Roland backed away as he rapidly thought about the current situation on the battlefield in order to try to find information about the enemy.
Aside from the Druid who could turn into a dragon, the elves seemed to be Hunters.
They were quite good at archery, moved very fast, and were able to get high up in the trees.
This rendered Roland’s Ice Ring completely useless.
Ice Ring was a ground-based group offensive spell that was quite effective against enemies who loved to stand on the ground, but it had little to no effect against such enemies who bounced around and alternated between up and down.
And most importantly, all elven Hunters also practiced nature magic; their average magic resistance wasn’t something humans could compare to.
From this battle, Roland discovered many problems with himself.
When encountering an extremely mobile enemy like an elf, his trump card Inferior Fireball and Ice Ring would not be useful.
The opponent’s speed was really too fast and it was hard to lock on.
In addition, he barely had a chance to use the “accumulating fireball.” The elves’ projectile interference was really annoying, and Roland finally understood why the Mages’ general knowledge he had read in the library said that Hunters were one of the Mages’ early arch-enemies.
Letting the three puppets guard him, Roland slowly retreated on the ground of withered leaves, setting off rustling sounds.
After retreating about ten meters, three consecutive arrows were fired.
This time the other party didn’t use any more overarching shots, it was just a normal horizontal shot. The three arrows with natural energy almost hit the same point on the same puppet’s light shield, directly destroying the puppet.
Roland had been vigilant, and the moment the puppet disappeared, he summoned a new magic doll.
As a result, as soon as this puppet appeared, its shield and body of magic were pierced by a long arrow.
But for this magic doll, it wasn’t a fatal injury.
The doll plucked the long arrow out of its body and threw it to the ground.
It was only then that Roland realized that the arrow was at least fifty percent longer than the previous one, and the arrowhead was spiral-shaped.
This was a typical powerful penetrating arrow. If Roland had been half a second slower just now, then even if he had a magic shield on his body, he would most likely have been pierced through.
Exhaling softly, Roland continued to retreat.
However, by the time he had almost retreated to the simplified Church of Life, he wasn’t attacked again.
The two of them, Link and Dorfer, were also wearing plain clothes, having been reborn from the resurrection point and had joined him.
“Is everything all right, Roland?” Link, carrying a standard greatsword, asked.
“It’s fine, just being targeted by the enemy.”
Link looked at the dark woods around him and said, “I’ve already lost a level, and if I die twice more, I’ll probably lose another level.”
“My current experience is relatively low, and I’ve also dropped a level.” Dorfer laughed bitterly.
Not only had they dropped a level, but they were also in the weakened state of being reborn, meaning that their strength was greatly reduced.
Roland took a moment to look at his system interface and found that the state of weakness was gradually reducing. Then he said, “No matter what, even if weakened, we have to go up to support them—otherwise, if we die a few more times, we’ll lose even more.”
Dorfer said depressingly, “I hope this epic quest gives enough experience to at least give us a slight surplus, otherwise we’ll lose a lot.”
“Don’t think so much about it yet.” Link stepped in front of Roland and the puppet as he walked, scanning left and right very vigilantly for any traces that might be revealed by the enemy. “Let’s go support the front line first.”
Although they were very vigilant, the three of them were not slow, and soon reached the place where Link had died before.
Link and Dorfer immediately retrieved their corpses, and the stream of light pixels merged into their bodies. Then they looked much more relaxed.
After retrieving their corpses, they not only got back about 5% of their total experience but most importantly, they removed their state of weakness.
The three of them continued forward, faster this time, and in the process, they found a blood trail, which they followed, and then they found Hawk’s corpse.
A huge, majestic body that resembled a strong orc was kneeling on one knee.
Underneath him, there were pools of blood that dripped as if they were on the side of a small lake, and there were at least thirty arrows stuck on the front side of the corpse.
Hawk was not mortally wounded; he bled to death.
Link looked at Hawk’s hanging head and pursed his lips softly, his expression cold and gloomy.
Dorfer, on the other hand, looked around. He was the Hunter and the best scout of the three.
There were no enemies around, and no attacks had been made. Link looked behind him and asked, “Should we wait for Hawk?”
“I don’t think it’s necessary.” Roland shook his head. “We should go to the front line right now and support Betta, Suel, and the others.”
The other two felt that it made sense after some thought.
Then they continued forward.
This time they started to jog.
After running for a few minutes, they saw the body of an elf in front of them.
Checking it out, they found the cause of death to be a direct smash to the back of the head.
“Must be the handiwork of Rommel.” Link tsked. “A Priest, but with stealth abilities comparable to a Rogue, and wearing heavy armor—our guild is so fu**ing weird.”
They moved on and found another elf’s body, this time pierced in the back by a sword-shaped weapon.
This needed no guessing. It was most likely Betta’s handiwork.
And the three also noticed that the elf’s body, face, and neck had strange yellow spots.
“It’s finally working.” Link smiled grimly. “No wonder they can stab these elves in the back. It’s time for the elves to be on the back foot.”
Roland was confused at first, but then remembered that this should be the Warlock’s handiwork.
As a magic pet, the white maggot’s feces had magical properties and wasn’t just mere dung.
Roland remembered the forums mentioned that the White Maggot’s crap had four properties, including corrosion, toxin, plague, and stink.
This world had Mages, magical beasts, and naturally, magical viruses.
Whether it was the toxins or corrosive effects, they were all just icing on the cake. The real killing feature of the White Maggot was actually the invisible, untouchable plague, which was a super virus.
When crap landed on a person or animal, the corrosive effect would pierce through the clothes as well as the skin of the attacked person, and the toxin was actually a paralyzing poison so that no pain could be felt and allowed the virus more time and quantity to enter the flesh and blood of the attacked person.
When the virus moved around in the enemy’s blood, dividing and reproducing, because of its magical nature, the virus’ rate of reproduction as well as the rate of eating was incredibly fast. Depending on the individual’s constitution, the onset time ranged from one to two hours.
Of course, there were many races that were immune to the virus, but elves were not among them.
“Then let’s hurry up and support them.”
The three of them ran quickly and soon arrived at the previous battlefield.
Roland saw his own corpse first, then he saw the black panther that the Druid had transformed into, standing on a high white stone platform opposite them.
Seven yellow and ill-looking elves were hiding behind the panther, using Abolish Poison and healing on each other.
Schuck and Margret both stood across from it, their expressions relaxed.
Both Betta and the Priest Rommel were nowhere to be seen, but they were mostly invisible.
The Warlock and Suel, on the other hand, were standing not far behind Schuck, one on the left and one on the right.
Roland immediately went to “pick up” his corpse.
The black panther had an awful expression on his face. He looked at Roland and then at Link, his light purple eyes filled with grief and anger. “You can resurrect. You’re Golden Sons.”
Schuck nodded.
“Then I know who the traitor is.” The black panther looked towards Schuck. “There aren’t many of our people who believe in the Goddess of Life, and there is only one in Nature’s Wrath.”
Ans!
A furious roar echoed throughout the enclosed space.
Then the black panther stared hard at Schuck, grinning, its sharp teeth gleaming coldly. “You can resurrect, you’re not afraid of death. So you were pretending to consider my offer, but really, you’ve been trying to stall for time.”
Schuck smiled and didn’t say anything.
The black panther looked back at his clansmen who were healing each other with magic to get rid of the virus.
Then the corners of his mouth lifted in a grin and he said, “Actually, I’m… also stalling for time.”
As soon as he finished speaking, he took advantage of the moment Schuck was startled, and like black lightning, pounced at Schuck.
At the same time, his entire body shone green.
The panther’s body began to change, becoming gargantuan, fur turning into green scales, forehead sprouting a pair of horns.
In less than half a second, the elf transformed from a black panther to a huge green dragon.
The green dragon pounced on Schuck.
Schuck had just brought up his greatsword, then helplessly lowered it.
The other party was too fast to even use Power Word theurgy, let alone control the other party’s actions.
The worst that could happen was to die once, nothing more.
Just as Schuck thought this, Margret dashed from the side and collided with the green dragon.
There was a loud thud as the two collided, and while the green dragon was fixed in place, Margret flew backward.
She bounced and fell more than twenty meters away, then rolled ten times on the ground before stopping.
Dust flying everywhere, she crushed into countless trees along the way.
Schuck turned back sharply and looked at Margret, who was struggling on the ground but couldn’t seem to get up. The ever temperate Schuck had red eyes as he bellowed at the green dragon, “Damn you!”
The green dragon fanned his wings low in the air, raising a cloud of dust and weeds, its eyes filled with mockery.
At this time, the green dragon was covered with beautiful green scales, and that charcoal look that Roland had burned into him with the Great Fireball had disappeared.
The Druid’s Morph was to change a creature’s appearance and then obtain a projection, so no matter how many injuries one had suffered in animal form, once they returned to their elf appearance and turned into an animal again, they would find that the injuries they had suffered before would disappear.
This was a unique ability of the Druid, and the only flaw of Morph was that there was a time limit before one could change into the same animal, which was commonly known as cooldown. This was why the black panther was stalling. It needed a healthy, true green dragon body in order to fight the enemy in front of it.
Schuck drew his greatsword.
And then Roland slowly backed up, while whispering to Link, “I’m retreating into the woods to use my accumulating spell, you must help me divert this Druid’s line of sight so he doesn’t spot me so quickly.”
Link nodded gently.
Roland touched the Mind-Calming Necklace on his chest—this time he was going to challenge the technique of quickly accumulating power.
If he could get the Self-Destructing Fireball out in four seconds, then the green dragon would definitely be unable to resist it, even with a new set of scales.
