Chapter 75 – Where did it go wrong?
When Blackstone saw the elven corpses on the ground slowly disappearing, he quickly realized something was off.
And when he heard those faint shouts outside, his face contorted.
"This is bad! Our location has probably been exposed!"
At the same time, doubt started to well up in his mind.
…Where did it go wrong? The half-orc priest had made sure to erase their tracks on the way here, so how did the elves know of their hideout?
And … since when did these strait-laced long ears know how to employ a ruse? Even now, Blackstone still found it hard to believe that those prideful elves could disguise themselves as half-orcs, their archnemesis, and deceive them by blending in to directly kill the priest!
This did not sound like something that elves could come up with, rather, this was a tactic that those cunning humans would use! But at the moment, he had more important things to worry about.
These weird, seemingly immortal elves were weak, but Blackstone didn't dare to rule out the existence of a more powerful force controlling these elves behind the scenes.
Blackstone has always been very cautious.
He never confronted enemies that he couldn't figure out and that hadn't shown all their cards yet.
He had even been ridiculed for his cautious personality.
Even so, Blackstone did not give up the prudence that he had learned from the humans.
And soon afterwards, the facts proved that his way had been correct.
The reckless fellows who had once mocked him have since ascended to the Kingdom of God after dying in futile battles.
He, on the other hand, was still alive and kicking.
But this time, he felt that he had been caught up in something inexplicable and baffling.
With the death of the priest, his mission was now officially a failure.
Luckily, however, he had also managed to catch an elf.
With this in mind, he turned his head to look at Demacia in the prison cell. His expression shifted a few times before he finally gritted his teeth and barked:
"Take them with us, we'll use the secret path!"
He did not plan on a frontal confrontation with those strange elves.
Instead, if he could bring back the captured elf, along with the secrets that they'd pried from him, he might still be forgiven by chief priest Mountain.
This was why Blackstone decided to retreat.
At his command, the half-orcs carried Demacia and the three young elves out of the prison cell and took them into another secret cave passage.
This secret path was connected to another place one kilometre away.
"Hmph, we'll pay them back later for this!"
Blackstone glanced bitterly in the direction of the cave entrance, and ordered his troops to retreat into the secret passage.
After the last half-orc disappeared, he took a deep breath and used all his strength to slam against a nearby wall.
The cave started collapsing immediately, completely blocking the way in.
Blackstone entered the secret passage just before the cave completely collapsed.
Dozens of half-orcs were slowly advancing.
Meanwhile, Blackstone was still pondering over what had gone wrong.
The question was … Where was the leak?
Obviously, he had been very careful, so he couldn't have left any traces. Had the half-orcs who'd gone out to hunt been caught and forced into spilling the beans? But… he had personally hand-picked those half-orc warriors. To their dying breath, they would never betray the tribe!
The elves had acted fast, so fast that he almost started to think... that someone had directly shown them their location somehow. But as they walked on, Blackstone still could not think of any explanation, despite his best efforts.
Eventually, the half-orc party neared the end of the secret passage.
They dug their way out of the secret tunnel. Their vision suddenly brightened as they re-entered the Elven Forest.
Blackstone breathed a sigh of relief.
Wherever the leak had originated, they were safe now.
Relieved, a look of satisfaction emerged on his face.
But at that very moment, the surrounding vegetation suddenly moved and hundreds of tall elves appeared.
Blackstone's expression stiffened.
Looking at the lavishly equipped figures who all wore excited expressions, the corners of his mouth twitched a little and his expression froze.
Elves ... Elves?! Where… Where did they all come from? How did they know they were here? And the already excited elves became ecstatic at the sight of the half-orcs appearing.
"Look! Demacia is there!"
"Those three cuties are here as well!"
"Destroy these evil half-orcs and save our fellow elves!"
They shouted before charging forwards with bravery.
A hint of annoyance flashed across Blackstone's eyes as he looked at the group of desperate elves.
it would have been another thing if there had been someone with Silver or upper Iron strength.
But these elves, the most powerful among them was only middle Iron. How dare they try to stop them with such meagre power?
He shouted before taking out his wolf's-teeth club and slamming it into a charging elf. The impact turned him into pulp.
His action had startled the other elves.
Then, Blackstone heard a nasty voice from one of the elves. Thᴇ link to the origɪn of this information rᴇsts ɪn n̷o̷v̷e̷l̷f̷i̷r̷e̷.net
"That's the boss monster! Don't fight him! Everyone, focus on holding off the army of half-orcs!"
What the hell was a boss monster? Blackstone thought, perplexed.
But soon, he realized that they were referring to him.
Because in the next moment, the elves avoided him like the plague and began to engage the other half-orcs.
More importantly, they also attacked the three half-orcs who were guarding the elven prisoners.
Suddenly, as if he had just realized something, Blackstone's expression changed.
"This is bad! They must be trying to buy time!"
He gritted his teeth, easily wiped out several elves who were trying to rescue Demacia and the three kids, and shouted at the other half-orcs:
"Do not get entangled with them, break out!"
But as soon as he said that, suddenly, the entire forest seemed to shake.
It was an ear-splitting sound, like the footsteps of a giant.
the corners of Demacia's mouth curved upwards.
A powerful aura suddenly erupted from him.
Demacia's face turned fierce and his entire body swelled up, with veins popping out. [Berserk] was a desperate last trump card skill that he had bought from the store with contribution points. It unlocked his full potential and made him explode with great power.
The duration of the skill was 10 minutes.
The cost of the skill was that he would die afterwards.
Demacia picked up a scimitar from the ground and slashed the half-orc beside him, who failed to react in time. Immediately, he picked up the two young elven girls with his other arm and roared at Al:
Seeing the prisoners break free, Blackstone got furious.
He was about to step forward, but suddenly, several thick vines sprang up from the ground and entangled him. To Blackstone's shock, even with his strength that was at the peak of upper Iron (level 40), he couldn't break free from these tough vines!
A huge figure loomed over him.
"What ... What is this?"
"A tree… a tree man?"
All around, the other fear-stricken half-orcs screamed out.
Blackstone's heart tightened as he hurriedly looked up and saw a huge body. The creature was more than thirty meters tall, comparable to a dragon, and sported thick branches that almost covered the sky. Its eyes looked at him coldly, as if they were staring at a dead man walking.
Blackstone's pupils shrank.
"An oak… an oak guard?!"
He nearly lost his voice.