They ran back to warn the council of the imminent threat. A monster was walking in their direction. Thanks to Ekhu's skills, they took a long route and made it back before the attack. The monster followed the noises, so he took his time walking back and forth instead of going straight to the capital of the Pix-Dawn alliance.

"It should take about two more days. Maybe more or less, depending on how he acts." He was kneeling in front of the council. Franco and Nathan were at his side to support his claim.

Jacob and Silas were sitting among the council leaders.

"Thank you for the report, Ekhu. You can leave now." Cink dismissed the explorer and talked to the rest of the council. "That monster has been a problem for thousands of years. He was here before we arrived, but it wasn’t the size of a mountain before. It must have been eating and growing."

"Why didn’t you deal with him before?" Silas asked.

"We were about to do it, but the backstabbing incident occurred. We didn’t have the power to waste fighting the servant, so we just let it wander around and destroy a couple of villages. As long as it wasn’t our village, we didn’t have to move a finger." He took a deep breath.

"But now that we work together, our territory is larger than before, and any village destroyed would be a loss."

"How should we deal with this monster then? Could we defeat it?" Jacob asked, but Franco was the one to respond.

"Is going to be hard. He may be mindless, but the number of roots he moved and his size make him a powerful opponent."

"Franco, do you think we have a chance if we fight him with the whole guild and Cink?"

"Maybe, but it is going to be very hard."

"What are you talking about?" One of the leaders interrupted, "The only thing we should do is run away and evacuate the village. Fighting a monster like that is useless."

Most of the other leaders agreed, but Cink was silent. He already knew the future course of action required to defeat it. "I would have done the same thing before, but now that we work together and we’re planning to expand our territory, we need to deal with the servant."

"What? Are you crazy? You want us to send our army to die!" The other leaders were angry at the suggestion of fighting, but Silas was on board.

"You guys don’t understand; Cink is correct. We need to fight. If we abandon this village, we’ll lose tons of resources and homes. Yeah, we can avoid conflict, but then what? What if he goes to another village further north or east? We have a village everywhere in this part of the forest. Are we going to let our people live in fear of losing their homes at the whims of a monster?"

"I vote to fight too." Jacob didn’t hesitate to raise his hands in support. Franco and Nathan did the same.

"Me too."

"I’m on it."

"You said you weren’t sure if you could win." One of the leaders protested.

"Don’t misunderstand my companion's words. Franco said he wasn’t sure if we fought only the nine of us, but if we fight all together, we'll have better chances. Isn’t that right, Franco?"

"Yes, we have hundreds of soldiers. If we all back them up, we can deal serious damage to that thing."

"Absurd!" "It is too risky!" "I won’t offer my people for that!"

The room went silent as a wall cut it in two. It was Nathan's shield. He used to shut them up and let Silas speak.

"I think you guys are forgetting something. You’re a part of this council because we allowed you to be here. You don’t have any power. Yeah, you’re strong or have some knowledge of herbs, exploring, or creatures and hunting. But all of that can be learned. I know this working together thing is new for you, who only used to care about your own people, but now we need to work together. If you can't, then we will dispose of you and name a new leader."

The leaders understood the threat immediately; they were dealing with the powers of the System. The previous campaign to bring them together was proof of the difference in power. Maybe if they had had Cink on their side, but he was smiling during the whole lecture. He wasn’t going to join them and side against the humans; he had no reason.

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"Hahahaha, you guys are too scared. He didn’t mean it as a threat, but as the thing he was going to do. We’re an alliance. If we don’t work together now, we don’t have reason to cooperate. If you don’t want to fight, then you can go back to your tribe, but don’t expect any help from us. We’ll lose the capital, but we will survive and look to expand our territory." This was a real threat; the alliance would dispose of all who weren’t part of it just like other tribes and their mad leaders.

With that demonstration of power, Cink and Dawn were the ones in charge. The rest of the council was only there to help administrate. In the end, with a unanimous vote, they agreed to prepare to fight the servant.

"Send word for Emily and Rebecca; we need them here for the fight. Also send messengers to all the villages asking for soldiers."

They had only roughly two days to prepare for the fight. They had to decide the terrain for the fight and were going to prepare an ambush. Despite sounding so menacing to the other leaders, Cink and Silas ordered the evacuation of the civilians and noncombatants from the capital, just in case things went badly.

"If it is a servant like the one we fought previously, it should be clear that we need to destroy its core. Once again, Franco and Jacob, you two need to deliver the finishing blow."

"You can make too many assumptions, Silas. This one is a hybrid between plant and beast. You need to keep your eyes open. We should prepare a trap close to the mountain range over here. We can set traps with Emily and Nadine. They can move the ground to make a giant pit."

They spent the two days preparing the traps and the strategy. All the Dawn members were present, and the previous night they discussed the future of the alliance.

They spoke about what to do in case they lost the battle, and the servant proved to be too much to handle. The first idea was to abandon the village and retreat to the forest. With Emily, they could find a place to live on their own; their progress would slow down a lot, but they would survive.

"Those in favor of that plan, raise your hands." No one voted for it, not even Silas, who proposed the idea. They had slightly different reasons. In Silas's case, he wanted to discover and learn more about this world. Losing so many resources and allies was a loss too big. It would delay his plans for years.

In Nora's case, it was something more mundane but equally important. "Civilization, the greatest power humanity has is the ability to work together."

"Individually we are weak and frail, but together we formed tribes, villages, kingdoms, and nations; all through history, it repeats the same pattern. Humans prosper by working together. If we give up and run away, we’ll live a little longer, but something else could come for us. We’re not in our home plant anymore, so there are a lot of things we don’t know about this world or the other worlds of the System." Her voice was full of hope and inspiration as she spoke.

"Together, that is the way to prosper and build a civilization. We are already starting to build so many things. Emily is making roads, and Nadine is building weapons and ships to navigate the river. I’m learning about those old and lost cultures of the cave by studying their languages with other pix who share my desire. Losing all of this would be a waste not only for humanity but for all races."

They all agreed to it. The only thing they could do was win and defend their land.

"I’ll take it down. I’m not letting these plant bastards ruin our lives." Franco punched his knuckles in anticipation while Nathan did the same with his shield.

"The weapons and potions are ready. We can’t have land if we don’t show them not to mess with us!" Nadine spent the last few hours making more weapons for all the soldiers."

Silas smiled as everyone had done their part already. "I guess I don’t need to remind you of your positions during the fight."

"O-of course we remember. Even someone as weak as me can remember it." Rebecca looked nervous as usual, but he could see her eyes shining brightly with ambition.

"Come over here, buddy. I want to practice our combined attack a little more." Jacob took Nathan by the shoulder and dragged him to the forest. They already confirmed that the wall from Nathan’s shield gave power to Jacob’s bullets.

Emily also completed her preparations and set the traps. The only thing to do now is wait for the monster to arrive. Silas looked back at his companions again.

I don’t want to die, but I also don't want to lose a guild like this. He slept in a small tent for about six hours when the ground began to shake. A small rumbling announced the beginning of the combat.

"Everyone get ready! Go take your positions in your respective squadrons!" Valks was here too. He was the commander of the army in charge of moving the troops according to Cink and Silas' plan.

"You look in high spirits." Silas said.

"I never thought I could have a chance to fight against the slumbering monster. I once asked Cink why we couldn’t deal with it. He said we should only fight him when we have a real chance of victory. The moment he told us we were about to fight it, I only saw happiness in his face."

"That’s a good thing, right?"

"More than good, Silas." Valks bowed. "Thank you. I wasn’t strong enough to give Chief Cink an opportunity, but you guys allowed him to take revenge on the traitors, and now you are killing one of the oldest enemies of our people on this land. Thank you!" He was deeply moved by the actions of Cink after meeting them. It hurt to admit, but he wasn’t chosen by the System.

A gap that could never truly disappear. The passage of time had taken many others like Valks, and he couldn’t blame Cink for being distant with everyone else. Even if Cink ended up opening his heart and getting close to Valks, he was going to die in the future.

Silas had no clue how to react to those words. So, he only said what he thought. "Don’t thank me yet. Save it for later, when we kill that thing and show it to the rest of this forest. We are the top hunters of this land."

Before he went to take his position, he turned around and said another thing.

"Also, if you feel bad about it, just talk with Cink. He has more in common with you than with me. I can bet on that."

He didn’t look back. It was time to focus his mind on the battle ahead.