Chapter 72
The players\' outrage was exacerbated by the fact that most people couldn\'t resist cute, cuddly creatures.
The young elves fit the bill perfectly. Their big eyes filled with unparalleled innocence, their squishy, fair and tender skin, and their childlike faces ... Everything could absolutely be described as 100 percent innocent and lovely.
Their dirty clothes and the frightened and desperate emotions that surfaced from time to time in their expressions. The faint wariness and detachment that their bodies unconsciously exuded. It all added to the feeling as if the three young elves were little kittens that were being bullied.
The sympathy of the players was overflowing. "Too ... too cute, ah ... no, this is too sad!"
"The half-orcs have gone too far, to dare and hurt our noble and beautiful elves! Count me in on this quest!"
"And you, Demacia, keep a distance from them and don\'t touch them with your hands!"
Demacia: "..."
"Go go go! Save our elven companions!"
"I\'m coming!"
"I\'m coming!"
One by one, the players who were already excited by the hidden quest became even more enthusiastic.
Eve was surprised to discover that what had originally been just a few dozen players accepting the quest had quickly snowballed into hundreds of participants. They all joined Demacia\'s group and began to move in groups of twos and threes in the direction of the stronghold.
She found that they were attracted by not only the quest rewards, but also Demacia\'s screenshot. Eventually, Li Mu even had to specially open a group voice chat and act as the team commander. This was so that the players would not rush over in swarms to ruin things.
"You guys are a group of shota and lolicon lovers ..."
Eve fell silent.
The sun was setting.
In the southeast area of the Elven Forest, four lower Iron half-orcs were walking through the forest.
They were carrying a dead unicorn wind deer.
It was a lower Iron beast that had strong magical conductivity in its blood. This made it an excellent material for drawing spell circles.
However, such creatures were difficult to find, and it had taken the half-orcs a lot of effort to finally catch one.
They chatted as they trudged along.
"Ugh, this was really not easy. It took us a whole day just to hunt a wind deer. I wonder if the priest will be angry ..."
"There\'s not much we can do about it, this area is so barren ..."
"If you ask me, I think the priest is too eager and hasty. Must he really lay down a circle to communicate with Father God right now?"
"Haha, you must not realize. If we reported this secret to the main tribe, how could their reward possibly be better than the reward we get by reporting it directly to His Majesty Father God?"
"Fair enough ..."
Suddenly, the half-orc at the front stopped.
"Wait!"
He glanced to his left and right with a stony face.
"Something\'s wrong, it\'s too quiet here ..." As he said that, he took a deep breath through his nose.
In a flash, his face changed.
"This is bad, there are enemies around us!"
As soon as the words left his mouth, an "Attack!" was shouted.
Countless fierce magic attacks were launched in their direction: fireballs, wind blades, lightning strikes ... They came down like rain and smashed into their faces.
The four half-orcs were completely surprised.
They hurriedly threw away their deer prey and began to take cover.
But the sheer density of the magic barrage meant that they could not avoid getting hit. In a matter of seconds, they all suffered injuries, and the worst hit half-orc among them even lost an arm ... And before they could react, there was another shout.
"Go!"
Screams rang out as a dozen, tall figures poured out from the bushes.
They were all lavishly equipped, had excited faces, and branded weapons. They sped towards them while screaming "Hurrah!" and "Charge!"
The attackers sported hideous expressions as if the half-orcs had personally murdered their fathers right in front of them.
Where did these elves come from?! And how did they know that they were here?! Looking at the four dumbfounded half-orcs, the corners of Li Mu\'s mouth curved upwards as he smoothly fired off a vine spell and gave out a command.
"Everyone, don\'t fight too hard! They\'re strong, but we have the numbers, we\'ll wear them out!"
He also added:
"And stop hitting them in the face!"
He had been commanding the players lying in ambush here for quite some time now.
The movement of the half-orcs was visible to the players because of Demacia.
If the half-orcs wanted to lay down a sacrificial circle, they had to go hunt for magical beasts in the forest.
The only magical beasts that could meet their needs were a long way from their stronghold. One especially suitable creature was the unicorn wind deer, which the players happened to know where to find.
Through the minimap that Demacia had shared , Li Mu had judged that this should be the return path that the half-orcs would take. So he had brought a group of players here beforehand to ambush them.
Finally, they had caught some half-orcs.
The half-orcs were very strong. Although the players had also reached the same rank as them, lower Iron, they were far more inexperienced when it came to combat.
However, the players were unafraid of pain and death and fought without paying attention to their own safety. They fought like desperates, which allowed them to surprise and tie down the half-orcs.
But even so, a few players were immediately cut down after the first clash.
But the players completely outnumbered the half-orcs, and, despite the half-orcs\' strength, the wounds on their bodies became more and more numerous. When the strength of both parties were roughly equal, the human wave tactic was a surefire way to kill enemies.
Players were a nightmare for enemies whose strength was not too far removed from them.
"Crazy! They must have gone crazy!"
Facing this group of \'desperate\' elves, the four half-orcs\' morale finally broke.
They backed away and shouted:
"We surrender! "We surrender! We will leave the Elven Forest and not fight anymore!"
After saying this, the corners of the leader half-orc\'s mouth curved upwards slightly.
This was the half-orcs\' surefire way of surviving through this ordeal!
Elves were peace-loving beings.
As long as the enemy was willing to surrender, these straight-laced long ears would have mercy on them and not wipe them out.
This was the tried-and-tested experience that the half-orcs had accumulated over their many years of hunting elves.
Unfortunately, it did not work this time. "surrender? Hehe, we don\'t take prisoners. Be obedient and become contribution and experience points!"
The players ridiculed them and attacked even more fiercely.
"They can\'t hold on for much longer!"
"Kill them!"
"Down with the evil half-orcs, save our fellow elvish citizens!"
"Urrah—!"
Listening to their shouts and seeing the bloodthirst in their eyes, the four half-orcs were stunned.
Hold on a minute? They… they were really going to kill them all?! Since when have elves become so bloodthirsty? Several half-orcs inexplicably shuddered as their knowledge of elves became void in an instant.
"Are these ... truly elves? ..." They murmured in disbelief as they looked at the handsome yet hideous faces.
The players, however, did not give them a chance to mull over things. They used all kinds of skills and attacked the half-orcs in a whirlwind of frenzy.
One elf would make a cut and then retreat, only for another one to immediately fill in the gap and attack.
It was a great feat of cooperation. Eventually, the first half-orc was felled.
He collapsed after being stabbed in the chest.
After the death of the first half-orc, the momentum was decisively on the players\' side. In the blink of an eye, the few remaining half-orcs were killed one by one. Eventually, at the cost of eight players, the last half-orc fell to a storm of swords.
And immediately afterwards, the players rushed to strip them of their equipment and started looting everything.
Li Mu did not participate in the looting, but looked at the blood-stained bodies of the half-orcs with a serious expression.
"I didn\'t expect the half-orcs to be this powerful ..." A total of 27 players above level 11 had been organized to ambush them, yet they had suffered such a large number of casualties.
And these were just lower Iron half-orcs! Li Mu had no choice but to accept that there was a huge gap between the combat power of dumb magical beasts and intelligent creatures of the same level.
Sighing, he called out one of the elven girls.
"Salty Little Meow, tell Box Lunch to start the disguising operation."