Dragon Gods Reign

[White Fang Clan]

Faced with Darganth's question, Tibor fell into thought. While he had accepted that he would only be second to his father in position, now the opportunity presented itself to change that. Of course he justified this idea to himself by saying that it would be better for the tribe as Darganth seemed to be strictly against working with Gervas.

Darganth was meanwhile watching this internal conflict in amusement. He didn't have any plans to work with either of them from the beginning, but he found the thought of causing chaos in the tribe quite amusing. While it would take much more to truly topple Gervas, that wasn't the goal from the beginning. After a few minutes, Tibor made his decision.

“I want to ask you for your support in bringing me and my tribe glory. I want you to help me become chief and protect us from outside threats. You only have to name your price and as long as it is in my abilities I will provide you with it.” Tibor asked while bowing.

“Take control first. I will only entertain the thought of helping you once you are chief. I don't care how you do it, but once you sit on that throne I will protect you in return for treasures.” Darganth said. His condition shocked Tibor. He had hoped to get help mainly against his father, but now he would have to overthrow him without this help.

“That is impossible. My father is in the second rank, not to mention has the support of the other warriors. I need your help if I want to succeed.” He pleaded. This made Darganth laugh.

“So what if he is a second rank? Without his aura active he is only slightly stronger than the average man. I don't care if you use poison or a sneak attack, if you aren't chief our deal is of. Of course that would mean that I will kill you because you sneaked into this camp while it is under my protection.” At those words his mouth twisted into a bloodthirsty smile. Recoiling in fear, Tibor tried to find a way out, finding the only one to be to agree.

“No, no, no. Of course I am going to do as you told me. I just had my hopes too high.”

“Then don’t disappoint me. Oh, and don't drag civilians into this, maybe there are some good looking women among them.” Saying those words, Darganth waved his hand and Tibor was teleported out of the camp.

Dropping the spells around Allaire, he found her laughing hard enough that she had to grasp for air. When she noticed Darganth looking at her, it took her nearly two minutes to collect herself again. Swiping away a few tears of laughter before turning to him.

“I hope I can watch the chaos this little plan of yours causes. Would be a shame to be already on our way by then.” She said and Darganth nodded in agreement.

“Lets just hope that he is as impulsive as I believe. Once I notice something, I will call you and then create a small portal to watch through.”

“The rarest element and you use it to watch a chaos you orchestrated. How wasteful.” She said with an exaggerated sigh. While she tried to remain serious, she didn't manage to keep this way for more than a few second before she started laughing again.

After a few second she again calmed her laughter. Thus, they just sat there in silence until she opened her arms and pulled him into a hug.

“But all jokes aside, I am thankful for letting me witness such a great scene. After having experienced such idiots for only a short while due to the two idiots of my tribe I have learned to hate men like this. Now, seeing such a man plead for help, even if it wasn't directed to me, just felt fantastic.” Saying those words, she kept her hug for a few minutes.

When they separated, Darganth noticed her slightly red face but before he could tease her with it she shot him a glare. Throwing her a teasing smile, she rolled her eyes before making her way to the door.

“Don't forget to tell me when the chaos starts.”

“Of course.” Hearing his reply, Allaire made her way back to her tent.

Letting herself fall onto the mattress on the ground, she started to think back to what happened. Despite being at an age where most beastmen women would have their first child, she never even had a boyfriend. A large part of this was due to one of the two Zalek brothers. While they were now just two of the many third order warriors among them, before the basilisk attack they were the two sons of one of their two peak second rank warriors.

It was well known that they were using this position to pressure women, there was little that they could do because their father protected them. Said brother had already taken a liking to her for a few years before the incident, but didn't dare to try and pressure her as she was well known for being the most talented member of he generation. Due to this, she became distrusting of men and kept her distance from them, something she tries to keep it hidden, especially since the attack.

While she could hold conversations with most, she would generally distrust them, thus avoiding them as much as possible. This together with her lack of experience with men due to other not wanting to offend the brothers lead to her current trouble of finding what exactly her feelings for Darganth are.

Despite thinking about it for nearly an hour before she fell asleep, she didn't come closer to an answer. The only thing she knew was that it wasn't simply friendship, but she didn't know whether it was love and if she was even ready for it.

Like this, multiple week passed. During this time Darganth would periodically observe the Red Lion Tribe for any changes. Yesterday he had noticed that Tibor was picking up the pace with which he developed his plans, leading him to believe the chaos to start in the coming few days.

He also used these opportunities to observe Serainia's progress, finding her to have reached the third order. While it was far from unheard of, taking only a bit over two months to reach the third order was still at the speed of an average genius. Of course she had the advantage of not having to learn how to condense the symbols, but it was still hard to grow ones mana this much without treasures and in such a bad environment.

His own strength was meanwhile still progressing at a snails pace. While these words would cause all magicians and aura users to curse him, after all he had to do nothing for this and even ignored the regions limitations on supporting growth just barely into the second rank. But to him it was quite a step back from reaching this far in barely a month.

The only good news for him was that he started to gain some insight into the speed he was growing with, leading him to be quite sure that his mana heart would start forming in around eight months. While it would only reach to the full power of a high tier species mana heart for now, with even this taking another year, he would be one step closer to regaining his power. This also made him aware of the rough factor his aging is increased by, with it being around one year since his rebirth by then which meant he aged five times as fast.

The tribes situation was meanwhile growing better by the moment. A few days ago, Darganth had notified them that he would be ready to set sail in about a week, something that was four days from now. With the ship being finished since two week ago, they had been nervous how long they would still have to remain here.

Making the next of his, by now hourly, checks on the Red Lion camp, he noticed Tibor and a group making their was to Gervas. Smiling, he called Allaire. Finding it quite lucky that he managed to be able to watch it entirely, he created a couch. When she arrived, Allaire instantly noticed the portal showing what was happening in the camp and sat down next to him.

At the same time she arrived, Tibor had just started enacting his plan. Unaware of the portal covered with illusions to make it invisible, he and his men marched into his fathers tent. Not even thinking they would try to stage a coup, Gervas only raised an eyebrow in irritation.

“Why do you march into my tent unannounced?”

“Because you rule is over. You have been sitting on this throne of yours for so long that you have lost your drive. You still want to rule over all others, but you don't want to work for it. As soon as I control the tribe, we will take our rightful place and reach a level of power unfathomable for you.” At Tibors words, the men around him drew their weapons.

“HAHAHA, you truly believe you can usurp me? Have you forgotten that I am someone in the second rank?” Gervas said mockingly.

When his son simply smiled, he grew slightly cautious. While he never shared it with anyone for obvious reasons, he was well aware that the line between the first and second rank is thinner than most believe. Just the fact that before the mythical stage the body's strength differ only slightly, something that is easily overcome with numbers was enough of a danger. While there were differences, it at least an entire rank between two people for it to matter when one party couldn't use aura.

Additionally there were uncountable other ways to bridge the gap and while he found it unlikely that his son found such a method, it wasn't impossible. Even just with enough skill or power difference could be enouh to overcome the advantage that external aura provided him. While he would always win against a first rank opponent who had the same aura quality, if his enemy had an aura quality that was higher by a margin large enough he would be in trouble.

“Then what is it that gives you the confidence in winning against me? You should very well know that it would take dozens of you to threaten me.”

“Do you hope that you can still save yourself if you know our source of confidence? Too bad that the poison has already reached quite far into you system.”

When he heard his sons words followed by a wave of laughter, Gervas grew nervous. While someone in the second rank, especially an aura user, would be able to resist poisons with greater ease there is a reason why the poison element exists. While it isn't limited to only poison, also encompassing illnesses, venom, acids and other similar things with even things like healing drugs falling under this element, poison is a large part of it. Legends say that those at the peak of this element can make entire worlds devoid of life with just one drop of their creation, while also rejuvenating them in a similar manner.

Letting aura curse through his body, he quickly found the poison leading to a smile creeping itself onto his face. While he would take quite long to completely recover, the damage it is currently doing is rather low. Seeing his fathers smile, Tibor started to grow nervous.

“He is just bluffing. Attack him and force his attention away from trying to recover.” With this shout, he and his men drew their weapons.

Doing the same, Gervas directly used external aura, leading to his body being encased by a green energy. Darganth who was watching instantly noticed that the reason why he used the poison element was that it was the only way for Gervas to slow the spread long enough to deal with his attackers.

This naturally brought a smile to his face. Most aura users would rarely use this element due to its rather low physical enhancement effect, with only the psychic element being worse. Of course they had other advantages, but these were more situational or needed its user to specialize in them. This coupled with Gervas rather low affinity for it made his aura weaker than usual.

While his attackers were not aware of this, Gervas was. Coupled with his limited time, this forced him to act fast. Jumping back, he picked up his sword leaning against his throne. Just as he reached it, he noticed one of the attackers trying to get him before he had a weapon. Laughing at this stupid move from his assailant, he swung the great-sword in his hand with a wide arc. Realizing his mistake too late, the man was cleaved in two due to his two daggers not even delaying the blow for any meaningful amount of time.

This early setback brought the rest of the group back to reality quite quickly. Even if poisoned, their opponent was still a second rank individual. Grouping up close together, the two with shields among them stood at the front, while the rest stayed behind them in cover. Instead of wasting their lives, they wanted to force Gervas to wast time, which would make the poison spread further. So with the time being on their side, they kept to a defensive strategy.

Gervas obviously realized their plan and started searching for a was around it. When he didn't find one after a few second, he opted for a direct approach. Closing the distance with a single step, he swung his sword with all his might, but was stopped by the two shields. While one of them alone would have been blown away, as soon as his strike connected the other one of them helped his college.

Despite this they were forced to take multiple steps back, only stopping when they bumped into those behind them and got help from them. This was lucky for Gervas, as these people had planned to attack him during the opening he would leave but were forced to help their comrades. Smiling, he prepared another strike, this time vertically instead of horizontally. This would force the shield users to either dodge or be pushed down and destroying their stance.

Bringing his sword down, he watched as both raised their shields to block his attack, while those behind them started surrounding him. While they wanted to stay defensive, they would strike when an opportunity presented itself. When his strike made contact with the shields, Gervas suddenly smiled. Before his two targets were fully recovered, the color of his aura changed to a lighter green.

With speed incomparable to before, Gervas sword was swung a second time, this time striking the two men directly. Before they could realize what was happening, they shared the first attackers fate. Of course the surrounding men didn't waste this opportunity, swinging their weapons at Gervas and resulting in many cuts on his skin. This short moment of changing his aura element also allowed the poison to progress much faster than before, weakening him further.

After this, the fight became more bloody by the second. Without any way to defend themselves now, the attackers focused on dealing as much damage as possible. Gervas was meanwhile cleaving through their ranks. Every one of his strikes would at least seriously wound one of them, but the wounds on his body also started to grow in number and severity.

After just over one minute, the number of men in the tent who were still alive was reduced to four. Emboldened by the wounds they have inflicted, one of them went for a wide swing at Gervas side. Bringing his blade up, he blocked it just like every other truly dangerous strike up until now. Smiling, he started putting force behind his blade, slowly pushing the attacker away.

While the man's expression became one of fear, Gervas smile became more bloodthirsty by the moment. Within two second, the man was pushed back to a piece of furniture, when his expression changed to a grin. Feeling a sense of danger, Gervas threw himself to the right, just in time for him to witness a sword reaching where his heart was just a moment ago.

Despite his fast reaction, the attack still cut into his arm, severing it nearly. Seeing Gervas rage filled face, the man started backing away as his swords remained stuck. With a swing that contained his full strength, Gervas brought his sword down on the man's head with enough force that it lodged itself into the ground. Just as he wanted to pull it back out, he felt exetreme pain from his left arm.

“ARGGGH” Howling in pain, Gervas turned around to see the man he had initially cornered twist the sword in his arm. Not even considering the consequences, he turned around and with the full might of a second rank individuals punch, he carved in the man's face.

Just when his fist connected, he felt another wave of pain but ignored it. Now free to deal with his son, he turned around to find him laughing on the ground. He hap purposefully left his son alive during his earlier attacks, only making him unable to fight. Just as he wanted to ask what was so funny, a group burst into the tent.

Despite the heated battle earlier, the people outside didn't think anything was wrong, after all the only ones to cry out were some tribesmen and the chiefs son. Not wanting to also be on the receiving end of this, they stayed outside. But the moment they heard their chiefs cry of pain, they knew something was wrong.

When they stepped inside, their expressions became full of shock, when they lay eyes on Gervas left arm. Confused, he followed their gaze, just to find his arm missing. Realizing that when he had turned his body to the last man, the man had held onto the sword, making it sever his arm. Additionally, it also cut into his left upper body, cutting deep enough into his ribcage that the wound reached to his lungs.

Now realizing why his son was laughing like this, his rage grew. While the wound in his lungs was already dangerous enough, probably reducing his abilities quite a bit should he find no way to heal it, but the loss of an arm was even more serious. While mages could still cast as long as they had mana, with some also needing to speak, the loss of an arm meant a considerable loss in capability for aura users.

Noticing his consciousness slip, he forced himself to stay awake for one last thing. Calling upon all of his remaining strength, his foot descended on his sons face. Only vaguely seeing the skull cave in and paint the tents walls, he lost consciousness due to a combination of the poison, exhaustion and his blood loss.