Chapter 8 - Thank you to everyone who stuck around. The plan moving forward is to get back to 15 chapters ahead. And I am writing a lot more now.

I’d seen negotiations like this in movies. Two armies ready to launch into action at the smallest provocation–leaders puffing out their chests to indicate their confidence. Ellison was a natural.

He appeared built for these exact moments. His white cotton shirt was clean and pressed, leather pants and jacket all in good repair. His grey fur complimented the simple attire and his posture defied the humble attire. His antlers were free of tassels, unlike Daevon and Durkil. He looked altogether a statesman.

I couldn’t help but wonder how I looked in comparison. My hair was in a constant state of disarray, hands grubby, youthful stubble growing in patches. The spirit cloak was pretty nice though. It was simple grey, but the embroidered gold on the hems were growing noticeably more intricate and creeping further into the grey. My poor Converse were in tatters.

Hopefully my appearance didn’t matter too much. It would be fine. Ellison would be doing the talking here, they wouldn’t care about me.

The four of us met near the dead center of the field. We were flanked by our elites not far off, and behind them the armies that would clash if Ellison and I failed.

Up close, the dark-skinned elf in armor was taller than expected. He rivaled Alex, easily pushing seven feet. In fact, I was easily the shortest of the four. Ellison wasn’t a giant, but he was at least several inches above my six feet.

It didn’t bother me though, I knew size didn’t mean power, or at least it didn’t necessarily mean power. I had however, noticed a trend. People tended to grow as their strength stat increased. I wasn’t one of those people of course.

The armored elf stepped forward and looked hesitantly back at his colleague before speaking slowly and deliberately.

I didn’t understand a word of it. If I did want to, there was a way, but it would cost 100,000 UBC’s to get it.

So, for now, I just heard gibberish and trusted Ellison.

“I’m Ellison, and the man next to me is Layton. He is the faction leader not me.”

The elf gave me an appraising look. He scrunched up his face. Apparently, he wasn’t impressed. If there was a silver lining to all this, it was that I could at least understand Ellison’s side of the conversation.

He responded with more garbled nonsense.

“We are hoping that through diplomacy that you might be open to a peaceful resolution.”

This experiment was teaching me something. Even without knowing what the words were, you could glean a lot from body language.

For example.

The dark elf looked past Ellison and I, raising an eyebrow at our hodgepodge of fighters. He waved his hand dismissively with an arrogant smirk, before he turned and walked back to his professional army.

I pursed my lips. The Dark elf had barely even heard us out. The hard truth was we didn’t look worth negotiating with. Why open a dialogue if he could just claim the territory as his own?

“I’m sorry Layton. I thought we had a chance.”  

It wasn’t Ellison’s fault. This new raid was more open minded, and maybe if we looked more intimidating or professional it might’ve gone different. As it was, it would’ve been a miracle if He’d been able to convince them.

We watched them go. The elf in armor collected his retinue and they returned to their battle line.

As they walked back the Elf in the robe looked back.

I cocked my head.

Was it just my imagination or had I caught a look of uncertainty in that backward glance?

“We both knew it was a long shot.” I kept my eyes on the blue robes. “Let’s head back… and let’s spread the word. If anyone shows surrender, we let them.”

There was something about that look. He didn’t seem as confident as his armored friend. Or was he just more open to a peaceful resolution?

Sadly, I might never find out.

We jogged back and word was quickly spread.

If Mischief was here would that have given us more time to talk? He gave most people pause. We needed to get him back in action.

The armored elf raised his sword and with a shout crossbows were shrugged of shoulders.

For peace of mind, I recast dome of protection and made sure that our entire army was covered. It cost a little extra mana, but it had become a pre battle ritual for me.

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit annoyed. On one hand, I really did get it. Raids were just how things worked. But now my people were at risk.

My sights were set on silver goatee.

He dropped his sword and hundreds of crossbow bolts whistled toward us along with a variety of spells.

Some attacks hit and fell, others, to my surprise punched orange glowing holes through the dome.

Great….

I kept powering the spell and the holes were patched at the expense of my mana. The good news was that the shots lost momentum after breaking through the dome. The handful of shots that broke through did hit but they didn’t have enough juice to be dangerous.

So, if the raiders wanted to be dangerous, they would have to come to us. That was the counter to dome of protection.

You had to enter the dome. 

Which worked perfect for us. Because we didn’t take the attack lying down. Our attacks weren’t uniform, but we definitely returned fire.

I had always wondered why organized attacks mattered anyway. I was just fine with “fire at will”.

Hundreds of attacks shot out from our side also. The raiders had defensive measures of their own.

They mostly had shields and barriers like we did, all except the one wizard. His defensive spell used water to slap projectiles away. At first, I couldn’t tell what was happening since they were so far away.

I focused on what was happening and once I did, I could see the tendrils of water. It was a similar spell to what Daevon’s lightning shield could do, but his was more like an electric fence, great at keeping people from getting close and it worked wonders against offensive spells, but he still struggled with stopping projectiles like arrows.

Every raider we’d faced had always charged headfirst into an immediate attack. So far, this fight had been nothing but lobbing ineffective ranged attacks at each other.

What was the strategy here? Across the clearing the elves maintained an even row, their mix of shields were working well against our firepower. The problem was we had some big hitters, like Nick, Daevon or even Sadie was getting there. It just wasn’t our strength.

Most of the Guildian’s chose classes that worked better up close. That might change in time as the newcomers leveled up.

Through the chaos of attack’s, the leader of the dark elf raiders stared at me. Even from two hundred yards I could see his arrogant smile.

People were going to die in this fight, and we had offered a way to avoid it, and he was sitting there smiling.

He hadn’t even heard us out. The way he looked at us so damn smug. It pissed me off.

But the way we were fighting he should be smug.

“We just don’t have the firepower to break their shields.” I mumbled mostly to myself.

“Then let’s go get them.” Alex might’ve seemed a bit funny in his thrown together armor, but the golden claymore leaning against his shoulder was another story.

“If we do go to them, we’ll be outside of the dome, which is the only thing protecting us against those shield piercing attacks.” I pointed were another bolt left a burning orange hole.

If we wanted to get this fight moving, it was going to have to be us to engage. The elves showed no intention of making the first move.

“Then just move the dome to the middle. It will still stop those burning shots and we only need a few seconds to get across. We’ll cause havoc and the reinforcements will come in from behind.”

I didn’t love the idea. We had no idea how capable these raiders were. But I didn’t see other options. I was already down to almost half my mana, and it was slowing ticking down.

“Alright, let’s get everybody ready to attack.”