Three figures walked through green grass covering Demi-Human Territory in its entirety. They effortlessly battled the frosty wind plunging from the Ridge and rolling above the plain with nothing to stop its momentum.

A crunching noise followed the trio as the shortest among them happily feasted on the elf's cuisine. Iris had made a large sandwich for the petite undead, she had cut the butt off the circular loaf of fresh bread with her nail before she had hollowed it out. The girl was too distracted with the meat roasting on fire to realise that the elf had eaten all of the warm, soft fluffiness from the inside leaving only the delicious and crunchy exterior to hold the entire meal the elf prepared. Inside the improvised bowl, Iris had stuffed chunks of finely chopped greenery and chunks of spiced stone-hide bear's meat the necromancer loved.

 

“Is it good?” Iris said to the blissful kitten eating beside her as she stole a small bite from the girl's meal.

 

"Hey! That'ssss mine!" Kia hissed as she turned her body away from the elf while clutching her meal close to her chest.

 

"You have more here." Iris's finger pointed toward the corner of her mouth causing the girl's tongue to peek out and scoop the crumbs back into her mouth. "You are a savage."

 

"Thhads not tru." Kia tried to reject the accusation while she bit into the lovely-smelling bread and savagely tear a part out.

 

"Whatever my demi-human says~" The tall elf stroked the undead mage's long black hair. "Is it good?"

 

"MmmmMmmm," The girl eagerly bobbed her head up and down. "But I wish there was more meat in it." 

 

  Iris took a mental note of the short carnivore's wish, she herself liked the taste and the texture of vegetables with a snap to them but the more flavourful taste of meat seemed to resonate particularly well with the millennia-long starved undead. The elf pondered quietly while listening to the necromancer's loud munching before focusing on to the uniformly bland horizon around her.

 

  With the sun slowly sinking below the edge of the risen's horizon, she began to think about where to set up camp for the night. It was still too early to stop since Kia had at least two more bells of energy left inside of her. Iris looked down at the quietly walking girl, like usual her eyes were peeled wide open in an endless quest to find something to marvel at.

 

When did I go to sleep usually? The elf thought as the girl yawned loudly.

Iris remembered being a late riser but she was rarely allowed to skip the sun rising above the tree line as even in winter her mother would wake her up before the day began to come with her as she sold clothes or embroidered fabrics she had made. Even back then, she understood why her mother did this, leaving a young pure-blooded elf alone in a human village was probably not the greatest idea but that never stopped her from groaning at her own mother while trodding behind half-asleep.

She looked up at the tall hooded woman from the snow-covered forest trail who was carrying a woven basket under her arm filled with colour. Her memory turned foggy as a relaxed hum reached the reminiscing elf. Looking toward the source of the sound she found Kia walking with closed eyes while holding the elf's palm against her cheek.

 

"You want to get some rest." Iris suggested.

 

"No," Kia stopped and stood still with her pupils moving under her eyelids. "I can sense something over there." She pointed toward an empty patch of grass southeast of them.

 

The tall risen focused on the direction pointed by the undead mage but couldn't spot anything. "I don't see anything, Kia. Are they beyond the horizon?" The elf asked while turning back toward the girl.

 

"Yes," The mage replied. "I think some of them are hueman."

 

"Some?" The elf asked but her companion only shook her head. "How many are there?"

 

"About thirty I think," Kia responded. The risen stood still for a moment before turning southwest. "Can we look at what is happening there?" 

 

Iris turned around toward the necromancer whose face begged her to investigate. She let out a sigh before answering. "We can look but nothing else." 

 

"Yay!" Kia's hands shot into the air causing the elf to shake her head.

 

  The three tireless undead quickly made their way toward where Kia had pointed. When they crested a small hill and looked down they saw a small caravan of wooden wagons with most of them possessing only one pair of wheels, the cart were standing still with masked humans scattered around with some sitting atop giant two-footed birds. The humans wearing strange masks covering their faces were surrounded by a group of unfamiliar creatures resembling fat yet extremely tall humans wearing very little clothing besides pants and chunks of metal protecting the fat creatures' pronounced guts.

 

[Inspect]

 

[Ogre Bull Level 95]

{A member of the "Troll" family primarily living in the plains and is widely regarded as the most intelligent of the commonly found Trolls}

 

 

[Inspect]

 

[Human Hunter Level 82]

 

[Inspect]

 

[Terror Bird Level 41]

{A feathered predator living in small flocks of two to seven individuals across northern plains}

 

 

  Iris inspected the masked humans just to be sure before she frowned as she stared at the large ogre she had inspected, wielding a large chunk of metal, crudely hammered into a vague shape of a two-handed sword with only one edge and a curved tip. She had always thought that trolls and ogres were the same things a large, grey or dirty green-skinned creature with rock-like growths covering its body in large patches sometimes encountered on a road cutting through a forest or guarding a bridge with an infamous ability to regenerate. 

Before the elf could finish her inspecting all of the ogres and what to think about them and their possible abilities, the fattest of the roughly twelve ogres she had yet to inspect let out a loud warcry causing the large birds to be spooked.

 

  The ogres surrounding the caravan began to lumber toward it, even with their bulky bodies they were surprisingly fast. Fast enough to catch anyone not mounted on the horse-size birds.

From the human side, a man with black hair and a bone-white mask with a crimson handprint on his left eye began to bark orders loud enough from atop his fiery brown feathered mount for Iris's ears to hear them.

 

  Some of the humans rushed to mount their feathery steeds pulling the wagons while the ones who were left tried to gather into a loose circle in the short amount of time they had. The masked humans looked to have no mages present among them as no spell was casted to meet the incoming battering ram.

All of the riders seemed to possess a small bow, much smaller than what Iris had seen soldiers or adventurers use. Those ones were much larger and straighter than the oddly curved bows of these masked humans, she assumed the odd curve on the hunter bows was for decoration and focused back on observing the swiftly progressing situation alongside Kia. 

The mounted archers began to lose valleys into the ogres who didn't look particularly bothered by the human weapons as they picked up their already considerable speed. Iris couldn't notice any signs of the ogres possessing any regeneration ability as their hide began to be littered with arrow shafts. The elf was content on only learning this one vital piece of information and she looked to her side to find the undead mage keenly observing the soon-to-clash races. She rolled her eyes as she couldn't comprehend what was so interesting to the girl in this small clash with a predictable result to the outnumbered and out-levelled humans but she stayed beside her saviour without complaining, ready to defend her if one of the sides spotted them.

 

  A human wielding a comically large lance whipped the reins of his bizarre mount causing the spooked bird to calm down before its rider instructed it to countercharge the two ogres opposite to him. He couched in his saddle as the terror bird picked up speed, the tip of his weapon was aimed at the head of one of the ogres but just as he was to pierce the thick hide of his enemy, the two ogres pulled a net which they had been dragging between each other through the tall grass causing the bird to veer off.

Iris watched as the tip of the long lance harmlessly grazed the ogre's rusted gut armour as the human and his mount hit the net. In either show of ogres' cruelty or their simple minds, the two ogres used the large chunks of wood with a metal ring at the ends to beat the netted human raising his arm to defend himself and the panicking bird who suffered for much longer than its helpless rider into a mangled mess.

 

"We are losing experience." Kia commented with a displeased voice as the ogres reached the humans and their wagons with yet a single ogre to die from the humans who were running away giving their few archers as much time as they could.

 

"It is dangerous to go down there and..." Iris calmly said as she watched an ogre throw a large boulder among the loosely arranged humans hitting none. She wasn't sure that she even had the power to fight the ogres alone given the human current performance. "We are in no rush to level up, Kia."

 

"Annoying."

 

"I am not annoying," Iris rebuffed the girl's accusation. "I am only telling you what is the reality."

 

"It will be good for you." The short mage attempted to convince the stubborn undead who didn't see the benefit of getting pulverized by clubs.

 

"I only allowed us to watch and only that."

 

"Only look?" The necromancer's eyes lost their shine before a small smirk appeared on her small lips.

 

"I don't like that look." The risen tried to stop the mage from doing anything stupid but Kia slowly began to walk down toward the fight.

"Kia? Where do you think you are going?"

 

"Going down to take a closer look." A strangely familiar face Iris saw the girl wearing before she fought the Area Boss.

Kia radiated an aura of confidence in her idea as she slowly went down the gentle slope. The elf shook her head in complete disapproval but sensing the girl's uncompromising mood she could only try to give her best at fighting the ogres.