I'd seen negotiations like this in movies. Two armies. Each ready to launch into action at the smallest provocation–leaders puffing out their chests to indicate their confidence.

Ellison was a natural.

He was born for these exact moments. His white cotton shirt was clean and pressed, leather pants and jacket all in good repair. His grey fur complimented the simple garments—his posture defying the humble attire.

His antlers were free of tassels, unlike Daevon and Durkil. He looked altogether a statesman.

I couldn't help but wonder how I looked in comparison. My hair was in a constant state of disarray, hands grubby, youthful stubble growing in patches.

The spirit cloak was self cleaning, but it looked out of place on me. It was simple grey, but the embroidered gold on the hems were growing noticeably more intricate and creeping further into the grey. My poor Converse were in tatters.

Hopefully my appearance didn't matter too much. I shrugged inwardly—it would be fine. Ellison would be doing the talking here, they wouldn't care about me.

The four of us met near the dead center of the field, flanked by our elites who stood nearby, and behind them the armies that would clash if Ellison and I failed.

Up close, the dark-skinned elf in armor was taller than expected. He rivaled Alex, easily pushing seven feet. In fact, I was easily the shortest of the four. Ellison wasn't a giant, but he was at least several inches above my six feet.

It didn't bother me though, I knew size didn't mean power, or at least it didn't necessarily mean power. I had however, noticed a trend. People tended to grow as their strength stat increased. I wasn't one of those people of course.

The armored elf stepped forward and looked hesitantly back at his colleague before speaking slowly and deliberately.

I didn't understand a word of it. If I did want to, there was a way, but it would cost 100,000 UBC's to get it.

So, for now, I just heard gibberish and trusted Ellison.

"I'm Ellison, and the man next to me is Layton. He is the faction leader, not me."

The elf gave me an appraising look and scrunched up his face. Apparently, he wasn't impressed. If there was a silver lining to all this, it was that I could at least understand Ellison's side of the conversation.

He responded with more garbled nonsense.

"We are hoping that through diplomacy, you might be open to a peaceful resolution."

This experiment was teaching me something. Even without knowing what the words were, there was still a lot that could be gleaned from body language.

For example, the dark elf looked past Ellison and I, raising an eyebrow at our hodgepodge of fighters. He waved his hand dismissively with an arrogant smirk, before he turned and walked back to his army.

I pursed my lips. The Dark elf had barely even heard us out.

The hard truth was we didn't look worth negotiating with. Why open a dialogue if he could just claim the territory as his own?

"I'm sorry Layton. I thought we had a chance."

It wasn't Ellison's fault. This new raid was more open minded, and maybe if we looked more intimidating or professional it might've gone differently. As it was, it would've been a miracle if he'd been able to convince them.

We watched them go. The elf in armor collected his retinue and they returned to their battle line.

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As they walked back the Elf in the robe looked back, I hadn't paid her much attention.

I cocked my head.

Was it just my imagination or had I caught a look of uncertainty in that backward glance?

"We both knew it was a long shot." I kept my eyes on the blue robes. "Let's head back… and let's spread the word. If anyone shows surrender, we let them."

There was something about that look. She didn't seem as confident as her armored friend.

I might be reading too much into it. Maybe she was just more open to a peaceful resolution?

Sadly, I might never find out.

We jogged back and word was quickly spread.

If Mischief was here would that have given us more time to talk? He gave most people pause. We needed to get him back in action.

The armored elf raised his sword and with a shout crossbows were shrugged off shoulders.

For peace of mind, I recast the dome of protection and made sure that our entire army was covered. It cost a little extra mana, but it had become a pre battle ritual for me.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a bit annoyed. On one hand, I really did get it. Raids were just how things worked. But now my people were at risk.

My sights were set on silver goatee.

He dropped his sword and hundreds of crossbow bolts whistled toward us along with a variety of spells.

Some attacks hit and fell, others, to my surprise, punched orange glowing holes through the dome.

Great….

I kept powering the spell and the holes were patched at the expense of my mana. The good news was that the shots lost momentum after breaking through the dome. The handful of shots that did break through hit—but they didn't have enough juice to be dangerous.

That meant, if the raiders wanted to be dangerous, they would have to come to us. Closing the distance was the best counter to the dome of protection.

You had to enter the dome.

Which worked perfect for us. Because we didn't take the attack lying down. Our attacks weren't uniform, but we definitely returned fire.

I had always wondered why organized attacks mattered anyway. I was just fine with "fire at will".

Hundreds of attacks shot out from our side also. But the raiders had defensive measures of their own.

They mostly used shields and barriers like we did, except the one wizard. Her defensive spell used water to slap projectiles away.

At first, It was difficult to see what was happening since they were so far away.

However, once I focused on what was happening, I could see the tendrils of water. It was a similar spell to what Daevon's lightning shield could do, but his was more like an electric fence, great at keeping people from getting close and it worked wonders against offensive spells, but he still struggled with stopping projectiles like arrows.

Minutes ticked by—and I frowned.

Every raider we'd faced so far hadn't wasted any time to charge headfirst into an immediate attack. So far, this fight had been nothing but volley after volley of ineffective ranged attacks.

What was the strategy here? Across the clearing the elves maintained an even row, their mix of shields were working well against our firepower.

The problem was we didn't have enough juice to breach their defenses. Sure we had some big hitters, like Nick, Daevon or even Sadie. It just wasn't our strength.

Most of the Guildian's chose classes that worked better up close. That might change in time as the newcomers leveled up, but we needed more power now. Without it there wasn't enough to force them into a charge.

Through the chaos of attack's, the leader of the dark elf raiders stared at me. Even from two hundred yards I could see his arrogant half smile.

People were going to die in this fight, and we had offered a way to avoid it. Yet he was sitting there smiling.

He hadn't even heard us out. The way he looked at us—so damn smug.

It pissed me off.

But the way we were fighting, he should be smug.

"We just don't have the firepower to break their shields." I mumbled mostly to myself.

"Then let's go get them."

Alex might've seemed a bit funny in his thrown together armor, but the golden claymore leaning against his shoulder was another story.

"If we do go to them, we'll be outside of the dome, which is the only thing protecting us against those shield piercing attacks." I pointed where another bolt left a burning orange hole.

If we wanted to get this fight moving, it was going to have to be us to engage. The elves showed no intention of making the first move.

"Then just move the dome to the middle. It will still stop those burning shots and we only need a few seconds to get across. We'll cause havoc and the reinforcements will come in from behind."

I didn't love the idea. We had no idea how capable these raiders were. But I didn't see other options. I was already down to almost half my mana, and it was slowly ticking down.

"Alright, let's get everybody ready to go."

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