"I have done all I could to tip the balance in our favor." My eyes stopped glowing and my appearance returned to Tiven, a man of average height and dark hair.

With this, I have used up almost all of the powers I have currently—including maintaining the cloud settlement. I plopped down to the ground helplessly before being caught by Elder Havies.

"Your holiness!"

"I am fine." I forced myself to stand again. I realized that in actuality, the thunder will only help the initial attack and that I could perform one more action.

"I...need to do one more thing. The thunder won't be enough."

"What do you mean, your holiness!? I think you have used too much of your powers!" Elder Havies showed concern.

"I am a god...This will be quite risky but I have to do it to ensure the survival of the elves. I will be extremely weakened after this so please take care of me." I smiled as I looked down below in anticipation.

Through the eyes of the captives

"Mommy...hic..hic.." A young wood elven girl cried relentlessly in the arms of her mother.

The cages that house these wood elves were crowded and cramped. There were multiple cages: one for women and children; another for men and; a smaller cage with only the elder elves. This categorization revealed sinister cataloging of the elves based on what type of people would be interested to buy and own them. Although these elves were fortunately not officially slaves just yet as the ritual had not been performed. However, the painful iron branding on their backs will remain forever.

"It's okay. It's okay. Goddess Salyna will protect us. Her holiness is probably sending her help towards us now." The mother comforted her daughter. Her face was also contorted and hopeless but she tried her best to calm her child.

"But why didn't she save papa and brother? Why did she let us be captured like this?" The young wood elf showed a sign of greater intelligence with her questions.

"That's..."

"The goddess has forsaken us." From the cage next to them, one elven man answered.

"Heresy!" Another elf barked at him angrily.

"Heresy? To whom? If we were considered her true worshippers, then she would save us. But she didn't. That could only mean she has forsaken us and we are probably not even considered her subjects anymore." The man replied.

"You!" From the other cage, an elder elven woman interjected. "Your heretic speech will only land us in more trouble! The gods shall not be disrespected!"

"The gods do not care for us mortals! They will only help us if it serves their needs!" The elven man seemed to have had enough of the conversation as he retreated back into the cramped cell.

"Calm down, Elder." The mother chimed in. "That man. I know he lost his wife and his son in the invasion. Please let him vent his anger."

"But heresy towards the goddess—" The elder's words were cut off.

Suddenly, they heard the crackling of thunder above their heads.

"It's gonna rain!" One person said as they all looked towards the sky.

"No...It's something else. I sense something mysterious." Another elf replied.

Thunder exited the dark cloud and struck at the entire wooden fortress, blazing everything in a fiery fire. The drunken knights seemed to have realized something were wrong before the thunderstruck as they have already put on their armor and equipment clumsily. Many of the knights who were inside the tents pleasuring themselves with the servants ran outside of the tent with their bodies on fire. Some of the unfortunate bronze-skinned servants were also burnt. Mysteriously, none of the thunder ever struck anywhere near any of the cages.

"This is a miracle! An act of a higher being! It must be Goddess Salyna!" The elder from before raised her voice.

"But Goddess Salyna is the goddess of plants and beasts! I don't think she controls the weather! " Another elf raised their voice. They were all practically shouting as the wind and thunder were extremely loud.

"Then it's Hevize!!? He controls the skies!"

"That's impossible! Hevize hates our kind!"

"Then who could it be!?"

As the thunder roared they also heard a bellowing male voice in an unknown language reverberating throughout the fortress.

"T-that! It's really a god! But who is it?"

As shouts and discussion filled the cages, mysterious figures climbed the walls behind them and landed in front of them.

"They are...."

They could see humanoid forms greatly resembling them although slightly different. While the wood elves had copper skin, the figures that descended were very fair, almost white.

"High elves!"

Waves after waves of high elves climbed the fortress walls. A significant chunk of the force then approached the cages.

"Are all of you okay?" One of the high elves asked.

"They're speaking a different language!"

The high elves looked at each other after hearing the wood elves speaking another tongue. Both of the elvish sound similar and familiar in tone and intonations and yet significantly different in vocabulary.

"Wait! That's ancient elvish!" An elder wood elf exclaimed and then proceed to rattle the cage.

"Us need help!" The elder elf said in ancient elvish with his wood elven accent.

The high elves were surprised and one of them approached the elder.

"You can understand us?"

"Little bit. Me scholar." The elder replied.

The high elf smiled.

"Please tell your people to stand back. We will free you."

The elder opened his eyes wide and nodded.

"Everyone!!! Stand back!" The elder shouted with all his might. His seniority and loudness proved useful as everyone did as he ordered.

The high elf then pulled something out of his scabbard to reveal a sword glowing with a white aura of light surrounding it.

"W-what! That's not normal magical energy!" One elf shouted in surprise after seeing that sword.

The high elf then proceeds to slash the sword diagonally in a very wide arc. The arc was enough to not only slice open the three cages of the elves, but also the cage of the gnomes who had been quiet yet highly curious at the current situation. The sword opened a pathway for all to step out into freedom before the white light disappeared.

"We're freed!"

Through the eyes of the knights and invaders

The initial attack was a large success. The knights were still very drunken and some of them had only put on their armors but had not grabbed their swords and other equipment. The thunder had shaken them to their cores and the sudden incoming waves of invaders struck them by incredible surprise. The elves first targeted the knights who were scattered about in the settlement in panic as they were the easiest targets. Surprisingly, the bronze-skinned men and women raised their hands in a plead of mercy after seeing the intruders and did not try to engage.

In total, more than a third of the one hundred fifty knights were slain or died due to the fire from the thunder strike in the first few minutes. Around one hundred or so were left. Unfortunately, they all seemed highly trained even under their dazed state as many of them grabbed their shield, sword, and bows. The knights all converged towards the middle of the camp that was a large clearing where the campfires were. They all formed a formation with the leader who was wearing a golden armor commanding them.

The under-equipped elves also followed the order of Alisia to quickly loot the fallen knights of their armors and weapons and quickly equip them. In actual warfare, this tactic was seen as being very dishonorable and the remaining knights who saw that the enemies in front of them were using the tools of their dead comrades were enraged.

"Those are elves! Fucking shit! Where did they come from!?" Captain Alfred cursed using the common tongue. Half of his face was burnt from the thunder, scarring his previous handsome face. "What was that voice before? Is the thunder the doing of their wizard!?"

The silver knight stood beside the golden knight. "Captain! I think we may outnumber them! If we go on the offense now we may stand a chance."

Captain Knight looked at the enemies. He saw that the elves did not have much of a formation but rather they were just waiting for their chance to strike. "I think you're right. We do not have many choices anyway but seek vengeance for our fallen comrades. EVERYONE! CHARGE!"

The knights yelled their war cries and prepared themselves to charge.

Meanwhile, on the elven side, the party that discovered the fortress with Tiven stood by each other with their own squad of elves.

"What do we do? We are up against highly trained knights and they have the number advantage." Rob said desperately while he was shooting arrows at the enemies.

Neityr also firmly grip her sword to prepare for the enemies' charge. "Our initial plan was to strike them when they were asleep! The holiness' thunder have reduced their numbers but it was not enough!"

Suddenly, the thunder from the dark cloud above ended their seemingly endless barrage. However, the howling wind did not stop. What came after was rain. Pouring rain. This rain was no ordinary rain. A tinge of white aura filled every droplet of water. The rain came into contact with the elves of the white leaf tribe which resulted in their bodies starting to glow with a faint white light. However, nothing special happened to the knights in the opposing force.

"This is!" One elf exclaimed.

"This is the doing of the holiness! I feel...I feel myself feeling stronger!" Another elf shouted as they felt their muscles becoming firmer.

"Tiven..." Only Neityr did not share the joy of others as she looked above. Her face was full of worry and discomfort although she also felt herself becoming more powerful.

"This is our chance! Let's also strike!" Rob shouted.

Neityr snapped out of her daze and her face became resolute.

"Everyone! With me!"

The two small armies charged towards each other. The rain also became even fiercer and the tropical soil below became sticky mud that hindered the mobility of all people involved. After a few seconds, the two forces meet with each other in the large clearing. The blessing given to them through the rain proved to be extremely effective as their newfound might allow them to struck the knights so hard that their shields flew away before dealing the final blow at the knights.

The twenty elven archers led by Rob that were perhaps the deadliest of the elven force also became capable of firing more arrows. The time it took to fire three arrows normally they could now fire six arrows.

The inexperienced mages were still standing far back as their task was only to heal wounds. Even then, they could only heal painfully slow. The most experienced mages that could almost be considered wizards consisted of four individuals led by Alisia. The blessing of the rain gave them a larger magic reserve and allow them to cast spells faster. The four wizards cast spells which deal damage in a wide area like water needles or fireballs to greatly thin out the enemy numbers.

Finally, the squad with the largest numbers was the warriors, led by Neityr—although their number was also slightly reduced as some of them were charged with evacuating the captives. They all stood at the front lines. Many of them have looted the swords of the fallen knights. As the knights fell, the few of them that had not gotten any equipment quickly grab the swords from the corpse and rejoin the battle.

Even with the number disadvantage, the elves had the upper hand due to the blessing. However, the knights were highly trained as well and some of them were strong enough to slain few of the elves. Because even with more power, the technique of the knights were leagues above the elves.

What followed was a struggle on both sides. The battle depicted was not like stories and fairytales where the heroes and enemies exchange quips and one-liners in the midst of battle. No. It was frankly quite brutal. The muddied soil coupled with the heavy rain and wind still occurring made a scene of a messy battle. While one side was winning, both sides fight desperately.

The end of the battle was in reach. Twenty elves had tragically fallen—all of them the front line inexperienced warriors. This was unfortunate in itself but the heaviest toll was the human forces. There were only ten knights left out of the previous one hundred.

"Shit!" The scarred-face Captain Alfred looked at his side as his trusty silver knight had been slain. He also saw there were only nine of his knights remaining.

Captain Alfred suddenly threw away his sword and raised his arms.

"Everyone surrender! We surrender!" He shouted.

Only some of the men heard his shout as they also did the same thing as him. However, a few further ahead did not hear his cries and were also promptly killed. In the end, with Captain Alfred, only five remained.

Neityr who was just done killing a knight looked at the remaining knights raising their hands into the air. Her hair was extremely disheveled and her entire face and armor were covered in wet mud. She breathed in and out rapidly as her lungs were barely keeping up with her enhanced strength.

"Hah...Hah...Everyone stand down! The knights have surrendered! We have won..." Her voice trailed off in the end and did not show any sign of triumph.

The rest of the elves also shared similar dirty appearance to Neityr. After the end of the battle, none of them cheered as they were also too exhausted to do so.

"Ever...y..one...capture the...remaining humans..." As Neityr ordered the elven force, she collapsed to the ground.