Future Knight

Chapter 39

The Elven Knight, who had lost his limbs and fallen to the giant centipede, was now being attacked by green elves as large as trolls.

The fallen Elven Knight gradually lost his form under their relentless axe strikes.

“No!”

An Elven Knight, rushing to save his fallen comrade, swung his sword at the troll elves who were hacking away.

However, the Elven Knight soon became another victim of their gigantic axe strikes, surrounded by dozens of troll elves.

The sight of the Elven Knights, whom they believed would lead them to victory in the upcoming racial war, being so brutally destroyed, filled the elves’ eyes with despair.

The sight of the blue aura sword emanating from the giant sword of the Gigantes was truly magnificent in the dark night.

Among them, Elradian’s aura blade exuded an incomparable sense of intimidation.

Three giant centipedes blocked his path.

However, Elradian’s aura blade sliced through the air at an invisible speed, cleaving the heads of the giant centipedes.

Even the powerful giant centipedes were mere insignificant creatures before the aura blade of a Sword Master.

The giant centipedes that blocked Elradian’s path fell one by one, losing their heads.

Hundreds of elf mages and summoners launched magical attacks at the enemies.

Numerous fireballs and explosion spells lit up the night sky and scorched the ground, occasionally turning dozens of green elves into ashes with lightning spells.

However, the number of green elves climbing up the nearly 40 invasion routes on the ground far outnumbered those being killed, making it seem like their numbers were barely decreasing.

The mages dealing with the giant centipedes were having no success either.

Even the most skilled mages in the elf village were dealing with the giant centipedes, but their shells were so incredibly tough that ordinary magic couldn’t even inflict small wounds.

Still, they circled around the centipedes with levitation, persistently casting their strongest attack spells they knew on the giant centipedes.

In response, the giant centipedes, nearly 40 meters long, spewed powerful acidic fluids at the bothersome flies, causing dozens of elf mages to dissolve and fall to the ground without even a chance to scream.

Arteon, watching this, gritted her teeth and conjured three of her specialty 7-circle top-level fire spells, Burst Flare, to focus on attacking the centipede’s head.

Although she could cast the ultimate fire spell, Hellfire, which was far more powerful than Burst Flare, its immense power required a long casting time and consumed a tremendous amount of mana, making it impractical to use.

She was the only one in this world, aside from dragons, who could use Hellfire, but it was not a spell that elves or humans could handle.

Thus, she increased the destructive power by creating multiple lower-circle Burst Flares and concentrating them in one spot.

Even the Burst Flare alone was enough to qualify one as a royal mage of a country.

Seeing Arteon create three Burst Flares at once demonstrated why she was called a 9-circle mage.

The Black Centipede, hit by three Burst Flares in the face, couldn’t even scream as its massive body collapsed to the ground.

Its head was completely shattered due to the immense destructive power.

Boom!

Acidic fluids oozed from the shattered head of the Black Centipede.

Arteon’s face was filled with despair as she looked at the grotesquely dead monster.

They had only managed to stop two, yet there seemed to be roughly 100 giant centipedes roaming freely inside the elf village.

Moreover, tens of thousands of green elves were slaughtering innocent elves.

The surviving elves were struggling to resist the green elves in groups of dozens, but even they were gradually being annihilated.

Now, she could only rely on Lasaeon and Racion’s rangers, who would bring the guardians of the forest.

If they didn’t arrive in time, the elves’ forest and village would be wiped off the map of the Arkandor Continent forever.

“Everyone… please, please come quickly.”

Arteon, praying earnestly, drew more mana and created several Burst Flares.

Behind her, thousands of injured elves groaned from surprise attacks.

Countless elves, whose lives were in danger if not treated immediately, had no mana left for healing.

The mages had to pour all their remaining mana into attacking to stop the advancing enemies.

“Everyone! We must hold them off until the reinforcements arrive!”

“Yeah!”

The mages responded to Arteon’s desperate cry with a unified cheer and began squeezing out their remaining mana.

Various attack spells from thousands of elf mages flew towards the enemies, and the green elves, startled by the immense firepower that could reshape the land, began retreating out of range.

“Indeed, the elves’ mages are far superior to human mages. Having thousands of mages capable of using such high-level magic… At this rate, our children’s losses will be too great. When will the Dark Elves start moving?”

“Not yet. Soon, the true power of the elves will arrive. Our elite Dark Elf troops are waiting for that moment.”

The true power of the elves he mentioned.

Green knew well about that power and couldn’t argue further.

However, her face twisted as she watched her children dying.

At that moment, the forest began to stir, and something started gathering around the elf village.

“They’ve arrived…”

The figures emerging from the forest were the forest guardians, the Ents, who had coexisted with the elves since ancient times and protected the forest together.

The Ents, moving slowly as if the entire forest was shifting, were just as large as the Black Centipede, but their numbers were incomparable.

Nearly a thousand Ents swarmed together.

The endless sight of Ents was a magnificent spectacle, and tears of hope flowed from Arteon’s eyes as she watched.

“Lady Arteon! As promised, we have awakened and brought the guardians of the forest.”

“Lord Lasaeon, you’ve done an excellent job. Now, we can finally breathe a sigh of relief. Where is Lady Racion?”

“Lady Racion is currently targeting the enemies from within the forest.”

“Good. Let the counterattack begin!”

“Let’s show the invaders the might of the Elf Forest!”

“Yeah!”

The eyes of the elves, once filled with despair, now sparkled with hope. With a powerful cheer, they began to advance toward the green elves and the giant centipedes, leading the Ents.

Boom!

Elradian, who had laid two giant centipedes to the ground, glared at the black Gigantes standing in his way.

―No! That’s Hellenic! No way?

The familiar Gigantes blocking his path was owned by someone Elradian knew well.

―Long time no see, Elradian.

Despite the heavy amplification, the familiar tone and the long-forgotten voice were unmistakable.

It was the voice of Elradian’s old friend.

―Nemitz, is that you?

At the mention of Nemitz, the elves fighting nearby began to murmur.

He was the only elf who had conquered the continent as a swordsman long before they were born and was a renegade who betrayed his race by becoming a Dark Elf.

His name was taboo among the elves.

His swordsmanship had also been buried in oblivion.

It had already been 500 years.

After all that time, they now stood face to face.

In the stifling silence, Nemitz’s black Gigantes and Elradian on his Elven Knight said nothing, merely standing still.

Then, breaking the silence, the black Gigantes drew two daggers from its black cloak.

Seeing this, Elradian no longer doubted that it was Nemitz.

Wasn’t he the one who had conquered the vast continent with just two daggers?

―Coming with the green elves means you’ve allied with them?

―Don’t ask why.

―Drawing your sword means you intend to attack me, right?

Nemitz slowly opened his mouth, looking at his daggers.

―The only thing I can do for an old friend is to send you off without pain.

Nemitz’s Hellenic skillfully twirled the massive 2-meter-long daggers and readied them.

―No matter if you are the master of the ancient giants, you can’t take on our ten Elven Knights.

―Don’t worry about that. Their playmates are right here.

As Nemitz raised his hand, five more black Gigantes emerged, pushing aside the trees in the forest.

Judging by their appearance, they seemed to be Gigantes made by humans.

―Do you think those kids can handle my Arkshadow?

―Kids!

The Elven Knights, angered, raised their giant swords.

―Calm down! How can you call yourselves Elven Knights if you easily fall for such provocation?

―S-Sorry, Master.

―Nemitz, I don’t want to sacrifice innocent disciples. How about we settle this one-on-one?

―Hahaha!

Nemitz laughed maniacally at the mention of one-on-one combat.

―My old friend, how do you see the current situation? Do you think I stand before you because of some grudge from the past? I have long forgotten such trivial matters. My purpose here is solely to destroy the elves who threaten the future of our Dark Elves and Green Elves, and to annihilate the Gigantes. Yet you speak of such weak-hearted things; you’ve still got a long way to go.