City ​​of Witches 59

“Assistant, Take Odette And Run. I’Ll Hold It Off Here.”

Odile stepped forward, shielding Siwoo and Odette.
It wasn’t some light bravado or arrogance.
She knew the danger of this homunculus even more than Siwoo did.

The giant cat slowly climbed down the tree.
Its three large eyes blinked, and the way it leisurely moved down the tree trunk was deformed, as if it defied the laws of physics.
The cat landed on the ground with a light movement that felt weightless, and reality seemed to evaporate.

“What are you doing? I told you to run!”

Even amidst Odile’s urging, as if her insides were burning, Siwoo calmly assessed the situation.
Separately, he gave precise instructions to Odette.

“Odette, is your music box working?”
“Ah! Y-yes!”

Odette, who had been fidgeting with her skirt since earlier, quickly pulled out the music box.
Then, she looked up at Siwoo with a worried expression.

“Assistant… it’s okay if you run away! I can’t leave my sister behind!”
“No! Odette! I’m saying that you need to send a rescue request while I hold it off!”
“I-I’ll do it now!”

As expected, Odette was slower at assessing the situation than Odile.
Perhaps it was because she had just woken up, or maybe it was her less bold personality, but still, after hearing Odile’s instructions, Odette immediately began to mutter an incantation.

The only fortunate thing was that the homunculus in front of them was merely observing their commotion.
Its unsettling eyes, as if watching something interesting, spun around.
Under that unsettling gaze, Odette’s magic bloomed.

A huge string of characters began to stretch towards the sky.
It was a magic formula a step above the skyboard Siwoo had used.
It was an emergency rescue signal that would pierce through the lush trees of Latifundium and light up the sky to request help.

“It’s done, Sister!”
“Good! Now let’s get out of here! …Ugh!”

And the moment Odette activated the magic, as if reacting to the magic power, the monster cat moved.
Its tail flew through the air like a chain scythe.
The speed was so fierce and rapid that it couldn’t be properly identified with the naked eye.
It was as if all the hunting so far had been just a game.

-KWA-GWANG!

Odile’s defensive barrier, which she had set up in advance,
‘Song of Rest’ was shattered far too easily.
Odile’s eyes widened in shock amidst the debris of the scattering magic circle.

“It… it broke it in one hit?”

Odile was horrified to see the defensive barrier, which had the hardness to block even anti-tank missiles, torn like tissue paper.
Even at that moment, Siwoo was looking up at the sky.
There had been something unsettling since earlier.

The rescue request that Odette had launched.
The string of characters, which had been growing larger as it rose into the sky, suddenly collided with a black shadow that was thickly covering Latifundium.

-CLANG!

And then.
The sound of glass breaking was heard.
As soon as the string of characters, which had been shining with a brilliant purple light, touched the shadow, the black shadow interfered with the magic as if it were alive.
The shattered string of characters became thousands of fragments and poured down on Siwoo’s head.

“Ah….”

Odette stared blankly at the sight of their last hope being shattered.

The rescue signal failed.
Odile’s barrier was easily cut off by the monster’s tail.
None of their attacks worked against the enemy.

The peaceful daily life had suddenly been turned upside down, and their thoughts, which had been unable to keep up, shifted.
A little late, but the three of them shared the same feeling at the same time.

Death.
The two words, which had felt like a bad joke, flashed vividly through their minds.

Then, Siwoo’s gaze fell upon the river of magic water behind the homunculus, which was responsible for supplying magic power to Latifundium.

“Odette, please protect Odile. I’ll create a smokescreen.”

While everyone was trembling with a chilling premonition, Siwoo was the first to take action.
It was a strange feeling.
Death was clearly right in front of them, but somehow, it was as if a thin membrane in his head had disappeared, and his thoughts were shifting quickly.
The adrenaline, which was flowing pleasantly through his veins, supported his legs instead of making them tremble.

He ran.
Siwoo began to sprint towards the monster like a shot arrow.

“A…Assistant!”

Odette’s urgent call quickly fell far behind.

“What are you doing!”

Siwoo ran past even Odile, who was confronting the homunculus, and began to run towards the monster.

“Kyu?”

Perhaps it was unexpected that the prey was running towards it, the homunculus’s head turned at a right angle.

Even as he ran, Siwoo was constantly analyzing the homunculus.

The homunculus’s combat methods that he had observed so far.
The shadow spear that had attacked the initial research building.
It took about 5 seconds from the moment the shadow began to gather to the moment it was released.
The maximum number of spears released at the same time was 3.
The gap between attacks was quite long.
However, considering the monster’s leisurely attitude, it had to be assumed that it was not using its full power.

Its speed was so fast that it could not be followed with the eyes, and its power was so strong that it could break a giant tree with a circumference of tens of meters.
It was clear that none of the magic that Siwoo possessed could counter it.

Next was the tail.
The tail, which had a scythe at the end and was swung like a chain scythe, made it difficult to gauge its attack range.
At first glance, its power didn’t seem that great, but considering that it had broken Odile’s defensive barrier in one hit, there was no doubt that it would tear a person to pieces if they were hit directly.

Finally, the black shadow of unknown origin.
It was clear that it was not simply a hardened shadow.
The shadow, which had taken over the air like smog at some point, had shattered Odette’s rescue spell.
If that was the case, then there was virtually no way to communicate with the outside world.
The entire Latifundium had become the monster’s hunting ground.

The distance between Siwoo, who was continuing to sprint, and the homunculus, who was staring blankly, was now less than 20 meters.
And, contrary to Siwoo’s desperate wish, the homunculus began to move.

“KIIIIIIIIEEK!”

With a bizarre cry that sounded like a giant insect, the tail, which had been writhing in the air, began to sway like a venomous snake aiming for its prey.

Siwoo, who had been calmly timing his move, stretched his arm into the air.
Latifundium, where the magic power in the atmosphere was more abundant than anywhere else in Gehenna.
It was a trump card that could only be used here.
Just once would be enough.

The important thing was timing.

“Bloom!”

The tail, which had been aiming at Siwoo like the muzzle of a pistol, was swung with a menacing sound.
And at that moment, Siwoo’s body leaped diagonally like a spring that had been bent to the maximum.

-Whoooosh!

The tail that barely grazed my toes as it swept across the ground looked incredibly slow.

Leaping over the head of a monster that was well over 3 meters tall wasn’t some superhuman feat born of a moment of death.

It was the ‘Water Lizard Walk’ that Odile had shown me yesterday as she left.
A technique that focused magic power on the tips of the feet to increase mobility, used to make a single leap with magic power scraped together to its limit.

“Ah….!”

I jumped up to the height of a three-story building with my bare body.
The wind whistled past my ears.
The anxiety of having nothing to step on below was quickly diluted by an even greater anxiety.
The fear of falling.
I watched the ground rapidly approaching and braced for the impact.

“Kyak!”

I, who had leaped about 20 meters in an instant, landed on the bank of the magic river.
In that urgent moment, I hadn’t been able to put any magic into the landing, so I bounced across the surface like a skipping stone, feeling a pain that made it seem like my ankle was about to snap.

It was fortunate that I had fallen in an arc; if it had been a vertical drop, I would have either died or passed out and then been killed by the cat.

The slow gaze of the monster cat, chasing after its prey that had disappeared before its eyes, quickly found me again.

-Kiiiieeeeee!

Shadows gathered around it, forming spears, as the cat tried to punish the insolent prey that had jumped over its head.
I suppressed the pain and reached my arm out towards the river in front of me.

I ignored the throbbing pain.
I ran, limping, with my hand in the water, and shouted.

“Bloom!”

The reason I risked my life to get to the river was for this moment.
The concentration of the abundant magic water that was sucked into my fingertips was comparable to the high-grade magic water I used for my magic research.

One deployment.
One change.
And one transmutation.

Just before the shadow spears could skewer me, the river swelled up as if it had exploded.

-Shwaaaaaak!
“Kieeeek?”

The magic power that had been surging in the river writhed all at once, turning into a thick fog that made it hard to see even an inch ahead.
It was an excellent smokescreen.

In the midst of the obscured situation, the homunculus launched the three spears it had prepared towards the riverbank where I had been standing.
The sound of something exploding and the sound of dirt clods that had shot up into the sky falling back into the river.

“Kieek?”

By the time the fog had been blown away by the wind enough to restore visibility, both I and the twins had disappeared somewhere.

2.
“Assistant, are you okay?”
“Krrreeeeak….”

It was almost miraculous that I had managed to join up with the twins, given that it had been a moment of improvisation.
If the twins hadn’t found me in the literal fog and rushed to me, we might have been scattered.

Fortunately, the twins found me and immediately used the Water Lizard Walk to put some distance between us and the homunculus.
We hid in a hollow in the base of a tree with a split trunk.
It was a place where mushroom-like fungi grew in clusters.

“Let me see…!”

Odette rolled up my pants to examine the injured area.
My ankle was completely wrecked.
It had swollen to 1.5 times its normal size in that short time, so I thought it was possible that the bone was fractured.

“Why did you do such a reckless thing!”

Odile scolded me, her eyes welling up with tears.

“If we had kept confronting it… we would have all died in the end.”

My judgment was accurate.
Odette’s distress signal hadn’t worked properly, and the attack had been nullified.
Even if the twins had continued to put up a defense, it would have only bought us time.

The moment their magic power ran out, they would have become the homunculus’s prey without any protection.

“If the music box can prevent magic detection, I thought it would be enough to just block its vision.”
“Still, it was too dangerous! You scared me so much.”
“That’s right, I actually thought you were going to be torn in half.”

Odile grabbed my collar and shook me while whispering quickly, and Odette chimed in from the side.

The twins, who had been watching me run from behind, understood the life-or-death situation I had been in.

Dodging a tail that was swung at the last moment and jumping…
It was easy to say, but if I jumped too late or too early, it was a desperate situation where I couldn’t complain even if I was torn in half.
It was a life-or-death rhythm game.

“But we bought some time like this, right?”
“Hold still, I’ll heal you first.”

Warm light poured onto my swollen ankle.

“It’ll be okay enough to walk, but you shouldn’t run or anything like you did before. Actually, it’s my first time using this on an injured person, so I don’t really know.”
“I’ll be careful.”

Even though she said something that sounded like a quack, it should be fine.
Basically, healing through magic is about accelerating cell division to dramatically increase the body’s natural healing power.

“What do we do now? Should we just hide like this?”

As soon as my first aid was finished, Odette trembled anxiously.
And then.

-Crack! Thud!

A loud noise that shook the ground was heard not far away.
Soon, the vibrations caused by a huge tree falling were transmitted directly to our butts.

The homunculus, having lost its toy in front of its eyes, was launching indiscriminate attacks around us to find us.

“We have two options.”

I picked up a twig that was lying in the hollow.
Inside, there was soft soil for growing mushrooms, so it could be used as a makeshift chalkboard.

“One is to quietly pray and wait for another witch who notices the anomaly to find us here.”

As long as we have the music box, our location won’t be revealed until we’re visually identified.
We could take advantage of that opportunity and play a life-or-death game of hide-and-seek.
In other words, the prayer meta.

However, we can’t rule out the possibility of being hit by a stray magic attack from the homunculus, which is indiscriminately attacking everything around it.
The downside of the prayer meta is that ‘if you’re unlucky, you’re screwed.’
Odile seemed to know that, as she had a serious expression on her face.

“What’s the other one?”
“We catch that thing.”