“What happened, Mr Shi?” Acma asked. There was a rush in his tone.

[The enemies stormed the town and captured everyone who were outside the temple]

“What?” Chief Pai exclaimed. “Are those enemies are the Knight of Forest?”

[...]

“I’m sorry, Mr Shi. This is Chief Pai of the Orca Village. Mr Shi, what did those enemies do?” said Acma.

[Hello, Mr Pai. The enemies indeed are the Knight of Forest. They gathered in front of the temple and bombarded the barrier with spells and physical attacks. It totally frighten us. Then they demanded us to surrender and assured us that they won’t treat us badly. That was half an hour ago. 300 of the town residents chose to surrender. I tried to talk to them, but they refused to listen and went out of the barrier. I tried to negotiate with the enemies but they said that they only receive a surrender but no negotiation. However, 5 minutes ago, they were attacking again. Young friend, please help us. They’re too strong for us]

Acma didn’t have to think as he replied immediately.

“Please hold on, Mr Shi. I’ll go there as soon as possible”

[Thank you, young friend]

The call was ended. Acma swivelled his head toward Chief Pai. But before he could say anything, Chief Pai cut him off.

“Let us go with you”, said Chief Pai with a determined face. His hand was tightly gripping his bow.

“...”

“The residents of Boulder Town also a human like us, so we have to save them”

Acma was hesitated. Chief Pai’s spirit was commendable but the Knight of Forest weren’t an enemies that could be defeated with spirit alone. He had to reject Chief Pai’s intention.

“No, Uncle Pai. I can’t bring you with me. The villagers need you here”, said Acma. He lowered his voice and tried to calm Chief Pai down.

“How can I let you fight those enemies alone? Don’t be stubborn and let us help too”, Chief Pai bellowed. His face was stern and he was clearly dissatisfied with Acma’s rejection.

“It’s okay, Uncle Pai. I won’t fight them head-on. The temple at Boulder Town have an invisible barrier so I will employ a hit-and-run tactic from inside the barrier to reduce their numbers if we end up fighting”, Acma explained.

Hearing that, Chief Pai immediately grabbed Acma’s shoulder and dragged the latter closer to his face.

“Hit-and-run? Do you think I don’t know you?” Chief Pai scolded. “I saw how you fight the werewolves before, so we will pin down the enemies with the arrows while you finish them with your vanishing skill”.

Acma felt a headache. He wanted to teleport but he can't before he settled this issue because it’s really rude to leave just like that. He needed to find a way, quick.

“Uncle Pai, I really can’t bring you along. Look”, said Acma as his hand pointed at the sky. “The day is reaching the end but the villagers still didn’t have a shelter. They need you to give orders. Here, take this”, a pile of the folded tents which he pillaged from the minatours appeared nearby. “This should help a little”, he said.

“We should let the kid go, Brother Pai. He is right, we need you here. He brought us here so we don’t have to fight those knights. Let’s appreciate his effort”, a moustached elder said after he tapped Chief Pai’s shoulder.

“Brother Xu..”, said Chief Pai but his hand still grabbing Acma’s shoulder. He looked at everyone and then took a deep breath.

“Alright, alright”, said Chief Pai as he released Acma’s shoulder.

Acma felt relieved as he immediately prepared to teleport.

“Thank you, Uncle Pai. I’ll go now”

Chief Pai didn’t say anything. He just nodded his head a little.

‘TELEPORT’

Acma disappeared.

Chief Pai looked at everyone around and then rested his gaze on the moustached elder.

“Brother Xu, I’m worried about the people at the town. We’re safe here, but they’re still in danger”

“I think they aren’t in much danger”, suddenly a sound was heard from the crowd. A person emerged and it was the Elder Ma. “We spoke with the abbot before, they have the barrier so they are in much safer place than us”. Elder Ma walked closer. “The kid is worry about our safety so I think let’s just follow what he said and settle down here as soon as possible”

“Brother Ma, you too”, Chief Pai paused then he asked “Am I too impulsive?”

“No, you’re just a nice old man”, replied Elder Ma, then he laughed. “I agree with you that we should help the town residents, but not by fighting those knights. Maybe we will have our chance later”.

“Let’s think about that later”, Chief Pai concurred. He turned his head toward Duo Nan.

“Take two squads with you and check the perimeters. Make sure this place is safe. Brother Ma and Brother Daquan, please arrange our settlement so it will be easier to defend. Brother Xu, please take these tents and get some help from the hunters to find the suitable pole to erect them. As for the others, please help the villagers to settle down”

“Yes Chief”, everyone affirmed the orders.

“and I will enter the mine to meet the leader of the goblins”, Chief Pai continued.

Everyone except Elder Ma were shocked when they heard about the goblins, but after Chief Pai assured them that the goblins weren’t dangerous, only then they continued with their tasks.

Acma reappeared in front of the temple’s main hall.

The place was vacant except a few young monks who almost fell on their buttock when they saw Acma appeared out of nowhere. From afar, Acma could heard the booming sounds from the direction of the temple’s entrance. He knew he needed to hurry.

Acma waived at the young monks and then ran toward the entrance as fast as he could and phantom stepping in the middle. Soon after, he arrived.

The entrance was crowded by the town residents. The person at the back tip-toed so they could see what happen outside the barrier. Acma trying to slip through the wall of the residents. While doing so, he could heard a lot of noises. The calmer one were explaining, the furious were cursing while the scared were sobbing. A few among the crowd couldn’t handle the pressure as they wailed as loud as the could.

Acma finally reached in front of the entrance. He greeted Mr Shi and Mr Li while nodding to the others. Horror could be seen on their face. Several monks tried to control the crowds and calmed them down although they themselves were scared.

Acma turned his head toward the sources of horror. Outside the barrier, a dozen of 10 metres tall humanoid tree were lining up, slamming their devious hands onto the barrier. The booming sounds that Acma heard earlier were their doing.

Elder Pine Treeherd LVL 278 Elder Pine Treeherd LVL 256 Elder Oak Treeherd LVL 283

Behind each treeherd, standing an Advance Magician who were pointing their glowing staff with a purple light toward the treeherd.

“They’re probably controlling the treeherd”, a thought instantly crossed Acma’s mind.

“Knights, smoke them out”, suddenly, a loud shout was heard.

“Yes, Your Highness”

Several groups of elven and beastmen knight ran toward the barrier and slammed it with their weapon and fists.

“Tremble to death, pitiful human”, a beastman with an upper body of a lion slurred followed by a thunderous laugh by the others.

“You missed your opportunity to live when you didn’t surrender earlier. His Highness is a honourable person, yet you doubt him. Now you can die”, another beastman shouted as it punched its fist which glowed with a faint blue light.

“Why does it glowed? Arlen’s sword also glowing when he tried to strike me. But the colour was different. Arlen’s was purple while this one is blue. Hmmm, maybe it’s related to their rank. Arlen was an Elemental Knight. Maybe the glow is a warrior aura ... I should capture one of these knights to get the answer”, Acma thought when he saw the glow on the beastman's hand.

Acma was calm because of the barrier and his eyes were scanning the enemies. The leader of the knights was a male elf who looks like in early twenties. He wasn’t wearing a helmet, so his silvery long hair flutter along the green cape which rest on the back of his horse. Acma could see a vivid image of a tiger holding a sword on right side of the chest armour which made him remembered the young divine tiger he met a few days ago.

The number of the enemies were more or less about 1000 units. The beastmen were standing at the left while the elven on their mount at the right side, similar to this morning’s formation. The princess and her guards were located at the far right. El Ta’el and his noble friends weren’t far from the princess’s group.

Acma let his eyes swam across the enemies, looking for the residents who were captured or surrendered. But he didn’t find any.

“Mr Shi, do you know where they took the residents who were surrendered?” he asked.

“I’m not really sure, but I saw they were taken toward the field. They’re probably there”, replied Mr Shi.

“Center field huh ... All the explosives were planted in front of the temple, but we can’t explode them without knowing the locations of the surrendered residents. Too bad I didn’t leave an extra drones before”, thought Acma.

He took out a drone from the inventory.

“Alice, take a detour and find the captured and the surrendered residents. They are probably held at the center field. Don’t let the elves see you”

“Yes, Master”

The drone flew toward the temple at low altitude.

“Young friend, can you help to free the captured residents? I’m worried about the one who surrendered too, but nothing I can do because it was their own choice. I can’t force them to stay”, Shi Ming pledged.

“I’ll try”, replied Acma short with a faint smile. “What did Mr Shi want to negotiate with them earlier?” he asked after a short pause.

“I’m planning to ask them to let us live within the border of the town and set free the residents who got captured, but who knows that I was rejected even before I could speak. They didn’t want to negotiate”, explained Shi Ming.

“It’s hard to negotiate when they held a much superior position and we have nothing to offer them”, Li Susheng joined the conversation.

Acma nodded his head, agreed with Li Susheng argument.

“We can force them to negotiate”, he gave an opinion.

“How?” both Shi Ming and Li Susheng asked.

“We capture some of them. That princess is a good choice for starting”, said Acma as he looked at the princess’s direction.

“Owh, that’s a great idea”, supported Li Susheng. “If you can, try to capture the leader too. He said he was a prince. If we capture both of them, they definitely will negotiate with us”

“But the captured residents might become a collateral damage”, Acma threw a cold water.

“...”

“You’re right. But if we don’t do that, more people will die”, said Li Susheng depressed.

“Unless our young friend can capture them both before they could react, I think we can minimize the losses”, a middle age man who stood next to Shi Ming spoke. He was one of the leaders Acma met inside the temple’s main hall.

“Can we make it zero loss?” another leader spoke.

“That would be as hard as climbing the Everest backward”, someone replied as he chuckled.

“Do you mean we let them die?”

“... I don’t mean that. But, try putting yourself in young friend’s shoes. How are you going to keep the zero loss?”

“...”

Everyone were silent while looking at the treeherds slamming the barrier. The horror on their faces still visible due to Acma’s indefinite answer. They already pinned their hope on Acma but they couldn’t blame Acma either because the matter at hand was really difficult to solve.

A while after.

“Master, I’ve found the residents”, said Alice who suddenly flew out of Acma’s chest.

“Great, show them”, Acma ordered.

“Yes, Master”

Alice immediately extended her hand and a rectangular frame at a size of A4 was projected a metre in front of her hand. The frame was formed by a particle of light. Soon after, a bird view video showing the location of the captured residents.

Everyone focused their attention on the video and what they saw made them frowning. A while after, some of them shook their head and some others sighed.