Do you wish to hunt this beast?
It was a strange feeling in her heart. As though the world was at her fingertips. She was no longer in her own body but rather overlooking the arena.
Looking at her hands, she could no longer see her physical body. There was nothing, she was here with her consciousness. There seemed to be a water reflection beneath her that revealed the arena while darkness surrounded her on all sides.
Spotting the spider, there was something around it that wasn't there before.
A black and green swirl pulsed around the spider as the question rang out in her mind once more.
Do you wish to hunt this beast?
There was no one asking this question. A strange sensation as though someone was directly giving her the question into her brain.
'What do I get if I hunt it?' Alice asked after a short pause. She wanted to find out what this strange phenomenon was. If it could ask her this question, could it answer her queries?
However, she did not get an answer. Instead, the question changed.
Would you like to designate this beast as your bounty?
'Bounty? What do you mean by bounty? If it's a bounty, does it mean I get something from it?' Alice asked, but once again, there was no answer.
Furrowing her brows, Alice wanted to ask more questions, but she knew it was futile. That was fine, she was looking to kill this beast anyways since it had already locked its attention onto her again. With her lack of stamina, there was no way for her to run.
'Since I'm going to be forced to fight it anyways, I might as well see what this is about.'
Upon thinking this, the swirls around the beast halted as a connection was formed between the two of them. A tether connected them to each other as Alice started to fall. Colliding against the reflection, her mind was shot back into her own body as she could no longer observe from above.
"Are you alright?" Lilia asked with a frown on her face.
"Hm? Yes. You should get away. Spider focused on me." Alice said as she stabilised herself and picked up a spare dagger that Lilia had thrown earlier.
"You know I can't do that Alice. We just have to wait, the Hunters will clean things up since the main attraction is dead." Lilia tried to persuade.
But before she could head Alice's response, she watched as Alice pushed her to the side ducking down, dodging the web that the spider had just shot out.
"It's not going to wait that long." Alice shook her head while dashing towards the spider.
She didn't know what was going through her mind but she felt like she could do anything. As though something was urging her forward.
The smell of blood in the air, the feeling of barely dodging an attack that could end her life, everything felt just ecstatic for Alice.
She could certainly wait for the Hunters to sort things out but that wouldn't be a Hunt. No, she wanted something more, something that got her blood pumping through her body from sheer excitement.
Throwing the dagger towards the spider, Alice took a sharp right as she dashed towards the corpse of a Dusk Hunter that was killed by the Assassin. Grabbing the head of the beast, Alice tilted her own head back as she opened her mouth, allowing a stream of blood to enter body.
Feeling the flow of energy in her body, Alice couldn't help but let out a laugh.
Throwing the head aside, she jumped to the side, dodging the spider's attack with ease as was in a state of euphoria. Grabbing one of the bone daggers that belonged to the Assassin, Alice threw it towards the spider while dashing forward in a straight line.
Not only did she get a boost in stamina thanks to the blood, she could also tell what ability she got from it.
Heightened senses!
She could feel the stare of the beast against her skin, the moment when an attack is about to hit, even the vibrations through the ground. All of her senses except for sight had been boosted dramatically with the only downside being tiny crystals growing near her eyes. Had she drank more, she figured that they would've covered her sight as payment for heightened senses.
But for the duration, this was the best effect she could've asked for!
Paired with her eye, it was easy for her to see every attack that was going her way. Even with her lack of physical capabilities, as long as she moved ahead of time it'll be as though she could see the future.
Closing into the attack range of the spider, she could see the surprise in its eyes as it cut a wound into its own leg in an attempt to poison her through smell.
A good tactic but she wasn't bothered by that. Holding her breath, Alice narrowed her eyes and stabbed the dagger into the spider's face before swinging herself behind it. Grabbing a dagger from the moulted corpse of the spider, she stabbed two more into its back before jumping off and grabbing another pair.
There was more than enough daggers for her to use as the Assassin had kindly created plentiful.
Littering the spider's back with daggers, she avoided its legs before stabbing a blade into the joint. Kicking the handle, she tore the spider's leg off as blood poured out from the wound.
Even though the spider had evolved into a new form, it was still low on energy having fought the Assassin earlier and put to a near death state. If it wasn't for this, it wouldn't be this slow!
Hissing out in frustration, it swung its legs around blindly but Alice was unphased. She only laughed as there was a light of insanity in her eyes. From the outside perspective, it seemed as though she was drunk from the adrenaline pumping through her body.
Seeing Alice breath in the fumes from its blood, the spider crouched down and wanted to sneak away momentarily before landing a final strike.
Yet the moment it turned its back, it felt a chill and quickly stabbed towards Alice's location out of pure instinct.
Seeing its leg missed its target, the spider widened its eyes when Alice cleaved up with the dagger, tearing apart the joints.
Grabbing the leg, Alice looked at the scythe like tip as a sadistic light filled her eyes.
"Say ah." She grinned as she stabbed a dagger into one side of its jaw, forcing the mouth loose. Holding the spider's leg, Alice laughed while jamming the blade like appendage into the spider's mouth.
The hunters that were making their way into the arena paused in shock seeing the ferocity of the girl in a white dress that was now coated in blood. Her laugher ringing out extra loud against the silence of the crowd seeing her jam the leg into the beast until it died from blood loss.
However, Alice did not register the death of the beast. She continued stabbing the corpse as the fumes of the blood warped her perception.
No longer was she stabbing the corpse of a spider, instead she was now stabbing the body of her own father. Her cruel smile seeing the life fade from his eyes, her revenge for the years of suffering she had to endure.
This was far from enough.
Grabbing the daggers, she started to shred the corpse until it was split in two and she sat in a pool of the spider's blood.
Her vision was hazy as she had overtaxed her own stamina. Standing up, she slowly stumbled towards where Lilia was before collapsing on the floor.
The last thing that she could remember was a swirl of energy that was around the spider gathering towards her forearm as a single sentence appeared in her mind.
Bounty claimed.
Upon hearing the sentence, the feeling of a knife cutting across her arm could be felt as the energy craved itself upon her flesh, manifesting as a black tattoo that twisted before fading away.
'Ah… the bounty was a Sigil…' Alice thought to herself before losing consciousness.
###
Watching everything unfold from the VIP suits, a woman with long black wavy hair furrowed her brows and frowned at the conclusion. She wore an elegant black and red dress that accentuated her curves while revealing her cleavage and a peek of her thighs towards the other guests. A semi transparent silk jacket was draped over her shoulders while a single rose adorned the side of her dress.
She had captured a beast for the Assassin as a test. A test to see his capabilities and to see if he was worth her coin. Yet not only did the assassin die, but she also couldn't salvage the beast either! After all, it was slain by a girl she had sponsored out of a whim and brutalised in front of the entire crowd.
'A freshly evolved Twilight Hunter could've brought in more coin than any three Sigil hunter! If the Assassin died so be it. But the only thing I have to show for this farce is a single girl that doesn't even have a Sigil?! How can she even compare to the profit I could've gained from the spider or the Assassin???' She thought to herself as she gritted her teeth in annoyance.
Glaring at the duo of Lilia and Alice, an idea surfaced in her mind as there was a way to make things profitable for her. Flicking her fingers towards her servant, she whispered a few instructions she wanted him to tell the host of this place.
She wans't going to let Alice off easily for killing her prize.