As the seven members of the Assembly of Silent Night fled to the end of the passageway leading outside the southern side of Blackmoon City, tremors at their rear drew closer.
Without a doubt, the traps and obstacles they left behind were being destroyed at an alarming rate.
The Assembly of Silent Night’s members felt like they were being chased down by a monstrous beast with unstoppable force—which wasn’t exactly far from the truth.
Astoria Braveheart demonstrated physical power far beyond normal human comprehension, which greatly conflicted with her delicate and slim appearance. Even witches would suspect that she was using Body Enhancement Magic.
However, it was all raw physical strength. Astoria Braveheart was like a beast in human skin.
“Dammit! I saw a magic airship arrive in the city earlier. Did the Black Rose Kingdom decide to purge our organization or something?! Why are we hunted? Who the hell did we piss off?!” another member with a male voice cursed as he fled ahead of the other six, seemingly the leader of the group.
“I heard the branch in the Delarosa Marquisate accepted the commission to assassinate Marquis Delarosa’s two daughters. Maybe they screwed up the job?” a third member speculated with heavy breathing as he ran with all his might, demonstrating speed far beyond the limits of a regular human.
Nevertheless, the person still barely managed to keep up with the group leader at the front.
“Goddamn! Why the hell did the Delarosa Marquisate branch even accept such a high-risk commission?! The noble households are off-limits, for f*ck sakes!” the group leader cussed with growing anxiety as the distant sound of destruction drew closer.
As the group of seven black-robed figures broke out of the ground and continued to flee southward to the southern exit leading out of the Blackmoon Region, a heavy gust of wind blew back their black hoods and revealed their appearances.
Seven men, but neither of them looked human—not complete humans at the very least. Some had unnatural yellow eyes with sharp pupils, some had furry skin, some had large fangs, and some had wolf-like ears.
Regardless, each group member possessed at least two-to-three distinct traits related to wolves, making them greatly resemble Werewolves and Lycans.
However, it was unconfirmed whether they possessed similar abilities.
Nevertheless, none of the seven wolf-men cared about their exposed appearances out in the wild as they made their escape.
There was no one else in the vicinity—no one except Horned Rabbits that occasionally popped out of the ground before burrowing back into their holes out of fright as the wolf-men group rushed past them.
As the wolf-man desperately asked for a solution, a column of soil suddenly rose in the sky in their rear as Astoria Braveheart blasted her way out of the ground.
Hawdyns briefly turned his head to check the rear before his expression turned grave.
“Headmaster Astoria!” Hawdyns cried with despair after realizing a High Witch was chasing them. Escape was impossible.
Astoria Braveheart’s sudden appearance quickly eliminated the wolf-men group’s hopes of escaping.
However, that didn’t stop the group of wolf-men from fleeing with all their might. They would struggle until the end, no matter how helpless the situation seemed.
Hawdyns took out a single-use magic tool that looked like a firecracker before firing their Assembly of Silent night’s unique distress signal into the high skies, alerting the organization’s neighboring branches of the Blackmoon City Branch’s desperate situation.
However, Hawdyns wasn’t hoping help would come by alerting the neighboring branches with the distress signal.
Outside the seven witch kingdoms, the Assembly of Silent Night’s unique distress signal would naturally deliver a “we are in trouble, so please send help” message.
But within the seven witch kingdoms, the distress signal could only mean, “We are f*cked. Don’t come here.”
Shortly after Astoria Braveheart shot out of the ground, Istana Gleriath and Ember Killian also flew out of the large hole a few moments later.
They quickly locked onto the fleeing group in the distance before jumping straight into a hot pursuit with Flight Magic.
Even so, Istana Gleriath and Ember Killian failed to keep up with Astoria Braveheart, who increased her speed by several notches, kicking up dust storms with every powerful step she took.
With another powerful step, Astoria Braveheart directly launched herself into the air, pouncing down on the nearest wolf-men ahead, pinning the person to the ground, even breaking a few bones in the process of immobilizing the person.
The wolf-man cried for help, but none of the other six wolf-men turned back. It was every man for themselves.
Nevertheless, Astoria Braveheart didn’t stop at one. She quickly chased the next target, pinning them down with another big pounce from above before moving on to another after the target was incapacitated.
Just like that, Astoria Braveheart rounded up the wolf-men one by one.
Hawdyns, the strongest within the group, put up the greatest struggle. He even tried to grope Astoria Braveheart’s breast for a window opportunity of escaping by disgusting her.
However, he failed miserably.
Astoria Braveheart stepped on Hawdyns’ balls and destroyed his manhood, causing his wail to shake the heavens and earth before he lost all strength and laid on the ground like a defeated dog.
That day, the earth cried. The wolf-men cried. Hawdyns’ future generations also cried.
After Istana Gleriath and Ember Killian caught up, dragging the other incapacitated wolf-men, they each selected a target to interrogate.
“Where is he?!” Astoria Braveheart barked with one leg planted on Hawdyns’ head, suppressing the person underneath her feet as he laid curled up on the ground.
“W-who?” Hawdyns uttered with difficulty as he endured the pain in his nether region with a pale and sweaty face.
“Don’t play dumb with me! You know who! Where is Vaan Raphna’s body?! Where has your organization taken his body?!” Astoria Braveheart questioned harshly, feeling very certain that Vaan Raphna’s body was taken elsewhere as it wasn’t in the basement of the third-story building she demolished.
However, Hawdyns was utterly dumbfounded by her question.
Hawdyns gritted his teeth, feeling indignant at the sheer ridiculousness of the situation.
“Who the hell is Vaan Raphna!”