We passed through the first gate using two smaller doors built into the surface of the large metal gate that only opens to let through large troops or caravans. This time, it reasonably stayed closed because of the enemy invasion at our doorstep.

  It took some time for the troops to pass through this way. I was positioned around the middle of the flow of soldiers. When I finally reached the other side, my eyes widened slightly seeing the organized chaos that took place between the innermost and middle gate.

  The usually empty tunnel now was filled with several platoons of soldiers partially filling the corridor. Their groups were made from a mix of freshly arrived soldiers and guards who have been originally stationed there. They were likely preparing to launch another counterattack.

  I glanced around the tunnel, noting several hastily created first aid camps from where the injured were constantly carried out to the better established positions beyond the innermost gate which I just left behind.

  Before I could continue looking around the tunnel, I was shaken out of my thoughts by the unexpected sound of thunder resonating through the tunnel.

  I gulped nervously, thunder was an ominous sound to hear this deep under the ground, yet it was there.

  The constant movement of the continuously arriving soldiers froze. The already high tensions gone far beyond their previous limits, every person in there could feel the earth shaking under their feet. The very cave seemed to shake with the impact of a powerful spell somewhere hidden behind the second gate, which served as the last barrier between us and the enemy forces.

  I desperately clutched onto the shaft of my staff with both hands. My skin run cold with sweat as my imagination fuelled the flames of the terrifying images of possibilities that awaited me behind that gate. Flashes of memories containing images of ripped apart, burned and frozen soldiers swam across my mind. Then older, but just as terrifying memories, being kidnapped by the dark elves, beaten and chained to a pole like a dog, the helplessness coupled with the cold sensation of chains around my ankles. I could feel my heart desperately battering against the inside of my ribcage. For a moment, a short passing moment, I considered running away. I could have likely made it… I have this spell that let me teleport short distances… Not that I ever practiced it or…

  I sighed… no, I can’t leave my friends, my new family… Get it together Selora, you got this, girl!

  I shook my head, worrying about it won’t change anything. I should stick to Emrum and the rest, the Dimhollow troops were almost all on this side now. I reminded myself, while following the seemingly endless flow of soldiers across the corridor, the subtle shaking of my arms and legs didn’t seem to garner any attention.

  ~oOo~

  It didn’t take long before we reached the foot of the second gate. Our troops, along with other platoons and companies, lined up beyond the gate, creating a defensive perimeter. There were somewhere between six to eight hundred men gathered in the spacious corridor belonging to various noble houses. They were ready to march out and push back the enemy invasion.

  Emrum pulled me aside to join him for a quick strategic meeting with the leaders of major houses. That naturally meant Aria and Camilla wanted to join too, but were told by Emrum to wait with the troops, since it shouldn’t take much time, anyway.

  We entered the reinforced walls of the gate and climbed up several layers of stairs before entering a relatively small chamber fitted with an unusually large metal table which took up most of the space in the room. There were a handful of men already waiting inside, right in the middle of a heavy discussion. The moment Emrum opened the door, every face turned to us.

  I quickly assessed the people inside. There were four dwarfs and one human standing around the table, while several soldiers stood guard in the back of the room.

  Three of the important looking dwarven figures were men while one was a woman… who was waving at me? My eyes widened considerably as I finally realized who this person was. It was Alita! She nodded towards me with a subtle smirk, clearly noticing my surprise. The reason I didn’t recognize her immediately? Let’s just say she looked very different wearing full body plate armor compared to her previous flowery dress. How did she even walk wearing that thing? Dwarven body built must be more of a cheat than I expected.

  Mulling over those thoughts, I offered the girl a subtle wave of my own. Then my eyes wandered over to the last person in the room.

  The lone human in the room was a man as well. My eyes lingered on his figure for a bit, somewhat surprised by the strange armor he wore. It was a sleek, likely custom made black leather armor. While it clearly seen better days… The design and general uniqueness of the set remained eye-catching. I liked it and could easily imagine having my own set.

  I was not going to sit around wiggling my toes if I ever get out of this situation, preferably alive and not even kidnapped like last time. No, not after my need for a better armor that wasn’t made of plate, therefore weighing a ton became apparent. This armor was nice, but the reason it drawn my eyes was different at the moment. If I remembered correctly, these sorts of armors were mostly used by adventurers. In the dwarven armies, even the scouts preferred to wear medium armor, by that I mean chain mail instead of full leather armor like he did.

  Did that mean this man was an adventurer?

  My thoughts were interrupted as one of the dwarven men, a bulky bald dwarf with a long black beard, urged us further inside. For a second, I thought I was seeing Balgrun, but when I took a closer look, I quickly realized that the man was only similar to the Bronze Company’s infamous commander.

  “Finally!” — The man in question shouted with an impatient tone. — “It was high time for new reinforcement to arrive! We are being slaughtered out there!”

  I blinked several times, reassessing my previous thoughts on running away. Was the situation truly that bad? I sucked in my mouth, thoughtlessly biting the inside of my cheeks as the weight of the situation mercilessly pressed down on my mind.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  Another of the dwarven commanders present joined the discussion. This time it was a relatively young looking brown-haired man. Who had nothing unusual about his looks aside from maybe the tip of his beard? I mean, it was tied into a simple knot and flailing around with his movements. If I was less terrified for my life, I might have struggled to keep in my laughter, but this time around, I didn’t have that problem. I was plenty terrified, thank you. — “Their mages can’t possibly keep this up for long. If they continue to burn through their mana as they did-…” — His words were cut off by another shout from the previous bald man.

  “So what? Are you suggesting we send out more men just to get blasted to smithereens?!” — The bald dwarf shouted, enraged by the idea alone. I could count the veins popping out on his bare head from the other side of the room.

  “If we don’t, then they will break, or downright melt down the damn gate!” — Mr. Knot Beard argued back, creating a few seconds of heavy silence in the room. — “We can’t risk the safety of the citizens! We have to send out more men! At least until the cavalry prepares and encircles the enemy, but we have to stand our ground long enough so they can get there from another gate.” — The brown-haired-knot-bearded commander argued vehemently.

  “Cease this insufferable squabble!” — Shouted the third dwarf in a disdainful voice.

  The sudden shout startled most of the people in the room, after all, the third dwarf so far seemed content with solely listening to the discussion.

  My attention turned to the third dwarf as well.

  He was likely the oldest man in the room based on his appearance. His hair and long braided beard shined with a silvery hue, telling of the years he lived past. His small black eyes searched the room with a nervous twitch until they eventually focused on me with an unexpected intensity.

  I felt a shiver run up my spine and involuntarily took a step back before catching myself. I could literally feel the man’s intense focus, as if his mind physically pushed against my own. I flinched, my mind instinctively rebelling against the invisible pressure, sending out a ripple of my power into the air. For a fraction of a second no more, colorful sparks danced through the air between us, causing startled intakes of breaths throughout the room.

  The pressure cleared, and I found myself blinking in slight bewilderment as most of the eyes in the room focused on me.

  “Eh, what?” — Those particular words left my mouth before I could think any better.

  Before I could feel embarrassed about my stupid reaction, my eyes caught movement on the other side of the room. It was the older dwarf from before. He pushed through the room with a fervent haste right until he stood in front of me, by then I also noted the heavily ornamented staff held in his grasp.

  With a sudden revelation, I closed my eyes, focusing my inner eye the way as Camilla explained it to me a few days back.

  Immediately, I could feel the heat of power radiating from the man. It was a deeply enriched and refined source of power, something I never felt before. This was the most potent mana I had the fortune to come across so far. The enchantments and other magical practitioners like Camilla were not even close to the power of this man. While I needed to actively look for those with the inner eye, in this case, it would be impossible to not notice it. It’s like comparing a campfire to a forest fire.

  I opened my eyes and smiled, realizing that I have finally met a proper mage, or based on the man’s dwarven heritage, probably a shaper.

  The man, being half a head smaller than me, slightly turned his face upward and nodded in an approving manner.

  “You must be the elven witch I keep hearing about.” — The man harrumphed, then looked me over. — “A shaper apprentice as well, based on the news. You are not hopeless, seeing how you repelled my mental probing.” — He narrowed his eyes, scrutinizing my staff, and slightly armored robes along with my long boots for some reason. Then he chuckled and smiled slyly.

  “Lets hope that you are at least half as powerful as the rumors say, lass, but know this: the two of us represent the only proper spellcasters here.” — His black eyes flicked towards the adventurer man with the nice armor, then added in a distasteful voice. — “Those who can’t even repel a simple mind probe are hardly mentionable.

  The human man in question seemed to take the old shaper’s words in stride, merely offering a cheeky smile that seemed to further annoy the shaper as he knocked his staff end against the floor with a resounding echo.

  “Either way! We are outnumbered by ten to two with the enemy spellcasters. Fortunately, they have already wasted a considerable amount of their power and we know some of their specialities. At least half of their mages are siege mages specialising in powerful elemental attacks, while the other half are illusionists, as it was reported by the caravans in the early morning hours.”

  He paused for a while, then continued.

  “We don’t have much time, so I will keep it simple. My specialities are earth magic, I will focus on defending our troops from the brunt of their magical attacks. What are you good at, girl?”

  I was startled out of my stupor, looking around the room hesitantly before saying. — “Uh, attack spells?”

  The men’s eyes lit up with hope hearing my words, but most of them seemed to temper it considering my young age.

  The dwarf shaper in front of me, however, wasn’t thrown off by my obvious inexperience. — “Ah, now that you mention it, I heard that you were a destruction specialist. Good, very good.” — He chuckled, then added after a brief pause. — “Oh, yes, I remember now, you were the one who summoned a ridiculously sized golem. Very good, I suspect this battle will be interesting, after all. Oh, but I don’t recommend using that particular spell this time. Golems do not stand well against siege magic, it’s one of their few weaknesses.”

  I nodded to that, already crossing out the golem spell for the following battle. It wouldn’t work well anyway, since I needed a long time to summon it, and I would have to do it on the other side of the gate, since it wouldn’t fit through. I wasn’t going to stand still like a sitting duck for minutes in front of an army of bloodthirsty dark elf archers and spellcasters, not even mentioning the goblins and orcs.

  The shaper once again knocked his staff against the floor, gaining everyone’s attention. — “Now then, I believe the plan is clear. We need to defend the gates, in other words, the city until the cavalry arrives. Each of you, go back to your troops, I will direct the charge, but before you go, remember. It’s not the first nor the last time these bastards knocked on our doors, it’s time to show them a dwarven welcome.” — With that said, the man gripped his staff with two hands, holding it like a battleaxe. It took me a few seconds to realize that the staff, in fact, had an axe like blade and was very much a battleaxe in every way it mattered. Then he turned back to us and shouted. — “Give them hell!” — While marching out from the room kicking up quite a racket on his way.

  I looked at Emrum questioningly, who was suspiciously quiet throughout this entire exchange. He merely offered me an amused glance, then with a shrug of his shoulders followed the shaper down the stairs.

  While we were walking down the tight stairs, I noticed the human adventurer from before walking up to me. I turned my head towards him, confused by his sudden approach, only to be affronted by a playful smirk as he whispered a few words only an elf would catch while he passed by me. — “Did you like what you see?”

  At first, I was completely stunned by the unexpected remark. Then, as I thought about it, I suddenly felt more and more uncomfortable.

  Fucking hell… Did I gawk at him too long? I definitely did, right? I mean, I liked the armor not… not the… Sigh… To the hell with this! I don’t care anymore! I huffed in silent fury as I continued to trudge down the stairs.