A pitch-black strand of magic power whips through the air. Kail calmly raises his sword and cuts the flying strand of magic power clean through.
A formless strand made purely of magic power. Sensing the ominous aura overflowing from it, Kail realizes that coming into contact with it would be quite troublesome.
‘If I get hit, it’s at least a barrage of curses…!’
As an Aura Master, he wouldn’t collapse from just one or two curses, but if they were to stack up during this fight, it’d be over. There’s no way he could dodge attacks while cursed that he couldn’t even dodge in perfect condition.
And so, Kail briefly closes his eyes and then opens them again. In that short moment, Kail’s perception begins to slow down as he fully immerses himself in the battle.
One second stretches into a minute, one minute into an hour. With the surrounding world slowing down like a turtle—Kail charges toward the High Witch without losing any of his speed.
“……!”
From behind, he hears Sera shouting something. Deeming it useless information, his brain ignores her words.
Right now, all Kail’s mind is processing is the High Witch and the spells she’s casting. Everything else fades, even losing color.
In this black-and-white world, Kail instantly arrives in front of the High Witch.
And at the same time, something wraps around his ankle.
“Huh-!?”
Whoosh-! What wrapped around his ankle was a tree root hiding beneath the ground. The root entwined his leg and began pulling him in.
Struggling to keep his balance, Kail exerts force on his ankle and tears the root apart.
At the same moment, pitch-black strands of magic power shoot at him from both sides. It’s not just one or two. Kail realizes he can’t possibly cut them all down with just a single sword swing.
‘Then, if one won’t do…’
In the blink of an eye, he shifts the sword from both hands to his left and draws another blade made of Aura with his right hand.
Aura Blades ripple from both his hands, and with movements akin to a dance, he spins his body and slices through the strands of magic power.
Watching the severed strands fall to the ground, Kail points his blade at the High Witch who stares at him blankly.
“Is that all? For a High Witch, you’re pretty lame─.”
“Jordan.”
Before Kail’s taunt could finish, the High Witch unleashed hundreds of strands of magic power from her entire body and started swaying them menacingly.
Seeing the countless strands of magic power, Kail slightly closed his mouth and began to sweat coldly. Maybe provoking her wasn’t such a good idea… Regret starts to creep in.
But.
“Come at me.”
A warrior doesn’t reveal their emotions outwardly.
What a warrior reveals is the sharpness of their blade and their own achievements.
Soon after, hundreds of strands of magic power came crashing down toward Kail.
* * *
“Kail─!”
Sera, watching Kail fight, screamed out his name and quickly clamped her mouth shut.
From afar, the High Witch’s gaze pierced directly toward her. He already looked like he had his hands full fighting alone; there was no way he could protect her while battling.
Sneaking away quietly, Sera thought about what spell she could cast against the High Witch from a slightly safer distance.
“Hmm, what should I use?”
If the High Witch had been a simpleton, a spell to guide her mind might have worked to control her actions.
Ordering her to commit suicide or leave the forest would’ve been impossible—but allowing players to raid her hut while distracted was plausible.
Most players took advantage of this to loot the High Witch’s treasures. Sure, some tried to pick a fight with her, but most died the instant they provoked her.
The few players who somehow managed to defeat her realized that it was far from a profitable endeavor.
‘Mind guidance? She seems fine now, but will she react the same way as when she was a simpleton?’
Unlike the state of being completely mentally destroyed where mental attacks always succeed, the current High Witch still retained a sliver of reason.
The difficulty of controlling a target with remaining sanity is proportional to their abilities. And the High Witch was a monster estimated to be at least a Master-level Sorcerer—a feat even advanced players found hard to achieve.
‘I don’t know, let’s just try.’
Thinking this, Sera chanted a spell for mental confusion. Thanks to the player buffs, the spell was completed instantly and fired off, causing the surging strands of magic power around her to reverse direction and fly back at her.
“Eek!?”
Dodging the attack by leaping away, Sera realized the High Witch reacted extremely nervously even to tiny amounts of magic power.
Isn’t she fighting an Aura Master right now? To react this strongly to a measly 2-star spell in that situation?
‘…This could be useful.’
Thinking so, Sera began chanting spells while circling around the High Witch in wide loops.
To avoid entering the radius where Kail and the High Witch were battling, she had to circle a considerable distance, and given her weak stamina as a Sorcerer, it took her more than five minutes to prepare the spells while running…
But Kail held on during that time.
“Kaaiiil─!”
Sera shouted loudly to call Kail and immediately dashed toward the witch’s hut, activating her spell. Dozens of 1-star spells lit up simultaneously and flew toward the witch.
Just as before, the witch deflected all the spells and shot strands of magic power toward Sera.
But then, she suddenly stopped all movement.
“Aha! Of course!”
Sera had already arrived in front of the hut by now. Attacking Sera at this point meant the witch would destroy her own hut.
Knowing what lay inside, Sera understood the witch had no choice but to stop.
“Kaiil─! Smash her to bits!”
Whether her words reached him or not, Kail charged toward the immobilized High Witch and swiftly sliced through all the strands of magic power covering her body.
And in the next moment, just as Kail was about to thrust his sword at the High Witch, he suddenly stopped and glanced at Sera.
Seeing this, Sera jumped up in confusion.
“What, what’s going on!? Why did you stop!? This is our chance…!”
Kail halted the blade aimed at the High Witch and instead struck her head with the flat side of the sword. The impact was strong enough to knock the High Witch over sideways.
Seeing Kail hoisting the High Witch over his shoulder, Sera shouted loudly.
“Why didn’t you kill her!?”
“Hmm… feelings.”
“Feelings? Feelings!? No, this person was trying to kill us!”
“But we’re not dead.”
“No, nooo! She’s dangerous! Seriously dangerous!”
Ignoring Sera’s loud protests, Kail recalled the face of the High Witch he had seen moments ago.
Her expression as she stopped fighting him to look at the hut seemed to be one of protecting something precious.
If this High Witch were truly a villain, cursing everyone passing through the forest, she wouldn’t be able to make that kind of face.
‘Logically speaking, we’re the intruders here. Killing everyone who retaliates also feels a bit off.’
This was the High Witch’s territory. To break in and kill the homeowner for defending themselves? That’s not sane—it’s psychotic.
Kail wasn’t that kind of psycho. He had enough sense and conscience to think things through.
“By the way—what’s inside here?”
“Hmm?”
“The way the High Witch was looking at it so pitifully…”
Hearing Kail’s words, Sera muttered and spoke.
“It’s treasure, obviously.”
“What kind of treasure?”
“Grimoires written by witches, essences that raise your level by two stages just by consuming them.”
“Now that’s a real affinity.”
Hearing this, Kail carefully opened the hut door, wondering if such items existed. The door was locked, but the lock wasn’t strong enough to withstand an Aura Master’s strength.
Crack-! Kail smashed the door off its hinges and entered the hut, tilting his head at the sight of magical circles, reagents, and a boiling pot filling the room.
“The stuff you mentioned… it’s nowhere to be found?”
“Uh, uh-oh…?”
* * *
After a brief moment, the High Witch slowly opened her eyes.
There had been intruders. And she had failed to stop them.
Being wanted across the continent, the outcome for her was obvious.
Realizing her magic power was no longer moving, the High Witch understood she had been captured.
“Oh, awake already?”
A young-looking man approached cautiously. The High Witch frowned upon seeing him.
Though he appeared young, he was an Aura Master. An obstacle to her ambitions. Someone capable of subduing her and ultimately ending her life.
“…What do you want?”
“Hmm? What do you mean, what do I want?”
“Spare me. I’ll do anything you want. If you demand my body, I’ll give it freely…”
“Spare me the nonsense from someone so scrawny…”
Kail snorted at the frail-looking High Witch whose limbs seemed too thin, questioning whether she even ate properly.
He wouldn’t take her even if offered. Moreover—she had misunderstood something.
“I’m not here to kill you, nor am I planning to hand you over to some kingdom for a bounty.”
“Then release me. And leave.”
“That was the original plan… but it seems I can’t do that anymore. Right, Sera?”
Casually turning his head, Kail glanced at Sera standing beside him and asked.
The High Witch turned to look at Sera. That woman. The Sorcerer targeting the hut.
An enemy interfering with her.
As her gaze sharpened, Sera carefully began chanting a spell.
“Mind Purification.”
In the next moment, the High Witch felt her mind, previously clouded with red, clearing up entirely. She also became aware of her current state.
Sera, looking at the High Witch with her head bowed, carefully opened her mouth.
“High Witch… you’re not actually a bad person, are you?”
“…Release me.”
“We’ve confirmed it.”
She held up the High Witch’s will, placed in the corner of the room, and spoke.
“You were… guarding this land to prevent evil spirits from escaping.”
