Rustle, rustle. Close footsteps sounded in the forest. Lawndale had cast the Levitation spell on Aymons and Walter and then pushed them through the forest with the Magician's Hand.
"Lawndale, you shouldn't have come!" Aymons couldn't see, and his Mana had been completely sealed off—he was completely useless now. Only death awaited Dark Elves like him, and he didn't want to involve his favorite disciple.
After Walter lost his man's pride, he became completely decadent. "Lawndale," he said in pain. "The Master is right. If you really want to help, kill me!"
Lawndale didn't speak. He glanced back, sensing that the human pursuers were getting closer and closer. There were also barks from dogs, shocking him. He immediately realized that he had panicked while rescuing them and made a mistake. He didn't kill all the hounds.
He was not as fast as the scouts, especially with two others with him. If he kept running like this, they would catch up.
He was a Level-6 Magician right now, but those human scouts weren't weak either. From their past exchanges, he could see that they had rich experience in dealing with Magicians.
Even more importantly, they had an advantage in numbers and also had consecutive crossbows. If they opened fire, Lawndale could kill half of them at most. Then he would be killed by the remaining half of the enemies. His teacher and Prince Walter would be defeated too.
The situation was horrible.
"Look, he's there! Hurry, I can see him!" someone behind him yelled. It was a human scout; they were around 650 feet away.
An old hound raced before the team and growled loudly. This old dog's teeth were dull, and its fur had started molting. Its eyes were cloudy too, but it was still ambitious.
Aymons panicked. "Lawndale," he said furiously. "I command you to put me down and go! Go before it's too late!"
Lawndale shook his head. "No. Teacher, I will take you to the North."
As he spoke, he suddenly started running in another direction. The scouts behind him did not give up. They were less than 600 feet away now. With this distance and the hounds, Lawndale practically had nowhere to run to.
Just at this moment, there was a loud boom behind him. A huge pillar of blue fire shot up to the sky. It was the Hellfire that Lawndale had prepared!
Inside the fire, four scouts were burned directly to ashes. The other scouts were terrified and stopped immediately.
Hearing the explosions, Lawndale said, "I set many magic traps in this area. If they dare to chase after us, at least half of them will die!"
Aymons sighed. "Ah, you're still as thorough as ever, even though I made such a big mistake of being captured."
Of all his disciples, Lawndale was the most similar to him; he also thought the highest of Lawndale.
There was a messy commotion behind them.
"Be careful; it's a magic trap! F*ck! Spread out, spread out! Watch your steps!" the lead scout yelled.
Thankfully, the old hound Hallie was fine. The dog was abnormally sensitive to danger. Even though it ran in the front, it had carefully avoided the trap.
Boom! As soon as the leader finished speaking, another scout stepped onto a trap. Thankfully, the group had already spread out with 50 feet between them. This time, the trap didn't hurt anyone else.
However, setting off so many traps had scarred all the scouts mentally. They all grew fearful, and they slowed down considerably.
The distance increased again.
"Follow old Hallie! It can avoid the traps so follow it!" a scout suddenly cried. He'd discovered that the dog would go around all the traps.
The scouts followed his suggestion, and it worked. Everything was safe if they followed in Hallie's path.
In the distance, Lawndale frowned. He had prepared carefully before rescuing the two and set ten traps along the way. He'd put great thought into every single one and were hard to miss. How come there were only two explosions?
Walter realized what was wrong. "It's that hound. It's leading them."
Lawndale glanced back and saw the dog cleverly bypass a trap. The scouts behind it ran along its path, turning Lawndale's trap into a piece of decor. He couldn't believe his fatal trick would be ruined by an old dog. Thankfully, he always had a backup plan.
After another three minutes, the scouts at the front were around 250 feet away. They had already raised their crossbows and were ready to attack. At this time, no one cared about the lives or deaths of these three Dark Elves. No one thought about keeping captives; they just wanted to kill these three guys.
"They're going to attack!" Walter exclaimed.
He was very clear about the power of these continuous crossbows. One or two were fine, but there were at least 30 soldiers. If they started attacking, there could be more than 100 arrows in an instant. In this situation, even a Level-6 spell wouldn't be enough. Furthermore, Lawndale didn't even know Level-6 defensive spells.
Lawndale could feel the danger too, but he knew he was already safe. A river had appeared before them. It had fast rapids and was more than 300 feet wide. The deepest part was 100 feet, and it had many undercurrents too. Even the strongest Warrior would have a hard time swimming past it. However, it was no problem for a Magician.
Lawndale sprinted to the riverbank and jumped. Simultaneously, he cast the Levitation spell for himself. Then he multitasked and cast a Level-4 defensive spell—Frost Crystal Shield!
Ping! Ping! Ping! As soon as the shield was formed, five or six white dots appeared on it. The enemy had attacked, and the rate was abnormally dense.
Ping! Ping! Ping! There were three more arrows, and the Frost Crystal Shield cracked just like that. It had only survived for around one second, and Lawndale had only floated out around 30 feet. More arrows came, but Lawndale discovered he had no time to cast spells.
How can the human crossbows be so powerful? He was totally shocked, but thankfully, he had a third trick. He had a very strong Defensive Magic Tool with him.
Buzz. With a soft noise, a light green halo appeared. This was the Level-5 defensive spell Advanced Arrow Defense.
Puff, puff, puff, puff. The arrows rained down like a thunderstorm. After three seconds, the Level-5 spell was defeated too, but Lawndale's group had only floated out around 130 feet. They were still within range of the arrows.
"Shoot! Kill them all!" the lead scout roared.
Boom, boom, boom! Nearly 30 scouts stood in a row and released a flurry of arrows at Lawndale. After the Frost Crystal Shield was broken, Lawndale had run out of tricks!
Are we really going to die? Lawndale didn't expect he would end up like this. He couldn't help but think of how Link had brought some scouts into the Skeletal Fort and left unharmed. Now, he only faced a few scouts but had become so pathetic. He was forced into a dead end by a dog.
Are we really that far apart? Lawndale was depressed.
At the last moment, Walter, who had been quiet the whole time, suddenly jumping before Lawndale.
Pop, pop, pop. Nine arrows shot into Walter at once. All of his vitals were stuck with Sacred Silver arrows, but he still didn't die. Blood trickling from his mouth, he said, "Lawndale, when you return to the Black Forest, tell…tell Wasia…I died on the battlefield—"
Before he could finish, an arrow shot through his head.
Lawndale was shaken. Using Walter's block, he completed another defensive spell, but it was too late. Walter was dead.
Pop, pop, pop. Arrows continued to bury into Walter's body, practically turning him into a training target. Using this opportunity, Lawndale finally floated more than 250 feet; they were out of the range of the humans' continuous crossbows. They were temporarily safe.
Plop. Lawndale let go of Walter's body, letting it disappear into the water.
"Don't worry," he said quietly. "I'll tell Wasia that you're a hero!"
Wasia, the royal princess, was Walter's aunt. Ten years apart, they were aunt and nephew, as well as lovers. This was common in royal families.
Wasia was also a genius Magician. She was 46 years old and was already a Level-7 Magician. She followed the royal family's low-key style, but everyone in the Dark Elf Magician world knew that she had a powerful Warrior talent. She also had a staunch temperament.
Lawndale could already imagine Wasia's reaction after learning about Walter's demise. She would definitely go onto the battlefield to take revenge personally.
After that, Lawndale and Aymons were both silent. They floated toward the other riverbank without a word.
The other side.
The scouts looked at the rapid current powerlessly. The leader's expression darkened. He turned back and said, "Did anyone bring the mail carrier crows? Send this news to Orida Fortress. Tell them to barricade the front."
For them, this was the most embarrassing solution and had low a chance of success, because the enemy was a powerful Magician. He had a thousand ways of passing through the kingdom's Iron Wall Defense Line.
"Yes," a subordinate answered.
After a while, a few crows flew up. They flapped their wings, heading toward the Orida Fortress.
Lawndale discovered this too. He knew that within a short period of time, there would be many human scouts and Magicians on the road to stop him. His only solution in the Norton Kingdom would be to hurry up.
"Lawndale, you shouldn't have rescued me!" Aymons said again.
"Actually, this wasn't only my idea. Chancellor Romand supported me too," Lawndale said.
"Romand? Ah, he only cares about his spells. Since when would he care about other things?" Aymons didn't understand this. Romand, chancellor of the Silver Moon Mage Council and the only Level-8 Master Magician of the Black Forest, was obsessed with magic. All he thought about was studying spells and rarely took part in the government affairs of the Black Forest.
"The fusion of the Dark Serpent failed. This is the biggest event in history. Of course, the chancellor will pay attention. In reality, he already knew about your situation. His idea was, if you agree, you can fuse the Divine Gear."
"Me? But I'm disabled now. If I can do, I definitely will, but I don't have the Silver Moon blood. How do I fuse it?"
The fusing of Divine Gear had always been limited to the Silver Moon royal tribe.
"This is not a problem. We can perform a sacrifice to the Lady of Darkness. I believe she will agree for you to handle her weapon," Lawndale said.
The Divine Gear would not care that Aymons was disabled because it could easily recover his power. It just needed Aymons' head.
This way, Aymons would only have half a year left in existence. After half a year, the Divine Gear would return to the void, and his soul would be torn to pieces.
He agreed without hesitation. "Let's do it!"