Chapter 82
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 82
Chapter Title: The Demonic Crow
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I have zero interest in listening to sob stories.
I wasn't particularly interested in hearing it anyway, and I couldn't read that guy's intentions.
Especially against someone using such a unique ability.
Starting a conversation out of the blue is usually just a stalling tactic.
Fighting one moment, then suddenly chatting?
It's surprisingly effective, which is why they try it.
Naive adventurers might listen, thinking it's worth hearing out.
But then they get countered by the time-waster and end up in a bad spot.
I'm no naive crow, though—far from it.
If stalling is the goal, I just need to do the opposite.
Preemptive strikes like this are the right call, a hundred times over.
Thwack!
My foot had slammed cleanly into her abdomen.
My wings span about three meters now.
That's big for a bird, but my actual height is just over a meter.
Standing still, I'm smaller than a human, and my weight doesn't compare.
But that doesn't mean my strength is any weaker.
I know raptors around my size.
Extinct ones, but confirmed to have existed.
Haast's eagle.
That beast took down moa birds weighing over fifteen times its own mass—a terrifying hunter.
My class should be about the same.
Any average human hit in the head by a Haast's eagle would drop dead on the spot.
"Guh... C-crow...!"
Of course, my target was a witch, and I hit her gut, not her head.
Sizzle...
The Plague Witch, struck squarely by my kick, was sent flying back cleanly.
"Wh-why you...!"
She clutched her stomach, yelling.
Why? Did she really think I'd listen to her story?
If we were total strangers, maybe.
But from our chat just now, I knew exactly what she thought of me.
I don't know about the rest, but she planned to turn me into a chimera. No way I'd sit still for that.
I have to take her down somehow.
She was clearly gearing up to say something like, "Now we're together forever," and mess me up weirdly.
"I see... Taming a wild crow will require some proper discipline, it seems."
The Plague Witch adjusted her black gloves.
Shrrrk!
Boom!
The Executioner had no spare energy left, tangled up with that monster.
It was just me and the witch now.
And in the midst of it, she fiddled with her gloves.
"This might sting a little!"
Whoosh!
She kicked off the ground in an instant, leaping straight at me.
Gone was the figure who'd avoided close quarters with the Executioner—now her movements carried a feral edge.
"Caw!"
Startled, I raised my leg to block her attack.
Shadow form would've been the textbook dodge, but with my passengers to hide, evasion wasn't ideal.
I couldn't risk dropping Moona from my shoulder.
Collision.
Boom!
My leg met her fist.
"What an... incredible... crow...?"
They trembled.
My talon and her fist.
Seeing her dodge the Executioner in close range, I'd figured she was nothing without her plague powers.
Wrong.
Lower level than the Executioner, but higher than me.
She didn't match that monster, but I couldn't assume her melee skills were weaker than mine.
Our raw power was evenly matched.
But I had more than just strength.
Leg locked with fist, I swung my wings.
Swoosh!
Crack!
In one swift motion, I whipped my wings short and hard, smashing into her.
"What in the...!"
She was probably wondering how a bird could fight like this.
Thanks to the Plague Witch.
She'd unleashed rats and beasts on me, giving me endless practice partners.
Fighting them honed my skills, letting a bird's body pull off martial arts.
"Caw! Caw!"
Plus, sharing vision didn't mean she knew everything about the infected.
If it did, she'd have known long ago I was a fighting crow.
Like a furious chicken, I flapped my wings and charged.
Crack!
Right now, my whole body was a weapon.
Sharp talons, sturdy beak.
And twilight-infused feathers.
Crack!
It looked like a stalemate, but tiny wounds kept accumulating.
Thud!
The Plague Witch couldn't pierce my feathers.
If it weren't twilight, she might have had a shot, but I'd set the time to dusk with Night Summoning.
She couldn't hurt me if she tried.
"Caw!"
Wait, am I going to beat the Executioner to the punch here?
I figured she'd come help if I just held out.
Squeak!
Then, a rat's cry from under my foot.
Stragglers left?
They grabbed my leg.
Feet pinned, even if just briefly.
But it was fine.
She had no way to breach my defenses now.
"Hoo... Sweating like this feels refreshing. Everyone kept telling me to get out more—now I get it a bit."
The Plague Witch didn't attack my immobilized foot.
She just shared her thoughts.
This was practically her last chance—why act so casual?
That monster couldn't beat the Executioner; stalling was its limit. She knew that.
What was she plotting?
Squish!
I lightly stomped the rats holding my foot.
"Strong ones like you or the Executioner don't catch plague easily."
She pulled out a flute.
As she said, a crow like me was tough to control with plague.
If it worked, she'd have done it from the start.
"Why do you think I stuck to you on purpose?"
To meet some condition for plague control?
That would explain it.
Why she'd kept up this melee farce.
Why she hadn't retreated despite knowing she couldn't overpower me.
Whirr.
She played the flute.
A beautiful melody.
My body... under her control...?
"Caw?"
Nope, fine.
Just a pretty sound.
Nothing more.
"How cute. You actually believed me? You have a naive side after all."
What kind of person is she?
Do all witches have personalities like this?
Joking around in this situation?
"A crow that purges plague remnants. And not bad in close combat either. Capturing one is a real challenge—but something I really wanted to do."
She tossed off her mask.
Black hair, red eyes.
Do all witches have pretty faces?
Her beauty made my vision blur for a second.
Swungswung and Moona would snap me out of it, like always.
"Finally noticing something off?"
Swungswung and Moona stayed still.
If they'd seen me staring blankly, they'd have smacked my head.
"Shwooo..."
Swungswung and Moona on my shoulder.
Their eyes had turned the same red as the witch's.
"Wondering how? That's what you're thinking, right?"
I tried purging the plague fast, but no feathers appeared.
This was a different kind of power altogether.
"I'll let you in on it—though you probably won't get it."
She blabbed on.
Excitedly spilling the details.
Maybe she'd been waiting for me to ask.
"I'm the Plague Witch. I can turn what comes from my body into plague magic. Like blood or sweat in battle."
She'd bled and sweated fighting me.
And Moona and Swungswung were right there.
"A kind of pheromone. I can't control it perfectly, but I can guide it plenty. Enough to hold their lives hostage and capture you."
Pheromone.
She used that to turn Moona and Swungswung like this?
"Crow. Your allies are about to become mine. Think you can keep up that attitude?"
She was threatening me.
Holding Moona and Swungswung hostage to make me hers.
"Hmm, still not getting it? Fine, then... How about I make them attack each other a bit?"
Whirr.
She played the flute again.
Hearing it, Moona and Swungswung sprang into action.
Smack!
Peck!
Forcing allies to hurt each other.
Her sick hobby, probably.
To make me surrender by pitting them against one another.
Swungswung's mouth and Moona's beak attacked what was in front of them.
Which was my shoulder.
"...Huh?"
The witch looked baffled.
Of course she did.
That wasn't the order she'd given my allies.
"Shwashawawang..."
"Mm... mm..."
Moona and Swungswung bit down hard on my shoulder.
The Plague Witch had tried controlling them with pheromones.
And I'm a crow that emits pheromones.
Mine was Alluring Scent.
Chicken aroma wafting out—it easily overrode her pheromones' commands.
The side effect? Them munching my shoulder.
But this much was tolerable.
...Even if the drool felt gross, I could bear it.
"Wh-what...? Not plague... how...?"
She was seriously rattled.
She'd thought it was a sure thing.
Purging plague was one thing, but she hadn't anticipated pheromones.
Serves her right for blabbing so excitedly.
If she'd kept quiet, she might've scored something useful.
"You're more of a delicacy than I thought..."
Honestly, seeing Moona half-snap out of it, it probably wouldn't have mattered much.
"Caaaaaw!"
I let out an enraged crow cry.
For one thing, messing with my precious opportunities—that crime alone was unforgivable.
My feathers dyed twilight once more.
I hated burning feathers, but hey, I wasn't evolving anyway.
They'd grow back, right?
So, no holding back.
"Caw!"
Firing.
Whiiiish!
Feathers hard as steel launched at the enemy by my will.