The entire camp is completely silent except for the sound of the smoldering tents.Valen dematerializes his rifle and slowly gets up from his lying position. All eyes continue to stare at the individual that single-handedly took out an entire camp of slavers. Valen, back straight, slowly walks towards the center of the camp, his black gleaming armor looking deadlier in the light of the burning tents. No words are said as Valen tramples the ground in front of him.

As Valen walks, he slowly uses his power to replace his armor with clothing. His helmet dematerializes. A gasp is heard at the sight of the first human they have ever seen. As Valen walks with a confident gait, Leona finally realizes that the orc in question has been killed. The same orc that had killed her mother, is now brutally murdered by the same person who had freed her. Anger takes over her expression as she pumps what little mana she has left in her body, and sprints straight towards Valen. As Valen notices the enraged tigress, he reacts much too slow and Leona pounces on Valen, forcing him to the ground.

"How dare you steal my kill," Leona screams as she tightens her claws around his neck," that was my kill," she screams at his face, mouth open with her sharp teeth hanging out. As Valen is about to answer the crazed lioness, Leona instead, jumps off and screams out in pain.

Lin runs in between Leona and Valen, blood dripping from her mouth. Leona, on the other hand, is holding her tail close, a bite mark clearly is shown.

"Don't hurt Valy," Lin screams at her sister,"He saved me and saved you," she yells, tears in her eyes."It isn't fair," Lin continues, tears streaming down her face and onto her flowery dress," He doesn't even speak common," Lin continues to cry.

Leona’s anger is completely abated as she stares at her crying little sister.

As Leona is about to go and comfort her sister, Valen beats her to it by grabbing Lin and pulling her into his chest, where she continues to cry her heart out.

Seeing such a scene, Leona falls to her knees, guilt overcoming her, as she watches a strange man comfort her little sister.

___________________________________

The scene is momentarily interrupted as a large bear Beastkin of considerable size walks towards Leona.

"I am Breon, son of Garren." He says, a small smile on his face" and I think my father's village is about a weeks walk away."

As Leona realizes the immediate situation, she stands up and looks at the Beastkin huddled together.

"Everyone, strip the corpses and gather what supplies you can find," Leona yells into the crowd.

Taken aback by Leona's authoritative tone, the group immediately gets to work. The children of the parents, on the other hand, continue to stare at Valen as he comforts Lin.

"Thank you," Leona says, as she turns to Breon. The Bear-kin smiles and nods, then he walks away to help the other Beastkin strip the camp of supplies.

Valen, noticing that the Beastkin are raiding the camp, giving one last tap on Lin's head to get her attention."Ok Lin, crying time is over, I think we should make some food for the others," Valen says, a smile on his face.

Lin looks into his smiling face and wipes her tears away. A bright smile forms on her face.

Noticing Lin's smile, Valen gets up and moves closer to the still burning fire at the center of the camp, corpses already removed. Lin and the other children following diligently behind.

With a force of will, Valen summons a large table, and a grill into being in front of him, the children amazed at the spectacle while Lin smiles with pride.

Tomatoes, lettuce, buns, cheese, and a variety of other ingredients form on the table. Valen quickly sets the grill to light and prepares the ingredients. Lin walks up to Valen, a curious look on her face. Noticing her curiosity, Valen directs Lin how to prepare the burgers that he plans to make. Lin, taking the hint, starts to copy Valen as he instead starts to put the meat on the grill.

____________________________________

"That was extremely amazing wasn't it," Saria says as she looks through a burnt tent for supplies.

"Yes, it was."Sidney answers, a smile brewing on her lips," and I can only imagine how attracted you are to that man, even if he clearly is not a Beast-kin."

"T-that's not true," Saria quickly retorts as she fails to put a frown on her face.

"Oh please, I saw how angry and jealous you were when Leona mounted him. You were outright prepared to fight her" a giggle escapes Sidney's mouth."If little Lin did not interfere, I was afraid you would run in there and fight Leona for him."

"Shut up," Saria says, as her cheeks start to flush and her slender black tail swishes back and forth in excitement.

"So what weapon did he use?" Sidney asks, moving the conversation along.

"Well, that weapon is clearly able to penetrate armor at range, and the only ranged weapons that I know which can do so are Longbows, which require a great deal of strength," Saria explains"or crossbows.”

"Crossbows? What are those?" Sidney explains, a curious look on her face.

"Well, a crossbow is similar to a bow, but is made of both metal and wood, but instead of arrows, it shoots metal bolts that fly longer and faster," Saria explains as she brushes soot off of her black fur.

"I have heard from my mother, that rare enchanted crossbows will create an extremely loud noise when the bolt is released. She said such weapons are made by dwarves to penetrate very thick armor,"

"So he used some kind of enchanted crossbow?" Sidney asks, a curious look on her face.

"I don't think so, if you notice the corpse of the commander, the weapon did not merely penetrate the armor, it ripped both sides of the plate mail apart, and made a 10-inch hole in the orcs chest. The insides were ripped out and sprayed all over the ground"

"Sooo, it's better than an enchanted crossbow? I wonder where he got it." Sidney contemplates.

"I don't care about the weapon, I care about where he got that inter-spatial artifact from. I have heard of expensive artifacts that create a space to store items, but never have I seen one that can store such large items. I mean, he has an entire set of armor and various weapons at his disposal." Sidney points at Valen in the center as he cooks while surrounded by children, who are helping Lin prepare the burgers.

"He summoned tables and an entire metal oven with various foods. That is clearly some very expensive artifact that he uses so sparingly like a cheap toy," Saria sighs, waving her head side to side.

“Such an item is something that Kings would go to war over. If my mother ever finds out about it, she may very well end his life for it, even if he saved her daughter from slavery.”

"And if he was your mate," Sidney asks, a smile forming on her lips.

A blushed glare is the only answer that Sidney gives.

____________________________________

Valen continues to cook burgers while Lin, in a cute little apron, orders the other children around to prepare the ingredients. As the burgers are done, they are placed on a paper plate, and another child is directed to carry it to one of the adults. The adults in question scarf the food down with great gusto, both from lack of good food during their enslavement and also because it is just very tasty.

As Valen continues to cook, he is interrupted by a large brown furred Bear Beastkin. The aforementioned bear of a man carries a dark sword in his hand, the same sword used by the commander.

"The commander of the orc slavers was defeated by you, his rune-crafted sword is now yours, as is your right," Breon says, a confident smile on his face.

“I have no idea what you just said” Valen replies, a confused look on his face.

An annoyed expression comes on Breon's face.

"Take the goddam sword you idiot, it's yours," Breon says as he pushes the sword into Valen's hand.

“Ohhhhh” finally realizing that the bear is trying to give the sword to him, Valen quickly forms his Mana and attempts to send the sword to his pocket dimension. The runes of the sword start to glow, and Breon drops the blade and jumps back.

Valen, confused slowly inspects the sword, the glow of the runes slowly dissipate without a continuous stream of Mana.

Annoyed, Valen manifest an enormous amount of Mana and shoves it over the sword, immediately reality around the sword wavers and the blade finally disappears into his dimension.

Breon stares in amazement at the casual usage of mana, mana which takes him a good day to regain. Valen gives it no mind as he returns to flipping burgers, ignorant of the inner battle going on in Breon's head.

Realizing that he will not be able to communicate with Valen any further, his mind reverts back towards the camp. Over forty Beastkin move through the camp, gathering supplies, and what little food can be spared. Finding Leona hunched over one of the undamaged carts, a burger in hand, and an angry expression on her face. As he gets closer to her, she interrupts his stride."He stole my kill Breon, I could have killed that fucking orc."

"He saved your life Leona, and the first thing you do is attack him. The person that freed you from that cage. The same person who took on the entire orc camp." Breon continues"He saved your-"

"Shut Up," Leona screams as she throws the half-eaten burger on the fground."I would have escaped on my own and slaughtered the camp myself" Leona continues, Beastkin starting to pay attention.

With a sad look on his face, Breon looks at Leona,” Your sister would have died if it wasn’t for him”with that farewell, Breon turns away from Leona, whose anger subsides as she remembers her little sister, forced to run into the woods alone, orcs chasing after her.

As the camp is packed up, the carts are loaded with supplies and the Beastkin head towards the village Brentano. Valen walks behind, a dozen children follow him, with Lin leading them like their defacto leader.

____________________________________________________________________________

“Have we found the trail yet?” a fit monkey-kin asks as he relaxes on a large antlered beast. Staring at the burnt village, he grimaces at the sheer damage done and the great loss of life.

“Yes, the scent was found but the rain is making it hard to get a proper direction.” A large centaur man answers as he stands directly next to the Forest Elkon, its size dwarfed by his own.

"This is not good," Wukong says" Not good at all. Orcs raiding and enslaving our people so far from a port is unheard of".

“You are correct, they do not stray far from their raiding ships. Such a risk is usually not taken unless the profits are exceptional. As of right now, those profits quite are.” The centaur explains, a contemplating look on his face.

“Beastkin slaves are always a profit to those barbarians. I am guessing the expensive price on slaves has to do with the war against the Radovian’s?” Wukong asks, a curious look on his face.

“You are correct in your assumption. With the requirement for the orcs to be used in the front lines of their war, slaves will need to be used for labor instead. I can only imagine the premium the Great Orcish Empire will pay.”

“But aren’t the Radovian’s outmatched against the Orcs. I mean, their empire is far stronger, and their leaders are known to have very potent magick.” Wukong interrupts the old centaur.

"Strength is not measured by numbers or size, you must also include quality in your assessment," the centaur explains. "The orcish empire has many clans, and the leaders and children of those leaders are the only ones who possess the ability to cast magic. Majority of the orcs actually cannot even utilize their mana. The none-nobility of the orcs has such a low quantity of mana, that training its usage to any degree is very inefficient."

"The Radonian's, on the other hand, have a much smaller population, but their ability to manipulate mana is far above any grunt soldier that the orcs can pit against. Remember Wukong, underestimating your enemy is a flaw that can get you killed." the centaur stresses with his words.

“You mean how the Great Grendel dies a dogs death against those goblins,” Wukong answers with a pretentious snort.

Immediately a frown creases across the centaur face."Grendel did not die to goblins Wukong, he died to the hobgoblin chieftains. The same chieftain that has been successfully raiding us for such a long time," a sad smile crosses his lips," And Grendel chose to charge into the city with the strongest beast-kin he could find."

A solemn sigh escapes the centaurs mouth as he looks into the stars.” He went and killed the chieftains. Every single one of them was killed off,” another sigh escapes his lips, ”But with the sheer number of hobgoblins in that nest of a city, getting out was next to impossible.” Turning back to the monkey-kin, ” Your victory over the hobgoblins that led to the end of this forsaken war has to do with the lack of their leaders. Their poor decision making was what caused them to be killed off.”

Solemn silence ensues as the centaur finishes his conversation. As Wukong is about to ask another question, he is interrupted by a female panther-kin, the same one who notified him and his guards about the attack on the village.

Turning his attention to the panther-kin “Speak, what have you found?”

Out of breath, with sweat sticking to her fur, she looks up at Wukong."General Wukong, I have found the direction that the orcs have went. My sister has been scratching at trees, leaving a trail to follow them."

Nodding in understanding, Wukong turns to his guards, " Pack up, We are heading out immediately." Turning to the centaur next to him, a smile glazing his lips, " It seems that the hunt has begun," and with a slight nudge, the Elkon starts to move towards where the girl was pointing.