"What are those large slingshot things? They look like they pack a heavy punch." Sora asked Mina.
"I have no idea, but I'll focus on those first. Do you see the large boulders on carts? It looks like it's taking 10 men to pull each."
"Why are Xavier and Stefania and the four human Commanders trotting their horses to meet in the middle?"
"I'm guessing they're going over the terms of battle. The humans will probably offer peace if they allow them to take over."
"There's no way Xavier and Stefania will fall for that, right?"
With a laugh, Mina agreed.
Meanwhile, Xavier and Stefania had met with the four Commanders in the middle.
"Elves. Please surrender and allow us to take this kingdom. We will ensure your people's safety and you shall move to a new land," an older looking, stocky Commander, with several scars across his body and face, demanded. He appeared to be the General, based on the amount of feathers on the crown of his helmet.
"Ha. Ensure our people's safety as you persecute us into extinction. What fallen Elven Kingdom do you come from?" Xavier shot back, eyes glaring at the man.
The four Commanders laughed rambunctiously, testing Xavier's resolve to stay patient and calm.
"What does it matter? All of your little Kingdoms belong to the Empire of Humanity, under the noble Emperor Hanzo Yen and his beautiful wife Rina."
"Well, it seems like we are wasting our time here, we will not agree to your surrender. Is the noble Emperor here, or did he just send a bunch of fodder to do his bidding?" Stefania scorned the Commanders.
"Your funeral, we have 7,500 of our finest men and the weaponry to counter your little Elven magic," one of the Commanders mocked the Prince and Princess as they rode off, back towards their troops.
While riding back, Xavier and Stefania couldn't help but laugh at the arrogance of the humans.
"I've never seen you so angry sister. That was a good one about them being fodder."
"It felt good to lash out, I'm sick of them persecuting us and pushing us around."
<><><><>
"Men, they asked for us to surrender and hand over our Kingdom but we refused their treacherous offer! Prepare for battle! Light the torches! Archers, ready up!" Stefania shouted.
"HOO-RAH HOO-RAH HOO-HOO!" the army chanted.
The human army began to push forward, and when they were in range, Stefania yelled, "Fire!" and the sky became a sea of flaming arrows, piercing through the human's armor with ease.
"Those screams. They remind me so much of the war against the demons. Let's make this quick. 'Fang of Justice!'" Sora said and a black wolf formed 200 meters in front of him, outside of the forest and North of their location.
A giant, all black spirit wolf, standing around 11 feet tall, immediately began charging the humans and ripping their heads off with ease. When the humans tried to attack the wolf, their swords simply went right through the beast.
"Excellent placement, brother! Now it's my turn!"
Mina took a deep breath and focused on the first catapult.
"Entanglement!" Mina said and her arms automatically did the circle with the left hand and arm raise with the right hand motion for the spell.
Vines sprouted underneath the catapult, knocking the humans down who were loading it. The vines crept up to the catapult base and eventually, they constricted and shattered all the wood and the catapult began to collapse.
"Do not move from your formations! Load the catapults. Everyone else, charge!" the General yelled.
Paranoia was sweeping through the humans. Their catapults were being destroyed one by one and only one managed to get a single shot off.
Unfortunately, it did strike a large group of charging elves, crushing them instantly. The Prince would have been caught by the boulder had Ace not noticed and forced Xavier to safety.
"Thank you Ace, good boy." Xavier said while patting his horse on his head.
Stefania signaled the flankers from the east, and 100 elves began casting various types of Earth magic, easily cutting through the human army.
After the scare with the boulder, Xavier finally managed to signal the west flankers, who ran into the battlefield with swords drawn.
<><><><>
"How are you feeling? How much do you have left?"
"I feel good sis, I feel like we should join the fight. We are masters of weapons after all. You got my six?"
"Roger that. Be careful, don't do anything too heroic. We seem to be winning this war lopsided."
It was true, the elves had suffered minimal casualties while the humans had already lost over half their forces and their catapults.
Now with long swords in hand, Sora sprinted out of the forest and began slicing through human after human, and anytime someone had a clean look to strike him, Mina, using the Endless Quiver skill, shot arrows to protect her brother, as well as other elves, from injury.
Xavier and Stefania were now engaged with the four commanders, and Sora and Mina didn't like the fact that it was 2vs4. Mina finally sprinted out of the forest, still shooting arrows and finally cast, "Fang of Justice," and much like Sora's, a giant, shadow type wolf formed. This time, it was white and around 10 feet tall.
The elven army handled the rest of the humans, as the magic flank force and fighting flank force had nearly joined up in the middle, leaving thousands of human corpses scattered throughout the land.
The wolf also helped clear out and kill any remaining human fighters, and it was down to a 4v4 in the center.
<><><><>
"Sora, Mina! What are you two doing here? This is not your fight!" Xavier said.
"What the hell do you mean this isn't our fight? It's noble of you to try to take on 4 foes at once. Why don't we make the numbers even?" Sora said, with a huge grin on his face, his cloak now a crimson red from all the human blood he shed.
"Be careful, they have horses and you do not," Stefania warned, as she engaged one of the Commanders with her sword.
Mina decided to take on one of the younger commanders, whose horse was quite large.
"Guess being such a small man, he's trying to overcompensate by the size of his horse," Mina thought, with a laugh.
Sora took a battle stance, long blades in hand, and chose the Commander who also had his helmet crowned with feathers.
"Be careful, he's the second in command. Do not underestimate him!" Xavier shouted as he exchanged sword blow after sword blow with the General, the man with scars all over his face and body.
"Do you wish to surrender now, human?" Xavier taunted as he managed to slice the General's left hand.
"It is you who should be worried. We are just the first force and didn't bring the hammer. I insisted we did, but the Emperor said my group must 'prove our worth to humanity's cause."
"Ha, so my sister was right, you are simply fodder," Xavier grinned as he noticed Mina backflipping, with a kick, to protect his sister.
"Thanks Mina, I owe you one!" Stefania yelled as she quickly charged the Commander, who Mina successfully kicked off his horse.
The man tried to dodge the charging Belladeon, but was unable to, and Stefania cut his neck, deep enough for a quick, yet painful death.
Sora, on the other hand, continued to lure the second in command in by using his long blades, and when the Commander least expected it, Sora drew his spear, and rather than latching it to his wrist, he simply threw the spear, as hard as he could. It pierced through the chest piece and the man rode on his horse for around 30 seconds before falling off.
"Ding! Congratulations. You have defeated a Commander of the Empire's army. You are now level 4!"
Sora quickly chased down the horse, and eventually got it to calm down.
"Easy baby, it's ok. I'm not here to hurt you, I'm here to help," he said as he finally managed to calm the horse down.
Rather than mounting it right away, Sora walked with him, back toward the two remaining fights, and watched his sister finish off her opponent using her new bow and endless quiver skill.
"Ding! You have defeated a Commander in the Empire's army. You are now level 5."
"Woah, so our shared system also shares whatever it takes to level up and we both level up together, that's awesome," the twins thought as they watched Xavier chase down the retreating General.
"So confident yet running home? I don't think so! "Entanglement!"
Vines tripped up the horse, bucking the General off the horse.
Xavier slowly walked over, removed his helmet and knelt down, at a safe distance, next to the General.
"Why do you wish to persecute us so badly?"
"We are bound to loyalty to the Emperor. We follow his every command or face death."
"Then why not be brave, refuse, and embrace the after life?"
The General laughed as he coughed up more blood. "I am embracing the afterlife, I had to lead my men into battle."
"Why not just bring the hammer and wipe us out right away?"
"Because the use of that hammer drives men mad. Beware, more will come after none of us return," the General said, as he took his last breath.
<><><><>
Feeling great about their performance, Sora and Mina asked Stefania and Xavier if they could choose two of the horses for themselves.
"Of course you can. Great job today. Eden and the other gods truly blessed us with you two. Had you not taken the catapults out with ease, that battle may have ended in many elven deaths."
"Don't mention it, we're here to help and you and Stefania were the ones to train us in your bloodline magic. You didn't have to do that," Mina said with a bow.
"You were great out there Stefania! I've never seen a woman fight so beautifully, aside from my sister!" Sora said, with a huge smile.
With a blushed face, she thanked him and asked him to choose his horse.
As Mina and Sora went to pick out horses, Mina whispered to Sora, "I think someone has a thing for the Princess."
"So what if I do? We might as well enjoy our time while we complete these quests."
"I was just teasing but I'm shocked. 23 years and you finally have an eye for a woman. That woman happens to be an Elven princess."
They both walked back with their horses. Sora chose a larger brown horse and named him Blaze. Mina chose an all black horse and named her Aeris.
Xavier commanded Eric and another to take the other two horses and return them to the stables.
"Everyone, please, go wash up and rest. If you are wounded, please head to the medical bay in the Castle and we will get you healed up, good as new," Stefania said, and her voice seemed to project very loudly so that all could hear.
Mina and Sora returned to their rooms, washed up, skipped dinner and fell fast asleep.
It was weird for them, fighting against their own race, but they realized it wasn't about race. It was about being a good person. The Fang Family and Kingdom of Sanctuary were filled with good people. That's all that mattered.