The forces of the beast-men that had surrounded Hariwin's party did not move an inch, as if petrified in their places.

  It was an awkward situation as neither party was making any moves, but something peculiar happened—

  Winds began to blow as if a storm had just brewed. Even the Giant Farelen had trouble maintaining his position.

  Harwin was holding on to his dear life by hugging a near-by tree. Graftel, however was not effected by the sudden change of circumstances. Infact, there was a slight grin on his face.

  The beast-men as well as the other elves were frozen in their places. It was extremely hard to even maintain their positions as they searched for any support near-by. Some who were much weaker and could not find anything to grab on to were blown away, hitting against nearby objects.

  Soon the winds began to calm down a little. A figure appeared — a humane one, but he was not human. Harwin immediately recognized him but so did Graftel.

  The figure walked passed his own soldiers and made his way directly towards Graftel. He was abruptly stopped by Farelen who stood infront of him like an iron-wall.

  The giant regarded the person standing infront of him as a great threat.

  He swung his great-axe to end the fight swiftly. Just before he was able to land the strike, he was thrown away, hitting a nearby tree — crashing right into it, and almost going through to the other side.

  Farelen spewed out blood as Harwin and the others except for Graftel, stared in horror at the scene that had just played out in front of them. The person, who did not even reach the shoulders of their giant companion, had thrown him away with a single punch.

  The beast-men soldiers begun to cheer, but a single glare from their supposed leader shut them all up. He begun to saunter towards Graftel once more, who just smiled at this mysterious stranger as the entire forest had gone silent.

  When they were only few feet apart, Graftel charged forward with his great-sword with such speed that Harwin was not even able to keep up.

  The opponent had also unsheathed his short-sword and struck it directly towards his incoming opponent. The clash of their swords created a shock-wave so strong that few soldiers and Harwin himself, were thrown down on their backs.

  Surprisingly enough, this combat engagement came to an end immediately when both Graftel and his opponent started to laugh abruptly. Soldiers from both sides were astounded at this development, none knew what to do next. Soon Graftel broke the awakwardness by stating:

  "It has been some time 'Yhorm the storm-sword', but I see that you have not lost any of your strength. It has been centuries since I last saw you. Glad to see that you are fine."

  “I had expected this to be an elfin settlement, but certainly did not expect to meet you, 'Graftel the sword-saint', to be here of all people. If I had known, perhaps we could have solved this more peacefully."

  Both of them sheathed their swords and clasped each-other's hands in a firm handshake.

  "Well, I would love to catch up with you and reminiscence on the old days, but I am afraid this is neither the place nor the time for such an act. Perhaps we can come up with a deal to resolve this matter, what say you?”

  Yhorm suggested in a calm and logical manner. He did not speak out of fear, rather genuinely did not want to fight the person who stood in front of him.

  “Well if it had been anyone else, I would have simply removed their head off their body, but I am speaking to a dear old friend who has had helped me in my time of need. I am willing to hear you out, that is the least I could do.”

  Graftel admitted it with a shade of embarrassment in his words. Harwin was surprised to see this sudden change in the air. The previous tension had been lifted and all that was left behind was peace talks.

  Harwin was also made part of the negotiation. All three of them gathered in center of the battlefield. The men on both sides had sheathed their weapons. Farelen stood up, but did not approach the negotiatiing party..

  “So Graf, I have simple request. You let go of Borman. He will leave and never cause anymore trouble for you in the future. He had parted from my party, so of-course the killing of your scout was not part of my order. Borman is wild and often acts on his own.” Yhorm stated his terms.

  “Come on, I know you are lying. I can see it in your eyes that you orchestrated all of this, but I will not ask why you did it. You always have been mysterious in your ways. As for your terms, I would have accepted them in the first place even if you had not sent your war monger. He was barely able to speak his own tongue. What did you even hope to accomplish by sending that walking piece of flesh?”

  Graftel was in jolly mood even when he was discussing serious matters.

  “It was something I can not tell you yet. I suppose, I can give you the excuse that I wanted to get back at the elves for taking my slave. You would not believe it, due to your own ability as warrior, but Borman is much stronger than any of my other men. It was just that he was severely outmatched.” Yhorm argued in support of his underling.

  “That is a very folly reason, but I will not pursue the matter any further. Very well, you may leave with your men, but I would advise you to not come anywhere near the village again without informing me first. I hold you in a very high regard and certainly would not want to face you in battle, but I am responsible for many lives now. You know this better than anyone else.” Graftel assented to his request.

  "I am ashamed that I can not provide you with anymore details, but you know it better than anyone else that I am on your side. I will abide by your terms as well."

  “Do you want to take back Gor as well?” Graftel spoke as if Harwin was just a commodity he possessed.

  “No need. He is right where he needs to be.” Yhorm replied.

  “I see, so this was also part of your grand scheme as well. I will never understand what goes on in that head of yours, but I am grateful.” Graftel looked down slightly with guilt in his eyes.

  "No need. Gor, I wish you good-luck ahead on your journey. I advise you to stay close to these elves for they will surely help you survive."

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  Yhorm brought forward his hand towards Harwin as a gesture of goodwill who readily grabbed on to it without a second of delay.

  It was true that he had been taken as a slave, but it was also a fact that he had not been mistreated neither did he ever face any discrimination from the boss. If their ventures together had continued, he was sure they could have been good business partners if not friends, but fate or perhaps something far greater had brought him to the village.

  Harwin felt obligated to help it and its residents, this feeling had only grown stronger after time he had spent there.

  “Graf, I also want to inform you of a nearby bandit camp. It is established at the north-end of the forest. I was able to extract this information from few of the men we had captured who had tried to ambush us. The numbers of the bandits are not known, but they are a very large group so I would suggest to get rid of them as soon as possible.”

  “I will keep that in mind. I would have to scold the scouts for not performing their jobs properly. The younglings certainly have grown too lazy these days.” Graftel tried to cheer him up.

  “Well then Graf, I am sure we will meet again as fate has brought us together many times and I am sure it still holds something for us in its store. I will give you one final piece of information: war is brewing from the south (Silfordan), it is approaching faster than I could have anticipated. A person has appeared in that empire that might hold the key to turn the whole tide in their favor. It will be better for your people to sturdy their defenses as much as possible.”

  Yhorm left after dropping a very grave warning about the current affairs of the world. It certainly had shook Harwin who had not been informed of such a thing during their travels, but it was not a surprise as Yhorm was not obligated to share it with a mere slave.

  Graftel did not show it on his face, but he was worried at the last statement as well.

  Yhorm ordered his party to carry Borman to their caravan where they could tend to his wounds. As broken as the poor beast was, he was still breathing.

  There certainly was an emotional vortex brewing inside of Harwin upon seeing all these scenes today that played right in front of his eyes.

  From the he beating inflicted on Borman to the clash between Graftel and Yhorm, it certainly was another world where he had been teleported to. A world filled with all his fantasies materialized.

  Alas, he was not the hero in this story. Hee was not even stronger than an average soldier here much less the men standing in-front of him, but he was also grateful for today. Harwin was finally free from his slavery and learned a-lot, so it was a productive venture to say the least.

  After all had been done and said, Yhorm and his party left without causing anymore trouble. Farelen had been glaring hard at Yhorm, but he on the other hand did not even notice his existence so there was just animosity in the air without it being manifested.

  Graftel's party waited for some-time before leaving. He even ordered Sarial to check whether Yhorm had really left or not.

  It took few hours before the scout came back with positive news, that Yhorm and his party had officially left the forest without causing any-more trouble.

  After the confirmation they returned to the village. The party was disbanded as Graftel made his way to the chieftain's house to discuss what had occurred during their small venture.

  Harwin followed Landel who noticing his stalker immediately. He took out his blade and pointed it towards him. Harwin in response raised both his hands as in surrender.

  "I am sorry for disturbing. I merely meant to thank you for saying me from Zevran and his party....I should have thanked you sooner, but was never able to get a hold of you."

  "It is no matter. Now do not follow me again."

  Landel left after saying this, leaving Harwin dumbfounded.

  'He certainly does not like me' Harwin thought.

  The rest of the day was spent in describing the events to Borzugal and Alisa who had been waiting for his return.

  It was during this time that Harwin made the formal request to Alisa to teach him how to use magika. She was reluctant at first, as she did not consider herself a great teacher, but soon agreed.

  "Before you are able to cast spells, I think it will better to learn a little about magika itself. I have a few books that will help you in that matter." She left after saying that.

  Soon returning with a few books. The books looked very old and had leather covers that gave them a very unique look. The pages were worn out showing that they have been read by many or at-least were very old.

  Harwin took one of them and read the first page. To his surprise, he could understand everything — the font, the color and the text itself all looked very foreign, but even then there was no problem in interpretating it.

  “So what do you think. Can you read it on your own?” She inquired

  “Yes this will be very helpful. How much should I read to get the basics down?”

  “You should start with this one”

  She pointed towards a book titled ‘The History of Magika’.

  “It contains all the information regarding the types of spells, their classes and the history of magika itself while also covering the basics of using magika as a novice.”

  “I thank you again for your help. I will be sure to use these to achieve fruitful results.”

  “Be sure to ask anything you do not understand. Some of the concepts are rather difficult. You can not try to do everything on your own.” She lectured him.

  "Yes, thank you once again.”

  With that short exchange, Alisa made her way back. Harwin began to examine all the books immediately to discover what kind of contents it had. Some were full of stories, but the few that were useful, were the:-

  ‘The Greater World’, a book explaining about all the different parts of this world. These were short descriptions, but still were very useful for someone foreign to this world.

  ‘The History of Magika’, which Alisa had recommended.

  ‘The Five Wars’, It covered all the events that had taken place during the wars between different races. It was another useful book, for someone trying to understand the deep rooted history and culture of this world and its inhabitants though the contents were highly biased towards humanity.

  Harwin begun to read the 'History of Magika' first, a short description of all his findings from the book:-

  - All beings possessed magika no matter how little Even non-living things (considered in this world as non-living due to the limited knowledge on the subject) such as trees, mountains and even the earth itself contains magika.

  - To use magic spells one has to master the art of controlling the magika within his body. For that purpose, one should be able to control his mind and thoughts. A novice or intermediate magika user should be able to control his thought at command.

  - There are a total of five basic magika types: earth, water, fire, wind and space, but there are also sub-categories in each of these and special class magika that are exclusive or believed to be exclusive to different races.

  - One can use his own magika to cast different spells, but there are also shards and enchanted tools that can perform certain spells. These require extensive knowledge of magika to be crafted. For better or worse, one can purchase these. Such instruments require to be fed magika from the surroundings to work.

  -There are five classes of each type of spell; novice, intermediate, advanced, expert and king. There is however a sixth class 'divine', but the knowledge regarding it is limited, due to the fact that it can only be performed by a higher form of existence.

  -There are only a few mortals who have had ever even reached the level of expert in magika. The king class was only ever created to accommodate the abilities of the 'mage-king' who was in a class of his own (though the existence of some beings are unknown, who could be classified in this class or even higher while being mortal or semi-immortal.)

  - There were also rules regarding using magika with care, but Harwin decided to ignore all that.

  -There were no mentions of teleportation or any other related spells. However, there were a-lot of novice to intermediate spells casting techniques written which Harwin tried but failed.

  He read through the night and finished the book without batting an eye. It was common for him to pull all-nighters due to the fact that he was an honour student in his older world and did not mind reading or learning about all sorts of stuff that might benefit him in the future. When the first light of dawn shone bright on him, he finally realized that it was already the morning.

  There was hope in eyes, a new light. After reading through this small yet detailed book, he has reached the first step in completing his quest though the road was a long one. Still using and understanding magika was the foundation that he needed.

  He slept till the after-noon, but it was only after waking up that he realized: there were no signs of Borzugal anywhere.