Chapter 21: Past memories (2)

After conducting a tactical retreat, Ellla separated from her friends. Her group was able to easily deal with oncoming trolls' assault. They were able to diminish their combat power, eating away their strength slowly. At first, trolls came regularly, no serious losses on either side. Particular, Ella's group only had one ranger injured on the shoulders from the axe thrown by the dying trolls. She was careless and couldn't dodge completely, peeling away her small layers of skin. Luckily, her wound wasn't enough to seriously threatened her life. After some first-aid treatment, her bleeding stops though she lost her fighting capability. As a leader of her groups, she was relieved to see her subordinates doing fine.

As her group traveled toward the rally point, they met another group of trolls cutting off their retreat path. Having no choice but to fight through, they were tired physically and their mana hollowed out. The fierce battle consumed their usage of spells and will to fight. Adding up some casualties, those who couldn't walk on their own were carried by their comrades. In contrast to previous engagement with trolls since their retreat, this time was the most ruthless. These trolls didn't even bother to retreat as if to bite down their force and wear them down. Ella knew trolls were waiting for the backup, who they believe were capable of annihilating them.

She needed to move fast and act quick. She ordered her men to quicken their pace without rest. She didn't want to dwell with the opponents anymore. Her group must reunite with others to resist the upcoming attack. While they got nearer and nearer to their destination, Ella and her men panicked, because their pursuer never relinquished. And if the situation continued, they were likely to have to move on and could miss the appointment with others. The worst scenario was getting lost and died unworthily. This was also one of the reasons, they were panicking. Ella while running had noticed the oppressive aura catching up from behind. She immediately realized these were the reinforcements, trolls were probably waiting for. She only hoped, her friends had arrived first and noticed the situation. If not, only the Sunwell could determine their fate; otherwise, she and her groups didn't have the strength to face the opponent any further.

Lireesa, since perceiving Ella's group's anxiousness, quickly sprinted toward the location where she could investigate the scene clearly. She also felt another three high-level peaks chasing them. The situation had now quickly deteriorated and this battle must be fought. Not only that, she must eliminate this troll army because the remaining two groups hadn't arrived yet. She surveyed the surrounding and discovered spaces useful for the ambush. Sena now caught up with her, panting slightly also found the same idea. She gazed at Lireesa, who also returned her glance. The two showed clear understanding of each other without having to say a word. Their eyes had decided the action. Sena quickly ordered her troops to use stealth ability to hide in the areas pointed out by Lireesa. Rangers although unprofessional in terms of hiding skills compared to the assassin, their bodies could also disappear and blend in with the surrounding environment.

Ella quickly crossed through the forest and passed over the area where her allies were hiding. When they arrived at a place, where they could clearly observe the rally point, she saw no one and her heart sank. Although her face was cold and expressionless, her subordinates around her felt her bitter mood. Just when she was about to despair, she heard the air whistled behind her. They were the sound of arrows breaking the air barrier.

Back to three minutes ago, Lireesa and Sena took their first initial attack as a signal to volley fire. Lireesa held 4 arrows and stretched the bowstring into a full arc while Sena used 3 arrows. Both of them waited for Ella's group to pass through, no time to take care of their allies' mood. When they saw trolls got closer, they patiently waited until the range everyone could effectively take them out, which was around 100 meters but because they were in the forest area blanketed with thick tress, the vision became narrower and shorter. The most optimum effective range was 50 meters enough to fire several volleys for the highly talented elven rangers. Lireesa decided to wait another 25 meters.

Trolls came howling their war cries and in large groups as if they were the beast, even the ground shook violently.

40 meters, 30 meters, 25 meters.

Lireesa and Sena both released their arrows and send the 7 trolls straight to the underworld. The sudden death shocked the whole troops and soon followed their dead fellows' footsteps. For high-level rangers, it was too easy to kill these trolls in one shot, because their arrows became fast and deadly enough that trolls couldn't even dodge or block the attack. Not to mention, they were in an ambush. The rest of elven rangers also released their volleys. The initial volley took down half of the first wave of trolls. Lireesa and Sena after releasing their seven arrows, saved their strength and only acted if the trolls were too threatening or had gotten close to the elves. Their real enemies were behind and they needed every conserved energy to deal with them.

Within a minute, all trolls were wiped out where most died in the first volley and this was actually slow because they could have fire more rapid shots but chose to release each arrow slowly. However, the energy wasted due to achieving rapid shots wasn't efficient to repel this wave-like offense. They conserved their arm and wrist strength for future battles. As soon as the ambush started, Ella's group was terrified at first because they never noticed someone was watching over them and later had their eyes filled with hope and relief after knowing they were their help. Soon, when they prepared to join the reinforcements, each of them heard Lireesa's voice near their ears commanding them to protect their flank and rest at the same time.

"Ella, you come to my place and play as a guardian role." Ella moved as soon as Lireesa's order reached her ears. With her friends, she had confidence to deal with the high-level trolls behind.

Second wave soon came. Although these trolls didn't know there was ambush in front but the eerie silence had already raised their alarms. Soon, they saw masses of their fellows' corpses littered across the whole forest. Lireesa and her friends killed 10 trolls at once. Soon the battle raged on. The result was similar albeit it became more difficult when the trolls were prepared. Extra energy was consumed in the process. Another wave came in and this time Lireesa ordered all elves to fire arcane burst shot. Sequences of explosions echoed throughout the whole forest.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

The trolls were very much prepared than the first two waves after sensing something went wrong in front of them. Despite their alertness, they never expected a volley of arcane burst shot. Except for Lireesa, Sena, Ella and her group who were resting, 50 rangers fired these blue arcane arrows. The trolls felt as if the whole troops were under the rain of thunderstorm. These explosions deafened their ears. Some were even blown to pieces while others near them were lifted up thumbling in the air. There were chaos and confusions among the ranks, panic soon ensued. Dirt and dust flew all over the place obscuring the visions and the smell of burnt meat created fear. In fact, the casualties weren't serious for the trolls; except for the trolls directly teared apart by these arcane arrows, the others only suffered minor injuries and due to their physique even serious ones would recover soon.

Lireesa used the shock effect to the extreme limit. Their volleys had easily disoriented the trolls who even lost their sense of direction roaming around confused. Soon, the rangers quickly released their arrows, and the results was astounding. All trolls couldn't even ounce the strength to block or to dodge their attacks. Many trolls died in chaos, heightening their fears causing many to turn their back and run without orders. There were still hard ones, who tried to diffuse the chaos and put the trolls back into orders. Some even managed to get close to the elven rangers, who didn't even pay attention. These guys were favored to be killed straightaway by high-level Lireesa, Sena and Ella.

The rest of the elven rangers easily picked the trolls off who had no defense at all. Soon, the battle became massacred and there were no living trolls left on the battlefield. The fight didn't even last half a minute. When trolls' morale plummeted, it signaled the success of the elves. Each side strength didn't differ too much. This kind of slaughter only occurred due to the speed, surprise and violence of actions by the elves. Naturally, Lireesa didn't even expect such a result and only the later generation Lireesa would realize what she did. It was the tactics of shock and awe with overwhelming aggression.

"Quickly, collect all the usable arrows and retreat to the second line. Clean the whole area so that only deads remain," Lireesa conveyed her commands to Sena beside her. "We only have around 3 minutes. Act now and fast."

Sena relayed her orders to the fellow officers and spread the words. Soon the time limit passed. After taking one last look at the tragedy, Lireesa turned back and strode to their secondary defense line and prepared for the upcoming final assault.