Arena - Chapter 89

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Ch 89 Invasion (Part 1)

After 8 months had passed, a suspicious trend was detected.

“We have detected traces of all kinds of monsters.”

The news was delivered by warriors from the Pine Tree Village.

Derrick returned to the village.

The veteran warriors were on break so they joined the mothers in a meeting.

I was atop the Tree of Life and practicing my violin. I too was called to this meeting.

The idea of starting a new village came from me, and among the elves I became an important adviser.

“Like you said, they said that the evidence of the Arachne is greatest. Moreover, there is no way that such giant monsters would move in groups that size, so we can safely assume they are undead and are being manipulated.”

Said Derrick.

“The fact that they have shown themselves must mean that it is almost time to fight. Have you told the news to the Maple Tree Village?”

“Of course.”

At the eldest mother’s question, the warrior from the Pine Tree Village nodded his head.

We kept going with the meeting when suddenly Derrick stared at me.

“What do you think?”

I got the sense that Derrick really valued my opinions.

I first organized all the thoughts in my head.

Everything is a hint.

The truths I have learned after becoming an examinee, I always remembered and I took everything that happens around me as a warning.

The same went for this situation.

The fact that the bastards have shown themselves, I had a feeling this was something.

And the thoughts that kept coming at the ends of more thoughts……

“Kim?”

At Derrick’s question, I said.

“The bastards are playing tricks.”

“Tricks?”

“Does something come to mind?”

Everyone’s attention was focused on me.

I said.

“I find it suspicious that they showed themselves on purpose. Why not just attack and just show us a glimpse?”

“When you say it that…”

“That is really weird.”

“It is them saying they are bent on attacking.”

Said Derrick.

“In that case, this time too, like the zombie horde, they will focus our attention on this and be up to something somewhere else.”

“Yes, they have probably sensed the increase in the elf population on the Brown Mountain. Instead of a head on attack, they are probably thinking of a different strategy.”

“What is that?”

“I have carefully theorized something.”

“Speak your mind.”

Said the eldest mother.

I carefully said what I was thinking.

“Think of when the entire continent of elves lost their trees and were attacked by humans.”

“The more I think about it, the angrier it makes me. When I think of the Trees of Life hurt by the acts of the dark magicians…!”

“How could they!”

The mothers expressed their anger.

I continued speaking.

“The human armies trapped elves as slaves. Living elves. Then what happened to the elves that died fighting?”

“…!”

“Dead… dead elves… …!”

“No!”

Everyone’s faces were shocked.

“If those bastards were willing to turn their own kind, the humans, into zombies, what would they have thought when they saw the elves? If those elves befell a tragedy by the hands of the dark magicians…”

“They would have turned them into undead…”

“Evil bastards!”

“How could they… …!”

Everyone was furious.

Some mothers were about to weep.

I was angry too but these elves, considering they were the same race, how would they feel?

“Showing us a hint of the giant monsters to us is to move our attention towards that. When they are actually going to use our brethren, who have become undead, to attack us covertly using their speed and agility.”

At Derricks word’s, I nodded my head.

“I think so. Right now, immediately, deliver the news and warn the villages and we have to make a sign that only we can identify. Like wrapping a band around our arms for example.”

“That sounds good. Everyone can wear a cloth band on their right arm. Women, children, everyone.”

The eldest mother’s decision was final.

Derrick got up from his seat.

“I will go let the Maple Tree Village know.”

“I will let our Pine Tree Village know.”

The Pine Tree Village messenger got up from his seat.

The warning system for the Brown Mountain’s three villages was now put in place.

Everyone wrapped a cloth band on their right arm, and I did it too.

A week later, my premonitions were shown to be correct.

That day, Derrick was out scouting at night when he discovered a group of five elves, and after verifying they had no bands, he immediately stabbed them all.

Derrick summoned Kasa and rained down flames and signaled the warning to everyone.

With that signal as the start, all the warriors that had been sleeping went out altogether.

A total of 97 undead elves were annihilated that day.

As if that was not enough, all the villagers were gathered in one place, and a tally was taken to thoroughly check if the undead were hidden amongst us.

A giant battle in the middle of the night.

Our damage was the devil.

We knew ahead and were prepared, and thus it was a perfect victory.

I too was involved in the plan but I didn’t fight a single time.

The reason was because the other elf warriors moved so fast.

But we could not enjoy the joys of victory.

“Uh hu hu huk!”

“Mark! It’s our village’s Mark!”

“Sarah! How did…!”

“Evil bastards!”

Amongst the undead elves, a considerable amount were family members from the Pine Tree Village and Maple Tree Village.

And a sight I could hardly watch occurred.

The familiar faces were cremated and taken care of by the Pine Tree Village and Maple Tree Village, and the rest were cremated and their ashes spread at a location central to the three villages.

“Let us all combine our strengths and overcome this so that a thing like this never happens to us again.”

The eldest mother gave a word of encouragement where all the elves from the three villages were gathered.

And when the funeral was over, the elves approached me.

“Kim!”

“You were impressive.”

“If it weren’t for you, we would have been in trouble.”

“You are a gift to us.”

“Nature is fair. In recompense for the evil humans in the world, you have been gifted to us.”

“You are a genius!”

I was swept up in plenty of compliments.

My wisdom was acknowledged and it made me happy but at the same time, regretful.

‘Everyone says I am this great and smart, but why did I keep failing the civil exam!’

‘You hadn’t starved yet and come to your senses.’

The baby angel’s words of truth lingered in my ear.

***

“How did you fail?!”

Puk!

A man let out his rage as he struck a tree with his cane.

A middle aged man, so thin one almost wouldn’t think he could be alive, was dressed in a brownish dirty robe and had a pale complexion.

With the raging skinny middle aged man in front, there were two young men in robes, with their heads hung down in shame, who don’t know what to do

“That is… …”

“We haven’t found the culprit…”

“Useless idiots!”

The middle-aged man’s cane flew out towards the young men.

Puuk! Puk!

“Kuk!”

“Uk!”

Each man was hit once on the head causing blood to flow down their faces.

“The time poured into this effort has already neared 3 years! 3 years! What other places do in 1 or 2 years, is taking 3!”

The middle aged man spoke as if reciting history.

“Why did the tree that was cursed to wither doing better than it was before, and why have the Brown Mountain elves’ numbers nearly doubled in such a short time?!”

“Our apologies, sir.”

“I am sorry!”

The men were intimidated and started off with apologies.

Their pathetic state only seemed to make the middle-aged man even angrier.

“Think, think! How are those stupid elves suddenly aware of all our plans?!”

The elves they were used dealing with weren’t the kind that were this agile and quick with their decisions.

Their attentions were lacking as long as their lives were long and slow.

That is why the three of them decided to go after the most powerful elves, which lived on Brown Mountain, without a problem.

In the beginning, it went just as according to plan.

A curse was put on the Tree of Life, then they directed the elf warrior’s focus elsewhere.

While doing so, using a plentiful amount of human corpses, they turned them into zombies and continuously attacked and weakened the elves.

While attacking with zombies, they created zombies from big monster corpses and were going to attack with them.

Having lost the Tree of Life, the elves would be weak and unable to stop that attack.

But now, somehow, the Tree of Life overcame the curse and was stronger. On top of that, another Tree of Life had been created.

They had lost all the zombies from the cliff.

The middle aged man reported to the higher ups that the failure of the zombie attack was a part of the plan.

His anxiety was growing so he decided to use all of the precious elf undead he had been saving for a later attack.

‘But how is this possible? Why did it fail?!’

In a single day, the undead elves were annihilated.

There was not a single elf with a dark spell on it.

In a single night.

As if they had been waiting for it, the elves overcame it at with no problems.

‘There is no way those old elf bitches are this smart!’

The older women elves that are called the mothers have a discerning eye regarding the future but were weak in urgent situations that are constantly in flux.

Because of that they were able to attack the elves in these matriarchal societies.

But this time around, the opponent was more sharp and agile than they were.

There is no way it is the work of an elf.

‘That’s right, the Wolfenbrooke, Baron Odin, has formed an alliance with the elves.’

The elves that have lost their villages are making a mass move and the count of Wolfenbrooke helped them.

In return, the strong elves are going to help the count of Wolfenbrooke fight Baron Bastian.

The Brown Mountain elves have allied with a human, which is very unlike elves. In that case… …

‘It is a human.’

A very smart human that has the confidence (of the elves) and was able to move them to action.

“M-master.”

“What should we report to the superior authority?”

Carefully asked the two useless idiots.

The middle-aged man found himself pathetic for having two guys like these as his disciples.

“We have to tell them honestly that we failed and come up with a new plan!”

“Hik?!”

“But, then, we… …!”

The two disciples’ faces were overcome with fear.

“But just a failure won’t do.”

The master’s words continued.

“There has to be at least one outcome so that we are forgiven for it!”

“What outcome are you speaking of… …?”

“A human, you fools!”

The master flung around his cane once again and beat his disciples and yelled.

“The human advising the elves, we have to at least eliminate that one!”

“There is such a human?”

“Ah… that is why the elves have become so smart… …”

It seemed that the pathetic disciples weren’t even able to think that far.

The master screamed.

“He is a character that is big hindrance to our plans going forward! But thankfully we have taken care of him! That is the only way I can save face! We have to put everything we’ve got into this and at least get rid of that guy!”

“Even the elf undead have failed, how will we assassinate him?”

“He is definitely getting the elves’ protection……”

“You stupid idiots! Of course impossible assassinating him is impossible!”

“Well, then?”

The master spoke.

“Put in all the monsters! It is a full scale war. We have to take advantage of the chaos of war if we are to have a chance at eliminating him.”