as he mumbled Mars thought back to the most intense round of hide and seek he had ever played, when he was looking for Victoria she would make shadow decoys that would explode if he touched them and randomly fire non-lethal magic at him while hiding in her shadow leading to the innocent game to become h.e.l.l like training for Mars, nevertheless Victoria looked very satisfied as she stepped even lighter on her feet than usual and purred happily while walking right next to Mars as both of them walked back to the cave form the river, as Mars was looking at her he thought his day of torture was worth it and patted her on the head

"let's play some again tomorrow"

hearing Mars say they could play again tomorrow Victoria looked up at him with sparkling eyes as her horns flashed and a joyful voice appeared in his head

"play... more... promise?"

"yeah i promise"

being promised even more time to play Victoria's eyes lit up even more and she began to rub her face against him while purring even louder as they walked back, that is until they were about 500 meters from the clearing around the cave she stopped purring and sniffed the air before looking around cautiously

"what's wrong Victoria?"

seeing Victoria act like this Mars knew something was near and slowly drew his sword and lowered his center of gravity by kneeling down slightly as he observed the surroundings for some time before Victoria's horns flashed and a voice so cold that it lowered the temperature slightly appeared in his head as her fur seemed to begin to melt into the surrounding air spreading a shadow dark as night

"enemy... no intruders... in the cave... in our home"

seeing Victoria like this shocked Mars a bit but he also got a little happy that she said 'our home' and patted her on the head to calm her down slightly while he thought for a moment and spoke up with a cold voice while a slightly blood thirsty smile spread on his face

"in that case we have to entertain our guests to the best of our abilities... Victoria move around to the other side and wait for my call, we may not want to kill them instantly"

"okay"

sending off Victoria in her shadow Mars waited a few seconds before he stood up and sheathed his sword and move as natural as he should while still being aware of his surroundings and after walking for 100 meters he felt a pair of slightly hostile eyes on him watching his every move as he walked through the forest with a slight smile on his face before stopping and giving a wave in the direction he felt he was being watched from as he spoke up

"come on now i am not a wild animal, and i don't remember doing anything to you so how about you turn down the hostility a little?"

a few seconds later the eyes on him disappeared and he continued walking while lightly mumbling with slight disdain

"...amateur"

arriving at the edge of the clearing he saw a figure sitting on a tree stump and as Mars calmly walked into the clear area he saw that it was a handsome man, no a elf clad in some kind of leather armor with a sheathed sword in his hand, and short blond hair and green eyes that was locked on to him inspecting him as he carried a slight smile, stopping 15 meters from the elf Mars gave a short yawn before he spoke up a little rudely

"well h.e.l.lo there elf i was wondering when someone was coming here to visit my humble home but i am a little tired today so would you mind to come back sometime tomorrow?"

hearing his rude words the eyes of the elf flashed with a cold light before he responded still carrying a slight smile that seemed to stem from his apparent control over the situation

"that is awfully rude way to great your guest don't you think human? well never mind it is not like i expected anything less from a human, let me ask you this do you know where you are right now human?"

being called human no less than 3 times Mars felt that this elf had some sort of grudge towards humans which he somewhat understood form the information he was given by Info, but still felt his half dragon pride being rubbed the wrong way be repeatedly being compared to the puny humans and gave a short laugh as his smile widened showing his teeth before speaking back to the elf

"this place? sure i know where it is, it's my home, i thought it was a somewhat safe neighborhood but it looks like i need to install a st.u.r.dy door with a lock i case some more rude elvers come to poke around when i'm not home"

provoked by Mars the face of the handsome elf began to twitch slightly and Mars felt hostility from his left and right and guessed some more elvers had him flanked as his smile widened even more as his tactic to get them to reveal themselves had worked while the elf in front of him had lost his temper and grabbed to hilt of his sword as he stood up

"human don't test my patience! i will ask one last time are you aware where you are!?"

as Mars had succeeded in provoking the elf in front of him his smile widened even more as he slowly sat down on a tree stump and yelled out in a loud voice while keeping his eyes locked with the elf

"hey Victoria where is this anyway? do you know the name of the forest?"

the elf was startled by his yell and put on a slightly confused expression for a few seconds before it changed into a slightly mocking look as he spoke up

"who are you talking to human? have your feeble mind broken, there is only us here"

hearing the elf bluff Mars still kept his wide smile while his eyes turned cold and pointed out towards the source of hostility he had felt moments earlier and asked the elf in a cold voice that didn't match his wide smile

"then the elvers over there and over there is not with you? then i suppose you don't mind if i kill them real quick so we can continue our talk in peace without those rude peepers?"

hearing Mars point out his his team members the smile of the elf stiffened somewhat and looked at Mars for a few seconds before giving a hand signal and 2 female elvers jumped down from their hides with bows drawn and looked on to Mars as Mars looked first to his left and inspected the first of the elvers that was a woman with slightly graying blonde hair that was giving him a cold look and then to his right to the other elf that was looking rather young steering him down like he had killed her parents, but as Mars only felt like a small kitten was glaring at him so he only narrowed his eyes and gave a light wave in response

"thanks for not shooting me earlier"

ignoring Mars the elf asked without moving her eyes from him

"captain can i shoot this human now?"

hearing the hostility from the young looking elf as well as once again being called human the smile vanished from his face and his eyes turned cold and locked eyes with the 'captain' elf

"yes why can't we just get this over with elf?"

"we can if you just answer my question human! do you know where you are right now!?"

seeing he had pushed the elvers to the breaking point Mars answered straight as he put a hand on the hilt of his bone sword

"no"

hearing his response the captain let out a sigh before he drew his sword from the sheath and took a step closer to Mars and asked

"do you have any knowledge of the treaty signed between Green river village and the human kingdom Destra?"

"no"

as Mars gave his response the captain elf gave a slime and took a step closer and gave a look to the young elf

"see Chloe he doesn't know of the treaty, then we can't kill him even if we want to"

"but---"

"captain!"

as Chloe was about to speak up the so far silent female elf spoke up

"what is it Isabel?"

"we have no time to escort this human to the outer forest with a whole nest of stealth acid spiders missing, we would only endanger the squad"

"i see in that case..."

hearing talk between the elvers Mars felt a slight chill and gripped the hilt of his sword even harder as he yell out to stop a imminent ma.s.sacre

"don't kill them Victoria! we need all of them alive"

resulting in the elvers looking at him like he had lost his mind before the captain took a step closer to Mars while grinning

"things have changed human, don't resist or you will be in for even more pain"

as Mars looked into the eyes of the elf that gave the impression that the elf was looking at him like he was a insect Mars finally drew his bone sword preparing to engage the elvers before a arrow hit his right shoulder from behind penetrating all the way though so the head of the arrow peaked out from the front

"nice shoot Rex, we got it from here"

feeling the pain from his shoulder Mars dropped his sword as he realized that a squad of only 3 elvers seemed weird in the first place as the blood oozed from his shoulder and the captain elf walked closer with his sword

"i told you not to resist human"

"heh...ha... haha.... HAHAHAH--"

feeling the elvers where really going to kill him at this rate Mars suddenly began laughing loudly before stopping as abruptly as he began as he grabbed the head of the arrow sticking out of his shoulder as a fousius smile appeared on his face, causing the captain elf to quickly jump back

"you know elf, you are wrong about one thing"

slowly pulling out the arrow his eyes turned blood red as Mars began to transform to his half dragon from

"i'm not a weak human"