The other elves carefully glanced at Polon, slightly moving away from him. Just then, their ears perked as they heard sounds travelling from within the village. They immediately readied their stances but revealed puzzled expressions when they identified the sound.

Most of these elves were veteran soldiers who had hunting for many more years than Alz. Furthermore, unlike Alz, these elves had always been living among other elves. They instantly recognised the source of the sound as one of their kind when they focused their ears.

The elves relaxed the tension in their bodies while the footsteps continued to ring out steadily, heading in a separate direction from them. The elves turned to look at Blain with a questioning gaze at this unexpected occurrence.

Polon's mind however was clouded with rage and his mind was unfocused. He did not realise that the anomaly in the footsteps and images of wolves floated in his mind as the sound continued. Finally, he couldn't resist the urge to act and dashed straight at the source of the sound with a murderous shout that filled the entire village.

The other elves tried to stop him when they noticed, but Polon was fast and they had reacted a beat too late, making their efforts fruitless. Blain watched Polon's rapidly shrinking back with a sorrowful expression and unhesitatingly started chasing after him.

Polon was the most talented student he ever had and watching him slowly reduce to this state pained him. He inwardly sighed as he looked at the back of his best student, the child who had always been suffering since the incident.

Lein naturally chased immediately as well and the other elves looked at each other with bitter expressions but quickly proceeded to chase after the three.

His vision was stained in red. His mind fell dormant once again and his instincts took over. The world around him started warping and the surroundings became fuzzy. Polon gripped tightly onto his spear with his right hand as he charged straight steady sound that rang out.

As he approached, he began to notice to anomaly in the footsteps, the similarity of the steps with his comrades its difference from the wolf. Yet, he couldn't think straight, the sight of the devastated fourth village made him lose his reason as he continued charging forth.

Alz halted his steps as face revealed a confused expression as he turned to look in a direction. He could hear that an elf was charging towards him. The footsteps were light and swift, yet it advanced at a terrifying pace he couldn't hope to match.

"Was I wrong?" a thought floated in his mind as his eyes narrowed.

He had initially thought that the newcomers were elves sent from the central village. After all, he couldn't think of any other reason why any elves would approach here, particularly at this this point in time when the wolves started to show signs of leaving.

However, he felt a clear hostile intent from the charge. The creature who approached him was hostile beyond doubt. If they were truly warriors sent by the tribe, there was no reason for them to be unable to recognise his footsteps when even he could recognise theirs.

A fierce glint lit up in his eyes and he quickly opened his backpack, taking the bag that held the glass shards out and scattering it in front. Next, he drew his crossbow with his right and cocked it while his left hand held onto his stone dagger, his eyes staring straight ahead.

Before long, a figure entered his sight. The figure was an elf as he had expected, but he was currently moving forward at a speed that went beyond the limits of an average elf. His expression was murderous and the bloodlust emanating from him was astounding.

Alz closely observed the approaching figure and suddenly, a smiling face popped up in his head. The face of one of the closest friends he ever had, the face his partner who had always been with him when he hunted back then and one of the only remaining things he truly cared about.

"POLON! STOP!" suddenly, a loud bellow came from behind the figure and a burly figured appeared in the distance, chasing after him.

Alz's expression was filled with happiness and grief. He was happy that his dear friend was still alive, but also felt sad for the current state he was in. He looked back at the figure and saw the hints of sadness contained within the fury.

"Polon!" Alz shouted out at the figure while loosening the grip on his crossbow, but he did not react. Alz's eyes were dyed with a deeper sadness as he looked at Polon, but he quickly stepped to the side such that there were no more glass shards in the path between them.

Alz kept shouting out at Polon but nothing changed. Watching this, Alz's started to feel a deep anger rise from the depths of his soul. He took a deep breath to calm his emotions and sheathed his dagger, taking on a combat stance.

Several moments later, Alz was finally within the range of Polon's spear. Polon immediately thrusted his spear forward, but Alz calmly dodged as though he had read it in advance. In this opening, Alz immediately made a short dash, approaching Polon.

"If you won't listen then go to sleep for a while!" a chilling voice exited from Alz's lips, containing Alz's fury within it.

Alz grabbed onto Polon's body while using his own to distort Polon's center of gravity, throwing him onto the ground the next instant and knocking him out.

A voice called out, a familiar voice from his memories. Polon's body slightly trembled as he heard the voice. His mind was struggling, trying to break free from the anger that bound his mind. Yet, he did not succeed. He continued charging like a mindless beast towards the only ally that remained.

The bits of consciousness that remained in him shouted for his body to stop but it didn't work. He dashed up to his friend and lunged his spear at him but suddenly, he heard a chilling voice from his side and the next moment, his world flipped and his consciousness faded.

Blain stared in shock at the scene before him. He had started panicking along the way when he recognised the elf that was standing ahead. He was extremely surprised that Alz had managed to survive the incident back then and was extremely happy to see him.

He felt like a strand of hope had finally appeared for mending his student's heart, but never in his wildest dreams did he expect their meeting to play out like this. If Polon really killed Alz here, Blain could only imagine how the regret that followed would break him completely.

He started shouting but Polon did not react, Alz started shouting but Polon still did not stop. Blain was falling into despair as he watched the scene. In his eyes, Polon was a warrior who had grown to be able to match even him in a battle and was not someone Alz could handle.

Yet, reality had played out completely differently from what he had expected with an almost comical ending. Polon could only thrust his spear once before being thrown to the ground in a way he had never even thought was possible, ending the fight.

"A-A-Alz? Is that you?" he slowly walked up before the young elf who was standing before Polon who lay sprawled on the ground, his voice filled with doubt and disbelief.

"Village chief, it's nice seeing you again." Alz turned to Blain and replied with a smile, but quickly turned his gaze to Polon and asked in a worried tone, "What happened?"

Blain resisted the urge to ask Alz about the fight earlier and followed his gaze to look at Alz, sighing before he spoke, "He never truly recovered from the incident."

They both fell to silence, but Blain quickly broke the silence, unable to contain his curiosity, asking Alz, "What was that just now?"

Alz naturally knew what Blain was referring to when he asked. He looked at Blain and casually replied, "Nothing much, just something I picked up." he ended it there, not continuing to explain.

Blain looked at Alz silently, before proceeding to sigh. He could hear Alz's unwillingness to explain further and he said, "You have really changed, in many ways."

Alz remained silent and looked down at Polon, trying to come up with a solution to solve this tricky problem.

Lein and the other elves slowly started to arrive one after another, walking up to the pair. The other elves looked at Alz and the unconscious Polon with curious eyes while Lein opened his eyes and mouth widely as he saw Alz, his face filled with disbelief and unconcealed joy.

Alz noticed Lein's reaction and called out to him happily, "Guard captain! You also survived!"

"I-Its really you? Alz?" Lein stammered slightly at the start, not yet recovered from the shock.

Alz beamed at Lein and lightly nodded his head. He was extremely happy that Lein had made it out of the ordeal, as Lein was his instructor and his lessons had helped him much throughout the years, something he felt extremely grateful for.

Suddenly, a soft groan was heard from below and Polon's eyelid started to wiggle as he slowly returned to consciouness.