Chapter 7: Chapter 6: Meeting another tribe

[White Fang Clan]

By now, two days have passed since the ice-bears attack. While they were comparatively lucky, the losses they received were still too great for any of them to be in a good mood. Nearly one fourth of their fighting force died, many of whom had family who were now grieving. While there were those lucky enough to loose no family members, they too were not in a particularly good mood.

This was because apart from the suffering it caused, the loss of those warriors would hinder their progress on escaping this continent. Because of this, Elastan called for the surviving third order warriors among them to convene and discuss their future plans. While he knew that a few of them had lost someone important, he had to ask of them to put the tribe above themselves, despite knowing the pain they felt.

Even though they would love nothing more than to grieve, they all knew his sentiment to be true, thus every third order warrior was present at this meeting. Now they had to decide how to continue onwards. When Allaire walked in, she noticed that she was the last one to arrive.

“Good to see you arrive Allaire. Now that we are all present, I think it is time that we should start.” Elstan said when he saw the only archer among them arrive in the tent.

“Yes.” With these words, Allarire sat down.

“I believe that you are all aware how grave the current situation is, with nearly a fourth of our fighting force dead and nearly as many wounded. If we tried to continue like we did previously, we are probably not going to survive long enough for the construction to finish.” At Elstan's words, they all nodded.

“That is why I hoped that we could find some solutions. Any ideas?” He asked after a short pause.

The rest of those present started whispering among each other. While they knew that this question would come up during this meeting, their situation is that bad, that none of them managed to think of any good solution.

“How about we act as a decoy? While the civilians are being protected by the rest of the tribe, we unleash our full aura a bit further in the forest. This should at least reduce the amount of attacks.” One of them proposed after a while.

“And possibly gain the attention of a second rank beast? Then we could directly walk into their maw.”

“But we don't know if there are second rank beasts in this area. Besides, why would a second rank beast even care for first rank individuals like us?”

“Because we are not beasts. They may ignore lower rank beasts intruding on their territory, but not us.”

“You still didn't answer why we should fear a probably nonexistent second rank beast.” By now the discussion between the two became more and more heated.

“Enough!” Elstan shouted.

“While it would be an extremely stupid thing to do under normal circumstances, in our current situation taking such a risk and hoping that there is no second order beast in the area is maybe the best we can do. But first lets try finding a better plan. Alright?”

““Yes.””

Thus the meeting continued with idea after idea discussed, but it became increasingly clear that they had to rely purely on luck to survive.

“Maybe we should discuss once more the idea of pooling our resources and helping one of us to the second rank?” One of them said after a while. While most murmured approval to this idea, it was not the first time it was brought up and each time the idea failed.

“And you want that to be you, am I right?” Elstan asked.

“Of course. My father was one of our third order aura soldiers, it is clear that I too have the potential to archive at least that rank.”

“Yes, your father was one of our only two second rank individuals that archived the third order in it, but we are all well aware to what extend you exploited this fact. I believe I speak for everyone except you and your brother when I say that none of us want you to hold that position.” At these words there was another round of approval.

“You want to risk our clan just because you disapprove of our actions?” The man next to the original speaker shouted.

“Not just because we disapprove, but because nearly the entire tribe disapproves. You two have extorted them for years, forced yourselves on women and then used your father as a shield. You can be happy that we didn't kill you the moment your father died. Be happy with your second chance and be content with us ignoring your prior offenses because of the help your power provides.” Another one of those present shouted.

“This goes nowhere, once again. How about ignoring this idea once more and try asking for outside help?” At these words, everyone present looked towards Allaire.

“Outside help? Who? We don't even know if there are any tribes in the area, not to mention have never had contact with them. Why would they even help us?” One of the brothers asked with contempt.

“I'm not proposing to ask a tribe for help.”

“Who else? The beasts? They may become more intelligent, but before the third order this is not to a level where we could communicate. Even if there were a third order species beast present, why would it help us?”

“Of course there is probably no third order species beast in the area. But we know of a mythical species, don't we?” These words shocked those present. They quickly understood the implications these words held, but it was nearly as insane as asking a beast for help.

“You want to ask that dragon for help? Even if it doesn't directly kill us, why would it help us?” One of those present asked.

“Maybe she hopes that Dragons are as lustful as the story's say and plans to sell herself.” One of the brothers said with a laugh.

“Now you two are against a women sleeping with someone against her will? Do you fear competition? But no, I hope that he plans to reach the dragon peaks.” While the first half of her sentence resulted in a few chuckles, when she finished most of those present seriously thought about this idea.

While dragons are found across the entirety of the world, with them being sighted on all four continents, most of the dragons of the Sunspike species reside at the so called 'dragon peaks'. Due to them being a high tier species, while the other known dragon species is only an intermediate dragon species, they are often the focus point when something pertains dragons. While it is often debated why this mountain range that exists close to the center of the central continent was like this, its nature as a hub for dragons is well known. 

“That might be worth a try.” Elstan said after a while.

“Allaire, as this was your idea, can I entrust you with making this journey? I would give you some more men to take with you, but we need everyone we can get to help defend the camp.”

“Of course chief.”

“Then lets discuss whether we should implement the decoy plan, while Allaire is on her way, or not?” With these words from Elstan, the discussion continued. When the meeting ended about two hours later, they had decided on following the plan, with a few small modifications, while Allaire would try to find and convince Darganth to help them.

[Darganth's cave]

Darganth was currently in his cave, oblivious to the tribe hoping to include him in their trip. During the time since he hunted down the ice-bears, he found little new prey. While he was still at the second order as an apprentice magician, the first rank of magicians, by now his mana quality reached high enough to qualify as a third order aura trainee. Currently he plans on bringing both back to the same level, before focusing on the three aspects of control.

While all three, namely control power, speed and accuracy, are not required for the first rank, they grow in importance until they are nearly as important as the two aspects of mana in the higher ranks. Luckily for him, he doesn't need to concern himself with the requirements for affinity that start at the third rank, something that would be quite complicated on the beast continent.

Due to the lack of beasts that offer him any worthwhile benefit by hunting them, he currently spends more time with the more traditional methods of increasing his mana pool. For this, he was currently lying in his cave, absorbing the surrounding mana to increase his own. While it was slow due to the areas low mana density, there was still barely enough mana to support him for a while longer. As long as nothing happens that influences the mana level, he should be able to barely reach the second class here.

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While he could continue, a lack of mana would mean that he would have to drain it from a larger area to increase his mana pool. Mana quality was slightly less limited as it consists of the purity and density of a beings mana, making it possible to increase it with only the mana someone has, but it was still quite a bit slower in areas with lower mana density.

Already making plans whether he should move towards the continents center, stay at the cost or make his way to one of the other continents, he noticed a beastmen at the third order nearing the mountain. Focusing on the presence, he notices it to be no member of the While Fang Clan, instead a mana signature unknown to him. Intrigued, he made his way towards the newcomer.

Once he flew closer, he noticed that the man was accompanied by a group of beasts. While these beasts were only at the second order, it was still uncommon for beasts of any kind to serve another, especially a humanoid. While stronger beasts could lord over weaker ones, this was either withing the same species or sometimes even just in the same clan, or the weaker beasts had quite a large amount of freedom, with only the direct intervention of said lord serving as any kind of deterrent.

Now he found a group of four different kind of beasts, all following a singly beastmen. When Darganth reached close enough to the group, he directly noticed the artifact on the beastmen's right hand. Focusing on it, he found a bracelet with five small mana tethers, four going to the beasts heads. Quickly identifying it as a mental control spell that continuously affected the target, it became clear why the beasts followed a humanoid.

After a short moment, Darganth decides to ignore him. While a contact with this tribe may bring benefits, it was more likely that the beastmen would try to use his artifact on him. Before he could turn around and fly back to his cave, he notices a spell being cast in the vicinity. Focusing on it, he finds the vines reaching towards him just in time to dodge.

Searching for the source of the attack, he found it to be one of the beasts accompanying the beastmen. Annoyed by this interruption, he flew down towards them. 

“Do you really think that a stupid beast such as you could escape me?” The beastmen asked mockingly.

“Escaping? No you were just not worth my time.” Darganth's answer, shocking the man. To be able to speak, a beast had to be at least a third rank species. 

“This is even better. With a third rank species I am guaranteed to win the succession.” With these words, he tried to control Darganth with his artifact. Despite being so weak that he didn't even need to defend himself against it actively, this enraged Darganth.

“It seem that you have a death wish!” With these words Darganth filled his body with aura and charged at the man. While the three beasts tried to stop him, he managed to reach his target faster than they could react. With a single swing from his claws, the arm with the bracelet was cut above the elbow.

“Argh!” Shouting in pain, the man tries to back away from Darganth. Finding his back pressed against a tree, he swung his other arm. Letting the aura enhanced strike harmlessly pass by him, Darganth tore into the man's abdomen. 

“You will regret this. My father is a second rank individual. As soon as he hears of this, he will hunt you down!” The beastmen shouted slightly paniced. 

“Only if he hears of this. I think that these four will not let you live long enough for that to happen.” At Darganth's words the man noticed that his former pets looked at him with rage in their eyes. Backing away, he was once more blocked by the tree behind him.

Seing the man look at him with terror in his eyes, Darganth simply grinned and turned away. Focusing on the man's tracks, he followed their direction to find his tribe. While he had nothing against them, he had noticed the artifact sending a message and didn't want to wait for them to attack him. And maybe he could get some nice treasure. 

Flying for nearly an hour, he found a large camp in a clearing in the forest. Diving down a few hundred meters away, he used a dragons innate polymorph ability to transform himself into an eagle-beastmen. A secondary ability of polymorp is the creation of clothes out of mana during the transformation, which he used to create a simple leather armor.

The reason why he transformed into an eagle-beastmen while the tribe consists of lion-beastmen was that they would find out if someone new was among them. Additionally, beastmen descending from animals other than mammals were rarer and often held more specialized abilities, in the case of birds the ability to fly. This lead to them being respected quite a bit more as their tribes often had good relations with many powerful tribes who were in need of these abilites. Nearing the camp, he was quickly spotted by the guards as he didn't even try to conceal himself.

“Who are you?” They shouted, pointing their weapons towards him.

“I'm a traveler who saw your camp. I had hoped to share some information with you in exchange for a few days of shelter.”

“What information?”

“About some powerful beasts in the area.” Looking at each other, one of the guards lowered his weapon and motioned for Darganth to follow him.

“I'll bring you to the chief. If your information is good enough he may let you stay here for a while.” With these words the man started walking towards the camp.

Following him, Darganth inspected the camp and noticed it to be poorly defended. While the short distance to the forest already wondered him as it allows to get extremely close while still in cover, the rest of the camp was by no means better. The wall surrounding it was two meters high, but consisted of only long pieces of wood stuck into the ground. While enough against normal humans and most animals, any beast, aura user and magician would have an easy time simply barging through it.

The camps inside was no much better, with it being packed extremely densely, having just enough space between the tents to allow two people walking next to each other. Additionally it was completely packed, leading to chaos everywhere. In the case of an attack, this would be a complete death trap.

During his way he noticed that nearly all members of the tribe had very few beast features. The only thing that differentiated them from humans without doubt were their sharp teeth. While their hair that was red among every tribe member would attract attention, red hair wasn't unheard of. Besides these two features they looked exactly like humans, lacking even the ears atop their head most beastmen descended from dog and cat related species had.

When they reached the center, this packed nature started to clear somewhat. The tent they were currently walking towards was nearly twice the size of every other tent, with quite a bit of space around it. Balking past the two guards standing at the entrance, Darganth stood in what looked like a throne room.

Encompassing the space of nearly half of the tent, it was decorated with many different trophy’s. While most were skulls, one of these was a painting, depicting a man slaying a Wyvern. Below this painting stood a throne, raised slightly above the ground. On it sat a man looking similar to the one depicted on the painting, surrounded by multiple women.

Ignoring them, Darganth focused on the man, finding him to be a first order aura soldier. Quite sure that this is the father of the beastmen he encountered in the forest, he inwardly laughed at him for bragging with a second rank person that was only at the first order.

“So I am told that you have some information for me?”

“Yes, I have quite good information.”

“Very well, then tell me and I, Gervas, will allow you to stay here for a few days.”

“I first want to know for how long you offer me to stay, that will decide the amount of information you get.” At Darganth's words most of the surrounding guards grew nervous. After all, they knew of their chiefs temper. The chief meanwhile raised his eyebrow and started unleashing his aura pressure.

“Who are you?” He asked when he noticed Darganth to be completely unaffected by it.

“My name is Darganth, but that is probably not what you mean with your question. What you probably want to know is that I am a third order apprentice magician.” At this answer Gervas raised his eyebrow. On the beast continent magicians were rare, even more so than in the rest of the world. This is because, while aura can be learned without a teacher, magic required its user to learn the different spells. Of course having a teacher in aura would neerly alway quicken ones advancement. 

This leads to a higher number of aura users at lower ranks, because most would teach magic only if they were sure that this investment was worth it, meaning that they would only teach those that have a certain amount of talent. While they would nearly guaranteed reach the higher ranks, most aura users would be forever stuck at low ranks, leading to less of a number difference in higher ranks. This was even more so the case on the beast continent due to the lack of large scale teaching facilities, leading to only larger clans having magicians among them.

Seeing this doubt, Darganth projected the tree magic symbols on his heart outwards. Due to its completely risk free nature, this is the most common way aura users and magicians show their rank and order to others.

“Truly a magician. Your kind are rare around here, may I ask what your objective is?” Gervas asked, visibly friendlier. 

“I would prefer it to remain a secret.” At these words Gervas nodded. While he still showed no respect, Darganth's identity made him overlook this. This was because magicians were normally stronger than aura users, at least before the mythical rank. The main reason for this is that magic is more versatile than aura. Additionally, its range and power advantage overshadowed auras lower energy usage. While aura has the advantage of being less reliant on resources or the mana density in the area, this wouldn't help in a fight. While it was rare for this difference to be enough to allow a magician skip orders, not to mention ranks, they would still be hard to kill despite this advantage.

“While I can offer you only three days of stay as we are planning to move to the coast after this time, but I believe that the offer of treasures would be enough to bridge this gap and give us the full information you have.”

“Of course.” Darganth answered with a smile. The entire reason why he didn't just kill the chief was that he feared the treasures to be destroyed in their fight. Having them offered to him was even better than his original plan to use his space magic to steal them. 

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