The crushing defeat in the first battle taught the proud elves a bloody lesson.
Sylvia led the remaining troops back ten miles in one go, setting up camp in a dense forest.
The camp was filled with a gloomy and dejected atmosphere.
As the elves watched the incomplete corpses of their companions being brought back, many young elves couldn't help but burst into tears.
They had never experienced such a brutal war; that invisible enemy and that overwhelming metal storm had become a lingering nightmare in their hearts.
Inside the main tent, the atmosphere was even more solemn to the extreme.
"Your Majesty, what... what should we do now?"
An Archmage asked with a pale face, his voice carrying a hint of a tremble.
A frontal assault?
No one dared to mention that word again.
The opponent's terrifying weapons were simply the nemesis of all flying units. Charging over was just seeking death.
Sylvia sat in the main seat, her expression so dark it looked like it could drip water.
She couldn't understand why a group of barbaric humans, who in her eyes lived like savages, could produce such terrifying weapons that transcended the era.
It wasn't magic, nor was it alchemy, but a pure, cold, and efficient killing technology she had never seen before.
"We can't just let this go!"
Sylvia slammed her fist on the table and spoke through gritted teeth.
"While their weapons are powerful, they must have weaknesses! For example, range and flexibility! Besides, they can't possibly stay on the walls forever!"
As a Demigod-level expert, Sylvia's pride would not allow her to admit defeat just like that.
"Eileen!"
She looked toward a young female elf in the corner of the tent, dressed in black leather armor and looking heroic and spirited.
That was her younger sister, the Elven Princess, Eileen Moonshadow.
She was also the commander of the Blade of Shadow, the most elite assassin unit of the elven race.
"Sister!"
Eileen stepped forward. Her personality was even more fiery than Sylvia's, and the flames of revenge burned in her eyes.
"Tonight, lead the Blade of Shadow and use our racial talents to infiltrate that castle."
A flash of ruthlessness crossed Sylvia's eyes. "Find that human leader and kill him at all costs! Once he is dead, the human army will surely fall into chaos, and our opportunity will come!"
"Yes! I guarantee the mission will be completed!"
Eileen accepted the order excitedly.
In her view, the failure during the day was only because the human weapons countered large-scale frontal charges.
But when it came to individual combat and stealthy assassination, ten humans couldn't compare to a single elven assassin.
She had absolute confidence in herself and her Blade of Shadow.
However, what they didn't know was that their entire plan was within Wu Liang's expectations.
Night fell.
On the walls of Tiee Fortress, all was silent, with only scattered torches burning. The guarding soldiers also looked somewhat drowsy, appearing lax.
In the shadows of the wall, dozens of black figures climbed the dozens-of-meters-high wall silently, like ghosts.
Their movements were as light as a cat's, without making a single sound, perfectly avoiding all patrolling guards.
Leading them, a contemptuous smile curled on Eileen's lips.
"Stupid humans, with such lax defenses, they are simply asking for death."
She made a gesture and led her assassins, like ghosts merging into the darkness, sneaking toward the Main Keep at the very center of the castle, where the lights were brightest.
They proceeded unhindered all the way, not even encountering any decent resistance.
This caused Eileen's confidence to swell even further.
Soon, they reached the base of the Main Keep.
"The target is in that room on the top floor!"
Through her keen perception, Eileen locked onto Wu Liang's location.
"Action!"
The assassins filed in, making their way up the stairs.
However, the moment they stepped through the gate of the Main Keep, the heavy iron door behind them closed with a loud clang.
Immediately after, rows of blinding lights suddenly lit up on the walls on both sides of the corridor!
This was a light source they had never seen before, a hundred times brighter than magic crystals, instantly illuminating the entire corridor like broad daylight!
"Not good! It's an ambush!"
Eileen was startled and instinctively wanted to retreat, only to find the path back had been sealed off.
And at both ends of the corridor, rows of Black Rock hulks holding strange iron pipes had appeared at some point.
With cruel smiles on their faces, they aimed the iron pipes in their hands at the elven assassins in the corridor.
"Welcome, elven ladies."
Wu Liang's voice drifted lazily from the second-floor stairwell.
He was leaning against the railing, holding a glass of red wine, looking down at this group of trapped rats from above.
Beside him, several Black Rock Guards were setting up a strange instrument.
On the instrument's screen, human-shaped outlines emitting heat clearly displayed the positions of the elven assassins.
A Magical Infrared Thermal Imager.
In front of it, the stealth and night vision that the elves took pride in were a joke.
"Kill him!"
Knowing they were exposed, Eileen let out a roar and was the first to charge toward Wu Liang.
However, she hadn't even taken two steps.
"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"
Deafening roars echoed in the corridor!
The shotguns in the hands of those Black Rock Guards spat out countless steel pellets!
In such a narrow corridor, a shotgun was simply a slaughtering divine tool that would kill anything in its path!
The dense steel pellets formed an unavoidable fan of death, instantly covering the entire corridor.
Puff! Puff! Puff!
The leather armor on the elven assassins couldn't possibly withstand such close-range volleys.
They didn't even have time to let out a scream before they were turned into bloody sieves and slumped to the ground.
Eileen had the fastest reaction; the moment the guns fired, she rolled on the spot, narrowly avoiding the first wave of shooting.
But as she watched the elite subordinates she had brought die or be wounded in a mere second, her eyes instantly turned red.
"I'll take you down with me!"
Eileen let out a shrill shriek, and the mana inside her began to riot wildly; she actually wanted to detonate her mana core to perish along with the enemy!
"Thinking of self-destructing? In front of me, you don't have that qualification yet."
A cold voice suddenly sounded in her ear.
Eileen only felt a blur before her eyes, and the man who was originally on the second floor had appeared in front of her at some point.
A large hand, fast as lightning, accurately struck the back of her neck.
Slap!
Eileen felt a numbness in her neck, and her violent mana was instantly forced to dissipate by an even more domineering power. Her vision went black, and she knew no more.
Wu Liang carried the unconscious Eileen like a chick, walking through the blood-soaked corridor.
He didn't kill all the assassins, specifically leaving a few alive.
Carrying Eileen, he went directly to the dungeon where Lina was imprisoned.
Clang.
Wu Liang casually tossed the unconscious Eileen at Lina's feet.
"Lina, look at the new toy I brought you."
Lina stared at the familiar figure on the ground, completely stunned.
"Pri... Princess Eileen?!"
She couldn't believe her eyes.
Even Her Highness the Princess, even the most elite Blade of Shadow... A bone-chilling cold and despair instantly submerged her.
It's over.
Everything is over.
Even the princess has been captured; what hope does the elven race have left?
"Take good care of her."
Wu Liang left a sentence and turned to leave the dungeon.
He didn't kill these assassins because they were more useful alive than dead.
He had the captured assassins stripped of their equipment, leaving them only in their undergarments, and locked them up together.
Then, he deliberately let an escaped elven Scout witness this scene.
The news quickly reached the elven camp outside the city.
When Sylvia learned that her sister Eileen had been captured alive and the elite Blade of Shadow were completely wiped out,
and that the other assassins were stripped and imprisoned, she could no longer maintain her queenly calm and pride.
"Aaaaaah! Wu Liang!"