"With those two, I don't," Gisella turned to her, "I don't think so."

Amaryllis sighed. She expected as much. A question lingered in her mind. Why did Clownman decide to target her if Gisella was the same?

Because she chose to remain unbranded, and I didn't. Or does Gisella have a family in the soul hunt, making her a problematic target?

"Then... do you have a plan?"

"What about you?" Gisella peered down at her. She was half a head taller than her. Amaryllis had never been more conscious of her height. Only Cynthia was taller than her as far as she had met real-life girls.

"I think... We need to find an emergency exit path. I'm sure there is one. Assuming the main gate will have a similar mechanism to the one in the storehouse or whatever, then if any one of us dies the main gate will not open. But, at least one of us is expected to die if we take into the number of deaths every year as published by the association. Thus, I believe there’s a secondary exit. A hidden passage in case one of us dies, which might be harder to unlock or based totally on luck. But to get behind the circus we’d need to face the puppeteer. We cannot do that, so we need a secondary exit. Maybe the real exit is secondary, which is not on the map, since the obvious one is all but a death trap," Amaryllis sighed, slumping, "I don't know what I'm yapping, but this is not right. Makes no sense. How could they assign two without soul-forged weapons to the same team, that’s like signing the death warrant for all four of us? I don’t want to be rude, but against the seran, you’ll be useless too. There should be something to make this easier."

I wonder if this is how Clownman is targeting Gisella. Stop it, brain. I have been reading too many conspiracy theories.

"You’re correct..." Gisella stopped. So did everyone, as the human puppet wearing a joker mask rolled over from behind the counter—a total of four. “Two unbranded are never assigned in the same team. This is unusual. Perhaps, a balancing act to accommodate me,” Gisella chuckled. Amaryllis didn’t find that humorous, only arrogant yet dreadful truth. She had heeded Light’s advice and not tried to peer into Gisella’s soul, but she now felt tempted to try.

"Huan!" Mire shouted, "Not them, our target is that..." She pointed at the end of the lane. A puppet was slobbering its way to them.

"Right." Huan looked at them, "I'll catch the big one..." And he slammed his foot on the floor. A ripple of lightning surged through it, freezing the zombies. He blitzed past them.

"I'll help him," and Mire rushed behind him.

"She knows you don't have a forge brand either." Amaryllis assessed, watching Mire lift her skirt and rush past the puppet. Her shawl glowed under the moonlight. It was a sight—an expensive sight.

"She is deceptively sharp and aware," Gisella affirmed. "I'll take care of them."

"No. I wish to see how strong I am while using the meat cleaver. Finding that out against a seran would be absurdly stupid."

"As you wish," Gisella looked behind her.

Amaryllis took a deep breath and stepped forward. She swung her sword once and twice. There had to be a reason the Soul Hunt chose her, right? She decided to trust it was her strength. She always had it. Not the physical physical strength, but one enhanced by mana. I should be careful with my mana reserve, shouldn't I?

But she couldn't help feeling a thrill as the veins in her hand turned black, like cracks on a porcelain doll, and spread to her sword, infusing it with mana. It crept into the sword, strands of dark hue swam on the steely surface but soon lost their might to darkness as the blade turned pitch dark.

Amaryllis felt a sharp pain in her nerves as if they were being shredded by glass. Using mana on things that were not part of her body strained her nerves.

Grr....

Blood oozed out of the tainted man's half-hung mouth beneath the mask. He snarled and lunged at her, brandishing a knife. Faster than Amaryllis could see, she instinctively swung her sword. He stopped just out of range. Smart!

The other three jerked out of Huan's shock and growled. I need to act fast. I should've left two for Gisella. But then, she wouldn't have known how strong she was. And she hoped she was strong. At least strong enough to survive against the weak mob.

One of the clowns picked up the counter and launched it at her. She ducked, and it flew past her, crashing into something behind her. They were coordinated as another one, flaunting a pipe, rushed at her at the same time.

Amaryllis scrambled back. Her mind remained calm, but a little bubble of panic made her hesitant. If I get hit, I'll be a bigger burden. Right now, she wasn't a burden, just not useful. But injury would change that.

The pipe-wielding clown didn't relent. He pursued her, swinging his weapon with brute force. The other two followed him, closing in on her from the flanks. Where did he even get that pipe?

Amaryllis parried the pipe with her sword. The metal clashed, sending sparks flying. She winced at the metallic screech but didn't have time to react. Her hand tightened. Grunting, she shoved it to the side.

The puppet's motions were sluggish. Stepping to the side, she slashed the cleaver diagonally. She felt the cervical, which couldn't withstand the strike of the mana-infused attack. It crunched like a glass smashed inside a rubbery cover, and then, the flesh. She felt every detail, every nerve, every drop of blood she tore. It was too fast and too slow at the same time. Before she could jerk away from the nauseating sensation, her sword had already gone through the man's neck, which rolled on the ground with a wet thud.

Amaryllis took a little too much time to get over the feeling of the flesh, and when she did—a flash of silver greeted her, reflecting the moon. A blade, aimed at her throat. She scrambled back, tripping over her feet. The blade missed her neck, but it followed her chest. She raised her right arm, blocking the strike. She swung her left arm, cutting off the arm that held the blade. The blade cut her arm, drawing blood. Her sword cut his arm, sending the blade flying. They both fell to the ground.

He lunged again, prepared to take a bite at her neck. Amaryllis breathed sharply as she looked at the disgusting thing trying to hurt her. Her heart flared. Her blade met its skull from the side and cut through it halfway, stopping just at the nose.

“ARGH!!”

She jerked the blade away. She hadn't expected it to scream like a normal human, writhing in pain. Warm blood spurted from his wound, splashing her face. It wasn’t acidic, but it might as well have been, from the terror she felt.

Her eyes widened. Her hands scraped the rough pavement as she crawled away. Blood dripped from the stab wound. Yet the pain didn't even register in her mind. Just the horrifying scream echoed in her mind. She wanted to get away from it, and she did. But there were four, and she had killed one and a half.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Gisella, watching from the sidelines, finally decided to intervene lest she become the reason for someone's death. She pressed her hands together, but they never met, stopping just an inch away from each other. She used her strength to crush the invisible thing between her hands. And just as both her palms met without any sound, the howling puppet popped like a crushed tomato, creating a puddle of flesh. It all happened in a matter of seconds before it could move to hurt Amaryllis.

Her eyes landed on the other two. A tiny orb appeared in her hand, black as night. The puppet saw the orb for a split second as it smashed into his face. The world around him warped, or rather, he warped, folding and twisting into a ball that shrank and shrank until it exploded like a water balloon. Gisella stepped back, tsking. A drop of blood stained her coat. Then, the last one turned to the still panicked and crawling Amaryllis.

"Gah!" It popped. Amaryllis had already crawled away from the radium of the splash.

"Amaryllis," Gisella said.

Amaryllis didn't hear her. Calm down! She ordered herself. Breathing out blood-stained air, her mind cleared. Her hands were shaky. After another moment, she realized what she had been doing. Stupid. Stop behaving like a child.

After another breath, she found the decency to stand up and clean off the blood on her face with her sleeve. "Sorry," Amaryllis said, her eyes observing the bloody mess. The only one who had a decent death was the one who died at her hand. "You have a family feud with these creatures." Amaryllis sighed, hoping Gisella wouldn't question her. She didn't have an answer or a lie to explain what just happened. She hadn’t thought she would react in such a lame way.

"You should get used to it. Soul hunters face far worse than this every day," Gisella said nothing more. She turned to look at the show Mire and Huan displayed.

"I will, soon," Those words were for her as much as for Gisella. Stupid. I need to do better. I cannot die here, Cyn is waiting for me. Her heart tightened at the thought of what her sister would feel if she failed.

“If you don’t mind me asking, is this your first time fighting?”

“I don’t know…” Amaryllis answered honestly. “I don’t remember fighting before today.”

“Then, you did absurdly well. I suppose you’re vying for the top scorer, so there is a merit to you, after all.”

“Somehow, you’re being nice and degrading me at the same time,” Amaryllis grumbled under her breath. I will do better next time. But, now I know I can maintain mana enhancement for a good time. She looked down at her hand. Nerves throbbed, but she believed she could do it, again, and more proficiently. Stronger and denser, too.

Amaryllis picked up her sword. Her hand clenched on it, painfully so. She followed Gisella as they continued toward the battered creature that still clung to life.

………..

"Hand me your sword," Gisella asked Huan, once they arrived at the scene.

"Why?" He spat. Blood dripped from the corner of his mouth, but his body bathed in it. Whether it was his or the creature was a mystery. “Don’t barge in on my kill!”

The creature at that time had been a humanoid. Now, it was like a pizza batter made with flesh. Its body beat like a heart.

"Because..." Gisella sighed, "You are not killing it."

"I can do it, blame the wimp ass girl throwing wet noodle of a spell," he spat and lunged.

The creature formed a spike, and Huan blocked it with his sword. The impact launched him in the air, and he displayed agility that Amaryllis couldn't believe someone as dumb as he could, landing on his feet without even a stumble. And he dashed again. This time, he cut off the tendril, and blood sprayed out like a broken hose. "Die!" he screamed, as Amaryllis would expect. His sword dawned in an aura that came out of the tip like a laser.

Shit. Amaryllis cursed in her mind. She didn't expect him to be this strong. And he had an ability. Now her goading earlier seemed more stupid.

The mass of flesh writhed and twisted into a ball. And it rolled at them. Amaryllis was the first to step back. Her eyes searched for a counter with no blood to hide behind. And she found none. Gisella followed right beside her.

"I'll take care of it," Mire shouted, she was behind the creature. A magic circle manifested beneath the creature, and then a pillar of mana shot from it, incinerating it, into the clouds. Well, not really into the clouds, but you get the gist.

When the blinding light vanished, not even the creature’s ashes remained.

"Wha..." Huan looked at Mire, mouth agape. "How the fuck did you even do that!" he screamed, almost enraged. "And why didn't you do it before!"

"I told you, I need time to prepare my spell," Mire said with a sigh. She looked exhausted. “You should have distracted it instead of wasting your stamina. Well, we won regardless.”

[Group Effort: Cleared the disturbance in the central Alley.

Reward: 5 Points/ Each (Mire bonus: 5 points for killing strike)

Difficulty: Normal

Leader: Undecided

The slayed creature's shattered soul for unbranded has been accounted for and shall be distributed once the segment is completed.]

Amaryllis kept her face impassive. But she was surprised. The blue screen floating in front of her was anything but not mystical. She wanted to touch it and see what would happen, but she couldn't do something in front of others. She side-eye looked at Huan, hoping he’d do it in her stead. But his lack of surprise informed her it was not the first time he saw this notification.

Reading it, she realized this was the task Clownman was talking about. What would these points do? I should've done a little more research. Or I can ask... she sighed. Asking them was too big a social hurdle for her. She had to appear indifferent to everything so that they would keep their distance from her. And once they knew what went inside her brain, Mire wouldn’t look at her for advice but scoff.

"Mire! You... How the fuck did you get a bonus after I got my ass whipped twice and did all the effort?"

"Don't worry, Huan, I'll transfer those points after the assignments," Mire said. She still seemed unbothered by everything. Placid. Amaryllis wanted that position. As much as the leader position was tempting, having an unbothered life was always a priority, if she could get money for her sister first. Transfering point. That could be bad, depending on the conditions of the transfer.

"We should proceed." She suggested.

"Right."

.......

They didn't encounter anything until they reached the main ground or stadium of the carnival. In the center was a big tent. Around it were many buildings, rides, and other things. And blood gushing out from all the dead she had come to expect. They encountered another group, but Huan had been too quick for them. Hence, they made it without any more injury. Her wound on the arm had stopped bleeding, and she had a handkerchief that helped bind it tightly.

"Where to now?" Mire said. "Hopefully not that tent. We already know the puppet master is there, and he's anything but weak. We'll be dancing on his string inside. Or we may already be, just ignorant of such fact."

"Don't worry..." Huan said, and slumped as he remembered the spell Mire had conjured. "I mean, he should be worried, go ahead, Mire. Incinerate that tent."

"I still need time to recover that spell. It'll take another 3 minutes."

Huan slumped again, "That's a useless spell."

Mire didn't seem to take offense at it.

"We should search for an exit," Gisella said.

"The place is too big... we need to split—" Huan opened his mouth.

"No!" Amaryllis cut in. Light's words still lingered in her mind, "I mean, that would be pretty stupid since the clown can kill us one by one."

"Accept it, you're just afraid the clown will kill you first." Huan accused, pointing his finger at her.

"I'm not," Amaryllis huffed. She truly wasn't, if one of them would look after Cynthia in her stead, "But can you guarantee there's a way out once we split and one of us dies?"

"Gah!" He kicked a stone. Huan's behavior was unusual. She couldn't help but wonder if he had been affected or something.

"Calm down."

"Calm down, indeed, kekekeke,"