A mage? A spell engineer!

Chapter 299 War

The changes in the small village quickly attracted the attention of other cops. At first, they couldn't see clearly in the darkness, but as they got closer, the vines they waved under the firelight began to whip or entangle them.

The thick petals transformed into gaping maws, from which the stamens burst forth with curled mandibles. After capturing those who invaded the village, the mandibles were inserted from above, stirring and sucking the softest nutrients.

Bang bang bang!

A few sporadic gunshots struck the surface of the out-of-control plant, tearing away some tissue, but this damage was negligible to the ever-exploding and growing organism.

Even more terrifying is that its root system easily develops and weaves through the swamp, and when it senses someone stepping on it, it decisively bursts out of the ground, dragging the unfortunate creature into the inescapable swamp.

"Fire! Burn these monstrous things!" Finally, someone thought of a possible way to control them. They painstakingly carried oil, coal, and other materials, spread them on the swamp by the roadside, and set them on fire.

They threw out as many oil-soaked torches as possible, and under the cover of the raging fire, they evacuated the small village by car or horseback.

In the nearby hills and woods, the grey elves hid in a group. Several boyish-looking boys held spears and were on guard against wild beasts, while some of the female elves carried daggers and bows and arrows.

The younger children began to fret, and were quickly covered in the dark.

"Mom, I'm hungry."

"You can't eat yet, sweetie. If you eat now, you'll be hungry for a long time."

"If I don't eat now, will I be able to eat my fill tomorrow?"

The mother didn't speak, but simply hugged her child tightly, silently shedding tears.

"Look!" The sentry, perched high in the tree, was the first to spot the village on fire. His eyes widened in horror, as if the billowing smoke illuminated by the firelight was pouring into his body, and his chest heaved in agony as if it were being burned.

They were still unaware of what had happened to their home, but there was no doubt that the thatched huts that had once provided shelter from the wind and rain were gone, along with the lambs and cattle that had not been moved in time. Some of them became nutrients for the rampant flowers, while others were taken away by the cops' lackeys from the very beginning.

If the sun rises as usual, all that awaits the spirits are charred ruins and muddy, filthy earth.

This is just a microcosm of the vast land of El Isle. Since being conquered, all the workshops of the Grey Elves have been destroyed. They are only allowed to cultivate the land, and all industrial products must be exchanged for food. The workshop owners on the island can exchange El Isle's wheat, meat and milk for the lowest possible price, leaving the Grey Elves with only enough tuber food to barely fill their stomachs.

To the inhabitants of the kingdom on the island, including other elves, these "Mudbloods" were invisible, unseen by the civilized world. Only when the rebels achieved some "success" would the newspapers remind the "civilized" that the thriving kingdom still had these "stains" of disobedience.

The "live lobsters'" attempts to bully the village have had varying degrees of success and failure. Some may not have encountered any strange or malevolent plants, but some clever villagers have used tunnels and swamp traps to cause considerable trouble for the invaders and raiders.

However, these guerrilla tactics were ineffective against the Burning Lion Knights. Lacking iron, the villagers could only make a sound against their plate armor with stone spears and arrows, and then the knights would laugh wildly and swing their swords to cut the attackers in two.

The troops marched to a county seat in the northern part of El Isle called Bellanst.

This town is only a small town on the island. It was once glorious, but now, both its population and ancient buildings have been repeatedly trampled by the kingdom, and only a fraction of them remain.

The restoration organization on El Isle has taken over the area. They have killed or driven out the administrators, tax collectors, and traitors among the Grey Elves sent by the Kingdom of Istani. They then set up a makeshift organization at the post office, colluded with other regions, and declared that they would establish a parliament of their own on El Isle.

Less than three days after the incident, the news spread throughout El Isle.

The once ignorant and primitive organization has begun to imitate the kingdom, and its impact on other parts of El Island will be immeasurable.

The "cooked lobsters" are the main force in the open, pushing cannons to bombard the town and dampen the spirits of those mud-blooded people, while the Knights lie in ambush near the battlefield, waiting for a larger target.

It is said that the Restoration Council's confidence comes from the rebel army stationed not far away. The Knights and other forces of the kingdom tried to search for enemy troops in the rotten land, but these cunning opponents seemed to be able to hide in the ground as well as the food they ate, resulting in the sweep being fruitless.

Since they couldn't find and eliminate the threat, they decided to besiege it and attack any reinforcements. The kingdom's army surrounded the town, and if any rebels attempted to break the siege, the knights, mixed among the ordinary lobster soldiers, would quickly move to eliminate these stragglers.

"Sir, will they come?" One knight was very dissatisfied with the arrangement. He longed for a thrilling charge, not to cower in the darkness and passively wait for the enemy to come to him.

In his view, the rebels, a motley crew of mud-blooded rabble, were not worthy of the Knights' attention to tactics.

"Follow orders, Brother Henry." The knight commander explained to him, "The only advantage these weak armed forces can have is their familiarity with the terrain, and the night will amplify their advantage, so the possibility of them harassing our army at night is very high."

To ensure the stealth of the raid, they did not use torches, so they needed other means to maintain visibility at night.

In addition to gunpowder and other military equipment, reels were also distributed. The knight commander mentioned, "The highest-grade [Dark Vision] reels can last up to half an hour."

The first team consisted of twenty people, and it was extremely extravagant for each person to have one.

"You can only use it if you obey my commands!"

"yes!"

On the surface, the transcontinental magic guilds maintain a neutral stance on the feud between Istani and El Island. Occasionally, the Forest Tower takes the lead, citing the Grey Elves' involvement in the origins of nature magic, to express "serious concern" and "strong condemnation."

As for why the Knights were able to obtain the best spell scrolls and use them to assault El, that's something that can't be brought up openly.

Similar scenarios were occurring simultaneously at rebel strongholds.

"Here you go. I don't need to teach you how to activate them, right?" The elven commander took out scrolls from a locked box, containing [Invisibility], [Hypnosis], [Spirit Armor], and some low-level illusions.

The "mysterious seller" is very detailed—whether it's the scrolls or potions sold to the Knights or the Rebels, there are no spells with obvious sound, light, or electrical effects.

If a fireball explodes during a battle between two armies, it would be too embarrassing to spot it at a glance.

"We're elves, why would we need human magic?" one of the recruits retorted. In his naive view, anything without pointed ears was an enemy.

In order to build cohesion, many of the Grey Elves also proclaimed the superiority of their race, attempting to use hatred and pride to rally the ranks and transform them into a force that could stand against the kingdom.

The commander patiently explained, "Isn't it good to kill humans with human magic? Besides, magic doesn't discriminate by race. Humans can transform our ancient magic into nature magic, so we should learn and utilize their magic as well."

"For victory, we must use every means at our disposal. Every penny in our military budget is a hard-earned contribution from our compatriots to support this great cause."

"They were willing to support us even though they didn't have enough to eat, so we must make good use of the precious scrolls we received in return, using them in crucial places to protect ourselves and kill more enemies."

(End of this chapter)