On this moonless weekend night, a thick fog spread across the forest floor, the air thick with the pungent smell of damp earth and rotting leaves. The darkness of the sky seemed eternal, swallowing all hope of dawn. Not even a branch dared to break, as if the trees themselves were holding their breath in anticipation. The only sounds that could be heard were the crunching of footsteps on the dry grass and the rustling of leaves from the distant wind.

In this atmosphere of palpable fear, every movement was cautious, as if invisible predators or ghostly entities were lurking in the darkness waiting for the unfortunate prey to pass through their territory.

Surprisingly, in the eerie silence, a daring female hunter, unafraid of the stories of a series of mysterious disappearances, ventured into the heart of the haunted forest. Was she driven by a noble mission to help the missing people, or was her purpose to find the the sinners lurking around here? Probably both.

Striding forward, she discovered the silhouettes of two small tents and a pile of extinguished firewood. Ayas's back leaned against a nearby tree, and based on the surrounding scenery, she deduced that there might be someone camping here.

Just as she was about to leave, her intuition told her that this was not simply a normal camping trip.

Ayas began to doubt, entered a state of invisibility, went to the tent to check, and found that there was only a brown bag, inside which contained pure white "candy powder" packages. Based on life experience, the owner of this bag was a drug addict, or more precisely, an illegal transaction of despicable drug dealers.

"Hey Drake! I told you to stay here and keep watch, why didn't you listen??"

In response to that question was a mocking voice: "Calm down Marcus, I guarantee you no one would dare to set foot in this forest that has been "inflated" to such a terrifying level! Hahaha!"

"Hah, I know! Don't be so subjective! If you're careless, you'll be caught by the police and you'll definitely be imprisoned for drug smuggling, you idiot!"

The rude and gruff words entered the hearing, proving that the owner of this bag had returned. So Ayas quickly returned the white powder packets to their original positions, left invisibility state, and returned to hiding place to wait. In the darkness, the two figures of the owners of those voices gradually appeared.

Oh? These are two white men. One was of average height, slightly skinny, with short curly auburn hair and blue eyes. His clothes were very simple, consisting of a dark red hooded jacket, jeans and a pair of brown leather shoes.
The other had messy black hair, brown eyes, a fierce face and a goatee. He looked muscular and was a head taller than the auburn haired guy.

The two men walked over and sat down near the pile of firewood, still talking to each other without knowing that their hideout had been searched while they were away, and that person was silently observing their movements.

After listening to the discussion between the two men, Ayas rubbed chin with pleasure as sne realized the situation she was in. According to the words that came out of their mouths, the auburn haired man was named Drake, and the black haired man was named Marcus, they were drug smugglers trying to deliver the goods to consumers.

"Damn it! I really need to pee, you sit here and wait for me" _ Marcus frowned, pointing at Drake to sit here and wait for him. Hearing that, Drake just grinned, nodded as if in agreement without saying anything. Seeing that, Marcus immediately stood up and left to find a place to relieve himself.

Ayas realized that the opportunity had come, she continued to use her superpower, sat up and followed his direction.
Thought that the one who would kill Marcus would be her. Unexpectedly, after only a few more steps, she suddenly heard a scream echoing in the quiet night...

"AHHHHHHHHH!"

It must be admitted that this sound was so tragic that a person with a cool head would be stunned for a few seconds, then calm down, and immediately run towards the source of the deadly sound. As got closer, a strong smell of blood rushed into nose, couldn't help but feel a kind of unpleasant feeling!

Arriving at the scene, witnessed with own eyes the horrifying crime that had just happened, with the image of a corpse lying face down under a tree. Turning off invisibility ability and squatting down to examine it clearly, she confirmed that this corpse was indeed Marcus. There were also many deep scratches on the face and throat on the corpse, so deep that she almost didn't recognize him.

Marcus was brutally killed by a bear?

However, there were other strange scratches on the tree trunks. Scratches from bears or other clawed animals on trees often leave tassels around. The cut looked like a sharp metal object, smoother, without the tassel.

The conclusion was that he had been murdered by someone!

Well, the killer must have had extraordinary strength, and was a very skilled parkour practitioner.

Thinking of this, Ayas coldly turned around and it took a while to return to Drake's place, but he was nowhere to be seen. So she thought that he must have gone to find Marcus or been killed. Regardless, she had to get out of here as soon as possible because another danger was likely to be approaching.

The wind howled and rustled the leaves with each sound as her figure rushed through the dark forest, passing through the tall, twisted trees, branches reaching out like claws. She felt like she was being watched by invisible eyes.

If only there was a shortcut to leave the forest, it would be less miserable.
_____________________

In another place...

"I heard Rouge has hunted two more!" _ The man was leaning against the tree with his arms crossed, laughing happily with the woman who was handling the two corpses.

Hearing the man praising, the woman's eyes lit up with sarcasm. "But I see she's still looking for the remaining prey."

The man didn't pay any attention to her mocking tone, his eyes opened, revealing a look of surprise and excitement: "Is that so? Maybe I should help Rouge!"

However, before he could take a step forward, the woman sternly ordered: "Stop! I have a job for you!"

"I've already removed all the organs from the corpses, quickly sell them on the black market to earn more money"

"Okay Kate, I'm leaving!"

The man took the box, happily leaving the forest.
________________________

Back to the present..

At this time, while on his way out of the forest, Ayas is ambushed by a group of strangers. With her keen senses, she dodged the sudden attacks of these strangers.

Unsuccessful sneak attack, three strangers including 2 women, 1 male immediately went forward and faced her.

The first was a woman with dark brown hair, wearing a tattered dark red hoodie, dirty beige cargo pants, and a pair of bloody claw gloves.
The next person is also a woman with a somewhat wild appearance, wearing a dirty white hoodie - black hair with a bit of dust.  And the last one was a tall, strong man with shaggy black hair, carrying a metal-plated baseball bat on his back. His outfit consists of a burnt orange and beige sweater, a dark brown vest covering his torso, regular fitted jeans, and a dirty, scratched mask and a pair of broken goggles covering the eye-holes of the mask.

What they all have in common is that they all wear grotesque masks on their faces, and their clothes and weapons are all covered with "red" liquid. One glance is enough to know that these are dangerous and scary murderers!

After standing for a while analyzing them one by one, Ayas cautiously backed away, hastily pulling out a dagger from his waist. They said nothing but prepared to attack Ayas with the sole purpose of taking her poor life.

When the small leaf on the branch touched the ground, the man was the first to charge!

The man lunged towards Ayas with incredible speed, fists clenched into mushrooms and delivered a direct punch that hit Ayas in the chest causing her to jump back to create some distance.

But he couldn't give the opponent a chance to protest, so he kept swinging his fist at her.

When she found out he revealed a loophole. Ayas blocked the blow with one hand, she lowered her other hand slightly, then suddenly pushed hard on the man's chin. Not stopping there, Ayas lifted his right foot to kick him in the groin, then threw another punch that sent him flying.

This move is very useful, no matter how strong the man is, he can't stand when she kicks his balls. At least it was enough for him to stay on the ground temporarily without being able to continue fighting her.

While Ayas let her guard down, a young female voice spoke up: "Don't look up.. Or you'll regret it!"

As soon as the voice fell, the brown-haired female killer jumped from the tree branch and raised her claws to attack Ayas.

But who would have thought that Ayas had good reflexes!

In an instant, Ayas grabbed the brown haired female killer by the hand and threw her whole body into the thorn bush. But even though she was stabbed by a few thorn branches, this is nothing compared to this woman. And she quickly stood up, snarling like a wild animal moving at the speed of light, reaching for the handle and hitting Ayas' right arm.

Ayas suppressed the pain to one side, grabbed her arms and spun them around before throwing. This throw sent her flying a few meters, her body rubbing her body on the dry ground, and then rolling around a few more times.

From the perspective of the brown-haired female killer's accomplice.

Seeing his comrades in danger, the man suddenly woke up from his misery, he pulled a baseball bat from his back and angrily rushed to Ayas. So Ayas leaned to the side at the man's frantic attack.

At the same time, the black-haired female killer that Ayas judged to be wild looking. From the very beginning of the war, she naturally hid in a corner despite her two colleagues' efforts to exterminate the mouse that was encroaching on the boss's territory.

In an instant, the black-haired female killer moved behind Ayas.

The black-haired female killer approached too quickly, Ayas did not have time to react and was kicked away.

"Don't forget I'm here too."_ The black-haired female killer said a few words to her two colleagues and then glared at Ayas with a deadly glare.

At this time, Ayas limply stood up, behind her mask was a small drop of blood flowing from her mouth.

Outwardly Ayas still had a calm face as if this was no big deal to her, but her palm tightened more and more on the knife. That proves that Ayas's inner self is very burning, her blood is boiling and ready to fight them!

They felt that coming here was enough and decided to rush together to get the victory faster. But even before their siege, Ayas showed no signs of fear.

Fifteen minutes later, the current situation was that Ayas was in a more disadvantageous position. Although the three murderers had the upper hand, they were not much better as Ayas responded to them with punches and slashes to their shoulder blades, thighs, chest and abdomen.

Even so, these people hardly feel any pain when physically hurt, they will still continue to fight Ayas despite the heavy wound!

That made Ayas frown and she wondered how she could defeat powerful enemies right now.

Like falling into a boiling water situation, Ayas' eyes shone with worry, in her heart, she told herself that it would be difficult to win against all three. Therefore, Ayas had to use all her speed to run as far as possible.

Because she doesn't want her life to end here!

Feeling a large amount of adrenaline released all over her body, Ayas ran while skillfully avoiding obstacles through the trees and creating quite a distance between her and them.

"Let's catch her!!"

They were not stupid, but stood still and watched her run away, but aggressively chased after her. All three of them had the same idea: "Not to let a single worm leave their master's territory alive!"

Chased forever but still could not catch up with Ayas. They didn't seem to be able to understand why Ayas possessed such an extraordinary speed.

At the crucial moment, thanks to great endurance and speed along with strong will. Ayas had successfully cut off their tails deep in the forest covered in darkness!

Until Ayas couldn't take it anymore. Her body showed signs of exhaustion, she staggered and fell to the cold ground, her vision gradually blurring and finally turning black.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Her eyes were half-lidded, then she suddenly woke up and glanced around, realizing that she was now lying on the green meadow. All the heavy injuries on her body had disappeared without a trace, as if what she had experienced earlier was merely a dream.

Ayas wondered what miracle happened when she fainted? And who helped her?

After thinking for a while without finding an answer, Ayas temporarily put the mess aside. As long as her important things weren't stolen.

Ayas opened the flap of her backpack and took out a cell phone. She pressed the open button and saw on the phone screen that it was 2:30 AM.

After checking the time, Ayas said in a boring voice: "Time flies so fast".
Ayas looked up at the sky, took a breath, stood up and continued her new journey into the future.

But the female crime hunter does not know that after this event, she has officially become one of the targets of the murderers hiding in the deep forest.

The End