Chapter 77: The Blood Elf

Chapter 77: Chapter 77: The Blood Elf

The forest fell dead silent. Three dark elves stood fifty paces away.

Felix rolled his shoulders, loosening his neck.

"Let’s make this quick."

The lead elf smiled, showing pointed teeth. "You humans are awfully cocky."

Felix didn’t answer. Pale green mana rushed to his hands, shaping into two long, razor-thin blades extending past his knuckles. Behind his shoulders, dozens of tiny mana needles gathered in the air, humming quietly.

Crack!

The elf vanished, Yellow electricity arched violently across its dark skin.

Felix disappeared from where he stood. The elf moved just as fast. Their fists met.

BOOM!

Shattering the ground beneath their feet. In that split second, Liora and Seraphina dashed past the shockwave, peeling off toward their own targets.

Liora’s opponent lifted an open palm, blasting a heavy wave of black energy toward her.

She grinned. Her eyes were sharp and wild, the shy, timid girl totally gone. Dense shadow wrapped around her body like a suit of dark armor.

"Oh, you’re strong," she laughed, pure excitement ringing in her voice.

The elf charged. Space rippled around her boots.

BOOM!

She reappeared directly inside its guard. Her fist slammed into the elf’s stomach with enough force to fold it in half, blasting it clean through three thick trees.

"That felt amazing!" she cheered, cracking her knuckles.

The elf dragged itself out of the broken wood, hissing as it flung a fan of dark blades at her.

Liora dodged most of them, but one clipped her cheek and another punched through her left shoulder.

She didn’t even flinch. Black energy flooded the wounds, sealing the torn skin almost instantly.

Her grin only widened as she threw herself back into the fight.

Her movements grew sharper by the second. The new A-rank mana was still fresh, but her body was rapidly learning how to push it. She blinked behind the elf, driving a dark-coated fist into its spine.

CRACK.

The elf staggered, gasping in pain. She grabbed the back of its neck and slammed its face into the dirt: once, twice, three times, cracking the bedrock below. When the elf swung a wild claw at her throat, she caught its wrist barehanded.

"Got you," she whispered, her smile bright and terrifying.

Black mana crawled up the elf’s arm. She twisted hard.

SNAP.

The elf screamed. Before it could recover, Liora drove a heavy punch into its chest, launching it into a boulder. Its head slumped forward, completely knocked out.

Liora stood over it, chest heaving, the thrill of the brawl buzzing through her veins. Her mind stayed completely intact, her own will gripping the Darkness.

She stepped over and tapped the elf’s temple with a burst of blunt mana to ensure it stayed down.

First target, secured.

---

A short distance away, Seraphina’s fight was quiet, clean, and cold.

Her opponent was fast, but it couldn’t match her pacing. Water condensed around her fingertips into razor-thin arcs. When the elf lunged with a curved dagger, she simply tilted her body to the side, flicked a water blade off the heel of her boot, and caught its shoulder, drawing a line of red.

She didn’t rush in for a brutal finish. Instead, she watched its mana pool drop with every exchange. She didn’t need to overpower it, she just had to wear it down.

The moment the elf’s footwork slowed from fatigue, Seraphina struck. Crystalline water shot from the ground, wrapping around its wrists, ankles, and torso like iron bands. The liquid hardened, pinning the A-rank elf completely helpless.

She dragged the bound prisoner across the dirt toward Felix. "One captured."

Felix glanced over his shoulder. "Nice work."

Then he turned back to his opponent, his face turning grim.

The S-rank leader was an entirely different beast.

Lightning crackled over its dark skin, but that wasn’t the worst part. Floating around its head were hundreds of hovering droplets of blood, suspended in the air like red beads.

"Two affinities," Felix muttered.

With a flick of its fingers, the droplets sharpened into needles and shot toward Felix like a machine gun.

Felix blurred out of the way. The forest behind him was instantly shredded to splinters, trees chopped down and stone pulverized. He reappeared above the elf, bringing both green mana blades down hard.

CLANG!

The elf blocked with a lightning-coated forearm, then drove a heavy counter into Felix’s ribs.

BOOM!

The hit sent Felix crashing through two trees. He hit the dirt, coughed up a mouthful of blood, and let his healing mana wash through his chest. The cracked ribs knitted back together in two seconds flat.

"Ah. A healer," the elf said, eyes narrowing.

Felix wiped the blood from his chin, a sharp smirk on his face. "Among other things."

He dashed back in, and the battle turned into a blur of raw speed. Green mana blades clashed against lightning claws, while spears of red blood chewed up the ground.

Felix healed every cut the moment it opened. The elf couldn’t do that. A sliced chest, a ruined knee, and a deep cut along its ribs stayed open, bleeding steadily as its breathing grew rough.

Felix saw the opening. One of his floating mana needles flickered. The elf swung wide; Felix stepped inside the attack, and the needle shot straight into the elf’s elbow joint. The nerve died instantly.

Felix’s blade flashed.

SLASH.

The elf’s right arm hit the grass. For the first time, pure panic showed in its golden eyes.

"You pushed me to this, human," it snarled, reaching into its leather vest with its remaining hand.

Felix’s eyes narrowed. "A potion?"

The elf shoved a dark red pill into its mouth and swallowed.

BOOOOM!

A violent wave of mana blew outward, flattening the brush for thirty yards around them. The elf’s power surged through the roof, passing peak S-rank, creeping dangerously close to SS-rank.

"Tch," Felix cursed, digging his boots into the ground.

Seraphina arrived at Felix’s side, water blades humming. "What did it take?"

"Some kind of booster," Felix said. "His mana spiked near SS-rank."

Liora landed beside them, black markings still faintly glowing on her skin. She cracked her knuckles, looking at the giant aura with an eager grin. "Want me to help you hit him, Felix?"

"No!" Felix barked, his voice sharp and unyielding. "Liora, fall back! Do not step into the frontline!"

Liora flinched, startled by the harshness in his voice.

"You just broke through to A-rank," Felix warned, eyes fixed on the swelling monster before them. "A direct hit from an SS-tier strike will vaporize your core instantly. Stay back fifty paces. Snipe with phased projectiles and cover our blind spots. Leave the frontline to Sera and me!"

Liora bit her lip, swallowing her urge to brawl, and leaped backward into the trees.

"Understood!"

The elf roared, and then in a move of pure desperation, he reached into his vest with his remaining hand, pulling out a second pill and shoving it down his throat.

KABOOOOOOOM!

The clearing shattered. A horrifying pillar of crimson lightning tore into the sky. The forest floor liquefied under the sheer weight of the aura.

The elf had forced his mana straight into genuine SS-rank.