The Blonde Bride

Elaine at once gave Lynn a deep, grateful look, while the others dismissed their doubts and voiced their agreement with Lynn's view.

"If it's the barrier, leave it to me." As Ulshi spoke, he drew out a strange arrow whose head was carved with intricate patterns.

"This is a Magic-Breaking Arrow, made specifically to break through sealed barriers."

Lynn was somewhat surprised. He had not expected Ulshi to have something this good. As far as he knew, items aimed at barriers were things only high-ranking professionals would be equipped with.

After all, rookies like them had next to no chance of running into barrier magic.

No longer hesitating, the group began making preparations.

The moment Ulshi launched his attack, Invisible Shadow's concealment effect would instantly vanish, and they would be exposed within the enemy's detection range.

Lynn first condensed a Frost Ring, then added a Shield Spell onto Elaine, who looked the most fragile.

Elaine did not refuse. She smiled and thanked him, but in truth, since she had come to adventure in Whispering Forest, she had naturally made ample preparations. She had brought more than one powerful protective magic item on her.

Seeing that his teammates were ready, Ulshi bent his bow and nocked the arrow. The Magic-Breaking Arrow shot with a sharp whistle of wind toward the spot where Lynn had just detected the magic crystal.

The arrow passed through that area without the slightest obstruction.

Just as Lynn thought his detection had been mistaken and that there was actually nothing there, countless fine cracks spread through the void from a single point outward.

Then, in the blink of an eye, the transparent screen shattered completely.

In an instant, the wind whimpered, beasts growled low, and human voices wailed miserably.

A suffocating stench slammed into their faces!

Holy shit!

When Lynn saw the scene that appeared out of thin air before him, he could not help crying out inwardly.

In the clearing between the trees, several magical light sources illuminated an entire area, and beneath that light was a horrifying scene of utter misery!

The bodies of who knew how many living things had paved a massive ring of flesh and blood.

Goblins, Magic Wolves, Giant Weasels, wild boars, even bats, owls, and other low-star Demonic Beasts and animals—and among them were several adventurers...

The skin and flesh on their surfaces were stuck together as if melted, almost impossible to tell which was which.

Only from the rough outlines of their remaining bodies and the unceasing whimpers that made one's hair stand on end could their species be identified.

No one knew how long they had been in this state. They all seemed to be on their last breath, yet they were still writhing and struggling without end.

At the sight of this hellish scene, Elaine's face went deathly pale, and the others were not much better.

Lynn forced himself to appear calm, but his stomach had already begun churning violently.

He clenched his teeth hard, afraid that if he lowered his head, he would vomit out even his bile.

And at the very center of that terrifying ring of flesh and blood, atop a half-meter-high platform piled from stones, there were still two normal humanoid figures.

A slender male had his back to them, kneeling on one knee on the stone platform. He was dressed with fastidious elegance, and corresponding to his silvery-white hair was his exposed obsidian-colored skin.

"Dark Elf..." Lynn stared tightly at the man's pair of long, pointed ears, his pupils shrinking slightly.

That was a byword for malice, evil, conspiracy, and danger.

As a half-elf, Elaine also quickly recognized the man's identity. Her breath hitched, and anger faintly showed in her green eyes.

And facing that Dark Elf was an ordinary-looking blond girl seated on a chair piled from stones.

Her entire body was bound by vines, her clothes were torn to rags, and a crude white veil covered the top of her head. Drifting on the wind along with it were her almost broken moans.

"Charlotte, my dear Charlotte, promise me. Marry me, all right?" the male Dark Elf murmured in a dreamlike tone.

Where Lynn and the others could not see, he raised his head and gazed at the blond girl in infatuation, his grape-purple eyes filled with tender affection.

"No... no, let me go... please..."

The girl's weak pleas were as though unheard by him. His eyes widened, and he spoke to himself in wild delight:

"You—you really agreed! Wonderful! I'll hold our wedding at once!"

He was far too immersed in this "proposal ceremony," so much so that he completely ignored the five onlookers.

"Elaine," Lynn looked at the half-elf girl beside him, somewhat at a loss, "is that really the Charlotte Fenrir you're looking for?"

Elaine had not yet recovered from the shock of that ring of flesh and blood. After hesitating for a moment, she finally understood what Lynn had just asked.

She immediately refuted him. "No, that isn't Charlotte. I suspect that should be one of Miss Tana's missing teammates..."

Before she had finished speaking, Liam had already nocked an arrow. The sharp arrow shot violently toward that Dark Elf.

Lynn inwardly muttered, Nice one, and turned to look, only to see that the arrow had already pierced straight through that fellow's head.

Wasn't that a little too smooth?

The thought had only just arisen when he saw the Dark Elf convulse all over without even letting out a scream.

The next second, however, the arrow that had pierced through his head suddenly disappeared.

What was going on?

Lynn's gaze sharpened, and a heart-rending scream suddenly reached his ears.

He looked sideways in search of it, only to see a burly Bugbear lying flat on its back within the ring of flesh and blood—and stuck in its head was, astonishingly, the arrow Ulshi had just shot!

Had that fatal wound been transferred along with the arrow?

Ulshi loosed a second arrow with a cold expression. In the blink of an eye, his arrow was lodged in the shoulder of a Magic Wolf.

Lynn quickly understood the principle behind this strange phenomenon—

That ring of flesh and blood was connected in some bizarre way to the Dark Elf conducting the ritual. Any damage inflicted on him could instantly be transferred onto the creatures within the ring!

And yet the Bugbear with an arrow in its head did not die at once. It remained the same as before, half-dead, clinging to its last breath.

Lynn immediately felt a headache coming on. This ritual seemed far too uncanny.

Just then, the Dark Elf finally reacted, his whole body trembling as he stood up.

His delicate, handsome face, inherited from elven blood, twisted into a knot, his purple eyes filled with fury.

"Damned flies!" he roared through clenched teeth, each word forced out, veins bulging on his forehead. "You dare disturb Charlotte's and my wedding? I'll kill you, kill every last one of you!"

As he howled in rage, the ring of flesh and blood writhed madly, and the wails of all kinds of creatures grew even more intense.

Puff, puff, puff!

Streams of foul, reeking black blood shot out from the half-melted bodies, forming a dense black rain in the sky that enveloped the five of them in an instant!

At the same time, Lynn's spirituality was violently stirred. He felt that the filthy blood was dangerous to the extreme!

Once it touched them, they might be polluted, corrupted, and gradually become part of that ring of flesh and blood!

In that flash of lightning and spark of flint, he desperately drove his spirituality, trying to activate the Ring-Ascension "Shield Spell" that old Barton had left him.

Judging from the evilness of that filthy blood, this was the only way to protect him and his teammates!

Seeing the filthy blood descending like a rain of arrows, everyone's nerves stretched taut as if facing a great enemy. But even Liam, the most agile among them, could not possibly leave the area it covered in time.

There was no avoiding it!

After judging this, the group simply gave up on dodging. The three veterans and elders—Liam, Xilin, and Ulshi—firmly shielded Lynn and Elaine behind them.

At some unknown point, Elaine had pinched a fragile, easily shattered milky-white stone shard between her fingers. She tightened her grip, about to crush it.

Just then, above their heads, that pure white full moon burst forth with boundless radiance.

The light descended from the sky like a miracle, enveloping the five of them together with the filthy blood shooting toward them.

Silently, the filthy blood melted away swiftly like snow under the sun, until not a trace remained.

At the same time, a clear whistle rang out from above.

Lynn looked up and suddenly saw pairs of glowing green eyes quietly lighting up among the rocks above the valley.