Alleria Returns

The next instant, the rogue flicked up his left hand, and a cloak woven from shadows suddenly draped around him.

Even though Duke had never seen it in person, he knew this had to be the rogue's god-tier skill, Shadow Cloak! In the game, it had a 90% chance of blocking a spell's damage!

Damn it!

Just how high-level was this rogue!?

That guy's screams and rolling around earlier had all been an act!

For others, life was like a play. For Duke, the play had become his life.

Duke could practically foresee himself dying again. At that moment, he had even made up his mind that even if his corpse was desecrated and camped, he would not revive right away.

Only then did Duke discover in shock that while his soul power still stood at 98, his humanity had dropped to just 88%.

What's going on!? Duke shouted inwardly.

The system sprite appeared. "Uh, because you were killed while suffering immense pain and resentment, dying under such circumstances causes additional loss of humanity."

"Then what do I do?"

Fortunately, the system sprite was not cruel enough to answer with something like "deal with it." It replied solemnly, "If you kill the target of your hatred, you should be able to recover half the humanity you lost."

Damn! Who said revenge only left emptiness behind!

No revenge meant losing 10%; taking revenge meant losing 5%. The choice was obvious.

But that was assuming he could get revenge!

Duke was almost moved to tears.

Time seemed to freeze. Yet at that critical instant, Duke suddenly stretched out his left hand and clenched it. The flames that should have wrapped around the rogue leaped to the tip of his nose with a whoosh, erupting in a dazzling burst of light.

It was practically like smashing a flashbang into his face!

No thin pair of eyelids could block such intense light.

Who cared whether they were pay-to-win dog eyes or rogue eyes? Go blind, all of you!

Because of that utterly absurd flash, the rogue instinctively interrupted his Shadow Cloak.

As if a scorching hurricane had swept through, the rogue and his clothing exploded with a thunderous boom. The trees around him suffered as well. Countless splinters, pebbles, and fragments of human bone and flesh expanded and blasted backward in an instant, then fluttered down several seconds later, like countless fireflies dancing through the sky before withering away.

At the moment of the explosion, a speck of light nearly invisible to the naked eye flew out from the rogue's ruined body, then shot into Duke's chest.

Of course, Duke did not notice this anomaly at all. His eyes had been hit too.

"Urgh!"

Everything had happened too fast, faster than lightning. Duke had blinded the other guy, but his own eyes had started tearing up from the intense light as well. The only thing he could be sure of was the system sprite's prompt.

"Congratulations. You have killed a rogue of unknown level far above your own and gained 8,800 soul experience points." Despite the pain, Duke finally knew that the rogue had taken the entire Pyroblast head-on.

"Here, this handkerchief has been soaked in water. Put it over your eyes. You should feel better." A pleasant female voice, somewhat unfamiliar yet somewhat familiar, drifted over.

Duke instinctively took the handkerchief and tilted his head back, pressing it over his eyes. The dizziness caused by his eyes eased slightly... Then Duke suddenly came to his senses.

Wait! Something seemed wrong!?

Duke removed the handkerchief with one hand and forced his eyes open. His eyeballs felt terrible after the burst of light. With tremendous effort, Duke finally saw a pair of Mount Hyjal peaks wrapped in green inner armor.

Damn it, it was Alleria!

What was going on?

Why was Alleria here?

Still, if it was her, she would not go around killing people, right?

According to the original course of history, Alleria would become a universally recognized Alliance hero in Azeroth, the embodiment of courage and justice. She had first risen to fame in the war between the high elves and trolls, then remained active on the front lines of the Alliance's resistance against the orc invasion...

Though he had no idea why Alleria was here, Duke visibly relaxed and slumped to the ground.

Duke felt relieved, but Alleria did not.

"Hey, you're a strange one. What do you mean by that? You looked at my... looked at me once, and then you collapsed? Why do you know I'm Alleria Windrunner? Hey!" Alleria put her hands on her hips, looking exactly like a female tyrannosaur about to lose her temper.

"My... the mana inside me is in turmoil... Let me catch my breath..."

Whether that counted as killing an enemy above his level or not, Duke was in terrible shape right now.

"Hmph!" Alleria gritted her teeth in irritation, but seeing how awful the human youth looked, she ultimately chose to remain silent.

In this world, high elves were the true ancestors of magic. Alleria had been born into the prestigious Windrunner family. Though she had inherited the ways of rangers and hunters, after spending thousands of years among mages, she could tell at a glance that Duke was on the verge of magical backlash.

For several minutes, Alleria had almost believed Duke would be killed by the backlash. Yet, miraculously, she saw him accomplish something many full-fledged mages could not. He was methodically guiding the elements within his body back into place and calming their flow.

That was simply not something a magic apprentice should have been able to do.

Moreover, Duke was only a magic apprentice in name. He had not even received half a day of formal instruction.

After a great deal of effort, Duke finally opened his eyes. Looking at the beautiful yet dangerous high elf hero before him, he sighed. "All right. I thought you'd leave after enjoying the show. You've been following me? Since when?"

Alleria broke into a smile. Even though the darkness made it hard to see clearly, her beauty was still breathtaking beneath that golden hair which seemed to glow on its own.

"Since you escaped from the wild boar."

"The whole time?"

Alleria was not embarrassed to admit it. "I lost you for a stretch by the riverbank. When you reached Northshire Abbey, I caught up again."

So she had seen everything!

Duke suddenly wanted to die.

A question abruptly occurred to Duke. "You exposed Brando for claiming the credit, got me into such huge trouble, and then watched that guy make a move against me? Do you even have a conscience?"

"Oh? It seems you know quite a lot." Alleria smiled mischievously. "Oh? Standing before me is a super magic apprentice who deceived the king of the forest, the famous Alleria Windrunner. His Mirror Image is even better than that of many high-ranking mages. I thought you could handle that little noble. Besides, if things really went wrong, I would have taken you and fled to Lordaeron or somewhere else."

Alleria really was carefree.

Duke felt a little dizzy. Fine, this young master had died, and she had mistaken it for Mirror Image. That was a high-level spell that only level 80 mages could learn in the game!

The only fortunate thing was that since Alleria had concluded on her own that it was Mirror Image, Duke did not need to bother lying about why he had died and then revived.

As for such an outrageously high-class, shameless method of resurrection, Duke truly had no idea how he should explain it to Alleria.