Ebony, lying on the ground, was covered with deer hides while two hunters moved their hands, invoking spiritual energies.
{{Spiritual Magic: Healing Dew}}
From the hides, as if they were fertile soil, small sprouts began to emerge and instantly bloomed, those yellow flowers like dandelions began to emit spiritual energy that started healing the girl's body.
When Lucian saw this, he couldn't believe that the same hunters who had ambushed them were now standing there surrounding them to care for Ebony.
"... Thank you for your help," Lucian said politely.
The hunters in front of him who were healing his friend nodded with respect while not neglecting the flow of spiritual energy for even a moment.
Meanwhile, only about ten meters away stood Luther, the dark elf who had threatened to kill them, leaning against the body of the lord of the lake, a black serpent as long and wide as a river.
The serpent, feeling Luther's presence practically touching its body, took the act as a threat, and began to coil violently around the elf, trying to crush him with its massive body.
But Luther tried to leap into the sky to avoid the serpent's body coiling around him, yet in the air before him appeared Kaly once again, the leader of the hunters.
The white-haired woman was using a forbidden spell, she had decided to die right there if necessary just to kill the elf who threatened her people, so instead of striking him she chose to embrace him.
Despite his ability, Luther could not avoid being caught in the woman's arms, she, with her overwhelming strength, began to squeeze, managing to imprison the elf.
"You're insane! If we fall we'll both die, you idiots!" Luther shouted as they both fell toward the ground where a sea of violent scales churned, waiting to crush whatever ended up between them.
"In the end even monsters are afraid of dying… Pathetic… Even my men you killed didn't scream a single syllable when they faced their end head-on," Kaly said as she clung to the elf's body, her voice sounding broken and pained from the effort.
Desperate, Luther tried to use his dark magic to become an intangible mist, a simple but effective spell, but not against her.
Kaly began to emit spiritual energy violently in the form of red lightning, that energy did not allow the spell to be completed in time and the elf was condemned to remain in his physical form.
Thus the two of them fell like a red comet crackling with lightning, and upon impacting the ruler's body it felt the electricity as a blatant attack.
At that moment the black serpent began to move and coil with even greater force, trying to crush its attackers who ended up trapped between its scales.
The hunters watched the scene in silence, they couldn't interfere in that battle of monsters without dying in the attempt, no matter how much they wanted to help their leader.
Lucian, for his part, was trying to decide which way to flee, that had been the original plan, leave the giant serpent dealing with the hunters while he rescued his friend, but now that they had ended up helping them, he no longer knew what to do.
"(Damn it… I'm grateful for their help but… I can't leave them alone now, if that dark elf survives he'll end up killing them… But I can't beat him either, even if I had the giant summoning spell ready it would still be a losing battle…)"
The green-haired elf thought as he tried to decide his fate in this battle, but at that moment Ebony's hand touched his shoulder.
The blonde lying on the ground looked at him with a teasing expression despite her condition and with a faint smile tried to speak in her tired voice.
"You're always so stubborn… Stop pretending to be the bad guy and help them, we both know you don't have the heart to abandon them now… Once I'm healed I'll join in too, for now help that girl."
Hearing his friend's words, Lucian couldn't help but smile slightly in relief as he saw her condition improving.
After a moment he gently returned Ebony's hand to the ground, then stood up and faced the problem head-on, stepping out of the circle protecting them, the green-haired elf began to recite a spell in his native tongue.
Suddenly the serpent began to hiss and roar in pain, and from between its scales the dark elf leapt out.
His clothes were torn as if he had gone through a shredder, he had one broken arm and several cuts all over his body from the serpent's scales, while in his hand he gripped his black sword covered in purple blood, the serpent's blood.
"Damned vermin, how dare you try to kill me!" the black-haired elf shouted in pain as he landed on a tree branch.
At that moment and filled with rage, the dark elf began to recite a spell in a dead language, the language of the damned.
Luther's body began to expel violet magic that started covering him like a poisonous cloud.
{{Dark Magic x Assassin's Art}}
{{Executioner's Sword}}
After pronouncing the final words of his spell, the curved black blade in his grasp began to absorb all the magic around it, until its edge changed color to an intensely glowing violet.
The great serpent sensed the dark magic present and, feeling the danger, decided to hide, beginning to submerge its body into the earth which yielded to it like liquid.
But its body, being so long, took a few moments to fully sink into the ground, time that Luther decided to take advantage of to use his empowered weapon.
With a leap and full intent to take revenge, he tried to stab the serpent, but at that moment roots shot out of the ground at great speed, trapping his leg.
With a sharp yank they prevented the attack from reaching the great serpent and slammed the dark elf's body against the ground.
"Hey, idiot, why don't you fight someone your own size!" Lucian shouted with a determined gaze as he prepared a thick branch he had taken from the ground as if it were a sword at his waist.
"My size? MY SIZE?... You've gotta be kidding me, you stupid bastard, go run off and play with that woman somewhere else, you little shit!" Luther shouted before cutting the roots trapping his leg.
"Ha… Funny, that's the first time someone's called me that… Now I get why it bothers people so much," Lucian said before, with a whistle, summoning his weapon.
{{Forest Magic: Guardian's Sword}}
The tree branch at the green-haired elf's waist transformed into a bright silver sword which he unsheathed, ready for battle.
But at that moment two hunters stepped forward decisively at his side, each wore a wolf skull as a mask and gray wolf pelts as clothing.
They were the only uninjured ones from the group of pelt hunters, they were twin brothers who hadn't even reached adulthood yet, but even in their youthful minds they knew that this was their moment to die or save their people.
So both, armed with a bone dagger in each hand, prepared for battle, beginning to release the magic stored within their pelts.
{{Spiritual Magic: Wolf Hunt}}