I now had 63 Stone Elves with me, with 51 of them being combined with elementals to become even stronger.
I wonder how much stronger they are with the elementals.
I was able to verify it with my own eyes soon enough.
Ssssssssss-
We ran into a group of Hell Snakes. They were small, at only about 2 meters in length, but they were pretty stealthy and fast. They also had an extremely dangerous poison that even I had trouble dealing with.
I have a very high poison resistance now, but the Hell Snake's poison is still pretty painful.
The even scarier thing is that they can shoot their poison toward an enemy in the distance.
That was the reason I always needed to drink an antidote before dealing with these bastards. Even that didn't completely negate the effects of the poison though.
'Still better than not drinking an antidote first.'
I took out a highest-grade antidote and drank it right away. I also prepared three more in my wrist belt since they did not last very long and I would need to keep drinking them during the battle.
I also blew into the Horn Flute of Darkness in order to lower their abilities, even if it was only by a small amount.
Beeeeeeeep-
'Then let's quickly take care of them.'
I took out Goonto's Twin Blades.
However, there were some creatures that were one step ahead of me.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
They were the Stone Elves. They rushed forward without any fear as soon as we found the Hell Snakes. They then stomped and punched any and all Hell Snakes they could.
My eyes opened extremely widely after witnessing that.
'The Stone Elves were this fast?'
That was how they were able to fight against the Dark Elf.
But it was never to this extent.
They were at least twice as fast as when we were fighting the Dark Elves. They were punching at about one punch a second.
The Stone Elves with the Elementals stood out for sure. They were fast, accurate, but most importantly, their movement seemed very fluid.
It was definitely easy to tell the regular ones apart.
Another benefit was that the Hell Snakes' attacks had no effect on them since they were made of stone. The poison was obviously useless, and even their bites would only result in their teeth breaking.
In short, the Stone Elves were kryptonite for monsters like the Hell Snake that relied on poison to attack.
As such, there wasn't a reason for me to do anything. Although it would be much faster if I fought as well, there was no reason to shorten the time if I was going to suffer under the Hell Snakes' poison afterward.
I just had to blow the Horn Flute of Darkness every so often to cut down the Hell Snakes' strength.
However, it seemed that there was more to the Horn Flute of Darkness than cutting their strength.
The Hell Snakes seemed to flinch every time I blew the flute. It was like they were afraid of it.
They started to move slower, making them more susceptible to the Stone Elves' attacks. The number of Hell Snakes quickly dwindled.
'This is better than I thought.'
I continued to blow into the Horn Flute of Darkness.
Beeeeeeeeep-
'I wonder how long it will take. Oh! So fast!'
They killed off all of the Hell Snakes in about 10 minutes.
Some Hell Snakes managed to get through the Stone Elves and come at me every so often, but I could easily hunt one or two without getting poisoned.
The battle soon finished without any Stone Elves dying. In fact, none of them were even hurt.
They deserve a round of applause.
Clap clap clap-
"Amazing."
Shouldn't they at least smile when I'm praising them?
I know that the Stone Elves have no emotions, but shouldn't the ones with Elementals have some emotions?
"Would you like to rest, or shall we continue?"
'Whatever! Let's just work.'
"I didn't do anything to deserve rest. Let's keep going."
A Stone Elf took the lead, well, the Elemental in the Stone Elf took the lead to be more specific.
Anyways, it was pretty cool to watch 60+ Stone Elves walking in front of me like a sturdy wall.
We ran into another group of monsters soon afterward.
'Oh! I finally found it!'
There were about 20 Elves chained off to the side. They all seemed to have their powers restrained, as they were sitting there with their heads down.
My Demon Cave Clearing Squad will become even stronger if I can rescue them.
However, the monsters this time were not like the Hell Snakes. There was a good variety of them, but the core of the group was made up of Death Ogres.
They were so strong that a single punch could even destroy boulders.
The Stone Elves may be kryptonite for the Hell Snakes, but it would be the opposite with the Death Ogres. A Stone Elf might die from a single punch.
Thankfully, I had a solution for that. It was just a matter of how effective I was with my commands.
There was no reason to be respectful in such an urgent situation. I started to speak as quickly and concisely as possible.
"Get back! Formation! Put your shields up!"
The Stone Elves were now like highly trained soldiers. They were smarter and faster thanks to the Elementals.
They also moved without any complaint every time I gave an order.
Thanks to that, they were able to create a decent formation and put up their shields in almost no time.
I quickly blew the Horn Flute of Darkness.
Beeeeeeep-
I then charged past the wall of Stone Elves.
Death Ogres were so strong that even I would die with a single hit.
However, there are always going to be strengths and weaknesses for any monster.
They were so big that they moved pretty slowly. They continued to miss as they tried to hit me.
It was even worse for them because I would use Stealthy Approach and the Ring of Darkness to disappear every so often.
I also put out some fire marbles to create fire pillars around us. The Death Ogres could only scratch their heads, as they could not find me.
It was like I was in my own world.
I just had to be cautious about one thing.
'I can't stay in one spot for too long.'
I continued to move around the Death Ogres while continuing my combo.
Even the strongest Death Ogre could not handle the damage from a 50 hit + combo. In addition, Goonto's Twin Blades also increased my strength, had a 30% chance of lightning damage, and an 11% chance of stunning the enemy.
A Death Ogre would jump back in shock every time the lightning damage activated and stopped moving for about 3 seconds if they were hit by the stun.
My weapon also ignored 30% of the enemy's defense.
The only thing I was disappointed about was the Horn Flute of Darkness.
'I wish there was someone who could blow it in my place.'
It was impossible for the Stone Elves. They couldn't do it because they were made of stone.
There was only one solution to this.
I needed to quickly save the Elves.
Of course, that wasn't the only reason to hurry. I could see that the Stone Elves were getting weaker as time went on.
Bang- Bang-
It was because of the Death Ogres' strength. The shields were breaking down every time they were hit by a Death Ogre's punch.
The Stone Elves lost strength every time their shields were damaged. I could tell how much weaker they were getting based on the brightness of their green eyes.
The shields really must be a part of their body.
Anyways, I needed to hurry.
Papapat-
……50, 51, 52 ……
[422,013]
[523,297]
[698,888]
I still couldn't kill them with a single hit because their vitality was so high, but the amount of damage the Stone Elves were receiving was quickly going down.
I was finally able to one hit KO a Death Ogre once I reached a 60-hit combo. A Death Ogre let out a groan as it fell.
Roooooooar-
The Stone Elves were not just sitting around with their shields up. If they saw a Death Ogre that was hurt badly but not dead, they quickly rushed over and stabbed them with their shields or punched them to death before they could recover.
After about 20 minutes of fighting, there were no dangerous monsters left except for the Dark Elf leading them.
The Dark Elf was pretty easy to deal with as well. I was able to defeat it in less than 3 minutes, since I had tens of Stone Elves preventing it from running away.
'Done!'
I used Natural Power to release the shackles. There were exactly 21 of them. They really lived up to the beautiful race's description, as both the male and female Elves were all stunning.
The Elves seemed pretty lively as soon as they got out from the chains.
"Thank you very much. I never expected to be rescued by a human."
I never expected to rescue Elves like this either.
"It somehow ended up this way. We will start moving after getting some rest. We will reach the Demon Lord's Relic in about half a month, so let's not hurry. We will move once we are at our strongest."
"I understand. We will follow your command while we are in here since you saved our lives."
The Elves bowed in unison.
It felt a bit awkward.
However, I will be able to use them very effectively if they'll listen.
"Please take these weapons."
I had a good number of weapons that I had collected off of the monsters in the cave. There were some light weapons that the Elves could use in the pile as well.
"Thank you very much."
The 15 days passed by quickly.
The Elves rushed toward me as soon as the battle ended.
"Are you okay?"
'Okay? I almost got cut in half.'
But I managed to twist my body at the last moment to minimize the damage. Thanks to that, I was able to avoid receiving a critical injury.
I still looked like a mess. My torso getting cut made me slower, and five Dark Elves focused on me thinking that it was an opening.
I had injuries all over my body because of them. Although I managed to save my life by clenching my teeth and doing everything I could to ignore the pain, it was still really close. I don't want to experience something like that ever again.
"Please do not move."
It wasn't like I could move.
There were some things I still needed to get done, but I would need to put it off for now.
I just laid down and closed my eyes. The ground was cold and hard, but I wasn't in a spot to worry about that.
However, something started to happen.
'Huh?! What is going on?'
The pain suddenly disappeared. I opened my eyes and looked to the side to see what was going on.
I subconsciously gasped.
'Gasp!'
It was just an Elf, but a bright light was covering the Elf's body. Well, it wasn't actually there, but it seemed that way to me. The Elf seemed to be glowing.
I knew the Elves were beautiful, but how could anyone be so stunning?
The Elf had flawless white skin and ears, eyes, nose, and mouth that all seemed to be straight out of a painting. That beautiful face was completed with dark brown hair and bright red lips.
Just looking at the Elf made me a bit lightheaded.
If they used the term, 'Absolute Beauty,' for a single person in the world, it would have to be used for this female Elf in front of me right now.
However, she was an unfamiliar face.
"Who……?"
"My name is Haeph. I was able to regain my freedom thanks to you. I thank you on behalf of the Elves."
It was painful to listen to her voice. Her voice was so beautiful that I couldn't help but feel lustful, even though my body was a mess.
She seemed to be one of the Elves who were imprisoned in this area. However, she did not seem to be a regular Elf.
I suddenly recalled a race that I had never even met in the game, but heard that they definitely existed somewhere.
A race that was as mysterious as the Drakes.
The race that was said to represent all Elves!
"Excuse me ……are you a High Elf?"
Translator: Miraclerifle
Proofreader: Borderline Missing