Elven Pride

Elder Freya was a beautiful elf. Although she was nearing 120 years of age, elves had a lifespan of 200 to 250 years, making her a middle-aged elf. Her skin was very smooth, and her hair looked like that of a princess. She had a lot of influence in the Jogorn Village, for she voiced her opnion with care and principles.

Elder Hildir was unrighteous, rebellious and very forceful. Many times in the past, Elder Freya and Elder Hildir had debated for hours, turning the elven assembly into a bloody war of words. Even though both were esteemed intermediate-rank druids, they never acted kindly to each other, not even showing a shred of respect for each other. In the village, they were known to be eternal enemies.

Still, Elder Freya cried upon seeing the doom of her rival. His fear upon describing the young Landragon heir, calling him "LITTLE DEMON" over and over again until he would pass out in cold. At first, Hildir was somehow sane. But others didn't see his fall like Elder Freya did.

As the strongest druid in the village, Elder Freya had done everything in her power to save Elder Hildir. She had used extremely potent 'Sun Fruits', which were very powerful fruits capable or bringing a dead baby back to life. She had hoped that it would somehow mitigate the Landragon Heir's curse by a small margin. However, it instead triggered the curse further, causing Hildir to ultimately fall.

She had used everything: potions, fruits, fire...Yet nothing could warm the doomed Hildir. In the end, high-grade spells created out of thousands of magus-level experiments by existences that no longer existed was something unique to acolytes walking the magus path. Unlike druids who wielded the power of nature through instincts, acolytes used the heritage of thousands of genius-like existences.

High-grade spells were often kept secret by Magus Households. Arthur was not any weaker than a Magus Household heir at this point, possessing two high-grade spells. By becoming the [Head Acolyte Hunter] of the Law Enforcement Faction, Dorian had used his unique token to look at Magus Rutherford's personal collection of spells, and offered it to strengthen Arthur. That's how he had gotten his hands on [Ice Poison Aura], a very potent spell that strengthened his lethality. A single cut, or shot, would not only result in bleeding, but potent poison that would slowly kill his enemies. This spell also allowed Arthur to carelessly hunt [Arcane Faction] acolytes in the past, without fearing that they would escape. Once wounded, they would all die at some point.

By exchanging the [Blood Scepter], a high-grade magical artefact, he had now gotten his hands on a powerful curse.

Elves from an isolated village were doomed to be helpless in front of such a complex curse.

Besides Elder Hildir and Elder Freya, there still remained three elders.

Elder Jonik was the youngest. He was the elven rising star, only 30 years old, and already an intermediate druid. Many believed that he would be the first Jagorn Village Druid to reach the advanced realm and uncover the secrets behind their village.

However, Elder Freya personally disliked his bloodthirsty nature. His great growth rate was tricky, and Elder Freya had seen through his true nature. The truth is that Jonik had made deals with acolytes, and practiced their ways of magic. He might have gotten stronger thanks to this, but he was tainted, corrupted even by the human world, just like her eternal rival Hildir. Considering that Elder Jonik used to be Hildir's one and only disciple, it wasn't very surprising.

In the end, Freya knew that the incoming war would not end with an easy victory. Many would die. Dozens, perhaps even a hundred. Now that they had failed to hear the young Landragon Heir's warning, Elder Freya knew that she had crossed the line. If they did not eliminate him in this incoming battle, then a terrifying monster would seek revenge.

As for Elder Almar and Elder Aumanas, both were old druids with strong alchemical skills, only slightly inferior to that of Elder Hildir. As druids, they had made sure that sickness was kept at bay for the past five decades, something that was definitely praiseworthy considering the frail vitality of elves.

As Elder Freya looked at her mocking and scornful tribe villagers, she felt guilty.

"Haha! Landragon might have 'dragon' in their name, but they truly are lizards! I bet they will try to fight us and leave without a tail after two volleys of arrows", an archer said in a high-pitch tone

"Two volleys? They won't be alive after two volleys of arrows! We are talking about weak humans, an inferior species that still deals with slavery, famine and they eat meat like barbarians!", one added

'So this is the elven pride you despised, Baron Lark, huh...You said it would be the end of us elves one day...If we lose this battle, your words might come true', Elder Freya thought as she looked at the grim cloud of dust that was closely approaching

The closer they came, the wider her eyes became.

Other elders had not participated in the [Great War] that had happened two decades ago.

She had joined Baron Lark, Viscount Landragon and Count Elderwood as a druid to fend off the Southern invaders with Elder Hildir. Some of these invaders included southern forest elves who had lost themselves to savagery. Both of them had witnessed the true horrors of war.

'Had Hildir survived, perhaps we could have avoided the incoming tragedy', Freya analysed, 'Humans...might not be very intelligent, or kind, but they do have a certain talent in war'

She remembered how strong the humans army were, how strong Baron Lark's elite acolyte force had looked, and how monstrous Viscount Landragon's personal army had been. Humans did not possess the craftsmanship of dwarves, and they did not have high intellect like spiritual beings. Magically speaking, they had usually very low talent. Grade 5 magical talent was long since forgotten, the best that had been seen in the Ivory Tower being grade 4. Even then, such individual only came once in a decade, perhaps even more.

As for grade 3 talent, they were still rare.

Elves were much better in that regard.

Yet, humans had conquered the Orc Wastelands, and forced them to build boats and escape to Naarth Island. Humans had burnt countless elven forests. Dwarves had fallen to their own selves, and did not even try to fight humans, preferring isolation to mindless slaughter.

In a couple thousands of years, Albion had slowly seen the rise of humans, first with the arrival of magi, and now catalysed by their disappearance, giving free reign to human knights.

Elder Freya could not believe her eyes upon hearing the words of her scouts.

The Landragon Army had decided to face them, in spite of their numerical advantage, and their individual strength.

'Humans are not bad with tactics...So why would they engage in a losing battle?', she thought

Looking around, she saw no trees, no escape route, yet it was already too late. She could see three cavalry units North, South East and South West, kilometres away from them. In the middle of the Elderwood plains, they could not escape either.

They had seen it coming, yet her peers had dismissed it as a futile attempt to run.

But as fast and nimble as elves were, they could not outrun horses. So there was something fishy.

Now that the danger was crystal clear, Elder Freya realized that they had been had. Worse still, she had excellent vision and could see that the pieces of armour worn by the Landragon Army was not average. Elves would have a hard time hurting the horsemen with wooden arrows. Hell, even the druids might not be able to pierce them with the spell [Thorn Vine Shot].

As the three-wing formation closed in, Elder Jonik started to give orders.

"SHOOT!"

However, as the first volley of arrows landed on John's main army, located northwards, the elves realized with doom and terrors that...in spite of their accuracy and huntsmanship, the lethality of their primitive weapons had not even killed a single enemy! It had injured a couple horses, and couple men, but that was the extent of it!

As they prepared for the second volley, Elder Jonik was about to scream, when a lightning-fast arrow descended on him, piercing his throat. It wasn't a wooden arrow this time, but the terrifying acolyte spell [Ice Arrow]

Instead of the word 'shoot', a groan of disbelief, pain and terror emerged.

Druids were mostly healers. Although some could shapeshift, they were pretty much defenseless in their human forms. Acolytes had defensive artefacts, potions to heal themselves as well as a versatile set of spells allowing them to defend from spells, and counter-attack with powerful offensive spells.

Druids were different. They could shapeshift in their totem animal, to some extent, for some period of time. Surely, becoming a bear could impress knights and take down a dozen men. However, they were very vulnerable to acolytes who could kill opponents a realm higher than themselves with their spells' potency.

It only took a couple seconds for Arthur, to cast [Ice Arrow]. Although it was only a low-grade offensive spell, perhaps the most widely ice-elemental spell in the Ivory Tower, it happened to be very efficient.

Against druids who had never acolyte magic, it was perfect.