Being hit square in the face with a mana infused punch Dax was knocked to the ground.

"Why are you here!?"

Glancing up at his interrogator Dax took a second to raise himself to a sitting position before answering with a question himself.

"Why are you starting with the head? If you start with the head the victim gets all confused and won't be able to fe-"

Cut short again by another fist to the face he was also kicked in the stomach before the elf repeated his question.

"Why are you here!? Answer me outsider!"

Getting kicked repeatedly Dax raised up his hand in surrender after a few minutes.

"I'm here because..-"

Taking his sweet time answering Dax tailed off at the and when he looked at the red face of his attacker a worried expression bloomed on his face.

"You look out of breath, do you need a break?"

"YOU!"

Flaring in rage the elven man charged his first with enough mana that it was visible to the naked eye and aimed for Dax's temple. In response Dax s.h.i.+fted his position slightly and tensed up his neck muscles so as to not absorb the blow as he had done until now but resist it fully.

"ARG!- ***#@!"

The result was quite obvious, as Dax didn't rotate with the punch the elven soldier felt like he had just punched a solid piece of t.i.tanium as multiple bones in his hand fractured.

"***@#$%* ***!!!"

Cursing at the top of his lungs in his native tongue Dax put on a smug smile.

"Yeah karma is a cruel f.u.c.king mistress when you're being a d.i.c.k huh?"

"****! ***, *****"

Sending Dax a truly enraged look the elven soldier left him to most likely get his hand healed.

(What a f.u.c.king amateur..)

Taking this time to look around Dax inspected his surroundings.

(This sure is a strange forest…)

After being captured by the elven forces the day beforehand they had spent all day moving through the forested terrain. Dax a.s.sessed the forest terrain as some sort of strange mix between temperate and subtropical, with biodiversity and humidity like a rainforest, but temperature and plants like some sort of strangely fertile temperate forest.

(The overly dense mana properly have something to do with that… Oh, she's back.)

With his alert hearing Dax quickly recognized the almost completely silent footsteps of the elven leader he had taken to calling 'blonde' because of her longer than average hair.

"..."

"Good evening."

As she sat down outside the magic formation drawn on the ground below Dax that tethered him to it the elven woman inspected him with her emerald green eyes for a bit before speaking up.

"No food today."

"Oh come on, why? Because that f.u.c.king idiot doesn't know how to hit a person properly?"

"Because ***** lost her arm."

"Ah yeah that makes more sense, losing one's arm is a terrible experience."

Glancing down at his own empty shoulder socket Dax felt a tiny bit of pity towards the elver with the strange name he couldn't p.r.o.nounce.

"Why are you here?"

"Here? Like in this magic formation? That's because you trapp-"

"Why are you trespa.s.sing in our land?"

"You know what? I wonder about that myself sometimes, you see I was out drinking and then the next day I woke up out here."

Telling a blatant lie without any particular expression on his face Dax tested the patience of the soldier in front of him, but the person in question simply ignored the answer and continued.

"How can you heal like that?"

"I don't know, why are you that beautiful?"

"... Tell me."

Being met with a look of disgust to his answer, the elver continued pressing the issue with a slight hint of urgency on her face.

"Only if you hand feed me my next me-"

Being cut short forcefully by the collar around his neck releasing a powerful electric shock, Dax fell over forward on his face.

---

The next day Dax and his captors continued moving through the ever endless forest.

(So that's why..)

Looking to the back of the small formation Dax saw 2 elves carrying an injured one on an improvised stretcher.

(Damage looks to be mostly internal…)

To Dax's initial surprise the Stinger hadn't managed to kill any of the elven soldier's, but most of them had suffered wounds in varying degrees. A few had lost some fingers and others had suffered light internal bleeding, but the most severe case was the one currently being carried on a stretcher. Half of her one arm was missing, and from what Dax could make out with his hearing she would most likely die within a few more hours without proper medical attention.

(Blonde looks to be close to that one, I wonder if she'll try and kill me when she dies… Wait is that?.. It is.)

"Contact, front. 600 meters."

Muttering out that report completely on reflex the elven soldiers that all heard him were confused for a second, that is until they also picked up the sound of movement.

"Additional contact, rear 700 meters and left 400 meters.. Oh how nostalgic~"

Recognizing the source of the sound and thereby also the monsters ident.i.ties, Dax put on a nostalgic smile.

"It's a swarm, I detect at least 20 contacts all around, seems like you guys walked right into their territory. Now what will you do now I wonder~"

As the formation came to a hold Dax sat down on the ground and yawned loudly.

"Hey! What are you doing!?"

As the one Dax called blonde saw him sit down as the others prepared for a bitter fight she was understandably upset.

"Me? I'm starving. Did you expect that the starving prisoner, that you disabled and you let your men repeatedly torture, would gladly fight to the death for you? Yes, my lady. Of course, my lady. Do you need a foot ma.s.sage too? I'm overflowing with so much loyalty I'll gladly lay down my life for you my lady."

Completely overflowing with sarcasm Dax put on a cold smile

"But if we die you-"

"Then I'll renegotiate my terms of surrender with whoever survives, go get them~"

Shooing away the elver Dax laid down on his back and appeared to fall asleep immediately.

---

"Eva!"

"I Know, leave him there."

"But-"

"We don't have any time to spare! Get in combat formation now!"

As a bead of sweat rolled down Eva's face she quickly took note of how her subordinates were doing. Of her 11 subordinates, 1 was in a coma, 5 was only able to walk and more or less unable to move, and only her and 5 others could fight at full capacity.

(f.u.c.k! How the h.e.l.l did we manage to walk right into a monster nest?)

"We need to call for help somehow!"

"No way we can do that! This is still a restricted area."

"f.u.c.k! Why didn't we bring more people!"

"Because this is a f.u.c.king restricted area! Hurry it up, forest hunting formation!"

Shutting up her subordinate's whining, Eva sprang into action. Quikly understanding what their commander wanted to do, the remaining elvers split into teams of 2 people and one of them sat down on the ground and closed their eyes as the other stood right behind and readied an arrow.

"Ready!"

With the elver sitting down with crossed legs called out Eva released an arrow out into the forest. Sensing the mana in the air, plants and living monsters, the elven soldier guiled the steel arrow to its target through the dense forest by using extremely long range air magic. Doing the next 2 minutes the elven forces proved they were the best of the best and cut down over 20 of the monsters before they even entered line of sight.

"They're getting close! Protect the prisoner and the injured at all costs!"

"Why should we protect that outsider!?"

"If he dies we learn nothing! What if the next explosion is right in the middle of the capital!?"

Silencing the critique with a single and sound argument, Eva readied her bow as the first monster broke the tree line into the clearing they had fortified. 12 red eyes of varying sizes looked at the elvers with a mix of rage and hunger from a height of about 4 meters as the thick and extremely durable mandibles that could easily rip a person in half made an eerie loud clicking sound as the large black creature charged on its 8 legs towards the nearest elver.

"Arachnids! Aim for the eyes or joints, their exoskeleton is way too solid!"

Identifying the hostiles monsters immediately Eva called out weak spots as she shot an arrow that pierced right through the first arachnid's eye and destroyed its brain, killing it instantly. Not even before the first arachnid fell to the ground 2 more emerged from the forest, making Eva realize the futility of her current situation.

(We're making too much noise, even if we deal with these ones instantly we're bound to attract more monsters, and with all of us injured we're in no condition for a prolonged fight…. f.u.c.k!)

"We need to move out now! Leave behind the injured, Tom grab the outsider!"

Realizing what she must do as a commander Eva bit down on her lip and drew blood in frustration of her current situation.

"B-"

"THAT IS A DIRECT ORDER, WE MUST BRING THE OUTSIDER IN!"

Feeling countless monsters heading in their direction Eva made the impossible choice to leave behind her trusted friends and comrades.

""REEEE!!""

As if proving the need to urgently evacuate, 2 young arachnid queens emerged from the forest with multiple subordinates.

"Get the outsider now!"

Judging that they would most likely be wiped out within minutes if they didn't immediately cut their losses and retreat.

"That's an order!"

Not getting a response Eva a.s.sumed her subordinates were hesitating and shouted out as she let loose another arrow that completely blinded the closet arachnid queen that started thras.h.i.+ng around. Now having time to spare Eva looked back behind her to see what was keeping her subordinates when she froze. The outsider that she had captured after a brutal fight was sitting above her dearest friend Amy, with his single remaining arm dug deep into her stomach. After having dug around a bit the outsider showed a smile, and then ripped out his arm in a brutal fas.h.i.+on before carefully patting her head with his somehow bloodless hand.

"WHAT ARE Y-"

Completely outraged seeing her friend presumably being killed off Eva was outraged but turned speechless as Amy woke up and patted her own stomach that had somehow completely healed.

"We came to a preliminary arrangement."

Speaking in perfect elvish, the outsider showed a smile and then gave Amy a hand and helped her to her feet.

"Those monster really are nostalgic looking at them like this after such a long time, oh well… Time to crush them~"