Infinite Hunt
Episode 3 — The Witch-Mother's Choir
The nave darkened.
Candles guttered in their dishes of bone, blue flames shrinking as the Witch-Mother Gallowmire rose higher above the altar. Her veil slid from her head, unraveling in strands of black hair like a web. Where her eyes should have been, there were mouths—small, perfect, wet mouths that whispered as they blinked.
The choir of corpses sang behind her. Rows of sewn-shut figures hummed, their voices crawling under skin. The sound scraped into marrow, a lullaby to tear sanity loose.
The HUD bled scarlet warnings:
[Boss Fight Initiated: Witch-Mother Gallowmire]
[Threats: Hexfire | Charmsong | Spawn Call]
[Reward: +5 Levels / Unique Weapon Augment]
Zenith's dead eyes locked on her. His pistol twitched like a living thing in his hand.
⸻
The Choir Awakens
"Hold your ears!" Captain Mara Kovik barked.
The first wave of sound struck like a hammer. Toru Graves collapsed, hands clutching his skull, eyes rolling back as blood trickled from his nose. Nyra Vale staggered, biting her lip until it split.
The choir's song thickened—bodies sewn with silk threads began to stand. Their fingers, stitched into claws, tore free of sutures.
"Targets left!" barked Larke Fen, her rifle already snapping shots. One corpse's head burst, another's chest caved, but for every one that fell, three more rose, swaying to the Witch-Mother's lullaby.
Jax Rook roared. His cleaver cut a choirboy in half, guts spraying across the pews. "I love this music!"
"Shut up, Jax!" Iris Vell screamed, dragging Toru back and jamming a syringe into his neck to keep him conscious. "Sato, light me!"
Quen Sato's drone flared a bright beam, slicing through silk threads and staggering the closest corpses. Zenith stepped into the light, gun steady.
BANG.
One corpse's head snapped back, brains smearing the altar wall.
BANG. BANG.
Two more dropped. Silenceshock detonated—stunning a whole row. Their song faltered, the lullaby cutting off like choked throats.
Zenith's HUD flashed.
[Level Up: 8]
[Skill Unlocked: Hollowpoint Hex — bullets leech energy from cursed targets.]
The next shot cracked through a choir-thrall's chest. Energy bled from the wound, flowing into his pistol, making the weapon hum with hungry resonance.
Hexfire
Gallowmire raised her hands. Blue fire spilled from her fingertips, arcing like liquid flame. It struck pews and stone—screams ignited as two hunters not in Kovik's squad, Rhea Noir and Kaz Calder, were caught in the blaze. Their armor melted into skin. They clawed themselves apart in desperation, burning alive.
Mara swore. "Cover! Break her line of sight!"
Zenith walked through the fire. The pistol in his hand pulsed with the absorbed hex-energy. He raised it and fired.
The bullet sliced through the veil of blue flame. The Hollowpoint carried her own curse back to her. It struck her arm—one of the eye-mouths exploded in blood and teeth.
She shrieked. The sound made the pews split down the middle.
"Impossible," she hissed. "You bite back."
Zenith blew smoke from the pistol. "Keep guessing."
⸻
Charm
The Witch-Mother's mouths blinked, and her smile spread wrong across her jaw. Her song changed. It softened, honey dripping into their ears. Hunters began to falter.
Nyra Vale dropped her spear and stumbled forward. "Mother…?"
Zenith's HUD painted a warning: [Charm Detected.]
He shot the ground at her feet. Ricochet Omen curved the bullet into her shoulder—non-lethal. The impact snapped her awake. She gasped, realizing she had nearly walked into Gallowmire's arms.
"You're welcome," Zenith muttered.
Nyra snarled and picked her spear back up, rage driving her past shame.
⸻
Spawn Call
The cathedral's stone floor cracked. From beneath the altar, things crawled out—Wombspawn, creatures half-born, their skin unformed, eyes lidless, their mouths gnashing with teeth they hadn't grown into yet.
Jax laughed like a lunatic. "Ugly babies! My favorite!" His cleaver went wild, cleaving torsos, spraying gore across the choir.
But there were too many. They poured out in dozens, clawing at hunters. Oona Krait screamed as one tore her throat out. Dima Sol tried to cover her but was dragged under the swarm, his legs shredded to ribbons.
"Fen, thin them!" Mara shouted.
Larke's rifle barked. Heads burst in bloody fountains. Quen's drone strafed with beams of light, burning holes into the horde. Iris crushed another syringe into Toru, keeping him alive enough to swing his saw.
Zenith stepped forward into the tide.
BANG. BANG. BANG.
His bullets ripped through skulls, carving clean lines through three, four bodies at a time thanks to Pierceall. He toggled Shroud Round—vanished into haze—and reappeared behind the swarm, unloading into their backs.
[Level Up: 9]
[Skill Unlocked: Bullet Grave — slain enemies combust into bone shards, wounding nearby hostiles.]
The next Wombspawn he shot exploded—its corpse shattering into a spray of jagged bone. The shrapnel shredded five more. The tide broke for the first time.
Counterattack
Mara Kovik rallied the squad. "Push! Bring her down!"
Jax swung his cleaver, Iris kept the wounded alive, Larke sniped Gallowmire's exposed mouths, Quen marked weak points with his drone. Together, they carved through the horde until only the Witch-Mother remained.
She screamed, the mouths across her face weeping blood. "You cannot kill a mother of infinity!"
Zenith stepped forward. His pistol gleamed with energy stolen from her own curses. He raised it to her forehead.
"Watch me."
BANG.
The bullet tore through her skull. Her mouths screamed in unison as her body convulsed, collapsing onto the altar. The choir fell silent. The nave shook as the dungeon itself began to crack.
The HUD flared crimson one last time.
[Boss Defeated: Witch-Mother Gallowmire]
[Reward Granted: +5 Levels]
[Zenith — Level 14]
[Weapon Augment: Deathsong Barrel — bullets echo on kill, amplifying impact.]
⸻
Aftermath
The cathedral groaned as stone collapsed. Hunters scrambled for exits. Survivors counted on Zenith's HUD list: Mara Kovik, Jax Rook, Iris Vell, Larke Fen, Quen Sato, Toru Graves, Nyra Vale, Bishop Hale, Rhea Noir—just twenty-seven left of the original hundred.
Iris wiped gore from her face and glared at Zenith. "You… you saved Vale. You cut the charm."
Zenith exhaled smoke. "Don't mistake survival for kindness."
Jax Rook clapped him on the back, nearly breaking it. "Level fourteen already? Shit, you're cheating."
Zenith's dead eyes didn't move from the altar. His mother's memory burned in his skull. The Witch-Mother's laugh still echoed in the stone.
"Not cheating," he said quietly. "Hunting."
The cathedral collapsed behind them. The raid dissolved. Survivors were spat back into the Awakening Hall, drenched in blood, fewer than they had entered. Hunters stared at Zenith, whispering.
Level fourteen. With only a pistol.
The rumors would spread like wildfire.
And Zenith would let them.