"Meridin," Agradela turned to me after a brief thought, "I know I can't expect this from you, nor can I promise you anything in return, but after seeing your magical skills and your willingness to fight orcs, I want to ask you to help in the upcoming battle."

Without hesitating for long, I agreed. That way I could achieve two goals at the same time. First, I'd catch up with the accumulation of currency units and second, I'd make a positive first impression among the elves. Besides, just because Agradela couldn't promise me a reward didn't mean I wouldn't get one if I insisted.

I was very curious about the different types of magical knowledge the elves had. I also wanted to learn more about their economy. Maybe we could trade with them. But above all else, I wanted to help the human camp solve the orc problem. That way we could hunt zombies, especially our weaker members, and develop our powers.

Agradela climbed on a deer and urged me to follow her.

"But I won't be able to run at your speed."

"Why don't you use your bear?" Agradela asked me.

I hesitated briefly and tried to explain.

"I don't have that much control over my summons, and I haven't practiced that kind of action. I don't think I'll be able to handle it. It's too unnatural for my bear."

"It's not that hard. We also have summoners and I have studied with them. One day I too will be able to summon beings who have made a contract with the great Goddess. Let me show you. Give me access to your link."

She had to explain to me how to grant her access, but when we did, Agradela started communicating with my bear. She showed me a few interesting tricks and it opened my eyes to many different ways of communicating with my animals in the future. This was a great boon in my development as a summoner.

"I have so much to learn," I thought. "I knew so little about magic and my craft, but on the other hand, I could summon these powerful beings. Imagine where I could go if only I could improve my understanding and control.."

Then, I carefully climbed onto my bear's back. It looked at me for a moment and then looked at Agradela, who was still sharing our bond. Agradela nodded her head to me and gave my bear a command and we took off. Slowly at first and then faster. I was still learning how to stay on the bear's back and Agradela was showing me how to control and calm it.

Because of my lack of experience, we moved slower than others. However, Agradela knew where we were going and we kept moving along the well-trodden path. After about three extremely harrowing hours we came to a large defensive structure.

I learned quite a bit about how to ride and control the summon. When I was ready, Agradela let me handle the summon on my own several times, with her just watching through the connection. I wasn't a good rider at all, so I planned to do a lot of training on my own in the future.

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Agradela introduced me to a high-ranking military elf and briefly told my story. She told of how I had saved them and how I had slain many orcs with my summoned animals. After learning more about my skills, the elf thought for a moment and then explained to Agradela how I could best fit in their defenses. Thus, I became her responsibility and Agradela hurried to find me a well-protected place in one of the towers of the fortified wall.

I hurried to make various preparations for summoning and thought about what strategy to use. I could try summoning a few bears with my mana, or a pack of wolves, but that wouldn't be very practical in a large-scale battle like this. I didn't know the defenders well, nor their tactics. Nor did they know me and my animals. I didn't understand their language and we'd have a problem with coordination. So I could lose my animals very easily.

Therefore, I decided to summon a group of fire imps and do a lot of pre-prepared summoning rituals, and this way I would be able to summon a large number of creatures. The only limitation to summoning multiple beings was their high summoning cost.

For me, however, it wouldn't be too much of a problem. In such a big battle, there would be plenty of deaths, and with my ability to absorb the mana of the dead, mana wouldn't be much of a problem. Also, I fired a few fireballs and bolts from the tower, allowing me to visually judge my ranges better.

Agradela was observing me while I performed various rituals and preparations and after we spoke, she went out and returned with two heavy orc crossbows and many bolts for them. I smiled and thanked her, and after taking the crossbows, I immediately began testing them. I wanted to get used to them so I could aim better and reload faster. While I was doing this, we heard various battle horn signals and soon the large orc army began to form up near the nearby forest.

I took out my binoculars and started surveying the enemy troops. There were all sorts of orcs, most of them were the lower and weaker orcs, but roughly 10%-15% were of the big and strong orcs. There were hundreds of shamans among their ranks, and surprisingly there were a large amount of goblins. Perhaps 20% of the army was made up of goblins.

"Agradela, why are there so many goons in the army?" I asked.

"As I told you earlier, orcs often enslave goblin settlements. Sometimes they require these settlements to send warriors to participate in the orc raids. Besides, the orcs have many other allies."

Agradela was absolutely right. With my binoculars, I could see a variety of creatures familiar to me from modern computer games and literature. I was particularly impressed by a dozen groups of battle trolls and even a few giant cyclops.

"I think the enemy troops number over 6,000-7,000 individuals," I said thoughtfully.

"According to the information, our enemies number around 9000, plus over 2000 goblins."

"And how many are defending the fortification?"

"2,000 professional warriors, 300 elves from the royal guard, and a few hundred warriors from the local garrisons who have less experience and a large number of volunteer archers. Or about 3500 elves."

"Then the enemies outnumber us about 3 to 1!" I said.

"Well not exactly, goblins are pretty weak and hardly worth counting. Far more dangerous are the orcs' larger and more monstrous allies. There are over 500 battle trolls and numerous other monsters in their army."

"There are plenty of goblin shamans among the goblins." I said as I recalled my battle with the goblin settlement.

"That's right," Agradela hesitantly agreed. "But our troops are hidden behind fortifications and our archers are numerous, well armed and very deadly."

At that moment the sounds of many battle horns were heard and the orcish army slowly advanced.