Chapter 298 - Forced Retreat

Liam's words loudly rang out as he moved through the dozen of dark elves, evading their attacks, and directly appeared behind one of the dark elf Generals. 

His sword instantly sliced forward to land on the back of the elf, but at the last minute, the elf jumped up from the tiger and landed on the ground, smoothly dodging his sword slashes.

"Ho. Ho. Ho. Narishta Karishta. Someone interesting is here." 

Immediately, a dozen elves swarmed around the two of them, trying to sneak attack Liam from the side and the back.

And the dark elf General as well did nothing to control this situation. A prey had willingly walked into their encirclement. 

He simply sneered observing the enemy standing in front of him, showing no intention of fighting him. His gaze only casually dragged on Liam as if he was analyzing everything about him. 

Liam, on the other hand, did not dare let his guard down because of this. He could tell that his opponent this time was not so simple.

There was a strong feeling of oppression and killing intent coming from the dark elf's cruel and sinister eyes.

Liam brandished his purple semi-epic sword slashing down at the other dark elves waiting to stab him from the back.

He sent out a burst of wind to one side and a burst of fire to the other side, doing a backflip to deal with the elves behind him personally.

But even under these dire circumstances, he couldn't possibly turn his back against the main enemy threatening his very life.

He always kept an eye on him while dealing with the other dark elves, which was not easy because each and every single one of them was high-leveled and had above-average combat abilities.

They blocked and parried his attacks, coming back, again and again, to encircle and trap him.

To make matters worse, another dark elf General also arrived, riding the huge tiger to stand near them and watch the show.

But Liam couldn't deal with either of them because he was being swarmed by their underlings from all sides.

If things continued this way… then he didn't even have to guess the outcome. This fight would be over before it even began.

He thought he could do some burst damage and keep the two occupied, kiting for a while but he had vastly underestimated the strength of the elves.

To answer these guys, he needed pure strength!

Liam gripped his sword tightly as he decided on the best course of action, at least for now.

The two Generals staring down at him were ticking time bombs that could go off whenever they pleased and take him down easily.

So before they went off...

"GET OUT!" 

Liam stopped haphazardly dealing with the weaker pests and stomped his feet on the ground, sending out a dozen nether spikes in all directions.

All the dark elf underlings immediately scattered away with injuries littered on their bodies. 

The two Generals, as well, received some of the spikes but they did not budge from their place.

But this at least temporarily gave him a circle of clearance. Liam finally found a chance and dashed forward to test the duo's strength.

Both held big spears in their hand and jumped off of their rides to land in front of Liam. "You want to fight? Ke Ke Ke."

[Fireball] Liam conjured a ball of fire, letting it grow bigger this time, and then without stopping his movement, he tossed it on the dark elf on the right and slashed down at the dark elf on the left.

The two Generals, however, easily evaded the attacks. They looked at each other and grunted, before striking forward with their spears.

Liam quickly moved a few paces back to avoid this attack, but unexpectedly, something still struck him before tossing him backward.

Only after he felt the intensity of the attack, he realized what had happened. 

From the tips of the spears, a black fire had swirled forward and the impact of it sent him flying with a few burnt marks on his skin.

Liam stabilized himself and looked up to see the two dark elves sneering at him in disdain. 

They walked closer to him with expressions on their faces like they were coming forward to squish a bug.

Liam knew at that instant. He was correct. This was not an enemy he could win against. Perhaps with their whole group combined together.

These Generals and each of these dark elves might as well be dungeon bosses. Without everyone acting in sync, it was not possible to even scratch their skin, at least for now.

Even then it was difficult. Especially with the dozens of dark elf underlings still remaining on the battlefield. They needed to do a tactical retreat! 

They were too far spread out. They needed to regroup and fight back. Otherwise, this will be a losing battle.

However, the issue with this was... they were the ones currently on the losing side, and if the losing side retreats... then everyone would only get slaughtered.

It was the winning side who needed to retreat but why would they do it, unless...

Liam knew that he had to force them to retreat somehow making them think that they were the ones who were going to lose.

Liam hurriedly looked in the front and then looked behind him. 

A good part of the terrain was still covered in black mist so he was only able to see so much, but he knew that behind him there were no members of their group.

He was right now standing amidst the enemy so he was surrounded on all sides by the enemy.

This was the most disadvantageous situation he could be in. At the same time, there was also another advantage.

Liam quickly turned tails and retreated back but not before tossing a couple of grenades behind the enemy lines, not just any grenade but he tossed the highest grade grenade he had in his possession.

BOOM! BOOM!

Two loud explosions resounded, throwing everyone off their rhythm. This was Liam's last backup and now he used that. 

Loud ear-piercing shrieks echoed as a couple of elves were killed in just a single second because of the impact of the explosions. Many were heavily injured and disoriented.

The look on the two Generals' faces finally changed, distorting in hate and anger. "You dare kill our brethren?" 

They rushed forward and this time they were definitely not going to hold back.

They did not come at him with an intention of testing his strength, but Liam was also not planning to stay back.

"RETREAT!" He shouted. 

BOOM! 

He threw out another bomb and then commanded the nether around him once again to form a giant fist and punched the elves chasing after him.

The problem was that though he was able to easily send out giant attacks by commanding nether, because of the racial dark element affinity of the elves his nether attacks were only 60% effective.

And to start with even the underlings were at higher levels, so he did not just rely on the nether fist.

He used the nether fist to create some space and pull back, before tossing out another bomb to do some actual damage. 

BOOOM! BOOM! BOOOM!

Continuous explosions rang out. Liam did this to get some breathing room for himself and the team but he also did this for another reason.

While the entire village and the neighboring areas trembled in the aftermath of the explosions, the elves grew nervous for the first time.

They were worried about these explosives that were coming at them endlessly. The blood and carnage were simply too much for them to recover and they couldn't fight back at all.

And just like Liam expected, a different horn sounded this time.

ROOOOOOOO! The elves started slowly retreating back without pushing on further. The elven generals as well started begrudgingly retreating back.

Seeing the destructive power of the grenades, they did not want to underestimate their enemy and take chances.

BOOM! Liam tossed out another bomb and they gritted their teeth in anger, leaving the place hurriedly.

Because of the black mist, it was unclear where they ran away to but they were definitely retreating, at least for the time being.

Alex, Mia, Shin Soo, everyone at the front line saw this and heaved a breath of relief. They were also tired to their bones and were fighting with their all.

However, right at this moment, when things were about to clear up, suddenly a shadow emerged from Liam's back.

Everything happened in a second. 

A hand grabbed Liam from the back and a dagger flashed past him, but Liam sensed it in time perhaps because of the abundance of nether around him.

He twisted his body to land a kick and evade, while also simultaneously attacking with his purple sword.

SHEEEK!

Red blood splattered, but before Liam could get a handle on things, the figure vanished again.

An assassin?

Amidst the dust and debris from the series of explosions, it was very easy to disappear but Liam had a feeling that the person who attacked him still hadn't left.

"BE CAREFUL!" He did not even finish speaking when the dark-skinned elf appeared once again.

However, this time he appeared behind Alex who was a few feet away from Liam.

Alex hurriedly spun around, her red hair dancing in the black mist and her shield up against the person's chest, pushing him back. But...

BANG. THUD.

The elf's hands moved at a lightning-fast pace and he knocked out the woman in one hit before her attack could land.

The next second, unexpectedly, grabbed her before disappearing again. Everything happened too fast before anyone could make sense of it. 

Liam was the only one to react and he dashed forward, slashing his sword and sending out a dozen fire bullets in the dark elf's direction, but unfortunately, they all only bit the dust.

It looked like the dark elf had really vanished this time around and did not appear again. He had also taken Alex along with him.

***

Bonus Chapter~~

Please thank Shocked Corgi for this bonus chapte