“I will definitely avenge you, Headmaster Astoria!”
Ember’s voice echoed from a distance as she took flight and fled for the exit at the southern end of the pocket realm.
With her body draped in flames, she flew with great speed.
However, Fallen Witch Elvira was even faster! But even if she was faster, it didn’t necessarily mean she could stop another High Witch from fleeing.
After all, there were more factors to consider than just speed.
As Fallen Witch Elvira thrust forward with enormous burst speed with her water magic like powerful water jets, Ember shot fire arrows at her, slowing her down.
Boom! Boom!
Small clouds of steam exploded midair as Fallen Witch Elvira offset the fire arrows with water bullets.
Shortly after her body shot through the clouds of steam, her eyes quickly locked onto Ember’s fleeing figure in the distance.
“No one can leave here alive!” Fallen Witch Elvira roared.
Shortly after, she fired volleys of black water lances at the towering support pillars ahead of Ember. While she could move quickly, she could never move as fast as her attacks.
The volleys of black water lances easily overtook Ember and struck the four towering support pillars ahead. Another volley of black water lances aimed for the ceiling above them.
At first, Ember did not bother blocking the water lances as they completely missed; she wasn’t the target.
However, she realized it too late after they struck the pillars.
Rumble…!
As the ceiling in the distance lost its support pillars and quickly destabilized under the barrage of attacks, everything in the area collapsed.
“No—!” Ember cried.
She was forced to stop and watch the gigantic masses of rocks crumble and descend to the ground, completely sealing the exit ahead.
Even for her, a High Witch, she wouldn’t dare take her chances fleeing through the exit tunnel before the giant rocks dropped on her.
The immense weight of the earth would crush her to death.
Nevertheless, Fallen Witch Elvira underestimated the extent of the damage she had caused.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
As huge chunks of rocks and boulders dropped to the ground with thunderous noises and tremors, multiple sturdier pieces didn’t shatter upon impact with the ground.
No, they started to roll down the slope, picking great speed.
Some were launched back into the air before shattered on their secondary impacts with the ground. Others smashed into the other supporting pillars further inside the pocket realm, collapsing them along with their crumbling ceilings.
The ceilings couldn’t hold their weight without their support pillars.
“Shit!” Ember cursed.
She was forced to flee in a different direction to avoid getting crushed to death by the falling ceiling.
Of her options, she chose to run west to her left. Alternatively, she could have also chosen east on her right.
Only the northern direction wasn’t an option as it would bring her back to the Fallen Witch.
Nevertheless, Fallen Witch Elvira was also forced to flee.
The collapsing ceiling caused a chain reaction.
As more enormous masses of the earth collapsed, more rogue rocks and boulders rolled down the slope and smashed into subsequent support pillars, triggering the next collapse.
At its rate and direction of collapse, it headed straight for the battlefield between expedition group, wolf-men, and goblin horde.
…
…
…
Right after Astoria used her Great Heaven Decimating Earth skill on a small portion of the incoming wolf-men, more blood spurted out from her mouth.
Even so, she refused to fall.
She tightened her grip on the sword handle and swung her greatsword at the other incoming wolf-men.
Grand Sword Wave!
“Dodge it!” Silver Hawk cried.
All the Peak B-rank hunters from the Assembly of Silent Night quickly dived for cover as the large horizontal slash swept out with its sharp sword wave.
Countless goblins were caught in the sword slash and had their bodies split into two parts.
At the same time, more blood spurted out from Astoria’s open wounds, and a stronger sense of weakness made her drop to one knee.
Nevertheless, several wolf-men still charged toward Vaan from a different direction.
Astoria forcefully raised her trembling hands toward them before swiping downward.
Judgment Call!
An enormous hammer made of solidified light appeared in the sky above the wolf-men before descending on them with great force.
The Peak B-rank hunters in the area immediately had abrupt changes in expressions as they felt the pressure of the enormous light hammer descending on them.
“Run!”
Their instincts immediately screamed danger.
Boom!
Several wolf-men failed to escape in time and got pulverized into blood messes along with hundreds of goblins and hobgoblins.
The enormous hammer was only made of concentrated light, but its sheer weight and power made it no different from a steel hammer of equivalent size.
Astoria rarely used pure magic to attack, but when she did, it was shocking.
Silver Hawk and the remaining wolf-men dared not approach Vaan again, not with Astoria protecting him.
While it looked like Astoria could collapse at any moment, her body quickly recovered from her wounds through her passive healing light magic.
“Why are you protecting me? Given your skills and experience, you could have barely deflected that Fallen Witch’s attack,” Vaan asked with knitted brows.
“If I didn’t take it head on, the spell would have headed for you,” Astoria weakly replied with her back to him. Her vigilant gaze remained on the wolf-men in the area.
Naturally, Vaan knew about the trajectory of the Fallen Witch’s water spell.
However, that wasn’t the meaning behind his question.
“I mean, why are you going so far for me? So far that you are willing to risk everything?”
“Because your life is priceless compared to everyone else here. And I’ve been looking for you. I really wanted to meet you.”
Astoria glanced back at Vaan with a soft smile.
Although she had bloodstained lips, a dirty face, and messy hair, Vaan found her smile to be especially beautiful at that moment.
“Are you really Vahn Cadieux?” Helia shortly approached him with doubt.
“I—”
But just as Vaan opened his mouth, the collapsing ceiling in the distance headed towards them, causing everyone from both sides to be alarmed.
“Everyone, run!” a Rank 3 Aura Grandmaster shouted.