CH 90

[You've slain an undead elf. Gold +1200!]

[You've slain an undead elf. Gold +1200!]

[You've slain an undead elf. Gold +1200!]

[...]

From start till now, they've killed around 200 or so undead, and from them, received an enormous fortune of around 250k gold.

That said, after fighting the entire way, everyone has gotten somewhat tired.

The Ancient Tree High Priestess casted a "Quickened Recovery" on everyone to increase the speed of their stamina and MP recovery.

"My lord, these undead elves seemed to be controlled by something!"

"Yes, I've noticed too. They're trying to lure us deeper in while at the same time grinding away our strength in order to prevent us from retreating."

The undead elves have low intelligence, so this situation must have someone directing it from the back.

Nancilia hurriedly spoke, "No wonder I kept feeling like someone's watching us. There's probably some sneaky guy currently watching us through a magic item or something!"

Zhang Nu was somewhat surprised at that.

He had the same feelings as well, only he just wasn't all that certain.

Nancilia's instincts and senses really are quite amazing.

She continued to speak, "Since we know full well that this is a trap, then let's not keep going in anymore. Rather, we should instead go back and formulate a strategy before bringing even more people in to deal with them."

"There's no need for that."

Zhang Nu distributed a new batch of potions to the group. With the potions and the support from the Ancient Tree High Priestess, they won't be so easily exhausted.

He rather wants to see just who's doing all this.

Giantree City is his territory.

It will bring great wealth to the Demon King in the future.

No matter what it is, so long as they dare to threaten Giantree City, it's the same as making an enemy out of him. Thus, it must be purged without the slightest trace remaining.

Zhang Nu has the confidence to do so because he knew from the start that the strongest being in this place is merely a level 3 Overlord. Thus even if they were to end up trapped and surrounded, he still has the confidence to be able to escape without harm!

Since the Demon King so stubbornly insists on this, the others had no choice but to obey.

Thus, the party continued moving forward deeper into the Giantree Forest.

At that time, heavy footsteps rang out from in front of them. An enormous being over 30 meters tall came out from behind a nearby giant tree. It looked like a withered tree.

It's not like the Tree of Sorrows that Zhang Nu encountered in the Mine of Sorrows.

This strange tree is a treant. It has four limbs and is able to walk about. It even has a recognizable face as well. It's just that its entire body was covered with an aura of death.

[Dark Treant Lord]. Level 3 Lord... Skills: Withered Earth (B Rank), Magic Drain (B Rank), Withering Beam (C Rank), Fell Stinger (C Rank), etc.

The elves recognized it too.

"It's a treant. They're originally natural allies of the elves, but this treant has already been completely corrupted by the evil miasma. A corrupted treant is very dangerous. For the sake of the forest, there's no choice but to destroy it."

As Nancilia spoke, she raised her hand, "Meteor Rain!"

It's a powerful B Ranked fire magic. Countless blazing hot fireballs were summoned out of nothing and quickly shot toward the treant like a rain of meteors. Every single one of them had the power equivalent to a Flame Explosion Curse.

Treants are naturally weak against fire.

There's no way a fallen treant should be able to withstand such a powerful fire attack.

Yet, something that shocked the other elves occurred.

When those flames struck the treant, it was actually absorbed by the treant. Although it did do a bit of damage, the vast majority of the energy was simply absorbed.

"What's going on?"

"How could that treant stand against fire?"

The elves there were all quite surprised at the sight.

The treant lord let out a roar and suddenly released a huge wave of deathly gray miasma. Wherever the miasma passed though, the ground dried up and disintegrated into sand, and the full effect covered an area hundreds of meters away.

"Don't get near it."

"That's a curse type attack skill!'

This is the treant lord's B Rank skill, Withered Earth. It's able to attack all targets within several hundred meters, hitting everything caught with a curse that quickly withers them away until they die.

The elves hurriedly backed away.

The Ancient Tree High Priestess readied an attack spell and was about to counterattack.

Zhang Nu once again interrupted, "Don't attack it with magic. That guy has the ability to drain the energy of magical attacks."

What?

Absorb Magic?"

But, how are they supposed to fight without using magic? They don't have any strong warriors with them right now.

"Allow me then!"

Zhang Nu's figure flashed forward in a blur and flew up to the treant. The treant reacted very quickly and shot out a gray Withering Beam from its mouth.

Although Zhang Nu didn't fear an attack like that, he still dodged it with a Shadow Leap, reappeared behind the treant, and then viciously stomped down with the War Trample skill.

With a huge bang, a huge portion of the treant's body collapsed and the enormous being fell.

After the original treant lord was corrupted, it gained a powerful magical absorption ability, but its body turned rotten and fragile, making it far weaker to physical attacks.

When dealing with monsters like that, it's best not to use magic and directly hit it with physical attack instead.

The treant lord's Withered Earth can curse all targets that touch the ground, but it can't take effect against Zhang Nu, who was in midair.

"Roar!"

The treant continued to shoot off Withering Beams without stopping while its heavy and clumsy arms swung and grabbed everywhere. However, it couldn't hit anything other than afterimages in the air while it continued to take fierce strikes to its body.

Nancilia's group also saw all this.

So the Demon King's melee combat ability is this terrifying too?

That speed, that strength. Paired with skills like Shadow Leam and War Trample, he was giving the treant a one-sided beatdown.

As the enraged roars continued, the treant was finally unable to keep going and collapsed like rotten deadwood.

[You've slain a Dark Treant Lord. Gold +30,000!]

Zhang Nu was able to use purely physical attacks without going into dragon form to easily take down this Lord leveled monster.

However, now's not the time to act satisfied with himself.

Just as the treant fell, more heavy footsteps rang out.

Zhang Nu scanned the scene and discovered that five more treant lords had come out from behind the party. This is the first time he's seen so many Lord leveled monsters acting together.

"We're leaving this place!"

Under Zhang Nu's orders, the party did not tangle with the fallen treant lords.

They quickly got away from the treants, but at that moment, in the Giantree Forest in front of them, a dilapidated elven temple appeared before them.

"You've finally arrived!"

A croaking voice came from the temple.

A black robed elf stood along with two skeletons with him.

The moment Nancilia saw that black robed elf, she immediately showed a shocked expression, "I've seen your portrait. You're Chief Arvis. How are you still alive?"

Before she even finished speaking, hundreds of undead elves swarmed out from every single direction, followed by the five fallen treant lords who then arrived right after, completely surrounding the dozen intruders.

So there was an ambush after all!

Nancilia had an ugly look on her face

It's because there really are simply too many enemies.

What's even more terrifying is that all the undead elves are very strong and the treants are even harder to deal with. Since they've been surrounded, their lines of retreat have been completely cut off.

The black robed elf coldly spolke, "I already have died. If not for the powers of that great one below, I couldn't have become how I am now either."

The elves here were all extremely shocked.

None of them could have imagined that the mastermind controlling all those undead elves and fallen treants was actually their tribe's former chief.

Zhang Nu took a look, and the black robed elf and his subordinates' information appeared before him.

[Fallen Elven Chief: Arvis]. Level 3 Overlord unit. Skills: Black Hole of Death (B Rank), Necromantic Cage (B Rank), Darkness Hellfire (B Rank), Undead Creation (B Rank), Teleportation (B Rank), Ice Age Strike (C Rank), Frozen Hand (C rank), etc.

Description: Formerly a brave chief of the elves. He sacrificed his own life in order to repair the seal, but was corrupted by the evil power and was turned into a powerful zombie mage. His mind had thus been greatly transformed. Extremely dangerous.

Strong, as expected!

This is an Overlord leveled unit!

Zhang Nu estimates that he might have been even stronger back when he was alive!

In that case then, the elf branch of Giantree City really has seriously declined over these years. Otherwise, the difference between them now and three hundred years ago wouldn't be nearly so huge.

As for the two skeleton mages next to the elf chief?

Those two aren't normal skeleton mages. They're created from two of the strongest elves from way back when by the fallen elf chief, and thus, they have the strength of level 3 Lords!

Zhang Nu was quite curious.

Just what is being sealed under the Giantree formation?

Based on these elves, the being sealed must have great necromantic powers. Otherwise, there's no way that it could have created such powerful undeads.

Nancilia was greatly pained, "Chief Arvis. You sacrificed yourself to save our people back then. We don't want to fight a hero like you!"

"Hohohoho!"

The black robed elf let out a creepy laugh, "I had thought that I didn't fear death back then as well, but it was only when my will really was about to vanish that I realized that I didn't actually have the courage to simply accept death. The so-called self sacrificing spirit was merely something that I've tricked myself into thinking."

"The being below gave me another chance at life."

"The current me only wants to keep living on!"

"Your Elf King's blood will allow me to recover back to when I was at my strongest. When the barrier over Giantree Forest fully breaks, I will retake control over the elven race and rule over the entirety of Chaos Forest!"

Zhang Nu shook his head at that, "He's completely fallen and corrupted. There's no need to waste any more words with him. It's just wasting time!"

At that point, the undead elves and treant lords have gotten closer and closer.

The black robed elf sneared, "Since you know who I am, then you should face the truth. The few of you can't possibly fight against me. There's no point in resisting, so you might as well just accept your deaths!"

Based on the fallen chief's observations, he had judged that this party was no threat to him at all.

Among the 12 elves, only two of them were slightly stronger. However, even so, they're basically around the same level as the skeleton mages beside him.

As for that draconian?

Based on his battle with the treant, the fallen chief judged that he's a powerful melee specialist.

That's quite normal too. The 12 elves are basically all mages. Since they lacked the ability to protect themselves in melee, it's not strange at all for them to bring a top class melee specialist.

However, that degree of power is nothing to the fallen chief.

Even if they weren't surrounded by his minions now, they'd have a hard time getting away alive now that they've gotten this far.

"Are you done talking?"

Zhang Nu stopped hiding his aura at this point. Powerful Dragon Fear exploded out in an instant, and the formless pressure blasted out like a fierce tsunami, forcing all the elves and treant who have been approaching to all back away a couple of steps.

"Dragon Fear?" The fallen chief spoke thickly, "I never expected that you had hidden some of your true power!"