Looking around, I could not help but lament the fact that here I was, in a battle zone. Rotting corpses, strayed animals, ruined apartments,... as far as the eyes could see with the occasional outbreaks of fire.

I have lived in this world of Witches of War for a while, living under a new identity that Admin arranged for me. For the past three months, things were peaceful and I spent time mostly on information gathering. There was only so much I could do as a normal civilian contractor in this world. Nonetheless, having first-handed knowledge is still better than what you watched from an anime series.

Witches of War, a series about female witches fighting again unknown entities known as Dragoons. They are mechanical constructs with unknown purpose, one thing for sure is that when one appears, destruction follows. No one knows where they came from but with technological prowess far exceed mankind, Dragoons wiped out many populated regions of Earth. The only effective combatants that can fight Dragoons are Witches. With magical powers and the aid of flying equipment known as Flieger, they take to the sky to cut off the wings of Dragoons.

Still, this world is stuck at an impasse. Mankind doesn't have enough Witches to completely eradicate Dragoons from their bases that are called Nests. Nests housed many Dragoons with the number ranging from a hundred to thousands, each occupied a large swath of land. With more than half of Earth has already fallen to the Dragoons onslaught, counter-offensives did take place. Though the record of Nests destroyed can be counted on one hand, each with grave losses. Strangely, however, when a Nest disappears, the land it occupied turns into a very fertile ground with abundant resources. It was thanks to these retaken lands that humanity still able to sustain itself.

Hence, mankind set the goal to slowly, but surely, retake all the lost grounds. One such ground is the South East Asia region, where I am at right now and where last week, it was still a peaceful playpark for kids.

In this world, there exists a theory that a Nest appears when enough Dragoons are concentrated in one place. It's one of the reasons the entire world is actively hunting Dragoons, to prevent more Nests from spawning near civilian habitats.

They failed to hunt them all in the end, or the Dragoons managed to sneak under the radar,... nobody knows the answer but the South East Asia region become another Nest in a week. One of the few major fortresses of humanity, gone in flame.

*Ratan* *Rumble*

I turned my head to a grey building. where the rhythmic sound of moving machinery could be heard. After a few seconds, a four-leg mech clad in black, angled armor platings crashed through the building. Its head, shaped like an arrow, surveyed the surrounding with a red visual receptor.

I was spotted in no time at all and the mech, called Quadpod, rev its underslung plasma turret to engage me. A normal human being is unable to withstand a shot of that turret, even a Witch is gonna be hard-pressed to tank one hit unscathed. So am I, which is why I am not stupid enough not to do anything about it.

Eyes shining blue, my vision cracked, the entire world turned broken, space itself is vulnerable before me. The Quadpod which can only be killed by the magic power of a Witch or heavy anti-tank firepower looks so flimsy in my view. I dashed to the side while materializing my rifle, the Spear. Moments later, the spot I previously resided on, exploded into magma. Aiming at one of the highlighted points, Death Spots, on the machine, I pulled the trigger.

With a suppressed sound from my gun, the bullet whizzed out the barrel then hit true. Just like a puppet with its strings cut, the Quadpod collapsed with a loud rumble. The encounter lasted 10 seconds, with the loser being the 3 meters tall machine.

" My eyes, they are like a broken cheat." I said, still scanning for more targets.

" That's Innate skills just for you. They are broken, it's rare for an Avatar to have one Innate skill, let alone two as you have. Unlike normal skills, Innate skills have almost no cost to use with powerful effects." Admin explained.

" This pair of sapphire eyes is what mother gave me. I'm eternally thankful for her." I spotted another Dragoon, a flying one this time. With the shape of an enlarged, four-rotor unmanned drone and a gimbal laser turret. This Dragoon, Recover, should pack quite a bit of speed.

Ducking in the shadow of a clothing shop, I saw the Dragoon hovering above the carcass of its comrade. Soon after, the carcass was dismantled into light particles then got absorbed by the flying machine. That was when I sniped the Death Spot situated on the main body of the flying Dragoon. It exploded into pieces with whiteish flame before crashing hard on the ground.

Packing up before relocating to a new place, I take one last look at the burning wreckage I made.

"... Let's go."

I have been staying here for a week, the behavior patterns of this Nest are being grasped by me. At least, the behavior patterns on land not the ones at the sea. After noticing the takedown of a Quadpod and a Recover, the South China sea Nest will send a hunter-killer party to neutralize the opposition. While it is easy to defeat the first and second hunter-killer party, the difficulty will keep going up and up until it is a chore to defeat them all. I want to grind my third quest without drawing much attention to myself.

Due to my constant hunting and relocating, I sometimes run across survivors. Never bother to interact with them, if they came close I would just chase them away with bullets. Though I stumbled across a colorful graffiti, left behind by the survivors, saying that they are thankful that I have been protecting the neighborhood.

" Seems like you got yourself a fanbase." Admin teased me.

" I don't like it though." I did shoot at them, after all.

" Well, someone is acting like a Tsundere." Admin joked. Does this even count as me being Tsundere?

" 50 EP for well-liked Avatar!" Here we go again, I shook my head.

Anyway, I have been killing around a hundred Dragoons already. Not sure what my final result will be but I am starting to get bored of baiting and killing these cannon fodders.

" Even though you said cannon fodders, they can easily crush a tank division, you know? Still, with your skill, they really are cannon fodders, even though you're in a sealed state." Admin sighed in exasperation. " You're the most outrageous Avatar I've ever seen. However, it's still better to choose a world that has non-humanoid enemies as your first quest journey, if possible."

" Safer that way, I presume?"

" One of the reasons, but most of the time non-humanoid enemies aren't as cunning as intelligent, humanoid enemies. You can say that enemies like the Dragoons are easier to farm." Admin offered her explanation. " Though the quest reward, in the end, isn't as good because of the lowered difficulty."

" I see." I nodded. " I doubt a sane tactician will let me killed out all of his troops."

" With enough time, you can also move into higher-level dimensions and getting closer to your goal."

" I will strive hard to reach it."

" 50 EP for a determined Avatar!"

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A month has passed since then. With each passing day, I started hunting more and more Dragoons, almost making these cannon fodders going extinct. The surviving population of the port city I am staying at, also start leaving supplies at the graffiti as thank you gifts for my works.

I was not saving them, intentionally though... I did write on the graffiti wall some appreciative lines in return for the supplies. This stuff saved me a lot of time to hunt more Dragoons. In fact, I boosted my killing spree so much that the Nest needs to have hunter-killer on patrol permanently. This situation is different from the anime, the Nest upped the security level but that also lessen my boredom to an extend.

I jumped from the top of a 10-stories building with Spear in my right hand. Firing a short burst downward at a 30 meters long flying Dragoon that looks like an airship. I exposed its core. It is a large hexagonal ruby that exuding rich crimson energy, not of this world. Landing deftly on the core, I stabbed my Shiro in it with my left hand, promptly shattering it in a burst of energy. Not letting this rich energy going to waste, I absorbed them into myself by using Angel Mystic art, permanently strengthening me a little.

Sheathing my wakizashi in my right scabbard, I run along the body of the now crashing Dragoon then jumped off. I scanned my surrounding midair, seeing that I am surrounded by smaller Dragoons with turrets trailing my figure. I took out grenades from my inventory, spinning my body with clever usage of wind magic, I flung the grenades to where the enemies at.

Explosions of various colors appeared in the air, with wreckages of helicopter-liked Dragoons coming down to the ground. These Dragoons are like unmanned aerial combat drones that the airship Dragoon deployed prior to our engagement.

Using wind magic to slow down my fall, I then ran across the now burning city street, filled with all sorts of Dragoons. We have our usual suspects of Quadpod, Recover,... to rarer ones like the Hexapod with siege artillery on the back, or the Raven that is like a heavily armed attack chopper.

Instead of having the Spear, I holster her behind my back then unsheathed Kuro. With Kuro and Bruno on each hand, I started cutting and shooting my way down the street. Occasionally expended grenades on concentrated groups of enemies. Everywhere I went, destruction follows.

Kuro's blade is very sharp, enough to cut through the nanomaterials that the Dragoon is made of easily. Now, if I use Fallen Angel War art that boosts my physical combat capability, I can fight these things all day long. With Mystic Eyes of Death Perception, it turned into a slaughter.

The same can be said to Bruno, my pistol. The Fallen Angel can buff her penetration and post-pen damage. Turning the hand-cannon into a sniper rifle is every gun maker's dream.

Now you may think, why bother using arts when I have my Mystic Eyes? Well, my Eyes indeed offer me a one-hit kill potential but I cannot kill concepts that I did not understand, or not strong enough to kill. For example, while I can kill space because of my experience in killing a world, I cannot kill time. I do not understand the concept of time, at least not yet. To understand time I need to know the past, present, and future of all things including time itself, though how do I do that in the first place? Space can be learned from the creation, existence, and Death of things that space encompassed, but time sure as hell is a mystery for me.

As for not being strong enough to kill, because I still have physical limitations, my brain can be fried by processing the Death of complex stuff like space. Yes, while I did say that I can kill space it does not necessarily mean that I will live to tell the tale. To be honest, me being an Avatar right now is because I killed space of my previous world and died... That is a story for another day.

I need to be stronger, easing up my physical limitations, cured my broken soul, and work hard for my ultimate goal. It is why I am now challenging an army of Dragoons. Each Dragoon I killed will push me one step closer to that goal.

Running Kuro across the twin siege cannon of the Hexapod, the Dragoon exploded in a fiery flame. Using the shockwave generated by the blast, I propelled myself to another Dragoon and stab its core with Kuro. Aiming Bruno at three nearby Quadpods, I efficiently disposed of them by shooting their Death Spots.

It is good to note that while all Dragoons have a core and destroying the core equals to destroying a Dragoon, only with a high-level Dragoon can I absorb the core's energy. Like the airship Dragoon that I cut down, its energy was absorbed by using Angel Mystic art.

Back to work, I pulled out my Kuro then unfold my ashen wings and took flight. My previous spot was blown to bits by the flying Ravens. Now that I look at them, they are more like VTOL aircraft armed with laser and plasma-based weaponry. Flying across the air, sometimes dodging plasma bolts or using magic shields to block laser beams, I quickly closed the gap between me and the Ravens.

" Fallen art, Rising Moon." I muttered and swinged Kuro. Multiple blades of darkish light appeared in the air and struck the flying Ravens, cutting them in half. Rising Moon is a sub-skill of Fallen Angel War art, very suitable to attack a group of strong enemies. However, each blade lacks explosive damage but has high penetration power so this skill is somewhat ineffective against a large mob of low-levels. If I want a good AOE skill then I can use this.

" Angel art, Falling Moon. " Multiple white energy spheres exuding white holy energy appeared and gathered Bruno. With a pull of the trigger, a cascade of white light poured down on the ground, leaving explosions and annihilation in its wake. The battlefield now looks like a plane carpet-bombed the entire place. While this skill certainly has its flairs and costs the same amount of energy required to cast Rising Moon. A high-level boss can just shrug the blast of holy energy.

" Phew..." I landed on the ground, looking at the ruined landscape in front of me.

" 50 EP for this Avatar! Thank you for your hard work!" Admin congratulated me on wiping another large group of Dragoons.

" It's good to have you here Admin. Without you, I may have turned back into a mindless killing machine." I suddenly said as I come across a broken glass panel of a ruined skyscraper. Instead of reflecting a normal human girl, I have a pair of sharp, dark grey horns on my head with my ashen angel wings. Not being narcissistic here but I do look very beautiful and mysterious with my blue eyes and Fallen Angel features. The same look that people used to call me the Devil of all things.

" I'm touched! 100 EP for you!" Admin spoke with a gentle tone. " I'm here to guide you so I can't have you strayed now, can I?

Watching the visage in the mirror retract the horns and wings. I smiled then slowly walked off, searching for a new place to stay.