Chapter 309: Defending Xerxes Village I

In an instant, the mound of demonic elves that had held Killian was blasted.

"I only targeted the upper half to avoid accidentally injuring him. As for the rest, it’s up to him."

Pandora said in an unhurried tone.

On the other hand, Aurelia’s expression visibly eased up, "Understood. Let’s just catch up as fast as we can."

She knew that Pandora’s words did not mean that she did not care about Killian.

On the contrary, it was proof of their trust in him.

Like Regis, Killian was one of the hardest-working people in their corporation.

Pandora and Aurelia both believed that these demonic elves would not be able to take him down just because he ran out of aura.

The two began making their way towards Killian at their own pace.

Due to neither of them being frontliners, Aurelia took it upon herself to hold the front line, relying on the basic hand-to-hand combat techniques she had trained in.

After all, just because she was a mage who primarily relied on her Gift did not mean she was helpless in close combat.

Pandora was much the same. She held a staff in one hand and a steel sword she had retrieved from her storage pouch in the other.

One must remember that her Gift was the Diamond-grade Perfect Copy.

Thanks to its power, her swordsmanship was an almost perfect replica of both Regis’s and Killian’s.

It primarily reflected Killian’s sharp, precise style, while incorporating traces of Regis’s adaptability and fluid combat instincts.

Ultimately, Regis’s style was too complicated to copy due to his gift, while Killian’s swordsmanship was more solid and complete due to his upbringing.

All in all, even in the absence of a dedicated frontliner, the two women were far from helpless damsels.

Still, due to the overwhelming numbers of demonic elves, the two’s pace was slower since they were conserving their energies in case an opponent like Merriam, whom the village chief Yurva was talking to earlier, appeared.

***

Meanwhile, Killian seemed to have snapped back from her senses.

"Argh!"

He let out a groan as he felt pain all over his body.

Arrows, knife slashes, dagger wounds, and even the feeling of someone biting at his arm.

His groan became louder as he pushed against the ground, forcing himself up.

Grrr—-

The growling demonic elves that looked more like monsters felt the unstoppable force that shook them off.

"Huhp!"

With a final roar, Killian forced himself upright once more.

He briefly looked around him and felt something amiss deep in his heart.

"I’ll think about it later. For now..."

Swoosh—

A dagger cut through the air as it slashed towards his neck.

In an instant, Killian released his broken steel sword and seized the demonic elf’s wrist with his left hand. With a sharp pull, he drew the creature off balance before twisting his body and driving his elbow into its arm.

Crack!

The demonic elf’s arm bent unnaturally.

Without missing a beat, Killian stomped on its knee.

Crack!

Its leg gave way immediately.

As the creature lost its grip on the dagger, Killian caught the falling weapon and drove it straight into its neck.

One must remember that aura users, such as swordsmen, did not rely on aura solely for aura arts.

In fact, that was merely its secondary purpose.

Aura naturally circulated throughout the body much like blood, constantly nourishing muscles, bones, and organs.

With every cycle, the body was strengthened ever so slightly.

Years of cultivation, talent, and the use of aura arts, which accelerated this process, transformed aura users into weapons in their own right, even without actively employing any techniques.

Of course, the degree varied according to one’s specialization.

Pugilists, for example, benefited the most from this passive enhancement due to their reliance on close-quarters combat and direct physical strikes.

As for Killian, although he was primarily a swordsman, his physical strength had long surpassed that of ordinary warriors.

Even deprived of his sword and aura arts, he remained a dangerous combatant.

Nevertheless, the demonic elves were opponents that could never be underestimated.

After all, although elves were generally known as peace-loving beings, with most preferring a quiet life among nature and their own kind, they possessed another talent besides their natural affinity for magic.

They were hunters.

For generations, hunting had been deeply ingrained in their way of life. It was through hunting that they learned patience, tracking, precision, and the art of killing.

As such, elves did not merely excel in magic.

They were equally proficient in archery and close-quarters combat, making them dangerous opponents regardless of the distance between them and their prey.

Killian clicked his tongue at the thought of it, "Tsk, thank goodness none of these demonic elves know how to cast magic..."

Still, this meant the demonic elves were not merely mindless monsters that attacked anything in sight.

They possessed combat experience and technique as well, which drastically elevated the difficulty of the situation.

At this moment, more than twenty demonic elves had already fallen at Killian’s hands.

Their corpses littered the ground around him, while the sickening scent of blood assaulted his senses.

Rubbing his nose, Killian leisurely walked toward a sword lying on the ground.

After picking it up, he performed a few test swings before nodding in satisfaction.

"This’ll have to do for now..."

His gaze then shifted toward the approaching horde of demonic elves, their numbers forming a dark tide advancing in his direction.

Calmly, Killian raised his sword.

This time, there was no lightning crackling around his body, nor was there any visible aura surrounding him.

Yet despite that, he looked more dangerous than ever.

"Back to the basics, huh? Come to think of it, there’s this saying my old man always tells me whenever he scolds me for not training."

He muttered under his breath, a faint smile appearing on his face.

"A swordsman is never more complete than when a sword rests in his hand."

As those words left his lips, the onslaught of demonic elves began once more.

With no aura or lightning circulating around him, Killian looked like nothing more than a lone ordinary human standing before a sea of ferocious enemies.