Chapter 135

#135 Episode: The Tin Knight and the Alchemist of Gold (5)

A werewolf with dark, coarse fur roared.

Their sharp teeth and claws were more than capable of tearing a vulnerable human body to shreds.

Grrr!

A centaur-like creature, sporting a horse’s lower half and a human upper half, galloped across the plains.

With powerful limbs generating immense speed and honing finely-tuned archery skills, it seemed capable of hunting any beast.

Crunch!

Miserable-looking little green goblins gathered in packs.

They may lack strength, but with their cunning and cruelty, they could deliver a nasty surprise if anyone dropped their guard.

Kablam!

And those terrifying monsters were currently forming a massive union.

As the golden wagon thundered across the plains, everyone was turned into mush, creating quite a lovely sight.

Not just some casual handshake or hug, but bones, muscles, guts, and brains intertwined, making for a rather enthusiastic cultural exchange.

The Tin Knight shouted with glee.

[‘Tin Knight’ rates this bump car experience quite favorably!]

“Is this right? Is this seriously right?!”

“Enough with the whining, just steer already! There’s a huge thing in front of us!”

The cries of two witches aboard could be heard shrieking in horror, but the Tin Knight paid them no mind.

After all, a thrilling ride is best enjoyed with a bit of yelling!

Whack! Bump! Bumpidy-bump!

Small monsters were trampled, medium-sized monsters were bounced off, and large monsters altered their trajectory just before colliding with the wagon.

Franka’s driving skills were nothing short of artistic.

Of course, the enemies weren’t just going to take it lying down.

The golden monkeys high above rained down spear-like magical projectiles, while many monsters clung onto the wagon with reckless abandon.

Most found themselves either flung helplessly away or reduced to paste under the wheels, but some succeeded in climbing onto the vehicle.

-Grooooowl!

Just as a burly werewolf thrust its maw inside the wagon.

-Squawk!

With the unique shriek of a monkey, a winged monkey smashed the werewolf on the head.

Though a massive snake bit the monkey’s arm, the golden fur remained completely unscathed.

Whack! Bam! Crunch!

Although the gap had widened immensely since their restoration at TikTok, until then, the monkeys had fought fiercely alongside the Tin Knight.

After all, with the Tin Knight in charge of the power source, pedaling was nearly pointless; the monkeys could focus all their strength on protecting their master.

-Squeeeak!

The bat-winged monkeys also followed suit.

Though smaller than those the West Witch commanded, these nimble monkeys darted around, distracting the spears.

It wasn’t a direct confrontation, but they could certainly hold their own just by focusing on containment.

Swish!

A dark wave swept across the plains.

Corpses touched by the spreading black magic began to rise as if granted new lives.

It was Dorothea’s necromancy.

However, just before the revived undead could properly move, golden monkey spears came crashing down upon them.

Those undead hit directly by the golden magical spears disintegrated before they could even fight back.

“Tch.”

Dorothea clicked her tongue.

Bodies were definitely piling up on the battlefield, and she was immediately raising those corpses as undead, but it wasn’t very effective.

That was partly due to the monkeys in the sky smashing everything in sight but mainly because the number of corpses was too few.

Dorothea scanned the battlefield outside the wagon.

She saw the corpses of mutant centaurs sprawled on the ground, while other monsters hungrily bit into them.

Even as monsters, they weren’t completely devoid of reason, yet there was no hesitation in their gluttonous behavior.

If one looked closely, a sinister glint shone in their eyes.

A degree of gluttony that was quite relentless. It almost felt like the West Witch must have cast some sort of spell.

Dorothea, half-kidding, remarked sarcastically, “You’d rather finish them off yourself than let me take them? Someone certainly has an intense urge to monopolize.”

Franka’s expression was far from pleasant either.

Her gaze was locked on a golden monkey lying on the ground. It was one of the results of her creature’s work up in the sky.

Watching the werewolves greedily bite into the monkey’s corpse, Franka spoke with a tone laced with disgust and anger.

“How could any mere monster treat a homunculus like that, tossing it aside like nothing?”

“Unlike you, there are just too many of them, so every single one isn’t very precious, right?”

“That’s not the point! No parent would let their child’s corpse be dog food, no matter how many they have!”

“Well, here we are…”

After a sufficient bit of banter that left Franka speechless, Dorothea fell into deep thought.

Even she couldn’t resurrect a corpse that had been swallowed whole.

Well, under normal conditions, she might be able to manage it with a concerted effort of magical power and concentration, but just generating ripples from afar while moving at such high speed was out of the question.

And of course, stopping the wagon wasn’t an option either.

Not only would it be problematic to be surrounded by that insane army, even assuming they could endure that state, the West Witch still hadn’t revealed herself.

Franka had no guarantee that the effective range of her ballista would definitely land, and even if the ballista was unusable, there was no rule against shoving bizarre weapons to come at them.

‘Should we just charge through like this?’

Although the wagon slowed down several times as enemies clung to it, the output from the Tin Knight’s booster was overwhelmingly powerful, ensuring the wagon would not stop.

Having crossed more than halfway across the plains, it could be an option just to charge directly into the castle where the witch was without the need to take down the whole horde.

[‘Tin Knight’ instructs everyone to hang on tight!]

Huh? Dorothea raised an eyebrow at the sudden command, but before she could respond, the Tin Knight impaled the ground with the propeller blade he held.

In a wildly reckless move, the sudden brake caused the wagon’s body to rise high, lifting it a meter off the ground.

“Eek!”

“Ugh!”

Both Franka and Dorothea were thrown backward.

If it hadn’t been for the Tin Knight or the monkeys holding them, they might have tumbled straight off the wagon.

However, they couldn’t afford to complain.

Just after they hung precariously from the flimsy stick and the wagon came to a halt, a massive something erupted right in front of them.

Its body resembled that of a worm, with sharp teeth and an overwhelmingly massive size.

“Sandworm!”

Someone exclaimed, half-enchanted and half-yelling.

Whether it was Dorothea or Franka was hard to tell.

What mattered was that if the wagon had moved forward just then, it would have been swallowed whole by that huge, gaping mouth.

The sandworm turned its gaze towards them, as if regretting its failed surprise attack, preparing for the next hunt.

“Hey!”

It was a nonsensical exclamation, yet Franka understood exactly what she had to do.

The shape of the wagon crumbled back into metal blocks, and the trapped crew fell to the ground.

Just in the nick of time, the sandworm’s maw scanned where the wagon had been.

The Tin Knight, landing on the ground with Dorothea in his arms, surged forward the very moment her feet touched the ground.

A colossal blade of energy erupted from his sword.

A horizontal and a vertical slash, each executed once.

The sandworm’s massive body was split into four pieces in an instant.

A laughably pathetic end for something that had appeared so imposing moments before.

However, that did not mean the threat had vanished.

Splurt!

Green viscous liquid sprayed everywhere.

Even considering the sandworm’s size, it was an abnormally large amount.

It felt as if over 90% of its body existed solely to contain that liquid.

Dorothea’s staff wailed as it conjured a barrier.

The golden blocks that made up the wagon morphed into a shield, enveloping Franka and the monkeys.

The Tin Knight felt a sense of satisfaction.

However, their preparations may have been slightly excessive.

The Tin Knight’s shield glowed with magical energy.

Three jewels pulsed with intense brightness.

As the Tin Knight spun high in the air, the magic contained in the shield was released all at once.

Boooooom!

With a shockwave loud enough to shake the air, the sandworm’s body fluid sprayed everywhere.

The witches’ defenses were rendered moot as not a single drop splattered on them; only the surrounding monsters were caught in the torrent.

Monsters touched by the liquid that could corrode even metal screamed and melted away.

Just then, the Tin Knight sensed something strange amidst the satisfaction.

Within the soft, dripping flesh of the now-emptied sandworm, familiar crimson energy stirred.

Bones set together with muscles, and skin formed in an instant, creating a human shape.

Staring at the woman with hair tousled like when they first met, instead of the usual tied-back look, the Tin Knight remarked,

[‘Tin Knight’ checks on an old companion he hasn’t seen in a while!]

[‘Tin Knight’ says this seems a bit too wild for a soak in the hot springs!]

The two witches stared at him like he was crazy (for different reasons), but the Tin Knight stood firm.

And the same went for her.

“Seems so. The West Witch has a peculiar way of treating her guests.”

“Is this really the time for jokes!?”

Just as Dorothea yelled and attempted to take off her cloak…she redirected her gaze to Franka.

Franka, seeming to understand, quickly weaved a piece of clothing from the grass below and presented it to Sophia.

The group turned their heads back.

While the surrounding monsters were swept away by the sandworm’s fluid, the enemy numbers remained substantial.

Just then, when Dorothea was about to raise the sandworm’s corpse again—

《Well, isn’t this astonishing? To take it down in just a few seconds?》

A voice echoed from above, who seemed dumbfounded.

The party turned their heads in unison.

The West Witch, Elphaba.

The master of this world looked down upon them once again from above.

《How dangerous. More dangerous than I anticipated. No matter, I have no intention of smashing my castle twice by my own hand─》

The space creaked ominously.

The navy-blue gloves seemed to compel the master to reveal its intent to the world.

《─this time, I shall end it here once and for all.》

An enormous rock materialized in the air.

An extraordinary strike, one that had overwhelmed the party in their first confrontation, reappeared.

So breathtaking and so magnificent.

“Did you think I would fall for the same trick again!?”

“Don’t underestimate us!!”

─And thus, the previously known attack merely regarded as a repeat was met with a response from the young witches.

The ground beneath Franka trembled, mixing golden blocks into it.

The earth, moving like paper, surged upwards, forming an incline at a 60-degree angle.

Dorothea pulled out all four bone powder pouches from her pouch at once.

The power channeled to its limit summoned spirits of the deceased souls from the plain, transforming into a giant skeleton soldier.

The immense undead, embodying both human and beast forms, braced itself firmly against the slope.

Boom!

The massive rock collided with the incline.

It was such an overwhelming mass that shattering or deflecting it was nearly impossible.

However, the principle of the attack was purely to smash from above, relying on gravity to deliver the force downward.

Though its appearance was awe-inspiring, it became merely a gigantic stone once called forth.

In that case, redirecting it would be quite possible.

While ordinary wizards might struggle, these two had more than enough firepower to manage.

Kaboom!

The rock that ran down the incline reached the ground.

The severely worked-up slope and massive skeleton completed their tasks and crumbled down.

It was the moment when the decisive attack failed.

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