Chapter 34: White Witch (Part 5)
As Ramphil hacked the freefalling Witch to the ground, he raised the power level of the sword, and started slashing the Witch ever more quickly.
—whoosh!—
He was slashing at least five times a second, seemingly hacking his enemy into dust. Getting pounded on, the Witch was about to lose consciousness from the agonizing pain and shock.
However, a devil was still a devil.
“Aaaaack!”
—babam!—
Hundreds of dark tentacles shot out of the ground around Ramphil. However, he noticed them, and started moving to avoid them.
—zing!—
Telekinesis!
Ramphil was briefly stunned by the telekinetic power, and the brief pause was the beginning of his downfall.
—Sswoop!—
Ramphil’s arms and legs were tied up by the tentacles, and he watched the Witch get up slowly.
“You are able to use telekinesis.”
“Hehe…kid. Everybody has a hidden to card to play with.”
The Witch did not utilize her telekinetic power in order to drop Ramphil’s guard. And when Ramphil was about to deal the finishing blow, she got him. As Ramphil was tied up in the air, he sensed defeat.
He was too quick to judge. The Witch caught him off-guard, and Ramphil let his defenses down.
Hmm. I probably could not have won in the first place.
If the Witch had utilized her telekinetic power from the beginning, he would not have been attacking so fiercely.
Looks like I was the rookie.
Ramphil had to admit his mistakes. And the consequence was his death.
—crack! bam!—
“You bastards, you’ve replaced all the bones with alloy steel… You are despicable even thinking about doing such things.”
As the Witch tightened her tentacles, the arms and legs of Ramphil were crushed. As the Witch saw the steel shining with blood, she looked at Ramphil in disgust.
“You don’t even scream.”
“…”
Ramphil looked at the Witch without a groan.
Ramphil had no change in emotion, displaying no fear of death nor the will to survive.
“I was going to toy around with you, but I changed my mind.”
The Witch thought that the Wargrave soldier in front of her was the weirdest and scariest soldier that she had ever seen.
She was planning to put him into agony, but as she saw him so emotionless, she changed her mind.
“Die, you frea-”
—pow!—
Before she could finish her sentence, her upper body blew up.
“What?”
As the tentacles lost its shape, Ramphil’s armless and legless body fell to the ground.
—bang!—
A loud gunshot rang through the air a couple seconds later. Ramphil looked at the Witch’s corpse, only the lower body remaining, trembling with specks of blood.
Sniping?
Ramphil looked towards the direction where he heard the gunshot, but there was no one visible.
The Witch’s corpse started to regenerate.
It has regenerating power, too.
Ramphil was wondering what other power the devil was hiding, but he could do nothing but watch the Witch’s body regenerate.
—bubble, bubble—
The white legs were shaking, but here was no screaming. It was showing that the devil was going through extreme pain. When the sniper arrived to finish off the target, the regeneration had finished. The sniper was wearing a black coat, and holding a large grey sword in his right hand.
A sword? A hunter?
The Witch struggled to get up and get away from the sniper. Her body was getting faint and it appeared the Witch was in tremendous pain.
“You have the power of an Immortal, as well. What a nuisance they created…”
“Krrr…. You, who are you…?”
The Witch stepped back. By carrying a black sword, and by the looks, it was certain that he was a man from the wilderness, not from the Wargrave. The man slowly walked towards the Witch and replied, “I dispose of trash like you.”
“What?”
“Would you know if I told you that I’m a devil hunter?”
—pffft—
Zin charged forwards, and chopped down the devil with Phantomvein.
“Kyaaaack!”
—chop!—
The Witch tried to run away, but Zin started butchering her. He struck her head, the shoulder, and the waist. He looked as if he was going to cut off every single pound of flesh, as he attacked with his lone sword.
—pow! chop! chop! —
Ramphil watched the scene helplessly. It was more of a slaughter than a battle. The grey sword was resonating as the body of the Witch was spraying blood.
“Ack! Ack! No! It hurts! Hurts! Kyaaaaaa! Keeeeeeyaaaaa!”
The Witch was screaming something inhuman. She was feeling a different sort of pain from the photon disruptor sword, like something vital was being sucked out of her every time she was hit. The devil hunter butchered the devil like a piece of meat. The Witch tried to push back using telekinesis, but her power was weak because her body had not fully regenerated.
However, the power of the Immortal within the Witch kept on regenerating the body of the Witch. However, as soon as she regenerated, she was minced again.
—chop! chop! —
Ramphil watched the slaughter scene for about thirty minutes.
And after thirty minutes, Zin started frowning.
“What a filthy thing.”
—krrrrrr—
The chopped body parts gathered together to regenerate yet again, and the devil hunter sighed as if he was tired. Phantomvein had less power, and it appeared that it was not strong enough to kill off a devil with the power of an immortal. Luckily, Phantomvein was absorbing the blood of the devil. If the sword absorbed enough power, it was possible to finish off the devil.
Krrrraaaa!
“Hunter. I see monsters coming.”
Ramphil spoke as he heard the sound, and Zin looked up into the sky. The Witch was not waiting for its death quietly.
“Damn.”
A monster bird was flying towards Zin at high speed. The Witch had summoned a flying monster to her.
—bambam!—
The monster plunged toward Zin like a meteor, and Zin quickly avoided the dive.
“Krrrraaaaah!”
The monster bird emanated dark smoke from its feathers and breathed out dark smoke from the beak. As Zin dodged the smoke, the ground that was hit by the smoke disintegrated. Zin put away his Phantomvein and pulled out his Saiga shotgun.
Black hawk… This is going to be fun.
A black hawk was a large monster was considered tough to deal with. It was smart enough to avoid gunfire, and it had speed and power.
How the heck does that Witch so easily summon such a powerful monster…Zin was disgusted by the power of the Witch!
The black hawk stood over the bloody foam of the devil and breathed fire at him. “Kyaaaaaah!”
“Argh!” Zin briefly lost his senses as he was struck by powerful sound waves. It was not good to hunt monsters without any preparation, and he hadn’t prepared to attack this type of monster.
—kaboom!—
There was an explosion as the powercell hit the face of the black hawk, but after the smoke cleared, there was no damage to it.
Meanwhile the devil was still regenerating, and as Zin was preoccupied fighting off the black hawk, the White Witch regained her form. As she fully regained her body shape, the Witch emanated a purple aura. She was in an unstable state!
“Ooooaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!”
—ziiing!—
“Arg!”
At the powerful release of a psychowave, Zin was shaken up. The psychic power of the Witch was more then strong enough to overpower Zin, a mere human.
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahck!”
The Witch’s cry stuck everyone in the area, regardless of enemy or ally, and the black hawk was trembling as it was overpowered by the psychic storm. As if the whole world had suddenly stopped, Zin tried to stay conscious from the pressure that was crushing his brain. Ramphil lost his consciousness at the powerful psychowave, and Zin bit his lips as he trembled.
“Crazy… what the heck…”
—ziiiing!—
“Dieeeeeeee!”
—kabam! kaboom!—
The ground shattered and the telekinetic energy started to pummel Zin. The psychowave was shot all over the place, but was now specifically targeting Zin. Zin’s brain was going to shatter at this rate!
He had to make a swift decision!
[Activating dark born energy]
[Energy level extremely low! Stop use of energy!]
—vwooooom!—
As Zin’s body was surrounded with dark smoke, he was released from the pressure and dashed towards the Witch.
—bam!—
“Aaack!”
—baaaam!—
Zin’s fingers pierced through the eyes of the Witch and ripped apart her skull.
Krrrrrrrrrr!
However the waves of telekinetic energy did not stop, and as Zin’s whole body was squeezed, flames blazed around the dark smoke protecting him.
—bam! baam! —
Zin ripped apart the body of the Witch with his bare hands, but the power of the devil did not diminish. He was utilizing a high level of energy to attack and defend himself at the same time. It was like he was attacking in the middle of a nuclear explosion.
[Remaining energy level 31%… 29%… 24%…]
As his darkborn energy was drained at a frightening speed, Zin was crushing the regenerating body of the Witch. In a space where time seemed to be stopped, Zin continued to rip apart the body of the Witch. Because of the overloaded power, the body of the Witch was repeatedly crushed and regenerated at a quick rate.
[Don’t continue the use of energy! Remaining energy level critically low!]
—babaam!—
[Remaining energy level 1%… .92%…]
—pow!—
Suddenly, a powerful telekinetic energy exploded from the body of the Witch and struck Zin’s chest.
“Huuuck!” Zin was flung far away by the mighty blow, and his dark born mode was deactivated. It was as if the telekinetic force was alive and concentrated its attack on its enemy, punching a hole into his chest.
—krrrrrrrr!—
As the power of the psychowave diminished, the fully regenerated body of the Witch started to tremble wildly. She almost faded out.
“Sniff… sniff… I don’t want to die… don’t want to die… save me… it hurts… hurts… no needles… save me… my body is melting… sniff! Ah! I’m sorry! Sorry! Help… Help me…”
Responding to the cry of the sorrowful Witch, the black hawk which survived the psychowave started to crow.
Kiiiiii!
The monster bird grabbed by Witch in its claws, and started to flap its wing.
—vwoom!—
With a single flap, the monster bird started to fly up in the sky. The monster continued to fly away with it master held in its claws.
“I want… to live…”
The Witch continued to murmur out of her mind.
[No energy available to auto-regenerate the body.]
[Utilizing the drained blood from the fourth charm, Phantomvein. Regenerating body.]
[Approaching energy depletion state.]
[Shutting down.]
[Need the blood of a devil.]
[Need the blood of a devil.]
[Need the blood of a devil.]
.
.
.
Unable to move a single finger, Zin watched the monitor without the ability to make any decision. If he used his remaining energy to stay conscious, he would cease to function completely.
He had no energy to even pick up and consume the blue chips.
It meant that death was near. Zin was too weak to fight against the new devil. Zin laid down at the footstep of death. He could only see a yellow sky. Just as other hunters had, Zin was facing death in the wilderness.
He had no energy left to open his mouth or move his eyelids. He was not able to move at all, and even if he conserved his remaining energy, he had less than an hour of life. Zin did not feel liberation, happiness, sadness, or desire for survival.
I thought it would feel more terrible.
Zin figured that his last moment would be gruesome, but he was not expecting it to end like this. He lost the battle. He was not used to facing death upon defeat. It was not because he expected defeat.
He didn’t expect his final moments to be like this.
Deaths in the wilderness were very similar. It was neither tragic nor happy. Zin would disappear into the dust of the wilderness.
—vrrrrrrrroooooooom!—
And then, a loud engine sound could be heard from somewhere.
“…”
It was approaching Zin at a blazing speed. Zin wanted to smile at the sound of the engine that he despised so much, but he couldn’t.
—vrrrrooom!—
“Miiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiisterrrrrrrrr!”
The world did not want to let Zin go away yet.