42

The Witcher: The last King of the elves

Chapter 42 – Battle of the Swamp, Part 2

Boom, boom, boom!

In an instant, under the surge of monsters of all kinds in the outer area of the central square, enormous columns of fire shot up into the sky.

The powerful blast that erupted in an instant hurled a great number of giant swamp monsters into the air. All of them burst into flames, transforming one after another into blazing fireballs.

For the monsters, these flames were unbearably hot. However, for the elves they were harmless.

In an instant, the giant swamp rats turned into charcoal. When they fell to the ground, they all became countless scraps of black ash.

There is no such thing as a complete corpse after slaying a monster.

At the same time, hundreds of pillars of flame appeared one after another in other directions, forming a line of fiery defense with the square as its center, blocking the advance of the tide of rats.

These pillars of fire were magical traps placed by the elven hunters.

Thranduil had ordered them to begin preparations two days in advance. The purpose was to deliver a frontal strike to the monsters attacking their territory on the night of the blood moon.

If it hadn’t been for a few accidents that caused a large number of magical traps to be triggered prematurely, the losses of the rat horde would have been even more devastating, and several times more swamp rats would have been burned alive in this wave of traps.

…

“Attack!”

“Arghhh!”

Screams and roars filled the night.

Near those columns of fire, blazing fireballs were everywhere.

The appearance of each fireball meant that a giant swamp rat was about to be burned to ashes.

In less than half a minute, tens of thousands of swamp rats had been killed.

But such heavy casualties did not drive the rats away. On the contrary, it made the giant swamp rats even more frenzied.

Normally, these low-level magical beasts that lived in the dark world feared fire; it was in their nature. But the rats pressed forward one after another, with no intention of retreating, and some even hurled themselves directly into the columns of flame.

Visible to the naked eye…

The light of all the pillars of flame quickly dimmed.

This was a phenomenon caused by magical power being consumed at a rapid pace.

The elemental magic power of the trap was finite and could not be replenished. Once depleted, the trap would collapse.

This was what the more intelligent monsters behind the swamp rats were counting on.

But this was not guided by their conscious will.

The swamp rats were already in a state of confusion and frenzy, paying no attention to the magical traps. They had only one goal: to break into Thranduil’s territory and destroy everything.

“This is the terrifying power of the Abyss!” Seeing the swarm of rats charging at the columns of fire again and again, Haldier couldn’t help but draw a deep breath.

This was only a ‘casualty’ under the influence of the Abyss’s power. If the monster was heavily tainted and mutated into a demonic creature, it would be even more terrifying.

Because demonized creatures were not only extremely powerful in combat, they also obeyed the devil’s orders.

A conscious, organized violent army could not be compared with this common, chaotic, and undisciplined violent horde.

Thranduil turned to look at the elven priest beside him. “When the blood moon appears, does your body show any abnormalities?”

The elf shook his head and said: “Your Majesty, nothing unusual. Our faith is so strong that not even the power of the Abyss can affect us.”

Suddenly, Thranduil understood. His troops were backed by a system capable of resisting the erosion of the Abyss’s power.

The reason he asked this question specifically was because he would undoubtedly face demons in the future. The troops under his command would also come into direct contact with the power of the Abyss, making them more prone to corruption.

Now that he knew he had the support of the World Tree, he could be a little more at ease.

“Not being affected by the power of the Abyss is like striking the demon twice over in advance. After all, if countless native races had not been corrupted by the power of the Abyss and turned into demonic creatures, it would not have been so easy for the demons to win the war.

“This is excellent news!”

…

“Do not retreat, fire!” Under the desperate charge of the rats, the columns of fire could no longer hold.

The magic power was drained and the runes collapsed. Almost at the same time, the pillars of fire began to vanish one after another.

After a few minutes, all the columns of flame were extinguished.

Without the obstruction of the fire columns, the rats surged into the square like a tide.

The giant swamp rats were everywhere, and the densely packed scene made everyone’s hair stand on end.

“It’s our turn!” Thranduil, who had withdrawn from the battlefield, once again unleashed his power to attack.

Suddenly, a blazing dragon tens of meters long appeared in the sky.

Then it swooped down upon the plague of rats, creating an explosion at least three hundred meters in diameter. In an instant, countless swamp rats perished.

By now, Thranduil’s power had increased considerably.

The might of the fire dragon’s roar had also grown stronger. “This is simply true magic.”

On the other side, after Thranduil gave the signal, the elven army also took action.

The first move was a torrential rain of arrows.

A total of 60,500 elven archers drew their bows and loosed arrows simultaneously. Dense shafts traced perfect arcs through the air, pinning thousands of giant swamp rats to the ground.

It was plain to see that the swamp rats at the front fell in vast numbers, like wheat flattened by the wind, and soon the square was stained red with blood.

And this was only the beginning.

Before the first wave of arrows had even landed, the elven archers had already begun their second volley. Rapid fire, nearly one arrow per second.

This was the basic discipline of the elven archers.

Nothing sophisticated, only fundamental archery techniques honed to perfection. You didn’t even need to aim deliberately, for the enemy was all you saw. Volley after volley of arrows fell from the sky with a sound like the tearing of the air.

In an instant, the area within two hundred meters of the wall was covered with swamp rat corpses, and in some places piles of bodies had already formed.
It was estimated that no fewer than 50,000 swamp rats had been slain.

But the number of swamp rats was still far too great.

Soon, the giant swamp rats crossed the area covered by the rain of arrows and continued charging toward Thranduil’s territory.

But in the very next moment, they were bombarded with several high-level spells.

Thousands of elven mages stood on the walls, waving their wands and casting advanced spells one after another upon the rat swarm.

Suddenly, all kinds of magical scenes erupted on the battlefield: a sea of flames blazing, ice cones shooting, howling winds, dense spikes thrusting from the ground…

For the rat horde, this was another large-scale massacre. The violent plague of rats once again suffered grievous losses.

…

Just as Thranduil’s territory struggled to withstand the rat siege—

In the outer ruins of the city, wars also broke out everywhere. Almost every faction had joined the battle.

The orcs who resisted the lure of darkness were fighting against the monsters that sought to devour everything.

On the other side of the mountain, an army of the undead was battling a tide of rats.

In the skies, countless flying monsters fought one another.

The scene was utterly chaotic, as if the entire world were at war…