Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

Jungle trees were going to fall in droves if nothing was done, and if the jungle was deprived of its trees, it would not only be the loss of defence for the elves, but also a destruction of nature, perpetrated on the orders of a being bearing elven blood within them at that.

The elf leader gathered all the information that had received via carrier pigeons, and indeed, he soon found out that the partly-elvish monster woman was a leader, not too long ago, they had received a carrier pigeon from a human city called Lothel concerning her and her forces, clearly, the lord of that city had been quite worried about that woman.

The reason why he had been so nervous was not spelled out, but the elf leader was wary of her as well, not just because she had striking elf features alongside the filthy traits of monstrous species, he could just feel that she was too dangerous to be left alive.

He attempted to personally shoot her down with a powerful shot empowered by his magic, but in the end, he did not let go of the string, for the instant he took aim, the enemy commander looked up at him, as if sensing the attention.

It was best not to reveal his cards too early.

But he definitely began to get far more involved in the fighting, elves had powerful, agile body and an innate connection to nature, but as an elf from this particular mountain, he had a stronger connection here in particular, not just to the jungle itself, but due to repeated usage throughout several generations, he had also grown an affinity for the various toxins found here.

Although all elves nowadays possessed it, he was especially sensitive to it, and by exerting his power through that connection, was capable of momentarily enhancing the potency of all toxins within the vicinity.

He did not know the specifics of how the dirt-bloods were growing an immunity, but it surely had to do with them recovering the toxins upon the arrows and using them in some way, so by only temporarily enhancing them, his fellow elves were able to bring down the lumberjacks, and normally, the enemy should be unable to overcome that roadblock.

And indeed, seemingly realising that something unusual had just occurred, the dirt-blooded commander did not order for another operation immediately, and for another two weeks, nothing happened, elves would sometimes shoot regular arrows into the camp to kill some dirt-bloods, but apart from that, their effort to create a beast tide large enough to breach the enemy camp wasn't advancing much.

Their mountain and jungle was a natural wonder of great beauty, but it lacked beasts of great strength, as well as a good number of them, they were unwilling to use too many beasts as that could disrupt the ecosystem, so their options were limited in that department.

Every so often, the dirt-bloods would fire a boulder from one of their trebuchets, to check if the elves were still paying attention, one could assume, but none of the boulders reached them, all were stopped and torn to dust by violent winds.

The elf leader was communicating via carrier pigeons with other elves, as well as with some humans, but none of those nearby could be of help, they had armies of dirt-bloods to deal with as well, and eventually, it seemed like all messages stopped reaching the mountain, pigeons who were sent out or supposed to arrive were both being intercepted.

Clearly, the foul monsters were still scheming, even if it didn't seem like they were doing anything productive, the elf leader was well aware that it had been a long time since he had seen the monster woman, he knew she was their leader, so her prolonged absence was suspicious.

It made him feel uneasy, and her reappearance after three weeks did not alleviate his worries because immediately, the lumberjacks were sent forwards once more, they confidently strode forward as though there truly was nothing they should fear.

'How many of those giants does she even have?' the elf leader clicked his tongue, they had slain dozens upon dozens of those lumberjacks already, but she just kept pulling more out of nowhere, it would certainly be practical if her designated tree cutters were to run out…

He shook his head and directed his fellow elves to fire, and as expected, when the time came to fire tipped arrows, the lumberjacks showed no reaction whatsoever, like they were being shot with most regular arrows.

So the leader pulled upon his connection to the toxins further than before, enhancing them to a higher degree, a few fell as a result, but many were resisting it still, so he pulled stronger again, and only then did the giants all collapse into lifeless corpses.

'She actually had advance on me this time, if this keeps up, we won't be able to do anything to these lumberjacks' of course, there was always the way of pure, brute force, but not all elves were powerful enough for their arrows to blast the head of one of these giants apart.

Only the leader and a handful of notable elven warriors had the strength required to pull something like this off, and seeing the amount of lumberjacks the enemy could deploy, they would be able to cut them down efficiently at all, if anything, they would just be tiring themselves out slowing down the inevitable.

'She surely has many more giants in stock as well, I suppose there is no other choice…'

The leader realised that he was likely playing in the foul commander's hand right now, but it wasn't like he had much of a choice, the jungle was a major line of defence for the mountain, if it was gone, the amount of enemies that would be able to scale the mountain all at once would be staggering.

So although he would rather not do it, he had to allow elves to venture down the mountain and perform ambushes to disrupt the enemy camp, from up-close, many more elves would be capable of slaying the giants in an effective manner, especially if in a group, and they would also be able sabotaging the defences of the enemy camp, allowing their small beast tides to have a point of entry.

It opened up many more strategies, but the risks that came with it were great.

Some of his people would possibly lose their lives, or worse, be captured to serve in adding more elven blood to their corrupted bloodline…

But there was no other choice at this point, the alternative was even worse for the mountain and its people.

As such, the elves brought the fight face-to-face.