Chapter 36: Price of Life

After seeing Iwaka brutally murdered by what looked like a living zombie, it took all of Mindaugas's strength to pull himself back to his feet. He muttered to his closest teammate, "Stay together and back away slowly! Don't take your eyes off him for a second. Be ready for another attack."

Unfortunately, the teammate who was furthest away immediately screamed and started trying to crawl away, scrabbling on his hands and knees in a pathetic display of terror.

It was only a few seconds before a rib hissed through the air and slammed into the poor man's head.

Mindaugas tried to ignore how hard his heart was pounding. He felt that he was beginning to understand Alexandre's power. "We don't stand a chance," he muttered to himself. "He's willing to kill us, and all he has to do is land one attack…" Then he raised his voice and called out, "Listen here! The rest of us aren't your enemies like Iwaka was. We just wanted to collect your bounty, he's the one who wanted to kill you! We didn't sign up for this!"

Then he pointed at Iwaka's lifeless body. "Look in his bag. He's got 41 watches ripped off the other candidates. After collecting your quota of watches, each additional one earns you a $1,000 bonus… but only for students. If you let us go, I'll take Iwaka's watches and give you his $41,000 afterward!"

Alexandre's blood-soaked face twisted into a grin. "One. Hundred."

Mindaugas paused for a moment, not entirely sure if he'd heard correctly. "...What?"

Alexandre repeated, "One. Hundred. Watches." Each breath spat and gurgled, like the sound of squeezing an empty condiment bottle. "You'll give me… one hundred… thousand. Or you all die. Right here."

Mindaugas prayed his teammates weren't as stupid as the one who'd tried to run away. If one of them protested or tried to attack the candidate now in anger at this demand, they were all dead. "Alright, fine! $100,000."

Alexandre raised the second rib in his hand and pointed it toward Mindaugas' chest. "Prove it! That you've got them. Before the end. Not going to risk you lying. Then being under… academy's protection!"

Mindaugas felt sweat trickling down his face. began to sweat profusely, then said "Alright, I'll prove it." He walked slowly toward the student who'd tried to crawl away, trying his hardest not to look at the rib pinning the young man's skull to the forest floor. Mindaugas rummaged in the corpse's bag and retrieved 31 watches.

Then he summoned all his courage and walked up to Iwaka's corpse, which was right at Alexandre's feet. The stench of blood and ruptured organs was horrible, like that of a slaughterhouse. Nonetheless, Mindaugas steeled himself and retrieved Iwaka's 41 watches.

That was a total of 76. Far from the amount Alexandre had demanded.

After the briefest hesitation, Mindaugas pulled out his own surplus of six watches. Still not enough.

He took a deep breath and prayed again his companions weren't fools as he walked back over to them. "Look," he said, "obeying me is the only way we're making it out of here alive. Each of you, give me nine watches!"

The first teammate glared at him in disdain. "What!? No, I worked hard for these! Don't you threaten me! Come on, we'll just split up, he can't get all of us—"

Mindaugas wordlessly put a hand on his companion's shoulder. A layer of ice spread out from under his fingers, practically welding the student's clothes to his skin. His companion screamed and fell to the ground in pain, grabbing at his shoulder but unable to melt the ice.

Mindaugas's hands shook as he reached into the fallen student's bag and simply took every watch from within it. He ignored the third student completely—lucky for him, he was no longer needed.

Then he turned back to Alexandre. "They're yours," he said… But his voice trailed away in shock.

Alexandre had leaned back against a tree, and his muscles all seemed to be sagging and drooping. Meanwhile, his wounds were closing rapidly before Mindaugas's eyes. Even the savage gashes in his stomach were closing up, though the scars which connected the edges were thick, shiny, and red.

Alexandre convulsed, then his muscles regained their tone and he straightened up. He stared Mindaugas defiantly in the face. "You have something to say to me?"

Mindaugas shook his head. 'He was spending so much Hunter energy to force his muscles to function,' the student thought to himself. 'Then he diverted all that energy into rapidly regenerating, letting his body hang like a puppet while he did so… Surely his internal wounds aren't also healed! His body's still shaped so strangely, so there must be numerous broken bones still inside, not to mention the missing ribs! …Yet, he's stopped the bleeding and made himself look more normal. What a monster.'

All these thoughts went through Mindaugas's head, but all he said was, "We're ready to return to the starting point, then."

Alexandre nodded. "Good. Go on ahead."