181-190

181 Helping Elanor

"Yes, we can get you back to the palace, but we are only tier 6 right now, so we need to do a bit of training to at least reach tier 7 before we take you with us." Shaman felt quite nervous seeing that now she is directly meddling with an issue that isn't even related to her.

"Hmm, I can always take you to the secret passage." Elanor thought they would be able to sneak in through there, but Kiruya interjected.

"Bad idea, we want an alibi, so if we go through by clearing the dungeon and you just happened to slip by, then that's a lot more plausible than appearing randomly through the secret entrance." Kiruya didn't want anyone to get exiled and at least with this method, there is no way they can be prosecuted as long as everyone has their story straight.

"I agree with Kiruya. Although it would be quicker to go through the secret passage, it's undeniable that we will have a better time getting away with it by clearing the dungeon." Clara was all for being quick, but seeing as they were dealing with the daughter of the royal elf family it was best to go the safer route.

"Can't we just sneak to the end of the dungeon and leave Elanor there? I mean there are always people entering the dungeon, so it will be impossible to tell who smuggled Elanor in, especially since we can hide her." Silver put in his opinion which was reasonable, but there was 1 flaw.

"The entrance is sealed by the dark elf king, so we can't sneak by without killing him, and since it's a tier 7 leader we need to be prepared." Kiruya liked Silver's thinking, but factors were stopping them from doing it.

"So we are grinding until we get to tier 7, then we take on the boss?" Elysia, who wasn't really interested in Elanor's situation, laid out their first objective.

"That's the plan, so after that, we will take Elanor in and from there it will be up to her." Shaman turned to Elanor, who was on the verge of tears as ever since she has been kicked out, it has been nothing but misery.

"T-thank you so much, I will try my best to not be a burden." Unable to hold back the tears, Elanor began to cry. Aside from Elysia, The others all had smiles on their faces, glad that they were able to help.

.....

"Alright, if that's everything sorted, is there anything in particular you need before we go head for the dungeon to get some levels?" Shaman knew they had taken quite the detour, but she still wanted to get to the dungeon, so she hoped there wasn't anything else.

"W-well depends, other than the nobles that are constantly on my back, there isn't much that needs to be done for me." Elanor's voice was still shaky, but she wiped away the tears and tried to speak clearly.

"Hmm, well you can stay in my room for now and we can rent another one once we are back, unless there is something you need to pick up from home." Shaman's first thoughts were to kill them, but since she doesn't have direct permission from someone high in power, it was a stupid idea.

"Murder?" Elysia, hearing nobels, had her interest piqued as she enjoyed toying with some of the nobles during the killing spree they had in the Freya forest.

"Elysia no! Not this time." Shaman turned and slightly smacked Elysia on the top of the head.

"Aww." Elysia's ears drooped down as she cradled her head.

"Aha, if it's okay, after you return can we go to my place so I can get my belongings? Luckily I don't have work tonight." Elanor did not mind waiting for them to return as after the failed kidnapping she was almost too scared to go outside.

"If you are willing to wait then that's great, have some money so you can get something to eat at this inn's small restaurant downstairs." Shaman didn't mind, but she definitely didn't want to leave Elanor without something just in case.

This action alone almost brought Elanor to tears as it had been years since she has ever been shown genuine kindness.

"I shall be waiting for your return." Elanor tried to smile, which ended up melting the group's hearts.

"Alright well, let's get this levelling done." Clara was eager to get it done as the quicker they cleared, the faster they could come back to help Elanor.

"Yes, we have a town and a part of a castle to raid, so make sure you are prepared for a long fight." Kiruya didn't know what to expect from the 4 as they could end up clearing the first area in a matter of minutes.

"Elysia, no just blowing up the entire place." Shaman glared at her, knowing full well what Elysia was itching to do.

"Hmph." Turning her head away and pouting, Elysia felt she was unfairly called out. of course she WAS intending to go out with a bang… but she didn't even say anything yet, how was this treatment fair?

*Sigh* "Anyway Elanor, rest here for now and we should be back in a few hours." Shaman shook her head as it was becoming more common that Elysia would opt to just destroy things in a big blast rather than take things one on one.

"Mhm." Elanor nodded and tightened her hold on the handful of gold coins she was given.

"Yay! I've been itching to fight for so long." Silver did a little hop to the door as he was excited to get back into fighting again.

"Let's make our way then, take care Elanor." Clara followed after Silver while waving to Elanor. Soon everyone exited the inn, leaving Elanor all by herself in Shaman and Elysia's room.

'Little brother, finally I get to see you again.' Thinking about her brother Ren, who managed to stay in the palace for still having some blonde in his hair, she hoped he hadn't been brainwashed by grandfather.

'Knowing dad, he has been doing his best to protect Ren. Just before I left it seemed like grandfather was ill, so I doubt he can use his magic anymore. Not to mention the curse my father mentioned that prevented any of us from ending that old bastard's life.' Elanor gritted her teeth in anger as the old hatred that has persisted in her heart for many years resurfaced once more.

'Having to fend for myself when I was only 16, I'm surprised I have lasted the last 6 without dying in a ditch somewhere.' Elanor remembered when she was first kicked out, which initially wasn't even in the capital city but in a small town nearby. It was only recently that Elanor was able to move into the capital, but as soon as she did, it seemed her great grandfather prepared a few nobles to make it a living hell for her.

'Now that I have met some people willing to help, finally, I can see Ren, mother and father again.' Elanor missed her family, which has been her motivation in trying to work her way back into the city.

Putting down the coins she was given, Elanor made her way to the bed and laid down, planning to get some sleep before she went to get something to eat.

***

"Have you found her?" A noble who was missing part of his arm looked at a few half canines who were kneeling.

"Yes, she seemed to have been picked up by a few adventurers and is currently staying in their inn."

"Hmm good, get together a few people and kidnap her, we are getting revenge on whoever did this to me." Grabbing a hold of his arm that was yet to be reattached, a sinister smile appeared on his face as he fantasized about his revenge.

"Right away sir! By tonight she will be here." The half canines quickly exited the room to carry out the orders.

"After this, finally I'll get paid and I will no longer have to worry about expenses ever again." Thinking back to the deal he made with the previous ruler of Elfheim, he couldn't wait to be done with the impurity that was Elanor.

"I should let the others know of my moves, otherwise they will start knocking at my door for answers." Although he was greedy and wanted the reward money for himself, there was more than enough to share.

"Just you wait, Elanor, soon you will be begging at my feet." Licking his lips, he turned and exited the small backroom where the meeting was held.

***

"Alright, is everyone ready to start clearing?" Shaman looked out to the town they planned to attack and was making sure everyone was ready.

"Yep."

"Mhm."

"Hehe finally."

Elysia, Clara and Silver all responded while pulling out their weapons and taking position next to Shaman, ready to move.

"Each of us will take a quarter of the town. If you finish early, wait in the middle. Then once we clean up the town, we siege the castle!" Shaman pulled out Kotetsu and couldn't wait to start levelling again.

Everyone nodded while Kiruya stood back to watch the show, as she wasn't allowed to participate unless they were in trouble.

"3, 2, 1 annnnd GO!" After a short countdown, the go signal was given and they all sprinted into the town, each going to their respective area to eliminate the dark elves.

182 Up in flames

The group of 4 were running into the village of dark elves, when Clara and Silver split off to go to their own sections.

"No blowing up the entire town Elysia." Shaman wanted to make sure Elysia didn't go full destruction mode and lay waste to the entire town.

"Tsk, I know, I plan to use my spear anyway." Elysia pouted, annoyed she couldn't let herself lose, but she hadn't used her spear in a while so it wasn't too bad.

"Good, now let's clear the town." Shaman said, as they approached the split-off point, and Elysia nodded. Going their separate ways, Shaman hoped they could finish this as soon as possible.

*

Running to the centre of the quarter she assigned herself, Shaman yelled and made as much noise as she could to attract all the dark elves in the area.

"Oiiii! Come over here!" Reaching a small open area in the middle, Shaman halted her movements and waited for all the elves to arrive. Gripping Kotetsu, she changed the affinity to fire and activated [blade of flamescion], causing her blade to violently burst out with flames.

'It feels so much easier to use.' Remembering when she burnt the mana circuits that ran through her body, it was a weird feeling to be able to use the skill without issues.

The dark elves were growing in number with a few guards among them preparing to attack. Slowly inching closer to Shaman, murmurs of hate and threats of death echoed among the crowd.

.....

Once close enough, Shaman pulled her blade back, preparing to release an attack that would hopefully wipe out the majority of them, aiming to make it an easier fight.

The dark elves didn't stand still and charged at Shaman with whatever weapon they could grab, doing whatever they could to reach her and even throwing their weapons at her when they couldn't.

Dodging the thrown weapons, Shaman then spun on her feet and swung Kotetsu with great force releasing a highly condensed fire blade.

Cutting straight through the initial line of dark elves, the fire blade reached the middle of the elven horde when it suddenly exploded. Burning to ash half of the dark elves in an instant, the fire spewed everywhere, setting fire to the buildings and charring all nearby nature.

Switching Kotetsu to ice, Shaman turned her attention to a group of elves who were just behind the new zone of destruction and were unaffected by the flames.

Not caring what happened to their fellow elves, they continued to rush at Shaman. Some of the guards that were also part of the group tried mimicking what Shaman did and sent wind slashes in her direction.

Activating her sword domain, flowers sprouted and Shaman noticed something changed again within it. Icy air filled the area, which she could only assume was because of her affinity with ice.

'Now that I think about it, I haven't really checked the system in a while.' Shaman had been ignoring the system for a while so she forgot its capabilities at times.

'No matter, I need to focus.' Not wanting to get distracted as the attacks were getting closer, she needed to concentrate.

Letting the elves get close, Shaman quickly used the cold air to her advantage, slowing the wind blades which she then easily dodged, all while dashing into the group of elves. Shaman got into the rhythm of parrying the blows of the Dark elves, then countering with her own attacks, killing each of them in an instant. She also created a second sword out of stardust and ice, allowing her to defend herself from most directions, which she would need as by now she was deep amidst the elves.

Constantly turning, blocking blows, shooting ice spikes into elves and slicing limbs off. Shaman was making quick work of the group of elves and was getting closer to killing them all. Thanks to her being nimble, Shaman was able to dodge and parry the attacks with utmost efficiency, leaving herself just barely enough room to avoid getting hit.

However, once some of the guards joined in on the assault, they proved to be much more difficult.

As the first guard to reach her thrusted their spear, Shaman jumped up in the air while dispersing her ice blade and then placed her hand on top of the spear. Channelling her Ice on it, she tried encasing both spear and dark elf in ice, but the elf reacted in time. Letting go of their spear they swirled wind over their hand and went to punch Shaman who was still in the air.

Blocking the strike with the flat side of her sword, Shaman was blasted back into some regular elves that attempted to slash at her while she was still flying through the air.

'Shit.' Seeing the elves going for an attack she stabbed her sword into the ground and used her wind to slow herself down. She brought herself to a stop before reaching the elves, but this did not stop them from charging at her with reckless abandon.

Raising her free hand she summoned water from the ground, trapping the elves that were about to attack in a water bubble. They began to drown in the bubble and Shaman left them there to die.

However, as she turned her attention back to the elf guard, 3 more guards joined the first one and rushed at her with their spears. Quickly raising an ice wall which was broken down shortly, Shaman still managed to stall the elves long enough to create her ice and stardust sword again.

Opening up a few stardust portals, she sent ice spikes in the blind spots of 2 of the guards, disabling them temporarily. The other two continued their attack, with both each attacking a different location.

Using her two swords to block both of them, her ice sword ended up shattering as the elves reinforced their weapons with wind increasing their destructiveness.

Unable to block the attack, Shaman got stabbed right in the stomach and blood began flowing out.

"Argghh." Shaman shook from the pain as she held the spear that was now lodged into her stomach. The other elf was able to pull back and strike again and this time went for Shaman's head.

However, before he got close, Shaman released a bunch of flames from her body and gripped the spear tighter. The elves tried to back away because of the heat, but the elf holding the spear hesitated to leave their weapon and failed to get away in time. Feeling their skin melt they screamed in agony as they slowly burned to death.

Once the elf was dead, Shaman shattered the weapon in her hand and pulled out the blade from inside her. Looking at the remaining 3 elf guards, Shaman was pissed off as she glared at them menacingly.

Holding her stomach to stop the bleeding, she used her own fire to cauterise the wound shut for the time being. Coating her sword in ice, she then dashed forward while dragging it across the ground to create a small trail of ice.

The guards suddenly felt a tinge of fear. Even though they were all in their usual crazed state, something within Shaman still caused them to feel danger.

The elves, although terrified, moved to block Shaman's assault, but found she didn't go for an attack but instead created an ice floor in front of them. Failing to understand Shaman's plan, they plucked up the courage to step forward to go for an attack.

However, upon stepping on the ice platform, dozens of ice spikes rose from the ground, impaling the elves with ease. The majority of the elves were now dead with only a few normal ones left, but Shaman quickly conjured up ice spears and sent them directly into their heads.

Once everything was dead, the pain from the stomach wound kicked in, dropping Shaman to her knees.

"Ah fuck that hurts." Heavily breathing, Shaman tried using heal on the wound, but the size of the wound was too much for her to heal fully.

Laying on her back in the flower field of her sword domain, Shaman took this moment to rest.

'I need to be more careful with those guards, they are weak one on one, but if they are together they can do some nasty stuff.' Shaman saw how their teamwork was flawless, but due to them being innately weaker than Shaman, it wasn't too hard for her to react or counter them.

Looking over to the side, Shaman saw buildings on fire in the distance and wondered how Elysia was going with her fight.

'I just hope she doesn't do any big atta-.'

*BOOM*

"God fucking damn it, what did I just say!!" Screaming out, she held a small hope that Elysia would hear her, but with the entire place shaking and bursts of fire erupting from several buildings, it was a dim hope indeed.

'Gosh this woman won't ever stop with her large-scale attacks. If she did all this with just her spear, I can't imagine how much stronger she would be at tier 10.' Shaman was bewildered by how volatile Elysia was with her fire and couldn't imagine what it would be like at tier 10.

'At least it was only her area, but now I can imagine elves from the castle are on their way.' Shaman got up from the ground feeling a bit better and headed towards the middle of the town to wait for the oncoming wave of elf guards from the castle.

183 Fire fox

After splitting off from Shaman, Elysia was sending explosive fire spears at the dark elves' houses, getting the attention of all the elves in her area.

Finding a small park for her to group all of the elves in one place, Elysia waited for them on top of a tree.

Hearing the rabid growls below and seeing a massive crowd form, Elysia was ready to begin slaughtering.

Flicking her spear, she entered her hybrid fire-fox form and the ends of her hair turned into fire. Her fox features also became more prominent, with her hands and feet gaining fur with the same fiery effect.

'So I can combine this fire transformation and my [bloodline arts] that I got back in Ebonscale.' After fighting the skeleton knight in Ebonscale and transforming into what her family calls their true form, Elysia's bloodline power was unlocked, allowing her to enhance her speed and power.

'Still have more to find out, but that diary my mother gave me might have some hints.' Elysia saw in her system menu that there were many more bloodline arts she could learn, but she had no idea how to get them.

'Anyway, I have a show to put on.' Elysia smiled and jumped off the tree she was on as the dark elves were now too close.

Spinning in the air Elysia dived directly into the crowd of elves while coating her spear in condensed fire.

.....

The elves thrusted their weapons into the air to catch Elysia, but she was too fast for anyone to do anything. Slipping past the weapons of the elves, Elysia squeezed her way into the crowd while hitting the ground with her spear.

The condensed fire that was on the spear exploded, turning all nearby elves to ash and giving Elysia space. She also released all 6 of her tails as she realised her increase in power came from how much of herself she transformed into a fox. Each tail shared the same trait of the tips being on fire, however, the top of the flame had a slightly blue hue to it.

'Is my flame getting hotter?' Elysia was aware that as her fire grew hotter, it would change to a blue colour, but no matter how much she tried, she couldn't get her flames hot enough.

'Maybe it's because I recently went up a tier, anyway I can't waste any time.' Elysia hadn't tried ever since getting tier 6, so she thought it might be now possible to get a blue flame, but because the dark elves were fast approaching, she didn't have time to think.

Pivoting on her feet, Elysia slashed across the chest of a few dark elves killing them.

Moving the spear behind her, she blocked the blow of an elf. She then used the thin fire coating on her spear to send a small fire spear into the elf's head. Not even getting a second of reprieve, Elysia now had a group of 5 elves all jump at her at the same time.

Stabbing her spear into the ground, a wave of fire spewed out from the hole it created, which stopped the 5 elves from getting closer. Leaving her spear in the ground she dashed to the first elf and using her claws, pierced through the chest of the elf.

The elf's body burned from the inside and was discarded to the side like trash. Elysia then moved on to the other elves, killing them with her bare hands. She would grab them by the head, slice their necks and crush their body. A crazed look appeared on Elysia's face as she spilled blood.

Her flames also started to transform a little as now the small blue tint was turning red with each kill.

Once she finished off the group of 5, Elysia didn't keep still and dashed towards where the majority of the elves were. Still using her bare hands Elysia was ripping through the elves not caring for her own safety until finally, her flames turned completely blood red.

[Element fire has evolved]

[Fire -> Blood fire]

Getting a system notification, Elysia completely ignored it and continued to shred through the bodies of the dark elves. However, now her flames were much more volatile and any elf that came close felt their blood boil.

This did not stop the elves from attacking and due to the sheer amount Elysia was now surrounded by, their attacks were finally landing. Getting slashed across the back and her various limbs, Elysia was taking a lot of damage, but this did not stop her. She continued to rip elves' heads off while her flames consumed their bodies.

One effect of her flames that instantly became apparent, was that the fire had a life-leaching property. After the flames burnt one of the elves' bodies, the wounds on Elysia's body would be set on fire and slowly the wound would close.

Red flames arose from all around Elysia as they burnt the corpses of everything she killed and the only thing left was the guards. For some reason they had stood back, but Elysia didn't care about what they were doing. Knowing her hands wouldn't go through their armour, Elysia went back to her spear and pulled it out of the ground.

Once her hand touched the spear, red flames instantly coated it, violently thrashing around.

The group of at least 10 guards all brandished their spears, infusing them with wind. Little did they know it would only fuel Elysia's flames even more.

The guards got into a circular formation and surrounded Elysia to block off any means of escape.

Standing still, Elysia did not move and carefully watched over the guards, waiting for their next move.

Not being patient some of the guards began to make their move while others kept the circle. 4 out of 10 charged at her and a small whirlwind appeared at the tips of their blades. Elysia erected a fire wall all around her and when the spears connected with the wall, the wind caused an explosion. In the split moment of contact, Elysia was able to forcefully take over the mana in the wind and use it to further amplify the fire, causing the explosion.

The elves were blasted back, but were not killed. However, it was evident by their now burnt forearms that they took a lot of damage.

The fire wall came down and at the tip of Elysia's blade was a highly condensed ball of fire. The elves instantly could tell it was dangerous, as the ambient mana in the air was erratic and kept getting sucked into the ball she was creating.

Knowing what was coming would kill them, they all rushed at Elysia in an act of desperation. They attacked with everything they had, sending whatever wind attacks they could all the while trying to close the distance. Elysia didn't even bother blocking the wind attacks, which were weakened anyways from their mana getting sucked out of them. In the end, they only left small cuts on Elysia's body.

Raising her spear to the sky, Elysia was close to completing her attack, but now the dark elves were close enough to hit her. Still not caring, she let their spears stab her. Blood spewed out from her body as she coughed up blood from her internal wounds.

"Got you." Smiling Elysia slashed down, hitting the ground with the condensed ball of fire. Things went silent for a moment until a loud boom echoed out, followed by red fire engulfing the area.

All the guards were killed in an instant and thanks to their bodies getting burnt by the blood fire, Elysia's wounds were already closing letting her escape mortal danger.

Elysia, who was in the middle of the blast, was completely unaffected and instead was embraced by the flames, making her feel stronger.

Once the flames dissipated and the area cleared up, everything in the proximity was black or turned to ash, making it look like a wasteland.

Elysia slowly let go of her flames, changing back to her normal half human form. Once back to normal, Elysia fell to her knees as the amount of mana she used in a short period of time was exhausting and she needed a moment to recover her strength.

"That was fun." Falling on her back, Elysia took a moment to embrace the feeling of victory and let her body recover.

"Wait, I wasn't supposed to do big attacks like that oops." Elysia remembered that Shaman explicitly said to avoid doing any larger scaled attack that would attract attention.

"Oh well, just means more fighting, but I should probably get to the centre." Elysia didn't mind, but she knew there were going to be more waves of dark elves coming soon.

"Hope Shaman is still preoccupied, I can already hear the lecture." Elysia felt shivers as she knew how scary Shaman can be when it came to doing things right.

'I wonder if we can just clear it today.' Elysia thought for a moment. So far, the dungeon wasn't hard. Although the guards posed a threat as they are more intelligent, with the 4 of them it seemed easy.

'Only one way to find out.' Elysia got up from the ground after somewhat recovering from the exhaustion and made her way to the centre.

184 Lightning quick

Chapter 182 – Lightning quick

Clara, being one of the first to split off, wanted to finish up quickly, so she infused lightning into her legs which enhanced her speed. She also struck lightning onto the surrounding buildings to get the attention of the elves.

After running a lap of the area she was assigned, all elves in the vicinity were now aggravated, chasing Clara down. Once she was confident that most of the elves were following her, she spotted a town hall-like building.

'I could use the walls to my advantage.' Clara had an idea on how to eliminate the elves which required an enclosed space, so a town hall would be a suitable location.

Running to the hall, Clara kicked open the door, taking it off its hinges and hitting a couple of dark elves that were behind the door. Walking in, Clara crushed the 2 elves' heads and made it to a small stage that looked over the hall.

The hall itself was rather standard and had a massive open space that was occupied by chairs. There were also carvings on the wall which depicted an elven king or some such, which Clara assumed to be the boss of the dungeon.

'I should be able to work with the pillars, just have to make sure I don't destroy them.' Clara analysed the room and found the walls to be too far apart. However, the supporting pillars in the hall were thick and close enough to be used.

The dark elves started funnelling into the hall, but due to the sheer number of them, they had trouble advancing, stumbling over the chairs and tripping over each other.

Clara pulled out her blade whips and electrified them, encasing them in lightning. Lightning shot out from the whips as Clara waited for the Elves to get to the centre of the hall.

.....

Once the main horde of dark elves which only consisted of normal elves were in the centre, Clara made her move. Lightning still coursing through her legs, enhancing her speed, she jumped off the stage and latched on to one of the pillars. Extending out the whips as much as she could, she then propelled herself, jumping off the pillar and into the horde.

The elves tried to retaliate with their makeshift weapons, but Clara was too fast for them to aim properly and their attacks completely missed.

Swinging her whips down in an x shape, she created a large lightning slash that would explode on touch. The elves that were directly hit by the lightning were killed while the others would get paralysed as well as severely burned.

Landing in the middle of the horde, which was opened up thanks to her attack, Clara started to take out the paralysed elves. Without even moving from her spot, Clara whipped the elves, either giving them deep lacerations or electrocuting them with her lightning.

This also created an indirect shield from the other approaching elves, as the reach of the whips made it hard to approach Clara unharmed.

Blood splattered everywhere while lightning charred the hall, filling it with burn marks, and yet there was still plenty of killing left to do.

Once Clara finished off the paralysed, she retracted her whips. Of course, the Elves that were trying to approach wouldn't miss this chance and all rushed her at once. Some elves even managed to hide behind the chairs, stealthily getting closer while Clara was using her whips which caught her off guard.

A child elf with a knife came out directly behind Clara and with his small knife stabbed her in the back.

"Bastard!" Clara went to stab the child with her retracted whip, but at the last moment hesitated since it was a child.

'Fuck.' Clara's instincts told her not to kill, but she knew that they were just beasts taking on the form of elves.

This allowed some of the elves to get close enough, stabbing Clara in the stomach and shoulder. Coughing up some blood, she dropped one of her whips and grabbed the pitchfork that was in her stomach.

"Fucking damn it." Clara got angry at herself for hesitating and violently struck all around her with her lightning.

Looking up directly into the eyes of the dark elf that stabbed her, a purple glow appeared in her eyes and the pitchfork in her hands shattered. Lightning crashed down onto the elves that surrounded her, freeing her from their weapons.

Blood poured out of Clara's body, only to scab over quickly thanks to her demonic regeneration.

'It still bloody hurts.' Although it wasn't fully healed, it allowed her to continue the fight without bleeding out. More elves came rushing at her, so Clara picked back up her other whip and overcharged both of them. The lightning discharged, not only killing a couple of elves, but also creating a wave of lightning that halted the enemy charge for a moment.

Clara then sprinted and jumped on top of one of the chairs and propelled herself onto one of the pillars. Using one of her whips to wrap around the pillar, Clara held on and charged lightning into her feet.

The elves below tried throwing their weapons as the guards which were by the entrance attempted to throw wind attacks. However, before they got close Clara vanished from the pillar in a bolt of lighting. A streak of lightning went above the elves to another pillar and bounced off it.

The lightning kept jumping around the six pillars, leaving the elves unsure of what to do as they lost sight of Clara.

Soon there was a constant line of lightning that connected all the pillars as Clara appeared above the array of electric lines. All the elves' attention instantly landed on Clara, but all they could do was watch as she was too high to reach.

Clara's whips were extended out and were what created the lightning streaks in the air. This pulled them to their utmost limit, but thanks to the material the whips were made of, they could stretch with the help of mana.

Tugging on the whips, the pillars broke off from the roof and came crashing down onto the horde. Quickly retracting the whips, Clara lifted one in the air and hooked it into the ceiling so she did not fall together with the pillars.

The guards unfortunately were too far back to be affected, but the rest of the elves were all crushed by pillars. However, this left the hall in a mess and made the area very awkward to battle on.

'I should move this outside.' Clara didn't want to bother dealing with all the rubble and dead bodies on the floor, so she started to swing on her whip.

The guards were not idle and attempted to throw some of their spears at Clara, but before they could, she was already on the move.

Going through a window that was close to the ceiling, Clara made it back out to the front and used her other retraced whip blade to stab into the building to slow her fall. Jumping off the wall, she turned to face the entrance and the group of 5 guards that came out.

Clara considered using her demon form, but it would cost too much mana as they still had the castle to fight through.

'Hmm, maybe I could do a lesser version.' Not wanting to completely rule it out, Clara thought that she could partly transform parts of her body instead.

'Wait don't we have an assistant through the system? Rea? Is what I thought possible?' Clara remembered the forgotten assistant that had stayed quiet for a long time.

[Hmm? Someone is talking to me? I'm not hearing things?] Rea with a rather depressed tone came out of hiding.

'Yes now tell me.' Clara felt a little bad, but this wasn't the time for catching up.

[Oh yes, well you have complete control over the skill so you can change how much you want to transform.]

'Thanks.' Clara now knowing she won't be draining herself fully of her mana, began to transform her arms and legs.

'I still can't even go into full form yet, but at least I can with some of my body parts.' Clara knew she still wasn't capable of a full body transformation but was still able to partially enhance her body. But now knowing she can target certain parts of her body, she could reduce the mana consumption by a lot.

The dark elves came rushing towards Clara with their reinforced wind spears, but it was pointless as Clara vanished from where she was standing.

Since Clara targeted her legs, she was now able to move at an even faster speed while paired with her lightning. This also correlated to her attacks as she was able to swiftly stab the elves in the back of the head before they could even turn to face her.

Killing 2 elves right away, she pulled her retracted whip blades out of their necks and swung outwards while extending them. Managing to precisely hit the gap in the armour on their necks Clara was able to decapitate 2 more elves, leaving only one.

Due to the final elf being last he was able to react and go for a strike, but before he could even get close his arm was suddenly torn off. Confused by what just happened, he didn't have time to see where Clara went as before he knew it his vision went black.

killing the last guard by decapitation as well, Clara now finished eliminating all the elves in her given area. Getting rid of the transformation, Clara fell to her knees. Although it didn't use much mana, it was still very taxing to use.

'Phew now that's over, I can rest.' Clara, knowing she most likely finished first, was going to take a moment to breathe.

*BOOM*

"Oh for fucks sake." Knowing exactly who that explosion was from, Clara knew her rest was going to be cut short.

'Looks like I'm heading straight to the middle.'

185 Shadowy execution

Silver, splitting off to his own section, felt a bit nervous as he would be facing opponents that would be more on par with his level.

'It won't be as easy as that beast tamer dungeon.' Reminding himself not to get overconfident, Silver already found himself in the centre.

"Whoops I didn't attract their attention." Silver only had a few elves following him as he was too busy in his thoughts to create any noise.

'Maybe I can do this quietly. No, that would take too long.' Silver thought about going around the town using his shadows to kill the elves silently, but it would take him forever.

'I guess yelling will just have to do.' Silver had no other option as he had no skills that could help him make noise.

"HEY, YOU DARK ELF BASTARDS, COME AND GET ME!!!" Yelling as loud as he can, he could already hear movement as small groups of elves started converging toward him.

'Hopefully that's enough.' Silver didn't want to kill his throat, so while he waited, he went to deal with the first few elves that followed him.

Spinning the scythe in his hand, he watched a few elves charge at him with knives and gardening tools.

Putting the artificial sun to his back, Silver stopped his scythe and raised it up high, casting its shadow on the ground before him, awaiting the oncoming elves. Once they stepped onto the shadow, Silver stabbed the ground with his scythe. The shadow erupted from the ground in response, shooting out shadow spikes that resembled a scythe's blade. The elves were all skewered and killed with ease, giving some time for Silver to prepare for the rest of the elves.

.....

Recalling back the shadow, Silver looked around where the elves were coming from, so he could plan where to go next. Spotting a group of elves coming from a market area first, Silver jumped into his shadow and made his way to the elves.

Once he was under their feet, like he did with the previous elves, he shot up shadow spikes killing most of them while also coming out to finish off the last elf himself. Having killed 5 more elves, Silver saw the next wave coming, but this time there were a lot more elves than he could take out at once.

The group of 15 elves saw Silver surrounded by dead bodies and rushed forward, making their way over to him in a frenzy. However, just as they reached him, Silver disappeared in his shadow, confusing them.

Shortly after, at the back of the group of elves, a couple of elf heads were decapitated. The others turned around, but as soon as they did more elves were killed. Realising that the enemy would always attack from behind, they quickly formed a circle, but this only worked in Silver's favour.

Appearing in the middle of the circle, Silver spun on his feet and cleanly cut all the elves in half. Blood splattered everywhere tainting his silver hair. He tried to avoid that but was unable to get in his shadow quick enough.

'Damn it, I'm going to need Mother to wash my hair with her water.' Silver wanted to avoid getting bloody as it was annoying to clean.

Silver, now having dealt with a lot of the basic elves, was left with only a single group of 25 elves. 5 of which were guards and the rest being normal.

The elves looked around for Silver, but they were only able to see the corpses of their own kind which infuriated them even more.

Silver knew the guards were trouble, so he decided to target them first, but upon exiting his shadow to execute one, he suddenly turned around.

The guard thrusted his spear at the exact location where Silver would come out, yet it hit nothing as Silver managed to get back in his shadow.

Breathing heavily, Silver needed a moment to calm down as he didn't expect the guard to respond so quickly.

'Okay so I can't sneak up on them.' Silver tried to figure out what he would do as getting the jump on them was now virtually impossible.

'I will just have to fight head on, but I need to get rid of the fodder first.' Silver was not idle for too long, making his way to the part of the group where the normal elves were gathered. However, the normal dark elves were spreading out to look for Silver as they knew he was close, but were unaware he was in their shadows.

Silver jumped out of the shadow of one of the elves, sliced them in half and then spun on his feet. Extending out his scythe as far as he could, he managed to hit a couple more elves before the guards rushed him with their spears.

Silver repeated this process, but the guards were getting quicker, learning Silver's attack patterns and preparing attacks where shadows extended. When only a few last normal elves remained, the guards prepared themselves once more for retaliation, aiming to hit silver when he comes out for the last remaining elf.

However, Silver knew this, so he made sure the last elf would be close to a building so he would be able to exit the shadow without getting hit.

Jumping out of the side of the building, Silver swung down with his scythe and pierced the head of the elf while still in mid-air. The guards were already striking back, but they did not expect Silver to come out from above and miscalculated their trajectory. Blades of wind passed just below silver, who leveraged his scythe, still stuck in the elf's body, to push himself away from the projectiles, only getting scratched on his back.

Silver fell to his knees in pain as there was a massive cut on his back that kept bleeding. The guards charged at Silver, but he quickly went back into his shadow to get back to safety.

'Damn it that hurt, I should have just instantly gone back into the shadows.' Silver regretted staying out as he thought he would have time to counterattack, but instead it backfired, getting him hurt.

Taking a moment to recover, he came out of the shadows behind a building and wrapped himself in bandages trying to stop the bleeding as much as he could.

Once he was done, he got back up and quickly returned to where the guards were. Taking a different approach, Silver decided to fight them head-on as sneaking up on them was not going to work.

Coming out in front of the guards, Silver prepared for their attack and as he predicted they came charging at him. Silver hit the bottom of his scythe on the ground, letting its shadow extend and drown the nearby area. This was inspired by Shaman's sword domain move. Although it cost mana to do what Silver was doing, he still wanted to create a domain.

[Shadow domain]

However, the system recognised it as its own skill, releasing him from the burden of using a constant stream of mana.

The guards did not care for the shadow as it did not pose an immediate threat to them. Before they could reach him, Silver threw his scythe into the shadow as if it was consumed by the darkness. This only made Silver seem more vulnerable, making the elves get more cocky.

Silver smirked as he pointed up with his finger and his scythe came out of the shadows slicing right through one of the guards. This caused the other elves to halt their charge as they expected more to come out of the ground.

Silver, seeing they were now distracted, sprinted towards them, jumped up in the air and grabbed onto his scythe.

Coming back down, Silver's trajectory brought him right on top of another guard. The guard saw the danger from above, but missed the one from below. Shadow spikes shot out from the domain, hitting his lower half and disrupting his movement. Being unable to move the elf watched Silver swing and decapitate him.

The other elves realised that there were no attacks coming from the ground so their attention was back on Silver.

The 3 remaining elves all thrusted their spears at Silver, but he was able to easily dodge them by sinking part of his body into the shadows. While he was low he swung at the legs of one of the elves causing the elf to fall. Flippin his scythe upwards, he let the elf fall onto the blade, getting skewered to death.

The other 2 elves redirected their efforts to ranged attacks, sending wind slashes, but Silver disappeared before those reached him.

Shortly after his disappearance shadow spikes emerged, aiming for the last 2 elves' feet, but they were able to barely dodge them. Coming out of the shadow once more, Silver was the one to charge at them.

The elves went to move back, but a shadow wall was suddenly erected behind them blocking them from moving away. However, the wall itself became yet another course of attack as spikes came out of it, piercing the shoulders of the 2 elves.

While the elves were screaming out in pain, Silver had free range to kill the elves, and so he swung horizontally killing the two elves in one swing.

Dispelling the domain, Silver managed to clear his area, although not without consequence.

"Hope mother doesn't get angry." Silver knew he only needed a small heal, but knowing his mother, she would freak out and go on a rampage.

"Oh well I should quickly get to the centre and wait for the others." Silver didn't want to waste time as the quicker he got to the centre, the quicker he could rest.

186 Regroup

Shaman, being the first to arrive at the centre, sat on the ground waiting for the others and the oncoming horde of elven guards.

'Wish we could rest a bit before taking on the next wave.' Shaman put her hand on her stomach, which was stabbed in the last battle causing her quite a lot of pain. Although Shaman's healing was able to make her condition much more bearable, it still hurt to move.

"Shaman~!" Elysia was quick to arrive. Spotting Shaman sitting on the floor, she ran up to her in an instant.

"Hey Eli." Shaman glared at Elysia as she hadn't forgotten about the explosion she caused.

"Haha, Yeah I had a great fight, how about you." Elysia awkwardly laughed while looking away as she knew exactly why Shaman was glaring at her.

*Sigh* "It's too late now, I'm not mad. Anyway, my fight went alright although I did get stabbed in the stomach, I should be fine." Shaman couldn't stay annoyed as they had other pressing issues coming.

"Wait what?!" Elysia instantly became worried and kneeled next to Shaman to check on the injury.

"It's fine, don't worry, I already healed it as much as I can." Shaman regretted saying anything as she knew Elysia would panic over it when it was really fine.

"Stillllll, let me look, otherwise I won't be calm." Elysia needed to see for herself if it was okay so that she can put her worries to rest.

.....

"Fine." Shaman moved her arms from her stomach, revealing the scab that covered the wound and finally easing Elysia's worries.

"Wait, let me try something." Elysia, wanting to rid herself of all her worries, clicked her fingers and a blood-red flame appeared on the tip of her finger.

"Your fire is different?" Shaman instantly noticed the colour change and wondered if it evolved or was a new element.

"Yes, during the fight my fire changed to a blood fire and by burning living things I am able to store their vitality, sort of like a vampire does with blood." On her way, Elysia checked the description of her evolved flame and found it to be a more destructive flame that can heal when it burns living things. It also had a small storage capability, so she can have a heal on the go without having to burn any bodies.

"Oh wow." Shaman was rather impressed as this was a huge upgrade for Elysia who hadn't had any way to heal herself. Although the condition was rather hard to achieve outside of a dungeon, it was nonetheless an upgrade.

"Hehe~." Elysia smiled, happy that she made some improvements despite probably being the strongest in the group. She then put her finger on Shaman's wound and let the fire on her finger spread over it.

Shaman squinted expecting it to hurt, but it was a surprisingly comfortable feeling which she didn't want to end. Soon the wound was completely healed, leaving only some lingering pains, but they were negligible.

"Ooo that's cool." Clara suddenly appeared behind Elysia watching her fire work.

"Ahh!" Elysia screamed and jumped away, pulling Shaman with her thinking it was an enemy.

"Oops." Clara chuckled, finding the reaction amusing and rather cute since it was rare to see Elysia scared. Shaman had seen Clara before she spoke and gestured to stay quiet so she could scare Elysia.

"Grrrr, don't sneak up on me like that! Otherwise I might kill you by accident." Elysia pouted. She had almost pulled out her spear before realising it was Clara at the last moment.

"Yes, yes sorry." Clara, who came out of her fight better off as her wounds slowly healed thanks to her demon side, was ready to keep going.

"Anyway, we are just missing Silver." Shaman looked off into the distance to where Silver was assigned, worried that something may have happened.

'Maybe I should go over.' Shaman was going to quickly go check on Silver, but before she could move, a little head appeared out of a shadow.

"Silver!" Shaman, instantly knowing who it was, ran up to him and opened her arms up for a hug.

"Hello Mother." Silver came out of the shadow as Shaman approached and hugged her back.

"Hmm what's wrong?" Shaman was instantly able to tell something was amiss and, when she wrapped her arms around Silver, she felt his clothes were torn.

"I'm just a bit hurt but that's all." Silver squinted in pain as Shaman accidentally squeezed right where the cuts on his back were.

"I-I, it's okay, ELI! Come heal Silver." Although he was ok, Shaman still panicked, struggling to find any words of comfort to say other than asking to get him healed. Hearing Silver needed to be healed Elysia panicked as well, so she quickly went up to Silver and looked for the injury.

Seeing the cuts on the back, she removed the bandages that he put on himself and let the fire do its work.

"Hopefully I have enough." Elysia was not sure how much stored vitality she had in her flames and hoped it was enough to heal Silver.

"Thank you Mama." Silver, feeling the warm flame, felt himself snuggling into Shaman even more, almost falling asleep in the comfy embrace.

After a minute of healing Silver's wounds, Elysia's flame ran out which caused her to panic a little, but the cuts were now much more shallow, which allowed Shaman to use her heal.

"There! you are all healed up now." Shaman patted Silver's head while using her other hand to heal the small cuts.

"I feel much better now." Silver no longer felt the pain in his back and was confident he would be able to fight properly again.

"Good thing we are all together now, but still, we will be dealing with over 30 of these guards." Clara was rather shocked at how well the guards fought, posing quite a threat.

"We should be alright together, but yes, we need to be careful we don't hit each other while fighting." Shaman foresaw the fight turning into a disaster, especially with Elysia's explosive way of fighting.

"I can take on a group of them myself while you three take care of the rest." Elysia was aware that she would be able to heal herself during the battle. There was also in her hybrid fire fox form which is what made her stronger than anyone else in the group.

"How many?" Shaman didn't want to leave Elysia on her own, but seeing as she came out completely unscathed, knew it might be the only option.

"I can take on around 10 at once, but more will be pushing it." Elysia wanted to take on more, but not wanting to worry Shaman, gave a reserved amount.

"Okay! if you can, that will be great. Me, Clara and Silver will take on the rest and try to stall while you kill yours." Shaman didn't want to go on the offensive as it would be difficult to fight through such a large group of elf guards.

"There might be archers as well, seeing as they did attack Kiruya when she was clearing the dungeon's first floor." Thinking about Kiruya's attempt it went to show how much stronger she was as she was able to solo it without getting hit once.

"If I get the opportunity, I can fire an arrow over at the archers, or I can do it right now?" Elysia pulled out her bow as she didn't mind sending a barrage of arrows at the castle.

"Wait no, we still don't even know if guards are coming because of the explosion, so until we hear anything don't fire." Shaman didn't want to attract attention, especially since they hadn't seen any guards come toward them since the explosion.

"Fiiine." Elysia was a little disappointed, but she knew if they were really in the clear then she shouldn't ruin the chance for a surprise attack.

"Speaking of which, I'm surprised they haven't come out." Clara was getting rather suspicious as last time when Kiruya made a bunch of noise, guards came out.

"They might be planning something, we shouldn't get too comfortable. There are still things we don't know about the dungeon so for all we know we might already be surrounded." Shaman knew they had a secret passageway into the castle, so there was nothing stopping them from also having passages into the town.

"I say we use the time we got and rest, but still, it is a bit eerie seeing no reaction from the castle." Clara looked towards the castle, which was dead silent almost as if it was abandoned.

"Mhm, let's try to rest." Shaman wasn't going to say no as she preferred to have full mana before entering the next fight.

*

10 minutes went by and nothing occurred, giving them enough time to be fully prepared for the next fight. Shaman and Elysia leaned on each other with Silver sitting in between Shaman's legs. Clara leaned up against a wall with her eyes shut, listening out for anything.

"FIRE!!!" Suddenly a shout came from inside the buildings and shortly after archers peeked over the many roofs of the nearby buildings.

"How did I not hear anything?" Clara looked around shocked as she didn't pick up any sound from the elves.

"Quick get in!" Shaman jumped up and opened a stardust portal to escape from the arrows.

The archers all directly fired on their location as they ran into the portal. Just as the arrows were about to reach Shaman, she entered the portal and closed it shut.

187 Dark elf commander

"That was too close, how did we not hear any of them?" Shaman fell on the floor upon entering as she ended up diving in trying to not get hit by the arrows.

"Wish I knew, but we need to get moving." Elysia was on her knees as she also jumped in and didn't quite land properly.

"Ambush the ambush?" Clara figured they could traverse to behind the elves while in Shaman's stardust.

"Sounds good to me, I think the main elf that called the shots was this way." Shaman looked over to a church where the voice came from and assumed it was a commander of some kind.

Getting up from the ground, they all ran to the church and, as they got close, Shaman made an ice staircase to the top of the church's roof.

Opening up a portal, they all quickly jumped out and found themselves behind a line of archers. Without saying a word, Elysia saw the opportunity for battle and activated her hybrid fox form, dashing at the elves.

Grabbing one by the back of the head, she crushed his skull and set the body on fire. She then moved on to the other elves who did not have any short-range weapons and could only retaliate with their arrows, but Elysia was too close. Setting a few more on fire, the vitality in her fire was being refilled, allowing her to heal again.

Clara also made a move and, taking advantage of her blade whips range, swung them at a couple of elves wrapping the whips around their necks. Pulling the whips back, she decapitated them without issue and moved on to some other elven archers.

'Damn didn't realise Elysia was able to combine her hybrid form with her fire.' Shaman, seeing Elysia's form for the first time, was rather amazed at how strong it was.

.....

'I wonder If I could do something like that.' Shaman liked the sound of having her own hybrid form, but she knew it had to do with Elysia's bloodline, making it impossible for Shaman to get.

There was also the system, but she found it unlikely it would be possible.

[It is, but it will require a ritual and you already have the ingredients.] Rea spoke, finally having something she could answer.

'Oh Rea…. Sorry, forgot about you.' Shaman was a bit startled to hear Rea and it also reminded her of how she completely forgot about Rea's existence.

[Yeah I know, anyway the next skill select you get you can choose to take Elysia's skill, just need to clear the first floor and you will get a reward.] Rea spoke, sounding rather depressed. Soon after a quest pop-up appeared which was something Shaman hadn't seen in a while.

[Clear the first level of the dungeon.]

[Skill select x 4]

'Oh thank you, I'll try to make sure to talk to you more.' Shaman was getting distracted and could tell the elves now realised they were up on the roof.

[…] Rea stayed silent, not hopeful, but it did lighten her mood knowing that there might be a chance.

Shaman felt bad, but she needed to get to the commanding elf before another barrage of arrows descended on them.

Sprinting off the roof, she noticed a dark elf in a rather grand armour which seemed more detailed as well as embroidered with a lot more gold.

"Let's see how strong you are." Kotetsu in hand, Shaman started off imbuing it with her ice and upon landing she also activated her domain, giving her a much needed boost.

Silver had also joined Shaman and hid in her shadow just as she started sprinting. He also let out his own domain spread through the flowers providing a rather nice cover.

"Little intruders, you shall die here." The dark elf being a tier 6 leader had the ability to speak, unlike the intelligible groans of hate from the normal elves.

"Sorry, but I'm digging your grave, not mine." Shaman dashed forward towards the commander elf while creating her ice stardust sword.

The commander pulled out a sword that was completely black and had dark purple energy around it, similar to Silver's scythe.

'Do demons have something to do with the dungeons?' Shaman was surprised to see another weapon like Silver's and wondered if the reason for the dungeons to appear could have been because of the demons.

Shaman wanted to investigate more, but she didn't have time to think as she was just about to reach the elf.

However, just before she reached the commander, shadow spikes emerged from the ground trapping the elf. Shaman realised that Silver was nearby and so she took the advantage he just gave her.

"Weak." The elf muttered these words as Shaman went to decapitate him.

Suddenly the spikes were absorbed into the sword, which in one quick motion parried Shaman's strike. Using his free hand he struck Shaman with his palm right in the stomach and sent her flying.

Silver got agitated by this and came out from underneath the commander alongside a bunch of shadow scythes.

The commander used his sword again to absorb the shadows while also using wind to push himself away from Silver's attack.

*cough* *cough* Shaman was coughing heavily as she landed on the wall of the church, winded from the blow.

"This bastard." Shaman wiped away the blood that came out of her mouth and pulled herself out of the wall.

'I don't know if I can beat him.' Shaman did not like her odds as the commander was greatly skilled and much faster than her.

'Could do with a special form like Elysia about now.' Shaman tried thinking of a way to approach the commander, but was too late as once he dodged Silver, he went directly for Shaman.

"Die!" Spinning in the air, the commander used his wind to make himself faster, turning himself into a blur.

"Shit!" Shaman knew she couldn't block it so she quickly opened a stardust portal under her feet and fell through.

The commander hit the church, shaking the entire building to its very foundations.

Shaman coming out a bit further back, Shaman used what little stardust remained near the commander to apply an illusion.

The commander noticed the stardust and tried to use his sword to suck it up, but it was completely unaffected, putting him under the illusion.

Shaman tried making as many clones as she could without completely draining her mana and sent them all towards the commander. Hiding amongst them, she hoped that the commander would choose to ignore her clones as her illusion actually did physical harm.

A burst of wind came out in front of the commander, halting the movement of both the clones and Shaman. During that moment, the commander vanished from the spot, followed by the sudden destruction of the unprepared clones. Trying to retaliate, Shaman created more just behind the commander and switched places with one.

Slashing down at him, she waited for the last possible moment to coat her sword with fire and, just as she hoped, the commander tried using wind to stop her attack. The flames on the sword exploded and became more violent, creating a makeshift version of her flamescion skill.

The back of the commander's armour was cut like butter as Shaman landed a deep slash on his back.

"ARGGHH!" Screaming out in pain he turned around to strike at Shaman, but she quickly switched with a clone and went for another slash. This time the commander did not make the same mistake of using his wind. However, since he was expecting it he was still able to pivot on his feet and parry Shaman.

This left the commander open to the clones as they all went on the attack, no longer getting stopped by the wind which the commander dispelled. Silver also jumped back into the fight and striked at his back, giving up on using his shadows as it was completely useless against the commander.

However, before the attack could reach him, dark purple energy began to surround the commander. Shortly after he bent backwards and screamed into the air, causing the dark energy to spew out pushing everything back.

"No way, he has a transformation!" Shaman, using her rift, quickly moved away while also opening up a portal next to Silver to help him get away.

Shaman opened up a portal at the edge of her domain and Silver came out followed by Shaman shortly after.

"It's like the skeleton knight." Silver remembered the knight having a sort of transformation and it seemed to have something to do with the weapon.

"Wouldn't have expected that to be the case, but now we need to be extra careful." Shaman dispelled both her clones and the illusion as this fight was going to take much longer.

"It seems like Clara and Elysia are about to finish up the archers and should be here soon." Silver looked around and noticed the fire trail Elysia left, which by now formed about half of a circle.

"We need to hold out until they get here as I don't think we'll be able to kill it like this with just us two." Shaman knew she could try using all her elements while enhancing herself, but she didn't want to take the risk of going on the offensive.

"I agree." Silver was feeling anxious, his heart pounding as he could only hope they would be okay.

The elf commander stopped screaming, the dark purple energy now completely engulfing his body. Slamming his sword down on the ground the energy dispersed, revealing the new armour it obtained. Looking the complete opposite of what it was before, the silver changed to black and the gold was now purple. There were also demonic traits on the armour, fake horns growing from the helmet and spikes from its shoulders.

"Haaaa~." Breathing out, the commander locked eyes with Shaman, which reminded her of the trauma she had faced before. Trembling a little bit she shook her head, trying not to think about it as she was long over it.

"Prepare yourself Silver, if you want, hide in the shadows." Shaman preferred if he stayed out of the fight until the others returned as it would be much safer for him.

"But I want to help." Silver was seriously thinking about hiding, but he did not want to let his mother down.

"Please! if you can't handle it, go straight in and don't come out until Elysia and Clara arrive." Shaman didn't want to force him away as she couldn't shelter him, but she couldn't leave him without a warning.

"Mhm." Silver nodded and gripped his scythe, building up the courage to face whatever being was in front of him.

"Get ready." Shaman saw the elf starting to make its move and began to prepare for whatever was to come.

188 Eliminating the archers

After Elysia killed the initial contingent of archers on the roof, she jumped off the roof and dashed towards the next set of archers on the neighbouring building.

The group of at least 8 archers all aimed their bows at Elysia and reinforced their shots with wind. This made it impossible to dodge and so when they fired it was as if they were shooting bullets. Letting go of their strings, the arrows headed straight for Elysia.

To Elysia however it made no difference. She stared directly at the arrows that were coming at her without even trying to block or dodge. When in her hybrid fire-fox form, her beastly instincts took over, getting rid of most rational thinking.

The arrows lodged themselves into Elysia's body, but they still missed any vital parts and shortly after they were turned to ash.

Once Elysia was close enough to the building, she pulled out her spear and slammed the handle on the ground, propelling herself up onto the roof. Landing at the far end of the roof, she faced the 8 elves that were preparing to fire again.

With the spear still in hand, she condensed her flames around it and threw it at one of the archers. Stabbing directly into his chest, fire bursted out from his body hitting a few of the elves next to him.

The burning of the bodies healed Elysia from the arrow wounds, bringing her back to being fully healthy.

Still having a few archers left, Elysia dashed towards them, however despite the chaos next to them they still kept their composure and opened fire at her.

More arrows flew towards Elysia and this time she tried to dodge, taking into consideration that getting hit from so close would not just hurt her but also ruin her momentum. The arrows skimmed past her skin only to be devoured by the flames.

.....

Pouncing at 2 of the archers, Elysia grabbed them by the face and dragged them along the roof while she ran to the remaining few elves. They went to fire again, but this time she used the bodies as shields causing the elves in her hands to die.

Throwing the bodies at the elves, she then created fire spears that replicated her normal spear and threw them as well. The fire spears flew through the air at great speed and, once they reached the elves, they pierced through them cleanly, leaving a smouldering hole in each of their bodies.

Finishing off the elves on the current building, she grabbed her spear and swapped it out for her bow. Wanting to be quick so she can return back to Shaman, she positioned herself so the elves on the roofs ahead were somewhat in a straight line.

Pulling back the sting, Elysia's bow was engulfed in blood-red flames creating a much bigger-looking bow.

Stretching as far as she could, the fire arrow formed and flames violently shot out from the tip.

Sweat went down Elysia's face as she was consuming quite a lot of mana. This made her even more thankful to her upgraded fire, for otherwise it would have cost even more. Condensing the flames to the point of the arrow she struggled to hold it any longer and was forced to let go of the string.

Upon being fired, the arrow exploded creating a beam of fire that headed straight for the archers along the roofs. The buildings were partly incinerated as the beam passed by, and just as Elysia hoped, she managed to kill a lot of the elves that took position on the different roofs.

"Shaman." Hoping it was enough, she quickly turned to go back to where Shaman was fighting. However, she suddenly stopped when she saw the same aura from the skeleton knight.

"N-no." Elysia panicked about Shaman's trauma as she didn't know if there were any lingering effects.

Rushing even faster she saw Shaman and Silver standing next to each other to her relief.

"Shaman, Silver!" Sliding on her feet, Elysia stopped herself right next to Shaman.

"Good timing, now we just need Clara."

*

Similarly, to Elysia, Clara went around to kill the elves on the other side as quickly as she could. Lightning crackled around her feet, enhancing her speed enough to get to the other roof before the elves could even fire.

Once she was on the roof, she slashed with her blade whips, killing some of the elves instantly. The rest, having had enough time to prepare their arrows, fired as quickly as they could.

Arrows flew towards Clara, but her speed made it easy to dodge without getting hit. Retracting her whips to their sword form, she went up to the elves decapitating and stabbing them. Once the first roof was cleared, she used her lightning to quickly travel to the next set of elves.

'This is too slow.' Clara needed to hurry back as the elf commander is much stronger than the normal elves and she knew it wasn't going to be an easy fight.

'Maybe I can create a sort of storm to do the killing for me.' Clara had an idea and although it would take a good chunk of mana, she had enough to spare.

Landing on top of another roof, she joined her swords together like she did back in Ebonscale. Lighting engulfed the whip blades transforming them into a great sword made of lightning.

Raising it into the air, she focused her mana and the sky began going grey, indicating it was working.

Sweat ran down Clara's face and her hands shook from the amount of mana being used.

'Just a little more.' Soon after booms of thunder were heard as purple lightning struck Clara's sword. The great sword glowed brightly as streaks of lightning came down, destroying the surroundings, even nearly hitting Clara herself.

Putting the great sword to her side, she took a moment to breathe before she initiated the attack.

'I wanted a thunderstorm, but I can't, so a massive lighting slash will have to do.' Clara intended to incur a storm, but as she was trying, she felt the drain on her was too great so she opted for something simpler.

Once she caught her breath, she sprinted along the roof while dragging the sword behind her. Once she had enough momentum, she did an overhead slash creating an arc out of lightning that was five times the size of her.

Once her sword hit the roof, the slash was sent forward across multiple roofs. Due to how volatile the lightning was, it destroyed many buildings just through the repeated strikes that came off the slash.

However, Clara wasn't safe from this as when her sword hit the roof it caused it to collapse and she ended up falling through. The weight of her makeshift greatsword didn't help, and she ended up falling through the second-floor, landing on a table on the first floor and breaking it in half.

"Damn! I knew I had a fat ass, but didn't think it was that heavy." Cracking a joke at her expense, Clara pulled herself up from the table.

"I doubt I killed them all, but at least now we can deal with the commander without a rain of arrows." Clara realised her strike wouldn't have been enough to reach all of them, but it was enough that it wouldn't affect their battle.

Stretching out her body and cracking a few joints, she quickly returned her whip blades to normal and ran out of the building.

Upon exiting, she saw the destruction Elysia caused as the entire house line was set ablaze by her red flames. The scene was rather nice to look at as it wasn't often to see blood-red flames and seeing it being used on a larger scale was mesmerising.

Shaking her head, she quickly headed back for the church as she also noticed the familiar aura.

"No way." Clara felt goosebumps cover her body as it was much stronger than the last one and it was terrifying to think there was something similar here.

'Good thing I finished quickly.' Not slowing her pace, she arrived back in time to join the group who were all watching the dark elf commander transform.

"Good everyone is here." Shaman felt her heart be at ease as now everyone was here to fight the commander.

"Wait, why does he have a demon sword?" Clara saw the blade in the elf's hand and noticed it resembled one that she saw back when she was young.

"You know about it? It's the same as Silver's weapon but it was able to change form." Shaman was surprised to see Clara recognise it as she didn't with Silver's scythe.

"That's because I never got a look and I only remember the sword, so it didn't click that it was the same weapon." Clara had a flood of memories of the weapon on display and when she looked at Silver's scythe it did indeed represent the same weapon.

"Anyway that's not important, we need to kill it." Shaman didn't want to get distracted as the burst of aura was calming down, indicating the fight was about to begin.

"Haaaaa~." Breathing heavily the elf was covered in black armour with purple accents while the sword in his hand was covered in a mist.

"Careful everyone." Shaman called out as everyone prepared themselves mentally for the battle to come.

189 Demon dark elf

The elf commander finished transforming and stared directly at the group, seemingly analysing them.

Shaman felt her hands shake as the images of the skeleton knight flashed through her mind.

'I can't let it happen again.' Trying to use her fear to fuel her desire to protect, she felt herself calming down.

"Dieee." The elf commander began to walk toward the group while dragging the sword on the ground.

Shaman and the rest waited for the elf to make the first move as they were unsure what he was capable of.

"This seems a lot different than last time, so please be careful." Shaman knew the theme of Ebonscale was puppets, so she thought it may be based on something else this time.

"Shaman is right, every demon weapon has a different effect, so once we figure it out, I will know its weakness." Clara, possessing her own demon weapon, which had been masked to look like it was forged by Himeko, found out they had special effects through the system.

After Clara finished her sentence, the slowly walking elf suddenly vanished from sight.

Shaman felt the chill of death behind her and, in a panic hastily turned around, blocking whatever was coming.

.....

Clashing swords with the elf commander, she was sent flying back toward the church, crashing into the door. Shaman ended up crashing into the small stage and pedestal that was at the end, removing her from the fight for the moment.

Elysia was aggravated by this and immediately let out a burst of flames which violently thrashed around her as she rushed to attack the elf commander. Elysia went all out, aiming her spear directly at the commander's head while also sending fire replicas of her spear at his sides, restricting his escape paths.

Clara and Silver were also on the move as the elf's back was turned to them. Silver went to slash across his back while Clara sent in a few lightning strikes.

In this short moment, the elf commander stabbed his sword into the ground and muttered a few words.

"Divine protection of the tree."

A burst of light came from the sword, and tree roots emerged from the ground blocking all incoming attacks.

"Tch." Elysia didn't give up, so she jumped into the air and switched to her bow, aiming for an opening in between the roots. Charging up a multi-explosive shot arrow, she quickly fired into the hole allowing the flames to engulf what was inside.

Switching back to her spear and landing back on the ground, too late did she notice the elf appearing behind her, leaving her no time to react.

However, before he could lay a finger on her, Shaman came out of the church sprinting at him while sending a barrage of ice spears. This forced him to stop the attack on Elysia and block the oncoming spears.

Elysia moved out of the way to not get hit by the spears and positioned herself next to Clara.

Shaman coated Kotetsu in fire and went for her own attack on the elf. While she was charging, Silver managed to get his way into the elf's shadow and stabbed at the elf's back.

The elf blocked Shaman's sword, but the flames on it did not stop and began to burn the elf's armour. Silver was just about to hit the elf, but a purple fog suddenly grabbed his scythe, freezing it in place.

His heart dropped for a moment as he was unable to move it at all, yet he was unwilling to let go of his scythe as it was the only weapon he had.

Elysia saw this and conjured up a fire arrow in her hand, throwing it at the fog that held Silver's scythe. This caused the fog to dissipate, freeing Silver from its grasp and also confirming for Elysia that fire was still a major weakness, same as it was for the skeleton knight.

Shaman, on the other hand, was pushing more mana into her fire, trying to engulf the elf in flames. However, the elf pushed away Shaman and charged at her while coating his sword in the same fog.

Shaman went to parry the strike, in which she succeeded, but the fog surrounding the sword wrapped around her arms until it reached her head.

[Blessing of the fox activated]

A system message opened, and the fog quickly dissipated, confusing the elf.

'Again with the mind control…' Shaman anticipated the elf to have some form of mind control and when she saw the fog go for her head realised what it was doing.

Taking advantage of the confused elf coming to a halt, Shaman quickly activated [blade of flamescion] and slashed horizontally. Cutting the elf commander in half, Shaman smiled, thinking the fight might be over, but still cautiously waiting for any more movement.

What Shaman hoped for did not come to pass as the elf started to move again. The blood began to bubble where she made the cut, and suddenly tree roots came out of the wounds, reconnecting its body.

"Of course, it can regenerate." Shaman jumped back, returning to Elysia and Clara's side. Silver also poked his head out of the shadow, ready to listen to what Shaman had to say.

"So any idea on the weakness?" Shaman assumed fire was their best bet, but they had no way to counter the regeneration as it seemed endless

"Fire seems to be the most effective element, but I would say ice as well. If you can manage to freeze him completely, it should prevent the elf from casting. I also should mention that if the sword were to be removed from his hand, it may allow us to kill him." Clara tried to remember what variant of the demon sword the elf had, but because back then she only had a glance and was told very little about it. She was unable to come up with anything that may help them other than educated guesses.

"So if we can somehow get the sword away from him, then we will be able to kill him completely." Elysia was itching to jump forward but wanted to wait for Shaman's orders.

"Yes, we can assume as much, and as ironic as it sounds, he may have the divine demon sword. I know it sounds very contradictory, but it was one of the most unique weapons and can only be wielded with a neutral faith like the tree of life." Clara thought back to one of the swords she knew the most about, since it interested her the most.

"Alright! Elysia, we will try to double team the elf. Clara, I want you to try to find an opportunity to get rid of his sword and Silver, try to restrain him or throw in attacks whenever you can." Shaman dashed forward with Elysia close behind as the elf was just about to finish regenerating.

Clara nodded and made her way to higher ground so she could get an overview of the battle. Silver went back into the shadows hoping he wouldn't be completely useless.

Shaman and Elysia ran side by side, both using their fire in hopes of combining their attacks together. The elf commander stared at the two waiting for them to attack, which made Shaman a little nervous as until now he was the one going on the offensive.

Flanking from either side Shaman went to stab the elf in the ribs, only to be parried by the elf. Elysia sent a fire slash while also stabbing with a fire spear she created in her other hand.

The elf was able to move after the parry and stop the fire slash quickly, but Elysia's secondary attack managed to land and burnt a chunk out of his body.

Unfortunately, Elysia's attack was made null as it was instantly healed back by the same roots.

"Tsk." Elysia didn't stop her pursuit, conjuring up more fire spears and sending them into the elf. Shaman following up once again activated [Blade of flamescion] and slashed into the elf. Being overwhelmed by the number of attacks, it tried to move out of the way, but no matter what movements he made, another spear would always be ready to cut off his retreat. Shaman's attacks were also getting wider, covering more area and making them almost unavoidable.

Seeing his distress, Clara came out and tried using her blade whips to pull the sword out of his hand.

Unfortunately, this would be unsuccessful as his grip was just too strong. It almost seemed as if his sword was rooted to his hand.

Silver waited in the shadows for an opening while the elf continued losing more and more ground. In the end, the elf tried disengaging with a sudden jump away from the action. It would have worked too, if his own shadow didn't come to life to grab him by the legs.

The group hurried to release a barrage of attacks at the elf who lost his momentum and was crashing down towards the ground. First he was assaulted by Shaman and Elysia's flames, which merged together creating a fire so hot it even managed to melt the elf's armour. Then came the follow-up shadow and lightning attacks from Silver and Clara which easily penetrated the now brittle armour.

Shaman and Elysia jumped back to let the elf's body burn and also to observe what would happen next. Silver also returned to their side while Clara stayed on the roof, expecting it not to be over.

Soon the flames dissipated and no elf was seen, causing everyone's hope to rise.

"Did we do it?" Shaman wanted to relax, but there was no guarantee that they truly killed it.

Suddenly the ground began to shake, and everyone's heart dropped as it seemed like the battle was far from over.

190 Near death

The ground shook, and everyone quickly grouped back up, hoping it didn't mean anything bad.

"I think we might need Kiruya." Shaman was getting less confident in being able to beat the dark elf commander, as this seemed something unnatural.

"And you would be correct, I haven't seen anything like this, and from the looks of things, you had it up until now." Kiruya came floating from the sky and dropped next to the group.

"Were you in the sky the whole time?" Clara was a bit amazed as they had been going at it for quite some time and as such the mana consumption should have been quite strenuous.

"Haha, yes and I have to say you were doing really well." Kiruya, being at a much higher tier, did not need to use much mana as she could use ambient mana to keep herself up in the air

"Anyway, enough about that, we have much bigger problems." Kiruya felt something coming from the ground as she could sense the massive amount of mana moving below them.

"Alright, it should be coming any moment now. Shaman, I will take the lead, and I want everyone to do as I say." Kiruya took over the leadership role just to make sure she could keep them all safe.

Everyone nodded, having no complaints, as Kiruya was the strongest one out of all of them.

After a few more seconds, a bunch of tree roots shot out of the ground, creating a large wooden cocoon in front of them. It was about the height of a house with purple light seeped through its small gaps.

.....

Shortly after, the cocoon shattered, revealing the dark elf commander, but this time he was much different. The elf had become a giant, its body turned into black wood with bright purple streaks.

"Shaman! Elysia! I want you to focus on throwing fire attacks at the elf. Silver! Clara! Try to restrain his legs or arms, and protect yourself if you are in danger." Kiruya jumped into the air after giving her orders.

Shaman and Elysia ran together while Silver took Clara into his shadow so they could find a place to get ready to restrain the elf.

"Eli, let's try to create a combined arrow attack." Shaman wanted to combine their flames again as it was somewhat effective.

Elysia and Shaman both halted their steps at a safe distance from the elf, who was about to wake up.

Elysia pulled out her bow and coated it in fire, making it look much larger. She then conjured up a basic fire arrow so Shaman could funnel her own fire into it.

Shaman grabbed the arrow directly, which shocked Elysia for a moment as it should have burnt her, and yet it did no such thing.

Suddenly, the fire thrashed around similarly to the effects of Shaman's blade of flamescion. Shaman had activated her skill on the arrow, amplifying its power many times over.

Elysia, seeing Shaman let go, knew it was her turn to fuel the arrow, and so she fuelled it with her red flames. The arrow went from orange to red in an instant and was now becoming too hard to control, forcing Elysia to let go of the string.

The arrow sent Elysia sliding back due to the force, but she was completely fine. However, Shaman was not faring as well, as she has used the skill so many times in a short amount of time and her mana was getting dangerously low.

The arrow flew through the air towards the elf, and yet just as it was about to reach the elf, the latter opened its glowing purple eyes. The demon sword it had before came out of his hand, much bigger to match its size. Slashing down directly onto the arrow, the elf was able to halt the arrow in its track.

While the arrow was being repelled, suddenly, a gust of wind pushed on the arrow, empowering its attack even further. Kiruya had sent her own wind strikes knowing she could make the flames much more violent.

The unexpected surge of power broke the elf's guard, allowing the arrow to continue into its chest. Burning right through the elf's body, the arrow set the black wood ablaze, but it seemingly didn't affect the elf at all.

Its entire body was now wood, making it much easier to regenerate. It had not realised, though, that Elysia's flames took vitality, so when the elf went to regenerate the gaping hole in its chest, it was unable to.

Elysia noticed her flames were successful in absorbing his vitality, making her realise something.

"Because it's using its own tree of life, I can suck up its vitality through my flames!" A grin appeared on Elysia as she had become the very weakness of the elf, and all she needed to do was set it on fire.

Kiruya now had a change of plans as they had a sure fire way of fighting the elf.

"Silver! Clara! Continue what you're doing. Shaman, I want you to support Elysia while she prepares another attack, we need to hit it with her fire." Kiruya, instead of focusing on damage over time, wanted to see if they could end this sooner.

Shaman did not mind playing the support role as she needed to watch her mana and not accidentally pass out.

The flames on Elysia's body flickered in excitement as it was permission to let loose and not hold back.

The elf that now had a huge gaping hole in its chest was now more reserved and careful. He made sure to have Kiruya, Shaman and Elysia in its sights at all times.

Elysia switched to her spear, covering everything in her flame and sprinted toward the elf. Shaman followed but was further back to act as a sort of guardian.

Kiruya intended to enhance all of Elysia's attacks to bring it on par with the elf's strength.

However, before Elysia could reach the elf, he stabbed the sword into the ground, and roots instantly rose from the ground. One of these roots came out right next to Shaman and grabbed her.

Shaman tried using her flames, but they were too weak, further cementing that Elysia was the only one able to do damage.

"Dammit, let go of me!" Shaman tried using her rift, shadow skills and stardust, but nothing worked as it seemed like the elf was draining her mana.

Feeling a wave of pain go through her head, she realised that it was sucking all her mana and that she was close to running out.

Losing her strength to fight back, she dropped Kotetsu, causing Elysia to turn around to see what had happened. Kiruya was quick to act and tried using her wind alongside her blades to cut the root but could not get deep enough.

"Shit!" Kiruya, at the moment, was about to pull out a crystal meant to call Freja for extreme emergencies, but before she did, she suddenly felt a surge of mana come from someone else.

Although [lovers call] would have activated, because Shaman was so low on mana, it could not, and Elysia knew this.

Kiruya looked over to Elysia and saw she was transforming.

[Bloodline arts – full transformation]

[Warning!: You will not be able to control yourself, please use the skill with caution]

Elysia, who unlocked her bloodline arts when she awakened her family's traits, had a few skills which come at a cost. Although most of the skills had a lesser version that did not require a price, the original skills were only meant as a last resort.

Elysia, when she first saw those skills, refused to use them as it would be far too dangerous, but seeing Shaman in the state she was in, she no longer cared for the consequences.

Her body was changing, growing and becoming more of a fox. Reaching the same size as an elephant, Elysia was now a full-fledged fox with six tails. The ends of her black hairs were blood red, with each tail having a raging red flame. Her eyes glowed red, and she stared directly at the root holding Shaman.

"What the hell?!" Kiruya didn't know what to do as she recognised the form but wasn't sure if Elysia was hostile.

'Should I call Freja?' Kiruya clutched the crystal in her hand. If Elysia had control over the true fox form, then there would be no issue, but if not, she would have to call Freja.

'I need to make sure Clara and Silver are safe, the best thing we can do is not get in the way.' Kiruya was aware of the effects of Elysia's skill due to being told about the old fox realm war by her family.

'Please be okay.'