“Boy, nothing's happened,” Grant shouted angrily.

Alex ducked to avoid a spear, then took two quick steps and thrust his blade precisely into his opponent's jugular.

“You’ve said that over twenty times now. Save your strength,” Alex replied.

Grant blocked a huge ogre's fist with his axe, forcing him to step back, but then he quickly diverted the fist to destabilize his opponent and, with a powerful strike, took its head.

“Maybe they didn’t see the arrows. Tell your boy to send more,” the dwarf responded.

The frontline was barely holding, like a piece of tape blocking leaks in a high-pressure pipe. The number of severe injuries was increasing, and many soldiers couldn’t return to the fight.

In a secluded corner, Anya whispered, “My lady, we can still try to escape.”

“Anya, there’s no way we can get our people out of here alive,” said a beautiful elf in tattered clothes and dirty skin.

“Not everyone needs to get out. Elaya can take you far from here,” Anya insisted.

The woman looked over the battlefield and quickly spotted the veteran elf, Elaya, desperately fighting off a trio of hobgoblins with long spears.

“If you pull Elaya from the front lines now, the entire formation could collapse. Even if it doesn’t, you’d be executed shortly,” the mysterious woman replied.

“It doesn’t matter, my lady. We’ve come all this way to bring you back. All our soldiers' sacrifices would be meaningless if we let you die now,” Anya responded, her eyes burning with determination, making it hard for her superior to meet her gaze.

The elf didn’t know what to say. She couldn’t accept this plan, or rather she had a bad feeling about it. They were deep in the forest, and goblins weren’t their only problem. On the other hand, the human kept fighting without discouragement, as if he had confidence in a victory that seemed more logical to bet on him in this situation.

Anya grew desperate as she found no response from her superior and began quoting passages from her creed, trying anything to convince her to preserve her life.

Finally, the ragged old elf could tolerate Anya’s rambling no longer and intervened.

“Marya, can you tell your girl to shut up? There’s no need to worry; it’ll be over soon.”

“Don’t call me Marya, pervert,” the elf snapped, then took Anya’s hands and calmed her.

Both were surprised. Anya thought they would soon die from the frontline collapse, but the elf known as Marya knew this elf, a renowned druid, and realized he must be referring to something else. There had to be more going on.

Scanning the enemy camp, she finally noticed a change in their favor. Several Kesha were taking turns maintaining curses on Alex’s side. Over time, they’d thrown all caution to the wind, abandoning the protection of the temple walls and the guard of their units—a mistake they wouldn’t have time to regret.

In an instant, before they could cast the curses they were preparing, a unit of at least a dozen Moon Stalkers emerged from the forest, quickly tearing apart all the Kesha in the field, then retreating into the woods as swiftly as they had appeared.

A silence fell over the battlefield as they realized they’d lost more than half of all the Kesha, but this silence was brief as the rumble of marching began, coming from behind the enemies, seemingly enveloping them.

The remaining Kesha immediately understood what was happening and left the tribal chiefs to deal with the problem while they took their mounted troops and fled.

The tribal chiefs were stunned by the Kesha’s rapid and decisive abandonment, but there was nothing they could do. The Kesha had always been highly regarded by their god, so they simply organized all their troops in the rear to face this new enemy.

However, the fight began almost immediately after the Kesha escaped, giving them no time to prepare. Goblins and Resh attacked fiercely, and a great massacre ensued. With most of their attention on the trapped group, they hadn’t even closed the temple doors. By the time they realized their mistake, they had already been infiltrated.

In Alex’s camp, both the prisoners and the groups of elves and dwarves felt that something had changed. Something was different, but with the fight still far away, they couldn’t identify what. However, Alex knew. He could feel the connection and, if he wanted, extend his aura to them, though it was unnecessary. It was simply better to focus on survival.

“Grant,” Alex shouted.

The dwarf was fighting for his life, so tired he felt he could sleep for a week and still hurt for two more.

“What do you want, brat?” he replied, too exhausted to maintain appearances or formalities.

“The reinforcements have arrived,” Alex told him.

“Annoying brat.”

Grant could only complain internally, but a soft smile appeared on his face as he continued fighting for his life. He didn’t resent the human for what he had done. In fact, he admired him for having the courage to take such a risk with his own life on the line.

Without the Kesha’s help, the enemy’s morale began to drop rapidly. Fragmented leadership among various chieftains with no clear hierarchy made it impossible for the goblins to restructure their lines. Slowly, the tide of Gnolls and Resh began to overwhelm the goblins and hobgoblins.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

The prisoners looked at the battlefield with a moment of optimism, but when they saw the true nature of it, they began to despair. No one had ever heard of a single individual capable of controlling such a large number of goblins. Only Marya and her counterpart from the Moon Elves knew the truth, which didn’t frighten them any less. If they had decided to flee, they would have been caught by that great army, and they doubted it would be more understanding than Alex.

“What’s that?” Anya asked aloud, more to herself than as a real question.

“The reinforcements,” Kragash replied. The young Gnoll was resting nearby, surprising everyone with his command of Elvish.

“You mean that whole army is with Alex?” Anya asked, stunned. “When I left, there were barely a few dozen, not even a hundred.”

“Did you expect Lord Alex to sit still and wait for your help to start freeing my brothers?” Kragash asked without looking at the surprised faces of the rescued.

“I didn’t mean that. It’s just that such numbers are surprising,” Anya said simply, unable to find a way to clarify things, so she fell silent.

As the massacre continued, the intensity of the attack on Alex’s group diminished until it stopped completely. Without leadership to oversee them, many goblins simply turned and began to flee. Without the support of common troops, the better-trained ones were unwilling to fight alone and also retreated.

Finally having a moment to rest, Alex and Grant fell back slightly.

“What happens now, boy?” Grant asked.

“With this, we’ve dealt a lethal blow to the goblins. I hope the rest of my fight in this sector will proceed much more smoothly,” Alex replied.

“I didn’t mean that, boy. What about them?” Grant asked, pointing to the rescued.

Alex gave them a simple glance and replied, “They’ll pay a ransom for their rescue and can go.”

“Why should we pay anything?” an angry prisoner interjected. “I demand you free us.”

Alex looked at the prisoner, evaluating her for a moment. She belonged to one of the mixed races, a combination of a woman and a lioness.

“If you don’t want to pay, you can leave now,” Alex replied with a smirk.

Everyone else was stunned. What was this human playing at, first asking for payment and then saying they could leave if they wanted? No one understood his point.

Alex gestured toward the exit and said, “Will you leave or pay?”

The prisoner swallowed hard before asking, “What is this? Will you attack me if I try to leave?”

Alex laughed heartily. “Of course not. You’re free to leave.”

“And you guarantee my safety if I leave?”

“Why would I do that? Only those who pay will have their safety guaranteed. The rest can fend for themselves.”

Alex’s true intentions became clear. Honestly, Alex didn’t want to do this, but having involved his entire army in this maneuver, it was necessary to gain every benefit. The lives of his soldiers weren’t free, not to him, much less to these strangers.

The other freed prisoners watched the beast-woman mage, wanting to see her reaction and what would happen next. Although initially brave and defiant, her combativeness soon crumbled. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to escape, but she had the same doubt as everyone else: how deep were they in the forest? And the answer to this question was vital for their survival.

Alex waited a moment, then after drinking some water from Kragash, he continued, “So, will you leave?”

“If I pay, you guarantee my safety?” the mage asked.

“Within my domains, yes,” Alex replied.

She was about to angrily ask what his domains were, but the words got stuck in her throat when she saw a group of Moon Stalkers approaching. The creatures were too imposing to ignore.

The elves and dwarves on guard immediately raised their weapons and prepared to defend themselves, but the Resh and Gnolls didn’t bother to ready their formations and even made way for the beasts.

“What are you doing?” they shouted hysterically, trying to get the others back into formation, but there was nothing they could do. The Gnolls and Resh were the majority in the guard.

The Moon Stalkers approached at a trot, passing in front of the frightened guards.

Everyone was surprised when the large felines didn't attack the guards. These beasts were known for their hunting instincts and never let a prey escape. They were even more astonished when Alex began communicating with them. It looked incredibly surreal; Alex spoke in a way that everyone could understand simultaneously. To the Dwarves, his words sounded like their native language, the same for the Elves, and even those with different dialects understood him in their natural tongue.

The final straw was when the Stalkers began lying down near Alex, and he started petting their backs.

“What are we witnessing?” “Is this how he plans to ensure our escape?” “Now I see why he was so confident we wouldn’t leave without him.”

The mages began to discuss among themselves. With the image of the Stalkers being extremely friendly and close to him, coupled with the massive army still massacring Goblins in the distance, the balance was clearly tilted in Alex’s favor.

In a slightly more secluded corner, a woman started whispering to Grant.

“Hey, Grant, kid, do you think the human will enslave us?” asked a Dwarf woman who had been rescued from the temple.

“Master Lin, don’t worry. I would never let that happen,” replied Grant, trying to appear strong and confident.

“Who are you trying to fool, you pathetic, weak kid? The human would fold you like an accordion if you really tried anything.”

Grant seemed somewhat defeated by his master’s words. The person he had come to rescue had always treated him this way, ever since he was a child.

“The human claims that in his kingdom, slavery of Dwarves in any form is impossible,” Grant replied, dejected.

This declaration piqued the interest of the Moon and Sun Elves, who began to discreetly approach, which didn’t go unnoticed by the involved parties, but they didn’t really care about their intrusion.

“Only Dwarves?” Lin asked, interested.

“No, I understand that the law completely forbids any form of slavery for members of the Gnoll, Resh, and Dwarven races,” Grant responded.

“What about Elves?” Anya asked, intrigued. She had never heard this from Alex and felt embarrassed to engage in any idle chatter due to her troops’ antagonism toward Alex.

“I didn’t hear anything about the Elves, so they might not be protected. In any case, it’s better if you ask him yourself.”

This statement didn’t sit well with the pair of Elves. Although they hated each other to death, in moments like this, the most reliable option was to band together with their kind to try to unite forces. However, when they tried to talk to the Druid elf, they couldn’t find him anywhere until they looked in Alex’s direction.

“Oh, I see. So you really did get to see a Screech Owl.”

“Yes, Athena has accompanied us for a while. During this time, she seems to have had a lot of work in other areas, but she promised to return as part of the tasks assigned to her.”

“Really impressive that the protector of thunder decided to liaise with you, showing how much they appreciate you.”

“Well, not to brag, but I helped them repel an invasion of the Void. That’s why we get along well.”

“Boy, you’re much more interesting than I had imagined,” the Druid laughed cheerfully while sharing herbal tea with Alex, as if there was no danger, as if the massacre happening in the background had nothing to do with them. Alex was simply there, sharing stories with the Druid while petting extremely dangerous creatures that no one else present dared to touch.

Soon, Alex noticed both matriarchs approaching and decided to put an end to the intrigue.

“Alright, everyone, pay attention because I will only explain this once.”