"What? We get to decide who stays?"
Groza was at a loss, looking around.
"What does that mean?"
Hargod waved his hand dismissively.
"Pha! It’s obvious you’re a city girl, and probably from the wealthy sector, huh?"
Groza frowned. As much as she disliked the current situation, she couldn’t argue with Hargod because he was right. She was indeed from the wealthy sector. She had been there both now and before she became a Hunter.
"You’re going to make us fight each other, aren’t you?" Kreyn asked, though he remained calm.
His suggestion only intensified Groza’s panic.
"Agh? These two are just ordinary people! What the hell does that mean?"
Hargod spread his arms wide with an ironic smile.
"Don’t paint me as a monster. It’ll all be fair." He turned to the man and the girl. "You decided to run away, why?"
The man’s face went pale. He knew what Hargod was capable of.
"No! It’s... It was just a misunderstanding. We were just—"
Stomp!
Hargod stamped his foot, silencing them both.
"Don’t try to make excuses. I have a lot of questions for Leora, but she never lies. If she said you were trying to escape, then that’s what happened."
"We..."
The girl bit her lip before looking at Hargod.
"Yes! We were trying to escape because we want freedom! We don’t want to be stuck here anymore, for fucks sake!"
Groza was speechless. She was sure Hargod would kill her for this, but she still didn’t realize what kind of company she’d gotten herself into.
"Hahaha! That’s a different story!"
Hargod laughed and walked over to the wall. Several sharp blades hung on a rack. He took two of them and tossed them at the man and girl’s feet.
"Want your freedom? Fine. If you can defeat those two in combat, I’ll let you go and even give you provisions for the road."
"But..." The man trembled. "They’re both Hunters! Look at their uniforms!"
Hargod spread his arms wide.
"You’ll have the blades, but the shackles on them are blocking their powers. As for me, that’s more than fair."
While the man hesitated, wondering if it was worth it, after all, they were being offered a fight to the death, the girl picked up a blade and cut through her ropes.
She pointed at Kreyn.
"I choose him - the silver one."
Arstar, who had been watching from the sidelines, narrowed his eyes. "Oh, decided to pick the weaker opponent? Smart, very smart."
"N-No..." The man took a step back, shaking his head. "This isn’t right! It’s not supposed to be like this!"
BAM!
Leora’s foot slammed into his back, and he collapsed to the ground before the blade.
"Either fight, or I’ll kill you right here and now. Your choice."
Exchanging a glance, the man and the girl nodded. They planned to escape together, so they had to go through with it.
"We’ll do this, and freedom will be ours." The girl gripped her blade tighter. "This is our only chance!"
Step! Step! Step!
She ran forward, aiming for Kreyn. She knew he was a Hunter, but he was in shackles! She was sure of victory.
"I have no other choice!" the girl exclaimed, bringing her blade down hard on Kreyn.
He stepped aside as the blade left a cut on his cheek.
Slash! Slash! Slash!
One swing after another, Kreyn had no choice but to dodge. Her movements were fast, but no better than those of the guys at Sector 18 with whom he occasionally had disputes.
"Damn it! Just give up already!" The girl spun around sharply, striking at Kreyn’s knees.
The kick was precise, knocking Kreyn off balance, and soon his back hit the ground, but he had no time to think about it.
"AAAAAHHH!!!" The girl, clutching the blade tightly with both hands, aimed at Kreyn’s chest.
Crack!
At the last moment, Kreyn thrust his arms forward, and the thick chain of his shackles stopped the trembling blade.
"Shit! Die! Die! Just die!" The girl tried to cut through the chain, but she couldn’t.
The next moment, Kreyn clasped his shackles together in front of him, forming a shield, as the blade flew out of the girl’s hand from the recoil.
"No!"
The girl spun around, about to retrieve the blade, when Kreyn’s hands pressed down on her shoulders. They switched positions, and now Kreyn was on top, pinning the girl’s arms to the ground with his knees.
True, he was in shackles, but as soon as they landed on his hands, he realized just how heavy they were. Each one weighed as much as a sledgehammer, if not more.
"Agh...?" The girl’s eyes widened as a shadow fell across her frightened face.
She saw only Kreyn’s calm eyes before the iron shackles crashed down right onto her face.
Splash!
A spurt of blood gushed out, splattering Kreyn’s forehead, but he had no intention to stop there.
Blow after blow brought the girl’s life closer to its inevitable end.
"KREYN!" Groza cried out at the top of her lungs. "That’s enough! You have to stop right now!"
"Ghr..." The girl reached out her hand. "Please... I want to be free..."
Kreyn turned to Groza, but she saw neither support nor compassion in his gaze.
"She would not spare me. If she could, she would kill me and walk away. For me, that’s enough."
Without saying another word, Kreyn brought his hands down in one final strike.
Blood gushed in a spray around his shackles as the girl’s hand fell.
The man who had been watching all this from the sidelines and knew what awaited him took a step back.
"No... No! No!"
He shook his head from side to side as his panic grew. He looked at Groza, at Leora, and at Hargod.
’I won’t get out of here... I can’t escape... They’ll kill me, just like they killed her!’
Groza noticed the man’s state and stepped forward.
"Wait! I won’t hurt you! We’ll figure something out! You need to calm down!"
"NO! Don’t come near me!"
His hands trembled as his gaze fell on the blade.
"There’s no... There’s no other way out..."
Groza’s eyes widened as the man turned the blade toward himself and plunged it into his neck. He choked on his own blood within seconds.
"Why..." Groza collapsed to her knees. "We could try to figure this out..."
Hargod waved his hand.
"So it’s settled. These two remain."
Kreyn looked at him while blood continued to drip from the shackles.
"What now? Garius said we’d either become slaves or one of you."
Garius, who had been standing aside, shrugged.
"I forgot to mention, this guy isn’t just a Hunter - he’s a blacksmith. I’ve seen the gear he’s made. It’s something else."
Like a shadow, Leora appeared in front of Kreyn, towering slightly over him because of her heels.
"A blacksmith, you say? I could use one in the mine."
He looked at her with his single eye.
"Will you take the shackles off me?"
"Sure. You earned your place here."
Kreyn nodded as his gaze grew deeper.
"Good."
He looked at Leora, but what he saw wasn’t her face, it was something else.
[You killed a human.]
[Do you want to absorb a Soul Fragment x1?]
[At this Gene Forge Level, you cannot use a Soul Fragment for anything other than energy.]
Kreyn had only one answer to that.
"Yes."
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