43

The Witcher: The last King of the elves

Chapter 43 – Swamp Battle, Part 3

“Damn it, don’t fall back!”

“Wait!”

“We must not allow those monsters to destroy our tribal walls!” In the dense forest, a tribe of orcs numbering in the thousands was engulfed in war.

On the tribal wall, which rose more than ten meters high, stood a great number of orcs wielding various weapons, including not only archers but also mages.

Looking beyond the wall of their tribe, there were countless monsters.

Wind wolves, forest panthers, armored mantises, swamp rats, blue-striped leopards… there were innumerable types of beasts and magical monsters, far more abundant than within the city itself.

Without exception, all of these monsters were influenced by the power of the Abyss, and their temperaments had become extremely frenzied.

Even some neighboring orc tribes had been affected by the power of darkness.

Under normal circumstances, they would never besiege a tribe protected by walls. Even if they managed to capture it, they would suffer tremendous losses.

But now, their consciousness had been eroded by the power of the Abyss.

The only thought left was to kill!

As long as they were not of their “own kind,” they had to be slaughtered.

At that moment, heaps of monster corpses piled up on the battlefield, but just like the swarm of rats that had besieged Thranduil’s territory, the other monsters had no intention of retreating. Instead, they fought with even greater ferocity.

How long the battle lasted was unknown, but the orcs began to fall.

“Hold on! Hold on!”

“As long as we endure until past one in the morning, victory will be ours!” An old orc stood atop the tribal wall to rally morale.

Around midnight was when the power of the Abyss reached its peak. But once past one in the morning, when the blood moon sank in the west, the power of the Abyss would quickly dissipate.

Likewise, the affected monsters would gradually recover their sanity and would no longer be as maddened as they were now.

Hearing this encouragement, the orcs fighting in the battle felt their strength double, and they hurled themselves back into combat with renewed seriousness.

However, at that very moment… a roar suddenly echoed from behind the monster army.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The powerful sound waves made the trees tremble within hundreds of meters.

Immediately afterward, a terrifying figure appeared.

It stood nearly seven meters tall, resembling a kind of bear-like monster, but without fur. Its body was covered in blood-red scales, and bloody bone spurs jutted out from its back and arms.

Its eyes glowed blood-red, and drool dripped from its mouth.

It roared from time to time—utterly consumed by madness.

“Chief, this is bad! It’s a demonic creature!”

“And it’s a demonized mutation of a high-level demonic beast—we can’t defeat it!”

“Chief, what should we do?” Cries of fear echoed along the tribal walls.

The patriarch they spoke of was the old orc who had been rallying morale. At that moment, even his aged, lizard-like face showed fear. Demonic creatures—mutations of high-level magical beasts.

Judging by the violent aura emanating from its body, it had definitely reached the King level. He himself had only just reached King level, and he was old.

How could he possibly match such a fierce and vigorous demonic creature of that size? Its sheer presence made clear they were not on the same level.

In an instant, he thought of escape!

But the problem was that the entire tribe was surrounded by hordes of monsters, with nowhere to run.

“No fear—the Raven Clan does not fear battle! Not even demonic creatures can destroy our will!”

“Victory to the tribe!”

“For the Horde!”

Morale returned, but not for long.

Half an hour later, the tribal wall was finally torn down by the demonized creature, and dense swarms of monsters immediately poured in.

Screams and wails followed one after another.

A similar scene occurred elsewhere in the outer ruins of the city.
Even the fortresses of the undead forces were reduced to rubble by the monster army.

That night, the forces in the outskirts of the city suffered devastating losses.

…

City Center, Central Plaza.

After leaving behind at least 100,000 corpses, the rat swarm finally rushed toward the outskirts of Thranduil’s territory, where defenses had been strengthened.

The only thing standing in the rats’ way now were thousands of Treants, each over twenty meters tall.

If they broke through this defensive line, the rats could attack Thranduil’s territory directly.

“Vile underground creature!” A deep sound rumbled across the battlefield, coming from a Treant warrior.

In its hand, it swung a wooden club nearly fifteen meters long and slammed it fiercely against the rats charging at him.

In an instant, blood and flesh splattered everywhere.

More than a dozen swamp rats were crushed to death on the spot, leaving no complete bodies behind—only shredded pieces.

The immense strength of a Treant could even wound a giant dragon.

Low-level magical beasts such as swamp rats naturally stood no chance.

At the same time, other Treants also launched their attacks. They lacked sophisticated combat skills and showed only one thing from start to finish: the aesthetics of violence.

With a single strike, the whole world seemed to fall silent.

Boom!

…

“It’s your turn!”

On the wall, an elven cleric spoke to a squad of elven swordsmen gathered not far away.

He waved the staff in his hand, and a faint golden light spread forth. Under the cover of that golden radiance, the physical attributes of the elven swordsmen suddenly increased significantly.

This was the blessing of the elven clerics.

“Thank you!” As soon as the words fell, the team of elven swordsmen leapt directly from the six-meter-high wall and rushed into the battlefield without hesitation.

Other teams of elven swordsmen from different sections also joined the fight one after another.

Entire battalions of thousands of elves charged joyfully into battle.

They were agile, leaving afterimages across the battlefield, and with their elven blades, they swiftly struck down those who slipped past the violent punishment of the Treant warriors.

In the far distance, countless magical abilities bombarded the rats.

The dense rain of arrows never ceased.
Moment by moment, large groups of swamp rats were slaughtered.

The rat swarm suffered heavy losses, but the elven army under Thranduil’s command stood firm.

…

BOOM!

The battle raged on…

All the elves had been fighting for several hours, Thranduil included.

This was not only because the rat swarm was unimaginably vast, but more importantly, the fierce war had drawn nearly all undead creatures into the ruins at the city’s center.

The enemies appearing on the battlefield now were not only swarms of rats but also large-scale legions of the undead.

That was why the war had not ended even now.

“The more, the better!”

“If you don’t come here to die, how will my territory develop quickly?” Thranduil drew a vial of high-grade elven life essence from his spatial belt and drank it in one gulp. The magical power he had rapidly consumed was instantly replenished.

He brandished the Solar Elf King’s scepter repeatedly.

He unleashed powerful magical skills upon the rats and undead creatures on the battlefield. In an instant, a vast area was cleared.

So far, at least tens of thousands of swamp rats and undead creatures had died by his hand.

In terms of personal achievements alone, no elf in the territory could compare to him.

After a long and brutal battle, waves of agonized roars suddenly echoed across the battlefield.

The sound was deafening, heart-wrenching.

Thranduil raised his eyes and immediately saw more than a dozen giant swamp rats of relatively high level within the swarm. They stood upright like humans, their bodies contracting rapidly.

All of these giant swamp rats radiated a red light…

Like the glow of a blood moon.