"What the hell is this!" Ellie screamed in fright. The sheer number of them was simply too much... and they were all crawling all over her. Although the forest sprites looked like those cute, tiny humanoid creatures with butterfly or dragonfly wings from DiXney cartoons—creatures that looked very endearing—they were terrifying once they gathered in such large numbers!
Tiderisha looked completely bewildered; she had never seen anyone summon so many forest sprites at once. As for Tido... he was in a very uncomfortable state, but after seeing so many forest sprites, he didn't seem too surprised and instead spoke with great difficulty.
"Lady Clementine... the sprites were attracted by your magic. Please... please stop emitting magic outward."
"I... is that so! Turn it off, turn it off!" Ellie only then realized she was still maintaining her magic emission and quickly deactivated it. However, those forest sprites still refused to leave, and many of the little sprites remained clinging tightly to Ellie.
"Ugh... in that case! Aura of Despair! Level One! Activate!!" Ellie couldn't care about maintaining her disguise anymore! She directly activated Aura of Despair, which finally frightened the forest sprites away. The forest sprites, which had almost buried Ellie, all hid their figures once again.
Naturally... Tido and Tiderisha were also affected by the Aura of Despair. Tiderisha sat directly on the ground, clutching her body with both hands... Tido's complexion was even worse, and he kept dry-heaving... How rude!
"That was truly terrible..." Ellie was indeed frightened this time. She had only wanted to summon a few forest sprites to see if she could communicate with them and have them do some tasks for her; she hadn't expected so many to appear at once.
It's better not to use it; it was truly too frightening. The situation just now was like poking a hornet's nest.
She didn't want to have such a terrifying experience a second time; it felt exactly like entering Kyouhukou's room. Seriously! Ellie thought to herself while putting the ring she had just taken off back on.
"Tido, are you okay?" Ellie ignored Tiderisha, who was still sitting on the ground, and instead checked on Tido first.
"I... I'm fine. Could you let me rest for a moment, Lady Clementine?" Tido's complexion wasn't as bad as before. Was he sick?
"Then let's rest for a while! I didn't expect there to be so many forest sprites nearby! It's really scary. Do you usually deal with so many forest sprites?" Speaking of this, Ellie was quite impressed by those Spirit Users; how could they endure the state of having so many little sprites crawling all over them?
"No, usually the number of forest sprites I can summon is only three or four." Tido said with a pained expression.
"I can summon about five." Tiderisha, still sitting on the ground, interjected. Judging by her current state, she didn't look much better than Tido.
"Uh... then what is going on here?" Ellie was bewildered. This didn't make sense, right?
"Lady Clementine, your magic is too abnormal... Although the total amount is very low, the intensity of the magic emitted is terrifying, which is why it attracted all the forest sprites in the vicinity." Tido provided an explanation.
Why can you guys only summon a few, while I can summon a whole swarm? Does this mean I'm too powerful?
Uh... sometimes being too powerful is a burden. Although this could be considered a backhanded compliment to herself, Ellie couldn't be happy at all. Instead, she thought of that king in the fable—the king who turned everything he touched into gold. Could this be considered one of the manifestations of how lonely it is to be invincible?
"Lady Clementine, are you alright?" After a long while, Tido asked, watching Ellie, who seemed to be troubled by something.
"Me? I'm fine, nothing is wrong... I just think it's a pity that I won't be able to communicate properly with the forest sprites!" Ellie was telling the truth; with so many of them... she couldn't even escape them in time, let alone communicate with them. How could she ask for their help?
"You're fine... after emitting magic of that intensity?" Tido's complexion was worse than before. Tido understood... how terrifying the intensity of the magic emitted by Lady Clementine was after she took off the ring. However, Lady Clementine's total magic capacity couldn't possibly support such powerful magic, yet she seemed completely fine now, showing no signs of fatigue from MP depletion. Just how terrifying was this person?
"Hmm? That level just now wasn't really anything, right? It was still within an acceptable range." Ellie replied without caring at all. At this moment, Ellie was still feeling lingering fear from what had just happened, but giving up directly felt too regrettable, so she was considering how to suppress her magic emission.
"May I ask a rude question? How long can you maintain that state?" Tido continued to pry; it was very possible... that the princess before him could truly help the Elf Kingdom.
"A day or two shouldn't be a problem, right? Probably! I haven't tried it, so I can only estimate." Ellie replied.
"..." Tido couldn't even speak. This was already beyond the scope of what a normal magic caster could achieve.
Could it be... that the fable passed down among the elves since ancient times was about to come true? Tido remembered the past... the fable that Tiderisha's grandfather, who was also his own grandfather, had told him.
Watching Clementine before him, who was still bowing her head in thought, Tido struggled to take steps with his weak legs, walked over to Tiderisha, and whispered a sentence to her in Ancient Elvish.
"The one standing before us is either a god, or... a Demon King."
"What are you two saying?" Ellie naturally noticed such obvious words. Was there something they couldn't say directly in front of her? Did they have to use some alien language she couldn't understand? Were they secretly exchanging some important information?
Just at that moment, Ellie heard two sharp sounds of wind being broken; it was clearly aimed at her! Arrows? Fly-Arrow Defense—no, it was too late!
Clang, clang... Tiderisha and Tido saw two specially crafted arrows being blocked by Ellie; she had blocked them with her bare hands. This action once again left Tiderisha and Tido astonished.
However, it wasn't with her bare hands; she had subconsciously used Justice Descends to armor her wrists and block the two arrows shot at her, then immediately deactivated it.
In a situation where the enemy is unknown, one should try to hide their trump cards. Having said that, these elf archers were actually quite formidable; if she hadn't used Champion Armor to defend, she definitely would have taken an arrow.
Although taking one arrow would automatically trigger her protective accessory to directly resist the next arrow, the damage from the first arrow would have to be taken regardless, so she had no choice but to block it head-on.
Furthermore, even after using the Champion Armor, the impact force on her arms from blocking the arrows left Ellie quite surprised. If it had been a normal human, their arm would have already been numbed by the shock, right?
Where were they shot from? To be able to attack her accurately in such a dense and fog-filled forest, it seemed the elf archers were truly formidable.
After all, it was considered a classic job in RPG games, and they had even managed to conceal their own presence. With her detection fully active, she couldn't sense anything at all. Was this the strength of the guerrilla unit that Tido had been warning about? She was beginning to understand why the Slane Theocracy had been able to fight against the Elf Kingdom for so long.
Her own detection ability was directly taught by Aura, and even she couldn't sense those elves who were attacking; how were those elves attacking her?
One had to know that in this mist, everyone was on equal footing. Even those elves who were familiar with this forest couldn't possibly see her position accurately in the mist, right?
However, what about those two arrows shot at her just now? Did the opponent also have a Spirit User? No... putting aside the fact that Spirit User was a rare job, even if they had a Spirit User, she had activated Aura of Despair earlier, and the nearby forest sprites should have all been frightened away by her. So, what method were they using to accurately determine her position?
Ellie was considering countermeasures while staying alert. However, during this period of alertness, the people attacking her stopped their attacks completely. Apart from the two arrows at the beginning, there was no follow-up. Oh ho! So that was it...
"You two, be careful." Ellie understood their attack method and intentionally said this to Tiderisha and Tido behind her.
The words had barely left her lips when Ellie caught a few more sharp sounds of wind being broken—they were coming! However, this time, those arrows didn't touch Ellie. Upon approaching Ellie, they were as if fixed in mid-air by something, and they all fell to the ground at once. With Fly-Arrow Defense activated, the archers' hidden arrows had absolutely no effect on her.
As expected, were they judging her position through sound? Those elves' long ears certainly weren't for show; they had quite acute hearing. However, at the same time they attacked her, they also exposed their approximate positions to her.
Although they would certainly move positions after attacking to avoid counterattacks, how fast could they move? Could they escape outside the range of Explosion magic?
"Wide-Area Annihilation Magic! Explo... Uh... Tido, if I use a large-scale attack magic here, will it drag the nearby forest sprites into it?" Just as Ellie was about to cast Explosion magic, she suddenly remembered this point. The nearby forest sprites had indeed been frightened away by her, but the attack range of the Explosion magic she intended to use was huge. If she hurt those forest sprites, it would be a bit unjustifiable.
Tido didn't reply, but simply nodded. It seemed Tido also knew the attack pattern of those elf guerrilla units; as long as they didn't make a sound and didn't have the assistance of forest sprites, they couldn't attack easily, right!
However, with the prerequisite of not harming those innocent forest sprites, her Explosion magic was sealed. Besides, if she used it in a place like this, it would cause panic in the Elf Kingdom, right?
Didn't Tido say the Royal Capital was nearby?
Uh... how should she deal with those guerrilla members? Now she didn't even know how many of them there were; it was truly a bit tricky...
Of course, the part that Ellie felt was tricky was simply that she couldn't deal with them. Now that Ellie had the ability to resist arrows, she could brazenly ignore them and leave directly, but wouldn't that be no different from running away?
Wouldn't running away be equivalent to admitting defeat? One must know... Ainz Ooal Gown has never been defeated, and neither has Elizabeth Ooal Gown!
Yes! She had a way! Ellie, putting her brain to work, thought of a method. Since they were using ordinary arrows, she could use this move to deal with them. Aura of Frost... Activate, Ice Blade Generation!
Thus, Ellie generated two ice swords on her hands that were identical to the greatswords used by the Dark Warrior Momon, played by Papa Ainz.
"Come on! You bunch of rats who only know how to ambush people!" Ellie shouted aloud without hesitation.
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