Millennium Witch

Book 3: Chapter 299: Divine Weapon

The long, suffocating silence hung over the forest like an invisible boulder. Watching the four of them stand frozen in growing terror, the wolf beastfiends of the Demon Armor Corps all wore mocking smiles, clearly savoring Bobo and the others’ reactions.The first to break the silence was Old York the minotaur. As if realizing something, he suddenly said, “Vetch’s disappearance was because of you? What did you do to him?”

“Vetch? Who is Vetch? Oh, you mean that… lost little bull?” the wolf beastfiend said. “If you mean that kid, he should still be alive for now, because we still need him to confirm that witch’s route.”

“But…” He showed a cruel smile. “Once we have enough intel, we probably won’t need him anymore.”

From his tone, Old York and the others instantly understood the implication. The missing Vetch had most likely already become their torture subject, and his future was as good as doomed.

“Boss Bo, we have to find a way to cut our way out,” the goblin named Ironhead whispered.

The moment they learned they were facing the legendary Demon Armor Corps, any will to fight in the four of them evaporated. They had only bet on Lady Witch in the first place because it looked like a sure-win situation. Now that the tables had turned, wanting to back out was only natural.

Unfortunately, the Demon Armor Corps were infamous. They were a real war machine. Their attitude toward prisoners and even ordinary demons had always been the same: squeeze out every last drop of value, then “dispose” of them. Clearly, surrender meant death. Their only option was to fight to the death.

The one blessing in this mess was that before they left, Lady Witch had kindly lent Bobo an obviously powerful alchemical weapon. Right now, it was their only lifeline, and might yet give them a sliver of hope to escape.

Bobo nodded and slammed his thumb down on the activation switch on the hilt.

The next second, a bloody light wrapped around the entire blade. A powerful surge of mana rippled outward from Bobo’s position. The members of the Demon Armor Corps, including the captain himself, all changed expression, obviously shaken by the sudden, shocking flare of light and power.

“Let us go!” Bobo gripped the hilt with trembling hands and shouted, “We just want to live. Don’t force us into a fight where we all die together!”

“You actually have a treasure like that…” Once the initial shock passed, a fierce greed burned in the wolf beastfiend captain’s eyes. With his experience, he could see far more clearly than Bobo how extraordinary this weapon was. It was worth at least several hundred gold crowns, or an earth-shaking feat recorded on the military rolls. How could a lowly kobold deserve something like this?

The source was not hard to guess. It could only have been given by that witch.

After a few seconds of silence, the wolf beastfiend said, “Fine. But I have a condition. As long as you hand that knife over to me, I’ll make the call to let you live.”

“You think I’m stupid?” Bobo yelled. “If I give you the knife, how are we supposed to protect ourselves?”

“I can guarantee it on Lord Grus the Nightmare’s name, and on the honor of the Demon Armor Corps,” the wolf beastfiend said with apparent sincerity.

Bobo snorted and said nothing. He might not be some brilliant mastermind, but if you wanted to survive on the Western Continent, the first thing you learned was that reputation was worth the least on this land. Only strength was real.

“Are you going to let us go or not?” Bobo took two steps forward with the blade in hand. As the crushing mana pressure drew closer, the greed in the wolf beastfiend captain’s eyes gave way more and more to wariness. He narrowed his eyes and suddenly said, “All right. You can leave. But only one of you.”

“What do you mean?” Red Shorts the boar-kin asked blankly, not yet catching on.

The wolf beastfiend captain said, “Only the one holding that knife has the right to leave here alive. The others… do not.”

“You… you’re trying to turn us against each other?” The quicker-witted goblin Ironhead immediately looked both shocked and enraged. He had heard it clearly. This wolf beastfiend was trying to use a filthy trick to stir up infighting between them. And the worst part was that, given Bobo was the one holding the alchemical blade, he really might be tempted to make that choice.

“So, have you decided?” the wolf beastfiend captain asked, a mocking smile on his face.

But to his surprise, the answer he received was a streak of crimson blade light.

Bobo the kobold did not agree to the proposal at all. Instead, he chose to launch a direct attack.

“You!” Caught off guard by the sudden strike, the wolf beastfiend captain still reacted like a trained veteran, swinging his sword up to block on instinct, furious in his heart. This mangy mutt actually dared to strike first.

Then, the next second, something even more unbelievable happened.

Both weapons were alchemical. Yet the wolf beastfiend captain’s magic sword was sliced cleanly in two by Bobo’s red blade light in an instant.

“What in the hell is this?” The wolf beastfiend captain was stunned. As a third-tier demon, the alchemical sword in his hand was the result of spending most of his life’s accumulated merit to exchange for it from the Demon Armor Corps’ armory. He cherished it as his treasured lifeline. It cut iron like mud and was incredibly durable. Even a fifth-tier powerhouse would struggle to damage it easily, yet it had just been casually chopped in half by a low-tier demon like he was slicing tofu.

It made no sense.

No matter how powerful alchemical equipment was, it still depended on the user’s strength. Some artifacts even had strict requirements for their wielders. A low-tier demon’s mana was far too weak; they might not even meet the minimum threshold to activate such weapons at all. But what was with this knife?

If he was not mistaken, this kobold was only a first-tier demon, yet this knife actually let such a weak demon unleash such terrifying destructive power.

Bobo was dumbfounded too. He had not really meant to attack. He just wanted to scare them a little, a warning swing to tell them not to bring up disgusting demands like that again. But somehow… that guy’s weapon had looked pretty impressive too, obviously an expensive alchemical weapon. So why had it crumpled like it was made of paper the moment they clashed?

What kind of divine weapon had Lady Witch given him?

Suddenly handed such a huge advantage, Bobo instinctively tried to press the attack. But honestly, he had no foundation in swordsmanship. All he could do was swing wildly.

The ridiculous part was that facing this absolutely trash swordsmanship, the wolf beastfiend captain could only keep falling back. There was nothing he could do. It was not like he could meet those blade arcs barehanded. His beloved war blade had already snapped; he absolutely did not dare trust his mana barrier to withstand hits like that.

So, in his frantic dodging and retreat, the wolf beastfiend captain, who by sheer stats should have been absolutely superior, ended up looking completely overwhelmed.

“Quick! Help me!”

Very soon, the Demon Armor Corps members nearby finally realized how bad a spot their captain was in and rushed to support him, only to be intercepted by Old York and the other two. To be fair, Bobo’s performance had clearly fired them up. Even Ironhead, from the notoriously sly goblin race, had not taken the opportunity to slip away.

Then Bobo, noticing what was happening, immediately rushed over as well. Just like before, no matter what the Demon Armor Corps soldiers used to block or guard, they could not stop that red blade light.

And that was not even the worst part.

The truly terrifying thing was that the crimson blade light extended the knife’s cutting reach by a huge margin. Its effective range was almost two meters, while still feeling light and agile, without dragging down the wielder with extra weight.

With that two-meter “greatsword,” Bobo swept his blade in a horizontal slash and cut a surprised Demon Armor Corps soldier cleanly in half. Before the blood even had time to spray, the upper and lower halves of the corpse had already slid apart under inertia and gravity, crashing to the ground as entrails and fluids splattered across the forest floor.

The remaining upper half of the soldier still howled in pain. Though he was just the first casualty of the battle, it instantly snapped everyone present back to their senses. Including the captain, every Demon Armor Corps soldier now had naked fear in their eyes. The scrawny, ugly mutt from the countryside had, in this moment, turned into a hellhound.

“Retreat! Fall back! Report to Lord Grus, now!” The wolf beastfiend captain no longer cared about dignity or spoils of war. Terrified, he barked the orders and turned tail, sprinting deeper into the dense forest. The remaining Demon Armor Corps members were like condemned men granted a pardon. They scrambled to flee into the trees.

Just like that, this sudden brush with death ended as abruptly and violently as it had begun. Everything was over so quickly it felt like some bizarre nightmare.

As the forest sank back into silence, Bobo, who a moment ago had seemed possessed by a god of slaughter, wielding his bloody long blade, suddenly felt all his strength drain away and collapsed onto the ground.

He looked at the alchemical knife still blazing in his hand, then exchanged looks with Old York, Ironhead, and Red Shorts. Finally he swallowed hard and squeezed out one line. “Dear gods…”