In fact, Yohkel had just escaped from the battlefield when he learned from another subordinate that Conrad had already fled. Furious, Yohkel couldn’t help but curse loudly, but deep inside, he was secretly rejoicing. If he had been the first to retreat and left Conrad behind, he would inevitably face reprimand and possibly punishment.
If it weren’t for the secret of the Elf King’s Tomb he held, he wouldn’t have dared to flee so casually and might have gotten into serious trouble. However, since Conrad had left first, the situation was entirely different. Conrad became the scapegoat, and Yohkel appeared as the one who fought valiantly. If these Silver Elves hadn’t been drawn here by him in the first place, this leverage alone could bring significant trouble to the person he had always disliked.
Even so, this was enough to make Yohkel immensely pleased. Besides, he still had other cards up his sleeve.
"Those damned elves."
Thinking of this, Yohkel’s earlier good mood soured again, and he cursed under his breath. No matter what, all the wealth he had plundered over the years was stored in the Festival Hall of the Balrogan Temple, and it made him seethe to hand it over so easily. Just as he was venting his frustrations, he suddenly collided head-on with his deputy who was clearing the way in front.
Yohkel, already furious, found an outlet for his anger: "You brainless idiot! What do you think you’re—"
Yohkel suddenly realized something was amiss and quickly looked up, his pupils reflecting the tall figure ahead. No, it was a knight riding a snow-white unicorn. The knight was fully encased in heavy silver chain armor, with a golden helmet adorned with twin-winged face guards, and at the top of the helmet flowed a tuft of white crest that draped over his shoulders.
Looking behind the knight, rows of similarly armored knights stood in perfect formation, each elf cavalry seemingly cast from the same mold, their heights almost identical.
They stood silently in the forest, the woods enveloping them in a deathly quiet.
The knight looked down at the lizardman leader, his silver eyes exuding a coldness that chilled Yohkel to the core. Then he spoke in a gentle yet deep voice: "If I’m not mistaken, you must be Yohkel ⟨Lizer⟩, right, Mr. Yohkel?"
Yohkel opened his mouth, instinctively wanting to deny it, but found himself unable to utter a single word under the knight’s oppressive presence. For origınal chapters go to 𝙣𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙡•𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙚⚫𝙣𝙚𝙩
"Very well," the knight nodded. "In fact, my companions and I have been looking for you for a long time."
Yohkel felt his vision darken.
There was only one army in this world that referred to each other as "companions."
They were Silver Elves, the Holy Song Knight Order—
Brand threw the faded card in his hand onto the ground, and the Destiny Card depicting the Platinum War Steed instantly ignited and vanished into the soil. Another card added to the graveyard, much to his annoyance. Not only did the graveyard not diminish, but it continued to grow, and with his already thin deck, it was like adding insult to injury.
He looked into the forest; everything was eerily silent. Eckmen’s sense of smell was poor, but its hearing and vision were incredibly sharp. It had auditory organs on all six limbs, capable of detecting over seven hundred thousand different sounds, with a frequency range three times broader than that of humans. However, at a distance of four or five miles, if he didn’t make some noise, they would have a hard time finding him. Brand thought for a moment. He wanted to wait a bit longer, but feared that if they got impatient and turned back to trouble Qian, things would get dangerous—right now, that red-haired tomboy probably couldn’t even defeat an ordinary human.
So he immediately raised his right hand and used the Wind Queen’s Ring to blast the forest in that direction.
This item had little effect on creatures with awakened elements, but it served well to create a loud noise to lure them in. As soon as Brand lowered his arm, he heard the crashing of trees and the Earth Envoy swiftly charging toward him.