Chapter 59
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 59
Chapter Title: A Ghost is Wandering
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One ghost was wandering.
Red cloak.
No, the red cloak had revealed its true colors.
The beautiful white face turned red.
It transformed into something straight out of a fairy tale—the image of an evil witch.
What we lose are chains alone—what we gain is the entire world!
Witches of the night, unite!
Set the flames of revolution ablaze in this world!
Now it was recognized not as human, but as a monster.
“Clack clack!”
“Groooowl...”
And then the corpses kept bursting out of the ground one after another.
The Crimson Cloak has revealed her true colors.
She is not the Red Cloak—she is the Crimson Cloak.
A member of Hexennacht, a cruel witch of the night.
Her target was Hansel.
No, perhaps it was Gretel, the witch of the day.
Combat has begun.
You suppressed the urge to stand and finished preparing to subjugate the Crimson Cloak alongside your comrades.
Quest Clear Condition: Neutralize Crimson Cloak
Quest Clear Reward: Random Skill Enhancement
The quest window helped explain the current situation.
The true identity of the Crimson Cloak was a witch of the night.
Why had the Crimson Cloak targeted Hansel?
Because she was a girl in love?
No, that wasn't it.
She planned to use Hansel to do something unspeakable to Gretel.
Just like the other witch who lured her into the oven.
Hansel didn't know the Crimson Cloak, but the Crimson Cloak knew Hansel and Gretel all too well.
“Damn, can't run away in this cave.”
“...Doesn't look like we can talk this out.”
“Caw, caw caw.”
The three of us stared at the Crimson Cloak slowly approaching.
We had to fight.
Against a level 44 witch.
The good news was, she wasn't alone.
A level 20 hunter, a level 27 wolf.
And a level 21 crow.
Three against one.
“Shwoong.”
...Four against one!
“Don't put up pointless resistance! You're all going to turn red!”
Like hell I'd sit here and become a red crow.
“Let's clear out these corpses first. Got it?”
As the Black Wolf finished speaking, his form shifted.
Into a massive wolf with fur blending gray and black.
“Awooooo!”
He let out a wolf's howl and charged the lead ghoul.
“Tch, how the hell did this happen?!”
The hunter moved swiftly too.
He didn't have a gun, unfortunately, but he did have a crossbow.
Swish!
Thunk!
Lowest level, but solid skills.
He nailed the charging ghoul right in the head.
“These are impure beings! Leave 'em to me—I’ve got silver bolts!”
No wonder they were gleaming. Silver bolts, huh?
With silver, this fight would be a lot easier.
A normal bolt wouldn't take down a ghoul, but silver? More than enough.
“Grraaa!”
The ghoul's head turned to ash as it collapsed in a heap.
The wolf tore into hordes of ghouls and skeletons at once, while the hunter dropped undead with every crossbow shot.
As the leader here, I couldn't just sit idle.
“Caw!”
My targets were the skeletons.
Even silver bolts would struggle without a perfect hit on those bones.
I dropped the act of not being able to fly and shot toward a skeleton like an arrow.
“Hey, crow! Stay behind me! Your attacks won't even...”
The wolf panicked, trying to protect me.
Sweet guy, but no need to worry.
Crunch!
A massive hole punched through the skeleton's skull, and it crumbled to ash right then.
“...Huh?”
The Black Wolf gawked at the powdered skeleton.
Because I wasn't some ordinary crow.
Even an undead made of bone couldn't move if I smashed it to bits—and crows like me could devour the impure.
“Shwoowap!”
Shwoongi sucked up the skeleton's remains.
“Hey, crow! You're tougher than you look!”
The massive wolf smashed bones with his huge paws while calling out to me.
His tail wagged, showing his interest.
“Caw caw.”
The undead summoned by the Crimson Cloak were no match for us.
But that didn't mean we'd seized the advantage.
The Crimson Cloak, gripping her scythe and hammer, had been silently watching us.
Now she began to move herself.
“Such a shame. You could've united peacefully, but now I have to use force myself.”
We didn't need words to know our roles.
Wolf up front, hunter providing crossbow support.
Me in the middle, adapting as needed.
“First... our Big Bad Wolf!”
Fwoosh!
The Crimson Cloak lunged at the wolf in an instant.
The wolf tried to pull back swiftly, but she was just a tad faster.
The massive scythe swung for his neck.
「Shadow Flame LV2」
I quickly flung a single feather.
Roar!
Shadow Flame, the purifier of the impure.
And right now, the Crimson Cloak looked more impure than anything.
Crackle.
With superhuman reflexes, the Crimson Cloak halted every motion in a flash.
Her next choice: evasion.
“You're using some dangerous power, aren't you?”
As I'd hoped, my flames posed a real threat even to the witch.
A silver bolt flew toward the spot where she'd retreated.
Swish!
“Tch!”
Thanks to that, the wolf retreated unscathed.
“Honestly, I thought the bad wolf was the biggest threat at first... but I've changed my mind.”
The Crimson Cloak fixed her red eyes on me.
“You're the real danger.”
Fwoosh!
She charged, swinging scythe and hammer together.
Swiiiish!
A strike like the Scarecrow's slashed in from the left.
Whoosh!
A massive hammer swung from the right—enough to flatten me into crow cutlets.
My speed couldn't dodge it.
I hadn't wanted to show my hand, but plans change.
A relentless barrage with no time to react.
Crackle.
My pumpkin-colored feather gleamed.
Flash!
The fully charged feather erupted in a blinding burst of tricolor light.
“Guh!”
The Crimson Cloak instinctively shut her eyes, but her hands didn't stop.
That was fine.
I'd created that intense light to forge an even stronger shadow.
Sizzle.
I vanished into the shadows in an instant.
Boom!
The hammer and scythe missed me entirely, smashing the innocent ground.
“A shadow? No wonder it looked so tempting!”
The Crimson Cloak's voice rang out sharp and clear.
Everyone here knew this stolen glimpse of vision was our chance.
The wolf lunged.
The Big Bad Wolf bared his massive fangs, going for her throat.
Arrows launched from the hunter's crossbow.
Three silver bolts fired in rapid succession.
An improvised team, but we'd instantly synced up, playing to each other's strengths.
No matter how tough the Crimson Cloak was, she couldn't withstand this combo.
Or so I thought.
“The entire history of witches is a history of class struggle.”
Before I saw her smile.
Thud.
Her small foot stomped the earth.
Red eyes gleaming, she matched my speed—unbelievable.
Blind as she was, she dodged the wolf's assault and the hunter's arrows, predicting exactly where I'd emerge.
“Make the crow tremble before the witch.”
Level 44 was an utterly overwhelming wall.
Power and reactions transcending any living being.
“Crow! Like before! Flash flash!”
The Black Wolf shouted in a panic.
She was so strong she could pinpoint me even blind.
A flash wouldn't change much.
Even so, light gathered on my pumpkin feather.
It might not faze her, but it'd help the others.
Flash!
Tricolor light flooded the cave.
Swish!
The Crimson Cloak's scythe arced toward my neck.
Crunch!
Her movement halted.
More precisely, shadows erupting from the ground locked her arm in place.
【Skills】
「Howling LV4」
「Bite LV3」
「Shadow Move LV3」
「Shadow Bind LV2」
【Traits】
「Sturdy Fangs」
「Shadow Form」
「Sharp Senses」
「Moon's Curse」
Shadow Bind—one of the Black Wolf's skills.
A normal shadow couldn't restrain the witch, so we needed one forged from intense light like this.
But the glow wouldn't last forever.
The moment the shadow weakened, that scythe would take my head.
Time to settle this.
“How dare you chain me!”
Furious at being bound, the Crimson Cloak lost her reason.
Swiiiish!
Three silver bolts streaked from the side.
Roar!
My final shadow feather, held in reserve.
Shadow Flame and silver bolts hurtled toward her simultaneously.
Crack.
“All we lose are chains!”
With monstrous strength, she shattered the Shadow Bind.
Thunk!
She dodged two bolts, but the third struck her right arm dead-on.
Clang!
The massive hammer dropped to the ground.
She'd dodged the arrows—no room to evade my flames now.
Even for the Crimson Cloak, the timing and angle were inescapable.
“I must organize the flames of revolution.”
Roar!
She didn't evade.
Instead, she unleashed a colossal blaze that swallowed my Shadow Flame whole.
“Flames of revolution... Iskra.”
My Shadow Flame was engulfed.
I could feel its power still intact, but it slipped my control.
The witch's flames cloaking it now flew straight at me.
Sacrifice one arm, turn my attack against me, and crush us.
Astoundingly masterful.
So astounding, my beak hung open.
“Caaaaaw!”
She'd made a mistake.
Forgetting I wasn't an ordinary crow—but one that devours flames.
Swoooosh!
The blaze vanished into my beak in a heartbeat.
“Wh-what...?”
Dismay flickered across the witch's face.
Her trump card had become her final mistake.
No longer a devourer of flames, but a spewer.
I spat the flames back out.
Roar!
“The flames of revolution... so easily...!”
BOOM!
The combined might of revolutionary flames and Shadow Flame incinerated her body.
-Overwhelming Damage
“Guh... guuuuh!”
She screamed in agony but refused to release her scythe.
Even as flames consumed her, her will to take an enemy with her burned bright.
If the fight dragged on like this, one of us would take serious damage.
“I can't... lose...! Not until everything is red...!”
One ghost wandered the cave.
The ghost, who had gathered the missed silver bolts in one place, appeared behind the Crimson Cloak holding the acorn helmet.
The acorn helmet, now spiked like a mace from embedded arrows.
“Shwoooooong!”
Shwoongi swung the helmet with all his might.
Clang!
The one who finished off the Crimson Cloak...
was a single ghost.