The Witch Hunter System

The battle witches were beaten black and blue until all of their teeth scattered on the floor, and they couldn't tell left from right. They were pained, disorientated, immobilized, and confused. The matriarchs' orders had little effect on them under such conditions.

Nevertheless, Vaan didn't focus on beating down the already incapacitated witches and sent his rocky fire fists after the ones that fled to safer distances.

At the same time, Vaan kicked off the ground and shot straight for one of the commanding matriarchs in the sky.

Boom… Boom…!

Flames spewed from the soles of Vaan's feet, thrusting him forward with subsequent greater bursts of speed.

Although the blonde matriarch sensed the incoming threat, she noticed it too late due to her preoccupation with commanding her people. By the time she turned around, Vaan had already grabbed hold of her ankle.

"Shit!" the blonde matriarch's expression instantly changed.

Ka-cha!

Vaan hurled the blonde matriarch into the ground below with excessive force, snapping her lower leg bones before her body even struck the ground. Her face almost wanted to rip off from the wind resistance.

For an instant, her otherworldly beauty became hideous and unsightly. Tears and snot threatened to come out as she faced the rapidly closing ground with barely opened eyes.

Bam!

The ground cracked as the blonde matriarch's body heavily slammed into it, shattering her bones and organs and splattering with blood.

It wouldn't be strange if she died on the spot. But considering the tenacious lifeforce of witches, not to mention a Light-attribute Early-stage High Witch at that, the possibility was unlikely.

Even so, the blonde matriarch was immobilized in her crippled and critically injured state.

"Still alive? Then, you can still be beaten."

"Wait. Let's negotiate. Spare my life, and I will call off the attack."

After Vaan gripped the blonde matriarch's hair and raised her broken body in the air, she quickly mustered her remaining strength to propose a deal.

However, Vaan wasn't interested.

"What attack?" Vaan directed the blonde matriarch's unsteady gaze to the direction of the fleeing witches before he said, "You mean the ones running away over there? Even if you attack, what can you do?"

"And even if I agree, what would you do? Scheme against me in the future? Your hatred and contempt for men run deep. We need to fix that," Vaan stated blankly.

Shortly after, he slammed her body back into the ground repeatedly, causing her to cough up mouthfuls of blood each time.

The threat of death loomed over the blonde matriarch as her light-attribute mana failed to keep up with her aggravating wounds.

But Vaan seemed to know exactly how much force he should use as not to kill her instantly, only to torment her. As such, the blonde matriarch was kept on the delicate, thin thread, hovering between life and death.

Being prepared to die and facing death were two different kinds of experiences. The latter tested the blond matriarch's resolution, keeping her in a tense state.

She couldn't live, but she couldn't die either. She was forced to endure wave after wave of pain; it nearly drove her crazy.

"The imperial dog has caught our Lady! All battle witches on me! We must save our Lady!" a Peak-stage Senior Witch took the lead to rescue the blonde matriarch.

However, dozens of rocky fire fists came her way, battered her body into a bloodied mess, then dropped her out of the sky as strength left her.

Under the might of the rocky fire fists, the resisting witches were reduced to broken dolls sprawled on the ground.

"Dammit, he's too strong! We can't get close at all! Those fists are in the way! However, we can't do anything about them! They are numerous, strong, and unpredictable!"

"Get back! They're still coming after us! It's like they have a will of their own! Watch out—!"

"Ahhh! No—! Save me!"

The battle witches belonging to the blonde matriarch's household were frustrated by their powerlessness. They could only watch her beaten up from a distance, but even then, the rocky fire fists didn't give them a break and came after them.

Vaan's eyes might have been on the blonde matriarch, but she wasn't his sole focus. Every hostile witch within the range of his Omni-Sense was a target to be beaten.

Nevertheless, the blonde matriarch's will was stubborn; it would take some time to break her spirit and make her submit through violence.

The process was slower than ideal, but the results were guaranteed.

As Vaan bashed the blonde matriarch's face in, healed her, then bashed her again, a crimson hue flickered across his eyes, his fist tingled, and his blood slightly boiled with excitement.

The violence stimulated his dragon blood, making him instinctively crave more violence. Even so, he managed to suppress the urge with his powerful will.

'Old dragons are wise, but the young are hot-blooded, huh?'

Vaan mused unsurprisingly, having anticipated that dragon blood transfusion would have side effects along with its benefits. That said, the side effect could be negated by his will. Thus, it was negligible.

…

Meanwhile, further away from the battlefield outside the Vossen Household's magic tower, numerous witches caught wind of the big battle and observed from a distance.

But unlike the supremacist witch faction, they did not readily lend their assistance after finding out their opponent was an extremely powerful man.

Even a portion of the supremacist witch faction remained on standby and simply watched from a distance. They saw no benefit in assisting early, only losses.

"Shouldn't we assist those witches in taking down that man, my Lady? I can hear them calling him an imperial dog. If we allow this man to rampage in our capital city as he pleases, the other witch kingdoms will look down on us."

"There's no benefit in joining the fray early. Besides, those supremacist witches have been too full of themselves. Someone ought to take them down a peg."

"That's true… But that's not the only reason we aren't helping, right? My Lady?"

"Mm. More importantly, that man isn't necessarily from the empire. I've never heard of the empire having someone who commands such perfect control of fire and earth and with such power at that. His affinity is too fiery to be one of those Wienerless. How peculiar…"

"Also, his face looks a little familiar…"