Chapter 183: Act 117 – The Final Battle (5) (Second Update, Please Subscribe and Recommend)
The Earth Element—under the Earth element, there are several subcategories, and although the Earth Envoy is named after the earth, what Eck actually controls is the shaping and impact power of stone.
The power of stone is considered a very basic element among many, with immense destructive power in the early stages, but it has extremely limited growth potential in the later stages.
However, this was enough to give Brendel a headache—
Just as his hand moved slightly, he touched the hand of Xi beneath him. He paused in surprise, looked down, and saw the red-haired maiden lying flat on the ground, calmly gazing at him with her amber eyes.
“I’m sorry.”
“That’s alright.”
Brendel quickly released his hand, rolled over, and drew out the spare short sword strapped to his calf. The Earth Envoy Eck swung its attack and missed, and it turned its palm toward this direction—being a high attack and defense boss, its agility was not high—especially since the larger the size, the greater the penalty on agility.
Eck appeared somewhat clumsy as it turned, giving the two young people an opportunity.
“Can you move?” Brendel asked as he drew his short sword. Xi half-sat up and brushed the dust off her armor, not answering, but gently nodded.
“Then be careful. That monster is very strong. It controls the power of stone; watch out for its shaping attacks—”
As soon as he finished speaking, as if to prove his words, the Earth Envoy Eck suddenly let out a howl. It raised its right forelimb, which instantly petrified, the stone part rapidly spreading upward, becoming enormous in an instant, as the monster roared, seemingly holding a nearly ten-meter-long rock greatsword.
Then it slammed down toward the direction where the two were located.
“Dodge!”
Brendel and Xi jumped out to the sides, and the massive rock greatsword struck where they had been, exploding with a thundering crack. At that moment, it felt as if the entire forest’s ground had heaved, a shockwave swirling outward from the point of explosion, quickly catching up to the fleeing pair. The red-haired maiden let out a muffled grunt, while Brendel directly spat out a mouthful of blood.
He glanced at his attributes and found that he had lost more than 30 points of life from that blow. This was already close to the attack power of the Wind Queen’s Ring. Moreover, with his current silver-tier strength, even if the Wind Queen’s Ring was to attack him, it would only inflict half of that damage, so the power of this strike could be imagined.
“My lord, are you alright?”
Dust filled the forest, and Xi’s voice came from the other side of the smoke.
“I’m fine.”
Brendel coughed, but his alertness was already at its peak. The divine blood of the Earth Envoy came from the goddess Gaia, and its ability to merge with stone was one of its innate superpowers. Especially in this environment, if it burrowed underground to prepare for a sneak attack, he might suffer a great blow if he was not careful.
However, he was somewhat puzzled; he remembered that the cooldown time for merging with stone was ten minutes, so how could it have lost its presence so quickly? At this rate, not to mention ten minutes, it was probably not even a minute.
But at that moment, the cautious and alert duo suddenly heard a gasp from outside the smoke.
“Medisa!”
Brendel’s heart tightened.
—
When the long sound of the horn echoed across the battlefield, the mood of the lizardman bandit chief Yuhjiker could be described as twisted. He was not as knowledgeable as Conrad, who could recognize the famous Silver Elf Legion just from their distinctive sound.
But that did not matter, because from his position, he could easily see a line of silver-armored elf warriors in the ruins, with their silver-tied hair and shining double-headed swords. Even a fool would know the origins of these foes.
The attack force of his lizardmen soon met with setbacks—no, that was not even the right word. It was a complete rout; the impact of the silver elves was extraordinarily fearsome, cutting through his subordinates like knives through butter.
If it weren’t for the timely arrival of Conrad’s dark mercenaries, the battle would have turned into a rout just then. However, those silver elves did not suffer any losses due to the counterattack, as soon as the lizardmen and dark mercenaries organized their counterattack, they threw peculiar crystals, retreating under the cover of explosions.
In the end, after one round of skirmish, Yuhjiker found that he had lost nearly ten percent of his troops just on the left flank.
This lizardman fiercely threw his dagger to the ground; being a desperate criminal, his reckless failure only ignited his madness. He realized that Conrad feared these silver elves like poison, but he was not afraid; weren’t they just a group of silver-tier warriors? The silver elves were not so formidable.
The second-line standing army of the Cruz Empire was of that strength, and Yuhjiker had dealt with such armies before. He had originally escaped from the empire, or rather, he was a banished criminal.
He narrowed his eyes and observed for a while, quickly noticing a problem. The lizardman bandit chief immediately summoned his deputy, instructing it to lead a team to attack from behind the ruins—though dividing forces on the battlefield was generally a taboo, Yuhjiker found that the enemy’s numbers seemed to be only three or four dozen.
He decided to gamble, to see if his guess was correct.
However, what Yuhjiker did not know was that at this moment, his solid ally, the Conrad he thought he could rely on, was already preparing to flee.
The lizardmen crossbowmen finally gathered. After a brief adjustment of their range, they occupied a vantage point outside the ruins. The rain of arrows soon flew into the air and came tumbling down—covering both their own and the enemy within the range of attack.
They did not understand what aiming or extended strikes meant.
The arrowheads and shafts fell like rain, patting against cover, and Naminez waved his hand backwards. He decisively issued the order to retreat. Seeing his gesture, the mercenaries immediately sheathed their crossbows and short bows, leaving in an orderly fashion, followed by the retreating elf warriors.
After a brief battle, casualties already emerged between the two sides. Many mercenaries had been hit by arrows, and Sanford was even struck by a blade in the last desperate close combat. This knife pierced the young man’s thigh artery, and if it weren’t for Naminez’s timely intervention to stop the bleeding, he probably would have already met Lady Martha by now.
The mercenaries made a simple stretcher for him, the young man lay weakly on it, gritting his teeth to stifle a groan. Death was a sacred and peaceful matter for mercenaries; they did not fear death, but they would not casually abandon their companions.
However, Sanford turned his head and saw a mercenary he recognized running over from the rubble.
“Isn’t that guy from Husher’s side?” the thought flashed through his mind.
“Mr. Naminez—!”
As soon as the mercenary saw the situation over here, he immediately shouted from afar: “Captain Husher saw lizardmen trying to infiltrate the rear of the ruins and asks what you think?”
His words startled everyone.
Surrounding attack? This was the worst-case scenario that the young lord had anticipated; they could not help but recall Brendel’s words when he was deploying tactics. That young man told them it was best to handle all situations as if they were the worst to avoid panic.
The silver elves did not express any opinion on this, but the mercenaries were somewhat dismissive. Most mercenaries believed in the twin forces of fate, which were both the bestowers of fortune and misfortune—Alice and Yilian. Of course, in an age where the gods had become stars and laws, this belief was more akin to a spiritual support.
Nevertheless, the mindset of mercenaries as individuals and gamblers often resonated in many situations.
But now, their words had come true.
“What did the humans say?” Naminez asked in response.
“The captain said unless we split up to intercept, we will be attacked from the back,” the mercenary replied loudly.
“That’s fine,” the Silver Elf commander nodded, “but the problem is, who will lead?”
“Captain Husher thinks Mr. Sanford can…” The mercenary’s gaze fell on the only stretcher, suddenly realizing he could not finish his sentence.
At this moment, among Brendel’s subordinates who could participate in combat, the one with the strongest leadership and the most experience was undoubtedly Husher and Naminez. Then there was the elf princess Medisa, Xi, and himself, but right now, all five of them could not leave, leaving only the somewhat prominent newcomer Sanford.
Brendel had assigned tasks this way during the tactical deployment. But the current situation left everyone speechless; Sanford was seriously injured and unable to continue fighting—that was worse than they had envisioned.
The mercenaries looked at each other.
“I’ll go, Commander!” A silver bell-like voice suddenly came from the ruins behind. Everyone turned to see Merchant Miss standing there, hands gripping a sword dragging behind her, just like when she had dragged that stone hammer back at Brendel’s old mansion.
She widened her eyes at the others, her light brown bright eyes seemingly filled with one question:
“Is that alright?”
Of course, it was not.
Naminez shook his head; if this was a day earlier, the Silver Elf commander might have considered it. However, last night, this young lady had done something utterly shocking, and he could not let her treat the battle as a game.
“Then let me go, Commander.” A girl stepped out from behind Romaine, one hand pressed on her cloak at her neck, raising her head calmly to look at everyone present.
Naminez looked at Antinna.
“I have read Von Hamanin’s ‘Light Infantry Drill Manual,’ Commander. Furthermore, at this time, I think this is also my responsibility,” she answered.
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