Salent was knocked out of the bushes with a single punch from Joe, rolling twice over the ground and crashing into a tree behind him before stopping. Even so, he fell to the ground with his eyes closed and mouth wide open, groaning in pain.
The other wood elves were at once stunned. The second greatest devotee of the wood elves was the Goddess of the Forest, Pecorne.
Pecorne, the Goddess of the Forest, seemed to favor the wood elves as well, which was why the wood elves were blessed to a certain extent at birth. They were born to be loved by the forest, and were the unique masters of the forest.
There were many aspects of the blessing that differed from individual wood elves, but the most common was an affinity with the forest. Like the Emerald Heart that the Junglewalker Players had, the wood elves could blend their presence into the forest to the greatest extent possible and remain undetected by their enemies.
That was precisely why they were the most feared hunters in the forest.
Just like when they surrounded the slave hunters just now, they were all wiped out by the wood elves who had snuck into their vicinity before they realized what was happening — and that was with the wood elves not using much magic to prevent too much damage to the forest environment!
And it was the same now. The wood elves intended to rely on their stealth to get rid of the human whelps that appeared to be nothing special — to them, humans were essentially no different from the gorillas of the forest, and they wouldn't feel any psychological burden killing the young humans when they were enemies.
But now, they had underestimated Edward's party. Not only did their volley of arrows have little effect, they even managed to send the experienced wood elf Salent flying even after they withstood the volley!
Be that as it may, the wood elves remained calm. They believed that Salent had underestimated the human whelps and failed to conceal himself, which was why he was discovered and caught unprepared, which was why he was sent flying with a single punch.
In fact, some of the veteran wood elves were using that to educate the younger wood elves who were fighting the human slave-hunters for the first time not to be careless, and to maintain their connection to the forest at all times to hide themselves perfectly.
Then, Joe found a few more wood elves and punched them away from their hiding place.
Even if the wood elves thought that they were hiding well … well, they were, and Joe would never find them if he searched by sight, hearing or even scent alone. The problem, however, was that all of them had a huge yellow name over their heads. Even if they perfectly blended into a shrub, they would become a shrub with words like 'Wood Elf A' floating over it.
It was like an ostrich hiding its head in the ground while its butt was perfectly exposed. It was extremely conspicuous.
And it wasn't just Joe — Edward had hit a few butts as well … umm, I mean the wood elves.
Although they didn't deal any fatal damage to their opponents, they were almost all at the point where they would not be able to recover for a short period of time.
All Jessica did was cast a barrier over them, while Eleena kept munching on her lollipop. However, her eyes kept glancing at the levels above the elves' heads, before finally landing on the highest-level wood elf. There was a strange glint in her eyes, though there was no telling what she was thinking.
Meanwhile, Joe and Edward were wandering through the forest, blowing up one wood elf after another.
That was when the wood elves who had lost almost a third of their numbers finally realized that something wasn't right … they would all die here if they kept playing hide and seek.
Hence, at the command of the highest-level wood elf, the other wood elves finally gave up on hiding and shooting arrows, and began to fight Edward and the others head-on.
With that, Edward and Joe who had been having an easy time were caught in a bitter fight.
Although they were slightly stronger than the average adult Elves, they could still finish off an adult Elf in a short period of time with a surprise attack. Even if it was a one-on-one battle, they wouldn't be afraid of the Elves.
The problem was that the wood elves did not have any knightly spirit, and their ability to fight at full power after giving up on hiding was far beyond what they were a moment ago. Surrounded by the elves, Edward and the others felt as if they were caught in the middle of a pack of powerful wolves, and soon became riddled with wounds as they struggled. If not for Jessica's constant healing, they might have died and returned to the town.
At the same time, Jessica's rapid healing had clearly caught the wood elves' attention. The highest-leveled wood elf promptly abandoned his encirclement on Edward and Joe who could die at any moment, and turned to attack Jessica instead.
The highest-leveled wood elf was clearly experienced and practiced in combat. His mixed use of spells and arrows had interrupted Jessica's spell-casting more than once, and in just half a minute, Jessica, who was the weakest in the party, was in danger.
And yet, that was when Eleena, who had been standing still all this while, finally found her enemy's opening. She leapt up abruptly, holy golden radiance flickering behind her. In the next split second, it flowed into her hand like flowing water, gathering, solidifying and manifesting into a colossal luminous spear!
It was not the Spear of Victory that Clerics could learn at Level 15 or Saintess-in-training at Level 1. Rather, it was a new skill that Eleena only learned after reaching Level 40 with the Spear of Victory as a prerequisite skill.
The skill itself dealt 0 damage, and would deal damage based on the target's hostility towards the Player/God of Games. However, when the maximum damage exceeded the target's HP, the target would be left with around 1% HP, and the target would be bound. The strength of the binding would still be determined based on the target's hostility towards the Player/God of Games, and the stronger the hostility, the stronger the binding power of the Chains of Penance.
Naturally, the binding was a derivative power of the Game Rules, which was why it was resisted by divinity and Rule resistance.
Still, the elf clearly did not have divinity or Rule resistance, and Eleena's radiance pierced its body directly, before binding it firmly with the luminous chains behind the luminous spear.
— If Aslan, the Lion of Justice was here, he would probably think 'Why the hell does this binding look so familiar' …
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Chapter 188
Chains of Penance
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