Because their strength had been drained in the process of being captured by the man-eating trees, it was difficult for them even to walk properly.
Even if they had strength, they had no weapons, and their specialty, arrow attacks, could not inflict any damage
on the man-eating trees. Only the somewhat crude and violent method used by the human knight could silence
the terrifying vines of the man-eating trees. But even the human knight’s struggle had nearly reached its limit.
“Hah, hah.”
Though he was gasping for breath, Mitchell swung his sword without rest.
His body felt limp, like cotton soaked through with water. But since the vines’ attacks kept stretching toward him, there was no
time to rest. Perhaps sick of Mitchell’s efforts, the vines’ assault faltered for a moment.
Rustle, rustle.
The dense vines began to withdraw as if water were draining away. It looked as though they had given up their attack.
But Mitchell’s face did not brighten in the slightest. Though the vines had retreated, the man-eating trees had instead
moved their trunks and surrounded them completely. With their escape route utterly cut off and his stamina
at its limit, Mitchell felt all the strength drain out of him.
“It seems they can’t find us after all.”
By now, the others should already have come to rescue them. But the Forest of Death was so vast that
their search must not have reached this place. Mitchell, who had been working hard to steady his breathing, turned his head.
When he found three pairs of eyes staring fixedly at him, he smiled faintly.
“Don’t worry. Humans never abandon their comrades.
So all of you will be able to survive before long.”
But Illumina did not seem particularly convinced by Mitchell’s words.
“Why did you come to save us?”
“……”
“It was a foolish thing to do. Because of that, even you have been placed in danger, Sir Mitchell.”
Mitchell shook his head with a bitter smile.
“Do elves so easily give up on their comrades?”
“……”
“But humans do not. Of course, there are exceptions, but in general,
humans do not hesitate to put themselves in danger to save their comrades.
Our group, in particular, will be even more so.”
Illumina looked at Mitchell with an ambiguous gaze. Rather, it was the sentinels, who could not understand
the conversation passing between the two, who only looked bewildered. In the meantime, another chilling
sound rang out. Mitchell tensed sharply and raised his sword.
“Looks like they’re coming again.”
He poured in as much mana as he could, but the Aura Blade did not rise. Because his mana had been depleted,
it merely gathered faintly on the sword. But since even that was enough to cut the man-eating tree vines,
Mitchell gripped the sword hilt tightly with both hands.
Rustle, rustle.
As expected, an uncountable mass of vines was surging toward them. Illumina’s face darkened as she realized
it was hopeless. At that moment, with a tremendous explosion, fierce flames erupted right
beside them.
Kwa-kwa-kwang!
A section of the clustered man-eating trees burst apart all at once. Because of the air that had been rapidly heated by
the flames, Mitchell and the sentinels had to quickly close their eyes. The flames soon vanished.
And through the opening blasted open by the flames, several silhouettes appeared.
But it was too dark to tell who was who.
When the person at the front shouted, Mitchell’s face brightened at once.
“Mitchell, are you all right?”
It was Kassim’s voice. Feeling as though he had come back from the dead, Mitchell shouted back.
“I’m all right. Please save us quickly. I’m completely out of strength.”
This time Damon’s voice followed.
“Stay exactly where you are. We’ll come to you……”
“Understood, Damon.”
Feeling strength he had not had before well up within him, Mitchell swung his sword and cut down the vines that had approached close by.
Needless to say, the sentinels’ faces also brightened.
“I never imagined I’d be this glad to see humans.”
As they watched, the human knights slowly approached. Surprisingly, those at the front
were Death Knights. Their longswords, which emitted a dark light, were cutting through the man-eating trees as if they were rotten
bundles of straw. Behind them, Mitchell’s familiar companions were fighting their way forward.
Thanks to their efforts, the man-eating tree vines that had seemed impossible to stop were cut apart chaotically and scattered.
The trunks of the man-eating trees blocking the path were gradually being reduced to tatters. Once Mitchell and the three elf sentinels
were placed under the party’s protection, Damon’s eyes flashed.
“Now we’ll have to sweep away those damned things.”
When he turned his head, Shrekheimer nodded as if he understood.
Damon and Shrekheimer rearranged their mana almost at the same time.
Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa!
Damon’s Wind Cutter tore through the surrounding man-eating trees, indiscriminately shredding trunks and vines alike.
Immediately afterward, Shrekheimer’s Fire Balls rained down and mercilessly burned the severed vines of the man-eating trees.
Kiiiiik.
Against the effective joint attack of the two high-ranking mages, the man-eating trees were helpless. The man-eating trees located
where their spells passed were completely devastated. Their attacks were likewise useless.
Any vine that approached the place where the Death Knights and human knights stood was cut down without exception
and sent tumbling……
Having realized that these were opponents they could not handle, the man-eating trees eventually gave up the attack and began to retreat.
But Damon and Shrekheimer did not even leave that alone.
Whoosh.
Their assault ended only after a clearing with a radius of roughly one kilometer had been created. Seeing the foul stench and
smoke rising in wisps, Damon turned around.
“We have saved Mitchell, so that is enough. Let’s go.”
The vines had already burned to ash, but the thick trunk portions were still burning.
The party began walking toward the place where Olivier was, trampling over the half-burned remains of the man-eating trees.
Though he was utterly exhausted, Mitchell was walking while gently supporting Illumina.
The other two sentinels were being supported by Heinrich and Jackson, and broad smiles
hung on their lips. The bodily fragrance rising from the beautiful elf women made their minds reel.
“Heh heh heh. What a windfall is this?”
The jealous gazes of their companions, who had failed to seize such luck, were fixed on their faces.
“Damn it. Must be nice.”
When the humans returned after saving the three sentinels, Olivier wore an expression of surprise. He had never even dreamed that humans
would risk danger to save elves. But the sentinels under his command
could not contain their joy at seeing their companions return alive. Without realizing it, they ran forward and greeted their comrades
who were walking while being supported by the humans.
“Regrettably, we could not save the others.”
With a heavy expression, Mitchell quietly handed Illumina over to the elf who had approached. But Illumina’s
eyes continued to look at Mitchell. A strange light lingered in her beautiful eyes.
Heinrich and Jackson likewise handed the sentinels they had been supporting over to their companions. The sentinels reunited with
their comrades conversed with joyful expressions, but since it was in the elven language, they could not understand.
Olivier, who had been standing awkwardly with a strange expression, could no longer endure it and approached Damon.
He, too, was glad that his subordinates had survived, but for some reason he had felt awkward about speaking to Damon,
and had merely been holding himself back.
But now that he had received a favor, he could not remain silent.
With a stiff expression, Olivier spoke to Damon.
“Thank you very much for saving my subordinates.
And I would also like to ask forgiveness for my earlier rudeness.”
Damon looked at Olivier as if this was unexpected. If it had been a human, pride alone would have prevented him from behaving
this way, but elves were different. Reading the sincere gratitude in the elf captain’s eyes,
Damon felt his own heart soften without realizing it.
Elves had surprisingly frank and straightforward dispositions.
“Do not take it to heart. Saving comrades can be considered a sort of duty……”
“But we……”
Damon quietly cut off Olivier’s words.
“Elves are now allies of humans. From now on, you will often see humans who do not
shy away from danger to save elves. Of course, there will certainly be those who do otherwise……”
Having finished speaking, Damon patted Olivier on the shoulder.
“Now you understand how skilled humans are in close combat, don’t you? So make up for
what humans lack. If you support us from behind with arrows, that will be enough.”
Olivier nodded without hesitation.
“I will do as you command.”
“Good.”
After speaking, Damon nodded silently. Then, when Olivier gave his instructions,
the sentinels moved to their positions without hesitation. From now on, they would move in the middle of the formation
under the protection of the party members, and when they encountered enemies, they would use their bows to support
the group. Having washed away some measure of the ill feeling between them, elves and humans once again began their march into the Forest
of Death.
Around that time, a fierce struggle was unfolding within the Elf Forest. This was because the Fatar tribe’s
warriors, numbering twenty thousand, had entered the Elf Forest. It would not be an exaggeration to say that
the entire tribe had been mobilized. Though conflicts had continued until now, never before had a force of this scale invaded.
Since it was the order of Commander-in-Chief Gedenhyde, the Fatar chieftain had thrown all the warriors he possessed into the Elf Forest.
But the Luminous clan had already prepared to stand and fight without retreating an inch.
Under the command of Great Elder Schneider, the sentinels, receiving the protection of the forest, began systematically intercepting the orc
warriors.
Kuaaah!
A warrior with an arrow buried deep in his right eye let out a death scream. But since the arrowhead had
already churned through his brain, the orc warrior was able to escape his pain before long.
Two orc warriors who had been following behind were struck by arrows once again and collapsed. The arrows were lodged precisely in their Adam’s apples and
facial areas. It was astonishing marksmanship. Having lost three to the sudden ambush,
the orc squad hurriedly scattered.
“Chwik. Catch the elf who shot the arrows!”
The enraged warriors searched every corner of the forest while covering themselves with shields. In the midst of it, three or four warriors
were struck by arrows and killed, but the elf sentinel who had launched the attack did not escape unharmed either. An archer with no armament
other than a bow was finished the moment her position was discovered.
Before long, one sentinel was caught by the orcs and dragged down from atop a tree.
“Aaah!”
She soon became a mangled lump of flesh beneath the blades of the enraged warriors. The battle was proceeding in an extremely typical
fashion. Countless orc warriors had their lives cut short by the elves’ astonishing marksmanship and the power of their mighty arrows,
but the number of sentinels discovered and killed increased in proportion as well.
It had become a war of attrition, each side engrossed in killing the other.
Even amid the bloody battle, the forest worked hard to protect the sentinels. It tripped orc warriors with vines
and blocked the rear of fleeing sentinels, sparing no effort in its own way.
But the difference in military strength had been too overwhelming from the start.
Even if ten orc warriors were exchanged for the life of one sentinel, the elves’ defeat was inevitable.
Thus, within the Elf Forest, the lifeless corpses of the two races began to pile up.
Around that time, the party was also absorbed in a frantic battle. Thanks to the efforts of Damon and Shrekheimer,
the party had broken through the Forest of Death without much difficulty, only to have an uncountable
horde of undead appear before them. Undead soldiers, presumed to be defeated troops who had survived and retreated during
the Dark War, were launching a fierce assault.
Their joy at escaping the forest lasted only a moment, and the party had to desperately fend off their attacks. Damon,
the party’s most reliable helper, was currently in no position to assist them.
Upon seeing the undead army swarming in black masses, Damon perceived that controlling them
would be easier than annihilating them. Having made up his mind, Damon immediately cast a levitation spell and floated into the air.
“Focus on defense and hold your positions. In the meantime, I will try to control them using the mana of darkness.”
The oncoming undead army had originally been created by Naidelhark’s mana. Therefore, if Damon
properly used the mana of darkness stored within his body, there was more than enough possibility that he could control them.