Witch Hunter: Goujian Sword

January 31, 2023, Late Night.

BLAR! BLAR! BLAR!

TRAK! TAK! TRAK!

"Rule Sizhu!! Rule! Without rules, we are no different from animals!"

The staff spun endlessly with only his right hand. Circling in every direction around Sizhu within a radius of one to two meters.

The light of the blazing staff chased away shadows and wasps daring to attack into the range of his strike.

One or two wasps tried to break through the fiery staff's rotation, only to find their heads and bodies severed, half of their bodies burning with fire.

Creating several flaming torches of corpses on the ground, following other wasps that had earlier fallen lifeless.

But the young man was far from prime condition. Fatigue was starting to affect his defensive movements.

One wasp managed to penetrate the fiery staff's one-handed defense around Sizhu. Scratching precisely on his cheek before the staff's flames hit the wasp so hard it exploded right before Sizhu's face.

CRAT!

He… It's been five minutes since that young man forced himself to keep fighting while poisoned and exhausted… How much longer can he withstand my wasps' attacks?

With claw scratches on his face, Muzhe clenched his jaw in frustration seeing Sizhu still not collapse.

The view before his eyes was filled with the fiery light from the corpses of his wasps on the ground. Also, the graceful movement of Sizhu's rapidly spinning fiery staff gave no openings at a speed no normal human should be able to maintain under such conditions.

"Hah..! Hah..! I don't care! Even if the world obeys your rotten rules! I will be the only one to cease your rotten rules! Because you use those rules to kill and eat humans! Muzhe!"

Sizhu spun his staff then placed it behind the back of his right neck. His left arm hung limply; he took a low stance watching the village chief's wasps retreat and fly steadily away from Sizhu.

The remaining giant wasps could be counted on fingers and toes. No more than twenty.

"Rules! This world submits to one rule, Sizhu! I do all this for my village! My family! My neighbors! And everyone who lives in my village, Sizhu! And you… ruin it!"

Muzhe's mouth fangs lengthened, forming pincers like his controlled wasps.

Both his hands and feet grew claws, with thighs, calves, arms, and wrists covered in sharp, black chitinous armor, jagged and sword-like. Shining, reflecting the light of the night fire.

From his back, flesh writhed, then like torn skin, wing buds grew without feathers like wasp wings with pulsating red-black veins. Piercing through his clothes.

Four wings sprouted from his back. With one human eye with an inverted cross pupil crying blood at each tip of those featherless wings.

Black blood mixed with white pus flowed from the back where his wings sprouted.

Two additional eyes also formed beside and below his facial eyes.

In repeatedly blurred vision, Sizhu felt a chill from the opponent seventeen steps ahead of him.

He has truly transformed into a Witch. The power he shows… is equal to the Witch who attacked me that night.

Sizhu then slowly shook his head while swallowing saliva. Sweat soaked the black robe he wore.

"No… hah… He's scarier than the Stag Head Witch…"

"Sizhu… A young man like you won't understand… This world… is more terrifying than you think… The rules I made are to protect the only hope I have. For me, my family, and the villagers."

Sizhu prepared to stomp his foot. Although his chest heaved from gasping breaths and the heat began to blur his vision, he concentrated his energy on the attack he will launch.

"I am the Village Chief. Muzhe. I am the one who keeps this village safe from the cursed ones. If you want to leave from here, Sizhu… your punishment is death for breaking my rules!"

Muzhe prepared to meet the attack Sizhu was about to launch.

While in the stillness of the night and the increasingly blazing firelight, the wasps disappeared, melting into the shadows of darkness.

And Sizhu did not notice it at all. His eyes were focused, though foggy, on the enemy seventeen steps ahead.

"I… Hah… Also have rules…"

Sizhu spun his staff once, then grabbed the end and placed it behind his back while lowering his stance very low like a tiger about to pounce.

"My master taught me rules to always maintain discipline… faith… and promises… Those rules mean more than the rules made by a Witch who pretends to protect the village with his cursed laws!"

As the raindrops fell heavier, plunging into the fierce duel. At that moment, Sizhu's foot stomped, charging with full strength so that within one second, he closed the distance separating them.

Every eye on Muzhe's body widened in shock to see a step that could move that fast. Now the fiery wooden staff swung very fast from the right, aiming to hit his body and split it in two.

In slow-motion reaction speed, Muzhe's back wings tried to avoid the impending blow from the fiery staff that would strike him within fractions of a second.

His right hand rose as soon as he felt the heat beside him, trying to block Sizhu's lightning-fast attack along with his wings flapping.

His frozen legs trembled, trying to push off to fly.

However, what happened the next second was his body being thrown far, crashing into a nearby tree branch.

THUD! CRACK!

STAB!

Exactly at the echo of the staff's hit, the sound of something stabbing and piercing someone's body was heard.

"Cough! Cough! … You… lost, Sizhu…"

With black blood spat out from his mouth onto the grassy ground, his right hand cracked from directly withstanding Sizhu's attack just now. Not only cracked, but almost severed, leaving a small piece of flesh hanging from Muzhe's upper right arm.

Still in the position of smashing the staff with his right hand alone, Sizhu froze, something pierced his waist, and it hurt badly.

His eyes glanced at his right waist and found a giant transparent wasp stinger piercing from behind.

Shit! Cough!!! I was careless…

Fresh red blood stained the green grass before his eyes. Sizhu knelt on one knee, using his blazing staff as additional support for his shattered body balance.

His green pupils dimmed, gradually losing sight, dizziness making the world spin fast.

I…

Soon after, the young man collapsed onto the grassy ground with the blazing staff above his head.

The wasp stuck in Sizhu's right back immediately flew away as its master approached Sizhu.

The rain grew heavy, extinguishing the blazing staff's fire and the fire burning on the ground around.

"That is the price for breaking my rules."

Muzhe then turned his back and walked calmly toward his village.

"Hubei… You're next."

***

"Hah… hah… hah… Everyone! Everyone!"

Hubei was panting, standing in the middle of the village with wet clothes.

He had tricked two wasps chasing him by plunging into the river a few seconds ago. Then he swam inside the river and surfaced on the other side before running hurriedly toward the village center crossroads.

Some inside houses lit their lanterns. Bright light peeked from behind wooden windows without glass. Several curious eyes silently watched from slightly opened windows to see the source of the recent shout.

"Everyone! Everyone!!! Wake up! And listen to me!"

Hubei shouted, turning to look at every house around the village crossroads. There were fifteen simple houses close together separated by garden yards. He saw some windows and doors slightly open, then continued shouting.

"Hear me! Hear me! Our village chief is a Witch! He's been hiding among us all this time and hunting humans outside for himself!"

Someone, a man wounded on his right shoulder, wrapped bandage on his shoulder and right arm, walked out from his simple house without a garden or front yard.

"What are you saying, Hubei, in the late night like this? Zhuangzhu Muzhe can't possibly be a Witch. Are you crazy?"

The short-spiked-haired man walked toward Hubei, intending to calm the noisy man who kept yelling the same phrase.

"Hear me! Hear me! Our village chief is a Witch! He's been hiding among us all this time and hunting humans outside for himself!"

"Hubei!"

Slap!

"Come to your senses! What are you saying? Huh? You have no proof he's a Witch. He's the one who guards and leads this village! There's no way such an honorable man would be a Witch cursing this village."

Hubei fell silent before gripping the shoulders of the short-spiked-haired man tightly. Ignoring the man's whimpering, Hubei did not let go.

His frightened and panicked gaze made the short-spiked-haired man silent and begin to listen to Hubei's words.

"Yuan… Yuan! Believe me! Sizhu and I just saw terrifying giant wasps controlled by that man! Believe me, Yuan! We have to leave this cursed village immediately!"

Yuan was speechless though his mouth hung open. Except for one word.

"Wasps?"

Seeing Hubei's reaction like a madman just because of wasps, Yuan tried to break free from his grip. The doors and windows of the surrounding houses that had been curious now closed tightly again.

"Seems like you got stung by poisonous wasps making you crazy tonight, Hubei. Let go of my hand!"

Yuan tried to free himself and stepped back, but Hubei chased and held him.

"Please, Yuan! I know I'm the last resident to move to this village after you. And I know you want to leave this village to see your only daughter out there. For your daughter's sake, we have to leave here before he kills us all, Yuan!"

Yuan hesitated, looking at Hubei's face wet from river water. Slowly, the rain began to pour heavily.

He… what he says is true…

"Where will we go? Don't you remember the fate of our neighbor Ruo three years ago when he tried to leave this village except at midday? His head was severed and his body mysteriously rotted hanging from a tree branch near the river even though he had been far from the village for three days. What about us? Do you want to suffer the same fate as him huh?"

Yuan then brushed away Hubei's hands, which began to loosen their grip.

"I will stay even if the village chief is really a Witch. I have sworn to let my daughter grow up without needing to know who her father is outside."

Only three steps after turning back walking toward his house.

Along with the heavy raindrops, blood flowed like a waterfall from the hole in his heart. Dripping through the large stinger piercing him and exiting the back of his spine.

"Yuan!!!"

Hubei screamed hysterically seeing a wasp stab its stinger into Yuan's chest while standing. Yuan spat blood as he felt something invisible stab his heart. Then he collapsed, falling asleep forever on the ground soaked with blood and rainwater.

"YUAN!!!"

The echoing scream made the surrounding villagers relight their lanterns and peek their eyes from window cracks, then gape in astonishment seeing one of their neighbors fall to the wet ground covered in blood.

"Hubei…"

As one of the villagers fell, someone walked who already looked like a monster—no, a monster with sharp wasp-like hands and feet and four wings with eyes streaming black blood.

His hoarse but firm voice sounded intimidating. Making Hubei's legs tremble violently.

"Muzhe!"

***