During the time when Brendel and Conrad made their moves against each other, Hewjil had already separated his Lizardmen Warriors into two groups. They avoided the center path and attacked the ruins from the two side paths.

But the Silver Elves had already set up their positions. Nalaethar had also split up his warriors into two; one group was led personally by himself, while the other was given to the Nightsong Tiger to command, and they hid at the side entrances of the ruins.

The brutish and simple minded creatures screamed as they swarmed out from the forest. Their movements were nimble and they quickly stormed through the entrances, but what awaited them were the Silver Elves’ shining blades. The ambush by the Silver Elves was highly effective and their greatswords easily cleaved through the enemies’ throats, then quickly knocked the lifeless corpses back through the congested areas.

Because of that, the Lizardmen were sent tumbling through the narrow path and some of the Lizardmen who collided with the bodies lost their balance, and were sent flying down from the elevated height onto both the Paper Cards Mercenaries and their fellow Lizardmen.

Hewjil’s planned attack was stifled right there at the entrance, and the Mercenaries of Lopes and the Grey Wolves Mercenaries did not miss that chance. They immediately shot volleys of their bolts into the enemies’ formation from the higher grounds, causing even more obstruction for them, making it seem like they had crashed into an invisible wall and could not proceed any further.

A normal person who trained to use a crossbow was able to shoot six times in a minute, and these veteran mercenaries were even more experienced and agile, firing ten to fifteen shots in a minute.

The accurate bolts were fatal to their morale. Each time the steel rain of arrows fell onto them, the enemies felt like there was a death god who was swinging his scythe repeatedly to reap their lives.

There were indeed Lizardmen who wielded ranged weapons who could fight back, but Medissa strategically went after them in the beginning of her attack. But even if she did not, the ranged Lizardmen combatants were not as skilled as the mercenaries because they were a race as evolved as the humans.

With the lack of cover and the ability to fight back, the Lizardmen were forced to retreat. When Nalaethar realized what they were doing, he took down his horn hanging from his belt and blew it. The rich blare of the horn echoed throughout the ruins, and the Silver Elves gathered in front of their commander and fell neatly into position, placing their greatsword at the right side of their chest—

“My fellow Elves, who are we!”

“The Eversong army, the swords of Arlen!”

Nalaethar nodded and pointed his sword forward, and the Silver Elves charged down with a loud roar. Their silver armor shimmered in the sun and appeared like a wave of mercury flooding the path down to the lower valley. The Lizardmen were quickly swept away without any means to stop the Silver Elves .

The bolts did not stop firing from the start of the battle and seven crossbows were already damaged from the overuse. When the final spare crossbow was taken, the mercenaries had no choice but to switch to their shortbows.

The Lizardmen who appeared to be an endless sea of dark green creatures were unable to break past that silver line, and was even pushed back by their charge.

When the Silver Elves chanted their battle creed, Sanford and the Grey Wolves Mercenaries felt that their blood was set aflame. They felt like their hair standing up as though they had returned to that ancient era where the Silver Elves fought against the Dark forces.

The battles that took place in the Era of Darkness, were when all the races put everything they had against the Dark forces for the sake of freedom and pride. Sanford kept firing his bow and felt intoxicated by the feelings when he thought about the fact that they were fighting the Tree Shepherds’ minions.

=============== Conrad’s POV ==============

The horn’s blare sounded like a dragon’s roar in the distance which reached across the entire battlefield. Almost everyone stopped their actions when they heard it.

That was the signal of the Silver Elves’ attack —

Conrad’s expression changed once again. He was unable to see the flanks from his position because of the trees so he did not know what exactly was happening. The long dragon-like bellow could not be mistaken. The Silver Elves had returned once again after disappearing from the world for more than three centuries.

Conrad was certain that the arrogant and stupid Hewjil was the cause of this entire situation, but he did not think about trying to find the useless bastard and torture him.

[This fucking lizard is going to die a miserable death. The dragon-horn can only mean one thing, one of the strongest armies of the Silver Elves has reappeared on the battlefield. Are the high-ranking cavalry of the Elves or the Eversong Unicorn Cavalry in this attack as well? Damn it, if they are, I won’t even be able to escape from this fight.]

He had no heart to linger to battle any longer and glared hatefully at Brendel who was not far away. The Mage Slayer’s agility was considerably high, and his figure darted quickly into the shadows and seemed to merge into the background when he fled.

Brendel’s mind went blank for an instant, before he shouted to Medissa who was riding over quickly: “Medissa! Stop him!”

[Damn it, if Conrad moves to the front, the situation might change. A Gold-ranked fighter might be enough to turn the tides.]

Brendel clenched his fist as he felt he made a blunder on not reacting fast enough. However, Medissa had thought of the same thing and did not waste any time in activating her Charge ability. Her unicorn’s speed was already high enough, and the moment she activated her ability, it moved even faster; they were like a silver comet and drew a beautiful arc across the ground, moving quickly into Conrad’s path and blocking him.

“Ser Conrad. You have done too many evil deeds; please stay behind and settle the score. Your companions who defiled the living’s pride and desecrated the dead’s eternal sleep, both of you must pay the price—”

Medissa placed her lance horizontally as her unicorn turned around to face the youth whose dark red cape was fluttering from the wind. Her voice was clear even amidst the din from the battlefield.

Conrad covertly gritted his teeth. He did not want to speak to the Elven knight at all. Brendel’s orders had deepened his suspicion that he had confidence in his forces to defeat all of them. This was a trap.

Even though Conrad did not know what Brendel and his men had to do with Eke and the Grey Wolves Mercenaries, he was on his guard.

[Damn you, you Elven cunt!]

He cursed in his heart and ran in the opposite direction. But how was he going to outrun a unicorn? After a short run, he found that the Elven princess had blocked off his path again with an aloof expression.

Conrad tried three times and he was blocked off three times. He was starting to panic. If the opponent blocked him without any reservations, that would mean that she had the forces to overwhelm his own. Perhaps the highest ranking members of the Tree Shepherd would be to fight against these arrogant tree sticks, but he definitely could not.

He did not think his Mage Slayer abilities would be able to deceive the Elven girl. In front of him was one of the races who were the most proficient fighters in the continent, only a fool would hope that this opponent would make a mistake.

[If this is the case, it looks I only have to use my final trump card.]

============= Brendel’s POV ============

As Medissa blocked off Conrad, Brendel felt the sight in front in turning dark; a cold and dangerous air was rushing towards his face, and the youth immediately guessed it was the Avatar of Earth, Ekman.

The gigantic monster which was over five meters tall blocked off the sunlight and raised its arm, then swung it with a loud shriek.

The air vibrated and he felt the earth under his feet splitting apart and jutting up before it cracked.

[Earth Element, the power of boulders!]

He did not waste any time thinking further, grabbed Scarlett and jumped to his right. Both of them rolled a few times on the ground from his force, while Ekman’s palm smashed onto the ground with a ear-splitting blast. The soil scattered everywhere, with two rows of long rock spikes sticking out from the ground and merging together at the top, forming into a rock cage.

The surrounding Lizardmen thought the monster’s fingers had somehow extended through the ground to form the claw-like rock formation, but once its hand left the ground, the rocks immediately broke apart and turned into a pile of soil and dust.

Brendel gulped once when he saw that scene. Even though the guide mentioned Ekman’s approximate stats and strategies it liked to use, he felt it was something entirely different to face it in reality.

He felt a little like he had gone back during the time when he was level 40+. At that time, the developers Torrential Rain released a new patch to the game, ‘Knights of the Holy Cathedral’. He and his commander, a senior female classmate, and a few others went together to participate in a raid. It was the first time they faced a Boss with an unsealed Element, and the fight against the Boss left behind a deep impression.

This was the first time the gamers understood the Element powers, and what the Knight of the Holy Cathedral was.

It appeared that he was going to relive that memory of fighting a familiar Boss again.

TL: I researched a little on the crossbow. There are different types of crossbows depending on their strength, but usually a light crossbow is the only type that’s fast enough for that claim. For a powerful crossbow like an arbalest where you really need to windup the string, you could shoot 2 bolts per minute. Brendel shoots a bolt every 3 seconds, or I think he does.