An unknown amount of time passed with the father-and-son pair staring at each other.
Karl broke the ice: "I guess I have to apology…"
"…"
How was he supposed to react? Should he be angry, turning everything upside down to show his family how furious he was about being abandoned? Should he be sad? Should he be relieved about his father finally returning to him?
In the end, Drodosis stayed faithful to his character: calm and composed, acting with maturity even in the most incongrous situation. If living two lives taught him anything, it would be that emotions cloud your judgement, especially when it comes to matters of heart.
"Drodosis, Karl, come inside. You two should know more about each other", elder water dragon interrupted.
A few minutes later, Drodosis found himself sitting in front of the mysterious Karl Thornfield, enigma of his family, supervised by the severe gaze of his grandfather.
"Don't blame your father for being absent in your childhood. It is, after all, not his fault", Elder Water Dragon said with grief, "But before he tells you the purpose of his mission and the hardships which prevented him from coming back earlier, I would like to tell you a story."
From the serious tone, Drodosis could already tell that this story was restricted to the core members of the family, something that even elders might ignore. He decided not to say anything, and instead listen with care.
"A few decades ago, the Thornfield family was much more glorious than what it currently is; but an enemy appeared: The Gambit Adept Family"
Drodosis was shocked. The Gambit Adept Family was already sending forces on the battlefield against his family, but Drodosis has always been wondering why since he learnt about it.
After all, it was no secret that the Thornfield Household had thoroughly crushed its previous enemy, and even benefitted from the war against the Huntingwood family. Be it resource, territories, number of acolytes and knights…The Thornfield family had significantly improved from this conflict.
If the Gambit Adept Family wanted to take advantage of a momentary weakness, then it should have struck alongside the Huntingwood family, or six months ago, before they could recover! Why would they wait for 6 long months, and still not sending a single acolyte on the frontlines? Why didn't they strike twenty years ago, when their last adept died?
"The Supreme Elder of our family, at the time, was of adept rank. He was the last adept of the Thornfield family, but his strength was already being corroded by the passage of time. Fortunately, he had taken a lot of measures, which allowed our family not to decay too fast. He relinquished parts of our family's territory along with resource sites in exchange for treaties of peace. Be it the Heister Family, the Gale Family, the Java Family…All of these neighbouring adept families with adept-level powerhouses agreed on letting us alone for 50 years. They gained a lot of lands and resources in the process, so nobody complained…expect one adept family: The Gambit Adept Family."
Drodosis could already guess the following events.
"The Gambit Adept Family was strong, and it possessed a huge history. Truthfully, had we entered in a conflict with them a hundred or even two hundred years ago, when our family was in its peak, we would have had no chance at all. However, the Gambit Adept Family relies on bloodline. The more time passes, the thinner their bloodline gets, and the less potential they have. Originally, the Gambit bloodline could allow its bearers reach the rank 2 adept realm. Yet, it's been over a century since they produced a single rank 1 adept! Their Supreme Elder at the time, sole adept-level powerhouse in their household, was thus overcome by greed. He was only 200 years old, so there was no reason for him to make it hard for us, especially considering that our family, at the time, still possessed an adept-level powerhouse as well."
At this moment, the sight of his father looking down in grief didn't escape Drodosis' gaze.
"The Gambit Adept Family proposed duels between our two households. Only the strongest elders could participate, and everything went according to the rules, under the careful observation of the Royal Family."
Karl interrupted Elder Water Dragon: "You must understand that adepts are too powerful, so they cannot unleash their full strength without restraint. Over time, the Phuinem Kingdom decided to set a system of duels to resolved feuds between adept-level powerhouses. This way, there would not be unnecessary innocent casualties in the conflict. The last time an unrestrained conflict between several adept-level powerhouses burst, half of the kingdom turned into a bloodpath, suffering from massive viruses and curses let out by a witch. Since this dreadful event, the Phuinem Kingdom used its power to prevent such things from happening. In cases where duels wouldn't suffice, the two factions would enter a pocket dimension. Of course, be it us or the Gambit family, we couldn't afford to borrow a pocket dimension, so we ended agreeing on duels."
"Indeed. In the end, our Supreme Elder lost his life in this duel…as well as 2 pseudo-adept elders, and 8 elders of advanced cultivation. Among them…was my wife", Elder Water Dragon continued with grief in his voice; "Their sacrifice wasn't in vain. Each powerhouse we lost, the Gambit family lost twice as much. Although we didn't have a pure bloodline like them, most of the elders who participated had mastered one of the three inner circle spells I previously showed you. This allowed us to gain the upper hand against them", Elder Water Dragon mumbled with difficulty.
When Karl heard about Drodosis' influence, he couldn't believe his ears. His son wasn't even 15 years old, yet he had earned the right to see the inner circle spells, something that usually only came after decades of contribution to the family! What kind of feats did his son achieved in order to receive this reward?
"Why would they wait for us to replenish our forces, then?", Drodosis asked out of curiosity. The crux of the problem was still there!
"Because of internal conflicts! The Thornfield family followed the will of the dying Supreme Elder, founding a Council where elders would make decisions crucial to the survival and rejuvenation of our family. However, the Gambit Adept Family was not so lucky, and its dying adept didn't prepare for an eventual loss. He was, after all, only 200 years old. Nothing should have happened for at least another century. After falling from their pedestal, the entire Gambit Internal Politics became chaotic. They fought against each other for power, resources and future plans. Half of the family, after losing family members and huge assets scoffed at the thought of diving into battlefields again, but the other half was driven by hatred, wanting to take revenge against us."
"And this is where my role begins", Karl said, "I infiltrated their inner circle, and I basically fuelled the fire of inner conflicts within their family. However, there is only so much I can do. I became the fourth most influential elder in their family after completing missions here and there. Eventually, the 3 Raging Bears rose and stomped their political opponents with sheer power, including myself. Combining their strength and working together, these three pseudo-adepts managed to convince the whole family to engage in a war against us. I came back as soon as the decision was set in stone. Nothing can prevent a war anymore."
With a shaking voice, he continued: "Your mother died in the mission. She wasn't supposed to come alongside me, but she did so anyway. It's not that we didn't like you, or dismissed you. It's just that…we knew that if this mission wasn't successful, you would have had no future. We did it for the family, but our core motivation was your well-being in the end."
"As I previously said, Drodosis, please don't blame your father", Elder Water Dragon sighed.
Drodosis nodded. His face was pale.
For more than a decade, he had been blaming selfless heroes. He had blamed the parents who were willing to die for him. Was he a horrible being? However, remorse wouldn't change anything about the present. Forgiving his father was the first step towards a better future, and forgiving himself was the second step.
Soon enough, the subject change, and elders entered the room. While it was quite difficult, both Drodosis and his father tried not to let the past overcome them, and move forward. Only by moving forward, could they get rid of their nemesis: The Gambit Adept Family. Once the conflict ends, they will have plenty of time to catch up. At least, this is what they both had in mind.
(...)
Meanwhile, the Gambit Adept Family had turned serious.
Within the Fallen Valley, a territory owned by Viscount Phillip Dawins, two armies were staring at each other. These lands weren't peaceful anymore. It was a battlefield, in which Viscount Phillip originally had full confidence in winning. He had over 20 novice knights under him, as well as a thousand veteran soldiers. It was a high-caliber army, rarely seen among noble territories. One must not forget that only a fraction of soldiers can break through in the knight realm. Having more than 20 knights despite not having internal elixir to give away, state-of-the-art training facilities to offer or magical beast meat to provide, was a huge achievement.
In front of him, he could only see slightly more than 200 men and women, most of them lacking the military discipline. Their ranks were disorganized, and they didn't seem to be wearing high-quality armours.
In other words, it should have been an easy victory, especially considering Viscount Phillip's personal experience and strength as a veteran knight, as well as his trump card he had earned through his connections with the Thornfield Adept Family.
Yet, everyone on his side was shocked. The enemy army…morphed into a tide of bears. The 200 men were not actual soldiers, but…acolytes who could shapeshift into monstrous bear-like beasts! They had heard stories about the fearsome Gambit Family. Legends were wide spread, and children were told that if they didn't sleep at night, a mighty bear from the Gambit Adept Family might come and eat them.
These legends weren't completely false, as the Gambit Family indeed drew its power from their inherited bloodline, coming from Fire Raging Bears, an ancient race of bear, now mostly extinct in the Phuinem Kingdom, but still widespread in Alphen if one believes the archives.
Fire Raging Bears were terrifying magical beasts that were physically stronger than most of their peers. However, the reason as to why the Gambit Family was so famous, even among mortals' rank, is their fearsome racial spells.
Unlike normal spells, racial spells are unique and cost very little mana. Moreover, racial spells are innate spells, meaning that one doesn't have to study a lot in order to master the spells. Bloodline acolytes only need to cultivate their bloodline in order to grow stronger! They can concentrate in improving their fighting prowess, and do not have to waste time, studying mana theories! Naturally, it also comes with drawbacks: if your bloodline is too impure, then learning the racial spells would be impossible, hence the decay of most of bloodline adept families over time.
The Gambit Family was famous because they all possessed two innate spells: Shapeshifting (into these terrifying beasts), and fire breath. While it was not comparable to the mightiest attack of dragons, these fire breaths could deal as much as 30 points of damage at beginner rank, up to 100 points of damage at pseudo-adept rank! It was enough to threaten an adept! Of course, there were other innate spells, much rarer but still existing among their ranks: Berserk, Burning Soul (a soul attack paralysing the enemy) as well as Giantification, increasing their size and physical attributes by three.
The bears charged at the army, and hundreds of veteran soldiers suddenly instantly tried to run away from these monsters…only to find themselves surrounded a few dozen seconds later, stomped or burnt alive. How could they outrun beasts which had twice their strength and agility?
As for those who didn't try to surrender or escape, their fate didn't differ much. How could knights possibly compare to beasts which were so much stronger than them? Even if they managed to grasp an opening, their swords weren't sharp enough to pierce the magical flaming hide of the Raging Shapeshifting acolytes!
Yet, the knights motivated themselves, faithful to their oath. Viscount Philip Dawins himself charge at a bear who seemed to lead the charge: an advanced acolyte. Wielding a huge spear which seemed to weigh over 40 kilograms, every single acolyte on the battlefield was shocked to see this sight.
The spear was not an average mortal weapon! It was an enchanted spear, which could increase in weight and sharpness, thus becoming much more lethal! However, everyone knew that such a spear couldn't be wielded by humans. After all, weapons generally weighed 3 kilograms when it came to average sword, up to 10 kilograms. How could a human wield a weapon seemingly weighing over 30 kilograms? Yet, the viscount was no average knight. His ties with the Thornfield family were nothing to scoff at.
Gulping a potion. Soon enough, his strength and his size doubled. After six seconds, he didn't look human anymore. The veins on his arms and chest were apparent and budging, while the colour had turned purple. His armours had been ripped. And his body had basically reached 4 meters in height. From a distance, he looked like a giant barbarian, with nothing but a berserker spirit. In fact, Viscount Philipp looked like a monster himself at this point.
His mind was barely sane, with killing intent clouding his judgement. Picking up his giant spear, Viscount Philipp charged at the advanced-level Raging Flaming Bear. The sight was wondrous yet terrifying. Every knights and soldiers were praying in their head, wishing for Viscount Philipp to pull off a miracle.
'GO FOR IT!', one suddenly shouted
One became two, two became three, and before he knew it, Viscount Philipp was supported by hundreds of people, singing the Thornfield Family's anthem. With more than 24 points of strength, Viscount Philipp felt like he was twice stronger than normal. He knew it came from the elixir he gulped, but the support from his subordinates played a big role as well.
Feeling the combative spirit of his opponent, Viscount Philipp focused on one thing, directing all of his killing intent into this one strike: a thrust. It was not a flashy technique, or a miraculous tornado strike or whatever ninja technique.
It was just a thrust. Well, the thrust was simple…but perfect. No unecessary movement could be seen in this strike. It was a thrust Viscount Philipp had practiced his whole life, on a daily basis. From the moment he could walk to this day, he had been thrusting with his spear. On battlefields, he impaled his opponents with this thrust. In his castle, he trained this technique by himself. In his garden, he practiced against sparrows, subordinates and trees.
The combination of experience, strength and fighting spirit allowed him to pull of the mightiest attack he ever unleashed in his life: a magnificent thrust, envelopped with every ounce of internal energy he could muster, dealt 72 points of damage, a value that was rare to witness, even among elite knights.
The spear pierced the bear's heart and impaled it all the way through it. Blood splashed everywhere, and time seemed to have frozen. Acolytes couldn't believe that a mere veteran knight could pull off such a mighty strike, while soldiers were already celebrating a miraculous display of strength. Some were even shouting: "VICTORY!"
But…nobody could believe what was about to happen…