Chapter 242: Black Goat Witch

Level Four Manticore, possessed enough strength to easily tear apart large animals such as rhinoceroses. The dragon-like membrane wings on its back not only allowed it to fly, but were also extremely tough, capable of resisting bullets.

Even more dangerous was its tail. According to the information Leon had read, the speed at which this monster launched its thrusts simply could not be captured by the naked eye. Combined with a rigid tail stinger like a short spear, it could easily pierce plate armor, and on a purely physical level alone, that was enough to inflict fatal injuries on the vast majority of creatures. As for the deadly venom sprayed from its tail stinger, even the slightest contact could prove fatal.

“Level Four Monster alert!!” Johnny shouted, immediately taking aim at the Manticore in the sky as he prepared to unleash lightning.

The Manticore's gaze swept toward Johnny, and a low growl rumbled from its throat.

At that moment, one of the distant Tin Giants suddenly pulled a flagpole-like javelin from its back, aimed at him, and hurled it. Fortunately, Johnny had remained vigilant and immediately spurred his horse aside.

His warhorse was also extremely alert. The moment it sensed the incoming projectile, it responded to its master's command and suddenly burst into a furious gallop. The javelin traced a deep parabola through the air before burying itself deep in the rocky earth, scattering countless fragments of stone.

Those Tin Men began advancing alongside the scarecrows with practiced coordination. One charged toward Johnny, while two charged toward Leon at tremendous speed, far faster than any horse.

Leon's heart sank when he saw this. These Tin Giants that had appeared afterward had hunched backs and looked like muscular trolls, giving off the same sluggish, mechanical impression as the scarecrows.

Yet these Tin Men were not brainless. On the contrary, they were highly perceptive and possessed a certain degree of judgment. They had seen Johnny use lightning, could tell that Johnny was preparing to attack the Manticore, and responded to the Manticore's low growl by interrupting him.

“It's the Dungeon Lord!”

Leon recalled how the Manticore had controlled the scarecrows with its roar earlier and realized that this Manticore, just like the Earth Dragon they had encountered in the dungeon on Allende Island before, was a Dungeon Lord that guarded a dungeon.

Could it be that the Great Witch Dorothy was not here, and only the Manticore serving as the Dungeon Lord was stationed here as a guard?

No, if there were only monsters here, they would have launched an all-out attack from the very beginning, nor would they have specifically targeted him. No matter how one looked at it, Johnny and his supernatural subordinates should have had far higher hostility values in the monsters' eyes than he did!

The Manticore that had flown into the sky suddenly shifted its gaze and swept it around the targets on the ground.

Leon vaguely heard a low whisper coming from somewhere unknown. Immediately afterward, the Manticore seemed to receive some sort of command, spread its wings, and dove downward.

For a split second, Leon thought the Manticore was targeting him just like the other monsters, but in the next instant, he noticed that the direction of the Manticore's gaze and dive was wrong——it was heading straight for Rena!

Damn beast!

Rage surged through him at once. Leon made an immediate decision, leaping straight from his horse and sprinting toward Rena's position.

Time Acceleration activated in an instant, and his body completed its transformation while accelerating, turning into his towering werewolf form.

In everyone else's eyes, his figure became a blurred afterimage, charging forward at a speed unimaginable to ordinary people.

Rena also realized that the Manticore was targeting her and immediately rode the direwolf into a full sprint while transforming into her succubus form. The direwolves guarding her initially became restless under the Manticore's pressure, but quickly returned to their well-trained state under the Charm Rena unleashed.

The Manticore quickly dove to within less than ten meters of Rena. At that moment, Leon suddenly tore open a wound on his arm, causing a small amount of blood to gush out and turn into a dark-purple blood mist.

The Manticore's attention was immediately drawn toward Leon. The intimidation of the Blood of the Evil Curse poured into its instinctive consciousness, forcing it to become wary of him.

The Manticore instead whipped its long tail toward Leon, and the deadly venom it sprayed poured down like torrential rain. But at that moment, Leon accelerated even further into a sprint and instantly rushed beyond the range of the falling venom.

The venom, enough to instantly kill an entire cavalry unit, splashed across the ground with hissing sounds. Shrubs growing between cracks in the rocks were struck by it and immediately withered black at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Leon suddenly raised his gun. Dark-purple blood flowed along his hand toward the muzzle, and as he fired, the bullet leaving the barrel became coated in his Blood of the Evil Curse before striking the Manticore's hind leg.

The Manticore's fur and muscles were extraordinarily tough. The power of the revolving flintlock pistol was completely incapable of penetrating them, and the bullet lodged in its hide, causing only a minor superficial wound.

However, the Blood of the Evil Curse coating it still invaded the Manticore's body through that small wound, and Leon immediately accelerated the poison's activation.

Sensing something was wrong, the Manticore's hind leg twitched, and it let out a distorted roar.

Leon furrowed his brow. The amount of Blood of the Evil Curse that could coat a bullet was extremely limited. It was more than enough to kill a person or an animal the size of a bison, but using it to kill a Level Four Monster with extraordinarily powerful vitality was still unrealistic.

At this moment, Johnny coordinated with his subordinates and summoned lightning to kill one of the Tin Giants, then immediately led his cavalry squad forward to intercept the remaining two Tin Men charging toward Leon.

Within Time Acceleration, Leon rapidly surveyed the entire battlefield and swiftly analyzed a countermeasure in his mind. He still had three bullets left in his gun. If he could fire all of them before Time Acceleration ended and make the Manticore accumulate enough poison, he should be able to make it incapable of flying and force it to fall, then have Rena control the direwolves to hold it down.

Once Johnny dealt with those two Tin Giants, they could join forces to surround and kill the Manticore!

However, at that moment, the Manticore suddenly let out a roar tinged with panic and abruptly flapped its wings to change direction.

The hind leg that had been shot detached itself from its body and fell away, just like a lizard sacrificing its tail to survive.

Leon was somewhat surprised and cautiously moved away from the severed leg first.

He carefully observed it and discovered that the wound where the Manticore's leg had separated was extremely neat. Looking more closely at the Manticore's body, he realized there were actually stitches all over it, while the shades of its fur varied considerably, making it look extremely uneven.

However, there was nothing unusual about the severed leg itself. The Manticore seemed to have simply chosen to detach the body part infected by the Blood of the Evil Curse, reducing the remaining toxin in its body to lessen the damage it suffered.

The Manticore turned and flew toward the woodland. Leon did not recklessly pursue it. Instead, he first deactivated Time Acceleration to catch his breath, casually adjusted his pistol, and prepared for the next shot.

Yet as the Manticore turned around, the charging Tin Giants and the reinforcing scarecrows also suddenly froze, as though the spring inside some mechanical device had wound down.

The next moment, they abruptly turned around together with the Manticore and retreated toward the woodland.

“What the hell?” Johnny, who had originally been preparing to lead the cavalry into battle against the Tin Giants, frowned as well.

With the Manticore and Tin Giants charging out, he had thought a fierce battle was about to erupt, yet right after they exchanged blows, the other side had suddenly called a retreat?

Leon suddenly noticed something and strode toward the woodland, shifting his gaze deep into the trees.

Noticing Leon's movement, Rena hurriedly rode her direwolf after him.

The three-legged Manticore landed at the edge of the woodland. The remaining two Tin Giants returned to its vicinity, standing to its left and right while facing this direction, planting their respective weapons into the ground like two guards watching over a gate. The remaining scarecrows froze in various twisted poses in front of them, forming an infantry formation.

After a moment, a figure slowly walked out from between the trees and stopped beside the Manticore.

“Damn witch, so you really are here……” Johnny glared at the figure through gritted teeth, making no attempt to conceal the disgust showing on his face.

She was a bewitchingly beautiful woman with long gray-black hair, dressed in black clerical robes decorated with the pattern of a pentagram.

This was the standard attire of priests of the Abyssal Church and witches depicted in books and paintings, something regarded as absolute heresy within the Empire. At this moment, she had also transformed into her demonkin form. A pair of twisted goat horns rose from her head, and her two pointed ears and back seemed to be covered in fine gray-black fur. Square pupils sat at the center of her dark-golden eyes, while the legs extending beneath her long skirt clearly displayed the traits of a hoofed animal.

A pair of pitch-black bony membrane wings were also folded against her back.

Black Goat? No, this was……the form of a Greater Demon recorded in the files!

Leon recognized her demonkin form.

The Great Witch Dorothy, after allowing the monsters to fight Leon and the others until now, had finally revealed herself.

Behind her, several fully armed female attendants also emerged.

At this moment, she held a slender, long-stemmed smoking pipe decorated with gemstones and showed everyone a seductive smile with that monster-like face of hers: “We certainly have a lot of guests today, welcome.”

“Welcome?” Johnny's cheek immediately twitched, “Your hospitality sure is damn thorough!”

“Johnny.” Leon had already walked near Johnny by this point and reminded him in a low voice.

“……” Johnny glared at Leon, while Leon simply looked calmly back at him.

Johnny unhappily withdrew his gaze, but in the end said nothing.

Leon was the one who had come to negotiate with Dorothy. He was merely here to ensure Leon's safety. Angry as he was, before determining the Great Witch's intentions, he could not casually negotiate in Leon's place.

“So, you're the Fenrir from the rumors who killed Count Fry, aren't you? I've heard so much about you.” Dorothy fixed her smiling gaze on Leon, “You really did manage to find this place after all. You haven't disappointed me.”

“I've also heard much about you, Miss Dorothy.” Leon gazed at Dorothy as he replied, “But I must say I'm rather disappointed by your hospitality. Just to verify the rumors about me, you were willing to resort to a method that might have caused the negotiations to collapse on the spot? Do you really intend to talk with us?”

From the sound of things, Dorothy remaining here did not seem to be a coincidence. She had already learned about their movements through some channel and deliberately stayed here waiting for them.

In that case, she should have been able to guess Leon's purpose.

Leon could tell that the reason she had released monsters to attack them was to force him to use the power of a witch's Blessing. The moment he revealed his werewolf form and struck the Manticore with the Blood of the Evil Curse, she had ended the battle.

“Just a little entertainment, that's all. Isn't exchanging blows also a way of getting to know one another? If I made you unhappy, then I apologize.” Dorothy smiled and lowered her head slightly.

“……” Hearing this, Johnny's gaze toward Dorothy grew even sharper. One of his subordinates had lost a leg because of Dorothy's attack. That was not something that could simply be brushed aside with a lighthearted joke.

“Don't glare at me with such fiery eyes, Commander Jonathan Ruit. I'll take responsibility for healing your subordinate, so forgive me just this once.” Noticing Johnny's gaze, Dorothy turned toward him without losing her smile.