"Huh…" The dark elf stared at the egg in perplexion. What was something like this doing here?
He looked at it for a second, and after the initial shock wore off, his eyes widened as he became even more shocked.
Because right at the center of the multicolored weirdly patterned egg was a dark purple hue that very much resembled his treasured flame.
"This couldn't possibly be?" He stared dumbly, not able to digest this information. The egg had absorbed his flame?
No! That could never be possible!
How could a random egg absorb a treasured rare flame fragment? Wouldn't it burst just from the impact?
Wouldn't the flame roast the egg alive and make it into a hard-boiled appetizer?
But then his gaze lingered on the purple pattern. The evidence was right there on his face and he couldn't deny it.
What the hell was happening?
But as if this was not enough, all of a sudden, a loud sound echoed amidst the silence.
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
Right in front of everyone's eyes, the egg was cracking!
"No!" The dark elf leaped forward. His heart almost stopped beating because of this scare.
This egg had somehow taken his treasured flame, and now it was breaking? Would the flame fragment inside still be intact?
Or would the flame be destroyed if the pet did not hatch properly? Where did this egg even come from?
Or perhaps the egg was really cooked? Then where was the flame?
He was so confused and frustrated that he wanted to bang his own head somewhere.
But it did not matter. The dark elf tried to quickly regain his composure as he reached forward to grab the egg in his hand.
If something was withstanding the pressure of his most treasured possession, it definitely could not be ordinary!
Perhaps he did not lose anything after all!
Perhaps he had only gained something!
Something even more extraordinary compared to his flame?
He quickly took a step forward and then bent to touch the egg. However, before he could, something hit him hard from the back.
Splurt. Blood was spilled.
Under the luminous moonlight, a purple sword danced around, and before the dark elf could respond, a considerable chunk of his health was gone.
"GRAAAA!" The dark elf roared in anger and tried to dodge the attacks, while simultaneously turning around to see who had dared to attack him.
And as soon as he did, he was once again dumbfounded.
"You! How are you standing?" The dark elf quickly moved several paces away on seeing the familiar figure in front of him.
This was the same insect he had thought he had taken care of but it turned out that he was wrong.
Liam was still alive and well and standing in front of him, even slashing at him with the same formidable purple weapon.
"How did you recover from the fog of souls? This is impossible? Just how high is your mental strength?"
"A mere human cannot handle that much… it is impossible…"
Liam, however, only silently grinned.
He had no plans of enlightening the dark elf about his life and the fact that this much pain and agony was nothing in front of his own.
Not that this did not affect him but it only affected him for about a couple of minutes.
After that, he had been conscious and simply acting, lying in wait for a suitable chance to once again launch his attack.
What he did not expect was the dark elf to take out another flame fragment and his greedy girl once again popping out.
This Luna was becoming wilder by the second!
But he did not dislike it at all!
In fact, she had easily accomplished what he could not.
Liam had used tar bombs to cripple the guy's speed and agility and the ability to vanish but the little fox had directly eaten his treasure to cripple his very reason and source of power!
Her action was far more savage and ruthless!
And also, because of this whole incident, now Liam somewhat had an idea about how the dark elf had accomplished the permanent killing of souls.
More importantly, he could also see that without the purple flame fragment, the elf could no longer do this feat.
And as an added bonus, the elf was close to losing his mind!
After losing the flame, he looked like he was utterly shattered and not focused on his surroundings at all.
Perhaps it was his overconfidence and perhaps the flame mattered to him that much, Liam did not care.
He would never get a better chance than this and he did not have any time to waste.
Luna's egg was also once again cracking, but there was no blood or any other signs of distress this time.
Even so, Liam could not be at ease. Was she really hatching at this crucial juncture? Why did she always have such rotten timing?
With everything revving up to a crescendo and the conditions drastically different, Liam did not hold back and started once again hacking away at the dark elf's health.
There was a big grin on his face and this time he did bother putting a distance between himself and the elf.
He swung the sword around without any reservation while also bombarding the elf with big and meaty fireballs.
However, while things were different, some things were still the same. The dark elf's strength and power were still absolute.
Liam lobbed one more tar bomb that the dark elf swiftly evaded and he also fought back in a frenzy.
Luckily the dark elf hadn't bothered to fully recover his health. But even with only half of the health remaining the battle was still uphill.
Some of the chickens and rabbits were already destroyed and only some were left.
The golems were also fully damaged and they couldn't be summoned so soon. They needed time to recover.
So this was going to be a long battle of attrition, one in which Liam did not have an advantage because of the opponent's strength and experience.
Though the enemy was an assassin because of their level difference, he might as well be a mountain that could not be mowed down.
And also, without the tar bomb, he could now vanish in and out.
Liam rammed the attacks onto the dark elf but the elf as well struck back.
He repeatedly vanished and reappeared in Liam's blind spots and dealt back the blows he received. He gave as good as he got.
"Only a couple more minutes… I need to hang on." Liam gritted his teeth and continued fighting.
He had come so far so he was also not ready to give up.
And he was not alone!
When he saw the purple flame, he had already messaged Mia and the others to send a team over to him along with the coordinates.
So the backup should be here anytime now, and he only needed to hang on until then.
Liam might not be able to solo kill the guy but he was confident enough to hold him off until the group arrived.
The two of them were fully engrossed in the battle and in the midst of this, they had completely failed to see the egg that was silently continuing to crack.
The small cracks widened and soon, the entire egg was full of cracks.
