Shadow guided them through the woods. The deeper they went, the more dangerous creatures showed up.

Bryan looked around and black lines formed in his face. The deeper they went to the woods, the more uneasy he felt.

In the beginning, he thought that the creatures were the source of the feeling, but the more time passed, the more he realized that monsters were not the source of this feeling.

He looked around, trying to find the source of this feeling, but couldn't find it. Time passed, and soon, another hour went by. The person who was searching, Shadow, also had a very ugly face.

Shadow turned to the group and said. "I want to stop here." He said whispering to the group. "I can feel that something has been following us for a while now, but it's not attacking, nor going away."

After hearing Shadow's words, it dawned upon Bryan! This was the source of the uneasiness, a hidden observant!

When someone started having high enough attributes, a sixth sense would be naturally formed. This sixth sense was something that could only be naturally born, not trained or used on whin. It came to the person according to the circumstance.

Knowing that danger could be close, he went to Jess's side to protect her. He looked around and released his electric domain, to find the creature that was hiding.

After searching his surrounds, he found nothing. The creature certainly had a huge ability in hiding.

They decided to form a perimeter, keeping Rick and Jess in the middle, while looking around for any threat. After taking the formation, Bryan nodded to the team and said. "I know that you're following us. It's no use to hide anymore."

After saying this, I looked around at the forest and only heard the sound of the wind blowing and the leaves slowly rustling. Nothing different happened. I stepped back and said to my teammates in a low voice.

"It seems that he will not come out. Know that he knows that we know that he is here, we have to be more patient than him" After saying this, I relaxed the grip on my spear and relaxed my state of mind. It was going to be a war of attrition, so we would have to last longer.

The wait was excruciating, nothing happened in the forest around us, but now, after getting used to it, I could feel a gaze upon me.

It irritated me that I couldn't discover where this supposed enemy was. The time passed, and the sun was setting on the horizon. The trees now had an orange glow to them, making it look like the forest was on fire.

A drop of sweat ran through my forehead and entered my right eye, I blinked it in a failed attempt to avoid the sweat, but in the end, it fell on my eye. I used my right hand to rub my eye, and that was a fatal mistake. In the only moment that I had left my guard down, a silhouette appeared in front of me, while pointing a saber to my throat.

I gulped in fear and saw that the person was not attacking. He was wearing a full camouflage cloth, that hid his features from head to toe, and could hide him perfectly in a forest. I looked at the person and could only recognize two features that were too striking to be hidden. Long and pointed ears, and an orange eye, in the color of the sunset.

Everyone instantly turned their attention to the person in front of me and pointed their weapons at him. "What do you want in our domain?" asked the man with a deep voice.

I glanced at my teammates, signalizing to them that I would speak. I looked directly into those orange eyes and said. "We are here to find allies, we are not your enemies."

"Allies against who?"

"Against the orcs," I said.

The light in the man's eyes wavered for a second. I took this opportunity to use the spear in my hand and deflect the weapon while taking a step backward.

The man was now surrounded by everyone from my team. however, we were here to find allies and not enemies. "Everyone, please, lower your weapons."

They had a surprised reaction and looked at me. I nodded to them, and fortunately, they trusted me enough to do it.

"See, we are only here to find help, not to fight." I said while also lowering my spear.

"Hmm. It seems that at least you are speaking the truth. Now, tell the motive why you want to find allies." The man said after looking around. He was finding ways to escape this encirclement, and now that everyone had lowered their weapons, getting away would be a simple thing to him in a forest.

"We came from another world to complete a mission in here. And that mission is to close the space rupture." I looked at the man's reaction and was glad that when I talked about the space fissure, he had a disgusted look on his face. "We don't have enough manpower to defeat the guardians of the gate itself, so we had the ideas of seeking allies."

He looked directly into my eyes and nodded after a moment. When he looked at me, I felt some kind of probe coming through me, but I didn't resist it in a gesture of sincerity.

The man turned his face to the sky and said with an exhausted voice. "Finally."

***

After the little encounter with the man in the forest, he told us to follow him to his village. After 2 hours of running, we finally arrived there.

There was nothing majestic at the tree houses. they looked plain and recently made. I thought that this man was an elf, so I expected more from his village. There were many old people and women around, and very few men.

Looking at the situation of the village, I realized that they were probably the losing side of a war with the orcs. They looked ravaged and tired. There was so little men because most of the warriors should have died in the war.

He lead us to a house located in the biggest three in the village, we ascended the spiral stair an arrived at a humble room. Although nothing here was beautiful, they kept the place clean and organized.

We seated on the wooden floor after the guide and waited there in silence. After a minute, an older man appeared from one of the rooms and greeted us with a warm smile. I knew that I have never met him, but he somehow passed a peaceful feeling to me.

"Welcome to my humble abode youngsters. My name is Cirdan. For what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?" The old man seated on the floor in front of us.

I looked at him and answered. "My name is Bryan, and those are Jess, Samuel, Rick, and Shadow." I said while pointing to them. "We have come here to complete a mission, a mission to destroy the space rupture that is held by the orcs."

Immediately after I finished speaking about the mission. The elder stood up and there was a happy look on his face. He began to pace from side to side and said. "Sylvan, gather the council of warriors! We have something very important to discuss." The man, sylvan, bowed to the elder and left the place.

"Please, come with me." He said, gesturing us to follow him. We got up from the ground and followed after the elder Cirdan. After leaving the house and descend the stairs, we arrived at the back of the village, there was an open field in there with an amphitheater by the side of the field. The elder led us to the amphitheater and took us to the stage.

After a few minutes, the villagers began to gather in there. Many people were nervous about what was going to be discussed there. When it looked like everyone had arrived, elder Cirdan stepped forward and said. "The system took pity on us. We have a group of otherworlders that have arrived with the mission of destroying the portal!" By the end of the phrase, he was enthusiastically speaking and raising his tone. "We were ravaged and humiliated by the orcs. They destroyed our lands, and corrupted our soil, turning it into a desert. Now, we have the opportunity to turn the tables! Their defenses had gone lax after our defeat! But the time to pay them back has come to us!

The villagers got up from their sits and began to cheer by the end of the elder speech. I could see the hate in their eyes. It was obvious that they were only waiting for an opportunity to attack the orcs, but I asked myself, why were we necessary.

Jess turned to me and said. "Was it this easy?" She furrowed her brows while saying.

"I have my doubts as well, let's ask Cirdan what this is about later." She nodded to me and we waited.

The elder began to give commands to some villagers, and organize the militia. I took an opportunity when he was alone and questioned him. "Why are you so eager to help us? You just met us today…." I know that asking this when they were willing to help us was foolish, but I had to ask for the safety of my team.

"Oh, that's right, you don't know about it. Let's go to a quieter place so that I can explain it to you."

Cirdan leads us back to his house and we seated on the floor again. After seeing that everyone was seated, he said. "Ok. I will tell you everything you want to know, so, shoot."

"First, I want you to answer my previous question, why are you so eager to help us?"

"That's pretty easy because we need." He said simply.

I made a confused face and continued. "We are only four in number, and you have an entire tribe to your beck and call, why would you need us?"

He looked at and answered. "Because we can't destroy the portal."

I made a surprised look and said. "The portal can't be destroyed?"

"It can, but not by the hands of my race… Many years ago, the orcs invaded us, and we warred with them. At that time, all the land was green and life was abundant everywhere. In the beginning, we had the upper hand, but greed took the best of us. The mission that our race received was to destroy the orcs and stop the invasion, but instead of doing that, we, the elves, began to use the orcs as a way to earn system points. The idea was successful to a point, but we underestimated the reproduction rate of the orcs. while the elves can take many years to give birth to a child, the orcs are like rats and birth in great quantities. With the passage of time, more elves died, and more orcs were born. In just five years, they turned the table to us, and almost destroyed the entire elven race. We are what is left of the elves." He took a deep breath and continued. "After losing our world to them, the system took our right to destroy the Portal, making it impossible to stop the desertification of our world. And nature is the last chance that we have to survive, after all, elves are connected to it, and if the earth is revitalized, our race will grow in number again."

I looked at him and finally understood why they were so eager to help us. The helplessness and distress in their eyes was obvious at the moment that I arrived. So few were left of an entire race. I knew that if the humans didn't get stronger, their fate will become ours.

"Ok, what can we do to help."I said with sincerity in my voice.

The elder smiled after seeing me replying this way and said. "First, tell me what happened to you after you arrived here."

I nodded to him and began to explain.