In the sky above.
Five tiny dots tore through the clouds, each one dragging a trail of smoke behind it.
The missiles climbed higher and higher — then, all at once, their noses dipped. They swung downward, straight toward Dreadhaven, fast.
For a few seconds, the whole battlefield went still. Most eyes were fixed on the strange objects hurtling toward the village — and most of those eyes belonged to Dreadhaven's own soldiers.
Many wore worried faces. The things shooting toward them felt wrong, too unfamiliar. Nothing like any ranged magic or projectile they had ever seen.
Vladimir was still laying on that same place, gazing up at the sky with a satisfied smile. Just a few more seconds of patience, and the scene of pure destruction he'd been waiting for would unfold before him.
If only Dreadhaven had been as unprepared as Vladimir thought.
Scarlett might not have been ready for a large-scale attack from the sky like the one King Auren had threatened her about — but she had made sure to station a few special individuals to watch over Dreadhaven, just in case.
On the outskirts of the village, four figures stood atop a rooftop: a dragon, two goblins, and a child with tiny, cute horns. Morgass the red dragon, Seiira, Semiath, and Evadne.
Seiira and Semiath looked strikingly different from ordinary goblins — almost human, if not for their horns.
"Are you ready?" Seiira asked. Not Semiath — Evadne. Her voice serious.
Evadne nodded. "Yes. I can see them coming."
His eyes stayed locked on the approaching missiles. They passed through the barrier as if it weren't even there, closing most of the distance to Dreadhaven in a single leap.
They were just too fast.
But to Evadne, they moved clearly — as if the world had slowed to a crawl.
The moment they entered his range —
"Now!" he shouted.
He clenched his fist, drew it back, and in one smooth motion swung it through the air.
There was no sound. No shockwave. Nothing.
The instant his punch struck the empty air, reality itself tore open — a jagged rift revealing a blank space of black, purple, and deep, nameless colours, like a portal punched into another dimension.
Every missile passed through it and vanished, leaving nothing behind.
A few seconds later, reality began to heal. The crack — the size of a three-story building — started to knit itself shut, sealing closed on its own as if it had never been.
"You did it~" Seiira screamed, throwing her arms around Evadne.
Morgass transformed back into his human form and let out a long sigh.
"Those pointy metal things — what were they? A giant dildo?"
"You!" Seiira pouted, pressing her palm against Evadne's ears. "Stop saying things like that in front of a child."
She glanced at Morgass. "And you finally crawled out of your depression, huh?"
Morgass nodded. "Yes. After finding out Evadne isn't an ordinary demon and has an ultimate skill of his own... it kind of justified that I lost to him. My dragon pride is restored now."
"Well, whatever. Return to your dragon form. We should keep watch for any sneaky attacks on Dreadhaven," Seiira said.
Semiath spoke calmly. "Honestly, I expected more attacks to come. But this was the first one that even reached Dreadhaven. It shows our people are putting up a good fight." He paused. "I wonder how many more are still on their way."
"Let them come. I'll block them anyway," Evadne answered, an energetic smile spreading across his face.
Meanwhile, Vladimir was completely confused.
He sat up and started pacing, waiting for the sky to break apart above Dreadhaven. He waited. A full minute crawled by, and still — nothing.
Around him, the battlefield had already moved on. The soldiers returned their eyes to the fight ahead, that strange projectile fading from their minds as if it had never mattered.
No one out here could see the rift that had opened in the village, after all.
To Vladimir, it looked like the missiles had simply vanished — or never worked in the first place.
"Did that guy scam me? But Arthur is from a world like his, and he swore those were some of the most destructive things," he muttered, rubbing the back of his neck, completely lost.
*****
At the same time, on one of the hills, Kroenen's dead body lay motionless.
Bonnie turned to leave, sliding her katana back into its sheath. But before she could take a single step, a sound reached her ears — movement, faint and wrong.
She spun around, and her breath caught.
Kroenen was rising.
Blood dripped from every part of him, streaking down his clothes and pooling at his feet, and yet his body kept lifting itself, slow and steady, until he stood upright.
"Impossible — you can't be alive!" Bonnie shouted.
For a second, Kroenen only stood there. Then he smiled — a wide, creepy thing that completely wrecked the elegance his elf genes had given him.
"Hehehe... Hahaha." His laugh wasn't loud, but it was soaked in amusement.
"Who said I'm alive?"
Bonnie took a step back. Something about him made her too nervous to attack, even with how broken and vulnerable he looked.
"You—!" She gritted her teeth, letting her anger drown out the fear crawling up her spine.
She bolted straight for him.
Kroenen didn't bother to dodge or block.
CLANG!
The instant her katana struck him, it bounced back — the sound and the shock of it telling her she'd hit metal, not flesh.
"What trickery is this?" she spat, flooding her blade with more mana.
She abandoned cutting and drove the sword forward in a stab, pouring her strength and precision into the thrust. The blade sank deep.
Straight through his chest. Blood gushed out, hot and thick — and as she ripped the katana free, a huge grin broke across her face.
But the grin died the moment she saw him still standing.
"Are you done?" he asked casually.
Bonnie staggered several steps back, shock tearing through her.
Before she could think of her next move, Kroenen summoned his sniper once more.
"It's my turn now."
BANG!...
A small portal blinked open in front of Bonnie, and the bullet slipped through it, dead on target.
But as always, her unique skill saved her — the shot missed her head by inches.
"Idiot. It's not gonna work," she scoffed.
Swoop!..
The same bullet whipped past her by inches again.
"What? He didn't even shoot," she thought, her mind scrambling.
She glanced around — and there was another portal beside her. Then another, a few steps away.
One more. Then one more.
Within seconds, a dozen tiny portals bloomed around her, the bullet skipping between them at random, its path impossible to read.
"Shit, he got me," Bonnie bit her lip.
She started to move, to dodge, to keep her odds alive.
BANG!.. BANG!.. BANG!..
Kroenen fired again and again, and the situation turned desperate.
She knew the answer before it arrived.
"I need to run."
She turned to flee — and the moment she did, a bullet punched through her right leg.
Her stride broke, and two more shots slammed into her, one through the abdomen, one through the back. She hit the ground hard.
"You should run the moment you see a person rise from the dead," Kroenen said, walking up to her. He grabbed a fistful of her hair and pulled her head back.
"You gave me a real tough time. Almost killed me. No — you actually did." His voice was sincere, almost grateful. "But I have to thank you. Because of you, I gained something far greater."
"Cough... How are you still alive?" she rasped, blood spilling over her lips.
Kroenen only chuckled.
"Who said I'm alive?"
He took her hand and pressed it flat against his chest.
Bonnie's eyes went wide.
The heart wasn't beating at all.
"H-how?" she gasped.
"My new unique skill. Steel Zombie," Kroenen answered.
Hearing it, Bonnie didn't bother asking about the skill itself. The name alone said everything.
His new unique skill had turned him into a zombie — a terrifying elf zombie at that.
She gritted her teeth, whether from frustration or anger or both, it was hard to tell.
Then she sneered. "What now? Gonna kill me? Then kill me! Nothing will change. I almost killed you — and there are thousands more coming. They'll kill you again and again until you're actually dead. You can't match our numbers."
Kroenen said nothing. For a few seconds, he simply stared at her, his pupils slowly bleeding into green.
Then he broke the silence.
"You sure about that?"
As he spoke, a thumping sound rose from behind them. Faint, yet heavy — rolling across the ground like a heartbeat.
As if... as if a huge army was on its way.
"Oho, quite the timing. They're here at last," Kroenen said, almost gleeful.
He hauled Bonnie up by her hair. She struggled a little, then stopped — the moment she saw what lay in front of her.
Far off in the distance, a vast army of dark elves was marching toward them. Their path led straight to the very spot where Li Feng's army had been before entering the fight.
They numbered in the thousands — fifteen, maybe twenty thousand. Being elves, most of them were archers.
And with that height advantage, they would surely hold the edge.
Leading that massive force was none other than the oldest elf in their village — Peirro. Kroenen's father.
Or, more precisely, the father of the current Kroenen — Augustus.
"Got your answer?" Kroenen said coldly, drawing a knife from his pocket.
In one swift motion, he slit her throat and flung her off the cliff.