Chapter 176 - The Elf's World (4)

The monsters somehow reacted and used the strange metal around their bodies to block the Lightning bolts, and while it decreased some of its power, it hadn't been enough.

You obtained 5000 experience points.

You obtained 5000 gold coins.

You obtained 5000 experience points.

You obtained 5000 gold coins.

…

While the enemies were astonished at that display of the power of someone who looked very weak, Luke hurried and grabbed one ax of one of the fallen enemies, he didn't know why it didn't disappear, but he couldn't care less. He dashed toward the remaining six monsters and then used Weapon Augmentation level five. 

Luke felt his arms burning, and his head also went foggy due to rage. That had been unexpected, but he was mad, but he was controlling his anger… who could have thought that the skill would make him unable to do that? Regardless, Luke jumped and then swung down the ax toward one of the enemies. The creature managed to block the first strike, but the ground below them cracked around several meters. Luke's attack didn't end there… before he could land, he swung down again, again, again and again. On the third strike, the weapon of the enemy broke, the fourth and the last one just destroyed the head of the creature.

You obtained 5000 experience points.

You obtained 5000 gold coins.

The four remaining creatures tried to surround him, but they forgot that Luke wasn't alone. Rina and the remaining elves began to attack them from behind with boomerangs, whips, nunchucks… they really had a weird set of weapons. Still, the damage that they were causing was minimal. Fortunately, Luke recovered enough mana to use Lightning again, and so another enemy fell dead. At that point in time, those monsters knew that they couldn't win. In fact, they had been defeated too fast… Luke was at a lower level, and he looked weak, but he had a few tricks up his sleeve.

Luke tried to grab another weapon from a fallen monster, but those three dashed toward him to prevent that. They would fall, but they would take him down as well. At least that was their plan… Rina prevented that by throwing the boomerangs toward Luke, and he grabbed them before activating Weapon Augmentation and firing them toward the enemies' throats. Their weird armor-like skin tried to protect them, but they were too close, and the projectiles moved faster and sliced their throats.

Due to the momentum, the enemies still finished their swings, but Luke jumped and dodged those. After agonizing for a few seconds, the enemies fell dead. Luke sighed in relief. That had been pretty intense… but the quest didn't end.

"Your Majesty!" 

"You are back, Your Majesty!" 

"Thank goodness, Your Majesty!" 

"Your Majesty…" Luke copied everyone and bent his knee in front of Rina.

"Et tu, Brute?" Rina asked. "Stop that…"

While he did to liven up the mood, and Rina was thankful for that, she didn't want any more people treating her like an idol. Even less so a friend like Luke. In any case, she went to check the situation with her friends after telling them to get up. Meanwhile, Luke went to check the corpses of those weird creatures.

"Shalia, warn me if you feel the salamanders approaching," Luke said.

"Actually, they are heading south… I can feel some elves' presence in that direction as well," Shalia said.

"I guess they are being controlled by those that left before we arrived," Luke said and then touched the weird metal. "Hmm? It is a lot… squishy. It has the appearance of metal, but the texture is weird."

"I noticed that this metal had some mana when those creatures were alive," Shalia said. "They probably became harder by absorbing the mana of those guys."

Luke nodded and then tried to pour his mana like when he did with the crystal, but nothing happened. Maybe that only accepted the mana of those creatures. That was a bit disappointing since those guys didn't have any protective gear with them… fortunately, their axes still were there. Maybe they hadn't been summoned by using crystals. In any case, Luke checked the axes.

Hard Ax

STR + 20

END + 10

Durability: 100/100

It was better than most run-of-the-mill weapons, but it wasn't that special… aside from its durability. Luke could use four of those, so he decided to carry them. It was quite refreshing to use Weapon Augmentation level five with axes, after all.

"I talked with my friends… and it seems that for the last few weeks, some of us had been captured," Rina said. "They are interrogating them and trying to discover where I was hiding and using others for… to pass down our abilities to their ranks."

That was no laughing matter. It was the kind of humiliation that made wars last for many years and a lot of hate being passed down toward the future generations. It didn't seem like something they had experienced before, so those monsters certainly belonged to a new foe. In any case, they had to deal with that before the problem escalated and other overlords joined the fight. It would be better to solve that matter as soon as possible before things get even messier. The question was how...

"Do we know where the prisoners are?" Luke asked.

"South, they have a fortress there…" Rina replied.

"Well, then you should select those that can fight, a small group will be the best option to approach without being noticed," Luke said. "The sun will set soon, so we will use the darkness of the night in our favor."

Luke knew that the monsters detected their approach somehow, and they would be expecting some retaliation sometime soon. Still, it would be better to use everything on their side to their advantage.. The darkness will make them hard to hit from a distance, and the enemies probably won't discover until some time later how many of them are attacking.