Thud! Cain and the girlsnded on the witches'' ind after easily traversing the sea. The number of monsters or their strength didn''t matter. Cain was always ready for them.


    Walking on the grey dirt, Cain and the girls could hear the dark green trees wail as the wind passed them. No birds chirped; only crows cawed. Looking closely at the thick bushes revealed tens of rotten animal skeletons.


    Sofia hid behind Cain with a scared face, "This ce is creepy."


    Je approached Sofia and pulled her away, "It is a witch''s hut. Get used to it."


    Zaleria smiled, "Not all witches are civilized. The majority are like this giving us a bad reputation." B approached her with a passive face, "Our hut was clean due to snow, but a quick look at the inside would have informed you it''s simr to this."


    The four of them followed Cain up the hill. Each of them had a different face.


    Sofia was worried, rapidly looking around for any sneak attack. "They won''t send another flesh golem, right?"


    Je pretended to be calm. Donning a fake smile as she replied to Sofia, "They will so get over it."


    B was taking this mission seriously. "Flesh golems are dangerous." She red toward Zaleria, "Don''t st them all over the ce."


    Zaleria was aching to st some witches. "Why not?" She smiled, "Even if they carried deadly diseases, I doubt they can survive my me."


    Cain smiled, facing them. "I don''t think those five witches have anything special, but I do sense something odd about this ce."


    "Like what?" They turned toward him with worried faces.


    Cain asked, lifting one finger. "What is their rtion with Umberlee, and why would they care?" He adds. "If anything unexpected happens, I expect you four to retreat immediately."


    CRACK! Suddenly, as they walked up the mountain. From the decaying corpse of a long-dead animal. A bone extended at an incredible speed, aiming at Cain''s head. CLANG! With a single swing from his staff, he deflected it.


    All the girls leaped back and got ready for a fight. Cain spun his staff, [Thunderwave] BAM! A st ofpressed air blew all the bones away.


    "Get ready, this was the tooth, and she must be close," Cain said, lifting his staff and focusing on the area around him.


    Rumble! The ground started shaking. The trees danced as the cold wind blew across the mountain. From the ground, countless skeletons emerged.


    "Undead skeletons, is she a necromancer?" Zaleria asked, conjuring a fireball in her hand.


    B looked around, inspecting the creatures, and then tilted her head. "Those aren''t undead…they are puppets."


    Cain smiled, "Right, those things are skeletons moved with magic simr to that controlling golems." He lifted his staff. "Theyck necrotic magic."


    Je lifted her staff, [Ice Spear]


    She conjured a thin ice spear and sent it flying toward the horde of skeletons. CLANG! One of the skeletons lifted his shield, easily deflecting the spear.


    "What?" Je gasped. She has used a considerable about of force in that spell.


    The skeleton stared at her, "GAGA!" He growled.


    CRACK! A skeleton emerged from the ground, grabbing Je by the hair and pulling her to the ground.


    "Let me go!" She screamed. Releasing a sh of cold magic, she froze the skeleton to the wet soil.


    BAM! Zaleria rushed ahead, swinging her fist. CRACK! CRACK! She smashed her way across them with ease.<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    B looked toward Zaleria and sighed, "You''re such a bad example." CRACK! Multiple skeletons stabbed her from the back. Her body immediately disintegrated into snow…the skeletons started freezing.


    B appeared in the back, sitting on her staff as she flew in the sky. [Ice Forest] she sted them away with tens of small ice spears.


    Sofia lifted her hand and looked at the skeletons, BAM! [Firence] She threw it at the skeletons sting them to shreds. BAM! [Fire Lance] she conjured another one and threw it again.


    "Only using Second-tier?" Cain stared at her.


    "I can make it stronger, look," Sofia replied with a smile. The firence in her hand started glowing a faint blue. She threw it at the skeletons, and it exploded with the force of a fourth-tier fire burst.


    "I see… you just increase the heat. Can you make it stronger?" Cain lifted his hand and created a simr blue spear.


    "Of course, watch," She opened her palm, and a newnce appeared with a blinding white glow. It''s the same one she used before to st the earth dragon''s arm, but now she can control it.


    Zaleria turned around as she sensed the heat emanating from Sofia. "Are you going to throw that thing?"


    Sofia smiled, immediately throwing thence at theing skeletons. BOOM! It exploded with a massive shockwave, rendering the bone walkers to dust. The explosion wasparable to an eight-tier spell.


    BAM! Sofia conjured anothernce in her hand. This time it had a deep purple hue to it. With her smile, Cain could feel it. Thence is a ninth-tier.


    Before she could throw it, Cain stopped her with a worried face. "Do you want to st the whole ind?"


    Sofia shook her head, "I can control it well. It isn''t the best I can do, after all." With that, Cain let her throw it.


    Sofia took a step back, making sure her back foot was well anchored to the ground. She threw thence with a good amount of force. She didn''t want it exploding at short range.


    PEW! Thence flew, ripping through all the skeletons before flying to the sea. BAAAAAAM! In a single st, the sea surface got lifted to the sky in an instant.


    As they started toward the mountain of seawater, something bad happened. A mass of fingers emerged from the ground and covered Sofia, sucking her deep underground in an instant.


    Cain turned around with a surprised face. How did they sneak behind his magic sense? "Don''t worry about me," Sofia called from the hole left in the ground.


    Zaleria stared at the hole. "Such a na?ve girl. To think she got kidnapped this easily." But as she said that, she noticed a funny flow in front of her face.


    "What is this?" As she asked, the flow spat ink at her face. Zaleria''s body instantly got covered in a ck mark and got teleported away.


    Cain wasn''t worried as he could feel her aura inside the mountain. The witches are probably trying to separate them.


    "Too much for being the great dragons." B sighed, sting the remaining skeletons with ice.


    "CAW!" A swarm of crows immediately picked her up, "Cain, save me!" She cried as her voice faded into the distance.


    Je immediately rushed to hind behind Cain. Clinging to his robe. "You will protect me, right?" She stared at him, her eyes glittering.


    "Depends on how stupid you can be. Those three are going to be fine." He said with an exhausted face.


    Sofia can sink the whole ind. Zaleria can burn it to ash in an instant. And a whole horde of undead will emerge if B was harmed, even a bit. There is no need to worry about them.


    "Let''s keep walking," Cain said, and Je nodded. But just in case, he kept an [Arcane eye] watching the other three.