Chapter 45: Elves

Michael nearly lost control of the untamed energy inside him when he flared up in anger.

However, it was hard for him to believe that he was attacked right after he got rid of his last enemy.

It was not as if enemies were queueing up to fight him...right?

One of the three arrows stuck in the ground had grazed Michael, ripping his clothes. A single glance was enough for Michael to tell that the arrow's tip had scratched his left leg. It cut him faintly.

'Who?'

Michael's head flicked in the direction where the arrows came from. His Eagle Eyes Soultrait was still fully activated, perceiving the faintest movements in his sight.

Thus, it only took a second or two until he found the perpetrators standing on a wide tree branch high up in a tree 100 meters away.

'What the...'

A group of five human-like creatures carrying bows entered his sight. They stood proudly on the large tree branch with their youthful and ageless appearance. They had fair skin, emerald eyes, and long golden hair that had been tied back in a bun, or ponytail.

They were Elves!

Their large, pointed ears were not hard to see with the Eagle Eyes activated. They attracted his attention almost immediately.

However, the arrows nocked on their fully drawn-out bowstring instantly made him feel wary about them.

'They have War Runes. Maybe, the group doesn't belong to another Lord...' Michael thought when he got a fairly good view of their War Runes.

It didn't take a genius to tell that their War Runes were more advanced than Tiara's War Rune. In fact, Michael was certain that the Elves' War Runes were more refined than that of the Gogi Lord's!

Michael's heart had been filled with joy and excitement before, but it began to beat wildly now that a new threat appeared. His positioning was bad, and he had to split his focus to continue consuming the untamed energy inside him. He didn't know much about the Elves either.

Were they also his enemies, or did they shoot him as a warning?

'They could have killed me easily. Five arrows shot at me when I was unguarded would have been more than enough!'

Michael could tell that the three arrows shot in his direction were not released using much force. They weren't stuck deep in the ground, and he had been able to evade them even though he had been focused on something else.

Despite feeling that the Elves might be easier to deal with by talking rather than fighting, Michael felt a small spark of anger rising from inside him.

'So...there are Elves in this annoying, deadly forest, and they're some Adventurers?! I swear, if they're Tier-2 Adventurers, I am going to search the Origin Expanse's Will and-...'

Michael couldn't finish his thought. His attention was locked on the Elven group. They continued to aim at him but didn't release a second barrage of arrows. Instead, their eyes moved across the Gogi Lord's territory.

They saw the mangled and mutilated Gogi corpses spread across the bloody battlefield and Michael standing in the midst.

'Were they the Gogi Lord's partners? Give me a break...please...'

Michael willed Tigerfang to return to his War Rune and lifted his empty hands to show he was not an enemy.

Beads of sweat trickled down his temples and the tension increased exponentially while the Elves continued to hold their bows aimed at him. They only kept staring at him without the slightest movement or uttering a single noise for the next few minutes, which worsened the worry in Michael's heart until he couldn't take it anymore.

'If you guys don't want to talk to me, then I am not going to stay here like a living target,' Michael thought, 'I am at a huge disadvantage here, either way. Don't even think that I will risk talking to you guys while your arrowheads are locked on me!'

The instance after he finished his train of thought, Michael retrieved a glass vial from his War Rune. He grasped it tightly and channeled a tremendous amount of untamed energy inside it. The next moment he threw the vial into the air.

Michael turned on his heels and he kicked his feet off the ground when an intense and bright flash of light filled the bloody battlefield. Simultaneously with the flash, the vial produced a loud bang as it burst open.

Michael could reach his top speed near-instantly with the Boots of Taran's Swiftness enchantment.

He didn't look back to see the effectiveness of the dazzling light and how the Elves reacted to it, but he jumped through a bush and headed straight back to his territory.

If the Elves wanted to talk to him, they could have done so already instead of the tense standoff. Thus, Michael chose to take the worst-case scenario into consideration, which was that the Elves and the Gogi Lord were close business partners and that they wanted to capture and torture him to take revenge.

Even if the worst-case scenario was not right, it was weird that the Elves didn't utter a single word nor attempted to initiate communication but pointed their arrowheads at him which he took as a sign of hostility.

That was not beneficial, and more than enough reason for him to risk fleeing.

Michael retrieved a second glass vial from his War Rune while continuing to run for his life.

The glass vials had been filled with red viscous liquid before Blaire drank them. Michael and his subjects had toiled endlessly, to test out a few things and put those now-empty vials to good use.

Michael wanted to have a few means of escape since he had been wanting to fight the Gogi Lord alone. Too many steps in his plan could have gone wrong, which was why he made ample preparations to ensure his survival. That way, even if something had gone wrong, Michael wouldn't have necessarily died.

They ground the Gloa crystals and mixed them with the frail white crystal, which had properties like Magnesite. At the end of the night, Michael, the Scholar, and the craftsmen had created a flash powder that could be ignited with the dormant energy of the Origin Expanse.

The more energy was used, the brighter the flash and subsequent burst of light would be.

Fortunately enough, Michael was overflowing with a massive amount of untamed energy right now. It was no problem for Michael to create a dazzling flash of light.

The dazzling flash of light dispersed after a few seconds.

However, that was enough for him to increase the distance to the Elves. Michael sprinted swiftly through the rainforest. He jumped over a large root and charged through two bushes.

Michael's moves were nimble and the changes in his direction were instantaneous, almost like a cheetah. The moment the densely grown environment blocked the Elves' sight, Michael charged straight home.

He dashed through the bushes and thicket that did little to deter him. On the contrary, he could maintain his top speed while using the tree roots as launching pads and means to trick the Elves.

'Are they behind me?' Michael wondered after he ran for half a minute. The rainforest's noises, his ragged breathing, and the distraction caused by the untamed energy raging inside him prevented Michael from using his full focus on his escape.

However, the rustling leaves high up in the trees around him were enough to tell that someone was following him. The sounds came from behind him, but they inched closer with each passing second.

'Why are they tailing me but not attacking?'

The Elves traveled through the trees like monkeys, jumping from one branch to another. Meanwhile, Michael was already running as fast as he could while using the densely grown rainforest's vegetation to his advantage.

He could only make use of the only advantage he had- the Elves didn't know where he was going.

Because the Elves had no information about him, they couldn't be certain he was alone. His War Rune was still Tierless, and there had been more than 200 Gogi corpses at the 1st Tier. No matter what the situation may be, the Elves would never believe that Michael killed the Gogis on his own.

Thus, logically the Elves would be wary of him and try to keep some distance and stay vigilant. After all, Michael might be a bait to lure them into a trap!

The unknown was dangerous, and it was better to act carefully and slow down instead of walking into an obvious trap.

At least, that was what Michael believed the Elves thought about the current situation.

Nobody would believe that he obliterated the Gogi Lord by himself. It didn't make sense.

Fortunately, Michael had the help of a powerful Lizard mother.

But that was not something the Elves had to know!