City ​​of Witches 637

Chapter 637 – #128_Maze(8)

#637

1.
So far, I’ve fought against 22nd-tier witches twice.

Dorothy Sahakiel and Bianca Bellili.
The result is one win and one draw.
Compared to my old days when I was a nobody, it’s a remarkable achievement.

However, it was hard to say that the results were entirely due to Siwoo.

In Bianca’s case, the trick Siwoo had set up to prevent her from escaping ended up backfiring and holding her back.
More than anything, what pushed her to the brink was not Siwoo himself, but his unconscious that awakened when his heart stopped.

In Dorothy’s case, since the goal was to ‘capture her without injury,’ she dragged out the time even though she was in an advantageous position.
If he had pushed her without giving her time to leisurely draw her magic circle, it was highly likely that her one-shot comeback would have been impossible.

Of course, if he were to suffer a fatal wound here and the monster in his unconscious were to come out, it might be possible to have a somewhat equal fight like with Bianca.

However, he was concerned that the negotiation surrounding his body had broken down during the ‘trial.’

It didn’t seem likely that the unconscious, having taken over his body once again, would resolve the crisis and then sweetly return control.
No, it might not even come out and just stand by, or perhaps it had already disappeared.

In other words, this was the first time he was facing a 22nd-tier opponent on completely equal terms.

“……”

She stared at this place with cold eyes, without saying a word, and there was no outward flashiness about her.
For example, she didn’t seem to be using various artifacts in a dazzling way, nor did she show any sign of trying to use overwhelming power that would be intimidating just by looking at it.

She was just spreading a hazy fog and looking at this side with cold eyes.
You can’t judge a tier just by the momentum, but on the surface, only magic power that barely reached the level of a great witch could be felt.

However, if you look deeply into her abyss-like black eyes, you can see what lies beyond.

A power that is condensed without any waste.
A magic power that is ready to shoot out silently like a blade lurking in the darkness.
The eyes of a butcher endlessly searching for where to cut.

-Whiiir!

Thinking calmly, Siwoo’s combat ability was at the 21st tier level.
However, if he entered a semi-berserk state through the ring, his level would briefly reach the 22nd tier.

The angel’s ring began to accelerate.
The condensation of magic power, rotating in a spiral, brought a dangerous level of power to every part of his body.

The one who moved first was Linne.
Her figure, which had been standing with her sword pointed, crumbled as if flowing down.

Even though it was such an explosive leap, there was not a single sound.
It was proof that all the power that would have been dispersed was being used to shoot forward without waste.

“Ssshh!”

He prepared to counter, following the black trajectory that was only faintly visible.

It was so fast that even Siwoo’s dynamic vision couldn’t properly follow it, but as fast as it was, its movement was straightforward.
Judging by the way she held the sword and the angle, she was going to slice his waist as she passed by.

The direction is to the left.

Should he cut? Should he stab? Should he strike?
Or should he first engage in sword fighting by clashing weapons?
Siwoo chose one of the options that came to mind in an instant.

-Thud!

Just as he was about to deflect his opponent, who was making a reckless charge, his left foot digging into the hard ground like soft mud.

“……!”

Siwoo felt a chill run down his spine.
Something was dangerous.
He had a premonition that if he assumed she would come from the ‘left’ and acted accordingly, it would be a fatal mistake.

-Clang!

Just before the collision.
Siwoo rotated the spear shaft like a windmill and changed his grip.
At the same time, the sword strike that had heavily wrapped around the spear shaft, blocking his ‘right’ waist, sent sparks flying.

“…….”

The positions of the two people changed in an instant.

What happened?
He was just bewildered.

Siwoo and the sword witch in front of him were already among the superhumans.
It was nearly impossible to see every attack with the naked eye and then react.
Nevertheless, the fight didn’t end in one exchange and continued because they predicted the next attack by looking at the preparatory movements.

For example, the position of the feet, the degree to which the shoulders were tensed.
In Siwoo’s case, he prepared for the next attack by looking at the places where magic power enhancement was particularly concentrated.

In that sense, the attack she showed was an impossible sword strike.

Even though all the preparatory movements were saying that she was aiming for the left, just before the collision, the sword came in on the opposite side.
If he had reacted as he saw, instead of following his intuition, a chunk of flesh would have been torn off.

It was a movement as if she was freely controlling inertia.

He looked at the sword witch.
She was more surprised than Siwoo, who had blocked the attack by chance.

Due to the nature of Linne’s sword, which overturned the fundamentals of physics, the power of the first strike was the strongest.

Even if you knew her ability, it didn’t matter.
If the laws that you had seen countless times in your daily life and had become accustomed to were completely reversed, your reaction would be delayed.

But he had blocked the first strike as if to show off.
He had overturned the common sense that was deeply ingrained in his mind, and he had trusted his intuition rather than the phenomenon he saw in front of him.

Not only that, but he was counterattacking like this.

-Whoosh!
“Hap!”

As Linne’s waist was bent backward, a long pole swept through the area where her upper body had been.

Was this the red branch that the knight used?

Between the few strands of hair that were cut off, a strange undulation condensed in a spiral shape followed.
He had felt it when the sword had brushed past him earlier, but it was a very powerful distortion field.

However, even Linne, who was used to close combat, didn’t have the leisure to leisurely admire it.

-Crack! Crack!

The fierce spear strikes that seemed to tear apart space chased, chased, and chased Linne again.
Even though it seemed like he was swinging wildly with all his might, he wasn’t being swayed by his own power.
He was continuing his spear strikes with a perfect posture that deserved praise.

Every time he blocked with his sword, the distortion field seeped into his insides, causing terrible pain.

The storm of spears that was driving Linne, who was moving in strange angles and postures.
Finally, a thrust that could not be handled by evasion alone flew towards her heart.

-Clang!

Linne’s body, which had blocked the sword in mid-air, flew like a cannonball towards the outer wall.
It wasn’t a direct hit.
Her body had stopped in mid-air while flying.

“Damn it….”

Siwoo bit his lip.
It was a movement he had never heard of before.

She was wearing clothes and holding a weapon that looked like she would only take a textbook kendo stance, but she would lean her upper body so far that it would touch the ground, and then she would make a motion to evade to the left and calmly walk out to the right.

It felt like he was fighting a phantom, not a human.
He couldn’t get used to her movements at all.

Was it about the laws of physics after all?

The fact that she had stopped her body in mid-air, and like Dorothy’s absolute power, she must have a means to specially control physical phenomena.
Judging from her movements, that type was probably related to inertia.

He lowered the output of the ring for a moment to catch his breath and readjust his posture.

He had only moved for a few seconds, and his magic power was already depleted.
As he repeatedly amplified his power to fill the insufficient magic power, his muscles and bones screamed.

A cost that was difficult for even Siwoo, who possessed a vast amount of magic power instead of drawing out instantaneous power, to handle.

His body would only move as he wanted for the next 5 seconds.

“…….”

And Linne was accurately seeing through that.

He was clearly drawing on more power than was allowed.
Even Linne, who was able to exchange swords with Tiferet on equal terms, was showing destructive power that was difficult to withstand.

Siwoo re-accelerated the ring.

-Kiiiiiing!

Magic power was being sucked in as if pouring water into a bottomless pit.
Correspondingly, the power that filled his whole body and the great power that was contained in his grasp made the spirit scream.

He activated the distortion field to the maximum in front of him.
As he twisted and twisted the distortion wave that had been drawn out to its limit,
it was concentrated at the extreme point of the spear like a trumpet flower bud just before blooming.

A violent use that he would not normally dare to attempt.
After suppressing the rebellion of the red branch, which was running wild and trying to defy its master, with over-amplified magic power,
this one thrust was comparable to a javelin throw with all his might.

The important thing was how to thrust the spear.
If he rashly took the initiative and was evaded, he would be left with no way out.

Therefore, Siwoo grabbed the spear like a harpoon and lifted it up.
A blatant counter setup.

The moment she invaded Siwoo’s space to attack, the red branch would punish the intruder.

How was she going to come out?
Siwoo, who had finished his preparations, looked at Linne.

A change occurred on Linne’s face, which had been unchanging all along.

“How presumptuous.”

It was a chilling, maniacal laugh that was a direct copy of the face of a Yaksha who did not avoid fighting.

That’s right.
It was the hollow laugh of someone who had fallen for the provocation that Siwoo wanted.

In fact, Siwoo’s action of stopping his feet and declaring that he would take a counter was perhaps a self-inflicted wound.

If Linne had a very simple long-range check,
or if she waited for Siwoo to fall on his own by dragging out time, it was a tactic that could be easily broken.

A wise witch would not jump into the mouth of a venomous snake that was wide open.
She would subdue him efficiently through other means.

However, for a swordsman, this had a completely different meaning.

Waiting for the enemy in a posture that clearly showed how and through which path he would attack.
This was both a ‘come in if you dare’ and a provocative command that said, ‘no matter what you do, I’ll knock you down with this.’

And Linne was a witch and a warrior who was full of fighting spirit enough to willingly respond to that provocation.

You don’t always have to be stronger than your opponent.

You just need to be above your opponent’s head for the one moment that will determine the victory or defeat.
It was enough if you could make a 7 to 3 fight into a 5.1 to 4.9 fight, even for a moment.

“Cut.”

With the activation word, magic power spread behind Linne’s back as she lowered her posture.
Black haze that was spreading like ink being released.

The haze painted the world it touched in black and white.

Bright colors became white.
Dark colors became black.
As the black and white scenery spread, the violent trembling of magic power subsided.
A terrible silence replaced the empty space.

Siwoo’s eyes could not properly grasp what kind of action was taking place.

However, what he could confirm was….
The black and white that had been spreading little by little had transformed the surrounding scenery into a monochrome painting.
Except for the faintly glowing red branch, the rest had lost their original colors.

And.

“Black and White World.”

A voice that leaked out from between her lips in a world that had lost its noise and color.

She had cut down thousands of lives and thousands of deaths.
The only philosophy that had not been worn down in the spiral of killing and being killed was.
An obsession with strength.

The black sword cried out silently.

The color returned.

Siwoo’s neck, as he dropped the spear and fell to his knees.
The blood vessels that were gushing like a fountain through the gaps in his broken armor also regained their bright red color.