Chapter 92: The Real Threat

Neo drove his fist through another attacker’s chest, the man collapsing lifelessly onto the frost-covered ground, and for the first time since the fight had started, a thread of genuine confusion began weaving through the back of his mind.

’Something is seriously wrong here. This doesn’t add up.’

He sidestepped a wild, panicked swing, countering with a quick slash across his attacker’s throat, barely even registering the kill as he processed the thought further.

These men were skilled, certainly, trained soldiers rather than the desperate, poorly equipped guards he’d faced at the fortress months ago. But skilled wasn’t the same as overwhelming, and the numbers in front of him, while dangerous, simply didn’t line up with what Senya had described.

’A village burning completely to the ground? Mass casualties, total destruction? This group is strong, but not nearly strong enough to wipe out an entire settlement by themselves. Not even with their numbers.’

He pulled back from another exchange, putting a few feet of distance between himself and the scattered remnants of the column, his mind racing even as his hands remained steady, ready for the next attack.

’And even accounting for how much the elves have weakened over the generations, there are still strong hunters among them. People who have mastered the bow, the spear, and even basic enchantment work. A force this size shouldn’t be able to just roll over an entire settlement without facing serious resistance.’

The pieces refused to fit together cleanly, and that uneasy feeling in his gut only grew sharper the longer he turned it over.

He didn’t get much more time to dwell on it.

*BOOOOOM!*

A massive, thunderous blast tore through the night air from somewhere deep within the settlement, the sound rolling outward like a physical wave, strong enough that Neo felt the ground itself tremble faintly beneath his boots.

He spun around instantly, eyes snapping toward the source.

Thick, dark smoke was already rising above the rooftops near the settlement’s far side, illuminated faintly orange from below by flames he couldn’t yet see directly.

’That’s not from this fight. That’s coming from somewhere else entirely.’

Neo stared at the rising smoke for a long, frozen second, his mind scrambling to process it.

’Who the hell is that?’

...

On the far side of the settlement, chaos had already descended in full.

Diana coughed violently, stumbling backward through a thick haze of smoke and dust, one hand pressed against a shallow gash along her temple, blood trickling down the side of her face. Around her, villagers scattered in every direction, screaming, dragging children and elders away from the collapsed remains of what had been, only minutes earlier, the settlement’s eastern storehouse.

She forced herself upright, squinting through the smoke, trying to make sense of what had just happened.

A dark shape emerged from the haze.

Then another. And another.

Figures stepped through the drifting smoke, their skin dark as midnight, almost swallowing the dim firelight entirely, their ears tapering into sharp, familiar points. Their eyes glowed faintly, a cold, unnatural dark cutting through the smoke like twin embers.

Diana’s blood ran cold instantly.

’Dark elves.’

She had heard the stories, of course. Every child raised in Veldra grew up hearing the old warnings about the corrupted cousins of their race, twisted by greed and betrayal into something cruel and merciless.

But stories were one thing. Seeing them with her own eyes, actually standing there as they emerged from the smoke in overwhelming numbers, was something else entirely.

They weren’t just a small raiding party either.

Behind the first wave, more kept emerging, dozens, then hundreds, pouring steadily through the gap torn open by the explosion, their weapons already dripping with blood from the first villagers unfortunate enough to stand in their path.

"Run!" Diana screamed, pushing herself fully upright despite the dizziness still swimming behind her eyes. "Everyone, get back, get to the shelters, now!"

Her warning came too late for some.

A group of villagers trying to flee through the nearest alley were cut down in seconds, the dark elves moving with brutal, practiced efficiency, their blades flashing in quick, merciless arcs. There was no hesitation in their movements, no mercy, and no attempt to capture or subdue anyone. They simply killed, methodically and without pause, as though erasing every last trace of the settlement’s existence was the only goal that mattered.

Diana’s stomach twisted violently at the sight.

She scanned the chaos rapidly, trying to gauge the true scale of what they were facing. Dozens of dark elves had already breached the perimeter, more pouring in by the second, their collective strength radiating outward in waves even she, with her comparatively modest abilities, could feel pressing down against her skin.

’Some of them feel Expert rank. A few even higher than that. Master rank, maybe more.’

A thousand-strong army, she realized with dawning, horrified clarity. Not a hundred poorly organized slavers testing their luck against a weakened settlement. An actual army, built specifically to annihilate.

A young hunter nearby raised his bow, loosing an arrow toward the nearest attacker with desperate precision. The dark elf simply tilted his head, the arrow skittering harmlessly off reinforced black armor, before closing the distance in a single, terrifyingly fast stride and cutting the hunter down without breaking stride.

Diana forced herself to move, grabbing the nearest group of fleeing villagers and shoving them bodily toward the narrow path leading to the shelter caves.

"Move! Don’t stop, don’t look back, just run!"

She spared one last, desperate glance back toward the wall where she knew Neo had gone to hold off the first wave of attackers, her chest tightening painfully.

’He thinks he’s facing the main threat out there. He has no idea what’s actually happening back here.’

Another explosion rocked the settlement, closer this time, sending a fresh wave of screams echoing through the smoke-choked streets. Diana gritted her teeth, forcing her legs to keep moving despite the fear threatening to paralyze her entirely.

’Spirits help us. Help him. Because right now, I don’t think any of us are walking away from this unless something changes fast.’