On the surface, the situation was relatively calm. People were sitting around and relaxing while still paying attention to their surroundings. Needless to say that the girls felt bored.

"Where are the Orcs? I want to fight!" Sera loudly complained while drawing circles on the ground with a stick. "I kind of wish I went down with the rest…"

"I'm not so sure that's a good idea," Elly said. "Orcs are really dangerous… My uncle always said it's best to just run away from them."

Clearly, boredom dulled Sera's fears because she jumped up and bragged, "Hah! Maybe if you are weak! I would just freeze them in place and then, pow!" She stabbed in the air against her imaginary opponent with a stick.

"Seems like you never fought against an actual Orc!" A womanly voice traveled to their ears, and Sera turned around to see a member of the Phoenix Knights approaching them with a warm smile.

"Who're you?" Xilia asked.

"Name's Igrit," she answered and then spoke to Sera, "You should listen to your friend, fighting an Orc is no joke! There aren't many men who could fight an Orc one-on-one, and I'm pretty sure no sane woman in the Kingdom would want to be anywhere near them, especially not on a battlefield."

"I know all that," Sera said and summoned Ice Spears, "But I'm pretty good with magic! I could just kill it from afar!"

Igrit chuckled at her overconfidence, "Hehe, you are pretty talented it seems, but do you think an Orc will just stand there and let you kill it? They can also use magic, and they are pretty good at it! Though, they usually fight with their fists for some reason."

Wooosh!

"Aargh!"

An arrow suddenly struck a resting warrior in the chest and pinned him to the tree behind him. At that moment, rustling sounds came all around them and more arrows soon shot out from the dense woods.

"We are under attack! Get down!"

Amid the chaos that ensued, it was unclear who shouted first, but it quickly spread among the warriors, and soon they were shouting over each other.

Luckily the mages created raised walls beforehand, and now they found refuge from the rain of arrows behind those.

"Shit! Where did that come from?! What are the lookouts doing?!" Igrit hissed through gritted teeth and looked at one of the big trees where one of the lookouts used to be.

She could still see his figure hidden among the leaves, only his body was in a weird position.

"Damn it," she cursed. The guy up there was clearly no longer alive.

"This was an ambush! They knew we were coming! Fuck, we need to warn Tabbris, he's walking into a trap!" Igrit shouted towards Riordian who was busy forming Ice Barriers around them.

"It's impossible at the moment," the man answered emotionlessly and continued chanting. Although the arrows didn't do much damage to his barriers, there were too many for him to keep them up for long. Beads of sweat already started forming on his forehead.

The few mages that were with them already exhausted most of their Mana, and the archers couldn't shoot out either due to the barrier.

They were trapped!

"At least we are safe for now… If we wait until they exhaust all their arrows, maybe we can turn this around..." Igrit sighed.

Meanwhile, Riordian's eyes enlarged and he quickly ducked behind a wall.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom…

Multiple Fireballs collided with the Ice Barrier and exploded into a spectacular sea of flames, quickly cracking and melting it in the process.

"We are screwed! They have at least ten Shamans, it's over!" one guy shouted in despair and gripped a knife with the intent of ending his own life.

Slap!

Igrit slapped him with full force and then grabbed him by the collar before shouting in his face. "Snap out of it! Are you a man or a fish?! At least fight bravely until the end and take an enemy down with you!"

The guy rubbed his red cheek in confusion. He was frowning hard, seemingly in deep thought. In the end, he couldn't figure it out and asked, "Why did you call me a fish? What does that even mean?!"

"Shut up!" Igrit slapped him once more, "Don't talk back to me, soldier! Just because I don't know any good insults doesn't mean you can just…"

She stopped talking because her nerves were at their limit. She was becoming more terrified with each burst of flames that echoed above their heads.

The guy gave her a weird look and slowly moved away, afraid of becoming her punching bag.

While the event was unexpected, it helped bring morale up somewhat, and at least nobody had any thoughts of running away or ending their own life anymore.

Unfortunately, Riordian was already deathly pale and was keeping his magic going with pure will. He gritted his teeth and kept sending Mana to the barrier even though his head felt like exploding.

Through the ice, they could see their enemies approaching cautiously, a group of small hairy monsters leading the attack.

Behind them, the Goblin Shamans and Orc Shamans continuously cast their magic with clear enjoyment.

"Fuck…" was all Riordian could say after seeing an Orc Elite coming out of the woods.

The beast spoke something and stomped on the ground. Almost immediately after, a pillar of stone shot out of the ground and collided with the Ice Barrier.

It broke through in an instant.

At that exact moment, the staff slipped from Riordian's grasp, and his eyes rolled back as he fell to the ground, unconscious. The Ice Barrier collapsed moments later.

"Get ready to f-!" Before Igrit could finish her heroic shout, another Ice Barrier formed around the group.

"Huh?!"