It should have only taken about 15 to 20 minutes for them to reach the rendezvous point. He thought that his escape was guaranteed and that he had outsmarted the enemy for good. But apparently, these elves were more diligent than he had originally thought.

"How many of them, Chieng?!" Tristan shouted into his earpiece.

Chieng's voice crackled back in reply through the speakers. (Thirty to forty of them, Master. They are currently approaching at high speed, and it seems that they brought along mounts.)

Tristan went silent for a second, and as he continued to dash towards the rendezvous point, he was quietly making calculations in his head.

(Master, the others are here already, what are your orders?)

"Alright, Chieng, tell them to leave." Tristan took a deep breath before continuing. "As for you... Well, you know what to do."

(Yes, affirmative.)

Scanning his environment once more, he quickly hastened towards the rendezvous point yet again and started to run quickly in its direction.

A few minutes later, with his acute, enhanced senses, he began to feel the trembling of the ground resume. Tristan sighed; it was just as he had thought. He knew that the enemy would be able to chase after him.

But, there were just too many of them going much faster than he had thought. Fortunately, he had another card up his sleeve. If this works out, he could actually even gain something from this.

Not long after, The Forlorn elves emerged behind him, hot on his trail. Among the elves, he could see four figures jump up off of their horses, casting spells as they began to chase the pair on foot.

Two of them seemed to be able to hop effortlessly between the trees, passing through them as though they were made of water. It almost appeared as though they could enter and exit the trees as they wished.

The other two, on the other hand, were clearly casting the same spell used by the elder elf. Their bodies glowed with an ethereal, light blue color, and they were able to run effortlessly as if they were gliding on ice.

Both of these spells gave them the ability to run faster than him, and from his heightened senses Tristan could tell that all four of them were elf nobles. This was going to be really troublesome for him.

While he ran, the elf that was clinging to his back began to speak into his ear.

"The spells that were just casted included [Tree Stride] and [Sleepstream], two of the wood elves' greatest mobility spells. These four elves are at the peak of the third level of Katra, as well as also being Rank 4 magicians. They are quite formidable."

Tristan ignored him and kept running straight.

The four started to throw long-range offensive spells in his direction, [Steel Leaves] and [Water Spear] in particular, but with the distance between them Tristan was still able to dodge them.

Unfortunately, the opponents were able to get closer to him little by little, and the spells slowly became harder to dodge.

"Ah…" The blind elf still clinging tightly onto his back huffed exasperatedly. "We are not gonna make it, are we?!"

Tristan tossed an infuriated glare over his shoulder. He was really contemplating just throwing the other elf on the ground and leaving him to rot for the enemy forces to find.

"If you have anything to contribute, do it now!"

"Argh, I can't even see them, how is it possible for me to do anything with them?!"

"Ugh!! I should just drop you here right now, then!!" Tristan exclaimed, placing his hands on the arms that were grasping his abdomen as though he was about to pry them off.

"No... No…!" The blind elf yelped in protest. "You shouldn't do that to a poor blind man; trust me, it will only bring you misfortune!"

Tristan quickened his pace even further. At the moment, he could already see the enemy forces closing in on him through the corner of his eye.

Right at the same time, Tristan suddenly saw great, thick roots erupt from the ground in front of him. It was the plant spell, [Entangle], and it appeared that the enemy had already grown close enough to be able to cast such an annoying spell.

Multiple roots began to charge from three different sides towards him, and Tristan used his sword to slice them all up. But his speed was just one more hindrance that he had to account for.

Tristan could tell that the four nobles were now only a few steps behind him.

With more roots twisting out of the ground in front of him, this time, Tristan decided to jump on top of them instead. With this move, he instantly became more vulnerable to the offensive spells that were shot their way.

He had miscalculated. Immediately, he could tell that several razor-sharp steel leaves began to fly towards him, and there was no way that he dodge them.

At this moment, suddenly, the razor leaves were blocked by an ice-like barrier.

Clank! Clank!

The elf that was perched on his back. It seemed like he was able to fully block all the incoming spells that were being flung in their direction.

"You can cast ice element spells?! I thought you were a wood elf!" Tristan shouted incredulously, realizing that the blind elf had been the one to save him from the oncoming attack.

"Oh, you know... Just part of a crazy family tree breeding freaky sons." He chuckled slightly.

"Good!" Tristan grinned. "Now, cast more magic, or I will definitely drop you here!"

"Alright Alright!..."

The blind elf cast another spell, and suddenly, a thick sheet of fog descended throughout the entire forest. He had just cast [Cloud Mist], a low tier water spell.

"Now everyone can see how it feels to be blind! Hahaha!" Laughed the elf gleefully.

It was somehow a useless spell as most of the elves had Katra to see without using their eyes. But strangely enough, even Tristan's enhanced senses could not easily see much in front of him. This turned out to be quite a powerful spell indeed; it definitely surpassed Tristan's initial impressions. With this, the four nobles started to slow down, as did the rest of the riders.

As for Tristan, when he started to decrease his pace due to being unsure of the correct direction, the blind elf pointed it out for him.

It was at this point that Tristan began to run again, just as soon as he saw the rendezvous marking peeking out from the mist.

"We are almost there, Chieng!"

(Yes master, everything is prepared.)

The rendezvous point was a small clearing with a little hill in the middle of it. He managed to jump out of the treeline and leap on top of the hill. He abruptly stopped, turning to look at the incoming elves with a triumphant smile.