CHAPTER 7- Duel of the Fates

The old and abandoned house was left in a state of ruin as the man with a red mop of hair kicked the voluptuous lady of the ground, sending her flying and crashing into it at full force. So much so that any normal person would immediately die from that kick let alone getting launched into a house at high speeds. But this woman wasn't normal. As the dust settled down, she rose up from the debris with her stamina left to almost nothing

"You're as strong as the rumors say. No. You're even stronger than I could've ever imagined!" the voice of the sociopathic assassin was hoarse from her exhaustion. She was covered in wounds and blood was bleeding down on every inch of her feminine figure "let us dance till the night sky arises Sword Saint!" her grip on her weapons tightened as the orange hue of the setting sun gleamed off the blades

The wounds on her body slowly reattached themselves, with every strings of flesh merging onto one another until her entire form regained its intoxicating beauty once more. The assassin kicked off the boards of wood from her feet as she slowly approached the Sword Saint, with him responding by pointing his iron blade towards her

"I am warning you Elsa Granhiert. Surrender now or I will have to be forced to exterminate you" the Sword Saint sternly commanded as the blade shined in the sunset, accompanied by the mans glare that had the mix of both intimidation and calmness. Reinhard knew that this battle was one sided-one from the very beginning

"Exterminate? Are you implying that I'm nothing more than a mere insect?" the bloodthirsty woman approached her target as she attempted to slash at the Sword Saint's weak spots at inhumane speeds. But every swing she made was all for naught as the Sword Saint effortlessly blocked, dodged and parried each attack, delivering a more devastating slash to the assassin with each opening he saw, with the Bowel Hunter being barely able to avoid them

"Our battle will only lead to your defeat Elsa Granhiert" Reinhard parried Elsa's fierce attack directed towards his chest, leaving her open to inflict a fatal wound. The Sword Saint attempted to swiftly neutralize Elsa on the spot with a diagonal slash towards her chest, but much to his surprise, the Bowel Hunter held out the back of her arm, shielding her at the expense of having her arm being swiftly cut in half, sending it flying along with the bone-crushing blade that accompanied it

With all her strength, the Bowel Hunter backflipped away from the Sword Saint a few meters away from him, but her footing was imbalanced. Extensive amounts of blood was gushing out of her wound as she pleasurably touched her exposed bone with a sickening smile on her face

Reinhard did nothing but to stare at the woman in front of her

"This is your final warning, if you do not yield from this battle then I will have to be forced to kill you. Elsa Granhiert" and once again Reinhard brandished his blade in front the woman who was slowly regaining her stamina and her arm with flesh and bone growing of their roots

"hahaha" The Bowel Hunter did nothing but chuckle lightly as she continued to gaze at her forming arm "I will forever cherish my moment with you Reinhard Van Astrea" she rose her head meeting her purple eyes towards the Sword Saints blue eyes "I am truly blessed!"

"I have no choice then" Reinhard's blade was absorbing the Mana from the atmosphere, with the blade slowly dropping in temperature and with it also glowing a faint hue of blue

"Oh? What are you preparing to show me now?" the Bowel Hunter said cautiously as she regained most of her strength to start initiating more all-out assaults

"I will now demonstrate the swordplay that has been passed down through the legacy of the Van Astrea family!" he proudly declared as the he raised his blade over his head and towards the sky, with the blade shining to blinding light and the coldness of the atmosphere dropped lower than before

Elsa did nothing but wryly smirk at the sight of the bright spectacle of pure, unmatched power that was ensuing right in front of her. She wasn't worried at the slightest, after all she was prepared

And with all the Mana from the atmosphere being drained, the iron sword over Reinhard's head had a suitable amount of mana to finally unleash a devastating slash towards the Bowel Hunter

With the intent of defeating Elsa Granhiert, Reinhard vertically swung his blade at full force

*BOOOOOOOOOOM*

A massive explosion formed, destroying any buildings unfortunate enough to be in the vicinity of the blast, with a beaming curtain of light following soon after

The gust of wind from the explosion blew away all of the dust and wooden debris in the area or outright incinerating them, almost leaving nothing behind with the blinding light being the only thing still lingering

the Bowel Hunter has been defeated

"Fufufu~what an impressive show of power Sword Saint" the voice of the Bowel Hunter slowly crept up Reinhard's ears as he looked over to find where her whereabouts were

"I'm right here" following the trail of the voice, the Sword Saint found the Bowel Hunter standing on top of a wooden beam that used to be from the loot house "an attack like that can destroy an entire group of witch cultist"

"How are you still alive?" Rein questioned as the blade in his hand vaporized into dust

"It always pays off when one is prepared" she took off her destroyed coat as she teasingly smiled at Reinhard "it seems that at I am at my limit, unfortunately I cannot return to Mother empty handed"

"Mother?"

Elsa did not bother to answer the man's question as she kicked her feet off the wooden beam

"I need to find them"

The damp streets of the slums was very unpleasant to the nose of the girl, but she also thought of the people living here. Many of the people here had nothing, and they couldn't do anything about it. They barely had any food to keep them alive, so most of the folks including the children resorted to crime in order for them to scrape by

"I promise that when I become the ruler of this country, I will help these people live a better life" she thought to herself as the setting sunlight gleamed of her beautiful silky hair and her glimmering amethyst eyes

"I'm sure you'll do your best when the eventual event of you becoming king happens Lia!" a familiar voice said in her head, a voice that belonged to someone who was very important to her, a voice that belonged to the person who treated her with a familiar love "but first we need to get back your stolen insignia"

"My insignia wasn't stolen! I just lost it!" the silver-haired girl defended herself as the magical being of power appeared in front of her with a flash

"That's the same thing Lia" the great spirit sighed as it looked over to the setting sun, with its orange hue shining on the spirits grey and white fur "it'd be best if we hurry up, nightfall will arrive and I won't be able to help you then"

"It's okay Puck, I can handle this on my own" she reassured the great spirit as it flew over to her shoulder

"You know how much I worry about your safety when I'm not here Lia" the spirit said in a worried tone "If I saw anyone hurting you, I swear I'll hunt them down until they are nothing but ash"

"You don't need to go that far Puck, I can still use magic to defend myself, and besides, I'm not a little kid anymore" she said in pout

Puck lightly chuckled as he waved his soft little paws around "I know Lia, but sometimes you act with your head in the clouds" the spirit teased as the half-elf pouted even more

"Stop teasing me Puck! And didn't you say that we should start looking?"

"Yeah, yeah" Puck carelessly said as he vaporized out of thin air, and into the green crystal of the silver-haired girls necklace

The half-elf continued to walk on the dirt path of the slums, with some of the residents staring at her, but they would ultimately flee from her she got any closer to them

But somewhere in the distance the sounds of running footsteps could be heard. And in the corner of one of the many ruined houses, two figures approached her. The first person that caught her eye was the large, burly, dark-skinned man, and the second was a boy around her age wearing a very foreign set of clothes

The boy with the strange clothes stopped at the sight of her with the giant doing the same "Emilia?" the boy hoarsely said as he placed both of his hands on his knees while trying desperately to catch his breath

"U-uh.. Yes! My name is Emilia, and might I ask why are you so exhausted?" she questioned as she inspected at the boy. It seems like the boy and the giant were running away from something dangerous

"Hey kid, why did ya stop all of da sudden?" the giant of a man asked the boy

"This is the girl *pant* that Felt *pant* stole from *pant*" the boy said while trying with all his might to breathe in any air around him

"You mean this girl?"

"Wait! W-What did you say?" Emilia stammered as she slowly approached Subaru

"I said that your the girl that *pant* the blond thief stole from *pant*" he caught his breath again as he slightly blushed as the silver-haired girl in front of him approached him "I think the thing was called an insignia"

"Can you tell me where she is then!?" she approached him even more now, with him returning the favor by blushing even further than before "please tell me! I must have it back at all cost!"

Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. SHIT!. Am I going to die again!?

This is bad, really bad

I'm exhausted, I feel like I could pass out at any moment

Blood was pouring out the sides of my stomach. It wasn't deep enough for me to instantly die, but it still hurt like hell

"Are you okay!?" Felt quickly rushed over to my side as she looked at the wound. It seems like she was at a loss for words but eventually she spoke again "I'm the one who stole your metia but you still helped me" she meekly said

"Reflex I guess" I tried to say while trying to prevent the blood that was attempting to pour out of my mouth but to no avail. A puddles worth of the crimson liquid secreted out of my mouth as I heavily coughed it out, I felt like I was suffocating as my head ached

"When are they gonna come back!?" I screamed internally to myself as my hand clutched on the wound to my side as some kind of attempt to stop the bleeding "please for the love of god! FIND REIN!"

"Oh my~" a seductive voice called out "that little girl is the person who gave you so much trouble, and yet you pushed her out of the way to save her life, what an admirable soul you are" the Bowel Hunter alluringly remarked as she slowly approached me "Then that must mean you have quite the beautiful bowels then!" she quickly charged right at me with eyes intent on gazing at my bowels

"EL FURA!"

Elsa's charge at my abdomen was cut short as multiple blades of wind intercepted her, but due to her inhuman reflexes, she easily backflipped a few meters away from me away from the barreling blades of wind, with the gales shredding through the front door of an abandoned house

"Ram! Get away from her!" I tried to stop myself from screaming in order for my throat to not cough up any more puddles of blood

"It is obvious that you are in a state of weakness for you to even drive away this woman" she blankly said as she casted another wind spell with the same incantation but the Bowel Hunter avoided it with ease

"My my, it seems like you want to have a dance with me do you?" Elsa's purple eyes were met with the Oni maids pink eyes "though unfortunately my time is running out, so I must finish my job as soon as I can. But it is a shame really, I won't be able gaze at your lovely bowels" she sickly licked her lips at the thought

The pinkete made a face of pure disgust as she scowled at the woman before her, she held out her palm again as she chanted multiple offensive spells once more

"FURA!"

"FURA!"

"FURA!"

Each of these attacks were more aggressive and faster than the last and yet the Bowel Hunter dodged them all with ease

"Is that all you've got? My~ what a let down" she fauxed disappointment "but I think our dance ends here maid-" Elsa was quickly interuppted as she swiftly kicked Felt in the chest who was planning on stabbing her on the back

"FELT!" I couldn't hold back my scream as the liquid in my throat rose up again "f-fuck"

I vomited a pool of blood, dampening the dirt road with sunset shining upon it. My vision was starting to blur, and I felt like I could pass out at any second

"You're attempts of harming me have shattered you street rat" the Bowel Hunter slowly walked over to her backstabber, with her fingers dancing on the handle of her bended blades "not only have you failed your task, you've also tried to kill me. You are nothing than a pathetic street rat"

With each step she took, Felt tried to escape her, but five of her ribs were broken, resulting in massive pain if she were to stand up

"As punishment for your incompetence, I will slice open your- GHK!?"

Elsa was sent launching back by a powerful kick to her side and landing on the dirt road on her back. The kick was so powerful infact that I could swear that I heard her kidney rupture

And the one who delivered that powerful kick was Ram

"Fufufu~ Oh my is this perhaps your trump card" Elsa stood on her feet as blood was sleeping off her mouth and her left hand was tightly grasping on her stomach "you should've used your proficiency in hand-to-hand combat to fight me in the first place. Or is there a reason as to why you were holding back?"

Ram gave her no response, expect for a fighting stance and a scowl, accompanied by her sharp glare

And in a slow and calm manner the maid approached Elsa, with her returning the favor by doing the same

And all I could do was nothing but watch, as my vision slowly devolved into nothing. And I passed out

Hey. Sorry it took so long for me to finish this chapter, and I know this an even shorter chapter than the rest

My only excuse is that I haven't been feeling that well lately, most likely due to stress, and I'm trying to sort out some stuff about Myself

But Anyways. Stay Safe