Chapter 93: An Undead

The Faceless Witch didn’t chant any spell. Instead, she suddenly rushed straight at him.

Both her hands, long broken nails stretched out on either side like weapons, came flying toward him.

Seeing her skeletal face charging at him fast, Magna took his stance as well.

She was fast, but not fast enough that Magna couldn’t dodge her.

Her injured leg was also slowing her down a little. Every time she put weight on it, her whole body swayed slightly.

Raising both daggers, Magna waited for the first strike.

Both her clawed hands shot toward his neck at the same time, aiming to tear his throat apart and kill him instantly.

Instead of blocking, Magna dropped low at the last second and swept his leg to knock hers out from under her.

The Witch’s reflexes weren’t bad either as she jumped to avoid the low sweep aimed at her legs.

’Does she have some kind of bloodline trait for reflexes?’ The thought crossed Magna’s mind as he twisted his body without losing any momentum, planting a hand on the ground and pushing himself backward in a smooth backflip, like an acrobat.

Putting some distance between them, he raised his daggers again, watching the Witch.

"You really are special." The Witch’s voice came out delighted. If she had a mouth, she would probably be grinning wide right now.

This time Magna didn’t waste time talking, and struck first.

Leaning his body forward, he pushed off the ground and closed the distance.

Both daggers were aimed straight at her chest, right where her heart should be.

But as he moved, her jawbone started moving again.

"O Spire of the Eroding Coast, tide that has washed since before the First Age, tongueless mother of youth and age."

She was chanting a spell.

The words came out one after another so fast, her bone jaw moving up and down at incredible speed, that Magna was sure he wouldn’t reach her before she finished.

But he didn’t stop his charge, because that was exactly the moment Renna would join the game.

While the Witch chanted, a whistling sound echoed through the forest, and a small fire arrow slammed directly into the Witch’s head with a loud bang, cutting her chant short.

’Nice shot.’ Magna praised Renna’s aim as he drove both daggers straight into the Faceless Witch’s chest, before she had a chance to recover.

He didn’t stop at just stabbing her.

He twisted both daggers in his hands to tear the wound open wider, then wrenched the blades apart, ripping through the flesh completely, cold and merciless.

"AAAAAAAH!" The Faceless Witch screamed in agony, her chest torn open.

The moment Magna tore through her clothes and flesh, he threw himself backward to dodge the claws coming desperately toward him.

Once he had put some distance between them, he looked at her chest to check the wound he had given her.

Her robe was torn open in a V shape at the chest, revealing pale skin that looked like it belonged to a corpse, along with her breasts.

There were two deep gashes splitting the flesh apart, exposing pale tissue underneath as well as her ribcage and the non-beating heart behind it, but no blood came out at all.

’Don’t tell me she’s undead...’ Magna thought bitterly. If she was, a wound like this wouldn’t be enough to kill her for sure.

Then, as if to confirm his guess, the Witch spoke. "How wonderful."

Black smoke still rose from her bare skull, but she didn’t seem to care about the damage to her body at all.

Magna wasn’t the type to stand still and let her keep spouting villain lines.

He lunged forward again, keeping up the Tank and Spank strategy, which meant he couldn’t afford to stop moving.

Just as he was about to drive his daggers into her throat this time, guessing that was how you killed or disabled an undead, by taking off its head, the Witch raised her long clawed hands instead of chanting again.

She didn’t move to defend herself. Instead, she swung her hands straight toward Magna’s face, willing to trade damage for damage.

Normally, anyone would hesitate here, since the trade wasn’t worth it.

Even if that attack wouldn’t kill Magna outright, it would leave him with a serious injury.

But at that moment, another whistle rose from the woods, followed quickly by one more.

This time the fire arrows came from different directions, both striking the Witch’s arms directly, knocking the force out of them before her claws could reach Magna’s face.

At the same time, his daggers sank into her neck, easily cutting through her flesh and tearing straight through her windpipe.

’If this doesn’t kill her, I don’t know what will.’ Magna thought, both daggers still buried in her throat.

He next pulled them apart with all his strength, shattering her throat completely and cutting through all the flesh.

No blood spilled around, but as flesh separated from flesh and bone from bone, her head slowly fell backward with nothing left to hold it up.

Magna had watched too many movies and read too many novels to think this was the time to stop and just assume she was dead.

To make sure, he lunged forward again with the intention of cutting into her body as much as he could so that even if she was somehow still alive, she wouldn’t be in one piece and capable of moving.

But before he could, more whistling started filling the forest, followed by bang after bang as the fire arrows kept striking her body.

Seeing there was nothing left for him to do, Magna just watched Renna’s spells finish the job.

Every time an arrow hit her, her clothes tore further, her skin blackened, and caught fire.

A single fire arrow alone wouldn’t have done much damage, but with countless more raining down, her whole body slowly began to burn, losing a little more of itself with each passing second.

It was now something even an undead shouldn’t have been able to recover from.

But this wasn’t just any undead. It was an undead Witch.

Even with her whole body wrapped in flame, a chanting voice began to rise from her. This time, though, it had lost all its sweet, feminine tone, coming out dry and cracked instead.

’’O Spire of the Eroding Coast, Tide that has washed since before the First Age, Tongueless Mother of Youth and Age.’’

Magna didn’t even have time to react before the spell finished, completed in less than a second.

"Grant me the time I was denied."