The Witch's Anatomical Notes

Chapter 76

But unfortunately, no matter what, two legs could never outrun Keira of the School of Transmutation.

The distance closed rapidly.

As the gap kept shrinking, Talia suddenly turned around and thrust her right hand into the ground. Symbiotic vines burst from the soil and cracks between the rocks, coiling toward the spider-limbed witch’s appendages like venomous snakes.

Yet Keira seemed to have been prepared. The moment the vines wrapped around her spider legs, her previously fur-covered forelimbs transformed into blades that gleamed with a cold light.

With just a light swing, the vines snapped with a crisp sound.

Green liquid sprayed from the severed ends, and Talia involuntarily let out a shrill scream.

Her vines could at most restrain magical energy up to 20 degrees, but before Keira, who had completed her transformation, they were laughably fragile.

"Leave your life behind!"

Amid the twisted hiss, Keira leapt into the air.

Her terrifying forelimbs swept a crimson arc through the air.

Talia’s expression changed drastically as two enormous leaves unfurled behind her back, wrapping her body in a cocoon.

Yet the spider blade easily tore through the leaves. With a wet slicing sound, it pierced straight through her chest and, without losing momentum, dragged her over a dozen meters, nailing her to a massive Ghostface Tree.

In this position, even activating the badge’s teleportation had become an impossible luxury.

Talia could only watch, eyes wide, as the other forelimb raised high—

"Stop!"

Nure, who should have fled far away, had turned back. The ten rings on his hands simultaneously flared with the brilliance of magical energy.

But at the final instant of activation, a giant web stuck fast to his wrists.

The paralyzing secretion made his hands instantly lose all sensation. All those precious witchcraft implements immediately fell dark.

Two other Tier-1 apprentices from the Witch’s Cottage seized the chance to rush up and swiftly plucked the rings from his fingers.

Then they rummaged in the fat man’s arms and pulled out three staves.

For a moment, both of their eyes shone with greed.

To junior apprentices, these staves were all high-grade treasures. Each one could sell for hundreds of magic stones.

"A trainee apprentice built entirely out of trinkets?" Keira’s compound eyes reflected scorn, and her spider abdomen let out a clicking, eerie laugh.

She slowly bent down until she was pressed against Talia, the black compound eye on her forehead reflecting the girl’s pale, delicate face.

"Witch from the Tower of the Four Sages, tell me your squad’s information, and I might consider letting you leave the proving grounds alive."

As she finished speaking, the sharp forelimb covered in black bristles twisted slowly. Fresh blood dripped down the blade in a steady stream, but Talia clenched her teeth, refusing to say a word.

"I…I know! If I tell you, you’ll let the two of us go!"

"Nure! You bastard!" Talia struggled to look at Nure, who lay prone on the ground. "Even if you tell them, they won’t ever…mmm!"

A web struck precisely, sealing Talia’s mouth and nose and turning her next words into muffled cries.

"Rest assured, I swear by the Tower itself: if you surrender the badges and confess everything, I will certainly spare your life."

There was a trace of mockery and greed in Keira’s eyes.

She hooked Talia’s body with her forelimb and slowly walked over to Nure.

"W-we have seven people in our squad…" Nure trembled under her claw. "The captain is a Tier-1 apprentice with silver hair, very pretty, only she likes to work with corpses…"

"Nonsense!" Keira seized Nure with her forelimb and lifted him off the ground. "You know exactly that’s not what I want to hear. Tell me her school and witchcraft model!"

"I’ll tell you! That silver-haired witch, she…" Nure’s entire body shook, but the moment Keira leaned closer, he suddenly sprang up. "—Take this!"

A red glow erupted under Nure’s foot.

A powerful surge of magical energy instantly shredded his shoe to pieces.

His toes were covered in witchcraft rings as well.

Keira’s expression changed in alarm, and she tried to fling Nure away, but the rings all detonated at once.

Three of the Flame Rings erupted, hurling searing fireballs straight into Keira’s enormous spider abdomen. The intense flames instantly set her bristly hairs ablaze, and the stench of scorched flesh filled the forest air.

Immediately afterward, two ice spikes shot forward in succession, striking precisely into Keira’s pupils.

"Aaaargh!"

The spider-limbed witch’s shriek shook down a flurry of dead leaves. The forelimb pinning Talia flailed wildly.

Nure’s bulky body rolled to the ground, but he didn’t pause for an instant as he fumbled beneath his waistband for the last staff he had hidden.

When the Gravity Impact at the staff’s tip activated, everything within twenty meters except him was crushed flat by tenfold gravity.

In that moment, the fat Nure displayed an astonishing swiftness, scooping Talia off the ground onto his shoulder and sprinting into the dense forest.

"Kill…I’m going to kill them! I’ll slaughter everyone from the Tower of the Four Sages! Aaaargh!"

Keira’s roar echoed through the woods. Both her eyes had been utterly destroyed by the ice spikes, and she could only see fractured, distorted images through the compound eye on her forehead.

Even so, she braced herself against the crushing force of the gravity field and rose to her feet, staggering in pursuit of the fleeing figures.

But when she tore aside a thicket, she found a black-haired, black-eyed girl standing behind it.

"Out of my way!"

Keira, completely berserk, raised her forelimb and slashed at the girl.

"Time Shield, Spear of Causality."

The instant her forelimb struck the barrier of a transparent shield, a jet-black spear burst from between her brows, tearing through. Blood and brain matter sprayed over ten meters.

The enormous spider body crashed to the ground and skidded forward until it finally stopped at Olivia’s feet.

"Model-less casting…witch!"

The surviving apprentices went pale as ash.

They trembled and tried to retreat, only to turn around and slam into a bronze-colored "wall."

Bren, clad in Mud Armor Reinforcement, had appeared from who knew where. His mud-coated fist smashed their defensive witchcraft, and the second blow rammed the apprentice’s head straight into the earth.

Seeing this, the other apprentice twisted his body, transforming into a black panther as he leapt into the trees.

With a muffled thud, the black panther was sent hurtling back out of the trees at even greater speed and crashed heavily to the ground.

On the forest floor, the panther reverted to human form and frantically patted himself down.

"Looking for this?"

Hain stepped out of the dense woods, idly toying with the Witch’s Cottage badge. His smile under the moonlight made the fugitive’s legs give out completely.

Keira was dead. The squad was utterly finished.

At that thought, the last survivor rolled over on the ground.

"What…what do you want to know? As long as you don’t kill me, I’ll tell you everything…"

…

"We…we’re saved!"

At the other end of the dense forest, Nure collapsed onto the ground like a torn burlap sack.

"Help…help her!" He pointed at Talia, who had lost too much blood.

Meiwa immediately ran over and pulled down her hood. A single Enchanted Red Vineberry quickly sprouted from her "hair."

After Talia swallowed it, the bleeding wound through her shoulder stopped almost at once.

Nure gave a miserable look and pointed at his foot, swollen like a steamed bun.

"Give me one too…"

Meiwa examined his bloated toes with distaste.

Amid Nure’s wails, she said, "The Red Vineberry only heals internal and external wounds. It won’t do much for magical backlash."

"And if you don’t take those rings off soon, your toes are going to rot off…"

Nure: "…"