Blade of the Goddess
Chapter 86 - Starfall Showdown Tournament Part 4

Chapter 86: Chapter 86 - Starfall Showdown Tournament Part 4

"Please stand behind me, Princess Valindra." A dark elf shouted as they shot an arrow into the eye of a Cyclops. His hair was long, and his skill with a bow was spectacular.

"I’m perfectly fine protecting myself, Gilborn. And I’m not here as the princess of the Alfheim, I’m here as a warrior." Valindra stepped forward, her rapier in hand. It hummed a bright golden light that surged with power, and with one thrust, a wave of monsters was vaporized in an instant.

"I understand, my apologies." Gilborn bowed

"It’s okay, I know you only mean the best." Vilandra smiled

"Be careful!" An elf shouted, putting up a barrier that blocked a manticore’s tail from piercing Gilborn.

Vilandra acted fast, wrapping the manticore in vines, trapping its movements. Then, a massive club came crashing down on its head, completely smashing it into mush.

Vilandra nodded at her teammates, "Good call, Lasslail, and thanks for the assist, Finhad."

Laslail was a short elf. He had the normal features of their race and wore elvish armor that mirrored the others, and a sword was holstered around his hip.

Finhad was a tall elf and was pure muscle. He rocked a fancy metal club as his weapon of choice to go along with his brute strength and size.

The Elves landed in a grass plain that stretched as far as the eye could see. It was unlike their usual home environment, where they were surrounded by dense forests. The only plus side was their they were still able to use their wood element.

"Your Highness." A dark elf woman called. Her hair was long and curly; she wore the same elvish armor as her companions, although her heavy chest made it pop out more than normal, and her weapons of choice were twin daggers.

"Yes, Syrune?"

"There is a flock of harpies coming this way. On top of that, I see minotaurs and kobolds headed this way."

"Kobolds outside and not in a dungeon? That’s odd." Gilhorn thought out loud

"This is an artificial fracture, so technically, the rules here could be different than what we’re normally used to." Lasslail assumed

"That’s right. Finhad, I want you in the front to block the minotaurs from flanking us. Gilhorn, you shoot down any harpy that comes close. The rest of us will deal with the Kobolds.

"Understood." They all shouted as they got into their positions.

The first ones to arrive were the harpies. They screeched loudly, slightly ringing the ears of the elves who had great hearing, but it wasn’t enough to cause them pain.

Gilhorn took action. He lifted his arm at waist length, and his shadow formed a circle, spreading out in all directions up to three feet. A bow oozed upward into his hand, and he pulled back on the bowstring, an arrow of darkness appearing as he aimed in the sky.

[Shadow Shot] The arrow left the bow, flying at high speeds toward the harpies. As the arrow tore through the air, Gilhorn’s shadow was pulled with it like a person running with a blanket tied to their body.

Once the arrow reached a certain altitude, the shadow separated from it, splitting into hundreds of arrows as they rained down on the harpies, killing all of them in a bloody massacre.

While that was happening, Finhead lunged at the minotaurs, his massive club gouging a deep trench in the earth as it dragged behind him. Golden light pulsed along the weapon’s length, intensifying with every stride. With a thunderous roar, he launched into the air—then crashed down like a falling star. The impact sent a shockwave through the battlefield, his raw power surging into the ground until golden light burst from the fractures beneath. As he wrenched his club free, the earth erupted in a searing eruption of radiant fury.

"Haha, I love it when he does that," Lasslail laughed, a blur of motion as he blitzed across the battlefield, springing from kobold to kobold like stepping stones. Each leap ended in a slash, each landing left destruction in his wake. He carved a path through the swarm, dropping bodies left and right.

As the kobolds regrouped to halt the nimble elf, he ran a hand across the flat end of his blade. Golden light flared to life, humming with raw mana. With a single, fluid swing, he unleashed a sweeping arc of radiant energy that sliced through the horde like paper, leaving only light and silence in its trail.

Syrune moved like a whisper behind Lasslail, slipping through the battlefield cloaked in shadow, her presence barely more than a flicker in the dark. Any kobold that crossed her path crumpled with a silent gasp, a blade of pure shadow buried in its heart. With a fluid leap, she soared above the chaos, conjuring a storm of shadow-knives in her hands.

They rained down like a curse, each one finding its mark with unerring precision. As she landed, a mob of kobolds lunged at her—but she vanished mid-strike, dissolving into the gloom. In a blink, she reappeared behind them, daggers drawn. A heartbeat later, the kobolds collapsed, their bodies falling apart like shredded cloth, never even seeing death coming.

As for the last cluster of enemies, Valindra brought her hands together, her eyes aglow with quiet fury. From the ground surged a massive tangle of enchanted vines, writhing and snapping like serpents as they coiled around kobolds and minotaurs alike. They were yanked into the air, limbs flailing—some crushed outright, others left to dangle in helpless anticipation.

With practiced grace, Valindra swept her rapier in a wide arc above her head, leaving trails of radiant energy that coalesced into shimmering orbs of light. Holding the blade steady with one hand beneath it, she summoned a surge of golden power.

Then, in a blur of motion, she thrust her rapier forward again and again, her arm a blur, each strike releasing a searing orb that shot through the air like a comet, tearing through the enemies with precision. One by one, they fell, pierced by light, vanquished before they even understood the end had come.

"Is that all?" Gilhorn asked

Valindra shook her head. "For now, maybe. But to earn more points, we need to find stronger monsters."

"Don’t forget we should also be on the lookout for the other races as well." Syrune reminded them.

"We don’t have to worry about the dragons. I’m sure they won’t bother trying to sabotage us. The beastmen would just run off to find strong monsters to fight. That only leaves the humans and dwarves." Vilandra spoke

"I think the humans are the ones we should look out for the most. As for the dwarves, all we need to do is bribe them with some alcohol, and they won’t bother us." Gilborn pointed out.

"That’s true. For now, we’ll find stronger monsters to hunt and keep an eye out in case anything happens."

The others agreed with Vilandra’s words and headed off in a random direction.

Above in the sky, Zion looked on smiling as he watched the elves move to their next location.

’Track their location.’ He ordered Tessa

[Now tracking.]

’Also, did they kill every monster in the area?’

[Scanning...387 detected monsters are still alive.]

’Good. Like last time, make a dome and burn them all.’

Once the elves were a good distance away, Tessa set up the barrier, and Zion burned the area like he did before.

’While my team is hunting monsters, I’ll go find where the beastmen are.’