Bzzt. Swoosh. Chop.
Mayli found her liver being pierced by one of the butcher's daggers as he appeared to her left. Eren spun around and lodged his remaining dagger in the girl's heart before twisting it. He sent his fire and lightning mana inside her to fry her mana circuits as well.
The elves chasing after her stopped in their tracks and looked at each other blankly as they saw Mayli's condition. Even Meeshah who was pretending to run away from the scene stopped in her tracks and looked at the scene with a horrified expression.
Mayli was unable to cast a spell or get away from the butcher. She spit blood when she tried to open her mouth. She looked at her killer with injustice written in her eyes and spoke with difficulty.
"How... How did you know?"
The butcher looked at her with puzzled expressions of his own before speaking up.
"Hm? Know what?"
Mayli wanted to find out if she had a flaw in her acting or not. But it turns out the butcher killed her because it was convenient to do so. Or she was just too suspicious to be running at him. However, it could be assumed that he did not see Mayli as an ally to Meeshah's team.
Mayli couldn't help nodding at her killer before closing her eyes forever. She took solace in the fact that at least she hadn't failed as an assassin. That her acting was as impeccable as it could get. She managed to smile with her blood-soaked lips before the butcher chopped her head clean off.
In more ways than one, Mayli was put in the same boat as her most recent victim in her last moments. Poetic justice by Layla's standards.
However, the homunculus would have frowned at Eren after realizing the cult classic scene had been ruined in Eren's hands. Two of her favorite fantasy scenarios getting spoiled by his allegedly ruthless actions would not have sat well with her.
"Here. Catch this."
Eren threw Mayli's chopped head at her supposed pursuers before getting away from them. The group was too shocked to react rationally. One of them raised his hands to catch the butcher's throw unwittingly.
It was a well-placed throw. And it was an equally straightforward catch.
Swoosh. Catch. Boom.
***
It seemed that the Sasara World took the participants' wishes into account to some extent when offering them Perks to spend their Karma points on. The butcher was offered a pair of daggers and Shamshirs through the Sansara interface because of his expertise with them.
Similarly, there was a Perk that allowed him to turn inanimate objects into explosives. He had to spend 3000 Karma Points to get this Perk. The bomb lover in him happily spent that much money on a supposedly useless Perk instead of investing the same Karma points into leveling up.
The butcher cursed the Sansara World for making him addicted to such a convenient way of fighting. He had practically adopted his battle style as per this world's rules. He felt that it would be very difficult for him to adjust to real life if he spent a month inside Sansara World.
He felt like home. The restrictions that weigh others down did not exist for him for the most part.
Eren did not have any fancy moves. He did not have his Expert-ranked powers with him. However, his multi-elemental and multi-weapon skills started paying him dividends inside this special world.
He was in a position to exploit the world's restrictions placed on others because of the gruesome training he underwent under Alephee. Plus, he had a basic knowledge of the Perks from Sansara World. That's why he had already come prepared with many strategies to use inside the Sansara World. As a result, the butcher became even more of a killing machine inside the Sansara World than he was outside it.
This was the reason he managed to take care of Meeshah's entire group with such ease. The butcher made use of his advantages and started getting more Perks for him instead of just focusing on leveling up. He knew that spending Karma points on Perks would serve him well in the long run.
After all, Perks were like Abilities inside the Sansara World. They would be better at using them if they had them in the game earlier. The Abilities would also grow along with their users, allowing them to maximize their offensive, defensive, or other capabilities.
***
Eren had almost wiped out Meeshah's entire team that was previously divided between her and Mayli. His blast, using Mayli's head, was only able to injure the rankers.
The butcher cursed the Sansara World as well as the Sansara Sage once moreâ€" this time for a different reason. He cursed them for making him spend 3000 Karma points only to offer a sorry excuse for an explosive that wasn't even worth a fart in his eyes.
The terrorist felt that even his earlier potion bomb iterations that he did for practice would have shown better results than the sorry excuse for Bomb Perk he had spent so many Karma Points on. To make his expenses count, he had to personally kill the injured rankers post-blast.
"Let's... let's ask Hagduin for help. My pendant tells me he should be nearby."
There was only one ranker remaining with Meeshah when Eren was done with his recent victim. While the butcher was killing the third-last member of their team, they started running.
All of them had tried to get away from the butcher in separate directions. But it turns out, the butcher had used a simple Perk on them that physically prevented them from moving a certain distance away from him.
Meeshah didn't want to ask another royal scion for help because doing so would hurt her credibility. However, she decided to listen to her last teammate's advice after considering the kind of situation they both were in.
The butcher quickly caught up with his last two potential victims using the Speed Perk. He had bought a bunch of perishable Perks for himself after his recent Karma Points farming.
Eren had managed to hear their conversation. He sent his mana circuits into hyperdrive and got in front of them. The butcher chuckled and burst their metaphorical bubble by throwing something at themâ€" this time without lacing it with his peculiar Perk. It was the head of an elf named Hagduin.
"Is this the one you are looking for?"
