The cautious antelope seemed to have sensed something was wrong. It immediately turned and ran in the direction of the elven cottages.
…………
The elven cottages.
It was an elven village neighboring the shoreline.
The village wasn't large. Only a hundred or so elves lived here.
There were no wooden or stone buildings of ornate design here. There were only small wooden huts and platforms constructed upon the branches of the tall ancient trees. The treehouses were extremely crude and simple. However, suspension bridges made of vines and wooden planks connected each and every treehouse.
When breezes blew across the forest and the vine bridges swayed in the air, the flowers and grass upon them would wave about in a breathtaking display of beauty.
Due to the low population of the village, they had no ability to rear large magical beasts or savage magical plants. Consequently, the town's garrison was made up of flower fairies, blade dancers, and elven archers. Even the only two beginner druids had only chosen to stay here because they were born here.
Night had fallen. Female Elf Captain Lyfaea stood upon the wooden platform the elves used for archery training, situated upon the highest ancient tree in the village. She silently looked to the horizon.
Lyfaea slowly walked toward the edge of the platform. She shut her eyes and used all of her mind's power to sense for the message from afar.
It was the home of the elves.
Every blade of grass, every twig, every flower, every fruit, and even very tree, vine, and animal were known to Lyfaea. She could call their names and engage them in friendly conversation. No one could catch the elves in the forest, for all plants and animals in the woods were their companions. They would help the elves destroy all traces of their existence and become the ubiquitous eyes of the elves.
For example, Lyfaea was standing in the wind right now with her eyes shut. However, she could still vaguely sense everything happening within a radius of several kilometers.
The woods would warn her if danger ever descended. The animals would let out strange calls, and even the rustling of ancient trees' leaves would tell her the information she needed.
For some reason, today, a feeling of danger lingered in her heart. Still, she was utterly unable to sense where the threat was coming from.
A violent and terrifying aura had come from the forest in the south during the day.
Out of security concerns, Lyfaea had sent the only two druids in the village there to scout. According to Syd Sharpfang, who had returned from his mission, a horde of strange and evil monsters seemed to have appeared there. The monsters were madly slaughtering their animal friends in the forest.
Their numbers were many, and they were reasonably powerful as well. That was why the two druids could only hide in the shadows, silently observing and tracking, but never daring to appear before the monsters to chase them away.
As night fell, Lyfaea sent another two flower fairies to reinforce the other druid out of concern. Still, no news had returned.
That was what Lyfaea was most worried about.
"Sister Lyfaea, Sister Lyfaea."
Two young elven teenagers–one boy and one girl–ran to Lyfaea's side while she was at her most concerned.
"Sister Lyfaea, come and take a look at this! I finally managed to hit two willow leaves earlier."
The teenage elven girl pulled at Lyfaea's arm and shook it. She raised an elven arrow that she was holding in her hand. Two thin willow leaves were impaled upon the elven arrow.
"So what if you just hit two willow leaves. Sis Lyfaea, look at me, I hit three leaves." The other elven teenager also raised an arrow happily. Three leaves were impaled upon this one.
The elvish girl immediately pouted and glared at the boy.
For the elves who were naturally adept at archery, shooting stationary targets was something that only children did. The most essential condition for anyone who sought to become an elven archer was to pierce through five light willow leaves with a single arrow.
The fact that these two little kids could shoot through two and three leaves was already quite impressive!
Lyfaea put on a wry smile and extended her hands to rub their silky smooth, short green hair. She was just about to say something encouraging when she realized her eyes had gone dark. It was almost as if the entire world had turned dim.
The female elf captain raised her head in surprise.
It was only now that she realized the bright and brilliant disc of the moon hanging in the skies seemed to have been obscured by something, causing the entire village to lose the brilliant shine of the moonlight.
Naturally, with her eagle-like vision, Lyfaea could see everything clearly.
It wasn't because of clouds. Instead, it was a massive metal ship descending from the skies; its target was the elven cottages beneath.
The appearance and models of the enemy were just like the fearsome and evil monsters that Syd Sharpfang had described!
It was an enemy assault.
Multiple four-meter tall magical machines encased in strange metallic shells descending from the skies by metal ropes amidst panicked cries. They landed all over the elven village with dull thuds.
The next second, whistling barrages of bullets shot toward every moving lifeform in the place. Goblin rockets howled as they flew toward every treehouse, dragging behind them foot-long trails of fire as they went on a rampage.
A series of explosions and ringing sounds echoed throughout the elven village. A storm of blood and fury instantly engulfed this peaceful paradise!
Chapter 624 Moonwater and Follower
They only lasted fifteen minutes before ending!
The organized attacks of the elves were feeble and ineffective against the fully-armed magical machines descending from the skies.
Their fast and accurate arrows were utterly useless before the impenetrable metal machines.
Meanwhile, the flower fairies and blade dancers, who only had close combat skills, had nowhere to run during the area barrage of the magical machines. It didn't matter how fast they flew; they weren't faster than the speeding bullets. It didn't matter how rapidly they swung their elven swords; they couldn't deflect the storming barrage.
One after another, fairies and blade dancers charged out of their hiding spots. Their sharp claws and blades sent sparks flying and rang out against the metal bodies of the magical machines, but nothing they did could harm the opponent. The other machines that stood in the distance turned their guns without hesitation and drowned this place in a savage barrage of bullets.
They didn't seem to worry about whether their attacks would harm their own allies.
In truth, there was no need to worry either!
There was only one 'living thing' that could still stand within the center of the attack once the barrage had stopped– the magical machines that had been surrounded by the elves. All the flower fairies and blade dancers had been riddled full with holes. They littered the battlefield like abandoned rags.
The magical machines moved their forms, paying no attention to the bullet dents on their bodies, advancing toward where the elves were with their heavy and steady steps.
How powerful a military force could a tiny village at the very edge of the elven kingdom possess? That was why they could not retaliate against the magical machine army, who were far stronger and more prepared. They were all razed by the gunfire and turned into prisoners of the adepts.
The only ones that put up some degree of an outstanding performance were probably the female elf captain Lyfaea and the druid Syd Sharpfang. One of them was a First Grade elven archer, while the other was a junior First Grade druid. They could still threaten and damage the magical machines when going all out.
The junior druid held an oaken staff in one hand and cast out iron thorn seeds with the other, summoning clusters of fast iron thorns from underground to trap an Archer on the spot. Meanwhile, Lyfaea let out a battle cry and
shot out two elven arrows glowing with a green light.
The two arrows instantly embedded themselves in the chest plate of the Archer.
For the magical machines supported by magic energy batteries, that was sadly not where their energy core was located. As such, the damage dealt by these two arrows were insufficient to cripple the magical machine or force it to self-destruct. The very next second, the Archer raised both of its arms, and eight mounted magic-energy guns immediately drowned Lyfaea's location in a violent torrent of metal.
There was none of the usual deafening roar of ordinary goblin rifles, or the large plume of smoke from the explosion of gunpowder. The metal bullets continually fired out of the magic energy rifles and large clusters of blood burst out of Lyfaea's slender body, along with the sound of snapping bones.
By the time the wildly spinning mounted rifles had stopped their shooting, the only thing left of this once beautiful female elf captain was a terrifying and bloody corpse that quietly collapsed to the ground.
"Lyfaea…" Druid Syd Sharpfang let out a pitiful cry. His green eyes instantly turned blood red. The druid let out a howl and quickly transformed into a fearsome Earth Mauler. He then charged at the Archer.
The mounted rifles on the magical machine's arms once again spat out a chain of bullets, bloodying the ferocious Earth Mauler all over its body and causing it to wince in pain.
However, Syd Sharpfang still managed to arrive in front of the Archer thanks to the robust physique of the Earth Mauler.
The Earth Mauler stood on its hind legs with a furious roar. It raised both of its paws high up and savagely smashed them upon the body of the Archer. The humanoid Archer magical machines were vastly inferior to the spider machines when it came to balance. The Archer was actually thrown onto the ground by the druid.
The Earth Mauler immediately leaped forward and started rolling about on the ground with the Archer.
There were bestial roars, unsettling dull thuds, and the crisp, continuous sound of gunfire. All these sounds mixed, slowly descending from a loud commotion to muffled noises, then from muffled noises to subdued sounds. Gradually, all sounds vanished without a trace!
By the time the other magical machines had cleared up the elven village and arrive at this battlefield, they only saw one bloody and one metallic corpse entangled together.
The earth mauler that the druid had transformed into had its stomach entirely shot into ribbons. The shattered internal organs slowly flowed out from within, soaking the ground beneath with blood. The Archer had also fallen apart. It appeared to have been badly ravaged by the earth mauler. Its metal body had been twisted beyond recognition, and it was totally non-functional.
When all the battles had ended, the magical machines started to search outward with the help of the metal eyeballs. This broken elven village was left to the adepts for research.
The surviving elves and flower fairies were sent to the flying ship to be interrogated by Poison Hag Endor. She had to figure out the approximate locations of all surrounding elven settlements, as well as the nearest elven city.
Half-Elf Tymo might be able to remember the locations of all elven cities, but he couldn't accurately pinpoint the areas of all elven villages. After all, it had been nearly a hundred years since he had left this place. A hundred years of experience was enough to cause everything familiar to fade from memory.
Trying to assault an elven city with the current strength of Greem and the other adepts was suicide. However, raiding the elven cities and clearing up all of their surrounding towns and outposts was still within their ability.
As qualified adepts, Greem and the others all personally retrieved the hair, flesh, and internal organs of the flower fairies and the elves. In particular, with the Spirit of Pestilence, Greem could now very easily use these materials to extract plague seeds with specific targets.
However, both elves and flower fairies were creatures of nature and had exceptional resistance to plagues and poisons. Trying to deal with them through disease alone was no more than a pipe dream. Still, Greem was more than happy to stir up more trouble for the elves!
The ones who were the happiest about the spoils from the big battle had to be the vampires and Bug Adept Billis.
One had to mention that the elves naturally possessed dense nature auras within their bodies as children of the forest. Their blood full of magical energy was undoubtedly the favorite food of vampires. That was why Mary had personally selected a few quality fairies and elves from the prisoners to be blood treats for herself.
Billis then collected the corpses of elves that had been dismembered in the attack.
Billis had just constructed a new bug's nest in a secret room within the ship, and he happened to need large amounts of blood and flesh. These elf corpses had come at the right moment.
Apart from these, the adepts also found many elven items within the ravaged treehouses. Most of them were different plant seeds and fruits that didn't mean much to the adepts. However, there were some fairly significant items within the pile.
For example, there were the Fruits of Nature taken from a thousand-year-old oak. Ordinary humans could extend their lifespan by eating the fruit. However, in the hands of adepts, it could only be used as a plant-attribute material to concoct nature resistance potions.
These nature resistance potion seemed to be necessary support potions in the fight against the elves!
Of course, apart from the Fruits of Nature, the adepts also found some exotic wood used for crafting magical staffs, along with the corresponding nature magical gemstones to be embedded within them.
However, Greem gave no mind to these things. The only thing that could move him was an unexpected discovery there.
Deserra found a very well-hidden hollow in the top of the tallest tree of the elven village. When Greem passed through the narrow hollow and pushed aside the green vines hanging down from above, what appeared before him was a small nature altar.
The so-called 'small altar' was no more than a tree stump one-meter wide in diameter. A pool-like groove had been dug into the stump. When Greem arrived here, he could very clearly see the bright moonlight passing through a hole at the top of the hollow, projecting straight into the groove.
A thin layer of green spring water rippled within the groove.
Greem had just moved toward the tree stump when he sensed the overwhelming life aura. He also detected a trace of holy and sacred aura.
Moonwater!
It should be the rumored treasure of the elves– Moonwater.
Greem took a deep breath and turned to give an order, "Go and fetch Alice, quick."
Deserra had only just acknowledged the order when Alice's soft and graceful voice rang out.
"No need to call for me, I have come myself!"
Greem laughed out loud, "Eh, what a dog's nose you have. To think you smelled the air and came here before I even called for you." Having said that, he started laughing without any restraint or care for his image.
Alice rolled her eyes at him unamusedly.
However, her eyes were drawn toward and fixed upon the layer of green water once she got close to the tree stump.
"Moonwater. It's Moonwater…"
"What? There's actually Moonwater here?"
The few witches that had followed along gasped in disbelief.
Alice tilted her head and thought for a moment. She then seemed to have understood something.
She walked to the tree stump and hit it a few times on several spots. She then pulled out a hidden drawer and took out a palm-sized wooden carving.
For some reason, a surge of a profound and strange flux radiated from the wooden carving, causing all living beings that saw it to have the impulse prostrate themselves before it!
"As I expected! Greem, we can't stay here for too long. This is a village blessed by a deity."
"Oh! Oh?" Greem was confused, "What is this wooden figure?"
"A treasure like Moonwater shouldn't appear in a v
illage of this size and population. Yet, it has still appeared here. It can only mean that this place is under the protection of the God of Moonlight. This wooden figure is an idol of the God of Moonlight. The elves of the village are very likely all followers of the God of Moonlight. We might attract great trouble if we stay here for too long!"
"Understood. I will go and arrange our retreat now. I'll leave everything here to you!" Greem decisively agreed and immediately walked out of the hollow.
"Don't just look around anymore, people. Work together and move everything here away." Alice also immediately gave her orders.
The witches gladly moved forward to get working.
Soon, the hollow had been completely emptied of its contents!
Chapter 625 Spoils and Investigations
The spoils after exterminating a border village of the elves were reasonably plentiful.
The resources and supplies obtained were secondary; the greatest spoil was actually the small nature altar they had obtained.
Moonwater, also known as Water of the Moonwells, was a sort of special spring water produced within the elven territory.
It was rumored that moonwater was an entirely new energy created by elves by combining magic elementium with the power of faith. This energy manifested in the form of well water.
For ordinary mortals, moonwater could bring the dead back to life, even if all that was left was bones. It was practically a miracle medicine. For spellcasters, moonwater was the most potent and safest healing potion in the world.
Even if a spellcaster was utterly exhausted, without Spirit or stamina, all they had to do was drink a bottle of moonwater to revitalize themselves instantly. Their Spirit would be so full that they would be on the verge of exploding. That was why any high-grade adept that could bring a bottle of such moonwater with them was essentially providing themselves with a second life.
One could easily imagine an adept using the moonwater to regain his strength after exhausting themselves in a battle with an equal. The sudden rejuvenation and pleasure that came from torturing and beating down the opponent with their newfound power couldn't compare to ordinary entertainment!
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