The Heartbeat of the Cruel Elves

The monster was wearing a colorful robe and flew in the air for a while. Then it suddenly stopped moving and landed silently on the ground.

The top of its trunk drooped, and there was a bulge, as if it had a head with a single horn. It then swayed from side to side, as if it was looking at its own body, and was quite surprised at its current condition.

Then, it raised its head, and a rumbling sound like thunder resounded throughout the underground space.

But no one could understand this loud voice because it used a language that did not belong to the dark elves.

Except for one person, Li Yin. Because at the same time, the monster also gave up covering up the surface of its mind, letting its thoughts flow out without any scruples.

Li Yin captured its thoughts at this moment through telepathy.

"This little trick is quite interesting."

It paused, and then said:

"But if you think you can defeat me like this, you are totally wrong!"

"I'm not letting you see my true face out of kindness, compassion, and a little bit of fun."

"Because——" Its voice was high-pitched, its heart was surging, and it was filled with incomparable pride and arrogance.

The tremendous volume and vast spiritual energy crushed Li Yin from both the material and spiritual levels, making it almost impossible for him to stand upright.

"Once I reveal my great appearance to you, this battle will become a foregone conclusion!"

Li Yin suddenly felt a strong shudder in his heart.

But this trembling did not belong to him - although he was indeed quite frightened by the appearance of this huge and intelligent mysterious monster, this emotion itself did not come from him, and the intensity of this fear was far greater than the fear he felt at the moment.

This strong feeling of fear came from another mental entity, Du Feiya, who had always maintained a mental connection with him.

Li Yin felt puzzled. They had encountered extremely dangerous situations several times while walking through this maze, but never before had he felt such strong fear, panic and even trembling from this smart and calm female mage as he did now.

In a flash, Li Yin's doubts were transmitted to Du Feiya through the mental link, and he got the answer instantly.

He was not the only exception. Among the people present, besides him, there was another person who could understand the real meaning contained in the thunderous words of the giant not far away at this moment - Du Feiya.

Du Feiya does not possess psychic powers. The reason why she can understand the words of the mysterious monster is that the other party uses a language she is familiar with.

A language she had studied in her arcane classes—

Dragon language!

Amidst the colorful light, the monster's already huge body suddenly began to expand. Its towering body, like a mountain, expanded horizontally, reaching seven or eight times its original length in an instant.

Then, it suddenly raised its head, and the two forelimb-like protrusions on the upper part of its torso suddenly rose from the ground. This tall body, which was originally nearly twenty feet tall, suddenly grew a lot taller.

The next second, under the colorful demonic fire, some entities suddenly appeared in the originally transparent air.

The first thing that caught Li Yin's eyes was a cluster of dark blue crystals, changing colors under the flickering demonic fire on the outside. Then one cluster, and another cluster... The dark blue crystals continued to expand in the dark void, and in the blink of an eye, a huge body made entirely of dark blue crystals, with scales and armor, appeared in front of everyone.

This is a giant dragon made of crystal!

It is like a moving crystal mine, with gorgeous light flowing all over it under the illumination of the colorful fairy fire.

This giant crystal dragon spread its wings wide and slightly kicked its lower limbs, as if it was about to take off in the next second, spread its wings, and pounce towards the crowd, ready to devour anyone it chose.

But it didn't. It just slowly stretched its wings, moved its strong lower limbs, and took a step forward as if no one was around.

Then, a magnificent, thunderous voice once again rumbled over everyone's heads:

"Now, tell me, who is the beast—"

"insect?"

There was silence in the field.

No one answered its questions.

Most of the dark elves did not understand its language, and the only two who could understand its thoughts at the moment, Li Yin and Du Feiya, did not dare to say a word.

"Sure enough, the scene has become boring again."

The giant dragon raised its head, and its majestic tone and thoughts revealed a sense of desolation. But this sense of desolation was fleeting, and was followed by a raging rage.

"How dare you, despicable invaders, invade my territory and damage my toys."

"Now that the only value of your worthless lives - to serve as props for my entertainment - has been completely lost."

"Then there is only one way left for you."

"That is - use your petty and humble lives to apologize to the supreme and great Supreme Being!"

The crystal dragon suddenly lowered its head.

"Crack", there was a sudden loud bang on the ground, followed by a heart-pounding chewing sound - because the dragon lifted the spell to eliminate sound, now, not only the splashing sound of blood spurting, but all the sounds of this attack were transmitted to the ears of many dark elves without any difference.

The dragon raised its head, blood gushing from its crystal-clear jaws and teeth. It casually shook its head, and half of the lower body of the dark elf was thrown out of its mouth like a kite with a broken string, flying straight out more than ten meters and hitting the ground with a loud bang.

Then, it raised its head to the sky and let out an earth-shaking roar!

The joy of the dark elves in finding their target had completely disappeared without a trace. With the roaring dragon as the center, great panic quickly spread to the surroundings. The silence suppressed by fear was broken by greater fear. One dark elf was the first to scream in fear, followed by the next, and the other... In a flash, the screams of the dark elves gathered into a turbulent ocean, and the roar of the crystal dragon was like a thunderstorm that smashed everything on the sea, overwhelming all the noise, making the dark elves' clamoring like a trivial mosquito buzzing.

Chapter 163: Defeat

All the dark elves fled in all directions in an instant.

"Stop," Cassia's face turned pale. She was shocked for a moment, then she came to her senses and looked at the dark elf soldiers fleeing in panic. She shouted, "There is only one enemy, and we have so many elves!"

"Turn around and point your weapons at this monster!"

Li Yin stood beside her at a loss, watching her scolding the fleeing soldiers in a stern voice.

Due to the dragon's breath, they had just drifted a long distance. Most of the fleeing dark elf soldiers were heading towards them, so Cassia was able to stop them and try to stop their escape by shouting and giving orders, and to reorganize them.

"Tell your mistress to give up this unrealistic fantasy and run away."

At this moment, a trembling voice suddenly came from Li Yin's heart. It was Du Feiya.

"Don't expect to win these soldiers over with words alone."

Her voice was filled with fear.

"That roar was no ordinary roar—it was the terrifying breath of the Sapphire Dragon. Its effect was like a super-powerful fear spell!"

"That is the power of magic. Verbal threats or encouragement alone are not enough to offset it!"

"Besides, even if she could summon the will of these soldiers, it would be useless."

"We can never defeat a dragon with just these men!"

"Hurry," she urged anxiously in her heart, "Run away, it will be too late!"

Li Yin's heart skipped a beat.

Breath of fear?

No wonder someone as calm and composed as Cassia was also in panic just now.

But how could he explain this to Cassia?

He hesitated for only a moment, then grabbed Cassia's wrist and said without hesitation:

"Quick, run away, Your Highness!"

Cassia turned around and stared at him with ruby ​​eyes filled with anger and confusion.

"We are defeated, your highness," he said anxiously.

"I understand how you feel, but giving orders is useless."

"I read about this creature when I was in the earthly world," he quickly repeated what Dufia had told him. "This is a sapphire dragon. Their breath has supernatural magic, a super strong fear spell."

"Your men were not defeated by the fear of nature, but by the magic of the dragon. We have no way to deal with this."

Cassia was stunned for a moment.

"Then I will use magic to bring back the courage in their hearts!" she said with anger and determination.

After saying that, she shook off Li Yin's hand, grabbed the spider holy emblem around her neck, and muttered something.

A moment later, she faced the many dark elves, held up the holy emblem, and a wave of magic spread out.

At the same time, they shouted: "Elves of Nevér, do not retreat, do not be afraid, your goddess is watching you..."

However, despite this, countless dark elves still fled from her outstretched arms, their panicked steps not slowing down at all...

The dragon's magic was greater than hers, and Cassia's spell to summon the courage of the dark elves had no effect.

This was to be expected. Dragons are supernatural magical creatures whose magical proficiency far exceeds that of elves - this is why elven wizards list dragon language as one of the most worthwhile foreign languages ​​to learn.

Just like human mages generally learn the Elvish language, Li Yin silently responded to Du Feiya's voice in his heart.

Du Feiya felt an affirmative response in her heart, and then her mind changed.

Now is not the time for arcane discussions, you must call your mistress and escape immediately!

If she still persists, then you should——

She didn't finish her words, but her meaning was clear enough.

Li Yin raised his head and looked at Cassia again, only to see that her face was pale and for the first time a look of confusion and helplessness appeared on her stern face.

...It's understandable. After all, what they are facing now is a living dragon!

"Let's go!" He grabbed her wrist again, and this time he was so anxious that he didn't even use honorifics.

But this time there was no resistance from Cassia's arms.

The dark elf commander allowed herself to be dragged away by her servants, joining the fleeing horde she had been so harshly rebuking just a moment ago.

"Where are you?" He ran away, looking forward. Although Cassia's stalemate delayed them for some time, because their initial position was far from the center of the battlefield, there were still only a few soldiers in front of them.

He did find a familiar figure among those sparse figures - but it was not the one he wanted to find, but Myrcella...

While marveling at the civilian female dark elf's continued outstanding ability to survive, he asked Du Feiya questions through the mental link.

"No need to look forward." Du Feiya's voice was low and intermittent, like she was panting, "It's behind you."

"What?" Li Yin was startled and turned back subconsciously.

"Don't waste your energy looking back, escaping is the most important thing!" Du Feiya continued to urge anxiously.

"Don't worry, I'm not far from you." She immediately comforted Li Yin.

Li Yin quickly caught sight of Du Feiya's figure about seven or eight meters southwest of him. He felt relieved and immediately turned around, continuing to ask in disbelief while running.

"what happened?"

He could hardly imagine that this graceful and elegant female elf would fall behind them, especially since she realized faster than them that escape was the only way out, and even more so - she was a mage who could move through space!

All his confusion and worries were transmitted to Du Feiya through the mental link.

Du Feiya responded with a slightly hateful voice:

"That dragon, it locked me with a dimensional anchor, preventing me from making a dimensional jump."

"Not only is it proficient in illusion, it is also an expert in teleportation spells!"

"What?" Li Yin was shocked again, "When did this happen?"

"Just a while ago, remember the first time I dodged its attack?"

"At that time, I used a spell to move through space, and that made it realize that I had this ability."

"In the subsequent chase, although it failed to catch me, it seized an opportunity and used the dimensional anchor on me, prohibiting me from continuing to use the ability to move through space."

"You..." Li Yin frowned slightly, and asked Du Feiya worriedly in his heart, "Are you okay?"

He looked back again and found that the blue figure was still about seven or eight meters away from him.

"Don't worry," Du Feiya knew what Li Yin was worried about, and she responded with a dashing voice, "Don't think of me as a weak wizard who only knows how to cast spells. My father is not only the chief wizard of Nevre, but also our chief swordsman."

"And even if I don't rely on spells, my ability to act is no less than any elven warrior."

------

Ten minutes later.

The scattered dark elves ran for their lives across the empty rocky plain.

The roar of the giant dragon and the miserable screams of their dying compatriots kept coming from behind them, forcing them to speed up their pace again and again, desperately trying to squeeze out the last bit of strength from their already exhausted bodies.

Next to them was a huge lake. A hundred steps ahead, a familiar slope was already in sight. On the slope was a crystal cave gleaming with brilliant light. It was the entrance to the maze and their only goal at the moment.

It was nearly three miles from here to the center of the lost city, and it took them nearly two hours to march normally. However, driven by their strong will to survive, they only took a dozen minutes to walk the distance.