Li sat cross-legged in front of the edge of the Winterwoods, the forest line of trees behind him standing tall like castle walls. He closed his eyes and had his hands together in a meditative pose, feeling the flow of life circulating from the woods behind him.

It was past midnight, and this time, there was no full moon to illuminate the woods with its aesthetic silvery sheen. There was but darkness, black like tar and just as thick, the stars themselves shy to shine tonight.

Li thought about the approaching force of orcs. He had made contact with them beforehand, actually, before he had even called the adventurers to battle.

Throughout the early morning, he was keeping tabs on them through a remotely controlled Shadowfly.

Using the fly, Li knew that they were traveling in a tightly organized group through another forest to the West that provided cover to them. Spread out to minimize detection and using a system of rotating scouts to find uninhabited pathways.

All things considered, that already was more than enough precaution, meaning they truly did value stealth, as if they were on some covert operation. They moved quickly, too, with the same discipline Li would have expected out of a trained covert ops group.

Until the Winterwoods were reached, signs of civilization between the Hinterlands and the greater duchy of Soleil were slim, with only a few frontier villages surrounded by the thick of the wild. It was easy for the orcs to avoid the few roads that existed, and this far out west, no knightly patrol would be able to respond to them properly.

There was no real need for them to be this secretive, so why the precautions?

And there were more questions, too.

When he scanned the orcs, he realized that they were in healthy condition. They were not at all weary from what would have been over weeks of intensive traveling, nor did they show any signs of hunger or battle damage from scuffling with any of the many monsters roaming the far western forests which tended to have higher level creatures.

Unlike Trolls, orcs did not possess regeneration and instead had special skin of some sort. Iceborn orcs had frost-resistant and chill inducing skin, Forestborn orcs had skin that numbed pain and provided immunity to toxins, and so on. In other words - any sign of battle damage would be evident on them.

They had, despite being obviously noticeable two and a half meter tall figures of solid-built muscle and bladed tusks, been able to navigate so much land unnoticed and unharmed. Furthermore, they were unarmed, traveling as light as they could, not a hint of supplies on them.

Li had requested Sindra to check with the Adventurer's Guild for the few reports that came from the frontier villages back to the Adventurer's Guild and found that supply carrying rocs had not noticed anything wrong with the villages.

No sign of raids or confrontation, so they could not have sustained themselves without hunting monsters, and monsters would surely have wounded them.

The alternative was that without food and equipment, the orcs had traveled, presumably by foot, an unimaginable distance through vast swathes of hostile territory.

And all for what?

Li had wished to talk to them to answer these questions, and he had unstealthed his Shadowfly in front of what he recognized as the sole warchief of the band. Resonating his voice through the Shadowfly, Li had simply asked the warchief an initial question of why he was presumably heading to Riviera.

The warchief had merely smiled and responded with a not at all helpful, "You will see, little forest spirit," before destroying the Shadowfly.

Li shrugged. The warchief's tone was laden with unbridled aggression and anticipated cruelty. It was not one that showed any indication of desperation or willingness to cooperate.

And yet, here he sat to give the orcs one more chance to explain themselves.

A chance he would not have given when he had first come to this world, but since managing his divine powers and their nourishing nature, he had become a little more patient.

"All of you move so silently," said Li as he stood up. The tail of the dark brown jacket of his farmer's guild uniform fluttered in the wind behind him. In the night, his eyes flashed green and highly visible. "Were I to have had less sensitive ears, I might not have picked you two up at all."

Li saw two large figures in the dark scramble backwards, away from Li. They were the two scouting orcs. Hunchback variants. Smaller but more agile, their hunched forms capable of crawling around on all fours with feral speed. Their stony skin was less suited to dealing with damage but had the special property of changing colors crudely to create a form of rudimentary camouflage.

They were even capable of learning a few Assassin-class skills, but specializations and abilities of this level meant absolutely nothing to Li.

They had their jaws open, their tusks and fangs ready to gore Li silently, but upon realizing he could easily see them, they backed off.

Li's vision sharpened as he looked past the scouts, towards the silently approaching band of orcs.

"You recognize my voice, do you not, warchief?" said Li as his vision panned over the crowd of orc heads, zoning in on the taller, broader figure of the warchief at the back.

"I am the Guardian of this forest, and I am past asking questions. But a final warning, I am still willing to give. I warn you now that it is my duty to defend this forest, and should you tread foot in it with hostile intent, you and your kin will never tread back out."

The warchief smiled and kept walking forwards. The horde moved with him, ignoring Li's warning and approaching him with evidently hostile intent.

"Have it your way, then," said Li calmly as he turned around. He snapped his fingers, and his figure disappeared, having been teleported away to his shrine at the heart of the Winterwoods – a little spell that Ven'thur had worked up after having been revived using the energy from the shrine and becoming familiar with it.

It linked Li back to the shrine, letting him teleport to it so long as he was within the vicinity of the forest itself.

Li kept tabs on Ivo, sensing his presence at the creek clearing, meaning that everyone was already stationed and ready to fight. He checked that Tia was still safe at home with Old Thane. Though he knew Tia could actually quite capably fight a Spikeridge orc, he was not willing to let her get injured in the chaos of a relatively large-scale confrontation, so he had, through many protests, told her to stay at home tonight.

With all things in order, he made his way to the clearing himself, a few crackles of green power surging around his bare hands.