Tooth for tooth, eye for eye

As the sun completely disappeared from the sky to let its place for the moon to shine. The group arrived before the decripit warehouse after having been given direction from a local.

Julian exhales came out as a mist as he listened for any suspicious sounds and watched out for the stench of blood. Fortunately, he didn't detect anything unusual.

"There's no light, is it really the place?" Subaru furrowed his brows a bit.

"Only one way to know. I'm going in, you both stay here. If I don't give you the green light within a minute. Go seek help." Julian stated.

"What!? Why are you the only one going in? I'm going in too. It's not like we're sure it's dangerous in there. Maybe they're just asleep." Subaru protested.

Julian gazed at him for a moment, Piercing him with his gaze. "I'm the one who can defend myself best. So if I go in there and don't come back. Then it mean that there is indeed something dangerous, something you can't handle."

Flinching a bit from the berating, Subaru clenched his teeth in the end and stubornly stood his ground. "No! You handled everything today! The armed thief, the little girl and now this? I'm going in with you."

Looking into Subaru's eyes. Julian could see the determination, or rather unwilligness to give up in them. And at the same time, deeper. He could see a pleadingness. Something that said. 'Please, I don't want to be useless. I don't want to be discarded.'

So, thinking about it for a moment. Julian sighed and relented in the end. "Fine, but you stay behind me."

"What about me?" Emilia pointed at herself.

Both boys at that turned toward her and said. "You wait here."

Julian added. "And run if we don't come back."

With a fearful expression at the implications, she weakly protested. "But, I can keep myself safe..."

Julian only arched a brow at that. "Without Puck?"

Emilia deflated.

Nodding at his easy victory, he said to Subaru. "Then, let's get this over with."

Opening the squeaking door, both of them entered and were met with absolute silence.

Julian relaxed a bit when his still enhanced sense of smell didn't capture anything else than a slight odor of mold and dust.

"Is there someone here?" Subaru called rather loudly while taking out his phone and using its light to see around.

Julian didn't need any light, since he could see in the dark.

But it still took a bit for them to get accustomed to the ambiant light.

And when they finally were and his eyes widened the slightest at the first sight of blood, it was already too late.

As she was fast, and she was behind them from the beginning.

"CAREFU-" Screaming in warning at the sound of slicing wind. Julian word was cut short by the realisation he had truly failed for the first time.

—————

"Ara, Ara. You're quite an handsome boy aren't you... I wonder? Would it make your gut be more beautiful than this one's inside...?"

Julian was sure his mind was pretty strong, but it didn't change the fact this scene would scar him for the rest of his life.

The scene of Subaru's slitted throat, bleeding out rapidly with bulging and unbelieving eyes gazing straight into his own.

He wanted to leap toward him, save him with his magic. But just as this thought crossed his mind, the life was already gone from his eyes.

He felt a tug at his mind, a possibility that was offered to him. Something that could be easily ignored.

And that's what Julian did, as he was way too focused on tearing apart the woman in front of him with his gaze and standing above Subaru's corpse.

Elsa Granhiert, the woman in question couldn't help but shudder under the eyes of the seemingly normal teen.

"Aaaaah, that's quite the scary look you got there. But please refrain from it, I'm not an easy woman." She smiled coquishetly at Julian.

Julian terrifying gaze gradually morphed into a cold one and then a casual one.

He even grinned a bit.

Elsa rarely felt put out and uncomfortable. But this drastic and strange change in attitude was one such occasion that brought up these feelings in herself.

She was initially thinking of toying a little with her prey, but now she was thinking perhaps it wouldn't be as fun as she thought.

Just as Julian oppened his mouth to buy at least a minute, what he didn't want the most to happen, happened.

The door to the warehouse was oppened by a girl with silver hair. "Julian? Subaru? What's with all this noise? Can I enter now?"

As both his gaze and the assasin's landed on the newcomer and he saw the later flash with murderous intent. Time froze for Julian.

Elsa was nearer than him, she was probably faster too. He wouldn't be able to save her.

No. Since when was he thinking like a loser? One failure was the only thing it took for him to give up and not even try? Wasn't it what he was searching all along? Failure? So why was he letting it affect him?

What was it again? Letting your mana flow through your body?

So that's what Julian did. He did not use his destruction power nor his trinity energy. He drew, for the first time since coming to this world, on the basic, bland mana of this world.

And let it run wild inside himself.

*BOOM*

One second he was a dozen meters from Emilia. And the next he was using his left arm as a buffer for a dagger slice aiming to her throat.

Unbothered by his arm who was sent flying in the air. Julian clenched his remaining fist the hardest he could, making the air pop from the power. And sent Elsa crash through the warehouse furnitures with a punch to the face with a satisfying crack.

Wisp of white mana floating around him, Julian gazed at a shaken Emilia to fortunately see only a shallow cut oppening on her white neck.

"I told you to not enter. Well, it doesn't matter anymore. Just run, I'll take care of the bowel hunter."

Emilia lower lip trembled as she realized how close she was to death and her eyes widened when her sight came across Julian's missing arm.

"You- your arm! What about Subaru? Is he okay? I can't just g-."

Julian shut her up and made her flinch with the palpable anger and mana emanating from his voice. "RUN!"

Taking a deep breath, Julian turned his back on Emilia and repeated, softly this time. "Run. Please stay safe."

Biting her lips with tears in her eyes, Emilia restrained herself to search around for Subaru and exited the warehouse. Tears finally leaking from her eyes at her own powerlessness and at having lost what she thought were her first friends. But still, she hadn't given up yet. She would find help and save at least one of them.

—————

*Crack*

Julian picked up his arm and watched at the same time as Elsa stood up and her concaved and bloodied face mended itself in the blink of an eye.

Annoyance and even a bit of anger could be seen as she eyed the blade that reaped his right arm just then. "Cutting off your arm dulled the edge. Do you know how much these daggers cost me? It'll at least cost me an arm to repair it." She smiled at her own pun.

Julian didn't answer and just shook his hand, he had the impression he just punched a block of iron.

"You know, we can play two at this game. Bowel hunter. You're not the only one who's not exactly right in the head and can heal fast." Julian grinned and used his trinity energy to reatach his left arm back.

"So you do know me, I'm flattered. I don't know what Divine blessings you have, but the world seem to truly love you. Like this girl with the Divine blessing of the wind I had the pleasure to gut earlier."

Julian only sighed in his mind and sneered. "Now now, I know your childhood was sad and all. And that it was perfectly in your right to gut this bastard. But to find solace in killing other and seeing their inside is a rather sad and shallow life."

Julian goal was achieved when Elsa playful expression lost all pretense and froze, before becoming cold and unfeeling.

"The more I see your face, the less I want to see your bowels and the more I just want to stab you in the face."

Julian laughed. "I do have a tendency to have this effect on trash."

Elsa eyes flashed in an ominous red light, before she disappeared from her place and lunged at Julian with a speed way faster than the one she showed before.

Julian own eyes glowed with unnatributed, white mana as he found himself actually struggling to keep up. So he just poured more of his seemingly unlimited mana from his gate into his body and took an hybrid stance.

With the feeling of electricity flooding his veins, Julian wrapped his hands in a thick coat of destruction power and blocked the first strike headed toward his kindney in the nick of time.

The second blow was blocked in a similar manner, and the following ones too. Lacking actual fighting experience against such a skilled opponent at such intensity posed to be quite a challenge even with his mastery of many martial arts.

But the more blows he received, the more comfortable he was becoming with the flow of the fight.

Cuts he got on his arms and hands blocking were not healed to not tire himself.

Soon Elsa actively began to avoid his hands after seeing her daggers taking damage and the skin downright vanishing after a graze from his power of destruction.

And so a stalemate where neither party really received any injuries unfolded for a time before the more experimented assassin decided she had enough.

So suddenly, after Julian redirected another blow to his jugular. He had to cross arms as Elsa used the momentum of the redirection of her strike to spin and send a roundhouse kick to his chest.

Julian was certain that this kick was even heavier than being percuted by a speeding truck. Making him skid back a good dozen meters on the wooden floor of the warehouse and sending wood splinters flying everywhere.

Julian was just stabilising himself from the blow when he saw a malevolent smile flashing across the woman face who was already in crouched position, her blades ready to strike.

The next clash happened in a blink.

*BOOM*

The sound barrier breaking, Elsa who was before Julian an instant before was now a good distance behind him, her back facing him. Striking the air with her dagger and splashing a thin line of blood on the floor, she sighed. "It was evident you were a master in unhanded combat and a battle prodigy. In due time, your name would have no doubt resonated through the world. Such a shame your first true battle to the death was with me."

She shook her head in fake pity. "Even if people don't see me as such, I still consider myself a warrior at heart. And its my honor to be able to kill a genius such as yourself, whatever your name was."

"Julian Håberjorgen-Marquis. That's my name. And thank you for the praise, but I unfortunately think hearing them coming out of mouth take away any worth they may have."

Elsa turned around and couldn't help but widen her eyes a bit in surprise.

Julian stood there, facing his opponent, a bloody line running across his the entire perimeter of his neck and a large portion of his waist. Only for him to make them disappear with a minute use of destruction power.

Tilting his head toward the thing in his right hand, he grinned. "You see, one of the main use of pain is making you aware when something with your body is wrong. It seemed you've been deprived of it for too long, because I think what I have right there is yours."

Wrenching away the dagger from the still clenching hand of the delicate arm of his enemy. Julian threw it in the air and caught it a few times while taking a pensive expression. "It's funny if we think about it. Because we can say that we're almost even now. After all, you took one of my arms earlier. And now... I got one of yours."

Julian chuckled as he pulverised to dust with destruction power Elsa's arm while the one in question just stood there and watched.

"Now, I only lack your head."