City ​​of Witches 199

Chapter 199 – #44_무신

#197

1.
The flow of the fight was one-sided.

The White Knight pressured Siwoo with various skills and tricks.
His long spear, reaching 3 meters, freely adjusted its distance, launching a relentless attack.
It would stab towards the face, and occasionally, at unexpected moments, it would sweep down towards the thighs.

The initiative had completely shifted, and Siwoo was barely managing to parry.
The more he moved, the more the blood from his torn eyelid pooled in his eye socket.

-Clang! Clang!

It was maddening.
A single moment of carelessness could lead to a fatal blow, and those blows came relentlessly, several times a second.
They were diverse and ever-changing.
To respond to attacks that didn’t follow a pattern, improvisation was the only answer.
It was a different kind of nerve-wracking than magical combat.

“Hoo!”

Siwoo used his shield to block the tip of the spear that was swung in an arc.
At the same time, he was struck in the stomach by the shaft of the spear that had spun around.
The impact, transmitted through his armor, felt like his insides were collapsing.
The air in his lungs was squeezed out, involuntarily.

-Wham!

Siwoo’s back foot pushed hard against the ground.
He desperately dragged his heavy legs, as if they were shackled with lead, and moved forward instead.
Rather than fighting at an ambiguous distance, he planned to get into close range and engage in a brawl.

However, the White Knight didn’t move even a little bit according to Siwoo’s intentions.
He received Siwoo’s charge and instead took a step back.

This widened the gap again.
In close combat with cold weapons, the advantage or disadvantage depends on how the distance is controlled.
The distance between the two was always constant.
The spear could stab freely, while the sword couldn’t land a significant hit. This gap was being created by the White Knight from start to finish.
Moreover, in the midst of the chaotic onslaught, it was impossible to use the ribbons to shake him off.

The White Knight and the Black Knight clashed once more.
In the magical reflections of gold and red, shadows scattered like smoke.
As his stamina steadily drained, the scratches on his armor increased.

-Thud!
“Ugh!”

This time, the spear, which had been thrust twice from below, suddenly rotated.
The widely swung shaft struck Siwoo’s temple.
A sickening sound came from his neck, and his consciousness momentarily faded.
If there hadn’t been a connection between his helmet and armor, his neck would have been broken, and he would have died.

-Thud! Thud! Thud!

A temporary concussion caused by taking a direct hit.
The ground swayed.
His vision flickered as if his eyes were submerged in water.
His breath, which he had been carefully controlling, was suddenly cut off, making his breathing even more labored.
The attacks became more intense. The White Knight, having gained the upper hand, relentlessly pressed Siwoo, as if trying to end the fight.

-Clang!

The shield, which he had vowed never to let go of, was easily knocked away by three stabs.

His torso was wide open.
The White Knight lowered his stance, pushed off the ground with his knee, and thrust his spear with all his might.

His target was the heart.
It was too late to create a shield again.
It was too late to turn his body.
He vividly felt the scythe of death hanging over his neck.

In this extreme situation, Siwoo’s hand, which was holding the sword, moved on its own.

-Clink!

“Huh?”

Was it a coincidence?
The blade, which had cut into the trajectory at an angle, altered the path of the thrust.

The twisted spearhead slid along the side of his armor, leaving a long scar but failing to pierce his flesh.

Siwoo hadn’t put much force into it.
He had only slightly shifted the axis of power.
The series of movements was so natural and skillful that Siwoo himself was surprised.
Contrary to his shock, Siwoo’s feet moved.

The biggest opening for the spear was when a thrust with all its might missed.
He couldn’t let go of the chance he had seen for the first time since the fight began.
He grabbed the shaft of the spear that had brushed past his waist and held it tightly.
It was close.
He had unknowingly closed the distance to the White Knight, which had seemed impossibly far.

-Whoosh!

In response, a white shield rushed in like an avalanche.
It wasn’t like getting hit by a shield would kill him anyway.
He would give up a bone to take a neck.
Siwoo braced himself for the impact and aimed for the Adam’s apple with the tip of his sword, which he had angled slightly.

It was the White Knight who backed away first.
He tilted his helmet back and desperately retreated from Siwoo.
The distance had widened again, but the sensation remained at his fingertips.
The mysterious sensation of deflecting heavy attacks with feather-light force resonated at the tip of his sword.

Could he reproduce that again?

“Hoo… hoo…”

His rough breaths came out in gasps.
The dance on the edge of a blade, where the hairs on his body stood on end.
It was scary. It was painful. He wanted to run away right now.
There was no reason for Siwoo, who was just an ordinary person, to be interested in a life-or-death struggle.

“Ha… haha…”

But he laughed.
It was an inexplicable laugh that wasted precious breath.

Let’s try it.
Let’s see if it works just once.
An unbearable, dangerous impulse took over his body.

Siwoo didn’t create a shield.
Instead, he gripped the longsword firmly with both hands.
Siwoo’s counterattack earlier must have been dangerous enough to raise the White Knight’s guard.
The White Knight didn’t rush in recklessly like before, but kept his spear as long as possible and watched Siwoo cautiously.

-Squeak, squeak, squeak!

The ribbons twisted in the air.
He finally had the leeway to use them.
Allowing the use of the ribbons that had been sealed away was clearly a mistake on the White Knight’s part.

-Ping!

Two strands of ribbon, folding space, shot past the White Knight’s sides.
At first glance, it seemed like they had missed, but they hadn’t.

“Haaap!!”

Siwoo firmly embedded the ends of the ribbons into the rooftop.
By contracting the ribbons and simultaneously kicking off the ground, he could achieve an acceleration that was incomparable to the wings of shadows.
Siwoo, who was rushing in as if riding the wind, and the White Knight, who was preparing to counter even the unexpected rapid acceleration.

The White Knight aimed for Siwoo’s chest.
A sharp blow that could neither be blocked nor avoided with an upper cut stance.

Siwoo aimed for a slash that would cut across the White Knight’s shoulder and side.
He planned to cut faster than the speed of the thrust.

-Swoosh!

Their shadows crossed, and Siwoo’s body tumbled across the rooftop.
His body couldn’t withstand the force of the full-power slash, causing him to roll in the air.
Like a cat landing on its feet, he quickly bounced off the ground and looked back.
He could see the White Knight collapsing.

-Clang!

The spear that had been aimed at Siwoo’s heart was cut in half along with the thick armor.
The thick armor had been completely sliced through, and only the thrilling vibration that he had felt while cutting through metal remained in his hands.

“I won!”

Siwoo cheered.
It was the moment when another funeral mad movie was added.
The adrenaline that had been secreted enough to numb his brain remained in his blood vessels even after the battle was over, elevating his spirit.

Siwoo sat down on the floor and caught his breath.
He replayed the final blow, which had passed by so quickly that even his memory was hazy.
It was mysterious.
The strange feeling of the sword and his fingertips becoming one.
A slash that felt like it could have smoothly cut through a rock if it had been in his way.
That this skill had come from his own hands, not someone else’s.

“I’ve never even peeled a fruit before…”

Well, considering that witches and magic exist, and monsters appear and massacre people, this kind of anomaly is nothing.
Siwoo got up to complete the purpose he had come here for.

Both his mental and physical strength were depleted.
Supporting his trembling knees, he used his sword to cut the flute placed on the altar.

-Whoooooeeeeeek!

A strange wailing sound was heard, as if a spirit had been successfully exorcised.
It sounded like the death cry of a deep-sea monster from the deep sea.
The barrier that had been enveloping the building like murky water disappeared.
When the magic that had felt like a heavy weight on his chest disappeared, Siwoo was able to breathe a sigh of relief.

“Hoo…”

As the fierce battle that had been a matter of life and death ended, the tragedy naturally came to mind.
The people who had been bitten and killed by the monster without any fault.

Siwoo didn’t think of himself as a saint.
He wasn’t the protagonist of a shonen manga who blamed himself for the deaths of strangers he didn’t even know, saying, ‘If only I had been a little stronger!’

He just felt a bitter taste like burnt smell and anger towards the witch who had done this, lingering in his dry mouth.
The terrible sight he had encountered for the first time flickered in his retina.
He shook his head to get rid of it.

“Let’s run away.”

Now was the time to get out of here.
First of all, it was a secret that Siwoo used magic, and more than anything, he was mentally exhausted.
He could feel that the clothes inside his armor were soaked with cold sweat, and his body trembled for no reason.

-Clank, clank, clank

As Siwoo was calculating to go straight to his officetel using teleportation, his eyes widened.
He saw three White Knights climbing up the outer wall.

The homunculi, with the same appearance as if they had been mass-produced in a factory, caused a sense of déjà vu.
It was probably because they had the same atmosphere as the black dogs that had been splitting from the mother dog’s body.

“Oh, come on, this is crossing the line.”

He had barely managed to catch one, and now there were three more?
He couldn’t do it, no matter what.
Just as Siwoo had decided to focus on escaping with all the power he had…

A pure white lightning struck.

-Thwack!

No, to be precise, it wasn’t lightning.
It was a slash that was swung with incredible speed and power.
A fierce blow that seemed to test the limits of the laws of physics was accompanied by a flash and a roar.

The White Knight, whom he had struggled so hard to catch, was cut vertically like a chicken being prepared on a cutting board.
Siwoo, who had been captivated by the intense blow, belatedly saw the silhouette of the witch who had summoned the lightning.

She was white.
She was pink.
Even though he had focused so hard that his eyes were about to fall out, he could only identify this much.
That’s how nimble her movements were.
Soon, the White Knight, who belatedly realized the situation, aimed his spear at the newly appeared witch.

-Thwack! Thwack!

However,
It was a meaningless resistance.
The spear thrust, which Siwoo had struggled to adapt to, was neatly deflected.
Something seemed to flash, and then the breastplate of one of the White Knights turned into a crushed can.
Another one had its limbs torn off, and its neck was snapped, killing it.

Only after the witch had finished her one-sided destruction and stopped, could Siwoo see her appearance.
The witch standing amidst the scattered fragments of the White Knight.

Her hair was a surreal shade of light pink, and her eyes were magenta.
Her straight, thin eyelashes were thick and long, giving the impression that cherry blossoms were piled up on her eyes, creating a mysterious atmosphere.
The hand opposite the one holding the sword was holding a distorted helmet like a knuckleball grip.

It was a given that she was beautiful because she was a witch.
However, apart from her bewitching appearance that confused the eyes, the atmosphere she exuded from her whole body was closer to that of a warrior than a witch.
Traces of magic flickered like heat haze on her shoulders.
It made one wonder how such spirit could emanate from a human.

Her crimson eyes flicked and pierced through Siwoo.
At the same time, he shuddered.
It was because he felt a direct murderous intent that was so intense it made his skin tingle, as if it was a concentrated form of anger and hatred.

He had naturally assumed she was an ally since she had eliminated the White Knights.
Siwoo hurriedly prepared for battle.
Whether he could withstand it or not was not important.
He couldn’t just give up his neck and die, could he?
He pulled out ribbons from the maiden’s loom, forged a shield to cover half of his body, and looked for a chance to counterattack with his sword.

“I’ve come to keep my promise.”

A cute voice that didn’t match her solemn tone spread like a chilly breath.
A promise?
He didn’t have the time to ask what that meant.

He could already see the bluish veins popping out on the back of her small hand holding the sword.
She was coming.
Siwoo lowered his center of gravity and focused all his senses to not miss the witch’s movements.
The concentration was so intense that he could feel his breathing, his rapidly beating heart, and even the blood flowing through his veins.

The witch kicked off the ground.
And disappeared.

He missed her.
As soon as he realized that, he reflexively protected his heart, neck, and head with his shield.
He curled up like a turtle and tried to defend himself by maximizing the hardness of his shadow.

-Kwaaaang!
“Cough!”

The impact felt like his spine was breaking.
The pain of being hit all over his body with a sledgehammer made him stop breathing.
The blood that gushed out of his mouth sprayed a blood mist through the visor of his helmet.

It wasn’t a sword strike.
The witch hadn’t even swung her sword.
She had simply stepped forward and thrust a small fist into his midsection.
That alone had shattered not only his shield but also his armor.

He could feel it.
His ribs must have been crushed.
His liver might have been ruptured.
If she had aimed for his heart, he would have died.

“You haven’t forgotten me, have you?”

As Siwoo’s vision darkened as if he was being sucked into a tunnel, he saw the witch’s face, laughing maniacally as if she was in ecstasy.