Ben and the survivors of the failed alliance watched the unfolding confrontation with wide, panicked eyes.
''Who are they?'' Elena whispered, her knees buckling. The pressure in the air was so heavy she felt like her legs would give out at any second.
'Are they truly lords of our generation?' Ben thought grimly, his hand pressed against his shattered ribs. The power gap was staggering.
Malphas stepped firmly in front of Leo. A terrifying blood-frenzy aura erupted from the knight, his gaze turning into a void of lethal intent. He was a coiled spring, waiting only for a single word from his master to strike.
The high elf laughed softly. ''I have read that the blood-kin are pathologically loyal to their Masters. Seeing you stand before my big sis, I suppose the rumors were true.''
Leo stepped off Ira, his feet hitting the muddy ground with a soft thud. He met the elf's gaze with cold indifference. ''Who are you, and what is your purpose here?''
Sylvia's smile widened as she communicated silently with her celestial guardian. 'Big sister, can you pierce that human's veil?'
'No,' Aurella replied, her voice echoing in Sylvia's mind like a silver bell. 'I intended to pressure him into revealing his true depth, but something is shielding him from my perception. While the knight is a match for me, the lord himself is a complete anomaly.'
'I will handle the introductions,' Sylvia thought back confidently. ''My name is Sylvia, and this is my elder sister, Aurella. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, human,'' she said, punctuating the sentence with a playful wink.
Leo's attention shifted to the goblin shaman. The creature was shaking uncontrollably, his green skin turning a sickly shade of white. He had been paralyzed with terror since Sylvia's arrival. Leo turned back to the elf, his hand closing around a summoned dagger. ''Are you here to act as a shield for this shaman?''
Malphas remained silent but hyper-focused. He was acutely aware that Aurella was an epic-grade being, a tier of existence the same as his, yet his resolve did not waver.
Sylvia let out a melodic chuckle. ''Why would I ever want to fight a handsome man like you?'' she asked, framing him with her fingers as if capturing a portrait.
Leo felt a flicker of irritation. 'Is she delusional or just mocking me?' he wondered.
''What is your name?'' Sylvia asked, her emerald eyes bright with curiosity.
''Leo.''
"Leo. Simple. I like it,'' Sylvia said, repeating his name with a smile.
Leo did not relax. He kept his hand on his weapon, watching Aurella as she hovered above them. ''You did not come here just to learn my name, Sylvia. What do you want?''
Sylvia hopped down from the tree branch, landing softly in the mud without splashing a single drop on her clothes. ''You humans are so serious. I was just bored. My scouts told me a group of lords was planning a big raid, so I came to watch the show. But your knight... he is much more interesting than those amateurs over there,'' she said, pointing a thumb at Ben's trembling group.
Leo glanced at the goblin shaman. The creature was still shaking, unable to cast a single spell under the pressure of the Epic-grade warrior's presence. ''Are you interested in the treasure?'' Leo asked.
Sylvia laughed, a melodic sound that seemed to cut through the rain. ''That? It is a Rare-grade at best. Aurella and I have plenty of those. Consider it a gift for entertaining me. Besides, I wanted to see how you would handle that shaman. He is a Puppet Master, you know. He has been using his others as fuel.''
'She is testing me,' Leo thought. "Captain, take care of that brute."
The hybrid goblin, who had been vibrating with suppressed aggression since they arrived, dismounted his hound with a heavy thud. Resting his massive hammer on his shoulder, he lumbered toward the goblin warrior. "You fake," the Captain spat, pointing a gnarled finger in a gesture of pure disdain.
The goblin warrior let out a guttural roar and swung its greatsword in a desperate arc. The Captain did not flinch; he caught the edge of the blade in his bare hand, the metal screeching against his skin but failing to draw blood. "Weak," the Captain sneered, before bringing his hammer down in a thunderous, bone-shattering strike.
CRUNCH!
Sylvia watched with a curious tilt of her head, her hand resting elegantly on her hip. 'A hybrid with that much physical resistance? Truly interesting,' she mused.
Leo then signaled Vespar. She blurred into the rain, a streak of violet shadow that reappeared behind the shaman. Within moments, the mangled remains of the warrior and the severed head of the shaman were presented at Leo's boots.
The suffocating necrotic energy vanished instantly. Without their leaders to bind them, the common goblins broke into a panicked frenzy, disappearing into the dark treeline.
"Not bad at all," Sylvia said, her applause soft but sincere. "You are efficient and decisive. I think I am going to like having you as a neighbor."
Leo looked past the elf to the silver-clad Aurella, whose presence still felt like an immovable mountain of celestial power. 'And here I thought I was the only cheat in this game,' he thought, his jaw tightening slightly.
Leo crouched to inspect the shaman's remains, but his search yielded nothing but a splintered staff. By all appearances, the creature was a standard-issue rare grade.
''I watched him manipulate the very essence of his horde,'' Leo muttered to himself. ''That was a talent, not a basic skill. Why is there no trace of it?''
''That is simply the nature of the summoned,'' Sylvia said, folding her arms over her chest.
Leo glanced at Malphas, but the knight merely shook his head in confusion. He seemed just as puzzled by the shaman's lack of loot or lingering essence.
''Summoned entities are fragments,'' Sylvia continued, her tone informative but a bit patronizing. ''They carry only the knowledge of their own era. Many of them are too narrow-minded to adapt or record the talents they develop here. But in this case, it is even simpler.''
Leo stood over the body, his brow furrowed. ''It still does not make sense. A creature this weak should not be able to channel that much power,'' he said.
Sylvia laughed, stepping closer to the corpse. ''That is because you are looking at a shell, Leo. That shaman was just a decoy. A lord from another race was using it remotely, like a puppet.''
Leo looked up, his eyes narrowing. ''Another lord? From where?''
''Probably from this territory,'' Sylvia said with a shrug. ''They love using these vessels to test the strength of other lords without showing their faces. That talent you saw? It was not the shaman's. It was being channeled from a distance by the real master.''
Leo looked at the corpse, then back at the elf. ''So we were being watched by someone else the whole time.''
''Most likely,'' Sylvia smirked. ''But the connection snapped the moment your assassin took its head. Now, if you want to know more, it will not be free.''
"What do you want?" Leo asked
''Before we talk business, send me a friend request,'' Sylvia interrupted, her interface flickering as she prepared a prompt.
''And why would I do that?'' Leo asked, his voice flat.
''Because a specimen as perfect as you is hard to find,'' Sylvia smirked. ''Relax. I'm looking for a contact, not a partner. At least not yet.''
Leo sighed and opened his own interface. ''Fine. But do not expect me to answer every time you are bored.''
''We will see about that,'' she said, her eyes gleaming as the notification cleared.