Chapter 27: The Witch Hunter's Attack
Ruby started rebuilding her home all alone with only the occasional help of her familiar who preferred to slack off saying that his injuries hurt. According to her analysis, her house didn't attain much serious damage. No walls were busted or any major holes on the roof or the drain but the clutter of debris and leftover corpses that weren't eaten by wild monsters are abundant so she dealt with those first.
She started by making Manticat dig a 2-feet square shaped ditch in the ground about three and a half meters in length and width before dumping the carcasses and destroyed wood inside the pit before setting them ablaze. To do the job alone would be too much of a strain to her still-healing body so she mind-controlled a few beasts with a song spell she found from a book authored by the witch Snowrella. The spell was a stupid song that enchants beasts to follow your bidding mostly to clean your house and stuff. The Witch Princess also said that she used the spell to mate with big cocked wolves and other well-endowed beasts which disgusted the Butterfly Witch.
Two weeks was all it took for Ruby to fix her home but it could have been faster if she was at her full strength. She planned to rest for the third week after the strenuous tasks she did after being discharged.
Ruby felt something odd with her body. She started feeling more and more aroused every day and with no one but herself to satisfy her needs she often relieves herself with her fingers and the vibrating pleasure toys in her possession. This is apparently a side effect of the Blood Moon. Witches are also affected by the said event but not in the blood lust way but in a sexual one.
The following days of the Blood Moon are the signal of the witches' Blessed Ovulation where they will surely produce powerful offsprings possessing nearly perfect magical circuits. It is the time when Hecate, the goddess of magic would generously endow her followers and worshipers with prosperity. Witches would usually procreate with warlocks, wizards, spirits, or anything that they can summon, making Ruby somehow glad that Aleister wasn't present or else they could have done somethings that she will later regret.
By the end of the month, Ruby was rid of her sexual affliction making her as decent as ever but Aleister was still nowhere to be found. She often went down to the town to hear news about the demon but so far the Lightbringer squad and the other hunters never managed to catch him or much less locate his whereabouts.
Without Aleister's presence, her life seemed... bland and too stale. Even though he wasn't that good of a person he managed to make a place inside her life making it hard for her to get accustomed to his absence. Isolation had been her closest friend for a very long time but right now why does it seem like her enemy?
She went to the front of her house to tend to her garden. Magical butterflies of various colors fluttered about helping around with pollinating her plants and informing her of anything unusual happening around the house or the forest. So far they said that it was peaceful as usual making her at ease.
"Here in the garden let's play a game...
I'll show you how it's done...
Here in the garden stand very still...
This will be so much fun...
And then he smiled that's all I'm after
A smile in his eyes
The sound of his laughter...
Happy to listen, happy to stay, happily watching him driiiiiiiiiift...
Away... " she sang softly, cutting off a rose and looking at it with melancholy.
She used to give her mother roses after she came home from work that she'd taken from their garden. Adrian used to give her roses. And then Rel gave her one when he proposed...
"Let's go in the garden. You'll find something waiting right there where you left it lying upside down. When you finally find it, you'll see how it's fading. The underside is lighter when you turn it around everything stays... right where you left it... Everything stays but it still changes... Ever so slightly, daily and nightly in little ways where everything stays." she let out a sight.
"For how much longer will you linger in the shadows instead of attacking me right here and now. You've been stalking me for a month now and I'm starting to think that you like me instead of you wanting to murder me. Got enough bullets to kill me or did I blow them all up? Don't even bother. I've tried suicide for a hundred years so I gave up but it doesn't hurt to try. Or I guess it does. For you that is." She mused standing up from her squatting position. She wiped her hands on a rug before looking at the marksman emerging from the tree lines.
"A hunter knows that the art of patience is an important thing for a successful game."
"Yes, but I think that keeping the windows open when I change clothes and letting you watch me masturbating kept me alive for a really long time. I hope I helped with your boredom while waiting for the perfect time to strike me. I hope you didn't get any trees pregnant while you were jacking off on my pussy. Did it look tight from your position? I can give you a better view in a closer position." she directed him a sarcastic teasing smirk but he doesn't seem fazed or affected by her words.
"Your seduction won't save your life witch. I want nothing but to kill you. Rest assured that I will give you a proper burial. Under my bullets." he shot for her head with one of his normal witch killing ammo which she avoided by merely flicking her head sideward. She figured that he's going to incapacitate her first before finishing her off with his special witch killing bullets.
"I hope you have a better plan cause I want to keep it interesting. It's been so long since I had a good fight."
"I've got things on my sleeve and I'm not planning on being merciful with a quick and painless death."
"Good. Cause I'm not either." The butterflies flew around Ruby, surrounding her body and turning into light before melting into a new outfit. Instead of her purple Gothic dress, she wore a black cloak and a dark grey sleeveless battle leotard underneath as well as long black gloves and thigh-high socks and metal boots. She summoned Azrael in front of her and grasped it with her right hand preparing to attack.
She spun the chain and threw the pendulum at him which aimed to snake around the marksman as if it had a mind of its own but Cairus jumped back just in time to avoid being ensnared by the chain and threw his heel rope at her. His attack was very sudden but Ruby managed to avoid being tied down by his trap only to be shot by a lethal bullet on her appendix. She fell back and saw him looming over her pointing a gun to her face but she rolled out just in time to avoid the shot.
Ruby had gotten on her feet and propelled herself towards the witch hunter to slice him down with her scythe but he managed to jump back half a meter to avoid being cut in half. Ruby stabbed the blade of her scythe on the soil and used it to spin and land a kick to his gut sending him flying against a tree.
Cairus groaned and stepped away to evade being tied to the tree as the witch threw the chain again at him. The pendulum spun around the tree with no prisoner as Cairus once again shot Ruby with his sinister green bullets aiming to pierce her heart. The witch blocked them off by releasing a black and purple shockwave towards the marksman who moved out of the way just as the crescent blade began cutting down the trees with no effort.
Cairus threw a smoke bomb at the witch, blinding her and making her feel weak as the drugged smoke infiltrated her lungs. Ruby coughed out and covered her eyes as they stung due to the poison effectively incapacitating her. Cairus shot another quick draw bullet towards the witch's silhouette and when the smoke cleared there was no witch dead on the ground. He moved cautiously forwards until his body was thrown violently to the ground by a brutal force against his back. He used his hand to push himself back on his feet and stop tumbling on the grass pointing his gun back at the witch.
He figured that she had quickly pulled herself out of the smoke with the chain attached to the tree he fell against and propelled herself using the momentum to spin around the tree and kick him on his spine. He applauds her brilliance but now that she had inhaled the smoke her chances of beating him are wearing thin. He had poisoned her with a very potent abyssal viper venom that the empire had once used against Neherra which allowed them to weaken her and trap her in the depths of the Chasm.
The venom is powerful enough to incapacitate the Demonic witch for a thousand years therefore a Butterfly Witch will be no match for this poison. He saw her legs wobbling but she still stood her ground. She will soon fall but for now, he will enjoy playing with her. It's been a while since a witch was able to give him a worthy fight and he will relish every second torturing her.