LII: Fight with a typical elf.

The discovered elf was a rather tall woman, with silver hair, a quiver on her back, and a bow in her hand that glowed faintly with green light. She wore a rather tight body armor that accentuated her best features, but those hazel eyes stared at the trio of protagonists with a fierce glare that dispelled any distracting thoughts they might have had. 

There were small sparks of magical energy around her, and something in her posture indicated that she hadn't expected to be spotted so soon by these upright apes, so she jumped back with incredible speed and deftly placed an arrow in her bow, aiming it at John because she didn't like the blond's look.

"Even an elf can't stand you, John," Axel sneered as he kept the elven woman in his sights, if she made any attacking moves he would prove that humans could be good archers too. 

"I just had a quick look at her legs, they're slim and all, but I can't be distracted, the elves of this world are .... peculiar," John pointed out, causing the three of them to remember the basic characteristics of the elves native to this continent.

They are all born magical, and their exaggeratedly long ears are the organs they use to absorb mana from the environment and process it to improve themselves. Therefore, no matter their chosen profession, they are all magically enhanced. Even an archer like the one in front of them could use magic as skillfully as an official human mage, and that was when they weren't focusing on the arcane arts. 

Their physique is undoubtedly much more powerful than that of humans, they have a fairly sturdy build despite their generally thin appearance. They can defend themselves against cutting, blunt, and stabbing attacks with only their skin, which automatically hardens when damaged.

They have certain regenerative abilities; they cannot regenerate amputated limbs, but they can heal injuries that would take a human a long time in a matter of minutes or hours. They have superior senses, especially sight and hearing, and their sixth sense seems to be innately strong. 

They have an exaggerated affinity with nature, the forest will never be a place where an elf suffers hardship unless other intelligent species such as humans intervene. As mentioned above, they can change their weight without affecting their body density. They can become quite light or heavy depending on the situation, probably related to a magical ability. 

In addition, they seem to have a strange effect on humanity when mixed with it; at the beginning of all this, some humans met an elf and wanted to take things further, but the magic-filled constitution of the latter is "poisonous" to humans. 

If they manage to overcome this drawback and have offspring, they will be born with many flaws, as if all the bad in the human genome is activated by the elven blood.

Something happens to an elf when they mate with a human they notice a decrease in their magical power, which is a subtle way of saying that having sex with humans weakens them to the point where they show symptoms of bleeding or anemia, which leads to their death. 

For this reason, the semi-elves, the fruit of this taboo union, are terribly discriminated against, feared, and even hunted. Seone read some stories in the Belmont book about hunting down crazed half-elves who had caused chaos on the continent, all because of discrimination problems, but also because of genetic instability.

After all, elves are long-lived creatures, capable of quietly living up to 2,000 years if they do not enhance their longevity with their strength or some treasure or elixir. They are quite a diverse race, and although they have enmity with mankind, the elves thrive.

This war will never be one of extermination, the motives are not as simple as 'new sea routes', but the conflict between humans and elves gives rise to sad and terrible situations, such as genocide, discrimination, and even slavery, though the latter is only in some areas and is something despised even by antisocial people. 

"Filthy invaders, get out of this forest!" the elf, whose voice was quite melodious and her accent was as if she was singing the words, shouted at them.

"Clichéd elven phrase number 321," Seone scoffed after clicking her tongue somewhat dismissively, attracting the attention of the elf, whose eyes widened quite a bit as if she recognized Seone.

"Y-You! You're that murderous bastard, you've killed many of our countrymen, besides belonging to that despicable Belmont clan!" the elven woman muttered through clenched teeth, glaring at Seone with a great deal of malice. 

If she had looked at John with disgust before, sensing the not-so-subtle perversion in the wizard's eyes, she now looked at Seone with pure hatred, disgust, and contempt. Probably one of his relatives had been executed by Seone, who had only executed elves since his first execution. 

"And there it is a classic version of "You killed my father, prepare to die," Axel sneered, and without waiting for a 'normal' start to the fight, he released the arrow he had been holding.

The projectile left a white trail in the air as it flew quite fast towards the elf, making no noise and causing no disturbance in the air, but the woman responded by releasing her arrow, which was covered by a green magical light. The two flying objects collided, causing a small explosion that kicked up leaves and dust.

"Ice Spears ++," John said after chanting and making mudras with his hand. Dozens of huge, thick ice spears appeared in front of him and quickly flew towards the elf. 

Seone covered his sword with red vitality and ran towards the elf, leaving a residual image of himself, but the woman's reaction was to be admired. Realizing that she had to defend, not evade, the elf stomped several times on the ground and built a thick wall of earth and vines, which did not withstand all the ice spears before being destroyed, but gave her time to prepare a better defense. 

A wall of glass appeared in front of her, but although it looked like something similar to badly glued glass, the wall was not made of such a material, but of something with a consistency similar to jelly. The remaining ice spears were 'absorbed' by the wall. The icy magical power was then manipulated and released towards Seone, who was rapidly approaching. 

Seone then had to stop his advance and draw his sword defensively to protect himself from this icy storm full of sharp pieces of ice. With the sword in front of him, the boy crouched down a bit, not only to limit the area of his body that would be damaged but also to give way to the incoming attack of his companion Axel. 

Knowing that the elf in front of them was much more complicated than it seemed, Axel took several arrows from his quiver and covered them with energy, releasing them all at once. Several sonic blasts were the precursor to a terrible barrage of white projectiles that flew over Seone's head and hit the strange gelatinous wall.

The arrows exploded on contact, kicking up a great deal of dust and gravel. Seone, using his senses, found that the elf had stepped out from behind his strange wall and was now over the top of a tree, aiming an arrow at him that glowed green, but this one was much darker and more ominous. 

Sensing the threat in this arrow, Seone coated her body with red vitality, structuring the energy like tiny snake scales, a technique she had recently developed and was able to execute under the pressure of possible fatal damage.

This elf woman was not Damien, who could devour reality, but the danger of the enemies in this story was never determined by the damage they could do, but by the skills and techniques they possessed. That's why Seone, who was much weaker than this vampire, was able to defeat him with the help of others.

Just before the elf released the ominous projectile, she jumped out of the tree and a thick green beam fell where she stood. In midair, she aimed her bow into the distance and released it, as if a new enemy was approaching. 

"Wow, I never thought they would fight without inviting me," a female voice was heard, full of vivacity. Everyone looked into the distance and watched as Alex dodged the elf's arrow with a literal flash of his body.

The dark-haired boy covered his body in green lightning and seemed to glow for a moment before appearing next to Seone, demonstrating his exaggerated speed. The arrow fired by the elf did not hit the ground, what it did could not be defined as such. When the projectile hit the ground, everything began to turn to ash and scatter in the wind, as if someone had used an eraser.

A pothole two meters in diameter and one meter deep was left, making the sound of breathing quite audible. Alex, who had dodged it, no longer smiled as usual but looked seriously at the elf, who seemed to be stuck in mid-air.

"You are not a typical elf," the brown boy scolded as he drew his katana, his body covered in lightning. 

"That's the elven punishment for intruders like you," the elf replied coldly, held aloft by a comeback spell. 

"My name is Alexandra, though I prefer to be called Alex, what is your name?" the boy asked now with a smile on his face, oblivious to the tense atmosphere around him, Seone simply shook his head before patting his companion's black hair imperatively and unusually optimistic when it came to fighting. 

"My name is Mitra, a sharpshooter from the Emerald Kingdom," the woman answered the boy's question for some reason, though she maintained her displeased expression and cold tone.

"The one with the sword and the red energy around him is Seone, he's from an important clan or something. 

The handsome guy with long hair and a bow like you is Axel, he's a cool guy.

The one with the golden eyes and the leering look is John, he's a powerful mage, and he's in love with my captain, he pretends he's not, but everyone knows it," Alex finished introducing his companions, causing Mitra's expression to change from annoyed to strange.

She could feel that Alex wanted to introduce her to the others as if he didn't see them as enemies and didn't see the situation as a dangerous fight to the death but as a common training or just... a meeting. As if remembering something, the elf's hands trembled a little, his eyes no longer held so much hate, but soon that changed. 

His eyes were filled with hate again, but now there was a strong will in them, his hands no longer trembled, and his magical power shone, no matter how close the human army was. The glow of her energy changed from an ordinary green to an emerald green, and a momentum full of majesty and power emerged from her, shocking her deadly enemies who looked at her with some surprise. 

"I guess even among humans there are kind beings, too bad... you'll have to die with the rest," Mithra whispered, but everyone on the battlefield could hear her. 

Ignoring the strong auras approaching her position, Mitra shook her silver hair, tidying it behind her ears, an illusory floral crown appeared on her head, it was not as majestic as a standard crown, but the breath it possessed made Seone, the most sensitive of the four, feel something Damien never conveyed to him.

Fear. 

"I am Mitra, Princess of the Silver Elves. Now... will you die for my majesty?" the magnificent and dignified woman declared, looking down at the humans below her, saying these words to them only to answer Alex's goodwill, nothing more.

The first skirmish of this war was about to begin.

--------------

AN: Extra chapter because I have inspiration... and I have to take the opportunity to use a PC. Lol.