Han Se-ah floundered in the darkness, her cara spinning aimlessly. anwhile, the NPC companions competently handled their roles, especially Grace who mischievously stole Roland's lips and then instructed him to wake Katie with a kiss.
It was the perfect setup for viewers to mock Han Se-ah.
"No, seriously. I really have to just sit here? There should be at least one way out. I'm a mage—how can there be no way to break this sorcery?!"
-LOL what can you even do? LOL what can you even do? LOL what can you even do? LOL what can you even do? LOL what can you even do?
-While Grace is making her official wife moves, all you can do is voyeur with your cara? Just watching while Roland plants kisses?
-Staff stand can't do anything, right? Just sucking your thumb until the hunter cos to rescue you?
-Watching and sucking sothing long in the dark... this is an R-rated stream
-LOL what's the point of rolling dice first if you've got no way out anyway? LOLOL
Grace looked around uncertainly, while Han Se-ah struggled in the darkness, filming us. Their behavior completely contrasted with our party mbers who had gathered together with instinctive tension, aware we were still trapped in the witch's sorcery.
Fortunately for Han Se-ah, she wouldn't remain imprisoned in darkness forever.
"Over here― can you hear ―"
"Yes, yes! I can hear you, Miss Elize!"
Just as Grace had found our companions, Elize the sorceress had apparently found Han Se-ah. While her cara continued filming us, she stopped mid-conversation with viewers to respond to Elize. Had our party now split into physical fighters and intellectuals?
Was this the witch's plan all along?
Seeing how cleanly our party had been divided, I glanced at the witch's illusion still getting pumled by Grace. The witch kept absorbing all the arrows Grace fired in every direction, as if the space itself had been twisted.
"Why... are you...?"
"A way out... perhaps—"
Grace continued firing arrows tirelessly, almost relentlessly, without getting bored or tired. Thanks to her, the mad witch's illusion had already dispersed like fog and reford into human shape several tis.
The way she stuck stubbornly by my side while unable to speak comfortably was becoming increasingly suspicious.
Did she consider an interesting test subject after seeing swing the holy sword? Or had she sensed from my mana wavelength that I was the strongest in our party? Her non-stop chattering was becoming irritating beyond re annoyance.
"Hey, what's your angle?"
"Co on. She's not going to answer just because you asked—"
"I've never... used... sorcery... on a holy sword before~"
"Oh? What the hell."
"A holy sword that tears through sorcery, and love that breaks sorcery"
"I can't just kill such interesting test subjects—"
"Child, aren't you... interrupting... my conversation... with your husband?"
So she was treating us like lab rats after all. Grace started firing arrows again, apparently annoyed by those words. By this point, the witch seed irritated too, as her pincushion illusion in midair began to distort grotesquely.
Already looking creepy with arrows stuck all over, she looked like an undead arrow flower as she lost her human shape.
The witch's illusion rippled in midair, changing form as if molded from clouds. She absorbed even the magical arrows stuck in her body and gradually expanded her size. It was an unpleasant sight, like a cloud, clay, or sewer sludge swelling up.
"Child, perhaps... you haven't... heard?"
"Bad children who don't listen to adults"
"Get taken away by the wicked witch—?!"
The slender witch's silhouette transford into a massive beast. With a maw full of teeth like a worm's and a revolting snout that opened wide, it charged toward us like a snake crawling through space, releasing a roar that made our heads ring.
Her previous appearance as a harmless blabbermouth was completely gone, replaced by an overwhelmingly ferocious aura. Just from the unpleasant sorcerous wavelength, my instincts told that taking a direct hit unprepared would end badly.
'Can I just smash that thing?'
But facing such monstrosities was a tank's duty. Without hesitation, I stepped forward to put our companions behind . Having used the holy sword to break my own nightmare earlier, I raised my shield and rested my warhamr on my shoulder in a charging stance.
Whether illusion or hologram, it should scatter if I bash it with my shield and smash it with my hamr, right? And since it was using evil sorcery, infusing holy power into my attacks might not kill the witch, but it could disrupt the sorcery.
True to her preference for underhanded tactics, the witch's maw ignored the tank and aid for the back line instead. I stepped forward to ram her with my shoulder, but before my shield could strike her flank, sothing strange happened.
"...Ah, found it."
"Wh-what is thiiiiis?!"
With a thud, the witch's illusion froze in midair as if nailed in place.
Grace, who had been continuously firing arrows into empty space without dodging, trusting completely, had just fired an arrow loaded with mana sowhere.
More specifically, toward the witch's real body through empty space.
※
Realizations could co from the most unexpected sources.
Those who never break through barriers might dismiss this as privileged nonsense, but in my 11 years as an adventurer, I'd found that with enough talent, enlightennt could co from the most trivial things.
So found enlightennt watching the morning sun rise after battle, others from the sparks of a campfire boiling soup, and there was even one bastard who reached enlightennt during post-coital clarity, watching the red lights going out in the brothel district.
So it was only natural that Grace would find so insight within the witch's sorcery.
"Grace, can you see sothing?"
"Yes, I think I can... find the witch—"
Perhaps she'd gained so insight through the arrows she fired continuously while passing through Katie's, Jacob's, Irene's, and Mills' illusions from the ruined village.
Her soft brown eyes sparkled like amber under a spotlight. With those unmistakably special eyes glaring into space, Grace very slowly drew her bowstring. Not like a hunter pursuing prey, but like a priest offering a solemn prayer—slowly.
As if to demonstrate that wind arrows weren't just for rapid firing, the magic swirling around her bowstring gathered like a storm.
"Roland, I'll open the way."
"...Alright, got it."
The arrow, charged with enough power to distort the sorcerous illusion, could hardly be called just an arrow anymore. The wind gathered around it rivaled a high-rank magic spell, making the bowstring creak ominously—krrreeeek—as if about to snap.
Then, as if she couldn't hold on any longer, Grace released her fingers very lightly.
They say the eye of a storm is calm—the arrow disappeared into empty space without making a sound. But even if it flew sowhere invisible to us, a high-rank spell couldn't travel without leaving so aftermath.
Krik, krakakrik, kreeeeeee—
"...Everyone, get down!"
Terrible noises ca from beyond the distorted, shattered illusion. A wind blew from the chaotic space as if guiding our way, but it was excessively violent to be called guidance.
Jacob took care of Grace, who sagged with her bow dangling, while Mills and Katie huddled around Irene. After seeing them secure, I charged forward following the violent wind, imdiately feeling strong resistance.
It felt like running outside during a typhoon. Pushing through the howling wind, I saw a devastated prairie instead of the distorted illusion.
Weeds that dared not raise their heads, small shrubs uprooted and blown away, prairie soil exposed where lush green had been torn away, and beyond it all, a shattered hut.
"How dare you, how daaaaare!!!"
"Just when I thought things might quiet down, you're still as noisy as ever."
Had she finally shot the witch's head through the illusion? Dark aura ominously rose from the ruins of the collapsed hut, gathering into the shape of a witch on a broomstick.
Though calling it a witch on a broomstick was generous—it was more like a grotesque tentacle mass perched on a broom rather than a beautiful woman's silhouette.
"Hey, aren't you going to fight?! ...That's really the fucking bitch."
The problem was that despite having her hut destroyed and taking a direct hit to the head that would enrage anyone, she was escaping on a broomstick again. She truly had an annoying pattern.
Phase 1: Trap
Phase 2: Escape
Fucking hell, whoever designed this really knew how to piss off users.
Enjoy the chappy!
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