“Watch your tongue! They are our comrades. Our commander trusts them, so should we!” Another soldier countered.
Jeanny noticed that this soldier was amongst the ones that used to be in the vanguard troops under her. Those that stood behind that soldier and supporting his argument were mostly also from the vanguard troops. These soldiers had fought with them since the start of the expedition, so they were more in support of the presence of the outworlders.
??
The opposing side, on the other hand, was probably consisted of soldiers taken from amongst the main army. Although they were not originally anti-outworlder, the current stress and desperation had caused them to look for something or someone to blame. Outworlders were the easiest target at the moment.
It couldn’t go on like this, Jeanny thought as the heated arguments raged on. It might turn into a physical brawl if they were left as they were.
She looked around, most of everyone was crowded here with tense faces. A team was defending the entrance with a backup team to take over when their HP was getting low. She climbed to a higher ground where he could better see everyone, and everyone could see her.
She hit her spear onto a rock to draw everyone’s attention and called out, “all of you, listen!!”
The arguing soldiers stopped and looked at her in confusion. The one that had been saying bad things about the players gave a look that said, ‘what is this b*tch doing?’
Jeanny did not mind the expression, she waited until everyone was quiet and gave her their attention. “I know everyone here is on edge, I know many of you blame us, outworlders. You maybe right, you maybe wrong, but none of that matters right now. Even if you put the blame on us, your problem here will not be resolved. Understand that we are all trapped here with you and are sharing your fate. Now I have a solution that can get us out of here, but I will need for you all to listen!”
She gave them a slight pause as she observed their faces. Those who were antagonistic seemed to wear skeptical expressions to her claim, but their militaristic discipline kept them from being unruly.
‘I hope you really had a good plan to break us out, Storm,’ Jeanny said in his mind.
“You are right to be frustrated. After all, we are foreigners,” Jeanny continued. “We are not the natives of this world such as you. We don’t know why we are called upon this world. I hope there is a reason, but I know not of such reason. And I can tell you that even if we want to, we can’t leave this world. So whether you like it or not, you are stuck with us. I can’t say for all the outworlders, but I can tell you this, me and my friends that are in this expedition, we want to be a part of you, a part of your world. We will work for it, we will prove to you that we deserve to share this world with you, but we will need you to give us a chance.”
“I grew up in a family who used to travel around. I was brought by my parents to move around constantly. From one place to another. I have always been greeted by one stranger to another. I can tell you that I understand how it feels when you are forced to make friends with someone unknown to you. I know how scary it is to have to work with someone you don’t know. The inconvenience of trying to learn if these strangers truly have the same best interest as me.”
“I can tell you that if you do not give these strangers the chance, you will just be pushing them away, and making them as everything you are afraid them to be. I am asking you to not push us away. At least for the ones that have come with you on this expedition.”
She gave another pause again, those antagonistic soldiers seemed to soften a bit.
“I thank you for have come with us till here. Now, I ask you to trust us one more time. You all know that our scouts have not found any other exit from this place. And we can’t stay here defending this place, we won’t last that long. We have to break out!”
One of the soldiers finally could not keep his silence anymore, “how do you suggest we do that? Going out will just be a death sentence for us!”
“I have someone on the outside, they are making the preparations now. They will create a distraction to draw away the orcs’ attention. At that time, if we force our way through, we will be able to break their blockage.”
“And what good will that do us?” Another soldier asked. “We will just be getting surrounded by them again.”
“My friend out there has prepared a way to stop the orcs for a while. He will also be able to keep these orcs at bay as long as we continued running.”
The soldiers looked at each other, Jeanny knew they were not convinced. After all, the plan sounded vague. She herself was not truly convinced, but her job now was to exude confidence that will move these people to action.
“There are many details that I know you would like to know, but we are running out of time! We need to make our preparation now if we are to go through with this plan. I ask that you trust me. I swear by the God of my world and the Gods and Goddesses of this, that if you give me your trust, I will bring you out and back to the main army! You will bring the honor back to the capital, as someone who fought through an encirclement of the orcs army and live to tell the tale. Now, are you with me!?”
There was a long silence after the question, yet Jeanny continued to hold an expectant and confident gaze as she stood tall on the higher ground.
Finally, one soldier stood out. “You can count on me!” He exclaimed.
Jeanny noticed that he was the one who was in an argument on behalf of the outworlders. As the first spark was triggered, several other soldiers that were with him started to come out as well and declared their stance to follow Jeanny’s plan.
The soldier who had been antagonistic to the outworlders had a complex expression. But he soon decided and came out as well. “I am in,” he said. The others behind him followed suit. Soon all the soldiers had one voice.
Jeanny gave them a slight bow, “I sincerely give you all my thanks. Now, let us prepare!”
At the outside, Jack had relayed his plan to the others. During this brief respite, everyone had also recovered themselves using recovery potions added with the help of the two healer soldiers. They had also made sure their mounts were fully healed. They were now simply waiting for the news from the other side.
“We are ready, waiting for your cue,” Jack soon received Jeanny’s message.
“Great, wait for my cue,” Jack replied.
He then looked at the others, “it’s showtime.” Then to the prince, he asked, “are you ready?”
Prince Alonzo nodded, “I will do my best.”
Jack could see the resolute expression from the prince. The prince had always been the obedient type, but he also had the energetic temperament of a young adult, which had caused his eagerness to join the shock troops. Jack could see that he had matured a lot from the incident today. Men had lost their lives because of him, and this would happen again in the future. The prince could see now that this was his fate that came with his station.
“All right, let’s go!”
Ten of them rode out, including Jack and the prince, leaving eight who stayed behind in hiding. The ten had their mounts galloped at full speed towards the orcs army.
The orcs who were making preparation to send another wave into Barren Rocks, noticed the incoming humans. The leader who was a hulking orc carrying a giant crossbow on his back, huffed with a sneer, “what are those clowns doing?”
The other orcs started to laugh with ridicule hearing their leader’s comment. A team of ten people rushing at an army of at least nine hundred did appear comical.
“Send a squad to intercept them!” The leader said lazily before turning his attention back to organizing the units to wear down the human troops inside.
A squad of twenty orc soldiers came out to engage the ten incoming humans. Seeing this orc squad, the ten humans steered their mount sideways, avoiding the squad while still heading towards the orc army. The orcs at the perimeter of the army looked in confusion as they saw this small human team ran perpendicular to them, as a squad of their teammates chased after this team.
Those with good eyesight suddenly exclaimed. “Hey, isn’t that the human’s prince?”
