunately, Kinessa is no longer there when he arrived. He growls in rage as he clenches both fists. This is starting to feel like a wild goose chase, except the goose is heavily armed and could have killed him seven times over had he chosen the wrong forms.

Unknown to the icy ghost moth, Kinessa is once again in a completely different part of the forest, slowly aiming her scope at Big Chill's head, completely unaware that his foe now has her sights at him. "Like a moth to a flame." Kinessa smugly taunted his unaware target as her finger is about to pull the trigger, the scope perfectly on Big Chill's skull...

"I have a very huge head compared to everyone in our team."

A sudden voice surprised Kinessa as she attemptdd to move away, but she is stopped when she felt a barrel of a weapon is now pressed against the back of her head.

It's Pip, holding his potion launcher directly at Kinessa's head. He has Ziggs with him, sitting atop his head as a big smirk is currently on display on his face. "Some head hunter you are." He added to mock the sniper.

"How'd you..." Kinessa tried to ask but Pip pushes his launcher more into the back of her head as he gives her a scowl.

"My task was to find where you are whenever you fired. I was actually on my way to where Ben over there went... Then I managed to run into you here. Funny coincidence, huh? Now why are you trying to kill us?" Pip explained before asking the sniper as Ziggs squawks atop him.

"Hey, just trying to make a living." Kinessa replied back so casually, without even a hint of fear that a literal weapon is now half an inch away from her skull.

"And WE'RE just literally living! Ziggs, call Ben here." Pip says, prompting the bird to squawk and fly off to Big Chill. "Who hired you, lady?" Pip demanded next, pushing his launcher more at the bounty hunter.

Pip, instead, received a chuckle from the sniper as she moves her left hand away from the handguard of her rifle before speaking to the Rogue Alchemist, saying, "Whoever will pay me the most, rabbit. I don't do 'exclusive hirings'. A bounty is a bounty. Not into commitments."

"Boy, I wonder how many hearts you've broken with that line." Pip sarcastically mocked the assassin just as Big Chill comes and turns back into Ben, with Ziggs arriving as well and lands on Ben's shoulder.

"Okay, spill! Who hired you?!" Ben started demanding. All the while, all three of them fail to notice that Kinessa is doing something with her left hand.

"I already asked her the question, Ben. Says she's not really hired by someone but here for your bounty." Pip explained.

"Oh. I hate playing good judge, bad judge, anyway." Ben comments as he crosses his arms.

Pip shrugs and keeps his launcher aimed at Kinessa, while talking to Ben, saying, "Hey, I always offered you to play the bad cop. You literally turn into two different ghosts. You can scare people into talking!"

"Yeah, but you're the one with a bigger gun. I feel like it's natural for judges to have big guns to intimidate their targets." Ben comments back, as Kinessa taps something on her palm using her middle finger and ring finger. However, this time, it caught Zigg's attention, as he watches Kinessa and tilts his head to the right in confusion.

"Judges actually have small guns– We're getting off track here. How about we tie up this bounty hunter and cash in on her bounty, in case she has one–" Pip attempted to break the conversation until Kinessa finally executed what she had been doing by pointing her left hand in front of her and presses hard on her palm using the previously mentioned fingers.

All of a sudden, Kinessa vanishes in a flash of blue light, immediately leaving the two boys and the bird astonished. "What the muck?!" Pip could only utter before he and his brother look to where they thought Kinessa had vanished to. Sure enough, Kinessa is now in the open area where their camp was made as she jumps over a rock in the area and hides behind it as cover.

"That's how she's been evading me! She can teleport!" Ben finally put two and two together as Pip pushes him down to save him from another sniper shot.

"I HATE teleporters." Pip uttered in quiet rage before getting back up, places his launcher on his back and starts running on all fours, heading off with Ziggs and leaving Ben by himself. "Go get her! I'll do some flanking!"

"Flanking?! You're my healer!" Ben complained but Pip was already too far away for him to hear Ben. With a disappointed sigh, Ben eventually just plays along and activates his watch and starts scrolling through his transformations.

Upon finding the form he wanted, he slams down the dial and transforms, bathing him in green light. When the light dies down, in his place is an insect body and four insect-like flat legs with two arms, whose hands are human-style ones with a black coloration, similar to fingerless gloves, and has three clawed fingers. He has four pedunculated eyes that are pretty small and yellowish-orange in color. These eyes are linked directly to the sides of his huge black head. His wings are translucent and light green in color, with lines on them. His limbs are a brown-greenish like his arms. He is also now wearing the hourglass symbol on the top of his forehead.

"Alright! Stinkfly!" Ben, or rather, Stinkfly, excitedly told himself and flaps his wings at near the speed of sound before finally flying off into the sky like a mad mosquito.

Once again, Kinessa is surpised to see how much power Ben is showing her, one transformation into another. As a bounty hunter-slash-assassin, she has very thorough methods of dealing with targets. She analyzes the situation and her target, finds a weakness then exploits that weakness. She knew this, but Ben... Ben keeps turning into different beings with different abilities. Almost unpredictable. When she figured out Chromastone is vulnerable in his eye of it took enough damage, he switched to Big Chill, which she thought she could simply catch off guard, but now, knowing even just little about Ben now, he might pull off another transformation she won't have an idea about, like this new bug monster.

"What the heck is with this guy?!" Kinessa loudly whispered to herself as she aims at Stinkfly in the sky. Just when she thought she had her sights on him, Stinkfly suddenly fires a strange green adhesive from all his four eyes and envelop Kinessa's scope with it, with some of the slime getting on her right by accident as a result. Kinessa, despite the veteran assassin she is, is still understandably grossed out by this as she says, "Ewww!" while pulling her gun away from her face.

With a small investigation, Kinessa noticed that the slime had covered the objective lens of her scope, rendering it useless unless she takes off the strange adhesive off of it, which she is definitely not doing without a napkin... or maybe a medium sized towel. She also feels like puking due to the smell of the slime, especially the ones on her cheek that got there because the slime splashed a tad bit when it came into contact with her scope.

Of course, she held back this disgusting feeling as she sees Stinkfly coming in with his incredibly sharp stinger on his tail, forcing her to duck and narrowly dodge the slashing motion of Stinkfly with his sharp stinger. When Stinkfly takes a sharp turn and turns back around to attack Kinessa once more, all his four eyes widened in surpise when Kinessa suddenly has her rifle retract and shorten it's barrel and the scope flips to the side to get out of the way.

She then starts firing her weapon, but instead of sniper shots, she suddenly starts firing her rifle like a machine gun instead, firing laser bullets at Stinkfly in quick bursts, forcing him to take evasive maneuvers as he panics at the sudden change in Kinessa's weapon. "Serpentine! SERPENTINE!" Stinkfly began yelling out on his own as Kinessa kept firing before stopping to dodge to her right to avoid another stinger slash from the bug-like creature.

"Hey! Yelling serpentine is my shtick! You start shooting a sniper rifle and I'll sue!" Kinessa complained before continuing to open fire on Stinkfly, who finally turns back around and shoot more slime from his eyes. However, this time, Kinessa was not having it again as she aims her left hand at Stinkfly this time and she suddenly teleports behind him before she holds onto both wings tightly, effectively stopping them both from moving.

"What the...?!" Stinkfly could only say as he and Kinessa start plummeting down to the ground.

"I knew it. Just like typical bugs: extremely fragile wings!" Kinessa deduced and the transforming teen could not deny it, as he, too, knew his wings are one of his major weaknesses. He once got his wings wet and they can't even flap for more than a couple of minutes. But he barely has any time to recollect his past as he is about to HIT HIS FACE INTO THE FLOOR–!

BRAAAK!

Stinkfly could only groan as he is face down on the rock Kinessa forced him to land, or rather crash, face first into, to the point of cracking the entire rock in half. Kinessa then puts a foot down on Stinkfly's wings to keep it from flapping before aiming her rifle directly at Stinkfly's head. "Finally. Now stand still and–"

"GYAAAAA!"

To her surprise, Pip suddenly jumps up from nowhere, yelling, and is about to pounce her, but she still saw it coming, partially, as she takes out another one of her mines and slaps it on Pip's face, knocking him down on the floor before it starts shocking him again, effectively taking him out of the fight as well in a rather humiliating fashion. "Didn't miss your head that time." Kinessa boasted.

As he mine continuously zaps Pip, to the point that all he could do is twitch for every shock and barely able to move even an inch from his spot, Kinessa goes back to Stinkfly and aims her gun at his head once more. "Now, normally, I'd take you in alive for the full bounty, but you've been a really weird target, and I've seen many targets before. So I guess I'll just settle for half the bounty for taking you in... dead. Ain't no risks for us wicked." She proclaimed as she began to pull the trigger.

"That's not how that saying goes..." Stinkfly weakly responded before groaning in pain.

"I know. That's just how I say it." Kinessa replied with a smug grin forming on her lips.

Unfortunately for the Bounty Hunter, just as her finger was literally just half an inch away from pulling the trigger, something shoots away her rifle, causing her to accidentally let go of it. She looks in the direction of where the shot came from only to be met by a bolas thrown at her, giving her zero time to react as the bolas wraps around her body, trapping her arms to her side as the two metallic balls eventually meet in the middle and collide with one another, stopping each other as Kinessa has lost her ability to move her arms for a moment. When she tries to jump away, a second bolas is thrown at her feet this time, causing her legs to get wrapped into each other and makes her fall down on the ground.

When she attempts to teleport again, this time a foot steps down on her left hand, causing her to make a small scream in pain before looking up to see who's responsible.

Of course, it's none other than Cassie as Ziggs returns to her by her shoulder. "Don't. Mess. With my brothers." Cassie angrily spoke to the bounty hunter before aiming her crossbow at her face.

Silence filled the entire camp as Pip is still being zapped while Stinkfly just turns back to Ben. Breaking the silence, Kinessa shocks Cassie just by simply raising a brow and asking her, "Who the hell are you?!"

All Cassie could reply with was a surprised look and a jaw drop.

A couple of minutes later, Ben, Cassie and Pip had successfully captured Kinessa, keeping her tied with Cassie's bolas, all while Cassie massages her temples, seemingly frustrated about something.

"I can't believe this..." Cassie mutters under her breath, but was loud enough for Ben, Pip and even Kinessa, to be heard.

"No kidding. Me and Ben apparently have pretty big bounties." Pip says while holding and reading the bounty poster of him brought by Kinessa.

"Despite the fact that I'm not exactly that much of an active member among the Paladins." Ben adds, reading his poster as well before crumpling it into a ball and throws it away. "It's been a real problem. This isn't the first time I saw the amount placed on my head, but how did it escalate like this? The three of us and Ziggs only ever took small scale missions for the Paladins. How did it reach 10,000,000 gold?"

"I actually don't know." Kinessa admitted, doing her best to shrug while still tied up. "I only take the biggest bounties I find. You two are currently the biggest ones I saw in the assassin's guild."

"There's a guild for assassins?" Pip asms but is mostly ignored when Ben asks a more important question.

With a brow raised, he walks up to Kinessa and asks her, "Okay, time out! How exactly do we have THE biggest bounties in the Realm?"

"Pfft. You're misunderstanding me, bub." Kinessa responds. "I said you're currently the highest bounty among the guild. There were a lot of more popular and powerful people separate hunters took down before we got to you. Don't feel confident. You're not that special... Well, not yet, anyway."

Ben blinks at this revelation, but internally admits that it DOES make sense. "Oh. Right. Fair enough. Still, it doesn't give you the right to kill me and Pip."

"Yeah but, it's my job. I have the right to disregard your rights if it suits me... and gets me paid." Kinessa casually responded before leaning back on the tree stump she was put against by the team. "Heck, I probably would have gotten away with it to if it wasn't for your cousin here, Lucy."

"Sister. And the name's Cassie." Cassie complained as she stood up from her spot and approaches Kinessa as well.

"Eh, I neved really cared. Neither did whoever put your posters on the wall." Kinessa added, simultaneously mocking the huntress as well.

"That's the problem! How come whoever put those bounties up know Ben and Pip, but not me? How is that fair?!" Cassie suddenly yelled as she angrily tries drill into Kinessa's forehead with her finger.

Kinessa shakes her head to push away Cassie's finger before looking at her directly with a smirk, before replying, "Are you seriously asking a stupid question like that? Your brother there can turn into so many monsters and your pet rabbit there is a notorious thief and alchemist among the criminal empire."

"I am! Huh. My reputation precedes me." Pip boasted as he heard Kinessa's words, inflating his already big ego.

But the bounty hunter immediately pops his ego bubble by adding, "No, everyone is just pissed off you keep stealing their stuff so easily and get away alive, so they just wanted you dead and put up a bounty. Still, you're pretty skilled to get off without getting killed by so many dangerous people."

"Eh. I'll take what I can get." Pip responds until Cassie pushes him away and suddenly grabs Kinessa by her scarf, pulling her up close to yell at her.

"Are you calling me dead weight and obsolete?!" Cassie yelled at the bounty hunter.

Kinessa responds with another mocking grin before saying, "Hey, you said it, not me. Besides, when put together with a one man army and a rabbit with weaponized alchemy, you're not that impressive."

Caasie growls as she has her right hand let go of Kinessa and begins to clock it back, like she was about to punch the bounty hunter, causing Ben to panic a tad but while Pip waits for the punch...

...until the huntress sighs and drops Kinessa back on the ground before suddenly turning around and walks away. "Cass!" Ben tried to reach out for her sister but Cassie doesn't stop walking away. Of course, Ben gets worried and sighs as well and follows his sister to wherever she's headed.

As the siblings walk away, Pip, Kinessa and Ziggs are left alone, watching Ben and Cassie walk away. Suddenly, Pip pulls out a strange device the size of a coin with wires sticking out of it that loops around, giving it the appearance of a bracelet. "So... This is your teleporter, huh?" Pip asks Kinessa sarcastically, merely to mock the bounty hunter.

"What? How did you–?!" Kinessa asked in a very surprised tone.

"Well, according to a certain sniper who keeps calling me a rabbit... I'm pretty skilled at stealing stuff and getting away with it." Pip boasted before putting the stolen teleporter away into his pocket. "I'm a fox, by the way. And just as sly as one."

Ben passes by several trees and bushes and even had to swat away several bugs just so he could find his sister. After several feet of walking, he finally finds her alone in the palins from earlier, sitting on the ground, hugging her legs, while watching several crows already pecking and eating the dead deer she had hunted earlier, seemingly not caring about her hunt being eaten by scavenger animals.

"Hey, Cass. You okay?" Ben says to his huntress sister as he approaches her before sitting down next to her.

"...Hey... You see those crows?" Cassie suddenly said, confusing Ben. "They're both predators and scavengers. They'll eat anything... even dead animals that wasn't there's to hunt."

Ben still doesn't get it but knows Cassie is trying to tell him something. He then suddenly reaches out his right hand towards the crows and suddenly speaks in orcish, saying, "Nelghor-shomash."

This suddenly made one of the crows, one which has no left eye and has a scar on it, look at the two of them and flies towards Ben. Ben then folds his arm for the crow to use it as a perch as it sits on his right arm before Ben starts petting it. "What are you trying to tell me, Cass?" Ben asks Cassie as the crow stays on his arm, as if it felt comfortable around Ben.

"Well, honestly... I feel like a crow. I can hunt on my own... but around people, I just wait till they do everything else... and I pick up the pieces because... I'm nothing." Cassie replied, closing her eyes as she sinks her head down in melancholy.

Ben sighs, knowing that this is Cassie saying that she's useless when put beside Ben. "Cassie, come on. You know that's not true! You've been there a lot for me!" He tried to reassure her.

However, she suddenly gets up and stomps the ground, scaring the crow on Ben's arm away as Cassie started yelling, "That's exactly it! I was there for you but as you grow up, you started needing me less and less! You can turn into 10 different monsters! Pip can turn people into chickens before melting them with his potions! I'm..! I'm... I'm a girl with a crossbow... I'm... useless."

Ben could not bare seeing Cassie beating herself up over this. He knows how much she's capable of but also knows how much she's been thinking about this lately. Their time in the Paladins gave her enough to do because there are many missions for her to do, and many people she feels more connected to, being a "normal" person. But out here, on their own... To her, what is she compared to her brothers?

Well, Ben knows what she is.

"You're not useless, Cass. You're a great huntress, you got unrivaled tracking senses and if it weren't for you, that bounty hunter girl would have killed me and Pip." Ben tried to reassure his sister and places a hand on her shoulder, but only succeeds in making her sigh before looking away.

"...I..." Cassie wanted to say something... until she and her brother hear sudden beeping. Before any of the two could even react, several red lights suddenly flash around them, creating a big red circle of lights surrounding the two of them.

"Look out!" Ben yelled and pushed his sister as hard as you could, getting her out of the circle. Once Cassie is out and had fallen on her rear, the red lights suddenly all explode.

"Ben!" Cassie yelled as she watched her brother engulfed in flames. She was about to run in, the flames be damned, and try to save her brother until a big, black and red furred sabertooth beast pounces on her and pins her on the floor, growling at her as it's drool leaks from its mouth, dripping on her face. Despite the disgust she's feeling, it's overshadowed by her worry of her brother's safety and confusion over their new enemy. "Let me go! Stupid cat!" Cassie angrily yelled at the beast and attempted to push it back, but the sabertooth beast's paws are far stronger and are keeping her arms pinned on the ground.

The beast then opens its jaws and roars and is about maul the huntress' face, causing her to yelp in shock...

...until the giant feline suddenly stops just as it's toothy mouth was inches away from Cassie's face. Cassie swore she heard a faint whistle somewhere else as she opens back her eyes and watch as the sabertooth lets go of her and moves away. Cassie took this chance to stand back up and attempt another run at saving Ben from the fire, until several energy blasts hit the floor beneath her feet and made her pause to see where they came from.

Standing 7 feet tall, this new opponent is holding what seems to be a sniper rifle and as he walks over to his big red pet.. He has a black suit covering his upper body with a red stripe in the middle and grey pants. He has grey gloves and a grey belt, as well as black boots with grey soles. He wears bones as ornamentation over his clothes, the broken up skeletal remains of the creatures he has hunted, which consists of, a ribcage on his chest, a tail bone on his right shoulder, a skull of a horned animal on his left shoulder, as well as ribs covering the back of his black suit and boots, and finally, claws on his shoes.

The only part of his body that is exposed is his face, which is turquoise with a large lower jaw. His jaw has teeth fused with his lips and he has dark red sunken eyes. He also has gills under his cheeks that look like big, gaping, rectangular holes.

"Hm... You're not part of the quarry. I suppose I'll let you live." the mysterious, turquoise hunter casually tells Cassie as he scratches the back of his pet's head.

Cassie growls, clenching her fists. "That quarry is my brother, creep! You just tried to blow him up!" She yelled back and attempts to run at the her foe but the sabertooth gets in between them, growling angrily at Cassie while defending its master.

"An impressive beast, isn't it? A Panuncian. An extremely rare sabertooth animal found in the hidden lands of Hathor. While it has powerful jaws that can tear through steel and claws sharper than most blades, it has a much more impressive ability that interested me enough to keep it." The hunter boasted about his pet as he crouches on one knee and scratches below it's chin this time.

Their conversation is interrupted when the flames surrounding Ben was suddenly blow away and dispersed and in Ben's place is Four Arms with all four of his hands clapped into one another, seemingly indicating that he clapped so hard, it caused a big gust of wind to get rid of the fire. His emergence caused the hunter to give off a smug smirk as he stands back up. "How about I give you a demonstration?" He continues his boasting and raises his head up as if he was trying to do something with his cheek.

"Cassie, go!" Four Arms yelled as the hunter and his Panuncian face their true target.

While she heard her brother, she swore that once again, she heard some whistling coming from something nearby. "I'm not leaving you behind, Ben!" She yells after getting over her confusion. She then looks around and found her crossbow nearby that got dropped by accident when she was pushed away by Ben earlier. Just as she dive rolls and manages to grab her weapon, she was immediately greeted by the Panuncian jumping at her, causing her to duck and evade it's pounce.

Cassie takes aim at her feline foe only for her to suddenly hear another growl behind her. She quickly turns around to block and stop yet another similar looking Panuncian from eating by jamming her crossbow between it's jaws. "Where did the second one come from?!" Cassie asked out loud as she did everything in her power to push back the animal trying to devour her.

The previous Panuncian she had been fighting earlier found a chance as Cassie is too distracted and left her back wide open. The beast took this chance to pounce on her once, only for Four Arms to come in and grab it by its tail before spinning in place, the Panuncian still in hand, and proceeds to toss the monster into the distance. He then goes out of his way to grab the Panuncian keeping his sister occupied and pulls it away from her before throwing at the hunter, who catches his pet with ease before placing it back on the ground, the beast growling angrily at the quadruple handed brawler.

"Leave my sister alone! I heard you earlier! I'm the one you want, you... uhh, what's your name?" Four Arms asked the hunter, who began chuckling to himself as he cocks back his sniper rifle.

"I'll indulge you in that, since you'll be my best hunt. I am Khyber, personal right hand of the Primus of House Aico and the greatest hunter in the realm." Khyber the Hunter replied while aiming his weapon Four Arms.

"Well, Khyber, sorry to say but I'm not gonna go down that easily!" Four Arms took his turn to boast and charges at the self proclaimed greatest hunter in the realm, raising all four of his fists and attempts to slam them all back down to crush Khyber, but he was not fast enough to react when suddenly, two Panuncians tackle him away and start biting on his two lower arms. Distracted, Four Arms lost his focus on Khyber and put his attention on the giant cats attacking him, using his two upper arms to try and punch the beasts biting him. But to his surprise, yet another two come at him from below, biting on his ankles and forcing him to his knees.

Khyber was just about to fire and blast Four Arms' head off but an arrow bolt strikes his rifle and disarms him, prompting the hunter to look to his left as Cassie smirks while her crossbow is aimed at him, giving the hunter the impression she is responsible for his loss of his firearm. "Hrrngh... Child." Khyber groans as she tries to fire another crossbow bolt at her foe.

To her surprise, though, Khyber had fast reflexes as he catches her bolt with such precise timing before throwing it back at her like a dart. Cassie leans to her left to dodge the bolt but was immediately shocked when her crossbow was blown off and destroyed off her hand by a straight energy blast, making her shriek a bit and causing her to look back at Khyber, having retrieve his now currently smoking rifle. He proceeds to fire several more energy shots from his firearm that alarms Cassie and dive rolls to her right, each missed shot by Khyber lighting the grassy ground behind Cassie on fire.

Upon landing her feet on the solid soil, Cassie pulls out one of her bolas and flings it forward at Khyber, but it was ultimately fruitless as Khyber takes out a serated, two-pronged dagger and cuts her bolas' rope in half, causing its ball bearings to fly in separate directions without even touching Khyber at all. Taking advantage of her initial shock, Khyber smirks, tosses his knife into the air before catching it by its blade and throws it at Cassie.

She could not even react enough when the dagger strikes her on her right thigh, causing her to scream in extreme pain as she falls down on the ground, the blade piercing her flesh and what felt like bone.

Her cries of agony caught Four Arms' attention as all his four eyes go wide at the sight of her injury. "Cassie!" He yelled before shifting his worried expression to a rage fueled one as he roars and proceeds to slam the two Panuncians on his arms into each other, knocking them both out and grabbing the two biting his ankles. He then holds onto both by the neck and slams them into the ground, knocking them out as well.

Once done, he does a full sprint towards his sister, one of his hands outstretched forward, trying to reach out for Cassie, but he gets interrupted when a grenade gets tossed at his face and explodes, knocking him away as he rolls around on the ground before stopping upon crashing into a huge boulder nearby, exploding it into dust once he came into contact with it.

The grenade came from none other than Khyber as he maintains his confident smirk before putting away his rifle on his back whilst another Panuncian joins him. "Like any other prey, the pack leader always come for their injured kin." Khyber mocked his foe as he and his pet approach him. "And I prefer my prey to be like that. You're one of a kind, you know, Benjamin."

"What the heck do you mean?" Four Arms asked him as he stands back up. Once Khyber got close, he tried to swing both of his two right fists, but Khyber simply leans to his side to evade them then suddenly strike him at the back of his neck. Four Arms then suddenly lost all feeling of everything bellow his neck as his entire body except for his head stopped functioning properly. "I can't move!" Four Arms exclaimed as his body stopped supporting his entire weight and causes him to collapse.

"Hephaestan Neuro Grip. It is useful in taking down all manner of prey." Khyber explains what he had done to his prey.

"Ben! Hang on, I'm- Agh!" Cassie tried to say but even just slight movement caused her wound to hurt so much that it rendered her unable to move from her spot.

"Don't move too much. That wound's too big to be patched up properly." Khyber readily mocked Cassie once again just as the hourglass symbol on Four Arms' shoulder began beeping and turn red before a flash of red light turns Four Arms back into Ben. Just like Four Arms, he still can't move a single muscle not found in his face and/or head. "I'd kill you but you're not a target, and I prefer to keep my hunts as professional as Khan demands of me. So stay safe, Cassandra."

"Cassan- How do you know my name?!" Cassie asks.

"Oh, I know you and your father well, Cassandra. One does not simply become the greatest hunter in the realm without tearing down the competition." Khyber responds before grabbing the paralyzed Ben by the back of his shirt.

Cassie seems confused at first at what he had just said... until she puts two and two together. The "monster" that tore off her father's arm and rendered him unable to hunt anymore... And Khyber claiming he fought other hunters to gain his title... He's...!

"You...! You hurt my father! You took his arm! You...!" Cassie constantly roared at Khyber and sees him and his Panuncian taking her brother away. "Hey! Stop!"

"Cassie..." Ben helplessly whispered loud enough for his sister to hear before passing out from his injuries from two separate explosions, the cuts caused by the Panuncians, him coming into contact with the boulder from earlier and then Khyber's pressure point strike.

Cassie could only watch as the hunter walks off, carrying her brother as he is slung over Khyber's shoulder. Cassie could swear she saw Ben, just before he passed out, shed a single tear as she herself has tears running down from her eyes. Seeing her brother helpless and vulnerable... She's seen it before. And it's something she told herself she would never want to see it happen again.

In a surge of adrenaline, Cassie takes out one of her unused crossbow bolts and puts it between her teeth to bite on it to ensure she won't scream from pain as she holds onto the handle of Khyber's dagger inside her thigh. Both hands gripping on the embedded blade, she bites hard on her bolt as she makes small grunts and started pulling it out. The very edges of her own vision started turning red as she gives all her strength to pull the blade out. Her blood started spewing from her wound as she felt her thigh starting to grow cold and her arms began shaking.

Her grunts slowly grew louder and sound more painful as the agonizing seconds of pulling out the dagger is feeling more like hours, with the pain just increasing the further the blade is from her bones and flesh.

But she cannot stop now, as Khyber and his pet are slowly getting out of view with Ben is still unconscious on the hunter's shoulder. With one last pull, she grunts louder than before as she grips the blade hard and finally pulls the dagger out of her thigh.

She wastes no time to throw away the dagger without a care before standing up and attempting to chase Khyber, but reality ensued as with an open wound and a partially broken bone, she could not run at all and immediately fall back on the floor. "No! BEN!" Cassie could only yell as the hunter and his hound had vanished from view.

Cassie crawled and crawled but could do nothing as the signs of blood loss began taking effect, her vision getting blurry and her consciousness slowly vanishing. "Ben..." She could only whisper as her arms finally faltered and she has stopped moving, falling down and loosing consciousness as her last thoughts are of her little brother.

Ben? BEN!

Cassie!

Ben! Oh thank goodness!

I saw him again... Mo-Moon Eater... He...

It's just a nightmare. He's not here.

I'm scared...

Now now... What do we do when we're afraid?

We... *sniff* ... We...

We..?

We tell our fears to run off or we'll hunt them and... and eat them!

There we go! Now go back to sleep and hunt your nightmares!

Okay! ...Uh...

Hm?

Can... Can you stay with me tonight?

Until you you sleep soundly?

Yeah...

Then I'll stay for as long as I can.

Yay!

Don't get too excited now! You have to stay strong yourself.

I know! I know! ...Hey, Cassie...

Yeah?

...I love you.

I love you, too, baby brother...

"Cassie? Cassie, please wake up..."

A voice spoke to the huntress as she slowly opened her eyes to see a blurry image of something with two, animal-like ears, and once her eyes are fully open, she finally sees Pip standing over her, holding a flask filled with green liquid.

"Oh thank Io, you're alive." Pip happily says as Cassie attempts to sit up from her spot, with Pip helping her rest her back on her pillow. She looks around to see that Pip had taken her to inside of the Rust Bucket, specifically on the beds section at the very back. "Here. Take it slow. I managed to patch up your wound and gave it some healing aids too. But to fully heal, you gotta drink my potion."

Pip hands her the flask filled with healing liquid. She carefully takes it and removes the cork on the flask's mouth and proceeds to empty the contents of the glass container into her mouth and down her throat before handing the empty flask to her Vulpine friend. She could feel her thigh, which has bandage wrapped around by Pip's doing, start healing it's wound.

"They took him, Pip..." Cassie started beating herself up as she folds her legs towards her and hugs them before burying her face between her knees.

Pip puts away his empty flask just as Ziggs comes to their side and the Rogue Alchemist puts a hand on Cassie's shoulder. "Who took him?" Pip asks.

"Khyber the Huntsman... The greatest hunter in the realm... and the one responsible for dad's lost arm..." Cassie answers Pip, slightly raising her head as tears start falling from her eyes. "They got him because I'm so... useless... I can't even help him... I'm a hindrance! I'm not strong like him! I'm not an alchemic genius like you! We fight monsters and goblins and armies and robots! And I got a crossbow and arrows! I don't make sense in a team comprised of you and Ben! I'm... useless..."

Pip sighs as he rubs Cassie's back, seemingly sad for her, as he doesn't seem to like seeing her beat herself up like how Ben described...

...until he suddenly smacks her over her head, almost replacing her sadness into confusion and light rage. "Wha-" Cassie could only mutter until Pip points at him aggressively.

"You are not useless! And you need to stop thinking that!" Pip yells at her. "You need to stop thinking you don't contribute to our team! You have the greatest senses among us three, even compared to me, and I have a pretty good hearing! You're our sharpshooter! Our tracker! Our stealth expert!"

"Pip... I..." Cassie wanted to say something but Pip places a hand on her shoulder. This time, he means it.

"And if it weren't for you, Ben wouldn't be here in the first place. I wouldn't have found a home... And I wouldn't have met you guys. You're the only family I got. So quit your yappin' and let's go kick that hunter's butt! Whoever he is!"

Cassie stared into Pip's eyes. She always looked at the wrong side of her entire life all because of her insecurities around Ben, especially since a lot of people have compared them so much before. But deep down, she didn't care so long as she gets to look out for her brother. To watch him grow so he can never be scared of anything again. Until then... She needs to stop thinking of the negativity, all the comparisons she tells herself. It doesn't matter. It is the duty of an older sibling to make their younger siblings stronger than them.

Cassie finally takes a small laugh as she wipes away her tears. "Thanks... I... I guess instead of comparing myself to him... I should've been proud of his progress." Cassie admits before holding onto Pip's hand on her shoulder. "Come on. Let's go find him."

"Right!" Pip responds with a smile... which he immediately drops into a sheepish one before taking a nervous chuckle. "Okay, so I was talking all that stuff because I was genuinely concerned... But how do we actually find them? I mean, unless you're actually willing to use your nose to track 'em-" Pip admitted with a shrug.

Cassie shakes her head in response as she gets off her bed to stand up, her thigh now fully healed thanks to Pip's healing salve, and starts pacing inside the Rust Bucket. "No. They'd be long gone by now. Their scent would be faint already." Cassie began analyzing the situation.

"Wait, you actually considered sniffing them out?!" Pip exclaimed in disbelief at the thought of Cassie actually smelling out their foes.

"We need to know where Khyber would be going. His den, his house, his casa de los horrores." Cassie points as Ziggs flies to her shoulder. "But where do we start getting info like that?"

The huntress leans back on the nearby kitchen sink while her vulpine friend scratches his head while thinking. "I mean, we could ask the adventurer and guild halls in the last town... No, they probably won't know about someone like him. There's a big chance he's incredibly discreet and hidden. Plus, adventurers and guild members aren't exactly immoral, at least, most of them aren't, so interactions with an assassin like Khyber are either non-existent or very hostile."

"Good point... Which only people like him may have an idea... But who would possibly know about him without us wasting time to find them?" Cassie asks out loud as they keep thinking...

And realize something.

"Pip... Is that bounty hunter still here?" The huntress asks.

"Yeah. I triple tied her to a tree to keep her from moving. She's still here." The alchemist answers.

Cassie forms a smirk on her lips, and comments, "We got a winner."

"So... when's my execution?"

Kinessa asks her captors as she, just as Pip described, is completely tied up to a big tree three times with chains while her legs are tied to each other with durable ropes. Thanks to having her hands and arms literally tied to her sides, several bugs have gathered all over her cheeks, chin and forehead. She even has to blow away one of the flies coming near her lips.

"I mean, that's why you kept me tied, right? Put a blindfold on me, aim your guns..." Kinessa starts telling them, which only causes Pip to place his palm on his face in disbelief and annoyance while Cassie seems shocked at Kinessa's strange and disturbing offer.

"Oh my gods, no! We're not an execution squad! Look, we'll let you go if you agree to help us find my brother." Cassie asks of the bounty hunter.

"First, get rid of these bugs. They'd been here for an hour and it's getting annoying." Kinessa requested.

Pip rolls his eyes but humors the sniper for hire as he takes out a flask filled with clear water and splashes Kinessa's face with it, causing some of the bugs to fly of while the others got too wet to fly and end up falling to the soil. Kinessa lets out a satisfied "Whooh!" as she shakes her head, enjoying the refreshing water on her face while unintentionally spraying some of the water at her two captors.

"Thanks, champ! I needed that too. It's hot out here." Kinessa thanks the alchemist and takes a sigh of relief. "So what's this about your brother?"

Cassie sighs and shakes her head, but ignored Kinessa's incredibly casual attitude. "Look, Khyber the Huntsman took my brother and we don't know why. But we can worry about the reason later. We need to save him."

"Wait, you had a run-in with Khyber?! And lived?! Frag me, that's crazy! He always kills his targets! Only reason for someone to live is either they're better than him or he purposely spared them. I'm guessing you're the latter?" Kinessa deduced.

"So you do know him?" Pip attempts to confirm their suspicions, crossing his arms as he does so, his left hand still holding onto the empty flask that once contained water.

Kinessa chuckles at his deduction, immediately before replying, "Know him? No one in every assassin guild in the Realm doesn't know him. Guy's one of many legendary hunters. Helps that he works directly for House Aico's Primus as an assistant and personal assassin."

"Do you know where he could have taken Ben? If he's alive?" Cassie asks intently.

"His airship. Miracle work by the Magistrate. Thing flies with the power of purple crystals. Of course, he still has to await orders from that Primus guy. Better get a move on." Kinessa answers.

"Get a move on?! We don't even know what his ship looks like!" Pip complains, raising his hands in a hysterical manner.

"...But you do. Don't you?" Cassie deduced as she stared intently at Kinessa, who gives her a knowing smirk.

Kinessa gives a small chuckle and tells her captors, "Maybe I do."

Pip looks back and forth between two ladies. The longer he stared at Cassie's eyes, the more he realized and now know what exactly she was thinking. "Oh... Oh don't do it... Don't do what I think you're thinking... She nearly killed me!" The rogue alchemist began complaining as he scratches his head in anxiety.

"If we free you, you'll help us find Ben." Cassie finally said, confirming Pip's current worst fear.

Pip, in response, hysterically falls to his knees, raises his hands and look up into the sky and he yelled in a skyward scream, "NOOOOOO!"

"Oh, that's very bold of you, arrow girl. But what's in it for me?" The bounty asks, raising her brow in suspicion as Cassie starts pacing with a hand on her chip as he thinks of an answer. Pip remains extremely disappointed and angry as he remains on his knees and starts pounding on the ground in hysterical anguish. "Also, tell your rabbit to stop overreacting."

"...Well, Khyber just tried to take your bounty. Isn't that a bit dishonorable for him steal someone else's target?" Cassie points after she finally stopped pacing.

Kinessa gave off a sly expression as her eyes look up, as if she was thinking. "I guess you're right..." Kinessa responded. However, she immediately follows up with a rather sardonic tone, "But that still doesn't quite tell me why it would be worth risking my life to save MY target from a very dangerous hunter."

"This is pointless, Cass. Let's just have Ziggs fly around the forest until we find a funny looking ship and—" Pip tried to convince his human sister until she shows him her palm to gesture him to stop.

Cassie stared directly into Kinessa's eyes to observe her. Kinessa gives off a smirk once again, but Cassie noticed that her eyes... They seem similar to Ben's. Someone who went through a lot. Someone who seemed to look up to someone... But that's where the similarity ends. Cassie saw... something else...

"...You're saying lesser than you're trying to let on." Cassie responds. "I'd try to appeal to that side of you, but all you seem to understand right now is money. So I'll make you a deal. You help us save my brother, you leave him and Pip alone..."

"You lost me at 'leaving' my bounties alon—" The bounty hunter began complaining.

However, Cassie continued her offer and interrupted her by adding, "...and you can have the bounty on Khyber's bounty all to yourself. Biggest assassin and hunter on the planet AND House Aico's enforcer? Most likely a bigger bounty than my brothers, right?"

Cassie's words silenced the bounty hunter as it actually made Kinessa ponder what the offer. Someone like Khyber would most likely have so many kills that a bounty on him would be larger than Ben and Pip's. She takes another few seconds to think about it before giving a smile and finally responds, "Deal!"

That was all Cassie needed to hear as she goes behind the tree and removes the lock on the chains holding Kinessa and frees her. "Great. Letting loose a killer for hire and deciding to work with her! Fantastic!" Pip sarcastically exclaimed as he turns around and raises his arms in a whining manner.

"Can I punch him? Just to get it out of my system?" Kinessa asks Cassie as she returns from behind the tree.

"Just once." Cassie complies with a smirk of her own, which causes Pip to turn around, confused and terrified.

It's to the point that all he could mutter is, "What—?"

POW!

Kinessa clocks Pip square in his face and knocks him down on the floor, causing him to shriek in pain as he holds his nose. "Much better." Kinessa tells herself before cracking her knuckles.

"Why would you let her do that?!" Pip complained as Cassie looks at him with a grin formed on her face.

"That's for smacking me at the back of my head earlier." The huntress rebuked at her vulpine brother before facing Kinessa. "So how do we find him?"

"During his hunts, he always keeps his ship nearby. Half a mile off, in fact. Lets him take his bounties faster and keeps his tools close to him. Despite his pride in his hunts, he always hides the fact that he needs his weapons to make it all successful. Plus, his big kitty cat pet turns the tide of battle in his favor multiple times." Kinessa answers, hands on her hips to keep her composure.

"You mean kitties, right? As in plural? He kept churning them out like cheese on a grater." Cassie asks, after recalling how many Panuncians Khyber had that attacked her and Ben, to the point that they almost overwhelmed Four Arms through sheer numbers.

"Oh, so you DON'T know the truth behind his kitty cat?" Kinessa replies with yet another knowing smirk.

Cassie and Pip only look at each other in confusion before looking at their new frenemy to say, "What?"

Ben felt his head spin as he sits up from his lying position. While initially hazy and dizzy, he shakes his head to wake himself up only to be surprised as his eyes widened in finding himself inside an iron barred cage. Before making an attempt to escape, he sees outside his prison several objects that are either hanging from the walls of the area he's in, hanging from the ceiling or are on pedestals as displays.

These objects are comprised of a large shell of some sort of turtle, a skeleton of what seems to be a bipedal tiger beast, with it's skull shattered, the pelt of some sort of dog-like beast with no eyes, a strange arm with a drill for a hand, a large rhinoceros-like head the size of an actual rhino, a chest plate with several gears inside it that makes it resemble the inside of a clock, a humanoid-slash-reptilian skull with a large helmet encasing it, a large, glowing red sword with several cracks on its blade, a metal hook that appears to be part of an arm, a large skull and a shield.

After careful observation and seeing all these put in specific places, Ben realizes what these are and where he is.

These are trophies, and he's in a trophy room.

And he's the latest catch.

Upon coming to this realization, he attempts to escape by reaching for the watch on his wrist...

...only to to find that a big, metal, brace wrapped around his watch, and by extension his wrist, preventing him from accessing it at all. He internally cursed at his luck, so he attempts to break through it by channeling his shaman magic through the fingers of his right hand with electricity. When he blasts it with everything he's got, the brace did not break at all.

"It's pointless to try and break that lock, Benjamin."

Ben stops electrifying the brace to turn his head towards the direction of the voice. Of course, it's none other than Khyber, arriving from the door to his trophy room with his Panuncian hunting pet, currently chewing on what appears to be the bone of stag. The bone itself seems to have some meat stuck to it left that the beast is trying to tear off from the skeletal remains to eat it.

"I made it specifically to capture you. You're not removing it without my keys." Khyber smugly mocked Ben as he presses a button on a nearby console beside the door and a chair emerges from beneath the floors in the middle of the room. The chair is made up of several bones of several of his hunts, akin to his armor. He takes a seat on it as his pet joins him at his side and began chewing on the remains of the bones. "You still have no idea what that is, don't you?"

"No. Don't suppose you do?" Ben sarcastically responded, sitting back on the floor of his cage as he looks at the hunter eye to eye.

Khyber, however, only found humor on Ben's attempt to look tough as he chuckles to himself and relaxes his back against his throne, to respond to Ben, "It's called the Omnitrix. A mysterious device that turns it's user into various species that live in the Realm."

"Yeah, tell me something I don't know." Ben replies again in another sarcastic tone, but deep down inside, he's actually curious. He's had the device ever since he could remember, starting from his childhood, but he never knew the origin. He only found out about how it works when he was 5 years old, and even then, it was by accident and always assumed it was given to him by his family as an heirloom or memento of sorts. It's true origins, however, is still unknown.

"Did you know that it was made by the gods?" Khyber mentions, which made Ben pause and widen his eyes in shock, which only made the huntsman grin more. "Didn't think so. It's only a rumor, but it is said that the gods of the cosmos made it to preserve lost lives and races. It was bestowed upon by the gods to the town of Seris."

"Seris? Why does that sound familiar..." Ben pondered. "Where is this Seris?! Where in the Realm can I find it?"

"I highly doubt you'll reach the town alive. You'd be dead just as a majority of your transformations' races were. The beings you turn into are either endangered or extinct." Khyber mentions.

"You can't be serious... Heatblast? Four Arms? Big Chill? XLR? Ripjaws? Chromastone? Stinkfly? Wildvine? Ghostfreak? They're—?" The shapeshifting shaman spoke, trailing off at the end and gave Khyber his cue to respond.

"All extinct... Well, except your Tetramand form. They're endangered but are slowly dying out." Khyber tells him as his Panuncian suddenly breaks the bone in two with it's powerful teeth, which surprised Ben.

"Can you keep your pet house trained? And where are the rest of it's siblings?" Ben complained.

"Oh? So you still didn't quite see what happened during the entire hunt? The Panuncian is a rare animal from the village of Hathor. They were once known as an extremely dangerous pack of beasts that hunted Splixsons, the natives of the land of Hathor. Because of the advancements of the Splixsons, however, they were eventually fought back and hunted down to endangerment that the Panuncians were driven out. I found this one dying and nursed it before giving it a training from Hell." Khyber explained the origin of his pet as he scratches it under it's chin.

Ben grunts and crosses his arms, feeling unsatisfied with his answer. "It doesn't explain what happened back there."

"Of course, I didn't tell you what it's true abilities are. You see, the Splixson folk have the distinct ability to split themselves up and create clones of themselves. Completely sentient and a perfect copy of themselves they can cooperate with. To combat this, the Panuncians evolved further and adapted... And behold..." Khyber announced as he lets go of his pet and he suddenly raises his head up high.

Ben heard a very faint whistling noise in the room but couldn't quite hear enough to muster where it is. But once it ends, Ben's eyes widen in shock as he could not believe what he's seeing.

The Panuncian glows red and suddenly splits into two, perfect copies of itself. But it didn't stop, as it continues to multiply further and further until all Ben could see is Khyber surrounded by an army of 14 Panuncians in his trophy room. Each and every one of them growls and roars at Ben as Khyber gives off a very satisfying, evil smile.

"They... multiply too..." Ben uttered in absolute fear and shock.

"Endless. Limitless. Destroy one, another will take its place. As long as on exists, there will never be an end to them. And with an endless army at my hands, no amount of armies can stop me! All I need is your Omnitrix and I'll be set for the rest of my hunting career." Khyber answers him and his pets suddenly remerge back into one, single Panuncian.

Ben's shock remained, but confusion was added to it as he looks back at Khyber, with the question, "My Omnitrix? That's what whoever hired you are after?"

"No. That's what I'm after. Khan had a very specific mission for me to bring you to him alive so he can take your bounty himself. For House Aico, he says. What I'm after is your Omnitrix. Once I tear it off your wrist, I'll have it modified and be turned into a collar for my Panuncian. And once it has it, it can split itself into an army... Then transform. I'll have an army of Omnitrix wielding hunting pack that never ends! And every hunt will be over before it started, and the pay will be endless just as much as my army!" Khyber explained as he finally stood up, as if he was already triumphant and has won.

"You're crazy! Even if you have that much power, you can't take on an army!" Ben cried out to his captor in anger as he stands up and holds onto his cell's bars.

"Of course I can. I've done it before. You see, I wanted to be the greatest hunter in the Realm. To be unique. To be the only one seen as their only option in a hunt. So I cut down the competition. And I started with the most obvious group of people to make myself unique... I killed my entire race." Khyber replied, with his red eyes seemingly glowing as he gave Ben a sinister gaze.

This completely, and utterly, devastated Ben. The thought of slaying your own people, your own family, all for the desire to be unique. To be the only person good at your craft. That's not an obsession anymore. That is borderline psychotic and disgusting. The thought of it utterly repulsed the shaman boy as he grit his teeth and hardened his grip on the iron bars as electricity sparked from his hands using his shamanic magic. "You... You killed your own race?!"

"That's right! I... am the last Zaroffian and the destroyer of the land of Sangerosia! The Last son of Sangerosia and the greatest huntsman in the Realm!" Khyber exclaimed, and as if to agree with its master, the Panuncian roars into the sky just as triumphantly as Khyber.

"You sick bastard!" Ben angrily bellows, punching his iron bars with his bare, electrified fist, creating a small dent on it. "I thought you couldn't become any worse! I'm taking you down here right now!"

In response, Ben charges large volts of electricity into his arms and fires a blast into his cage. However, it does nothing at all... until the cage absorbs his electricity and blasts it back at Ben, knocking him down on the floor, which only caused Khyber to laugh. "I've prepared for every occasion against you, Benjamin. Your extremely amateur shaman magic, limited gun play training and Omnitrix training. You're not getting out of here without any intervention from me."

"You... you won't get away with this..." Ben weakly tried to proclaim as he tries to stand up, but the blast shot at him was extremely powerful that it's rendered him unable to move for a while.

Khyber only laughed at Ben's futile attempt to fight back as he approaches his cage, taking out his serrated knife and threateningly presses the tip against Ben's chin, mocking him, "I already did."

However, they were interrupted when the entire room started shaking, as they all hear muffled explosions coming from outside. "Grrrr... Old friend. Leave a clone here and guard our quarry. We shall handle the intruders." Khyber begrudgingly uttered and the Panuncian leaves behind a single clone of itself to guard Ben as it and it's master heads off to the door to leave the trophy room and head outside, leaving the key on the console nearby that he had used to bring up his chair earlier.

Outside Khyber's bug shaped airship, Pip continuously fires his explosive potions at the landed flying vehicle. Alongside him is Kinessa, firing the machine gun mode of her rifle at several points of Khyber's ship.

"This is doing nothing but annoy him, you know." Kinessa points out as she reloads her rifle.

Pip reloads his launcher as well, and replies with a smirk, "That's the idea, remember?"

Kinessa shrugs at his response and continued to fire as she says back, "Yeah, yeah. Just saying. Guy's proud of his ship cause it has everything he wants. Living quarters, state of the art Magistrate crystal powered tech..."

"Trophies of once living people in one of his rooms like a psychopath...?" Pip sarcastically added before placing his launcher on his back and takes out two flasks containing liquids different from each other, one being blue and the other being red. He pours all the contents of the blue liquid into the red one and mixed them together to create a new, purple liquid in what was once the flask of the red liquid. He shakes the purple liquid inside the flask by spinning the bottle in his hands before it started glowing magnificently.

"Hey, gotta get souvenirs somehow." Kinessa jokingly replied while throwing one of her mines at the ship's roof.

"Of all the people I'm stuck with..." Pip internally complained until the Panuncian emerges from the entrance and chases after them. Pip then tosses the potion at the the Panuncian, which it did not expect, as the glass shatters against it's head and the glowing purple liquid splashes onto it's face.

It seemingly did nothing for the beast except anger it as it growls and glares at the rogue alchemist. "Aaaaand success!" Pip says.

"You call that a success?!" Kinessa yelled out as the beast pounces on them, causing both of them to jump as they jump in two different directions, with the Panuncian striking nothing but the ground between the sniper and the alchemist. But it turned its focus more on Pip as not only did he anger it, but it also looks like another animal, and thus, just more food.

The beast roars and runs after Pip, who jumps around the trees and rocks surrounding Khyber's ship as if he was Weightless. "Aww, look how hard you're trying! How embarrassing!" Pip mocked the beast as he hops onto a tree branch and taunted the Panuncian with a small dance. However, he was unprepared when the branch he was standing on was slashed apart by the Panuncian's claws and caused him to fall.

Upon landing on his butt, Pip grunts and rubs his rear in pain but was cut off when the Panuncian goes up to him, face to face. "C-Can... Can we talk about this?" He pleaded as the beast comes closer, inches away to his nose. However, Pip noticed something about the beast... "Wait... you're a girl?"

The beast ignores this and roars at him until a full blast of an energy shot from a sniper strikes it on it's abdomen. Thanks to its tough hide, it only got injured but it got angry nonetheless as it looks over to Kinessa over a big rock, responsible for its injury.

"Here, kitty kitty!" Kinessa mocked her target as the Panuncian roars back at her and started to glow red, signifying it's about to multiply itself...

...until nothing happened, which confused the beast. When it tried to multiply again, it glowed red once more and yet, once again, nothing happened. The beast looks at itself in befuddlement until Pip's laugh caught its attention. "What's wrong, kitty cat? Can't divide and conquer anymore? Wonder why? Oh right! Because of my special potion I threw at you earlier! Hah! My skills in alchemy has thwarted you at last!"

"Using the info about it's duplication powers that you got from me!" Kinessa exclaimed from her position.

Meanwhile, over the roof of his ship, Khyber observes the commotion and spots Kinessa with the scope of his own rifle. "Kinessa, the Eagle Eye. Didn't think I'd see you here." He whispered to himself as if he was talking to the sniper herself. "I suppose you'd count as competition. Just lay back and think of oblivion."

"By the way... Hi Khyber!" Kinessa suddenly turned around and waved at the huntsman, which surprised him. In a panic, he blind fires at the other bounty hunter but she dives behind the rock she was using as elevation from earlier and found herself safe from the shots.

"How did you know I was there?!" Khyber yelled out, demanding an answer as he pulls back the bolt action of his rifle to cock it.

He swore he heard her laugh at him before yelling back with, "Watch your step!"

Khyber did not know what she meant of this, but with her choice of words, he looks directly below him to see that he was directly above Kinessa's mine. He doesn't feel the weak electrified zap of the mine thanks to his armor, so he failed to notice that it's being used to track him.

With Kinessa, she is able to tell where her mines are thanks to the scope of her rifle having a built in tracker for them and can show her if they're hitting anything. This is how she was able to track the huntsman. "So Khyber! I hear you got a pretty big bounty! You don't mind if I cash it in, do you?" She taunted her foe before taking a quick peek to fire her sniper rifle at Khyber, who narrowly dodge her sniper fire and is forced to jump off his ship to evade contact with Kinessa's mine.

"Taking the bounty of a fellow hunter? How dishonorable of you! At least all I plan to do with you is kill you then bury you!" Khyber answers the sniper as she removes the long muzzle of his rifle, changes the magazine with a much longer one and switches the firing mode of his gun from "sniper" to "automatic".

"Dishonorable? Coming from a guy who just tried to steal half of my bounty? Man, you really are just as delusional as they say." Kinessa continued to taunt him until a shadow looms over her and noticed a pebble run down from atop the rock she's hiding behind, causing her to look up to see Khyber already on top of her and nearly punched her face in with his armored fist, but she swiftly reacted fast enough and dove forward to avoid the jab, with the huntsman instead striking the rock and creating cracks along it's side and a big, fist-shaped hole in it as well.

"I am NOT delusional!" Khyber angrily yelled out at Kinessa with such venom, he unintentionally let out some of his own spit like a feral dog angrily barking at a stranger. He then starts firing his automatic rifle at Kinessa and forces her to run to the side to dodge each shot while retaliating back with her own machine gun blasts, all the while Pip is still evading the powered down Panuncian, firing his own shots from his launcher which the beast keeps evading. It has resorted to simple slashes with it's claws and bites with it's gigantic, knife like saber teeth, but the Vulpine proved too nimble for him to catch.

"Too fast!" Pip mocked as he continues his volley of explosive potions, but each one is dodged by the Panuncian like it always has. "And apparently, so are you!"

While this 2 versus 2 is going on, Khyber and his pet failed to see Cassie sneak behind some trees to reach the ship undetected.

Back in the trophy room, the remaining clone of the Panuncian, before Pip doused it with a special potion, is pacing back and forth in front of Ben's cage as it keeps its eyes on it's prisoner. It can hear the explosions and gunfire outside the ship, but it was told to guard it's master's prey, so it's not allowed to leave. Even if, deep inside, it wants to help it's master.

In contrast, Ben is still stuck in his cage as he is getting dizzy watching the big cat moving from the same spot to another, back and forth, and back and forth, and it's getting tiring for him.

However, as a shaman, a part of him is conflicted about the beast. Khyber himself says it's extremely rare and yet he treats it more like weapon rather than a companion. The Panuncian is treated as something Khyber wants to use, not something he can have to have company. A friend. Despite being terrified initially, Ben knows the beast is just following it's master's orders. But still...

He got an idea. He's received training from some of the best shamans in the Realm, and although incomplete, he is still able to use certain spells for certain situations, like talking to beasts. He sits up to a meditation pose and after focusing his breathing, he exhales a strange, glowing, purple smoke from his mouth and when he opened his eyes, his irises changed from his normal green into a purple akin to the smoke he had just let out.

"Why are you stuck with a master like that, little one? A master should always be concerned for his pet, not use them as personal pawns." Ben spoke to the Panuncian in perfect English.

Yet somehow, the beast understood what he said, to the point that it surprised it, before only angering it more and caused it to growl. Despite this, Ben actually understood it all, despite only being a growl. Thanks to finding a connection to the Spirit of the Wilds, he can communicate with all manner of beasts, but it takes a bit for him to still translate what they're saying.

"I know that he saved you and raised you. But that doesn't equal blind loyalty to someone who can replace you with a far stronger beast when he eventually finds one." Ben responded.

This statement seems to only anger the beast more as it roars at him with so much ferocity.

Once again, Ben understood this. "Is that what you tell yourself? That he will always keep you around? Did he even bother giving you a name?"

This was the final straw to the Panuncian, as it's right eye look like it even twitched before it roars louder and pounces on Ben's cage, shaking it and attempting to claw the shapeshifter, but Ben's way inside his cage that it's claws can barely even reach his face.

"...Do you see what I mean? Little one, I have a pet hydra at my old home named Ship. I once found him in a crashed pirate ship once and assumed he was going to be traded around for profit. Hydras are rare in the realm and I swore he would never be taken like that, so I kept him and raised him. I found him when I was 10 and since then, I raised him, fed him and loved him. In turn, he was loyal and protected me when I couldn't do it myself." Ben began narrating to the Panuncian.

It's only response is a small, angry roar, as if to say "I don't care." at Ben.

"Then let me finish. The loyalty we have for each other is mutual. I love Ship just as much as he loves me. If we're not in a fight, we're playing because I want him to be happy. I don't want him living his life only knowing violence. And as for why he's not here right now... It's because that I love him that I can't bring him on a dangerous journey. He's not with me not because I don't want him anymore. He's not with me because I want him safe. And he's all grown up now. He can do whatever he wants and I'll support him. What did you ever do that Khyber returned with similar love and care, if not, more?" Ben asks the red furred feline. For a brief moment, Ben's eyes flashed back to green before returning to purple. His connection with the Spirit of the Wilds is growing small.

However, Ben noticed that the beast looks down at the floor, pondering. It was letting out an almost sorrowful purr, it's eyes looking like they're filled with regret.

The purr was something Ben understood as well. "I'm not asking you to help me out of here. But what I am asking is to find people who would love you just as much as you love them. Not a psychopath who thinks of you as just another animal he can control. If I do make it out of this and take down Khyber, I'll let you do what want, all on your own. Your decision, not his."

The Panuncian understood all that, just in time for Ben's eyes to return to the normal green and he starts coughing. Connecting with powerful spirits exhausts him. He won't be able to communicate with animals for a while, so he hopes that the beast understood him.

All of a sudden, however, they both hear tapping on nearby glass. They both look up to see on the glass roof of the ship's trophy room is Cassie, waving back at her brother. And as usual, she has Ziggs flying above her.

"Cass!" Ben happily says as he stands back up from his meditation position.

Cassie, from Ben's point of view, pulls up a big rock nearby and drops it on the glass ceiling, shattering it and giving her and Ziggs an opening for them to jump into. Once Cassielands on her two feet, she pulls out her crossbow and aims it at the Panuncian, shouting, "Alright, furball! I'm gonna give you on last chance to surrender! This crossbow bolt is laced Pip's anti-cloning potion he made and I'm a pretty good shot!"

Ziggs squawks intimidatingly together with his master as they both glare at the Panuncian.

...Only for the beast to make a small, condescending snarl before walking away, ignoring Cassie and Ziggs entirely.

"Whaaaaa..." Cassie let out, confused.

"It's okay. We worked it out." Ben informs her.

Cassie suddenly lets out a very big sigh of relief as Ziggs seemingly does the same, or the closest thing a bird can do to sigh, and puts away her crossbow on her hip. "Thank the gods... I was actually lying. Pip only had enough ingredients for one mixture and we agreed to use it on the one Khyber brings outside."

"Well, at least you put up a great act. Come on. This cage is locked and needs Khyber's print. But if you just get me the keys on the brace covering the Omnitrix—" Ben started telling her sister until she stops him.

"Wait, Omnitrix?" Cassie interrupted and asked her brother while Ziggs lands on the top of Khyber's nearby chair.

"My watch. It's what Khyber called it. Look, the keys are on the conso—" Ben spoke but was interrupted again...

... only this time, by the Panuncian as it drops the keys at Cassie's feet. Ben and Cassie watch the beast carefully as it kicks the keys in between the siblings and suddenly walks over to the corner and sits there, looking away.

"Well, he's friendly." Cassie joked as she crouches down to grab the keys from the floor.

"She's a she." Ben corrects her just as Cassie hands her the keys. Once he's obtained it, he uses them to unlock the brace and removed, letting it drop on the floor and giving Ben access to the Omnitrix once more. "Alright! Let's give Khyber something a little unexpected." He cheerfully challenged himself and brings up the dial of his Omnitrix. After scrolling through his 10 forms. He's shown 9 forms throughout his days.

But there's one form he uses to surprise unsuspecting foes.

Once he finds the perfect form, he slams down the dial and is surrounded by a big flash of emerald light.

Pip and Kinessa get knocked into two separate trees as their scratches and bruises are visible on them, with Khyber's Panuncian having blood over its claws while Khyber holds onto his blood covered dagger and his rifle.

"Like every wild animal... All bark, no bite." Khyber mocks his foes as he places his rifle on his back and slowly approached Pip with his blade. "Vulpine. A mysterious race of fox folk hiding in the hidden land of Brightmarsh. You'll make a fine trophy."

"Thanks... At least someone values my rarity. Just don't ruin the tail. I love that thing..." Pip casually responded, even with a blade near his throat. "Also, I need a ton of Bellona and Loki lotions once a week. It keeps the flees away..."

Khyber ignores his jokes as he grins as he continues to threaten the alchemist with his blade. Meanwhile, the huntsman's Panuncian approaches Kinessa, growling all the way as it nears her ever so slowly.

Kinessa could only chuckle as she wipes the blood on her lips, before taunting the beast, "You're gonna wanna get a tone of ice and water, little kitty, cause I'm too hot for you to eat."

The beast grins and is about to maul the bounty hunter, until it's eyes suddenly widens and it squeals before falling on the ground without motion, unable to move. This surprises Khyber as he watches his pet do nothing but stay still. "What the—?" Khyber utters until several crossbow bolts start flying his way.

He turns around in time to block several shots from Cassie, who keeps firing volleys of bolts at the huntsman. Joining her is the reformed Panuncian as it pounces on him and pins him to a tree, angering Khyber greatly. "You traitorous feline!" Khyber furious bellowed as he clocks the beast with his armored fist and knocks it down, but he was too distracted to be unable to dodge a crossbow bolt in time as it flies past his left cheek and actually wounds him, creating a long cut on his cheek that leaks out some of his purple blood. "You! You did this to my Panuncian!"

Cassie shrugs and gives Khyber a big, smug grin, sardonically replying to him, "Maybe I did. Or maybe you just don't feed your pet enough!"

"I leave him to hunt his own food! Feeding him will dull his hunting skills!" Khyber angrily berated his foe as he tries to pull out his rifle, but Cassie shoots it immediately out of his hand before following it up with an explosive bolt to utterly annihilate it, preventing Khyber from using a long ranged weapon.

"She's a girl, you jerk!" Cassie yells at the huntsman as she takes out one of her bolases once more and throws it at Khyber.

The psychotic hunter retaliates by cutting it in two with his dagger like before. And just exactly like last time, he throws his dagger at her thigh.

Not this time.

Cassie spoke in her head as she dives to her left and evades the knife and once she found her footing, she immediately aims back at Khyber to fire another explosive bolt that Khyber tries to block with crossed arms in front of him, but the explosive yield of the bolt was so great, it blows up his arm gauntlets, shattering it into complete pieces that spread everywhere as Khyber is knocked back into a tree.

As he slid off said tree after the initial collision, he noticed that his the reformed Panuncian is slowly getting back up. "If you won't listen to my words..." Khyber whispered to himself. He then suddenly raised his head for unknown reasons and his traitorous Panuncian suddenly started squirming and covering it's ears in pain.

Once again, Cassie, thanks to her well trained ears, could really hear a very faint whistling. She recalls that whenever this happened, Khyber is always lifting his head and the Panuncian and whatever clones it makes responds to his orders more thoroughly.

Wait. Those gills Khyber's cheeks... Are they...?

To test out this theory, Cassie grabs a nearby bottle of pink liquid that must've belonged to Pip and accidentally dropped. She then tosses it at the huntsman's face and breaks on his face, the liquid spreading on his face and covers his gills by turning solid and becoming a much more sticky, pink substance.

At this exact moment, Cassie hears the whistling sounds muffled and disoriented. Cassie smirks as she feels much more confident upon figuring out one of Khyber's many secrets. "I knew it. You're whistling to force your pet to do stuff for you."

"How did you—?" The huntsman wanted to say something but Cassie comes in, slides between his spread legs to get behind him and kicks him to the ground.

Upon falling on the floor, Khyber growls until he looks to his left to see the paralyzed Panuncian that was supposed to kill Kinessa and grabs it with his bare hands before throwing it at Cassie with complete disregard for his pet's well being. The sight of the huntsman throwing a helpless beast at her completely dumbfounded Cassie as she could not react in time to dodge it, causing the paralyzed animal to slam into her and knock her down with the beast on top of her, rendering her unable to move due to the Panuncian's weight.

"You ruined EVERYTHING! I had it! I had my ultimate prize! I had my chance! And you idiots ruined it!" Khyber in a loud, glowering and grave tone as he angrily stomped towards the fallen huntress that's desperately struggling to push the paralyzed Panuncian on top of her. "Especially you! You and your father! Now you will know why your father fears me!"

"I already know why... And thanks to that, I'm no longer afraid of you..." Cassie confidently says and stopped struggling as she points at the psychotic huntsman. "And the next thing you're going to say is... 'What the hell are you talking about?!'"

"What the hell are you talking about?!" Khyber screams back in anger at Cassie... until he realized she predicted exactly what he had just said, completely disorienting him. "What?!" He uttered in disbelief.

And before he could realize, he suddenly cannot feel anything below his neck. His arms, legs, hands. feet. Every possible controllable part of his body feel like they're no longer there. "W-What? I can't... move..." Khyber could only utter as he tried everything, anything, to move, but to no avail.

"Hephaestan Neuro Grip."

Khyber heard a small, squeaky voice just beside his right ear. Unable to move his neck, all the paralyzed huntsman could do is move his eyes and look to his side.

"It is useful in taking down all manner of prey." The same squeaky voice continues as they reveal themselves from the back of Khyber's neck.

The owner of the voice is a grey-skinned, frog-like, bipedal alien that is only four inches tall with large green eyes, which have rectangular pupils and horizontal eyelids. He has a green jumpsuit with a black belt. His suit's collar is black while wearing black, fingerless gloves with a green rectangle on the back. He has a long neck and his Omnitrix symbol is present on his back.

Seeing the symbol immediately reminds Khyber who this is. "B-Benjamin?!"

"That's Grey Matter to you!" Ben, as this small, new form named Grey Matter, berates the huntsman with a big grin on his face. "By the way, thanks for the tip! The Hephaestan Neuro Grip will come in handy in the future!"

"You... you did that to my Panuncian too!" Khyber discerned as he remembers when that Panuncian that was meant to kill Kinessa just stopped moving.

"And I did more than that!" Grey Matter exclaimed as he jumps off Khyber while the other Panuncian, reformed by Ben, approaches it's paralyzed counterpart.

After glowing red, it fuses back with its counterpart and turned back to one. Grey Matter then jumps onto the paralyzed Panuncian's back and scratches it on the back of its neck and in an instant, the Panuncian manages to finally reclaim its motor movement. "I discovered that by targeting specific pressure points at the exact location where you perform the Hephaestan Neuro Grip and do it in reverse, you return their motor movements back to normal." Grey Matter explains to Khyber as he rubs the beast on its neck to comfort it. "Oh, and did you know that if they merge back to one, they all share their memories to the original?"

"You! You did this to my Panuncian! You ruined everything! You corrupted it!" Khyber bellowed out as he's using every ounce of his anger to move, but alas, it's still futile as Cassie gets back up and pokes his nose.

"No. He just told her the truth. That you're a terrible owner and a poor excuse for a person!" Cassie remarks while pointing at the paralyzed pscyho.

"That beast is nothing without me! I saved it! I raised it!" Khyber continued to ramble, still in a state of denial as he glowered at his foes, his bloodlust rising by the second the longer they look alive in front of him.

Grey Matter only groans as he's getting absolutely tired of Khyber's delusions and finally gets off the Panuncian before switching to Heatblast as he approaches the paralyzed Khyber. "You know... I still haven't forgiven you for everything you've done. So normally, this is the part I'd get you arrested... But you just injured my sister, my brother, some girl that wanted to kill me but is now trying to save me, abused your pet, kidnapped me and killed your own people..."

Heatblast takes a short pause as he slams his right fist into his left palm and proceeds to crack his knuckles, his fiery body casting bright light over Khyber as he began sweating.

"A psychopath like you..." Heatblast continued, and finally rears back his fists, engulfing both in intense flames. "...doesn't deserve a good ending like that!"

Without warning, Heatblast began firing a rapid volley of his flaming fists as each strike has the intent to maim every body part and organ Khyber has in his very being. He kept going and going. He did not stop as each punch created so much impact that they made sounds loud enough to be heard by Cassie, Kinessa and Pip.

Heatblast kept going and going as his fury was relentless. For every living soul Khyber has taken, for his own race he destroyed out of an obsession to be unique, for his Panuncian he didn't even care about and for his family he threatened to harm.

He kept punching him for a whole minute and ten seconds before finally delivering one final, savage blow with one final battle cry. "LOK'TAR OGAR!" Heatblast yells with fury in his tone and lands his one last, fiery punch and sends Khyber straight through his own ship, creating a large hole on the side as Heatblast's fist remains up high, pointed in the sky as he turns back into Ben. "If you don't survive that, your victims in the afterlife will be the one to judge you!" Ben gives off one last pre-mortem one-liner as he finally puts away his fist, all while Cassie smirks, Pip chuckles and Kinessa is incredibly dumbfounded.

"Right wicked, bub!" Kinessa compliments Ben as he and Cassie approach both her and Pip to help them back up. Cassie hands Pip one of his own potions while Ben helps Kinessa stand back up properly on her own two feet. "You're not too bad... when you get serious anyway." Kinessa adds while she has her left arm around Ben's back as he helps her walk for now.

"Well, I'll take what I can get." Ben responds and helps the bounty hunter walk to Cassie and Pip's spot.

"And you..." Kinessa suddenly spoke to Cassie while Pip drinks up his potion.

The two sharpshooters stare directly into each other's eyes, causing both boys of the group to start to get nervous.

But to the surprise of Ben and Pip, Kinessa gives Cassie a friendly smile and a thumbs up, before telling her, "Not a bad shot, arrow girl."

Cassie responds with a chuckle and says, "Thanks."

However, ruining their moment, Khyber's ship suddenly starts up and began hovering off the ground before retracting it's landing gear and flies off, releasing a sonic boom that knocks all of them, even the Panuncian, on the floor.

When his ship is out of sight, the heroes are all a bit surprised that Khyber lived through all that and had enough strength to retreat and fly his ship. But while everyone was dumbfounded, Kinessa only has her eyes wide and jaw dropped, before eventually yelling, "My bounty!"

"Whoops!" Cassie could only comment, seeing as what she had just promised the bounty hunter is long gone.

The crew manages to return to the Rust Bucket as Pip is replacing the tires Kinessa had shot out with some spare tires put by Barik at the vehicle's compartment.

As this goes on, Ben and Cassie approach the sniper as Kinessa checks her ammunition, with some of her supplies and mines on a tree stump as a makeshift table. Once they get to her, Ben hands her a glass of water to her, which the bounty hunter takes and takes a sip. "Thanks, champ." Kinessa thanks Ben as she hands him back the now empty glass.

"Sorry about that. You didn't get your bounty I promised." Cassie apologizes to their new frenemy.

Kinessa reloads her rifle before placing it on her back as she checks her mines, all while speaking to the siblings to say, "Ah don't sweat it. After seeing you three, I'm not gonna even try anymore. There's money in other targets anyway."

"Well, it seems unfair for us to leave you empty handed. I mean, you did kinda try to kill us, but since you failed and made up for it by helping save you... We owe you." Ben offered her, which only made Kinessa looks at him.

All of a sudden, Kinessa approaches Ben so close, her face is an inch away to his, which only caused Ben to get flustered and his cheeks to blush. The sight of a girl directly in front of him is making his entire body heat up in embarrassment...

"...Okay. You can make it up to me... by letting me join." Kinessa suddenly replied and backs away from Ben.

"What?!" Both siblings yells in surprise and befuddlement as Kinessa simply crosses her arms and forms a smile on her face.

"Big boy Benny here is... interesting. Whenever I find a target, I always carefully observe how they fight, how they defend themselves and how I will beat them. I always make countermeasures in my head to see which method is best to kill their butts. But you..." Kinessa explains to them and points at Ben like she has an objection against him. "You keep changing forms. Changing shape. Changing abilities. Changing fighting styles. For the first time of my life, I found someone I couldn't understand. And I wanna join you... So I can learn how to kill you."

"Excuse you?!" Cassie exclaimed upon hearing Kinessa just threaten her brother.

"You're in." Ben suddenly replies, shocking and confusing his sister further.

"WHAT?!" Cassie yells once more, putting her hands to her hand in a hysterical manner.

"The way you worded it... Does that mean that you'd refuse to let anyone but yourself to kill me right? Which means you'll protect me too to make sure I'd stay alive until you find out the right method to kill me." Ben deduced perfectly, which is only backed up when Kinessa giggles and puts a hand around his shoulders.

"You can be smart too! Yep. Until I know how to kill you, until I finally beat you and prove my reputation as a legendary bounty hunter isn't just a title, you're staying alive on my watch." Kinessa replies while playfully poking Ben's cheek.

"This can't be real..." was all the huntress could say at Ben's decision to let Kinessa be a part of the team. "Well, you're in charge. And this is your adventure. So I'm gonna look out for you too."

Ben gives Cassie a smile before walking over to her to hug her. The older sister hugs back her adoptive brother and pats him on the back. "It's my job as your sister to watch over you... Even if you grow stronger than me." She whispers into his ear, which comforts him enough, relieved that she finally stopped punishing herself.

"I look forward to our next adventure then." Ben tells her as they both let go.

As the Sun shines bright upon them, Pip approaches the three of them, wiping away his sweat while holding onto his wrench. "Rust Bucket's done. What's our next destination, folks?" Pip asks his companions.

Before they could reply, though, the Panuncian approaches them as well and starts nuzzling it's head against Ben's head. "Right. We got two new members now. Kinessa and..." Cassie spoke but trails off when she realized the giant cat has no name yet.

Ben crouches down to the Panuncian's level and pets her. Knowing she's a girl, Ben smiles at his new pet and companion and christens her with a new name. "Ester." He says out loud.

"Ester, huh?" Kinessa comments.

Ester the Panuncian responds by licking Ben's face, seemingly happy at the name given to her by her new master and friend. "She likes it." Pip points out to everyone, even though it is already quite obvious.

"Alright. And as for our next trip..." Ben responds. He looks at Ester and remembered what Khyber had told him earlier.

It's called the Omnitrix. A mysterious device that turns it's user into various species that live in the Realm. It is said that the gods of the cosmos made it to preserve lost lives and races. It was bestowed upon by the gods to the town of Seris.

"The town called Seris." Ben finished his words.

"Okay. Seris it is... Wherever that is." Pip responds as before heading back to the Rust Bucket to get it started.

"I don't know where it is either, but I do know that the Magistrate keeps records of several human towns in their libraries. Let's hit up one of the main cities and find a library to get us a map." Kinessa offers as she puts her hands on her hips. "The nearest town is Stone Keep. We can try there. Got a few friends to help us out too."

"Alright. To Stone Keep it is! To find a map to wherever Seris is." Cassie tells them.

"In that case... Let's go!" Ben happily cheered as they all head back to the Rust Bucket.

Meamwhile...

Somewhere else, in what appears to be the Trade District of a downtown Magistrate controlled city, Princess Lian sits on her throne in the middle of the plaza while she holds onto a glass of wine, as several people that pass by respectfully bow to her while Khan and their newly hired mercenary "A" are right behind him.

"Spellbinder..." Lian called to "A".

"I already told you, my name is—" The red clad mercenary tried to tell his current client, but Lian simply raises her hand to gesture him to shut up as she looks at him and gives him a very menacing glare.

With a demanding tone, the princess berates him, "No! I refuse to call you such a stupid, ridiculous, one letter name! While you're working for me, you will be called Spellbinder! Do you understand?!"

"Fine. As long as I'm paid." Spellbinder, begrudgingly accepting to answer to one of his old mercenary names, replies as he crosses his arms.

"Good! Spellbinder, bring me more wine. This supposed... 'contact' that Khan said is taking too long. And the sight of all these people is getting tiresome." Lian tells her hired killer.

"I'm sorry, lady Lian. I swear, Khyber is never this late! But I promise! Once he brings in the intruder of the warehouse, he will prove that we do not need this... amateur in our ranks and show that he is enough to be our enforcer!" Khan proclaimed proudly, but his taunting did not escape Spellbinder's attention.

Spellbinder gives him a small grunt and comments, "Says the brute who thinks with his muscles."

"You will lower your tone, boy!" Khan angrily yelled until...

"Khan! KHAN!"

They all turn their attention back in front of them to see Khyber, injured, burnt, bruised and barely naked as pieces of his armor start dropping after the beatdown he received from Heatblast.

"Oh... Oh no..." was all that could escape Khan's mouth at the sight of his personal enforcer looking incredibly pathetic.

"They... They ambushed me! They ruined everything! They even took my Panuncian!" Khyber tell them as he runs at them until he stumbles and falls from fatigue and his injuries, landing perfectly directly at Lian's feet. "Princess Lian! G-Give me another chance! I promise! I'll bring them to you!"

Lian only gave Khyber a look best described as a combination of being disappointed, annoyed and disgusted pity. "This is your best man, Khan? You're loosing your touch..." Lian tells her Primus before getting off her throne and disrepectfully kicking Khyber in the face, knocking him down on the floor. "Spellbinder..."

"Yeah?" Spellbinder asks.

"He's fired. Give him his resignation brand." Lian cold replies before walking off to find her horse again.

"Wh-What?" Khyber could only mutter as Spellbinder draws his blade.

The huntsman had no time to react at all when Spellbinder swings his sword once...

...and Khyber's right arm is suddenly sliced and separated from his arm, blood spewing from his stump as all the man could do is scream in extreme agony while Spellbinder sheathes back his blade and walks away, following Lian to the stables.

The people passing by are either so horrified that they leave in a hurry upon the sight of this Zaroffian losing his hand, or are so used to the violence of House Aico that they ignore Khyber entirely, leaving only Khan to watch his enforcer writhe around pathetically. When Khyber tried reaching out to his boss for his only remaining hand, he dreadfully pleaded, "Khan... Please..."

"...Hm. I should've seen this long ago. But you're replaceable, Khyber. Stop pleading like a child. You're not that unique." Khan mocked his former subordinate before spitting at him and leaving to join Lian and Spellbinder.

Khyber had nothing else to say as he watched everyone, including what he thought was his friend, leave him and ignore him as he bled out, losing his arm in such poetic justice.

The greatest huntsman in the Realm...

...can no longer hunt.

The evergrowing crew:

* Ben, Last Son of the Snowstorm

* Cassie The Hunter's Daughter

* Pip the Rogue Alchemist

* Ziggs

* Ester the Panuncian (NEW)

* Kinessa the Bounty Hunter (NEW)

/—To be continued...—/