Chapter 70: Dark Elves
On the 57th floor of Olympia, all the residential buildings on both sides had their doors tightly shut, and the streets were deserted.
Relying on the limited power from the emergency generators, the streetlights emitted a dim glow. Asker walked briskly with his sword, Medea following closely behind.
“Are you sure splitting into three groups is a good idea?” Medea asked with a smile. “Aren’t you worried that they will encounter unmanageable crises on floors 52 and 30?”
“After all this time training under me, I have at least some faith in them,” Asker replied.
“Then why did you choose only me to accompany you?” Medea pressed.
Asker glanced at her but didn’t answer.
Medea sneered inwardly. She knew he was worried about her split personality, afraid that Medusa would come out and unleash even more carnage in the city.
But what about trust between people? You trust them, but not me?
She fidgeted with the ends of her wine-red hair, growing increasingly angrier, wanting to rush forward and hug him, then explode on the spot.
As they continued walking, they saw a large number of bodies of combatants, first mercenaries, then Spartans, mixed with the remains of some strange creatures.
The corpses of these creatures had sharp, horizontally protruding ears, extremely coarse and messy hair like straw, tied up at the back of their heads with metal rings. They had two pairs of eyes, four eyeballs with bright red irises, a single protrusion where the nose should be, and sharp, shark-like teeth.
Dark Elves.
Unlike the “beautiful humans with pointy ears” in fairy tales, the native elves in the world of “Iron and Fire” looked like these monstrous, inhuman creatures, and there was a 100% reproductive isolation between them and humans.
Rather, the so-called “half-elves” were closer to the descriptions in fairy tales. They were the descendants of human individuals mixed with a small amount of elven genes through genetic engineering experiments in the Second Age. “Succubus bloodlines” like Medea’s were actually similar products.
“These are Dark Elves?” Medea mused.
“Something’s not right.” Asker said. “Dark Elves are an intelligent race that lives in the Abyss. They have no connection to the magic tide. They shouldn’t be here.”
“Could it be…” Medea’s imagination immediately took flight. “A mysterious force deliberately released these Dark Elves into the city during the magic tide surge, trying to achieve some ulterior motive?”
“Hard to say.” Asker shook his head. “Has your Conspiracy ability sensed anything?”
Medea paused and frowned. “No.”
“Then, even if there is a mysterious force as you said, their malice isn’t directed at us.” Asker said calmly. “We just need to eliminate the enemies, and leave the rest for Olympia to worry about.”
“Should we call the others back?” Medea asked.
Since the magic tide surge had disrupted radio equipment, only Medea’s psychic abilities were currently functional, but the communication range of her Mind I wasn’t wide.
Calling back the others would definitely take a long time.
“No need.” Asker said. “They’re just Dark Elves, they should be able to handle them.”
“Besides, I can’t protect you all forever.”
“So touching,” Medea said, half-joking. “My heart is aflutter.”
“Put away your girlish heart.” Asker said. “There’s a fight ahead.”
Medea hurriedly looked forward and saw several Spartan warriors retreating from the darkness amidst the clash of swords, Rudashius leading the way.
Guttural sounds echoed in the darkness, like the jaws of a giant beast chewing frantically.
“Asker!” Seeing Asker and Medea, Rudashius immediately shouted a warning. “Come over here! These monsters are good at launching sneak attacks from the darkness! And their weapons are highly poisonous, a single scratch is fatal!”
“Alright.” Asker said, gesturing for Medea to follow.
The two joined the three Spartan warriors and saw monsters rushing out from the darkness.
They were living Dark Elves, about seven or eight of them, quickly forming a line to intercept.
Their nerve-like hair swayed in the air as if communicating secretly, and their four crimson eyes darted around in their sockets.
Their withered, bird-like hands gripped extremely sharp double blades, the surfaces gleaming with a blue-red luster, clearly coated with poison.
“Thug-Ro-Chusta’ka!” The Dark Elves bared their teeth and roared in a strange language.
Thug-Ro-Chusta’ka, be a slave or die. Asker knew some Dark Elvish from the forums in his previous life.
So these Dark Elves were here to capture slaves? What a joke, coming to the largest human Transcendental city in the world, where even the city lord was a demigod, to capture slaves?
Asker pondered for a moment and asked Rudashius:
“Where are your men?”
“The rest are dead.” Rudashius said. “The poison on these guys’ weapons is very potent. A single scratch will cause immediate coma and near-death. Be careful.”
Almost a complete wipeout. Only Spartans could speak of such a thing so casually.
In the game of his previous life, in order to hone his Celestial Ninefold Strike skills, Asker had also studied in the Spartan city-state and had a good impression of these simple and straightforward warriors.
Seeing that almost all of them were dead, Asker felt a little emotional and sympathetic, so he suggested:
“Why don’t you leave first, we can handle these monsters.”
“Hey!” Medea said, both amused and exasperated. What kind of misplaced sympathy was this?!
“Spartans never turn their backs on the enemy.” Rudashius replied resolutely.
“Even if it means death?” Asker asked.
“Even if it means death.” Rudashius raised his greatsword.
“Alright.” Asker sighed.
This was the Spartans’ temper, never retreating from battle. He already knew this.
But honestly, fighting these monsters alone was much easier than fighting with a team of NPCs, because he wouldn’t have to be distracted by protecting his teammates.
These Dark Elves, if the settings were the same as in the game of his previous life, judging from their attire, should be apprentice swordsmen, the third tier of Dark Elf clan society.
Dark Elf apprentice swordsmen who could come to the main plane to capture slaves were generally level 3, about the same level as these Spartans, possessing the sequences “Sharp Weapon I,” “Dodge I,” and “Intuition I.”
If they advanced to the second tier and became official swordsmen, then depending on their profession, they might choose to take the sequence potions of “Toxin,” “Weakness,” or “Shadow.”
Because they were skilled in combat techniques and stealth assassinations, and with the current city-wide blackout and the dim environment, these Dark Elf apprentice swordsmen at this stage almost completely countered the Spartans’ brute force fighting style.
However, for the current Asker, their assassination techniques were completely insufficient.
After all, he was a professional player who could defeat a White-Clad Assassin of a higher level.
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