Er Mu - Release that Witch

Against an extraordinary, crossbows were no threat at all, at least this was what she had learned on her own during a lot of fights. As long as it was a hand crossbows, she could even catch the flying arrows empty-handed. But when she looked at the Prince’s confident expression, she knew that the weapons in her opponent’s hands were more than likely not as simple a thing as an ordinary crossbow.

Her instincts told her, that she should close in to the knight as soon as possible, rather than waiting for the other side to release his external attack. Because of this plan, before the duel even started, Ashes thrust her sword into the ground, taking a pose that gave off no threat, but this was actually the most effective way for her to deal with an opponent using a crossbow.

At this moment, the crisp sound of a bell ringing could be heard coming from the direction of the wall.

Almost at the same time, Ashes firmly grasped the sword handle, putting all of her power into moving it forward. Throwing soil, grass, and even gravel into the sky with the wide side of her blade, letting it splash in the direction of the knight and forming a wall of sand between them.

The Chief Knight’s reaction was also very fast, releasing a burst of flame from the arms in his hands, accompanied by a huge roar. But Ashes didn’t see any arrows flying out of them, which means that he had either forgotten to install them or that they were coming too fast for her to see. Compared with the first option that would be considered an idiot mistake, Ashes thought that the latter option was much more likely.

Under the cover of the sand screen, Ashes started her sprint. Within the blink of an eye, the distance between the two of them was narrowed to half while the sand screen had still not yet completely landed on the ground. Most people would subconsciously try to avoid being covered by the flying dirt, so as long as she could interrupt the other side from continuing to shoot, Ashes has most likely already won.

But Carter did not move from his position, he completely disregarded the sand hitting his face, squinting his eyes together while constantly following the movement of the extraordinary with his weapons, once again pulling the triggers of his weapons and sending out another burst of flames and a roar. On a conditional reflex Ashes stepped to the side, but until now she had still not seen any arrows or any other projectiles coming at her, while the knight also didn’t show any movement of pulling any strings or having to prepare the next arrow.

This new weapon could probably be launched continuously, but since the first two consecutive shot have missed, the outcome has already been decided!

Closing the last ten steps in the blink of an eye, she had already appeared in front of the knight, holding her sword vertical, pressing her feet against the ground preparing to directly smash into the knight. Normally being hit by such an impact, her opponent would not die instantly, but it should still be enough to cause him to faint. Even if he were able to hold on with his strong battle will, the crushed bones in his chest would still make him completely lose the ability to fight.

In last breath before the moment of impact, Ashes could hear, for the third time, the bursting sound coming from the other side. Then a moment later, she felt as her sword was hit, followed by a crisp breaking sound and her right abdomen then suddenly becoming numb, it felt as if it had been severely grabbed by someone.

Almost at the same time, her whole body smashed into Carter’s chest, directly sending him into the air, making him draw an arc and then sliding over the ground.

Until now, she had such a strong battle-will that she was able to totally disregard her waist injury. But just then, as if she had gotten a hit to her head, a strong sense of dizziness suddenly came over her mind. She staggered two steps forward, nearly falling to the ground as if her extraordinary magic had directly poured out of her body like water from a broken flask, causing her limbs to become unbearable heavy.

Ashes had to use her sword to hold up her body, and the previous numb wound then started to turn into a searing pain, it felt as if a part of her waist was now missing. Looking down she could even see her own viscera spilling out. Biting her tongue, she kept herself from falling.

…

In Roland’s eyes, the whole process of the duel didn’t last much longer than four or five seconds. He saw how the extraordinary witch threw dirt towards Carter, while he started to launch his own assault. During the middle, Ashes once changed her direction but by then she had already severely collided with the Knight’s body. But within this short moment of time, Carter was still able to shot three rounds of bullets, which was beyond what Roland had thought would be possible.

Having to face the unusual fast approaching Ashes, I’m afraid even if I only had to follow the opponents movements closely, it would already have been awfully difficult for me to achieve, but he could not only follow her and aim but he was even able to shoot at her three times, fully proving that the title of Chief Knight wasn’t for show. The fact that the first two rounds had missed was totally normal, in fact, if Ashes had continued to use her speed and changed her direction, I’m afraid Carter shots would have never hit her.

The key part was in the third round, in the final five or six meters. During that part, Ashes was holding her great sword in front of her chest as a shield and had gone in a straight line for the impact.

If it was a crossbow or even heavy crossbow, even if they hit against her sword, they wouldn’t have caused any impact to an extraordinary. But the 12mm caliber ammunition together with the steel warheads at that distance would show an unparalleled power.

Roland then saw black fragments splattering into the air, soon followed by blood and gore. When Ashes finally stood firmly again, the Prince discovered that a large part of her waist was now gone, giving the impression as if there was a beast that had chewed out a large chunk of meat out of her. Her guts had also fallen out of her wound, and were hanging down the side of her body.

Looking at her sword he saw that the lower part of the great sword now had a bowl-shaped gap in it. Probably caused by when the bullet had gone through her sword, the unstable warhead and the broken-out pieces of her sword had hit into her waist, causing her such an immense wound.

Even while seriously injured, she had still not fainted. Only by purely relying on her extraordinary power could she still stand upright on the battlefield, showing off her terrible physical power. If it were the lead balls from before or only the bullet, I am afraid she could have just ignored them. Maggie was the first one who arrived at Ashes side. With a face full of anxiety, she tried to hold her friend up, but unfortunately, her figure was so short, that she could only grab Ashes around her legs.

Nana was also already rushing in the direction of Carter to treat him, while Roland instead quickly moved in front of Ashes.

Seeing him appear, it seems she had only waited for this moment.

“I won…” Finishing what she wanted to say, she didn’t even wait for Roland’s reaction, she instead fell straight against his shoulders.

“Scram! Dirty beggar!”

Someone pushed hard against her, but she did not move a bit. Instead, it was the assaulter who was the one to stagger two steps back.

The man’s arrogant expression disappeared from his face and instead instantly turned into one of shock. A moment later he abruptly turned around and left with his tail between his legs.

During this whole time, she remained unaffected and kept on moving through the crowd. When they saw the worn-out woman, most of the people stepped out of her way while frowning. In this way, she was able to slowly move further in the direction of Grayastle’s inner city gate.

Although there were traditionally no walls separating the inner city, the people had erected a symbolic gate made out of wood and garlands to better control the sea of people.

On both sides of the gate stood two neatly arranged rows of armor-wearing warriors, all of whom had an exquisite armor that was dazzlingly reflecting the shimmering sunlight. With their spread-out eagle wings on their shoulders it gave off the impression that they desired to fly off into the sky. The iris flower decoration hanging over their chests together with their heroic and handsome faces had gathered their own group of rich housewives that were shouting and quarreling over them.

The warriors were all wearing red capes that fell down to the ground. They seemed to be a red wall if you were to look at them from behind. It was these handsome and mighty warriors who were responsible for dividing the crowd, forming a wide and vacant road which was only usable by the more influential families.

Many banners were flying in the wind alongside the road, and a lot of the strip-shaped golden-colored flags were hanging from the flagpoles, giving off a quite, solemn and respectful presence. The banners were embroidered with many different designs, but most of them were covered by the tower and the pike. She knew that this pattern represented the Royal Family of the Kingdom of Graycastle, who was also the organizer of today’s ceremony.

Today they held the royal ceremony to celebrate the day of adulthood of the 5th Princess, Tilly Wimbledon.

Since it was made public one week ago, this matter had already created a great public buzz, so much that everyone in the city already knew about it. In addition to the local aristocracy of the Kingdom of Graycastle, the envoys from the other kingdoms had also come. They were all carrying plenty of gifts and marriage proposals in the hope of earning the favor of 5th Princess.

Even the Church had sent an Archbishop to preside over the ceremony. The ceremony would be held at the city center of the Square of Dawn. At that time, the royal family would start to give away meat porridge and thick soup, which was also the reason why the event had attracted so many people.

However, she hadn’t come for the food.

Her goal was the Archbishop.

If she was able to kill an Archbishop under the watchful eyes of the King. It would make it impossible for the Church to cover up the incident, ending up in a great loss of face for them. Tasting such a sweet flavor of revenge made her feel endlessly excited. Touching her chest, she reassured herself that the snatched knife was still there. Although the knife was of poor quality, it would be enough to kill a mortal.

At this moment, the crowd suddenly released a burst of overwhelming cheers, interrupting her from her thoughts. Looking in the direction of the Inner City, she discovered that the rows of the Knights from the Kingdom of Graycastle had begun to slowly march forward. The Knight in the front was the dressed in the shiniest armor, like a flickering flame his gold-embroidered red cloak fluttered behind him as he walked.

The Knights were followed by a carriage which was being dragged by four fine horses that moved side by side. The Royal Family’s emblem was carved into the wall of the carriage and its wheels and frames were plated in gold. On the roof of the carriage there floated a scarlet burgee, while a gold-embroidered silken fabric was hanging over each corner of the carriage. At first glance, the whole carriage looked like a flowing golden ocean.

Mixing herself in with the crowd of people who were following along the carriage, she was also able to set foot on the Plaza of Dawn. The inner area of the plaza was isolated by a row of guards, only allowing the aristocracy to get a close look at the ceremony taking place. She estimated that she would have to stop here for now. But, as soon as the Archbishop stepped into the plaza, she would immediately dart over, needing only a few breaths of time to reach him, leaving it impossible for him to escape from her grasp.

One young person after another jumped out of the royal carriage and slowly moved onto the central stage. They were most probably Wimbledon III’s five children.

Within these people, she also detected the 5th Princess Tilly Wimbledon.

There was no doubt that the 5th Princess was the protagonist of the day. Her eyes were full of intelligence and clear like two gems; her light makeup together with her long braided gray hair gave her a refreshing and simple impression; standing within that group of brothers and sisters she looked outstanding; the pattern embroidered on her dress wasn’t complicated at all, and it was perfectly matched together with her temperament. But what was most incredible was that she had actually looked all over the rows of people, even directly into her eyes, smiling and nodding slightly, as if the Princess was greeting her personally.