Energy Eater

Wistra jumped towards Riley, trying to bite their head off. The witch's apprentice wasn't fast enough to move out of the way, but that wasn't the case for me. Using {Compression}, my staff slammed on the lumerin's head, causing it to topple to the side. I was expecting a decently sturdy blow, but it almost felt like my weapon hit a stone wall. 

Sure, Wistra was pushed back, but so was I, only stopping when my staff hit the ground below. Astrid followed that up by trying to slam her axe on the witch. Michael fired an arrow at the Lumerin but the berserked Wistra was able to grab the spider-like arrow with her hand before it hit her. Michael prepared another one and gasped.

"I thought you were supposed to be weak!"

Unfortunately, it wasn't as easy as we were hoping. Despite Wistra saying that she was weak, the moth person was much more powerful and much stronger than any of us, even when taking into account our skills.

"I think that's what she considers weak," I replied, realizing that someone who had memories of being much more powerful might not be able to gauge their strength all that well.

"Wait, stop," Riley protested, but none of us were having it. Wistra was pretty clear when saying what was about to happen. And her current state made it easy for us to understand she was telling the truth. It also helped that none of us were particularly close to the Witch of the Silken Fortress, otherwise we might not be as callous when going for the attack.

I moved towards Wistra, activating {Formless Swipe - Emperor}. That was the last energy I had left in my body and I wasn't going to waste it with a big skill when I could use something that had multiple charges. My attack hit her left side and sent her tumbling towards the wall. But she stopped her fall before hitting it, using her wings to steady herself before turning back to me and screeching. 

Just as her mouth was open and wings spread, Michael used {Scavenger's Volley} to fire a number of arrows at the Lumerin's wings. The projectiles exploded in contact thanks to another of his skills, ripping her wings to shreds. What were two beautiful glowing orbs surrounding a leaf-like structure became what looked like a piece of cloth that was eaten by bugs. A piece of cloth that was still attached to her body and still bleeding.

"Please stop," Riley gasped as Astrid tackled Wistra to the ground and tried to decapitate her with a single motion. I was a bit annoyed by Riley's reaction, maybe more than I should have been, and just walked over to them and slapped them across their face.

"Are you listening to yourself? Even her... even your master said that you had to kill her. I know you want to try to be a hero and not do that?" I glanced to the side and saw Wistra about to bring down an arm on Astrid. They somehow had flipped and now the Lumerin was on top of the Frosted Lumberjack. 

Quickly aiming my staff, I triggered {Compression} once more, causing it to slam against the moth person's arm and deflect the blow enough so Astrid could dodge and roll out from under the mindless monster. 

"But we have these powers. There has to be something we can do," Riley pressed, and I just shook my head.

"What? What do you possibly think you can do that your master, who is way more powerful than any of us couldn't? She made it clear that the queen was much stronger than her. What makes you think that you can figure something out here? That you can stop what's happening? What makes you think that you are so special that even while being at tier 0 you can do what generations of people with tier 3 never could?"

Riley was about to say something else, and I gave another slap. "Stop that. The world sucks. It's unfair and we do things that we don't enjoy. Your master is trying to give you one last gift. The power that she had. You can either take it or leave it, it's your call, but you're not going to mess with this and cause us to die. Because if you try to stop me one more time, I swear I'm breaking your legs so you won't get in the way."

Before I could even see their response, I moved towards Wistra and Astrid, who were now locked in combat. The Frosted Lumberjack was using all her strength to hold the Lumerin's arms to the side while the Wistra kept trying to bite Astrid and get free from her grasp. Even though the Frosted Lumberjack was holding the witch from behind, the neck of the mindless witch could spin almost 180 degrees, making it so she was able to hit Astrid if she wasn't doing her best to dodge. Michael was firing arrow after arrow at Wistra's body, trying to help, but his projectiles were not strong enough to pierce her outer shell. Or what I was assuming to be her shell, since she was technically a bug and should have an exoskeleton.

Just after one of his projectiles hit with enough force to cause the Lumerin to lose some of her breath and tilt forward. I took advantage of that to swing again. Using another {Formless Swipe - Emperor}, this time in an uppercut motion, I cracked my staff over Wistra's head, causing the beast to fall backwards. Astrid moved extremely quickly and got out from behind her before they hit the ground. But the Frosted Lumberjack didn't have a chance to reach for her weapon. Instead, she was forced to try to hold down the witch on the ground so Michael and I could finish the job.

I went for it, trying to break the Witch's skull with my staff, but to no avail. The exoskeleton was too sturdy, and I wasn't strong enough to kill her. Eventually, Astrid lost the grip on one of Wistra's arms, which swung at me. Her claws cut my arm, and I jumped to grapple the free limb, pinning her to the ground. With both Astrid and I holding on to the witch, we were able to stop her from moving. Which left Michael to finish the job. He stepped closer and fired a {True Shot} directly into Wistra's eye, but even then it wasn't enough. The eye was bleeding, but the woman was still screeching.

Michael went for his quiver, trying to pull another arrow, but it came out empty. He had fired the last of his projectiles, which made him rush out and search for another one. Astrid and I were holding on to the Lumerin still, making sure to keep her on the ground, but it was clear that she was getting stronger. The more time passed, the more crazily she tried to break free, even to the point of jerking so strongly that her own limbs seemed to break and buckle with the strain. Maybe whatever her queen did to her was capable of not just forcing her to find the queen but also increase her strength somehow, like a temporary buff or something.

But suddenly, the witch froze, and her face softened for a moment. She still didn't come back to her regular visage, where she could calmly converse with us. Yet, now she wasn't just a mindless moth. It was something that could at least somehow understand her surroundings. I glanced up to see Riley with tears streaming down their face, looking at their master. Or a version of her master and holding Astrid's axe with both hands. The witch's apprentice weren't even holding the axe in the proper way. They were holding it by the head of the blade, and just dropped on top of Wistra's neck, pushing all of their weight onto the weapon as it crashed on the Lumerin's body.

Unfortunately, Riley wasn't heavy enough to make a clean cut, but between Astrid helping by pressing on both ends of the axe, we managed to finish the job and finally killed Wistra in her berserk form. I felt a rush of particles into me, which was a surprise since I wasn't supposed to get any. After all, I already was at the max level of tier one. But it was enough to confirm that we had indeed killed the true witch of this place.

Riley was in tears, understandably so, and we gave them a moment to gather their bearings. While we were in danger, I was going to be mostly cold and say that we just had to do it, but I could understand the pain of losing someone close to you. Even though this situation was still wild in my eyes. They were not just being taught by someone from a different species. But it was someone who had the System and multiple someones, apparently. And even worse, was the fact that Wistra mentioned that she wanted to give Riley the System, or at least Riley said that their master had promised that kind of power to them. I wasn't really sure if that was just a promise to shut Riley up, the type of thing that a grown up would do to a child who was asking something over and over again. Or if it was something that Wistra could actually do.

After all, the spiders they had in here seemed to have the System. And Wistra was able to control them and breed them like pets. It felt too much of a coincidence for both of those species, the Lumerins and the Aranean, to be connected and not be related to the System somehow.

I took a few steps back, letting Riley grieve and giving them some space when my eyes noticed the cocoons that were still around us. Wistra helped a couple of the people who were here, but not all of them. A few cocoons were still completely closed. Cursing under my breath, I walked over to the witch's apprentice and said.

"Riley, I am really sorry for what you're going through. And I understand that you might be mad at me or the situation, I don't know. But do you have any idea on how to administer that concoction that Wistra was using? There are still some cocoons that we didn't open."

My last phrase seemed to take the witch's apprentice out of their stupor. They turned towards the cocoons and weakly nodded their head.

"Yeah. I... I know how to give it to people. Just... give me a second."

Riley gently closed their master's eyes and brushed away their tears before standing up and going over to the rest of the cocoons. While that was going on, I told Astrid to get her axe and follow me towards the spiders that we saw in the adjacent room. Without their master, it was probable that they would go crazy and start killing everybody. Yet, all the spiders were already dead on the ground. It seemed like Wistra had some sort of failsafe that if she died, the spiders would go with her.

Taking advantage of that small reprieve as Michael stepped to follow us, I asked how their levels and the progression to tier two were.

"Level 20," Michael replied. "And apparently there are a couple quests to tier 2 that would already be completed if I pick those paths."

Astrid nodded, "Same. Options." 

And I double checked. My System had confirmed that my quest was at 100%. This battle might have been way more complicated than I was expecting, but at least we were getting very big spoils. With that, we went back to the main room to help Riley save everybody. Michael had noticed that there was a cart outside and we could use that to carry the people back to the village. After a quick conversation with Riley, they agreed on us doing so. But they were staying behind with their master's body. 

After the people were properly administered with the potion, we grabbed everybody and started heading back to the village. Just before we left, Riley also spoke up, saying for us to come back once we were done. There was a lot they wanted to talk to us about and there were some things that they would want our help with. I had no problem with that and gestured for Michael to move to the village with the people in the cart. Some had died but others were still alive and now our job was to tell the people what happened without talking about all the details. And who exactly was Wistra.