Earth’s Doom Starts with… Me?

"...Shall be it, then." The elf prince said in a low growl as his sword disintegrated into a whiff of glowy green smoke, which seeped right into his wounds on his hand and thigh. It seemingly formed a plug of some sort, seeing that the wound and the hole were now glued shut with a green-ish aura, not spilling any more drop of blood.

"Ooh~ Using your mana to patch up your wound, huh? Not bad, you're quite knowledgeable." General Zhang hummed while he cracked his knuckles, and immediately leapt forward to grab the elf prince's long, flowing hair.

'BAM!'

...And that, kids, was why you should always tie your hair back when you were on the battlefield.

General Zhang smashed Ioriell's face against his knee, and didn't stop at that.

One jab, two jabs, followed by a straight punch in the face and an uppercut aimed at the long-haired elf's epigastrium.

"Kkh--!" Ioriell grimaced and crossed both of his arms in front of his body in an attempt to shield himself against the incoming blows.

'THUD!'

Alas, it only opened his waist for general Zhang's kick to connect. The elf prince's body went flying across the forest and crashed into a huge, burning oak tree.

"My prince!" A nearby elf shouted, and came running to assist him.

'BANG!'

However, his attempt was cut short by my bullet which penetrated right through his back, and into his chest. That should be enough to disarm him, right?

"Harith! No!" Ioriell cried out as he caught the fallen elf in his arms, "hold on, I got you!"

The same glowy green puff of smoke came out of Ioriell's fingers and into the young elf's wound, patching it up until the blood stopped flowing outwards.

"No, my prince... You need to save up your mana..." The young elf huffed and puffed, presumably because even though the wound had been patched up, the damage had been partially done.

"No! I exist to protect you guys! So I shall use my mana, even if it means I can't fight." Ioriell replied.

"But, my prince... If you fail here, they will annihilate us all, and the tragedy will happen all over again..."

"Ugh--!"

"Thank you, my prince... You--you have always been my, no, our hero, you know that?"

Ah, so that was why he was conserving his mana. It turned out that he was saving it in case his subordinates needed healing. Damn, we really were the baddies, weren't we?

"Hey, eel. He's healing his friends. Seems humane to me." I told general Zhang, but I didn't lower my aim and was still prepared to launch another bullet, although I could feel my own mana diminishing.

"That's not healing, little cub. That's just mana control," he explained, "it's kind of like how you used your mana to form a stabby thingy earlier, but he used it to patch up the wounds, not healing them. It's basically just band-aid with extra steps."

"I--I mean, yes. But that's not my point..." I sighed as my shoulders slumped down.

To be honest, I was starting to feel conflicted about this whole thing. Even though I was used to killing humans, it didn't mean that I enjoyed doing so. I was only doing that because I couldn't do anything against it in the army, and I needed to do so to survive.

In this case, the surviving part was still applicable, seeing that they were also aggressive towards us, but we could've picked a much more peaceful route like simply storming the minotaurs' kingdom without having to come here, right?

'BANG!'

I fired another shot, which was instantly deflected by the prince's shield. Finally, he was starting to use his shield again.

I wasted no time and readjusted my aim towards another elf that was far from both the prince and the dying elf, and opened fire.

This time, the prince didn't use his shield and he let his subordinate take the bullet into her chest. I guess he finally realized that he couldn't do this half-heartedly.

"Oh? I thought you'd hesitate, little cub~" General Zhang grinned while he gave me some head pats. Ah, head pats sure were nice, especially in a situation like this.

"I won't. I don't enjoy this route, but I won't pick any other route if I was given the choice to," I explained, my breath starting to feel heavier than usual. Ugh, at this rate, my mana would be gone soon, "because this is the best route to ensure general Owen and general Enzo's extraction, without having too many casualties on our side."

"Mm-hmm. That's my smart little cub. According to your story, these elves can't face those minotaurs without major casualties, too. So I think we've made the right choice~" General Zhang said as he ruffled my hair until it was messy.

Well, I wouldn't say our decision was right or wrong, and I wouldn't even try to justify our actions. Yes, we committed bad things, and yes, it was for our own selfish gain, which was to get our friends back and secure a place for us humans.

But if we were to see it from the elves' perspective, for example, we were definitely the baddies. Just like how we perceive them as our enemy for wanting revenge upon us.

"Die."

'FWOOP!'

My eyes went wide when I noticed that a sword was barely touching my eyeball.

"Pay attention. You almost lost an eye there, little cub." General Zhang's voice was low and husky when he alerted me about the situation.

I leapt backwards and saw that the elf prince had stood up and abandoned the young elf on the ground, bleeding from the hole on his chest. Judging by his arm posture, he had just thrown his magic sword at me, and fortunately, general Zhang was there to grab it before I lost my ability to see.

"Ugh!" Just as I was about to aim my rifle at the prince, he dashed in a zig-zag motion and quickly closed the distance between us.

Seeing that, I activated my psychokinesis skill to grab a nearby burning branch and tried to puncture him using the branch, which failed miserably due to his tremendous strength.

"This is for killing Harith!" He held out his arm, and his sword re-materialized in his hands again. Ah, the beauty of using magic.

'BAM!'

This time, I hit my own body with a huge, flaming branch to propel myself out of harm's way. To my surprise, it didn't hurt that much. Might be because of my physique stat combined with my new armor and my fighting dirty skill. Neat.

I quickly rolled on the ground and got up on my feet. But Ioriell was also quick. He was already rushing me with his sword in his hand. I responded by raising the ground beneath him using my skill to throw him off balance.

And with perfect timing, general Emilio swooped in with his spear. He launched a few thrusts that Ioriell managed to evade.

"Ha! You won't hit me like this!" The elf prince shouted confidently, albeit having his body covered with sweat already. Might be due to the heat, the stress of fighting and mana consumption, or a combination of the three of them.

"I know." General Emilio replied shortly, and tackled Ioriell with his body, hard.

Right upon contact, general Emilio raised his quills, and pierced holes upon the elf king's body, be it through his chest, arms, or legs.

"Ugh!"

...Or so I thought.

I watched in surprise when I saw that although some of the quills managed to pierce him, but something also pierced general Emilio.

Only Ioriell's arms and legs were pierced by the quills, while his trunk area was safe, since apparently, Ioriell was quick enough to slice the quills that were about to pierce his vital areas. The thing that concerned me the most though, was the sword that slashed general Emilio's left flank.

"Hey! Over here!" I shouted and used my psychokinesis skill to yeet general Emilio away as far as possible towards somewhere that wasn't burning. After that, I quickly sprinted towards Ioriell and engaged him in close combat.

I wasn't the best at close-ranged combat, but I did receive some training during my time serving the army. I purposely targeted his injured area, which was his thigh, arm, and of course, his epigastrium.

His epigastrium area might look fine, but considering the blow he received from general Zhang earlier, it shouldn't be in very good shape.

"Ha. Quite frantic now that your friend is down, aren't you?" Ioriell snickered while he parried all of my blows.

"On the contrary--"

'BAM!'

"--I'm becoming even more careful than before." I finished my sentence with a palm strike on his left ear.

"Ugh--!" He winced a bit as his balance started to shift. That was why targeting the ear was a pretty op move in real combat.

"Luke!" I called out as a familiar white snake materialized in front of me, and lunged towards Ioriell, clamping his teeth tightly on the elf prince's neck until the veins around it started to darken with a hint of purple.

"Gah! How deceitful of you!" Ioriell cursed as he slashed Luke's slender snakey body, but failed to do so as I immediately withdrew him, making his body disappear into a puff of smoke.

"Who said I fight clean?" I replied as I concentrated my mana to the tips of my fingers, forming sharp nails.

I had ordered Luke to stay inside so I could conserve more mana, seeing that I had been exerting my mana greatly right from the moment we started shooting the elves at the tower, during the first confrontation with Ioriell, and now during our second confrontation.

To be completely honest, my mana was already on the verge of exhaustion, but I couldn't give up just like this. I had to smartly utilize each and every last drop of it, hence why I only formed sharp nails instead of a proper dagger or spearhead.

'Thud!'

"Ugh!" I groaned when Ioriell grabbed my hand that was about to stab his neck, and pulled me closer until we were just an arm's length apart.

"I also don't fight clean, human." He sneered and summoned his sword once again, preparing to inflict a fatal stab wound on me, judging by this distance.

"Good. Neither do I." I pulled out my rifle with my other hand, and pointed it at a point-blank range upon his face. If it was this close, he shouldn't be able to use his shield, right? Finally, I had been waiting to get a chance to shoot him up close.

"Come!" He taunted me as he thrust his sword upon my god-knows-what. I couldn't be bothered to check where he was going for at this point.

I charged up a condensed mana bullet, the strongest one I could muster, and aimed right between his eyes. There was no way I'd miss in this range.

'BANG!'

'SHHKK!'