— 240 —
【 EVE’S CONFUSION 】
The Orc’s first wave of attack were successfully pushed back.
Seeing the orc army slowly receding like a tide, the Saintess, Alice, breathed a sigh of relief.
She then quickly joined some of the Druid players and began to heal any players who were injured during the defensive battle just now.
Over a thousand orc warriors died, but the player’s side also sustained some casualties.
The majority of players that’s participating in this defensive battle were generally newbies at lower levels, and despite the protection of the castle walls, nearly five hundred players still died and on the process of being resurrected back on the World Tree.
The number of injured players was over a thousand, but compared to the orcs, this amount was relatively minor. Not to mention those players who were slain immediately returned back to the battlefield through the teleportation circle upon their resurrection, so the overall defensive strength of the castle didn’t decrease significantly.
To be precise, the elves’ losses were mainly the defensive structures destroyed by the orcs such as portions of the walls during the recent battle.
After the players’ celebration, they then began to clean up the battlefield.
Under the coordination of the two legion commanders, players started collecting the equipment left by the slain orcs, while some players also began repairing the damaged walls.
Furthermore, after gaining permission from the Supreme Commander, Zero, some players alongside a few natives also opened up the castle gates in order to search the battlefield on the hillside for any equipment abandoned by the withdrawing orcs.
Seeing the battlefield up close was quite a peculiar sight, to say the least…
During the recent battle, both sides fought fiercely as if their lives depended upon it, yet after the battle, there wasn’t even a single corpse left behind that could be seen on the battlefield.
The only signs that a bloody fierce battle happened there was the splatters of blood and abandoned equipment were strewn about on the ground.
This strange situation made the native elves uneasy, but the players who had long been accustomed to it paid it no mind, as if it were a normal occurrence.
With players cleaning up the battlefield and reaping their well-deserved spoils of war, the atmosphere in the castle gradually became festive once more.
With the Elven side securing the first victory in this entire war, the mood at Black Dragon Castle was much lighter than it had been before the battle began.
In fact, the players seemed much more eager now after experiencing how lucrative the rewards were.
The profit they gained from eliminating over a thousand dead orcs far outweighed their losses, and having savored the sweetness of the rewards from a major questline, the players eagerly anticipated the next wave of assault.
“These orcs gives a ton of EXP! I killed just one and I gained over 5000 experience points!” A level 11 third beta-player exclaimed while excitedly checking his status screen.
“Oh, just 5K EXP? Dude, I was up on the frontlines, and even though I died once, I still gained over 200% CP which is equivalent to 30K experience points! These orcs are giving out way more EXP than those human mercenaries!”
Another player, a tank specifically, proudly boasted while raising his weapon.
“But you died once…isn’t that a loss?”
“Heh, you see, I’m from Moe Moe Committee. Our guild has this policy that any members who die during a major questline will be reimbursed with CP equal to the revival coin we used.”
“No way!”
War is a brutal and gruesome affair.
Nevertheless, just as there are many kinds of people, there were also some players who simply enjoy the intense and realistic feeling of battle in Elven Kingdom.
“This is so exciting! It’s like I’m in a real war! After experiencing this feeling, any other RPG games felt so lame in comparison!”
“It’s so much fun! This is way more interesting than hunting monsters!”
“Yeah, seriously… I was just fighting for a while, and just when I started to really get into it, the Orcs had already retreated, which was a shame.”
Each players relished upon the sweetness of victory, as their fighting spirit surged even more. They then rose to their feet and eagerly gazed once more at the orc army in the distance.
“They won’t stop coming, right?”
“Don’t worry, they’ll probably attack once more! I mean, they still have so many soldiers, so they won’t give up that easily.”
“Haha! Just think of all the experience points we’ll earn if we wipe out all these orcs!”
“Heh, if that happens, then we’re pretty much guaranteed to advance up to intermediate Iron-rank.”
“We’ve already bragged about our results to some of our friends on the Raid Support Forces. Man, lemme tell ya, they’re totally envious of us right now, Wahaha!”
“Yeah, well, it’s their fault for not choosing to defend the castle!”
Conversations of a similar nature kept circulating around the castle and the general vibe on the player’s side was pure elation as their morale remained relatively high.
The orcs’ side on the other hand was in a state of decadence and embarrassment, especially those who had returned from the first wave of battle.
King Imsh, along with a thousand fewer men than his initial ten thousand army, withdrew from the vicinity of the castle, wearing a grim expression.
“I was careless… I didn’t expect the elves to gather such a strong force.”
He believed that capturing Black Dragon Castle would be easy with just ten-thousand-strong army and four Behemoths. However now it seemed, he had greatly underestimated the Elves.
“It seems… I’ll need the power of our Divine Father.”
King Imsh clenched his fist.
He initially held lofty ambitions of conquering the Elven Forest solely through mortal strength alone, believing it would greatly please the gods.
However, the arrival of the Elven Godwarden made it clear that he needed to relinquish those ambitions and call forth a Totem Guardian.
Furthermore, the castle’s defenses proved to be unexpectedly robust, and it appeared that a divine power was even fortifying it.
If they relied solely upon themselves, then their losses would be quite devastating.
With that in mind, King Imsh took a deep breath and ordered his subordinates.
“Summon the Chief Shaman…”
Moments later, the chief shaman of the orcs, accompanied by two silver-ranked subordinates of hers, arrived before King Imsh.
The chief shaman, wearing a bone crown and painted face, smiled faintly.
“Your Liege, it seems your attack didn’t go as planned.”
She still held a glowing skull necklace within her hand. However, at this moment, the crimson glow on the necklace appeared to have deepened significantly…
King Imsh narrowed his eyes, casting a cautious glance at the necklace in her hand.
—No, it seemed as though he was almost afraid of it.
As if she sensed his gaze, the chief priest touched the necklace in her hand and chuckled softly.
“Your Liege, rest assured. I won’t use this artifact unless it’s absolutely necessary.”
King Imsh remained silent.
After a moment, he then looked at the chief shaman with a conflicted expression.
“I underestimated the strength of the elves. Your Excellency, I’ve decided to directly summon a Totem Guardian. Have you prepared the summoning altar?”
Upon hearing King Imsh’s question, the Chief Shaman nodded and replied with fervor,
“Of course! If you wish, we can call upon the power of the Divine Father at any time!”
The players quickly cleaned up the battlefield.
As there were no corpses to deal with, their only sole task was to only gather the scattered equipment, something the players were exceptionally good at.
Before long, the battlefield beneath the castle walls was cleared to the extent that players didn’t even spare the dirty clothes left by the orcs, taking them all as well and leaving nothing behind.
Meanwhile, on the castle walls, the damaged portion were being repaired in a systematic manner.
Everyone was working hard whilst looking forward to the next wave of assault.
However, Eve’s expression as she stood on the city wall was a little solemn…
“Just now, something was competing with me in collecting the lifeforce within the battlefield…”
It’s a similar situation to what happened prior with Demacia’s group, who had died earlier.
It had occurred yet again during this recent battle.
In the battle just now, nearly half of the lifeforce from the deceased orcs was not absorbed by the player’s passive skill, War Sacrifice.
Especially for those who died far from the castle walls, even when the skill was triggered, Evé didn’t receive much life force from their remains.
Instead, it seemed to evaporate into thin air.
Thankfully, the lifeforce of the slain players was completely recovered, and the lifeforce of the orcs who died near the castle walls was mostly absorbed by Evé.
However, looking at it as a whole, out of over a thousand dead orcs, about a third of their lifeforce was left unaccounted for.
Although Evé still ended up with a net gain, it fell short of her expectations.
So in the end, she considered it as a loss.
“It’s an ability similar to war sacrifice! But… it likely isn’t done by a true god nor an evil god, as the absorption appears to occur in a more mechanical or instinctual fashion, akin to a ritual, or… an artifact!”
“It’s probably the same thing I sensed before!”
“These lifeforce absorption abilities are incredibly discreet… If I didn’t have control over War Sacrifice and full authority over the Divinity of Life, then I likely wouldn’t have detected them at all!”
“What are the Orcs up to?”
“Looks like I need to be more cautious…”
While Evé was busy contemplating upon these matters, she suddenly felt a change within the Death’s Casket stored inside her Celestial Domain.
The Goddess of Death, Hela, had finally responded.
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