What the Witchers Protected

"It's not your fault..."

Dante placed his right hand on Ailin's shoulder and gently rubbed it.

A Witcher's keen senses are sometimes not a good thing; he heard Wyatt and the Shield Guards' conversation perfectly clearly.

This naturally includes Furi and the Big Iron Shield, the fate of those two poor souls.

Ailin's senses were even sharper than his.

Looking at the expressionless young witcher, he felt a pang of worry. "This is a war, and in war, we have no other choice..."

"I'm fine," Ailin said, shaking her head gently.

"That's good." Dante glanced at Ailin and didn't mention it again.

He glanced at the unobstructed passage that Wyatt had ordered cleared in front of him, his tone slightly relaxed. "But this is for the best. I thought we'd have to fight again, but now that we don't, we can leave Drakkenberg smoothly..."

"No, it's not over yet." Ailin shook his head, a quiet anger burning in his eyes. "The real culprit hasn't paid his blood debt yet..."

"Ailin ..." Dante opened his mouth, about to say something.

"Careful!"

Wyatt, who was not far ahead, suddenly shouted, his eyes burning with anxiety.

The two witchers looked up abruptly.

At this loud shout, all the guards alertly raised their weapons.

However, Ailin and Dante, who had made eye contact with Wyatt, knew that the shout wasn't meant to alert the guards, but rather to them.

The entire laboratory fell silent for a moment.

As if a gentle breeze brushed past his ear, Ailin suddenly pulled Balmor out of the void and turned to block.

"When!"

The powerful sound of metal clashing against metal stripped away their disguise.

"Buzzing~"

The two Witcher School Emblem then began to hum loudly.

"Watch out! The enemy has become invisible!"

"A warlock's spell, be careful to avoid it!"

"Where's the wizard? Where's Riesberg's wizard?"

An uproar erupted throughout the laboratory as the guards drew their swords and warily watched the three witchers who had suddenly appeared before them.

The shield bearers, bewildered, raised their shields.

"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!" Big Head cursed in a low voice, "Look at the child behind Master Dante, what kind of beast could do such a thing to a child?"

"If I were Master Dante, I would also want to beat Drakkenberg!"

"Shut up!" Wyatt's eyes were bloodshot as he glared at Big Head, startling him into silence.

"Watch out! Defend!" he shouted.

"Thump!" The shield guards immediately raised their large shields and pressed them against the ground.

They intentionally or unintentionally failed to fill in the newly exposed passage on the right, but the other guards, unaware of this, immediately blocked the way to the door.

"What do we do, boss!" another shield guard asked anxiously in a low voice. "Are we really going to go? Everyone's waiting for your orders!"

"Don't rush! Let me think! Let me think!"

Wyatt's forehead was beaded with cold sweat as he stared intently at the black shadow.

Carlo, what exactly do you want to do?

"You are Carlo!"

The sudden, heavy blow shattered the mirage of the pearl, stripping away the disguise of the attacking enemy.

It was a person dressed entirely in black, with half of their face covered, leaving only a pair of clear black eyes visible.

Those eyes faintly shimmered with a purplish-red magical glow, completely unlike those of a normal person.

Ailin immediately realized who the newcomer was— Carlo, the assassin Sam had mentioned who had silently beheaded an elven sage.

Carlo's black mask fluttered slightly. "Cat-like eyes, kid, you're not just a warlock, you're a demon hunter too..."

"I never said I was a warlock."

Ailin's right arm muscles suddenly tensed, and his longsword cleaved Carlo's weapon in two.

It was an unremarkable short sword, only the length of a forearm. The blade was etched with patterns like the Witcher's silver sword, with slender and graceful lines. The hilt was also carved with vines, making it look more like an elf's weapon.

However, this is not surprising.

Drakkenberg might lack many things, but he could never lack Ian Siddy's Long-ears and their possessions.

What weapon Carlo uses is not important to Ailin.

But Carlo's attack broke through Ailin and Dante's disguise and prevented them from leaving, which was very important.

What does he or she want to do?

"Clang!"

Carlo, who had been cleaved in two by Ailin's powerful blow, landed lightly on the storage shelf. In an instant, as if he were a weightless ghost, the shelf didn't even shake, and then rushed towards him again at an extremely fast speed.

"What do you want to do?" After exchanging another sword strike with Carlo, Ailin couldn't help but communicate with him using telepathy.

It wasn't that Ailin couldn't defeat Carlo, but after Wyatt "surrendered" and Carlo appeared, he suddenly remembered that when he ambushed Derek Vascoss in front of the tower, he remembered that Evans had also given orders to Carlo.

But Carlo didn't appear from beginning to end, until Dante killed Derek Vasquez.

The assassin was much faster than Wyatt and his burly men wielding massive shields.

This is not normal!

This is very abnormal!

"Mind communication..."

Upon hearing Ailin's voice transmission, Carlo paused, staring at those beautiful blue Cat Eyes for several moments before suddenly doubting Ailin's identity again.

Summon Staff can be cast using some magical items and with a little magic power, but continuous spells like teleportation cannot.

The use of Divine Power is a very delicate and profound subject, not something that laymen who are not sorcerers can achieve with just some tools.

"Are you a demon hunter or a warlock?"

As Carlo used the momentum to retract his short sword, he slashed down with his own sword.

Ailin dodged to the side.

"Hiss!"

Like a red-hot iron falling onto ice, Carlo cleaved a glass jar with his sword.

The gut-like contents of the bizarre creature, mixed with turbid yellow formalin, spilled out.

"That's not important..." Ailin dodged the splashing liquid and stood in front of Dante. "What's important is, why did you attack us? Wouldn't it have been better to do what Wyatt did?"

When Wyatt was mentioned, Ailin subconsciously glanced at him.

The burly man holding the tower shield stood there, somewhat at a loss, seemingly not expecting this situation to arise.

As a result, not only did the shield guards awkwardly raise their shields from time to time as a formality, but the densely packed guards also stood still without moving.

That makes sense, though.

Evans himself isn't here, and everyone here is on a fixed salary, so why are we risking our lives?

This also makes the proactive Carlo seem particularly strange.

"Do you need help?" Dante's lips moved; he too had sensed something was wrong, but he didn't act rashly.

Ailin transmitted his voice. "Protect Bont first, then take Bont and run outside..."

The moment after Dante nodded.

Carlo moved silently, as if he had no footsteps, past the knotted intestines, and rushed over again.

"Clang! Clang!"

Two consecutive sword strikes were blocked by Ailin, but they struck the hem of the wooden storage shelf instead.

The ironwood storage shelf was cut off, and dozens of small glass bottles fell to the ground along the sloping floor from the second shelf upwards.

"Not good," Carlo shook his head. "Wyatt's actions were too foolish; no one can be fooled by him..."

That's such a stupid thing to do...

Ailin paused for a moment, then his eyes lit up. "You mean?"

"Have you ever seen the opera of the bard in the city's grand tavern? I need you..."

"Call out!"

After blocking Carlo's attack, Ailin spun around and with a chilling glint of light, cleaved the werewolf specimen in two at the waist with a single sword strike.

The three-meter-tall giant werewolf is also the pillar supporting this storage shelf.

In the blink of an eye.

Bottles and jars were overturned everywhere, and the entire laboratory was filled with the smell of formaldehyde soaking rotten proteins.

This isn't over yet.

Following closely behind...

With the right middle finger bent, push forward sharply.

"Boom!"

The violent shockwave distorted the air.

Carlo dodged with a roll.

But the storage locker containing the Insectoid Creature behind him wasn't so lucky.

The spider's sharp pincers flew up, severing the heads of the Anglaid warriors. Finally, they, along with an entire wall full of various insects, shattered, broke, collapsed, and scattered amidst a deafening roar...

The ordinary guards were so frightened by the huge commotion that they cried out and dodged.

Upon seeing this, Carlo hesitated for a moment when he stood up.

"I'm starting to like you a little, you clever boy," Carlo eyes sparkling.

"May I have your name?"

"Not a child," Ailin kicked away Carlo's "subtle" kick, "Ailin, Ailin, the Witcher Master of the School of the Wolf ..."

"Okay, 'child'." Ailin saw Carlo blink, seemingly with a smile. "I'll remember you."

Ailin rolled her eyes, speechless.

After explaining the situation to Dante and reassuring him, he and Carlo worked together to wreak havoc in the laboratory.

The Alde Sign knocked down the sorcerer's collection in rows, Igni's flames scorched the wood, the fur of wild boars and black bears...

In the blink of an eye, the entire laboratory was completely unrecognizable.

Carlo... Carlo seems... seems...

With his brows furrowed and facing the most difficult test of his life, Wyatt blinked his Little Eye, feeling increasingly uneasy.

At one point, his eyes met those of Carlo, who had unknowingly approached him, and a sudden inspiration struck him...

When has Carlo ever fought for such a long time?

He turned around abruptly and shouted the order:

"Get out of the way! Get out of the way!"

"Don't get in Carlo's way, Drakkenberg Shieldbearer, follow me!"

"Boss, you!" Big Head shouted in a bewildered voice, "How could you, how could you..."

The other shield guards also had sturdy builds, and their small eyes held the same doubts.

"These brutes... "Wyatt gritted his teeth, glared at the Little Eye, and smacked the Big Head's head hard, interrupting his "nonsense," before squeezing out another sentence through gritted teeth:

"Stop talking nonsense! Follow me!"

Upon seeing this, Carlo moved his mask slightly, as if he were smiling.

"Wyatt, that brute, isn't all that stupid, is he?"

Ailin slightly raised the corners of her mouth, but did not speak.

He sidestepped Carlo's thrust, glancing at the still-chaotic laboratory...

Werewolves, flying lizards, trolls, Ghoul, shapeshifting spiders, griffins, ghouls...

Countless limbs of monsters floated in pools of blood and formaldehyde.

In a daze,

They weren't fighting against Carlo, Wyatt, and the other shield bearers; they were fighting side-by-side against monstrous monsters for humanity...

The School of the Wolf... no... all Witchers, over hundreds of years, have sacrificed countless lives in their fight against evil for humanity...

At this moment, there seems to be a symbolic footnote.

Ailin cleaved through the few remaining display shelves with a single sword strike, glancing at Dante, Dante was "struggling" to break through the "blockade" of Wyatt and the other shield guards.

Throughout the entire battle, Dante did not display the same unusual emotions as him.

After Ailin thanked Carlo, Wyatt, and the other shield guards, he focused on his resumed "acting" career.

The Witcher once helped humanity, and now the humanity that was helped is risking danger to repay the Witcher.

This logic seemed to him to be self-evident; everything should have developed this way. At most, he was surprised that Drakkenberg had so many people who had benefited from the Witcher's kindness.

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." Ailin sighed softly to himself, and suddenly this sentence came to mind.

"That's about it!"

Carlo's voice suddenly rang out, interrupting Ailin's thoughts. "Any later, and those nasty wizards from Riesberg will be back..."

"The wizards of Riesberg?" Ailin was taken aback. Were there any other wizards from Riesberg here?

"Derek Vasquez is just the weakest of the wizards from the Rissberg Civil Conglomerate stationed in Drakkenberg," Carlo explained, seemingly noticing Ailin's surprise. "The strongest one is Ronnie Dickinson."

"He is one of the fifteen members of the Conclave of Sorcerers's Advanced Council, and among the experimental male wizards of the Rissberg Civil Conglomerate, he is a rare practicalist and a master of air elemental magic..."

"You were lucky you didn't run into him today, but who knows when he might come back."

When Ronnie Dickinson was mentioned, Carlo frowned and spoke much faster.

Just as Ailin was about to send a message, Carlo interrupted him.

"Alright, that's enough." He turned his back to the guard with a hint of anxiety and pointed to his ribs. "A stab here, the injury is serious enough, but not enough to kill me. It's enough to deal with Evans."

"I think with Master Ailin's swordsmanship, he won't go astray!"

"In addition..."

He glanced at Wyatt: "Give that brute a whack on the arm or the thigh, either way will do..."

"Wait a minute!" Ailin frowned slightly, grasping the key point. "We've been fighting all this way just to deal with that Evans?"

Carlo paused, then asked, "Is there a problem?"

"No problem, but don't go to all that trouble." Ailin shook his head and swung his sword sharply with both hands.

Carlo was instantly blasted away by the overwhelming force and landed lightly on the ground.

"What do you mean?" Carlo pursed his lips. "Don't worry, our injuries actually allow us to rest..."

Ailin cast another Alde Sign, shoving aside the shield guards who were pretending to block Dante's way, and said coldly:

"Rest assured!"

"Evanson, we won't see tomorrow's sun!"