Chương 28: Can't Leave a Beach Alone

Veronika heard a shriek and the hard thump of metal hitting the ground. She turned her head to see LOA lying face-up in the sand next to her. Limbo let a robot in? Well, it let Veronika in, and she didn't have breath or blood either. LOA turned to her.

"Oh! Madame Veronika, you made it out. I was kind of worried."

"What?" she barely managed to squeak out.

"Why?"

"Just-uh…you know. I thought maybe your joy involved completing the mission!" Veronika wiped the sand off her face and stood up. Their car was missing. The rest of the witch hunters were missing. She stepped forward and felt a rush of blood to her arms. Second Nature was trying to get out again.

"LOA," she whispered.

"We're not alone here." She let Second Nature occupy her hands. Somehow, she could feel a bloodlust coming from them. Did the system make her guns sentient? She sure hoped not. She swept the sand she walked through away with her boot. Witches were known to trap hunters with hidden runes, and an island was the perfect place for hiding them. When she reached the strandline of the beach, she faintly smelled copper mixed with fresh earth roots. Classic components in spellcraft. She gave LOA a nod.

"Ready your weapons. Quietly." She took out a life-blood grenade she had taken from the base. A poor mimic of human life, but it was enough energy to trigger simple trap runes. It glowed with her veins and followed their whims, rolling around in the dirt until it suddenly stopped. Light started to glow in the shape of a ship's wheel that was concealed by the jungle's thick grass and leaves. An eruption of vines emerged from the circle and curled around the grenade.

Once it was tied up nicely, the vines locked onto the nearest tree branch and pulled the grenade up so it was suspended above the ground. In response to the noise, a tree on the opposite side of the grenade started to shake. Veronika could see two witch hunter boots kicking around through the tree's leaves.

"Mmph! Mmph!" The voice sounded like Officer Martin's. Three women with white veils covering their faces came out of the jungle. They walked slowly towards Veronika and LOA, seeing that their trap had captured a simple piece of equipment. They all turned back to Veronika and LOA in sync with each other. Covens loved putting up a weird, creepy act together. It was how their twisted hearts formed bonds.

"It looks like your captain is still held up in Limbo," the one in the center said in a ridiculously elegant voice.

"You're outnumbered. We'll accept surrender in exchange for a merciful death." The two witches on the sides were no issue. Veronika could chew them up and spit them out before they knew what hit them. But the one in the center had a much more potent stench of magic on her. Likely the island's coven head, though on Ring, there wasn't a lot of competition. You've activated [Guilty Until Purified] lvl 3 on Elina Raesha for 53 resistance points. That took a lot less out of her than the first time she used it.

Added to the bonus against witches Second Nature gave, her attacks would do four times as much damage to the coven head. She raised her pistols and moved her fingers to start firing. As the first bullets rang out, the three witches all traced the spell tattoos on their upper chests. Their fingers weren't faster than bullets. Four managed to get through and strike the coven head before they could finish casting their spell.

The head coven looked down and gripped her chest, but she still continued casting with her other hand. They were well trained in battle. A purple flame ignited on each of the witch's fingers and they all flew through the air in erratic patterns before coming together and forming a shield. Veronika shuffled to the side to try and shoot around it, but the shield followed each shot. LOA backed her up and fired from the other side. One of the lower witches jumped in front of the coven head to take the shot herself.

The bullet buried itself in her shoulder and started releasing a burst of Perfluorohexane, burning the woman's skin off. She fell to the ground screaming and clutching her wound. The coven head looked at her fallen friend and started tracing two different tattoos on her cheeks. One light surrounded her friend while the other lurched towards Veronika and LOA. It pierced her chest and tried to make its way through her skin and fascia to reach her heart.

Her polluted blood pooled towards her superficial veins in the area and brought the blast to a halt. It popped out of a small hole in her chest with a puff of smoke. This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. The coven head pulled her arm back and cocked her head. The same response most powerful witches had when they tried to fight her. She was born and bred to withstand powerful magic.

Only the most elite witches could pierce her heart without a huge amount of effort. The witch that controlled the system counted as part of that group, which had to be why the coven head started changing her tactics and using the skills granted by said witch. Elina activated [Poppet] on you. Probably the smartest move she could make against the human embodiment of "righteous violence." A small doll formed in the woman's hand. It looked like a simplistic figurine based on Veronika.

The coven head dropped the purple barrier she placed around her friend and dropped the doll into her hands. The injured witch was curled in on herself, but she still managed to catch the doll and hugged it against her chest. You have taken 20 points of resistance damage transferred by the holder of the [Poppet]. Veronika could feel a searing pain in her shoulder. It mimicked the same injury LOA inflicted on the fallen witch. Veronika gritted her teeth and lifted both arms anyway.

The shield was looking more transparent by the second. The spell was losing energy. Veronika could try to pierce the shield and go for the coven head again, but if whoever held the Poppet could transfer the damage to her, Elina could easily take it back to hurt Veronika.

"What are you, some kind of construct?" Elina asked.

"How are you still standing with your shoulder like that?" Veronika didn't bother checking the wound. That was exactly what the coven head wanted. She already knew her skin was peeling away based on how wet the inside of her coat sleeve felt. She glanced at the doll in the witch's hands. She needed to get that out of the way before she could fire without issue.

"LOA, try to get Officer Martin down from whatever's holding her." The robot darted off towards the shaking tree. Veronika stripped her coat off and exposed her gushing wound to the world before shooting the downed witch in the opposite shoulder. She needed blood to be rushing out from both sides of her to create an effective witch shield. One shake of her shoulder next to them would be like spraying acid in their faces. [Poppet] has transferred 10 more points of resistance damage to you.

She rushed forward, and the two witches that could still walk jumped back immediately. Veronika's blood was hitting the floor and creating hazards all around. Even the plants started dying. The witch holding her poppet was left vulnerable until the coven head lit up another spell tattoo and snatched it up with an extended spirit arm. Veronika's arms stopped actively melting when it was taken away, but the floodgates had been opened.

When she reached the witch curled on the ground, her blood started forming a puddle beneath the woman. She would slowly melt away in the injuries caused by her own body. The witch started shrieking as the blood whittled away at her scalp. She tried to push herself up, but she couldn't bear the burning sensation in her hands and fell face-first back into the blood. Veronika heard a pitiful gurgle before the woman's body finally stopped twitching.

Veronika picked up the poppet and it harmlessly melted away in her bloody hands. [The Witch Hunter] has killed a lower witch! That's +300 XP for you. Your exploits have earned you a new skill! You've unlocked [Burn Resistance] lvl 1. Burns take 25% less of your resistance away now. The lingering pain from her shoulder injuries started to dull with the new skill. It wasn't like she particularly needed more resistance to physical damage, but she'd take it.

The system was going to make her into a monster, just as mother planned.

"Shit!" LOA yelled. Veronika ran towards the tree holding Martin and saw LOA now tangled in the same magical cocoon. Rings of vines kept circling the two of them. Martin was groaning in pain as the vines appeared to be constricting around them. Veronika could likely kill both the other witch and the coven head, but if she left her allies hanging they would likely die before she got back. That would mean losing the only hunter unit they had, and bringing their numbers down to a measly three.

She sighed and started smearing her blood across her entire body. Once she was sufficiently covered, she began climbing the tree:"Damnit Martin! How'd you get yourself stuck up there in the first place?"

"You all vanished when you walked towards the light! I was just unlucky to be the last in line. Those assholes ambushed me while I was alone." The witches watched as Veronika made the climb. The vines reached for her, but they retreated at the slightest contact with her blood. She could hear the coven head shouting something to her friend. [Cinder Bloom] has been activated on the tree you're climbing. The bark she was holding onto suddenly exploded into a burst of copper light.

She lost her grip and fell to the ground, ashes from the tree falling down towards her. You've taken 15 points of resistance damage. The fall wasn't a heavy blow for someone like Veronika, but if there was one trap in the trunk there were bound to be more. Even if she could tank a dozen more blows, Martin would be dead and LOA a pile of scrap by the time she could make it to the top. If she had a strong enough blade she could try cutting the tree down.

As strong as her hands were, they couldn't bring such a massive jungle tree down by themselves. The whooshing sound of another door to Limbo opening interrupted her thoughts. She looked back at the spiral light and saw a massive clawed hand grab at the newly formed doorway. It slowly pulled a massive feathered body with glowing blue eyes out. The creature's head twisted around as it crooned at the witches. Hhrooooooh.