Release That Witch

In merely three months, it completely changed. The last time he had come here, its city wall built with neat, white snow stones from the Kingdom of Everwinter had been like stain-free white teeth of a new-born wolf, but now the blood-stained, damaged wall looked brown and mottled. Broken parts of it were hastily mended with the local black rocks or even wooden frames and plates.     

Looking from afar, this rough, dirty wall was like dreadful fangs of an old wolf who had gnawed many animals and become a real predator.     

The church's forces camped at a place around 2,500 meters away from Wolfheart City. Less soldiers of the church came here this time. In case that the Queen of Clearwater would sneak attack the old Holy City, the church reserved some forces to guard it and only sent 800 God's Punishment Warriors, 5,000 Judgement Warriors and 5,000 transport corps men here to conquer Wolfheart City, but Mayne was fully confident in capturing this city, with the secret weapons and the pure witches.     

"Your Eminence, 'Siege Beasts' have been set in place, ready to attack," a priest ran to the top of the hillside and reported to him     

"What about the pure witches?"     

"They're ready, too."     

He lifted a telescope in front of his eye to observe the battlefield. Two "Siege Beasts" were crouching 1,000 meters away from Wolfheart City, hiding themselves well under a thatched shed and surrounded by planks. It was hard for anyone seeing with naked eyes from afar to notice those two ferocious-looking weapons.     

In front of the "Siege Beasts", stood the God's Punishment Army formed by soldiers converted from the most pious believers of the church. They remained upright and motionless in the autumn wind. All the enemies who had fought against them had been overwhelmed by their might. As they were unable to act independently in battles, they were controlled by their commanders who mingled among them under the guise of God's Punishment Warriors. As for these commanders, even the church people, except the pope and three archbishops, had no idea who they were.     

"Good, now you can return to your position and wait for the attacking horn." Mayne nodded with satisfaction.     

"Yes, Your Eminence."     

Now it was time to summon the Supreme Pontiff's Pure Witches.     

Thinking of them, Mayne could not help but knit his eyebrows. Totally different from the other witches raised up by the church, they behaved as they pleased even in the army. If his own pure witches acted like this, he would punish them by whips, but he could not treat these two pure witches like that, as they held equivalent positions to him in the church. After all, Supreme Pontiff had only ordered them to assist him in this battle, not to follow his order.     

No matter how they behaved, he still needed their help to eliminate the enemies.     

He walked down the slope to the pure witches' tent outside the battalion. Just as he had expected, he found no one in the tent when he lifted up the door curtain.     

"Where did Zero and Isabella go?" he asked a Judgement Warrior stood at the door.     

"The two ladies are interrogating prisoners and should be in the east of the battalion. There's a flat open space. You'll see it when you walk in that area. Do you need me to call them over?" said the guard.     

"I won't come here if you can invite them out. And it's a captive game again... Haven't they got tired of it yet?" Mayne complained inwardly and said to the guard with a gloomy face, "no, I'll go there to have a look."     

…     

He soon came to the place mentioned by the guard.     

Surrounded by lots of Judgement Warriors, two women stood in the middle. In front of them, there were three captives whose hands were tied behind their backs. One woman leaning forward was whispering something to the captives with a soft and intent look on her face. Her white hair and corners of her white robe danced in the wind, making her look like a pure elf. The other woman who got a great body, blonde wavy hair and a dulcet voice chuckled now and then.     

Mayne said to the chief justice beside him, "Order all the Judgement Warriors to leave this place at once, including the ones in charge of those captives."     

"Yes, Your Eminence."     

The blonde witch noticed this. She said something to the other witch and then quickly walked toward Mayne.     

"Your Eminence." She slightly bowed to him and continued, "Why do you drive away all the audience? The trial will begin right away."     

He nodded back to greet her and said, "Lady Isabella, the full-range attack on Wolfheart City is about to begin. At this moment, there's no point in interrogating captives. Besides, they're just scouts we caught along the way and can offer little valuable information. If you can, I hope you two immediately come to the front line."     

"Relax, now that we're here, it's impossible for any important enemy to escape. As for the trial... I can't stop her. Given that, how about you watching it here? It won't take a long time, anyway," Isabella said while spreading her hands.     

"The same trial game?"     

"Well, the rules are basically the same." She smiled. "Zero just loves this kind of games."     

"So, start it immediately." Mayne tried his best to suppress his anger to put on an expressionless face, but he swore inwardly. "Damn! What the hell is this trial game? It should be called the cat-and-mouse game. In this game, a captive has to get out of a certain area set by Zero or defeat her to get a slim chance of survival. These seemingly easy tasks which are actually something the captives could never complete are thrown out by Zero as baits to lure the captives into her traps."     

It was not a fair game at all, and what the pure witch did was far from a good, pure deed. This was the reason Mayne had ordered to send away all the Judgement Warriors who were in charge of protecting and monitoring the pure witches. He was afraid that watching this would shake their faith in the church.     

He made up his mind that when he became a pope, he must strictly teach these witches to obey orders.     

At this moment, Zero had already untied the ropes binding the captives. She stretched out her arms to show that she did not carry any weapon, but the captives had a long sword, a bent blade and a light crossbow placed in front of them.     

"Come on, fight or escape. Follow your own heart. Only deities can make a decision," she said with a calm face and a gentle tone.     

One of the captives clenched his teeth and picked up the crossbow to shoot at the pure witch close at hand in a sudden. Immediately after that, he grabbed the sword to strike at her, planning to leave her no time to react. He had done all those actions in just one smooth motion, which indicated that he was not just an ordinary militia fighter.     

However, his sword did not hit the pure witch. Zero easily evaded the sudden strike by swiftly moving two steps backward. When he lifted up his head, he was agape seeing the witch holding the arrow between her lips, as if it were a common twig.     

Zero spat out the arrow and said with a smile, "Go on, please."     

The captive's eyes widened in fright. Seeing his trembling hands, Mayne was sure that most of the courage that he had just plucked up was gone now and all the remaining courage, if any, was only enough for his last strike.     

As the archbishop expected, after a moment of hesitation, the captive gave full vent to his feelings in a loud roar and dashed toward the unarmed witch, with a sword in hand.     

There was nothing at all skillful about the captive's desperate last strike. Mayne could know what would happen next, even with his eyes closed. Having spent only half a month with Zero, he was impressed by her amazing ability. She was not an Extraordinary, but could definitely compete with Extraordinaries in terms of combat skills. She was not extremely powerful or resilient, but incredibly skillful.     

Even without magic power, she would still make an excellent fighter.     

Zero edged to one side to avoid the captive's sword and then took a chance to grab his head with her slender hands. Making use of his forward momentum, she slightly twisted his head, and the captive collapsed suddenly, looking as if all his bones were removed.     

Zero turned around to look at the two remaining captives and said, "Now, it's your turn."