The presence of these trees, though beautiful, was impractical for a fortress meant for defence.

  If the elves weren’t the ones manning this stronghold, it would have been an absurd sight—a forest growing inside a fortified keep.

  But for the elves, this greenery was not for decoration, but something far more dangerous.

  One of the mage elves standihe tre reacted upon the sight of the demons suddenly appearing in this part of the fortress.

  His cloak billowed as he raised a hand, muttering an intation under his breath. Magic power filled the air, and the trees around them began to stir.

  Suddenly, the oill trees groaned as their bark split open, revealing glowing eyes and mouths formed from twisted brahese were no ordinary trees, but Treants—seree guardians, fiercely protective of their elven masters.

  The Treants shifted their massive limbs, twisting their branches into thiarled fists.

  As the trees came to life, the elves scattered in panic. Many of them were simple attendants, supply personnel or scouts, ill-prepared for direbat.

  Their shouts of arm echoed through the courtyard as they sprioward cover. The few elven batants present were quick to act, drawing their ornate crossbows and uhing their curved swords.

  Without hesitation, they charged at the demons, losing arrows infused with magic as they closed the distance.

  Ilya was the first among the demons to move. She was also the fastest.

  Wind pooled at her feet and unched her body forward, allowio close the distand swing her Runebde, beheading two elves in an instant.

  “?!”

  ‘I didn’t even see her sword move!’

  Xaren couldn’t help but be amazed by her speed, but this was only momentary as his focus soon turo the Treants before him.

  The elven mage cast another spell and sensing it, both Xaren and Ilya reacted with reition, though their expressions were starkly different.

  Xaren was calm, but Ilya’s stoic expression turned into a frown.

  The spell the mage had used was called ‘Paity’; ohat grouped the Treants into packs and increased the strength and coordination of each pack. Their power, speed and durability were also enhanced as well.

  Havihis spell used by elves before, Xaren reized it, along with the gring weakness: the spell funed by linking the Treants to a single leader, a lin among them.

  The leader was the source of the buffs that enhahe entire pack. Take down the leader, and the rest would crumble.

  And it seemed that Ilya knew about this weakness as well.

  “They are using Paity. Try to get rid of the Leaders!”

  But finding the leader was no easy task.

  The first problem was that the leaders looked exactly the same as the normal ones. Because of that, not even Ilya who had given the order expected much.

  It was very difficult to differentiate the leader at a gnce.

  What’s more, the battlefield was a chaotic mess of movement and sound, with Treants, elves and demons fighting everywhere.

  Xaren narrowed his dark red eyes, filtering through the chaos of g demons and elves, the t Treants for the subtle clues he’d learo watch for.

  Years of fighting in a brutal five-way war had given Xaren a lot of experieh the teiques and spells only used by the races involved—at least in their lower ranks.

  From what he khe leaders in the Paity spell were he rgest or the most aggressive—those were usually distras.

  Instead, the true leader moved with deliberate caution. It didn’t charge ahead recklessly, nor did it stay at the front lines for long. While the other Treants fought fiercely, the leader always fell back after a brief exge, repositioning itself he middle of the group.

  This ehat the buff it provided could spread evenly across the pack, maintaining the coordination and strength of its allies.

  Xaren’s gaze flicked to a Treant that stood ihick of battle but never itted fully to any one fight. While the others swung their massive limbs with abandon, this one seemed to retreat to a more tral location whe had the ce, its movements measured as it watched over the others.

  ‘That one!’

  He charged forward, weaving through the batants and using the chaos to his advantage.

  The moment the Treant stepped into the attack, Xaren was there, striking with his sword. The bde barely pierced the thick wooden hide, a shallow wound opening on its trunk-like body. But that was enough—his demoniergy seeped into the wound, marking it.

  The Treant recoiled, retreating once more to its tral position within the pack, but Xaren didn’t give chase.

  Instead, he spun, running up the back of areant, and unched himself into the air, lightening his body with gravity manipution. With his agility enhanced, he darted through the trees like a shadow, leapiween branches with ease.

  In mid-air, he spotted another leader among its pad he used the falling body of an elf as a springboard to unch himself at it, striking again and marking it with a shallow wound.

  Like before, the creature pulled back, but Xaren was already gone, leaping toward the .

  He moved like a blur, marking leader after leader. His strikes didn’t deal much damage, taining just enough energy to tag them but not enough to be drawn into a prolonged battle.

  One particur target, however, threw him off.

  As Xaren sshed through the bark of a Treant he believed to be the leader, he leapt away, only for the creature to be felled moments ter by another demon’s attack.

  Xaren paused in mid-air, watg as the other Treants moved—unged, unweakened.

  "It wasn’t the leader?"

  Clearly, Xaren’s observations hadn’t been fwless. With the battlefield in stant flux and his movements opping, he couldn’t afford the time to firm every leader. Still, he carried on, marking five more, four of which he ght.

  After marking all those he observed as leaders, it was now time to begin attag.

  Turning his attention back to the marked Treant leader, kicked off the ground and dashed forward, using his gravity attra to pull away the branches of the Treant in front of his target and taking advantage of his small body to jump in through the gap.

  Sensing his approach, the Treant leader moved, its vines shing out but Xaren sliced them into pieces with the sharp edge of his Runebde.

  ‘Fire Magic: on Infusion.’

  Bck fmes burned on his bde and he swung it, unleashing a wave directed not at the leader but at the ones closest to it.

  The fmes, born of darkness and fire, ed the surrounding Treants, making them elicit screams of pain as they fell on one ahis caged the Treant in with its burning rades on all sides, and Xaren quickly followed up, using his power to manipute gravity around the leader, pulling it upward with tremendous force, and tearing it from the ground.

  The creature let out a shrill cry, its vines filing as it was lifted into the air, away from the earth that gave it strength.

  Xaren hurled it onto a burning Treant and the fmes spread onto the leader, then he jumped and doubled gravity on his sword before swinging it down, splitting through the leader’s bark in one full-powered strike.

  The moment the leader fell, the ge was instantaneous—the remaining Treants in that pack faltered, their movements slowing and their coordination breaking down.

  Xaren didn’t waste time after making this kill, he jumped off the Treant's corpse and nded on the floor, rolling right o a Fire Demon using magic to burree monsters.

  However, the ones he targeted still had a leader, so their durability was enhao the level where they could tank his fmes.

  Grabbing the demon’s arm, he spoke.

  “I distinguish the leaders! Shoot the ones I tell you to.”

  “I also ’t distinguish…… what?!”

  The demon was about to answer reflexively when Xaren’s words echoed in his head. He turowards Xaren in surprise but Xaren didn’t waste time and poi the Treant leader of the pack.

  “That ohe third one from the right!”

  This demon’s firepower was higher than Xaren’s, owing to his higher level and greater fme affinity and that firepower showed itself as the demon’s fireball bsted into the r mouth of the Treant and exploded, killing it immediately.

  Luckily for him, the Treant just happeo roar then so he got a hit on the insides a enough internal damage to kill it.

  Immediately, the movements of the Treants that were he ohat had just died became noticeably duller.

  “It was true!”

  Clearly, the demon had doubts and only listened because Xaren was a rade, but now his doubts had evaporated.

  Just then, someone who saw this little iion blitzed through the courtyard, sending elven heads flying as they moved.

  Xare a gust of wind auro see Ilya cutting off an elf’s arms and taking the crossbow they held.

  She nded on the flht in front of him and grabbed him as she spoke.

  “Point them out for me!”

  She didn’t care how or why he could fish out the leaders. What mattered was that he could.

  The demoness pulled on his arm, making him faroup of Treants, before putting herself in front of him. She leaned her ba Xaren’s chest and head, loading the crossbow she just stole and poi forward.

  Xaren instantly uood why she did that aended his arms beyond her shoulders, pointing at the leaders he had marked with his energy earlier.

  “That ohat ohat one!”