"Did you really think I would lose to a puny human like you?!" The dark elf sneered.
"KE KE KE. My bad, did you think you were winning?"
"NO! YOU ARE NOT!" He slithered his tongue out, slowly licking the blade of his knife, and started laughing maniacally.
Liam ignored the dark elf's taunts and only focused on his movements, his hands, and legs, raising his concentration to the maximum level.
He did not want to be led away by any misdirection or trickery and caught off guard by the elf's actual attack that could be something else entirely.
However, the dark elf continued snickering and looked like he did not intend to take any action.
"What-" Liam's thoughts were interrupted as the elf's hands finally moved, and he reached his person, taking out something.
It was nothing fancy. It was just a tiny black ball that Liam was already familiar with.
This was the same black ball that he had recovered from the dark mages and it was the same black ball that he had handed over to the king to complete the kingdom's quest.
He tried to understand what was happening.
And the elf also did not do much. He simply placed the ball between his thumb and index finger and then… without warning…
CRACK!
He snapped it.
The black ball cracked open and various streaks of light erupted out of it and immediately enveloped Liam.
"ENJOY!" The dark elf snickered.
The next second, before Liam could react, a whole lot of things flooded into his senses, or rather his brain.
He did not even have the chance to make sense of anything and was assaulted by a blinding headache.
Everything was aching as if everything was about to burst open. The mental assault was so intense that Liam's mouth involuntarily opened and was gasping for air.
Anger, pain, agony, misery, regret, sadness, every single negative emotion that he could think of assaulted him from top to bottom, taking hold of every nerve in his being.
Liam couldn't see it, but right now, his body was enveloped by something white and shimmering.
In fact, this shimmering white thing was not visible to anyone, not Alex, not the other people near her, not even to the dark elf who had caused this in the first place.
But if one could have looked closer in this white swirling mass, they could have seen hundreds or more wailing faces that kept appearing and disappearing on the white mass.
These ghosts, or rather souls, all clung to Liam at the same time, and he couldn't withstand it.
Liam tried to resist, but he buckled and keeled under such immense mental pressure.
Especially because of his ability to sense these souls, their effect on him was that much worse.
The hundreds of wailing ghosts swirled around him in the darkness, completely drowning him in pain and agony.
It was almost like he was able to hear what the souls were in agony about.
Liam clutched his head and fell to the ground, twisting and writhing in pain.
And the dark elf who was watching this started abruptly jumping up and down in utter joy!
"KE KE KE KE! KE KE KE KE!"
"I knew it! I knew it!"
"I got another interesting doll!"
"You can use nether! And you can use divinity! KE KE KE KE!"
With a vicious look in his eyes, the dark elf pointed to Liam, who was still writhing on the ground and then at Alex, who was completely as white as a sheet.
She watched everything go down numbly. She wanted to reach forward and help the man, but she couldn't move.
Her muscles wouldn't listen to her. Tears streamed out of her eyes as her only hope of living was twitching on the ground.
Fear and shock paralyzed her to the core.
They were done! They were truly done for now!
She was going to die. Liam was going to die. Mia and Rey were also probably going to die now!
Her world was crumbling right in front of her. Weren't they simply just coming here to do a quest?
That's right! Everything started with the damned kingdom quest! If only they had never bothered with it!
If it was not for that… if it was not for him… but she couldn't bring herself to blame him this time around…
She had witnessed it right in front of her eyes. Liam had tried his very best. He had fought with his life on the line.
And it was normal to go for a Kingdom quest!
They were very highly sought after quests not just by them but by everyone playing this game.
Even if it was her, she would have decided the same thing and probably done things the same way.
So she really had no one to blame. It was just random bad luck, a random curse that had doomed them all!
Breaking Alex's thoughts, the dark elf was still continuing to rant something loudly.
"This is my lucky day! KE KE KE! This is my lucky day!"
The dark elf kicked the body lying on the ground left and right and jumped over the body like a child jumping over a ledge.
It took Alex a second but her eyes immediately widened as she realized that the elf was kicking around none other than Liam's body!
Liam was dead? Just like the others? He was dead and he was also not resurrecting? Seeing this, her heart sank.
However, the dark elf squatted in front of her and loudly laughed. "He is still not dead."
The elf snickered and then hummed, turning to look at Liam. "But you are right… he looks too healthy… I need to take care of him."
"Now that I think about it… KE KE KE… I need to take care of all of you!"
"You vermins dared to run away from me, isn't that right?"
***
Bonus chapter 2~~
Please thank Aquadiver for this bonus chapter!
