Edge centered himself within the pocket of open air, then activated Conceal.

  He doubted that his skill would stop the elite monster from finding him, given the disparity between their stages, but hopefully it would be good enough to lure it in. He couldn’t see it coming thanks to the mist, and letting the massive monkey get the drop on him would be a terminally bad idea. All it had to do was fling a few boulders from within the fog and he would be dead before he knew what hit him.

  His heart pounded like a taiko drum as adrenaline crackled throughout his arteries in an electric tide. Once he was in position, he took a deep breath and went perfectly still, waiting for his enemy to arrive.

  He cast his senses into the Savage Garden, sampling the stench riding the humid breeze. For the first time in his life, Edge was happy when the reek of monster filled his nostrils. It won’t be long now.

  Sure enough, less than five minutes later, the gorilla general stepped out of the mist. Its immense black body was outlined against the roiling fog, highlighting the bulging muscles covering its immense body. He was starting to doubt the wisdom of his plan, but it was far too late to back out now.

  The multi-limbed monster was grumbling in irritation, scanning the clearing for the puny creature that was foolish enough to challenge it on its home turf.

  For the moment, the ape was alone, but Edge was certain that its minions were stationed nearby. With a single command, fifty monsters would come swarming for him as one.

  While it was a terrifying prospect, that was exactly what he was counting on. He needed the general to summon its army early in the fight, or his plans would crumble like a sandcastle in the rain. If I miss more than one or two of its minions, I’m going to die even if the next part goes the way I hope.

  He watched the monster saunter across the clearing, until it arrived at the spot that he wanted. Before it could take another step, Edge deactivated Conceal, wavering into existence thirty feet away from the elite’s position.

  Its gaze met his own—hate-filled eyes wide with surprise. Before the gorilla recovered from its astonishment, it was time to begin phase one of his plan. A little something he’d named “reel them in.”

  Edge was gambling that since the ape was intelligent, repeated surprises would throw it off balance. That it would try to figure out what was happening before tearing him apart.

  Thus, rather than fleeing, he walked toward the monster with both hands clasped behind his back, wagering that caution and curiosity would overcome its fury for a few more seconds. He doubted that the gorilla had met anything stage one that didn’t bolt at the sight of it, especially once they learned what it was capable of.

  As he’d been hoping, the monkey lord stood its ground instead of charging, staring down at Edge with contempt and barely-repressed rage. Its hesitation was due to more than mere confusion. It remembered their last encounter, when rushing him had resulted in an industrial-strength flashbang to the face. While there was indeed a device lying on the ground between them, it wasn’t the only surprise he had prepared.

  Violet had been teaching him how to make simple modifications to his consumable items, including ways to tweak their triggers to increase their versatility. His favorite so far was a method of priming the mechanisms before propping them beneath scraps of wood and stone, which would activate the devices the moment that something dislodged their covering.

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  He had rigged three simple traps after killing the elite’s scout, two of which were just one big step behind the gorilla’s position. It was still trying to figure out what he was up to, but he was running out of time and needed to act before the monster made the first move. Edge prayed to whatever gods were listening for luck, then yelled at the top of his lungs, took aim, and threw.

  He was holding something rather unpleasant behind his back—a double-handful of the rankest monster shit he could find. The foul muck spread from one hand, sailing toward the giant ape while spreading like the blast from a shotgun.

  It scrambled back to get out of the way, stepping on a strip of bark with two consumables attached along the way. A stinkbomb burst at the same moment that a poison-gas grenade activated with a serpentine hiss.

  The gorilla turned to track the sound, growling as the irritating vapor stung its skin and the stinking fluid soaked into its fur. By this point, he had already flung the pile of shit in his other hand, which splattered across the monster’s chest while its attention was divided.

  When it realized what had happened, the monkey screamed in rage, storming straight for Edge with the promise of murder gleaming in its beady black eyes. Its charge carried it straight into his next trap—a modified flashbang with a minimum fuse.

  An eruption rang out from point-blank range, causing the monster to come to a skidding stop. The blast wasn’t sufficient to stun it, but the flash was blinding and kept it in place for a few more seconds.

  By this point, he had already reached up with his glove and tapped his fingers together. His Elemental-Blade-infused chakram came sailing out from the branch of a tree, lodging itself between the monkey’s buttocks and freezing the sensitive tissue.

  It howled in fury as it pulled the weapon free, flinging it into the mist. Edge winced when he saw the strip of frozen flesh stuck to the bone-and-brass ring. That must have really fucking hurt.

  By this point, the gorilla was beyond furious—assaulted by a blend of caustic sensations. The thirst for vengeance was clear in every crook of its features, but it was now intimately familiar with the perils of charging a hunter on the ground of their choosing. To add insult to injury, he stuck his tongue out and issued a mocking laugh.

  His plans had arrived at a pivotal moment. He needed the monster to blow its lid but not attack him directly. For a second, he thought that it was going to approach him again anyway, which would have been the last nail in his coffin.

  Instead, it decided to send its disposable missions to clear what it thought was a trap-infused battlefield—not knowing that it had already triggered all the devices Edge had placed.

  When the elite beat its chest and bellowed, its minions came surging out of the mist, surrounding him in a ring of powerful bodies. The legion of monsters was more than sufficient to tear him apart, but that wasn’t good enough. After the insult that he had issued, the general’s pride would suffer nothing less than obliterating the hunter standing before it.

  Phase two, “big spender.” This part of Edge’s plan hinged on something that Tessa had told him. While using an aura with other skills didn’t count as a combo, activating more than one aura at a time did. Even for a stage-three monster, stacking auras on this many minions would come at a considerable cost.

  Come on. Do it now. Relief swept through every cell of his body when the elite screamed in fury and ignited its core. Mana surged from its position as it activated both auras at its disposal, infusing its entire army at once.

  Shimmering silver armor wavered into existence around the body of each ape, along with electric cherry lines that traced their muscles like warpaint. The howling horde barreled toward Edge’s position in a gibbering rush. In another few heartbeats, they would break over him like a tsunami, burying him in a living tide of flailing limbs.

  Every last monster was armored and buffed—able to take a beating and punch far above their stage. Defeating even one of them would have been a difficult battle under ordinary circumstances.

  Fortunately, Edge had no intention of fighting them at all.

  Now that the army of apes had moved into range, it was time for phase three of his plan. He gathered his concentration, steeled his nerve, then willed his ultimate ability to activate. Overdrive.