I could see a guy that looked like he was a leader from the amount of gold and jewelry he was wearing. I notched an arrow and took a shot at him. He knocked it out the air and glared directly at me. He charged me and I shot him with arrows. Some hit him while others were parried away. I backed up and took out my spear as he got within melee range. "Puny elf! I'll tear your spine out." He was a level 55 prince general. I had my work cut out for me. He had the advantage when it came to strength. I was using my speed and agility to dance out of reach. He still was able to clip me for lots of damage. I was also taking pot shots at him. After ten minutes of fighting, the other orcs had surrounded us so that there was no escape. That was fine with me. The prince said "You fight good. You female? male? Me breed you when we done!" I took from that that he was unsure my sex and he really intended to keep me as a sex slave if he won the fight. I was still a hermaphrodite. If I won, I was killing everyone here. I didn't say anything and continued to fight the price.
Going on for another five minutes, it was clear that the prince was on his last legs. I was also getting pretty low on health. I seemed that this was the end of the fight. For better or worse. "You. Name. Me Diggum." he panted at me. I said "Me L'chaim." We then blinked before charging each other. I parried his blow and impaled him straight through the heart. He had his death throes as he dropped his weapon. I yanked my spear out and gave a battle cry of triumph. They knelt to me as I healed myself. It was cute, but that was not the point. I slaughtered all twelve of them before moving on. I spent the next three hours killing all the remaining orcs in the camp. When it was finally done, I set the remaining slave and prisoner cages on fire. It immolated everyone inside. I was claiming the territory for the elves. Any non elf could be a danger. I brought the elves back to the camp and told them to arm themselves and get ready to go to the settlement. We loaded the loot on wagons and formed a caravan. As we were pillaging, we wound some breeding slave elves that survived.
We made them come along with us. Our total had rose to 37. We rode on through the plains until we reached the forest. It took a few days until we entered the treeline. It took another day before the Wood elves began to play a code on some of the pillaged instruments. We had to stop the caravan before we could hear the response. "They hear us!" one of the younger elves cried out in glee. We waited before some Wood elf vanguard came out to greet us. We told them what happened and they took us in on the condition that they could use all the loot for themselves. That was the point of bringing it in the first place. We were taken to their settlement. It was filled with a lot of injured and sick elves. I took a week and had everyone on the mend that could be mended. An exploratory force found the empty camp and they made the plans to expand into orc territory. I also got the lay of the world. I was really needed. Each ethnic group only had a single settlement left. This was the last fortress for the Wood elves. I was on their team now. That was fine with me.
The advance consisted with the group that were prisoners returning with ten members of the vanguard and two elite warriors. I went with them and, after a week of clearing the bodies and cleaning up, we had set up camp. All the prisoners and warriors were a bit nonplussed to have to eat meat to survive here on the plains. Only the wild elves were the only ones who were not affected. It made for a lower morale among them. I had to be the mood maker. With a full chef tree, I could at least season it to the point it tasted fruity. That seemed to do something for them. I also had the younger Wood elves play instruments while the older warriors tell stories. Every day was a new person. The prompt was to tell a story about a personal triumph. Everyone else had to listen to them after the meal. This became the culture of the settlement. It was called Dagrechad, war camp. We made sure that all of us, no matter the ethinic group we came from, were heard and that we all pulled our weight. It was also where some of the female breeding slaves gave birth. Half elves were culled.
