Mutant Cleanup On Isle Shadow

-Shadow Island-

Arriving by boat just like she had the first time she visited the island, Victoria arrived on the island at the behest of Franklin Kerwes, the father of A. Kerwes and her client for this job. He had hired her to find and kill any remaining mutants on Shadow Island to eliminate the threat of his son's abominable projects once and for all. Needing the money after a recent large purchase that netted her an item that was rumored to boost the powers of any healer who wore it, Victoria was eager to take the job for both the money and to finish what she had started over a week ago.

"I heard you're here to clean up some mutants on the island." The man operating the boat she had traveled on said to her. He was a black-haired man in his thirties wore a straw hat with no shirt and khaki cargo shorts with sandals.

"Yeah. I'm here to finish what I started." Victoria said to him. She was wearing her Azure Armor over a blue t-shirt and a black skirt with white tennis shoes: in her right hand was her backpack of supplies. On her head was the Crown of Persephone, an item rumored to boost the powers of any healer who wore it. Victoria purchased it because she wanted to do more than shoot things. She wanted to save lives by healing the wounded before death could claim them.

After the bout with Nessa Xicor in the outskirts of the village doomed by the spread of Phaz, Victoria's carefree attitude had been irrevocably altered. Gone was the carefree adventure seeker who was in the business only for the money. Victoria felt a new sense of responsibility, one that Abigail Windstrider had tried to get her to embrace. The crown may have made Victoria look like a hippie, but if it could help her save lives it would be worth every Jewel she spent to obtain it.

"Good luck kid!" The man wished her as Victoria stepped off the boat and onto the cool sand of the beach. Victoria waved back to him before he sped off and left the brunette to her work. It would be a grim task for someone who wanted to save life, but it had to be done because the town guard could not afford to leave the town to go hunt the mutants. The remaining abominations had broken into homes and eaten five people in Shadow's Edge in the last three days, all of the victims being elderly people.

Victoria's orders were simple. She was not to bother with trying to capture the mutants alive. She was to find and kill every last one of them and scour the island to make sure none remained. Victoria would make sure that this time the job was finished. The mage shouldered the backpack and set out on the familiar road to Shadow's Edge.

-Shadow's Edge, one hour later-

Victoria arrived in Shadow's Edge without any incident and found the streets to be full of four-man teams of town guard patrolling the streets. The town was as deserted as it was the first time she had come here. The mage happened upon the same female guardswoman she had met the first visit and presented the job notice to her. She gave it a cursory glance and returned it to Victoria.

"We're glad you're here, kid. Those mutants have been spotted multiple times on the outskirts of town and have broken into a few homes. They've even killed five of the elderly residents of town." The woman said to her. Victoria listened to the rundown on what had happened since her last visit to Shadow Island and was not happy with the news. The town guard looked like it was all they could do to keep the town patrolled, let alone stop any of the mutants from getting through and using the town as a buffet. Victoria was here to redress that issue and give the guards a helping hand by staying on the town outskirts and killing any mutants that she saw.

"Where do they keep coming in from?" Victoria asked the woman.

"The north of town, where the road to Dusk Town begins. That's where they've been spotted the most... they use the bushes as cover to get closer to Shadow's Edge without anyone spotting them until it's too late. We don't have enough men to keep that part of town under constant watch and the citizens feel safer if we patrol everywhere, so we're focusing our efforts on the residential sections of town." The young woman answered with a brief report of their efforts to keep the town safe. Victoria had already made up her mind. She would watch the road to Dusk Town and kill any mutants that she spotted before they could reach Shadow's Edge.

"OK, I'll watch that part of town and kill any mutants I see. I'll do my best to stop them before they get into Shadow's Edge." Victoria said to the policewoman. The policewoman breathed a sigh of relief and jerked a thumb towards three male officers standing behind her.

"Thanks. We've got our hands full, so we need someone who can stay there and watch the road. We've also had to step up patrols around nursing homes because the mutants seem to target the elderly." The policewoman expressed gratitude for the relief that Victoria would provide. The brunette already knew what she was going to do to clean up the mutants. She would stand watch with her Light Machine Gun and kill any mutants she spotted before they could retreat to the brush or summon reinforcements. The noise the weapon made should lure them to her and make her job a lot easier.

"It's no problem. I'll do my best." Victoria assured the beleaguered policewoman and her colleagues.

"Just do what you can. If it looks to be too dangerous for you because there's too many of them, get out of there and call for help. I know you're a strong mage and that you can handle yourself, but don't let your pride get you killed." The female officer counseled. Victoria nodded.

"If I have to run for it, I will." Victoria assured her.

"Great. I'll let you be on your way then. Nightfall's in three hours, so you've got awhile to get into place before the mayhem starts. Still, I wouldn't hang around at the coffee shop any longer than I had to." The officer gave some advice. Again Victoria nodded.

"I won't take too long getting into place." Victoria assured her.

"Well, you know what to do, so I won't waste your time with a lecture. Good luck, kid." The officer wished her before turning around and walking away to join her fellows in the essential task of patrolling the town. Victoria walked away and began making her way to the road to Dusk Town to stand watch for mutant incursions. Victoria would make sure that they did not get very far.

[Word Count: 1,218]
[Total Word Count: 1,218/10,000]

-At the checkpoint, the northern outskirts of Shadow's Edge-

Victoria arrived on the northern outskirts of Shadow's Edge to find a four-man security team manning the sandbag defenses that constituted the checkpoint: one sandbag was on each side of the path to make a chokepoint. She walked over to their leader, a blond man with a buzzcut, to talk to him about the mutant activity plaguing the town. She did not get much chance to talk because as soon as she opened her mouth a group of six mutants broke out of the bushes, staggered onto the path, and bellowed at the humans. They were too close to the bushes to safely use a Grenade or Grenade Launcher because the explosion might ignite the bushes and cause a devastating forest fire, so she would have to use another weapon to get rid of them.

Victoria brought out her Light Machine Gun and the officers brought out their pistols. All five of them took shelter behind the sandbags and opened fire on the mutants staggering towards them. Victoria riddled one mutant full of holes before turning her attention to another that was staggering with its arms held out towards a red-haired officer struggling with a jammed pistol. She turned to the mutant and fired at it until it finally gave up and died, falling forward and brushing the sandbag in front of the officer with an outstretched hand. He cleared the jam and loaded another magazine into the weapon, then fired three shots into the head of a mutant reaching for the blond officer and stopped it just as it lunged for the officer's throat.

The three remaining mutants had managed to reach the sandbag defenses and were trying to climb over them to get to their tormentors, but Victoria was on it. She swung her Light Machine Gun around and fired a Five-Round Burst to the head of one trying to climb towards her, killing it and making it topple over and brush her skirt with its hand. The startled brunette then turned her attention to the left and watched as a mutant clawed an officer's torso and knocked him down.

Victoria and another officer quickly riddled it with bullets and watched it topple to the left, falling onto the paving stones of the street with a THUD. She turned to face the last humanoid abomination clawing at the officers and watched as the two men fired multiple shots into its head until it fell between the blond officer and his black-haired colleague. They then turned their attention to the man wounded in the attack.

"What do we do? We can't afford to leave the checkpoint unmanned!" The officer kneeling next to the wounded man said. Victoria put away her Light Machine Gun and raised her hands, concentrating on casting a healing spell to help the officer. His chest had three long gashes that had ripped through his uniform and had cut deep into his chest. He was conscious but in not much shape to move around because of his bleeding chest.

"Let me help." Victoria said to them as she focused and her hands glowed gold. She closed her eyes and focused on the man, then cast a ball of golden energy that made contact with him. She had used her strongest healing spell, Field Hospital, because she wanted to have the best chance of saving him that she could. The cost of casting the spell did not matter... her magic power would replenish over time but the man's life would not come back so easily.

The man's bleeding stopped within seconds and he was able to move with much less difficulty. He was helped to his feet by the red-haired officer and the quartet looked at Victoria with appreciation. She had just saved the man's life.

"You might wanna take him to a hospital just to be safe. I'll stay here and watch the checkpoint." Victoria advised them. While she had stopped the bleeding and thus had stopped the most visible threat to his life, she did not know if the mutants could infect people with their sharp fingernails. It would be prudent of them to take the man to a hospital to check for anything that her Field Hospital spell had not treated. The blond man nodded.

"Frank, you and Roger take Joe to the hospital. Me, Kyle, and the kid will stay here and make sure the mutants don't get into town." The blond officer in charge of the checkpoint ordered.

"OK, we'll go there now. Just be careful." The red-haired officer named Frank said to the others as he and Roger the black-haired man began to take their wounded colleague to the hospital. Victoria, the blond man, and a brown-haired man named Kyle stayed behind to man the checkpoint. Thanks to the power and rate of fire of Victoria's Light Machine Gun, the trio could hold the checkpoint as long as a large gang of mutants did not come after them. If all else failed, Victoria could gamble on using the Grenade Launcher to thin them out, but that would be a last resort because of the fire risk.

The trio watched the officer walk away with the assistance of his colleagues, then turned to face the road leading out of town and towards Dusk Town. So far they had heard no signs of further mutant incursions, but that did not exactly mean that Shadow's Edge was safe. The mutants might have just gotten smarter about their plans and might have found another way into town. Victoria could not quite think of which way that could be unless... unless they were sneaking in through the sewers!

"Hey Mister, do you think the mutants are smart enough to sneak in through the sewer system?" Victoria asked the blond man. He shrugged his shoulders at the question.

"I don't know, kid. Maybe they are, but the sewer system's kinda small. It'd be a tight fit for them and a tight fit for anyone over five feet tall." He answered to the best of his ability. Kyle pointed towards the woods as moaning sounded. Victoria and the officer let the conversation drop and faced the new threat walking down the path. It was a gang of six more mutants and they looked to be spoiling for a fight. The trio readied their weapons and got behind the sandbag defenses to prepare for the mutants.

[Word Count: 1,100]
[Total Word Count: 2,138/10,000]

Victoria and the remaining officers faced down the small group of nine mutants that was starting to grow in size as more of them arrived to try and storm the checkpoint to get unfettered access to Shadow's Edge. The situation looked bad, but Victoria had something that would turn the tables. She would cast a Flashbang into the middle of them and gun them down while they were blinded. It was not the most elegant plan, but the ploy had served her well in the past and promised to work this time just as it had turned around hopeless situations before.

Victoria put her free hand behind her back and formed the gray cylinder of a Flashbang. She saw the blond officer looking towards her and recognized what she was about to do. Kyle looked towards her and noticed the Flashbang too; he and the blond officer instinctively ducked as Victoria lobbed the projectile. The mage turned away and listened for the explosion, which happened just two seconds later. She heard bellows of pain erupt from the mutants, which was her signal to pop up and let them have it with her Light Machine Gun.

The brunette popped up and aimed at the closest mutant. Fewer of the fourteen-strong group had been blinded than she had expected, but at this point she would take any break that she could get. She aimed at one mutant and tore part of the left side of its head off with a Five-Round Burst, then quickly aimed at another and fired another Five-Round Burst to its misshapen head and brought it down. The remaining twelve began to pick up speed as the two officers with her began to fire their pistols at the attackers. The pistol rounds packed less of a punch than her Light Machine Gun, but by both of them focusing down one mutant at a time they managed to kill two before they reached the halfway point.

After that the mutants picked up more speed until the ten survivors were at the three-fourths point before the officers could reload. Victoria managed to down one more with another Five-Round Burst to the face before she was forced to back off. The officers scrambled away from the sandbags as the mutants plowed through them with only a stagger as some tripped over fallen sandbags but were otherwise undeterred. Victoria and the officers retreated a short distance away and began firing again in an attempt to halt them before they got any further into the town, but the mutants were too many and too strong. The trio only brought down one more before they were forced to retreat deeper into the town.

"This is bad." The blond officer dryly remarked as he ejected the empty magazine from his service pistol and loaded another. Kyle followed suit. Victoria had to let her weapon cool down because it had fired so rapidly that she could feel the heat emanating from the barrel. She raised a hand and aimed at the head of a mutant, then fired her Derringer and nailed it in the head, making it drop to the paving stones with a THUD. The remaining seven abominations pressed on as Victoria readied a Hand Cannon spell and aimed at another target, then fired a shot that ripped through its forehead and brought it down.

The officers fired their weapons at a mutant's face and killed it before it could reach Victoria, but she heard muttered swearing about something, something that happened at the worst time for them.

"We're out of ammo." The blond officer informed Victoria while Kyle nodded in agreement. The trio then fell back before they could be overrun, Victoria scooping up her Light Machine Gun by the carrying handle before she accidentally left it behind.

"Get out of here!" Victoria told the two officers.

"We can't leave you here. You won't last long against them!" The blond man retorted.

"Your weapons require ammo. My weapons don't." Victoria argued back. The blond man looked upset and opened his mouth to speak but decided against it. Victoria aimed her weapon and fired at the four remaining cannibals, drowning out the protest that Kyle had managed to lodge against her suggestion. She had woundedd the mutant but it still kept coming for her with its arms raised. Victoria dispelled the Light Machine Gun and brought out her Submachine Gun. Its smaller magazine would work against her, but its smaller size and ease of use would help a lot more in close combat than a bulky LMG would.

Victoria saw a mutant grab for Kyle and the brown-haired officer jump back just in time to avoid the grapple attempt. She aimed her Submachine Gun at the mutant and opened fire, using an Empty The Magazine burst to cripple its left arm and hit it twice in the face. It twisted in place and fell over, giving Kyle enough time to get to safety.

Suddenly Victoria heard the sound of boots coming from behind her. She turned and saw a dozen police officers, roughly half of them armed with pump-action shotguns.

"GET DOWN!" The female police officer from earlier shouted. Victoria dropped to the ground and rolled to the side of the street as gunfire erupted from above and behind her. The brunette heard the POP-POP-POP of semi-automatic pistols and the distinctive roar of a shotgun being fired. She screamed when a mutant fell dead next to her with half of its face missing, but she was comforted by the thought that help had finally arrived. The rest of the fighting went smoothly as the mutants were dispatched without further trouble.

Victoria dispelled her Submachine Gun and stood up, adjusting the Crown of Persephone so that the tilted crown was sitting on her head the right away once again. The mutants had gotten deeper into Shadow's Edge than she had wanted, but no one else had gotten hurt. The blond officer walked over to the female officer and thanked her.

"Thanks." He said to her. The female officer simply nodded. Kyle walked over to another officer and got a magazine to load into his empty pistol.

"That was close." The young officer commented. Victoria was glad that this portion of the fight was over, but she recalled the warning that the mutants were attracted by noise. The noise made by the massed gunfire from the police officers would certainly bring in more mutants looking for a fight.

"I think we're in the clear for the moment. We need to rearm and rebuild the checkpoint before more of those things show up." The blond man suggested. Victoria was in no mood to argue. The blond officer turned to her.

"Thanks, kid. Thanks for sticking by us." He said to her as the officers who had just saved them streamed by and began to rebuild the sandbag defenses.

"It's no problem. I wish I could have stopped them before they got that close." Victoria said in response. She wanted to tell them about the explosive weapons and spells in her arsenal, but she did not want to turn them against her. She did not know how well the town guard would respond to her telling them that she could summon a Rocket Launcher or Grenade Launcher as well as her other weapons. Unless specifically asked about the matter, the Sabertooth mage would simply let it drop and focus on finding ways to stop the mutants before she had to bring out the explosive weapons.

[Word Count: 1,274]
[Total Word Count: 3,412/10,000]

Victoria stood around watching the town guard rebuild the checkpoint and was about to pitch in to help when a familiar face came running past the dead mutants and up to the town guard. Janine, the dark-haired girl from last time, had run all the way here from Dusk Town and was clearly exhausted from the effort. Victoria's experience in traveling from Shadow's Edge to Dusk Town told her that it took at least two hours to travel from town to town, and that figure was based on travel without any interruptions. The Sabertooth mage had reason to suspect that Janine was not here for a casual conversation.

"Dusk Town..." Janine wheezed out. Victoria looked at her and wondered what she meant. Was Dusk Town coming under attack from the mutants? Or was it too late to save the town and Janine had escaped the slaughter to warn Shadow's Edge of what was coming their way?

"What about it?" Victoria asked Janine. Janine held up a finger and took a few shallow breaths, then stood up straight.

"It's... it's under attack by... by mutants!" Janine finally gasped. Victoria looked at the blond officer, who then looked at her.

"Go. We'll take it from here." He told her. Victoria was not sure if she should go because it might already be too late for Dusk Town. Janine looked at her with urgency. Victoria took a deep breath and decided to go anyway. She followed Janine and rushed by the officers, who had received reinforcements and additional materials to fortify the checkpoint.

-In Dusk Town, two hours later-

Victoria and Janine had arrived in Dusk Town to find most of the town guard busy holding back the mutants while other officers tried to organize a refugee column to Shadow's Edge. Gunshots and shouting filled the air and the citizens who were still alive were streaming towards the road to Shadow's Edge. The town was in danger, but Victoria would do everything she could to save it.

"Janine, what are you doing here? I told you to get to Shadow's Edge and stay there!" A male officer at the town outskirts chastised her. Janine frowned.

"Look, Shadow's Edge isn't the safest place either. They... they've been fighting the mutants too!" Janine answered indignantly. The officer's face showed concern as he turned to Victoria.

"Is that true?" He asked her.

"Yes. I helped fight them." Victoria replied truthfully. He frowned at her.

"Shadow's Edge has it under control for now. They've called in more of their town guard to man the checkpoints, so the people of Dusk Town should be safe there." Victoria tried to reassure the town guardsman. He did not look like he was buying it, but then he sighed. It did not seem like he had a whole lot of choice.

"We think that they're coming from Umbra Point, but we can't spare anyone to go investigate. The woods leading to Umbra Point are crawling with mutants." The officer warned her. Hearing that gave Victoria an idea. A risky idea, but one that would help save the people of Dusk Town.

"What if I went through the woods to check out Umbra Point?" Victoria asked the officer. He narrowed his eyes at her as if he could not believe what he had just heard.

"You'd be taking your life into your own hands, kid. But if you could distract those mutants, that'd give us some time to get the citizens to safety. It'd also help us spare some officers to escort the refugees." He said to her with a tone of hope. Victoria did not even need to think about her answer. She readily agreed to the risky plan.

"I'll do it. I'll try to draw the mutants to me while you guys save Dusk Town." Victoria agreed. The officer gave a sigh of relief.

"Thanks, kid. The outskirts are that way. If you can help those officers out, it'd really help us." He said to her while pointing to a barricade a short distance away. The brunette could hear the gunshots and shouting as the officers battled the menace to try and save their town from destruction. Victoria rushed to the barricade while Janine hung back with the officer.

-At the barricade-

Victoria summoned her Light Machine Gun and took an empty position at the barricade. She noticed that the dozen officers manning the sandbag barricade had been fighting for quite awhile because there were countless empty shell casings of pistol ammo and empty shotgun shells littering the ground at their feet. There were also empty ammo boxes for both weapons that had been thrown off to the side and a few half-empty boxes sitting at the feet of the officers.

"Whoever you are, you're just in time. The next group's coming in fast!" A female officer kneeling to Victoria's left told her. She had blonde hair tied back in a ponytail and a bloody gash from fingernails on her right forearm. Victoria heard moaning coming from the woods just ahead and readied her weapon by unfolding the bipod to give her weapon some stability for firing from a stationary position. She would not be leaving Dusk Town until the current wave of mutants had been eliminated.

Victoria had finished setting up her weapon and was awaiting the attack when she heard more loud moaning followed by bellows of fury sounding in the distance. Judging from the number of "voices" coming from the woods, she had a feeling that this was going to be a tough and protracted fight. The officers were busy reloading their weapons and setting up new boxes of ammo so that they would be within easy reach. She was not sure if the mutants would give them time to reload, but she did not say that. The officers were ready to fight for Dusk Town and that was all that mattered.

They would need that bravery for the challenge ahead. Over two dozen mutants shambled down the trail as more officers rushed to the barricade to shore up the town's defense. Victoria aimed at the head of a mutant and waited for the command to open fire. The battle for Dusk Town was about to start again.

[Word Count: 1,070]
[Total Word Count: 4,482/10,000]

Victoria held her aim on the head of an advancing mutant and waited for the command to fire. She took a deep breath because this was the calm before the storm. Soon the air would be filled with the sound of gunfire and the world would consist of only what was in front of her. The small army of mutants was halfway to the barricade when the order to fire was finally given.

"FIRE!" A male voice shouted the long-awaited command. Victoria and the officers opened up with their weapons. Victoria's Five-Round Burst hit her target in the head and brought it down. The head of the mutant next to hers burst open like a watermelon when a well-aimed shotgun blast struck home. Another went down with multiple pistol wounds to the chest and head. Submachine guns began rattling as mutants on the edges of the group were fired upon and puffs of blood rose from their chests.

She aimed at the head of another mutant and killed it with a Five-Round Burst. There were still twenty mutants left and they were moving towards the barricade as fast as they could go. She heard the officers next to her express the concern that the firepower they had brought to the table would not be enough to repel the attack. One even wished that they had a grenade launcher or at least some hand grenades to throw at the attackers. Victoria winced when she heard that remark.

The mage had access to both weapons, but she did not want to employ them without police say-so. Even then the mere knowledge that she could use them at will would likely mark her as a potential threat to the police. Victoria decided to fight this threat with normal firepower... well, as normal as a teenager who wielded a Light Machine Gun could get. As it stood the weapon was doing nicely. The weapon's rate of fire was murderous to the mutants and its bipod steadied her aim, which allowed her to use its firepower more effectively than she could by aiming from the shoulder like she normally did.

Two more mutants went down in a hail of gunfire, leaving eighteen more left to close in on the barricade. The officers began to focus down individual targets and managed to kill three more before the mutants could reach them. However, there were just too many to contain and they were advancing too fast to stop them all.

"FALL BACK!" A male officer ordered. Victoria and the other officers fell back moments before the mutants reached the barricade and began knocking the sandbags over. The mutants were slowed down enough for a quartet of officers armed with submachine guns to turn around and begin shooting at the abominations. Victoria joined them and the quintet focused down mutants that had already gotten clear of the first barricade.

Victoria killed one with a Five-Round Burst to the head and made it fall over the sandbags and onto the pavement. The officers killed another by concentrating on its chest until it died from too many gunshot wounds to count. Victoria killed another by firing into its chest until it finally collapsed and bled onto the pavement. The order to fall back was repeated and Victoria retreated with the other officers to a hastily erected secondary defensive line made of sandbags piled knee-high. Hopefully this line would hold... it would have to hold because the citizens of Dusk Town needed more time to get out of town.

Victoria jumped over the sandbags and landed on her feet, then turned around and aimed at a mutant still struggling to surmount the sandbags composing the first barricade. She brought it down with a sustained burst to the chest that made it flail and pitch forward dramatically, falling onto the pavement while a fellow mutant used its body as a bridge to get back to level ground. Victoria brought that one down with a Five-Round Burst that made its head snap back before it fell backwards onto the ground. There were thirteen mutants still on their feet and they were starting to make their way to the second line.

Her Light Machine Gun had overheated and needed to cool down, so Victoria unfolded its bipod and set it on the ground in front of her, then readied a Derringer spell. She aimed and fired it at the head of a mutant but only succeeded in hitting its chest and causing it mild discomfort. She then put both hands together and aimed a Hand Cannon spell at its head. She fired and succeeded in punching a hole in its forehead, bringing it down when it was halfway to the second line of defense. Its companions did not notice its demise and kept surging forward.

The Light Machine Gun was still not ready for use, so Victoria called out her Submachine Gun and took aim at the nearest target. She opened fire and only annoyed the mutant with the burst that hit it in the chest. It glared at her with its one good eye before rushing towards her with murder on its mind and its hands raised. It did not get a chance to fulfill its ambition because a shotgun blast tore off the still-human part of its face and downed it for good.

Victoria aimed and fired at another mutant but only annoyed it with shots to the chest like she had done with its predecessor. It growled in pain and sprinted towards her to exact revenge but was stopped with a burst of fire to the head from a more powerful submachine gun held by an officer. Victoria tried one last time to kill a mutant with her weapon and aimed for its head before firing off an Empty The Magazine. This time she killed one after eleven bullets hit it in the head and brought it down; its momentum carried it forward and it pitched to the pavement, its body skidding a few inches before coming to a halt.

The Shadow's Edge officers were right when they claimed that the mutants were tough. However, the Dusk Town officers were starting to get a handle on the situation as more of them arrived and brought more firepower to the table. Only eight of the mutants remained, but they were closing in fast and Victoria's Light Machine Gun was still not ready to use again. Thankfully her Submachine Gun was, so the brunette was not entirely defenseless against the oncoming horde.

[Word Count: 1,102]
[Total Word Count: 5,584/10,000]

Victoria braced herself for the onslaught of the last eight mutants. No new arrivals had been spotted yet, but that did not mean that more would not show up after this group had been eliminated. Once this wave had been cleared she needed to start making progress to Umbra Point to clear out the reported place that the mutants were swarming in from. She needed to get rid of the abominations in this wave before she could worry about the mutants at Umbra Point.

She brought up her Submachine Gun and watched as the head of one of the mutants exploded from a shotgun blast. Another went down from concentrated pistol fire; its head and neck were riddled with more pistol rounds than she could count. A third was perforated with submachine gun fire to its chest and neck. Five more survived to close in with the officers and the mage: Victoria was ready for them with her own Submachine Gun.

Victoria first jammed her Submachine Gun against the head of a mutant who had lunged for her, then used Empty The Magazine to fire twenty rounds into its face at once. The empty weapon was dropped about the same time the dead mutant hit the ground. She then brought out her Trench Knife to stab another mutant in the right temple, receiving two nasty gashes across her right forearm as it lashed out at her before the fatal impact. Victoria ignored the pain and fired a Derringer at a third mutant trying to grapple a young male officer with shaky hands desperately trying to reload his shotgun. The Derringer shot hit the mutant's shoulder and it spun to face its tormentor, completely ignoring the officer and focusing on Victoria. The brunette stepped back to reduce the possibility of harming the policeman if her Hand Cannon shot punched through the target. She then brought up both of her hands and fired the Hand Cannon, punching cleanly through its forehead and dropping it to the pavement.

The last two mutants had clawed four officers across the arms and chest and were now coming after her, but the Sabertooth mage was still able to fight. She reached for her Light Machine Gun and grabbed it, ducking under the grabbing hands of one mutant who tried to grab her from behind. Victoria stood up and hit it across the face with her weapon, knocking it flat onto its back. She then crouched down and began slugging it in the face with the butt of her weapon, hitting it multiple times until it finally stopped moving. She had just finished that mutant when the last one grabbed her from behind and pulled her down by the collar of her shirt, then began stomping her with its feet.

Victoria took a stomp to the armor and three stomps to the face before a shotgun blast ended its life. The headless abomination fell to the ground in defeat and the dazed brunette was helped to her feet by two police officers. She stood up and stood in place until her vision refocused and she was able to see straight. She spotted the four wounded officers and looked them over to determine the extend of their wounds.

One of them, a young female, only had superficial scratches that were not urgent. The next two officers, both young men, had moderate wounds that would require attention. The last officer, a middle-aged man propped against a brick wall, was bleeding profusely and would need immediate care if he was to survive. Victoria would treat the seriously wounded officer first because the others could stand under their own power while he could not.

The brunette dispelled her weapons, then closed her eyes and focused healing magic into her hands. She began to glow gold as she put more of her magic power into the Field Hospital spell in order to give the man the best chance at survival she could give him. Once the spell was ready she cast the golden sphere at the man. His wounds began to close up within seconds and he looked to be stable.

"I'd get him to the hospital as soon as possible." Victoria suggested. Two male officers obliged and began to help the man to his feet, upon which they gently helped him walk towards more substantial medical care. She turned to the three less severely wounded officers, focused healing magic into her right hand, then put more magic into the spell to boost its healing power. Victoria then cast a Healing Wave spell that soon closed up the wounds of the three remaining officers.

Victoria breathed a sigh of relief and finally turned to healing herself with a Medical Bag spell. The wound on her right forearm closed up in a matter of seconds and left only dried blood to mark its presence. The dried blood could be cleaned off later. Right now she needed to get going and head to Umbra Point before more mutants showed up to try and break into Dusk Town. If she were lucky she could catch them in the woods and kill them before they reached the village.

The Sabertooth mage had left the safety of the barricade and had taken about eight steps when one of the officers called to her. Victoria stopped in place and turned around to face the one who had spoken to her.

"Are you going to Umbra Point to hunt the rest of them?" A young officer asked her.

"I'm going to Umbra Point. Someone's gotta stop them before they reach this town." She confirmed. The officer looked like he wanted to stop her but thought better of it. Instead he spoke to her about the danger of heading to Umbra Point.

"Those things are everywhere. I don't know if they reproduce or if a whole lot of those freaks were made in a lab and some got loose, but there's a lot of them at the point. Good luck, kid." The officer wished Victoria. The brunette was silent because the officer was so right about the origin of the mutants that it was painful. A lot of them had been made in a lab, but she did not know if some had gotten away before her previous adventure and her meeting with Franklin Kerwes, the father of the scientist behind the creation of the mutants. Now it was her job to clean up his son's mess and ensure the safety of Shadow Island and its communities.

"Thanks. I'll do everything I can to stop them." She assured the officer before turning around and walking down the path towards Umbra Point. She had a job to do and not a whole lot of time to do it in. Another wave of flesh-eating mutants could be heading for Dusk Town at any moment.

[Word Count: 1,154]
[Total Word Count: 6,738/10,000]

-On the trail to Umbra Point-

Victoria walked through the woods alone to find and kill any mutants lurking in the forest before they could reach Dusk Town and catch the inhabitants in the process of evacuating to safety. She had been down this path before, but she was still nervous because now she was on their turf. They could hide in the brush and wait for her to pass before emerging as a giant group of grabbing hands and gnawing mouths that was too much for her to handle alone. Victoria shoved that thought out of her mind and continued to move forward because people were counting on her.

Victoria brought out her Light Machine Gun because it offered the perfect balance of range and firepower. It could also attract other mutants with the noise, making them come to her instead of her having to hunt them. However, she might attract more of them than she could handle, so she would have to be careful when employing the weapon. As she walked the path to Umbra Point she noticed something, or rather a lack of something.

There was no ambient noise.

Everything was dead quiet. There were no birds, no mutants, no territorial predatory animals trying to warn her away or attack her. Victoria did not like this at all.

She looked around for any signs of life or of the mutants having caught a victim. She did not spot anything until she came across a thin blood trail that led into a clump of bushes that were also sprinkled with blood. Victoria might regret taking a look, but her curiosity was piqued. She slowly tiptoed over to the bushes and used her left hand to gently move the bushes aside... she was right to regret taking a look.

Hidden behind the bushes was a human body with its head ripped off and a puddle of dried blood pooled underneath it. It was a male with a white tank top stained red from blood and floral shorts that resembled swim trunks. On its feet were red tennis shoes that looked like Victoria's own white tennis shoes.

On its back was a bloody brown backpack with shoulder straps that were hanging on by a literal thread. Scratches were all over the legs and arms, which led the brunette to imagine what had happened to the hapless man. She suspected that he had been dragged into the brush by his backpack and killed by mutants. No animal would go to the effort of tearing off a human head when they could just go for the throat instead.

Victoria made a mental note of what she had discovered and where it was; when she came back from cleaning up Umbra Point she would report the site of the body to island authorities so that it could be reclaimed and taken home for a proper burial. She turned to face the road and continued walking when she heard someone running in her direction. The brunette spun around and faced the source of the noise with her weapon and heard a scream followed by someone dropping to the ground. Victoria looked towards the source and found that Janine was the one who was running towards her.

"Um... sorry about that." Victoria meekly apologized to the frightened youth. Janine was covering her head with her hands and slowly raised her head when she finally realized that she was not going to catch lead poisoning from the Sabertooth mage. The dark-haired girl stood up and carefully dusted off her green tank top and blue jean short shorts before slowly approaching Victoria.

"I shouldn't have run up on you like that in mutant territory. I kinda had it coming." Janine accepted the apology with surprising grace considering what could have happened to her had Victoria not recognized her in time. No one got hurt and the girl lived to see another day. Or she would have had she not elected to follow Victoria into the woods. Janine must have had something important to tell the mage for her to come out this far.

"Anyway, I'm not out here for a... social call." Janine huffed as she struggled to catch her breath. Victoria wondered why Janine had come all the way out here.

"I'm... I'm here to tell you something. Shadow's Edge is... is safe. The police are... they're sweeping the town for mutants and killing them." Janine informed Victoria in between gasps for air. Victoria was glad to hear that Shadow's Edge was being made safe by the town guard. She was also glad to hear that the citizens of Dusk Town fleeing from Shadow's Edge would also have a safe place to flee to. However, she would have to reach Umbra Point in order to save the island once and for all. She had defended two villages and had saved the lives of five officers, so Victoria was not going to quit until the job was done.

"OK, thanks. I'm gonna press ahead to Umbra Point and put a stop to the mutants before any more can reach the villages." Victoria informed Janine of her intent. Janine raised a finger into the air.

"The campground was cleared of RVs and tents since the last time you were here, so you don't have anywhere to hide. Neither do the mutants. You might wanna think about using that cave for cover, but don't get trapped in there." Janine informed her before making a suggestion for somewhere Victoria could use for cover. Victoria did not have the heart to tell her that the cave was the source of the mutants that the Sabertooth mage and the town guard had been fighting. Still, the idea was not without merit. She could take refuge in there and use it for protection since Franklin Kerwes had killed the mutants in storage that were in the bunker's infirmary. Without those mutants waiting to be released she only had to fight the mutants that were roaming Umbra Point and once they were gone the threat to Shadow Island should be finished.

"Since the campground's so flat, I might end up using the cave for cover. Thanks." Victoria thanked Janine for the suggestion. Janine gave a thumbs-up. The pair faced the path heading towards Umbra Point and heard moaning noises. More mutants were coming out to play.

[Word Count: 1,078]
[Total Word Count: 7,816/10,000]

Victoria was glad to hear that there were no gas tanks to catch fire if the worst happened and she found herself near the point of being overwhelmed. If the worst happened Victoria might have to finally use her explosive spells and weapons despite what the Shadow Island authorities thought of it. If push came to shove she would do what it took to end the threat posed by the mutants. It would not be pleasant and it was not the path that she wanted to take, but if it had to be done she would do it. She had already taken unpleasant action that had cost her a lot before, so what was she afraid of?

Victoria had already lost part of her soul when she gave a mercy kill to all 108 villagers of the village that had been coated in Phaz due to the sinister machinations of Kloria's sister Nessa Xicor. That act haunted her and would continue to haunt her for a long time. Still, Victoria did not dwell too much on it because she did the best thing possible in an unpleasant situation where no one was going to get out unscathed. To let the people die "naturally" from Phaz exposure would be criminal and unethical. Someone had to do it and that person was Victoria.

At least that was what she kept telling herself.

Victoria saw a solitary mutant lurching towards her and did what she was hired to do. She raised her Light Machine Gun and ended the threat with a Five-Round Burst to the head. The mutant fell to the earth and stained it crimson with the blood pouring from its head. Janine, who had taken shelter behind Victoria's armored form, marveled at the brunette's marksmanship.

"Thanks. That was too close for comfort." Janine thanked Victoria.

"No problem." Victoria replied. Now that she was used to the mutants and how they moved, they were easily taken care of. Unless they came in large numbers they were little more than animated clay pigeons waiting for her to shoot them and put them out of their misery. They were only dangerous if they got close enough to use their claws.

"Umbra Point's probably crawling with those things. I don't know if you can handle them alone." Janine said to Victoria. The mage shrugged her shoulders.

"The town guard's busy trying to keep both villages safe, so they can't send anyone out to help me. I'm on my own for this one." Victoria replied to her companion. Janine looked concerned for a moment, then made a suggestion.

"If you know any magic that's good at crowd control, I'd suggest you use it. Since all the campers and tents and RVs have been moved, there's no need to worry about property damage. It's grass. It'll grow back." Janine suggested. Victoria understood what she was getting at, but the situation was not too far gone to justify the use of her Grenade Launcher. The woods around the campsite were flammable and all it would take to make them burn was one misplaced high-explosive blast. Once one tree caught the rest would catch fire in short order and cause a major disaster on Shadow Island, a disaster far worse than a mutant infestation.

"If I have to, I will." Victoria grimly replied. She did not want to run the risk of causing a forest fire unless it was unavoidable. There was a lot more at stake here than just her reputation or getting paid for a job. Victoria did not live here; Janine, Rayla, and the other people of Shadow Island did. Destroying their homes in an avoidable forest fire and walking away from it all after getting paid would be unconscionable.

"OK. I'll let you handle it then. I'm not a fighter, so I'll go back to Shadow's Edge. Good luck!" Janine wished her before sprinting towards Dusk Town and towards safety. Victoria was alone again, but that was fine by her. When by herself she did not have to worry about bystanders getting caught in the crossfire or getting hurt by the enemy.

Victoria turned around to make sure that Janine had at least left the immediate area, then turned around and continued the trek to Umbra point, walking past the body of the mutant she had killed earlier. There were plenty more where he came from and she was about to confront them to end the threat to the island.

-Umbra Point-

After at least another forty-five minutes of brisk walking Victoria arrived at the Umbra Point campground to find it packed with mutants who occupied a large area on the edge of the forest that marked the northern boundary of the campsite. The brunette took a deep breath to prepare for the endeavor that was looming ahead of her. An eyeball count tallied at least three dozen mutants that had to be dealt with. With those kind of numbers arrayed against her Victoria might have to break out the high explosive spells and weapons just to stand a chance.

Thinking about that gave the brunette an idea. She could use her Grenade spell since it relied more on shrapnel than high explosive to deal damage to her adversaries. While she did not want one rolling into the forest since the blast might trigger a fire if it landed in the wrong place, the short grass of the campsite, when combined with the aforementioned properties of the Grenade spell, would allow her to use the spell with little fear of causing a fire. She would still have to aim carefully, but she could use them a little more liberally than she could her Grenade Launcher.

Victoria heard the signature moan of the abominations as a roving mutant walking on the campsite with a severed human arm in its right hand spotted her and sounded the alarm. Victoria silenced it with a Five-Round Burst to the head and turned to face the oncoming horde, which came thundering towards her. She was the only human for miles around, so she knew full well what they wanted. She was going to be the main dish at their banquet. Unfortunately for them, they were coming after a mage who had a lot of firepower and knew how to use it.

[Word Count: 1,072]
[Total Word Count: 8,888/10,000]

Victoria raised her weapon and fired at the first mutant she saw. A Five-Round Burst to the head dropped it in mid-run and its corpse tripped a fellow who sprawled onto the ground, but there were still thirty-four of them left to deal with before the threat was over. Victoria decided to try using a Grenade spell to thin out their numbers. She formed the dark green sphere in her left hand and mentally counted to two before throwing it at them. She lobbed the dark green sphere and watched it burst in mid-air... she had waited too long to throw it and had only succeeded in pissing off a few mutants who had taken minor shrapnel wounds but were otherwise unharmed.

The brunette was undeterred and soon fashioned another Grenade sphere to lob at them, but this time threw it at the count of one. It rolled to the feet of a charging mutant and went off, doing considerable damage to its legs, which were riddled with shrapnel. It fell onto its torso and after a brief moment of thrashing about started to use its arms to crawl towards her while its friends continued to sprint towards her. Victoria saw that the Grenade could harm them but was just too weak to hurt more than one in a meaningful way.

She started using her Light Machine Gun again because she was hesitant to switch to the Grenade Launcher, which certainly had more punch than a fragmentation grenade due to its high explosive ammunition. She managed to kill two more mutants with Five-Round Bursts to the head, but she could only attack one at a time and she needed to start hitting more than one mutant per attack before she was overwhelmed.

Victoria knew what had to be done for her to survive this and save the island. She had to bring out the Grenade Launcher. No other weapon would do the job. She dispelled the Light Machine Gun and brought out her Grenade Launcher. She felt the heft of the weapon in her hands, then raised it to her shoulder, took aim, and fired a high explosive round that landed at the feet of a closely packed group of five mutants. Seconds later it went off in a blast of yellow and orange flame, harming them and two more mutants off to the side.

Victoria recoiled when she saw the effects of her weapon on the enemy. Most of the mutants caught in the blast radius were missing their legs. A few were missing at least one arm. All of them were bleeding profusely from their wounds and trying to move towards her with mixed levels of success. It was both a horrifying and astounding sight with a lot of implications for the mage.

She snapped out of the introspection and turned the weapon on the other mutants who were still coming after her. Victoria fired another round that landed at the feet of another cluster of six mutants and shortly blew it to literal pieces while badly harming three more on the edge of the blast. The mutant attack was starting to fall apart, but there were still over two dozen mutants remaining after they crossed the halfway point.

Victoria jogged back a short distance and aimed again, then fired another grenade that accidentally bounced on a small incline and flew up to chest level instead of landing at their feet. The grenade detonated in mid-air and killed eight mutants instantly with a blast that rendered them into unrecognizable mix-and-match piles of body parts. The less fortunate mutants caught on the edge of the blast were bleeding from the ears and had suffered various degrees of bodily harm.

Victoria continued to fire grenades and thin out the horde until only five were left. The rest were either dead or so badly mangled that they would soon die. Victoria backed up again, carefully aimed the grenade to avoid it bouncing off of an incline and either returning to her or go sailing off into the forest, then fired it and watched it land at their feet. A second later it went off and stopped the mutant attack in its tracks.

The slightly deafened mage stood back and studied the aftermath of what her weapon could do against unarmored enemies bunched together. There were a few medium-sized craters blasted into the earth and blood and body parts everywhere. Surviving mutants were crawling around with bleeding ears and wounded bodies in an attempt to get to her. Victoria put away the grenade launcher and brought out her Light Machine Gun for cleanup duties.

Victoria walked towards a mutant who was missing both of his legs and was crawling towards her while groaning in what sounded like a combination of anger and pain. She aimed down at its head and fired a Five-Round Burst that ended its suffering. Victoria repeated the process on the surviving mutants until all of them were dead for real.

-Ten minutes later-

After the unpleasant work was finished, Victoria dispelled her Light Machine Gun and surveyed the scene. All thirty-six mutants in the area were dead and the forest was still intact. The campsite would need some time to recover from the battle, but in time the craters blasted into the earth would heal over and the site would be usable again.

What would take longer to heal were her mental wounds. Victoria saw what her Grenade Launcher could do against flesh and realized the extent of the power she had at her disposal. A few months ago Victoria would have exulted in what she had done and the power she could bring to bear against her enemies. After the Phaz incident and its unpleasant aftermath she felt little joy in what she had done to the mutants and certainly did not cheer for their destruction.

They were victims of A. Kerwes and his endless ambition, ambition that did not care how many lives were used up or destroyed just as long as he got what he wanted. They were undeniably dangerous to her and the people of Shadow Island, but they were victims nonetheless. Victoria kept quiet and walked away from the site of the "battle" to report her success to the town guard and collect her payment from Franklin Kerwes. As it turned out, she did not have to walk far because members of Dusk Town's town guard had gathered near the trail she was going to walk down to head to town.

[Word Count: 1,100]
[Total Word Count: 9,988/10,000]

The town guard surveyed the scene with expressions of horror etched onto their faces. Victoria could not stand to look at them because now they knew what she was fully capable of. She would be branded a potential danger and possibly forbidden to return... if she was lucky. She did not want to think about what might happen if she were truly unlucky.

The brunette waited in silence for their verdict. Would they brand her a potential criminal or would they thank her for her help and send her on her way? She did not know. All she could do was wait and see.

After a tense silence of several minutes a male voice finally spoke to her. Victoria looked towards the source to find that the voice belonged to an older town guard officer with a black monocle on his left eye. He spoke to her in a neutral tone of voice that was neither condemning of what she had done nor forgiving of what was done to end the threat.

"The threat to the island appears to have been ended by your hand. We will keep a watch for mutants for awhile longer, but the threat of a small army descending on our towns should be over. We appreciate what you have done on our behalf." The officer said to her. Victoria kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, one that politely but firmly told her that she would never be welcome here again. She waited in tense silence for the order, but it never came. The brunette would have preferred for him to come out and tell her if she was forbidden to return instead of having the process dragged out with no end in sight.

"Mr. Franklin Kerwes will send payment to you in a day or two. In the meantime, we will begin repairing the damage down to the island by the mutants. It will take time for peace to return to the island, but it will recover." He said to her further. He conveniently omitted to include Point Umbra's campground in the damage; whether that was accidental or intentional was up in the air. Victoria did not need a reminder of what she had done to win the battle because the evidence was scattered right in front of her.

"Thank you for saving the lives of my officers. Without your timely medical care they most likely would have" He said in a warmer tone of voice. Victoria was glad that she had not been exiled, but she was not sure if she was forgiven or if he was just going through pleasantries to put her mind at ease. She did not know and she was too afraid to ask.

"It's no problem. I'm glad that I could help." Victoria kept her comment short and to-the-point. She then turned to walk away when he spoke again.

"Thank you for saving our homes as well. Thanks to you, Shadow's Edge and Dusk Town have a future." He added in the same warm voice in which he had spoken earlier. Maybe Victoria was in the clear and would be able to return here if she wanted. She decided not to press her luck by asking questions and just accept the praise that was given to her.

"I'm glad that I could help." Victoria repeated.

"We won't keep you any longer, Miss Sheridan. Keep in mind that you're always welcome here. Good luck on your future jobs!" He warmly wished her before turning around and getting to work cleaning up the campsite that the brunette had made messy with high explosives and mutant body parts. She did not envy them at all. Part of her felt guilty and wanted to stay and help, but the other part of her figured that she had better get going while the going was good. Victoria opted to follow the other part and left the scene behind to travel back to Shadow's Edge and see if she could get transportation off the island.

-Shadow's Edge, three hours later-

Walking past members of the town guard manning the rebuilt checkpoint, Victoria arrived in Shadow's Edge tired but otherwise unharmed. The caravan of refugees from Dusk Town was starting to disembark for the night; tired men, women, and children began streaming into the town to look for food and water and numerous restaurants were opening to meet the need. Inns were also opening their doors to the refugees. Armed members of the town guard watched the outskirts of town for any more trouble from the mutants.

She had encountered some dead mutants lying on the road into town and a few more mutant corpses on the town outskirts. Empty shell casings for pistols, shotguns, and submachine guns littered the streets and the side of the road, as did some empty pistol and submachine gun magazines. It seemed that the town guard had done well in stopping the mutant menace in her absence. The streets of Shadow's Edge were still deserted, but the air of impending disaster which had marked the town felt like it had been lifted.

The brunette did not stop to see the sights because she wanted to leave the island behind and return to Sabertooth Guild Hall for a break from her ordeal. She was just about to walk into the woods that led to the beach when a familiar face ran up to her. It was Janine, who was none the worse for wear from her brief time accompanying Victoria.

"Hey Vic! I see you made it back all right!" The dark-haired youth said to the mage.

"Yeah. Things got ugly for a moment, but I made it." Victoria said noncommittally. Janine tilted her head to the side and looked at the brunette.

"I take it you had to use... you know...?" Janine asked without mentioning explosives directly. Victoria wordlessly nodded in reply.

"Yeah. Things got ugly and I was in danger of being overrun by over three dozen mutants, so I had to use... them." Victoria continued the conversation by not referring directly to explosives to avoid sparking a panic. Janine's facial expression was neutral.

"Well, I'm glad you made it out all right and that you stopped the mutants. They kept everyone in their homes and that was killing both people's spirits and the local economy. With everyone barricading themselves in their homes, the town's restaurants and stores were suffering. It's safe to say that you saved the island." Janine opined. Victoria just let the girl talk without saying too much unless prompted to respond. She was tired from today's job and just wanted to return to the guild hall.

"I'm glad I could help." Victoria said to Janine. Janine noticed the brunette's exhaustion and made another suggestion.

"Hey, you look like you're ready to drop. The boat to the mainland doesn't arrive until morning and the inns are gonna be full, so why don't you stay at my place for the night?" Janine asked. Victoria briefly weighed her options and decided to take up Janine on the offer.

"Sure." Victoria answered laconically. Janine smiled and started to lead the way.

"Great! It's the least I can do since you saved Shadow's Edge. Now follow me and I'll get everything set up." Janine said. Victoria wordlessly followed her hostess into a residential area patrolled by town guardsmen and a small trickle of people opening the doors to their homes for the first time in what felt like ages. She was glad that the island was now safe for its citizens to walk the streets without fear of being attacked by cannibalistic mutants. She had scored another success for Sabertooth and struck another blow against A. Kerwes and Project Lacedaemon.

[Word Count: 1,320]
[Total Word Count: 11,308/11,000]