Before we could even be excited, Glynn dashed our hopes and dreams.

  “What do you mean we can’t fight?” Aveeno said as she poked Glynn.

  “You aren’t even B-ranked yet let alone C; you would only be cannon-fodder.”

  There were a few adults around, the rest had gone and prepared for war.

  Glynn and the other volunteers stayed back to make sure us children were safe, and if needed, to escape from the village. Although I was already seventeen, I could almost be considered an adult.

  A conversation like this was common, most of the children wanted to fight, even Kelly and Kyln wanted in on the action.

  A few moments later, a large shockwave swept by and made our clothes flutter, followed by a faint roar calling for blood.

  Looks like the battle started.

  I had no doubts that the frost elves would win, I mean, they decided to attack on a day when it was snowing. God had to be foreshadowing our win.

  My ears twitched as I heard a small phik.

  I turned around quickly before raising my hand to catch the arrow.

  I caught it but there was another arrow that also came and pierced my arm.

  Oh, and several hundred arrows also arrived, I just so happened to be unlucky. Before the arrows killed all of us, Glynn created a large frost dome that covered the area, blocking all the rest of the arrows.

  Releasing an arrow and pulling out the other, my blue blood clotted and froze, covering the hole.

  This was a newly gained racial skill. Prior to the war, Glynn and Aveeno finally told me the real reason I was drinking the potions, to become a half frost elf.

  I was lucky, many coincidences came together that allowed me to live. Had my skin not been blue and my hair for some reason white when I appeared on their doorstep, they would’ve killed me on sight. So, they were kind of racist.

  After that was a superstition of the tribe that if two people awakened on the same day, they were meant for each other (regardless of gender or age), that’s why they treated me nicely after I told them I saw the stars, because Aveeno also saw them on the same day as me.

  That was the main reason why they slowly converted me into a half frost elf, she, the tribe leader’s daughter, can’t marry a pure human.

  Being a frost elf had its perks, my blood became super useful, if my arm was removed, as long as I had time and it was a clean cut, my blood would clot and freeze over the wound, temporarily sealing it. Not that I wanted to test it out.

  And to heal it was to… drink the blood and vitality of others. I had no idea elves were vampires.

  Regardless, we were being attacked and that reminded me that I needed to drink blood to heal my arm.

  ~~~

  “Dammit.” A young man gritted his teeth.

  “I told you it wasn’t going to be that easy.”

  Several hundred meters from the elven village was the capture group, hidden in the forest.

  This was a newly made group for the third attempt on the frost elves. In contrast to the first two attempts, other than the vanguard group in charge of fighting, distracting, and raiding from the front, this group was made after careful consideration.

  Manpower was low but they didn’t need to have many B-ranks in this group, they learned from the previous two times that the frost elves only sent their adults to fight while the children stayed back and escaped if needed.

  Thus, a majority of the adventures were D-ranked, among them a few scattered C-ranked with a few leaders being B-ranked. What they lacked in quality, they made up in quantity, and the greed for glory and gold.

  After the first volley was shot, the adventurers charged toward the frozen sphere.

  “At least you injured one, come on, let’s capture some of them and maybe we could increase our contribution and finally get that bow you’ve been eyeing. Hurry, let’s get close before they destroy the barrier.”

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  A minute later, a majority of the adventurers were halfway through the field and still bravely charging through the knee-high snow. Moments later, several fire mages summoned and threw fireballs towards the ice dome.

  A sharp sound like glass shattering pierced the air and soon the dome fell.

  However, beneath the dome was not a single elf.

  “Damn, where did they run?”

  “I think either left or right, they wouldn’t charge toward the main battlefield, would they?”

  “AHHHH!”

  Looking over, Kora and Nova saw a man being dragged to the ground in a cloud of snow.

  Soon, the battlefield erupted, with elves leaping out of the snow to bite, cut, scratch, and stab the adventurers.

  “Ambush!”

  Nova was no different, an elf quickly rose from the snow, grinning with a red glint in her eye.

  “DRECHI!”

  Although he had more time to react than the others, he also died quicker. A sword decapitated him as he fell slowly. Seconds later, a hand pierced his chest holding a bloodied heart.

  “NOVA!”

  “EUWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!” The elf laughed maniacally eating the heart. “Be drechi!” She shouted before running and charging towards Kora.

  “Dammit, come at me bitch!”

  ~~~

  “I need to learn how to do that.”

  I got up from the snow, but I was much further behind everyone else.

  “It comes from practice; she has been training her decapitation technique from young.” Glynn proudly responded.

  “No, I mean how to go under the snow without moving the snow too, if not for your mana, I would’ve been spotted already.”

  I injected mana into my tattoo, glowing purple, before a silhouette of a bow began to eat away at the snow.

  “Also comes from practice, it’s just a game everyone played when their young, it’s like your human tag but in the snow and with weapons.”

  After the bow finished forming, I covered the shaft of a frost arrow with mana, I notched it and aimed at the armored person Aveeno was fighting.

  “I have questions like why a children’s game would involve weapons, but we are at war so ill ignore it.”

  I calmed my breath and imagined countless mana strings connected to my bow string to my right arm before pulling my arm back. I had been practicing using a bow like this, but it was only now that I used my tattoo’s bow, I have summoned it before but never actually used it.

  The frost bow required more pounds to pull but I could barely meet the minimum.

  My mana was draining at a fast rate though, so I hurriedly shot it at the armored person before unsummoning it.

  A light blue light flashed before I hit the chest plate dead on, it didn’t do any damage, but it seemed dimmer, somehow.

  Half my mana and I couldn’t even kill someone, this was depressing.

  About half the mana used to summon the bow was reabsorbed so I had roughly sixty percent left, I then unslung my old bow.

  I was too far to actually help in melee combat, but my aim improved and got better, almost reaching my glory before losing my hand.

  It was way less mana intensive as I didn’t have to pull as many pounds. I first copied Glynn, supporting the kid elves from losing before slowly making my way forward.

  Using regular wooden arrows, I made before, surprisingly I got my first kill helping Kyln and Kelly kill a muscular and bald man.

  It was odd since I put all my strength into testing the first shot which didn’t do much, but these casual shots did more.

  ~~~

  ‘Holy shit, I had a hard enough time fighting this crazy elf but whoever shot that ballista at me was going for over kill!’

  ‘For fucks sake, it broke the defense enchantment in one shot, that was enough to block one C-rank fire ball!’

  I’m so lucky mother gave me this dark iron armor; I told her she was going overboard but now I’m thankful it could block that attack and still last against this elf.

  I had already put away my tower shield earlier and pulled out a short sword and smaller shield. I couldn’t use something so slow against someone so fast. Although they had the initiative and constantly pressured me, I slowly made my way backwards, hopefully to get someone to help me.

  From what I could see, the fastest people were the ones in the most trouble, they got ambushed by more people and there were less adventurers around to support.

  ‘Dammit, dammit, there were white marks all over my armor, I understood the sword, but the icicle makes no sense!’

  I had a few hits that drew blood, but she didn’t even blink at them, she madly attacked me without blocking or defending much, only avoiding.

  From the corner of my eye, I saw some hope. There were three adventurers ganging up on one elf, but they looked almost successful, if I could lure her there after they took the elf down, it would be four against one.

  ~~~

  I was making my way toward Aveeno and the armored person; I didn’t want to let my arrow go to waste.

  Although I had my own goal, Glynn told me to help the elven kids, not for my skill but because I had the range to quickly help.

  I scanned the field, there were a couple of kids not doing well, the closest was the one who threw a snowball at me when I first got to the village. Despite not wanting to help him, I might as well, he was the furthest one from Glynn and I don’t want to have him running from one corner to another.

  I also realize that he was considered a kid, not the young man I thought he was.

  I analyzed my targets, three men with a sword, sword, sword and shield, alright they were boring.

  Shooting a few arrows before rushing, I yelled random words.

  "AKNSJfhbdbdssvebrnbHBVUGYKHV!"

  Their attacks became slower as they focused on me.

  I successfully distracted the trio before shooting once more.

  Although the first few arrows caught them off guard and hit their mark, my recent ones were only a hinderance and easily blocked.

  I put my bow away in my bag before pulling out a dagger.

  Two continued fighting the elf while one went to deal with me. The best course of action would be ignoring him and helping the elf but against my better judgement, I wanted to kill this man.

  I had been practicing my dagger skills aggressively with Aveeno recently, so I was much better than when I fought the wolves before. Although the way she taught me didn’t suit my style, it felt natural.

  I stabbed towards his eye before feinting and stabbing towards his other eye. Regardless, the plan failed because he defended with his sword horizontally.

  Now that his guard was higher, I aimed for the no no square, before once again, feinting and aiming for the eye. This time, he fell for it, and I killed him in one instant.

  After licking the blood off the dagger, I grinned to myself before dashing towards the elf and the two sacks of flesh.