Chapter 279: Jilannis Galanord

"Pledge allegiance to some human commoner who popped out of nowhere? That’s not the style of your Von Richthofen Clan."

The Elf’s tone was still dismissive of Ron. She glanced over the others’ equipment and weapons, "Flaming Hand Armor, a Kite Shield, and even the Pride of Hailan."

"And you plan to use *these* things against me?"

Layers of afterimages appeared around the Elf. The flow of time around her seemed to speed up, and even their combined assault couldn’t touch her. They could only watch as the Elf strolled leisurely through their attacks, sizing up each of them one by one.

"You talk too much, slaver!"

Unable to bear it any longer, Silvia transformed the Walking Stick in her hand back to its true scepter form and slammed it into the ground. A ripple spread out from the Vampire Descendant, and within its domain, all living things were plunged into Silence. Neither Sera’s war cry nor the Elf’s chanting could be heard by any being.

’Silence Technique, good idea.’

Ron gave Silvia a thumbs-up. But when he turned back, he saw the Elf mouthing the same words. ’A lone Caster is actually praising an opponent for stopping her Casting?!’

But Ron had no time to dwell on it. Aive was already charging forward with her tower shield, and the others had also given up on Casting, trying instead to take down the Elf with physical attacks.

The Elf leaped lightly, kicking off the tower shield to spring backward. Before everyone’s eyes, in that brief moment, the lion head on her right shoulder suddenly opened its mouth. A moment later, a soul-shaking lion’s roar exploded in everyone’s minds without warning!

"How is that possible—"

Silvia crouched on the ground, clutching her head in pain. As she was focusing all her energy on maintaining the Silence Technique, she had taken the brunt of the impact, nearly losing her hearing!

"Nothing is impossible. As a Mage, one must naturally prepare for such situations," the Elf said calmly. Her own chanting was completely unaffected—the lion head seemed to have come to life, Casting one spell after another in her stead!

"That’s her Spellbook!" Ron seethed, ’You have a replacement and you still stole mine?!’ "We have to get that armor off her!"

"Well said. But can you do it?"

The Elf seemed to have Ron’s team completely figured out. So far, the strongest spell she had used was Otherworld Oath Binding, yet she was handling them all with ease. When Ron took out his Gemstones, she had simply stripped his ownership of the Magic Items, and they returned directly to her side.

If she didn’t seem intent on wiping them out, they would probably have had to retreat by now.

But Ron’s group still had one advantage: although the Elf was wearing a Spellbook disguised as armor, she showed no intention of engaging in close combat. As she dodged and weaved, the barbarian finally found an opening. The Grip of the Vast Wave, roaring with the fury of its two previous owners, slammed into the Elf’s Mithril Armor. It carved a dent into the armor and sent the Elf flying.

"Is she down?" The Shadow Spirit retracted her Thorn Chain and pulled herself out of Sera’s shadow, walking toward the spot where the Elf had been knocked away.

She didn’t let her guard down, but when the whisper of a blade sliced horizontally toward the back of her head, Yelena, for all her skill as a Shadow Dancer, still couldn’t react in time.

"Watch out!" A hand shot out from the shadows as the Shapeshifting Martial Monk gave the Shadow Spirit a hard shove, saving her from being decapitated. "Dammit, when did she get here?!"

"It seems you’re all quite fond of close-quarters combat." The Elf, holding a blade forged entirely from Arcane Energy, stepped out from the Ethereal Plane behind Yelena and calmly regarded everyone present. "No matter. Having lived so long, I’ve picked up a thing or two about fighting hand-to-hand."

As she spoke, the Elf waved a hand, repairing the armor on her right arm. As she charged toward Sera again, her blade began to crackle with brilliant electricity!

"Electric Claw! No wonder you were protecting that guy!" Ron understood everything in an instant. "He was one of your test subjects!"

"*Caster and Warrior: Feasibility Analysis of the Mage Warrior System Training*! Elden mentioned you!"

"Ah, you’ve read my work? I suppose you’re not a completely lost cause, then."

"But don’t make it sound so unpleasant, human," the former Chief Grand Mage of the Hailan Empire said, displaying an astonishingly high level of skill in Swordsmanship. "He was one of my volunteers. I couldn’t just stand by and watch you interfere with my experiment."

"A pity he still died. But it matters little," Jilannis said. With an elegant and magnificent spin, she swept behind Sera, leaving a crippling wound on her opponent’s leg. She looked at Ron. "Compared to that stupid Half-Beastman, I find you a much better test subject."

"Putting theory aside and looking only at practical results, you’ve already come as far as I have. Interested in taking the next step down this path?"

"So that’s why you haven’t been trying to kill us?"

"Partially," Jilannis said. A casual swing of her sword forced at least three people around her to immediately focus and assume defensive stances. "I was severely injured when the Hailan Empire fell. I couldn’t use my full strength even if I wanted to."

"Aren’t you afraid we’ll unite to hunt you down again?" Quest’s expression was grim. "We defeated you once, and we can do it again!"

"Can you?" the Grand Mage retorted. "With this fractured City-State Alliance?"

"I escaped unscathed back then, and I can certainly do so again now. Do you want me to continue lying low in Carolina? Or are you prepared to have that ridiculous Alliance face my revenge?"

"For the past hundred years or so, I’ve had no intention of striking back, nor do I plan to revive Hailan. But I don’t mind starting to plan for it in the next hundred."

"Why did you come to Carolina and become its Lord?" Ron frowned. "If you have no intention of reviving the Hailan Empire, then why specifically Carolina, a slave-owning city-state?"

"You must be plotting something!" Aive snorted.

"Little girl, your human blood has tainted you, making you irritable and short-sighted," Jilannis glanced at Aive, her face devoid of expression. "The only reason I came here is that its citizens, with my incitement, would willingly give me a large sum for my research fund."

"As for the previous Lord I overthrew, he was a tight-fisted miser who actually planned to cut my future funding by seven percent."

"So he was thrown out, and I took his place myself, in order to further increase the research expenditures allocated to me."