"Captain, an elf squad is coming from the north, what should we do?"

In the depths of the cursed forest, where the ground sometimes doesn't see the sky, a group of dwarf warriors was hiding in a hastily made trench.

They all are in worn and torn shapes. Their weapons were either broken or honeyed with elf blood.

"Those damn elves, do they think we fear them?" The captain was a middle aged dwarf with heavy armor and spear. He has long black hair and beard, as well as black eyes.

The war was difficult for everyone and it started months ago, when the dwarf king suddenly disappeared.

Surprisingly, the elves were the first to attack. It was completely out of everyone's expectations since the elves had recently been withdrawing troops from their borders.

Fortunately, the dwarfs managed to defend their capital against the sudden attack with their high walls and strong warriors, otherwise the Kingdom would have fallen.

The dwarves have a geographical advantage and have no weak armies. The fortresses built by them are also the best kept in the world. Therefore, everyone thought it was impossible for the elves to win in a prolonged war.

Unfortunately for the dwarves, the elves were not fighting alone.

From within the capital, a group of rebels and revolutionaries raised flags and destroyed a part of the wall, which allowed an elven invasion in the capital.

This group of rebels was composed mostly of poor and wronged dwarves from society, they were tired of the tyranny of the nobles and decided to ally with the elves to take the power of the capital, and they wanted found a new republic!

With the first success of the revolution, more and more commoners joined the cause, even former soldiers of the kingdom army.

Seeing that defeat was imminent, the nibre dwarves sought help from the human kingdom.

What they didn't expect... is that the elven ambition was already reaching the human kingdom too!

The enormous rebellion with human revolutionaries was trying to seize the power of human nobles. Their army was small, but they had the support of the commoners and many of the human kingdom army.

To make matters worse, one of the elven armies was supporting human revolutionaries.

The fall of the monarchy was imminent, the elven's ideals was already taking place.

"Even if I die, I will fullfil my duty as a royal guard! Will you die with me!?" The captain roared with a scary look.

"YES!!" The others shouted.

"Who owns those lands!?" The captain asked with a fanatic voice.

"The kingdom!"

"WHO OWNS THOSE LANDS!?"

"THE KINGDOM!!" The dwarves were all in high spirits despite imminent death.

"SHOW ME!!" The captain shouted and jumped out of the trench with his spear aiming to the north.

"WOOOOOAAAHHHHHH" The war cry reached the pointed ears of an elf, but he wasn't part of the elven squad.

"What is happening? Someone is fighting?" Alonn murmured an looked to the north.

He was currently enjoying the sunlight at the top of a giant tree a hundred meters high, something he never thought he would like.

It had been a few days since he left the cave, and he was in a period of 'adaptation', or 'rehabilitation' if you wish.

After reaching the cursed forest he somewhat understood his current location, but he was in no hurry to return to civilization. After all, his things should have been stolen after all this time and a day or two won't make a difference.

But this war cry made Alonn curious, he jumped from the top of the tree and after going through countless branches and leaves he landed on the ground effortlessly, he just used a bit of True Qi to keep his body intact.

He didn’t spend those days doing nothing, after fleeing from the flash flood he kept cultivating. Moreover, he also started to study the Long gave him technique, which allowed him to learn a few things about True Qi.

He smiled and started to run to direction he heard the cry coming from.

Even without using True Qi his body was inhumanly fast and he quickly approached where a life-and-death battle had already begun.

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"Kill the rebels!!" The captain of the dwarves shouted in the middle of the battle.

He was fighting against a young dwarf and the elf captain.

The sound of weapons clashing and screaming in pain was causing even the wild animals to walk away. Anyway, they would be able to eat the corpses.

The elf captain was a woman with light leather armor and she was wielding dual long swords, her technique was extremely good.

The young dwarf seemed to be a commoner since he only had a straight sword and light armor, his technique was too bad and he seemed already injuried.

"You fucking bastards! You are the true rebels!" The young dwarf shouted with tears in his eyes.

"When we are being abused, feeling hungry, where were the nobles!? You guys just got lucky and eventually forget about your own origins! You are the true rebels!" The young elf words was like a sharp blade in the dwarf captain's heart.

"Shut up! We swear allegiance to the kingdom when we are children! All of us! But you broke the oath!"

While both parties fought and bled, Alonn finally arrived at the battle site. He first hid in a bush to watch.

"What about the kingdom duty? What about us? You fool!" The young dwarf shouted and had his chest pierced by the dwarf captain's blade. He looked at his countryman eyes with fury and holded the spear with his two hands

The elf captain didn' miss the opportunity and pierced the dwarf captain's heart with her sword.

The captain seemed to be looking at the young dwarf with pity as he said, "You fool."

"No, you are the fool here," the young dwarf said and was silent, his eyes quickly darkened.

The dwarf captain's looked around and saw his subordinates surrendering one after the other.

He wasn't angry, but afraid.

"You all will take the responsibility for it until the end, never forget that!" He said before falling on the ground with lifeless eyes.

"Captain..." The rest of the dwarves fell on they kness and cried.

"Captain, what should we now?" An male elf aproached his captain and asked.

The captain looked ate the fallen dwarves and was silent for a moment.

She has long black hair and rare white eyes, her facial features were very sharp and she has a heroic aura. When she looked at the dwarves, Alonn could swear by all the gods he felt his own heart beating faster.

"Kill them all," her cold voice answered the question.

"Yes."

Alonn's heart was beating even faster after hearing it. When he saw the desperate looks of the dwarves... he remembered himself.

Right now... he not only can help, he wants to.

But... Should he help?

It was something he learned from Long after this whole time with him. Having power doesn't meant he should help others.

Wanting to do something doesn't meant he should do this something.

If he saves these dwarves, can he take responsibility for it? What will happen to the dwarves after that? What will they do?

Alonn's heart was almost jumping from his mouth when he saw the cold glow of the elves blades.

He also saw the same cold glow in each of the fallen dwarves eyes.

They lost their homes and even their families. All they have now is the mercy of their enemies blades.

If they are deprived of it, how will they fell? Would they want peace? Or would they want... revenge?

What if some of them decides to kill other elves for revenge? Could Alonn take the responsibility? No.

He doens't know any of the dwarves.

He finally understood why Long had never helped him when he needed it most, or at least a possible reason.

Arrgghhhh

One by one, the dwarves heads rolled on the ground.

When all was settled, the elf squad left for the south.

Alonn started to hear the sound of wild animals aproaching, they probably wanted to eat the corpses.

But they wouldn't be able to.

Bang!!

Alonn's white True Qi soared creating strong gushs of wind and scaring the animals. It was Alonn's attempt to imitate the pressure that Long sometimes used against him.

His True Qi was used outside his body in an explosive way, dispersing almost immediately but creating an effect similar to Long's pressure.

The white energy scared all the wild animals and he stoped using it after some seconds. It was quite draining as well.

After counting the number of corpses, Alonn started to dig a big hole to bury them.

Since there were some shields in place, Alonn simply used this to dig a hole.

He knew that his act had no meaning, that it wouldn't be remembered by anyone... except himself.

After spending some time, he finnaly buried the corpses and their armor and weapons, excpet one thing.

Alonn looked at the spear in his rands and gripped it tightly.

It had nothing special, it had an iron blade and wooden rod. But Alonn felt he could try wielding something, fighting with just his fists might lead to his death one day.

He knows nothing about the art of spear wielding, but he thought he could learn something with time.

After looking around, Alonn smiled. For some reason, no wild animals dared to aproach him.

'Is it because of my overbearing aura?' Alonn smirked with a hand on his face.

Roaaarrr

Suddenly, as if could not stand the cockyness of Alonn, the tiger's soul roared in his mind.

ROAAARRR

At the same time, several shadows aproached Alonn with furious roars.

'You can control beasts... even after dying?' Alonn looked at the wild animals running towards him with surprised.

Actually, he was happy he could try his new weapon.

"Come at me, poor beings..." Alonn smiled and tried to wield the spear in an fighting pose, but he was just too awlfull with the spear he almost fell on the ground.

'It's quite heavy now that I try to swing it...' Alonn thought a bit surprised, but it wasn't enough to make him use True Qi.

After a few minutes, Alonn was bathed in blood, breathing a little heavily and looking around.

A pack of wolves and three killer foxes attacked him, they are all corpses now.

Despite this, Alonn was not satisfied. The reason is that he was unable to kill everyone with a single blow, despite the great strength and reflexes he had, that was a sign of the lack of technique.

He still remembers how he swore he would try to kill every enemy with one blow... Of course, this only in cases where he believe that the enemy didn't deserve to suffer.

After catching his breath, Alonn took the core with his hand and sneered.

He thought it was a bit strange since wolves and killer foxes are animals with nocturnal habits, the only possible reason for having so many attacking him must be the tiger's soul.

"Don't worry, I decided now. I will use you to make a new blade, a spear's blade," Alonn said.

Although he knows nothing about the spear way, he likes the sensation of swinging it.

"Now then, I should hurry to Mardōk. I really want to know what happened while I was on my way to death."

Alonn started running eastward, where was the capital.

If possible, he wanted to ask any elf he might find on the way, but unfortunately the cursed forest was too big and he found no one.

'I remember that squad was heading southward, what a pity.'

After he finnaly left the cursed forest, Alonn looked at the vast fertile fields and smiled.

It seemed too small for his feet, he will reach the capital in no time.