Wow! The item-dropping rate is really high!

Apart from the team leader, who was also a hunter on the path, the remaining eleven members were all more or less on the same level.

Yet at that moment, one of their kin was easily crushed by the opponent, unable to fight back. What if the enemy was coming for them next?

"We need to notify the captain quickly!" Two elves exchanged glances, communicating their will through spiritual energy.

"I'll draw his attention, you go inform the captain! We can't take this beastman lightly; he's no ordinary foe!"

In just an instant, the two elves had arranged their respective duties.

The elf who decided to stay gripped the spirit dart gun in their hands and fired at the terrifying figure, whose size was several times that of an ordinary beastman.

"Whizz!"

The will connected directly to the spirit dart gun channeled spiritual energy, which was transformed into some kind of spindle-shaped photon dart by the unique construction within the weapon.

There was no sound and no recoil, ignoring air resistance and gravity, it shot straight towards the aimed part.

However, such an attack was almost no threat to Dao Mianliao. He merely lifted his hand, and the machete he held blocked the path of the spirit dart, deflecting it effortlessly.

The speed of the spirit dart may have surpassed Dao Mianliao's reflexes, but the elf holding the gun could not.

But as long as they could make the opponent expend energy to block, it would create a chance for their comrades to escape.

"Whizz, whizz, whizz!"

The firing rate of the spirit dart gun was also remarkable. The structure of the weapon itself and the will of the user acted as factors limiting the spirit dart gun, but its firing rate was not too different from that of a human's semi-automatic rifle.

Dao Mianliao's gaze swept over the elf fleeing on a motorcycle but did not make an effort to intercept. The Elf Race was rare in number, so they treated every member of their race as precious.

As long as he captured the elf at hand, the rest would come to him on their own.

Therefore, with a cruel smile, he twisted the throttle of his motorcycle, charging toward the direction of the elf who had stayed to hinder him.

To say hinder, but the elves were not so foolish as to stay in one place waiting for death.

If it was difficult to catch a beastman on a motorcycle, did that mean it would be easy for a beastman to catch them, the elves?

Neither side had any pressing burdens to protect; on this boundless wilderness, wasn't it all about running wild?

Yet the elf could never have imagined that the seemingly simple beastman who blocked the spirit darts with his knife simultaneously launched a treacherously small dark shadow, hidden behind the machete in his hand.

"Whizz!"

The knife thrown by the beastman had immense power, piercing the motorcycle's tire in an instant.

With the motorcycle losing balance at high speed and even a well-trained elf finding it impossible to control, the rider was flung far away. Despite being conscious of another strong enemy, the impact scattered them widely, making it difficult to recover quickly.

"Boom!" A massive foot stomped down on the struggling elf, and Dao Mianliao carefully controlled his strength while grinning cruelly at the elf, who was half-buried in the soil. "Is this all you bean sprouts can muster? I remember there is a bean sprout girl among you who is quite skilled with a knife, right? Call her out to fight with me, and if she does, I won't kill you. How about it?"

Progress!

Dao Mianliao just wanted to make progress!

He yearned for progress like nothing else!

Only through constant progress could he have the confidence to stand before that human who had twice caused him extreme fear.

"You... keep dreaming!" Despite feeling all his internal organs crushed together under the pressure and gasping for breath, the elf still managed to respond with a retort.

"Hmph!" Dao Mianliao's mouth curled into a cold smile as a dark shadow fell from the sky.

"Bang!"

…

Xunying received the distress signal from one of his subordinates.

"Captain! Captain! The intelligence was wrong! Among those orcs, there's a tough big guy, Kolo was killed by him in just a single grip, and Roger covered my retreat to block that orc brute, he might... he might not make it back either!"

"What! The intelligence was wrong!?"

"Those humans deceived us!"

"They knew these orcs were tough to deal with, the humans wanted to use us to take out this group of orcs!"

"It's also possible they wanted to use these orcs to take us out! If they had the ability to deal with these orcs, they would have acted already, why would they just happen to leave it until our contest now? These cunning humans!"

The team members, also filled with prejudice against humans, instantly erupted in anger.

What was that about this being just a typical small-scale roving orc band? Were they mocking the team's lack of experience with genuine small-scale orc groups?

In fact, they had already noticed certain clues.

Based on the various traces they had found in the wilderness so far, that so-called small-scale orc group was no longer describable as "small-scale."

Perhaps it was small-scale not long ago, but through some changes within the orc ranks in the past few days, it had grown.

The group of orcs they were currently tracking... was far from simple.

So even the humans might not be aware of this news yet.

Of course, both 'knowing and not telling' and 'limited ability' were not favorable terms in Xunying's heart.

However, Xunying, who had anticipated such an encounter, would not let these negative emotions interfere with his judgment.

"Shh!" With a wave of his hand, Xunying silenced the complaints of his people and just looked gravely at his subordinate who had just barely escaped back, "Where did you encounter them?"

Without technology like the human's rebooted internet, which allowed for communication regardless of distance, the Elf Race coveted Blackwater City's technology as one of their goals—if they emerged victorious, it was surely a prize they would claim.

In the meantime, they kept agreeing to endless contests with the humans, precisely to undermine the humans' negotiating power time after time, in order to obtain what they truly desired.

Before they could acquire human technology, their current means of communication relied on Spiritual Energy, and powerful users like the Prophet could indeed transcend time and space to send messages to their intended targets.

The ordinary members of the Elf Race didn't possess such abilities; once they exceeded a certain distance, they found it difficult to contact each other.

Thus, Xunying couldn't immediately know the direction and distance of the incident.

"Over there!" the messenger pointed in the direction they had come from, "About ten or more kilometers away, not too far."

Xunying made a swift decision, "Let's go take a look."

Every member of the race was vitally important, Kolo's death was an unfortunate fact, but Roger's death was not yet confirmed; if there was a chance, they had to rescue him!

...

Under the blazing sun, the figure stripped of its clothes and tied to the top of a pole was scorched.

The early spring sunshine wasn't too intense, but the high-altitude winds howled, and the air was dry.

Looking at the tribe member hanging high on the wooden flagpole, enduring torment above in the sky, Xunying clenched his white-pearl-like, silvery teeth and his eyes blazed with fury, "These despicable orcs!"

The team members were filled with righteous indignation, "Captain! Let's go and kill that group of orcs!"

"The leading orc in the middle is very powerful!" The elf who escaped back was still frightened, warning cautiously.

"..." Xunying's gaze settled, locking onto the largest and most conspicuous one among the orcs, who seemed to be having a cookout.

The overwhelming barbaric aura, even across a distance of a kilometer, was still palpable and aggressive.

"Captain, maybe we should talk to those human armies instead, these orcs are far stronger than we anticipated. There's been a deviation from the plan, and this contest has lost its purpose. Even opponents we find difficult, they definitely have no hope of defeating either. How about trying to collaborate with them, to see if we can rescue Roger?"

One of the more clear-headed team members suggested quietly, only to be immediately rejected by Xunying, "No need!"

Xunying took his Elf Longbow from behind, his eyes sharp as he issued combat orders, "Prepare the Gravity Gun, you just need to temporarily trap that big brute. The lives of those orcs... leave them to me!"