“Oh, for the love of Nature…” moaned one Elf as he looked out across the roughly ten or so lines of equally dangerous trenches.

“This… this must be a joke, right?” asked another, who had already seen one of his family fall to the first volley of arrow and bolt fire from the first trench line, only to see yet another accidentally impale themselves on a few raised spears.

“We…. We may need the archers for this…”

The knife-eared bastard that issued that last remark was swatted across the face by an older, more heavily armored Elf. Based on the level of armor that this particular pointy-eared cunt was wearing, one would logically assume that he was more important, maybe acting as a field commander or perhaps even as a frontline General.

NOPE!

The only difference between the more armored knife-ear and the others around him was that the older, more armored one had better connections and was a noble. Now, those among you who have seen this kind of elitist bullshit before in this novel are likely asking why the nobleman elf isn’t a commander, despite being… well… a high-born elite. And the answer for that is rather simple, and it is something that I suppose you might not have expected given how I have portrayed asshats like himself up till now.

You see, being a noble in the Arcfiran Confederated Tribes was a decent status symbol, and it did get you perks, but when your entire society is based around ‘living with nature’ and ‘jungle/ forest life’, being a noble doesn’t mean nearly as much. After all, as our own Earth history has shown, those with a silver spoon in their mouth don’t always tend to be the best for the jobs that they want and/ or get. If you browse Reddit, for instance, you’ll find no small number of stories where people born to businessmen think that such a start gives them immunity to the rules of life and end up destroying all that their parents and grandparents had built up.

Elven society takes this to the logical extreme, and as such, it meant that all being a noble did for you was get you into a few circles and maybe get you a few favors. Aside from that? Nothing else. Despite being armored and armed out the wazoo, this bastard had actually just pulled an absolute idiot move. You see, for all his nobility and fancy bling, he was nothing but a newly enlisted soldier, and the person that he had just bitch-slapped was his squad Sergeant.

Which, of course, was not a good thing for him.

“You…! You fucking shit! Drop and give me 500!” screamed the elf sergeant who had just gotten over his face being hit by an open backhand slap.

“I’d rather take my chances against the undead!” said the armored noble, obviously not giving a rat's ass what his commanding officer wanted. This was also a very bad idea, and it earned him not a further reprimand, but an instant beheading right then and there as the sergeant whipped his sword through the older and more armored elf’s neck and sent his head to the dusty ground.

The sergeant elf looked down at the severed head and spat at it. In the harsh life of a denizen of the jungles of Arcfira, going against the grain almost always got you or your fellows killed. To rebel in such a dangerous way was a recipe for disaster among any group of hunters and warriors. To bring discord to such a dangerous profession was to be an enemy, and to the elves, all enemies needed nothing short of instant death.

Despite what had just happened, though, that od noble bastard’s death was at least partially useful. While gruesome and violent, it did have the effect of breaking the emotions that had set in upon seeing the other undead trenches. It took their minds off of the danger that they were duty-bound to deal with, improving morale in one way or another.

“Go get the archers…” grumbled the elf sergeant as he swung his sword and sent the adhered blood and other things to the ground beneath his feet.

“Y-yes, sir! I’m on it!”

The elf sergeant looked to his right and left across the line of elven melee fighters. He could see that he wasn’t the only one to have made that call, but likewise, there were others who, for one dumbass reason or another, decided that their honor demanded that they let the archers stay back. Fucking morons… they were going to drive their soldiers into costly engagements more than a few times after this next one until they either learned their lesson or were relieved of command.

He, at least, would do the smart thing. The first ditch that they had to deal with was deadlier than it should have been. It had been manned by mere skeletons, and yet it had cut down at least a thousand elves or had rendered them unable to keep going. He could not risk that happening again, at least not to his own soldiers.

It would take some time for the archers to get their act together and come up here to the front lines, but when they did, it would be a slaughter. Well, it would be a slaughter of undead, at least. He really didn’t want it to be a slaughter of elves, that’s for damn sure.

…

Kain watched through the eye sockets of the Skeletons as the elf melee line stopped and then sent runners back to fetch their ranged soldiers. Kain almost clapped his hands in surprise and glee. There was finally a foe that wouldn’t just mindlessly bum rush a clearly dangerous entrenched position! And it only took them a single attempt to learn! This was wonderful!

Maybe they would try and dig their own trenches, or perhaps they would bring up specially designed shields that could block the raged fire of the Skeletons?

However, Kain’s elation turned to dismay as the archer elves moved up and walked straight to the edge of their range before drawing their bows as one and loosing a volley of arrows that either clattered off of the overhanging shades above the Skeletons’ heads or managed to plant themselves in the ground.

His dismay turned to rage when the elven archers loosed another three volleys that did exactly the same thing. Kain growled and pinched the bridge of his nose to help assuage his irritation. If they were going to be this idiotic, then his only real hope of a decent modern fight would be the Dwarves across the ocean. Hopefully they had at least some decent modern tactics, maybe even a tank or two.

As for these elves? Well, just like their venerated Tree, they were nothing but a colossal disappointment…