They found out pretty quickly the witch that was supposed to be hard to find even for the Royal Guards, this makes me wonder how powerful their network truly is.
The information said that the Witch was a resident of a small village close to the border between the Sandstone Kindsome and Stone Kingdom.
The village wasn't on the main trading route but it wasn't too far away from it in case he needed to go to a bigger town.
It took us three days to arrive there, we were all in iron armor so every villager was scared to even greet us, but we stood there waiting for someone to make the first move. We weren't going to burge into their homes after all.
After an hour of waiting a villager was courageous enough to greet us.
"I'm the head of this small village, with what can my humble village help you almighty nobles?"
Ellen the leader was the one to speak.
"We're looking for someone with pale skin and acting suspiciously, we got some information that he's visiting this village pretty often."
The Head Village was starting to get nervous the more Ellen spoke.
"We-we do have someone that fits that description, but he doesn't live here. He's about a hundred blocks that way."
He pointed the opposite way we just came.
We thanked him got off our horses and told the village head to take care of them until well get back.
The head village was too scared to say anything, which made me feel like a bad guy exploiting the week.
I'll give him some emeralds once all of this is done as compensation.
With careful steps, we walked into the woods trying to not make any noise that would give us away.
The grass was getting more dense and was taller than other places, so we walked some more.
But soon the color started to turn gray, which reminded me of someone with similar powers but way stronger, the Zombie Lord.
A few blocks away the grass suddenly stopped and a small clearing with a house appeared in front of us.
It was a hut made with logs three rooms from what I could tell, but enough for one man to live comfortably.
If everything around it wasn't a little gray, it would've looked pretty welcoming.
We didn't get out of the tall grass, instead, Ellen made a sign meant to split up and explore the area for any traps.
I stayed in place, not following the order since I was the backup, and I didn't know all the signs.
After a few minutes, the house was surrounded by everyone.
The tall grass moved in a certain way that only looked unnatural if you were looking specifically at it, after it was done other places reacted accordingly.
Unfortunately, I didn't understand what they were communicating, so I stayed still hidden in the tall grass.
*Bam!
The door of the hut was opened with force and a crazy-looking Witch was looking with his big eyes around the property.
"Master I didn't know you would visit me today! If I did know I would've brought a few sacrifices for you. "
He looked towards me for some reason, like he already knew where I was.
"Why are you hidden master, I could feel your aura of darkness for a few minutes already. It feels even more powerful than usual, did you have a breakthrough?"
His eyes were still looking in my direction, but I realized that it wasn't at me, something on my left side caught his attention.
I slowly turned my head to see what he was looking at, but it was only tall grass and nothing else.
This started to scare me a little, was he sensing me, or was someone following us this whole time while invisible?
"How did you turn off your dark aura master? Wait, are you even here? Did I imagine all of that? But no the sky is still red so something is going on here, whoever you are get out this instant so I can kill you!"
He took out a sword and a potion from his inventory ready to attack.
While previously he looked like a crazy person but acted like a normal person, now he was acting as a crazy person as well.
What should I do?
Should I get out and confront him, or wait for the others to attack him while he's distracted?
He started to get closer to me, and as I was about to get out, an arrow came from the tall grass and hit him in the hand.
What surprised me was his reaction.
"Ahh, I can't see! What have you done to me?! "
He slowly backed away and took out a bowl of wood and drank it.
His eyes started to get normal, and as soon as he could see he looked around for his attackers.
But everyone was already out, their shield and crossbow ready to shoot.
The man looked around and saw that he was surrounded, but instead of getting intimidated, he started to smile like a madman.
"Oh, power beyond darkness, please land a hand to your servant and kill the dirt in front of mh eyes."
I started to feel like something wrong was about to happen, and I think the others felt the same way since they shot him without saying anything.
A wall of darkness blocked the incoming arrows like it was nothing, this was the first time I saw something like that.
It didn't last long, but it was enough for the witch to be defended.
"BITE! "
Was the next sentence he spoke, and from the ground appeared mouths made of bones, it didn't feel natural, it didn't feel like it belonged to this world.
From the witch, it went in a straight line towards his attackers.
It was similar to what an Evoker could do, but the months were smaller and it was more than one line.
The hunter surprised by what happened jumped away from the path of the attack.
But not everyone escapes unharmed, three of the hunters jumped a little too late and their legs were injured. They were out of the fight for a while.
Fortunately, the attack took a lot of energy from the rough witch, as he was gasping for air like he just finished a marathon.
The others took this opportunity and got closer to him and started throwing potions.
Two of them missed but one managed to hit him, and that was enough to slow him down considerably.
They almost reached him close enough to use their swords, but the witch with slow movements took green potions from his inventory and threw them at his enemies.
Unfortunately, only the leader was fast enough to get out of the way, but Froggy and the Hunter were poisoned with the potions.
"Quickly, drink milk!"
The leader ordered the poisoned victims, and they retreated to drink off the debuff.
The witch didn't stay while they were busy, he took out another potion, and this time he chugged it.
Soon he disappeared right in front of our eyes, and only a floating bottle remained that was thrown at the leader.
"He's trying to run while invisible! Look for his particles!"
We could all hear hurried steps on the grass, but nobody could pinpoint his location.
The door of the hut was suddenly closed with a loud bang making everyone turn their attention towards it.
"He's inside, proceed with caution."
Walter and Froggy drank the milk so the potions didn't affect them anymore, but the other two were still on the ground holding in pain their hurt legs.
They already took a potion of regeneration but it seems to have little effect on their wound
Wherever that attack was it seemed to be powerful enough to fight against the amazing regeneration of a potion.
So that meant they were out of this fight.
I didn't get out of my hiding spot so I wasn't attacked at the beginning, but I could still see how everything went without a problem.
Ellen, Walter, and Froggy slowly got closer to the door, they all had their shield ready and a crossbow on the other.
The leader pushed the door with force making a loud noise, as soon as he saw the inside he threw a potion, but no scream of pain or confusion came from the other side.
Everyone was confused including me. Why would the witch go inside instead of running away or attacking someone?
We all expected an ambush once the door was opened, but nothing came, and the house was too small for him to hide anywhere.
Something was not right and I didn't like it.
Looks like I had to intervene here or else the rough witch will escape.
I took an item from my inventory, it was metallic with golden color and I could see my reflection in easily.
It was a golden bell.
I quickly put it down and hit the bell with my fist.
Laud ringing interrupted the tense silence and everyone had their eyes on me looking with confusion at why I did that.
But I ignored them and looked at the new glowing outlines that appeared in front of my eyes, I could see the outline of Froggy, Walter, Ellen, and even the three others who stayed on the sidelines due to their injuries, but further from them I could see the outline of someone that wasn't there, it was the outline of someone that was invisible.
He seemed to stay in one place, Im guessing he was looking at me wondering why I did that, but I didn't explain my actions, instead, I took out my crossbow equipped with a firework and got out of my hiding place.
I pointed my weapon at the rough witch and fired.
The fuse was lit, and then a shriek was heard through the air, everyone looked shocked at my action until it exploded without hitting anything.
Soon a painful scream was heard in the clearing, and then the sound of a body hitting the ground a few times.
Froggy the first to realized what was going on, and ran towards the place where the grass was oddly shaped.
He held something invisible that tried to fight back, but his hits didn't pack too much of a punch since he was still recovering from the explosion.
The leader and the hunter soon joined Froggy in restraining the man, and Ellen took a dirty potion from his inventory and chugged it into the invisible mouth.
Slowly he started to struggle less and less until he didn't move anymore.
But his invisibility didn't wear off, which meant that he was still alive, just knocked out.
"Looks like he didn't go inside when he closed the door, that was only a distraction."
I moved closer to the invisible man, wondering how are we going to carry him now.
"Yes, he's much more clever than the rumors said. I guess you don't survive so long with luck alone. This potion should knock him out for a whole day, go check his house in case he has anything of value."
Froggy and Walter nodded in understanding before going into the house.
"Careful for any booby traps! "
I yelled at them to still be careful.
"How did you know where he was? I didn't even see his particles."
"Ehh, I know a thing or two about a thing or two."
I tried to be mysterious about this since even I didn't know what was this ability, but I wasn't going to question its usefulness.
The glowing outline was slowly starting to fade, so I looked once more around me before my eyes went wide and stopped at one place not too far away from my previous position.
It was three blocks tall, with long arms, sharp claws and I could feel a strong presence looking deep into my eyes.
The effect wore off, and I could not see the invisible monster anymore.
In a panic, I raised my shield and ran towards the bell to hit it once again, but then I felt a strong force pulling me in a different direction, it was a painful experience and it brought back unpleasant memories.
Everything went dark for a second before I could finally see again.
I was in a wooden room with a big table in the middle.
On the table, there were four pillows but only two ender perles were present.
I was once again teleported over a great distance, but this time it wasn't an angry mob that welcomed me, instead it was my hero friend with a panicked look and her face, and once she spoke my stomach dropped for a second time for today.
"Trader, Bobby got inflected!"