City of Witches Chapter 199

The flow of the battle was one-sided.

The White Knight pressured Siwoo with various techniques and feints.

A long spear reaching 3 meters freely adjusted the distance, delivering one-sided attacks.

It stabbed toward his face, and at times, bent unexpectedly to strike down at his thigh.

With complete initiative lost, Siwoo could barely manage to parry.

The more he moved, the more blood flowing from his torn eyelid pooled at the corner of his eye.

-Clang! Clang!

It was maddening.

Strikes that could take his life if he let his guard down for even a moment flew relentlessly, several times a second.

They were varied and ever-changing.

To respond to attacks that followed no set pattern, improvisation was the only answer.

In a different sense from Magic combat, his blood ran cold.

“Huff!”

Siwoo blocked the spear tip swung in an arc with his shield.

Simultaneously, the spinning spear shaft struck his abdomen.

The impact, transmitted through his armor, felt as if his insides were collapsing.

The air in his lungs was squeezed out against his will.

-Crash!

Siwoo’s back foot pushed off the ground with all its might.

Dragging his legs, heavy as if shackled with lead, he desperately pulled himself forward instead.

He’d rather force a close-quarters brawl than fight at an ambiguous distance.

But the White Knight didn’t move as Siwoo intended, not even a little.

Receiving Siwoo’s charging push, the knight instead took a backstep.

Because of that, the gap widened again.

In close combat with cold weapons, advantage and disadvantage are determined by how one controls the distance.

The distance between them remained constant.

From beginning to end, the White Knight maintained a gap where the spear could thrust without hindrance, and the sword could not land an effective hit.

Moreover, amidst the dizzying onslaught, utilizing the Ribbon to shake free was impossible.

The White Knight and the Black Knight clashed once more.

Shadows scattering like smoke within the reflected glints of magic power, one gold and one crimson.

As his stamina drained bit by bit, more gashes appeared on his armor.

-Thud!

“Ghk!”

This time, the spear, slashed twice from below to above, suddenly rotated.

The broadly swung spear shaft struck Siwoo’s temple.

An unpleasant sound came from his neck, and for a moment, his consciousness grew distant.

If not for the part connecting his helmet and armor, his neck would have broken right then, killing him.

-Thud! Thud! Thud!

The temporary concussion from allowing an effective hit.

The ground swayed.

His vision rippled as if only his eyeballs were submerged in water.

The breath he’d barely managed to regulate escaped in a gasp, making his breathing even more ragged.

The attacks grew fiercer. Seizing the advantage, the White Knight fiercely pressed Siwoo, as if trying to end the fight.

-Clang!

The shield he’d vowed never to drop was helplessly knocked away by three thrusts.

His torso, wide open.

The White Knight lowered his stance, pushed off the ground with his knee, and thrust the spear with all his might.

The target: his heart.

It was too late to reform the shield.

Too late to twist his body.

He vividly felt the scythe of death at his neck.

In this extreme situation, Siwoo’s hand holding the sword moved on its own.

-Screech!

“Huh?”

Was it a coincidence?

The blade, digging in at a slant, altered the thrust’s trajectory.

The twisted spearhead slid along the side of his armor, leaving a long scar but failing to pierce the flesh.

Siwoo hadn’t applied great force.

He had merely shifted the axis of force ever so slightly.

The series of movements was so natural and skilled that even Siwoo himself was surprised.

Contrary to shock, Siwoo’s foot moved.

The spear’s greatest opening is when a full-power thrust misses.

He couldn’t let go of the first glimpse of advantage seen since the fight began.

He clamped the spear shaft, which had grazed his waist, under his arm and gripped it firmly.

Close.

He had somehow closed in on the White Knight’s distance, which had seemed impossibly far.

-Whirr!

In response, a white shield surged forward like an avalanche.

It wasn’t like he’d lose just from taking a hit from the shield anyway.

Give a bone, take the neck.

Resigned to being hit, Siwoo aimed his diagonally poised blade tip at the knight’s throat.

It was the White Knight who retreated first.

Leaning his helmet back, he desperately pulled away from Siwoo.

The distance widened again, but a sensation remained in his fingertips.

A marvelous sensation of deflecting a heavy attack with feather-light force lingered, making the blade tip hum.

Could he reproduce that again?

“Hoo... hoo...”

Ragged breaths burst forth.

A dance on the blade’s edge that made the hair all over his body stand on end.

It was terrifying. Agonizing. He wanted to run away right that instant.

There was no reason for Siwoo, merely an ordinary person, to find interest in a life-or-death struggle.

“Ha... haha...”

But laughter came out.

A laugh that wasted precious breath, its meaning unknown even to him.

Let’s do it.

Let’s see if it works just once.

An unbearable, dangerous impulse took over his body.

Siwoo did not create a shield.

Instead, he firmly gripped the Longsword with both hands.

Siwoo’s counterattack moments ago seemed dangerous enough to raise the White Knight’s guard.

The White Knight didn’t recklessly charge as before but held the spear at its maximum length, wary of Siwoo.

-Skreeeek!

The Ribbons twisted in the air.

Only now did he have the leeway to utilize them.

Allowing the use of the Ribbons he’d been painstakingly Sealing was clearly the White Knight’s mistake.

-Ping!

Two strands of Ribbon, folding space, shot past the White Knight’s sides.

At a glance, they seemed to miss, but they didn’t.

“Haaap!!”

Siwoo firmly anchored both ends of the Ribbons into the rooftop.

By contracting the Ribbons and simultaneously kicking off the ground, acceleration incomparable to the wings of shadow became possible.

Siwou surged forward as if riding the wind, and the White Knight, despite the unexpected rapid acceleration, prepared to counter.

The White Knight aimed for Siwoo’s chest as he flew in.

A sharp strike impossible to block or evade from an upper slash stance.

Siwoo aimed a Slash crossing from the White Knight’s shoulder to his side.

He planned to cut faster than the thrust could arrive.

-Swish!

Their shadows crossed, and Siwoo’s body tumbled across the rooftop.

Unable to withstand the force of his all-out Slash, his body rolled through the air once.

Like a cat performing a breakfall, he bounced off the ground nimbly and looked back.

He saw the White Knight collapsing.

-Clang!

The spear that had aimed for Siwoo’s heart was severed in two, along with the thick armor.

That thick armor was sliced clean through, and only the thrilling vibration of cutting through metal remained in his two hands.

“I won!”

Siwoo let out a cheer.

It was the moment another funeral mad movie was added to the collection.The adrenaline that had flooded his system to the point of numbing his mind still lingered in his veins even after the battle ended, heightening his senses.

Siwoo slumped to the floor, gasping for breath.

He replayed the final strike in his mind—a blow so swift it had passed in an instant, leaving even his memory of it blurred.

It was a mystery.

That strange sensation of his sword and fingertips becoming one, connected.

A Slash that felt like it could have cleanly severed even a boulder had it stood in his way.

And to think such skill had come from his own hand, not someone else's.

"I've never even peeled a fruit before..."

But then again, in a world where Witches and Magic existed, and monsters appeared to slaughter people, this level of abnormality was almost to be expected.

Siwoo rose to his feet to complete the purpose that had brought him here.

Both his Mental Energy and physical stamina had hit rock bottom.

Supporting his trembling knees, he cleanly sliced through the flute placed atop the altar with his sword.

-Hweeeeeeeeeek!

A bizarre cry echoed, as if an exorcism had succeeded.

It also resembled the death throes of an abyssal monster heard from the depths of the sea.

The oppressive shroud that had hung gloomily around the building, like stagnant murky water, vanished.

As the oppressive magic power that had felt like a weight on his chest disappeared, Siwoo could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

"Phew..."

With the life-and-death struggle over, the tragedy naturally came to mind.

The innocent people torn apart and killed by the monster.

Siwoo didn't consider himself a saint.

Nor was he the protagonist of a shonen manga who would blame himself for the deaths of strangers he'd never met, lamenting, 'If only I had been a little stronger!'

Only a bitter, ashen taste and anger towards the Witch who had perpetrated this act swirled in his dry mouth.

The horrific scene he had witnessed for the first time flickered behind his eyelids.

He shook his head vigorously to dispel it.

"Let's get out of here."

It was time to withdraw.

For one, his use of Magic needed to remain a secret, and above all, he was mentally exhausted.

Feeling his clothes inside the armor soaked through with cold sweat made his body shiver unnecessarily.

-Clank clank clank

As he began calculations to transfer directly to his officetel, Siwoo's eyes widened.

Three White Knights, scaling the outer wall, came into view.

The Homunculi, identical in appearance as if mass-produced in a factory, triggered a sense of déjà vu.

Probably because they exuded the same aura as the black dogs that had split from the mother dog's body.

"Ah, damn it, this is crossing a line."

I barely managed to take down one, and now three more?

No way in hell.

Just as Siwoo resolved to focus all his remaining strength on escape...

A pure white lightning bolt struck.

-THWUMP!

No, to be precise, it wasn't lightning.

It was a Slash wielded with astonishing speed and power.

A ferocious strike that seemed to test the limits of physics, accompanied only by a flash and a thunderous roar.

The White Knight he had struggled so hard to defeat was split vertically, like a chicken being prepared on a chopping block.

Siwoo, his gaze stolen by the intense strike, belatedly saw the silhouette of the Witch who had summoned the 'lightning'.

White.

Pink.

Even with his eyes focused to the point of strain, that was all he could discern.

Such was the swiftness of her movements.

Soon after, the White Knights, finally grasping the situation, leveled their spears at the newly appeared Witch.

-THWUMP! THWUMP!

However,

it was a futile resistance.

The spear thrusts, which Siwoo had failed to adapt to and had struggled against, were cleanly evaded.

Something flashed, and then one White Knight's breastplate crumpled like a crushed can.

Another had its limbs severed and its neck ripped out, dying instantly.

Only after the Witch finished her one-sided destruction and came to a stop could Siwoo see her clearly.

The Witch standing amidst the scattered fragments of the White Knights.

Unrealistically pale pink hair and magenta eyes.

Straight, slender eyelashes, thick and long, piled atop her eyes like cherry blossoms, lending her a mysterious aura.

Her hand opposite the one holding the sword gripped a crushed helmet like a knuckleball grip.

Of course, being a Witch, she was beautiful.

But apart from her bewitchingly dazzling appearance, the aura emanating from her entire being was closer to that of a martial artist than a Witch.

Traces of magic power still shimmered like heat haze from her shoulders.

It made one wonder how such fighting spirit could emanate from a human.

Her magenta eyes swept around and then pierced through Siwoo.

Simultaneously, a shudder ran through him.

It was because he felt an intuitive, skin-prickling killing intent from that gaze, seemingly concentrated with anger and hatred.

He had assumed she was an ally since she had slain the White Knights.

Siwoo hurriedly prepared for battle.

Whether he could withstand her or not was irrelevant.

He couldn't just offer his neck and die, could he?

He drew a Ribbon from the Maiden's Loom, forged a shield to cover half his body, and watched with his sword for an opening to counterattack.

"I've come to keep my promise."

A cute voice, utterly mismatched with the solemn tone, spread like a chilly breath.

A promise?

He had no leisure to ask what that meant.

He could already see bluish veins bulging on the small back of the hand gripping the sword.

She's coming.

Siwoo lowered his center of gravity and focused every nerve to not miss the Witch's movements.

Focus so intense he could feel his breathing, his wildly pounding heartbeat, even the blood flowing through his veins.

The Witch stamped the ground.

And vanished.

He lost her.

The moment he realized it, he reflexively protected his heart, neck, and head with his shield.

Crouching like a turtle, he pushed the hardness of his shadow to the limit, attempting to defend.

-KWA-BOOOOOM!

"Cough!"

An impact as if his spine had shattered.

Pain like his entire body being hammered by a sledgehammer stole his breath.

Blood gushed from his mouth, spraying a crimson mist through the visor of his helmet.

It wasn't a sword strike.

The Witch hadn't even swung her sword.

She had merely taken a half-step forward and thrust a small fist into his midsection.

That alone had shattered not only his shield but his armor as well.

He could sense it.

His ribs must be smashed to pieces.

His liver might have ruptured.

If she had aimed for his heart, he'd be dead.

"You haven't forgotten me, have you."

As darkness closed in like being sucked into a tunnel, the Witch's face, seemingly ecstatic and grinning maniacally, floated into Siwoo's fading vision.

Author's Note (Afterword)

Thanks to everyone's support, the next emoticon set will feature the Twins!!

It'd be nice if Sharon could appear too~