My new allies had managed to gather a number of crude Orc bows and arrows from the corpses, and Agradela assured me that they would be able to use them despite their fatigue.

Like most ancient peoples on Earth, the elves also had many traditions, customs and games with bows and arrows. Thus, many among them learned to use this powerful weapon, from early childhood.

Twenty minutes later, we caught up with the orcs and after a short preparation, we attacked them by surprise. My hounds rushed forward, in a dense formation of teeth and claws.

Normal wild animals attack quite carefully, guarding their bodies and strength. However, when controlled by the mind of a trained summoner, they are many times more deadly. Before the hounds had time to reach the group of orcs, however, elven arrows and even a few battle spells began whistling through the air, sowing death among the ranks of their surprised foe.

Despite the heavy losses, the orcs regrouped and started fighting my hellhounds. However, I had solid control over them, and the moment I first sensed resistance from the orc, I dragged my hounds back a meter or two to the sides of the orc. They were positioned perpendicular to us and thus if the orcs attacked them, they would stand parallel to us, making them an easy target for our arrows and magic.

The orcs twitched in indecision, but we didn't give them time to rest. We pelted them with arrows and magic, and I sent my hounds to make a few false attacks and thus secured more precious seconds.

Volley after volley, in these first short seconds, our arrows peppered our pinned opponents. The elven arrows were becoming more accurate as the archers began to get used to the distance and their weapons. My crossbow often found gaps in the orcs' defenses, and the wounds from my poisoned arrows were particularly cruel and painful.

The orcs made up their minds and ran at us with battle cries, and I immediately sent my fire hounds to follow and harass them along the flanks.

One by one the orcs were falling. There is nothing more cruel than to have your squad killed by arrows. Even the legendary 300 brave Spartans who stopped the whole Persian army were eventually killed by arrows.

And so these orcs slowly lost their numbers, until at last they dwindled to the point that I sent my hounds to attack them in close combat, and so by our combined efforts we were able to put an end to the battle.

On the ground lay 12 orcs and several goblins. The orcs were transporting a large group of chained goblins, who were currently trembling in fear, tied to nearby trees.

I looked them over and asked Agradela about her people's attitude towards these goblins.

"Goblins are the servants of orcs. They are cowardly, yet cruel creatures, " said Agradela, disdain written on her face. "They rarely attack others, but when they get the chance they attack any enemy in their territories. These small creatures mostly rely on poisons, traps and ambushes and almost never fight in direct combat. Occasionally Orc warlords manage to find and raid large goblin villages and force them to pay taxes in food and slaves. The goblins of these villages are then forced to attack others of their kind to send them as slaves to the orcs."

"And what are we to do with these goblins?" I asked.

Agradela looked at me for a moment and then made a gesture with her hand:

"We can't let them go free. They are enemies to my race as well as a danger to our escape."

I thought about it for a moment, knowing what was ahead of me. I couldn't afford weakness in this new world, especially in this situation. It was not easy for modern humans to kill, especially defenseless creatures. Thinking that, I made an uneasy decision, iced my heart, and with a heavy sigh, I turned to Agradela:

“Leave them to me.” I said, summoning my creatures.

A little later, I sat down to meditate and absorb the mana from the battlefield while the elves took the orcs' provisions and weapons. Some of them were too large and unwieldy for the elves, and I stowed them in my ring. I also put away the chains with which the goblins were locked. I didn't know what they could be used for, but I had a huge dimensional ring and resourceful alchemist friends.

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"I haven't seen a magic ring that big." said Agradela as she was examining one of my bolts.

"I like it a lot too." I replied with a smile and put my bolt away. I hadn't decided how to proceed with the elves, and for that I didn't want to reveal too much about the powers and riches of the humans, so I hastened to change the subject. Agradela didn't insist and instead told me more about the relationship between the orcs and their enslaved races.

When we returned from the battle, the elves waiting for us had rested and regained some of their strength, and we immediately moved on.

Half an hour later, we reached a large river and Agradela stopped to look at it. The elves began a lively discussion among themselves in their strange language, and after ten minutes, when they had finished, we continued walking parallel to the river.

The journey was by no means easy, and despite my excellent physical condition, I had to make great efforts to clear the way with my saber.

However, the elves often stopped to rest and this allowed me to rest as well.

Several times I had to summon my bear and with its help I cleared the thicker bushes we were passing through. This gave me an idea, and with the help of my bear, we knocked down and carried over some trees, and with their help formed a sort of bridge, in a suitable place where the river narrowed.

After the elves passed, I destroyed the bridge and we moved on. We repeated this procedure two more times, thus hopefully slowing down any possible pursuers.

On my insistence, we developed some plans on how to quickly make an ambush and defense line in case some orcs attacked us, and even practiced a little bit a few times.

On several occasions, my hounds sensed different creatures. Sometimes game, sometimes predators, and on three occasions small groups of goblin gatherers. The cheeky creatures were quite curious and I didn't want to give them a chance to track our group, so I tracked them with my hounds and killed them.

The largest group of goblins was barely a dozen small individuals, with primitive weaponry, and they posed little danger. However, I knew they were cunning creatures and often hunted with traps, so I was quite careful.

The job of these goblins was to gather food in the forest, so we got a few baskets of fruit roots and some fish. There were also some disgusting looking worms and bugs, which I immediately threw away.

After noon, we found a large pack of wolves, which did not approach us but stood at a distance, and occasionally we heard their howling. Later on their numbers increased, and we began to look for a suitable, more easily defended, camping place.

The elves, used to the forest, found a small clearing that would allow us to build fires to protect ourselves from the wolves. We also immediately started to build small crude fortifications made from wood and dirt.

The smoke could be felt for a couple of kilometers, but it was a risk we had to take. As the elves set up and prepared camp, I questioned Agradela and learned more and more about this island.

The elves were acting quite brave, but I could see their exhaustion. Even though we had traveled all day, I was not happy with the distance we had traveled. I could only guess when the orcs would find their destroyed camp and what they would do. Unfortunately though, we were leaving a pretty clear trail. I knew we couldn't keep up a high speed because the forest was thick, the terrain difficult, and the elves were sick and exhausted.

In this world, communications were quite slow and although the orcs had riding animals, they were only used by the elite among them. So even if someone found the camp he had to travel hours to the nearest lair. From there a reconnaissance had to be mounted, a decision made and eventually a pursuit organized. And that would take time.

Shortly after we stopped, I pulled some of the stored firewood out of my ring, and the elves gathered more dry branches and started a couple of big fires. I watched them as they talked and learned that they had organized several groups of guards to keep watch during the night.

I wasn't included in the watch, but I didn't need much sleep, so I stayed awake for long hours training my skills, meditating and developing my magical powers. The mana in my core became more concentrated and the channels in my body wider and more resistant. My muscles were also learning how to use mana and my body was becoming stronger and more durable.

However, there were more things to work on, especially developing my total mana capacity in my body. I was deploying different methods for this, some I had learned in my first training sessions with Nathan and the other instructors, others I had learned from other people in the camp, and the most valuable ones were the ones I found in the Summoner's library during my bonus training when I killed the miniboss.

There were a lot of little things I had to do that would cultivate my mana and strengthen my foundation.

However, the night was not calm and the wolves began to approach the fires. I decided to summon my imps and sent them to attack any wolf that approached.

They were invulnerable in the treetops and their fire spells set more than one or two wolves' fur on fire. On a few occasions, I even attacked groups of wolves and made them retreat further.

Despite all this, the wolves did not stop howling for most of the night. A few hours before dawn, the wolves finally left our location and I summoned my bed creatures and lay down in my tent so I could get at least a little sleep that night.