Chapter 78 Elves
"Nym, take cover with Nikol," Everyone was panicked to see some monsters charging toward them.
Being professional hunters, they didn't actually fear these monsters. If this was their normal forest they would have none hesitatingly fought these charging monsters, but on their way here, Nikol and the group met nothing but unusual monsters and plants.
"Damn it, these snake-like monsters are so gross and creepy," Cutting one by one in their way, Nikol's group entered the forest.
Nikol and Nym were highly protected by them that they didn't even get a chance to attack even one insect, particularly Nikol.
Nym was satisfied with this but Nikol felt lacking, he didn't complain like a kid as they kept going inside the forest so he won't be a burden to anyone.
"Careful, they might be poisonous," Seeing these snakes having poisonous glands, Nym quickly warned everyone.
Hearing her words everyone took a step back as poison is one of the most dangerous things and hardest thing to deal with.
It took them a full hour to finish all these monsters. There were a lot of corpses on the floor lying without heads or bodies.
"Let us proceed before we attract the attention of other monsters," Giving her orders without making big noises, Lydia took the lead while Alva and Emily protected Nikol from behind.
On their way, Nym didn't forget to keep an eye on the surroundings to not miss any plants since she wanted to find the herb.
"Nym, is this the area you explained to us about? How did you even come here without any monster attacking you?" Lydia was confused because the place they are standing right now was so dangerous.
On their way here the whole group was attacked by many different kinds of monsters.
"It can't that hard when you're alone, you just have to stick by plants to avoid your smell and not make any noises," She explained to everyone about how she safely got here.
"Also make sure not to use any magic spells. There might be monsters that are sensitive to mana so they might come here if they feel our signature," Advising everyone on how to survive here, Nym proudly advanced with the protection of the group.
For once she felt like she was actually useful for a group. She was happy that everyone was able to benefit from her knowledge about this stuff.
"This is the area, I met elf kids," After walking for another few minutes, Nym pointed out the area of the forest which looked much denser than ever.
Everyone observed it for a few minutes to only notice they were surrounded by many trees but unlike normal trees, they had something unusual about them.
"Something is stranger about these trees," Feeling the strange creepiness, Emily and Alva both said.
"Nym do you know anything about this? And Nikol why do you look confused?" Lydia asked looking at them.
"This is the place, I'm pretty sure but I don't feel anything creepy, it feels just like a normal forest," Everyone was honestly confused by her words.
"Me neither, I don't feel anything strange what's this feeling you girls are talking about?" Nikol was curious.
"Maybe we are imagining things, let's proceed," Thinking it was just a strange feeling, they entered this area which is said to be where Nym spotted elf kids.
On their way, Nym didn't forget to carefully observe and collect some plants for her research.
They walked for a few hours until they heard some loud voices. At first, they thought it was monsters with echo but the more they got close to it they knew it wasn't monsters or elves.
"Damn it, what are they doing here? Everyone hide," Lydia quickly ordered while grabbing Nikol close to him.
Nym also hid near a bush slowly peeking at what they were in only to see some dark elves chasing some kids.
"So we weren't the only people attacked by them?" Nikol asked while looking for more enemies.
Everyone got ready with their weapons in case they needed to charge. Since they had mana stones given by Nym, they had nothing to fear.
"Lydia, are we attacking? We can't let them hurt these elf kids," Hearing Nikol's words, she quickly observed to see whether there were more enemies.
"Girls, go around and surround them without making any sounds," Pointing at two stationed dark elves near a camp-like place, Lydia grabbed her sword while sneaking.
While they were getting ready for a confrontation, elf kids and dark elves had no idea they were being observed. They didn't even try to be sneaky and careful because this wasn't a place popular among adult elves.
"Grab those kids and pack them into this cage, we don't have time if their queen feels our presence we will be dead," The leader-like figure among the group shouted.
All of them quickly sped up trying to catch up to the running kids. At the end of the day, most of them were young so they couldn't outrun these adults.
"Let me go! Monsters,"
*Sob
"Don't kill me," All of them started crying causing Nikol and everyone who was watching this scene to get angry.
They felt their blood boiling seeing how they handled these kids like some kind of livestock.
"Mother! Help me, My queen," Since they started to cry without stopping one of the dark elves quickly shoved something like a piece of clothing in their mouth.
"Took you long enough, pack them quickly, these trees are too dangerous for us," They didn't expect anyone other than elves to enter here since nobody enters this place except elves.
"Lydia, let's attack before they start moving," Alva felt impatient seeing all this. She wanted to behead every single dark elf in front of her as soon as possible.historical
"Wait until my orders, we will attack when all of them are in the same place since it confirms that they don't have any allies," Her words made sense to everyone.
Even those who are too far away from them awaited her orders.
"They might take these kids as a hostage so let's wait until they put those kids in cages," Giving orders she carefully observed everything in the field.
Everyone saw how these dark elves handled these kids. They hit them when they are struggling and threw them into the cages without even caring about damage.
"Careful! If they hit their head and die, I will kill you, make sure not to kill anyone right now," Their leading figure ordered while counting the number of children.
"This is a feast! Our topknots will be happy with this many kids," Finishing counting the number of heads, she quickly ordered hidden dark elves to return back as they had to exit this place.
"Lucky we didn't attack them, they had spies," Lydia and Nikol both thought at the same time.
Seeing no reason to hold back anymore, Lydia ordered everyone to use ranged attacks to deal considerable damage to them before going face-to-face.
Everyone used their bows and arrows which were already aimed toward dark elves without any hesitation.
"Shoot! Shoot! Don't let any of these monsters escape, Kill them all," Alva shouted seeing one by one dark elf getting shot.
"Shit, we are under attack, get your shields up they are shooting us with arrows," All the dark elves started to panic as everyone got shot in different places.
Some got shot in their head or neck giving them instant death while some managed to get away with slight damage.
After a few rounds of arrows, they started to defend against them so, Lydia and the group charged without letting them recover or getting close to the cages where the kids were.
It was pure chaos as the whole forest was filled with cries and voices of the two parties.
"Kill! Don't leave anyone," Releasing a fierce war cry, Lydia started to engage with their leader-looking figure.
"Damn humans, where did you come from?" She was surprised to see humans in this area as she knew humans weren't supposed to be there.
"Always trying to do something shady, you dark elves sicken me," With a disgusted face, Lydia insulted their leader while attacking with her sword.
*Zing
The sounds of their swords clashing were spread around the whole battlefield but it was covered by the cries and shouts of the others.
"Use curse, don't let them escape," While engaging with Lydia, their leader quickly touched her chest while ordering the others to do the same.
Suddenly a black smoke came out of her hand but surprising her it quickly vanished like it didn't even exist.
"What?" She was surprised and shocked at the same time.
The same thing happened with everyone who tried to use this magic on their opponent.
"Noooo!" While others were surprised, only one was shouting like her whole existence is getting erased grabbing everyone's attention.
"You threw her with this hand right? You hit those kids with your left-hand right?" Questioning about her past activities, Nikol twisted her hand into a different shape making her go insane with pain.
Everyone got goosebumps seeing her hand breaking like some kind of a twig.
"No! No! What the hell is happening?" Unable to believe what she was seeing their leader tried to escape realising her only trick wasn't working.
She didn't mind dying here but seeing these humans in the elf territory, she had an idea about what was about to happen.
She slowly tried to sneak out of this fight using others as sacrifices but breaking her every expectation, Lydia attacked her without holding back even a little bit.
Feeling the heavy feeling she got from her attack, she was thrown back a few meters until she clashed with a huge tree.
"Where do you think you're going? It's your turn now," Walking toward her Lydia warned with a dangerous look on her face.