Arrows flew everywhere; both sides were engaged in a bloody battle. On one side, the pix were wearing armor and weapons made with care. On the other side, they had rough leather armor and crude short bows.

The defending tribe was one of many in this land. They split from another tribe several generations ago. Although they were strong, they were being pushed back by the invaders.

"Surrender, and we’ll spare your lives, in the name of our leader, Cink!"

"Never! We won’t surrender to anyone. We’re free!" A pix swung his axe and decapitated one of the soldiers.

The front was being defended by the best warriors of the tribe. They didn’t have fancy equipment or special powers like the leaders of the other tribes, but they were still great warriors. They cut limbs and stabbed organs despite the difference in equipment.

Taking the entrance would cost a lot of lives. It was doable, but they still had too many fights in the near future. It would be a terrible thing to waste soldiers’ lives like this. Valks had to ask for help.

He walked back to the tent where the reserves were waiting. Only two people.

"Sorry to ask, but we are having trouble securing the entrance."

"Again, you’re a slave driver." Franco said, looking at him from the bed. "I hope you aren’t putting all the work on me. I need to be in good condition for the big fight."

"I apologize, but when the time comes, we’ll fight with everything at your side." He bowed.

"Don’t worry, I think I should be enough." Nathan stood up and summoned his shield. "Point the way, Valks."

The front was still stuck in an impasse. The strongest warrior was the leader of the village. He was wielding a mace made of bones. He crushed everyone who got too close. Nathan saw how he smashed a pix with a single blow into a pulp.

"Come on! Is this all you can do? We won’t fall so easily!" The leader’s fighting spirit made the others rally with more determination to repel the invasion.

"That one looks strong. It must be their best warrior."

"He is the leader of the tribe. Unless he surrenders or dies, the rest aren’t going to give up. Can you defeat him?"

"Huh. What's with the doubts? I’m strong, not as much as Franco, but you should know by now." He was upset at the lack of faith in his strength.

"My apologies, but I was under the impression that your powers were better for defense."

"Yeah, but that’s only if there is a strong opponent. You’ll see I can beat that guy in a minute!"

"But you were the one who said it was strong." Nathan was already running to the front, blocking the arrows with his shield.

In a moment, he made his way to the front of the battle, and a pix tried to hit him with a spear. Without looking at him, Nathan moved the shield, and the spear broke on impact.

"What?" The pix took out a dagger and tried to stab him in the gut, but he did the same and broke the hand holding the knife by pushing it into the ground. "Aaaahhh!"

"Don't waste your life," he said, as he moved closer to the leader. Their eyes met for a moment. "Yo, how about giving up? I don’t want to beat you to the verge of death."

"I’ll never surrender to another creature! You’re going to make us slaves. I'd rather die than live like that."

"No, you are wrong. We just want you to join your tribe under a single banner. You can become part of the Pix-Dawn alliance; just surrender and tell your people to do the same."

"Pix-Dawn alliance? The only way we can serve you is if you defeat us!" The leader jumped and hit the shield. The sound of the attack echoed around the village.

"Eh, not bad. You have a fine shield, but where is your weapon? You aren’t carrying anything else."

"This shield is my weapon. Do you even know about powers or the System?"

"Powers? You mean that you’re like one of those tribe leaders? Are you supposed to have incredible power? hahahaha Nice try, but a bluff won’t work!" He moved to the left and then to the right, trying to confuse him.

The leader attacked from the right and above, but Nathan blocked both hits by only moving his arm.

Stolen story; please report.

"Not done yet!" The leader launched a rush of attacks with his mace, but all were blocked by Nathan without problem. How? This guy is blocking everything and making it look easy. He must be the leader of the enemy forces. That means if I defeat him, we can win!

The mace moved in all directions at incredible speed. The sound of the hits being blocked made it sound almost like a woodpecker. The leader was getting tired of attacking so many times, and during a moment where his moves slowed down, Nathan got in past his defense.

"You’re good, don't make me kill you. This is my last warning." He hit the leader with the shield and sent him flying into a crowd.

All the soldiers stopped in shock, as their chief had been pushed back like nothing. They went to help him and gave him some herbs for the pain.

"Are you okay, leader?"

"I... what happened?" He regained his senses and noticed that he was missing some teeth. Nothing too serious. A pix only needs about four weeks to replace all its teeth. He was more worried by the attack.

I didn’t see it. He moved so fast and hit me in the face with the shield. He could have killed me if he had used his full strength. He’s giving me another chance to surrender.

"What happened? Did you hit your head too hard and forget? I can say it again: give up and join us now, or I will bash your head into the ground next time. I really don’t want to kill you, man."

"Don’t talk like that to the leader!" "Yeah, you must defeat us first!" A group took their weapons and ran forward, but a scream stopped them.

"DON’T FOOLS!" It was the leader. He grasped the difference in power with that shield bash. They didn’t have a chance.

"If we surrender, are you going to spare our lives?"

"Yeah, but we are going to need some supplies and ask you to come with your best warriors. We are uniting all the tribes. Like you, they aren’t going to surrender peacefully unless we give them a reason. What do you say?"

"Even if we join forces, challenging the strongest tribes is—"

"We’re going to win. This is just one squadron. We have a lot of strong people on our side. You’ll see if you accept." He gave him a smile and walked to his side.

The leader took Nathan’s hand, and the battle was over. Another tribe joined the Pix-Dawn alliance.

***

"We are back!" Nathan waved at Silas and Jacob, who were talking in front of the main camp.

"There you are, partner. It took you an extra day compared to the rest."

"Agh, is because Franco was lying around half of the time. He only joined in two fights; I had to make do alone."

"You were the one that wanted to presume in front of the army. Don’t go blaming me."

"With all this, we should have twenty tribes under control. We also advanced enough to install the camp here. But I don’t think we can’t go beyond that without alerting the major tribes." Silas made a move and invited them inside the tent.

Cink and all the members of Dawn were present. It was time to decide their strategy for the war. After training for twenty days with Cink, the plan to conquer the whole region started. They spent the last two weeks conquering minor tribes and joining their forces with the army.

"As we discussed at the beginning, part one of the plan was to bolster our number by subjugating all the minor tribes, keeping our presence hidden while doing so. Now we should move on to part two. Cink, you have the map?"

"Right here." Cink displayed a map on the table showing the locations of the three major tribes. "We around here, this is the closest point between the three tribes. We set camp here so we can offer support after one side wins their battle and can go immediately to help the other two sides."

"Wouldn't it be better if we focused our forces on one side and then went for the other two?"

"Good question, Emily, but we don’t want to give them any time to prepare." Cink had a grim expression as he spoke. "These guys are all old bastards who have survived a lot of battles. If we manage to defeat one of them, the other two are going to join forces and crush us."

"I understand. You’re saying that fighting them individually is better for our chances."

"Exactly. I also talked with Silas about assigning the best person to each side."

Silas grabbed a small set of figures that looked like people.

"Are these things supposed to be us?" Nadine asked.

"Yes, I asked an artisan to make them so you could understand the situation."

"You just wanted to move figures on the map like in a game, right?" She was correct.

"Mmm, let’s start with Franco, Nathan, and Nora. You guys will go north and fight the Borka. He’s a warrior that can use an axe to deal tons of damage."

"Is that all, no more information or advice?"

"Blame it on him." Silas pointed at Cink.

"Sorry, it's been a long time since I fought by his side. I also never confirmed the nature of his power. Don't let him kill or hurt since he gets stronger."

"You guys have a good combination of attack and defense. And Nora can buff both of you. It should be fine. The south team is going to include Emily, Jacob, and Rebecca. You are going to take down Kysa."

"Kysa is an invoker who can summon spirits. She founded a cult that is devoted to her as a god. I haven’t seen her in hundreds of years. Her powers could have evolved in a new way. Be careful, Rebecca."

"M-Me?"

"With Emily and Jacob's long distance attacks, you should be fine dealing with the fanatics and Kysa. In case things go bad, Rebecca can heal your wounds."

"Don’t forget about the elixirs we have been making." Nadine interrupted. She was the one who had been busier with her power.

She made weapons and armor thanks to the materials the tribe gave her, but she was also learning about making potions with Emily and the medic of the tribe.

"We have been stockpiling, so don’t be shy to use them. Of course, they can’t regrow limbs like Rebecca, but they can heal minor injuries."

"By the way, did you make the thing I asked you to?" Silas intervened to steer the conversation back to the plan.

"Yeah, yeah is ready. It’s for our target, right?"

"Yes, we are going east. Nadine, Cink, and I are going for Denku."

"He’s a thief that can steal your sight, but he also has a couple of items with weird abilities, but if we work together, we should be able to overcome any trap he has prepared."

"No eyesight... I see why you asked me to make it."

"That is the plan. We will launch three simultaneous attacks in all these places to prevent them from joining forces and defeat them before they can counterattack. We start tomorrow morning, everyone should get some rest."

They separated into teams and began to discuss their respective plans. A triple PK in three separate locations, if they pulled it off, they would gain control of the Old Land.