Liberty and Death: Does Killing the Rich for XP Count as Eating Them? [LitRPG, Isekai, Yuri]

Chapter 79

When you were as strong as Tina Tagliari, ‘Hawk’ to her friends, or people that enjoyed living, even the dullest knife became a brutally effective mace.

Cora hopped over a biting maw, and came down on the thing’s spine like a pro wrestler that didn’t care about getting sued. She was fairly sure the splurch! she heard behind her was its guts coming out of its mouth.

An identical beast leapt at her from a perch on the wall, and while her swipe at its neck didn’t decapitate it, it did bounce it back off the wall, neck now at an angle incompatible with life.

She tore through this fuckin’ chaff.

She had the dexterity of an assassin, the strength of a barbarian, and the panache of a goddamn movie star. She was un-fucking-stoppable.

The sizzle and while of Kyra’s blades kept up behind her as she surged forward, cleaning up whatever got past her erstwhile leader. Even at the rate Cora was killing, that was plenty, and they still had a damsel to save after all.

What the hell?

Part of Cora realized some of these thoughts, some of these actions, they didn’t sound quite like her.

They felt familiar though.

They felt good.

She carved a path of broken bodies to the end of the tunnel, grinning a smile full of teeth flecked with blood that wasn’t hers at the Matriarch that awaited her.

It looked confused.

In some, small, bestial way, it looked scared.

She fucking loved that.

With a roar that shook her throat, she attacked.

Scared or not, the Matriarch chose fight over flight.

Its massive talon struck out quick as a cat, and so much slower than Cora it made her laugh.

She didn’t even dodge, she used the eternity she had before it reached her to position the tip of [Rib Cutter] in front of its surging paw.

Cora didn’t even have to move for the tip of the weapon to sink deep into the monster’s fucked-up toe beans. It pulled back with a pained yelp that Cora hated.

But whoever the gestalt she was currently didn’t mind at all.

Confident, she darted in, going for the monster’s neck.

“Careful, Cora, fuck!” Kyra scolded as a fiery buzzing blade buried itself in a mid-limb that had been angling straight for Cora’s gut.

She snarled, both at being questioned, and at the beast’s audacity.

She got in close, and buried [Rib Cutter] in the Matriarch’s neck.

Its agonized thrash pulled her up, trying to slam her into the ceiling, but Cora was too fast, and too strong. She pulled herself up by the blade, swinging around it to impact the ceiling with her feet.

Gathering monstrous in her legs, she kicked off, ripping [Rib Cutter] out the opposite way in a spray of gore she exulted in.

When she rolled back to her feet, she found the monster cowering, broken, making sounds she really should have found heartbreaking.

Instead, she just found them pathetic.

Striding forward, she jammed the barrel of [Vector Driver] into the jagged gash she’d left in its neck, and smiled.

“Shame to let a mother outlive her children.”

DISRESPECTFUL!!!! +1000%!!!!!

A instant later, the tunnel had a new multicolored paint job, with the dominant theme of red.

Cora stuffed monster bits into her pocket dimension, and slid a pulsing Aspectation into her actual pocket.

She took a steadying breath, then met Kyra’s eyes.

Concern, and a little anger.

“I think I might have gotten a taste of what it's like to be Hawk,” she said.

“Oh,” Kyra said, eyes wide.

“Oh is right,” Cora said, still shaking off the berserk feeling of the {Double Act}. “I don’t know how she lives like that…”

“Not well, till we came along,” Kyra said, cuffing Cora friendly-like on the shoulder.

“Heh, you think? I mean… yeah, no we’re definitely making her better. But sometimes I wonder if she deserves it,” Cora sighed. If that had actually been how Hawk felt, then everything she did was driven by rage, pride, and cruelty. But then how did she sometimes seem so gentle?

“Deserve it?” Kyra laughed with a shrug, “probably not, but since when does anyone get what they fucking deserve? She’s on our side now, and she’s too bad of a bitch to lose. How many fights have we only won because Hawk was on our side?”

“Yeah, fair point, surprised to hear it from you though, [Vengeful One],” Cora teased.

“Hey, far as I’m concerned, if you’ve been a slave, you get a pass until you do something that means you don’t. All on the same side till then. Plus, you looooooooove Hawk,” Kyra teased right back, eyebrows going wild.

Cora tossed a Matriarch bone plate at her. It didn’t even get close; pinned to the wall by a burning Karmabit.

“I believe we are close,” Lysander said, rising from her cross legged position. She’d said she was going to ‘meditate on the remains’, to see if there was anything particularly valuable. Maybe she had, but Cora thought it was just as likely she just needed a break. “Despite the surprising ease with which you two dealt with the situation, I don’t feel like inviting a repeat by sticking around.”

“We're in a Dungeon, right?” Cora asked. “Shouldn’t there be more, I dunno, loot?”

“Mmm, back on Azalon, things just tend to conveniently appear when you killed a monster or an enemy. I had some hope that would be the case here as well, but it seems your looting process is more…” she shivered as she looked over Cora and Kyra’s gore-dripping hands, “involved.”

“Well I like it that way,” Kyra said. “I just wouldn’t get as excited about an Adrenobyte if I hadn’t pulled it off a shithead’s heart.”

“Drops would be easier, definitely, but it does have a certain je ne se quois, doesn’t it?”

“Mmm.”

“You people are insane,” Lysander sighed. “Next left.”

As they turned the corner, torchlight became visible at the end of the tunnel.

“That’s new,” Cora said, allowing herself to be hustled back into darkness by Kyra. Their only light had been Lysander’s thus far in the tunnels.

“Yeah, and it probably means there’s motherfuckers,” Kyra hissed. “Though who knows why they aren’t using electricity.”

“Could be a detection thing?”

Kyra cocked her head, lips pouting slightly in thought.

God she’s cute.

“Yeah, could be, actually. Either way, you two loud fucks are staying right here, while Mommy Invisible goes on ahead, yeah?”

“Yeah, but are you sure you want to go with ‘Mommy Invisible’? I’ll spread that like wildfire,” Cora teased.

“And I’ll kill you in your sleeeep!” Kyra sang sweetly, broad, terrifying smile the last part of her to disappear.

Cora couldn’t hear Kyra’s footsteps as she walked away.

That was good, it meant their enemies couldn’t ei–

A hand clapped over her mouth, and a cruelly gleeful voice whispered ‘Boo!’ straight into her ear.

Cora peed a little bit. She wasn’t even ashamed, that, in this context, had been fucking terrifying.

Kyra’s hand slid off of her lips, and her face floated into view in front of her.

Cora opened her mouth to speak once her mind cleared, but Kyra’s lips were covered by a finger-shaped greenscreen glitch, like Cora could see straight through to the tunnel behind her, and one of those pretty hazel eyes winked as she made a quiet shhhh.

[Party Chat: Cora, Kyra]

C: fuck you

K: good girl, staying quiet

C: FUCK YOU

K: not making this any less funny for me

C:...

C: stay in contact in this chat

C: not losing you and T, today

K: yeah

The next few minutes were torture. Both due the stress of just kind of hanging out in a demonstrably hostile dungeon, and due to the fact a girl she was really starting to like was deep in enemy territory. Alone. And angry enough about their other friend she might do something stupid.

K: found ‘em

C: fuck yeah!

K: further than I expected

K: few more turns

K: gimme a sec to observe

That ‘sec’ was more like 10 minutes, a long enough time the tension began to feel a little boring.

K: whoa

C: what!?

K: just watched like 5 Links grow out of the fucking wall

K: they’re like, full grown dudes

K: they have guns and everything

K: i think I even see some ‘ware on one

C: jesus fuck

C: [Big Sys] was right

[BS]: ALWAYS AM!

C: private chat

[BS]: LOL

[BS]: NOT FROM ME IT ISNT

C: what are they doing?

K: just standing there…

K: hold up

K: oh this motherfucker

K: Donovan just showed up

C: any chance you can one shot him?

K: not if his shield is up, and if I were him, I’d sleep with that shit

C: damn

K: he’s giving the new hires some instructions…

K: it’s weird, its like they just ‘woke up’ or something

K: swear to god I’ve killed one or two of them

C: yeah, expected that

C: any sign of Tania?

K: no…. This looks like some kind of staging area.

K: gear, supplies, some defensive positions, and a lot of dudes

K: no cages or anything

K: thinking about going in deeper

C: hold on

Cora caught Lysander up on the conversation.

“Tell her to stay back, and check the walls and floor. It is odd to me that they have a permanent redoubt inside of a Dungeon, however at such a low level as this a mediocre caster with the right knowledge could probably ward it. They would also likely be able to weave alarm spells,” Lysander said, and Cora served as relay.

K:...

K: I don’t see anything, but i don’t really even know what im looking for

K: Cora, I really don’t want to leave without finding her.

Cora put a hand to her brow, fighting against the sudden headache the pressure of leadership was inducing.

She sighed, letting out just a bit of that pressure.

C: me neither, but I don’t think we can risk it

C: if they know we found them, they might just move

C: moving might mean taking out all their current ‘merchandise’

K: …

K: I was thinking the same thing, but I’m mad at you for saying it

C: heavy is the head.

C: come on back, we know where they are now, and that’s a HUGE win.

Kyra didn’t even scare Cora on the way out. She probably just wasn’t going to be herself until they got Tania back.