?The elfmander finished transforming and stared directly at the group, seemingly analysing them.


    Shaman felt her hands shake as the images of the skeleton knight shed through her mind.


    ''I can''t let it happen again.'' Trying to use her fear to fuel her desire to protect, she felt herself calming down.


    "Dieee." The elfmander began to walk toward the group while dragging the sword on the ground.


    Shaman and the rest waited for the elf to make the first move as they were unsure what he was capable of.


    "This seems a lot different thanst time, so please be careful." Shaman knew the theme of Ebonscale was puppets, so she thought it may be based on something else this time.


    "Shaman is right, every demon weapon has a different effect, so once we figure it out, I will know its weakness." ra, possessing her own demon weapon, which had been masked to look like it was forged by Himeko, found out they had special effects through the system.


    After ra finished her sentence, the slowly walking elf suddenly vanished from sight.


    Shaman felt the chill of death behind her and, in a panic hastily turned around, blocking whatever wasing.


    shing swords with the elfmander, she was sent flying back toward the church, crashing into the door. Shaman ended up crashing into the small stage and pedestal that was at the end, removing her from the fight for the moment.


    Elysia was aggravated by this and immediately let out a burst of mes which violently thrashed around her as she rushed to attack the elfmander. Elysia went all out, aiming her spear directly at themander''s head while also sending fire replicas of her spear at his sides, restricting his escape paths.


    ra and Silver were also on the move as the elf''s back was turned to them. Silver went to sh across his back while ra sent in a few lightning strikes.


    In this short moment, the elfmander stabbed his sword into the ground and muttered a few words.


    "Divine protection of the tree."


    A burst of light came from the sword, and tree roots emerged from the ground blocking all iing attacks.


    "Tch." Elysia didn''t give up, so she jumped into the air and switched to her bow, aiming for an opening in between the roots. Charging up a multi-explosive shot arrow, she quickly fired into the hole allowing the mes to engulf what was inside.


    Switching back to her spear andnding back on the ground, toote did she notice the elf appearing behind her, leaving her no time to react.


    However, before he couldy a finger on her, Shaman came out of the church sprinting at him while sending a barrage of ice spears. This forced him to stop the attack on Elysia and block the oing spears.


    Elysia moved out of the way to not get hit by the spears and positioned herself next to ra.


    Shaman coated Kotetsu in fire and went for her own attack on the elf. While she was charging, Silver managed to get his way into the elf''s shadow and stabbed at the elf''s back.


    The elf blocked Shaman''s sword, but the mes on it did not stop and began to burn the elf''s armour. Silver was just about to hit the elf, but a purple fog suddenly grabbed his scythe, freezing it in ce.


    His heart dropped for a moment as he was unable to move it at all, yet he was unwilling to let go of his scythe as it was the only weapon he had.


    Elysia saw this and conjured up a fire arrow in her hand, throwing it at the fog that held Silver''s scythe. This caused the fog to dissipate, freeing Silver from its grasp and also confirming for Elysia that fire was still a major weakness, same as it was for the skeleton knight.


    Shaman, on the other hand, was pushing more mana into her fire, trying to engulf the elf in mes. However, the elf pushed away Shaman and charged at her while coating his sword in the same fog.


    Shaman went to parry the strike, in which she seeded, but the fog surrounding the sword wrapped around her arms until it reached her head.


    [Blessing of the fox activated]<novelnext></novelnext>


    A system message opened, and the fog quickly dissipated, confusing the elf.


    ''Again with the mind control…'' Shaman anticipated the elf to have some form of mind control and when she saw the fog go for her head realised what it was doing.


    Taking advantage of the confused elfing to a halt, Shaman quickly activated [de of mescion] and shed horizontally. Cutting the elfmander in half, Shaman smiled, thinking the fight might be over, but still cautiously waiting for any more movement.


    What Shaman hoped for did note to pass as the elf started to move again. The blood began to bubble where she made the cut, and suddenly tree roots came out of the wounds, reconnecting its body.


    "Of course, it can regenerate." Shaman jumped back, returning to Elysia and ra''s side. Silver also poked his head out of the shadow, ready to listen to what Shaman had to say.


    "So any idea on the weakness?" Shaman assumed fire was their best bet, but they had no way to counter the regeneration as it seemed endless


    "Fire seems to be the most effective element, but I would say ice as well. If you can manage to freeze himpletely, it should prevent the elf from casting. I also should mention that if the sword were to be removed from his hand, it may allow us to kill him." ra tried to remember what variant of the demon sword the elf had, but because back then she only had a nce and was told very little about it. She was unable toe up with anything that may help them other than educated guesses.


    "So if we can somehow get the sword away from him, then we will be able to kill himpletely." Elysia was itching to jump forward but wanted to wait for Shaman''s orders.


    "Yes, we can assume as much, and as ironic as it sounds, he may have the divine demon sword. I know it sounds very contradictory, but it was one of the most unique weapons and can only be wielded with a neutral faith like the tree of life." ra thought back to one of the swords she knew the most about, since it interested her the most.


    "Alright! Elysia, we will try to double team the elf. ra, I want you to try to find an opportunity to get rid of his sword and Silver, try to restrain him or throw in attacks whenever you can." Shaman dashed forward with Elysia close behind as the elf was just about to finish regenerating.


    ra nodded and made her way to higher ground so she could get an overview of the battle. Silver went back into the shadows hoping he wouldn''t bepletely useless.


    Shaman and Elysia ran side by side, both using their fire in hopes ofbining their attacks together. The elfmander stared at the two waiting for them to attack, which made Shaman a little nervous as until now he was the one going on the offensive.


    nking from either side Shaman went to stab the elf in the ribs, only to be parried by the elf. Elysia sent a fire sh while also stabbing with a fire spear she created in her other hand.


    The elf was able to move after the parry and stop the fire sh quickly, but Elysia''s secondary attack managed tond and burnt a chunk out of his body.


    Unfortunately, Elysia''s attack was made null as it was instantly healed back by the same roots.


    "Tsk." Elysia didn''t stop her pursuit, conjuring up more fire spears and sending them into the elf. Shaman following up once again activated [de of mescion] and shed into the elf. Being overwhelmed by the number of attacks, it tried to move out of the way, but no matter what movements he made, another spear would always be  ready to cut off his retreat. Shaman''s attacks were also getting wider, covering more area and making them almost unavoidable.


    Seeing his distress, ra came out and tried using her de whips to pull the sword out of his hand.


    Unfortunately, this would be unsessful as his grip was just too strong. It almost seemed as if his sword was rooted to his hand.


    Silver waited in the shadows for an opening while the elf continued losing more and more ground. In the end, the elf tried disengaging with a sudden jump away from the action. It would have worked too, if his own shadow didn''te to life to grab him by the legs.


    The group hurried to release a barrage of attacks at the elf who lost his momentum and was crashing down towards the ground. First he was assaulted by Shaman and Elysia''s mes, which merged together creating a fire so hot it even managed to melt the elf''s armour. Then came the follow-up shadow and lightning attacks from Silver and ra which easily prated the now brittle armour.


    Shaman and Elysia jumped back to let the elf''s body burn and also to observe what would happen next. Silver also returned to their side while ra stayed on the roof, expecting it not to be over.


    Soon the mes dissipated and no elf was seen, causing everyone''s hope to rise.


    "Did we do it?" Shaman wanted to rx, but there was no guarantee that they truly killed it.


    Suddenly the ground began to shake, and everyone''s heart dropped as it seemed like the battle was far from over.