Chapter 13: Chapter 12: Consequences

[Red Lion Tribe]

In the chief's tent, three men were currently before Gervas. These three were those that yesterday fled from Darganth when their group had tried to cause trouble with the White Fang Clan. Among them, two were chained and forced to kneel on the ground, while the third stood next to them with nervous expression. Around them were quite a few of the tribes warriors, along with all of Gervas sons.

The atmosphere was gloomy as everyone present could see their chiefs anger. When he had received the news of his sons death a few hours ago, he was so enraged that his steps made deep craters in the camp due to him stomping around with his aura fully activated. While he had now calmed down somewhat, they still believed the three men to be dead men walking.

“What do you have to say to your defense?” Gervas asked after minutes of suffocation silence.

“Chief, we planned to return, we just didn't want to lead them to us.” One of the two in chains started, to which the other nodded in agreement.

“Didn't want to lead them here? Not only did you ran away while my son was killed and then tried to escape punishment by abandoning the tribe, now you also give such a stupid excuse? Even I can see that this dragon let you escape because he doesn't fear our retribution, not to follow you back. We are a giant patch of tents surrounded by grass, a flying creature could find us in a few minutes.” Gervas shouted in return, causing many of those present to wince.

“Bernard here at least had the bravery to return and report to me, but you two are a lost cause.” This addition made the two panic.

“Chief, we are still some of the most talented people in the tribe, we still have value even though we failed this one time. Give us another chance and we will redeem our mistake, we will show you that we aren't weak.”

“Idiots. You still think that you here because you failed, no you are here for betraying me. Failure will be met with punishment, yes. But betrayal will result in death.” With these words his body became encased in a hue of red aura, before he arrived in front of the two in an instant. Before they even realized what was happening, Gervas had already punched them through the chest. Without being protected by even a shred of aura, this attacked went through the entirety of their body with minimal resistance.

Shaking the blood from his arms, Gervas walked back to his throne before siting down. After a moment of thought he turned to the last of the three.

“For failing to protect my son you will be imprisoned for five years. This sentence was lowered due to the circumstances under which it happened and under consideration of the betrayal of your two colleges for the mission. For reporting your failure truthfully and informing me of the betrayal I will allow you to have company for one night a week. Bring him away.” These words let the man sigh in relieve. Without any resistance, he allowed himself to be escorted out by two of the guards.

After giving out this sentence, Gervas turned to the rest of those present. Now that this was dealt with, they had to decide how to proceed concerning the White Fang Tribe. While they knew that they were at a disadvantage, they wouldn't let the death of one of theirs be unanswered.

“Chief, I propose that we first try to pressure them by sending a delegation to demand reparations. We will tell them that should they deny us, we will spread word of them attacking and killing our heir during his visit to their camp.” Someone said while stepping forward.

“How? I doubt that they would believe it even if we only posed as a small tribe. Besides, the so called 'insignificant tribes' like us never have permanent communication with other tribes. How do you expect us to spread the word?”

“Yes, but didn't we only recently have someone from an important clan as guest? They wouldn't know whether or not he is still here and the danger of having a clan of bird beastmen spreading bad news about them is not something they can neglect.” This made most murmur words of approval, at least until Gervas spoke.

“Even if that were to happen, they are trying to reach one of the other continents. We could threaten them with a supreme clan and they wouldn't care.” This quickly destroyed this idea.

Clans are the term for groups that, contrary to tribes, consist of more than one race of beastmen. They are on average larger, better organized and more powerful. This is to the extent that at the highest designation for tribe and clan size there isn't even a tribe and most drop the designation of supreme tribe. The reverse is also true, with there being no insignificant clans and not even small clans. Both of these classifications don't correlate to the name of a tribe or clan, as there are may tribes with clan in their name, despite not being one, and most keep their original name even after rising or falling in importance.

“Then why not simply ignore them? Once they set sail, no there is no chance that another tribe learns of this and we will likely never meet them again.” Another proposed.

“Two of your brothers died and you want to ignore it?”

“It's not that I don't care, I just don't see the reason for any action. They died because they tried to provoke someone they couldn't handle and payed the price. Why should the rest of us also pay for their mistakes.” While some nodded in support of this idea, most were still furious at this proposal. Looking towards Gervas, they hoped for him to support them.

“While I agree that it was their fault, they were the two most talented among my children. While I know that your proposal is the most logical, we simply can't let our most talented men die and do nothing.” With these words from Gervas, every idea that would leave the White Fang Tribe be without any retribution was discarded.

After this there came no more good ideas for the next thirty minutes. Most ideas revolved around trying to pressure them to receive reparations, but failed in finding something to pressure them with. One even proposed to attack them directly, arguing that Gervas could kill a dragon, after all he managed to kill a wyvern.

This idea obviously received ridicule. Despite most believing that the wyvern was as large as depicted on the painting, they all knew the difference between a lesser dragon and a true dragon. Gervas himself was one of the ideas strongest critics, due to him fearing a dragons breath even more after Darganth's explanation why it was so dangerous to aura users. Of course Darganth still couldn't use his breath, but the fact that a dragon lacked this ability at birth wasn't widely known.

“So we have established that we have nothing to pressure them with and lack the power to win against them in an open fight, right?” One of them said after over half an hour of bad ideas, to which most nodded.

“Then why don't we simply get ourselves the reparations without asking or raiding their camp. For a tribe such as them to get a dragons help they probably had to pay at least all their treasures, so we would get none either way. Why not directly focus on the women? We are all aware that a few new toys are the best we can get from them and they are currently sending them into the forest in droves.” This idea quickly gained the support from most of those present.

While they would prefer some treasures, a few women as slaves was nearly as good. Compared to those from their own tribe, they could treat slaves as bad as they wanted. With this prospect on the table, they quickly decided on following this idea.

“But what if the dragon decides to take issue with that?” One of Gervas sons, the same that had proposed simply letting this matter be, asked.

“Why would he take issue with that? Dragons are greedy and lazy, he was probably tasked with protecting their camp and the ship. Even if they tried to change the deal, he will likely just ignore them or maybe even attack them in rage should they try to take back the treasures.”

“And you really think that a dragon would protect them just for the few treasures they could offer him? Because I at least doubt that they have found one that would draw his interest enough to help them this much. Thus they have likely offered something else as payment.” These words let the excitement die down quickly.

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They all knew of the rumors about the dragon races lustful nature, but they never even thought that the White Fang Tribe may have sold their women for their protection. Of course this wasn't the case, but they that they would do this themselves, thus they believed other would do so too. With the risk being to be on the wrong side of a dragons breath, the excitement for this idea quickly died down like it did over previous ideas.

“I have to agree with my son on this assessment. While it is unlikely that all of them were offered to him, but even one wrong target could doom us all.”

“But wouldn't they remain with him if they are his payment and not work? Then we would be fine as long as we only target the workers.”

“The risk remains too large. Besides, what are you going to do if some of them are the sisters or other family members of one he has taken a strong liking to? The effort it would likely take him to kill us is small and the incentive to do so would only need to be similarly small.” With these words the idea was shut down by Gervas.

“What if we try to convince the dragon to help us?” This idea lead to quite a few confuse faces.

“You want to pay the dragon to kill himself?” Someone asked after a few moments.

“No, I want to pay him to destroy the tribe. While yes, the one to kill both of the chiefs sons was said dragons, but I think it is clear by now that we have no chance on getting revenge against him. Thus I propose that we focus on the next best target.”

Hearing this idea, those present grew exited. In their mind, this may very well be their chance to grow as a tribe by emulating the White Fang Clan. If they can get a dragons help by offering him a few beauties, they could do the same. Like this, their idea snowballed based on a false assumption, growing larger and more ambitious.

After all, if they have the help of a true dragon, why couldn't they start making their way through the ranks. There were enough examples of a tribes success being based on a beasts help, with a few even having a dragon as support. While most would serve a normal fire dragon, one of the current supreme clans was known to be working with a solar dragon, the most powerful dragon species currently known to live on this planet and members of the cosmic lineage. This lineage of dragons is widely known to be one of the most powerful ones, partially due to their high numbers compared to other dragon species. Additionally, they also had more than enough power to deserve this title, with most species in the lineage being high tier ones.

While solar dragons aren't the most powerful ones among them, they are still incomparable to an intermediate tier dragon species like fire dragons, who are additionally one of the basic species that had one branch in every tier. This more common nature made them less feared due to their powers being better known as well as the normal elemental dragons being generally known as being some of the weakest in their tier.

While his tribesmen were discussing, Gervas was deep in his thoughts. While he hated that his two most talented sons died, his rage towards Darganth subsided when he realized that by working with him he may even learn how to reach the second order. Influenced by the discussion in front of him, his ambitions too started to explode. At their end he saw himself as a mythical rank aura user and magician at the same time, with only a dragon he would regularly gift a few treasures and women to standing above him.

After a while, the discussions started to grow out of hand, with the ambitions of different people clashing against each other. Slamming his hand on his thrones armrest, Gervas waited until they all calmed down before continuing.

“I believe that there is no opposition to this plan?” Receiving approval from all those present, he started giving out orders.

“Tibor, you are the most adept of us at stealth. I entrust you with the task of delivering our message to the dragon. But make clear that you indicate our interest in a more long term partnership.”

“Yes, father.”

“Then this meeting is dismissed. We will reconvene once Tibor brought us news.” With these words the group dispersed.

As soon as he left the tent, Tibor made his way out of the camp. While he wasn't the most talented of Gervas children, he was the oldest of them still living. Of course he was quite thankful that Darganth killed his brother, so he hoped that this meeting would be crowned with success. While he knew that the one to profit most would be his father, he was content with being just behind this.

Besides, there would come one day when Gervas died, even if only out of old age, and as long as he kept his second in line position he would then become chief. While it may only be a short reign due to him also being quite old then, he would be content with this. While he thought for a moment that his father could try to ascend, but he disregarded this possibility rather quickly.

This was because while the inhabitants of this wold didn't know of the Void Clans existence, they knew that every new ascended would die mysteriously. This quickly lead to legend saying that the heavens themselves didn't tolerate gods, with others being closer to the truth and believing in an unknown god killing them to prevent competition. Thus the beings of this world have come to terms with the fact that only some species could one day escape the tethers of time, while the rest could only keep running from it as even the most talented person couldn't extend his life indefinitely in the mythical rank.

With these thought he continued his way towards the White Fang Clan. Arriving there after only a handful hours, he started blending in with the shadows. This was one of the applications of darkness elemental aura, making the user harder to perceive. While it was very limited when used only with internal aura, it allowed someone trained in stealth like Tibor to sneak through the entire camp undetected. Having noticed the only solid house in this sea of tents made him quite sure of his target.

 

Darganth was meanwhile sitting in his house cross legged. He was in the middle of a conversation with Allaire when he had noticed Tibor approaching the camp. Deciding to entertain himself a bit by letting reach here, he told her the situation. Wanting to witness someone of the Red Lion Tribe probably debasing or embarrassing himself, she asked to stay. With a nod, Darganth created an illusion in one of the corners, allowing her to remain invisible as long it isn't seen through.

Then they stayed waiting like this until Tibor arrived. As soon as he touched the door, Darganth teleported him into the house, surprising him to the point of falling over his own feet in the attempt to jump back. Happy that he had also created a sound isolation around Allarie when he noticed it keeping her laughter from being heard in the entire room, he turned to his new guest.

“What does someone from the Red Lion Tribe want from me? Your mana signature indicates you as a family member of the last two idiots, so maybe revenge? Or a thank you for clearing your path to the chief title?”

“While it frustrates me quite a bit that you were able to find me, but I probably shouldn't have expected otherwise from a dragon. And yes, those two were my brothers but it matters little to me that they died. The reason I am here is because my father want's to offer you a deal.”

“Even after killing two of his children? Or does he simply care for power more than them?”

“He never cared for them because of anything but power. The more talented on of his children is, the more he cares for it. He hopes that we will one day reach his level, allowing our tribe to move to a mana denser region and allowing him to progress once more. Now that he has the chance to get this wish by relying on your help he wouldn't hesitate to abandon us.”

“If that is the case, I should probably not make any deal with him. After all, why would I trust someone who betrays others as soon as there is a better opportunity. Well then, what is your offer little beastmen?” At his questions Darganth noticed the short moment of thought in Tibor. This was exactly what he wanted, to seed even more rebellious thoughts in the tribe. Of course, only if it wouldn't hinder Serania, but that was easily solved in this case.

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