I was about to order the troops to form up, but Alistair beat me to it. It was a good reminder that our company didn’t need two commanders barking conflicting orders. The troops obeyed, adopting the testudo shield formation we’d practiced so religiously this past week. They seemed to be holding together for now, but how long would that last? Out in the open, against an opponent of this size with Boonworthy and Blessed in their ranks? I doubted even Leonidas’ three hundred would’ve lasted long.

  A million questions swirled in my head as we sprinted to Alistair’s position at the head of the formation. Had the Sylrithar betrayed me? Had this all been an elaborate scheme to lure us in?

  That felt a little ridiculous. With these sorts of numbers, they hardly had to resort to such measures to deal with a paltry group of sixty. So why, then? And why attack now, rather than earlier, when they could’ve done so much more damage?

  I couldn’t even guess how much worse things would’ve been if they’d marched on us before we’d unloaded from the wagons. Grug had remained back with the caravan and the drivers, so at least he wasn’t in danger, and everyone present was armed, ready, and able to move into formation.

  We’d just made it to his position when the enemy launched a rain of arrows. I’d always wondered about that term. I’d wondered how a volley of arrowfire could ever appear like rain. I’d chalked it up to exaggeration and fantasy.

  If it weren’t for Aerion yanking my arm to bring me under the raised shield of the formation, I’d probably have stared speechless at the sight of the volley all the way up until they came crashing down.

  As it was, we hunkered down and weathered the assault. Or at least, we tried.

  Because those were no normal arrows.

  “Mythril!” someone shouted in panic, but it was too late. The deadly sharpness of the elven wonder metal, augmented by the heavy arrow shafts, sliced right through all but the toughest shields, taking down soldiers left and right.

  There was nothing we could do but sit there and wait as screams erupted all around us.

  My teeth crunched in my mouth.

  When they finally stopped and I got a chance to peek out from under the shields, I was in the middle of an ocean of arrows and bodies.

  Alistair grabbed an arrow and thrust it into my chest. “They’re using Dominion-damned mythril arrows! Do you know what this means?”

  After spending hours mining for a paltry bit of Aurorium and Voidsteel, I knew exactly what that meant. If they had enough mythril to make their arrowheads—disposable items—then it stood to reason they wore it on their armor and wielded it in their weapons as well.

  Then I had a much more worrying thought. If they had this much mythril, it could only mean one thing.

  “They’re mining it,” I muttered. “Probably within the forest.”

  More than its location on Wisdom’s border and as a strategic place to build a fortress to defend against the Cataclysm, I suspected it was this that Dominium was after.

  In any world, it seemed people were bound to fight over limited natural resources. Precious metals were this world’s oil.

  As profound as this revelation was, it did all of nothing to get us out of our predicament.

  “Guard! Rearward march!” Alistair called, ordering the company to begin the reverse drill we’d practiced all week. It would’ve been faster to just turn and do a forward march away from our enemies, but with their mobility, showing our backs to them sounded like a pretty poor idea. Alistair made the right call.

  “It seems we’ve marched into an ambush,” Alistair muttered as the troops began to march, not bothering to take his eyes off the troops that were rapidly approaching. Though the elves had some cavalry, the vast majority were foot soldiers. Yet even they managed to move a lot faster than any march I’d ever seen. Their orderly ranks never fell, despite the fact that they were almost running.

  “Looks like it,” I replied bitterly from beside him. “We’re pretty fucked, aren’t we?”

  Alistair grunted. “Can’t retreat. The elves are too damned fast. Trying to flee puts us at risk of arrow fire. Our only hope is to weather their assault while retreating, and hope they don’t stray too far for their forest.”

  Considering how far they already were—the forest wasn’t even visible—I was reluctant to rely on that. Luckily, we didn’t have to.

  “Alright, then it sounds like we’re up,” I said, nodding to Aerion.

  “You’ve a means of driving off several thousand troops?” Alistair asked incredulously.

  “Well, maybe,” I said. “Keep marching away. With luck, they’ll decide we’re too much effort.”

  “And if we’re out of it? Luck, that is?”

  I pursed my lips. “Then you’d better pray that Dominion’s on our side.”

  Aerion and I waited until the next arrow volley was fired before bursting out of the formation. Or rather, I was the one who burst out. Aerion was currently in my inventory. With my Grace, I could move a fair bit faster than her, so it was the most logical option.

  It was just about the last moment we could’ve executed our maneuver, because every time the archers fired, the formation was forced to hunker down, stopping their retreating march.

  The elves were catching up to us even with the march, and stopping didn’t help one bit. They were barely a hundred yards away now, and closing fast on either side, pincering us in the middle.

  If we allowed that, we’d be surrounded with nowhere to go. A recipe for a slaughter.

  Good thing I had a little present for them, in the form of diminutive cylinders that resembled crossbow bolts. As powerful as my little siege bolts were, though, not even they could take out an army of this size.

  For one, I’d have to use a ton of them—a precious, limited resource. Once they were gone, they were gone, probably forever, considering I’d no longer be able to re-enter Basecrest’s Trial once I ranked up to Convergence. Did I really want to burn a fifty or a hundred of my stash of a thousand for some farce of a battle that had gone horribly wrong?

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  There was something else that bothered me, too. A weight that seemed to press against my chest, like someone was standing on it. Maybe it was just my nerves. Or maybe it was something else.

  I glanced back at the Basecresters and sighed. Who was I kidding? I’d do what it took to protect those guys. Still, that didn’t mean I had to be dumb about it. All I needed was a show of force. Something to rattle them enough to leave us alone. I didn’t have to annihilate them all.

  Per Aerion’s request, I brought her out when I got close. After a moment of disorientation at being suddenly ejected from the inventory, Aerion found her bearings and trailed behind.

  “Isn’t this close enough?” Aerion asked, visibly nervous. “I think I should—”

  “No!” I shouted. “Whatever you do, do not activate [Reave]. You’ll rampage until you run out of Essence, and then you’ll keel over. There’s thousands of them, Aerion. You can’t kill them all.”

  Aerion bit her lip, but didn’t argue.

  “Alright, we’re in range,” I said, once we’d closed to within about thirty yards. My range was actually a good deal more than that, but I wasn’t just trying to hit the front of their column. I wanted to send a bomb into the core of their formation, causing as much chaos as I possibly could. While they were recuperating, I’d run to the other column and quickly do the same.

  “Here goes nothing,” I called, ignoring that strange pressure on my chest. It had only grown stronger and stronger as we neared our enemies.

  I cued up a siege bolt and activated [Launch].

  The bolt sailed in an arc through the air like an arrow, completely silent. Unlike arrows, though, I couldn’t fire two at the same time. The one that impacted first would just destroy the second, making it useless. I had to wait a bit or target a totally different location.

  I fired my second shot, but I didn’t bother waiting any longer. The moment I fired, I started running for the other column of troops. Except, the moment I did, a loud horn blared, then another, and another.

  I slowed, trying to figure out what was going on, when I spotted a force of maybe five hundred mounted warriors in the distance, charging at us full speed.

  “Well, fuck. That’s just what we need,” I muttered.

  Several things happened in quick succession.

  For one, the new force’s leader started shouting something at the top of his lungs. I couldn’t tell what he was saying, but he sounded pissed, that much was clear.

  Then their group changed course, driving not at our tiny island in the ocean of surrounding soldiers, but at one of the columns.

  The column I’d just fired at.

  That was when my Siege Bolt cores happened to go off.

  The first one was deafening on its own, but just as my brain had processed the shocking sound, the second one went off.

  From our vantage, I couldn’t see what sort of damage it had done, but I didn’t need to. I knew the destructive potential of those things fully well.

  Rocked by the twin explosions, the column practically dissolved as the new group’s cavalry cut into what was left of their formation like a scalpel.

  That wasn’t all—theirs wasn’t just some normal cavalry charge. Fireballs, flashes of light, and blades of wind erupted from their ranks, decimating everything in their path. The Blessed and Boonworthy in their ranks made it look like a force of five thousand had charged into the enemy.

  Given all the pandemonium, it wasn’t long before the column routed… a natural reaction, though I couldn’t help but feel like they routed a bit too fast.

  Instead of chasing down the elves, the cavalry pivoted to the other column, their leader still shouting.

  This time, there was no parting of the formation. The entire column of a thousand elves routed before the cavalry had even arrived.

  I wasn’t wrong. That was simply not a natural response. Sure, the cavalry had five hundred, but those elves had some of their own, and with double the numbers. They should’ve at least put up a fight. Or had their commander been in the other column when it went down?

  I didn’t know, but I did stiffen when the cavalry chose to turn around and gallop towards us.

  Sweeping Aerion into my arms, I retreated to our soldiers, where we turned and planted ourselves, ready to deal with the aggressors.

  “If they prove hostile…” Aerion said.

  “Use [Reave],” I replied. “Lot fewer of them now, and we’ll need every advantage we can get against their mobility. My Siege Bolts won’t be of much use when they’re so spread out.”

  Aerion nodded, clutching Aurora.

  The cavalry approached… and approached… and kept approaching. It took me way too long to realize they’d slowed down to a trot, and I nearly called out the Sylrithar’s name when I recognized their leader—the one who’d been shouting angrily.

  I thankfully managed to avoid that snafu, however, and managed a pretty convincing scowl instead. Not that anyone was looking at me. All eyes were on the mounted elves.

  “Invaders, I know not why you decided to assault our forest, but enough blood has been spilled here today. Should you resist, you will fall just as the others have, ” the Sylrithar said.

  “You’re just letting us go?” Alistair asked, dumbfounded.

  “No,” the Sylrithar said. “Tell the ones who sent you of what you saw today. Of our forces and our combat prowess. Tell them that we can be of use to them. There is no need for hostility between our people.”

  Alistair frowned. “What of that battle? It seems to me that you are not as united as you would have us believe.”

  “And you would be correct,” the Sylrithar said. “Various factions vie for control within our ranks, yet, as you’ve just seen with your own eyes, mine has the power to defeat them. With your help, we can forge friendly relations between us. We can work together to end this Cataclysm.”

  “I’ll… I’ll make sure the Baron hears of all of this. Thank you. For your mercy.”

  The Sylrithar nodded. “I will, however, require some assurances. For example… yes, I’ll require that these two stay. As collateral,” he said, nodding at me and Aerion.

  Alistair frowned. “I’m afraid I cannot agree. These two are highly decorated—”

  “It’s fine, Alistair,” I said, gesturing for the captain to stand down. “If they want us as hostages—again—then I’m willing to go along.”

  But I’m going to need a whole boatload of answers, I tried to convey with a glance at the Sylrithar.

  The elf nodded, though whether to my words or my expression, I couldn’t say.

  “You’re sure about this, Greg? Aerion?” Alistair asked.

  “I won’t be harmed, will I?”

  The Sylrithar shook his head. “We know fully well what harming these two will entail. I assure you, we’ve no wish to see our forest burned to the ground.”

  “I see,” Alistair said, looking very conflicted. He was a good guy, all things considered.

  I clasped his shoulder and looked him in the eyes. “We’ll be fine. Besides. We’ve broken out once before. Worst case, we’ll just do it again.”

  The captain returned my smile and nodded.

  “Then we shall return to Basecrest with all haste to convey your message to our superiors,” Alistair said, snapping a salute before ordering the troops to march out. Though there were a few concerned looks our direction, everyone eventually obeyed, and soon it was Aerion, me, and the Sylrithar’s five hundred.

  “Well?” I said, looking up at the mounted warrior. “Start talking, because there better be a damned good explanation for this shitshow.”

  When the Sylrithar gave me a look of pain and shame, I got a sinking feeling that something had gone horribly wrong.

  A note from Vowron Prime