Chapter 82: The Chase (1)
Translator: Leo Editor: DarkGem/Frappe
Angele kept running, and the elephant kept on following him. Countless trees were knocked by the huge elephant on the way. It tried to throw stones and trees at Angele with its trunk, but Angele easily dodged all the projectiles.
He kept running, no longer sure how far he was from his original position.
The Glowing Elephant’s wound had begun to heal. There was still some blood coming out of the cut, but it did not impact the elephant’s ability to run.
Angele knew the elephant’s Stamina was 15 but still thought its healing ability was impressive. He looked at the edge of his blade while running, noticing that it was already cracked after that one hit he had made.
Angele was still using the silver crossguard sword he had obtained from Dice, and he liked it a lot. He felt a bit sad that the blade was cracked by the elephant’s skin.
‘I have to get a new sword after this, damn.’ Angele shook his head. ‘But first, let me figure out a way to deal with this creature.’
He regretted leaving his poisoned weapons at the shop, but the elephant’s Stamina was over 15, and the venoms he had were not strong enough for it anyways.
The elephant’s Stamina was so high that it would be hard for Angele to deal any physical damage to it during a short period of time. He needed to keep attacking it like what Harland had done. The best way would be to open a deep wound on its body while having people to cover for him, but there was no one else around him right now.
The elephant trumpeted again and raised its head. A green fireball appeared between its tusks, and it threw the fireball toward Angele. Angele had a serious look on his face. He turned right and rushed behind a large tree.
*BAM*
The fireball hit the tree and exploded, drops of green flame alighting the grasses around. A basketball-sized hole was left on the body of the tree.
‘Damn. I guess Stun Spell won’t work on a target with such high Stamina. Let me try the Hand of Exhaustion. At least, it should reduce its speed.’ Angele kept running, he put the sword back into its sheath and clapped his hands. They turned red within seconds.
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At the logging site.
Harland hit the elephant’s feet again with his axe, and the axe stuck deep into its skin.
*PONG*
The elephant hit Harland with its trunk, and he fell onto the ground, not able to handle its force. Harland struggled to stand up. He spat out some blood and quickly looked around. Most of his team were either dead or injured.
The two Knights that had retreated with Tinos were now trying to attract the elephant’s attention. The Glowing Elephant had wounds all over its body, and there was blood dripping down its skin. The elephant was about to die, but it was still trying its best to survive.
“Jack! You go!” Harland yelled.
“Yes, sir!” The Knight named Jack was injured too, but he could still fight. He tightened his grip on his great sword and rushed towards the elephant.
Suddenly, a white-feathered arrow blocked Jack’s way.
“Who’s there!”
Surprised by the attack, Jack raised his greatsword and looked in the direction that the arrow had come from.
The others were alerted by the arrow as well, and they started to check the surroundings.
Harland dropped his broken tower shield on the ground and grabbed the axe with his right hand. “I knew it. Two Glowing Elephants won’t randomly appear around Lennon City!” he yelled. “Reveal yourselves!”
Harland heard the noise made by the armor pieces right away, and three men slowly walked out of the bush. Two of them were fully armored warriors: one bald and the other with short brown hair. He was also tall and strong. The man following the two was wearing a leather armor suit with a black robe over it, and his hair was silver. It was not a common sight to see people with silver hair around Lennon City.
“Harland, long time no see, haha.” The bald man laughed.
“I and my brother missed you.” The man with the short brown hair was also laughing.
“Vince brothers, you guys really can’t give up Vader City, huh? Where is Kaiser? Why didn’t he come here?” Harland laughed emotionlessly. “I didn’t know you had the ability to control the Glowing Elephants. I guess a man with the mysterious power is helping you?”
Harland was talking to the two warriors, but he was looking at the man with silver hair.
“You are right.” The man with silver hair smiled. “Vader City did me a huge favor during a recent event, and I am here to pay it back. I thought I lured two Glowing Elephants here, where is the other one? Someone else drew it away?”
‘I guess he is the one with the mysterious power.’
Harland stayed on guard. People with mysterious power used different ways to fight, and he was not sure what skills the man in front of him had. He was not scared, but he sensed something different from the man with silver hair.
Harland kept staring the man, knowing that the man was dangerous just by looking at him. There was a strange aura around him.
“You are not a Wizard yet,” Harland said.
“So what?” the man with silver hair said.
“You really think I can’t deal with two Knights and an apprentice?” Harland smiled.
“Of course not. But you are injured now. Although you are a Grand Knight, you’re no threat to me if you can barely use your left arm.” The man with silver hair nodded. “I’m just here for the Glowing Elephants’ hearts, and I don’t care about you.”
“You’re using us to kill the elephants for you?” Tinos stepped forward and asked in anger.
“Bingo, ha,” the man mocked him. “Sadly, the other one is gone, otherwise I could have gotten two hearts.”
“You!” Tinos was trying to hold his anger.
“Good job, you guys can leave now,” the man said in a calm voice and smiled. “We will gratefully clean up the mess for you.”
Harland narrowed his eyes and stared at the man. “Let’s go!” he yelled out.
The two Knights that were still fighting with the elephant backed off, and the soldiers that had survived the fight looked disappointed, but they all knew that the best choice they had at the moment was to leave.
。
The badly wounded elephant just stood there, unmoving; it was not trying to attack anymore. The elephant started to back off, it looked weak and was probably trying to escape.
Harland suddenly stopped after giving the order. It seemed like the arrow had reminded him of something, and he stared at the man with silver hair with hatred in his eyes.
“It’s you?” Harland said.
“Yea, it’s me. It’s about time you recognized the arrow I shot,” the man said. “Also, I killed several mice in the forest on my way here. I’m not sure if they were your pets, but I will apologize anyways.”
“I respect your power,” Harland said with a deep tone. “That’s why my Crossbow Soldiers did not show up. 15 Crossbow Soldiers...”
Harland gritted his teeth. Only post-Knights could meet the requirements of becoming Crossbow Soldiers. They needed to be strong and practice both crossbow and stealth skills, too. He spent a long-time training each one of them, so he did not expect for them to be killed so easily. The large loss of his elite soldiers in this mission made him feel sad.
“What’s the plan, brother?” Tinos asked in a light tone.
“Let’s wait for Master Angele to come back,” Harland replied. They paid a great price to deal with the Glowing Elephant, and he would not let it go so easily.
He knew the heart of the elephant had some special value to the Wizards and that every part of the elephant could be sold for a good amount of gold coins in the market. The skin of the elephant was used to make top-class leather armor pieces, while its meat was very nutritious and its tusks were almost priceless.
The Glowing Elephant could easily be sold for more than ten million gold coins.
*********************
In an area not so far from the logging site.
The sunlight was blocked by the leaves, and the shadows on the ground were dancing when the wind passed by.
A tall and strong man with a beard slowly walked out of the shadow. He was wearing a black chest piece, and he had two silver great swords on his back.
The man checked the surroundings and took out a white shell out of his pouch. He opened the shell, and there was one white lively string twisting in the water. Its head always pointed in one direction, no matter how the man rotated the shell.
“That’s it. It’s Harland from Lennon City,” the man said as he closed the shell and put it back into his pouch.
The man drew out his two swords and ran in the direction the string in the shell had pointed at; it was the location of Harland and his soldiers. He disappeared in the forest after several seconds.
*********************
Harland had a serious look on his face. He knew that if he wanted to escape the three would not be able to stop him, but it looked like they were waiting for their reinforcements to arrive as well.
‘Who’s coming? We’re right outside Lennon City, but it seems like they don’t even care.’ One man’s name appeared in Harland’s mind. ‘It can’t be.’
He knew there was a Grand Knight in Vader City. Lennon City and Vader City were two of the largest cities in the province, and Harland was the Grand Knight of Lennon. The other Grand Knight was named Campbell. He was the Grand Knight of Vader, and he wielded two great swords.
‘I hope it’s not him…’ Harland was not sure if he was making the right decision, but he just did not want to hand over the elephant to the three.
The soldiers stopped after they realized Harland was not moving. They did not really care about the injured elephant because they knew it would not go too far with all these wounds, and they could easily track it down after the problem was dealt with.
*********************
*Huff*
Angele took a deep breath. He stood between the trees and looked at the Glowing Elephant that was trapped in the soft mud by the river.
‘It’ll need more than a minute to get out of the mud. The Hand of Exhaustion had actually worked, I could probably kill it by myself if I had the time. Damn.’
The Glowing Elephant was still trumpeting. Although it was still dragging a large tree with its trunk, it was slowly getting out of the mud.
Angele gave it one last look and started to head back the way he had come.