Chapter 467: Elven Hunters |
“Quick, quick! Set all sails. I want to get that human. It could have been a trial taker,” Aelar shouted.
While all the others had been in the treasure hunt, the elves had widened their territory, creating a perimeter to catch everyone returning. The coming war machine would need materials, and most elves preferred leveling instead of gathering resources all day.
Today they had already caught eight humans, which was quite an achievement, and their small group of twelve hunters would be rewarded for their contribution.
“Hey Aelar, is it just me, or is the surrounding mana turning slightly red? And why is the ice melting this fast?” Lyanna, a mage, asked while looking at the human in the distance.
Aelar had to admit that something was off with that human. It looked like red mist was rising around him, while the ice really was melting quite fast. Also… were his eyes glowing?
“Doesn’t matter. It’s not like we can just let a human wander around in our territory. Maybe it’s an illusory skill meant to make us falter. You have encountered the other humans already, and no one in E-grade created any trouble for us—and this one just evolved,” Aelar shouted back.
Yes, a human being a threat to them was very unlikely. There were chosen or blessed who could become quite strong, but this human was forty levels below them.
The human slowly turned toward them, as if he had been reading something, and grabbed the sword hovering in the air beside him. The slight movement of the blade made the air vibrate.
It took a moment for Aelar to shake off his surprise. Just what was that sword, and why did it sound like that?
But the human only kept grinning while observing his body and the red mist around him.
“Okay then, the hard way. Swarm out and get this one so we can return,” he commanded while taking out his weapon.
They had special shoes that allowed them to run over water, which came in very handy. This way they could use their movement skills even on the sea. It was just one marvel among the many items elven craftsmen had built.
While the others moved out to catch the human, Aelar and Lyanna remained on the ship to make sure the humans didn’t try anything. It was unlikely thanks to the slave collars that kept their mana and stamina close to zero, but better safe than sorry.
Then he remembered something that eased his mind. This red mist and the glowing eyes had to be an illusion. The darkness he had seen before had to be another illusion the human had tried out.
Yet the first doubts began to form when Irela, a strong fire mage, summoned one of her explosive fireballs in her hand.
Those things really were something special. When hitting a target, they exploded violently, ripping everything apart in close range. Those explosions sometimes had more than a thirty-meter diameter when she truly wanted to kill something.
The color of her fireball was blood red this time, which even seemed to confuse the caster.
A moment later the fireball simply dissolved into flames that quickly covered her whole body.
Lyanna had jumped up to get a better angle, but now Aelar had to watch a loudly screaming and thrashing living torch fall from the sky, hitting the water’s surface hard before disappearing beneath the waves.
He hammered one hand against his head, unable to believe what he had just seen.
Maybe some environmental fluctuation or—
“Huh… I probably have to report that to the authorities now,” Aelar thought unhappily about this outcome.
Also, he now had one less member in his party, which would make human hunting more dangerous. Those apes were also grouping up if given the chance.
The first warriors were getting close to the red mist, and one of his men suddenly seemed to sweat blood, leaving a red trail in the water behind him until he collapsed, his body disappearing under the waves.
Interesting. I would really like to know what is happening right now.
Beside him, Lyanna had also watched everything and was encouraging the other elves.
“Go! You can do it! Yeah! Beat that human!”
Aelar was a bit more reserved and nodded in approval when the first lightning bolt from one of the mages barely missed the human, who bent out of the way at the last moment.
Probably an accident.
Now Tigar—an elf who did nothing but swing his sword the whole day—charged forward.
Aelar had to admit that he had rarely seen someone surpass that elf when it came to speed, aside from those higher-ups.
Yet this human didn’t even raise his sword and just barely evaded every strike, as if he already knew where the blade would be. Even the carefully orchestrated feints that would have worked on Aelar were useless against him.
The human with the golden skin simply stared with a wide grin at Tigar’s body, those sinister glowing eyes fixed on him as if he could see far more than everyone else.
It didn’t take long for Aelar to come to the conclusion that this human was far from simple. This human was a far better swordsman than Tigar could ever hope to become.
With every failed strike, Tigar grew more aggressive and even activated his boosting skill, yet the human had no trouble keeping up with him.
The other elves had also watched the duel, which normally should have ended with the human losing a body part or two before a slave collar was placed around his neck.
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With this human, things went a little differently.
All of a sudden he moved even faster, and the next thing they knew, Tigar had dropped onto the ice with blood spilling from the stump of his arm.
The blood didn’t move normally. Every drop began drifting toward the human. At first it was slow, but the closer it came, the faster it moved.
It looked like water flowing down a mountain—except the current flowed toward the human.
“Attack! Attack! What are you waiting for?” Aelar shouted from the ship.
His voice shook the elves out of their stupor, and they charged forward.
The mages began charging their spells while the others attacked together.
The human remained very relaxed and simply let them come.
Only when the first elf fired a skill did his form blur.
His sword hummed deeply as it carved through the air.
He didn’t seem to use anything besides that unique-looking blade, which was almost a bit too long for someone of his size.
Yet one elf after another fell to the human.
Aelar watched in shock before deciding on the only sensible choice.
He turned back to the steering wheel and spun the ship around.
Lyanna noticed and looked at him as if he had grown three heads.
“You’re abandoning the fighters? What kind of leader are you?” she blurted out in disbelief.
“The one who survives. Now help, as long as this monster is distracted,” Aelar hissed back.
That his second-in-command questioned his authority was something he would deal with later.
But that the slaves were getting their hopes up and trying to work on their chains was unacceptable.
Aelar slammed his fist into the face of the first slave, breaking her jaw, knocking out several teeth, and sending her head crashing against the railing beside her.
“Be quiet! You won’t get away from me. Didn’t I tell you we can do this the easy way or the hard way? If anyone else tries something, heads will roll.”
With that he continued steering the ship while Lyanna set all sails so they could reach maximum speed within seconds.
The ship wasn’t the fastest, but it was built perfectly for long-distance travel.
As the distance between them and the human increased, they looked back—only to see something they really didn’t like.
The human had sped up and was killing one elf after another in rapid succession without the slightest mercy.
The blood of the fallen elves seemed to gain a will of its own as it left their bodies and flowed toward the human in small rivers.
The human kicked the leg of one elf, dislocating his knee, before following up with a swipe of his sword.
This time it looked like he struggled to swing the blade.
With hundreds of meters between them it was hard to see clearly, but in the next moment every elven mage flying in the air was cut in half, as if a massive invisible sword had struck them all at once.
The worst part was that they had been the last elves alive.
“Oh gods… this is horrible. Quick, we need to send a distress signal!” Aelar shouted at Lyanna.
She also looked shocked after witnessing that display of power and superiority.
Those were elves they had fought beside during the tutorial, yet the human had made killing them look like child’s play.
“Why… why… why didn’t you say that earlier?” she stammered in fear and shock while opening a small backpack tied to the mast.
“Because I didn’t think of it! I just wanted to get away from that guy. Who could have known he would kill them all this fast?” Aelar shouted back.
Help would take time to arrive, and he wasn’t even sure if whoever came could actually kill that human.
The heavy hitters of their faction who might be able to defeat him were all out gaining levels for the coming war.
There was also no way to send a detailed message. They could only send a distress signal, which meant that one of the stronger patrol teams would eventually come looking for them.
Whether they were strong enough to deal with that human was questionable.
And whether they would arrive in time was another matter entirely.
The two looked on in horror as the golden-skinned demon absorbed all the blood of their dead comrades and then looked directly at them.
Even from that distance, Aelar could see the monster’s burning red eyes.
The slaves, though still trying to remain calm, leaned over the railing, attempting to see what was happening. Hope had appeared in their eyes.
“Yes! We got a response,” Lyanna shouted from behind him.
A response meant that a team was already on their way to their location. The token was also constantly transmitting, which meant they could pinpoint their position very accurately—even while moving at that speed.
“Do you think he will even go after us?” Lyanna asked.
Aelar continued staring at the human.
“I’m not sure, but I think we are safe. The distance is large, we are moving fast, and the others will be here in a few minutes. If we had stayed close to the human, we would be dead. But now our chances of surviving this encounter look quite good.”
“For a second, I thought we were in trouble… Wait, what is he doing now?” Lyanna shouted in panic.
Aelar saw it too.
The human was raising his sword over his head and aiming it directly at them.
“Is he seriously trying to hit us from that distance?” Aelar said in disbelief.
“Yeah… that will never work…” Lyanna said, mostly trying to reassure herself.
Then the rumble started as the human brought the sword down.
From the way his muscles strained, this must have been the limit of his strength. The air around the sword vibrated, and Aelar could swear he felt it on his own skin—though maybe that was just his fear.
The invisible slash shot forward, water crashing to each side as it raced directly toward them.
But after about a hundred meters it weakened and finally dissipated.
Aelar and Lyanna both breathed out in relief.
“Puh… I was worried for a moment there,” Aelar said.
He glanced back at the slaves, where a sigh of disappointment had spread through their ranks.
But before he could say anything, Lyanna spoke again.
“This human is insane. Now he’s talking with the sword.”
Aelar turned around and saw the human speaking to thin air. It looked as if he were arguing with someone, occasionally pointing toward their ship.
Aelar had once served as an advisor for one of the noble houses back on their world, and the ability to read lips had been very useful there.
But what the human was saying made little sense.
“Look, I told you I wouldn’t be able to hit them. It’s too far away. We tested all of this back at Ratgul’s place.
...
"Yes, I know I’m stronger now and we can release more of your power—but look how far away they are. I’m stronger, but not a hundred times stronger.
...
"Oh yes, now you’re unhappy with my form again. Didn’t you notice how clean the cut was and how steady I held you? What do you mean it was unstable at the end?
...
"Nah, that’s a lie. Also do you see how far they are and where the slash ended? Good. Now do you really think that if my footing on the melting ice—swaying on those small waves—had been just a tiny bit better, the slash would have traveled another ten kilometers and hit the ship?
...
"What do you mean I’m treating you unfairly? I’m just saying the slash was good, and even if there would have been a tiny slip at the end, it wouldn’t have been enough to hit the ship.
...
"Fine. I’m glad we can agree on that. So I think your assessment is over, and since we did it with the sword like you wanted, can I now try a few different things?”
“And what did he say?” Lyanna asked from beside him.
She knew about Aelar’s ability to read lips, and since he hadn’t said anything yet, it was obvious what he had been doing.
“I’m not sure. The human was talking with the sword about the slash and—”
But Aelar stopped when the human suddenly transformed into a current of blood that shot directly toward them.
Even at that distance he could hear the air howling around the rushing blood.
“By the gods… how fast is this guy? He has to be out of mana when he catches up… right? Right?”
But Aelar wasn’t sure this human would run out of mana at all.
Either way, fighting him seemed like a terrible idea.
Help should arrive soon. He only needed to buy time until they got there.
The river of blood moved through the air with such speed and force that Aelar wasn’t even sure anymore whether this was truly a movement skill or some kind of attack.
He and Lyanna ran toward the bow of the ship to put as much distance as possible between themselves and the approaching human.
Luckily for them, the human didn’t seem interested in killing them immediately.
The bloody river dispersed when it reached the ship, revealing the human now standing on deck.
In fact, he looked very pleased with himself.
Aelar swallowed his fear and stepped forward.
He only needed to stall long enough for the support team to arrive.
Then everything should be fine.
Maybe he would even receive a reward.