POV Alesia:
A small horde of players dashed down the green mound, the tall trees before them getting closer and closer.
The arrows whistled through the air, piercing and tearing through their bodies. Blood gushed out as they fell dead to the ground.
However, they kept moving forward, magic lights flashing as magic shields and barriers popped up throughout their formation, creating a mana wall.
They advanced forwards, their weapons and swords glowing in their hands.
“Try to capture as much of elf meet alive as possible! If not, then kill them! Meat is meat!”
“Come one pointy, ears let’s turn you into diamonds!”
They all wanted the bounty offered by her to instigate them and turn them into living examples. There was no fear in their eyes, their immortality giving them all the confidence they needed.
More and more arrows whistled through the air, impacting against the mana barrier and sending ripples through its blue, glowing surface that looked like blue glass.
Alesia stood with her guard and an elderly elf, not too far, obscured by the greenery.
“Burn them to the ground!” She raised her short, pale hand and waved it toward the advancing bounty hunters.
Wings flapped from behind her, and a massive beast enshrouded in clouds of smoke emitted from its body shot to the sky like a black cloud.
The lightning, fire, and magic glowed within the black haze, giving it a mystical look.
Each flap of its crystalline wings sent arcs of lightning around it and gashes of wind bending down the tall and wide trees and briefly revealing the beast to the world.
It looked like a giant, dragon-shaped reptile decked in metal armor forged of dark, raw-looking, unpolished metal, with rivers of blue lava flowing within the canyon-like cracks in it.
Runes and magic arrays glowed in waves of light, moving from its tail all the way to its three crystalline horns.
The lightning crackled and sparked between the sharp, pointy crystal horns, crystal wings, and the crystalline spikes on its back.
The beast was huge, big enough to smash apart entire houses. The air itself became hotter even though its massive wingspan cast its shadow over the elves and humans.
It was the war draconic. The creation she and her master created, ‘In some sense, you are my child!’
She proudly and excitedly stared at the beast she helped to create, her aura sending ripples through the atmosphere and making the tree leaves rustle.
“Burn them down! Show them the power that his majesty gave you!”
The entire sky pulsed in a blue light as the beast opened its mouth, light leaking from between its long, pointy canines. The lightning cracked on the tip of its tail, the electric arcs and sparks moving in the wave from the tip of its tail all the way to the horns crowing its head.
The next second, a blue flame blazed in its widely open mouth, and both fire and lightning descended upon the player formation.
Their barriers and shields cracked and broke in a split second into millions of shrapnel of mana light under the blue waves of lightning and fire.
Their bodies vanished, submerged in the storm of fire and lightning.
The mound turned into a black swatch of ash, burned soil, and molten stone. The flames were blazing and spreading in all directions.
‘They are too weak to test them… I need some stronger practice targets that would not vanish after a single casual attack.’
She turned with a smile on her face to the old elf as she waved her hands again. As if it were some sort of signal, the huge black cloud rose on the horizon, with lightning sparking within it, making it look like a sentient thunderstorm.
“Grahhh!” Terrifying roars resonated through the forest, causing the entire forest to rustle and shiver.
The old elf in regal clothes didn’t let out any fear, but the girl still felt his body scream in horror. He was like an open book to her.𝑂𝑽𝐿xt.𝗇t
“Now, we will negotiate. His Majesty, Vesuvius, demands that you immediately give us back what was stolen or you will face our anger!”
The elf nodded, so she continued, her threatening tone becoming sweet and calm.
“The war will come, and you either can stay out of it, join us, and gain back the land stolen from you, or you can join our enemies and get annihilated together with the rest of our enemies.”
She initially thought it was her home, but now she saw it wasn’t. Her place and loyalty were by the side of the dragons, ‘If elves are part of nature, then the dragons are the rulers of nature. Elves should submit. What can the goddess of nature and her pathetic lesser gods do? They did shit to help the elves, yet they are still being worshipped by them.’
The goddess of nature would never show up and annihilate their enemies to protect their worshippers. On the other hand, Alesia witnessed the dragon do it to protect his minions.
Dragons could fully unleash their authority over nature and act like the true rulers of nature, while the gods could only scheme from afar.
The old elf spoke, his body tensing even more as the black cloud hiding the monster got closer and closer, “We will give you what is yours. As for the second part, there is no need to even talk. We will just stay here like we always had. There were always wars and conflicts, yet we always managed to prevail peacefully in our forest.”
“So be it…” Now she was even more sure she had made the right decisions.
‘They are pathetic and cowards… They are really not my people. They are just content to sit on their behinds and do nothing to improve their situation. They would turn into freeloaders…’
Yes, she still understood why ‘They have a long lifespan and so a lot to lose if they die early. They don’t have unreasonable personalities and powers of dragons. They are not warriors, they are just survivors trying to desperately cling to their long lifespans while being trapped in their squishy and weak bodies.’
“Find the gems, and we will leave.” She now remembered why she had left. She was always a deviant and wanted to perfect her craft at any cost. She was never content with living slowly and carefully. She wanted to excel! She even started to doubt she really belonged to the same tribe of elves from the forest.
