Chapter Fifty-Three: Sniping

  Just as I was about to get bored from waiting, a commotion came from the distant Elven City. From the edge of the forest, it seemed that the number of lights in the city suddenly increased, and I didn't know what had happened. I guessed that Evin might have made his move. I quietly climbed up a tree, pulling the rope connected to the mechanism that was already set up on the tree into my hand, waiting for Evin to appear at any moment.

  After a long while, a black figure ran towards me with the agility of a cat, followed by dozens of human figures in the distance. I waited for the black figure to approach the woods and whispered from the tree: "Is that Evan?"

  That black figure paused for a moment, facing my direction and replied: "Alec, it's your turn, help me block those people for ten minutes." After finishing speaking, he immediately ran towards the distance without looking back. I shouted in a low voice from the tree, "Be careful of those traps!" Evan raised one hand to indicate that he heard, then jumped up and down several times before disappearing into the night.

  Before long, the elves who had been tracking us approached the forest. I estimated that about a dozen of them were within range, and immediately pulled the rope, triggering the crossbows placed under the trees in front. The first wave of bolts shot out. These heavy crossbows were bought from an army's armory by bribing a military supply officer, and each one could fire three bolts at once, with two shots available. Although there were only fifteen heavy crossbows, they immediately created a hail of arrows, covering the entire range of several tens of steps in front.

  Those elves, except for a few strong ones who wielded weapons to block the arrows shot at them, immediately fell down seven or eight of them. One or two were not killed on the spot and lay on the ground moaning in pain. The remaining people were shocked and quickly grabbed the injured elf and dragged it back. A leader shouted: "Don't move anyone, he has backup, there's an ambush here, let's wait for the people behind to catch up." So all the remaining elves stopped advancing.

  After a while, the elves who were chasing from behind gradually gathered more and more, and when there were almost two hundred of them, the leader shouted again: "Nair, go take a look." An elf immediately emerged from the crowd, bent over, cautiously approaching the forest. He walked very slowly, and as soon as an arrow came flying, he could react quickly and lie down on the ground.

  He gradually approached the edge of the forest, but still didn't find anyone attacking him, and his courage grew bigger and bigger. He sped up and rushed into the forest. I saw him looking around in confusion from the tree, then turned his head to shout behind: "No enemy found!"

  The leader heard his words, waved his hand and signaled to advance. All the spirits rushed towards the forest, and the first spirit to enter the forest walked towards where the crossbows were placed, just about to discover the row of strong crossbows. At this time, I triggered another mechanism, a huge tree trunk flew out from behind the tree, knocking the stunned spirit flying out.

  At the same time, the last wave of crossbow arrows once again covered the original area, and another batch of elves were shot to the ground. The remaining elves immediately retreated like a tide, and I took advantage of their confusion to slip down from the big tree and run towards the back. These two attacks were enough to make them suspicious for a while. As I left, I even heard the leader shouting: "Despicable humans, actually using crossbow arrows against us! Don't go in, wait until the Moon God Temple's priest arrives, there will be a way."

  I came to the back of that row of pits, found a tree and sat down leaning against the trunk, took out a water bag, drank several mouthfuls of water, panted for a while, it's been a long time since I had such an intense run, I seem to have become unable to adapt to such high-intensity runs in a short period of time, this won't do, I must persist in training, otherwise my body will degenerate.

  I heard that the priests of the Moon Goddess Temple have the ability to communicate with plants, and I'm afraid that the traps I set up will lose their effect on those dark elves. I must personally snipe them for a few minutes here, so that Aven can safely escape.

  Sure, here is the translation:

  "Sure enough, after a while, I heard the dark elves chasing over from afar. One of them even shouted: "Be careful to detour around here, the forest plants told me that there are pitfalls lined up here, and cunning ambushers are ahead of us."

  They're here! I took a few deep breaths, telling myself to calm down. I listened to the chaotic footsteps getting closer and closer. I counted the distance between them and me, and when they were about ten steps away, I pulled out the "Staff of the Gods" and used all my magical power to cast a high-level fire spell, "Starfire Inferno". The flames engulfed everything within thirty steps, even setting the large trees ablaze. The raging inferno sent the pursuers into a panic, causing them to run wildly in all directions, trying to escape the sudden and ubiquitous flames. However, the fire eventually reached them, and countless people wailed in agony amidst the blaze. As soon as the fire erupted, I leaped into the pit I had dug beforehand and used earth magic to seal the entrance, leaving only two airholes open.

  I tried my best to slow down my breathing, but I still felt suffocated. The big fire outside seemed to have burned up all the air, and I was getting more and more breathless. Gradually, my head became dizzy and heavy, as if I was about to suffocate to death. I kept reminding myself to stay awake, no matter what, for falling asleep would mean certain death.

  I don't know how long it took, but I finally realized that if I didn't get out of there, I would either be burned to death by the huge fire or suffocate. I conjured up a water ball and drenched myself from head to toe before bursting out of the cave.

  As soon as I rushed out of the cave, I felt a wave of scorching air rushing towards me. What entered my eyes was the flames that were still raging everywhere. Although it wasn't as terrifying as before, the scorching temperature still made me unbearable. I couldn't care about so much, quickly found the direction, dodged the branches that fell from the sky due to the big fire, and ran wildly.

  When I finally rushed out of the sea of fire, my heart still had lingering fears as I looked at the flames that were still raging. Fortunately, I had prepared early, otherwise today I would have been burned to death in there too. I let out a long sigh, playing with fire in the forest is indeed self-destruction. I didn't dare to linger any longer, this mess was left for the dark elves to clean up, believing they had the skills to stop the spread of the flames.

  This big fire should be enough to delay those elves for a long time, I took another look at the scene of the fire, although dark elves often attack humans, but actually I couldn't feel sympathetic, anyway, those dark elves are actually innocent to me, taking other people's lives is something that should be done less often, no one has the right to arbitrarily decide others' life and death. I sighed, turned around and ran towards the meeting point, hoping Aven won't let me down...