Chapter 177 - The Elf's World (5)

After half an hour, Rina selected a group of fifteen elves that were pretty good at close-range combat. While there were others and she could heal them, near instantly, she decided to leave them behind in order to avoid further casualties. 

Once night fell, the group headed south. Meanwhile, the others who were left behind began to pack their things. Their camp had been found by a single group of enemies, but after the battle, it was clear that others would soon will find them as well.

"What can you guys tell us about the enemy?" Luke asked.

The group of elves looked at Luke while frowning. He was acting like he was leading the group, but that would be preposterous since Rina was there and she was their queen. No, even before that, Luke had noticed some stares coming from them. As expected, they were like those three in Jennifer's group. They were more like fanboys than actual loyal subjects. Still, they corrected themselves when they felt the stern gaze coming from Rina.

"... One month ago, they appeared in this world. They attacked many forests as if they knew where we were hiding. While they were looking for us, they also defeated some monsters of the other overlord. The species that they could capture to interrogate and use… they captured, if they couldn't, they just eliminated."

That wasn't that surprising. Anyone with half of a brain would know where to look for the elves. Aside from that, since their status was hidden, it was hard to say if their plan to strengthen their army was actually working in some way. Still, something began to bother Luke… even if they managed to use the elves and other creatures to do that, wouldn't that take too long? Besides, those creatures didn't look like hybrids between different species. If that was the case, those fifteen monsters would have some physical differences among them.

"At first, they used ice monsters and then wind monsters to attack us, but then they began to use only fire type monsters to surround us and destroy all possible locations that we might try to use. Every group has at least fifty monsters and one of those powerful creatures to lead them."

It seemed that their leader knew how to use their forces, but those monsters not so much… they left the salamanders around the forest, after all. Still, they probably did so to prevent the elves from escaping. It wasn't their fault that Luke and Rina appeared and destroyed their entire plan.

In any case, the group found traces of the enemies as soon as they left the forest… they didn't worry about hiding them because it was the first time the elves counterattacked. Besides,… they dragged the prisoners by pulling their hair instead of putting them in cages or something like that. There were also signs of blood… Rina's facial expression darkened when she saw some fingers on the way. She could heal such wounds, but the memories… Those were things she couldn't heal.

Luke's group kept the pace for several hours until they began to find many salamanders around burning the grass in the area with their breathing alone. Putting that aside, Luke also could see something weird ahead… they were supposed to be in the middle of a massive grassland without obstacles or anything in the distance. Still, that thing looked like a mountain in the shape of a square.

"Could it be…" Luke muttered.

"It is very likely," Shalia said.

That thing in the distance was probably something similar to the ice castle. This was surprising since Luke imagined that they were quite rare… but that would explain how that species would put the skills of the elves in their ranks pretty quickly. Luke didn't know how the process worked. Still, by sacrificing the spirit of a certain creature, an overlord with a castle and that red crystal would be able to make copies of the sacrificed creature… as long as they have enough mana. It was quite a disturbing process… but it seemed something someone that considered using elves and other creatures to give birth to more powerful species would do.

"Let's take things slowly from here on out," Luke said. "The overlord must have a limit to how many creatures he can spawn, so let's decrease their current army."

Rina nodded and then held her whip tightly. It didn't fit her image, but a whip was her main weapon, a green one that could poison the target with its thorns. Her sub weapons were a pair of dark boomerangs in the shape of a round shuriken. They could increase the weight of those hit by it by fifty percent for two seconds. So, they were a pretty nasty combo.

Little by little and without being noticed or noticing the salamanders, for that matter, Luke's group began to hit them down silently. He thought that relying on Weapon Augmentation would be enough to deal with small fries, but he quickly would exhaust his stock of needles with those numbers. Unfortunately, his Water Manipulation couldn't work with Weapon Augmentation… maybe it could if he could create and freeze some needles, but he couldn't. So, Luke made a mental note to buy a single target spell that night.

"Once we defeat this enemy, do you think we should use their base?" Luke asked. "If we use the mana of your friends, then maneuvering should be easy."

"... Aren't you taking this too lightly?" Rina frowned.

"Should I act while assuming that we are going to lose?" Luke asked.

"No, but… something like that is easy to stop," Rina said. "Besides, I doubt that we can make it fly high in the sky to avoid attacks all the time. Even if we can, I don't think that will stop the most powerful overlords from reaching us."

It seemed that Rina wanted to dispose of that… while Luke would probably receive a quest to do so, it still was a damn waste… if he only could go down on the level of the enemy and sacrifice creatures to fool that building, he would be able to control that with no problem.. Unfortunately, while they weren't that many and were impressive, Luke still had his morals.