I felt somewhat lost without Tiria keeping watch over me but on the other side I was now free to do whatever I wanted. If I survived the siege. Thinking about it, Andarin and Ildara should be back around noon tomorrow and I wanted the holy ground ready for Andarin's sanctification.

The elves would have to do some praying, and I'd have to offer much more mana than I was happy with, but a paladin on our side could change our chances for the better.

****************************POV Ildara************************************

We had hunted goblins and lizards the last day almost without rest. Andarin's stats had increased quite amazingly, as his wisdom and intelligence had improved, to a point where he can support himself with this body enhancement magic almost around the clock. In the last two encounters the rest of us didn't do much more than watch him smash the green pests into bloody paste in mere seconds.

I had to admit that they didn't pose much of a threat with only 3 of them and all of them scouts, so Andarin might have overdone it a little bit. Not that I was disgusted in any way. Goblins deserve to die but it would be nice if I too was involved in the killing. I liked it to see their bloodlust turn into panic when they realized that I will kill them and they could do nothing against it.

Andarin just killed them like vermin, not even enjoying their fear and panic. He just eradicated them and went on.

We were around 10 kilometres into the Great Forest and the patrols had become quite numerous. Our team killed them fast enough that most of them didn't even realize that death had come for them, but it was obvious that our killing spree would come to an end in the next few hours.

The enemy's units were getting bigger and sported some lizards with them here and there and these suckers were a bigger threat than goblins. They could take a beating and still return some pain to you if you weren't careful.

We watched just such a group emerging from the trees onto a clearing and Andarin wanted to attack them as usual with his speed burst, but I held him back. Something wasn't right with this unit. They were spread out too far and seemed completely sure of themselves.

I heard branches break in the undergrowth and a strange sound emanating from it. We all ducked deeper into the bushes we hid ourselves in.

Andarin's eyes shone brighter than before which told me that he had used his mana to enhance his eyes.

He drew in a sharp breath, "Shit, we have to get back to Marcus. They have gathered some beasts, it seems. They will easily climb the walls with these creatures."

I knew that humans used their strange mounts to rule over the plains and some of my friends had dabbled into beast taming but with only mediocre success so far, so I was very surprised when I saw 3 forest drakes breaking through the undergrowth onto the clearing with the biggest lizardmen on their backs I've ever seen.

Forest drakes were brown-green scaled mini dragons with an almost non-existent intellect, no wings but very strong feet and deadly claws. They measured on average 6 metres from head to tail and stood 1,4 metres tall. With their strong limbs they could easily climb bigger trees and their many teeth poisoned their prey additionally, making them sluggish and weak if the first strike didn't kill their prey right away.

All in all they were a serious threat to Marcus and his citizens, and we'd have to get the message home as soon as possible if we wanted to find a way to survive this mess.

We all sneaked back into the bushes and then turned south, moving faster than recommended, but the fear of being too late drove us beyond common sense. Andarin pushed us forward and each time a patrol of the goblins discovered us, he took them head on, risking increasingly more to get us out of the forest. He accumulated some injuries this way and I was worried by his recklessness.

I closed the distance between us and grabbed his arm. He look back to me with a bit of anger and impatience in the eyes, "What's up, Ildara? We have to move faster, so make it quick!"

Wow, this new commanding voice was very intriguing and I was instantly turned on, but that will have to wait for now, "It will bring us nothing if you kill yourself just to get us back to the city, Andarin. The city needs you more than any of us, so calm down and let's take more care from now on."

He seemed unwilling at first but then he let his head and shoulders sink and he looked down to the ground, "I just don't want anyone get hurt again, just because I was too slow."

I took his face in my hands and made him look into my eyes, "I understand you, but if you are injured to a degree where you become more than a burden to us than an advantage we will be slower than before, so let us do some of the work too and use our smarts instead of our muscles, okay? I think, that's also one of the reasons why Marcus has sent you out here, right?"

I smiled and he returned my smile with a bit of guilt in his gaze, then he nodded. After our little talk that was mostly ignored by the others, at least they seemed to have ignored it, we went a bit slower and only attacked if we had to or if we had a good opportunity to weaken our enemies forces.

When we were only a kilometre away from the edge of the forest we encountered a hunting party from the city when they were just stripped down a deer. They looked up with clear surprise and a bit of fear in their eyes.

Andarin snapped at them, "What are you doing out here? The goblins are not far behind us and their forward scouts might even be near you right now. Grab what you can and get your asses back to the town!"

First they didn't seem like they would obey him, but then they grabbed each a still bloody piece of flesh and melded into our formation for protection. I was surprised how fast Andarin turned from the town idiot to someone who was obeyed by his juniors. When all this is over, we will have a talk and maybe I will settle down in this new city the core is building.

I was just taking a look back when I saw a spear flying straight at my head. Only my heavy investment in my dexterity saved me from being sniped by an unseen enemy. I turned my head slightly sideways and the stone blade attached to the tip sliced my cheek a little bit, but the guy walking in front of me got the spear right between his shoulder blades.

He cried out even before I could cry a warning and fell to the ground. I drew my daggers and ran directly where the spear came flying from, Andarin already beginning to turn around and go for the enemies himself.

Two more spears came flying from the undergrowth directed at my fellow fighters, but they evaded them easily this time and I could now also see the well disguised goblins hiding in the green bushes.

They were always sneaky and liked to attack you from behind but they were usually quite clumsy and easily discovered. I don't understand how they developed their fighting techniques so fast. But right now I had other things to do.

Andarin and the others attacked with everything they had. Cishen made use of his fire affinity and created a curtain of fire right before us to stop the goblins from targeting us. The downed hunter was grabbed by his friends and dragged away, and one of them broke the spear at the tip and pressed a bandage on the wound, keeping the still stuck blade steady to not increase the wound. If they were trying to save him, he must still be alive, I think.

Andarin jumped over the fire with his new magic and drew his blade and shield in the process, coming down on the goblins like the wrath of god. He split one of them in the middle and then made a quick spin on the heel with the stretched out blade, separating the head of another foe in the process. I saw another goblin taking aim at him with a heavy spear, and threw my own blade with all the might and precision I had earned in many years of fighting.

Just before the green pest could launch his weapon, my dagger hit him in the temple and threw his head to the side, the spear going left of Andarin. The force of my throw drove the blade deep into the skull and killed the goblin straight away.

I heard breaking branches left of me and two lizardmen came running out of a thorny bush. Their scales ignoring the thorns, I realized that it was a mistake to think the bushes wouldn't be a possible place to hide in. Huge and lumbering they towered over me with their almost 2 metres and around 300 pounds of muscles and claws. With the head of an anaconda and a humanoid shape draped in overlapping scales with hard and strong muscles underneath they were hard opponents. Even unarmed they had claws on their fingers and feet.

Some other lizards broke through the undergrowth on the other side of the fight drawing Andarin's and the others attension to them which left me with my two and an empty hand.

The lizards each had big clubs with embedded stone splinters and enclosed me between them with surprising speed. Both threw an overhand strike at me and I jumped forward right into the legs of one them, which might have been a mistake. These guys were heavy and even if I had some muscles and many years of training they were in a complete other weight class.

I escaped the first strike but instead of making one fall to the ground and then hitting him fast with some of my daggers, I bounced off his legs and rolled back somewhat dazed. Both of them again rose their weapons to smash my head into the ground.

'So that's it' I thought, when both were suddenly hit by multiple arrows in the chest and head, looking somewhat like a pincushion. A look the side showed the hunters had drawn their bows and were taking aim at the fast moving lizards.

I shook my head to get my head free again and stood up, drawing two daggers from my boots and then sprinted a bit to the side to avoid getting in the way of our artillery. Andarin kicked one of the lizardmen into the belly, and the reptile flew out of the fight, but before he hit the ground, 4 arrows had sprouted from his arm, chest and leg. As I already mentioned, these guys could take a beating, and even hurt quite badly, the guy rolled to the side breaking the arrow shafts and jumping right back into the fight, but now aiming at the hunters.

Knowing the position of their eyes gave them a bit of tunnel vision, I positioned myself to the side and then jumped right onto the reptile's back with my daggers leading. They embedded themselves with a slick sound and I already withdrew them to drive them again into my foe.

He cried out loud and coughed up some blood but still tried to dislodge me from his back. He never stood a chance though. I closed my legs around his belly and rammed my two daggers into his neck, creating a fountain of blood erupting from his cut arteries.

He fell to the ground, but I had already loosened my grip on him and rolled to get back to my feet taking count of the battlefield.

Crouching low with my daggers held before me I saw that my fellow fighters had taken care of the rest of our enemies easily after Andarin had again bisected another lizard with his sword.

Damn it, I so badly want this mana enhancement technique he uses.