The Witch's Anatomical Notes

Chapter 74

Probing

After easily sending off the first enemy, Lucy began to wander aimlessly among the Ghostface Trees.

The most pressing task at hand was to find the other team members, especially Meiwa and Talia. The witchcraft models of those two were almost entirely non-offensive, and if they encountered enemies, it would be difficult for them to survive.

She used the density of the Ghostface Tree branches as her landmarks, pressing steadily deeper in one direction.

When she had silently counted to eight thousand steps, the surroundings remained completely empty of any sign of people. Lucy decisively turned around and began heading back.

Eight thousand steps of distance were more than enough to exceed the teleportation error range.

Since she still hadn’t seen the rocky borders of the competition area, the only explanation was that the direction she had randomly chosen was the wrong one.

"If there was a sun to navigate by, I wouldn’t have wasted so much time."

She felt a silent frustration in her heart and unconsciously quickened her pace.

Just then.

Two figures clad in red robes walked straight toward her.

Judging by the color of their attire, they were likely teammates of the wizard she had just eliminated.

All three noticed each other almost simultaneously, magical energy fluctuations instantly surging through the air.

Unlike that earlier novice, these two were clearly well-trained and highly coordinated.

The left-hand wizard’s arm suddenly twisted and deformed, transforming into a magical shield covered in black bristles. The right-hand wizard’s index finger extended and reformed, turning into a pale bone crossbow.

The two official witches from the Witch’s Cottage were a pair of biological sisters, belonging to the school of Human Transformation, also known as Human Programming.

This was a faction that gained combat capability by analyzing, disassembling, and reassembling their bodies through three steps of temporary modification.

"Whoosh!" The bone crossbow bolt, wrapped in a wailing ghost face, tore through the air and struck heavily against Lucy’s Fractured Crystal Reverse Scale Shield.

The vengeful spirit gnawed madly at the dark red crystal shield, but as the fractured shield gradually thinned, the resentment clinging to the arrow was completely exhausted.

"About 11 degrees or so."

Lucy quickly estimated the opponent’s general strength by gauging the crystal shield’s depletion.

However...

"Far too weak."

A charge lasting three whole seconds had only inflicted this level of damage, and the second arrow still hadn’t taken shape.

If the opponent had rapid-fire capability, perhaps it could have piqued her interest, but as things stood...

Even if Lucy ignored them completely, they probably wouldn’t be able to keep pace with the shield’s self-repair rate.

If the Tri-Tower Tournament consisted of opponents at this level, then there really wasn’t much left to worry about.

Having completed her analysis, Lucy stirred her mind, and two brilliantly multicolored Advanced Venomous Fangs instantly appeared.

The next moment, they transformed into twin streaks of flowing light and shot out.

"Careful!" the crossbow wizard cried out anxiously.

"Hide behind the shield!" The shield-bearing apprentice lifted the bristled shield and covered them both behind it.

But the next moment left them both utterly terrified.

Before their eyes, a fist-sized hole began to slowly melt open on that shield, whose defensive capacity reached 15 degrees.

The second Venomous Fang slipped through the hole in the blink of an eye.

"No!"

There was only time to let out a single desperate scream before the shield-bearing apprentice was struck in the chest by the Venomous Fang.

He didn’t even have a chance to activate his badge before collapsing to the ground, his life or death unknown.

Since the other side had immediately used a killing blow, Lucy naturally didn’t intend to show any mercy either.

The other apprentice, whose face was splattered with the scalding blood of his teammate, didn’t even pause to think before turning to flee. A halo of Zero-Ring Acceleration Witchcraft glimmered around his ankles.

His mind was filled with absurdity and frustration there were so many weak trainee apprentices on the battlefield, yet they had run into this bringer of calamity.

Instant-cast witchcraft that pierced Tier-1 defensive spells this was simply a monster!

That our team’s teleportation point had overlapped with someone like this I must warn them to get away from here at once.

In that fleeting instant, this Tier-1 witch apprentice from the Witch’s Cottage thought of countless things.

But just then, two white feathers flashed past, and the silver-haired girl ghosted into place directly in front of him.

His mind was immediately flooded with terror and despair.

This person could even use displacement witchcraft!

Before the despairing apprentice could react, he was knocked unconscious by a piercing sound wave.

He didn’t know how much time had passed before he slowly regained consciousness, only to discover that he was bound with ropes beneath a Ghostface Tree.

What made his heart sink entirely was that the withdrawal badge on his chest had vanished without a trace. He had also lost the most vital life-saving tool he possessed.

Now, he had truly become meat laid out on the chopping block, to be slaughtered at will.

"Stop pretending. I know you’re awake." The cold voice made his whole body shudder.

With a deathly pale face, he struggled to lift his head.

He saw that the female apprentice from the Tower of the Four Sages was seated just three steps away, directly facing him.

He had no mind to look closely at her appearance. All he registered was her long silver hair.

"Your name."

"U... Uli Polk."

"How many people are in your team altogether?"

The apprentice named Uli lowered his head in silence. Though his whole body trembled, he was uncommonly stubborn.

Lucy showed a trace of curiosity.

She didn’t believe this fellow would be willing to throw away his life over ordinary teammates.

"Let me think... is there someone in your team you care about?"

Uli still kept his head down and failed to notice the fleeting golden Saint Radiance sigil between Lucy’s brows.

Before the tournament began, Lucy had already completed the conversion of Saint Radiance into a sigil and fixed it in position on her forehead.

The effect of this Saint Radiance sigil was Judgment of Truth and Falsehood, which could determine whether speech was true by sensing fluctuations of mental strength.

When Bishop Woven had hunted them down, he had used this same Saint Radiance many times.

However, because her connection to the Lord of Golden Worship had been severed, she could only activate it now by using divine power crystals.

Her slender fingers toyed with a divine power crystal dissected from an angel’s brain, which provided energy to the Saint Radiance.

"Let me guess..." Lucy suddenly spoke. "The one you care about, does she have a round face, a mole by the brow, and wear a red string bracelet?"

?!

Upon hearing Lucy’s description, Uli almost immediately lifted his head, his face filled with anger as he glared at her.

"What did you do to her!"

Lucy raised her brows, not expecting it to really be that witch apprentice she had encountered earlier.

"Relax. She isn’t dead. She was only poisoned and then teleported away."

Hearing that his sister was unharmed, Uli secretly let out a breath, but the momentary resolve to resist also faded away again.

"Since you already know the person you care about has safely left, you can tell me how many people remain in your team, can’t you?"

Uli seemed to give up struggling as he spoke: "Two left."

By watching the rapidly calming ripples of his mental strength and observing the Saint Radiance’s response, Lucy almost instantly determined he was lying.

"I’m afraid that’s not right." Lucy began counting in order: "Let me guess again three left? Four? Five..."

"..."

When she said "five," Uli’s mental sea rippled in widening circles.

Lucy spoke calmly: "So your team has eight people in total."

Uli’s eyes widened at once, his gaze full of shock and disbelief.