Beyond the Bloodline-Chapter 260: Ambush at Dawn
The night passed in uneasy fragments, with the group taking shifts to keep watch.
Each adventurer slept with one eye open, their bodies coiled like springs even during brief moments of rest.
Anxiety hung heavy in the cold mountain air as none could forget the wolves they’d narrowly escaped earlier today and the other things lurking in this hostile land.
As dawn approached, the last watcher who was crouched by the cave’s mouth, stifled yawns as he prepared to wake the others.
Just as he reached for a nearby rock to tap against the wall—his preferred way of rousing people without taking a boot to the face—Wanette’s eyes snapped open.
She bolted upright with a sharp intake of breath and screamed out.
"Something’s coming!"
The urgency in her voice jolted everyone awake. The adventurers scrambled to their feet, reaching for weapons and fumbling to fasten armour.
David and Davina stood instantly alert, summoning their weapons without hesitation.
Before they slept the previous night, Wanette had placed runes around the area to detect movement and magic power flow, and those runes had just been triggered.
If whatever was coming was hostile—which was very likely—they couldn’t fight it in this cave so everyone rushed out of the cave, weapons at the ready.
When they emerged into the dawn light, the sight that greeted them froze the breath in their lungs.
Arrayed before them was a gathering of ice elves. The usual group of warriors, archers and mages.
The ones behind that group, however, were the real problem.
Six elves, sitting astride the shrunken forms of the wolves that had chased them the previous day.
And then, seated upon the shrunken uninjured alpha, was an Ice elf who radiated the dignity of the strong.
Merely glancing at him was enough to know he was a higher breed of elf.
Compared to the others, he was massive, with long frost-white hair and longer ears. The air around him shimmered with his unrestrained magic power, his presence, dwarfing even the other mounted elves near him.
As Wanette’s gaze locked onto him, she shuddered. Her appraisal skill couldn’t tell his level!
The other six were the same. She couldn’t appraise them for some reason.
Wanette mentally categorized them as elite ice elves, a clear step above the others who clustered before them.
The group stood frozen, weapons clenched but unmoving due to fear.
David and Davina silently glanced up at Jamie, who was perched on a tree branch, leaning on the trunk with his legs crossed.
The faint sound of a shoujo drama dialogue was audible from his phone, and he didn’t even glance up until the ice elves entered his peripheral vision.
Jamie lowered his phone slightly, giving the scene a once-over. His eyes lingered on the mounted elves and their massive leader for half a second before flicking back to his phone.
’Those ones would be a problem.’
Not for him, but for David, Davina and Wanette. He could easily see through their strength, after all.
’But I guess, fighting stronger opponents is a way to improve. It’d force them to think fast, sharpen their instincts, and push them to their limits.
If it seems like they’re about to die, I’d swoop in.’
With those thoughts, he adjusted his position slightly and refocused on his drama, his demeanour suggesting the entire encounter was little more than background activity.
The adventurers gaped at him, a mixture of disbelief and irritation simmering just beneath their fear of the ice elves.
Even Wanette, usually calm, found herself glancing between Jamie and the elves, her mind racing for some way to diffuse or survive whatever was about to unfold.
’For starters...’
With that short thought crossing her mind, she took a step forward and raised her hands up.
"Wait! We—"
Her words were cut short by a harsh laugh from the presumed elf leader. He barked something in a language they could not understand, his words carrying a tone of derision.
The elf gestured towards the group and the normal elves charged forward, accompanied by the smaller wolves.
However, the moment they crossed a certain threshold, the runes on the back of Wanette’s palm flashed and the snow beneath their feet betrayed them.
As it turned out, Wanette raising her hands earlier was simply so she could activate the trap runes she laid beforehand. She only spoke so it’d sound like she wanted to surrender and not be suspicious for just randomly raising her hand.
The hidden traps she had created by draining out the magic power in over a dozen pages of her grimoire erupted, spewing blasts of explosive flames that ripped through the front lines.
Davina’s lightning and David’s blood flames erupted as well, mixing in a massive explosion that obliterated several elves instantly, while their comrades were thrown back, some limping or crawling away, grievously injured.
The twins seized the moment, with David hurling his flaming spear to skewer one elf, before detonating its flames to engulf the others, while Davina jumped into the fray with Fulgora, the weapon’s lightning strikes rending flesh and bone with the weight of falling mountains.
The other adventurers rallied, unleashing a barrage of spells and weapons. Fireballs, arrows, and enchanted blasts lit up the battlefield, striking down the advancing ice elves.
As for Jamie, only a portion of his mind tracked the battle while the majority of his consciousness remained absorbed in his drama.
The elf leader, noticing Jamie’s lack of engagement, narrowed his eyes. With a command, two of the elite elves dismounted and charged towards Jamie at supersonic speed.
"You couldn’t just let me enjoy my show, could you?"
"??!!"
Jamie’s voice reached their ears a second after they stabbed where he was with their swords, their eyes widening as their blades phased through him like he wasn’t even there.
His body then flickered out of existence, leaving no trace behind and the elite elves scanned the area in confusion, their expressions darkening as they realized their quarry had slipped through their grasp.
Down on the ground, the other three of the other elite elves dismounted and charged towards David, Davina and Wanette, ignoring the rest of the adventurers.
Meanwhile, the other normal warrior and mage elves held their ground, keeping the remaining adventurers busy with relentless attacks, preventing them from aiding the trio.
Fire and frost clashed, swords and spears rang out, but none of the chaos distracted the elite elves from their prey. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎
David gritted his teeth, his spear spinning in defensive arcs as he clashed with one of the elites. Each strike he blocked made his bones tremble, and what pissed him off more was the fact that the elf was laughing as she attacked.
’They’re toying with us.’
That thought crossed David’s mind as he dodged a strike that could have severed his arm had it been faster.
Davina noticed this as well, and her expression darkened. She threw wide attacks, acting like she was enraged at being looked down was, but her mind could not be any calmer.
The trio were descendants of Race Rulers, so it was only natural they had powerful life-saving artifacts on their person. But they knew better than to use them carelessly.
If their enemies suspected even for a moment that the artifacts existed, the game would change. For now, they would endure, waiting for the perfect moment to strike back.
◇ ◇ ◇
Meanwhile, the elite elf duo who went after Jamie returned to their leader, speaking in their tongue.
"The strange one is gone."
The leader’s expression darkened as his gaze scanned the battlefield, briefly lingering on the tree where Jamie had once perched.
"That one is troublesome. He noticed our ambush the first time. Still, it doesn’t matter. Focus on the targets—eliminate them and any witnesses. He’ll have to come out eventually. We’ll deal with him then."
The elf leader gave his orders and they nodded, mounting their wolves once more.
Unbeknownst to them, Jamie was neither gone nor unaware.
The man had simply distorted space to hide his existence and was actually perched on a tree not too far from the elf leader’s position.
Given there was hardly a language out there Jamie hadn’t learned in his billion years, it wasn’t a problem for him to understand the words of the elf leader that he overheard with his superior hearing.
"Targets? Witnesses?"
