Volume 2 Chapter 28: Witch Maiar

The Witch’s Cottage stood in a forest clearing. It was not very large—a two-story structure made of earth and wood, looking like a small earthen fort from the outside.

At this moment, the oval wooden door of the Witch’s Cottage was tightly shut, and everything was quiet.

The Werewolf raised by the Albert Family was perched on a large tree branch at the edge of the clearing. Its claws tightly gripped the bark, and it bared its teeth while snarling softly toward the cottage.

“Doctor Stan, you stay here. Frank, protect your master!” Odo observed for a while, then turned and instructed. “Bonnie, Bla, let’s go check it out!”

Qin Lun nodded calmly. Although Bla was the youngest, he was also a combatant. Doctor Stan was support staff, and Frank was merely the doctor’s personal attendant. Odo’s arrangement made sense.

Odo, Bonnie, and Bla spread out, converging toward the Witch’s Cottage. Bonnie gestured toward the Werewolf, and the fierce beast immediately tensed its muscles and crouched on the branch.

The tree was only about twenty meters from the Witch’s Cottage. From that high vantage point, combined with the Werewolf’s swift movements, it provided the best all-around cover, preventing the three Demon Hunters from being ambushed.

Bang! Just as the three approached the Witch’s Cottage, the wooden door suddenly burst apart. A huge figure rushed out from inside, pouncing toward Bonnie in the middle of the trio.

At the same time, the window on the second-floor loft of the Witch’s Cottage swung open, and a rustling sound came from the grass on the left side of the clearing. Two dark shadows lunged separately toward Odo and Bla.

In an instant, all three Demon Hunters found themselves in danger simultaneously. It seemed the witch on the opposing side was well-prepared—not only had she not fled the cottage, she had decided to confront the Demon Hunter squad right there.

Awooo! A wolf howl echoed across the clearing. The Albert Family’s Werewolf forcefully pushed off the branch, leaping through the air like lightning. Its claws pinned down the massive creature in front of Bonnie, and the two tumbled together across the grass.

The three prepared Demon Hunters did not immediately launch their attack. Instead, they rolled backward in unison, neatly dodging the sudden assault. It appeared they were quite experienced in dealing with such situations; even Bla likely practiced this kind of evasion regularly.

Qin Lun widened his eyes, watching the three newly appeared Evil Creatures with keen interest.

The huge creature grappling with the Werewolf was humanoid, with green skin and a height of nearly three point two meters. It wore two pieces of deer hide around its chest and waist. Its limbs were thick, and its large hands were about four times the size of human hands—it was likely the Troll the Demon Hunters had mentioned.

This Troll’s chest was full and bulging, suggesting it was a female Troll. However, its features were ugly, with blackish-yellow teeth and a waist as thick as a giant pillar, completely failing to meet human aesthetic standards.

In contrast to the Troll, the dark shape that had rushed out from the cottage loft was much smaller and more delicate. It resembled a bird of prey, covered in gray-brown feathers, with a pair of three-toed bird claws for its lower body—though these claws were several times larger than those of ordinary birds, with tips as sharp as hooks.

Surprisingly, its head was that of a beautiful human woman. This was a Harpy, a rarity even among Evil Creatures.

The Harpy’s pounce toward Odo missed. It jumped with both feet off the ground, soaring upward once more. With a spread of its wings, it flew over the heads of the Demon Hunters.

Among the attacks faced by the three Demon Hunters, Bla was in the most danger. The Evil Creature that emerged from the grass on the left side of the clearing was a fierce Man-Faced Mantis.

This Evil Creature had the face of a human male on its upper body, while its lower body was that of a mantis. Its arms had a dark, gleaming metallic sheen, with edges as sharp as scythes. If it struck a person, the blow would surely cut them in two—just like the unfortunate victim attacked by the Scorpion-Man the previous night, with no chance of rescue.

“Demon Hunters, do you wish to tear up the Millennium Pact?” A figure stepped out from the large hole where the cottage door had burst open. A soft, captivating woman’s voice rang out across the forest clearing.

So this was a Witch Maiar? Qin Lun’s eyes lit up, and a strange expression crossed his face.

No wonder Qin Lun was surprised. This witch had cascading black hair and delicate, beautiful features. She wore a cloak woven from grass and leaves and a floral crown on her head. If not for the lack of pointed ears, he would have almost mistaken her for an Elf Priestess from the Moonlight Forest.

She was far different from the evil witch he had imagined—ugly-faced, hunched-over, prone to cawing like a crow.

“Evil witch, it is you who broke the Millennium Pact!” Odo shot a glance at Bonnie. The two shouted sharply and lunged toward the witch from left and right.

They never expected that, despite sending out so many Evil Creatures, this witch still had three helpers by her side. No wonder she showed no fear of the Demon Hunters and instead waited for them in the cottage.

The two experienced Demon Hunters immediately realized they could not let the battle drag on. They had to resolve it quickly. Over at Nova’s side, the Evil Creatures were mainly Gargoyles. Without the witch’s conscious command, the Magical Creatures’ combat effectiveness would greatly diminish, making their victory certain.

However, the main Demon Hunter force was still half a day’s journey away, and they definitely could not hold out that long. Moreover, it was nearly evening; the sky was gradually darkening. Even if Nova and the others arrived, the witch would have already defeated them and escaped under cover of darkness.

Odo and the others’ only chance of victory was to concentrate their strength and swiftly defeat the witch.

The Troll had immense strength and made a good meat shield, but the Werewolf already had it occupied. The Man-Faced Mantis had strong offensive power, but its body was not agile. As long as Bla was careful, he would be fine. As for the nimble Harpy, its attack methods were limited; getting scratched a few times wouldn’t be fatal, so they could ignore it for now.

Seeing Odo and Bonnie lunging toward her, the beautiful witch revealed a trace of scorn in her eyes.

Compared to Demon Hunters, witches were often the weaker party. If not for the fact they hid in mostly desolate places with harsh living conditions, they would have been completely wiped out a thousand years ago.

Through years of warfare, while learning from their failures, witches had also learned to use their minds to fight Demon Hunters, not just brute force. Most Witch Maiars expended great effort setting traps around their cottages and placing watchers, lest they be surrounded by Demon Hunters unaware.

Along their journey, Qin Lun and the others had actually dismantled quite a few traps, and of course, their tracks had been exposed early on. However, this Witch Maiar was fully focused on directing and monitoring Nova and the others, so she failed to notice the danger signals transmitted through her magic crystal ball.

It wasn’t until Bla triggered that man-eating plant—which was also a small trap—that the sudden gunshot startled the witch. She finally discovered this separate squad of Demon Hunters.

In fact, Bla falling into the man-eating plant trap not only brought huge trouble for the Demon Hunters but also placed the witch in a dilemma.

The witch’s first thought was to abandon the cottage and flee deep into the forest. But as an important intelligence post for the Witch Maiars, her cottage stored many critical documents. These absolutely could not fall into the hands of Demon Hunters.

Among these documents were many pieces of evidence about the witches’ plans to return to the human world. There were even intelligence reports sent by witches who had infiltrated human society, along with letters from human informants bribed by witches. While some letters could be burned, others had magical seals and could not be destroyed quickly.

Additionally, her cottage contained much research on biological experiments with Evil Creatures and studies on large-scale destructive Black Magic. Abandoning the cottage meant starting over from scratch. And these items could not be completely obliterated; if even a few fragments of evidence ended up with the Demon Hunters, the Exorcist Organization would have a pretext to bypass the Millennium Pact and even mobilize human armies to hunt down the Witch Maiars.

This era was no longer like a thousand years ago. Witches hiding in the world’s corners constantly observed humanity. They realized their earlier judgments were half right and half wrong.

The correct half was that the Exorcist Organization no longer stood at the pinnacle of human society as they had a millennium ago.

With the passage of time, they had gradually weakened, returning world governance to ordinary humans. They could no longer mobilize human armies anytime, anywhere, as they once did. Some Demon Hunters became tainted by wealth and status, turning into hounds chasing bounties and power, losing their firm faith in protecting the world.

The wrong half was that the ordinary humans, whom the witches had initially overlooked, demonstrated powerful technological strength. Firearms, cannons, stone castles towering over a hundred meters, powerful warships crossing the oceans, giant iron beasts that spewed steam…

The witches suddenly realized they no longer recognized this world. Perhaps in a few hundred years, both Demon Hunters and witches would disappear from the world, becoming ordinary, unnoticeable members of human society.

Faced with this unshakeable reality, the witches split. One faction believed they should abandon unrealistic ambitions and reintegrate into human society as new witches of a new era.

Another faction believed that the more powerful human technology became, the more fragile the human heart would be. They needed to develop large-scale destructive Black Magic, create terror incidents, incite humans to kill each other, and steer the faithless human world back toward darkness.

The Witch Maiars were the dark witches who held the latter view. Therefore, this witch, stationed at the edge of the Maiar Forest to monitor the Aodia Region, understood that as long as there was the slightest chance of saving the situation, she must not leave evidence for the watchful Demon Hunters.

So, after observing through her crystal ball that there were only five troublesome Demon Hunters—one of them a youth, another a coachman—she immediately decided to stay and confront them. At this point, she felt quite grateful that, out of caution, she had left three helpers near the cottage.

Watching the two Demon Hunters lunging toward her, the witch swung her right hand, and a long Wand appeared beneath her.

Whoosh! The witch shot diagonally upward as if riding a small rocket.

“Trying to run now? Isn’t it a bit late?” Odo laughed coldly, reached into his clothes, pulled out an engraved scroll, and crushed it forcefully.

A yellowish-brown light traced an arc from Odo’s hand and landed on the witch.

Ah! The witch suddenly felt as if a heavy mountain of earth weighed down on her. She let out a strange cry and fell from mid-air.

Clang! Bonnie’s eyes flashed coldly. He crossed his hands and drew two long swords from his waist. His short, quick steps suddenly accelerated, and his form transformed into a streak of lightning. Wherever he passed, grass and debris flew everywhere, like a whirlwind dragon.

From his vantage point, Qin Lun saw only two dazzling sword lights intersecting like scissors in his vision, resembling a flood dragon opening its bloody maw, biting down hard on the witch…

Demon Hunter Combat Sword Skill—Death Strangulation!