Release that Witch

”Margie!” Ashes screamed and stepped between the Magic Slayer and the other witches.

Margie responded with a series of hacking cough.

She was still alive, but barely.

”You’re pretty fast, Extraordinary,” the Magic Slayer said in a calm voice, casting her a sorrowful look which did not usually appear on a demon’s face. ”If you didn’t try to block me, she could have died painlessly. You’re only making her suffer.”

At this point, Andrea suddenly came to the realization that it was not by a pure coincidence that the Magic Slayer targetted Margie. He had taken everything into consideration before this move, including Margie’s limited fighting capacity and her unique ability of maneuvering the Magic Ark. As Margie was the key to their transportation, eliminating her was pretty much cutting off their retreat.

Andrea bit her lip and stole a backward glance at Margie. A bone spear had penetrated her shoulder, blood oozing out of her wound and trickling down the corner of her mouth. Apparently, the spear had hurt her lung. Had Ashes not blocked the demon in time, Margie would have probably died on spot.

Given such circumstances, Margie definitely could not operate the Magic Ark anymore.

But how did the Magic Slayer know Margie’s ability?

”You’re the ’eye’ of human beings, right? You really created us a lot of trouble by directing that fiery rain.” The Magic Slayer pointed at Sylvie and then at Andrea, whose heart dropped even faster as the demon continued, ”And you must be that genius shooter. You probably wouldn’t be able to do much harm to us 400 years ago, but things become different now. You appear to be more difficult than Transcendents. It’s good that you’ve finally met each other.”

At this words, he placed his right hand over his chest and then said, ”Please let me introduce myself. I’m Ursrook, the commander of the Expedition Corp, as well as the very person who’ll give you eternal rest.”

Beyond a doubt, this was a well-planned, carefully-calculated trap.

Andrea’s face turned a nasty shade of green.

When did they start to associate the Magic Slayer with great magic power?

Right... After Leaf had been attacked in the north of the Misty Forest, everybody had the impression that the Magic Slayer possessed extraordinary power.

In fact, they had started to think that way even before that incident had occurred.

When Lightning had encountered the Magic Slayer for the first time, she had sensed his stupendous magic power, so powerful that everybody just naturally believed that the Magic Eye could easily detect it.

They were thus further misled by their predetermined impression, firmly believing that the Magic Slayer was continuously upgrading himself and that Sylvie had everything under control.

Nevertheless, everything was a false illusion created by the Magic Slayer.

He enticed them out of hiding.

Had he known their plan all along?

But this did not make any sense! Even if the demons noticed Sylvie and Andrea and decided to set up a trap to eliminate them, this Senior Demon named Usrook did lose Taquila and sacrifice thousands of demons on the Fertile Plains! He might not care that much about the lives of his subordinates, but how could he just abandon the ruin? Without the God’s Stone, the demons would not be able to erect the Obelisk, which meant they would lose their foothold on the Fertile Plains in the next 400 years. Wasn’t the cost a little too dear?

Were they really worth the demon making such a huge sacrifice?

Andrea felt her head swimming as a multitude of thoughts crammed into her head. It was Sylvie who asked the question that bothered her.

”... Why? Taquila should be more important than us!”

The Magic Slayer was surprisingly patient this time. He shook his head and replied tersely, ”I can’t tell you.”

”Can’t you just indulge a dying person’s curiosity?”

”But you aren’t dying,” Ursook jeered. ”You aren’t giving up even in this desperate situation, are you?”

”What’s he waiting for?”

”Is he awaiting his God’s Stone of Toss to be recharged?”

His arm did not shrivel either.

Anyway, this was a chance. Andrea swallowed hard. She knew there was no chance for Sylvie, Camilla and Margie to stop the Magic Slayer, but she and Ashes might more or less hold him back, although she barely had any magic power left.

The only person they could now rely on was Lightning.

The fact that she had not shown up yet indicated that she had noticed something wrong. If she could send the ’Seagull’ to support them, there would still be a chance to snatch a victory out of defeat!

It would be simply more advisable to play for time by asking more questions.

There were indeed so many questions burning inside her.

At this thought, Andrea turned to the Magic Slayer and asked heavily, ”I don’t understand... Even if we were misled, it isn’t likely that we’ll miss a lurking enemy. We checked everything before firing. You were eight or nine kilometers away from Taquila, and you couldn’t possibly get here within a second. Where did you hide yourself?”

”We’ve dug many underground passages over the past years at the rear of Taquila instead of the front,” Ursrook answered leisurely. ”The entrance of the passage is hidden among the God’s Stones, so it’s hard to spot. Plus, the passage forked out deep down underneath the ground, so it’s perfectly normal that you failed to notice them.” He looked up at the sky and said, ”Human beings are monitoring the area above, right? You did do a good job. That’s why you fell into our trap without realizing it.”

”There are passages nearby?” Andrea felt a jolt of uneasiness in the pit of her stomach. ”Even though you were hiding underground, it still isn’t easy to spot us on such a vast land. We constantly moved from one place to another. How did you find us?”

”I didn’t find you. You found me,” the Magic Slayer drawled as a malicious smile suddenly flutter over his face. ”Right, not only one person saw me... Where’s that flying little girl? If you have a plan B, your reinforcements should have arrived by now, right?”

A dreadful leaden feeling prevailed Andrea instantly.

”It sees you the moment you see it” — that was exactly what the Eye Demon did. Had she just shot an Eye Demon? But an Eye Demon should be much larger than the Magic Slayer. Did Ursrook somehow make that decoy have the Eye Demon’s ability?

Regardless, this did not even matter now. At this moment, Andrea realized where her uneasiness came from.

There must be demons other than the Magic Slayer hiding underground.

The Magic Slayer must be waiting for his reinforcements so that they could kill them all.

Just then, several grenades whizzed out of the woods and darted toward Ursrook!

The Magic Slayer shot up in the air and dodged the grenades gracefully. The grenades landed magnificently on the ground with an almighty crash.

Before the stirred air around them tranquilized, bullets had hailed down at the Magic Slayer.

Ursrook climbed higher, and his body emanated a ghostly blue glow.

”The God’s Punishment Witches are here!” Sylvie exclaimed with excitement.

”Are you all OK?” Zoe dashed out of the woods and stepped between the demon and the witches, followed by the other seven God’s Punishment Witches who immediately shielded the defeated witches.

”Go. We have to get out of here — ”Andrea shouted at the other witches, having no time to provide further explanation.

Meanwhile, Ursrook slowly raised his arm.

There came two muted, distant whooshes.

Sylvie paled, who knew better what that sounds meant than anyone else. ”Watch out. It’s the Spider Demons!”

Two gleamy black stone pillars flew past above them and showered down long needles after they exploded.

Andrea summoned what remained of her magic power, whipped the air around them and attempted to wrench the falling needles away.

However, nothing happened. Her magic power was shattered by a black flash.

The Magic Slayer generated the anti-magic area!

Elena, who was closest to Andrea, scooped her up and sprinted up to a tree nearby.

It was a fraction of a second that seemed to stretch into years.

Andrea felt her body rising and her eyes streaming. By the time she finally landed, her legs were numb.