Future Knight [EN]: Chapter 56

“Only watch out for the mages! Commence firing!”

“Fire!”

Forty archers simultaneously released their arrows towards the mages.

With a whistling sound, forty arrows flew towards the mages.

At the same time, twenty green elf mages began chanting their attack spells.

“Charge! Glory to the Mother!”

“Glory!”

The assault team, shouting war cries, charged towards the dwarves, who were thrown into confusion by the sudden roar.

“It’s, it’s a surprise attack! Green elves!”

“Everyone, don’t panic! Take up your weapons!”

The dwarves, belatedly realizing the enemy’s surprise attack, dropped the debris they were carrying and gripped their battleaxes to defend against the assault.

Simultaneously, the arrows of the green elves rained down upon the elf mages.

The elf mages, possessing excellent magical skills, erected shields in that brief moment to protect themselves from the arrows.

However, despair soon clouded their eyes.

While struggling to protect themselves from the incoming arrows, they sensed the surge of attack magic.

Soon, dozens of Fire Arrows, released from the hands of the green elf mages, exploded, leaving the elf mages with no choice but to give up on life.

Even a single spell requires an immense mathematical mana arrangement, making it extremely difficult to cast two spells simultaneously, a feat only possible for high-level mages of at least the 5th Circle. [In this magic system, ‘Circles’ denote levels of magical proficiency, with higher numbers indicating greater skill.]

It’s like looking at addition and subtraction; solving them one by one is easy, but not many people can solve both at the same time.

If it were multiplication and division instead of addition and subtraction, it would certainly be quite a headache.

They were already deploying physical shields to block the arrows and did not have the time to erect magical shields in preparation for the simultaneously incoming magic.

Now, they were bound to be hit by the Fire Arrows and turned into barbecue.

Just as dozens of Fire Arrows were about to engulf them, Zikyon landed in front of them and casually waved her hand, saying,

“Dispel.”

The fiercely flying Fire Arrows collided with her silver dust-like mana, and as the mana arrangement collapsed, they vanished into thin air.

The green elves gaped in disbelief at the sight.

Dispel is not a high-level magic, but it was one of the spells that showed the most distinct difference depending on the user.

A mage could never dispel the magic of a mage superior to them, and the greater the difference in Circles, the faster the dispelling speed.

That’s why, among mages, the saying naturally arose that you could never win against a mage with a higher Circle, even if you were to die and come back to life.

But now, the mage who suddenly appeared before them had dispelled their magic almost instantly.

And that was the magic of twenty mages.

However, they could no longer think about anything.

The voice of the grim reaper announcing death echoed.

“You mongrel bastards! Die! Hell Lightning Burst!”

Zikyon raised her right foot and slammed it into the ground, causing dozens of streaks of red lightning to explode around her, spreading in all directions with an eerie sound.

The speed was like lightning striking from the sky.

“He, He, Hell Lightning Burst!”

“Kuaaaaak!”

The green elves stared at the hellish lightning with wide eyes, as if they couldn’t believe it.

There was no way they could resist.

How could they, mere 4th Circle users, resist against 9th Circle lightning magic?

They could only turn to ashes.

Still, the mages were somewhat better off.

At least they knew how they died.

In comparison, the forty green elf archers had to leave the world without even knowing that they had been swept away by 9th Circle magic.

The elf mages couldn’t believe the scene before them either.

A suspicious woman suddenly blocked their path and dispelled dozens of Fire Arrows in an instant with immense magical power.

As if that wasn’t enough, she turned the enemies before them into ashes in an instant with 9th Circle magic.

The elf mages were bewildered, wondering if this was a dream or reality.

However, soon they felt the intense presence of a dragon from the woman, and they realized that she was the Green Dragon Zikyon, the master of the forest, and shed tears of joy.

The being that had always filled them all with fear had instead saved them.

They all thought to themselves that she was indeed a dragon.

Because there was no race other than dragons that could use 9th Circle magic so easily.

“Ru, run away!”

The green elves, terrified by the hellish lightning that had unfolded before their eyes, hurriedly turned their backs on the battlefield and began to flee desperately.

Then Zikyon laughed as if she found it amusing.

“To dare turn your backs on me and try to run away, you bastards! I’ll squeeze you to the bone!”

Zikyon spread her arms, and an enormous amount of mana spread in all directions.

The green elves, who were desperately fleeing, stopped one by one in their tracks and began to float into the air, drawn by an invisible force.

“Ugh! Save me! Save me!”

They struggled desperately to resist the rising force. But they could never escape from Zikyon’s invisible snare.

The dwarves stared with their mouths wide open at the unbelievable sight unfolding before their eyes.

The green elves, who had been pushing them with an overwhelming number just a moment ago.

But after a suspicious woman appeared, they suddenly became terrified and began to flee in droves, and now they were all floating in the air?

That was a large group of about 200 people.

As they hung in the air, screaming, Zikyon’s chilling voice echoed with a sneer.

“Blood Pressure.”

With her one word, a desperate cry of pain erupted from those hanging in the sky.

‘Puddeudeuk!’

“Kuaaaaak!”

“Uaaaaak!”

“Kkeuaaaaak!”

The screams of pain grew more and more desperate, and soon the sound of bones breaking and flesh bursting echoed loudly.

Immediately after, their blood poured down like a shower in all directions.

“I like red rain. Hehehe…….”

Zikyon twisted and squeezed the 200 green elves with the power of dragon speech, soaking in the rain of blood pouring from them.

The dwarves, watching her enjoy herself like a child while being showered in the blood raining down under the cloud made of corpses, were so weak in their lower bodies that they were about to wet their pants.

And the expressions of the elves, who had felt genuinely grateful to the dragon a moment ago, were distorted with fear.

‘She, she’s not right in the head. We, we have to run away…….’

Everyone’s mind was the same, but their feet, contrary to their thoughts, never seemed to leave the ground.

Because if they moved even one step, they felt like they would be twisted and killed like the rags that had just been squeezed.

In the end, they could only tremble and watch Zikyon’s insane actions.

That time was brief, but it felt like a long time, like several years, to those who were watching.

Before they knew it, the green elves, who had shed all their blood, were just floating around, shriveled up like dried meat.

Even if you squeeze cowhide, broth comes out, but now there was nothing more to squeeze out of these.

“What? Is it already over?”

Zikyon expressed her disappointment, soaked in blood, and the faces of the elves and dwarves watching her turned pale.

They were worried that they might have to soothe her disappointment.

“No broth from these bastards, geez…….”

Zikyon waved her hand as if she was annoyed, and their corpses burst into flames and turned to ashes.

Their bodies, which had been dried up without a drop of moisture, burned like paper.

“Then, now that I’ve given fertilizer, I need to sow seeds, right? Grow.”

As Zikyon chanted the spell, small sprouts began to grow rapidly from the earth that had absorbed the blood of the green elves.

The speed at which they grew was faster than any elemental magic. As expected of the Green Dragon who loved the forest, her ability was amazing.

However, she only loved the forest, and the criteria for giving fertilizer didn’t seem to matter much to her.

The rapidly growing trees and plants had already formed a small forest, and she picked a small apple that had grown in that forest and took a bite.

“Organic fruit is the best after all.”

The elves and dwarves, watching Zikyon deliciously eating an apple grown with the blood of hundreds of people as fertilizer, felt their appetite plummet.

Zikyon, finding the apple quite tasty, took a few more and approached the elves.

“Hey, are you guys okay?”

The frozen elf couldn’t speak for a moment at her question and only blinked.

“I’m asking if you’re okay.”

“Yes? Ah, yes! I, I’m okay!”

Zikyon frowned slightly at the elf’s reaction, as if a screw had come loose.

‘Why is everyone I meet like this? How am I supposed to make a real friend like this? Kang Chan is the only one.’

The reason why they were trembling with fear was not important to Zikyon.

She had no desire to understand their feelings and act accordingly.

Thinking only in her own way, that was the dragon.

Suddenly, Zikyon frowned, and a red light turned on in the elf’s head. It was as if a loud bell was ringing in his head.

At the repeatedly ringing alarm of his survival instinct, the elf could only think of surviving.

“Yo, Your Greatness. There’s bl, bl, blood on your body.”

At the elf’s words, which seemed to be squeezed out, Zikyon looked down at herself.

Her body was soaked in the blood of the green elves. Only then did Zikyon realize that she looked a little grotesque.

“Ah, were you surprised by this appearance? Geez, you’re so tender-hearted. Something like this can be easily taken care of with a simple Clean spell.”

As Zikyon cast a Clean spell on herself, the surrounding mana gathered and removed the dirty things that were on her body.

“There! How is it now? Clean, right?”

Her body was as clean as if she had just taken a shower.

But the elf’s eyes were still full of fear.

The gruesome image of Zikyon squeezing the green elves alive was still vivid in their minds.

But the elf forced a smile again to survive.

“Hahaha…… Yo, You look much more beautiful now that you’re clean, Zikyon-nim.”

“I really like the fresh scent of blood, but you elves still like things clean.”

Dragons are originally carnivores, so the scent of blood was like the scent of fresh fruit to her.

Just as wealthy noblewomen use fruit juice and milk for skin care, she also enjoyed washing her body with blood.

“We, We don’t know what to do, that Your Greatness has saved us humble elves.”

“It’s just paying the price for defiling my forest, so don’t feel too burdened, elf.”

“I understand, Your Greatness…….”

“More than that, where are the other elves now?”

“Yes?”

“I asked where the surviving elves are now.”

The elf hesitated for a moment before reluctantly opening his mouth.

The dwarves shook their heads, telling him not to answer, but there was no benefit to lying to a dragon like Zikyon, so there was no need to provoke her.

The elf hesitated for a moment before reluctantly opening his mouth.

“We have taken refuge in the kingdom of our ally, the dwarves.”

“Oh? Is that so? Then did a stranger named Kang Chan go with you?”

“Yes? How did you know him…….”

The elf didn’t know that Kang Chan and Zikyon were friends.

But when Kang Chan’s name came out of the dragon’s mouth, the elf looked at Zikyon with a slightly surprised look and asked.

Forgetting his place for a moment.