"What!? A horde of monsters are coming here? Even if there are a lot of them, can't the guards easily take care of the monsters since you mentioned they were wounded?"
"Elder, I'm afraid that's impossible. There are at least a few thousands of them, and I believe they will reach our village in less than an hour."
"What!? We will quickly check out the situation before deciding on our next course of action."
As most of the elders stood up and left, Eldun stayed behind with his daughter as he felt guilty over what had just happened.
"Leader- No, Dan… will you please help us? With your skills, I'm sure those monsters would be a piece of cake."
"..."
If this had happened at any other time, Dan wouldn't hesitate to help them. However, with what just happened to Kio and Miyu, he wasn't so eager to assist these elves.
"Eldun, I'm sorry, but I have to protect these girls. Besides, if anything happened to my little girl, I wouldn't be able to forgive myself. I've already lost my wife, I can't afford to lose my daughter as well."
"I understand your concerns, but what if I bring those girls to a safe place, so it can ease your worries?"
"Sigh… Right now, I can't trust any of these so-called 'safe places' inside this village. Didn't you see what just happened to the two people in my party earlier? If there are other traps in this village, we both know what will happen to them."
"But-"
"Eldun. I can't afford to separate with them right now. You might not understand the danger, but I have a feeling I know what kind of monsters are heading over here."
"What do you mean?"
"Although it was only limited to human zombies, but our city was overrun with them, causing us to flee from our home. I'm not even sure how many people are still alive back there…"
"Can't you kill them easily with your skills? There should be other adventurers in the city too."
"The thing is, the moment you get wounded by these zombies, you become one of them after a while. The infection ability of these zombies is too abnormal, and we don't have any cure for it. Your daughter Fae should've seen it and understands what I'm talking about."
"Fae, is that true?"
"Yes, father. I've lost the majority of my squad from these zombies. Even the ones that didn't die chose to separate from us, as they didn't want to kill or get killed by their friends."
"..."
"Eldun, do you still have any Return Stones from back then?"
"Yes. I still have a couple at home, why?"
"Save one for yourself and give some to the people you care about."
"Are you telling me…"
"Yes. We might need to abandon this place if the other elves aren't able to defend it. I'm not sure how strong the monsters will be after they turn into a zombie."
"..."
"Father! We need to return and check up on my brother!"
"You're right. I need to go home anyways to grab my stuff. Leader, what are you going to do then?"
"Although I'm not willing to help save everyone here, the least I could do is make sure your family is safe. Girls, stay close to me."
As Mary, Kaori, and Luna all nodded, they followed closely behind Dan.
When they opened the door and left the building, panic was spreading everywhere. Most of the suspended bridges have been broken, and the elves were either hiding or running away from something.
"W-what happened?! Didn't the scout say we still had a bit of time before the monsters reached us?"
Eldun and Fae were in utter disbelief. In such a short period of time, at the amount of damage done to their village was insane.
"Eldun, look up there. I believe those things are what caused all this chaos."
As everybody looked up at the direction Dan pointed at, they could see dozens of large birds and oversized bees. These aerial creatures were flying around, attacking any elves they could see.
With a wingspan of over 2 meters, these gigantic birds were breaking everything in their sight as they flew from place to place.
"Looks like these things traveled faster than the ones on the ground, causing them to enter the village way sooner than expected."
"N-no… this can't be…"
"Our home…"
Eldun and Fae were grieving over the destruction of their village. In their sights, some of these birds were even colliding into the wooden houses in search of prey. They appeared to be immune to pain, as they didn't flinch or react from the impact.
"Ahhhhhh!"
"Kyahhh!"
Screams erupted from all around them, as many of these elves didn't have the ability to fight back. They had lived their whole lives in a fairly peaceful environment, so when they got attacked in their own homes, they were unable to defend themselves.
"Hey Eldun, if you want to get back home, you better do it quickly. Things will only get worse out here when the other monsters arrive."
"G-got it…"
Since the suspended bridges around them were all broken, they could only get to the ground first by using the spiral staircase around the tree.
As soon as they reached the ground, some of the birds spotted them and flew in their direction.
"[Weapon Control]"
Dan took out some weapons from his Item Box and used his skill to kill any of the birds that got close to them.
As many swords, spears, and axes slashed and pierced them, the birds continued their charge, even when some of them lost the ability to fly.
Seeing how these birds recklessly rushed through the weapons, as if they didn't feel pain, Dan cursed under his breath.
"Fuck! Don't tell me these things are infected too?!"
Dan reduced the number of weapons that he was controlling by half, so he would be able to control his weapons better to aim for the head.
Fae was the only other person that was helping him at the moment, shooting with her bow at any bird that got close to them.
As they were bogged down in defending themselves, it took awhile before they could kill all of the birds as Dan and Fae's weapon had a limit to their range. Hitting these birds while they were mid-flight also increased the difficulty, as they would only die when their heads get pierced or cut off. In addition, the sound of their fighting had also attracted more infected birds nearby.
By the time they killed all the birds around them, they could see many elves retreating towards the entrance of the village.
With a bow and quiver equipped on all of those elves, it was apparent that these were the guards who were tasked with defending their home.
Although the elves were a few hundred meters away from Dan and the rest, they could see some wounded elves being carried away.
"Shit. We better go quickly. We're running out of time."
As they ran in a straight line towards Eldun's home and climbed the spiral staircase, they ignored all the shouting around them.
Some elves were screaming for help as there were still some birds and bees flying around. A few of them were even begging Eldun and Fae to help defend the entrance as Eldun had his responsibilities as an elder, while Fae should be assisting with her squad.
However, the only thing on their minds right now was to ensure Felix was safe. Eldun also wanted to make sure his children had a Return Stone on them to leave this village if necessary.
Fae's lips were bleeding as she bit down on it too hard due to a mix of frustration and anguish. If she wasn't so worried about her brother, she would've immediately went to the frontlines to help the other elves defend their village.
Once they finally managed to reach their home, Fae loudly called for her brother.
"Felix! Felix, where are you, come out here!"
"Big sister! I'll be there in a second!"
Seconds after her shout, they heard footsteps approaching in their direction.
What greeted them wasn't only Felix, as Eldritz was also beside him.
When Dan and the girls saw him, they all glared at him. Kaori even wanted to rush over and hit him with her spear, but she was held back by Dan.
"What are you doing here? This isn't your home."
Fae was clearly displeased at the sight of Eldritz entering her home without being invited.
"Welcome back, Fae. I knew you would return after the meeting."
"Who gave you permission to call me by my nickname? Please leave, as you aren't welcomed here."
"There's no need to be so cold. Aren't you going to thank me for getting rid of the human who enslaved your younger brother, Felix?"
As soon as he mentioned Kio, the atmosphere around them turned sour as Kaori and Luna clenched their fists.
Even Dan wanted to punch him in the face for what he did. However, since he knew they were about to leave, he decided to leave Eldritz's fate in the hands of the zombies.
"Shameless. I heard Kio only transferred the slave ownership to himself, otherwise my brother would've died already."
"Hahaha. Don't tell me you actually got fooled by that human. I thought you were smart enough to not believe in his lies."
"What are you trying to say. My brother was the one that told me what happened back there."
"Hah. Your brother probably received an order to lie to you. Don't you know how cunning humans could be?"
"..."
"There's no way that's true! Kio isn't that sort of person!"
Even if Kaori was being held back by Dan, she wasn't about to just let Eldritz say whatever he wanted about her brother. Even though she didn't witness it in person, she knew what kind of person her brother was.
"Oh, really? A cold-blooded murderer who would kill somebody a minute after they met isn't that kind of person, eh?"
"You! Your friends were the ones who tried to attack us first!"
"Heh. But none of them actually attacked, am i right? Your brother was the only one that attacked and killed one of us."
"You're just twisting the situation at that time to your convenience!"
Unbeknownst to them, the reason why Kio attacked right away yesterday was due to his skill [Threat Detection]. When he sensed the hostility from Eldritz's friends, he already had his guard up. The moment they drew their bow, he didn't want to take any chances as he judged that they would definitely attack one of them.
Still, his first shot was only a warning shot as he fired at the shoulders to disarm them. The second elf was only killed because he ignored Kio's warning and continued to reach for his weapon.
Without that skill, Kio might not have done what he did, as he wouldn't have perceived the situation to be that dangerous. At most, he would've just stayed in front of his girls to be ready to defend any possible attacks.
"Ahhhh!!"
As Kaori and Eldritz were arguing, more screams erupted from outside, causing Dan and a few of them to take a look outside the window.
"Shit. Looks like the monsters managed to break through the elves' line of defence."