The Hunt for the Night Witch

Beneath the night sky, the legend of the mysterious figure known as the “Night Mist” spread through the land like lightning. In every village, every inn, every market, whispers about this enigmatic presence circulated: “It flies like a bird…” “It shook the ground with blazing fire…” “Not a wizard… yet more dangerous than magic…” For the people, this legend was a symbol of hope. For the authorities, it cast a shadow of fear.

In the Council of Magic, in a hall shrouded in darkness, a long table stood. Only the candles on the table provided light, their flickering shadows playing anxiously across the faces of those gathered. At the center of the hall, a high chair adorned with golden patterns remained empty.

When the heavy footsteps echoed through the door, everyone stood at attention. A man entered, wearing a robe embroidered with red-gold thread, a ceremonial crown on his head, long black hair, and cold brown eyes. This was Julius II, the king of Ostania. Without a word, he took his place, surveying the assembly with a cool gaze.

“You are aware of the legend circulating among the people. Tell me, who—or what—is it?” he demanded, his voice echoing off the stone walls.

First, a knight commander rose from his seat:

“Your Majesty, it is undoubtedly a wizard. Such an explosion cannot occur without magic. There is no other explanation.”

Against his statement, the guild master responded:

“No! Witnesses have seen its form. It does not resemble a living being. It… used a device. This is science, not magic.”

“Science, you say?” the knight commander muttered mockingly. “We have long restricted science. In our kingdom, no such device exists! So where did it come from? Where did it get it?”

“Consider this. Such a powerful explosion, and to fly so far, would require immense magical energy. Yet no human possesses such power. Therefore, it bypassed magic and used science. There is no other explanation.”

The council hall buzzed with murmurs and growing dispute. Some insisted it was magic, others argued science—but no consensus was reached.

At that moment, Julius II sprang to his feet, slamming his fist onto the table. The candles trembled, and the hall fell silent.

“Enough!” the king shouted. “Who it is—whether scientist or wizard—is irrelevant! I do not care! What matters is that it is trampling our prestige. If we do not capture it, the people will lose faith in us. And if I lose the throne—you will all lose your heads as well!”

The king took a deep breath, scanning the hall with cold eyes, then commanded:

“Find it. Immediately!” and exited through the door without looking back.

The hall fell back into gloomy silence, but every heart was filled with fear and uncertainty. Who was it? The Night Mist, or a harbinger of a new era?

Within the Ostania Kingdom, whispers about the Night Mist grew louder each day. Children in the streets played games, scaring one another with its name, while in taverns adventurers exaggerated tales of encounters with it.

After this legend spread, King Julius II issued a decree:

“Whoever captures it will receive an unparalleled reward from the treasury. Whether it is a monster, a wizard, or a phantom from another world—it does not matter. Bring me its head!”

The reward was said to be beyond imagination. Consequently, mid-ranking knights and adventurers were among the first to volunteer.

 “If this creature is so dangerous, the king would not have sent us from the capital. Perhaps it is just a runaway mage or a mere myth,” said one knight commander.

Thus, the mission to capture the Night Mist began.

 The Forest CampAfter a long journey, they reached the edge of the forest at dusk. The sounds of owls and nocturnal animals echoed from all directions. The adventurers lit a fire in the center and began preparing food. Yet the young sorceress of the group, Elsa, did not forget caution. She traced her surroundings onto a magical map, sensing all movement within its radius even with her eyes closed.

The group consisted of two archers, two healers, one sorceress (Elsa), and the rest were warriors.

“So far, no movement…” Elsa said, eyes closed.

But at that moment, one archer glanced sharply at the sky.

“Look! Something’s up there!” he shouted.Indeed, among the stars, an unfamiliar dark shape moved, like a shadow across the void.

“Prepare your weapons!” the commander ordered. The archers nocked their arrows, adding glowing runes to track their target.Yet Elsa froze—on her magical map, this object was completely unknown. Usually, any living creature would appear marked, but this was like empty space.

“This… is impossible… my map isn’t registering it!” she said, alarmed.

The Flashing Bomb

Suddenly, the sky split with a blinding flash. Moris had thrown special light grenades from his aircraft. The adventurers screamed and fell to the ground, eyes stinging as if burned.

“My eyes! I can’t see!”

“What kind of magic is this?!”While they were stunned, the dark shadow in the sky silently moved away. After a few minutes, when their eyes barely adjusted and they began to see their surroundings, they noticed a wooden box near the camp clearing.

“What’s this?” asked one of the healers.

Elsa lifted the box with her magic and opened it. Inside lay only a single piece of paper. Written roughly but clearly were the words:

“Tell your king: we’ve turned him to dust.”

Humiliation Seeing this message, the adventurers’ anger flared.

“He’s mocking us!” shouted one of the archers.

“This is not about sacrifice, it’s a game,” Elsa gritted her teeth.At that moment, the scene shifted, showing a few minutes earlier: Moris sat in the V-29 aircraft, watching on his radar as the adventurers set up camp. On the opposite side of the forest, a squad of knights approached, their armor clinking, horses thundering along the ground.

The squad’s commander ordered in a harsh voice:

“A shadow has been spotted in the forest. Archers, get ready!”

The archers moved quickly, nocking their arrows and taking aim at the target.

But at that exact moment, suddenly, the horses bolted, neighing loudly and tossing the knights to the ground.

“What’s happening here?!”

“Have the horses gone mad?”

“Hold the reins tight!”

The horses ran wild into the forest, leaving the knights behind. The fallen soldiers struggled to rise under the weight of their heavy armor.

In the midst of this chaos, the dark shape in the sky suddenly vanished as if it had never been there.

The commander ground his teeth.

“This… is a deliberate trap!” he said, eyes flashing with anger.

 Moris’ SceneThe scene shifts to Moris. In the cockpit, he glanced back, smirking.

“How’s that, gentlemen knights? Fell beautifully, didn’t you?”

He pressed a small device, displaying on a screen the tiny drone in his pocket.

“These are ultrasonic micro-drones… you won’t hear them, but horses have extremely sensitive ears. To them, it sounds like a torturous scream. They panic and run.”

Moris spread his hands and chuckled lightly.

“That’s enough for now. Losing your horses suits me perfectly. Next time, we’ll play again…”

He pressed the device again, recalled the drones, and turned his aircraft into the dark night, disappearing from view.

Conclusion

The knights were scattered in the forest, forced to search for their horses. They were both angry and humiliated.

“This is no mere monster… it’s mocking us deliberately!”

The knights, ruined and separated from their horses, barely managed to recover them, still trembling with rage. The commander spoke in a low, scolding tone:

“If we return to the king now, we’ll be laughed at. We’ll never shake the title of ‘fools deceived by a monster.’ This is worse than death for us!”

The vice-commander added:

“Yes, sir. The people and the nobles will ridicule us. Until we capture this Night Mist, we cannot face anyone.”

The knights’ eyes burned like fire, each clenching fists in determination.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the forest, the group of adventurers made the same decision. Though still shaken from the blinding grenade, they did not want to lose face within the guild.

Elsa pressed her palms to her chest, whispering:

“He mocked us deliberately… Accepting humiliation is weakness. Until we catch him, we cannot restore our name.”

The young archer tightened his grip on his bow:

“That black… shadow is not a bird, not a creature. But we cannot return to the guild without taking him down.”

Thus, both sides—knights and adventurers alike—hesitated to retreat. Each swore inwardly: “No matter what, we won’t return without capturing him!”

Moris, gliding inside his aircraft, seemed to sense their inner resolve and smiled.

“Interesting… making them unwilling to return home was no mistake. Now they will chase me to the end. And I… wonder what surprise I’ll prepare for them next?”

The forest was filled with quiet, broken only by the sounds of birds around them. The adventurers pitched their tents, lit a fire, and settled in. Elsa held her magical map aloft, watching over the area. At one point, she noticed on the map that a group was gathering at the edge of the forest.

“What’s this?” she said aloud. “There’s another group nearby.”

Seddler, the archer, immediately stood up.

“Let’s go check it out.”

As they approached, they saw knights sitting around a fire. One of them, holding a banner and clad in heavy armor, stood up. His brown eyes and commanding voice instantly conveyed authority.

“I am Edward,” he said. “We are here by the king’s order. And what are you doing in this area?”

Seddler responded without hesitation:

“We were given a mission by the guild. Yesterday, we saw the ‘Night Mist’ with our own eyes. But…” He grimaced and pulled a piece of paper from his belt. “It mocked us with this message.”

Edward took the paper and read it. Every word was written sarcastically:

“Tell your king: we’ve turned him to dust…”

The knights stirred and became angry, but Seddler remained calm:

“His actions are not like an animal’s. He is deliberate. He is mocking us intentionally.”

Edward nodded silently.

“You’re right. We saw it too yesterday. He spooked our horses, and we barely escaped. Such an opponent cannot be defeated separately. We must unite. Returning alone would be a disgrace.”

“Then we should join forces,” Seddler said, confidence in his eyes. “I have a plan. Tonight, we will distract him from the outside and draw his attention. Meanwhile, you hide in the forest and strike unexpectedly.”

Edward drove his sword into the ground:

“Very well. Tonight will be decisive.”

As the knights and adventurers conferred, a small drone silently hovered in a tree above. Its red light recorded everything, transmitting it elsewhere.Scene shifts to Moris in the darkness.He sat in the aircraft cockpit, listening to the entire conversation on the screen, grinning wryly.

“Good…” he said mockingly. “So you’re beginning to realize I’m no monster. I acknowledge your intelligence… But the game is mine to run, not yours.”Nightfall Moris warmed up the V-29 aircraft and headed toward the forest. In the dark sky, the massive shadow gliding approached the knights and adventurers below.Turning on his radar, he smirked coldly:

“They think they’re hiding behind shields… playing with third-century weapons, while I see them clearly on the heat map,” he said mockingly.

In a clearing, adventurer archer Seddler spotted the dark object and shouted:

“Elsa, get ready!”The sorceress Elsa raised her hand, conjuring a large fireball, and hurled it at the aircraft. But Moris dodged, letting the projectile pass by.“Don’t shoot! Let him chase us. We’ll trap him in the knights’ net,” Seddler told his companions.The adventurers seemed to scatter. Moris already knew their plan through his radar. Chuckling, he thought:

“You think you can trap me? No, the game is only beginning.”He changed his aircraft’s course and reached the knights’ hiding place. Suddenly, he looped around and dropped several bombs from above. The bombs fell not directly on them, but nearby.“Something was dropped on us!” shouted one knight.They fled in panic. The forest echoed with rumbling and crashing sounds, as if the ground itself was shaking.All the knights, frightened, ran toward the adventurers’ clearing. Seddler was stunned:

“How? He couldn’t have seen us. How did he know?”

As the knights and adventurers gathered together in the clearing, Moris swooped down and activated his machine gun. Bullets rained from the sky, but none hit directly.

“He’s deliberately missing!” shouted Elsa, trembling with fear.

The shield-bearing knights braced themselves, knees bent. The ricocheting shots echoed through the forest, and everyone huddled together in terror.

Hovering above, Moris fired another round, then laughed mockingly:

“Your swords and bows are just toys to me. That was only a game. Next time, there will be no game.”

Then he lifted his aircraft and vanished into the night sky.

The knights trembled with fear in the clearing, crouched under their shields. Edward, furious, turned to Seddler:

“This was your plan! What happened? We’ve been made a joke. We look like cowardly pups!”

Seddler gritted his teeth and replied:

“No, even your knights couldn’t do anything. We’re facing not just a beast, but a conscious enemy!”

At that moment, a young knight found a black box at the base of a tree in the forest. Scared, he brought it to Edward. When Edward opened it, there was a letter inside.

It read:

“If you don’t return quickly, worse is coming. You are still alive because my mood is high. But this will not last forever.”

Edward read the letter, tore it up, and trembling with anger said:

“Enough! If not tonight, we will catch him tomorrow! He cannot mock us forever!”

Yet the eyes of the soldiers around him were filled more with fear than confidence…

As the knights and adventurers still gathered in the clearing, a young knight suddenly shouted:

“Look! He’s back!”

Everyone looked up to see the black silhouette of an aircraft slowly passing under the moon. But this time, it did nothing, flying silently and slowly away.“Why didn’t he attack?..” whispered Seddler.While everyone was stunned, a deafening hissing and growling arose from the forest. Suddenly, hundreds of predators—wolves, giant tigers, jet-black thorn wolves, fire-spitting salamanders—emerged from the trees.

“Monsters!” shouted a knight.

The beasts pounced on everyone. Edward quickly regained composure and gave orders:

“Shield-bearers, forward! Pair up and form a line! Spearmen, cover the rear! Archers, prepare!”

The shield-bearers pressed together, forming a living wall. Spears were raised behind them, and archers rained arrows from the back of the line.The first strike hit hard. The giant wolves tried to break through the shields. Some clawed at the shields, teeth gnashing.

“Hold the line! Don’t break formation!” shouted Edward.Seddler pulled back his bow and yelled:

“These are lower-tier monsters! We will win, just stay calm!”

Edward glanced back, nodded, and raised his sword, charging forward:

“Advance!” he shouted.With his first strike, he beheaded three thorn wolves. Another wolf leapt at him, only to be struck down by Seddler’s arrow to the heart.“I’ve got your back! You focus ahead!” said Seddler.Edward simply nodded and pressed forward, slashing the monsters with every strike, cutting down enemy after enemy.

 Seddler and his archers rained arrows like a storm, slowing the beasts’ assault. Elsa raised her hands to the sky, sending chains of fireballs around. The flaming projectiles engulfed a group of beasts, creating a ring of fire in the forest.“Again! Again!” shouted the adventurers.

Each flaming projectile struck the thick of the predators, reducing their numbers dramatically. The blood-soaked clearing echoed with shrieks, growls, and human cries—a true hell.

After hours of battle, the last salamander was slain, and silence fell.

The shield-bearers, exhausted, sank to their knees. Many were wounded, but the survivors cheered:

“We won! We won!”Edward shook his bloodied sword and breathed deeply.

“This is only the beginning…” he said gravely.

Seddler glanced at the remnants of the box and murmured:

“He was just testing us… so he sent this deliberately.”Elsa shut her eyes tightly, whispering in exhaustion:“He’s playing with us… testing us.”With all the predators eliminated, the forest returned to silence. The smell of blood and smoke hung in the air. The knights were weary, the adventurers exhausted.

 Edward rested his heavy sword on the ground, taking a breath:

“This was no random attack. There is a power behind this.”Elsa reopened her magic map, but shook her head, finding nothing.“No unusual traces, no magical energy… but ordinary beasts cannot do this.”Seddler’s face hardened:“No… this is the trick of the Night Mist. It cannot be otherwise. Not only did he mock us with a letter, he now unleashed the entire forest’s beasts against us. But how?”The knights whispered among themselves, fear creeping in.“So he’s encircling us like a game…”“No beast would do this…”Edward clenched his fist:“Enough! Whatever it takes, this is the Night Mist’s doing. We must capture him. Otherwise, there is no returning to the kingdom.”Scene shifts to Moris.In the cockpit, he laughed, watching the drone monitors.

“Exactly… think what you will—monster, magic, or whatever. The truth will never reach you.”He recalled the small ultrasonic drones and attached them beneath his wings. The aircraft slowly moved away from the forest.Moris thought: That’s enough for today. Fuel is running low; I must return to the lab. His aircraft slowly departed, while the full moon shone clearly above in the sky.