Elf.
A race with long ears and beautiful appearance.
A race that loves nature and forests.
The lifespan of elves in the Astria continent is known to be about 200-300 years.
Like dwarves, a long-lived race that lives many more years than humans.
While traveling the Astria continent so far, I hadn't met any NPC elves.
It's here in this cold north that I first see their appearance.
But.
I looked up at the elf in the tree with sharp eyes.
At the same time, I surveyed the surroundings.
Is there only one? An elf guarding this vast forest?
That can't be.
As I expected, elves started revealing themselves one by one from other trees too.
Unlike the first elf with snow-white hair, they had various hair colors.
Soon, an interface window popped up in front of my eyes.
[Elf Kingdom Friendliness: -20]
"Unnie."
"Yeah. It appeared."
I confirmed this fact with Chris. Chris also nodded while maintaining her body's tension.
An NPC faction with friendliness.
It's like the dwarf village.
First encounter. Forced event occurrence.
You're going to be hostile from the start, huh.
Judging by the fact that they didn't aim for critical vital points with their arrow attack, these elf guards aim to subdue us.
If users encounter them, there would be largely two choices.
One. Kill them all.
Surely the 'Elf Guards' have high specs according to this area's level, but it wouldn't be very difficult for users who have come this far. Bluntly, Chris could kill all the elves with her ranged attacks too. But friendliness with them would plummet.
Two. Be obediently subdued and dragged to their kingdom.
This is probably the orthodox choice. Friendliness is minus from the start. They even use magical fog to not expose themselves to the outside. We can consider it a closed elf society with no interaction with humans at all.
Still.
I don't want to be looked down on.
I chose a third method.
Without turning my head, I conveyed my plan to Chris.
"Unnie, stay here. I'll go put those elf people to sleep."
"Huh? But."
"Yin-Yang Masters have ranged status effect skills, right? Use projectile protection skills and shoot those whenever the cooldown is up. Only for those within range."
No answer came back, but Chris must have understood too.
I immediately put my thoughts into action.
Tap tap tap tap!
"What!"
The elf with white hair who seemed to be the leader raised one hand while letting out an exclamation.
Swish swish swish swish!
Arrows stuck into the place I had just passed.
I moved quickly left and right, disrupting their aim.
Clang!
I deflected blind arrows by swinging Astaroth. I deflected them directly without using skills.
Of course, if I use the 'Block' skill against projectiles, I can block them perfectly. But I can't move while casting the Block skill. In the end, to break through this barrage and advance, I have to deflect arrows with just sword movements. Their arrow attacks came in rotary fashion, not giving a moment's respite.
Swoosh!
Meanwhile, an ominous sound of an arrow cutting through air was heard. That arrow carried force that couldn't be ignored.
I cast 'Block' in place.
Clang!
An arrow containing the power of the wind spirit, Sylph?
I could consider it a hybrid class of Ranger and Elementalist.
The person who shot that arrow that blocked my rapid advance was the white-haired elf.
He was nocking another arrow to his bow.
I glared at him slightly through my sword.
Tap tap tap tap!
And without hesitation, I started climbing up a nearby tree.
With the current agility stat, I can climb trees by stepping on them.
Swish swish swish swish!
The sound of arrow bundles sticking into the tree trunk was heard.
On the tree I climbed up, there was one elf with a surprised expression.
The height to there, the Y-axis distance, is 8 meters.
Swish.
Quickly turning my body to look down, using the giant tree trunk as ground.
I activated 'Backward Evasion'.
[Backward Evasion(A)]
[Quickly propels body 8m backwards to avoid frontal attacks (Invincible during casting)]
[Cooldown 8 seconds]
[(E Rank) Movement speed increases for 5 seconds after skill activation]
[(B Rank) Switches to 'Sword Drawing Stance' after skill use]
[(A Rank) 0.5 seconds additional invincibility time after skill use]
The Swordsman's strengthened 'Backward Evasion' has increased invincibility time.
But I preferred using this skill as a movement skill rather than an invincibility skill.
A coordinate movement skill that can instantly move 8 meters from anywhere.
Float.
My body instantly soared 8 meters into the air, bringing the elf standing on a thick branch right in front of me.
Looking at his surprised expression, I hit the back of his neck once with my sword handle.
It's 'Pommel Strike', a skill that induces the 'Stun' status effect.
With enough force for him to sleep sufficiently long.
Whack!
"Ugh!"
He fell spread-eagled on the thick branch he had been standing on. Fortunately, the branches the elves were standing on were thick enough to lie down on.
Tap.
I lightly landed on the ground with a leap, and started moving to find the next target.
Remaining elves, thirteen.
"Why is it so fast! Kuugh!"
"A human moving faster than elves in the forest!? Aak!"
What, these uncle and unnie, you could speak properly?
I thought all elves were of few words since they shot arrows without a word, like Elaine unnie too.
Meanwhile, Chris below the trees also incapacitated two elves by controlling her yin-yang jade.
With this, only one elf remained.
I looked up at the white-haired elf standing on the last tree with a grin.
"Now only uncle is left."
"...!"
He had been hardening his expression at some point.
His pride must have been hurt by the fact that the elf guards' defense was being helplessly breached.
Swish swish swish swish!
His arrows imbued with force started flying at me.
Though he didn't imbue them with killing intent after confirming I hadn't killed the elves, I could sufficiently feel his will to subdue me with all his might.
Crash!
This time it's a multi-shot.
Three arrows containing powerful wind force took the form of a huge green energy and flew in occupying even the space for me to dodge.
Is it a Ranger skill? Is the central one unguardable?
Shall I show a bit of performance?
Without dodging, I lowered my posture.
'Flash Strike'.
Swoosh!
My body that became a flash of light vertically cut through the huge energy and passed. At the same time, I narrowed the distance with the tree he was standing on.
"Kuk! You little brat!"
The white-haired elf spoke for the first time.
Calling a proper lady a brat!
I puffed my cheeks and immediately started climbing the tree he was standing on.
Crack!
Branches instantly sprouted from the tree I was climbing and tried to bind my body.
This elf is definitely different from the other elves. He knows how to skillfully handle spirits.
Swish swish swish!
Tap!
It's difficult to climb trees and swing a sword at the same time. In the meantime, he moved to another tree and started shooting arrows again.
Tap, tap, tap!
He kept moving across adjacent trees.
He moved well between trees just far enough that my leaps couldn't reach. He flew using the power of spirits.
Even though my speed of approaching and climbing trees was terrifyingly fast, he moved freely between trees as if entering his own home.
After a few more rounds of tag, I realized it would be difficult to catch him like this.
Should I shoot sword energy? But he could die.
Unlike Named demons who endure numerous sword strikes through massive HP, ordinary NPCs are surprisingly weak even if their level is high.
Should I cut down the trees? But the trees here are quite sturdy. They don't even cut as if they have object judgment. This aspect definitely gives a game-like feeling.
Swoosh!
I narrowed the distance to the next tree with Flash Strike through cooldown reset, then started climbing the tree he was standing on.
Tap tap tap tap!
Having seen my movements several times, he seemed to have learned that I instantly close the distance when I reach 8 meters below them.
He was using that.
He moves when I approach about 9 meters below him.
A simple but nasty method.
Then, shall I borrow the power of the system once more?
I could use Flash Strike to climb the tree, but this needs to be used to narrow the distance to the tree.
I used up all the item's cooldown reset function to approach the elves' trees. It takes 10 minutes to use again.
10 more minutes of tag? I don't like that.
I have one more skill that moves coordinates.
Tap tap tap!
I reached 13 meters, 12 meters, 11 meters below. He took a posture to move to another tree branch.
Swish.
Backward Evasion moves 8 meters. Even if I use this, 3 meters remain to reach in front of him.
Before he leaves his spot.
I used Backward Evasion.
This time, towards the empty space right below him.
Swoosh!
My body that disappeared from the tree trunk appeared below his feet.
3 meters, a distance my stun skill can't reach.
But it's a distance where I can use the skill I prepared.
Looking up at him from below, I used that skill.
Swish.
The surrounding scenery changed, and the elf's snow-white head came into view.
'Counterattack'.
A skill that turns 180 degrees backwards and takes the opponent's rear.
What if used from below? You appear above.
I've never used it on the Y-axis before, but it was indeed possible.
In the moment less than a second that this happened, before his head that couldn't react in time raised.
I brought down my sword handle.
"Sleep well, uncle."
Whack!