Book 3: Chapter 270: Black Finger Witches

Mage Alliance, Kingdom of Aixus Border, Erlin Forest

The forest, usually devoid of human traces, had received several unfamiliar figures today.

Three witches drove black wolves into this place. The strongest of those wolves stood two meters tall at the shoulder, its elongated snout periodically exhaling hot breath and revealing sharp fangs.

"This place is unsuitable for marching, but if a small number of Transcendents crossed through here, they could easily reach the territory of the Duchy of Mid." The three gradually stopped atop a hill within the forest and surveyed their surroundings.

"Those Mages of the 'Mist Spirit School,' even when casting spells from a distance, need a medium. There's no way they did it without any contact. I suspect they crossed the border from here, tampered with the mirrors in the main camp, and then, while the two sisters were washing up in the morning, launched a sudden attack. That's how the curse succeeded."

"I remember those Mage fellows, don't they all use spells like bombs? I didn't expect them to use such obscure curses and spirit-attaching secret arts as well."

"Most Mages are indeed as you say, especially those factions focused on the 'Gold Steam' Aspect. But this time, our opponent is the 'Mist Spirit School.' They are the outliers among Mages and one of the few factions centered on 'Mist Shadow,' excelling in assassination and combat."

"The black-toed eagles and owls we've raised are patrolling the skies day and night. It's very difficult for those Mages to slip over unnoticed. Their only real option is to cross the border through 'Erlin.' So if we seal this place off, we'll seize the initiative no matter what they try." The lead witch took a dark brown toad from her pocket and held it in her palm.

Then she produced a murky dark purple potion and poured it down the toad's throat. Shortly after, the toad's body convulsed and underwent an unnatural mutation. Its previously smooth back bulged with small lumps, which then burst open suddenly, revealing grotesque eyeballs.

The witch tossed the toad into the air. The entire creature exploded, and over thirty eyeballs floated in the air.

"I'll place 'Toad Eyes' on the trees along the way to monitor the forest. You two then set up some traps and curses to block and surveil the area."

"Yes."

One of the witches pondered for a moment, then reached out and pressed her finger against a nearby tree. What was noteworthy was that the finger appeared as if it had been burned, bearing charred, pitch-black scars. After the finger sank into the trunk, the tree gradually twisted and deformed, as if it had come alive.

Afterward, she withdrew her finger and repeated the process, altering the original trees throughout the forest one by one, making them twisted and bizarre while radiating an eerie sense of living presence.

The last witch's method was comparatively simpler. She took out a small bottle she carried. When she poured it out, it was filled with pitch-black ants. These ants scattered in all directions, spreading across the grass and trees, making them nearly impossible to detect.

The three witches continued their work along the forest until they had traced a faint warning line through the woods, and only then did they leave.

Several days later, four Mages stopped while crossing the forest.

"Something's wrong. Witches have been here." One of them keenly noticed the anomaly.

"That tree has become a 'living thing.' It can vaguely sense the aura of other creatures and transmit that information outward."

"In other words, we've been discovered?"

"Exactly. If we keep going forward, we're very likely to run into a witch ambush."

"But if we retreat on this mission, the army fighting at the front will lose its support. And with the Duchy of Mid's forces backed by witches, the enemy's advantage will become overwhelming. If the Kingdom of Aixus loses all its Elite troops, this war will be lost for sure."

"Our 'Mist Spirit School' rank is already not high within the Alliance. If we can't even suppress a witch faction like 'Black Finger,' we'll probably have a hard time holding onto this last rank afterward."

Many of the large schools within the Mage Alliance desperately sought recognition, hoping to become one of the officially acknowledged schools. And once the 'Mist Spirit School' showed such weakness and vulnerability, it would be very easy to attract covetous eyes and siege, with others seeking to take its position.

"Black Finger..." The Mage leading the team muttered that name.

Within the Hidden Grove Alliance, male witch factions were numerous, and behind the 'Incantation Forest' stood the figures of three major male witch factions. But 'Black Finger' could at most be considered a mid-tier witch faction. Within the faction, there was only one elderly witch who barely managed to break into the Seventh Tier, mainly held down by several Fourth Tier senior witches. The few who came to support the Duchy of Mid this time were disciples trained by one of those Fourth Tier witches.

Such strength was hardly worth mentioning in the eyes of the Mage Alliance's large schools, but for the 'Mist Spirit School,' it was only slightly stronger than them, not an overwhelming crushing force. Currently, the 'Mist Spirit School' had two master-level Mages, a total of eighteen Fourth Tier senior Mages, and their high-tier combat strength was roughly twice that of 'Black Finger.'

The force sent to support the Kingdom of Aixus at the border included 7 Fourth Tier Mages, 38 Third Tier Mages, and 424 Second Tier support personnel. Under normal circumstances, this fighting force was enough to annihilate a small nation. Coming to support the Kingdom of Aixus was like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut, a guaranteed victory. But unexpectedly, the 'Black Finger' witch faction had also dispatched no small support force, including 6 Fourth Tier senior witches.

Witch methods were bizarre and ever-changing. Even though 'Black Finger' had sent fewer people than the 'Mist Spirit School,' the latter still found themselves at a disadvantage in battle, causing the 'Mist Spirit School' members no small amount of frustration.

The retreating team discussed for a while, then pressed forward once more. But they also anticipated the ambushes they might face and took out the things they had prepared in advance.

Three Mages unscrewed the glass bottles they carried. Inside the spherical bodies, watery mist swirled. When opened, the mist rapidly expanded, enveloping the entire group before spreading outward. Every patch of grass and tree it touched, whether hiding surveillance eyeballs or relying on living things and insects for perception, was shrouded by the white smoke that obscured their senses, throwing everything into chaos, and making it nearly impossible to pierce through the thick, dense fog to see what was happening.

Under the effect of this war fog, the Mages quickly crossed the Erlin Forest. And since the Black Finger witches could not accurately track their route, they could only temporarily fall back and wait for the group to exit the forest before encircling them.

A week later, the armies of the Kingdom of Aixus and the Duchy of Mid clashed once more on the border wasteland. This time, it wasn't just the two military formations grinding against each other. In the sky and at the fringes of the wilderness, Mages from the 'Mist Spirit School' and witches from 'Black Finger' also engaged in battle.

Behind the battlefield, the Mist Spirit School's 'smoke generators' roared into operation. Boiling liquid, driven by special steam engines, transformed into thick white smoke that rose to shroud the sky. Then the 'Mist Spirit School' Mages cast in unison, reshaping the smoke imbued with the heat of Gold Steam and the aura of Mist Shadow into fierce, living 'mist spirits.'

These mist spirits possessed only faint, instinct-level intelligence. Driven by the Mages, they charged into the enemy formation. Large numbers of ordinary soldiers had their faces swell red before their lungs were cooked to death by the scorching smoke.

The witches on the other side were not to be outdone. Dark shadows swooped across the battlefield, scattering strange, special plague spores. Any soldier they touched immediately developed black spots on their bodies, which then spread, leading to death.

The carnage on the battlefield terrified the soldiers on both sides. After witnessing such horrifying scenes, they retreated en masse. Only the lines protected by knights unfolding Veil barriers managed to barely hold morale together and prevent a total collapse.

The slaughter between mortals could no longer decide the outcome of the war. In the latter half of this battle, the clashes between Mages and witches grew increasingly fierce, and casualties among important figures began to appear.

Four Fourth Tier Mages fell on the battlefield. Two died with their bodies blackened from the witches' 'Black Death Curse,' one was torn apart by a magical beast driven by the witches, and one died from a special witch secret art, his consciousness shredded, driving him insane.

Likewise, three Fourth Tier witches also lost their lives on the battlefield. Two were reduced to bloody mist and vapor by the boiling mist spirits, and one was torn apart by arms reaching out from shadows.

This sudden battle was, for both the 'Mist Spirit School' and 'Black Finger,' a mutual loss.

Afterward, the battle report and numerous details of this engagement quickly spread back to the Mage Alliance and the Hidden Grove Alliance, sparking widespread discussion.

The Mages believed that if they could maintain this casualty ratio even against the most troublesome witch faction in the Hidden Grove Alliance, did it mean that with the Alliance's current strength, they could completely bulldoze the entire Hidden Grove Alliance, solving both the famine and their opponent in one stroke?

Within the Hidden Grove Alliance, the topic of discussion was that the Black Finger witch faction didn't even rank among the Hidden Grove, yet such a faction had gained favorable results on the battlefield. Did this mean the Mage Alliance was merely strong on the outside but hollow within? After all, the Mage profession was not born for combat; it was more like a jack-of-all-trades, and their actual combat power wasn't as formidable as imagined.

These two seemingly different but eerily similar streams of public opinion spread rapidly, making members of both major factions eager to act. They all believed this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and they all believed their side held the advantage and could defeat their opponent on the battlefield.

Under this expansion of public opinion, the war hawks within both major factions rose to prominence, and their discussions grew increasingly heated.