《Imperator of Beasts》


 Ch.1 Grand Destiny

    Ch. 1 Grand Destiny


    Brrriiinnnggg ¡­ Brrriiinnnggg ¡­ Brrriiinnnggg ¡­ Smack!


    I looked at the digital alarm clock that had awoken me from a dream that involved me and multiple females working up quite a sweat. I looked at the time to see that it was 7:00 A.M. and that I had already forgotten the faces and looks of the other inhabitants of the dream save for one.


    I sat up and looked around the bedroom of my apartment and started thinking that today was the day I was going to do it. After getting up I looked in the mirror of my dresser and the image of a brown haired, semi-handsome, slightly built lean 27 year old stared back. I put on some running clothes and walked to the main area of my upper middle class city apartment that was located nearby the local park. I poured a bowl of cereal for breakfast and looked at all the memories of my life.


    The first memento that brought back memories was the certificate I got from completing sniper school. When I graduated college I had decided to join the army. Since I was a naturally gifted marksman since birth, as were a few others in my family tree, it was only about a month in that I was trained to be an even deadlier killer as a sniper. After completing sniper school I was sent to be part of a NATO anti-terrorist team. I kept looking along my ¡°Wall of Accolades¡± and my gaze stopped on the picture of the NATO squad I had been part of for 2 years. All the threats against the world stopped all the people I had killed. After that I worked as a hacker for the NSA for another 2 years.


    Pretty heroic life right? Psych, all that has left me a burnt out fully funded retiree at the age of 26. I¡¯ve spent the last year doing nothing but hanging out and jogging in the local park. This reminds me that it¡¯s time for me to go and try to change up my life.


    I leave my apartment at 7:50 A.M. and jog to the park. Today is the day I finally muster up the courage to ask out Alex. Alex is a woman around my age who jogs with her sheltie husky Prissy (http://files.dogster.com/pix/dogs/82/1135282/1135282_1274222790.jpg</a>) every morning around 8. I¡¯ve been talking with her during our workouts for a while now and I¡¯m finally going to ask the Australian born Indian girl out.


    We had first run into each other after a workout about 3 months ago. I noticed her dog was part sheltie, which reminded of the sheltie I had as a kid and who was very close to me. I had asked her about her dog and if I could pet her without really getting a good look at the owner. I was informed by the female owner that I was welcome to try, but that her dog Prissy hadn¡¯t met a male she had liked and that she might bite me. I informed the owner that I had owned a sheltie growing up and that her dog looked like it was a sheltie mix as I offered the back of my hand for the dog to sniff. She told me that Prissy was a sheltie husky mix as I finally looked up at the owner and was instantly attracted to her. She had dark skin, short black hair and beautiful green eyes and stood about 5¡¯8¡± to my 6ft self. As I felt my face heat up from what was most likely a blush, she giggled at my change in color. She then changed to a look of surprise as I felt a furry head rubbing up against my palm. I looked back down to see that Prissy had put her head under my hand to show she wanted me to pet her which I happily obliged. We then exchanged names and she informed me she often took her dog out on a jog and that she would be bumping into me again.


    Once I got to the park at 8 I stretched and started my jog, hoping to run into Alex like I usually did. As I was rounding a turn that was near the street I saw Prissy running towards the street after a squirrel and without Alex. Since Prissy had gotten to know me after the last 3 months of meetings and chats I knew she wouldn¡¯t bite if I grabbed her or her leash. Unfortunately I didn¡¯t make it quick enough to grab the leash she was dragging and instead had to run into the street to pick the dog up. The moment I bent over to pick Prissy up was the same moment a taxi driver decided to not be paying attention and hit me as I was bent over.


    I was sent barreling forward and rolled along the ground a few times when I came to a stop on my back. I was snapped out of my daze from the immense pain I was feeling in my chest by getting licked on the face by a perfectly fine Prissy.


    The driver quickly came to help me up and said he was incredibly sorry. I told him to call an ambulance and stay there while I went to look for the owner of the dog I had saved since odds are she might need help too. I also thanked him for not going at a speed that would have instantly killed me as I hobbled off in the direction I had seen Prissy running from. I checked my sports watch to see that It was 8:20.


    With the help of Prissy guiding me back to her owner, it didn¡¯t take long for me to find Alex lying unconscious in a small grove of trees. With the help from Prissy giving Alex ¡°kisses¡± on the face and me gently shaking her, Alex groggily started to regain consciousness. As she started to wake up I looked around the small clearing to bizarrely see a coconut wrapped in some string on the ground near where Alex was. After I helped her up, we walked to a nearby bench to wait for the ambulance to arrive and so she could tell me how she had ended up how I had found her.


    xxxxx


    At about 8:15, she had been jogging with Prissy and hoping to run into me since the last time we met I had asked if she was going to the park today. About that time Prissy veered off the pat and started sniffing the grass to go to the bathroom. While Prissy was watering the grass, Alex was looking around when she saw what looked like some African Swallows around a non-flying object. She dismissed it and looked back down to see that Prissy was just finishing up her business when she felt something nick her head before everything went black.


    xxxxx


    After she had finished her brief story, I told her about the coconut I had found near her and that I had something to say before I chickened out. I had never been good with girls and even though I could take a man¡¯s life as if it were nothing, asking a girl out was downright terrifying. I then asked her if she would go on a date with me and hoped for the best. She said yes and gave me a light kiss on the cheek saying she had been interested in me as long as I had been with her, and was just about to ask me out since she could tell I was quite awkward when it came to girls. We started to hear the sirens from the approaching ambulance that the cab driver had called when my adrenaline finally ran out.


    It took about 2 seconds before I was almost convulsing with pain, had convolutions not been even more painful. As I felt the pain in my left side where I had been hit I realized I could feel it in my heart, and that it might have been punctured. I decided to take off the dog tags I always wore and give them to Alex, and let her know if I didn¡¯t make it, then those dog tags would be able to take care of her for the rest of her life and not to lose them. I also told her to only give them back should we break up, or should we get married as I gave a slight laugh and blacked out to the sound of her crying and calling the paramedic over to us as best she could.


    xxxxx


    When I was finally able to open my eyes I was in what looked like a white room with a desk stacked with papers and folders on it. As I was looking around a female voice called me over to the desk. As I got closer I was finally able to see the woman who wouldn¡¯t look out of place as a ¡°sexy female boss¡± in a certain genre of porn. She looked up at me when I got close to the desk and started to talk to me.


    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    ???: ¡°Well it¡¯s finally good to meet you in person Cameron.¡±


    Cameron: ¡°Well since I never met you or been here before, am I dead?¡±


    ???: ¡°Yes you are, and I have much to talk to you about all of that.¡±


    I interrupted her with my hand and asked if Alex had kept my dog tags. After the mysterious woman told me she had and that Alex had gotten the other gift that came with the dog tags.


    I heaved a sigh of relief since in my will, whoever I had gifted my dog tags to, when I died they would become the inheritor of my small fortune and would never need to work again.


    Cameron: ¡°Sorry about interrupting you, but I just had to know she was going to be taken care of. Could you please continue what you were saying please?¡±


    ???: ¡°It¡¯s alright, that caring personality of yours is one of the reasons you were destined to be my Hero of the Apocalypse. Let me introduce myself, I¡¯m the god, or in my case goddess, of Chaotic Good, one of the 9 gods of alignment.¡±


    Cameron: ¡°Wait, Chaotic Good like the alignment type in D & D?¡±


    CG God: ¡°Where do you think they came up with the idea? We had a hand in giving the creators of the game the idea for alignments.¡± I shook my head in acknowledgment.


    Cameron: ¡°You said I was your Hero of the Apocalypse, so does that mean you¡¯re going to send me back or to another reality to fight in the Apocalypse?¡±


    CG God: ¡°Well before I answer that, how about I explain what was supposed to happen with the Apocalypse. The 9 gods of alignment each selected a human the moment they were born and granted them a Grand Destiny, which means that while they might have less free will than others in the beginning of their lives, they will end their lives as the greatest of heroes on their planet and possibly beyond. The true neutral god got to pick a set of brothers who were going to eventually be forced to fight each other to the death to start the Apocalypse and you were supposed to witness the beginning of the Apocalypse during your 3rd mission with your NATO unit. The Apocalypse was also going to bring magic back to your universe and you and the 8 other remaining Heroes would have been granted more power from the magic than anyone else. At that point demons, heavenly beings, monsters and pretty much every kind of creature from every human religion and mythology would be unleashed upon your world. You and the other heroes would gain more power the more of the mythological beings you fought and become nearly as powerful as gods while also extending your life-spans. Eventually you marry the hero of neutral good; who you happened to ask out just before you died, while also being forced to kill all but her and the hero of lawful neutral (he got killed by the chaotic evil hero) because they go mad with power. After you two are the last remaining heroes you refuse to become rulers of anything, especially since you two would have near infinite life-spans. You and Alex eventually become space travelling heroes who fight the evils of the universe and help form a universal alliance of many different species. Since we could only see 1 million years into the future all I can tell is that you 2 had tons of kids and a hell of a lot of descendents of many different cross-species and are still being the greatest heroes in the entire universe.¡±


    Cameron: ¡°If I was supposed to do all of that, then why did I just die trying to ask out my true soul mate and the woman I¡¯m supposed to love for literal eternity?¡±


    CG god: ¡°Well since the brothers that the god of true neutral found a way to avert their fate and cancel the Apocalypse. Due to the Apocalypse, your destiny was not going to end so badly you were going to commit suicide at age 33. So to prevent the massive waste of power I used to give you your destiny in the first place and the massive amount of pain and sadness door number 2 offered, the 9 gods decided to cause your death so you could be reincarnated in another universe to do whatever you please. Also because it is our faults that the brothers could cancel the Apocalypse at all since its one of the events were never able to foresee clearly. With that being said, it¡¯s time to see what species most suited for your personality and knowledge.¡±


    Cameron:¡± So I don¡¯t get to pick for myself what I get to be?¡±


    CG god:¡±You will if you get multiple possibilities, but we do this since it will be the species that you will adapt the easiest to, both bodily and society wise. Since you¡¯re also the freedom loving hero of good I¡¯m sure you will get something really good. Ah here are your results now, interesting. Well good news you have 2 options, a Feral Wolf or Raptor beast-man. Now in this world all beast-man species are anthropomorphic, so all of them look human with animal characteristics. Also species classified as Feral are only because they look slightly more animalistic and are also used to describe all of the species that aren¡¯t currently domesticated mammals on your world. So which one would you like to be reborn as?¡±


    Cameron:¡±Two things I need to know first. Number one is said Raptor as in the dinosaur, and number two is what the species are like?¡±


    CG god: ¡°Well Feral Wolf is tied for first in the Mammal kingdom for highest combat ability, and they make up most of the higher ranks of the army and royal guard. Raptors are also tied at first in combat ability of all species in the Reptile kingdom, and they tend to be nobility, or high ranking military leaders. They tend to be quite intelligent and noble, but are humble and more like knights of old than selfish nobles. So which one do you want to pick?¡±


    Cameron: ¡°You know what; just give me one of them at random. I always thought I was pretty lucky, and since both are good choices, I¡¯ll just go with whatever I get.¡±


    CG god: ¡°You keep making me glad I picked you as my hero Cameron. I might contact you during your next life, but now I hope you enjoy getting to see and remember your birth. Oh and all beast people species give live birth.¡±


    She snapped her fingers and instantly everything went pitch black I fell asleep.


    xxxxx


    When I regained consciousness everything was still dark but it was warm and wet. I started to hear yelling as I saw some light.


    ???: ¡°YOU DID THIS TO ME YOU SON OF A BITCH! NOW GET IT OUT OF MEEEEE!¡±


    I quickly came out and looked up at my new father ¡­


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    xxxxx


    Authors note: I know that I have another FF that I just recently started, but I was having some writers block because this story kept coming to mind so I decided to write it too. I will be working on both series, but probably won¡¯t have regular releases as I¡¯m also busy with college. Hope you enjoy. Also named it Imperator of Beasts since the original title was going to be King of Beasts but Prince of Beasts was released while I was writing this so I changed the title to be different and more badass.

 Chapter 2: Reborn as a wolf...

    Ch. 2 Reborn as a Wolf¡­


    What I saw was the scariest and at the same time happiest smiles I had ever seen on the face of my wolf headed father as he picked me up. He had black and white fur similar to an Alaskan Malamute.


    Dad: ¡°Look dear we finally have a son, and he has pure black fur so he must be special since he isn¡¯t quite the same coloring as us.¡± He said as he wrapped me in a blanket and handed me to my mother.


    I squeaked a little since I tried crying but since I¡¯m now an animal all that came out were some squeaks. As I looked at my mom I saw a gray wolf who was wearing what I guessed was a medical dress that covered but outlined her two big breasts. The goddess of chaotic good was right when she said they were very similar to humans since she only had two instead of the normal six or eight.


    Mom: ¡°Well aren¡¯t you lively my little one, I bet you¡¯re hungry so let¡¯s feed you some of momma¡¯s milk.¡± As she said this she revealed one of her breasts and drew my mouth to her nipple.


    My instincts take over and I start drinking from the nipple and delicious milk comes out. As I continue to suckle on the human-like breast I slowly drifted to sleep.


    Dad: ¡°What do you want to name him?¡±


    Mom: ¡°How about Cameron after my great grandfather the last hero of our families? Oh look he smiled and wagged his tail at that name, I guess he likes it. Cameron Shadowfur it is then.¡±


    xxxxx


    I¡¯m not sure what really happened for the next few days since I was running almost entirely on instinct since I¡¯m now a beast person. The next thing I remember was when I got to meet the rest of my family, which consisted of my three older sisters.


    Mom: ¡°Cameron, it¡¯s time for you to meet your sisters. Now girls I¡¯m going to lay him on the bed so you can see him, but please be careful with him. Now Cameron, these are your sisters¡± as she said this she motioned to the three girls who had heads that were humanized versions of a wolf¡¯s head and face. ¡°The two older girls are the twins Jane and June.¡± They were both about 4 ft tall and had white going down from their chins to their feet on their front sides. The only way to tell them apart was that Jane was black from all along her back and upper face, while June had gray fur similar to our mother where Jane had her black fur.


    Jane & June: ¡°Hello little brother, we¡¯re your great older sisters and we turned 2 earlier this year.¡± They both looked kind of cute in their green and blue dresses with a pink ribbon on opposite ears.


    Mom:  ¡°Now this one¡± as she said this she lifted the other girl onto the bed who was about 2 ft. 6 in. and was wearing a small pink dress ¡°is Lily who turned 1 this year.¡±


    Lily was covered in gray fur just like our mother and looked like a cute young girl. She slowly crawled on the bed towards me and when she got close enough she laid next to me and hugged me close her. As she did so she looked and me and had a big smile which looked a little predatory on the small wolf girl, as compared to a dog smiling.


    Lily: ¡°Yaaay, now I get to be a big sister toooo my cute widdle bruther.¡±


    With that statement and getting to have siblings finally, since I was an only child in my previous life, I couldn¡¯t stop my little tail from wagging and licking my sister on her snout and smiling myself. This caused the twins and my mother to giggle, while Lily¡¯s cheeks gained a red tint. ¡®Holy crap, I can¡¯t believe beast people can blush¡¯ I thought to myself as I saw the scene.


    Mom: ¡°I guess he likes you Lily¡± my mother said with a heartwarming smile.


    Jane & June: ¡°We didn¡¯t know you had a brother complex Lily¡± the twins said teasingly.


    Lily: ¡°It, it¡¯s not like that you two! I was just happy since I get to be a big sister now.¡± Lily looked quite flustered and glared at the twins.


    Mom: ¡°Okay now that¡¯s enough girls, it¡¯s time for your brother to eat and sleep so you need to get ready for bed too.¡± My mother stated as she lifted me up to start getting ready to breastfeed me.


    Sisters: ¡°Yes mom.¡± They all said as they hurried out of the room with June staying behind as she asked our mother a question. ¡°Mom when can Cameron sleep together with us?¡±


    Mom: ¡°In a few weeks June, now go get ready for bed. Your father and I will be in soon to tuck you three in.¡±


    As my mother started to breast feed me instinct took over and I soon felt myself losing consciousness again.


    xxxxx


    By the time I was a month old I was 1 ft 6 in tall and was starting to learn to walk. Fortunately beast people walked on two legs like all of the other sentient species on this world. I also found out that I couldn¡¯t understand anybody except my family yet. At first I had thought I could understand them because I was reincarnated, but whenever I heard my parents talking with some friends who visit to see me I couldn¡¯t understand them even though they were wolf beast-men too. Whenever I tried to talk all that would come out were squeaks, yips, and whines for some reason. Other than growing some more and playing with my sisters, life was fairly uneventful for a while.


    xxxxx


    When I turned 4 months old I was 2 ft tall and that morning my parents told me it was a special day for me since we were going to town to get me registered as a citizen. The reason 4 months was so special was because it had something about me being able to handle reading some book which was confusing to me, but I just accepted it. Oh and did I mention that the years here are 16 months long with each month still about 30 days long. Back to my first trip to town, sorry even though I¡¯m reincarnated I still have a bit of ADD. After breakfast I changed into my nicest baggy shirt and made sure my pants wouldn¡¯t fall off before the family left to go to the city we lived on the outskirts of.


    I have never been very far from our small cottage near the surrounding forest since it would be dangerous for a young beast-man like me. We lived near the forest since my parents were hunters and advanced scouts for the city. We walked while all of us held hands, with me and June holding hands with our father and Jane and Lily holding our mother¡¯s hands. Lily and I were between our parents and were holding each other¡¯s hands. We followed a dirt road through the small outpost of cottages and continued on for about 2 miles until we were in sight of the stone wall that surrounded the city. I didn¡¯t know much about the geography of this world yet, just general size of it, and was amazed that the city we lived near was this well protected. My sister were the first to see me staring at the walls and we walked to the nearest gate and giggled at my face of amazement. This caught the attention of my father who was holding my hand and he looked down and smiled at me.


    The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.


    Dad: ¡°Hey Cameron, I bet you didn¡¯t know we lived near the capital of the Beastman Kingdom. This is the city of Canavar the home to the king of all Beastmen.¡±


    As we approached the entrance gate we were stopped by two guards who were a dog-morph wielding a spear and a minotaur holding a massive battle-axe that seemed just the right size when he held it. When we stopped at the gates the guards said something I couldn¡¯t understand, and I noticed that Lily was hiding behind my mother¡¯s legs. I was not as scared of the rather intimidating minotaur since I liked playing RPGs taking place in fantasy worlds and was excited as hell to see what I hoped was a friendly one in person. He saw that both Lily and I had our eyes on him and he bent his legs to get lower to the ground where he set down the axe, smiled, and did a small wave at us. I returned the wave and Lily waved and stopped hiding behind our mother. My parents and the guards laughed as we entered the city and we passed by the smiling guards who waved back at us since I waved goodbye to them.


    Pretty soon we were at a building that had a sign with a sword crossed with a staff in front of a shield. The building resembled a pub with lots of tough looking Beastmen and other demihumans sitting at tables talking in strange languages. The far wall of the building had some women behind a counter next to a massive board that had lots of pieces of paper on it. When we got to the counter my father talked to the female worker in an unknown language after which the receptionist looked at me and smiled. She went to a back room and quickly came back with a strange book and handed it to me. The book looked very old and very expensive since it had a thin tablet of gold on top of the old leather cover. The tablet had strange runes that I had never seen before. My father told me to open up the book to any page and start looking at the letters. When I looked up to listen to my dad I saw that everyone in the building was looking at me with what I assumed were warm smiles. In my old world this scene would be downright terrifying and make you realize that you were about to be ripped to shreds and eaten, but since I was a beast as well it seemed they were happy with what they were about to see. I opened up the book in the middle, since for some reason it didn¡¯t really want to open to the front. On the page were more of the runes and symbols that were on the front of the book. As I started to look at the symbols as if I was reading, since my parents had taught me that we read left to right and what I was supposed to do, the letters started to glow with golden light.


    Dad: ¡°Keep reading Cameron, don¡¯t worry about the glow¡± my father told me in a comforting voice.


    Had I not had some memories of my past life and personality I would have gotten startled by the glowing letters, but since I had those I thought this was cool since this is my first time seeing what I think is magic. As I continued to look at the symbols as if I was reading the more of the two pages¡¯ letters lit up. As soon as I finished looking through the symbols on the second page the entire book started glowing and releasing the golden letters into the air. I had been told to stand still and look straight ahead when I was done reading the pages, now I know why I was told this. The letters in the air were making four circular orbits around my head with the four circles meeting in front of my eyes. After about a minute of this, the letters started flowing into my eyes, ears and mouth. As I was told earlier I looked a little up into the sky as my eyes, mouth and ears started releasing golden light as the symbols entered them. It was Lily that told me this since while this was happening I had blacked out and still have no idea what had happened, which explains why everyone was looking at me in the guild since it was a cool sight to see. The only thing I seem to remember when I was blacked out was what sounded like tiny whispers occurring inside my brain.


    <table><tbody><tr><td> You have learned Common and Beastman languages. </td></tr></tbody></table>


    ???: ¡°Excuse me little one, but can you understand what I¡¯m saying right now?¡±


    I looked toward the source of the new voice and saw that it came from the receptionist who I couldn¡¯t understand earlier.


    Cameron: ¡°Yes ma¡¯am I can, wait I can understand you and I can talk too.¡± This was the first time I had emitted anything that wasn¡¯t animalistic sounds and was also the first time I heard my own child-like voice and it startled me.


    This just got a large amount of laughter of all of the occupants of the guild and a small chuckle from my family and the receptionist. The laughter wasn¡¯t the hurtful kind, but rather felt like the kind you would have when you saw a child take its first step then fall on its butt and see the confusion on its face about what just happened.


    Dad: ¡°Well it¡¯s good that you could learn the language of the beasts, now it¡¯s time to take you to the castle since the ceremony for getting your ID plate is later today.


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    xxxxx


    Authors note: Sorry about the shorter chapter posting. For those of you hoping for Raptor type demihuman (changing Beastmen to demihuman from now on and Beastman will refer to mammal type demihumans) don¡¯t give up yet since I decided to add one later so just wait for it. When we get to a later chapter I will put up another poll. The second thing is that I¡¯m changing up the way I write the chapters from just what comes to mind to now outlining before hand, also I just started spring break so I have more time for another chapter which I will try to release this week.

 Chapter 3: Citizenship

    Chapter 3: Citizenship


    xxxxx


    After I found out that the ¡°book¡± I could handle was magic and would allow me to speak the common demihuman and beast language, we had to go to the castle to get my ID plate. When I asked why the castle, my parents told me that ID plates can only be made at the capitol of each race of demihumans and just to find out how when it happens. When we exited the guild, I started to see decorations and banners on all of the shops and stands that I had thought might have been normal but upon seeing other kids about the same age as me and their families heading in the same direction as we were, and most of the shops being deserted now, I realized today must be a special event. Not long after leaving the Guild, we arrived at a giant building in the city that was heavily fortified. I don¡¯t know why, but for some reason I realized this was the castle that held the king of the Beastmen, why do I know that? I know I¡¯ve been reincarnated, but not why or what I did before, just random thoughts and memories, it¡¯s like part of me is missing. Bake to the topic on hand, it turns out that the castle was having the yearly celebration of citizenship, and anyone 4 months and older who had managed to learn our languages would take part. I¡¯m really lucky that I just made it and don¡¯t have to wait another year. ¡®Why do I get the strange sense of d¨¦j¨¤ vu when I consider myself very lucky?¡¯


    When we crossed one of the four drawbridges leading directly to the castle I realized that the castle was freaking huge. This entire city was built to withstand a siege and with a castle that had the land area of a small village, it could withstand a siege itself. The castle had the royal castle itself, a large barracks, housing for all workers of the castle island, and even has its own coliseum like building, which we were heading to. I saw other families heading towards the large structure and as we got closer I saw some signs with text similar to what was in the book and heard some voices shouting instructions.


    Guard: ¡°We will be starting the citizenship test soon, for the children who came to participate please come to the sign in tables with your families. Spectators and families whose children have entered the testing area please follow the signs to the seating areas or concession areas.¡±


    Cameron: ¡°Dad, what does he mean by test?¡± I asked my dad curiously since this was the first time I had heard about a test, or the first time hearing the word. ¡®If that¡¯s true why do I feel like I know what it means? Damn, these thoughts have just kept coming more recently. I hope I find the answer to this soon.¡¯


    Dad: ¡°Well son, to become a citizen of the Beast kingdom you have to be able to use a little magic to activate the ID maker stone.¡±


    This was the first time I had ever hear my parents use the word magic, so I was instantly curious since this was my second life.


    Cameron: ¡°What¡¯s magic Dad?¡±


    Dad: ¡°Well kiddo, let me think how to answer that.¡± My dad then cocked his lips to the side as he thought of how to answer. ¡°Magic is a type of energy that exists on our world and allows all living beings to use great powers and abilities. For demihumans we have release our magical energy from inside us to affect our bodies and what they can do, or to use special abilities and powers we might be born with. The teacher you get before the test will be able to explain it better than I can. But don¡¯t worry about the test, because every Shadowfur family member has been able to pass the test on their first try.¡±


    I look over to Lily who is still pretty short for her age and she responds by crossing her arms across her chest and making a mischievous smile.


    Lily: ¡°Well of course I passed on my first try; I¡¯m your older sister after all.¡±


    For some reason my youngest older sister was hilariously cute when she did this and my tail wagged involuntarily which caused my whole family to chuckle. We then got into the rather small line in front of the desks for checking in children trying out for citizenship of the demihuman continent. I say that because there were some children that were not of the Beast tribe of demihumans. I only saw two that weren¡¯t Beasts; they were a brother and sister who were respectively an alligator and lizard demihuman. They both had cloths similar to Beast types that had holes for their tails to go through, and the lizard girl looked similar to a human, except for the green skin and red eyes and hair she had. The boy was a little taller than me, and walked like a human, just like all demihumans, but his head/snout was a bit shorter than regular alligators, and he had a bit taller humanized head. I had never seen any other types of demihumans so I asked my parents about them.


    Cameron: ¡°Mom and Dad, what are those kids over there?¡± I asked as I pointed to the two children heading towards the testing area entrance.


    Mom: ¡°Those are Reptilian demihumans, one of the other demihuman tribes. All demihumans are friends so it¡¯s not nice to point Cameron.¡±


    After my question had been answered it was finally our turn to register me for the test.


    Registrar: ¡°Hello there, how many of your kids are going to take the test today?¡±


    Dad: ¡°Just our youngest Cameron.¡± As my father said this he nudged me to stand in front of the family.


    Registrar: ¡°The rules for the test are that you are able to channel and use some mana. You will have a training session on using and channeling mana, then an hour to channel mana into an affinity stone that you will receive in the testing area. Now, have you understood everything I have said to you?¡± As he said this he looked at me awaiting a response.


    Cameron: ¡°Yes sir I have.¡±


    Registrar: ¡°Good, you have been able to learn the common demihuman language. You pass registration test and you are now to proceed into the underground part of the stadium where you will be guided to your training and testing room. You must go alone from here so say bye to your family and if you pass they will see you during the ceremony. If you fail you are to go find them in the audience while the ceremony occurs. Now get to it, the training starts in 20 minutes.¡±


    I said bye to my family and headed when the registrar had pointed me to go. When I was almost out of ear shot I hear the registrar tell my family about the concessions and to enjoy the knight test sparring matches taking part currently in the arena.


    xxxxx


    When I got to the training/testing room I was guided to, I found that all the kids in it were all canine type Beast demihumans. There were other wolves, some dog kids, even a few foxes. There was seating set up for what looked like a demonstration for our training, and the only empty seat left was in the front. When I sat down I looked next to me and saw what looked like a human, the first one I had seen in this lifetime. Since I was on the end of the row, and only had the human next to me, I tapped them on the shoulder so I could introduce myself to them.


    Cameron: ¡°Hi my name¡¯s Cameron, what¡¯s your name?¡±


    ???: ¡°Ummm, my name is Mick, h-hello.¡± He said rather shyly and meekly.


    When he turned to talk to me I noticed that there was a pair of fox ears poking out of his thick red hair, and a red fox tail with a white tip coming out of the tail hole in his pants. For some reason the word fox morph came to mind so I would figure out what he was.


    Cameron: ¡°You look really interesting, are you some kind of special fox type Beast?¡±


    Mick: ¡°Well kind of, I¡¯m what is called a fox-morph. My mom is a fox type Beast and my dad is a human, so since part of me looks human I¡¯m considered a morph.¡±


    Cameron: ¡°Cool, want to be friends?¡±


    He was the first kid near my age that wasn¡¯t a part of my family I had ever been able to, and had, talked to. That and he did look kind of unique just like I did, since there aren¡¯t very many pure black wolf Beasts.


    Mick: ¡°Sure I will be your friend, also since you¡¯re the first kid here to not completely avoid me, and you seem really nice.¡±


    Just about that time the doors slammed shut since a group of three wolf men walked in and shut the doors behind them. I assumed that they would be our instructors since they carried themselves like soldiers and walked to the front of the room and turned to face kids in the room.


    Instructor: ¡°Hello children, and welcome to the demihuman citizenship test. I¡¯m your head instructor and these are my two assistants.¡± He motioned to the two wolves beside him and they both made a small wave when he motioned to them. ¡°For those of you who haven¡¯t taken the test before, the purpose is to see if you are able to channel mana yet or not. The reason we instruct you then give you an hour to be able to do so is because it is the demihuman way for survival of fittest. While that might sound harsh, since most, if not all, have never left your villages or homes until now and our continent is the most dangerous in the world. This is because Gaia, what we call our world and the goddess who holds dominion of the planet, decided that our continent would have the heaviest concentration of mana. While this causes us demihumans to be very powerful and have very long lives compared to the other species of this world, it also causes this continent to give birth too much stronger and more numerous monsters, magical creatures and living dungeons than the other continents. When we use magic, it comes from within us and all our magical abilities either affect our bodies, or allow us to release a magical attack from our bodies, using it as the focal point for the release of the attack. All demihuman are able to use the mana in our bodies to also strengthen and increase our natural attributes, such as making our claws sharper or increasing our speed or strength when we channel mana to those areas. We also have elemental affinities that we are born with that determine what forms and magic types are the easiest for us to use. The purpose of today is to teach you how to utilize basic mana manipulation, and find out your birth affinities. While you may be born with one element, which is what normally occurs, you are still able to learn others through training later in life. First however I will have my assistant here show you the difference between attacks that use no mana, and one that use mana to strengthen your claws.¡±


    The assistant he motioned to nodded and then approached a thick wooden log that was attached to the floor. He then slashed the log as powerfully as he could with his claws, which only cut about half an inch into the log, which was a foot thick. The second time he attack he faced the other side of the log so we could see the back of his paw before he attacked this time. He held his claw up and told us he was now channeling mana to his claws, which caused his black claw like fingernails to give off a slight shine. This time his slash took out a chunk wider than his paw and about 6 inches into the log. The reason he slashed away from us this time was so that we wouldn¡¯t get hit with pieces of the log or the force of the slash, which very small markings on the wall about 2 feet in the direction of the slash.


    Instructor: ¡°That is just a small example of what basic mana can do to increase your bodies abilities. It is necessary to be able to do this to become a citizen of the demihuman continent since all of the creatures on this continent are able to do this as well. If you can manipulate mana you have a much better chance of surviving even the weakest of creatures on our continent, which could almost certainly kill you if you can¡¯t. My assistants will now hand out affinity stones before we teach you how to channel your mana so you get a small time increase for your test. While they are doing that I will now explain about magic affinities and what they have to do with your test. The only way for the alter of citizenship to activate and reveal your status and create your ID plate, is by channeling a small amount of your mana into the crystal altar. Long ago, our ancestors found out that you could also place an affinity stone you had put some of your mana in to would also allow this process to occur, thus the citizenship test was created. Affinity stones will change color after absorbing your mana to reflect what your birth affinities are, which also change the color of your ID plate. Since I was born with only a fire affinity, and haven¡¯t learned any others yet, my ID plate has a red color to it. Since an ID plate is made by using your mana, it is considered a part of you and you can summon it by thinking of bringing it out and channeling some mana to your hand.¡± All of a sudden a small metal and rectangular card appeared in his hand. It gave off a red shine that was only noticeable because of the light producing stones in the room and the card then disappeared almost as quickly as it had appeared. ¡°When we demihumans use certain elemental mana types our bodies transform to allow us access to that element type. The types you can get are based off of your tribe and species. Beast type demihumans have the widest variation and our affinities are based off mainly what our species is. We have you all separated into different rooms based off your species since we will also tell you what possible affinities you can have. Since you are all of the canine type species of demihumans the possible affinities you might have are fire, ice, lightning, and darkness. The three possible forms you have are hellhound, frost-wolf, and lightning fox, with darkness not having a form but some other abilities however it is the rarest. If you are wondering what transformations look like I will show you what a partial hellhound transformation is like. I will only do a partial since if I went full hellhound some of you might not be able to take the heat I will give off.¡±


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    The instructor held up his right hand as he channeled mana into it. As he did so his hand began to change to a black burnt color and what glowing red lines of what looked like magma appeared on the blackened arm. The temperature in the room noticeably increased and that was just from him changing his arm. He then dispelled the effect as the assistants had finished handing out the affinity stones and his arm returned to normal. I looked at the affinity stone I had received and looked at it closely. It was a circular gray crystal and was cool to the touch.


    Instructor: ¡°For the training and test taking part you are able to group up and even help each other during the test on tips to channel mana. While we might put emphasis on the most skilled and powerful to be leaders, are leader isn¡¯t a leader if he has no one to follow and help him or her.¡±


    We moved all of the chairs out of the way and we sat down in groups on the floor, with me and Mick grouping together.


    Instructor: ¡°The first time you channel and utilize mana is one of the hardest, but it is a bit easier if you are in a crossed legged sitting position. The part that will take the longest is finding and accessing your mana pool. For this step I¡¯m going to need you all to take the position I¡¯m in, hold your affinity crystal in your hands and close your eyes. Closing your eyes makes it a bit easier to find your inner mana. Now I want you all to try and clear your mind and picture yourself in your mind. You then need to ¡°look¡± inwards and try and fell the power sitting dormant inside you. Most people describe your inner mana¡¯s feeling to a pool or a force you can¡¯t really explain. Once you find this force I want you to picture it flowing from wherever it is inside of you to your hands. You will know if you successfully channeled your mana to your hands if you feel the gem in your hand heating up. These stones will naturally absorb the mana you channel to your hands and will change color based off your current birth affinity or affinities. The test begins now, good luck kids.¡±


    After about 5 minutes there was a shout of glee as the first kid had succeeded in channeling mana to his stone. This caused Mick and I to open our eyes to look at who was the first to pass and saw that the kid looked almost 2 years old. I whispered to Mick that it probably wasn¡¯t his first time taking the test so that¡¯s why he did it so fast which elicited a nod from Mick. The nearest assistant walked over the quieted the boy and looked at his crystal which was glowing red. Mick and I then went back to trying to channel our mana for the first time.


    About 30 minutes later the room was still half full of younger kids who were definitely taking the test for the first time. It was about this time that I heard Mick speak for the first time during the test.


    Mick: ¡°No way I actually got it to work, hey Cameron look at this.¡±


    I opened my eyes to look at him with a smile on his face and the crystal he was showing me. I looked at the crystal and saw that it had 4 colors on it which were red, white, yellow, and black. So far there had been about 3 kids who had 2 color gems so that meant that Mick had an affinity for all 4 of the elements we had been told about.


    Cameron: ¡°Wow you have all four affinities, congratulations Mick. Now how did you find your inner mana since I¡¯m having trouble finding mine?¡±


    Mick: ¡°Thanks, and for me I felt it like a flame in the center of my chest. I don¡¯t know if that helps but good luck.¡± Mick then motioned for the instructor to come over and look at his stone.


    The instructor was wide-eyed when he saw Mick¡¯s stone and told him to go down the hall to the preparation area for the ceremony. He then went to talk to his assistants and they were all surprised and excited that they were going to see a four element demihuman in their lifetime.


    With about 10 minutes left of the test I finally felt a strange sensation in the middle of my chest. Whatever this power was, I had never felt anything like it before. I then pictured the strange new force to my hands, which started to feel warm meaning I had done it. I opened my eyes to look at the gem and saw the same 4 colors that had been in Mick¡¯s, but there seemed to be a fifth trying to appear in the center of the gem. The colors in the gem started to swirl when all of a sudden the gem shattered apart in my hands as I was feeding the crystal mana. I raised my right hand to try to get the instructors attention and noticed that on the back of it there was a crimson pattern that had not been there before. While I waited for the instructor to walk over to me I rubbed the mark and realized that my fur had changed color to this mark that had a solid circle with arrows pointed away from it in a x pattern.


    Instructor: ¡°Hello there, did you succeed or have a problem?¡± he said kind of half hearted since about half the kids were still in the room and were most likely not going to succeed with the test.


    Cameron: ¡°Yes instructor, I managed to channel mana into my gem, but it broke after I had done so.¡± I showed him the pieces of the crystal that were back to gray and sitting in my palm.


    Instructor: ¡°Well that¡¯s never happened before. Why don¡¯t I give you another gem and watch you do it this time.¡± He then handed me an affinity gem from a small bag on his belt.


    I repeated what I had done last time, except it was much easier and I could do it with my eyes open as well. This time I would get to see what happened with the gem to make it shatter and the entire process. However this time all that occurred was that the gem started to glow and then shattered before it changed colors like it had done the previous time.


    Instructor: ¡°What the fuuu¡ªuuur was that!¡± If I hadn¡¯t had some memories of a previous life I wouldn¡¯t have known that he had almost sworn in front of a child which caused me to silently snicker. ¡°Why don¡¯t we go to the head of the test and see what he thinks we should do. Is that ok with you¡­and weren¡¯t you pure black when you first came in here?¡±


    I looked at myself a little bit and found that there more patch of fur that had turned crimson and they seemed to make some sort of tribal pattern. This caused me to just shrug my shoulders like I had no idea, since I really didn¡¯t. The instructor just sighed and told his assistants to finish proctoring the test since he would take me to the head of the testing and we were soon in front of an office that was also in the underground of the stadium.


    xxxxx


    Lily: ¡°Hey mom, where is Cameron? I don¡¯t see him down there with the other kids who passed and all of the kids who failed have already come back up to their families.¡±


    Mom: ¡°I don¡¯t know Lily, but there is one empty chair at the end so that might be his. We just have to wait and see since there has never been a delay in the ceremony before.¡±


    xxxxx


    Head of Test: ¡°You weren¡¯t kidding when you said that the gem had just shattered.¡± I had just repeated the feat of shattering an affinity gem to the head of the test to prove it was true. ¡°Let¡¯s just put him at the end and have him use mana to make his ID plate like they used to do. If what he said about having five colors then he deserves to be the only person behind the four colors you also had. What a year, first we have the first four affinity in about a hundred years and then an unheard of five affinity as well, if that is even possible.¡±


    xxxxx


    Mom: ¡°Look Lily there is Cameron being led out to the chair at the end of the kids. He looks a little different, but I can smell from here that it is definitely him.¡±


    June, Jane and Lily: ¡°He¡¯s the last one? No way!¡±


    Dad: ¡°What did I tell you honey, I knew he was special when he was born.¡±


    xxxxx


    When I was finally seated with the other kids who had passed I was sitting next to Mick. He congratulated on passing as well and was surprised that I didn¡¯t have an affinity stone with me and that I was behind him since those with the most affinities were at the end.


    During the ceremony we formed a line one row at a time to use the ID altar. There was someone who was putting the small metallic plate on the altar after each kid finished and had absorbed their ID plate. All the kids had to do was put their charged affinity stone in a designated spot on the altar and then put and hold their hands down on the metal plate. When they placed their hand on the plate a large blue screen appeared in the air that showed what would be written on the plate. The magical thin screen that looked like it belonged in a video game would make one rotation before minimizing back into the altar on right where the ID plate was. The screen displayed the child¡¯s name, rank which I¡¯m pretty sure has to do with the guild since all kids had the same, profession which for most all was citizen, and at the bottom there was a special spot for any special abilities which nobody had gotten yet.


    When it was finally down to Mick and I he stepped up to the altar and did the same thing as everyone else had. When his screen popped up it had some differences than all of those before us. First of all I had no idea how I was able to read any of these since I didn¡¯t know any written language in this world so I just attributed it to the magic of the altar. But Mick¡¯s differences were that for profession he had ¡°Potential Hero¡± and under his special abilities he had ¡°Four Affinity Beast¡±. I looked at his plate before it was absorbed into his body and saw that it had four squares that were the same colors as his affinities. After he was done he looked at me and gave me a thumbs up and he walked to the side of the stage since he was told to wait their by the people in charge of the ceremony most likely because of his profession. Then it was finally my turn to do the ceremony. The person in charge told me that I had to do it the original way so I had to continuously channel mana into my plate on the altar until I absorbed my plate. While waiting in line I had been practicing and could tell when I was using mana to strengthen my palm and when I wasn¡¯t so I was sure I could do it. I stepped up to the altar and put my hand on my ID plate and started to channel mana into it. I saw in the edge of my vision that the screen popped up like it should have but became very nervous as it started to spin. Up until now there had been tons of cheering for every kid so far, and even more for Mick, but when my popped up the stadium was dead silent. I looked to the side and saw that even the people in charge of the ceremony were staring in shock at what was on the magic screen so I decided to look as well since it stopped rotating where I could read it before it went into the plate beneath my hand.


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''2''>Name</td><td colspan=''2''>Cameron Shadowfur</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Rank</td><td colspan=''2''>None</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Profession</td><td colspan=''2''>Hero of Chaos</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Special Abilities</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''><ul>


    <li>Chaos Mana Affinity</li>


    <li>Blessing of a God of Chaos</li>


    <li>Broken Soul


    </li></ul>


    </td></tr></tbody></table>


    Well that¡¯s what caused the silence.


    <table><tbody><tr><td width="25%">PREVIOUS CHAPTER</a></td><td width="25%">Back to Main Page</a></td><td width="25%">NEXT CHAPTER</a></td></tr></tbody></table>


    xxxxx


    Author¡¯s Note: Well here is the chapter that at least partially explains the magic system of this world. Also the next chapter might take about a week to do since it will be a lore heavy chapter. Feel free to let me know what you think so far.

 Chapter 4: Broken Soul

    Chapter 4 Broken Soul


    Cameron: ¡°Well guess the cats out of the bag now; really hope I don¡¯t have to make a run for it.¡± I whispered to myself as the screen finally transcribed itself on the plate and got absorbed into my body.


    After this had occurred I took a few steps back and looked around as everyone was either staring at where the screen had been or at me.


    xxxxx


    Mom: ¡°Dear, did that just say what I think it did?¡±


    Dad: ¡°I believe it did, I told you he was special.¡±


    Lily, June and Jane: ¡°No way, I¡¯m the big sister of a hero, so cool.¡±


    Cameron¡¯s three sisters were the first ones to start clapping and soon after joined by their parents in the slowly increasing slow clap which soon started to spread.


    xxxxx


    Clapping just started coming from the area I could smell my family from, and soon the entire stadium was clapping and cheering than they had for anyone else so far. The anxiety I was feeling about the silence soon dissipated and Mick joined me in the center of the stage and patted me on the back.


    Mick: ¡°And I thought I was going to make you feel bad since I got potential hero as my profession, guess you did deserve to go last Cameron.¡± Mick said  as he started to walk away.


    I stopped him by putting my hand around his shoulder and whispered to him as I started to wave to the crowd.


    Cameron: ¡°Mick, they are cheering for both of us, so just stand here and wave.¡± I then turned to the crowd and waved some more with a huge smile on my face.


    Mick thought for a second before putting this hand on my shoulder and waving with his other as his face also broke out in a massive grin. As this was happening one of the people working the ceremony came next to us and told us to turn around and salute the lord and saluted first so we could copy him. The salute involved putting our right hand over our heart as a fist, and to then to make a slight bow while doing so. Mick and I released each other¡¯s shoulders and turned around and saw that there was a special viewing area in the stands behind the stage. I had never noticed it earlier since it was hard to see unless you were on the stage, but who would be looking that direction. Mick and I saluted the stands and saw the inhabitants of the private box seats stand up and continue to cheer. From the stage they looked as they might be lion type Beasts but I couldn¡¯t quite tell what they were, only that there was five of them, with 3 being children. The attendant then told us that the lord wanted to have an audience with us and our families and I said yes immediately. Mick thought about it for a few seconds before he said yes as well and we were lead out of the stadium.


    xxxxx


    We had been escorted out of the stadium and were waiting with some guards for our parents. The guards were just there to give us some space from the crowd coming out of the stadium who might want to interact with us before our parents were with us. There was also a female attendant waiting with so that we would be a little calmer with everything going on.


    Mick: ¡°Hey Cameron, I never saw you have any crimson fur while we were taking the test, did I just not see it in the room?¡± I still hadn¡¯t seen myself in any type of mirror or had even looked inside my shirt to see if any fur there had changed as well.


    Cameron: ¡°I didn¡¯t have any before I passed the test. It must have changed when I channeled mana and it might have to do with my blessing.¡± Mick responded with an ¡°ah¡± as we waited for our parents to meet up with us before we went to see the lord.


    It wasn¡¯t long before our families found us, with mine being first, or more specifically my big sister Lily who came running up to hug me.


    Lily: ¡°Wow you¡¯re a hero Cameron, since I¡¯m your big sister if you become lord one day then that makes me a queen.¡± I almost told Lily she sounded more like a little sister than a big one but decided against it as the twins were the next to arrive.


    Jane: ¡°Hey little brother, congratulating on being a hero. Turns out dad wasn¡¯t wrong when he said you were special.¡± As she said this she scratched behind my wolf ears which felt absolutely amazing. Now I know why dogs like this back on Earth.


    June: ¡°Hey Cameron, who¡¯s your really cute friend over there?¡± she motioned at Mick while she said this.


    Cameron: ¡°Well June this is my friend Mick, who was the potential hero who was right before me in the ceremony. Mick these are my sisters June, Jane, and Lily.¡±


    Mick: ¡°N-Nice to meet you all.¡± Mick blushed as he said this which just made him catch June¡¯s attention even more.


    June: ¡°Well you really are just a heroic little cutie.¡± She said as she ruffled his hair and scratched behind his ears as well which just made Mick¡¯s face go even redder.


    This scene elicited some chuckles and giggles from the male and female guardsmen near us. About a minute later both Mick¡¯s parents and my parents were with us and we started heading to see the lord.


    xxxxx


    We were taken to the throne room of the castle that belonged to the Lord of Beasts, and he was already there with his family waiting for us. They were all lion type Beasts and instead of a lion¡¯s mane similar to those back on Earth the lord¡¯s mane was only on top of his head, so it looked like hair. Also in the throne room was the queen, the prince, who was five and the twin princesses who were about a year and a half old.


    Lord: ¡°Well I guess I should congratulate you two on being lucky enough to have been born with 4 and 5 affinities. The four affinity at birth has only occurred for one other Beast demihuman in history so congratulations on your luck Mick Richards.¡± Mick¡¯s human father patted him on the shoulder and gave him a look of pride which was mimicked by his fox demihuman mother who was next to his father. The lord then looked at me and continued to speak. ¡°As for you Cameron Shadowfur, you are the first born hero the Beast tribe has ever had, and as far as our academics know, the first demihuman or even sentient being to have a fifth affinity. While I know some of my advisors think your chaos affinity might not be a good thing since it is said to be highly destructive, others have said that it also represents change and an end to stagnation. I chose to believe you represent the latter of these two.¡±


    Cameron: ¡°I hope so too your lordship.¡± The attendant that was with us while waiting for our families had given us a crash course on royal etiquette.


    Lord: ¡°Well I have two requests for both of you children. The first is that you and your families move to the castle island and start school immediately with my two daughters who both have three affinities. I can compensate your parents should the move interfere with what they do for a living, since if you go to school here you will be just learning with my daughters and have instructors of each element. I would like to foster the talents of both of you to see how far and powerful you both become in the future since it will bring pride to all Beasts. I wouldn¡¯t even mind if one of you becomes the next lord or Demon King.¡±


    ¡®Wait, Demon King?!?! Just what the hell have I gotten myself into?¡¯


    Lord: ¡°I would also like both of you to join the royal guard, more specifically the queens-guard unit. This unit is responsible for the protection of the queen and princesses of the current lord. I will give you a little time to discuss this with your families before you answer. On another note, Cameron I¡¯m guessing you reincarnated with some memories of your old life, most likely from a world different from ours?¡± As he said this he gave me a look of curiosity.


    This caught me off-guard since I didn¡¯t think they would even know about reincarnation and started to look at the guards in the room to see if they were making any moves toward me.


    Lord: ¡°Don¡¯t look so worried Cameron, we believe in reincarnation since you are most definitely not the first or last on this world. In fact reincarnating with memories intact and transporting beings from other universes is quite common both currently and in our world¡¯s history and has been studied quite a bit. We believe that all sentient beings are reincarnated souls, just usually without their memories so don¡¯t think you stole your body. The only thing I don¡¯t know about is your status as a broken soul since that and your chaos affinity are the only things we demihumans have never seen before. So what do you two say to that offer?¡±


    While all of this was going on my three sisters were murmuring something to themselves when Lily made a sudden outburst.


    Lily: ¡°Wait we want to get taught with brother too, and join the queens-guard too.¡± The twins stepped up behind Lily and nodded their heads as well. They had always been a bit shy and Lily was the most talkative of the family.


    A small trace of annoyance went across the lord¡¯s face before he decided to speak.


    Lord: ¡°You can¡¯t just join the royal guard just because of your brother¡¯s status. What makes you think you deserve the same treatments as possible Demon King?¡± The lord was controlling himself since he looked like he had wanted to yell that at my sisters.


    All this did was cause my sisters to snicker a little before Lily responded.


    Lily: ¡°Because the three of us have the Dire Wolf transformation ability.¡± As she said this my three sisters put on some very proud faces for girls who weren¡¯t quite old enough to start schooling.


    The statement my sister made surprised the lord and everyone else in the room expect Mick and I since they hadn¡¯t said anything about that form earlier. He looked over at me to see if I knew and all I could respond with was shrug my shoulders in an ¡°I don¡¯t know¡± gesture.


    Mom: ¡°Girls, when did you learn to do elemental transformations, much less that form? All me and your father taught you was how to use the ice and shadow elements.¡±


    Jane: ¡°Well we had been practicing in secret to surprise you two and Cameron if he had passed today.¡±


    Lord: ¡°I¡¯m going to need some proof of what you girls are saying if I¡¯m going to believe it since the Dire Wolf form hasn¡¯t been see in over 400 years.¡±


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    Lily: ¡°I will show you but first I need a little space to do this.¡± She motioned for the families in the room to back up some as she walked to the center of the room.


    Lily put her two hand together in what looked like a prayer shape as she closed her eyes and a dark mist started to cover her body. The mist started at her hands and slowly progressed until it had covered her entire body and Lily could not be seen in the smoky mist. All of a sudden the mist moved outward and quickly dissipated within a foot of my now black furred sister. She was now standing in what I guess is a battle stance with hands now apart and looking like she was ready to pounce on her prey.


    I had yet to see someone take on the frost wolf form so I wasn¡¯t sure how this compared to it, but I have to admit my big sister looked kind of badass even if she didn¡¯t have any clothes on now for some reason. Her fur which is normally gray and fluffy was now black and spiked back and downward, at least along her back which is all I could see. The spikes of fur were moving slightly even though Lily was standing still and each one also seemed to be releasing nearly invisibly streams of the black smoky mist from earlier. The mist being release made Lily look as if she had an aura of darkness coming from her, which in a way she did, and also slightly distorted the air near her.


    Lily: ¡°Is this proof enough that we can join our brother to learn?¡± She said in a excited little sister voice that instantly changed the badass vibes she was giving off to cute little sister vibes. She then dispelled the form which caused her black fur to become the dark mist and dissipate the same way as when she had transformed into her dire wolf form. She turned to look my parents and I and smiled. ¡°See little brother, even if you are a hero we still won¡¯t lose to you in rarity of skills.¡± She then giggled a little as she headed back to us and also stuck her tongue out at me as she did so just to tease me.


    The lord and everyone else in the room, with the exception of Mick, my sisters and I, had a look of shock on their face from seeing my sister¡¯s transformation. The lord was the first one to snap out of the shocked state and turned to the two princesses and asked them a question that might explained how me and Mick were chosen for the royal guard.


    Lord: ¡°So what did you think girls? Do you want them to join your guard and also go to lessons with you along with the two boys?¡± The two girls excitedly shook their heads up and down. Guess they were the ones who picked Mick and me, not the lord. ¡°Well why don¡¯t you two introduce yourselves.¡± The lord motioned for the girls to stand up and do so.


    ???: ¡°Hello there my name is Natasha, I look forward to having you as classmates.¡± She had light tan fur that reminded of some female lioness character from an animated movie that¡¯s name escapes me.


    ???: ¡°My name is Sarah and I look forward to class and possibly becoming friends with you all.¡± She had light orange fur that was like lions back on my original world.


    Lord: ¡°Well I take it that the answer from both of you boys is a yes?¡±


    Mick and I looked at each other then at the lord and responded in unison while also doing the formal bow we learned earlier.


    Mick & Cameron: ¡°Yes my lord, we would be honored.¡±


    Lord: ¡°Well that¡¯s great, and I guess that ends this meeting. I will have some of my staff show you to your new rooms and your parents can start working out the details for moving. Cameron I have one of our researchers here who will take you to the grand library to meet with our head researcher to talk with you about your reincarnation and broken soul status. I would also like to invite you all to dine with my family tonight since I think we will get be getting to know each other very well pretty soon.¡±


    The lord stood up as a rabbit beast girl maid walked in to show the way for Mick¡¯s family and a cat girl maid came to show the way for my family. I was approached by a 5 foot tall mouse type demihuman who was wearing glasses and wearing a stereotypical intellectual profession¡¯s outfit from medieval times. He told me he was there to take me to meet the head researcher and separate from the others since he told everyone it was more comfortable for me to talk about this without them, which was right.


    xxxxx


    On the way to the library we passed a hall way that was filled with a lot of small rooms that only contained a bed. As we passed one with a closed door I could hear a female moaning and a male talking dirty to her. My guide turned around to see the look of horror on my face and just chuckled and said that I would learn about the ¡°rumpus rooms¡± in school.


    We soon reached the library and the mouse man opened the door motioned for me to go inside first. When I got inside I saw a massive library that looked like it had come out of a fantasy movie. I had always liked knowledge and this place had tons of it, literally. It wasn¡¯t long before a 5 foot 6 swamp rabbit lady came over to me.


    ???: ¡°You must be the hero Cameron, my name is Stephanie and I¡¯m the head researcher and librarian here.¡±


    The rabbit woman had bent over to have her face more on my level and since she was dressed like a sexy librarian with her top buttons undone because of her DD size breasts, I got a good look at them. While I might not have seen any nipple I still got a good look and the sight should have made me rock solid but nothing was happening downstairs which started freaking me out a little. All I could do during this time was nod my head and make an invisible blush due to my black and crimson fur. She smiled and stood back up straight and addressed the mouse that had led me here.


    Stephanie: ¡°Hey did you see the other two on your way here?¡±


    Guide: ¡°They were trying to conceive when we walked past the room they were using.¡±


    The rabbit face palmed and sighed.


    Stephanie: ¡°I know their trying really hard to have a child and since she just went into heat I¡¯ll just talk to Cameron myself, so could you go do their job for them?¡± My guide just nodded and headed into the library which made Stephanie turn her attention back to me. Unfortunately I was still starting at here rather impressive ¡°features¡± with a puzzled look which caused her to giggle. ¡°I¡¯m guessing you were an adult when you died in your original world and you¡¯re wondering why you can¡¯t get a boner from these, right?¡± I couldn¡¯t help being embarrassed and looked at the floor and shook my head for yes. I thought I was in trouble but she just giggled again and scratched behind my ears. ¡°Demihumans only go into heat or get horny from their bonded mate. When you bond with a female you will be together for life. We don¡¯t cheat on our spouses or any of that kind of stuff like the races of Mer.¡±


    That explained why my dad never thought my mom had cheated on him when my coloring didn¡¯t quite match theirs like all of my sisters¡¯ fur does.


    Stephanie: ¡°Well let¡¯s sit and talk about what we know about reincarnation and what your ¡°broken soul¡± effect might be. From what we know people reincarnate here from other worlds quite often and usually have some knowledge from their past lives. When they are born it¡¯s like they can completely remember their past life, but soon they forget most of it and just remember their skills, abilities, and knowledge that might be helpful. Your ID also said that you had the blessing of a god of chaos, do you remember anything about when you were reincarnated or about your old life?¡±


    Cameron: ¡°Now that you mention it I don¡¯t really remember what happened after I died, just that I was supposed to do great things but was never able to. And I sometimes remember references to things from my old world, but not their names or why I know them. Also I think I was some kind of soldier since I know tactic and the feeling of killing someone, but not much else. I also only remember one name and face clearly. A woman named Alex. Other than that I feel like there is stuff missing that shouldn¡¯t be and I feel like I have some of my original personality but not all of it. Hope that helps you ma¡¯am.¡± I answered honestly since that really was all I could remember.


    Stephanie: ¡°All of that information is great so don¡¯t worry about what you don¡¯t remember. We have found out that you lose all information you don¡¯t need for your new life as your soul gets accustomed to having a body different then it remembers and being in a world with magic. Since we have yet to have someone reincarnate with memories of a past life in a world that had magic. Well let me get a maid to come and guide you to where the rest of your family is staying, and I look forward to teaching you and the others since I¡¯m going to be one of your teachers.¡± She then smiled and winked as she said this, then went and used some sort of magic device to call a maid to the library to come get me.


    The rest of the day was a blur and the last thing I can remember is laying on the bed in my new private room and falling asleep immediately after the long day.


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    xxxxx


    Authors note: Hope this chapter answers some of the questions you might have had and also makes you ask new ones. The next chapter will actually have lore about the world itself so please don¡¯t ask me a lot of questions about it just yet. Also since in this fiction there are multiple gods and goddesses of chaos so he does have a blessing from one of them, he just doesn¡¯t remember which.

 Pictures of forms

    Well I know some of you are wondering what exactly I mean when I describe my characters and how they look, and since I suck at drawing I''ve been looking for pictures that are close to what I mean/can be used as a reference for the different forms characters can change into. Also will try to update this page when new species and form are introduced.


    This is picture of how I see wolf demihumans, except with a bit shorter and smaller tail


    and females


    Now these are pics that are the base of the forms, just imagine the above wolfs looking like these


    frost wolf


    dire wolf


    Hell hound


    Lightning fox (i know its technically a wolf but it is also supposed to look kinda wolfish)


    The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    And these are references for Raptor demihumans which will still be in the story. :)


    male


    female


    I will also be updating this post when new forms or species that I feel need a picture come up (if I can find a pic similar to what I think they look like). I''m working on ch. 5 right now, and its lore heavy, so will try to space it better than I did in chapter 3.


    Pictures of "Ravagers" that are introduced in the next chapter and what they look like to me


    Picture of what the entrance of a living dungeon might look like.

 Chapter 5: School Life as a Demihuman

    Chapter 5 School Life as a Demihuman


    The next couple of years passed by rather quickly, as if I was watching a movie of my life in fast forward and only played during the important parts. When I say this I mean literally, I even asked about it during one of my ¡°regular speed¡± periods and found out that most demihumans experience this, especially during schooling. This occurs due to our instinct taking over and it also allows us to learn combat training and magical training rather easily since everything we learn during our instinctual phases we still remember when out of this state. At first I thought it was my soul still getting accustomed to my body until I asked Mick about it and he said it¡¯s natural and to ask one of our teachers about it.


    The entire theory behind the instinct idea is that since a demihumans¡¯ lifespan is 400 ¨C 800 years our bodies might also do this to help us cope with long periods of doing the same thing every day for extended periods. We will snap out of this instinctual trace state when it is not necessary, but most children experience it during the school period of their lives. Since I basically ¡°matrixed¡± school and combat training I will just cover the ¡°highlights¡± or the periods when I learned at regular speed.


    xxxxx


    The demihuman race is made up of 6 tribes of similar demihumans. These 6 tribes are the Beast tribe, Reptilian tribe, Aquatic tribe, Insectoid tribe, Avian tribe, and the Demon tribe. Also interesting is the fact that all demihumans are omnivores. Imagine my surprise the first time I saw some rabbit and cow girls eating raw wild wolf steaks. Also since becoming a demihuman I¡¯ve learned that raw magical creature and monster meat is freaking delicious. The most cooked we ever make our meat is rare. Demihumans are also one of the few species that can eat monster meat with no ill effects, in fact we are supposed to eat some meat from our kills since we absorb mana from the meat and it increases our mana pool slightly.  This world is also about 5 times bigger than Earth. The demihuman continent is also the biggest of the 3 continents and is twice the size of Pangaea, so imaging all the land of Earth combined, plus a little extra, times 2. The other two continents were connected together but separated by a gigantic mountain range with both continents were each the size of Pangaea. They were the continents of the Mer and Fey.


    The Mer continent is populated by human and humanoid species; well at least the sentient races are humanoid. The races of Mer are Human, Light Elves, Dark Elves, Natural Elves, Dwarves and Ravagers. The Mer races were able to cast magic and don¡¯t have to manually manipulate the mana like Demihumans and Fey have to. This comes with a cost since the races of Mer have the smallest mana capacity of three groups. The species with the highest mana capacity and most balanced stats are the Humans, but they have the downside of having to say chants to cast magic, with higher level spells need longer chants.


    The three types of elves have the next highest amounts of mana and the only other races of Mer that can use spells. All three races of elves do not need to chant to cast magic, but just quick cast by saying the name of the spell they want to cast then picturing casting the spell. Light elves can use spells from 7 of the 8 affinities and can¡¯t use darkness magic. Light elves have the 2nd most mana of any of the races of Mer, but also have the frailest bodies as well, to compensate for their quick casting and high mana supply. Dark elves have an affinity for darkness, fire, and some body enhancing magic, and are the strongest and heartiest of the elves. Despite their name the only way to distinguish a dark elf from the other two is by their naturally occurring reddish tattoo patterns on their bodies since humans and elves have the same skin colors, and the only way to tell an elf from a human is by their pointy ears. Elves also have all the same skin colors that humans do so seeing a black elf doesn¡¯t make them a dark elf automatically. Natural elves are the ¡°conservationist¡± group of elves and only have one type of magic, the special nature magic that most of the Fey possess. While they are a bit studier than light elves, they aren¡¯t as tough as dark elves and rely mainly on agility and ranged combat when they fight.


    Dwarves and Ravagers share the demihuman ability to use mana manually, or by feel, but still have restrictions to keep them balanced. The gods of this world tend to like balance since for every strength a species has, it also has a weakness to compensate. Demihumans might have massive reserves of mana and long life-spans but we also usually have very short ranges for mana based attacks and everything that lives on our continent can kill you. Since all non-demihuman creatures on the demihuman continent can use mana at birth even a baby rat can kill you if you¡¯re not careful. Of course it helps that they are the size of full grown cats when they are young. Oh yeah, I was talking about dwarves and ravagers when I got distracted. While dwarves can use mana manually, they can only channel it through special glyphs that can be written on weapons to cause magical effects. They are also the shortest and second strongest of the races of Mer with their max height being 5 ft.


    The Ravagers are the most interesting of all the races of Mer, and the one demihumans get along best with. They are a race that can only use their manual mana control to strengthen their bodies just like demihumans do and are quite varied as a race. The only common factor between the different tribes of ravagers is that no matter what you are the loser must follow the will of the winner which is very similar to how the demihuman world works. Ravagers are a desert roaming race that is almost considered demihuman due to some of their abilities. They have the ability to sense the general amount of mana monsters and magical creatures have. It is like a sixth sense that demihumans have that will go off if confronted by a creature that is incredibly dangerous. They also use the bones of said high mana creatures as armor, and through some sort of shamanistic ritual absorb some mana for the creature to increase their maximum mana.


    The races of Mer, excluding the ravagers, have a ruling class of nobility that is based off of birth rather than by merit and strength that demihumans use. They also use something called ¡°politics¡± that caused me annoyance and anger when I heard it for some reason, even though I have no idea what it is. Most of the races of Mer fear and hate us and even try to capture demihumans to use as slaves. We were taught to avoid large groups of races of Mer unless they are ravagers, since ravagers don¡¯t get along with the other races of Mer. Ravagers are the only race of Mer that will not lie or try to deceive you about their intentions.


    The continent of Fey is populated by many strange species that are collectively called Fey as well. They are mainly physical manifestations of different aspects of nature such as elementals and dryads, but they mainly keep to themselves. Should we encounter one we are to be cautious since they do whatever they want for entertainment and are apparently usually ¡°total dicks¡± to quote our teacher.


    Now enough about the other continents and on to the ruling system and organization of the demihuman continent. While each tribe has many cities all over our massive continent, the capital cities are arranged in a circle surrounding the massive jungle that makes up the center of the continent. In the center of the jungle, which is inhabited by the strongest creatures on the continent, is the Demon Kings Castle. It was built in the center of the 6 capitals to represent the equality of the different demihuman  tribes, no matter what tribe they belong to. The first Demon King was a member of the demon tribe and was the demihuman who united all of the tribes during their warring period thousands of years ago. He was the ruler of the demon tribe at the time, and challenged the rulers of the other tribe to fight him 1 vs. 1 and defeated, but didn¡¯t kill, each leader became the first demihuman ruler. Originally the lord of each tribe was called the king of the tribe, but that changed when the races of Mer first stepped foot on our continent during the first Demon King¡¯s reign.


    The races of Mer attacked us the moment they saw us, assuming we were monsters, and brutally slaughtered many villages of demihumans. The invasion of the races of Mer caused the unity between the tribes that the first king wanted to instill to become a reality and we banded together to defeat the races of Mer. It was during the first invasion that the Demon King was given that name when he heard some of the invader call him that. Once he adopted the name Demon King, which he thought was quite humorous since he was a member of the demon tribe, he also had the rulers of each tribe called the lord of the tribe. While there are always 6 lords at all times, there doesn¡¯t always need to be a Demon King since there are usually hundreds of years between Demon Kings. The only way to become the Demon King and rule all demihuman tribes is to have followers from each tribe who are strong enough to become the lord of their respective tribe.


    We also had to learn the names of all six of the capital cities which are as follows: Beast ¨C Canavar, Avian ¨C Feuer Vogel, Aquatic ¨C Deniz Canavari, Reptilian ¨C Draakon, Insectoid ¨C Schar and the Demon capital Hel.


    This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.


    xxxxx


    Today is the day that we all finish our learning period and are preparing to take our final exam. All seven of us have changed quite a bit since we started this period of our lives. I¡¯m now 6 ft. 2 in. and am covered in well defined, but not bulky, muscles. I¡¯m wearing my usual leather armor and have my long-sword strapped to my back. I think I should mention that all demihumans that learn the ability to manipulate mana are able to ¡°soul-bind¡± any clothes or equipment we are carrying so that they disappear into us, just like our ID plate, when we change to different forms. I have yet to channel any elemental mana expect my darkness mana so I have yet to transform like the rest of my pack. This doesn¡¯t mean I¡¯m not powerful, rather it means I¡¯ve almost mastered using darkness mana. I think the reason I am having trouble doing a form change is either my ¡°broken soul¡± or merely the fact I¡¯m reincarnated since I didn¡¯t get the instinct other demihumans have when it come to changing forms. Darkness mana, also known as dark mana, is like a combination of shadow and solidified darkness and can be solidified and launched as attacks as slashes and some other tactical uses. Light and dark are classified as the only mana types demihumans can use that are purely ranged in use. I¡¯ve also become incredibly skilled with demihuman swordsmanship and combat using my new body¡¯s natural weapons with and without using mana to strengthen them both. Oh and today is also my 5th birthday.


    Mick is now 5 ft. 11 in. tall and is also well built and has become by best friend and the only other boy that I have had to help survive the ocean of female pheromones the last few years have been. Since Mick and I have been getting trained and taught together with my sisters and the princesses all of our teachers have been female. Since Mick and I are also not quite as muscle heavy as other males of the fox and wolf tribes, this has helped us out since female Beasts are more agile than males and utilize this when fighting thus we could use our naturally more agile builds to full effect. Mick fights using two long knives as his weapon of choice and while he can use all of his forms, his dark mana ability is below mine.


    The twins are both the same height at 5 ft. 10 in. tall and have developed in the very pretty women. I don¡¯t see them that way since they are my sisters, but Mick has said that they are very hot and most likely D cups. The main change for them was that the fur on their backs has changed. Originally Jane only had a dark affinity and June only had ice. While practicing mana control with Lily the twins accidentally found out they could partially transfer their affinity to one another and gained the ability ¡°twin soul sharing¡±. The only way they could enter the dire wolf form was to use the soul sharing to both have dark and ice affinities for a period of time and they have now made the effect permanent so they always have both affinities. Jane now has black fur on her right side and gray fur on her left, while June has gray on her right and black on her left. Their weapons of choice are dual knuckle duster trench knifes and use them to great effect solo and when fighting together.


    Lily is also 5 ft. 10 in. just like the twins, but has C cups which make her a little jealous of her sisters. Lily¡¯s personality hasn¡¯t changed a whole lot and she is best friends with the princesses. She has gained lots of skill with using her dire wolf form over the years. The reason the dire wolf form is considered powerful is because it can use both ice and dark mana at the same time. Since all forms only allow you to use the mana affinity it is associated with this is a huge advantage in combat. While the twins are still working on getting hang of their dire wolf forms they can¡¯t use the dark ice yet. This ability lets Lily launch ice spikes that are pitch black and can be used to pierce enemies which improve on darkness¡¯s ability to only cut and ice¡¯s short range. Lily¡¯s best weapon is a basket style griped broad sword.


    Sarah and Natasha are now both 6 ft. tall and well built for lioness Beasts and can both be quite scary powerful at times. It might help that their mother is the 2nd strongest Beast and that the current lord bonded with her right after narrowly beating her in the duel to become the current Lord of Beasts. Sarah had become quite skilled at using her fire, lightning and earth affinities. Sarah was the princess that Mick was always supposed to accompany and it looked like she might be fond of him. Natasha on the other hand was the princess I was always supposed to be near. Even though it was my duty to protect her I have been having some strange unknown sensations whenever I¡¯m near her. She also always looked like she was sad whenever we were doing magic practice since I couldn¡¯t change forms yet, while she was getting fairly skilled with her fire, lightning and air affinities. Sarah preferred using a cutlass, while Natasha like using a katana like blade.


    In demihuman culture, the ¡°nobles¡± are the stronger members of society and are trained in combat with their guards, who tend to be around the same age as them. Royal guards do not actually ¡°guard¡± those they are supposed to, but are actually part of the nobles ¡°pack¡± or military unit, known to the races of Mer as a ¡°party¡±. While normally the noble is the pack leader, because I was the better then the rest of my pack during our sparring sessions, I was the pack leader, and I would get to lead us on our graduation mission. The mission we were to undertake was to travel to a known and friendly living dungeon and bring back the crystal from the bottom floor of the dungeon.


    Oh I should probably explain about the living dungeons that inhabit this world. No one really knows exactly how they are created, just that they form over mana vents. A mana vent is an area that has mana released in very dangerous amounts, as in enough to mutate any creature that approaches the vent, and that the living dungeons form as a natural way to contain these mana vents. Living dungeons form over these mana vents and form mana crystals that are contained on the bottom floor, which is the main reason to raid them. These mana crystals also attract monsters and magical creatures into the dungeon where the dungeon ¡°devours¡± them by killing them with traps. The dungeons do this so they can re-summon the creature inside themselves repeatedly and increase their chance of killing adventurers. When a sentient species is killed inside a dungeon, the dungeon absorbs their mana and it allows the dungeon to grow strong, deeper and bigger and causes them to also produce much higher quality mana crystals. Those are the hostile living dungeons, where as the friendly ones will purposefully lower the amount of creatures within them and the strength of the creatures so that the raiders will have a better chance to succeed. These dungeons also quite often don¡¯t summon creatures, but just leave those that have been attracted inside for raiders to kill so that the dungeon doesn¡¯t have to waste mana to kill the creatures.


    xxxxx


    Instructor: ¡°Now remember kids, I know you are some of the best  we have, but I still want you to be careful during your test. Most kids take this test at age 10, but you have all shown enough ability to succeed at your current age so pack leader, repeat your mission to me.¡±


    Cameron: ¡°We are to go to the living dungeon know as Hearst, greet it upon arrival to check on the status of the dungeon, and if possible clear the dungeon and bring back the mana crystals completely on our own.¡±


    Instructor: ¡°Good, you may now head to the living dungeon. Cameron I would like to tell you something before you go. Everyone else head to the city gates and wait for Cameron.¡±


    The rest of my pack left quickly left the training field to head in the direction of the dungeon while I stayed behind.


    Instructor: ¡°Cameron the lord has finally gotten word back about another demihuman with the same broken soul effect as you. They are a Raptor demihuman and apparently they are also a Hero of Chaos. The lords of the Beasts and Reptilians have decided that they want you two to duel each other when you turn 15, since you have the same birthday, to see which of you two will start the path to becoming the next Demon King. Oh and happy birthday.¡±


    I was a little stunned at the turn of events, what did someone else having the same blessing as me mean? Were they also from my world? Did they have something to do with Alex? While I was spaced out I had reached the city gate where I was brought back to reality by Lily. After regaining my composure I made sure everyone was ready and we started on our way to Hearst.


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    xxxxx


    AN: I have updated the picture page with images of what I see the Ravagers like. The next chapter will have action in it, and might take a little bit before it is released.

 Chapter 6: The Living Dungeon

    Chapter 6: The Living Dungeon


    The trip to the town near the living dungeon Hearst. During the trip I also thought it would be a good idea to clarify just how much of their bodies my party can transform. Currently they are only able to transform their arms and it takes a large amount of mana to even maintain that much. When Lily had transformed back in the throne room she had only been in full form for 10 seconds and that she wasn¡¯t even trying to go full form. In fact had she been in the form for 5 more seconds she would have run out of mana, have her form get dispelled and fall unconscious. The different stages of mastering our transformations are hands, arms, feet, legs, body and finally head for a full transformation. You have to be able to maintain the previous level for 30 minutes before you start working on the next and everyone has only been able to do the arm transformation for a month. Also since you have to practice each mana type individually and to the same levels it¡¯s harder to master transformations for multiple affinity demihumans. The only exceptions to this rule are dark and light mana if you don¡¯t have a rare duel type transformation. Also we were warned to not try a full transformation before we were ready since not only can it drain us of mana quickly, there is also a chance of losing ourselves to the form and going feral. Demihumans who have gone feral are mindless beasts that are no longer considered demihumans, but monsters.


    Cameron: ¡°Well we are almost to the village of Hearst and when we get there let¡¯s get some food since I¡¯m starving.¡± When villages form near living dungeons, mainly to profit from raiders going to the dungeon, they name themselves after the dungeon. Demihumans are so clever, aren¡¯t they.


    Natasha: ¡°Shouldn¡¯t we check into the inn first and see if the dungeon is even open right now? I¡¯m pretty sure we can get food after that.¡±


    Cameron: ¡°Well since I¡¯m the leader of the party we have to do what I say so mmh.¡± As I said this I stuck my tongue out at her, which caused her face to go red from anger. When you reincarnate you also tend to lose your original personality by the time you are 2 ? years old, except for any quirks you might have had before like my sarcasm. So I had the personality of a child again and almost no memories of my old life. I just knew military tactics, some cooking skills and how it felt to take a life.


    Natasha: ¡°You¡¯re only the leader because you got lucky in our duel the other day. You have just more wins against me than I have against you.¡± We were staring each other down and there easily could have been sparks flying between our eyes. ¡°It¡¯s also probably also just because it¡¯s your birthday.¡±


    That just reminded me that I only had about 10 of those left before I would be forced to fight another demihuman hero, possibly to the death. Yeah really great birthday. This thought also caused me to cave in to her demands and look at the ground then turn away.


    Cameron: ¡°Fine we will go with your idea.¡± I was in front of everyone so no one saw the sad look in my eyes and I didn¡¯t see the looks on their faces.


    xxxxx


    The night seems to stand still with all of the thoughts going on in my head as sleep eludes me while I lie on the bed of my room of the inn. ¡®Why do I have to fight someone who is most likely going through the same stuff I¡¯m going through? Just because we were both reincarnated and had memories of our past lives, is that any reason to make us fight? On top of that I don¡¯t even get to spend one of the big three birthdays with my family. Normally at 5 you celebrate being able to start training and going to school as well as being able to bond, at 10 if you have passed the exam you graduate and at 15 you hit sexual maturity. Great I get to enjoy being able to get it up for a few days before I most likely die if I don¡¯t learn how to use elemental mana. Why me? I can¡¯t even remember the life before this one anymore, so why do I have to go through all of this?¡¯


    Cameron: ¡°This is all thanks to you, whichever god of chaos decided to bless me and cause this. Why am I even talking to you, it¡¯s not like you will answer since you haven¡¯t before.¡± I quietly say to myself.


    Just after I finish my internal, and slightly external, rant there is a soft knock on my door which causes me to sit up.


    ???: ¡°Hey are you still awake Cameron, if you are can I come in and talk to you?¡±


    It sounds like one of the princesses through the door and I get curious which one.


    Cameron: ¡°Yes I¡¯m still awake so you can come in.¡±


    In walked Natasha, who was wearing her nice sleepwear, and she closed the door behind her. She walked over and sat down on the edge of my bed and looked at me with a sympathetic look. This was the same look she gave me whenever she saw me having trouble trying to utilize my elemental mana so it just pissed me off in the current situation.


    Cameron: ¡°Don¡¯t give me that look, it just makes me feel like I¡¯m useless since I can¡¯t use my other affinities yet.¡± I snapped at her. ¡°I mean the only reason I beat you is because my dark mana skill is equal to being at the foot level of elemental forms.¡± I said a bit calmer.


    Natasha: ¡°I¡¯m sorry it makes you feel that way, I guess I make it since I watch you struggling and I can¡¯t help you learn how to do it. Also what¡¯s wrong with you? You¡¯ve been acting pretty moody on the way here, and it¡¯s not like you not to do the sensible thing first when you enter town. I mean why did you want to eat so badly? We got dinner you just ate as much as you usually do.¡±


    I thought about telling her about everything that had happened earlier today. She had always acted like a big sister to me, even though I was supposed to support and protect her, it sometimes seemed like it was the other way around.


    Cameron: ¡°Well the reason I wanted to eat first was so that I could have a feast with you all on my birthday, since I won¡¯t be able to celebrate it with my family till after we get back.¡±


    Natasha: ¡°Then why didn¡¯t you want to have a feast after we had our argument?¡±


    Cameron: ¡°Since you talking about my birthday also made think about what I was told after you left.¡±


    Natasha: ¡°What did you find out?¡±


    Cameron: ¡°Well it turns out that there was a raptor who was also born a Hero of Chaos and who has the same blessings I do, and who also has the broken soul effect. I also learned that the reason they never told me was because the lords were deciding on what age the two of us are to fight each other for the right to become Demon King. Since we also happen to have the same birthdays, they decided that we are to have our possible fight to the death not long after our 15th birthdays. So I didn¡¯t really feel like celebrating after you reminded that if I don¡¯t learn how to start using my elemental affinities to change form then I will definitely die when we fight each other. I mean how would you feel if you remembered you most likely only have 10 years left to live just because of how you were born?¡±


    Natasha had a surprised look on her face when she heard about what her father had done.


    Natasha: ¡°Mom and Dad never said anything about this to us, or possibly anyone else. At least not anyone who would be willing to tell me too. If I had known I wouldn¡¯t have said anything about eating first since it would have been fun if we had. But the way you are thinking is more like a mer and less like a demihuman, since you have to live everyday like it could be your last. Especially since here it really could be since everything can kill us if we aren¡¯t careful.¡± She rubbed my shirtless back as she was saying this.


    Cameron: ¡°Thanks for that, and sorry about yelling at you earlier, even though you were right. Guess I just didn¡¯t have the right mindset.¡±


    Natasha: ¡°Glad I could help you out.¡± Natasha stood up from the bed and started to walk to the door and stopped. ¡°You know I think I should give you your birthday present a little early.¡±


    Cameron: ¡°Really what is i-¡° I couldn¡¯t finish my sentence as Natasha had bent over and planted a long kiss on my lips. As she kissed me I could feel a strange heat filling my body when a weird thought came to my head.


    <table><tbody><tr><td> You have bonded to Natasha Everroar </td></tr></tbody></table>


    As soon as that appeared in my mind Natasha released the kiss and jerked her head back and had what passed for a blush on her face.


    Natasha: ¡°D-d-did we just b-b-bond? I mean I thought you might be the one I would bond with but I didn¡¯t think it would be this s-¡° this time it was my turn to cut her off with a kiss. I had gotten out of my bed and pulled her into an embrace as I had a strange urge to do so. She at first stiffened then relaxed then joined in as our tongues explored each other¡¯s mouths.


    As we were doing this I could feel the heat dissipating from within me and I started to feel normal again. Since I was also hugging her, I could feel that Natasha was also cooling down like I was while we embraced each other. When all the heat was gone we broke the kiss and we chuckled nervously as we also stopped holding onto one another.


    Natasha: ¡°Well I guess I better get back to my room and get some sleep before we raid the dungeon tomorrow.¡± She started to awkwardly walk towards the door when a strange urge caused me to stop her.


    Cameron: ¡°Wait Natasha, umm would you mind sleeping in the same bed tonight? I used to sleep in the same bed as my sisters before the citizenship ceremony and ever since then I have slept by myself. I¡¯ve never been able to sleep as well as well alone, so would you mind sleeping together with me?¡± I knew we wouldn¡¯t do anything except sleep in the same bed since neither of us had sexually matured, and what I had said was the truth.


    Natasha: ¡°That sounds kind of nice right now so I will.¡±


    We both lay in the bed as Natasha hugged me with her stomach against my side and I wrapped the arm she was on around her. Her body heat soothed me and her fur was incredibly soft and we quickly fell asleep while holding each other.


    xxxxx


    That morning had passed uneventfully, mainly because I helped Natasha sneak back to her room with darkness mana, and we decided not to tell anyone until my birthday party back at the castle. There was a little bit of awkwardness on the way to the dungeon, but nobody let on that they thought something was up.


    It was not long until we made it to the entrance to the dungeon that was near a forest. The entrance to the dungeon was a small stone building that looked like the entrance to a crypt. Instead of a door to enter it actually had a face and the mouth would be open if the dungeon was ready to be raided. When we got to the entrance we had a bit of an issue, the mouth was closed.


    Mick: ¡°They said back in town that no one has gone to raid this dungeon in about a month and that it should be open now. So why the hell is it closed?¡±


    Sarah: ¡°Well let give it the meat offering we brought with us and see if it will tell us what the issue is.¡±


    We had been taught that for friendly living dungeons it was customary to give it an offering of monster meat before entering, or if it was closed so that it would be more willing to talk to you. We found a smaller mouth that was open next to the closed mouth of the dungeon. We but in the meat we had brought with us and the mouth closed and started chewing the meat when we said that was all we had brought. Hearst¡¯s eyes opened and looked at us, which was quite startling.


    Hearst: ¡°Well hello there children, what can I do for you?¡±


    Sarah: ¡°We were wondering why you are closed, since we heard back in town that you should be open right now.¡±


    Hearst: ¡°Well to tell you the truth children, I have some Mer inside of me that have been holed up on the 4th floor and have been there for 2 weeks. No matter what I summon to fight them they just stay down there, and even when I leave them alone to go to the next floor they still stay there. I got worried they might have some other motive so I would like to ask you to please notify the city guard to come and talk to the Mer to see what they are up to.¡±


    Cameron: ¡°That won¡¯t be necessary because we are royal guards.¡± I made my royal guard emblem appear in my hand in a similar process to making someone¡¯s ID plate appear. ¡°Will you allow us to enter you and question the Mer about why are have been staying in you so long?¡±


    Hearst: ¡°Wow and you are all so young so you must be very skilled. I will let you enter to question them and I will even get all of the creatures out of your way to help expedite your trip to the fourth floor. If they have no legitimate reason to be in me feel free to kill them. They dug a large hole in part of that floor and I can¡¯t fill it in with them in there and it hurts.¡±


    I turned to the rest of the group to discuss our battle plan.


    Cameron: ¡°I¡¯m going to go down and see what the Mer are doing and see if we need to get the city guards to come help us. All of you stay here and make sure no one else tries to come after me.¡±


    Natasha & Lily: ¡°Like hell you are going alone, I¡¯m coming too.¡± They looked at each other as they said the same thing in unison, nodded to each other, and looked back at me with a look that would make a normal person piss their pants if they saw it.


    The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.


    Cameron: ¡°Okay you can come too, but we need to be careful, Mick, Sarah, Jane and June are on the lookout in case they are slavers. If they are they might have people hiding in the forests to ambush demihumans who enter the dungeon from behind so be ready for anything.¡± I looked at the friends I had been training with for the last 5 years and they all nodded with our current plan. I then turned back to Hearst and asked him for some favors. ¡°Hearst can you shut your mouth behind us and let the rest of my party here know if something happens inside you? I don¡¯t want to get the city guards just yet in case they are here just to farm your dungeon and don¡¯t know our customs for living dungeons. If they are adventurers then I don¡¯t want to give them a reason to think we are intolerant of them because of where they are from and spark another Great War.¡±


    Hearst: ¡°You are also quite smart and far thinking for one so young, no wonder you are a royal guard. I will do the best I can but I¡¯m only able to detect mana pool signatures within me. If they start disappearing I will let the ones up here know. I can¡¯t tell how many are in me, but I will know when and how many die since I absorb the mana of anyone who dies within me.¡±


    Cameron: ¡°Thank you for your help Hearst. When I have little ones of my own someday I¡¯ll make sure they come to you for their graduation test.¡± I said making a great show of thanks to a friendly living dungeon. My reward was a lick from Hearst¡¯s tongue before he opened his mouth for us to enter. The best way I can describe the sensation of being licked by a stone tongue was that of a very rough cat tongue that was only slightly wet.


    Everyone chuckled at my surprised and uncomfortable look right after the lick which quieted as Natasha and Lily followed me into Hearst.


    xxxxx


    After the mouth closed shut behind magic stones that lined the hallways lit up and guided us down to the 4th floor. Normally all the stones would be lit up to confuse any raiders coming into the dungeon, but Hearst was helping use out and instead guided us downwards into his depths.


    After about 20 minutes we reached the 4th floor which had a very large, wide open room before the stairs to the much smaller boss floor that was the 5th. We quickly saw the makeshift camp with currently lit campfire in the room about 600 meters away from the door of the room. We walked halfway to the campsite while constantly checking for any sign of hidden Mer that we might have passed and saw no signs of any. Once we had stopped I called out to the camp.


    Cameron: ¡°Hello, is there anyone we can talk to about what you have been doing down here for so long?¡± I had spoken in the common language of Mer that we had learned from magic books during our time in school and was the only other language we could learn though magical books. We put our hands on our weapons but didn¡¯t draw them since the Mer weren¡¯t hostile yet, but we at least needed to be ready. We might have been able to sneak up on them, but that would most likely have backfired and gotten us attacked in self-defense thinking we were creatures of the dungeon.


    Male voice: ¡°Oh wow, I thought we might never get to meet some demihumans while in this dungeon. We are just here training to get stronger to face the boss of this dungeon and it would be nice to have the help of some natives.¡± The voice belonged to what looked like a human until I saw his pointy ears and tattoos with my impressive eyesight and realized he was a dark elf. He was accompanied by a human who was taller than me and had a large hammer in his hands. ¡°Why don¡¯t you three come join us for dinner? We just made some fresh stew.¡± We could smell it in the air, but I wasn¡¯t getting a good feeling from the pair.


    As I was looking at him a little closer I saw some leather straps with gems hanging from his belt. It took me a moment to think of what they were and almost took too long to realize that they were magic neutralizing slave collars Mer used to keep demihumans slaves from manipulating mana. ¡®Oh shit their slavers and we walked into their trap¡¯ I thought to myself as I started to draw my weapon. The dark elf was not expecting me to figure him out so easily and looked over my shoulder and made a small nod as the large human started to come toward us. Just as I had managed to draw my sword I heard three voices coming from behind us and could faintly make out the words ¡°¡­stunning bolt¡­¡± and realized they had mages using multiple means of concealment to keep demihumans from noticing them.


    Since Natasha and Lily hadn¡¯t quite realized what was going on during the few seconds since I had started to draw my blade, I pushed them both out of the way of the incoming spells since I was between the two of them. I managed to get them both out of the way as three lightning bolts struck me since I had taken the girls place. Electricity coursed through my body and I dropped my sword and fell to my knees and could barely keep myself up with my hands. My relief at getting the girls out of the way was short lived as they were both hit by bolts barely seconds later. ¡®Shit, the mages are light elves¡¯ since all I heard was the name of the spells they casted.


    Dark Elf: ¡°Wow that pretty impressive that you are even still conscious after take 3 stunning bolts since those two girls couldn¡¯t even handle one without being knocked out.¡± I barely managed to look to the side long enough to see a light elf heading towards Natasha who was out cold. ¡°Davath will you please be so kind as to knock our guest unconscious so that he won¡¯t be an issue.¡±


    The large human nodded at the dark elf and started to head towards me. The stun effect was slightly wearing off because I had built up some resistance to lightning spells during sparing sessions with the others since they used most of the elements on me. I built up as much dark mana I could into my claws and just as Davath was about to get into range to hit me I managed to move my hand with a slashing motion towards the human. An almost invisible dark line headed towards the human who had no clue what was coming in the low light of the dungeon. As soon as the attack hit him he just stopped a bit short of being in range of me.


    Dark Elf: ¡°Hey Davath why did you stop, you need to knock him out since we don¡¯t know what he can do and more lightning might kill him. Hey Davath can you hear m-.¡± It was at this time that Davath upper body moved ever so slightly diagonally causing a large amount of blood to spew from his mid-section. This didn¡¯t last long as Davath fell to the ground in 2 pieces with his war-hammer still having the hand and arm of Davath attached to the hilt while the head rested on the ground. ¡°Daavaathhh¡± the dark elf screamed as he launched himself at me at an incredibly fast speed using mana to strengthen himself as he kneed me in the chest. I was launched 100 meter backwards and couldn¡¯t even move. ¡°Hey you three, finish restraining the two girls and get to the magic circle and start the spell. I want this one to watch what happens to those two before I kill him.¡±


    The dark elf walked over to where I was sprawled on the floor of the dungeon and made a wicked smile as he picked me up by the scruff of my neck and dragged me over to the pit near their camp. All I could feel was a painful, burning and hot sensation in the center of my chest and could only watch as Natasha and Lily were taken into the pit with the 3 light elves. When we got to the edge of the pit the dark elf raised me up so I could see the magic circle contained within the pit with the girls in the center of it. The light elves were kneeling on the outer part of the magic circle in the shape of a triangle. The triangle started to glow as the light elves fell back on their butts from using what I assumed to be most of our mana. One of them asked if the dark elf was going to join them since they had a minute till the circle took effect.


    Dark Elf: ¡°No I¡¯m going to stay here and destroy any evidence¡± as he said this he raised me a little. ¡°I will meet up with the others before heading back home.¡± He then held me to a height where his face was even with mine and he looked me in the eyes. ¡°You know those girls are going to be sex slaves for the rest of their lives, constantly getting fucked by whoever can pay my masters price. Just thought you should know their fate before you meet your end.¡± He then laughed with the best evil laugh I had ever heard after seeing the look of horror in my eyes.


    ¡®Damn it, damn it, damn it! Why can¡¯t I do anything more than this? Why can¡¯t I save the girl I had just bonded with and my sister? If I could use my elemental affinities could I have changed what happened? And why the hell is this fucking heat still spreading from my chest?¡¯ I angrily thought to myself since I wasn¡¯t even able to talk at this point. ¡®God damn it why won¡¯t this heat just get out of me to end this pain before I die?¡¯ As I thought this and imagined all of the heat leaving my whole body, I felt as if my entire body had burst into flames as my vision went red.


    Dark Elf: ¡°Fuck that burns, what the hell? How can you still m-.¡±


    These were the dark elf¡¯s final words as he was split in two from his crotch to his head. He didn¡¯t even bleed since the heat and flames from my full hellhound form had cauterized the wounds as I melted him in half. I felt myself surge with energy and all I could think about was getting the girls out of the pit and killing the light elves as I leapt into the pit at the nearest elf. My hand went through his chest where his heart was, since it was ash, and burned my arm to my right to free my arm from the elf. As his body was in the process of dropping I was already beside the next elf. I was in a pose as though I had just finished a slash as the elf¡¯s head hit the ground shortly followed by his body.


    The last elf has pissed himself when he saw the first light elf die and started trying to climb out of the pit as the second met his end. I still wasn¡¯t able to completely control I was doing but I didn¡¯t mind if I could save the girls. In an eye-blink I had grabbed onto the shoulders of the last light elf and felt slightly hungry. I then somehow managed to increase the size of my mouth and how far I could open it before chomping down on and devouring the elf¡¯s head. I began to feel the power leaving my body and I was close to running out of mana and my head was starting to clear.


    Natasha: ¡°You finally did it..¡± she said very weakly which managed to snap me back to rescuing the two girls.


    Since I still didn¡¯t have complete control over this form I knew I couldn¡¯t try to jump out of the pit while holding them or I would burn them to death in the process. I did the next best thing I could think of to get them out of the pit before the magic activated. I grabbed the handcuffs both of them were wearing and threw them out of the pit and in the process melted through the chains holding the cuffs together freeing the girls¡¯ hands.


    As I prepared to jump out of the pit myself I felt all of the power instantly leave my body and involuntarily fell to my knees. ¡®So this is what running out of mana feels like¡¯ as I looked down at my now normal looking legs and hands. The magic circle started to give off a bright life and I managed to look up into Natasha¡¯s eyes as a tear fell down my face. The last thing I remember hearing was her screaming noooooooooo. As circle released light into the air as it finally activated I was temporarily blinded before I felt my body getting ripped apart.


    xxxxx


    I was in a white room I felt I had visited before and saw a desk covered in paperwork piles 5 feet high. A woman then poked her head beside piles and got out from behind the paperwork that hid her. She felt familiar, but she was wearing sweatpants, a comfy looking jacket, had disheveled hair and looked like she hadn¡¯t slept in days.


    Goddess of Chaotic Good: ¡°Good I finally got a chance to talk to you, and no you aren¡¯t dead. That magic circle teleported you by turning you into magic particles and will resemble you in what will be for you a couple seconds. I can only keep your consciousness here for a few minutes so listen to me carefully. The good news is nobody is going to check the other end of the teleport for a day so you will wake up before anybody finds you and puts magic restraining devices on you. But I have some bad news as well so get ready for it. I accidentally jumped the gun a little bit on your reincarnation and well, not sure how to say this, you didn¡¯t quite die and -¡­¡±


    Cameron: ¡°Wait, what the fuck do you mean I didn¡¯t die!¡±


    <table><tbody><tr><td width="25%"> PREVIOUS CHAPTER </a></td><td width="25%"> Back to Main Page </a></td><td width="25%">NEXT CHAPTER </a></td></tr></tbody></table>


    xxxxx


    AN: Well here is the next chapter so enjoy. Also my first fight scene and even though it is short, let me know what you think. Put a picture of what I imagine the ¡°mouth¡± of the dungeon to look like on the picture page. Also have a little faith and don¡¯t just hate on the story because of what you assume might happen. I am going to work on the next chapter as fast as I can but since my birthday is next week I can¡¯t make any promises.

 Chapter 7: Jumping the Gun

    AN: If you didn¡¯t know when I mark dialogue with ¡® ¡® it is indicating thoughts that the reader can hear from the characters viewpoint. Also meant to finish this chapter a few days ago but computer issues kept me for accessing word and the internet.


    xxxxx


    Chapter 7 Jumping the Gun


    Cameron: ¡°Wait, what the fuck do you mean I didn¡¯t die?!?!¡± I screamed at the goddess as all of my memories of my previous life were still there as if I hadn¡¯t ever lost them causing me to pause. ¡°Also, why can I remember my previous life while I forgot it while reincarnated?¡±


    Goddess of CG: ¡°Well you can remember your previous life because you are in this realm, which is linked with both of those universes. Before I answer your first question I should also let you know that you won¡¯t remember anything that we are about to talk about.¡±


    Cameron: ¡°If I¡¯m not even going to remember the fact that you screwed me over nine ways from Sunday, then why even bring me, or my consciousness or whatever the hell of mine is here, to talk in the first place?¡±


    Goddess of CG: ¡°Well it¡¯s not so much for you as it is for all of the observant lesser deities who are watching your story and the ¡°god¡± that created you and your ¡°story¡± told me to.¡±


    As she said this she looked just past me at the wall behind me. I turned to look at the white wall that oddly enough had a small number 4 painted on it in black paint. I decided to just brush it off and get back to the matter at hand.


    Cameron: ¡°Let¡¯s get back on topic, what do you mean I didn¡¯t die?¡±


    Goddess of CG: ¡°For reasons I¡¯m not going to divulge at the moment, because I don¡¯t feel like it right now, the 9 gods of alignment¡¯s ability to see our varying distances into the future were set to a reality different from your own. Since then we have stopped using our future sight and have decided to see where things go without skipping ahead. Personally I find it fun not knowing what¡¯s going to happen next. Back to the point at hand, the reality we saw was that you died in the ambulance and you were not revived. Unfortunately for you, and also slightly for me, in the reality you come from you are revived on the way to the hospital. I reincarnated you when you technically ¡°died¡± before being brought back.¡±


    She gave me an apologetic shrug and continued.


    Goddess of CG: ¡°Before you go I will let you know that your original body is in coma. I wanted to tell you more but you seem to be breaking up sbrzh g¡­d lu¡­¡±


    Cameron: ¡°You do know that trick doesn¡¯t work if I can see you.¡±


    Goddess of CG: ¡°Since we don¡¯t have cell phones I¡¯ve always wanted to try that trick.¡± She then snapped her fingers.


    All of a sudden I could feel my consciousness start to fade from this reality as my vision was starting to fade.


    Wooo for me and my good luck. I¡¯m actually glad one of the few quirks I kept is my sarcasm. The view of the white room and the goddess started to fade to black and was as though nothing had just occurred a different scene started to appear.


    xxxxx


    As the blinding light fades and my body no longer feels likes its getting ripped apart I remember Natasha screaming a long ¡°nooooo¡± just as I notice I¡¯m still on my knees and about to black out onto a stone floor. I manage to muster up enough strength to place my hands forward enough to lessen the impact and avoid head damage. I then fall forward and manage to hit the stone softly as I black out.


    xxxxx


    Lily¡¯s POV


    ¡®Ugh, what happened and why the hell does my head hurt? What is that sound? The last thing I remember is that Cameron pushed me out of the -.¡¯ Lily cut the thought short as she quickly looked around to see where she was.


    She was still in the room in the living dungeon that she had been before her brother had pushed her out of the way of the incoming spells. ¡®Since I got knocked out right after with a similar spell in such a short time they must have been light elves.¡¯ As her vision cleared she saw her friend Natasha hunched over an object she was holding and she realized the sound she couldn¡¯t identify was coming from her. She struggled to get to her knees, then her legs which were still a little wobbly, before making her way so she could collapse on her knees next to the princess. She put her hand on the girl¡¯s shoulder to get the girls attention which caused her friend to turn. Noticing that it Natasha was crying she inquired as to why.


    Lily: ¡°What¡¯s wrong Natasha? What happened and why haven¡¯t I seen Cameron yet?¡± She then decided to look at what Natasha was carrying and realized that it was her brother¡¯s long sword and a horrible feeling hit her. ¡°Where is he, is he de-de-dead?¡± She started to stutter some as the grief of most likely losing her little brother was starting to make her cry as well. She calmed down a little when Natasha shook her head for no. ¡°Then where is he and what happened to him?¡±


    Natasha: ¡°I¡­I¡­I¡­ I don¡¯t know where he is, just that he isn¡¯t dead.¡± She said starting to calm down a little after starting out stuttering.


    Lily: ¡°It¡¯s good to know he is alive, but how do you know if he isn¡¯t here?¡± Looking at the long sword and the fact he is alive meant he must have gotten captured by the slavers.


    Natasha: ¡°Because of this.¡± Natasha made her ID plate appear in her hand and showed it to Lily.


    Lily was curious as to why Natasha was showing her ID plate but Lily looked at it anyway. As she was looking at she realized that there was a new piece of information on the ID plate.


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''2''>Mate</td><td colspan=''2''>Cameron Shadowfur</td></tr></tbody></table>


    All demihuman are taught that the only way to break the bond of a bonded pair of demihumans was for the death of one of them. If this ever occurred, because of the bond and their animal instincts, they would know when their mate died. The ID plate would also say deceased in this spot until the demihuman re-bonded. The relief of seeing her brother¡¯s name caused Lily to calm down.


    Lily: ¡°I¡¯m glad that he is still alive.¡± Lily thought for a moment about the fact that her brother¡¯s name was on Natasha¡¯s ID plate before the realization hit her. ¡°You bonded with my brother!?!? When did this happen and when were you going to tell me and everyone else.¡± She cried out in a shocked and happy voice which caused Natasha to smile slightly.


    Natasha: ¡°It happened last night and we were going to tell everyone at his birthday party.¡± The realization that everyone was expecting all of them to come back made her burst out in tears again. This forced Lily to try and comfort Natasha some more.


    Lily: ¡°Do you know what happened after I was hit by the spell that knocked me out and if Cameron got captured?¡± She was trying to keep both Natasha and herself calm since she also wanted to burst out crying as well.


    Natasha: ¡°I got hit by a similar spell too, but I started to come to while we were in the pit. All I remember after I woke up was a magnificent looking full hellhound transformation killing some elves. I realized it was Cameron congratulated him on finally transforming. Next thing I remember he grabbed me and you by the wrists and threw us out of the pit we were in. After I landed I managed to push myself up enough to look to see if he jumped out too, but I saw him turn back to normal and fall to his knees. I guess he must have run out of mana or else he could have jumped up while normal. He looked at me and smiled as a magic circle in the pit activated and engulfed everything in the pit in light as I screamed. When the light stopped there was nothing in the pit, not even the magic circle.¡±


    Just about that time she heard footsteps running towards them and recognized the smells coming their way along with some very bad smells in the air as well. She waved to the other four members of their party and managed to get their attention before looking around some more. This time she saw the war hammer that still had the arm and hand of its owner gripping the handle. She looked at the ground and saw the remains of the big human she remembered from earlier and realized she was smelling the blood and organs that left his body after he was cut in half. She looked back toward the pit and saw the cauterized halves of the dark elf as well and realized the other smell was burnt flesh. The group of four stopped as they met up with the two girls. Mick looked like some of his fur was singed and was bleeding some from his shoulder as he approached the girls by himself.


    xxxxx


    Mick¡¯s POV


    As Mick and the other 3 girls entered the 4th floor a pungent smell hit them. ¡®What the hell happened down here, it smells like death.¡¯ This immediately answered his own question as he quickly tried to find the source of the smell and if possible his friends. He quickly scanned the room and saw Lily motioning to him. He told girls to stay there as he went to check the rest of the party.


    As Mick started heading Lily¡¯s direction he saw that it was just Lily and Natasha kneeling on the ground and that there was no sign of Cameron. As he headed towards them he walked by the three piece corpse and laughed a little to himself as he saw the hand standing in the air. He knew it was the handiwork of his best friend¡¯s dark mana ¡®son of a bitch didn¡¯t even see it coming.¡¯ As he reached the girls he noticed the long sword similar to what he sparred against many times over the last 5 years. This immediately got him a little worried since they had also been attacked outside the dungeon, but they were prepared for an ambush. They knew if any Mer approached them then they were likely to have evil intentions. When he had picked up the sound of several beings moving through the nearby forest towards them he got everyone ready for the ambush, but to look like they didn¡¯t know about it. He needed to find out what had happened to his best friend.


    Mick: ¡°Lily and Natasha are both of you okay?¡± Both girls nodded their heads yes and he looked around and saw the dark elf who had been melted in half. ¡°Hey Natasha, did you kill the elf over there?¡± She shook her head no and started to tear up again and clutched the sword closer which made Mick realize that he had not seen any sign of Cameron¡¯s body. ¡°Hey is Cameron still in the dungeon?¡± He had tried to word the question in as kind and hopeful a way as possible. All he got in response was both still stunned looking girls shake their head no. ¡°Well how about we get both of you out of here and back to the inn in town and we can talk more there.¡± The girls had some trouble standing, so Mick motioned for the others to come help him get Lily and Natasha back to town.


    If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    Once they were on their way out of the dungeon Mick noticed that the girls still had parts of the cuffs the slavers had put on them and didn¡¯t want to upset the girls anymore than they already were. When the twins asked Mick quietly about their brother he just told them he wasn¡¯t in the dungeon anymore and to wait till they got back to the inn to find out just what happened. The only thing Mick knew was that luckily wherever he was, if he was still alive, Cameron could finally use elemental mana, well at least fire.


    xxxxx


    Cameron¡¯s Father¡¯s POV


    ¡®What¡¯s taking them so long with the test? They should have been back by now. I have a bad feeling about this.¡¯ He was pacing in the room that they had prepared for Cameron¡¯s party, the first one of three they would have for him. He had thought it might have been too dangerous for the kids, but they had easily passed the requirements for the test. ¡®Why was it taking them so long¡¯ was the only thing he could think until a guard walked into the room and addressed him and his wife.


    Guard: ¡°Sir and madam, the lord has requested both of your presences in his throne room for the summary of the test since the kids are back.¡± There was a shadow of sorrow as the guard had said kids and this worried him when he saw it.


    They followed the guard to the Lord¡¯s chamber and stopped in shock when they entered and only saw 6 children reporting back. They knew it was Cameron who was missing because he was the tallest and the only one who was pitch-black. Cameron¡¯s mother almost broke down crying but his father tried to comfort her for the kid¡¯s report.


    Lord: ¡°Mick, what do you have to report about the events that occurred in the dungeon during your mission?¡±


    Mick¡¯s POV


    Mick: ¡°Yes Sir my Lord. When we checked in, in town, we were told that no groups had gone from the town to raid the dungeon in about a month. When we arrived at the dungeon we found the mouth closed which made us curios as to what had occurred. We gave the dungeon our offering and asked it why it was closed. Hearst informed us that a group of an unknown amount of Mer had entered it 2 weeks previously and were still inside on the floor above the boss floor. They had stayed there for the 2 weeks and had also dug a pit on the floor for unknown reasons, and Hearst suggested we get the guards to check out the situation since he had closed himself to protect any Demihumans exploring him for their graduation test. Cameron presented his royal guard emblem and asked if he could question the Mer inside about their long stay. Natasha and Lily then insisted that they accompany him inside to question the Mer and he acquiesced to their demands and they went into the dungeon.¡±


    Lord: ¡°So you, Sarah, June and Jane stayed outside as backup while others went inside to investigate the intentions of the suspicious Mer, as expected of the royal guard. While you were stationed outside you were attacked by Mer slavers and managed to kill them, correct? Do you also know what happened inside the dungeon or about the current status of Royal Guard Cameron?¡±


    Mick: ¡°Yes sir, while we were prepared for ambushes since any Mer coming our direction were most likely slavers, we had the easy task. I don¡¯t know what occurred in the dungeon however, since Natasha and Lily have said they would wait till we got back to say what occurred.¡± The lord turned to look at his daughter.


    Lord: ¡°Natasha can you inform us what led to the loss of Cameron?¡±


    xxxxx


    Natasha POV


    She had been dreading this moment ever since Cameron disappeared into the light from the magic circle. If Lily hadn¡¯t been giving her support and keeping her hopes up, she might still be sitting in shock in the dungeon. She steeled herself as she began to recount what she had seen.


    Natasha: ¡°Once we had entered Hearst, the dungeon cleared all of the creatures out of our way and led us to the 4th floor where the Mer were located. Once we got to last room before the boss floor we found a makeshift campsite. We couldn¡¯t detect anyone behind us when as we approached the camp and we called out to those inhabiting the camp. We were greeted by a dark elf and a large human who invited us into their camp. Cameron was studying the dark elf who was approaching and asked him about his reason for being in the dungeon for so long, and suddenly drew his weapon. He then pushed Lily and I away as three lightning spells hit him from behind and forced him to his knees. The magic users were 3 light elves since I heard them say the name of the spell as they hit and knocked out me and Lily.¡±


    Lord: ¡°Do you know why Cameron suddenly started to attack, and how you didn¡¯t detect the elves you walked past?¡±


    Natasha: ¡°Based off of our condition when I started to regain consciousness I realized they were slavers. Cameron must have noticed the collars the dark elf had on his belt before Lily or I did. The elves must have been using some kind of camouflage spell as well as using scent blockers to hide from us. When I started to come to I was also in the suspicious pit which contained a magic circle that apparently took some time to activate. I also saw that Cameron was in full hell hound form as he was killing the light elves that were in the pit with us. I know he must not been in full control of his elemental mana since he grabbed Lily and me and threw us out of the pit by our handcuffs. I¡¯m guessing he didn¡¯t grab and jump out with us because he was afraid of hurting or even killing us. In the process of throwing us out he had also managed to melt through the chains binding our hands, but he ran out of mana before he could get himself to safety and was engulfed in the effect of the magic circle.¡±


    Lord: ¡°One last question before I dismiss this debriefing, how do you know that Cameron is still alive?¡±


    Natasha: ¡°Well the night before we went into the dungeon I bonded with him and because we are mates I know he is still alive.¡± She couldn¡¯t handle it anymore and she broke down crying and was quickly hugged and comforted by Lily who was next to her. ¡°Its my ¡­ my ¡­ my fault he¡¯s gone. If I had let him, *sniffle*, go alone he wouldn¡¯t have needed to get us out of the way of the first spells. He heard them and could have dodged.¡± She couldn¡¯t talk anymore and she bury her face in her hands and started bawling.


    Lord: ¡°Could all of the guards please leave the chamber. Stephanie could you please stay for a moment?¡±


    As soon as all of the guards had left, a well endowed bunny woman walked to stand in the line formation the kids were in.


    Lord: ¡°Stephanie, based off what you have heard, what do you think the magic circle was for?¡±


    Stephanie: ¡°Well my lord, based off what I¡¯ve heard, it is most likely a single use teleportation magic circle. The fact that it was in the lowest non-boss floor suggests it need a mana vent to power it, and coupled with what could be a long cast time, might take a while to charge. These slavers must be some of the best to use teleportation. Even if it might take a while for the circle to charge we need to warn the other tribes about this.¡±


    Lord: ¡°Thanks for your thought Stephanie. Could you please get the warnings out that all children going for graduation tests should have guards to observe them. Those Mer were prepared for demihumans, and most likely have been watching the dungeon and knew only kids explored it.¡±


    The rabbit girl bowed and left the chamber, leaving only the 6 kids, the lord and queen and Cameron¡¯s parents. The lord and queen looked at each other and then walked over to their daughter and knelt and hugged her. They were joined by the rest of the lioness¡¯s new family in a large family hug, since they knew she must be feeling very lost right now. The two sets of parents knew that if you were separated from your mate, especially during the first year after bonding, it could be very hard on them. If Cameron died, Natasha would instantly know because of her instincts, but they had to keep her spirits up so she stayed alive in the hopes Cameron could get back to his newly extended family.


    Standing nearby were Mick and Sarah who were standing next to each other and staring at the large family hug Natasha was receiving. They looked in each other¡¯s eyes and then back to the embrace as Mick gripped Sarah¡¯s hand. She squeezed his back and they decided that the best thing to do at the moment was stay silent.


    xxxxx


    Cameron¡¯s POV, several hours after teleporting and losing consciousness.


    ¡®Auugghh, my head hurts like hell.¡¯ As he awoke he was suffering a mana depletion hangover as he looked around. ¡®It looks like I¡¯m in some sort of cell of a prison, based off the types of bars keeping me in. and damn those dead elves are starting to stink.¡¯


    As he started to regain his bearings and managed to stand up he heard the sounds of doors unlocking and voiced coming from the opposite side of the room. He looked in that direction and saw the open doorway of a spiral staircase that had people currently heading his way.


    ¡®Well isn¡¯t this birthday just freaking wonderful.¡¯


    <table><tbody><tr><td width="25%"> PREVIOUS CHAPTER </a></td><td width="25%"> Back to Main Page </a></td><td width="25%"> NEXT CHAPTER </a></td></tr></tbody></table>


    xxxxx


    Author¡¯s note: Well here is the next chapter. I was originally going to finish writing it on the 26th (which was my birthday) since the 25th I was Panic! at the Disco live, but I had issues with my laptop and couldn¡¯t even access word (which is what I write the chapters in). Not sure when I¡¯m going to come out with the next chapter because I write as I think of it. Hope you enjoyed the chapter. I¡¯m definitely going to keep writing this FF because I enjoy writing it more than RE:O.I. (which I guess is now officially on hiatus), plus this is much more popular than it is. Let me know what yall think by commenting.

 Chapter 8: Escape...

    Chapter 8: Escape ¡­


    ¡®Shit, the voices are getting closer and I can¡¯t cut my way out or they will know I¡¯m here.¡¯ Looking around Cameron found a dark corner of the cell and positioned him-self in the miniscule amount of shadows in the prison cell. He started to manipulate the mana within himself and changing it to darkness mana so that he could use the second level dark mana skill ¡°Cloak¡±.


    Instead of the six different levels of transformations when converting mana into elemental mana, light and dark mana have 6 different techniques that correspond to the other elements.


    He quickly finished converting the necessary dark mana and then had it surround his entire body. Once the cloak of dark mana was created and manifested itself, it would stay on him until he dismissed it or reabsorbed as much of the mana as he could. The reason he was hiding in the shadows of the cell was that Cloak only created a cloak of darkness that would cloak the user while in darkness or shadows. If they moved or walked into the light all somebody would be able to see was a moving cloud of darkness about the same size and shape as a person. Cameron finished cloak just as the voices neared the gate at the entrance to the stairwell.


    ???: ¡°Damn it smells down here. I hope any demihuman children teleported here didn¡¯t die or else we won¡¯t get near as much for them.¡±


    ???: ¡°Good thing nobles and the rich like to use their hides for clothes and decorations. Course if there are any females we can always have our way with them and then get rid of them and claim they came that way. I¡¯m hoping there is a cat or rabbit girl personally.¡± Both of the male voices started laughing which just caused Cameron to seethe with rage at the fate Natasha and Lily nearly had.


    The two men finally reached the gate at the entrance to the underground prison that was lit with magic stones and entered. The two men were humans who quickly showed faces of disgust as they neared the cell where Cameron was hiding.


    Slaver1: ¡°Damn, it¡¯s some of the light elves that went. Let¡¯s report this and see what they want us to do.¡± The human slaver put his finger up to his ear where a small magic crystal was located and touched it. ¡°We just checked out the cell and all that¡¯s here are the corpses of three of the light elves. What do you want us to do sir?¡±


    Cameron couldn¡¯t hear any noise coming from the crystal but he could tell something was coming back over since the crystal was glowing as if it was in use. ¡®Must be transmitting the sound straight to the brain since I would hear it otherwise¡¯ he thought to himself. A sudden picture of guards in suits with ear pieces came to mind from his past life and disappeared as quickly as it had come.


    Slaver1: ¡°Yes sir we will take care of them and come back when we¡¯re done.¡± The man took his finger off of the crystal and let out a sigh. ¡°We have to dispose of the corpses and any mess then head back to our post. Let¡¯s just hope they didn¡¯t die too messily since these shoes are brand new.¡±


    Cameron started gathering dark mana on the claws of his right hand as the guards started to unlock the door to the cell he was hiding in. He would most likely only have one chance to take out both of the humans before they could call for help through the crystals they were wearing. When he released the ¡°Slash¡± he was charging on his claws and his Cloak would instantly dissipate. It did this due to being disrupted by the other mana being released. If he didn¡¯t get a perfect chance to take both of them out he would have to risk setting off an alarm since he doubted he had the mana and efficiency to use fire mana to melt the ridiculous amount of gates he had heard being opened and closed in the stairwell.


    Slaver 2: ¡°I¡¯m glad they got killed with fire attacks so they didn¡¯t bleed all over the cell, but mad do they reek.¡± The slaver bends down and starts to lift one of the headless corpses while the other walks over to corpse missing its heart. The slavers are facing opposite directions and both have their back to the corner where Cameron is hiding.


    Seeing what might be his only chance to strike and escape, Cameron runs close to the slaver near the heartless corpse and releases his Slash towards the man¡¯s neck once he is within the skill¡¯s 2 meter range. Without waiting to see if the attack even worked he enhances his feet and hands with basic mana to strengthen them and sprints the 6 steps it takes to reach the slaver who is just now starting to raise his body while still holding the corpse. The last thing the slaver sees is Cameron¡¯s left hand sticking out of the front of his throat right before his skull and brain are turned into a bloody pulp from the punch of Cameron¡¯s right fist. Cameron places a foot on the slavers back then pulls his left hand from the corpse¡¯s throat while also turning to see if he still needs to deal with the first slaver he attacked. He sees the man¡¯s head rolling towards him and crushes it with his foot just to make sure the crystal can¡¯t send a telepathic message of warning while the brain was still working. The brutal executions of the two slavers didn¡¯t even take 15 seconds and were completed before the first body hit the floor with a dull thud.


    ¡®Damn that was messy, but it had to be done just in case. I can¡¯t let them know that I teleported over without magic hindering cuffs. First things first, I need to find the key and then get some of this gore off so I don¡¯t leave a trail.¡¯ He searched two corpses and found a key ring with two keys on it. ¡®One of these must be for the cell and the other for the gates in the stairwell. I guess I will have to figure out the one for the cell first since the stairwell gates might be booby trapped.¡¯ He would have to overestimate the slavers if he wanted to make sure he survived and got out from where he was being held. If he didn¡¯t, no telling how easily they would capture him if he made even a small error.


    He cleaned himself up using the clothes of the slavers he was wiping off of himself then also checked to see if they had any weapons he could use. He had dropped his long sword back in the dungeon, of course the sword would be considered a broad claymore if a human was wielding it. Of course with his luck they only had the keys the doors keeping him from freedom. ¡®Guess I will just have to use dark mana until I get out of here. I have no idea how long my mana will last if I change it to the other element types.¡¯ He had managed out how to change his basic mana to the different element types so he hadn¡¯t had time to test his efficiency out yet, and running out of mana in the middle of a fight was a death sentence.


    Cameron walked out of the bloody and foul smelling cell and sneaked over to the gate blocking entrance to the stairwell. He put his back to the stonewall the gate was attached to and listened to see if there might have been more guards waiting. When he was sure that there weren¡¯t any living beings near him he use the key that hadn¡¯t worked for the cell to open the gate. KERTHUNK the lock of the mana treated metal gate made a loud noise that echoed up the magic crystal lined stairwell. ¡®Damn these guys are prepared for anything; they even enchanted the locks to be heard up the stairwell. They will be able to tell if I don¡¯t close one of the gates or don¡¯t follow the proper unlocking method.¡¯


    ¡®I really hope that this isn¡¯t the first time they have done this, if they have then they might be a little careless.¡¯ Cameron then locked the gate behind him which a distinctive metallic sound that also echoed up the stairwell. After about 5 minutes of sneaking up the stairwell and unlocking and re-locking all the gates as he neared the end of the annoying stairwell. With about 3 gates left he saw that the last couple of light emitting magic crystals were broken with crossbow bolts stuck in them. ¡®Guess someone got bored and decided to use them for target practice¡¯ also noticing the small markings on the wall near the crystal from missed bolts. He used Cloak again to take advantage of the darkened exit from the stairwell when a guard called down the stairs.


    Nameless Henchman: ¡°Damn what took you two so long and why haven¡¯t you answered your crystals? I¡¯ll just unlock the last gate for you since you two seem to be having so much trouble with those goods. Oh, and you can just leave the last couple of gates open for now, I will close them once you get those goods out here.¡±


    ¡®Lady Luck must be paying me back for all the crap she put me through. Getting what I hope is the lazy and careless guard shift is a freaking blessing for me right now. Guess I can practice using fire mana for a little bit while taking care of the guards in that room. I just have to be careful and take out any elves first then go after the humans.¡¯


    Cameron started converting some of his base mana to the fiery hot mana he felt before he was teleported, but just on his hands. Without releasing the mana he had readied and while still wearing the Cloak he unlock the last gate and saw the guard standing at the top of the stairwell holding the elaborate last gate open.


    Nameless Henchman: ¡°Wow it so dark I can¡¯t even see you guys yet, and why haven¡¯t you said anything yet? Are you still giving me the silent treatment because I knocked up your sister? I mean I was planning to propose to her before she got pregnant, so just consider it an early honeymoon. It would mean a lot if I got both of your blessings for our marriage.¡± The guard looked down at the ground dejected and Cameron could see that he was quite young and didn¡¯t look like a bad person unlike his two dead brother-in-laws. His conscience twinged at the thought of leaving the woman with possibly no brothers and no husband so he stopped walking and started trying to convert his mana to a different element.


    ¡®If fire mana has the feeling of burning, then lightning mana should have the sensation of being shocked.¡¯ A memory of his past life of him almost getting electrocuted when he was younger made a temporary appearance but let him with the needed knowledge of the sensation. He released the fire mana that was built up in his left hand and instead started trying to form lightning mana in its place. ¡®I really hope this works and doesn¡¯t kill the poor guy, and if he dies it¡¯s what he gets for working for slavers.¡¯ Cameron used the mana built up in his left hand to change it to his lightning form, which worked perfectly. As he released the mana he also dismissed the Cloak and charged toward the young guard.


    Nameless soon to be father: ¡°What the hellllllllllllllll¡­¡± was all the guard could say as a small light lit up in the stairwell and headed towards him. The last thing he remembered was what appeared to be the form of a black wolf striking him with his palm before everything went black.


    Just as Cameron had reached the edge of the shadows in the stairwell he had charged the guard and struck him with the palm that was changed into the paw of a lightning fox. As he struck the guard he instinctively released all the electric mana that had changed his hand into the body of the guard in the hopes of just knocking him out. The guard flew a few feet back in the air before landing on the ground back first. The guard was unconscious when he hit the ground but his body still twitched from the electric strike but Cameron did not hear the guard¡¯s heart stop beating. As soon as he had struck the guard Cameron looked to the left and right to see the rest of the room the stairwell led to. There was a wall on the right, but to the left was just an empty room with four chairs, two hallways leading off to the right and left on the opposite side of the room from where he stood. The wall across from the stairwell had a door a bit to the left from Cameron which had cursing occurring behind it soon followed by some sort of water magic. He hurried to spot on the wall next to the door where he wouldn¡¯t be hit when the door opened, hoping to catch the occupant off guard as he exited. His right hand turned black with fiery cracks as he transformed it with the fire mana he had charged earlier as he heard the male voice behind the door and the lock start to turn.


    Doomed Guard: ¡°What the hell newbie, shouting when someone is taking a shit. I ought to ¡­¡± the portly man never got a chance to finish his sentence as fiery claw burned its way in one ear and out the other.


    ¡®Wow, I thought he might have had a mana barrier up since he heard the kid. Using fire mana was overkill on this guy. At least this time I don¡¯t have to clean my fur up since the heat burned the wounds shut.¡¯ When he pulled his forearm out of the corpses head it fell forward and hit the ground with a dull thud. Cameron then headed to where the two hallways went off in opposite directions and hugged the wall with his back as he looked down both corridors. All he could see in either direction were just more stone hallways lined with glowing mana stones which lit them up. Not seeing any guards he walked to where the passages were and started sniffing to see if he could smell fresh air from either passage. He could smell fresh air coming from both of the curved passage ways. ¡®I smell the same amount from both passages so either they both lead to exits or the same place.¡¯ He let out a sigh and decided to check on the guard he had knocked out to see if he needed to knock him back. Fortunately the guard was still unconscious and alive, but when his body was searched something was off. ¡®He doesn¡¯t have a crystal on either ear and I can¡¯t see it anywhere. Guess he didn¡¯t know what was going on since he thought they were bringing up some kind of goods. Glad I managed to knock him out instead of killing him.¡¯


    A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    ¡®Now that the guards are out of the way I better see where one of these passages leads.¡¯ He started sneaking along the circular path to the right in the hopes of finding an exit. As he was sneaking along the passage he noticed that after every 3 light emitting magic crystals there were grooves along the floor and wall. When he looked up he saw what appeared to be a metal portcullis but no mechanisms to bring them down. ¡®These must be to trap any escapees that manage to make it this far, so I better hurry and get the hell out before they figure out I¡¯m here.¡¯ After what felt like a few minutes the smell of fresh air was getting stronger and then some more male voices were heard which made Cameron stop in his tracks. Since he had not found any weapons on the other guards he would still have to make do with his mana.


    ???: ¡°Why the hell are those idiots still not responding? They better not still be butt hurt that I took away their crossbows after they shot those crystals. I want you two to go check and see why I¡¯m getting the silent treatment from them.¡± A rough voice barked out, and based off his words he was the person in charge.


    Other guards: ¡°Yes sir we will got right away.¡± The guards that were giving orders responded before shortly getting into a small argument. ¡°You go left and I will go right.¡± One guard said. ¡°No way I went left last time so this time it¡¯s your turn.¡± The other guard replied in a whine.


    Guard Leader: ¡°It doesn¡¯t fucking matter which way you go, just go you morons!¡± The leader yelled at the two bickering guards.


    ¡®Guess I don¡¯t have much time, better take out those two now then try to kill the leader before he has a chance to cast a spell.¡¯ He started charging shadow mana on the claws of his right hand, and what he hopped was ice mana in his cold feeling left hand.


    While demihumans can only release one type of mana at any given time, unless of special abilities like the dire wolf form, they can still charge up at least 2 different types before they release the first type. This makes dark and light affinities very powerful for multi-alignment demihumans since they usually don¡¯t require a transformation and can be released right before transforming to use a different mana type.


    He neared the area where another inlet, similar to the one where the other guards were stationed, was located and heard footsteps nearing the circular passage. With no shadows to hide in this time he just crouched in a form similar to the starting form of a sprinter and concentrated some basic mana on his feet to hopefully give him enough speed to pull his sneak attack off. As soon as he caught sight of the guard nearest to him starting to leave the inlet he charged at him and released the Slash he had charged on the claws of his right hand. Just as he had been trained he released the Slash at the unprotected neck of the guard and released the mana stored in his left hand turning it icy blue. As he kept running at the other spear wielding guard he put his finger together and used his ice mana to form a spike that cover his fingers and extended, just like he had seen his sister June many times before. The guard had started to notice the approach of the demihuman and was turning in the direction of the beast, which just made it easier for Cameron to pierce the human¡¯s throat with the foot long Ice Spike had had formed. Cameron then turned while still holding onto the body the dead guard as he charged another Slash on his right claws and unleashed it towards the leader.


    Leader: ¡°¡­ grant me their protection.¡± The leader finished chanting before raising his shield to block the Slash heading towards him. As soon as the Slash hit the now glowing shield of the leader it just dissipated into the air. ¡°It¡¯s been a while since I last fought a demihuman so this ought to shake the rust of you brat. It would have been nice to capture a strong kid like you to use as a slave soldier, but guess I will still get quite a bit for your black pelt once I kill you.¡± The leader had his sword pointed at Cameron while he said this then held it in a proper sword fighting posture as he faced the young Beast.


    ¡®He¡¯s much better than any of the other guards; he managed to notice my attack early enough and had the foresight to chant a protection spell. I don¡¯t know what level it is, but without a weapon I will still have to outsmart him and kill him with a sneak attack. Since he seems to be a warrior and isn¡¯t chanting anymore spells he must only have some protection magic to help him fight enemies who use some magic. If I had my sword this would be a hell of a lot easier, but guess I finally get a chance to fully utilize the elemental mana I tried earlier. I really hope there are no more guards after him since I will probably use up most of my mana in this fight.¡¯ Cameron sniffed for a second while in the midst of his standoff with the guard leader and looked around a little. ¡®The fresh air is much stronger here so I guess the door at the top of the stairs behind him lead outside. I could most likely outrun him but if I go into the hall he will drop the portcullis and trap me there. Since there is only way through I¡¯ll show this son of a bitch just how dangerous the youngest Royal Guard is.¡¯


    Cameron throws the body he has been holding at the guard leader and charges up fire mana in left hand and dark in his right as he rushes behind the body. The leader slices up with his sword and bisect the body his subordinate and lashes out with his shield at the opening hoping the catch the young Beast off-guard. Cameron doesn¡¯t realize that the leader is onto him and gets hit in the face with the shield and is knocked back and off balance. As he is falling back the leader swings the sword that is up in the air down at the Beast. Cameron using the dark mana and releases a Slash to change the trajectory of the sword so that it barely misses him and swings through the empty air in front of him.


    Leader: ¡°May lightning strike my opponent down¡± the leader chants as electricity runs along his blade. He then swings the flat side of the electrified blade to hit Cameron in the face and knocks him back a few meters due to the strengthening and electric magic he used.


    ¡®God damn it, why am I not strong enough to do a damn thing. I¡¯m one of the most powerful demihumans under age twenty yet I keep getting toyed with by opponents one after another. I already died once, like hell am I going to do it again. I only have one chance to kill this guy and that is to see if my chaos affinity can be formed like Stephanie said it theoretically should.¡¯ Cameron got up from the spread eagle position he was in and crouched with one hand on the ground as he tried to form a mana type he had no idea how to form. Fortunately the guard leader was cocky and better at countering so he just stood there and waited for the demihuman to make the next move.


    Cameron stood up and stared the leader in the eyes as he started to convert and charge all four of his regular mana types he was born with while the leader just smirked at the desperation in Cameron¡¯s eyes. When Cameron felt the sensations of all four mana types at once in his right hand he tried to release them with all of his will and got nothing. He then tried mixing them together and releasing the mix of sensations at once and felt pain coming from both his hand and head and all he could do was close his eyes quickly as he clenched his teeth from the pain.


    xxxxx


    He thought he had only blinked but when he opened his eyes just a little he was no longer in pain and in a strange place. All he could see was a white ceiling so he tried to move his eyes and head to try and observe where he was and what had happened to the guard leader he was facing. He felt warmth coming from his right hand and tried his hardest to move his head enough to see why his right hand was warmer than his left. All of a sudden he felt his conscious start to fade and all he could see was the head of someone with black hair laying their head on the bed he was on. Just as his eyes started to close again he saw a dark skinned hand clutching his right hand and he thought he saw a glint of gold on the hand as his eyes closed and the darkness retook him. Unknown to Cameron there was a smile forming on the face of a female who was in a white room with a 4 painted on one of the walls.


    xxxxx


    When he reopened his eyes the guard leader was staring at his right hand in confusion and Cameron felt an impossible to describe sensation coming from the hand. When he looked down at his own hand he saw that it was covered in an aura of mana that was a combination of black aura with what looked like dark purple lightning going through it. He felt that the dark aura was draining his mana at a pace just a little slower than when he went into full hell-hound form. ¡®I don¡¯t have much time until I run out of mana so I guess I have to use whatever this mana type is, but I¡¯m guessing its chaos.¡¯ He then looked at the guard leader and grinned before running at the confused human. The leader put up his shield and readied his sword in preparation to strike after he blocked the fist covered in black mana. Unfortunately for the leader even with his mana shield against the chaos mana infused fist his shield was similar to glass and instantly the part covering his face broke. That wasn¡¯t the end to the punch as the fist continued on the hit the guard leader in the face and continued until it reached a little past the back of his skull.


    Cameron was still in the position he had been in when he finished the punch as the mana covering his hand dispersed and the headless corpse fell to the ground. As soon as the aura was gone he was hit by a massive wave of exhaustion and he almost lost consciousness. The feeling of punching the shield and leaders head was different from when he crushed the brother¡¯s skull earlier; it wasn¡¯t of hitting it, but it just being destroyed before it even touched his fist. It was like it had been disintegrated by the black aura that had surrounded his hand moments before. He was too exhausted to question what had just happened so he just searched the leader for any keys and managed to find one on a ring connected to one of the leader¡¯s belt loops. He managed to pull the key and key ring off the belt loop by ripping it and headed towards the door to freedom.


    When he opened the door he appeared in some sort of warehouse that had lots of boxes in it. He looked up and saw a window in the wooden building and could see that it was night. He looked around the warehouse and saw some hay on a platform on the second floor. ¡®Why is there always hay around when a hero needs some sleep? Oh well might as well take advantage of it.¡¯ He somehow managed to climb the nearby ladder then hid himself in the hay before going back to sleep.


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    Xxxxx


    Author¡¯s Note: Sorry about the long wait on this chapter. I have been dealing with quite a few issues in my life but let me know what y¡¯all think. I know there are probably some grammar errors I might have missed and since I don¡¯t have a PR I¡¯m trying to do my best. I know there are some in previous chapters that I somehow only find when I need to look at them for reference and I will try to edit them at some point. I also know I might be changing how demihumans might be using magic a little, but let¡¯s just chalk that down to not being taught all the details of magic (you not the MC). Well let me know what y¡¯all like and what you don¡¯t so I can improve. Also I¡¯m very happy to have a rating over 4 since I know that the second vote I got was a .5 so I¡¯m really encouraged to keep working on this series (which I will be doing for quite a while). Don¡¯t know when the next chapter is going to come out, but it might take less time to write than this one.

 Magic System Details/Changes and Elemental skill submission

    Magic System Details/Changes and other Data


    First of all this is not a chapter, but is about the magic systems that will be used from now on in Imperator of Beasts. I decided to just make a post fully explaining what the magic system has evolved into since I started Imperator of Beasts and I didn¡¯t want to make another data dump chapter like chapter 5. Also if you want to help add to the skills of the magic system then please also read the note at the end.


    General Magic System of Imperator of Beasts


    Every living being in this universe has mana contained within them with domestic animals and livestock of the Mer having the least (this will be explained why later on in story). This mana can be considered to be in a ¡°raw¡± form and isn¡¯t usable. For the mana to be used it must either be manipulated by itself, which is used for body strengthening, or it is converted to elemental mana.


    The ways that the different races convert their raw mana to usable mana vary. For the Mer, they convert it with the help of the gods by doing their chants (human) and some minor manual mana control (elves). Dwarves channel their raw mana through glyphs to achieve the desired effect.


    Using regular mana that is not in the raw or elemental forms results in body strengthening and guarding skills/spells. This is use of mana will cause the skill and parts of the body being strengthened to harden and deal and absorb more force. It can also be used to enhance certain muscles to increase the power and effectiveness of burst type movements, like jumping or a sprint. The mana will dissipate with one use unless the user is constantly channeling mana to their body parts, or if a spell was used to do the strengthening. If a spell was used then the strengthening effect will last longer because the user used quite a bit more mana than was necessary for a single strike and this excess mana fuels the spells duration. Light Elves are the only race that can¡¯t use this magic offensively, only defensively.


    In terms of defensive abilities, there are 7 tiers of power, but this just pertains to the races that use chants and glyphs to use their mana. For the races that must control their mana manually, their defensive ability is based on how much mana they are using to strengthen said part of their body at the time and how efficiently they are able to convert their mana to elemental mana. Each tier of defensive mana use can protect the user from magic or skills up to that tier (a little different for the top tier but we are way the hell too early for that). The first tiers of defensive mana use and strengthening are considered tier number 0, so the tier 1 defensive magic is technically the 2nd tier but that will make a little better sense in a bit.


    Now for the main event of this info page, the elemental magic system of the world, or at least for the species that can only manipulate mana manually. For these species to convert their mana to an elemental mana, they compress their mana and must also mentally picture the type of mana and also try to ¡°picture¡± the element they want. Most manual mana manipulators tend to figure out these feelings out by instinct, but summoned and occasionally reincarnated beings don¡¯t have this instinct so it is a bit harder to figure out some of the elements at first. Once it¡¯s figured out it becomes much easier to convert their raw mana to elemental form. The skills that go with each element corresponds with how much of their body they can coat with the base skill of each element, except for special mana types as well as dark and light mana. The first tier skill of each of the 6 natural elements (fire, ice, lightning, air, water, earth) is kind of like a coating/skin based skill that also causes the transformation effect in demihumans.


    The concentration and conversion of raw mana to an elemental mana has a ridiculously bad efficiency for manual mana control and takes a quite a long time to have a great efficiency for the top tier skills. The efficiency of each tier only affect the tier above it a little, but training a higher tier will have a help improve the efficiency of the tiers below it. The 30 minutes of being able to use a certain tier of transformation still applies before a demihuman is allowed to move on to training using the next tier. The reason for 30 minutes is because once that time can be reached/surpassed, then the increase in efficiency for that tier becomes almost non-existent, except for top tier but that¡¯s not going to actually happen for a while. You can consider the mana conversion efficiency as a kind of muscle that can be trained by demihumans. This is also the downside that demihumans have for their large pool of raw mana they possess at birth.


    A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    The skills of each element build upon each other so it¡¯s almost like a skill just getting stronger and stronger as the tier increases, but not always. Also when the mana is used for an attack it is used up in the skill and the demihuman¡¯s body returns to normal and they have to build up mana to use a skill again. So here is the list of the elemental skills of demihumans that you will be seeing for the rest of Imperator of Beasts. Once I have a skill get used in the story I will update this list and will say if this page has been updated in that chapter''s author¡¯s note.


    Key:


    S = has already been decided by me, but I don¡¯t want to reveal it until it comes up in later chapters.


    ??? = not sure what type of skill to put here and open to readers suggestion (read note at end)


    Fire:


    1. Burning Claw (Causes the hand to looked charred and glow red and is hot enough to sear wounds shut on opponents who aren¡¯t shielded)


    2. S


    3. ???


    4. ???


    5. ???


    6. ???


    Ice:


    1. Freezing Paw (Uses mana to grow ice from the user¡¯s body. The ice can be manipulated to form into a spike onto the user¡¯s hand for increased piercing power or can transfer the ice and cold to part of the opponent that the user touches while skill is active. The ice will melt not long after separation from the user¡¯s body and melt back into mana)


    2. ???


    3. ???


    4. ???


    5. ???


    6. ???


    Lightning:


    1. Shocking Strike/Palm (Can increase piercing power of claws and will send electricity into the body of the target when used as a strike. When used with the palm the electricity will stun and knock out the opponent 80 out of 100 times if they are unprepared. The other 20 is either death of victim, or one pissed off strong opponent.)


    2. ???


    3. ???


    4. ???


    5. ???


    6. ???


    Air:


    1. Impact (Uses air to increase the impact force of a punch or step. One of two tier 1 skills that allows mana to be built up in feet or wings)


    2. ???


    3. ???


    4. ???


    5. ???


    6. ???


    Water:


    1. Pulse Jet (Similar to Impact, but with water. Can be used on land but shows devastating effects if used in water. Can also be used with hands and feet at 1st tier.)


    2. ???


    3. ???


    4. ???


    5. ???


    6. ???


    Earth:


    1. Stone Skin (Increases defense, offense and durability of affected body parts. Will last as long as the user is using mana to maintain the skill)


    2. ???


    3. ???


    4. ???


    5. ???


    6. ???


    Dark:


    1. Dark Slash (Uses solidified darkness to slice unsuspecting and unprotected opponents. Range and cutting ability increases the more mana is compressed before the use of the skill)


    2. Cloak (user using darkness to shroud them like a cloak and hide in shadows and darkness)


    3. S


    4. S


    5. S


    6. S


    Light:


    1. S


    2. S


    3. S


    4. S


    5. S


    6. S


    Note: For those skills that have a ??? next to them, it means that while I have a possible name and effect for the skill, I don¡¯t have the most confidence in them. So if you like Imperator of Beasts and want to contribute to it (and help me out with the magic system) please comment with skills for the different elements. If you the readers do post suggestions for skills, I will pick names and effects I like for each tier and put a couple options up in a poll for you all to pick. I will reserve the right to slightly alter names and skill effects (and especially tier) before they are put up on the poll, or even pick them without a poll. Any skills that are selected for reader suggestions will have credit for the name and/or skill effect listed after the skill description once it is added to this page. For now I¡¯m mainly looking for tier 2-4 skills since I will only be selecting skills as the need for them arises in the story. Feel free to post skills for tier 5 & 6 if you want since I¡¯m still interested what my readers can come up with.


    The format for suggesting elemental skills is as follows:


    Element:


    Tier number. Skill name (skill effect)


    xxxxx


    AN: Well let me know what you think of the new more developed magic and mana usage system of Imperator of beasts and any suggestions you have for elemental skills. I¡¯m also working on chapter 9 and I hope to have it finished and posted within a week.

 Chapter 9: ... Into the Unknown

    AN: Just a heads up, but I¡¯m going to be writing this chapter in first person. If a speaker or listener is talking in or hearing a language that they are not very skilled at, such as Mer common for Cameron, then it will be heard or spoken in my best attempt at broken English on purpose, so just a heads up.


    Chapter 9: ¡­Into the Unknown


    Unknown amount of time after falling asleep in the pile of hay.


    Light slowly started to enter my eyes through my still heavy eyelids when I heard a male and female speaking.


    Unknown female: ¡°I think him is waking, you talk to him.¡± She said in Mer common as I tried to remember what had happened to me in the prison before the man started speaking to me.


    Slightly familiar Male voice: ¡°Since you are just waking up I don¡¯t want you to panic so I will let you know the situation you¡¯re in and ask you some questions.¡±


    Surprisingly he had spoken in demihuman common when he started talking to me and he was quite fluent in it so it only sounded as if he had a small accent. It would be similar to an American hearing a British person speak, similar but a little different. ¡®Wait a second, what the hell is an American, or a British? Gahhh why do these thoughts from my first life only flash and go away when I conveniently need them? I can¡¯t wait for my soul to finish getting acclimated to this world so they will stop.¡¯


    Same male as before: ¡°First things first can you understand me and just nod if you can and if you can¡¯t then this is going to be much harder for both of us.¡± I barely nodded my head since I felt so tired I couldn¡¯t even open my eyes at the moment and I hadn¡¯t felt any threat from the calm and friendly way the man was speaking. ¡°Oh thank the gods you can understand me. Well this is the last question you will have to answer before I explain the situation. This might come as a shock, but did you spare me on purpose when you escaped the slavers I was unknowingly working for?¡± He was right, that question definitely came as a shock as I realized the voice was of the single guard I had spared, but then he surprised me once again. ¡°No matter what your answer is, I would still like to thank you for killing those fucking slavers.¡± When he talked about the slavers you could feel the hate in his voice. ¡®Guess he really didn¡¯t know what he was getting paid to do until he saw me, glad I didn¡¯t kill him.¡¯ Realizing who was talking to me I then nodded my head again since it was true and he sighed with relief before speaking again. ¡°Ok my fianc¨¦ is going to feed you some food now while I tell what is going on, but let me introduce myself. My name is Matt Bone-Fist and my fianc¨¦e¡¯s name is Mary and we are both half Ravager, so you are among friends.¡±


    After the man gave me his name I relaxed my body, which had unbeknownst to me become quite tense while Matt had been speaking. The mention of the one race of Mer who we could trust put me more at ease since he would most likely even prove he was part Ravager after I could look at him to show I could trust him. The fact that I feel so weak and tired that I can¡¯t even open my eyes is really starting to bother me, but at the mention of food my stomach grumbles. ¡®Oh yeah I haven¡¯t eaten since I entered the dungeon, and I have passed due to mana exhaustion twice since then. That would probably be the reason for my current condition.¡¯ After my stomach growled I could hear a small snicker that sounded like it had come from a female. The snicker was followed with footsteps towards where I was laying. I could feel a soft hand gently open my mouth before some lukewarm broth was spooned inside.


    Matt: ¡°Based off your current condition, and the one I found you in, I¡¯m guessing your suffering from hunger and severe mana exhaustion. I won¡¯t ask what happened before you were teleported to that prison, but pushing your mana to its limits within short spans of time can be very dangerous. You currently have some slave cuffs on your hands and feet so that you can¡¯t release your mana or hurt us or yourself. The cuffs won¡¯t impede your ability to regenerate mana so I just wanted to let you know what was happening before I took them off.¡±


    I could hear Matt walk to the bed and fiddle with something metallic above my head. After he released the cuffs he moved my arms so they rested at my sides before removing the cuffs from my feet.


    Matt: ¡°I don¡¯t know what kind of mana you were using when you killed the captain of the guards, but it must have taken a lot of mana to break through his tier 4 protection spell as easily as it did. Whatever it was I think it might also be the cause of your current condition. As thanks for sparing me, my fianc¨¦ and I will help nurse you back to health. However I do have one task that I need to ask your assistance with to repay us hiding you. I won¡¯t bother you with it now, so just relax and rest up and you will be using your mana again in a week or so.¡±


    Not long after Matt finished talking Mary had finished feeding me the broth and they both left the room. It wasn¡¯t long until I drifted off to sleep, which felt a lot better than passing out from mana exhaustion.


    xxxxx


    After about a week of care from Matt and Mary, I was starting to get out of the bed on my own and could start gathering my mana in my body again. Whatever that purplish energy was, it almost killed me and is the reason for my current state. I still slightly remember the memory from what I think is my past life. The only thing I can remember is black hair and a dark hand with a hint of gold on it but enough about that.


    The reason I could understand Matt whenever he talked was because he had a skill called ¡°Double Tongued¡± that allowed him to speak in both Demihuman and Mer common at the same time. I also found out the Mary¡¯s ¡°brothers¡± were just boys she grew up with in the orphanage she lived in during the early years of her life, and she wasn¡¯t very disturbed by their deaths. I think it was because she found out that they were slavers.


    When I started to practice using my mana again, Matt and Mary also decided to help teach me Mer common so I could understand it without having to use mana to activate the skill I learned from the book in school. While they were teaching me Mer common, I was also helping Mary learn Demihuman common as well, so I bartered my help for theirs. I also learned that the town I was transported was a trading post type town called Reed. The town was a week¡¯s travel on foot from one of the official entrances to the Fey continent, a tunnel called Fey Pass.


    My plans for getting back to the Demihuman continent would have to be put on hold since it would take about 2 years to make it to the coast on foot by myself. That is based on going in a straight line and not running into any monsters or magical beasts, which wasn¡¯t going to happen no matter how lucky someone was.


    Matt had a plan on what to do about the operations of the slavers, but it would take some time to get me back into fighting shape. I would also have time to learn Mer common so I could speak it without using mana.


    xxxxx


    3 weeks since teleportation


    Matt, Mary and I are standing around the dinner table with a map of the town spread out since tonight is the night of our ¡°going away party¡± for the town of Reed.


    Matt: ¡°Well here is the plan for tonight. First Cameron and I are going to break in to the warehouse guards¡¯ armory and get the weapons and supplies we need for our part of the plan.¡± Matt taps the square with a circle on it to clarify the armory¡¯s location. ¡°While we are doing that Mary will be getting two horses for the cart so we can make our escape with what possessions we are taking with us.¡± Matt looked at Mary and she nodded her head in agreement. ¡°Okay then, so after Cameron and I get the weapons we need and the explosive crystal bundles we need we will start our sneak attack on the underground transportation post. Since the only thing that gets transported there are for rather unsavory purposes, it needs to be destroyed. After we plant and activate the crystal bundles, we plant one in the guard barracks to take out anyone who would want to chase after us immediately. As we are leaving we will also plant one in Mary¡¯s house and several other guards¡¯ houses to make them think it was a bandit attack. So is everybody ready?¡± We all looked at each other and nodded in agreement. ¡°Then let¡¯s get to it.¡±


    xxxxx


    Matt: ¡°Can you take care of the lock? I will be on the lookout for any guards.¡±


    I started concentrating my mana and changed it to fire mana and released it when I had enough stored up. My flaming red hand cut through the lock on the armory door like it was butter. I quickly reabsorbed any flame mana left to extinguish my hand and signaled for Matt.


    Cameron: ¡°Hey I¡¯m through the lock, come here so we can gear up.¡±


    Matt walked over and we entered the dark building. As soon as I shut the door behind him he lit up a light crystal so he could see inside. Inside the building were quite a few crates containing what I could assume were different types of consumable weaponry for use exploring the Fey continent, and along the walls were weapons of all different makes.


    Matt: ¡°Take whatever you need to for weapons while I get the crystal bundles. Oh and you¡¯re going to need this as well.¡± As he said that Matt tossed me a black hooded leather cloak that he had stashed in the corner of the building.


    Off of the walls I picked a pair of matching Mer long swords and a great sword, all of which came with a sheath and strap to attach them to myself. I then saw a massive sword with two holes just above where the grip attached to the sword.


    Cameron: ¡°Hey Matt, what kind of sword is that?¡±


    Matt: ¡°They call that a buster sword. Personally I think it is useless as a weapon since the only thing going for it is the weight. It¡¯s easier to beat things to death with one than it is to cut them with it, but you would be surprised how many blond adventurers buy one to show off to the females in their group. They have to use mana constantly just to carry the damn thing and I think they are compensating for something if they need a massive sword like that. They also tend to get themselves killed rather easily when they try to explore the Fey continent as well.¡±


    I tried lifting the sword and found that with my demihuman strength I could handle the sword. When I felt the blade of the sword I immediately put it back due to the fact that Matt was right and it would be easier to beat someone to death with the blunt side that to use the blade side. Going with my first choices in weapons, I equipped a long sword on both sides of my waist and put the cloak on to hide my features and the dual long swords. I finished up my attire by attaching the 1 meter long great sword to my back. It felt good to have a blade with a similar length to my demihuman long sword on my back again. I looked over at Matt and saw that he was placing the last crystal bundle in one of the four pouches and walked over to see if he needed help.


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    Cameron: ¡°Do we have everything we need for this?¡±


    Matt: ¡°Yeah we do and I need you to take these two satchels of crystal bundles in case something happens to me. I will be storing mine using dimensional Inventory magic to reduce their noise, so if I die you won¡¯t be able to get them out of my bags. Just let me get my cloak on and we will go hit the barracks.¡± Matt put on a leather cloak that was identical to the one I was wearing before turning to me. ¡°I forgot to ask earlier, but do you know how to use throwing knives?¡±


    Cameron: ¡°Yes I do, we had to learn quite few different forms of armed combat during training and they were one of them. I didn¡¯t really use them much in actual combat, since they are only useful against opponents who don¡¯t have a mana shield up, but I can still hit lethal points easily.¡±


    Matt: ¡°Good then you can use these too.¡± He handed me two throwing knife bandoliers that had 6 knives each.


    Cameron: ¡°Umm, could I have a little help equipping all of this stuff?¡±


    Matt: ¡°Sure no problem.¡± Matt then started helping me attach the bandoliers over my chest and satchels to my belt strap. ¡°Now you remember how to use the crystal bundles right? Tier 1 give you 10 minutes, tier 2 gives you 1 minute, and tier 3 gives you 10 seconds.¡±


    The explosive crystal bundles were a piece of Mer ingenuity. They used magic to combine three different elemental mana crystals, a lightning, fire and air crystal, and used the three to enhance the effects. Using a lightning mana you started the charging process of the lightning crystal that would charge up at different rates depending on the tier of the activation spell or mana amount. Once the lightning crystal charged up it would release an electrical discharge that would activate the air and fire crystal and cause them to release their stored up energy. The combination of the fire and air mana being released would cause a much larger and damaging explosion than the fire crystal would on its own. The only reason there were so many here was due to the fact that they have been banned for use in Mer vs. Mer conflicts and could only be used against Fey or Demihumans.


    Cameron: ¡°You do know I can only use tier 1 lightning mana right?¡±


    Matt: ¡°Sorry, force of habit. Well let¡¯s do this.¡±


    Cameron: ¡°Ooh Rah!¡±


    xxxxx


    As we approached the guard barracks I could see the first of the two guards. We quickly hid from his sightline behind a nearby building.


    Matt: ¡°Ok, start up my first crystal bundle with as little mana as possible then take out the two guards. After you take out the first one I will sneak inside and plant the bundle, then we will meet back here.¡±


    I nodded in agreement and charged up as little lightning mana as I could in my finger and released it into the lightning crystal of the bundle Matt was holding. Matt slipped the crystal bundle that was starting to let off some light into a dark cloth bag to keep the glow hidden. I quickly gathered dark mana and used Cloak to hide myself even better in the darkness of the night.


    As I neared the first guard patrolling one of the entrances to the barracks I readied one of the daggers in my hand and used some mana to strengthen my throwing arm. As soon as a chance came I threw the dagger that had enough force behind it to bury itself in the guards skull, instantly killing him. As soon as the guard fell to the ground I was already continuing around the building in search of the other guard while Matt snuck in to plant the crystal bundle. Since Cloak wouldn¡¯t be dismissed if I just used regular mana to enhance myself, I had no need to charge up any darkness mana at the moment. As I neared the other corner of the building, the guard was unlucky enough to walk over to this side of the building. This earned him a knife to the skull just like the first guard. After I had killed the second guard I snuck back to our meeting spot and met up with Matt.


    Matt: ¡°We don¡¯t have long so let¡¯s hurry up and get the hell out of here.¡±


    xxxxx


    *knock* *knock*


    Captain of the watch: ¡°Who the hell is knocking at this hour?¡± The captain of this shift of the watch called through the small door slot as he looked at the knocker.


    Matt: ¡°It¡¯s me Matt, the new guy; I couldn¡¯t sleep so I thought I could start my shift early. So could you let me in?¡±


    Captain: ¡°Fine just get in here quick.¡± He unlocked and opened the door for Matt to enter the secret entrance to the slave teleportation facility.


    Matt: ¡°Oops, looks like my shoe is untied.¡± Matt bent down in the door way and started tying his shoe and also started chanting under his breath.


    Captain: ¡°Hurry the hell up so I can shut the ¨C¡°


    The captain never got to finish his sentence as I rushed towards him while still cloaked. I hardened the mana that made up my Cloak similar to how to use the 3rd tier dark skill, and used the mana to perform a powered up Dark Slash. The mana used up was similar to the 3rd tier skill, and had 3rd tier strength. The mana that made up my Cloak condensed into what looked like a sword made of shadows as I swung and sliced through his neck and the door he was holding open. As soon as Matt was finished with his chant he said ¡°Strengthen¡± as he rushed towards the other two unsuspecting guards and threw knives between their eyes with the help of his strength spell.


    Matt: ¡°Good call on using that powered up Dark Slash of yours to take out the captain. While I was waiting for him to open up the door I heard him chanting a shield spell that I think was tier 2.¡±


    Cameron: ¡°Yeah, that would have blocked most of my mana skills, but I used up a third of my mana, so let¡¯s try to use swords for anymore guards.¡±


    Matt: ¡°I was planning on it. I¡¯ll take the left side and you take the right side.¡±


    I nodded in agreement and headed down the right side of the circular passageway while drawing one of my long swords. Neither of us ran into any guards on our way to the guard station at the entrance to the summoning room. We both had our backs to the wall right before the hall like guard station. I lifted the long sword I was holding and looked into the image it was reflecting and saw that two of the guards had their backs to us while a third was looking at the circular passageway. I motioned for Matt to take out the guard on his side while I would take out the other two. Matt started to chant under his breath again while I strengthened both of my arms and legs with mana and drew another of the throwing knives with my right hand and switched the sword to my left. When Matt was done with the chant he nodded to me and I started to count down with my right hand like I had done in my past life. 3 ¡­ 2 ¡­ 1 ¡­ go.


    We both turned around the corners simultaneously and I threw the knife mid turn, directly at the still unaware guard looking in our direction. I used the mana in my legs to boost my speed as I sprinted towards the guard who had his back to me. Matt used Impact to leap forward toward his guard and slay him with a single swing. I sliced the head off of my guard about half a second after Matt. The guard with a knife in his forehead hit the ground a second after his two partners had been slain.


    Matt: ¡°Here are the keys to the doors, you head downstairs and set the charges while I set up the ones up here.¡± He tossed me the keys and headed back to the hallway to plant his bundles.


    I ran down the stairwell and this time only the gates at the top, middle and bottom of the stairwell were closed. When I got to the cells I unlocked and checked each one to make sure that there were no slaves in any of them before we blew the place to kingdom-come. Not finding any evidence of any more teleportation spells activating, I used lightning mana to start four crystal bundles. I threw one into the middle of each cell, and left one in the middle of the cell room for good measure. Running back up the stairwell I also dropped an armed bundle midway up it as was the plan.


    Around the time I got to the top of the stairwell, there was a loud thundering sound and some dust came down from the ceiling as the bundle we had placed in the guard barracks had gone off. This meant it was time to hurry the hell up, which Matt reminded me of as he was waiting for me at the guard station.


    Matt: ¡°I have bundles all armed all around the passageway so we just need to set a bundle in the houses of two of the guards that are dead, and Mary¡¯s house. Then we can leave this town behind.¡±


    It didn¡¯t take long for both of us to book it out of the underground slave center to see the chaos that the town of Reed was in. I had activated Cloak on the way out and I melted into the darkness and went to my designated target without getting noticed by the villagers now trying to put out the burning rubble of the barracks. After throwing my last crystal bundle into the now abandoned and ownerless house I headed towards Mary¡¯s house to meet up with them.


    I arrived as Matt was throwing his last crystal bundle into his fianc¨¦¡¯s house to keep the merchant behind the slaving off of their trail. I made my presence known, and Matt motioned for me to follow him to the wagon that waiting nearby. Mary was already waiting for us and had two horses hooked up and ready to go.


    Matt: ¡°You can dismiss your magic and hop in the wagon.¡±


    I did as I was told as Matt hopped up beside Mary on the driving bench and Mary made the horses start on their way out of town. I looked back to see the ground sink and swallow the warehouse as the slave post was destroyed and turned around. I didn¡¯t even bother looking back when the three houses exploded, but just looked forward to the future and my first steps on my way back home and into the unknown.


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    xxxxx


    AN: Well sorry about taking so long to release this chapter, but I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that this chapter brings the first arc of Imperator of Beasts to a close, which will be known as ¡°The Beginning¡±, and starts the second arc ¡°Into the Unknown¡±. The bad news (kinda) is that you will have to wait a bit longer for the next chapter, since I will start working on it after I write my submission for this month¡¯s contest. BTW, this chapter was originally going to be shorter, but I think it needed the added plot.