Chapter 499 499 Tricksy Witches
Chapter 499 499 Tricksy Witches
499 499 Tricksy Witches
The first few seconds of free-fall were an exhilarating experience for Wolfe as he hurtled through the sky before activating [Levitate] and [Gust of Wind] to begin flying on his own.
The monster that had been cursed was normally a fairly gentle one, a form of mountain goat native to the area. But even after the curse had been broken, it was visibly agitated, attacking the stone walls around it and frothing at the mouth.
It looked like the curse wasn’t going to be good for their long-term survival. Whoever had cast it had wanted them to do maximum damage to anything around them before they died.
Or perhaps it was a side effect of having the curse broken. He would have to find more of them to know for sure.
The mountain goat slowly calmed as Wolfe watched and began to look around, disoriented, before returning to grazing on the mountainside.
“That settles it, then. The madness is from the curse, not the breaking. Now, what might have cursed you?” Wolfe muttered to himself as he flew overhead, looking for disturbances in the Mana flow of the area.
There was nothing in the immediate area around the Mountain Goat, so Wolfe followed its tracks back up the mountainside a bit until he found what he was looking for. There was an epicentre of magical energy where a large spell had been cast and a smaller one where a spell was still active.
The active spell was a talisman covered in blood and made of animal bones bent into a circle. There were symbols on it, but they weren’t Elemental Runes, so Wolfe did his best to memorize them and wished that he had remembered to bring a pencil and paper with him.
But he could do one better. He had magic and stone, so Wolfe picked up a flat piece of rock and created a magical wind blade in his hand. Carefully, he carved the symbols and the talisman that he saw on different sides of the stone as a record of the item, and then he destroyed the Talisman and ended the spell before anything else stumbled across it and got cursed.
With that done, Wolfe began to fly home, but only a few kilometres later, he found an identical magical signature to the last one. A large spell had been cast in the region, and there was an active curse. This one had been eaten by a Yeti, and the curse was fading from the Talisman, but the Yeti’s power was soaring.
Without Priya here to break the curse, there was only one thing for Wolfe to do about it, so he prepared [Nether Lightning] to take out the evolving beast.
The massive bolt hit home, obliterating the furry body as it was in the middle of evolving from Rank Two to Rank Three.
This was going to be a real issue in the future. There was no telling how many of these curses had been scattered around the Frozen Wastes and the Mountains, but Wolfe was beginning to formulate a theory on how they got here.
There would be no need to create them on location, and there were no signs of another dead monster to provide materials, so these curses were likely made in advance. That meant they were not the large spell that was being cast at their location, so the spell was most likely the Portal that was used to drop them here.
Whether the location was random or deliberately chosen, Wolfe was certain that these spells were being remotely dropped around the territory to increase the power of the monsters and drive out the residents.
Most curses wouldn’t last forever, not like the broken ones on the Frozen Wastes. But even if the curse lasted a few years or a decade, it would likely be enough to overrun everything with powerful and completely insane beasts, and there was no telling if they would drop in power afterwards.
They were going to have to warn the scouts and have them watch for the cursed monsters and hunt for the talismans themselves. It would be harder for them than Wolfe, but many of them could smell the blood or the dark magic, and that would let them take out the Curse before they were close enough to get caught in it.
Wolfe didn’t find any more of the curses as he flew through the valley to the airstrip, where Priya was anxiously waiting for him.
Wolfe landed next to her and gave the worried Witch a hug. “It was a talisman. I carved a stone to show you what it looks like, and I found another along the way here. I destroyed both, but we need to have everyone start looking out for them, especially if there are enraged monsters in the area.”
“If we search for them, we should be able to find them from twenty kilometres away, now that I know what sort of curse to look for. The Rank Three Witches, I mean. The Rank One and Two won’t be able to detect them from as far away. But how did they get here? I haven’t spotted any sign of other Witches in the area, and there was no aura signature.” Priya asked.
“I think that they’re using their portals to drop them here, just scattering them all over to let the monsters grow in power and hoping that they overrun us and chase us out of the Frozen Wastes,” Wolfe suggested.
“But what about the Covens? The monsters will form a Tide, and that is a danger to everything.” Priya remarked, earning herself a pitying look from the nearby locals.
“Oh right, they likely don’t care about the Covens here. If everyone gets wiped out, it will be fine by them. They want this continent to be uninhabited.” She sighed, realizing the error in her logic of thinking about the Witches as somewhat unified.
“Exactly. We need to send out another message to everyone in the Wastes. They need to keep an eye out for rabid monsters and either kill them and destroy the amulet, or report it and let someone with the right weapons do it.” Wolfe informed all of their curious onlookers.
“I think that means we’re going to need hunting teams. Most of the villages are terrified of the Monsters, even if you’ve given them magical ammunition.” Priya reminded him.
“Then we’ve got a lot of work ahead of us.”