The Grey Hunt did not leave the chapel at dawn.
They left before it.
The city beyond its cracked stone walls was still shrouded in a thin, poisonous mist — not from beasts this time, but from burning refineries two districts over. The air tasted like metal and smoke. Somewhere a siren wailed, its echo bouncing off half-collapsed buildings like a dying animal.
Kael watched from the broken archway as Nyx was helped to her feet.
"Easy," Borin muttered, steadying her by the arm.
She smirked weakly. "If I fall, I'm taking you with me."
Borin grinned. "Fair."
Elyra gathered her things silently, staff slung across her back, eyes distant. Every time she blinked too slowly, Kael worried another memory had slipped away.
Cressa stood apart, unsure where to stand, unsure if she was welcome anywhere at all.
Nyx noticed.
"Either you're with us," Nyx said, "or you're not. Pick."
Cressa swallowed. "I'm with you."
Nyx nodded once. "Good. Because if you betray us, I kill you."
Borin winced. "We're really leaning into team bonding, huh?"
Kael didn't smile.
"Move," he said.
They slipped out of the ruined chapel and into the shattered streets.
I — Wanted
The first poster was still wet.
A young courier was tacking it onto a wall when Nyx caught sight of it. She froze mid-step.
"…Kael."
He turned.
There he was.
A rough charcoal sketch, but unmistakable — Kael's eyes, his scar, the faint glow of the Mark beneath his skin exaggerated into something monstrous.
WANTED
UNREGISTERED SEAL ENTITY
DANGEROUS
DO NOT APPROACH
Beneath it were three more.
Nyx.
Borin.
Elyra.
"Grey Hunt — Unlicensed Operatives."
Borin stared. "Well that was fast."
Elyra whispered, "They're afraid of him."
Kael felt something tighten in his chest. "No. They're afraid of losing control."
The courier looked up, confusion dawning as he realized who was standing in front of him.
"Y-you're—"
Nyx grabbed the poster and ripped it down. "You didn't see us."
The boy fled.
Cressa stared at the torn paper in Nyx's hands. "They're turning you into monsters."
Nyx's eyes hardened. "Welcome to the club."
II — No Place Left to Run
They moved fast through alleyways, avoiding main streets where Registry patrols already marched. The world had decided on its villains.
And it had chosen them.
Elyra stopped suddenly, fingers tightening around her staff.
"Something's wrong."
Borin frowned. "That's been true since breakfast."
"No," she whispered. "This is… louder."
Kael felt it too — a pressure in the air, a ripple beneath reality like something pressing its face against glass.
"Breach," Kael said.
Nyx swore. "Already?"
The scream came a second later.
They sprinted.
III — The Children's Market
The old children's market had once been a place of laughter and color.
Now it was chaos.
A mid-rank beast — something like a wolf with too many eyes and a spine of bone — tore through stalls, scattering terrified civilians. Hunters in Registry colors were already fighting it… badly.
"Form up!" a Registry captain shouted.
The beast slammed one hunter through a stone pillar.
Nyx didn't wait.
"Grey Hunt!" she shouted. "On me!"
They charged.
Borin met the creature head-on, hammer cracking against its skull. Elyra's magic bound its legs for a heartbeat. Kael's arrow pierced one of its many eyes, sending it howling.
Cressa hurled a broken spear through its throat.
The beast collapsed in a spray of blood.
Silence followed.
Then the Registry turned.
Weapons raised.
"Kael Thorn," the captain said. "By order of the Hunter Registry, you are under arrest."
Nyx stepped in front of him instantly. "We just saved your people."
The captain's jaw tightened. "You are unlicensed."
Kael's voice was calm. "The beast didn't care."
The captain hesitated — just long enough.
A child ran up to Kael and hugged his leg.
"Thank you," she sobbed.
The captain's face twisted.
"Get out of here," he muttered.
Nyx grabbed Kael's arm. "Move."
They vanished into the streets before the captain could change his mind.
IV — The Grey Hunt
They regrouped in an abandoned transit tunnel.
Nyx leaned against the wall, breathing hard. "So that's it. We save people and get hunted for it."
Borin chuckled darkly. "Always wanted to be a rebel."
Elyra looked at Kael. "You can't keep doing this."
Kael met her eyes. "I can't stop."
Cressa stepped forward. "Renn wants you dead."
Kael nodded. "I know."
"Not because you're strong," she said. "Because you're a boundary. He can't fully cross while you exist."
Nyx's eyes flashed. "Good."
Borin grunted. "So what's the plan?"
Kael looked at them — at Nyx bleeding but standing, Borin bruised but unbroken, Elyra fading but still fighting, Cressa broken but trying.
"We become what the world needs," he said. "Not what it allows."
Nyx smiled fiercely. "Fugitives, then."
Kael nodded. "Hunters without chains."
Above them, the world burned.
And the Grey Hunt went to war.
The city of Redfall had once been famous for its lights.
Before the beasts came, its skyline glowed every night—lantern towers, crystal streets, and skybridges lit by humming glyphs that never slept. Merchants boasted you could read a book in the streets at midnight.
Now Redfall was dark.
Not empty.
Dark.
Windows were shuttered. Streetlamps were shattered or left unlit. Fires burned only in hidden courtyards and underground rooms where people whispered instead of spoke.
The Grey Hunt moved through this shadowed city like a rumor.
Kael felt them before he saw them—the watchers. Not beasts. People. Eyes in doorways. Silent figures slipping away when noticed.
"They're tracking us," Borin muttered.
Nyx shook her head. "They're waiting."
"For what?" Cressa asked.
"For permission," Nyx replied.
They reached a ruined clock tower at the heart of the old trade quarter. The door was boarded over, but three faint chalk marks had been scratched into the wood.
Elyra stopped.
"That symbol… it's a hunter signal."
Kael nodded. "Not Registry."
Nyx smirked. "The kind that doesn't want to get caught."
Kael knocked twice, paused, then once more.
The boards shifted.
A voice whispered, "Grey Hunt?"
Nyx raised an eyebrow. "Word travels."
The door opened just enough for a single eye to peer out.
"Kael Thorn?" the voice asked.
Kael stepped forward.
The door swung wide.
Inside, a dozen hunters waited.
Some wore broken armor. Some had makeshift weapons. Some bore fresh wounds. But all of them had one thing in common—
They were afraid.
And angry.
A tall woman with a scar down her cheek stepped forward. "My name's Lira Vale. My guild was dissolved last night."
A grizzled man snorted. "Mine too."
"They took our licenses," another said bitterly. "Told us to stand down while beasts eat our families."
Nyx folded her arms. "So you found us."
Lira nodded. "You don't answer to them."
Kael's voice was quiet. "We answer to people."
Silence fell.
Then Lira knelt.
One by one, the others followed.
Borin whispered, "This is getting weird."
Kael swallowed. "Get up."
Lira didn't. "They call you a monster."
Kael's jaw tightened.
"We call you a line."
Kael felt the Mark stir.
"I won't be your king," he said.
Lira met his eyes. "Then be our shield."
I — The Underground
Within hours, the Grey Hunt became something else.
Messengers moved through the city carrying whispers of a new network — hunters without chains, moving through backstreets and tunnels, answering not to the Registry but to the cries of those still trapped.
Nyx coordinated routes. Borin trained anyone willing to hold a weapon. Elyra set wards that made hidden shelters invisible to beasts.
Cressa worked tirelessly, eyes hollow but determined.
"I helped break this," she told Kael. "I'll help fix it."
Kael nodded.
Far away, Renn felt it.
A stirring.
Resistance.
His lips curled.
II — The Legend Grows
By nightfall, three breaches had been sealed.
Four families had been saved.
And one entire district had been evacuated under cover of darkness.
The world didn't know their names.
But it knew their work.
Whispers spread:
"The Grey Hunt is still out there."
"They saved my brother."
"They came when no one else would."
Nyx listened to it all with a half-smile.
"Guess we're folk heroes now."
Borin snorted. "I always wanted to be infamous."
Elyra closed her eyes, tired. "Just don't let it become a myth. Myths get twisted."
Kael stared out over the ruined city.
"Let them twist," he said. "We'll keep saving."
III — Renn's Smile
In a palace of bone and shadow carved from a conquered city, Renn Varn watched the world through shimmering rifts.
"The Seal is gathering followers," he murmured.
A massive mid-rank beast knelt at his side.
Renn rested a hand on its skull.
"Good," he whispered. "Heroes need villains."
He smiled wider.
"And I am becoming magnificent."