Grass had transformed into a human at some point. She wiped the remaining blood from her mouth, revealing a rare smile, and said to Eric:
"If you hadn’t come, it would have been very difficult for us to capture them so quickly."
"Grass, are you injured!"
Eric saw the blood at the corner of her mouth and thought she had suffered severe internal injuries. He hurriedly looked up, intending to use healing magic, but his mana and spiritual power were both depleted.
Forcing himself to use it caused his head to throb as if pricked by needles.
His head paused, and he wearily shrank back into Max’s arms: "I can’t do it, let’s wait for Evan to come back so he can treat you..."
Max stroked his head with heartache: "Grass only has superficial wounds; the blood on her mouth belongs to the Elves. Don’t worry."
Grass also frowned, looking at Eric with concern: "I’m fine, what about you? You look very uncomfortable."
If Eric were in human form now, one would certainly see his face was pale. Fortunately, in Snow Wolf form, everyone could only see his fur.
His voice was weak: "I’m fine, just depleted mana and spiritual power. I’ll be fine after resting. Let’s go back."
As he spoke, the two Natural Guards slowly dissolved into branches, leaving only the branches binding the Elves tight. The other branches slowly retreated underground.
As for the man-eating flowers and thorny bushes summoned by the Elves, they were still growing wildly there.
Although no one was supplying mana anymore, this kind of large-scale high-level magic wouldn’t dissipate easily. Unless summoned back by the Elves, they would persist for several months.
The Snow Wolf warriors leaned on each other as they walked toward the tribe.
Grass walked past the two Elf prisoners without even glancing at them. Kevin resignedly followed behind to pick them up, but he didn’t want to carry them on his back, so he just dragged them in his hands like trash.
Eric’s gaze caught that one of the two Elves had a very large wound, blood flowing incessantly. If not for Elves being close to nature and having the ability to self-heal, perhaps he would have lost his life long ago.
Under Kevin’s rough handling, this Elf swayed back and forth, his face as pale as a corpse. If Eric couldn’t hear his weak heartbeat, he wouldn’t dare believe he was still alive.
No wonder the other Elves looked so grief-stricken and indignant, wanting to fight to the death.
He couldn’t help staring for a while. The more he looked, the more it seemed like Kevin was carrying a dried corpse. Since the Elf’s physique was quite slender, it looked increasingly creepy, so he opened his mouth to say:
"Kevin, uh, maybe you should put these two with the Elves over there. Carrying them back like this, that Elf will probably be dead by the time we reach the tribe."
The other captured Elf had just fainted, and his condition seemed much better.
Kevin didn’t want to hold these two hot potatoes anyway. Their Snow Wolves found the smell of Elf blood disgusting. Hearing Eric’s words, he happily threw the two injured ones onto the pile of Elves.
Although the Natural Guards summoned by Eric had withdrawn, the branches binding the Elves were still part of them. At this moment, they stretched out like living things to bind these two Elves as well.
Without needing the Snow Wolves to carry them, a cluster of branches gathered into legs like a human’s, walking behind Eric.
"This magic isn’t bad, quite smart." Kevin looked it up and down curiously, clicking his tongue in praise.
Despite being completely exhausted, Eric still tried to prop himself up, his tone proud:
"Of course, this is magic I spent days learning. I heard Evan say that the Natural Guards summoned by this magic possess intelligence."
The corners of Max’s mouth lifted slightly: "So your magic has improved this fast."
"Sigh, if I didn’t have to go to class all the time that winter, I would definitely have learned this magic long ago." Eric recalled the period of extra classes that was like a living hell and sighed.
Kevin thought of that winter, when he was glared at every day because he didn’t finish his homework, and nodded his large wolf head in deep sympathy.
Pepsi, hearing their conversation nearby, suddenly began to struggle violently, his mouth making muffled noises ceaselessly, trying to speak.
Seeing him start to throw a fit again, and feeling tired, Eric couldn’t be bothered to pay attention to him, so he tucked his head into Max’s armpit and drifted off to sleep.
The feeling of completely depleting spiritual power and mana was truly too uncomfortable; he needed to recover quickly.
"He doesn’t have any wounds on him, does he?" Grass asked with a worried expression.
The surroundings were full of the smell of blood from Snow Wolves and Elves. Since Snow Wolves had sensitive noses and these smells were mixed together, Grass couldn’t smell whether Eric was injured or not.
Max stroked the smooth fur on the small Snow Wolf in his arms, his gaze glancing at Arthur who had been following behind the whole time:
"No external wounds, just too tired."
Hearing him say that, Michael, who was pricking up his ears nearby, also felt relieved. Grimacing while holding his wounds, he said:
"These Elves, I don’t know what they ate wrong to suddenly attack us. Do they want to start a war again?"
After the battle with the Golden Kingdom, the Elf tribe had also suffered heavy losses. In recent years, Snow Wolves hadn’t seen Elves setting foot in beastman territory.
It was just unknown what madness seized the Elf tribe today. Not only did they set foot in the Hadu tribe’s territory without permission, but they also attacked immediately upon seeing them, muttering something about Snow Wolves kidnapping the Elf Prince. Truly crazy.
The group of Snow Wolves were all angry inside; wasn’t this a disaster falling from the sky? The Elves kept up this suicidal fighting style, making them both tired and sore.
Pepsi still wouldn’t settle down, trying to say something. The Snow Wolf warriors had long disliked him; a warrior passing by struck him hard on the back of the neck, and only then did it become quiet.
Max led the clansmen on the road back to the tribe. At this time, hearing Balu’s words, Kiet and other clansmen had successively rushed over in a hurry, meeting them halfway.
Thomas rushed to the front.
Although he didn’t have long-range spiritual power like Eric, having been a warrior for so many years, his sensing ability was very strong. Hearing the commotion, he was about to leave the tribe when he met Balu looking for Kiet at the Dwarves’ place. Only then did he slow down a bit to lead them rushing over together.
"What happened, huh?"
Thomas walked anxiously around his son and the other warriors to inspect, discovering they were basically all injured. The bound Elves were no better off; one could say they were even more miserable. He asked worriedly.
Especially seeing Eric in Max’s arms, unsure if he was unconscious or sleeping, Thomas felt even more anxious.
Max’s voice was steady: "We were on patrol when we discovered this Elf squad entering the territory. When we asked what they were doing, a fight broke out. These Elves claimed Snow Wolves colluded with humans to kidnap their prince."
Seeing his father’s worried look, Max continued: "Everyone is fine. Eric depleted his mana and spiritual power; he is resting now."
Thomas breathed a sigh of relief.