Liam gazed at the ice elf indifferently. The frigid aura that made the dark elves tense up did not bother him at all. There were two paths ahead of him and the elf just chose the second one.
And the fact that the ice elf already knew he was a necromancer made things all the more interesting.
"Come. You will become my first stepping stone."
The next instant, the fifty soul blood beasts appeared on the battlefield. Before the ice elves or the dark elves could blink, the sole human being who was 'trapped' in the midst of them suddenly became an army, an army that they couldn't ignore.
Each and every single one of the soul blood beasts was level 500 and above. Fifty of them together at the same time was not something one could handle easily.
They charged in a frenzy in all directions and attacked both the group of elves rabidly.
However, what Liam doubted was indeed correct. The ice elves were quick to react. As soon as the soul blood beasts were summoned they were utterly shocked but they were also quick to recover from that shock.
It looked like they immediately called for backup.
Just as the battleground became chaotic, a shimmering rift of icy light materialized behind the group of ice elves, and from it emerged a squadron of additional warriors, each mounted on similar white tigers with silver horns. They were led by another elf who wore a crown of ice crystals, her eyes a penetrating glacial blue. The newly arrived elf, presumably a royal figure given her aura and garb, glanced at the leader, and then at Liam.
"Interesting," she murmured, "a human necromancer with quite the summoned army. It looks like we have run into the human who is rumored to have caused the downfall of the Stormshroud Empire."
"And do you know…" The princess muttered with a vicious grin. "There is another rumor that he has managed to steal invaluable treasures from the system shop in the Stormshroud Empire."
"Let's go. We have to kill him at all costs."
Seeing that Liam was running away after leaving the soul blood beasts to deal with the two elven units, the three ice elves immediately followed behind to chase after him.
"Rastakhan and Valthorn." The princess commanded, looking to her left and right. She signaled for the two of them to come at Liam from the sides so that the three of them could corner him from multiple directions.
"This is the forbidden forest. It is easy to lose sight of the target here. Let's -" Unexpectedly, the princess stopped talking midway and stared straight ahead. The target was standing right in front of her.
Both Rastakhan and Valthorn noticed this and stopped in their tracks. They looked at the human being but this time he was different. The human they had seen earlier only had a simple robe donned and looked like a traveler. But the one standing in front of them at the moment was decked from top to bottom in items.
Liam stood still as swirls of nether started gathering around him. If one observed closely then one could see that this swirl of nether was coming from his earrings. A big black blob on each ear.
A cold smile spread across Liam's lips as he gazed at the three elves who had him cornered. The swirls of nether energy emanating from his earrings intensified, filling the air with a palpable tension.
"Stole from the system shop, did I? Well, some rumors do hold a grain of truth," Liam mused, his voice tinged with mockery.
The princess looked visibly unsettled for the first time, eyeing the ominous earrings cautiously. "Those artifacts...they're not from our world, are they?"
"Very perceptive," Liam said, snapping his fingers. These were the first items he crafted right after secluding himself in these forests for the past month. Mana to nether converting ear beads - Nether Dots. They converted the abundant mana in the air into nether. In a mana-rich area such as the Forbidden Forest, Liam thought that this was an absolute must.
Under his command, the nether swirls coalesced into dark tendrils that surged forth, aiming for the elves. No matter how they dodged, the tendrils were relentless.
A chilling frost aura erupted from the three ice elves as they counteracted with icy barriers in an attempt to neutralize the oncoming attack.
Rastakhan and Valthorn unsheathed their swords, which glinted with ethereal icy light and took defensive stances. Meanwhile, the princess raised her hand, and a shimmering staff materialized, its tip crowned with an ice crystal that radiated frigid energy.
Liam smiled. Though the earrings converted mana to nether, their efficiency was only so much and Liam already achieved what he wanted. The usefulness of these nether dots was not too bad in the battle. However, they could be improved further. He made a mental note of that as he prepared his next move calmly. The princess frowned. She could tell that she would not leave her alive if she underestimated this human being in front of her. Before Liam could make any move, she struck her staff on the ground, this time chanting in an unknown tongue. A vortex of icy wind swirled around them, slowing down the tendrils of nether energy, making them sluggish and easier to evade. "Your dark magic may be formidable, but it's not unbeatable," she declared, and the next instant her aura burst forth.
Immediately, abundant frost energy radiated from her covering the entire area in a shroud of biting cold. The temperature plummeted, and even the tendrils of nether energy seemed to freeze in mid-air before dissipating into wisps of dark mist.
Everything around them froze, fractals of ice forming over the trees, the ground, and even the air itself seemed to thicken with the cold. For a moment, the forest was transformed into a winter wonderland, albeit one with a chilling atmosphere of impending doom.
Yet Liam remained unfazed as if the plummeting temperature and the frigid aura had no effect on him. His gaze met the princess's eyes.