PewPew
First appearance: Precipice, chapter 28
Last appearance: Crucible, chapter 51
Appears in: Precipice, Happy, Armageddon, Timeless, CrucibleLatest status
eliminated
PewPew, real name Lauren, is a formidably skilled teenage fighter whose youth repeatedly costs her the respect her talent should earn. She first leads her own guild in pursuit of a bounty on Jason’s life, and after that campaign collapses, is shut out elsewhere for being underage despite proven ability. Finding a home as a lightning-wielding sniper and teleporter within the mercenary guild Death and Taxes, she channels her early rejection and rivalry with Jason into a sharp-tongued professionalism, slowly trading a personal vendetta for genuine camaraderie and purpose.
Abilities
- Dual pistol combat — Book 2
- Short-range teleportation — Book 2
- Supernatural speed and reflexes — Book 2
- Channels her Lightning Aura into her bullets for increased damage, after Dom redirects her stat growth into Intelligence — Book 5.5
Book 2: Precipice
PewPew, whose real name is Lauren, is the fourteen-year-old leader of the War Dogs guild, hired to hunt Jason for a real-world bounty on his life. She commands her guild through open intimidation, using threats and physical positioning to keep subordinates in line despite her youth, and reacts to news that Jason is more dangerous than expected with excitement rather than concern. When a captured NPC named Paul appears to hand over Jason’s location, she takes the intelligence at face value and leads her guild in an assault on his dungeon stronghold. The attack turns out to be a trap: Jason’s forces inflict heavy losses on the War Dogs, and Lauren is forced to adapt her tactics on the fly, using teleportation, dual pistols, and exceptional speed to keep her collapsing force in the fight even as she refuses to accept defeat. By the final engagement she abandons broader strategy for a personal hunt, vowing to kill Jason herself and make him pay, her guild’s mission narrowing into her own drive to prove herself as she and her remaining fighters are drawn deeper into another trap. The hunt ends in a final courtyard confrontation, where Jason kills her in single combat, breaking the War Dogs’ campaign against him.
Status: Guild commander, confident and in full control of her forces → Killed by Jason in single combat; her guild’s campaign against him broken
Jason: Shifts from a paid bounty hunter pursuing a professional contract to someone driven by personal vengeance, fixated on killing Jason herself after her guild suffers heavy losses.
Paul: Trusts the location intelligence Paul hands over, unaware it is part of Jason’s trap.
Key quote: “I’m going to kill you. I’m going to make you pay for this.”
Book 5.5: Happy
Lauren is the former leader of a guild called War Dogs, ousted after a defeat tied to Jason’s group, and has since been rejected by guild after guild because of her age despite her skill. She arrives at Dom’s settlement to test into Death and Taxes, injuring several goblin guards in the process before Dom accepts her. She settles quickly into the guild, admiring Dom’s combat ability and throwing herself into its harsh training regimen alongside fellow recruits Vanessa, Walt, and Willow.
During training she dies in an underground incident and is briefly angry at Walt over it, but recovers and refocuses; Dom redirects her stat growth into Intelligence to raise her mana and the lightning-infused damage of her shots. She grows close to the rest of the team, including a running rapport with Dom’s battle chicken Wingman. Once Death and Taxes goes to open war with the Jackals, she is assigned to guard duty rather than the front line, and resents being sidelined for her age even as she complies. While investigating a water threat with Walt, she opens up about her past: she was expelled from school and left with a criminal record after hospitalizing a classmate while defending someone weaker, and the shared experience of being written off by adults becomes the basis of a real bond between her and Walt.
Fighting alongside Walt against Jackals air mages threatening the goblin settlement, she takes severe electrical burns but keeps fighting, trading taunts with her opponents. She later supplies the precise teleportation timing that keeps Willow aloft during a large-scale spell, growing visibly nervous as the plan’s risk escalates. During the guild’s final siege of the Jackals she snipes from the ramparts, keeps a running kill count with the team, and moves to stop Dom from removing his mask in front of the enemy. By the epilogue she has taken the callsign PewPew and is stationed on a clifftop as the guild’s overwatch, tracking a rising kill tally with evident professional satisfaction.
Status: Alive — ousted guild leader, isolated and seeking acceptance → Alive — sniper/overwatch for Death and Taxes, tracking a growing kill count
Dom: Goes from an outside challenger testing the guild’s strength to an accepted recruit who trusts Dom’s authority and training methods.
Walt: Moves from a brief flare of anger after a traumatic death to a close bond built on shared history of being failed by adults and mutual trust in combat.
Willow: Becomes Willow’s trusted magical partner, providing the precise teleportation support that keeps Willow’s large-scale spell functioning.
Key quote: “I’m me. Anyone who has a problem with that can go fuck themselves”
Book 6: Armageddon
PewPew opens the book as a cynical young Death and Taxes operative, nostalgic for the guild’s earlier, more violent operations and comfortable using her teleportation ability to reposition teammates in combat, brushing off complaints about the ride. During a disguised infiltration mission she balances the job with genuine worry over a missing guildmate, Smiles, and on a separate operation alongside a masked team working with Dom she keeps the group moving and shuts down a teammate’s distracting behavior. As the guild’s assault on the excavation site escalates, she begins to show unfamiliar doubt: while still treating killing as routine, she voices a rare, wistful concern that winning the apocalyptic endgame might leave nothing worth having.
That uncertainty gives way to a long-hidden personal motive. PewPew reveals she is a former guild leader who nearly killed Jason once before, and that after her own guild was destroyed she was shut out by other guilds for being underage despite her proven skill; Jason has come to represent every loss and rejection that followed. In an arena-style confrontation she taunts and hunts him with lightning-charged shots, but Jason baits her and turns her own anger against her, and she is killed.
She returns for the excavation battle proper, back on overwatch with rifle and enhanced scope, now given the guild’s permission for full engagement after previously being held back. She provides aggressive long-range and lightning-based support, risking friendly fire against Jason and Alexion’s group and helping pin down Raven’s Shadow’s members, and is openly disappointed when one of the guild’s experiments fails. Captured and paralyzed during the fighting, she experiences fear unlike anything in her combat history. Once the dust settles she is fully satisfied: she got to shoot Jason repeatedly and see embarrassing footage of him fleeing posted online, calling it all she ever wanted, and turns playful and willing to work alongside him. By the book’s close she has settled back into an operational role within the guild, sharp-tongued and openly frustrated with Bard’s incompetence.
Status: Alive — cynical, combat-ready Death and Taxes sniper/teleporter → Alive — satisfied her vendetta against Jason is resolved, back to guild operations criticizing Bard
Jason: Goes from a hidden, vengeful enemy hunting him over her guild’s destruction and her rejection as an underage player to someone satisfied her revenge is complete and willing to work alongside him afterward.
Bard: Moves from an easy, teasing partnership to open frustration with his incompetence during guild operations.
Key quote: “Got what I wanted. I got to shoot him a bunch of times. Plus, I have footage of him frantically trying to flee a giant smiling boulder, and it’s been posted everywhere online already. That was all I ever really wanted”
Book 7: Timeless
PewPew serves as a precision sniper for Death and Taxes, using lightning-enhanced shots and teleportation to hold a defensive position while the team fights off travelers; she notes aloud that their position will not hold much longer, a direct assessment that reflects her tactical honesty, and she relies on Smiles to protect her while she works. Later, at a public gathering, she appears armed with twin custom pistols loaded with paintball and pepper-spray ammunition rather than lethal rounds, and takes an aggressive crowd-control role, threatening reporters and onlookers to keep them back and shooting down a drone. Despite her young age, she is treated as an equal, professionally competent team member, and her aggressive posturing functions as protective cover for the group she is guarding.
Status: Guild sniper holding a defensive line during a traveler assault, protected by Smiles → Guild security operative running aggressive crowd control at a public event
Smiles: Smiles provides physical protection for PewPew while she snipes, an established protective arrangement rather than a shift.
Key quote: “‘Alright, back the fuck up! Anyone gets close, and they get a bullet, you got it?‘”
Book 8: Crucible
During Death and Taxes’ assault on Fluffy Rules, PewPew holds the high ground and nearly stuns Eliza with sniper fire, forcing Finn into a defensive position, before being killed when Eliza loses control and kills the attacking guild.
Status: positioned on high ground, providing sniper support → eliminated
Eliza: Nearly stuns her with sniper fire during the assault, then is killed when she loses control.
Appears in
- Precipice — 5 chapters
- Happy — 12 chapters
- Armageddon — 13 chapters
- Timeless — 2 chapters
- Crucible — 1 chapters