"Ahhhhh!!!"
Despite having the agility of a rogue, Kevin was not able to dodge the bolt aimed at his face on time. The iron tip tore straight through his cheek, shattering his jaw and leaving a bloody hole where his left cheekbone used to be.
Splinters of bone and shredded flesh hung loosely from the open wound as thick, dark crimson blood poured down his neck and soaked into his collar.
He quickly clutched his ruined face, taking two panicked steps back as blood leaked between his trembling fingers.
Meanwhile, Michael quickly stepped forward with his sword pointed at Sami. "What the fuck, man?!"
Even Mia had grown alert for the first time. She had separated herself from the group by a few meters and both hands were out of her pockets.
A small brown book could now be seen floating atop her left open palm and her wary, curious gaze was fixed on Sami.
Sami frowned as he stared at the pained Kevin. ’He dodged that?’ He arched a brow in surprised amusement. ’Wow. The reflexes of a rogue are no joke.’
"What’s wrong with you?!" Michael gritted his teeth and his grip on his blade tightened. "Are you trying to kill him?!"
’Yes! Now, please just get out of the way, let me finish what I started.’ Sami shot him a cold look as he began loading the next bolt.
"Have you gone mad?!" Veins could now be seen on Michael’s reddening face.
"Explain yourself, or God help me, I will kill you right now!"
He didn’t look like he was bluffing and he seemed ready to attack anytime now.
Well, Sami couldn’t blame him. After all, he was friends with this scumbag.
He sighed. After a few seconds, he smiled and repeated the rule of the game.
"The game will come to an end if the players hunt down five White Tigers for food or a beast hunts down four players." He paused and alternated his gaze between the group. "The rule didn’t specify what beast and just mentioned ’a beast.’ Also, there’s meant to be five of us, right? But it mentioned four. Which means..."
Both Mia and Michael’s eyes widened slightly as the realization hit them.
The implication of the second part of the rule simply meant that one of them could be a beast and hunt down the four others.
"You’ve decided to be a beast, right?" A small smile returned to Sami’s face as he settled his attention back on Kevin. "You’ve already hunted and killed Akari."
"What?" Michael turned to Kevin in disbelief, but Kevin was already backing away with wide, terrified eyes, unable to utter a single word through his mangled jaw.
Seeing that, Sami tapped his nose with a finger. "See now, a hunter has a really good nose, and right from the moment I saw you here, I could smell the scent of blood and Akari all over you. Of course, I wasn’t sure at first. But the fact that you’ve been quietly following us to find her, pretending like you’ve not come across her yet is enough proof." He raised his crossbow once more. "You killed her. Am I right?"
Kevin panicked, and his eyes bulged as he gurgled uselessly through his shattered jaw.
While Mia just kept staring at Kevin with tight brows, Michael looked quite shaken, as if he couldn’t believe it. However, seeing that Sami had raised the crossbow again, he quickly extended his hands.
"Wait, wait. Please don’t do this. Let’s just say what you are saying is true. There are others ways to settle this. We don’t have to just execute him on the spot!"
’Oh? Look at this naive fool,’ Sami arched a brow.
The young man seemed like one of those who could be seen as ’righteous,’ although Sami couldn’t tell if he was really that good of a person, or if he was just defending his friend.
"Besides..." Michael alternated gazes between Sami and Kevin, pleading desperately. "We still need to confirm if Akari is actually dead first!"
Just then, however, Kevin, who realized that he was cornered, let out a raspy screech and immediately bolted down the fog-drenched alleyway with insane speed.
"Tsk!" Sami clicked his tongue as he got ready to pull the trigger again. However, before he could properly take the kill shot, Michael leapt, hitting Sami shoulder-first and knocking his aim wide into the dirt.
Sami fell to the ground, and Michael got on top of him, pinning his hands to the dirt.
"Stop this bullshit!" Michael yelled as he wound his arm back getting ready to punch some sense into Sami.
Despite how much Sami struggled to free himself, he couldn’t break out from the Berserker’s insane strength.
’Shit. This dude is strong... really strong.’
Fortunately, even though he had missed his aim, he still managed to hit Kevin’s side, causing the young man to stumble and crash heavily into a pile of rotten wooden crates.
Kevin immediately tried to rise and scramble back onto his feet. But right at that moment, Mia tore out a page from the open book in her palm, then flung it towards the rogue.
The paper immediately changed into a large magic circle, after which a bolt of lightning shot out, blasting straight through Kevin’s back and dropping him instantly onto the cobblestones.
For a few seconds after, the space fell silent, before Michael’s voice echoed through the alley.
"No!" He stood and hurried over to Kevin, but it was too late.
Kevin was dead.
Smoke drifted slowly from the scorched tear in his shirt, and his pale green eyes were open, staring straight into nothing.
"Why did you do that?!" Michael suddenly snapped at Mia.
But she only huffed and turned away.
Her book vanished into thin air, then she pocketed her hands as she scoffed, "Snap out of your soft feelings, Michael. There’s three of us left here for him to kill. This a hunting expedition. We can’t work properly when one of us is out to kill the rest of us.
"Did you really think I was going to let an additional threat to my life roam free here?"
Michael glared at her, but at the end, he could do nothing but watch her walk away towards Sami.
Meanwhile, Sami stood up and began to flex his sore shoulder while rolling his neck with a mildly annoyed expression on his face.
’Damn this dude. May his trousers tear in public. May soap enter his eyes when he showers. May he stub his pinky toe against every corner he walks past, and may his food always come out lukewarm. Tsk.’
Just then, Mia stopped in front of him and said, "Take us to Akari’s corpse."
Sami guessed that she likely wanted to confirm for herself that the young woman was really dead.
He stared at Mia for a few seconds, before exhaling exasperatedly.
Then, he turned and began walking down the foggy side street. Not long afterwards, they came to a stop in front of an abandoned brick courtyard.
Akari’s body lay in a pool of her dark, congealed blood. There was a clean wound across her neck, and her lifeless eyes were wide open, staring up at the sky. Her face wore the expression of someone who had experienced horror in her final moments.
Mia sighed and crouched down, then reached over and closed Akari’s eyes, while saying a small prayer that only she could hear.
’Hm... so she has this side to her,’ Sami thought as he watched her with half-lidded eyes.
He also said a quick prayer for the poor woman. ’Rest in peace, stranger.’
Not long after, Mia stood up and turned around, then began walking away without saying anything. As Sami followed behind, a small, almost imperceptible smile formed on his lips.
’She lied. She’s not a wielder of a 6 of Diamonds.’