Checkpoint Two

"I am Roy, a freshman at the Elf Academy. My companion and I are working on our geography assignment. This morning, when we were about to get our map stamped, we discovered that Checkpoint Two seemed to have been taken over by a Human Adventurer Group. They also seem to have captured quite a few students. My companion and I are too afraid to go near them, so we have to ask you to come and help us."

"Two members of Adventure Group were searching this area just now, but they ran away when they saw you flying over!"

Roy stood on a tree branch and pointed in the direction of Checkpoint Two.

In a dense forest, Checkpoint Two is located right under a cliff in a mountain valley, and its location is easy to spot.

"Evelyn, go and scout over there at the cliff, be careful," the Silver Pegasus Elf Warrior instructed his companion.

"Yes, Captain!"

The voice was melodious and pleasant; this Silver Pegasus Warrior was actually an elf lady.

They were wearing heavy silver armor and helmets.

The helmet also has a metal visor that covers the upper half of the face, with only the mouth and chin showing.

If she hadn't spoken, Roy wouldn't have noticed that she was an elven lady.

Roy turned to look at the elven warrior and noticed that her slightly upturned, diamond-shaped lips were painted with a touch of pink.

Both of these winged Silver Pegasus were exceptionally magnificent.

Its enormous wingspan is seven or eight meters long when fully extended, and its four hooves and lower legs are tucked in, making a 'whooshing' sound with each flap of its wings.

The Silver Pegasus flapped its wings twice and immediately carried the elven warrior half a circle in the air. After adjusting its position, it flew towards the cliff where the Checkpoint Two was located.

"Um... Roy, where are your companions?"

The remaining Silver Pegasus Elf Warrior continued to ask Roy questions, this time in a much gentler tone.

Roy pointed to a patch of woods southeast of Checkpoint Two and said:

"He was intercepting students at the foot of the mountain who were heading to Checkpoint Two register."

The Elf Warrior reached out to soothe the Silver Pegasus hovering in mid-air, and continued to ask, "You said that two members of Human Adventurer Group just came here to investigate you?"

Roy pointed to the canopy of a large tree nearby and nodded in response, "Yeah, they saw you coming and ran away..."

The Elf Warrior unbuckled the leather straps on the saddle, gripped the saddle with both hands, and nimbly leaped from the back of the Silver Pegasus onto the treetops. Despite wearing heavy silver boots, he was able to land steadily on the horizontal branches. After a few more leaps, he used the horizontal branches of several large trees to land steadily on the forest clearing.

Roy followed him down the tree.

I saw Elf Warrior crouching in the woods, observing a set of clear footprints.

He glanced at Roy's boots and casually asked, "Which way did they run off to?"

"This way..." Roy said, pointing to the west.

The Elf Warrior stood up, not in a hurry to chase after the two Adventure Group, but instead closed his eyes and placed one hand on the trunk of the large tree.

After a moment, the Elf Warrior opened his eyes, turned his head and glared at Roy for no apparent reason.

He quickly followed in the direction Roy pointed.

Although Roy was somewhat bewildered by the glare, he could only grit his teeth and follow behind the Elf Warrior. He dared not stay alone in this forest now; who knew if those two Adventure Group would turn around and come back to kill him...

The two Adventure Group slipped away quickly, Elf Warrior chased after them, only following the trail they left behind.

The dense forest was difficult to traverse, but the Elf Warrior was unaffected. He wore silver armor and easily climbed the thorns on the vines.

Moreover, whenever the trail suddenly stopped, the Elf Warrior could quickly find new clues.

He ran and darted through the jungle, giving Roy the feeling of being on his own back hill.

"They are two rangers skilled in jungle tracking, and also adept at concealing their movements..."

When they reached the jungle hillside, the Elf Warrior noticed that the messy footprints on the ground had suddenly disappeared, and said to Roy, who was following behind.

Roy held his knees with both hands, feeling like his intestines were about to burst.

The Elf Warrior took a few steps forward, stood in front of a large tree, and placed his palm on the trunk again...

When he opened his eyes, he stared intently ahead again and walked quickly forward. Sure enough, after walking about twenty meters, he found the footprints left by the two Adventure Group again.

Roy discovered that this Elf Warrior possessed the ability to communicate with trees.

Just as Roy was following the Elf Warrior in tracking down the Adventure Group members, a red firework lit up the sky Checkpoint Two again, followed by another firework. Three Magic Signal Flare were launched in succession before the firework finally stopped.

The Elf Warrior decisively abandoned the pursuit of the two Adventure Group and ran towards Checkpoint Two.

Because of the dense forests everywhere, the Elf Warrior could not rendezvous with the Silver Pegasus in the air and had to rely on their own two legs to run.

Roy struggled to keep up behind...

When Roy followed the Elf Warrior to Checkpoint Two, he found it in complete disarray.

There were collapsed tents everywhere, covered with messy footprints.

There were still some bloodstains in front of the campfire.

There were some scattered luggage items and torn elf clothes on the ground.

There were several Breadfruit in a Wooden Box under the tree, with some fruit peels scattered around.

The absence of bodies means that the Adventure Group took all the elf students with them.

Roy saw the elven warrior standing in front of the only tent that hadn't collapsed.

The Elf Warrior and Roy walked over and saw a curtain hanging on the top of the tent.

Looking into the tent from the entrance, one could see a Silver Moon Elf instructor lying face up in a pool of blood. It seemed that all the blood in his body had been drained, and his pale face stared blankly at the tent entrance.

Although he was lying on his back, his body was in an extremely contorted position.

The wound on his neck was very clean; a single cut severed his throat and aorta, and the elf instructor didn't even have time to struggle.

His body was forcibly pressed to the ground, bleeding out until he died completely.

He was only wearing a loose nightgown, and the leather armor and weapons that had been hanging on the rack were gone.

The Elf Warrior's face turned grim. He turned to look at Roy, who was panting heavily but had unexpectedly persevered all the way.

The Elf Warrior asked Roy, "... Roy, when did you discover the anomaly at Checkpoint Two?"

Roy pressed his hand to his chest, trying to calm his breathing, then wiped the sweat from his face before saying, "It was this morning, when there was still some morning mist in the jungle. We were planning to leave immediately after stamping the Parchment Map, but when we got there..."

At this point, Roy pointed to the big tree over there.

This was the place where he and Klayr were hiding. They had even eavesdropped on the conversation of three members of the Adventure Group from the tree, but unfortunately they couldn't understand anything.

Roy continued, "... and then we found that the Academy Instructor who were supposed to be waiting by the campfire had turned into those guys."

The Elf Warrior stared at Roy and asked, "You just glanced at them from afar and concluded there was danger here?"

Clearly, the Elf Warrior didn't trust Roy.

Roy nodded and said, "I recognized the man waiting in front of the campfire as the murderer who killed Jefferson in the Brown Street tavern in Castleton City, so my companion and I left immediately under the cover of the morning fog."

"... Then we split up. Roy went up the mountain to set off Magic Signal Flare and wait for rescue, while I went ahead to stop the students who wanted to go to Checkpoint Two stamps." Klayr's voice suddenly came from the side. He and a group of Silver Moon Elf walked along the forest path.

Seeing the chaotic scene at Checkpoint Two, the group of young Silver Moon Elf, including Klayr, looked around in horror.

Klayr's appearance immediately dispelled the last trace of doubt in the Elf Warrior's heart.

A group of Silver Moon Elf covered their faces with their hands when they saw their elven instructor dead inside the tent.

"How could it have gotten like this..."

One of the more emotionally fragile elf girls broke down in tears.

The other elf students, realizing they had narrowly escaped this ordeal, all went up to Roy and punched him on the shoulder to express their gratitude.

The Silver Moon Elf pressed his hand against the tree again. After a long while, he opened his eyes wearily and said to the elf students:

"You stay here as the follow-up Rescue Team; we're going to track down this Adventure Group now."

"A large Rescue Team will be arriving soon. Tell them everything that happened here. We will use Magic Signal Flare to guide them as soon as we find any clues..."

The Silver Moon Elf all nodded in agreement.

Then, the Elf Warrior blew a loud whistle, and two Silver Pegasus immediately galloped out from the dense forest, their wings draped loosely on either side of their bodies.

They were all pure white Pegasus, with huge wings on their bodies and feathers on their four hooves.

These warhorses wore black iron masks on their heads and had black iron armor plates on some vital parts of their bodies.

The two Elf Warrior mounted their Silver Pegasus, and without even needing any commands, the two Silver Pegasus flapped their wings and took to the air, heading straight west in pursuit...

A group of elf students waited at the messy Checkpoint Two.

Several Half-Elf members of the crowd approached Klayr, their expressions somewhat embarrassed, but they still said to Klayr, "Klayr, thank you for your help this time."

Klayr waved her hand dismissively and said, "Why bring this up! We're all classmates..."

The atmosphere eased a little, and then an elf asked in a low voice, "What about the instructor? We can't just leave him lying there like this forever."

"Wait a minute, there are more Rescue Team coming. What we need to do now is preserve the scene."

The elves hid under the shade of the trees to rest.

Roy and Klayr huddled together, exchanged a glance, and remained silent.

The elves waited under the tree for nearly an hour and a half, until finally a group of Elf Warrior riding Silver Pegasus appeared in the sky. The students immediately ran out from under the tree and shouted to the sky.

The students were numerous and stood in the most conspicuous spot on the edge of the cliff. They waved to the Elf Warrior of the Silver Pegasus Squadron, and the sight was quickly spotted...