Volume 4: How big is the heart, how vast is the earth Chapter 96 Balk Crisis
In the heavy snow, three elves glided lightly on the white ground.
The snow elves are not afraid of the severe cold, but the snowflakes all over the sky will affect their vision. It was not until they were about to hit the steep mountain wall that they realized the destination they were looking for was right in front of them.
The leading snow elf turned sideways and braked, raised his hand to signal his two companions to stop, and pushed up the visor under his helmet.
Under the visor was a gorgeous face with murderous eyes. Hot air spurted out from her small, plump red lips. The female snow elf warrior narrowed her eyes slightly and turned her head to look at her companion who slid up to stand side by side with her. "Yarlin, are you sure that the Snow Wolf Tribe Li lives on the mountain ahead?"
The snow elf named Yarlin was not wearing a helmet. He turned around to look at the terrain around him, then took out a map from his backpack and looked at it. He hesitated and said, "Six years ago, sixteen years ago, and during the inspection of the cursed land in the previous sixty years, the Li tribe did live here."
The female soldier didn't say anything. She bent down, took off her skis, tucked them under her arms, and started climbing the mountain on the snow.
It took the three elves more than ten minutes to climb up this unknown low mountain. The naturally formed platform in the middle of the mountain was completely covered with snow, and only the crowns of the surrounding trees remained.
The female warrior put down her skis, walked to the middle of the platform, turned around twice, and turned to look at her two companions.
"...Another tribe disappeared?" Yaerlin looked solemn. He compared the marks on the map again, shook his head, rolled up the map and put it back into his backpack. "In the past hundred years, there has been no large-scale conflict in the western part of the Cursed Land. If only one or two tribes chose to migrate, it would be fine. But three Snow Wolf tribes and one Cat tribe disappeared at once. This is too... Sergeant Selina, I think we need to report the situation to the Royal City."
Sergeant Selina raised her hand and wiped her helmet. The visor fell down with a click, covering her face, revealing only her ruby eyes burning with rage. "Of course... Private Yarlin, release the Snowbird and report the disappearance of many tribes in the southwest of the Cursed Land. Let's continue going down and see who is so bold as to start a war in the Cursed Land!"
"—What kind of audacious lunatic dared to desecrate Melville's resting place!"
One day later.
The wind and snow grew stronger, covering the sky and the sun. The three snow elves standing at the former site of the grassroots tribe were surrounded by a howling cold wind, and their faces were even uglier than the dark sky.
"Damn it!" Private First Class Yarlin threw the map onto the snow. "The fifth, the fifth tribe to disappear. Four Snow Wolf tribes and one Cat tribe. Not even a trace left!"
"Calm down, Yarlin." Sergeant Selina held the helmet in her hand and looked at the empty land in front of her with a cold face. "The Snow Wolf Tribe is very powerful and can make so many tribes disappear silently. The Tiger Tribe can never do that... At least our people didn't find anything unusual in the Tiger Tribe's royal court."
"Yes, Sergeant." Yarlin took a few deep breaths and bent down to pick up the map. "Sergeant Selina, do you think the disappeared tribe is still alive?"
"It's possible. At least they didn't die in the cursed land. Otherwise... with so much blood, Wilmer's rest would have been affected long ago." Selina turned the helmet over and put it on her head. "Who has the ability to move so many tribes away? Private First Class Yarlin, Private Gilbert, have you ever thought about this problem?"
The two snow elf warriors were stunned for a moment and said in unison: "Dark elves?!"
"How could the Dark Elf Matron take the lead in destroying the agreement in the Cursed Land?" Yarlin couldn't believe it.
"Who knows? Maybe the Dwarf King makes them feel pressured and they need more slave soldiers?" Selina turned around and looked at her two subordinates. "Don't forget that although the Snow Wolf Tribe has lost its heritage, they are still qualified soldiers. Fourteen years ago, the Orc Empire paid a very low price to get the elite warriors of the Snow Wolf Tribe. After all, they have lost their heritage and forgotten the honor of their ancestors."
Yaerlin suddenly felt a headache: "That's right, those guys are easy to deceive... Damn it, didn't the guys in the forest notice anything?"
"Perhaps Her Majesty the Queen has no time to take care of such trivial matters." Selina smiled sarcastically under her mask.
Well... the snow mountain elves and the forest elves are one family to the outside world, and internally... there are two kings. It would be nonsense to say that they are close and have no gaps between them.
"We are the only ones who can solve this problem." Sergeant Selina said without hesitation, "Private First Class Arlin, Private Gilbert, listen to my orders. Give up the search for the green dragon and head for the exit of the underground world. If the dark elves violated the agreement, they would definitely leave traces at the exit. Now that it is not yet the once-in-a-decade inspection period for the Cursed Land, they probably can't imagine that we will come so soon."
Two days later, at the southwestern border of the grassland, the exit of the underground world.
The three snow elves stared blankly at the huge frozen hole in front of them, unable to recover for a long time.
"...The river changed its course to here? When did it happen?" Yarlin squatted down and punched the ice hard. It was impossible to tell how thick the ice was with the naked eye, but it didn't move at all...
Selina pushed up her visor, her expression changing several times: "What on earth is this... Could it be that the dark elves deliberately destroyed the exit to cover up their actions?"
Arlin's eyes lit up: "As expected of a sergeant, those dark elves are always so despicable."
Sergeant Selina said with determination: "There is more than one exit to the underground world. It is meaningless for them to destroy this place. Private Yarlin, check where the next nearest exit is."
"Yes." Yarlin pulled out a map from his backpack.
“Boom—crack, crack, crack!!”
A series of loud noises startled the three snow elves. Sergeant Selina quickly turned around and ran out of the exit. She raised her head and looked in the direction of the sound. Her eyes were immediately red with anger.
A giant white wolf, which seemed to be fleeing from the south, lost its footing and fell from a hill, rolling down with snowflakes. It crashed into small trees along the way and was bounced off by large trees. Its body rushed into the air due to inertia and fell heavily, destroying half of the tree canopy.
"I caught you hot~"
A giant green dragon as big as a hill appeared from the other side of the hill, gripped the rocks on the surface of the hill with its claws, spread its flesh wings over thirty meters wide, and suddenly jumped up, crushing large pieces of snow. Its huge body almost covered the sky, and its shadow almost spread to the exit of the frozen underground world.
Snow elf Sergeant Selina was furious. She pulled out the two-meter-long saber tied to her back. The wind blew the snowflakes around her and the floating elements rushed towards the furious warrior frantically. She suddenly squatted down and jumped up with a bang. The thick snow layer was stepped on by her, leaving huge spider-web-like cracks.
“So it’s you—!!”
Balk pushed down the wolf-like Yang Mao and opened his mouth wide, preparing to take Yang Mao's head into his mouth (er... a way to express intimacy... you know...), but he saw a cold light slashing towards his neck from the corner of his eye...
"Huh?"
In fact, the young green dragon has no combat experience at all... After all, the continent of Bloomfield is relatively peaceful. The Elf King and the Beast King have not yet decided the winner, and the Dwarf King is relatively conservative and never leaves the Western Continent. In addition, the Southern Continent is a loose sand and there is no Human King. It is basically impossible for any powerful force to want to go to war with the dragon clan - it is true that the dragon clan's overall combat power is not top-notch due to their small population, and they have a place in the second-rate power group.
So the confused Balke didn't realize the danger until the knife broke the skin on his neck and dragon blood gushed out like a fountain. He howled, covered his neck with his fleshy wings to avoid it, and instinctively lashed out with his big tail like a whip to fight back.
Yangmao, who was playing with Balk with his front legs, was suddenly covered in dragon blood. He was completely confused: "???"
Selina dropped down quickly to avoid the dragon's tail, and clenched the powerful saber in both arms. She jumped up again and swung with all her strength: "Hah——!"
Balk was so frightened that tears were about to come out. He turned around hastily, faced the powerful enemy with murderous intentions, opened his mouth and roared out dragon's breath.
"Guardian's Wall!"
With a clear shout, the dragon's breath was blocked by a magic wall composed of hexagonal patterns that appeared out of thin air before it touched Selina. Selina did not slow down and directly broke through the magic barrier that protected her. She roared and slashed the saber downwards with the force of splitting a mountain.
The huge dragon body became a burden at this moment, and Balk had to quickly transform into a human form to avoid this wave of powerful slashing. The aftermath of the blade barely brushed past his nose, and the strong wind blew in all directions, frightening him so much that his face turned pale...
Private First Class Arlin, who came out a little slower to provide support, hastily cast a protective magic. When he looked down, he saw a giant white-haired wolf lying stiffly on the ground with blood all over its head and upper body.
“?!” Yaerlin was stunned for a moment, then he became furious, “A conspiracy of the dragon clan? Dispersing the guards of the royal city?! Hateful——!!”
The corporal who thought he had seen through the evil green dragon Austin's plot immediately followed the sergeant's footsteps and rushed forward. He put his hands in front of his chest and made a silent snow elf magic gesture. More than a dozen half-meter-long ice cones quickly formed around him...
"?" Balk's mind almost froze when he saw another person coming to kill him... His friend Yangmao was "trapped behind enemy lines" and he couldn't turn around and run away. In a hurry, he didn't have time to think. He controlled the wind element magic to lift his body to a height of more than ten meters and transformed it into a dragon body. His wings swelled up with surging wind, rolled up a large amount of snowflakes and sprayed them forward, and he once again spit out hot dragon breath from his mouth.
Snow elf Sergeant Selina hurried to a stop, and a wall of wind spread out in front of her; Private First Class Yarlin rolled on the spot, and the formed ice cones formed a protective wall above his body. The dragon fire, which could only last for a few seconds, did not cause any harm to the two elves.
But... the snowflakes around the two of them were melted by the hot dragon's breath. Selina's silver armor, which already had a lot of snow on it, was now dripping with water.
Balkron stepped forward with his claws, stepped into the melting snow water, and shouted: "Electrolysis... No, lightning strike!"
Among elemental magic, Phoenix, Ice, and Fire magic are the most common means of direct attack, while Electricity is not very common... because the control of lightning power is much more difficult than other magics. If the whole process from release to hit is controlled, even the dragons with bottomless mental power will not be able to handle it. However, with water as a conductor, the situation is different. Balk does not need to worry about the hitting process at all, just discharge with all his strength...
Before Arlin could turn over and jump up, he was electrocuted and twitched all over. The magic defense shield on the surface of his body flickered non-stop and was almost collapsed. Selina's face changed drastically, and she summoned the wind element to try to jump up, but the speed of lightning in the water was obviously faster than human reflexes. She was caught by the electric current just as she bent her knees, and her whole body trembled uncontrollably...
"Hahahaha! I told you not to underestimate me, Balka!" Balka was overjoyed and flirted even more vigorously.
"Despicable green dragon!" Private Gilbert, who was the last to come out, also saw the seriously injured snow wolf lying on the ground. He was furious and drew his saber to kill him fiercely...
The Snow Elf Royal Army's rank promotion focuses on the all-round improvement of soldiers. As a private soldier, Gilbert's weakness is in magic control, but his combat effectiveness is not low; Balk had to be distracted to release the wind blade to block, and the power weakened. Selina seized the opportunity to jump out of the snow and water range and rescue her companion Yalin. The two who suffered a loss looked at Balk even more unpleasantly and immediately attacked him...
“Ahhhh help—!!”
A black panther and a leopard were still walking in the snow on the other side of the hill. The chubby gray dwarf Sally was riding on the back of the black panther, laughing and talking about the interesting stories of the snow leopard Rosemary who was not present...
Qingyan complained about the leopard fish bone for a long time, and suddenly looked up at the distance with a puzzled look, and tilted his head: "Did you hear any sound, it seemed like Balk was shouting for help?"
"How is it possible? He is with the wool." Leopard Fishbone asked doubtfully, "Eh...wait, it seems like there is really his voice?"
"Hold on to Sally!" Qingyan and Yugu ran together. As soon as they approached the hill, they heard the sound of fierce fighting. Their faces suddenly changed. They sped up to bypass the hill where the snow collapsed... Two cats and one gray dwarf were stunned. What did they see? Three strangers besieging Balk? Wool lying on the ground covered in blood? !
"Bastard--!!" Yugu roared angrily and rushed to help without hesitation. Qingyan bent down to let Sally down and followed with a dark face.
"Wool?" Sally ran towards the wool in panic.
The cub, Wool, who just turned 17 and is not yet 18, was completely frightened. He only stood up tremblingly when he heard Sally's voice...
"What's going on with these two cats?!" Private Gilbert was almost knocked down by the big cat that pounced on him, and he retreated hastily with a pale face.
"The dragon clan's spiritual magic! They are controlled! Yalin!" Selina shouted in the midst of her busy schedule.
"Understood!" Yarlin withdrew from the siege, and drew out a purple magic light with his hands in front of his chest. The strong mental shock immediately hit the two big cats that pounced on him.
"Get out of the way!" Qingyan's face changed and he used his shoulder to push the fish bone away. He was hit directly and felt dizzy and couldn't even stand.
"Roar!" Yugu was so angry that he rushed towards Yaerlin without caring about anything...
“Tsk!” Yarlin wanted to hold back, but now he couldn’t care less. He quickly made a magic gesture with his left hand, and rows of ice cones gathered behind him like a peacock spreading its tail…
The cat tribe is not a race that is disliked by the Magic Goddess, but because they have lost their heritage, they have talent but have no idea how to use it. Yugu and Qingyan combined forces were no match for the Snow Elf Guard Corporal, and soon several wounds appeared on Yugu's colorful fur, and blood was dripping.
"Stop it, asshole!"
Balk was furious, and he rushed towards Yugu despite the cold knife light. Selina would never allow this green dragon to hurt Yalin, so she landed on the ground, stepped on it hard, and rushed forward like a cannonball, knocking the green dragon, which was countless times larger than her, and making it roll over half a circle...
“I haven’t worked for several days~”
Qiu, who had transformed into an animal, lay lazily on the sled, yawned, and said lazily: "I don't feel used to wasting time like this... I wonder how much wool they have spun, and whether they have done their homework well."
"I've also been feeling bored lately with nothing to do." Mumu sat cross-legged, one hand supporting his chin, the other hand casually stroking Qiu's back, "Ayun, I want to eat shredded potatoes, fried, spicy and sour."
Xiao Yun, who was dozing off on Qiu's belly, turned back with a twitch of his mouth: "Mumu, what's the connection between the second half of your sentence and the first half..."
"Haha..." Ed, the snow elf who was also leaning on Qiumao's belly, sat up with his hands. "I hear you talk about how delicious the food in your tribe's cafeteria is every day. I'm also craving for it. Ah Yun, where did you learn how to process spices? If you are willing to sell that barbecue sauce, we snow elves will be willing to buy a lot of it."
"I haven't figured out a way to increase the shelf life of the barbecue sauce yet. There's no problem selling it to you snow mountain elves. The temperature there is not high and it's not easy to spoil." Xiao Yun nodded.
"That's a deal." Ed's eyes lit up, and he added, "We also want the sauce sold to the forest elves." The price was so cheap anyway, the lieutenant could make the final decision on this level of expenditure without having to submit a report.
Xiu rolled his eyes at his companion with disdain and turned sideways. "We have sent out the Snowbird to report the matter of the green dragon to Lieutenant Shirley . If nothing unexpected happens, the lieutenant will be able to arrange for people to come when we reach your tribe... The team led by Sergeant Selina is also searching in this area. She is the non-commissioned officer in charge of this area. As for whether to tell Lord Austin the truth, we have to report it to the general. When my king took back the gold mine, he only promised to help Lord Austin find his son and confirm Lord Balk's life or death, but he did not promise to help him bring his son back."
"Of course, Xiu, whether Lord Balk is willing to reconcile with his father or not needs to be consulted. This is their own internal matter of the Green Dragons, and we, the Snow Wolf Clan, will not interfere." Xiao Yun chuckled, "We don't have the time to care about it. We have enough issues of our own to deal with."
It was not difficult to play the trade friendship card and become brothers with the two snow elf warriors. After extracting information from them about the elven king's attitude towards green dragons and the survivors of the cursed land, there was no need to consider what choice Xiao Yun would make - the elves were really annoyed with the dragon clan, so annoyed that they wanted to beat them up as soon as they met!
In this case, would Xiao Yun increase the workload for the Snow Elves in order to hide Balk? Absolutely not! It's just a stupid dragon, so sell it!
Not only did he sell out Balke, he also forced himself to lick the snow elf. It was just a matter of wiping the skin and putting it in his pocket. He had already licked the forest elf, so what was the big deal about licking the snow elf!
Well, although it is a bit unpleasant to be regarded as the "pitied" "survivors" by the giant in the north...but since they are willing to give face to the Snow Wolf Tribe, there is no need for us to pretend to be superior.
Anyway, Xiao Yun had no intention of fighting Austin for Balk. He was too busy meddling in the dragon clan's affairs. Didn't he see that the elves had no interest in paying attention to them?
"It's really amazing that your tribe can tolerate... well, befriend the green dragon and take him in. This is quite rare." Xiu laughed, "In the era of the Human Emperor, the Southern Continent once supported the dragon tribe, but no Human King was willing to do this since then."
"If we had a choice, we definitely wouldn't want to have such a troublesome person in our tribe, but he's come to us, and a small tribe like ours doesn't dare to reject him directly." Xiao Yun sighed, "There will be casualties in a fight, and our family is too poor to afford to waste him. We can't chase him away, so what else can we do except hold our noses and take him in."
The two snow elf warriors couldn't help laughing... Isn't it true? Their king was also very disgusted when Lord Austin depended on him.
Speaking ill of others is one of the shortcuts to building closer relationships, and Xiao Yun started to complain about Balk without any hesitation - they captured their gray dwarf friends, made them work for free to make jewelry, and every time they came, they ate and took things without end, which was really disgusting!
Hongye, who was pulling the sled, looked back frequently, with the corners of his mouth twitching... It is true that Balk was quite annoying when he first came, but he did not make no contribution to the tribe. Ayun, is it really okay for you to dislike him so much?
A cheerful atmosphere filled the air above the sled until it approached the exit of the underground world in the north of the tribe, which was used for drainage.
The two snow elf warriors who were happily chatting suddenly moved their ears, and they stood up at the same time and looked to the south.
"Huh? What's wrong?" Xiao Yun stood up when he saw their reaction.
"Stop, Hongye!" Ed called out to Hongye who was pulling the sled, and bent down to pick up the saber placed aside. "There are violent elemental fluctuations ahead, and there are strong people fighting over there."
Xiao Yun: "Huh?"
"Let's go over and take a look. This elemental fluctuation is very strong, at least as strong as two non-commissioned officers in my royal army. Everyone, be careful." Xiu jumped off the sled with a serious expression.
Hongye paused, raised her head, and sniffed: "There is a strong smell of blood... Mumu, let's go too."
"Okay!" Mumu, who had been as salted as a fish, immediately revived with full blood, jumped off the sled and ran forward to untie the straps on Hongye's body.
"I'll go too." Qiu stood up, but Xiu stopped him, "You stay here to protect Ayun."
Xiao Yun: "Uh..."
"Ayun, you stay. Qiuqiu, Ayun is left to you." Hongye turned around and reminded.
Qiu Ren stood up and hugged Xiao Yun's shoulders from behind with his claws: "Okay, I won't let Ah Yun run around."
Xiao Yun...Xiao Yun simply sat down. He really didn't know anything about fighting, so he didn't want to go along and cause trouble.
Mumu quickly took off his clothes and put them on the sled, then leaned forward and turned into a wolf. The two giant white wolves started running wildly, and the two snow elf warriors controlled the wind element to fly up and catch up, and soon disappeared into the hilly area.
At such a distance and with the wind blowing in the wrong direction, Xiao Yun couldn't smell the blood or feel any magical elemental fluctuations. Bai Wulai looked over there for a long time, then turned to ask Qiu: "Qiuqiu, can you smell the fight over there?"
"I'm not a snow werewolf, so how can I have such a strong sense of smell?" Qiu said as a matter of course.
Xiao Yun raised his hand and scratched the dense white hair on Qiu's chin. He couldn't tell from the surface that he was actually a little upset at the moment... He had never considered the issue of improving his own martial arts since he came here, and he didn't have the time to do this, but now it seems... The grassland is not peaceful! In such a snowy day, there are people who have nothing better to do than to come out and fight. Isn't it boring!
