The tavern was quiet, but the alley behind it wasn't.
"Get your ass movin', husband," Lonfan barked, already halfway down the alley behind Iron Fang. Her long red coat fluttered with every step, smoke trailing from the cigarette tucked between her lips. She didn't even look back—just kept walking like she owned the world and everything she was about to stab in it.
Gazei stood in the doorway, half-dressed in his gear, tightening the straps of his pack with a groan.
"You talk like you ain't the one who stayed up drinkin' and kept my ass up till four in the fuckin' morning," he muttered, voice rough from sleep and minor emotional damage. "I ain't even mad about the sex, I'm mad about the cardio."
Lonfan didn't break stride. "Should've worked out more back on Earth. I tried warnin' you."
"You had me folded like laundry, babe."
"And you loved it."
Gazei didn't deny it. Instead, he slung the heavy-ass cleaver onto his back and whistled sharply. Behind him, the door creaked open wider as two shadows slipped out.
M'Barou padded out first—his massive frame silent on the stone, black fur rippling in the morning light. The beast yawned, sharp teeth gleaming, eyes lazy but alert. Right behind him came Rouj, tail flicking, her feline body coiling low to the ground before she pounced up onto a crate like she owned the whole goddamn alley.
"Y'all ready?" Gazei asked them both like they could talk. M'Barou snorted. Rouj sneezed. Good enough.
He finally caught up to Lonfan, who handed him a steamed bun wrapped in parchment like a peace offering.
"You cooked?"
"No. Stole it off some vendor."
He bit into it. It was good. "You a menace."
"Don't forget it."
Out past the gates of the Crush Fang Quarter, the city shifted from noise to silence. Beyond the towering walls and slum-packed chaos, it was all wilderness. The Black Dragon Empire didn't police these parts. No sect guards. No merchants. Just beasts, wild Qi, and death if you weren't fast enough to stay ahead of it.
Perfect shopping day.
They took the narrow dirt trail heading north. Gazei grunted, stretching his arms as the sun started peeking higher in the sky. "What we huntin' first?"
"Feathered shit," Lonfan said. "Skybirds. I need breast meat for tomorrow's lunch rush. Wanna try 'em smoked with the lemon grass I jacked off that rich bitch's windowsill."
Gazei blinked. "You serious?"
Lonfan grinned. "She had it comin'. Told me my lipstick looked 'too vulgar for a cook.'"
"Well," Gazei said, smirking. "You do look like you stabbed a bitch in a ballroom."
"I have. Twice."
M'Barou sniffed the air and picked up the pace. The path forked at a ridge, and he turned left, low and steady. They followed without needing to ask.
The terrain changed fast. Rock gave way to loose gravel and red soil. The wind picked up. They hit the base of the Redscale Cliffs by midmorning.
Above them, the sky was already circling with winged shapes. Big ones. Redscale Fowl—six-foot wingspans, razor talons, meat like lean duck, bones rich in marrow.
Lonfan lit another cigarette and spat the stub of the first one over the edge. "Time to go grocery shoppin'."
Gazei cracked his neck and pulled his cleaver free from its sheath. "You want 'em alive or diced mid-air?"
"Alive," she said, already checking the tranquilizer bolts in her wrist launcher. "I got plans for the fat on those bastards."
Rouj was the first one to move. She leapt up the first ledge like it was nothing, claws clicking softly against the rock. M'Barou followed behind with a low growl, tail swaying. The two beasts knew the drill.
Gazei and Lonfan climbed slower, more deliberate. It wasn't a race—it was a hunt.
Halfway up, Gazei stopped behind a boulder and peeked around it. "Three on the nest," he whispered. "And another two circling overhead."
"Good," Lonfan said. "I need six."
Gazei gave her a look. "You always need six. Then you bitch when there's no space in the freezer."
"I don't bitch. I optimize."
"Babe, you threw a whole chicken at me last week for moving your spice jars."
"It was raw. You didn't die."
Before he could throw a comeback, M'Barou burst from the side of the ridge, launching himself straight into the air. One of the Redscale birds screeched and tried to bank away, but it was too late. Fangs sank in mid-air, feathers exploded, and the beast dropped like a stone.
Rouj zipped up the side wall and leapt, tail twirling behind her like a ribbon, her claws catching another one by the throat before it could even scream.
Lonfan raised her wrist launcher, aimed, and thump—one bolt slammed into the side of the nest. A bird toppled sideways, dazed. Gazei rolled forward, cleaver flashing. He sliced low, swept its legs, and slammed the back of the blade into its skull. Not lethal, just enough to knock it the fuck out.
Three birds down.
"Whew," Gazei said, wiping sweat from his brow. "That's some cardio."
Lonfan shot another one out of the sky as it dove, her aim clean as ever. "You better be grateful," she said, twirling the wrist device and blowing imaginary smoke off it. "I'm makin' soup outta these bitches later."
"That's love right there."
"You'll be feelin' the love when I'm using your ribs for stock."
He grinned.
By the time they made it back down the cliffs, they had six birds in wrapped sacks, two bags of foraged cliff herbs, and one pissed-off Rouj who got pecked on the ear mid-hunt.
Gazei offered her a dried pork strip. She took it and flopped on M'Barou's back in dramatic protest.
It was just past noon, and they still had the marshes to hit.
"Frogs next," Lonfan said, dusting off her coat. "Big fuckers. Legs thick as your thighs."
Gazei raised a brow. "You been checkin' my thighs?"
"Boy, I married your thighs."
He laughed, deep and full. "Alright then. Let's go find some jumpy motherfuckers."
The warpstone flared to life under their feet, its jade runes pulsing with dull green light as it pulled them across the leyline, through Qi currents so fast it made Gazei's teeth buzz. It spat them out at the edge of Deep Hollow Marsh, where the air was thick with humidity and the scent of algae, wet stone, and predator piss.
Gazei stepped forward, boots crunching into damp moss. "Fuck, I hate this place."
Lonfan cracked her neck and popped a peppermint into her mouth. "Frogs here don't croak. They hiss."
The marsh stretched wide in all directions—twisted trees hunched over the murky water, fungal pods glowing softly on gnarled roots. Every ripple could be a rock... or something ready to lunge.
M'Barou let out a low growl and dropped into a hunting crouch. Rouj's tails flicked with agitation. She could smell them.
"Alright," Gazei muttered, sliding his cleaver free. "Let's do this right."
The bullfrog ambush came from the left.
The water exploded as a Stoneback Bullfrog the size of a small cow launched into the air, tongue whipping like a steel cable, straight at Gazei's head.
He leaned, eyes narrowing, and Qi surged up his legs, gathering in his core.
"Monkey Form: Vault Step!"
His body vanished with a snap of force and reappeared five meters left, cleaver already mid-swing. He twisted his core and came down like a guillotine. The blade cleaved through the frog's tongue and buried halfway into its shoulder.
The beast shrieked, blood spraying as it landed with a wet thud.
Another two erupted from the water, one barreling at Lonfan with teeth bared.
She exhaled slowly. "Wrong fuckin' target."
She slammed her foot down, activating a glyph beneath her heel—Smoke Qi burst outward like a detonation. The world turned gray as her body shimmered and vanished into the fog.
The frog hesitated.
Then a spear made of condensed smoke burst from the haze, impaling its eye and nailing it to the marsh floor. Lonfan emerged from the mist like a ghost, eyes glowing, cigarette still in her mouth.
"Next."
Rouj leapt from a branch overhead, spinning midair. Her claws ripped into the side of another bullfrog, tail slashing like a blade. M'Barou charged from the front, fangs glowing faint red as he slammed his jaws onto the frog's throat and ripped it clean off.
The body twitched once. Then stopped.
"Shit, I love you guys," Gazei muttered, watching his pets work.
Another two frogs lunged in tandem—one aimed for Gazei's back, the other for Lonfan's chest.
Gazei didn't turn. "Qi Flow: Destruction Arm."
Veins lit up in his right arm as blood Qi pulsed outward, supercharging his limb.
He spun and drove his cleaver upward like a battering ram, hitting the first frog in the chin. The impact shattered its lower jaw and sent its head spinning backward with a sickening crunch.
Lonfan jumped backward, then dropped into a wide stance and drew both her curved cooking knives. She spun in place, slicing in twin arcs—cutting one frog's legs off at the knee as she slid underneath it.
The beast collapsed, shrieking.
She stood above it, knives dripping.
"Your thighs better be thick," she muttered, kicking its corpse onto its side.
Gazei kicked the remaining carcass over and stabbed the cleaver into its gut. "Still twitchin'. Grab the sacs before they rot."
They got to work fast. Gazei yanked out the tongues—still fresh, still twitching. Lonfan harvested the thighs, slicing tendons with quick flicks of her blade, while Rouj and M'Barou kept watch.
Five minutes later, five frogs lay dead. Legs, tongues, liver, and marrow sacs all stored in pressurized jars. The rest was left for the swamp scavengers.
Gazei rolled his shoulders, blood splattered across his tattoos. "You good?"
Lonfan wiped a streak of something from her cheek. "I feel great."
"Wanna go another round?"
"Not with frogs."
"Say less. Shadow Pines next?"
"Let's see if the rabbits wanna dance."
She triggered the warpstone and stepped into the light.
The warpstone dropped them on the edge of a forest swallowed in gray fog.
Shadow Pines didn't get their name from shade—they got it because even sunlight didn't trust this place. The trees here were crooked, bark black as scorched bone, and the air hung heavy like it was watching.
"Rabbits," Lonfan muttered, stretching one leg up onto a stump and cracking her back. "But make it fast. These fuckers are annoyin'."
"Copy," Gazei said, already hopping up onto M'Barou's back. "Rouj, flank wide. Herd 'em inward."
Rouj gave a sharp, foxlike chirp and vanished into the mist, tails flicking as she slipped between roots and brush like a blood-red specter.
Lonfan didn't ride.
She stood behind Gazei, both feet planted on M'Barou's back like a boarder on a wave, coat billowing, knives already tucked in her belt. Instead of steel, her hands gripped a fan-shaped holster along her thigh, each slot housing tiny thin needles—some metal, some forged entirely from crystallized Smoke Qi.
Gazei clicked his tongue, leaning forward. "Hunt."
M'Barou took off like a bullet.
The trees whipped by in a blur of bark and ash, claws pounding across the moss, the sound almost drowned out by the rush of wind in Gazei's ears. His hands gripped the beast's fur tight as he leaned low, eyes scanning for movement. His Qi was already circulating—feeding into his reflexes, tuning his instincts.
Then—
A flicker. A shimmer.
"Left!"
A Ghost Rabbit exploded from a hollow log, moving faster than it had any damn right to. Its fur glowed pale blue, eyes gleaming like frostfire. Two more shot out behind it, then five, then a dozen—scattering in all directions like a bomb had gone off.
Lonfan didn't wait for orders. She moved.
Snap. Snap. Snap.
Three needles left her fingers, barely visible, forged in midair from pure Smoke Qi. One hit a rabbit in the leg—it tumbled, screeched, and slammed into a root. The second took one in the throat. The third curved in mid-flight, puncturing a hind leg and pinning the beast to a tree.
"YAH!" Gazei shouted, pulling hard on M'Barou's scruff. The beast shifted course with a sharp bark, leaping over a boulder and diving into a shallow ravine where five more rabbits darted through the shadows.
"Monkey Form: Leaping Flow!"
Gazei kicked off the saddle mid-air, flipping once as his cleaver burst to life in his hands, red Qi coiling around the blade like liquid fire.
He came down like a meteor, splitting a Ghost Rabbit clean in half—bone, spine, and all.
The others scattered.
M'Barou didn't stop. He raced past his master, jaws snapping—one rabbit down. Two. Blood misted the trees.
Lonfan crouched low on the beast's back, spinning on her heel as she unleashed another volley of smoke-blades. One rabbit dodged, the others didn't—limbs fell, ears severed, skulls cracked like eggshells.
Rouj burst from the fog ahead, her eyes glowing. She didn't pounce—she cut.
With surgical precision, she herded the remaining four into a clearing with walls of thorns on all sides. No escape.
Gazei landed in front of them, cleaver humming in his hands.
The rabbits stopped, ears twitching, energy pulsing around them. Then one opened its mouth and shrieked, and the Qi around it snapped—it activated a speed burst.
Too late.
"Destruction Style: Crimson Pulse!"
Gazei's foot slammed the ground. Qi roared through his body, into the cleaver, and when he swung, the air split in two.
The shockwave of his slash tore the rabbit in half without touching it directly. Its halves landed a meter apart.
The others panicked.
"Clean up!" he called.
"Already done," Lonfan said from the treetops.
She was perched in a pine like a demon in heels, smoke swirling around her fingers like dancing knives. One by one, the final rabbits collapsed with perfectly placed needles through their skulls, their bodies still twitching from the nerve strikes.
Silence returned to the forest.
The air thick with iron and ash.
Rouj padded into the clearing with blood on her whiskers. M'Barou sat down and yawned like this had been a stroll.
Gazei wiped his blade clean on a fern leaf. "Damn. I almost broke a sweat."
Lonfan dropped from the tree, landing without a sound. She flicked a needle back into her holster.
"Meat's clean. I'll prep 'em for dumplings."
"You gonna try stewin' 'em in beer again?"
"I do what I want."
They bagged the kills quick—six clean Ghost Rabbit corpses, two partials for stock, and a pouch of fangs that could be sold to talisman makers back in the city.
By the time they warped home, their packs were full, their blades still warm, and the smell of blood and smoke clung to them like perfume.
By the time the warpstone dumped them behind the tavern, the sun had already dipped low on the horizon, painting the alley in long, reddish-orange shadows. Gazei rolled his shoulder, cracked his neck, and yawned loud enough for a neighbor three doors down to hear it.
M'Barou dropped low to the ground, letting both of them dismount. Rouj leapt down after a long stretch, her tails flopping as she yawned and strutted past the door like she owned the place.
Lonfan slid the door open and whistled. "Inside. Move your legs before I make 'em stop workin' again."
"Woman, I can't feel half my damn spine and you out here talkin' like you didn't use me like a damn jungle gym last night."
"Should've done more squats. That ass is mine now."
He didn't argue.
The air inside was warm—still smelled faintly of smoked peppers and yesterday's garlic butter. The kitchen lights hummed softly as Gazei dropped their bloody sacks of meat on the prep table with a thud.
"You know," he muttered, looking at the heap, "for a closed day, this feel like a full shift."
Lonfan popped the top off her flask and took a swig of something caramel-colored. "Only difference is, this time I get to cook what I want."
She peeled open one of the sacks. Rabbit. The meat was pristine. Firm. Lean. Practically glowing under the lantern light.
"Beer stew or dumplings?" Gazei asked.
Lonfan raised a brow. "Bitch, both."
He grinned, already unbuckling his armor and tying on an apron. M'Barou flopped in the corner with a huff. Rouj curled up on top of a flour sack like royalty.
The butcher knives came out. The spices followed.
There was no clock, no timer, no system prompt.
Just the smell of meat searing on hot iron, oil sizzling in the pan, broth bubbling, and the rhythmic chop of a cleaver as they worked in tandem.
Married. Blood-soaked. Hungry.
And happy.