Chapter 119: The Tin Knight and The World of The Wicked Witch of The West (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 119: The Tin Knight and The World of The Wicked Witch of The West (2)
The Wicked Witch of the West's residence was a castle.
And not just any ordinary castle, but one structured like a demon king's fortress.
It was massive, its paths were as complex as a maze, and soldiers roamed each floor. It was, by no stretch of the imagination, designed for convenient daily living.
However, from an intruder's perspective, it was a castle that would make one curse.
That was inevitable, as stronger enemies poured out with each floor they ascended.
In other words.
[The ‘Tin Knight’ is on a rampage!]
[The ‘Tin Knight’ is unstoppable!]
[The ‘Tin Knight’ is dominating the battlefield!]
In short, it was a situation the Tin Knight absolutely adored.
Slice!
With a slash from the Tin Knight, the head of a werewolf charging with ferocious momentum was separated from its body.
Whether he swung left or diagonally, it didn't matter; with every flash of the Tin Knight's blade, another werewolf's head was lopped off.
The party thus escaped the basement and the long corridor.
What greeted them next was a vast garden.
As if to prove it was the castle of a wicked witch, the layout of the stairways was truly foul.
In the garden, the party was met by winged crow-men equipped with long, single-edged swords, tin staves, and monastic robes.
They dove sharply from the sky, swinging their swords and staves.
This method of attack, a mix of avian hunting techniques and human combat skills, would normally be an extremely tricky tactic to counter.
“Tin Can! Number 4!”
Dorothea pulled a glass bottle from her waist pouch and threw it.
When the Tin Knight caught it with his shield, a viscous, silver liquid coated the shield's surface.
It was a liquid concocted from the boiled-down bone powder of various rare magic beasts and minerals obtained from 'The Garden'.
As the Tin Knight infused mana into his shield, the silver liquid swelled up and transformed into another shield.
Its size was unbelievable, considering it had expanded from a liquid contained in a bottle no bigger than a perfume flask.
The shield, far wider and larger than the Tin Knight's own body, floated gently at a fixed distance from the one he held.
Then, the Tin Knight swung his shield with all his might at the charging crow-men. The giant shield made of mana and silver liquid swung along with it.
The enemies finally realized the danger and tried to change direction or slow down, but it was hardly easy in the middle of a steep dive.
CRACK!
The neck of the first crow-man to collide with the giant shield snapped at a grotesque angle.
Those following him immediately met the same fate.
Once the giant shield, which had expanded to its limit, had served its purpose and crumbled like dust, the corpses of the crow-men—their bodies twisted, broken, and crushed—plummeted to the ground.
The party immediately proceeded to the next floor.
This time, a massive iron door appeared.
The Tin Knight stared at the door for a moment, then suddenly stopped and requested mana from Dorothea.
Dorothea placed a hand on the Tin Knight's body and poured mana into him. The Tin Knight told the party to wait and entered the room alone.
Clank.
The door locked right after the Tin Knight went in.
Then, the clamor of battle erupted from within the room: the sound of a large bee's wings beating and the screech of sharp spearheads scraping against metal.
After about ten seconds, the Tin Knight sent a signal to the party.
[The ‘Tin Knight’ says he has defeated all the enemies!]
[The ‘Tin Knight’ warns you to be careful when entering, as there is a poison mist inside!]
Dorothea handed out pills with detoxifying properties to each member of the party, and Sophia enveloped their bodies with holy power.
Opening the door and stepping inside, the party grimaced.
A strong, dense miasma filled the room, so thick they could feel it despite their thorough precautions against poison.
No matter how skilled one was, it would be nearly impossible to display their true abilities in such a situation.
Even if they endured the poison dispersed as mist, getting hit by just one of the poisoned arrows or spearheads scattered about would surely be fatal.
However, for the Tin Knight, whose entire body was made of metal, none of this mattered.
The corpses of the insect-people strewn about the room proved it.
Franka made a weary face.
'This thing is a complete monster.'
Ever since their ill-fated encounter in Lowefelt, Franka had harbored an awkward feeling toward the Tin Knight.
Even if it was half her own fault, one of her three precious monkeys had met its end because of the Tin Knight, so of course she couldn't look upon him favorably.
But the more she watched the Tin Knight, the more she felt her anger and resentment being replaced by a growing sense of fear and awe.
When they first fought, she and one of her three familiars could fight him on fairly advantageous terms. Now, she wondered if she even had a chance of winning if she attacked with all her might.
No, she was just avoiding the conclusion out of pride; the result was obvious.
His only semblance of a weakness was his high mana consumption, forcing him to return to Dorothea for refills, but even that wasn't much of an opening.
“You fiends!! You shall never approach the place where the Witch resides—”
Slice!
The gatekeeper, who had been shouting with great vigor, snapped his mouth shut.
Adelaide's two-handed sword had cleanly split the sword and shield he was holding.
“Uh, um. Would you please surrender?”
[The ‘Tin Knight’ teaches that threats must be more intense!]
“…Next is your head?”
The gatekeeper foamed at the mouth and fainted. Adelaide, receiving the Tin Knight's praise, laughed shyly, "Hehe."
That's right. The existence of that little lion was the perfect support system to cover the Tin Knight's openings.
No, it was only because the standard of comparison was the Tin Knight; Adelaide herself was already more than strong enough.
While she was still inexperienced in areas like swordsmanship and mana manipulation, the benefits of the physical enhancement granted by ‘The Belt of Amaryllis’ were immense.
It was to the point that the corpses Dorothea had brought along had no chance to be useful and could only watch from the back.
'If it's like this...'
Franka trembled involuntarily.
The truth was, the fight she had envisioned against the Wicked Witch of the West was nothing like this.
Infiltration, theatrics, a surprise attack, a swift battle, theft, and then escape.
Franka's plan had been to achieve their goal quickly, whether by sneaking in or putting on an act, and then flee before the Witch could get serious.
Of course, she would have to deal with the wrathful Witch's revenge afterward, but with the backing of the Aglaia family, she calculated that the worst-case scenario would be excommunication.
She knew Dorothea's party had come prepared to fight the Witch for real, but she hadn't taken it seriously.
In Franka's mind, the Wicked Witch of the West was less a person and more a transcendent being wearing human skin.
But.
Seeing things now, her thoughts were changing.
'With this... at this rate... could we actually win?'
Because the Tin Knight had rampaged so much on his own, the others hadn't expended much of anything.
Dorothea still seemed to have plenty of mana and catalysts, and her army of corpses was growing. Adelaide was only just now slightly flushed. And Sophia... well, she didn't have much of a presence in battle to begin with.
Most importantly, Franka herself and her two "children" were still in perfect condition.
KABOOM!
A kick from the Tin Knight sent the door leading to the castle rooftop flying open.
An old woman was waiting for the party there.
The old woman looked like the very archetype of a 'witch'.
A pointed hat. Skin covered in liver spots. A large, hooked nose. Even wrinkled eyes.
If one had to point out unique features, it would be that the robe she wore was dark green and that she was one-eyed.
“Kekeke, so full of energy. It's been a while since the castle was this livel—”
[The ‘Tin Knight’ suggests they converse with steel!]
Before the Wicked Witch of the West could finish her dramatic line, the Tin Knight charged at her.
The sight of him moving at high speed, the heavy thud of his footsteps echoing in rapid succession, was enough to instill a primal sense of pressure in any onlooker.
The other party members, as if expecting this, synchronized their movements with the Tin Knight.
An undead wolf—formed from the bones of a magic beast wolf from The Garden, combined with the blood and flesh of werewolves—leapt forward, and Adelaide's two-handed sword, imbued with immense power, was swung.
The golden monkeys trying to protect the Witch collided with the two whirlwinds, creating an opening in her guard.
Slice!
The Tin Knight's slash bisected the Wicked Witch of the West's body diagonally.
In that moment, as everyone's eyes widened, the Tin Knight himself paused, as if something wasn't right.
His eyes, like blue will-o'-the-wisps, flickered as he scanned his surroundings.
Then, the Tin Knight looked up at the sky.
There, the Wicked Witch of the West, who had clearly just been cut down, was looking down at them, seated on a throne formed by the overlapping bodies of her golden monkeys.
The Wicked Witch of the West did not open her mouth.
In her stead, the flock of over a hundred monkeys adorning the sky opened their mouths.
《Kekeke, such impatient children. And so violent. It is not wise to fight a venomous snake head-on. Not at all.》
Multiple voices overlapped in the sky, creating a strange resonance.
Around the necks of the speaking monkeys were necklaces that all resembled an eye.
《Have you come for the sacred treasure? Foolish children. You do not know what this object is, do you? Why the Kingdom of Heaven ordered you to collect them. Why, after neglecting them for hundreds of years, they suddenly want them gathered now. You ignorant children, dancing on their strings. I shall show you something wonderful.》
The Wicked Witch of the West spread her hand.
Her navy-blue gloves emanated a sinister mana.
The space around the Witch warped and creaked.
Dorothea and Franka. The faces of the two who knew the ability of the sacred treasure turned pale.
'Gloves of Haider.'
Its ability was to store any object and retrieve it at will.
And the limit of the 'objects' that could be stored depended on the owner's mana capacity and control.
If used by an ordinary mage, it would function as little more than a convenient handbag, but if used by a Great Witch—
《Enjoy the last sight of your lives.》
—in the next moment, a gigantic rock, with each side measuring 50 meters, appeared above the party's heads.
Someone screamed.
Someone else froze, unable to even think of dodging.
The sight of a small mountain suddenly materializing overhead and falling was enough to stop one's thoughts cold.
Dorothea, a step too late, tried to pull something from her pouch to cast a spell, but there wasn't enough time.
And so, the Tin Knight moved.
He did not swing his sword. Even he couldn't slice apart such a ridiculously massive object in mid-air. At least, not with his current body.
He raised his shield. But it wasn't to block the falling rock.
With all his might, he slammed it into the ground.
KWAAAAAAAANG!
With a massive impact, the rooftop floor collapsed.
And everyone on it began to fall with it.
Normally, it would have been nothing short of a suicidal act, but at this very moment, it was effective.
It had delayed the future of being crushed into pulp by the rock, if only by a few seconds.
That brief moment was all Dorothea needed to cast the spell she had prepared.
The party's forms shimmered like a heat haze.
The spell—one she could only prepare a single use of despite using premium resources from The Garden, and one she had hoped not to use if possible—showed its effect.
The Tin Knight, Dorothea, Adelaide, Sophia, Franka, and her familiars all vanished into thin air.
And by a hair's breadth, the massive rock slab crushed the entire castle.
KWAGAGAGAGAGANG!!!!