Volume 1: Stranger in a Strange Land Chapter 32: Witch's Mist
Cass Durant...
Liliana had heard of this infamous name when she returned to Thorn City a few days ago.
He was once the chief of the Blackthorn Mercenary Group, but now for some reason he has become a madman who indiscriminately kills innocent citizens.
He has killed twenty-eight people in just two months and is currently wanted throughout Blackwater Province.
Liliana looked past the black swordsman and towards "Senior Rhodes" who had turned his head 180 degrees.
Is this the truth, that the black swordsman is hunting monsters disguised as humans?
"Can you stand up?"
Cass glanced at Liliana who was sitting on the ground behind him and asked quickly.
The monster in front of him was completely different from the ones he had killed before. In addition, there were seven or eight skeletons wearing half-body armor and covered with mist that appeared from the side. He could not afford to divert his attention at all at this moment.
Liliana stood up with the help of the wall. Only then did she realize that there was a shallow cut on her shoulder and the blood was flowing non-stop.
"no problem……"
Liliana covered her wound and spoke through gritted teeth. Then she chanted healing magic. The faint green light from her palm made the wound heal slowly and with difficulty.
"pity……"
Seeing this, the monster turned his stiff neck.
"If only you had hesitated a little bit just now. Otherwise, my good schoolmate's neck would have been broken like a bamboo pole. What a pity! I wanted to take the pendant from the Kos Dynasty back and study it carefully."
"You knew I was following you?"
Cass asked.
"Ever since your pet followed me all the way yesterday, I knew you would come to visit me in the next two days."
The monster sneered.
"You offered to take me to find an enchantment shop and the underground black market just to lure him out..."
Liliana, who had stopped the bleeding, asked while enduring the pain.
"Ah, this is indeed a surprise. After all, I also want to find out the origin of this pendant. After all, the enchantment on it is a defensive barrier specifically against the spirit of the Moon Realm."
The monster kept facing them and slowly turned its body around.
"Are you a Moon Realm monster?"
Liliana's eyes widened.
"Moon Realm Monster, what a nostalgic term. Who taught you this? The owner of this pendant?"
The monster said this with a stiff but warm smile still on his face.
Liliana's heart suddenly sank. She had seen how powerful the Moon Realm monster named "Shambler" was before. Even if the monster in front of her, disguised as " Senior was several levels weaker than it, it was still not something she could fight against.
"Do you know what they are?"
The black swordsman standing in front of her suddenly asked.
"I know a little bit. I heard... a heretic wizard talk about it before."
Liliana hesitated to answer.
"Escape."
The Black Swordsman said.
"Liz, use the Witch Mist to take her out with you and go to the old place. She knows the clues to these monsters."
Before Liliana could ask who Liz was, a palm-sized girl with dragonfly wings on her back flew out from the black swordsman's chest pocket.
She flew to Cas's head and pulled his ear and said.
"The Witch Mist can only take one person out, so don't talk big here, and don't try to be cool here to cover the rear. If you want to run, let's run together."
"There are too many people on the other side. I can't protect her if she's here."
Cass spoke quickly as he looked at the seven or eight half-armored skeletons that were gradually approaching .
"You take her away first. I will knock them all down here and come back later."
Before he could finish his words, the three skeletons closest to him rushed up.
Because the tunnel was narrow, Cass couldn't swing the door-like giant sword in his hand as far as he could, so he simply held the sword across his body as a shield, blocking the swords of the two skeletons. Then he flew up with the sword as the axis and kicked the third skeleton into the wall.
With a "crash", the skeleton broke into pieces of bones on the ground.
"Walk!"
Cass took advantage of this gap to turn around and shout to the two men.
After saying that, he raised his greatsword and swung it at the next skeleton.
Liz looked at Cas's back as he rushed out, cursed him inwardly as an idiot, and then flew in front of Liliana.
"I'm going to take you out now. Remember not to talk during this process, and don't try to think about what happened. In fact, don't think about anything. Just empty your mind, otherwise you will be thrown out of the fog."
Looking at the witch in front of her whom she had only seen in textbooks, Liliana nodded subconsciously, but Liz still seemed a little worried.
"How about I just let you fall asleep first, that way it will be absolutely safe."
"Ah? Wait a minute..."
Before Liliana could finish her words, Liz fluttered her wings, and some purple and black scales flew onto her face. Then an irresistible sleepiness came over her, and she fell into a deep sleep in a few seconds.
"I'm sorry , I'm in a bad mood right now. I think you're going to have a nightmare soon, but there's nothing I can do about it."
As she spoke, Liz flew into the air and began to dance as if no one was around. As she danced, a mist rose up around her. The mist seemed to come from the fields in the early morning, or from the woods at night, giving people an ambiguous feeling.
When the fog was thick enough to cover both of them, Liz stopped and held Liliana's hand. The man and the witch gradually became ethereal and dreamy in the fog, as if they would disappear at any time.
The last gust of wind blew past, and the two of them disappeared in the ambiguous mist.
Witch's Mist is the only displacement magic that does not rely on lightning spells to tear open space for teleportation. Witches blur their own existence in the mist, making themselves disappear temporarily from the world, and then reappear in the world through ambiguous memories.
This is also the origin of many rural legends that children who run into the fog in the forest will be captured by witches. In fact, many children are just lost in the ambiguous fog created by witches and forget their own existence. For them, it may be just a short moment, but when they recall their memories again, it may be dozens or hundreds of years later.
…………
After smashing the last skeleton into pieces, Cass raised the sword in his hand and pointed it at the monster.
"That's quite impressive. No wonder you were able to send so many of my compatriots back to the Moon Realm."
The monster exclaimed sincerely.
"It will be your turn to die next."
"Die? We won't die, don't get me wrong."
As it spoke, its hand bent into several pieces like some kind of arthropod, and its palm blossomed like a flower of flesh and blood, with a sharp chitinous bone blade extending from the wrist.
"Of course, it is indeed troublesome to have the body in the real world destroyed. After all, the contract that blocks the real world has not expired yet. Now we can only get here by taking advantage of some loopholes. We may be exiled back once and won't have the chance to come here for decades."
Cass ignored the other party's words that were meant to delay time, and rushed forward and chopped the other party's head with a sword.
"clang!"
The monster blocked the attack head-on with its bone blades crossed in its hands, and a happy smile appeared on its face under the shadow of the giant sword.
"Don't worry, where are we now?"
As it spoke, it thrust its hands upward, knocking Cass back three steps.
Then its entire body began to swell, and accompanied by a sound of flesh being torn, the layer of human skin covering its true face fell off its body.
A moment later, a monster about two people tall, with six sharp spider spears on its back, covered with a shiny chitinous shell, compound eyes and insect mouthparts, stood in front of Cass.
It opened its arms and said as if making a declaration.
"Now, the last swordsman of Blackthorn, your long hunt should come to an end."
And Cass said as he assumed a charging posture.
"It won't end until all of you bastards are killed."
"Kill them all?"
Although it was no longer a human face after the painted skin was torn off, Cass could still see that the monster's expression was a sarcastic smile.
“Ka-ka-ka…”
The skeletons that had been broken apart by Cass were put together again as if time had gone back.
Around Cass, skeletons covered in mist stood up one after another.
He was surrounded by people.
“This is the real trap for you.
