Chapter 683: Theo’s Plan [2], The Lesser Elf’s Fury

The explosive rune’s original purpose was mainly to save his life in case things went wrong.

As the idea formed in his mind, Theo moved from his position, quickly circling wide with his own concealment skill still active to avoid detection, even from a distance.

He stayed under the radar, moving silently towards the same entrance as the commander.

’He is fast...’ Theo thought.

Theo waited for the perfect timing, until the commander reached the a hundred meters away from the broken gate before he threw it.

The rune flew through the air in a curved arc, travelling at an incredibly speed.

The lesser elf felt something approaching through the air, and turned its head.

Its eyes spotted the approaching rune, but before it could do anything...

~BOOM~

The explosion tore into the spire’s entrance, ice and rune-fire erupting in a bright, loud detonation.

The commander shielded his body with his sword, defending against the sudden explosion.

The lesser elf’s eyes landed towards the position that Theo was in, and it shouted something in its foregin language.

The southern commander’s travel beast followed the orders, and rushed in the direction of Theo who immediately began to create distance, changing positions before the beast could arrive.

His attack had bought Moon time, even if it was mere seconds.

Theo melted back into the white wasteland and grabbed his device sending one final message before hiding his device.

"Moon, if you can hear me now, MOVE."

Below, Moon surfaced from the trapdoor into the trophy room, and his device crackled to life the instant he cleared the stairwell.

He heard Theo’s worried voice. He also heard the muffled explosion from outside, and understood in a heartbeat that his scout had bought him a window using his spare rune.

Moon activated camouflage and crossed the trophy room fast and reached the shattered gate just as the white commander came storming in, having sent his beast to the site of Theo.

Moon and the southern commander stood face to face in the middle of the spire.

The commander’s eyes locked onto the human standing in its ransacked home, and it understood everything at once.

The northern commander had indeed been telling the truth. The human before him was the source behind losing half his army, and most importantly...entering its sacred home alive rather than a trophy.

The lesser elf’s blades came up, and it attacked without a word.

Moon summoned both his swords in response, using his spirit skill ’Dual Wielding’ in order to compete at close range.

The commander moved like nothing Moon had faced in the gate, its twin blades weaving in from awkward angles that broke every pattern Moon tried to read, feints inside feints, strikes that changed angle mid-swing.

The blademaster lesser elf was creative and unpredictable in many ways that surprised Moon.

Of course, its style was highly complemented by its very dexterous and flexible body that allowed it to do these attacks.

Moon parried one blade and the other was already coming from what would usually be an impossible angel, and he had to twist his whole body to survive it, both his swords working at once just to stay alive.

This thing is strong. Really strong. Almost Surpasser level.

This wasn’t a horde beast that he could overpower, it was an angry commander with hundreds of five-star beasts under its rule.

The lesser elf’s sequences were powerful enough that even Moon’s Dual Wielding was fully committed just to hold the line.

Moon traded a handful of blows, his two blades catching and turning the commander’s steel, giving ground, and a shallow cut opened across his forearm where he was a fraction too slow.

Moon glanced around the trophy room, he immediately realized that it would be extremely difficult to fight and win in a short period of time.

The room was highly favourable to close combatants suchs as the lesser elf and his strength was his versatility in changing combat stances at a whim because of his versatility.

As he blocked a powerful attack, the whole spire suddenly shuddered as a sound that mimicked a deep groan ran through the ice, and cracks began spidering up the walls of the trophy room, spreading fast.

The floor trembled and chunks of the ceiling broke loose and fell next to them. Moon avoiding a few by stepping aside.

He had not triggered the explosives, yet the spire was collapsing. It wasn’t a normal phenomenon, something must have caused it.

’Wait! Could it be...’

Moon’s thoughts took him back to the hidden chamber where the mysterious heart sat at a dais, nurtured and protected.

The spire was dying because he’d emptied the chamber below from the heart and possibly the massive number of cores around.

’The treasury was the power source of this mysterious spire...without the heart and the cores, everything collapses.’

Seeing the collapsing walls, and shaking spire, the commander instantly knew what happened.

Its eyes snapped towards the trapdoor, and it found it open.

Its fury turned to panic as it understood what had been stolen.

Before the lesser elf could plan its next step, Moon took action, using ithe lesser elf’s moment of hesitation to trigger the runes around the spire.

The explosives detonated across the trophy room in a chain of concentrated blasts, and the already-failing structure began to suffer greater damages.

The commander released an angry shrieked and it dashed towards Moon.

~Boom~

The massive ceiling fell on the lesser elf, tons o ice burying the lesser elf as the whole chamber folded in on itself.

Moon was already moving, bursting shattered entrance a half-step without bothering to look back.

He activated Air step for quicker movemnet, carrying him just clear from the collapse as the spire came down behind him in a thunderous roar of ice and rubble.

He hit the snow running vanishing from sight as he sprinted from the ruin of the spire that buried the lesser elf beneath it.