"Little Cousin, you wouldn't happen to team up with one of those greedy humans, right?" Maelora asked.
Not that I know of, Elowen thought, because the Ki Lein she knew wasn't greedy.
She racked her mind to come up with something that would diffuse the situation. First of all, she knew nothing about capturing humans. Her cousin could make that up on the spot, but that hardly changed her position. They would only need a fabrication of truth to harass her.
Even if they were telling the truth, Ki Lien didn't seem greedy, only a little odd and quirky. He didn't even take the beast cores she offered him.
He mentioned he was lost. Considering his dark skin, which mainly was characteristic of the lineage of the Thousand Isles in the west, Elowen hardly thought more before discounting any other possibilities. Yes, she should have not been this trustful.
Trusting humans is poor faith—that was what they were taught, but Elowen prided herself on being an excellent judge of character.
Like Elara was only with her cousin because she was promised something. A suitable spot in the academy, perhaps. Gawn was more honourable, and practically on the way to be betrothed to her cousin. Although he was with Maelora, he wouldn't compromise his values because of her. Sadly, beating a human to a pulp on the suspicions of stealing wasn't against his values.
Good thing she had mentioned nothing about meeting Ki Lien only yesterday. Even though she barely knew him, or communicated with him, he had saved her life. Elowen couldn't look over such kindness.
"You're mistaken, Cousin," Elowen said, sucking a breath to compose herself. "Ki Lien has only been kind to me since I knew him. He helps me in hunting, cooks, and even watches over me when I meditate."
"From the look of his low spirituality, it appeared that is only what he's good at," Elara sniffed in contempt. "Poor Elowen. You must have to do a lot to keep him safe, huh?"
Elowen frowned. Truth be told, she herself couldn't sense much spirituality from Ki Lien, not unless he was shooting flame and sending wild beasts flying. She had attributed his lack of spirituality to his master-level control, which Elara and others seemed to have discounted with their prejudice over humans. Honestly, Ki Lien's poor appearance added much to that.
"We manage fine," Elowen said, letting out a breath.
"Looks like you found yourself a dao companion, Cousin," Maelora smirked, shooting the dark-skinned bald man a disdainful look.
Elowen couldn't stop for the pinkish blush to crawl up on her cheeks. Ki Lian couldn't be considered handsome by Elven standards, but his features were almost alright, just the lack of hair and eyebrows made him look like a creep. Yet the guy didn't seem embarrassed at all, making her embarrassed for the both of them.
"Dao companion," Elara crackled in laughter. "Maelora said it. You two make a good pair."
Elowen said nothing, examining their expression to see if she managed to prevent the situation from escalating.
"Is he always like this?" Gawn asked for the first time, too prideful to even make fun of someone he deemed lower than himself.
"Umm, no," Elowen said, unsure what to say. "He's bad at conversing."
"Where did you even find someone like him?" Gawn asked. "One of the patients your mother helped?"
Elowen was just about to lie when all of their attention shifted. A bone-chilling roar echoed in the vicinity.
Looks like the Sun Peach tree has other suitors as well.
****
Klein was more annoyed than he showed outside. First of all, all these elves were all fair and otherworldly in looks, head full of silky hair—enough to make a bald man like him envious.
His other reason for being annoyed was mostly to do with them talking among themselves, and him not understanding anything. He was pretty sure none of them had any good view of him, evident by the glares they were shooting him.
Man, I just ate a fruit, Klein thought. Obviously, the peach was a highly essence-nutrient fruit. The raw essence surged through his body, contorted the dimension orb, and filled him with warm essence. It hadn't calmed down until he started circulating the essence he ingested from the fruit.
This fruit might just be his way out of his poor state. Klein couldn't help but glance back at the massive tree with deep interest in his eyes.
And precisely at that moment, a heart-lurching roar resounded, causing every one of them to spin on their heels to glance at the very source of it.
Klein's eyes widened, finding a white tiger the size of an enormous boulder only a hundred metres away. With a dead deer in his jaw, the tiger stood well over two metres tall, its body covered in fur, black straps over white, eyes radiating raw fury.
"It's a peak Iron ranked… %???%$$##!" exclaimed Elowen, her eyes darting all around to find a way out.
The big-breasted elf girl with golden locks of hair took control of her group, spitting commands as they positioned themselves in a formation. The cute healer elf in the back with the archer girl, the handsome elf with his sword in the front, supported by another male and the big-breasted elf girl, Maelora, in the middle.
Klien didn't mind getting involved in the fight, but the group seemed they could handle themselves against the white tiger. So he didn't bother. Besides, if he used all his firepower, it would leave him weakened for hours, almost vulnerable to these elves, who clearly didn't seem to have any good view of him or the human race as a whole.
So he simply moved away along with Elowen in case they got hit in the crossfire.
The archer girl was the first to attack, her arrow whispered through the air to plunge into the approaching beast. It didn't even try to dodge. With the beast being huge, the arrow had hardly a chance to miss. Yet it didn't hit where the elf girl intended. The tiger lurched from his spot at the very last minute to let the arrow dig into the beast's calves.
She shot more, as the handsome youth with a long sword charged with the other guy in his rear. Maelora started drafting an air elemental spell, a significantly powerful one, but she was slow as fuck to contest the massive creature on her own.
Klein was intrigued with what kind of spell she was about to cast when a palm caught his arm and pulled him away. Klein turned to find Elowen.
"Run!" she said, and literally pulled him into the run. Another thing about elves, they were way sturdier than they looked.