"What it means to be a Hunter"

Marces and the other two hunters, Mico and Harley, arrived to the place where Kei and Yuki are fighting the witches. Victorina takes out the dart on her chest and throws it back to them. They dodge it.

"It seems silver darts won't work on you, eh?" Harley said with a smile.

Mico looks at them. He knows Sinistra because they fought before. Sinistra turns in an angry face. "You..." she uttered. She clenches her hands.

Mico takes out his strange curved-blade. Its shape is crescent moon and it vividly reflects light. "It's been two years since I last fought a witch. Sinistra, right?" he said before he swiftly dashed and passed through Sinistra, and got to Wickella and beheaded her. It was so fast that neither Victorina nor Sinistra was able to respond.

Wickella died in an instant. After that, Mico cuts Sinistra's arm beside him and kicks her sending her to a wall. Marces cannot believe how fast is that.

"What is happening?" Victorina said.

Harley smiles at her. Then, he throws two darts at her. One on her head and the other is on her leg. Victorina screams. It hurts their hearing senses. They all cover their ears but Mico swiftly cuts off her head and throws her body to a wall. The wall has been destroyed. Marces quickly comes at Kei and Yuki to help them recover. Harley gives him bandages. Marces uses it to treat their wounds.

They thought that the witches are already dead, however they are not. Victorina's body stands up and gets her head. It creeps out Marces to see her headless body moving.

Victorina's built is different from the other witches. Unlike her sisters, Victorina will not die even though her head was cut off. After picking her head, she attaches it to her body like nothing had happened. She then faces Mico and speaks to him.

"You... who are you?" she asked.

Mico smiled at her. "I don't like introducing myself to my opponent. But it's nice to finally meet you, Victorina." he answered.

"You know me?"

"I've fought your sister long ago. She is just one of the few to ever escape from me. After fighting her, I did a lot of research about you guys... the Salem Sisters, huh?"

"It's good to hear that you put an effort to know about us. But I'm sure you only know a little." Victorina said.

"Oh?"

Victorina then unexpectedly moves quickly in front of Mico and slaps him hard. Mico failed to dodge it. He was flung over to a wall. He received a deep injury after that. Victorina stretches her head. "You probably think you can beat me," she laughs, "That's funny."

"Mico! Are you alright?" Harley said.

"I am." Mico answered. He gets up and picks up his crescent moon blade. He holds his neck. Inside his mind, he cannot deny that Victorina almost break his neck. It does seem that she suddenly becomes faster. He warns Harley about her. "Harley, we better be serious now. She is different from Sinistra. She's tougher and can keep up with my speed."

Victorina stands straight and faces them. She gives them a creepy grin. Her eyes have changed. It went totally red. Her sclera turned crimson as well. Her skin became extremely white. Her claws got larger and longer. Also, Sinistra's arm stops bleeding. She gets up and faces them again.

Harley picks his axe from his back and swings it. On the other hand, Sinistra transforms into an ugly ghastly monster. Her hair floats as if it defies gravity, her eyes also turns crimson red, and every tooth inside her mouth becomes a fang. She screams at them. Victorina tells her sister to take care of Kei, Yuki, and Marces. She will face both Mico and Harley herself. Sinistra travels to the three. Marces got scared as he saw Sinistra going towards them. Kei and Yuki still seem to be unable to fight, however they get up to face the witch. Leaving Sinistra on the hands of Kei, Yuki and Marces, Mico and Harley lead Victorina away from Sinistra.

They clashed against each other. Sinistra was badly injured, however through some sort of black magic, she became even stronger. Kei and Yuki struggle fighting her. Not really because Sinistra has gotten stronger, but because Kei and Yuki are badly injured. Also, Yuki's sword has been broken by Victorina. He is fighting the witch his bare hands. When Sinistra was about to murder Yuki, Marces caught her attention by insulting her and throwing a rock on her. Sinistra tossed Yuki to the side and went after Marces instead. She leaps at him and attacks him. Marces falls down to the ground, but before she could even lay another attack on him, Kei severed her head from behind. This time, Sinistra is really dead. Kei and Marces breathe deeply. They sit down on the ground to rest.

Meanwhile, Mico and Harley are having difficulties in fighting Victorina. The attacks they deliver on her barely affect her. Her wounds and injuries heal almost instantaneously. Harley gets tired. He cannot move fastly for too long because the axe he is holding on is heavy. Not to mention that he is also carrying other numerous weapon types. For that reason, when Victorina attacks him from behind, he failed to dodge it. Her claws puncture his body. Mico's eyes widen as he sees his partner bleeding. Victorina removes her claws and Harley falls to the ground. He is rapidly losing blood. Mico dashes to her and slashes her multiple times. He cuts off both her arm and her head, but even after all that, she is still alive. Marces, Yuki, and Kei come to help, but they are already too late. Victorina picks up her arm and head, and attaches it again. Her body returns to normal. She saw Kei and the others.

"You... You're here, so that means Sinistra's dead, right?" Victorina then grins, "Anyway, I think it's a tie. You killed my sister, I killed your comrade." she laughs after that in a wicked manner.

"How can you not care for your sister?" Marces asked.

"Caring only brings pain in the end. That pain hurts more than losing limbs or head, actually."

Mico comes to his partner, Harley. He closes Harley's eyes and cries.

Yuki and Marces go to them, they grieve over his death. Kei, on the other hand, rushes to Victorina to stab her despite of all his aching wounds. However, Victorina easily fends it off and sends him away with a kick.

Victorina looks at them all and bids her farewell, "I'm tired. We will meet again, and next time we meet, I will kill you all." She flies upward and breaks the ceiling. Mico tried to go after her, but she is gone. He screams and vows to kill her next time. Yuki comes at him and tries to comfort him.

"Does he have any last words?" Yuki asked.

Mico did not respond right away, but then he said, "Mission accomplished. That's what he said." then tears fall off from his eyes.

The witch who was kidnapping children is dead, the summoning of the fiend has been stopped; they lost a comrade but they at least accomplished the mission entrusted to them. Marces realized what it means to be a hunter in that moment. Their life is nowhere near as important as the accomplishment of their missions. For it is their mission that gives purpose to their lives of being a hunter. Living without a purpose is undeniably pointless. Hunters like Harley died accomplishing his mission. He cries as well as he remembers his father's words. He vows to train hard to become stronger to protect the people precious to him. He detests people like Victorina who remorselessly betray her own ally and does not even show a slight sorrow of losing her own kin.