Chapter 188: Chains of Penance (1/2)

Joe had sent Salent flying out of the bushes with a single punch. The elf rolled twice on the ground, only coming to a stop when he crashed into a tree, wincing and gasping in pain.

The other wood elves were stunned.

***

Pecora, Goddess of the Forest was the second most important deity of the wood elves, and she in turn had biased affection for their kind. That was the reason wood elves were born with her blessings and naturally loved by the forests, and were nothing else than gifted masters in their environments.

Their blessings varied depending on the elven individual as well, but the most common is their affinity for the forests—like the Emerald Heart that the Players who had changed class to Junglewalkers, the wood elves could fuse their presence to the forest so that their adversaries would never notice them.

That was the exact reason why they were the most feared hunters in the forests.

A case in point was their encircling and slaughter of the slave hunters just a while ago. Their victims never noticed what was happening in time before they were wiped out by the wood elves—and that’s without destroying too much of the forest or using any spells!

The same thing was happening now as well: by using their stealth, they were about to get rid of those few young humans who didn’t look special in any way. To them, humans and tree-dwelling gorillas were not too different, and given their mutual hostility killing a few young humans wouldn’t burden them psychologically.

It just didn’t turn out as they would expect—because they had underestimated Edward’s party, not only had their targets weathered through their rain of arrows, one of them actually sent Salent, an adult elf flying despite attacking late!

Nonetheless, the wood elves were mentally composed enough. They simply assumed that Salent was caught and sent flying because he was underestimating those younglings too much, as such did not hide well enough as well as being caught unawares.

In fact, there were some veterans amongst them who were using that to instruct the younger elves who were having their first fight against human slave hunters, telling them not to be careless and that they must hide perfectly at all times, maintaining their bond to the forests.

But then Joe caught more elves and punched them into the air from their hiding place.

Even if the wood elves assumed that they were well-hidden—and granted, they were, Joe would never have found them if he relied on his vision, hearing, or even smell. The problem was that there was large yellow text hanging over their heads, and even those who had fused themselves perfectly into the bushes would have a ‘Wood Elf A’ or whatnot hanging over their heads.

That was basically no different from the ostrich that hid its head beneath the sand but exposed its butt cheeks perfectly outside and was infinitely conspicuous.

And it was not Joe either. Edward himself had also hit several butts—elves, to be precise.

Although they did not cause fatal damage, they still beat down to the last bit of their HP and until they were not getting up for the time being.

All Jessica did was cast barriers on them whereas Eleena continued eating her cotton candy, although her eyes kept darting towards the elves’ level over their heads.

Eventually, she found the wood elves of the highest level, a weird look flashing in her eyes just then as her thoughts remained as enigmatic as ever.