The entire battle lasted approximately an hour, during which dozens of elves were injured. But the kingdom was cleared for dozens of kilometers around the place where Thranduil stood, surrounded by blue flames.
Thousands of undead creatures that had invaded the plaza were killed, and not a single elf suffered more than minor injuries.
The reason for this outcome was that these undead lacked a high level of intelligence, were extremely stubborn, and had a very low IQ.
Although the legion suffered numerous losses, not a single undead escaped the battlefield.
This gave Thranduil and the others the opportunity to eliminate them completely.
"Your Majesty, all the undead have been wiped out!"
The elven troops gathered and reported to Thranduil, who was still surrounded by blue flames that did not harm the elves.
None of the two hundred elven soldiers died, and very few were injured, but much of their magical power was consumed.
To completely destroy the undead creatures on the battlefield and give them no chance to resurrect, they had to use magical power to forcibly extinguish the soul fire of the enemy, which consumes a lot of magic.
However, this was only a minor problem. They just needed to remain near the Tree of Life for one night, and all the magical power in their bodies would be restored.
The natural and vital energy that emanated from the Tree of Life was of great benefit to the elves.
It's worth mentioning that, among these troops, a total of eight elves managed to level up.
All of them reached a high level of skill, making their strength comparable to that of the royal elven guard.
Although the rest of the elven troops did not advance or ascend, they also received many "experience rewards" and were not far from leveling up.
Moreover, Thranduil also gained much from this battle. As a lord, he not only earns a lot of experience by personally killing enemies, but also shares part of the experience rewards when his troops kill enemies.
Altogether, his gains were the greatest. It was a shame that the levels of those undead creatures were too low, and there were fewer than a hundred intermediate-level undead.
This prevented him from advancing as much as he had hoped on the battlefield. After all, his level was relatively high.
"Let's return to the sacred trees. Those who are uninjured will take charge of the night watch." Thranduil looked proudly at the elven soldiers and also said:
"Clean up the battlefield and collect the fallen magic crystals. As for the undead corpses, pile them all in one place."
He planned to burn the bodies of the undead creatures. This effectively prevents them from being resurrected.
At that moment, the battlefield was covered with countless fragments of soul fire, both large and small, along with the corpses of the undead. Once these fragments fused and the undead corpses were used as materials for resurrection, there was a high probability that new undead would be born.
There was no need to deliberately clean up the soul fire fragments. Without the body, the fragments of soul fire would gradually dissipate on their own.
Shortly after, a large fire broke out in the northern area of the plaza, and all the corpses were burned to ashes by Thranduil using pure fire.
Magic crystals were also collected from this battle. The total number was more than 3,000 by rough count.
The acquisition rate was much higher than that of the vampire mosquitoes that Thranduil had killed earlier.
After collecting so many magic crystals at once, Thranduil was naturally in a good mood. He immediately went to the ancient Tree of War and trained nearly seventy elven soldiers in one go.
At this point, the number of elven troops under his command reached a total of one hundred and eighty, all of them skilled in combat.
Among them, two-thirds were elven archers.
Thranduil preferred this type of long-range soldier with high lethality.
Of course, the elven swordsman was also indispensable. In the face of a frontal attack from the enemy, they were needed to hold the line and protect the archers in the rear.
…
"Haldir, my trusted commander of the royal guard, I leave the night watch over the sacred trees in your hands." Thranduil knew there was no need to emphasize the importance of this mission.
The elven trees, now the most important thing they had as a race, had to be protected, and Haldir would give his life to ensure that this mission was fulfilled.
"I will follow your orders to the letter, my King. Also, messengers have been sent to have part of the elven force relocated to this place." Haldir, as commander, had done his work without needing Thranduil behind him.
"How many?" Thranduil raised his eyebrows slightly.
"Five thousand elves. We don't want to be noticed by the human hunters." Haldir and Thranduil had gone out to hunt humans who had crossed into the borders of the last elven stronghold long before coming here. Their group at that time had also been small because they didn't want to attract attention.
"You've made wise decisions, Haldir. Do not leave the plaza for now. If any evil creature invades the plaza, kill it immediately!" Thranduil ordered the newly trained elven soldiers.
"As you command, Your Majesty the Great Elven King!" the elves replied respectfully.
When they looked at Thranduil, their eyes were also full of admiration and awe.
To the trained elven soldiers, Thranduil was almost like a creator.
Then the elves divided into several teams and stood guard around the plaza, with the Tree of Life and the Ancient Tree of War as the center.
Thranduil, now calmer, opened the system's task menu and took a look. Both missions were currently in their early stages.
The second mission had reached forty percent completion. As for the first, there had been no progress, since they had yet to begin clearing the kingdom.
Thranduil knew what kind of cleansing the task referred to—it meant expelling the invaders who lived on sacred elven lands. But that mission was far more complex than the second one, which only involved killing ten thousand monsters.
Neither of these two tasks could be completed immediately.
"However, this doesn't affect my ability to expand my territory. Starting tomorrow, we will widen the scope of the ruins' cleansing. The temporary goal is to clear the entire ruined city in seven days, and let no monster escape!"
With new elves being born each day, in seven days they would amount to seven hundred additional workers and numerous warriors. As for the five thousand elves on their way, their reinforcement would be significant.
Looking over his territory, Thranduil knew that the ancient ruins of the city belonging to the Elven Empire were divided into the inner city and the outer city.
Thranduil now stood in the very center of the inner city. In fact, compared to the outskirts of the city, the danger level in the city center was much lower.
Due to the existence of the old tree, many monsters or evil creatures didn't dare to approach.
The closer you were to the central plaza, the fewer monsters there were.
But leaving the central city was complex, since the further one moved away from the domain of the ancient trees, the greater the number of monsters.
This wasn't a blind guess by Thranduil. With the help of the world's ancient consciousness, he had once supervised the ruins of the entire ancient elven city and knew what the outer city currently looked like.
"Once we clear the central city, all elves must live here." Thranduil would only feel at peace when all the elves resided in these lands.
Even elves from outside would be welcomed—that was clear.
And as for the human kingdoms, Thranduil would eventually have time to crush each one with his own hands.
But he still had to be cautious. Once the monsters from the outer city realized that thousands of elves were gathering in this place, they would flood the inner city.
"I must develop the territory quickly." A trace of anxiety rose in Thranduil's heart—he only sought to be a good king.
Now that he had become a lord, each of his actions was tied to the fate of the entire territory. Suddenly, he turned his gaze toward the trees, which were growing ever larger.