As I was assisting in building a makeshift defensive line, a group of people ran out from the caves.

“Yeong-Gi! Where’s Hime? Alex got hit!”, I quickly recognized Luke, who was carrying Alex on his shoulder along with a woman.

He arrived before me and put the woman on the ground whilst I answered him; “The moonparty is still looking for people in the Hive, we’re still short ten people.”

Hime, one of the members of the moon party, was currently the only person who could use healing magic in the colony; With all the people that got injured because of today’s events, she was unlikely to get any sleep tonight.

“Go find Jesper at the main gate, he’ll fix Alex up.”, Jesper was a doctor who joined the colony a few Pits ago; Although he wasn’t particularly talented with magic and couldn’t use it to heal people, he was still a fully qualified doctor and had been invaluable in keeping everyone alive so far.

Luke looked like he wasn’t quite happy with it, but he still ran off to find the doctor.

I watched him run off and realised that the woman Luke had dropped was still on the ground in front of me.

She was neither injured nor unconscious, but with just a single look I could figure out why Luke had carried her here instead of having her run like the others.

“You, take her to Jesper, make sure ‘that’ is fine.”, I stopped a random person that was passing by and had him take the woman to the doctor.

Afterwards, I approached the group of people that had accompanied Luke out of the Hive; Luke and Alex had originally gone off with Hella, and she hadn’t returned with them.

When I arrived at the small group of people, Mike was already there; He was the one in charge of everyone that escaped from the Hive. He sent the injured to Jesper and got the others to join in building the defensive line.

“What’s going on? Where’s Hella?”, assuming that he had already questioned the group of survivors, I asked Mike for details.

“She’s still in the Hive; She was holding off a group of those ant monsters so Luke and the others could escape. She should get here soon.”, Mike answered, whilst giving the group of people their orders.

“We just...”, before he could say anything more, the sound of yelling interrupted him; The ant monsters had finally started attacking the defensive line we’d built; “Let’s leave this for later. They look like they need help”

********************

For a while after I sheathed my weapon, neither the beastman or I moved.

A series of different expressions appeared on his face and, after several minutes, he eventually let out a sigh and returned his remaining axe to his belt.

Seeing that the beastman wasn’t planning on attacking me for now, I spoke; “I believe you are mistaken about something; I am not your enemy.”

The beastman seemed surprised by my words at first, but was quickly overtaken with anger; “What?! You lot killed everyone on my ship! We did nothing to you, but you massacred my comrades and will do the same for any of my people who will come in the future! Now you are telling me you aren’t my enemy?! Are you taking me for a fool?!”

As his words became increasingly loud, he eventually re-equipped his axe and got back in a fighting stance.

“That is where you are mistaken!”, Seeing how things were about to go south, I quickly spoke up; “I am not with the ones who attacked you! I am not an elf!”

Being taken aback by my words, the beastman was silent for a while before responding; “Then… What are you?”

“We are human”, I deliberately emphasized ‘we’. This way, the beastman would know that I wasn’t alone. 

And, as I hoped, he picked up on it; “ ’We’? How many of you are there? ”

“Like you, we haven’t been here for long. So far, we are with only a few dozen people, but more arrive every month.”, If he ended up being an enemy, it would be a bad idea to reveal our numbers, but I had no choice if I wanted to stay on good terms.

The beastman looked surprised and lowered his axe; “You’re not from here either? Did you also cross the endless sea?”

“We did come from far away, yes.”, I couldn’t tell him we aren’t even from this world, but I  circumvented his question by changing the topic; “I roughly know about your situation with the elves, but it doesn’t have to be the same with us. ”

The beastman was silent for a few moments before responding;  “What are you saying?”

“Not much, I’m only saying that we don’t have to be hostile towards each other.”, I shrugged my shoulders as I responded; “I’m sure that friendly relations are beneficial for the both of us; The elves have yet to discover our arrival and we are growing steadily.”

“…Why should I trust you.”, the beastman asked, not quite convinced.

Hearing his words, a cold smile appeared on my face; “Because one enemy is better than two.”

The beastman tensed up at my words, but let out a sigh afterwards; “Haaa… Fine, I’ll believe you.”

“I can’t make these kinds of decisions. I’ll return with someone who can.” After saying what he had to say, the beastman turned around and left.

I made sure he was gone and let out and exhaled deeply; I had unconsciously been holding my breath after my last words.

Although only fifteen minutes had passed since meeting the beastman, the colony was still under attack from the ant monsters. I ignored the ants that re-emerged after the beastman left and headed to where everyone was fighting off the ants.

***********************

After I joined the fight against the ants, it ended quickly.

Since the ant’s exoskeleton was somewhat conductive, my lighting attributed mana made short work of them; With a single lightning bolt I was able to take out a dozen ants.

With Yeong-Gi and the moonparty -who arrived a few moments after me- taking care of the few ants that managed to get behind our lines, the casualties were reduced to a minimum. 

When the ants were defeated, I gathered all the faction leaders; “Report, what are the casualties?.”

“5 dead, 6 missing, 8 severely injured and 40 with light injuries.”, having been in the military for a long time before coming to the Arena, Yeong-Gi immediately gave a concise report.

“We haven’t fully gaged the damage done yet, but the food storage has not been touched.”, Mike followed up after Yeong-Gi.

I thought for a few moments; Considering the scale of the unexpected attack, we did quite well. This was mainly due to the fact that there weren’t a lot of people yet, so everyone was able to escape quite quickly. 

Although I wanted to find out why those ants suddenly attacked, the important thing to do first was to increase our defences; “Mike, get people to repair and strengthen the barricades. Also, increase the number of houses in the town, that will keep people from settling in the hive.”

“Yeong-Gi, Jules, increase the patrols watching the barricades.”, Whilst talking, we started walking to where Hime and the doctor, Jesper, were healing people; “Luke, I need you and Alex to visit the lizardmen; Find out anything they know about these monster attacks.”

I found Hime and got her to heal my injured shoulder; “Before that, though, there’s something you should know”

I told the faction leaders about my meeting with the beastman. In preparation for the beastman’s return, Yeong-Gi informed his men to keep watch over the area where he had appeared and inform us when the beastman arrives.

We spent a bit longer making plans for the future until we eventually ended the meeting.

“Right, Hella, there’s something you might want to see”, Before everyone went there own way, Yeong-Gi spoke up.

He led us to where some of Jesper’s patients were kept and eventually stopped in front of a bed.

Seeing the woman in the bed, I spoke up; “Hmm, yes, this is interesting, indeed.”