《Lucas Everton》 Prologue - The Begining The world of Aeterna was a world of magic and fantasy. You had your typical fantasy world setting. There were Elves, the proud, beautiful, forest loving ancient long living race of people with pointy ears. There were beastmen of all types. There were demons with their thirst for blood and war. There were dwarves who loved to work with metals. There were brutal green skinned but stupid orcs. There were all kinds of beasts like hydras, chimeras, wyverns and finally the all powerful rulers of skies, the Dragons. Of course what kind of place is it without any humans. They are the most abundant of them all spanning many kingdoms. When you are struggling for survival the only thing you want is to survive. You are not greedy, you are not prideful, you are not arrogant. You will be content with what you have. When the living gets comfortable things start to change. You have a lot of pent up energy. You have a lot of time to relax, to think. Some people think good things. But the thoughts of others turns the wrong way. Greed, Envy, Jealousy, etc. You will never be comfortable with what you have. You will always want more. These things happen to every race. Perhaps a little bit more in humans. They started fighting each other and other races. Sometimes peace treaties will be made. Sometimes they will go for the blood of yesterdays allies. It''s kind of an on and off thing. There will never be true peace. There were times of great strife but now those are past us. Now it''s moderaively peaceful times. The world can be cruel. You can survive either using your brains or perhaps your strength. But sometimes there comes along people who can be said to be the absolute powerhouses. Beings capable of shifting the power balance of the world. Magic made it possible in this world. But then again they are so rare that those are considered myths. Dragons are one of those exceptions. Nothing escapes a dragons wrath. Mere mortals cannot outshine a dragon. But sometimes there will come beings from every race capable of facing even the mighty dragons. Humans call them heroes. Orcs call them warlords. Elves call them their guardians. Demons call them lords. We are gonna talk about two such beings. Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. Once upon a time there was an evil king. He was rotten to the core. He married many and killed them off through slow torture. His latest victim was a young girl whom he took fancy for. But that changed the fate of him and his entire kingdom. The parents of the girl were beings of great power. They were called heroes once. They were heartbroken when they knew of this and they attacked the kingdom and vowed to kill the king. They faced off against massive armies and won. They killed the corrupt king and his corrupt officials. They returned peace to the kingdom. They elected a new just king. One who would correct the mistakes of the old one. The father was called The War God Azriel and the mother was called The Arcane Goddess Eva. One was an absolute weapons master and the other was a godly magician.After that they just disappeared. They lived for years in isolation inside a forest. Nobody knew where they where. Also nobody dared to enter that cursed forest anyway. They had their peaceful life for years. But it is said that nothing good lasts forever. One day a very distressed and wounded lady trying to escape assassins entered into the forest. She had a small bundle in her hand. She was protecting it from her pursuers. The old couple managed to kill off the assassins but were unable to save the woman. The bundle was safe and it contained a small child. And that would be me........ Chapter 1 - The Training Inside that great forest there was a small stream. On the banks of it there was a clearing. In the middle of the clearing there was a small thatched hut. In front of the hut there an old man standing and leaning on a stick. The stick was just an ordinary stick and it was about the length of an ordinary sword. You could say it looks like he has a walking stick in his hand. He had a long white beard and white hair. His face was too wrinkly that it looked ancient. Not the kind of sick wrinkles but dignified ones. It feels like each and every wrinkle in his face was made by a master sculptor. His eyes was crystal clear and radiated a kind of majesty that you won''t even find in dragons. He was wearing a kind of long gown and it was fluttering in the gentle wind. His eyes were fixed on a little 6 year old kid in front of him. The boy had black hair and black eyes. He looked cute like all normal six year old. His upper body was bare and it glistened with sweat. You could see that he was a little lean and fit for a 6 year old. He was handling a wooden sword for his size. That child is me. My grandpa was teaching me how to handle a sword. Grandpa: "You should see a sword as an extension of your arm. At the same time you should wield it with precision and grace so that it should look flowing. Each motion you make with the sword should be like flowing water. Calm and quiet but terrifyingly powerful if needed. You must feel each and every movement it makes as it cuts through the air. Understand that and improve it. Find out the best way to move your sword from one point to the other." My grandpa was Azriel The War God. He is a true weapons master. His knowledge about weapons is second to none. He says nobody has bested him in battle with weapons. I don''t know about it as I have never seen anybody other than grandpa and grandma. But as a reincarnated person I know that grandpa is absolutely a monster when it came to fighting. The way he wields his weapons is truly breathtaking. Yes I died in my previous life and reincarnated in this place. I was from earth where there is no magic or monsters. So these things are fairly new to me. Also I don''t know why, after being reincarnated my comprehension power went through the roof. I was an average guy back in earth but in here I could grasp most things my grandpa and grandma says fairly quickly. Azriel: "You have become proficient in wielding the sword, Lucas. I must say you have greatly improved in such a short time. But there''s still a lot to go. And that would years worth of practice." Yup they named me Lucas Everton. Grandpa was Azriel Everton and Grandma was Eve Everton. Lucas: ¡°Why don''t you teach me some of your sword moves grandpa.¡± Azriel: ¡°That won''t do Lucas. I am not teaching you how to dance. I am teaching you how to wield a weapon, how to survive with it. The flashy moves, you have to create them yourself. Remember the feel of a weapon. Make yourself one with it and soon you will understand the infinite opportunities on how to wield. Don''t worry I will guide you through it. We will constantly spar molding you through real battle experience. Be very careful boy, I don''t know how to be lenient.¡± At that time we heard some rustling from the edge of the clearing. An old lady with a gentle and calm countenance emerged from the woods. That peaceful atmosphere was broken by the emergence of huge black bear floating besides her. It had a bloody hole through its heart. The wound was cauterized. That old lady that looked so lovely was my grandma. She should have been an absolute beauty when she was younger. Today it was her turn to procure the food. Things like these should be very easy for her as she was an awesome magician. Azriel: ¡°Just in time Eva. Let me help with that¡± With that he went to haul that bear over his shoulders and went to the backyard to skin the animal and prepare the meat. My grandma came to me with a loving smile. Eva: ¡°How''s your sword training coming along Lucas?¡± Lucas: ¡°It''s going great grandma¡± I replied with the brightest smile I could muster. Eva: ¡°mmmm. Maybe I should start teaching you magic.¡± Yes finally. I have been asking her to start teaching me magic for years. All these times she would say that I am not ready. That my body was not fit enough to properly control mana. Contrary to what I believed from my previous life wizards are not glass cannons that only knows to shoot magic. They should be physically fit enough to control huge amounts of mana. The body is like a battery. If the battery does not have enough capacity it would explode from electricity overload. I showed an overly eager expression to what she was saying. Eva: ¡°Before you learn from me, you should go wash yourself and eat. After that I will teach you.¡± Lucas: ¡°Okay grandma¡± After saying that I ran to the stream to wash myself. A refreshing meal was waiting for me inside the house. Both my grandparents are great cooks. The bear meat spiced with herbs and also some potatoes and other vegetables we had an awesome feast. As I was relaxing from the refreshing meal my grandma called me. Eva: ¡°Lucas now I will teach you all about mana¡± I sat cross legged on the floor facing my grandparents. I was perhaps a little bit overexcited at the prospect of learning magic. They smiled at my enthusiasm. Eva: ¡°Mana is energy. It is all pervasive and omnipresent. That means it is in everything and everywhere. It can be divided into two. Internal Mana and External Mana. Internal Mana is what we have and what we can control. External mana is the mana around us. They are two main ways of using mana while creating spells. The first is solely relying on your internal mana. The advantage of this method is that you can instacast spells. You don''t need to rely on anything. Everything you create from internal mana is only dependent on your will and imagination. And also your mana capacity. Now mana capacity is not fixed brith. A lot of people used to think that mana capacity is unchangeable from birth. That is simply not true. You could increas it through meditation and exhaustion training. You only have to have a certain aptitude for it and the will to do hard work. Without hard work becoming a mage is impossible for everybody. It becomes progressively harder as it goes. You should always work hard Lucas. Never ever slack off¡± If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. Lucas: ¡°Yes Grandmother¡± I replied with an earnest expression puffing my little chest out. She smiled and continued. Eva: ¡°As I said controlling your internal mana is comparatively easy. You could will it to any elements of your wish. It will do your bidding. The other way for spell casting is using the mana around you. It is not easy to do so. If you want to cast wide area of effect spell you need to rely on the mana outside. For that you have to ignite the external mana with your internal mana. To do that you ''might'' need the help of chants, runes, artifacts, etc.¡± Lucas: ¡°Might?, So is it possible to do that without the help of those things grandma?¡± Azriel: ¡°Hohoho, he is very bright, isn''t he Eva¡± Grandma just smiled lovingly at me and said. Eva: ¡°Yes he is. He is my dear Lucas the genuis. It''s as you said Lucas. Controlling external can also be done with your will. For that you should have a necessary amount of control over your internal mana to start of the ignition and also the necessary mana purity¡± Lucas: ¡°How do I purify my mana Grandma¡± Eva: ¡°Oh that''s simple, meditation. You feel the flow of mana within your body and guide it through your mana channels and your mana core. It will get purified automatically.¡± Lucas: ¡°Mana core?¡± Eva: ¡°That''s like the heart or container for your mana. It doesn''t have any physical existence. But it is pictured that way so that you could purify and control it. Also you should work hard to make your mana core bigger and denser. Cause that''s how improve your mana capacity¡± Lucas: ¡°Then how do I improve my mana control?¡± Eva: ¡°You have to practice and work hard for that. You should strife towards perfection during spell casting. Only using the optimum amount for a spell of particular strength. In other words Optimum Mana conversion. When you achieve it you could cast spells with precision mana control thus avoiding any kind of mana wastage¡± Lucas: ¡°Wow it feels awesome. I can''t wait to start.¡± Eva: ¡°For that you should detect your mana core purify it and also at the same time start absorbing external mana into your body and assimilate it with your core. Remember when you do this you shouldn''t recklessly absorb mana or else your core will shatter and you will die.¡± Grandma said in a serious tone. That''s scary. I should be careful about this. Seeing my frowning expression she smiled and said. Eva: ¡°You don''t have to worry. The only thing you have to remember is stop when its painful.¡± Lucas: ¡°So grandma how does the capacity of your core increase.¡± Azriel: ¡°Physical and Magical exhaustion¡± Eva: ¡°Yes, the more powerful your body becomes the more mana you can absorb and more mana you use the more bigger your core becomes which is called exhaustion training.¡± Lucas: ¡°Then according to that doesn''t Grandpa here should have more mana right?¡± Eva: ¡°Yes he has more a little bit more internal mana than me¡± Lucas: ¡°What? But I thought you have bigger mana capacity because you are the mage¡± Azriel: ¡°That is true Lucas. Physically she is nowhere near as strong as me but even then her mana capacity is similar to mine. Also she has better sense towards understanding mana than me. I only use it to enhance my body and my weapons. Whereas she can do all sorts of things with it. Also the way she can manipulate mana is unparalleled even among the magically superior elves.¡± Lucas: ¡°Wow¡± Eva: ¡°Well that aside you should focus on meditation to realize your mana core¡± Lucas: ¡°Okay grandma¡± I closed my eyes and started to concentrate. I don''t know if it''s this easy or not. I could clearly picture my mana core and mana channels only after 5 minutes. It was a kind of vibrant energy. It can be the color you imagine it to be. So I imagined it to be white. I started circulating it through my whole body and my channels. I could feel my body undergoing changes as the mana coursed through it. Each and every cell in my body started consuming the mana like crazy. My body started undergoing qualitative changes. The muscles were becoming tighter and my bones were becoming more powerful. After I have completely exhausted my mana, I start absorbing it from the outside. I can sense the outside mana if I exert my mind to look outside of my body. All the mana in the immediate vincity starting to flow towards me. Very soon I was full. Then I started the mana channeling process again. This repeated itself for about 7 times until I was satisfied and then I opened my eyes. There I saw my grandpa and grandma looking at me with their eyes bulged out and mouth hanging open. Chapter 2 - Eva Everton Chapter 2 ¨C Eva Everton I was born Eva Lenshire. The Lenshire house was a minor nobility in the Rudolphus kingdom. I was born with an astonishingly large mana capacity. The kind that comes along once in a millennium. I grew up alongside my childhood friend Azriel Everton. He was from another minor noble family, the Evertons. He was also born with a huge mana capacity like me. So it was decided by our families which were in very good terms with each other that I would be married to Azriel. When I grew up it became apparent that I was a genius in understanding the intricacies of magic and mana. Whereas Azriel like every most of the other boys was muscle brained. He never understood anything about mana and would only like to dance with his swords and spears. When I became 12 I was accepted into the great Iolus mage academy, whereas Azriel had ran off from his home to become a mercenary. I wasn''t particularly concerned because we were just friends then and the only thing I was concerned about was magic. From there my life was kind of perfect and soaring. I rose through the magician ranks. I graduated with honor from the academy. Became a teacher there at the young age of 25, which is unprecedented in history. All those times many men had approached me but I wasn''t interested in any of them. My parents tried to wed me, but I was adamant not to. And they couldn''t force me as I was a great mage. Life went like that until that day. I was going on a journey to the elven forest with a few of my colleagues, when we were ambushed by a huge bandit group. At first we thought it would be easy to wipe them all out. But they were proving to be difficult to handle. They were not a weak bandit group and also there were lots of them present using varying forms of attack strategy. I was in a tough spot with all hope lost as a few of my friends were killed already. Then suddenly a mercenary squad leaded by a young man attacked the mercenaries. He was like a tempest in the battlefield. He used mana to boost himself and his weapons and was cutting through the bandits like paper. Very soon everything was finished. After that he came to me. ¡°Long time no see Eva¡±. It was Azriel. I was ecstatic to see him again after all these years. My heart was beating like crazy. Now I understood why I never liked anybody else. I was always in love with him. From that incident I understood that I was way more inexperienced to survive in this harsh world. I decided to travel with him. He withdrew from the mercenaries and I withdrew from the academy. We both became adventurers and traveled throughout the world. Pretty soon we became famous throughout as the War God and the Arcane Goddess. We were hopelessly in love with each other and when we had a baby we decided to settle down. She was the second best thing that happened in my life after Azriel. We loved her and watched her grow into an adult. When she grew up she wanted to follow our footsteps as an adventurer. Maybe find her knight in shining Armour. She set off into the world. That was our biggest regret, we shouldn''t have let her off our site. The next thing I hear was the cruel death of our beloved daughter at the hands of the neighboring king. We were heartbroken. The grief in our hearts started turning into anger and madness. We decided to destroy the corrupt king. Just with a few friends from our adventuring days. We infiltrated the country. We started helping the rebellion over there. At some point of time we had to face an entire army by ourselves. The only dream we had right now was to kill the king and that became the motivation. Finally we succeeded. After all was over we decided to isolate our self in the great northern forest. We never told anybody of where we were planning to go and we just disappeared. Each and every waking moment of my life was full of regret. After all why couldn''t I protect my child. I was hailed as the Arcane Goddess, but nothing mattered when it came to my little girl. I was unable to do anything. Even though Azriel shows a big front I am pretty sure he might be even more heartbroken than me. Unable to bear the grief I started researching into time magic. I was looking for a way to reverse time. But very soon I found out that we humans have pathetic amount of brain power and mana. I couldn''t even wrap my head around what time is. Does it even exist?. I became so engrossed in it that years passed by unnoticed. Azriel was worried about me. But he supported me after he understood what I was working on. After all he too wanted a second chance. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. I created a very highly complicated magic circle that took nearly a 100 years to finish. We could still stay alive considering the fact that our power levels were near enough to those immortal dragons. That rune was so complicated that I am sure even understanding a part of it would require decades for a team of the very best magicians in the world. It was only because of my obsession with it that I was able to create it. Even then this thing only just scratched the surface of time. I don''t even know what the result of the activation of this magic circle will be. And also it required humongous amount of mana for it. We had a crystallized dragon core with us from our adventuring days. When old dragons die their mana core crystallizes over time because of the high density of mana around them. The core we found was so pure and powerful that it contained enough power to burn an entire country to ashes. We were afraid of this power and thus we never used it till now. But for activating the time circle we needed it and thus we decided to use it. We both were standing inside the magic circle. I took out the dragon core and activated the circle from the mana inside it. If this fails, I am sure the entire forest will be transformed into a desert. The dragon core floated in front of us as the circle activated. It slowly started to disintegrate into nothingness. Very soon the scenery changed. We were in front of an enormous black dragon. The aura it produced was so powerful that we thought we would die from that alone. I understood that this was the dragon whose dragon core we used. Suddenly the scene changed and we were observing Aeterna from up above. We could see everything and anything. It is very difficult to put it into words. But I think this is what it is meant to omniscient. There was peace all over Aeterna. Every race coexisted peacefully with each other. There might be problems here and there but overall it was very peaceful. Then the scenery changed. Again we were observing Aeterna, but this time there was only death and destruction. Everything and everyone was destroyed. No species were alive to tell the tale. Forests were razed to the ground, Kingdoms fell, species eradicated, it was truly HAVOC. Suddenly we were watching a being fighting out with an ancient red dragon. The dragon called igniz which is said to be the oldest and most powerful dragon in existence. Igniz is called as the guardian of this world, the one looks over all of Aeterna. The being fighting it was a humanoid being. It''s features weren''t clear, because he was burning in the black fire. I have only heard of the existence of the black fire as an all consuming fire, but I rejected it as impossible to exist or manipulate. The dragon was losing against him. I never imagined anyone would be capable of wielding this kind of power. Finally he bested the dragon by striking a black lance through it''s heart. I don''t know why but this boy seems very familiar. The way he fights makes me think of Azriel for some reason. In it''s dying breath the dragon asked the being for it''s name. It replied, ''LUCAS EVERTON'' Chapter 3 - Alzier Everton Chapter 3 ¨C Azriel Everton No I was never able to get over it. The death of my precious daughter. I regretted that as a father I couldn''t save her. I Azriel who was hailed as the greatest weapons master ever couldn''t do anything to prevent it. And I wasn''t even able to console my depressed wife. What was I supposed to say to her. When I knew she was researching ''time'' to get a second chance I was excited?. I wanted a second chance after all. So I encouraged her. But what I saw was terrifying. The circle that scratches time took an entire dragon heart to activate. We found that one in an ancient ruins in the western deserts. Even apex predators of the desert avoided that place. Even with our little instincts we could tell what rested there was something terrifying. Still we braved it and scoured the place. We found many treasures and the greatest of them all was this crystal. We don''t know how many millennia it had been resting there, but still it emitted power beyond ordinary. Eva was fascinated by it so it was gifted to her. I told her to be careful with it as it contained too much mana. We were part of the circle so I understood that what was shown was the future. Two choices, that will happen according to our decisions. We wanted to go to the past and we were shown the future instead. When I saw the peaceful future I was happy. But the second vision was terrifying beyond measure. Igniz was the Emperor of Dragons. He was an upper tier elder dragon. I have never seen an upper tier elder dragon, But I have seen a ''normal'' upper tier dragon. The mere presence of that thing was enough to send chills into my heart. I never believed in human boundaries or limits. I always thought that humans could push past their limits. But it was proven false in all aspects. That dragon didn''t even consider us as a threat. It could have easily destroyed us if it wanted. But luckily we survived it. That Igniz, the greatest of all dragons was losing against some.... ''thing''. I didn''t know what it was. It looked humanoid, but it was burning in black fire. It felt different. Igniz gave the aura of power, raw unadulterated power. But this thing gave no feeling at all. It was existing but at the same time not. It might have been a stone. That was scarier than anything else. It seemed familiar. The way it was fighting using magic reminded me of Eva. I was shocked when it killed igniz and my heart stopped when it said it''s name was ''Lucas Everton''. We both never talked about this at all and destroyed everything related to the circle. Our life continued, but now instead of pain and regret it was fear and confusion. How could he be an Everton. I mean I was kind of sure I am the last living Everton. Maybe he is someone I didn''t know. Yes that should be it, somebody made his last name Everton. I made myself content with that explanation. But deep inside I knew that it was not true. From the little time inside the circle we knew that what we saw was something related to us. Life continued on until that fateful day. I was pondering on my weapons and Eva was reading besides me outside of our house when we detected numerous presences heading towards us. There were two weak presences chased by numerous strong ones. We went out to meet them. There was a beautiful girl running with a bundle. Her dress were torn and she looked pale. She was being chased by assassins. Eva went to help her and I went to dispose of the assassins. I barely took any time to do that. They might have never known how they died. When I came back Eva was tending to the girl. She was deathly pale. Eva said, ¡°It''s a deadly poison and it had spread all over. I cannot save her¡±. The girl pushed the bundle to Eva. It had a healthy looking boy with black eyes and black hair. He should be around 2 months old. The girl was taking her dying breaths and just before dying said, ¡°Name him Lucas¡±. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. I was feeling like my worst nightmare was coming true. Alzier: ¡°Eva this boy¡± Eva: ¡°Don''t¡± After saying that she wordlessly stood up and went to our house. She made him sleep and came back out. Alzier: ¡°Eva I think he should die¡± Eva: ¡°No he shouldn''t. He''s just a child.¡± Alzier: ¡°But what about we saw¡± Eva: ¡°There was two possibilities there Alzier. I am sure if we raise him the right way the disaster could be avoided. How can you even think about killing an innocent child.¡± She was right, I was so caught in the prophecy that I forgot about the fact that it was just a small innocent child. Alzier: ¡°You are right, I am sorry¡± Eva: ¡°It''s alright, lets raise him responsibly so that something like that never happens¡± --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lucas was an intelligent kid. Perhaps a little too much. He understood everything with minimal effort. As a child sometimes he would be silent and sometimes very mischievous. But I always felt he was very mature for his age. When I started teaching him weapon mastery and physical enhancement he started on it without any complaints. And he just baffled me with his understanding. He could do everything told with very little effort. He was born with a colossal mana pool. So it was decided that Eva would teach him about magic. One day she told him about the basic theory of mana and he could understand it the very first time and he was only 6 at the time. I remember my first time learning about mana. My father arranged a mage as a private tutor for me. That guy tried his very best for years to make me understand mana and magic. But I was too stupid to understand it and not interested enough to care. Eva told him to close his eyes and sit cross legged to meditate and feel his mana core and mana channels. The most genius of the mages would take at least a week to fully detect their cores and channels. It would take at least a month to properly channel the mana thoughout their body. Eva detected her core in 3 days which should still be the record. But this boy did that in five minutes. I couldn''t believe what I was sensing. The boy not only detected his core but he also started properly channeling mana through his body. And the most astonishing part was that his cells started to absorb the mana and they started changing. This was not possible unless you are highly proficient in mana absorption and assimilation. You need years and years of work behind it. Now I understood the fact that why it is possible for him to be a calamity. Chapter 4 - The departure Chapter 4 ¨C The departure I was standing in front a huge pyre which was burning in white, also called the holy fire. I don''t think there is anything holy in it. Just that it''s ultra hot. I had to create a high level mana barrier around it to contain the heat. Otherwise it would have created a forest fire. Only high level fire attributes monsters are able to create it like phoenixes and upper tier dragons. So it''s also called phoenix fire. Today is the day my grandfather and grandmother died. This was their funeral pyre. They said they never wanted a gravestone or be buried. They wanted to be burned to ash after death, together. I am fulfilling their wish. My eyes were red and teary. They brought me up, taught me things, instilled values in me and made me what I am right now. It''s time to move on. I am 17 years old now and I have black hair and black eyes . I am being honest when I say that I look slightly above average. I am lean and athletic and I look and am dressed like an adventurer. After everything was burned and fire put out, I decided to set out. I lived in this forest for the past 17 years. This forest was called the great mannoroth forest. Mannoroth is the name of the legendary sleeping dragon in this forest. The forest was created around mannoroth, so it should be sleeping at the middle of the forest. Our hut was halfway into the forest. Almost no one comes halfway into the forest because of the various kinds of beast living here. As you go towards the center of the forest you would encounter powerful beasts. It is like there are various layers inside the forest. Where the beasts residing in each layer will be more powerful than the previous one with the most powerful mannaroth at the center. I started walking out of the forest towards the Nubian kingdom. Nubia was the name of the kingdom bordering the forest. I don''t have to worry about any beasts attacking because no outer layer beast would attack an inner layer beast. After all they have good instincts. It would take a long time to travel to the edge of the forest if I walked normally. So I blinked the whole distance. Blinking is short range teleportation. You could only teleport to places you can see. I have huge amounts of mana so I could do it. I reached the edge of the forest in about half a day through teleporting and running. I began walking when the forests started to thin out. I couldn''t help but reminisce about grandma teaching me blinking. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Eva: ¡°Listen closely Lucas. Blinking is just short range teleportation and it''s extremely useful. But never use it in battle. There are certain conditions to be met while using blink. As you already know, teleportation is achieving by spacial folding. You fold the space to make two points come together. It''s paramount in teleportation that the space you are blinking to does not have anything solid. Or else your body will be burst open and you will die instantaneously. It''s pretty gruesome.¡± Lucas: ¡°Ughh...., But then grandma why am I not supposed to be using it in battle. All I have to do is select a empty place i see, right.¡± Alzier: ¡°No Lucas, it''s not that easy as you say. Blinking requires enormous amount of concentration to perfectly pull it of. No matter how accomplished you become it will always require you to focus on that at that moment. Which means you are vulnerable just before and after blinking. In a heated battle with a weapons master he will not let that golden opportunity slip away. Also there will always be very small amount of time required for you to dematerialize and materialize back. For someone experienced that window of opportunity is enough to strike you down.¡± Eva: ¡°Also when mana is used in battle it causes mana fluctuations in the surroundings. These fluctuations will affect you while you blink. The mana fluctuations in the air is bigger as powerful beings fight. For example if two elder dragons fight, the mana fluctuations alone could kill you. So if you use blink when there are mana fluctuations you will become disoriented for some time at the least and internal injuries and unconsciousness at worst. It could only be used in extreme emergencies and when there is no other option available at hand. You understand¡± Lucas: ¡°Yes Grandma¡± --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Now I have become an expert at blinking and I know enough to understand that it''s risky to use in battles. While I was walking while thinking those things I detected a few human presences up ahead. They seem like they are not moving. I started walking towards them. I could now see that they were hiding. When I reached their position they jumped up and blocked my path. There were four of them. They should be bandits. The middle one must be the leader and he was tall and heavy. He was showing me a disgusting smile with all his yellow teeth and was eyeing me up and down. The other two were to the side and behind him and they were smirking. There were nothing noteworthy about them, just plain bandits. There was yet another one standing behind the boss and peeking over his shoulder to look at me. There was a fearful look on his face. Oh, he''s a smart one. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. Boss: ¡°Look what we have in here boys. Fresh meat. You better leave everything you have boy and we will let you live. We are part of the mannoroth bandits and you better remember that.¡± Bandit 1: ¡°yea¡± Bandit 2: ¡°yea¡± Bandit 3: (whispering)¡°Umm..., boss I think we should be careful about this boy. He came from inside the forest. You know the rule of the mannoroth forest. If something comes from the inside then run¡± Boss: ¡°Shaddup you idiot. What! Do you think this little boy here is an apex predator of the great mannoroth forest. He might have just wandered in for some adventure and now that he found out that it''s not a pleasure trip he ran back out. Hahahaha¡± Bandit 3:(whispering) ¡°But boss, he was walking calmly and there is not even a spot on his dress¡± Boss: ¡°If you don''t shut that mouth of yours I am gonna bash your skull¡± Lucas: ¡°You know I would at least consider what he said if I were you¡± He started staring at me stupidly for about 2 seconds and then starting edging closer with a savage grin. His two cronies also sheathed their weapons. Only the third started edging back. Boss: ¡°So now, you think that you are someone great eh.¡± This idiot must have equated my age and unblemished and radiant face(''its the truth'') with weakness. I am not benevolent enough like some idiot protagonists to leave them alone with some bashing. He tensed up when my hand went to my sword in my hip. I lowered myself and kicked the ground with enough power that accelerated me towards the bandit boss. I was in front of him before he could even blink and I unsheathed my blade in a quick draw cutting an arc through his neck. I calculated the distance correctly so that I only slit his throat and not behead him. Before I could crash into him or the blood could sprout from his cut throat I kicked my left foot at an angle to change directions. After barely a second all four of them were down with their throats cut and they never even knew how they died. The only thing that remained where their dead bodies and the depressions in the ground where I kicked. These are the burst steps. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Alzier: ¡°Listen and watch very carefully Lucas. What I am going to teach you is called Burst steps. They are one of the most important movement technique in a fighters arsenal. If you could master this you would become terrifying in battlefield. Nobody would even see how they died. You would be the god of death giving out judgments. I will show you how to it''s done. Watch carefully.¡± After saying that grandpa tensed up his body and crouched down. Suddenly he disappeared from there. All that was left was a dent in the ground. He would frequently appear at various points and disappear leaving a dent like a mirage. I couldn''t see him neither follow him. All I could feel was the intense winds created by his movement. Suddenly he appears just in front of me. I was surprised and fell back on my bum. I was astonished and excited at the same time. Alzier: ¡°This is burst steps¡± Lucas: ¡°That was awesome Grandpa¡±, I said while standing back up.¡±How did you do that¡± Alzier: ¡°It''s simple, you just have to kick the ground to accelerate and change directions. If you kick the ground at certain angles you could vanish from your enemies point of view completely making it look like teleportation. But this would require extreme leg strength. There will be recoil while using this and your leg muscles will take the toll. So you will have to careful so as to not overexert and also enhance yourself with mana while doing so. The more mana you use more the more powerful your legs will be and the more faster you will be. Your acceleration should be inside your control zone otherwise there is no point if you cannot control yourself and eventually you will crash into something.¡± Lucas: ¡°Yes grandpa¡± -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- My eyes became misty when I think about the times with my grandparents. I searched the bandits for their possessions. There were nothing significant with them. Only some copper and silver coins and a single gold coin. The currency in this world was mainly coins. One copper coin should be enough for a loaf of bread. A hundred copper coins is one silver coin and 100 silver coins is one gold coin and 100 gold coins is equal to 1 platinum coin. These are the basic denominations. They don''t even have any decent money with them. The money might be inside their hideout. Maybe I should visit that place. They also said something about being part of the mannoroth bandits. Better find out what it is. Chapter 5 - Mannoroth Bandits - part 1 Sorry for the delay, some real world problems. Chapter 5 - Mannoroth Bandits - part 1 Two years ago. Inside the Nubian court a meeting was going on. All the high ranking officials were present and only them. The usual attendants, maids, guards and everybody else was out. If you are a military general or a higher noble you are allowed. Even they are alone, no family members, no private guards, no nothing. This information that is to be discussed is very sensitive and must be kept between them. Among the present were the archdukes, grand-dukes and dukes from the noble side. Three of the 12 heavenly generals from the military side. Then there was king and his advisers, the queen and the princess. These people are the very backbone of the Nubian Kingdom. As such they are powerful beyond measure and the mere aura permeated by them were intimidating. No common man could stand in front of them without cowering in fear. Today''s matter was especially daunting, the Mannoroth Bandits. Most people don''t know of the origin of the Mannoroth Bandits. The common hearsay was that at first they were a small raggedy bunch of thieves who decided to set up their base near the mannoroth forest. Soon they started getting famous. More and more people started joining them. The thievery evolved to raiding, pillaging, plundering and extortion. The kingdom took a lax attitude towards them at first which allowed them to grow. By the time Nubian Kingdom became serious about them, they had become bigger, stronger and powerful enough to be a huge threat. They shifted their base to a little bit deeper into the forest. And now a large enough force cannot be deployed into the forest, for a war of that scale would disturbing the monstrous beasts deep inside the forest and that would not be good for anybody. It''s not that the Nubian Kingdom didn''t do anything to stop them. It''s just that they were not a bunch of stupid bandits. The upper echelon of Mannoroth bandits consisted of powerful people perhaps on par with generals. Actually it was led by a previous hero turned rogue. So it''s not easy to defeat them. And that was no excuse to let them continue like this. They must be destroyed before they grow enough to rival even the Nubian Kingdom. The current king of Nubian Kingdom was Valentine Flavius Arcadius. He had a square shaped face with a chiseled jawline with blond hair and blue eyes that twinkled with wisdom and grandeur befitting a king. His face held forward a steady gaze and had an air of authority that was palpable. He was leaning forward from his throne with his mouth kept closed in a thin straight line. His left hand was resting on his chin and he had a scowl on his face while looking to the door waiting for someone. His red royal cape covered his body and an ancient crown was resting on his head. To his left was his queen Adelaide and to his right was his daughter Agnes. Adelaide was beautiful. She had an oval face with luscious pink lips, a thin nose two evenly space beautiful amber eyes that exuded a motherly yet powerful feel. She had blond hair tied behind her back with a crown adorning her head. She was wearing a long blue gown frilly at the bottom. If Adelaide is called beautiful Agnes should be called sexy. She had an oval face with red full lips, two light blue eyes that seems to say how unbridled and wild she is. She had dirty blond hair tied beneath her in ponytail and dressed from top to bottom in blood red adventurer clothes. She was shapely with a perky bust and long shapely legs which could be seen from the tight dress she was wearing. The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. The rest of the court was filled with people of various statures and they were all filled with tension and seems to be waiting for someone. Suddenly the huge doors to the court room opens and an old man steps in. The door was closed from the outside by attendants. The room was soundproof as there was a high level magical barrier preventing any leakage of noise. The old man who entered looked ancient. He had a long billowing blue cloak inlaid with mystical patterns. He had crooked nose with blue eyes and long white beard and white hair. He had a smiling countenance and looked kind yet powerful beyond measure. From that exquisite cloak itself, it was clear that this guy was a mage and pretty powerful one at that. When the old mage entered every person in the royal hall visibly brightened up and became respectful towards him. Even the King, Queen and the princess stood up to greet the old mage. He is the current headmaster of the Iolus magic academy Elric the ancient. He is supposed to be over 200 years old and is said to be one of the most powerful mages in the entire world. Even the elves has acknowledged his skill in magic as extraordinary. Valentine: ¡°Welcome master Elric. Have you come bearing good news.¡± Elric: ¡°Of course Valentine. Our Iolus academy has decided to help you in destroying the Mannoroth Bandits once and for all. The details of it will be as discussed. I would send some of my best students with teachers to supervise into the Nubian Kingdom at regular intervals.¡± Hearing this Valentine was overjoyed. Valentine: ¡°I thank master Elric for helping us out and the Nubian Kingdom will never forget this kindness.¡± Elric: ¡°Hahaha no need Valentine. After all my students could also use some real life battle experience. All I need is that they be treated well¡± Valentine: ¡°That will be done Master. The Expedition will be led by the heavenly generals Vera, Aeliana and Albert. And also Archduke Wycliff and Granddukes Paul and Fernandes will also be taking part in it.¡± Elric: ¡°Good, then I suppose there is nothing to worry about. It seems the end of Mannoroth Bandits it near.¡± Valentine: ¡°Yes it is. They have plagued our lands for so long that it is time to put an end to it.¡± Everybody present while hearing that were pumped up. They couldn''t wait to crush the bandit group. Agnes''s eyes were sparkling and she was itching to go against them. This time they had planned well enough to really destroy them. The plan was elaborate and painstakingly thorough so as to not make any mistakes. There is no going back this time and they need to limit the casualties to as low as possible. Everybody pooled in to create this grand plan which will take a long time to finish but was very much worth it. Chapter 6 – Mannoroth Bandits (part 2) Chapter 6 ¨C Mannoroth Bandits (part 2) Scene 1: Tracking To find out where their hideout is I would have to find out the trail they left behind by them and track it back. Tracking is an art, at least that''s what grandpa used to say. Even though he was a weapons master he knew enough about tracking to put experienced hunters to shame. He always used to say about one of his companions who was a hunter and how he was the best tracker to have ever lived. Grandpa learned this tracking method from him and naturally wanted to teach me. You could say humans are pack animals like wolves. They find peace when they are in groups and they enjoy being in groups. As such they also hunt in groups. When hunting in a group it is much more safe and escalates the probability of survival which is what everybody wants. While group hunting in a forest if it''s a well balanced pack they should have an experienced hunter with them for he is the one responsible for tracking, scouting and reconnaissance. I never liked hunting in groups as I was like a lone wolf, always solo. Grandpa knew of my preferences and decided to take extra care in teaching me how to track. Tracking and stealth was important for solo hunters cause that''s how they survive in a forest and how they get an edge over their enemies. Alzier: ¡°When hunting something first we have to look for the tracks left behind. We have to find out what we are hunting, where it''s going, what are it''s characteristics and all that from these tracks. Right now we are hunting a iron tusked boar as can be seen from the hoof marks.¡± Lucas: ¡°You could find out what animal it is from just a hoof mark grandpa. You''re awesome.¡± Right now grandpa and me were hunting for dinner inside the mannoroth forests and grandpa was teaching me about tracking. Alzier: ¡°Yes Lucas. You can find out which animals mark it is from their tracks. Actually if you are experienced enough you could find out about their age, size, current condition and all that just from the tracks. See this hoof mark. The depth of it suggests that the boar was in no hurry when passing by and it''s a heavy one. When it''s passing slowly it means either it''s old and weak or it''s mature and confident about it''s power. The prints here suggest that this one is more powerful perhaps on it''s transition into maturity as can be found out from the forceful stomping while walking.¡± I was kind so surprised grandpa could find all these from the tracks alone that I was thinking maybe he is making these up to impress me. Grandpa saw me eyeing him with incredulity. Alzier: ¡°Haha as skeptic as ever eh Lucas. Let''s go find out if what I said is true or not.¡± We started to go to where the tracks were leading us. I have no doubt about the fact that it''s an iron tusked boar as this part of the forest is kind of littered with them. They are huge boars the size of cows with a muscly structure, an impenetrable defense and iron like tusks. Kind of ugly looking with short brown fur, long snout with huge nasal openings, they snort all the time to make unpleasant nasal sounds to intimidate their opponents. But even considering all this they are kind of easy to take care of. All these boars ever know is to charge in a straight line with a purpose to build enough momentum to squish the opponent to a paste. Also it''s nearly impossible for them to change directions mid charge, not that they try to. When they build enough momentum they don''t even look where or what they are charging at. So all you have to do is let them start building the momentum, move out of the way, hack at them while they pass through, hack at them again if they crashed into something, which is most of the time and get out of their way before they regain their bearings. This is kind of easy to say but difficult to put in practice cause once it starts building momentum its are gonna come at you really, really fast and you will only get a small window to opportunity to get out of its way. Well you could let it chase you so that it''s much more easier to move out of the way but then it becomes difficult to attack back. Also you have to take into account the size of these things. When it comes charging at you it feels like you are standing in front of a huge ass train and the fact that it''s coming right at you coupled with their snorting sounds which vibrates against your heart and that ugly intimidating form, you would be hard pressed to be in a calm enough state to move out of the way. If you could do all of this it still doesn''t mean you could win. It has a tough skin which is so powerful that it''s nearly impossible to pierce and even if you pierce it the muscles underneath are so hard that your blade won''t be able to move an inch. Either you have to have an enchanted bladed or use mana augmentation in you blade to make it powerful enough which are the only ways available to fight this thing. I know all this cause I have fought it before. Iron tusk boar meat when cooked using a special method which grandma knows is so awesome that you would want it more and more and we used to hunt the boar often for the same reason. Alzier: ¡°Remember Lucas when tracking something never walk over it and damage the tracks, we might need to double back in case we lost it.¡± We started walking where the tracks were leading us. I was listening to Grandpa''s teachings and trying to identify the tracks with him. Alzier: ¡°See the broken twigs and the bruised plants. The dark bruises indicate that the tracks are fresh. Also if you look closely you can find out the marks where it''s skin has chaffed against the trees. See, these kinds of marks can only be found out by anticipating certain things like what kind of animal we are talking about and what kind of mentality it has. If it was a steel skinned panther then it would take extra care not to leave behind any trails and it would only travel in stealth mode. It would be pretty difficult to find it''s trail that it''s borderline impossible. Whereas this boar walks around in pride. It''s kind of arrogant about it''s own defense that it goes around making as much noise and destruction as it wants so it''s kind of easy to track. Also when you track be careful that you always stay downwind. We don''t want the beast to get our scent. Most probably the beast would be walking facing upwind direction while walking so as to find out about danger from ahead. They will face downwind when stopping so that they can''t be startled ¡± We were following the tracks and we could hear that there were some sounds coming from ahead of us. Grandpa signaled me to quiet down and we ducked under some bushes so as not to be seen by the boar. It was exactly as grandpa said, the boar was huge and healthy. Considering the skin color and tusk length of the boar it is just about to get mature and grandpa could really find these out from just the tracks alone. Alzier: ¡°See I told you so. Now let me get today''s dinner ready.¡± The boar was startled by the sound and turned towards us. Grandpa started walking towards it calmly with a sheathed sword in his left hand. After all stealth is not his strong suit. He is not an assassin but a weapons master and weapons masters are known for rushing into a battlefield without any kind of planning or strategy. The boar became angry and is thumping it''s front leg into ground shaking up the forest. It was creating intimidating snorting sounds that was akin to roars which scared of all the small creatures in the vicinity. Even after all this grandpa was standing there in a relaxed manner not at all minding the little show the boar was putting on. The boar might have been pissed by his attitude because it roared loudly and started charging towards grandpa. For something this big it was very fast. It build up momentum pretty fast and was coming dangerously close to grandpa, whereas he was still not moving. And just when it was about to hit him grandpa disappeared from his spot and reappeared to the left of the boar with enough room for it not to hit him. All I saw was a flash and sound of blade being unsheathed. The boar suddenly lost all it''s momentum. It was rapidly losing it''s life force and limped forward for a few meters and plumped down. I could see that half of its neck was severed cleanly and blood was gushing out into the forest floor and grandpa was standing with a sword dripping blood in his right hand and a sheath in his left. This was my grandpa''s favorite sword. It didn''t have any enchantments neither was it created from any hard and rare materials. It was just an ordinary steel sword. Grandpas dwarven friend made it for him. This proves that the best swordsman is not the guy who could fight a dragon with a legendary artifact, but the one who could use a toothpick to defeat a dragon. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. I could never even imagine piercing this boar without an enchanted blade or augmenting it with my mana. Grandpa did neither. If you could achieve his level of speed while wielding a sword I think you could use a twig to cut through steel. As I was looking at grandpa with awe he just swung his sword so fast that all I saw was a blur. He might have swung it a few times and when he stopped it looked clean and all the blood came off. He silently sheathed it. I was nowhere near as strong as grandpa but someday I will be. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Now tracking the hideout of these guys will be easy. After all the rarest thing in the mannoroth forest is the humans. It was pretty easy as expected. These guys were really a bunch of idiots who never really cared about somebody tracking them. Let alone covering their tracks it feels like they were kind of making it easy for everybody. You don''t need to be a hunter to find their tracks, a 10 year old kid could do it. When I found their hideout I was really disappointed. It was just a cloth used to create a kind of tent with some objects strewn around. There were about 12 people standing huddled together discussing something. About four girls were tied together nor for from them. One of them looked middle aged while the rest looked young. Among them was a girl with glasses on who looked really good looking. She must be from a well to do family as can identified from her rosy complexion. From the robe she was wearing it could be deduced that she was a mage, but taking her age int consideration she must be a student. How did a mage apprentice get caught up with the bandits in a forest alone. Form what grandma used to say mages are considered to be pretty rare and they are revered all over the world. Then they were not common as to stumble upon in a bandit camp. Those 12 people where discussing about what to do with the prisoners and I decided to rescue them. After all I couldn''t just leave them alone in here and also I could get some information about the current world from them. I sheathed my sword silently to my right hand and started compressing air in my left. That is magic where you compress air in your hand and release it at the enemy. It has varying effects depending on the grade of the spell. A grade I compressed airball could push a normal guy away and make him disoriented for a bit. When a grade II compressed airball hit a normal guy he will be blasted away and he may suffer injuries like a light concussion and will be stunned for a pretty long time. Now from grade III onward it gets dangerous. If a normal guy gets hit in the head directly by a grade III compressed airball his skull would crack and will die immediately or if lucky remain in a coma. If he gets hit anywhere in the body it would cave in causing instant death or being disabled for life unless healed by a magician. Grade IV compressed airball when comes into contact makes a normal guy into meat paste. Grade V and above is so powerful that it could be used as siege spells and AOE attacks. Humans usually stop at creating grade III spells. A grade IV spell takes so much time and mana that it''s only possible by an archmage or multiple mages which then becomes impossible to control as you need precision control to avoid the airball into exploding while creating. Even archmages don''t use it as it''s not viable and intelligent enough to waste enormous amounts of time and mana for a single spell and moreover it needs fine tuned mana control and absolute concentration to create it. Above grade IV humans don''t even think of it. It''s only capable by dragons or certain wind attributed beasts. The one I created was a grade II compressed air all. I threw the airball into the middle of those guys and it exploded when it came to contact with the ground while creating a loud noise and blasted everybody away. All twelve of them were stunned and they were kind of easy pickings thereafter. I then freed all the four prisoners. Among them the mage was staring very intensely at me. I could see the sparkles in her eyes and she''s looking at me like she found some kind of interesting specimen for her to experiment on. She had dark brown hair tied above her head in a bun. An oval face with blue sparkly eyes and nice tight lips. There was a bruise mark under her left eye which might be the result of bandit manhandling. It''s purple colored and looks painful. The mage clothing she was wearing does not give me any chance to ascertain her body shape or structure but I am pretty sure that she has a kind of shapely figure. ¡°Hi my name is Mina, and thanks for saving us.¡±, She was smiling while saying that. The smile of beautiful girl is always contagious and I smiled back while replying. Lucas: ¡°It''s alright. My name is Lucas. But how did you guys get caught by them?¡± All of the other girls were looking at me like I am some kind of savior. Mina: ¡°Well I am a mage student from the Iolus academy and I was scouring the Mannoroth Forest looking for research information. While I was too grossly engaged in a herb these guys attacked me from behind.¡± ¡°My name is martha and these are my daughters lily and rachel¡±. It was the blond middle aged woman. Martha: ¡°We were looking for some medicinal plants when these brigands attacked us. We cannot even imagine what would have happened if you hadn''t come. We would be eternally grateful for it.¡± Lucas: ¡°No need. I was just passing by when I happened on you guys. If you are going to the village maybe I could come with you. I have kind of lost my way in here.¡± Martha: ¡°Of course please follow me¡± She started walking with her children and me and mina were walking behind them. Mina was still looking at me curiously. Lucas: ¡°Is there something in my face. You have been staring at me for some time.¡± Mina: ¡°No it''s just that I never expected to find an advanced wind mage in here. And moreover you could fight with a sword also.¡± Lucas: ¡°No I am not a mage just an adventurer.¡± Mina: ¡°An adventurer using a grade II compressed wind spell. Even advanced mages have trouble with that. Let alone adventurers.¡± It seems like I have to be much more careful about my magic from now on. In here adventurers and mages are different. There are adventurers who are capable of magic. But they are only use basic ones. Unless you are a hero level adventurer you will not be using high level magic. That''s that part of repertoire of mages. Creating advanced level magic requires hard work and dedication into researching it which is only possible if you are a full time mage. So it must have been quite a shock to see someone like me using a grade II compressed airball. After all compressing a spell requires precision mana control otherwise it will explode on your face. But the fact that only archmages could do it is new. So the magical skill of the world might have decreased and I have to be careful about it so as not to get any unwanted attention. Lucas: ¡°That''s the only high level spell I can use correctly. I had to take a long time to prepare it before rushing out.¡± Mina: ¡°Oh... Who is your teacher? I haven''t seen or heard about you in Iolus academy. Somebody of your age who could use a grade II advanced spell would have been famous.¡± Lucas: ¡°Well I have never been to any school. I was taught by my grandma. She was an advanced mage.¡± Mina: ¡°That''s truly awesome. So where are you from and what are you doing here in Mannoroth forests.¡± Lucas: ¡°Oh I am from up north. I just decided to become an adventurer so for getting enough experience I decided to train in the forest.¡± Mina: ¡°Oh¡± Lucas: ¡°What are you doing here. Did Iolus academy start a branch here in Nubia.¡± Mina: ¡°No the Iolus academy is still sending students in conjunction with the execution of the Mannoroth Bandits.¡± Lucas: ¡°Execution of the Mannoroth Bandits?¡± Mina: ¡°Oh you don''t know about it?¡± Lucas: ¡°No what is it?¡± Chapter 7 – Execution of Mannoroth Bandits Chapter 7 ¨C Execution of Mannoroth Bandits Execution of Mannoroth Bandits. This was the famous event that''s now known all over the nubian kingdom as the fall of the notorious Mannoroth Bandits. It all happened two years ago when the king of Nubia Valentine Arcadius decided that the Mannoroth Bandits should be destroyed before they grow large enough to be a threat to Nubia. They can go to war with bandits and win but it will only be a Pyrrhic victory, a victory that inflicts such a devastating toll on the victor that it''s tantamount to defeat. It''s because of the existence of the Mannoroth forest. If we create a disturbance inside the mannoroth forest beasts from inside the forest would swarm out and at that time it will turn to be a disaster. So the only possible option is a kind of attrition warfare with attack and run strategy. He called in three of his heavenly generals where two of which are known for defensive and attrition warfare. The last one was the most vicious of the all the 12 heavenly generals and is known for her psychological and cunning warfare. Also he called in all the archdukes and grand dukes of his kingdom. They all came together to decide the best war strategy and it took months to deliberate and finally come up with a good one. It was something that would perhaps span multiple years but so far seemed to be the best option available. For this plan to work well they needed cooperation of the mages. The kingdom might not have enough in that regards. After all Nubia was not known for her mages but her warriors. Nubia boasted the best warriors and mercenaries among the human kingdoms but mediocre mages. The king requested the aid of the headmaster of the Iolus Academy. It was decided that he would send in his advanced students to help Nubia out at regular intervals as part of their graduation assignments. They would of course be supervised by their teachers and every single one of the teachers at Iolus academy were archmages and pretty famous around the continent. After all to teach at Iolus academy you had to be an exceptional magician. The mannoroth bandits even though looked unruly they had solid organisational structure. It was headed by the corrupted hero Reylin the bloodthirsty. Reylin was once regarded as a hero by the people as he was an exceptional swordsman and adventurer. But he was arrogant and wanted power perhaps a little too much. He decided to join the mannoroth bandits and very soon became the head of it. After he became the leader of the bandits their infamy grew by leaps and bounds and they entered a phase of rapid expansion and consolidation which is still going on. They are about 15000 men strong which is not a small number. They had not yet built a permanent stronghold inside the Mannoroth forest which is an advantage on the kingdom''s side. The attack strategy was simple. All they had to do is attack and retreat. There be different sections of about 2000 strong armies controlled by different people each. Each member of the army was the elites of the elites and they will headed into battle by either the three heavenly generals or one archduke or two granddukes, and all of them were much more powerful than reylin. There are two ways to become an archduke or grandduke of nubia. Either you have to belong to one of the ancient families or you have to be conferred dukedom which happens in case of extremely strong warriors or mages. Even if you became a duke by using family heritage if you cannot consolidate your power then sooner or later you will replaced. The archduke Victor who is part of the strategy was a SS ranked adventurer in the past. Whereas the granddukes both were S ranked adventurers. As such they were pretty strong and also had their own private army. The first move was to be done by the 2000 strong army of the heavenly general Vera. She was known for her defensive battle techniques. She marched her army into the forest and she was accompanied by a team Iolus academy advanced students and an archmage. The army mainly considered of shield bearers and some archers. The shields used were premium dwarven mithril equipment which were enchanted for powerful protection. It had costed the kingdom a fortune to procure these from the dwarves for all these warriors but it had to be done. The shield bearers role was to provide maximum defense to the mages who will bombard the enemy with magic from the back. Experienced hunters and scouts were used to do the reconnaissance. The army marched towards the bandit encampment. All these powerful soldiers carrying towering mythril shields and spears while marching forward created an awe inspiring feeling. You would feel like anything that dares to stand in their path would be razed down. Soon they met up with the bandits. The bandits were an unruly bunch. They had no military strategies, calm mentalities or order among them. All they had was their bloodthirst. Even with a capable leader it was total anarchy. When they saw the soldiers everyone of them without any thought started charging towards the army. But the army never intended to fight it out with the bandits. All they had to do was defend the mages and they would rainin magic from the rear towards the bandits. The bandits despite having numerical advantage could really do nothing. There was no mage among them and they had nothing to protect against the mages. Their arrows couldn''t touch the mages past their mana barrier and they even had an archmage among them. Reylin became mad that soldiers along with mages where attacking but he couldn''t do anything as he was being contained by the general herself. She was way more powerful than him but didn''t bother to kill him. And after a few moments into the battle she gave the orders to withdraw. Even though there where no mages among the bandits they were still very strong. The soldiers might be defending well but it will fall soon and then they will be overrun by the bandits. Moreover some uninvited beings might have noticed this battle by now. A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. The mages and the guards took their turns in retreating. The bandits didn''t dare to chase as they truly feared the cover fire from the mages. After the army gained considerable distance from the battle camp they heard howling in the distance and they started retreating faster. It was the wind wolves from the forest. They might have been attracted by the fight and came in after it. Sure enough the bandits where attacked by the wolves as soon as the soldiers retreated. Reylin had to kill the alpha as quickly as possible to scatter the medium sized pack before they attracted further trouble. Even though it ended quickly they had to suffer some mild casualties from the fight with the soldiers and then the wolves afterwards. This trend continued. The bandits were attacked by the soldiers for about two to three times a month. It would be a quick skirmish and retreat by the soldiers. Even though there wasn''t any serious casualties it started to affect the morale of the bandits. The mages were the really troublesome ones as they did some serious damages. Also the forest border patrol was increased. Some of their raiding troops had met with the army of general Aelina the witch. She is known for being cruel, cunning and manipulative and she is the worst enemy anybody could ever have. Those who had the misfortune to run into her were skinned and they were planted across the forest in pikes. All the bandit scouts had to tell was the tale of skinned bandit corpses all over the forest. It was psychological warfare at best. Some of them were already deserting the group due to fear and all these caused further morale drop. The future looked bleak for the mannoroth bandits and it was only a matter of time before they either surrender or is completely annihilated. Then that happened. The princess Agnes was always a trouble maker. She was tomboyish in her ways and always wanted to be an adventurer and perhaps be renowned as a hero, an idea which was frowned upon by the king. He didn''t like her going out on adventures as it was dangerous out there and she could be dead anytime. Also anything she might do will affect him and the reputation of the kingdom. When the Bandit execution was planned and initiated agnes asked her father for permission to participate which he promptly denied. Finally she decided to take things into her own hands and participate in it. She decided to sneak with the troop of the Archduke without anybody else knowing. When the battle started she found herself fighting with Reylin himself. Even though she was a princess she was a capable fighter herself. But soon she found herself outclassed and was in a difficult position. The Archduke did know about the presence of the princess among his soldiers and he didn''t seem to mind it that much. After all he could protect her if the need arises. But he had never thought that she would seek out a fight with Reylin himself and was nearly killed in it. So he had to intervene and while saving her he had to kill Reylin. The Archduke and the party soon retreated. The death of Reylin might seem like a good thing but it was not. He was the only thing that was keeping the bandits together. If he dies they will scatter in the forest or even seep into the cities which would not be good. The plan was to keep him alive till the bandits were destroyed. But now that he is dead they scattered all over the place. The kingdom had to abandon their magnanimous plans completely. All the bandits were scattered around the forest in small groups and most of them might have migrated into other countries or entered the Nubia without notice. The king was really angry about what had happened. All their plans had to stopped while half finished and all this was due to his daughter. In order to punish her he ordered her to destroy all the bandits scattered all over the forest in any way possible and until then she is revoked of her status as the princess -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mina: ¡°And that''s what happened.¡± So that was why the mannoroth bandits I met was just a motley camp of idiots. Mina: ¡°You know anybody trying to enter into the forest and not from around here will be told of these tales so that they would be careful about the bandits by the adventurers guild and how come you didn''t know of it?¡± Lucas: ¡°That would be because I haven''t yet registered at the guild. I just starightaway came into the forest after leaving home.¡± Mina: ¡°You haven''t even registered into the adventurers guild yet. Hmmm.... there''s something really strange about you.¡± She was staring intensely at me and the fact that I had to keep lying continuously made me nervous and then Martha came to my rescue. Martha: ¡°It''s rude to question your savior too much dear¡± Mina: ¡°Oh sorry Martha. It''s just that I''m pretty curious about things¡± Lucas: ¡°It''s okay, my grandparents were kind of recluses and they raised me away from people. So I might not have any common sense.¡± Martha: ¡°Ah, finally we have arrived at Souldonis.¡± I could see the silhouette of towering walls of a city up ahead of me. It seems that we have arrived at our destination.