It had been three weeks since Edin's dismissal from the Guild. The arid wind brushed over the sand, wiping away any tracks that were imprinted on the ground as it wove through the desert. Arden covered her nose and mouth with one hand, blocking any flying grains that the dry breeze blew. Under normal circumstances, she would be waiting at a guard post, ready to kill any predator that dared to near her. Now, she was the one hunting for prey. Or looking to capture prey, more like—she had no intention of murder this time around.

Her long, silent steps waded through the sand. She did not detect any monstrous presence near her, but it was better to be wary than relaxed. Some species were notoriously nimble—one could see nothing nearby, and be dead the next minute. To her fortune, she had honed the art of walking without making a sound.

And even if she were to make too much noise, the invisibility illusion she had conjured would buy her enough time before any beast could find where she stood.

Arden's strides slowed. Her head turned as she took a long glimpse of her surroundings. There was a dark silhouette on her left side. Had her prey finally shown itself? She turned on her heel to face the silhouette, her eye squinting at the unfamiliar figure.

The shadow shaped itself more clearly as it slunk closer to where she stood. The first thing Arden noticed was its wide and round snout, and unlike other beasts, the creature did not growl that often. Most of the beast's features were small in contrast to its sizeable snout—its nostrils were hardly more than two slits, its minuscule eyes peeked from between thick eyelids, and two flat appendages at the sides of its head were all it had for ears. Its whole body appeared to be of the same thickness; it was hard to tell where the neck was, if it even had one. What was most noteworthy of this species was its coarse, color-changing skin—earlier it was as brown as damp soil, but it had lightened to match the beige sand around it.

She had found a brighund: one of the more common beast species, known for using its chameleon complexion to camouflage itself. Though the creature was one of the weakest in the realm, its silence and disguise made it lethal. There had been more than enough cases of recruits and other unlucky folk falling victim to its sneak attacks. Luckily for Arden, she was no stranger to killing and capturing such tricky creatures.

The wind halted just as she stilled. Arden slid her right hand into her pocket, fingering a device. Her lips whispered a soundless spell. A gray wisp arose from her right wrist at once and slithered into the tool. She removed it from her pocket and glimpsed it—it had become invisible.

Arden clutched the device. She then swung her arm and cast the trap at the brighund. She clenched her right fist. The trap halted in midair just before it could dive into the sand and, with her guidance, floated towards the creature. Once it was near enough, she mouthed another magic word.

The invisibility shield faded in an instant. The gadget projected a hologram of a human in front of the brighund's face.

The brighund's eyes bulged in alarm. It sprinted on its four padded paws. As soon as its snout touched the hologram, a hundred metal wires sprang out of the device and surrounded the beast on all sides. The beast ran around in a panic and tried to dig through the sand to burrow out of harm's way, but the cage formed too quickly. It was now trapped.

The hologram disappeared. The cage rattled as the beast butted its head against the mesh walls, snarling and snapping its snout. Arden did not react. With an upward wave of the left hand, the cage lifted from the ground, sand falling through its sieve-like bottom as it levitated. She turned her back and walked. It floated behind her as she trod across the desert, and a few minutes later, they reached her parked car. She lifted the lid of the trunk. Though it appeared to be normal-sized from the outside, its interior space was far more vast. The cage dropped into the trunk and landed at the bottom with a sharp clang, and a louder growl followed soon after.

Arden opened her car door and got in. She adjusted her seat to make herself more comfortable, and after making sure the car doors were locked, she switched on the engine and turned on the air-conditioning. There was still ample time left before she had to head to her next post. She reached for her seatbelt—

Sirens blared from all speakers and a red light blinked. A message was flashed on the screen: EMERGENCY BACKUP.

Arden slammed a button with her right palm, sending her car into autopilot. As it took off and created a portal to pass through, she read the details of the backup call. Post TE-3, Tithereth-Eroll Highway, Asdur-Sorien border. Thirteen ætterlings. Motorists targeted. Comrade injured.

Injured. If Arden were too slow, he or she may become dead.

Hands gripped the steering wheel as the car sped through the portal. A second later they were soaring far above a highway and the post that was next to it. It was chaos below—vehicles speeding and swerving in circles, beasts jumping on cars and smashing through windows, and a lone guardian shooting ice shards with all desperation.

Arden tugged at the hems of her fingerless gloves. She pressed another button on her dashboard, switching the car to another kind of autopilot.

Then she swung the door open and jumped off.

Dual swords appeared in her hands, light and shadow enwreathing their blades. She scanned the scene. Five right road, six left road, two post.

Her eye traced two paths through eleven targets. Her arms swung into position, then her weapons cut through the air.

SLICE!

Light and shadow magic ripped from above and slashed through eleven ætterlings. A collective cry pierced the air the moment the beasts were struck, then death silenced them for good.

Arden cast a spell to soften her fall, landing on a grassy area next to the road. She looked to the right. The post was on the other side of the highway, and so were the two remaining beasts—

Slash. The male guardian shot an ice shard through an ætterling's heart, leaving one monster left.

Rumble. Her head cocked to her left. Another dozen ætterlings were charging toward them.

She spun her body into position. One leg back. Swords pointing away. She stepped forward and swung her blades.

SLICE!

Magic shot out of her swords and sliced through the entire horde. The beasts screeched for a final time before they crashed into the ground, the thumps of their bodies meeting the soil punctuating the silence that followed. Her eye squinted. There were no more beasts heading from there. She looked the other way. Both beasts that were near the post had been felled, and it seemed that there were no more creatures coming from that direction either.

Arden released her grip, letting her swords fade into thin air. She observed the scene on the highway for a moment: people breathed sighs of relief, still shaken by the corpses that were lying limp on their cars or on the roads; children were crying and clinging to their parents, traumatized from the attack; others were simply too stunned to move.

Arden swayed her right hand. The corpses were lifted off of the cars and roads. The crowd suddenly turned their heads as her magic carried the carcasses away, piling them up in one spot. All eyes then fell on her as she marched towards the post, murmuring amongst themselves.

"Is that..."

"Arden Mægenstern?"

"It's her!"

Immediately, some of them rushed out of their cars to meet her, tears trickling from their eyes. Praised poured in from all sides.

"Thank you so, so much!"

"You saved my life!"

"You're a hero!"

"Arden, it's an honor—"

She acknowledged the crowd gathering around her with a half-smile and short nod. They did not leave her alone as she crossed the highway to the other side. She held up her open palm, signaling them to step back, and addressed them: "Thank you all, but my work is not done."

The people grew quiet around her. Arden reached the other side, where the post and its guardians were. The man who was shooting ice earlier was kneeling on the ground, weeping over another man's body. Arden glimpsed the soles of their boots—they were wrapped in aluminum.

The kneeling comrade looked up to see her approaching them. He immediately stood up, arms straight and hands at his sides. "Senior Arden."

"Comrade Tristan," she spoke. She stole a glance at the other comrade. "How's your partner?"

"Terrible, terrible condition. Got clawed by an ætterling, I think the venom got into him."

Arden stepped closer to the body and kneeled next to it, biting her lip once she saw the gashes on its shoulder and abdomen. "I'll try to heal him. In the meantime, can you use your water-wielding to help clean the cars up? Check if anyone else's hurt."

"Yes, Senior Arden."

Tristan bolted off. Arden opened her palms and hovered them over the body, letting magic flow from them. It was useless. From how deep the wounds were, she already knew.

The man was dead.

Arden lowered her hands onto her lap and bowed her head, kneeling in somber silence. Her facial muscles fought against the force of regret that tried to frame a frown on her straight mouth. She should have been able to save him. She should have gone to the other side to help Tristan kill the last two ætterlings; she would have been able to reach the dying guardian quicker if she did so. Yet she let the comrade fight them himself.

Arden offered a wordless prayer for the fallen guardian, wishing a peaceful afterlife for his soul. Her hand then reached for her phone to dial the emergency number. She would have taken his body and delivered it to his family herself, but she had other things to do. Calling an ambulance to take him home was the least she could do.

The living comrade paced towards her, having helped the people. "Senior Arden?"

"I'm sorry, Tristan."

He knew what she was apologizing for. He gave a slight bow. "Please don't apologize, Senior Arden. It's me who should; I was too late to call for help. And you saved several people too. All of us would've died if you didn't come."

Though Arden knew that what he said was true, it did not make her feel any better. To her, one life lost was one life too many.

***

By the time Arden had arrived home, the last of the sun's rays were fleeing in waves of pink and tangerine before dissolving into a sea of sapphire. Her car came to a rest in the lobby, where she got off. She glanced at the trunk. She could retrieve the cage and throw the beast into the dungeon, but it would not hurt to leave the thing in her car either. Its enchanted chain walls were more than strong enough to withstand a monster of that size and strength. Oh, but the droppings—there was no way she was going to have a beast defecate in her vehicle.

Arden used her magic to open the trunk and lifted the cage out of it. Her right hand made a downward sweeping gesture. The ground next to her opened up to reveal a tunnel to the dungeon. With some silent spellcasting, she tossed the cage inside, released the beast from it, and then bound it with chains. After the tunnel closed itself, Arden sent her car to its garage with a flick of her wrist.

The front doors opened without her having to instruct them. The first thing on her mind was to head to her private quarters and soothe herself with a nice bath. She took a left turn after passing through the main hall, passed a few doors, then took a right turn into a hallway. She slowed her steps as she passed by the pillars that bordered the hallway and the courtyard, and out of curiosity, glanced at the latter area. Edin was still training with the golem standing nearby. Her vision shifted a bit to the left. The brighund that was chained to the pole was still alive, though it would not be for long.

Edin held his sword up high. He took a step forward and sliced through the brighund's neck. She noticed a red glint in his eyes once the beheaded body bled, and a chill ran down her spine—no matter how many times she had seen it, she could never get over how menacing he looked.

Arden came to a stop, concealing herself behind the pillar. She narrowed her eye at him as she observed him from a distance. He was stiff and still, hands clasped firmly around his sword hilt, eyes trained on the target that he had just slain. She noticed the tip of his blade quivering and the veins popping out of his neck as he resisted further movement, wondering how long it would take before he would succumb—according to the golem, his record was five minutes. Her right hand reached into her pocket, fetched her phone, and started a stopwatch.

Arden split her attention between the courtyard and the stopwatch in her hand. Six minutes soon passed and he showed no signs of surrender. On the contrary, he appeared more relaxed: his veins were no longer as pronounced, and his trembling had subsided for the most part. Arden held her breath; was she about to witness a miracle?

Before the ten-minute mark, Edin was no longer stiff, instead standing upright without any tension. His sword dangled from one hand before he commanded it to vanish. He stared at the carcass for a long moment, then he glanced at the golem.

"I... don't feel like butchering it anymore."

The golem gave a thumbs-up, which made him chuckle in amusement.

"Well done."

Edin cocked his head to the left. Arden had emerged from her hiding spot and was now strolling towards him, clapping slowly. A thin smile traced her lips.

"Oh, I didn't know you were watching."

"I didn't want you to know. I thought it might disturb you." She glimpsed the corpse. "So, is this the first time?"

"Uh, yeah." He gave the corpse a quick look. "The temptation's still there a bit, but I can really hold it back now."

"Well then, I guess that's enough for today. Go clean yourself up; I'll prepare dinner tonight with all your favorite food to celebrate."

Edin's face twitched out of surprise, not knowing how to react to the last sentence. "Uh, thank you, Arden."

Arden caught him smiling at himself before he turned his back on her, but did not comment on it. Edin jogged out of the courtyard with a noticeable lightness to his steps. Once he was no longer in her presence, she let out a giggle—he looked so precious.

Arden turned around and exited the courtyard. Instead of heading to her private quarters as she initially planned, she strode toward the kitchen to prepare a feast. The smile on her face widened. She could not wait to see his face when she would surprise him with extra blueberry cheesecake for dessert.