In the World of the Three Great Races; A Few Minutes After Mane Had Been Taken
"Matriarch, I have found her body," a tall man with a gorgeous sword strapped to his waist was knelt right next to a withered corpse. Although the condition of the corpse wasn't great, with several bruises and injuries littering its frame and severely atrophied muscles, this man still recognised the corpse. And why wouldn't he? After all, this woman had been his rival for over a hundred years. This man was the aide of the Matriarch of the Ancients. And as it was, as it always had been, he was here with the woman who held the fates of every Ancient in her aged hands.
The Matriarch of the Ancients was several meters away from her aide. Her focus was on the four figures hanging from the pole. She stared at them with eyes that radiated with infinite wisdom, almost as if they had been soaked in the well of Mimir for dozens of years before being given to her as a gift.
"Matriarch," her aide called again, and the old woman who had lived several millennia sighed and took her eyes off the only living creatures left on this battlefield. She turned her head aside, moving without any particular urgency with the assistance of her Lionhead cane towards her aide's side.
"She doesn't look good," were the first words that came out of the Matriarch's mouth when she saw Camila's corpse. Her aide smiled bitterly hearing her words.
"You seem to know her," the Matriarch lightly tapped her cane whilst looking at her aide. She could sense a subtle feeling of loss from her assistant when he gazed at the broken figure of the woman at his feet. It wasn't sadness from losing a loved one, but pity from having a worthy rival taken away. It was the pain that came from knowing that you weren't the one to defeat your rival. For someone had done it first. And you wouldn't get the chance to – not ever.
"I did Matriarch," her aide nodded his head. He didn't deny it. And why would he? Everyone among the younger generation of the Ancients knew that his greatest rival was no Elemental like most of them. They all knew that his greatest rival was the Barbarian called Camila. In fact, some Elders were aware of this. But the Matriarch of course had no idea. Camila was nothing but a Nightmare. For someone at the Matriarch's level, even a Pseudo Phenom was hardly worthy of consideration, much less a mere Nightmare. If he wasn't her aide, there was no way she would have known him.
"Whoever she was, she seems to have a tiny bit of Barbarian royal blood in her," the Matriarch rubbed her chin as she spoke. Her words stunned her aide, taking him by surprise.
"Why do you say so, Matriarch?" her aide wondered.
"Why do you think that she looks like this? You couldn't possibly think that Mane was the one who did this now, could you?" the Matriarch smiled, and her aide involuntarily blushed having his thoughts seen through exactly. It was okay if he was correct, but from his Matriarch's tone he was far from the truth. And that was embarrassing.
"The techniques of the Barbarian Royals – I presume that you have been educated about them?" the Matriarch brushed past his embarrassment and asked.
"I have Matriarch," he nodded his head. Of course he knew about the Barbarian Royal Family's techniques. They were skills that every youth was aware of. After all, they were taught about them once they were old enough to fight.
"Good," the Matriarch nodded her head lightly. "So you know exactly what they can do?" she probed.
"Yes, Matriarch. The Barbarian Royal Family's lineage is a special one. The blood of their Royals confers upon them a special constitution, allowing them to employ techniques that no other member of their race is capable of. These techniques are Blood Warrior and Gigantism."
"Gigantism confers onto its user the ability to increase in height and size by a few times. This allows them to display a greater degree of strength and power. However, it doesn't end there. Gigantism doesn't take away the speed of its user, so one doesn't need to sacrifice speed for the new increase in strength. For their speed remains the same. And in some instances, it even improves! How large a Barbarian Royal can get is dependent on their innate talent and depth of training. Highly talented Barbarian Royals can even extend Gigantism to their weapons."
"The second technique is Blood Warrior. And what it does is to burn the blood essence of a Barbarian Royal in order to summon a Bloodline Beast and increase their strength temporarily. For highly talented Barbarian Royals with dense royal blood, there is no need to burn their blood essence to use this technique. However, for distant royals, they would have to burn their blood essence first. And this could leave problems for them in the future, harming their foundations."
"Also, Blood Warrior erodes the minds of all who use it, making them appear as mindless corpses. The weaker a royal's bloodline, the easier it is for them to be influenced by the soul of the Bloodline Beast. Because of this, Blood Warrior is rarely used. For only a few have been able to rely on it without harming their foundations. Throughout all of Barbarian history, there have been only 12 individuals who have been able to use Blood Warrior without any repercussions – and the Barbarian Lord Magma is one of them."
"What else do you know about Blood Warrior?" the Matriarch asked.
"That's all I know Matriarch. Please educate me Matriarch."
"Very well," the Matriarch stated, and proceeded to expand her aide's sphere of knowledge.
"Gigantism only appears in Royals with dense bloodlines. If a Barbarian Royal has a diluted bloodline, they wouldn't be able to unlock this technique. However, Blood Warrior has no such restriction." The Matriarch spoke slowly, yet her aide had his ears almost flying in her direction, intent on not missing a single word that she spoke. For the Matriarch's guidance was a privilege that many didn't have.
"Which means that it can appear on folks with very shallow Royal Bloodlines. Your friend here is one such person."
"Stunned?" the Matriarch smiled and said, seeing her aide's eyes going wide in surprise. He nodded silently. Of course he was surprised. Barbarian Royalty were still Royalty irrespective of their bloodline density. But Camila had never been treated as royalty. If she had been treated as such, she would have been given much better resources and wouldn't have been struck at the peak of the Nightmare realm for the past 15 years.
"Her royal blood is vastly thin. Even I could only catch a trace of it when our men ambushed them earlier. For it to be so thin, it must mean that she must be a descendant of a distant royal – one who has most probably been forgotten by his or her people. Because of that it seems her identity as a royal had been kept hidden. Otherwise she wouldn't be here. However, it seems that she was aware of her heritage, seeing that she is able to and did use Blood Warrior. But because of how shallow her bloodline density is, using Blood Warrior is much more costly for her. It doesn't just affect her foundation – but her bones and muscles as well. However, she is a Barbarian, so such injuries wouldn't be permanent and would have healed eventually."
"I see," her aide mumbled.
"How many times have you faced her in battle?" the Matriarch suddenly asked
"More than a hundred times," her aide confessed.
"The fact that she never revealed Blood Warrior in front of you means that she was aware of its devastating effects – and what it could do to her. And it also meant that she never truly felt in danger against you."
"That is true Matriarch. She was usually stronger than me. I only surpassed her recently." Her aide didn't feel any embarrassment from this. Camila was older than him by fifty years. Although his life was long and eventful, fifty years was still a significant head start. But now he was different from the last time they fought each other, which was ten years ago. Now he was a Pseudo Phenom! And the first of his Ancient generation to reach such a lofty realm!
"But she used it against Mane," her aide furrowed his brows and said.
"Yes. The boy is much more powerful than I thought. To be able to take on a strengthened peak Nightmare with nothing but a Pseudo Nightmare's strength is an extraordinary feat." The Matriarch said and her aide nodded his head.
They knew that the boy was talented, but they didn't think his battle prowess had risen to this extent. They had been relaxed because the Heavenly Nether Lion was watching over Mane. But they didn't expect that he would be able to deal with an enhanced Camila all on his own. And when he looked down at the empty space in her chest which should have encased her missing heart, even he felt a few chills going down his spine. The boy wasn't just strong, he was decisively ruthless.
"We must get him back – no matter the cost," the Matriarch's eyes flashed with a green light when she spoke.
"But we don't know who took him," her aide shook his head sullenly. They rushed here as soon as they received the Heavenly Nether Beast's distress call. But they came to meet no one. If they had, they may have been able to find out what happened here. As for the four unconscious people, neither the Matriarch nor her aide considered them as valuable information centers. This was because they had deduced that they had been unconscious for a very long period of time.
"While that is true, it doesn't mean that this place is without clues. Search it thoroughly boy. There must be something that we are missing. I would try and discern the intangible from the energy remnants" The Matriarch said before disappearing to follow the trial of energy that dominated this place – energy belonging to the wind elements.
"Yes Matriarch," her aide nodded as he proceeded to search the battlefield as well. As for the four humans who were hanging on the pole, they didn't bother about them. Why would they care about people who belonged to the Black Dragon of the East?