The Cost of Living

Nine hours since the Last Death (Five Deaths)

The assassin lunged swiftly at the knight, leaving behind the hiss of air being cut by her knives. Elsa used everything that was left of the dining room, to overwhelm Julius with multiple attacks at the speed of the wind. Propelling herself with one of the tables, Elsa launched herself with her blade aimed at the knight's abdomen, who reacted in time and deflected the knife with his sword.

The Bowel Hunter leapt against one of the walls again and returned aiming at the knight's right leg; another block preceded. In that way, both continued to collide with each other. Wall, leg, blocked. Table, arm, dodged. Floor, wall, table, abdomen, blades collision, wall, leg, dodge, arm, blocked, wall, neck, clash of edges, floor, wall, wall, Julius' back, blocked... Using her almost endless stamina, Elsa jumped from place to place, while exchanging attacks with Julius.

Slam, jump, cut, leap, cut, slash, cut, block, cut, slash. However, as time went on, it became increasingly difficult for both of them to keep up. Now, both the body of the knight, as the body of the assassin, were full of cuts; and in the case of the latter, her wounds were recovering more and more slowly. Even so, the fighting continued without any ground given by either of the two combatants.

"El Cluasel!" Determined to break the stalemate, Julius used another of his spiritual techniques. The tip of his sword was then surrounded by the six Quasi Spirits that accompanied him, beginning to glow. Extending his sword, Julius prepared to receive Elsa's next attack.

She placed her heel against the wall and propelled herself in the direction of the knight. With her right knife prepared, she made a feint on the ground and stabbed it hard into Julius' gut. I didn't damage any vital organs, the woman thought, bemoaning her blunder. Even so, before she could attempt another cut, a strong impact threw her to the ground; and, for a moment, an extremely powerful glow enveloped the room.

After a moment, the brightness faded away and then the results of the knight's strike became visible. Julius' sword had pierced Elsa's chest from side to side, and now her body was pinned to the floor. The knight had a knife stuck in his abdomen and the assassin had a sword stuck in her chest. The life of one of the fighters was about to end, of that there was no doubt.

"Graaaaaah!" Vociferously, Julius applied more force to his sword handle, piercing Elsa even further.

Since the blade of steel had pierced between her ribs, punctured one of her lungs, and the tip of it was stuck in the wooden floor, Elsa was unable to do anything to free herself. Spitting out blood non-stop, the assassin tried to drive her knife into one of Julius's legs, but he wouldn't give her the chance.

Pulling his sword towards him with extreme force, Julius sliced through a large part of Elsa's rib cage. His sword cut from the base of one of the assassin's breasts to her shoulder, where the edge of the sword came out. A huge opening formed in the woman's chest, from which blood and more blood gushed, to the point where the pool of red liquid covered much of the ravaged dining room floor.

Still, her life was far from over. Julius' technique, Clarista, apparently was part of the reason why her injuries were taking a long time to recover, the other part would be the large amount of damage she had received in such a short time. However, Clarista had apparently not been enough to completely sever Elsa's soul. And clearly, El Clausel, the technique he used to pierce her, had not succeeded either.

However, Elsa did not believe that Julius had claimed to possess such a technique capable of killing her, as a simple artifice to intimidate her. She was certain that Julius truly possessed a technique capable of completely extinguishing the eternal flame of her life. Which, for some reason unknown to her, he had not yet used.

For the same reason, even though her chest had been completely sliced and much of her blood had been spilled on the wooden floor, Elsa was still alive. But that did not reassure her, as she would have to wait at least a minute before she could continue to fight; time im which she was completely exposed and therefore in an was extremely disadvantageous situation.

"It's time…" And according to her greatest fears, Elsa was able to see Julius move away from her and get into position to unleash an attack. That was what the knight was looking for, to leave her immobilized so that he could execute his definitive technique: Al Clarista. A version of Clarista with greater range and power, in which his sword absorbs a gigantic amount of mana, with which he is able to release enough magical energy to vanish the target of the attack.

"Damm-it... I-It seems that o-once again I'm in a ve-ry disadvan-tageous po-si-tion." Spitting out blood, Elsa struggled to move, but it was useless. The damage her body had taken was too massive for her to move at all.

"I'm sorry, but if I don't take care of destroying every last part of your body, your soulless corpse may persist with the sole goal of murdering, until nothing is left of it. That is the inherent curse of the Cursed Doll. So I will have to eliminate your existence absolutely…"Declaring his intentions, Julius raised his sword in the air. "Ia! Kua! Aro! Ik! In! Nes! Al Clarista!"

The six spirits of Julius showed up again. Together they floated in the direction of the sword that he held raised above his head. The sword's steel absorbed the spheres of light, making its edge shine brighter than it had done until now. That technique was Al Clarista, the ultimate attack of the Valuable Knight.

As each second passed, the brightness was increasing, however, Julius clearly was not able to move freely during that time. That was the reason why he had sought to incapacitate Elsa, so that he could have the opportunity to strike her with the full power of his most powerful technique, without the risk of her dodging or escaping.

Beginning to recover, the assassin was finally able to start moving. Without a moment's hesitation, Elsa glanced at Julius and, with perfect aim, threw her remaining knife in the direction of his abdomen. Now it would be two knives that would be stuck in the knight's gut. Or so Elsa expected. However, the knife ricocheted against his body, unable to pierce him.

Opening her eyes wide, Elsa watched as her last resort of survival had been denied. The knife she had previously stuck in him was still there, but the one she had just thrown had not broken the knight's defense. The only explanation for this was the man's technique, Al Clarista. Seemingly, although it limited its user movement while executing it, it prevented attacks from damaging his body, due to the large amount of spiritual energy that enveloped him during its execution.

"T-That certainly is the ultimate technique of a k-knight with perfect control of the s-spirit arts…" Still spitting blood, though less than before, Elsa praised the Spirit Knight Julius' technique. "What an i-incredible opponent! I cannot perish without first appreciating the elegance of your bowels!" Ecstatic, Elsa forced herself back to her feet.

The wound that ran from her shoulder to her chest had not yet closed completely, nonetheless, being moved by adrenaline and excitement, Elsa crawled towards Julius. She had no more knives left, but she still knew they would be of no use to her. No, her intention was less desperate and much better thought out than that... Elsa planned to use the knife that was already buried in the knight's abdomen, in order to rip out the viscera that were inside him.

One foot, another foot, one foot, another foot. Dragging her heels, the ever-agile Elsa moved slowly towards Julius, leaving a river of blood in her wake. Another step, one more step, just one more. Excited, Elsa forced herself to live her life as she always had, even when she was only moments away from her doom. Elsa, the Bowel Hunter, would live up to her name even on her deathbed.

"Perish now, Bowel Hunter, Elsa Granhiert!" Calling out the name of his enemy as a sign of his knighthood, Julius finally dropped his arms. With them, the sword made an arc in the air and released all the spiritual energy it had stored in its blade.

Elsa heard Julius' words and knew that her time was up. Refusing to die without seeing the insides of the man who brought her to the brink of death, the Bowel Hunter sprang toward him, propelling herself with her heels. Stretching her hand, stretching her fingers... Elsa felt it, felt the handle of her knife, which was stuck in the abdomen of her enemy; the key to her final desires. An excited smile appeared on her face and then everything was covered by the shine of the sword's edge...

Al Clarista had vanished all that was left of the dining room, leaving behind the rubble of what was once the place where he ate with his mistress. Emitting an exhausted sigh, Julius finally let himself fall. His entire body ached, but his abdomen hurt most of all. The knife Elsa stuck in him was a miscalculation, it shouldn't have happened that way. However, in the end he had achieved his goal, and that finally gave his heart a bit of a break.

Had it taken just one more second to execute Al Clarista, it is likely that Elsa would have managed to open his abdomen with the knife that was stuck in it. Now, it would be best to leave it there until healing magic could be applied, or he could bleed to death. "I need to return to Anastasia-sama's side…" The knight muttered, as his consciousness completely faded; as had the existence of the woman known as the Bowel Hunter, Elsa Granhiert.

"Arghh!" Swinging his three-foot-long blade, Ricardo sliced off every mabeast in front of him.

Since the inn's siege had begun, his goal had been to find the person in charge of controlling the mabeasts; which, the boy had said, was a little girl. Ricardo still felt reluctant to trust his word entirely, but since the little lady and Julius had decided to do so, he had no choice but to follow the same path. After all, Ricardo utterly trusted both of them, but especially his mistress.

"What a pain in the aaaaass! Could you guys get riiiid of him alreeeeady?" A childish voice reached his ears as he cut in two an Oiranguma that had pounced on him. It was the voice of the little girl who commanded the huge group of mabeasts; just like the boy had said.

After a long time fighting multiple mabeasts alongside several of his comrades, Ricardo had finally found her. Although doing so would have been something much more time consuming, if it had not been for the fact that from one moment to the next, all the mabeasts began to ignore them and piled up at one point. Ricardo had not understood the reason for this, until he saw the girl on a Wagpig. Had she gathered them? That's what he assumed, but he didn't quite understand why. And so it was until...

"Boy?!" There, amidst dozens of beasts, was Subaru. His legs appeared to be in very bad condition, he had an improvised bandage on one arm and was bathed in blood.

He wanted to ask him what had happened to the little lady, Mimi, Hetaro and Tivey, but it was clear that first he had first rescue him and get one of his subordinates to treat his wounds. His other priority, the main one, was to deal with the little girl. However, the idea of killing her did not quite please him. Even so, if he couldn't find a way to force her to push back her mabeasts, he would no other choice.

"Waaarrrghh!" With a powerful scream, Ricardo disintegrated much of the mabeasts surrounding Subaru. That magic attack had been of the same type as the one used by the triplets; something to be expected, considering that he was the one who taught them. Even so, from the pained expression on his face, it was obvious that the recoil damage was equivalent to the damage from the attack. "Go to the boy and start healin' him! I'll take care of coverin' for ya!" He indicated to several of his subordinates, after opening the way to the hostage.

Along with Ricardo there was a group of up to ten mercenaries. Within the Fang of Iron, outside the high ranks, they could be considered the best in each of their specialties. The mercenaries that their captain had addressed were three, a woman and two men. The woman was the best mage of the group, focused on the use of the earth element. One of the men was the best at using water element magic, focused on healing. The latter was a demi-human with tiger features, a rare species to see, even in a group made up of demi-humans, and his forte was hand-to-hand combat.

Without saying a word, the three specialists broke away from the main group and walked the path of mabeast corpses left by Ricardo's powerful scream attack. A pair of mabeasts that managed to survive rushed in their direction, to end up dismembered by the sharp claws of the mercenary focused on close combat.

Following a simple yet effective formation, the physical attack-focused mercenary stayed in the forefront, clearing the way of any beast that might come between them and the hostage. The healing-focused mercenary stayed in the center, where he could be covered by his companions. And the mercenary mage remained in the rear, where she could cast her earth-element spells at any mabeast that tried to attack them from behind.

"Argh! It's amazin' that a human girl's able to control so many mabeasts. How's that even possible?" The healer asked no one in particular, jumping over the remains of what until a moment ago had been a huge Wagpig.

"It's probably due to a Divine Protection, that would be the only explanation I can think of… Al Dona!" The mage, on her part, theorized while causing clumps of earth to explode under the feet of the mabeasts.

"Yiagh!" Sniffing the air, the mercenary warrior scowled in disgust. "Another explanation would be the smell she emits..." He said after wiping his nose. Of the three, he was by far the one with the best nose; and one of the few that had survived an encounter with the Witch Cult.

"What whiff do ya catch?" His fellow healer questioned him.

"Miasma… The girl reeks of the witch's miasma. Whatever the reason for this, it can't be good. We aren't dealing with a normal human girl, keep that in mind. If ya get a chance, finish her off without hesitation." Giving a grim reminder, the warrior made sure his companions had in mind that, if they could do so, they should murder the girl. The idea was not to anyone's liking within the mercenary group, but it was something that had to be done by ignoring any unnecessary moral rules during combat. "Though also…" Looking in the direction of where Subaru was, a gesture of suspicion formed on his face; even so, he refrained from saying anything about it.

Without commenting further, the three continued to advance in silence, with expressions of discomfort on their faces. Killing children or women, actions that are sometimes necessary during war, but that can corrupt the soul of everyone who carries them out. Even though she was a deviant child, Meili was still a child...

Subaru watched the three mercenaries approach him. Reminding him of an elite police team, the three always maintained their position within the formation. The mage covered Subaru, while the warrior made sure to cover his companions. The healer, without taking a second to think about it, approached the dark-haired human, helped him turn around and began to cast magic on his feet.

"Subaru-sama, how are ya feelin'?" Asking the routine question, the healer looked at Subaru's face as he magically treated the wounds inflicted on his legs.

"I've been better, to tell the truth." Laughing nervously, Subaru answered the mercenary's question. "Umm… Will I be able to keep w-walking?" Anxious, Subaru decided to ask what worried him the most. Losing the mobility of his feet would make him weaker and more useless than he already was, and the very thought made him want to throw up again.

"If we had arrived a few minutes later, it's likely that ya would never have been able to walk again. Luckily, that's not the case, so a week's rest should be enough for you to be able to walk and run again without any problems."

Subaru, after hearing the healer's reply, couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief; thus releasing air that he had not even realized he had been holding in his lungs. He was aware that wounds could be healed with magic, but the same could not always apply for the remaining effects of the wounds.

From what he had heard from Leith, there was only one healer in Lugunica capable of healing any wound and its effects, and the thought of having to ask Anastasia to help him with that, made him extremely disgusted by how pathetic it seemed to keep expecting help from her. Subaru wanted to help Anastasia, not continue to depend on her...

Satisfied, Ricardo observed how the three subordinates he sent for Subaru were already healing him. Now he had to make sure to eliminate all the mabeasts that were in the vicinity, after which he could question Subaru and find out if he knew anything about the whereabouts of Anastasia and the triplets.

Grinning strongly, Ricardo prepared to eliminate as quickly as possible the multitude of beasts. Had he had a Liger, doing so would have been a walk in the park. Unfortunately, the trip to Priestella was never made with a fight on such a scale in mind. Taking his great hatchet, Ricardo sliced, mutilated and dismembered any mabeast in his range of vision.

From the shadows, an imposing Guiltylowe emerged with the intent to assassinate him by attacking him from behind. Noticing the presence of the beast, Ricardo made an arc with his hatchet, slicing off one of its legs. The beast, unaware of the term surrender, crunched one of the mercenary's arms with its jaws, leaving behind deep battle marks. But that was the error of the mabeast, as Ricardo took advantage of the proximity to make a deep cut in its neck. The head and part of the mane fell to the ground, leaving behind a large trail of blood.

"This is baaaad. If Elsa doesn't get here soon, I'm going to end uuuup losing all my booooys." Squirming onto the back of the Wagpig she was riding, Meili complained childishly. Ricardo could see her out of the corner of his eye, and his stomach turned at the thought of killing a girl no older than twelve. "Hmm... How niiiiice! For a moment I thought you were gone, little oooone! Attack that louuuusy demi-human! Make an all-out-attaaaack! Kill him noooow!"

Ricardo saw how, betraying the innocence he had thought she had, Meili smiled wickedly as she pointed at him and ordered his death. He hadn't been able to understand what the girl was referring to or who she was talking to. Is it the Bowel Hunter? He thought, beginning to fear for Julius' life. But his speculations were wrong.

From among the mabeasts, presenting itself as their king, a gigantic Wolgarm emerged. Its size previously had to have been smaller than that of a normal Wolgarm, since Ricardo could not notice it until it stood out among the other mabeasts by several meters in height. Shaking the earth with its roar, the massive Wolgarm ignored the rest of the mercenaries working together to eliminate the mabeasts, and lunged at Ricardo.

"Heh! Is that all ya've to offer, mabeast?!" Its size had increased and, and while it was indeed more powerful than the other mabeasts in that place, it was nothing he could not deal with. Shaking his hatchet, Ricardo tore off several of the gigantic Wolgarm's fangs, which fell to the ground along with much of the gums where they had been attached.

Bellowing in agony, the huge beast tried to tear Ricardo apart with a claw, but Ricardo was faster and managed to dodge the attack with ease… Or so he thought. Just as he was about to avoid the attack, two spheres of fire were thrown towards his back. Realizing the situation he was in, Ricardo tried to flee upwards, but there he was received by the other leg of the Wolgarm, which made him bounce off the ground at enormous speed.

"Way to goooo, guys! Everybody attack him at oooonce, don't let him catch his breeeeath!" The girl, laughing, again issued orders to her mabeasts.

However, Ricardo, who was getting back to his feet while puking some blood, noticed that several of the mabeasts he did not know about didn't want to obey her. It was the same species of mabeast that had attacked him from behind with fire balls. That species was the second most powerful, behind the enormous Wolgarm, and it had something that gave Ricardo a very bad feeling.

"Those damn bastards are unpredictable." He muttered, dodging another claw attack from the huge Wolgarm. Shielding himself with his great hatchet, Ricardo received a second claw strike and leapt to the side, slashing deeply at the base of one of Wolgarm's front paws.

The unpredictable mabeasts attacked him from behind again, but Ricardo was prepared this time. Releasing a powerful magical scream, the beasts were turned into flesh pulp before they could attack with fire once more. But the lives of the two beasts cost him a deep cut on his back, caused by the claws of his main opponent.

"Captain, we've got your back! Get rid of that mabeast!" Slicing through a group of Black Winged Rats, two of his most trusted subordinates appeared. Apparently, the number of beasts had decreased enough that they could approach him to offer help. Smiling, Ricardo answered them.

"Terrific! In that case, watch from behind as I take care of that huge annoyance!" Aiming at the enormous Wolgarm, Ricardo prepared a scream that would leave him with a sore jaw for a couple of days. He needed to be reunited with his miss, so wasting time, even if it made a girl cry, was not an option. "Wwwwaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!"

A powerful sound wave came out of his throat, becoming a huge torrent of magical energy. The attack hit the Wolgarm's snout dead on, sending the lower part of its jaw, tongue and one of its eyes flying. Even so, the beast seemed eager to continue fighting, for it threw a desperate paw towards Ricardo. He diverted it with his enormous hatchet, and then ran under the mabeast and, stretching his arm up high, made a cut along the whole abdomen of the beast.

As Ricardo emerged from under the giant Wolgarm, the entrails of the beast, equivalent in size to it, were scattered over the courtyard of the inn. Releasing a very strong scent of blood into the air, the Wolgarm vanished, leaving behind a gigantic corpse. Ricardo and the rest of the mercenaries were about to celebrate, when the situation took a radical turn...

With his eyes wide open, Subaru watched as Ricardo got rid, by himself, of the huge beast that had come out of nowhere. Even the noisy demi-human's companions seemed surprised. For a moment, a smile of relief began to crept across his face, but it disappeared as soon as he witnessed the events that unfolded next.

It all started with the horrible centaur-shaped beasts, then the flowered bear-shaped beasts accompanied them. As if it were a revolt, the mabeasts began to fight each other, killing the rest of the mabeasts that did not belong to their two species. But the attack was not as optimistic as this. Amid the chaos, the same beasts began to attack the mercenaries in a crazed manner. In short, they were attacking everything in front of them, as if they were in berserker mode.

Chaos began to reign. In the midst of the disorder, Subaru noticed how dozens of beasts began to crowd around Ricardo, who were already quite injured. Exchanging glances with his companions, the tiger-like mercenary who had come to save Subaru, decided to go to the aid of his boss, leaving him with only his two companions.

With his heart pounding, Subaru watched as the bear mabeasts dismembered the beasts into serpent and winged rat forms. He witnessed the devilish centaurs incinerate the hippopotamus beasts. He observed how, amidst the chaos, many mercenaries received deep wounds; several even lost their limbs. And there, in the midst of it all, was Ricardo, whose hatchet was constantly slicing, cutting and quartering any mabeast near his attack of range.

"El Dona!" So distracted was he watching the pitched battle, that he didn't notice when nearly ten mabeasts approached him and his two saviors. The healer had just finished treating him, so now he was casting healing magic on the mage, who had apparently received one of the centaur's fire attacks. Once again, the situation was beginning to deviate towards the path of death.

"Darn it, they've rebeeeelled against meeee!" Then Subaru heard her. Looking to the side, he noticed Meili mounted on the hippo-shaped mabeast. She was surrounded by centaur and bear mabeasts, and only her mount was protecting her. Even so, the hippopotamus mabeast that Meili rode appeared to be much more powerful than the others of its kind, as it was holding its ground against the rebels.

"Ul Dona!" The mage next to him tried to form a dome of earth to cover them, but to no avail. A centaur mabeast burst through the wall of earth and launched a sphere of fire at the only remaining combatant near Subaru. "Damn! El Dona!"

The mage, unable to dodge the attack, decided to bet everything on the offensive. Spikes of rock erupted from the ground, piercing the demonic centaur. Before the mabeast could try anything else, the earth under its feet exploded, transforming its body into a pulp of blood. Being hit by the fire ball and exhaustion, the mage fell to the ground, unconscious. Without hesitation, his fellow healer rushed over to her to begin healing her.

However, Subaru barely noticed anything that had happened nearby him. His life has just been hanging by a thread once again, but his attention was elsewhere the whole time; at Meili. Subaru should have thought about the health of the people who had saved him. Subaru should have cared about his life. But, at that moment, his brain was covered in haze. All that was on his mind was the desire for revenge. Revenge, revenge, revenge… With his own two hands, Subaru wanted to take the life of the little girl whose mabeast took his.