Morendos Maneiro trudges carefully through the forest, his father's enchanted bow laying heavily upon his back as he approaches a camp one of his scouts had notified him about. A camp he did not believe to exist.

With a release of Mana, his eyes glow slightly with power, allowing his already great night vision to see as though it were a day. A useful trick he had learned from his father when he hunted beasts during the night.

With enhanced sight, Merendos can finally see the absurd sight before.

A massive bed… lavishly decorated with intricate carvings that would put any Kings bed to shame... is sitting in the middle of the camp. On the bed rests a young Amazon, sleeping peacefully under a blanket decorated with kittens.

This makes no sense.

Unfortunately for Merendos, the absurdity did not stop there.

His eyes finally turn to the table… a table which would look better in a King's dining room than in the middle of a forest filled with beasts... Speaking of beasts, the cooked head of a Bhargese-- one of the most dangerous predators in the forest, sits squarely atop the table next to enough cooked meat to feed a village… all lightened using silver and gold trimmed beautifully crafted candle holders.

Who are these people?

Blinking quickly, his eyes roam towards the confusing people sitting relaxedly on the table, eating meat on glass plates. Glass, an expensive commodity most taverns could never afford to use.

With a confused expression, Merendos walks closer to the camp… but stops suddenly as the light elf at the table quickly shifts his head towards his direction… and then back towards the food.

Merendos just watches, unmoving, not sure if he was noticed.

After waiting a while, he trudges closer again, quickly noticing the elf's eyes turn towards his direction and back.

With a frown, Merendos unsheathes his massive bow, hands sliding silently over the enchanted bone and the many crystals embedded within them.

Moving his fingers to the string, he slowly pulls the bowstring, applying Mana as he does. A dark spectral arrow forms, Mana encircling his fingers as it pulses with energy.

“So you knew I was here,” he voices internally, watching as the group sitting on the table gets up and looks around in alarm.

With a complicated hand sign, he signals his soldiers to encircle and converge on the camp.

_________

Mana interference, a phenomenon where a being cannot sense their own external Mana due to the presence of significantly denser Mana. A rare phenomenon which Arjun had only ever experienced once before… until just now.

While the Bhargese meat was cooking, he had spent an entire hour setting up a Mana web, an advanced form of alteration and integration magic, to create an invisible web of sorts.

Strands of mana connect to this web, allowing the creator to feel and sense disruptions as they pass through.

Being an enchanter, Arjun's web is very extensive, and thus he has a clear mental picture of the intruder.

Unfortunately, someone just blasted the entire area with enough mana to rip apart the entire mana web into smithereens.

Arjun glares angrily at Valen, watching as the young man spreads out his hands, eyes studying the surroundings.

Upset, Arjun puts his hand on his daughter's head while his eyes roam the darkness.

“Whoooooshhhh”

“Booooommmm”

An arrow flies past Gangs head, freezing the young man in his tracks as it slams into a tree, creating an explosion on impact.

The entire group freezes, eyes turning towards the darkness where the arrow had come from.

____

“That was a warning shot!” Merendos exclaims, quickly notching another mana arrow on his bow.

“Drop your weapon or my men will shoot,” he yells towards the Radonian who quickly complies and drops his polearm.

Slowly Merendos and his men walk closer, a suffocating energy seemingly grows stronger with every step he takes closer.

“I am Merendos Maneiro, one of the princes of the Dark Elf Forest. If you do anything that seems hostile, you will be killed,” he explains as his body finally enters the candlelight.

_____

Valen watches as the shadow finally reveals itself.

A dark elf covered in black leather while holding a massive bow walks towards the group, a dark glowing arrow is ready and pointed at his group, ready to be released in a moments notice.

“Valen,” Arjun asks from across the table,” Can you please stop your mana. You are only putting them on guard.” he explains.

Nodding slowly, Valen stops releasing his mana instantly, causing the approaching elf to stumble.

The elf quickly regains his footing and looks at Valen, an indistinguishable expression is on his face as he looks at the young man.

Regaining his composure, the elf lowers his bow, but the arrow stays nocked and ready to be fired on a moments notice.

“My men will approach you and take any weapons on your possession. If you even move, your life will end.”

Valen’s eyes turn to Arjun, asking silently if this is a good idea.

“If they wanted us dead, then we would be dead. I would suggest we comply,” Arjun explains bitterly, his hand holding his daughters close to him, fearing more for her safety than his own.

*Sigh* “I understand,” Valens nods towards the light elf and then turns to Merendos “We will comply.”

Nodding back, the dark elf signals towards the darkness, causing over twenty elves to converge on the group.

Valen watches the elves come closer and search them. Their hands roam the sides, looking for any items that may be seen as a weapon.

After a minute of checking… and a few growls and attempted bites from Lin, the elves finally relent and allow Merendos to approach.

___

“I do apologize for the search but I needed to make sure that you all are relatively unarmed.” He explains, looking at the annoyed faces gazing back at him… especially the tigress child, apparently touching their tail is considered extremely offensive.

“First order of business, I want to ask you all what you are doing in the middle of the our forest without a guide. I find it very curious that my people are attacked on the same day as strangers who enter the forest without permission.”

“Permission?” Valen asks, looking at the confident elf,” we were told that traveling through the forest towards Pelram would save weeks if not a month of time than going around.”

Merendos eyes twitch, the story rather disbelieving.

“So you're telling me that a group of four and two children had entered my forest. A forest which is famed for killing entire small caravans. All so you can get to a inner port city faster?”

“ We actually just joined them this morning,” Arjun quickly calls out, pointing at Valen and Gang, his hand resting on Aisha's head.

“You joined this morning?” Merendos asks confused, not at all expecting the situation to get even more complicated.

“ Yes, these valiant heroes,” Arjun extends his hand to Valen and Gang,” saved my life from a Bhargese attack and reunited me with my daughter.” He exclaims, smiling down at his little girl as she shyly hides behind his leg… unlike Lin, who seems ready to attack anyone that dares to get close.

“ And what were you doing in the woods?” Merendos asks, eyeing the light elf, the same race who had just attacked a village yesterday.

“Me? I was running for my life, doing my best to escape the bhargese.”

Merendos gives the elf an annoyed glare.

“And before that?”

“I was running for my life from the holy kingdom troops.” Arjun explains again.

Merenderos scrunched his eyebrows as he takes a long annoyed look at the elf, controlling his frustration.

“Why were you running from them?”

“Because they were trying to kill me.”

*Boom*

Merendos fist slams onto the wooden table, denting the wood.

“Stop with your games. Tell me who you are and I just may not end your life!” Merendos yells, glaring angrily at the light elf.

“That man is Arjun, an Enchanter who was living in the village which was just attacked.”

A voice answers from the darkness.

All eyes turn as a figure covered in black garb emerges from the forest.

Llarain struts forward, her body moving elegantly with each step, the shadows seemingly answering her call.

Merendos, noticing the new arrival, relaxes, realizing that it is one of his kingdoms best assassins.

“Llarain, you know this elf?” Merendos asks, pointing towards Arjun.

She moves forward, placing a metal disk on the table, which the group is huddled around.

“I do, he is the one who I have ordered my enchantment from,” she exclaims, giving Arjun a nod.

“I see, and what is that,” Morendos asks, pointing at the metal disk on the table.

“I am not sure, but this whole area is surrounded by them, planted everywhere on the ground.”

Standing on her tippy toes, Lin looks at the metal disk.

“That's a mine,” she exclaims with a smile.

“A mine?” Llarain voices confused.

“Yup. It goes Booooommm when the remote contro---”

Valen's hand flicks out, quickly covering Lin's mouth, a nervous look can be seen on his face as all eyes turn to him.

“Shit.”

**********************

“My brother is an idiot,” Morendos exclaims while trailing behind the group of six as they are escorted by his soldiers towards the dark elven city.

“I wholeheartedly agree,” Llarain announces from his side, a frown on her face.

“Does he not realize that this is clearly an act of war? The Holy kingdom will not stop at just a few villages. They will continue to take.”

“And eventually they will grow strong enough to fight us in our own territory,” Llorain adds in from his side.

“And now his eminence is going to try to brandon me as a traitor,” Merendos says, anger seething with every word.

“Isn’t that why we are taking them with us?” Llorain asks, pointing towards Valen’s group who is trudging through the forest. A rather interesting sight considering that the young man is carrying the Amazon on his back.

“Yes… I am hoping to convince the council that we should retaliate.”

Llorain gives the prince a small smile,” If only that ring wasn't bonded to him. Then you could have gifted it to your brother and bought his support.”

Morendos Frowns,” Yes, it seems to be of an immense quality, that ring. Being able to fit an entire camps worth of supplies in such a small item is rather impressive on its own.” he shakes his head,” The dam Xerafin are truly impressive.”

“And the mine?”

Morendos frowns, feeling the bag next to him which is carrying over twenty of such items.” I’m not sure, I’ve not figured out how they work, some kind of Xerafin invention. Heck, it may only be activated by a Xerafin.”

Llorain gives him an annoyed look,” And if he were to activate it, what would happen?”

A cock smile forms on his face.

“He can’t. Without his wings, I doubt he can use external mana to activate them.”

She gives him a long hard look…” You want to attempt to use these against the blood paladins?”

A sad smile crosses his face,” I do… if I can have an enchanter figure out how this item works, I should be able to utilize it.”

Llorain shakes her head, turning towards the direction of the slowly rising sun, watching it as it illuminates the forest once more.