Chapter 27

Chapter 27: Witch (4)

“What are you doing?!”

Spanichi shouted at Anagin, who had just hurled a massive stone pillar.

“I threw a rock. To knock the Tower down. No need to walk right into a trap, is there?”

Spanichi's mouth flapped open and shut, unable to muster a rebuttal to that answer, which defied all common sense.

Even so—how could anyone think to topple the Tower itself…?

But that was only for a moment. Thinking it over, it wasn't entirely unreasonable.

It was a settled fact that trap magic lay within the Tower.

Walking in there was an act of stupidity even a beast wouldn't commit.

From that angle, bringing the Tower down was drastic, yes—but also a clever way to neutralize every trap at once.

‘But then what about the treasures inside? They might be lost if the Tower collapses! More than that—what about the Witch? I need proof that I cut off the Witch's head and brought her down!!’

Spanichi, charged with his family's task, felt his head grow tangled.

Then, Anagin's voice reached him.

“Oh, something's coming out.”

Spanichi snapped his head up and looked at the Tower. Just as Anagin said, something had burst from the top of the Tower and was soaring high into the sky.

Like some gigantic bird……

“That's the Witch. My former Master. Not that she was ever really my Master.”

Robe Girl came out of the Tower and identified the giant bird.

Looking closely, it was indeed a Harpy. A woman's upper body, a raptor's lower half, massive wing-arms—she had every feature of a Harpy.

Spanichi was about to say they needed to catch that Witch, but Anagin moved a step faster.

He pulled a club from his subspace bag and hurled it straight at the Witch.

Shhhek—!

The club cut through the air, flying precisely toward the Witch's head.

The Witch twisted her head aside and dodged.

“So close….”

Anagin muttered in regret after throwing the club.

“I used to hit on the first try….”

He muttered again, as if the loss truly stung.

And no wonder—though he'd never admit it, Anagin took considerable pride in his throwing skill.

Stones, kitchen knives, axes, clubs, spears, shields, boulders, people, and so on. There was nothing he couldn't throw, and he hit on the first try most of the time. Rabbits, deer, boars, wolves, birds, people—it made no difference.

So this was genuinely baffling. A bird that big, and he'd missed, even if it was flying. It was embarrassing. Had his aim gone dull?

“Still, I've got the feel for it now!”

His sorrow lasted only a moment before Anagin pulled out an axe and threw it.

Shhk—!

The axe traced a beautiful arc, flying at the Witch faster than before.

Since he'd thrown it with spin, anticipating she would dodge, it was sure to bury itself in her skull…

—Fwip!

The axe, flying true, suddenly veered off and missed by a wide margin.

‘What was that? Has my skill really gone rusty?’

Anagin was thrown off by the unbelievable result.

The first throw, fine. But for the second to go the same way—if his Master had seen it, he'd have cackled in his face.

“It's magic! She blocked the projectile with wind!”

Robe Girl, seeing Anagin bewildered, explained why it had missed.

Flap… Shaaa—!!

Just then, the Witch hovering in the sky swung her black-feathered wing-arm wide and loosed a volley of feathers.

Feathers poured down like a rainstorm. Even at a glance, it looked serious.

“Everyone, behind me!”

Spanichi, who had been sitting with his stamina drained, raised his shield and shouted, and Anagin and Robe Girl hid behind him as told.

The shield was a bit small to cover three people, which was slightly worrying, but…

[Shield, protect us!]

At Spanichi's cry, the magic imbued in the shield responded, unfurling a massive translucent barrier.

Large enough to cover the entire group with room to spare.

Chwachachachajang!!

The feathers that poured down like rain pelted the shield, and a sharp, booming roar rang out.

It was like striking stone with a blade.

‘It's not heavy, but it's plenty hard, and sharp. And they're just ordinary feathers….’

Anagin thought as he looked at the feathers that had fallen to the ground. Robe Girl spoke.

“They say she fired them infused with Yeom. The instant they're thrown with magic cast on them, they're harder than steel.”

So she really was a scholar—she knew a great deal, and she understood well what others were curious about.

“Didn't you say earlier you didn't know what magic the Witch used?”

“I can make inferences. Harpies are mostly highly attuned to wind and curse magic, and the Witch fits that mold exactly. So I can roughly tell what she's using. Watch out for feather and talon attacks.”

Anagin wanted to scold her for not saying so sooner, but he decided against it. There was no use in bringing it up now.

Instead, he looked at the Witch flinging feathers from the sky.

Shaaak!

She beat her wings again, loosing another rain of feathers. The sharp feathers pelted the shield Spanichi had unfurled.

Under the light but sharp feathers, Spanichi's shield was slowly being whittled away. At this rate, the shield would shatter.

“If you shrink the shield, can you hold out longer?”

“Pardon?”

“I'm asking if you can last longer by narrowing the barrier you've spread.”

Anagin asked, reasoning that thin meant weak, and thick meant strong.

His guess was on the mark.

“Ah, yes. I can hold out a bit longer that way.”

“Good.”

With that, Anagin grabbed the sling at his waist and the broken bricks scattered around him.

Then, timing it to when the Witch was about to fire her feathers, he stepped out from behind the shield and flung a brick.

Pah-ak!

As the sling cracked, the brick flew at a speed the eye couldn't track.

It looked poised to pierce even the wind barrier.

And just in case, Anagin had timed the throw to match when the Witch was firing feathers.

So this time, it couldn't possibly miss.

“Ah, damn…. Why's it missing?”

Anagin lamented as the brick, flying true, bent away before it could even touch the Witch's body.

The funny thing was that the feathers the Witch fired came flying in without the slightest problem.

Shaaak!!

A rain of feathers slicing through the air.

Robe Girl shouted.

“Feathers are treated as the Witch's own body, so nothing interferes with them!!”

“That's so unfair.”

Anagin pulled a cloak from his subspace bag. It was the magic cloak he'd looted from Diodia's gang hideout.

Anagin spread the cloak and swung it, blocking every incoming feather.

Pabababak…!!

The sharp feathers pierced the cloak with ease, but they were caught and stopped by the cloak as Anagin swung it.

“What…?!”

The Witch was aghast at the sight.

She hadn't expected him to block her feathers with a shabby cloak like that.

‘Hmph! But that'll only work once…!’

Looking at the tattered cloak, the Witch was certain. In that state, he couldn't block again.

“Wait, what is that?”

The Witch muttered in shock as she watched the cloak repair itself the moment feathers were torn from it. Could it be a magic tool?

As the Witch showed her bewilderment, Anagin shook the cloak and shouted.

“Stop poking at me from a distance and come down here and fight! Honestly, it's hard for you to stay up there too, isn't it?!”

Anagin threw out the taunt at the panting Witch.

Just as Anagin said, the Witch was hardly in good shape herself.

Her aged body tired from long flights, and having loosed feathers so many times, her stamina had badly weakened.

If she could just win, she'd keep up this standoff—but honestly, it felt like her stamina would hit bottom first.

So the Witch decided to play along with Anagin's pathetic provocation.

“Insolent little brat…!”

The Witch deliberately pretended to be enraged, screeching and spitting curses.

To make him believe she'd lost her temper. That way, she could put her opponent off guard.

Shwaaek!!

The Witch beat her wings and descended fast.

As expected, Anagin hurled another stone.

Even with Wind's Protection wrapped around her, the Witch deliberately dodged, flaunting that she'd lost her temper.

To make it seem she was too agitated to even use magic.

It worked—Anagin threw stone after stone, and the Dolos brat squeezed out his strength and thrust his spear.

The Witch was wary in that very moment.

In case he'd thrust it infused with Gi.

But it was a needless fear.

She sensed nothing from the spear. He had no Gi left to put into it.

[Wind, blow them far away!]

The Witch calmly dodged the spear, then swung her wing-arm wide and chanted.

As the bracelets wrapped around her wing-arm jangled in response, the spell activated, and a whirlwind blew the Dolos brat far away.

Bang!

The Dolos brat, caught head-on by the magic while off guard, struck a collapsed building's wall and went down.

“Nice!”

Just then, Anagin pulled a spear from his subspace bag and threw it at the Witch.

He'd precisely driven it into the opening that appeared the moment she cast a spell.

Skilled as a seasoned hunter, but….

“…Not a chance!”

The Wind's Protection wrapped around the Witch's body deflected Anagin's thrown spear.

The Witch beat her wings again and attacked Anagin.

[Wind, slice him apart!]

The Witch lured Anagin into dropping his guard and struck back.

Matching the wing she swung, a thin, keen wind like a blade blew through and slashed Anagin's side.

If Anagin hadn't twisted his body, his abdomen would have been shredded.

The Witch rode the sky a short ways and looked down at Anagin and the Dolos brat.

The Dolos brat, unable to shake off the aftereffects of the shock, still hadn't risen, and Anagin, badly wounded by the look of it, was bleeding and curled up.

He tried to rise, wobbling, but….

The Witch descended at once, meaning to finish Anagin first.

With her own massive talons, directly!

Shwaaek!!

The Witch dove with talons extended.

The distance between her and Anagin closed in an instant.

Then Anagin, who had been struggling to his feet, sprang up and flung the cloak at the Witch.

‘Nice try…!’

The Witch used Wind's Protection, still wrapped around her, to blow the cloak away.

With the cloak gone, her briefly obscured vision cleared, and she could see.

Anagin, about to throw something.

“You fool, over and over—”

—Puk!

The Witch, charging without changing course, trusting the Wind's Protection she'd cast on herself, felt a searing pain.

The pain spread across a wide area—her left eye, her torso, her legs.

“?!”

The Witch fell into confusion.

She was certain Wind's Protection was still wrapped around her. How?

The question, brief as a flash, was resolved just as briefly.

The projectile Anagin had thrown was none other than the Witch's feathers.

Feathers that had fallen to the ground.

“Well now, this actually works.”

Anagin threw the feathers he'd fitted between his knuckles once more. He even gave it a technique name.

[Feather-Pin]

A multitude of feathers combining monstrous strength and skill, a distance far too close to respond to, high speed, and above all, pain.

For those combined reasons, the Witch couldn't dodge the next attack even though she knew it was coming.

Pubeobeobeok!!

Feathers buried themselves all over her body.

The second volley of feathers, more devastating than the first.

Feeling the agony of her whole body being slashed apart, the Witch shot past Anagin and slammed into the ground.

She couldn't even control her own body for the pain.

From rolling across the ground, the Witch's entire body ached as though beaten, and several parts of her had burst and broken.

‘This is dangerous!’

The Witch cried out inwardly.

She might truly die.

To survive, the Witch quickly spun around and looked behind her.

She saw Anagin charging at her, sword drawn from his waist.

[Gi—feathers, become armor and protect me!!]

Feeling her life under threat, the Witch hurriedly cast magic on her feathers and raised her arm to guard.

Anagin swung his sword at the wing-arm turned to steel.

Sseogeok!

The Witch's wing-arm was sliced clean off along with her neck.

Thud—

Her head severed, the Witch looked at her headless body, and could hear Anagin mutter.

“They said Beastcleaver—and sure enough, it cuts through a chicken head just fine.”

Those were the last words the Witch heard before she died.