Over the next few days, Elf Troops scattered throughout the mountain range kept reporting that their patrols had been attacked by demons.
At first, the elves did not pay much attention to it. After all, their entire territory was currently under invasion by demon forces. Although they had successfully eliminated the demon Serlun and his troops, there were still two Upper Demons like him: Ignatius and Riska. The elves' attention was focused on those two demon forces, especially Ignatius's army. Having received news of Serlun's defeat, they were intensifying their assault on the elves. Ignatius's force contained far too many High Demons. Over the past few days, the elves and Ignatius's troops had traded blows, with neither side gaining an advantage. The elves had no spare capacity to worry about anything else, so they did not take the patrol attacks too seriously.
Still, they strengthened their precautions. Patrol units used for reconnaissance were increased from twenty men to forty. They could not spare any more troops than that. These patrols were not only tasked with gathering intelligence, but also with striking at the attackers.
Yet something strange continued to happen. Even after their defenses had been reinforced, patrols still vanished without returning.
Several hundred patrol soldiers were dispatched in more than a dozen groups, and one or two units would always fail to return. Sometimes, they did not even send back any news. As time passed, the elves finally grew wary. They believed that another Demon Army might have appeared and was attempting to break through the encirclement to support Ignatius and Riska's demon forces.
Thus, the elves had no choice but to send out a Hero to lead a force in search of this Demon Army, intending to find and defeat it.
The one leading the force was a