[A few minutes earlier]
Michael and his archers moved silently on the thick branches hanging high in the air.
Their steps were muffled and the noises they made while moving drowned because of the loud noises the Adventurers and Mercenaries below them made.
Meanwhile, Michael and the archers waited for Sun Demos and his underlings.
They would arrive at any moment and be fully prepared to attack.
The members of the Jungle Expedition on the ground were relaxed. The group beneath Michael had been farther away from the other groups and didn't encounter the enraged monsters that had been lured to the outer area.
Most of the Adventurers and Mercenaries beneath them were well-seasoned warriors. They respected the dangers of the Untamed Jungle, but they didn't fear the outer area. Their numerical advantage boosted the naïve fearlessness of the 3,000 Adventurers and Mercenaries.
They thought that their time to shine had finally come.
After they had been moved to the first batch of participants, who were given the honor to enter the Untamed Jungle, they experienced great euphoria. Their minds were filled with the imagination of them fighting glorious battles about which they could tell their children and grandchildren in the future.
However, imagination was often different from reality.
The small army of 3,000 Adventurers and Mercenaries was faced with a completely different scenario than they could have hoped for.
Loud noises filled the Untamed Jungle in front of the Adventurers and Mercenaries suddenly. The bushes in front of them began to shake, and a sudden sense of animosity filled the air all around them.
The well-seasoned warriors tensed up and moved closer to each other instinctively.
A sudden feeling of uncertainty and fear shrouded their bodies and minds. They quickly entered a close-knit formation and prepared for the incoming attack from the front.
The next moment, thunderous roars filled with power and charisma filled the air, sending shivers up their spines.
Yet, no monster lunged at them.
There was nothing.
Screams filled the air in front of them, and the roars of mighty monsters followed suit, but no monster came forward to attack them.
At first, nothing seemed wrong. It was eerie that the area in front of them moved, and that screams and roars filled the air, however, that was all. There was nothing more to worry about.
Some warriors began to think that the Untamed Jungle created an eerie atmosphere in an attempt to inflict fear on its invaders.
But then blood-curdling screams reached their ears.
Screams and muffled groans rang out from all around them as the first dozen warriors found themselves lying on the ground, blood gushing out of their throats, eyes, and abdomen.
They could barely muster the strength to register what happened and how they died when the Grim Reaper sliced their souls with his soul-reaping scythe.
A barrage of close to 200 arrows flew through the air in a beautiful arc, and they pierced deep into the bodies of the fallen warriors!
Only a dozen targets died, but more than half of the arrows impacted where they hurt combatants the most -- drilling into their vital spots and joints.
Another wave of terrified wails filled the air, but the perpetrators didn't seem to care. They released the second barrage of arrows from all directions.
Hell broke loose the next instance.
Dozens of Adventurers and Mercenaries died, and even more sustained heavy injuries, which restricted their combat prowess greatly.
Then, a three-meter-tall monkey covered in black fur with lengthy arms and blood-red eyes shot through the thicket with terrifying velocity.
The monkey looked like a demonic beast that had just escaped from hell's gates.
It stared at its opponents like a predator stared at dead prey before it appeared in front of the closest Adventurers. Sun Demos grasped the heads of two of them. The next moment, Sun Demos applied some force onto his palms, squashing the heads instantaneously.
The Adventurers couldn't even issue a scream when their brain matter spurted out of their shattered skulls.
Not even a second later, the Sun Demos' tail shot forward. It coiled around the neck of the next closest Mercenary. The Mercenary slashed the tail with all his might, hoping to cut off the tail, or block the attack, but the tail didn't even budge. It continued to advance unaffected.
Sun Demos' tail coiled around the mercenary's neck and choked him to death. A moment later, Sun Demos threw the motionless body into the group of shivering young men and women next to him.
Sun Demos' bloody eyes lit up seeing the fear in the eyes of the men and women.
However, he was not alone. He shouldn't keep the fun for himself.
His arms shot in the air and a deep roar escaped his lips as he beat his arms on his chest, calling for his underlings.
Hundreds of two-meter-tall Blood Oath Demon Monkeys shot out of the thicket all around the Adventurers and Mercenaries.
They were extremely fast and deadly, not missing a single opportunity to strike and kill.
The attack of the Blood Oath Demon Monkeys was already enough to bring the group's morale to an all-time low.
But the Demon Monkeys were not on their own. In fact, they were merely a distraction!
The never stopping downpour of arrows was the main culprit of the Adventurers' and Mercenaries' suffering.
Death hailed down without mercy, killing the opponents without discrimination while the beasts advanced toward them from all directions.
At one point, Adventurers found Michael and his Archers hiding high up in the trees all around the trees surrounding them, but they couldn't do much.
Their morale was at a low point, and the Blood Oath Demon Monkeys attacked fiercely.
Michael and his archers didn't show any mercy either. They didn't focus on delivering killing blows. Instead, their focus was purely on inflicting injuries to restrict their opponents' combat prowess.
This worked out better than planned.
However, the battle was still not over. It only ended when the hunting units of Michael's team returned.
The EmeraldLeaf Adventurer team and the Forest Elf Summons were fierce and brutal with their onslaught. They killed their opponents swiftly, without batting an eye. The Forest Elves didn't even grace their opponents with a single glance. All they did was ensure that their opponents were dead before moving on.
"Did you finish your mi--…." Michael asked, just to shut his mouth when he saw the expressions on the faces of the EmeraldLeaf Adventurer team's members.
Their faces were void of emotions. They didn't even flinch when they entered close combat and blood spurt on their faces.
The Blood Oath Demon Monkey ripped their opponents apart right next to the Forest Elves, but they didn't give any reaction.
'Is that the Battle Mode Lilica mentioned before?' Michael wondered, recalling faintly that Lilica mentioned something about the way Forest Elves fought.
[Our numbers might not be great, and most other races would consider us as lovers of nature and pacifism, but not all of that reflects the truth. We love nature, that's true. Nature is part of our life, so we try our best to live with nature. But what most people tend to forget is that death is also part of the cycle of life. Without death, there wouldn't be life, and without life death wouldn't exist. They're two different sides of a coin, and we Forest Elves are trying to become the coin – becoming part of life and death….]
Before, Michael didn't really think too much about Lilica's words. He had seen them fight more than once, and he never thought that their combat style was too weird.
But today's battle was different than usual.
Today's battle was not a deciding factor between life and death.
It was a fight that determined the destiny of Michael's territory.
The fate of countless would be decided today, and nobody could say who would emerge victorious, and whose string of fate would be cut today.
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