Chapter 29: Elves: I Was Here First, Clearly
Twenty or thirty arrows shot over fiercely.
Lynn's eyes narrowed slightly.
These arrows, enough to turn a person into a hedgehog, appeared to be moving as slow as snails in the eyes of the Witcher, whose face was reacting to the potion's toxins.
As if he had activated Sandevistan, he moved with incredible reflexes, dodging and weaving through the incoming rain of arrows, nimbly avoiding them all.
After dodging this volley of arrows, he was less than twenty meters away from the forest. He took a deep breath, stomped hard on the ground, and lunged forward at an incredible speed, like a fired crossbow bolt, plunging into the trees in front of him.
The forest was different from the outside. The terrain inside was uneven, and the trees provided cover.
Once inside the forest, the threat of arrows was greatly reduced.
Lynn exhaled a breath of turbid air, rolled behind a large rock, closed his eyes, and then reopened them.
Witcher senses, activate!
The world changed before his eyes.
A large amount of pheromones appeared before him, distinguished by visible colors:
The messy footprints trampled in the forest...
The sweat and body odor from living in the wild for a long time without timely cleaning...
And the subtle air movements caused by breathing...
This was the Witcher senses brought about by the mutations of the Trial of the Grasses.
Witcher senses allowed Witchers to easily identify the traces left by the monsters they were tracking from the scene, and they could also directly "see" the sound of breathing.
When a creature breathed, ripples spread out that could be seen after activating Witcher senses.
These ripples were the sound of breathing.
Ordinary people, of course, couldn't see them.
Only Witchers could see them after activating Witcher senses.
And the place where the ripples appeared represented a creature there.
And different creatures emitted different ripples, so experienced Witchers could also judge what creature they were dealing with in advance by the sound of breathing.
In just a few seconds, Lynn had identified the positions of the enemies hiding in the forest.
He held the steel sword in reverse, lowered his body, and emerged from behind the hiding rock, rushing towards the three enemies closest to him.
Hearing the movement behind him, the elf instinctively turned around and shot an arrow.
He reacted quickly, and although he didn't have time to aim, the arrow he shot in haste still went straight towards the direction of the sound.
From the sound, the elf judged that the opponent was only a few steps away from him.
And at this distance, few people could dodge a flying arrow.
But what followed was not the sound of an arrow piercing a body, but the sound of metal colliding.
A confused expression appeared on the elf's face.
Until he saw the Witcher rushing out of the bushes.
He instinctively reached for an arrow, but Lynn reacted faster.
Just a flash of cold light.
Then he heard his companion's scream.
Slicing through the elf's throat with a sword, Lynn didn't stop, because the corner of his eye caught the remaining three elves in the team who had also spotted him, aiming their bows in his direction.
At this moment, Lynn's brain didn't have a single thought of panic, fear, or hesitation. The combat experience and memory given to him when he learned the Master Wolf School swordsmanship made him instinctively step forward.
With the help of the super reaction brought by the Blizzard potion, he wasted almost no speed, dodging two consecutive arrows with slight evasive movements.
He ignored the other two elves reaching for arrows behind him, and instead lunged straight at the elf in the middle who had drawn his long sword.
Seeing Lynn's figure approaching like a ghost, the elf hurriedly swung his long sword to slash at him, but unfortunately, both his movements and speed were full of flaws in Lynn's eyes.
He easily avoided the elf's long sword and then used the steel sword in his hand to cleave through the opponent's shoulder.
Blood spurted out like a fountain.
Except that the fountain spurted water, while what spurted from the elf's body was blood.
He snatched the long sword from the opponent's hand and quickly threw it to the left.
It was firmly nailed into the chest of another elf who had just nocked an arrow.
The last elf shouted, raised his long sword, and slashed at Lynn's back.
But this sword missed.
The violently vibrating Witcher medallion reminded Lynn.
He didn't need to look with his eyes to feel the malice from behind.
So he jumped aside without hesitation.
While dodging the slashed long sword, he also used the steel sword in his hand to cut through the elf's throat.
The latter's eyes widened.
He fell straight down.
His hands desperately tried to cover his throat.
But it was all in vain.
Blood kept seeping out from between his fingers.
Finally, he slowly stopped struggling.
He choked to death on the blood flowing from his throat.
Killing four people in a row, Lynn didn't stay in place.
He could feel a warm current surging into his body.
But he didn't have time to check the attribute panel.
There weren't just these enemies in this forest.
Through the breathing sounds "seen" by Witcher senses, Lynn could tell that this group of Scoia'tael—well, they called themselves "Children of Freedom" now—were scattered throughout the forest in small teams.
There were even two teams, just as he had worried, moving towards the north side of the forest, obviously trying to sneak around behind the caravan.
Therefore, he had to act more actively on his side.
Fortunately, these Children of Freedom chose this forest as the battlefield, which was not only advantageous to them but also to Lynn.
Honestly, if this were a plain instead of a forest, he wouldn't dare to rush in so rashly.
But now, with the cover of the trees, not only was the threat of arrows greatly reduced, but the enemies' line of sight was also blocked.
On the contrary, he could see through the enemies' positions with his Witcher senses, giving him the advantage of striking first.
He wasn't afraid of forcing these Children of Freedom into a corner, and having them all come to encircle him.
Don't forget, he wasn't fighting alone.
Istrad's men were still exchanging fire with these Children of Freedom outside the forest.
If they found that the arrows coming from the opposite side were becoming sparse, would they take the opportunity to kill their way in?
At that time, Lynn would bloom in the center, and these pointy-eared people would only die faster.
At the same time, in a high place in the forest.
Several elves with indifferent faces gathered around a tall elf commander.
Coeinhearn da Reo was the commander of this group of Children of Freedom.
Children of Freedom, of course, didn't refer to him and his men.
As long as they were elves who resisted human tyranny and believed that the continent belonged to Aen Seidhe, they were all Children of Freedom.
In the past year or two, he and his men had been attacking everywhere in the Kingdom of Aedirn.
They attacked villages, killed lone travelers, and didn't even spare children and old people who went into the forest to collect firewood.
In Coeinhearn's view, this world should have belonged to elves.
But now, the living space of elves was being further compressed by the humans' step-by-step encroachment.
Many elves like Coeinhearn couldn't understand why.
This world clearly belonged to the elves first.
Because he and his men had done all kinds of evil in Aedirn, they had attracted the encirclement and suppression of the Aedirn army.
Seeing that it was becoming more and more difficult to survive in Aedirn, Coeinhearn had to lead his men south to the Kingdom of Lyria and Rivia.
But on the way, his scouts, who had been sent out to explore, accidentally discovered Istrad's caravan...
Supplies and provisions were, of course, important and precious to these Children of Freedom who burned, killed, and looted.
That's why Coeinhearn still carried out an ambush even though the other side had a large number of guards.
Coeinhearn thought that as long as his men released a few rounds of arrows, the humans on the opposite side would be scared and flee in all directions.
Just like they had done countless times when they robbed caravans in the past.
But this time, the result was completely opposite to what Coeinhearn expected.
The humans on the opposite side were not defeated by the elves' arrows.
Instead, they relied on the wagons to organize a counterattack.
Although his men had the advantage of terrain because they were hiding in the forest in advance, his side's progress was also very slow.
What made him even more anxious was that if they couldn't eat those humans for a long time, if the Aedirn patrols were attracted by the sound of fighting, they would be in danger of being attacked from both sides.
Just as Coeinhearn was hesitating...
An elf stumbled up the high ground and reported in a panic.
"Coeinhearn, a human has killed his way in. He's very powerful and has killed several of our brothers. We can't stop him."
Coeinhearn could hardly believe his ears.
His men couldn't stop a human?
Coeinhearn kicked the reporting elf to the ground and shouted to the elves around him, "You all come with me."
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