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Turning to look in the direction the noise was coming from, his jaws nearly dropped when he saw Keythong come running out of the deeper recess of the warehouse.
The only question on his mind was, 'What the fuck were his family bonded bests doing here!'
He must have not seen them on his Magic Sight thanks to how secluded they were in some pens. Though that wasn't what mattered to him, there was a good fifty Keythong of his family charging headlong at them.
Shaking his head to get rid of all the shock and surprise that clouded his mind, he could deal with that later when he gets his hand on one of the bandits. Now however he needs to stop these Griffin-kin before they start attacking his men.
Stepping up, he faced down the creatures imperiously and commanded with a deep ringing voice, "STOP!" With his deep bond with the creatures, it would be child play to take control of them, and it was very foolish of his enemies to use Griffins that couldn't even harm a single hair on his body.
However he was a bit surprised when they did not heed his command, at first he figured it was just Keythong being Keythong- they were always the rebel child of the Griffin-kins that his family reared in the Roost. They were petulant and savage in nature making them difficult to control if you didn't have a tight leash on them.
Nevertheless, they knew who their masters were, voice harding as this time Harry held his arm up in a stop gesture, "I Command you to cease this folly RIGHT NOW."
Once again he watched as they did not heed his command in the least bit, and just as he was frozen in his surprise, they were nearly upon him as their tongue lulled out, claws stretched out, and murder was in their eyes.
If one of the soldiers wasn't bold enough to tackle him to the ground and another put up an earthern wall to defend them, then he could have imagined that his life would have ended right then and there. The Keythong clawed and bite at the fortification with savage ferocity as it was obvious they were going for his life and that of his men.
"W-what.... the hell was that!" he shouted to no one in particular as he sat dazed on the ground. The control of all Griffin creatures was absolute! They should have, no they must have headed his command, but why did they not do so?
But now, here he was facing a whole different reality.
Getting up from the ground and looking through the small murder holes in the earthen wall, he could see how the creatures piled on each other while savagely tearing into the wall.
Staring at them long and hard, he noticed how blood shot their eyes were as if they were possessed which now that he thought on it was the only likely reason why they did not follow his command. Be that as it may, he would still have to put them down. Looking at them, just the thought of it tore at his heart, the bond between him and Griffin-kin creatures when both way. No harm could be visited on the other.
But he hardened his heart, what needed to be done should be done.
Stepping back from the wall as his hand balled into a fist, he turned to his men, "Prepare a Joint Spell - Divina Percuties Eam (Divine Smite)!"
Nodding their head everyone begin to chant the spell he called out while the Keythong tore at the crumbling defense.
Suddenly from over head there were the loud cracks of lightning bolts from across the heaven, looking up at the glass windows up above that provided a great view to the vaults of heaven he could see the supernatural gathering of thunder clouds.
They were not the natural dark clouds of the regular old storms, but dark purple in nature with roiling electric currents arching through.
Hearing a crack, he turned around to see hair length cracks running along the earthen wall and some of the stone falling to the ground in pieces. The Keythong were close to breaking through, and he knew when they did they will tear about each man as best they could.
However suddenly as if the gods themselves noticed his precarious situation and then call down below to smite his enemies- a great big pillar of blue streak tore through the air riping past the glass ceiling as mirror shards cascaded down to the floor, and the lightning bolt struck the gathered Keythong.
Some were blown right off their feet just like him and his men who had our defense all but destroyed in a flash. Though to be fair, we were just the lucky ones as others were electrocuted to death, while some singed to a burnt crisp, others were torn apart into pieces, and most were just vaporized on the spot.
"SHIELD!!!" Harry shouted as the light show was far from down, more great big lightning bolts stuck down sending debris up into the air as the very earth was torn and splintered. As his men put up countless layers of Protego one after the other, he could see that even his godfather's men and Alex were shielding themselves who were across the warehouse.
Watching open mouth as Keythong were massacred right before his eye as endless streaks of lightning bolts strick down with brutal efficacy, he really got a taste of a synergy spell for the first time.
The benefits of working in a cohesive unit outweighed that of working alone or with a messy mob by many magnitudes. Besides that of working in tandem where you can each worry about take care of one thing while your friend did the other, a unit could also afford the benefit of combing spells together.
Synergizing together you could accomplish an impossible spell together or combine your might in a spectacular degree like right now.
Finally, as the dust clear and the clouds abated, Harry looked at what he beget.
It was a total massacre he saw as none of the Keythong stood reminding at all, some were twitching in the rictus of death but besides that none of them could put up a resistance anymore. Of the 50 or more Keythong who came to kill him, none reminded as they were wiped out to the very last one.
Letting out a long breath, he turned his gaze towards the last remnants of the bandit group most which were dead or dying with only that Leader who called the Keythong down on them and a couple sorely injured men.
Now that his little display of power was done, Alex was rounding them up for interrogation. He also saw that Sirius had his men start lotting the corpses while he also came over and begin to study the corpses of the Keythong for whatever reason, casting spells o them and so forth.
Ignoring him for the men he walked over to Alex, while doing so he made sure to peer closely around the warehouse with his Magic Sight so that he did not have any more surprises in store for him.
"So this is the leader of the small group?" he asked once came over then gazed at the man with eyes that nearly bore into him.
"Yes, my lord," Alex nodded his head as he tied the man up with magical chains and manacle.
"So you were the one who ambushed by people?" he asked in a thin frosty tone.
Shrugging his shoulders, the man answered with a mocking bow, "That would be me. Got to say it was fun sport for me and my boys chopping them up."
Flinching a Stinging Hex at the cheeky bastard, Alex pronounced in a tone filled with menace, "Show my lord the respect that he is do, vermin," he spat out, "or else you shall feel the righteous fury of mine!"
"You heard my man, tell me who sent you to rob us?"
"Mmm hahaha," the man chuckled then broke into uproarious laughter.
Losing all patience with him, Harry shouted, "How did you get control of my family beasts? Speak up now or else....." he said leaving the threat in the air but the man just continued to laugh in his face.
Just as he was thinking about Cruciatus Curse on him even if it was so disgusting, Sirius interpreted, "I believe I can answer the second question for you."
Turning to face his godfather or should he say his adoptive father, he saw the man with a flask in his hand with Keythong blood inside of it. "They gave the Keythong a dose of Berserk Maddening, aptly named since it makes you go crazy with murder and destruction. That why they weren't listening to you, but I do not know what they planned to do after they finished with you since the Keythong would have went after them next."
"Doesn't matter," the man snickered, "if we got rid of this upstart then it would have been so worth it," he pointed with his head towards him, the only body part he could move.
"So someone is interested in my head," Harry chuckled, he knew sooner or later there would be people that didn't like him popping up sooner or later. "Well, they will soon find out it a bit hard to remove my head."
"Who is this person that wants my lord's life?" Alex rephrased the same question he asked.
"You will find out when my lord makes himself know. Before that however, you can live in fear with your mis-...."
Before the man could even finish what he was saying a Severing Charm removed his head from his shoulder as it tumbled to the ground and blood gushed out of the wound on to the other captured enemies.
Turning to look at his godfather/ adoptive father, Harry wiped the blood that got on his boot with a simple cleaning charm and asked the man in an annoyed voice, "Why did you go off and do that for?"
"Well," he answered with a shrug, "he wasn't going to give us anything useful anymore."
Sighing he turned to the terrified soldiers, "Take them away to our family dungeons," he waved his hand, maybe he would have better luck with them.
"No offense," Sirius spoke up, "but I think the Black family dungeons have better accommodation," he said with a grin.
"Fine," Harry said, on that he could agree with him, his family dungeons was more of a comely cottage. Plus from the way they looked at Sirius as if he was a grinning devil incarnate as they were taken away by his men, he guessed that the older wizard would have better results than him.
Turning back to his little group, he spoke his thoughts which still bothered him, "I get why the Keythong did not listen to him, but I still do not understand how they got their hands on the little beasts."
Only someone who had such a close blood bond with such murderous creatures could call them little beasts
"That, I too do not understand," Alex agreed with him, "wild Keythong could only be found in the Eastern Steppe, so the only way they could have gotten them in short order is from us."
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"Master," Kreacher croaked as he came into the living room with a bloody tool in his hand that he was wiping with a napkin and stained a rucksack which were the only clothes he had.
Making no comment about bloody sight as he got up from his sea along side Sirius and Remus, he knew the unpleasantness the men would be facing down in the dungeons if they didn't speak up.
This was the world of Great nobility, a cutthroat world that didn't allow any weakness or consideration for your enemies. Anyway these are the people that murdered his people and stole from him, he was able to recover the goods they stole but he could never recover the lost people.
"So what did they have to say?" Remus asked with a sigh, the prospects of torturing prisoners still did not look like they settled well with him, but he was willing to go with it to go after this person who wanted his head.
"Kreacher got five of them to each confirm separately under Veritaserum that they are Ser Gimball men."
"It makes sense now," Sirius snapped his finger as realization spread across his face.
"Who is this Ser Gimball?" Harry asked, it was like he knew that name as if he heard it from some were before, but he was coming up empty.
"Yea, you want to explain?" Remus demanded as he had no recognition of the name at all.
"Ser Gimball is the head of House Chalet," Sirius answered, then taking a pause as he faced him head-on," a vassal of House Potter!"
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Since this went beyond his expertise, Harry did the only thing he could, he gathered a War Council. Gathered in the room inside the Potter Fortress was the Commander of course who was smoking a fat cigar, then there was Lieutenant Alex followed by Lieutenant Tia and Lieutenant Riley; new officers he had raised to the post to lead the second cohort and third cohort, easing up Alex position so he only had to lead the first cohort.
And already he had his eye on another person to rise to lead the newly forming fourth cohort.
Then there was Remus who alone by himself, maybe he should stick a few werewolves with him to lead he joked to himself.
Then there was Sirius who had right beside him the newly risen General of the Black Host. Since he was his adoptive father it was basically required for him to helped with his little rebellion, but there was never any question about the skirt-chaser man coming to his aid. If he could have it his way, he was sure that the man would have wanted to assault the castle of his traitor vassal by himself.
"So Gimball was the one behind the ambush, huh?" the one armed man asked. "Should have known, the fool always had ambition for powers much higher than his position."
"Could you tell me more about this Knightly house, Granduncle?" Harry asked, "Sadly I haven't paid much attention to my vassals since I had more than enough on my plate."
"House Chalet is a newly risen house in the grand scheme of things, your Great-grandfather brought up Gimball's grandsire during the Grindelwald war. The man was nothing more than a mercenary and I had no love for him, but we needed the manpower at that time. And he performed solidly. Nevertheless, I guess they now started to aspire for things that weren't theirs."
"Yes," Alex agreed, "He must have started to worry when he saw you start to take Lordship of your family and begin to look for ways to weaken you and even a way to kill you if he could."
"Well since we now know that we have a traitor vassal we need to put them down," Lieutenant Riley declared loudly. He was a loud boisterous man, but he was also simple and honest and had a good head for leading men and rousing them up with a hardy nature, that why more than anything he gave him the position of Lieutenant.
"That not who it works," Lieutenant Tia cut in, she was more of a solid leader one who could off set Riley's more brash personality. "We need to know the lay of the land? How defendable is House Chalet keep? How many enemy soldiers will we be facing? What magics do we expect for them to deploy?" she said in one breath.
Suddenly flying in from the window was a Micro Griffin, siling as it landed on the table in front of him, Harry begin to scratch his little spies ear. "It seem like our informant has come back," he announced to the room at large.
Then turning to look at the little beast after he gave it a treat for its hard work, he asked it, "Did you do what I tell you?"
Micro Griffin were not only good for swarming an enemy, they were also very great spies that his family loved to implore.
That why he sent the little burger off to check up on Ser Gimball's land and estate.
Trilling softly, he nodded his head along as his eyes and ear begin to spill everything it found in soft thrill and loud squawks that only he could understand.
"Mmm, I see," he finally said as the Micro Griffin finished giving its report.
"So what did it say?" Remus asked, just as curious as everyone else to know what the findings were.
"Its seems like Ser Gimball has maybe over 1,000 soldiers stationed at his keep with more being trained by the day. The place seem to be also heavily warded, with magic cannon at the turret, and plenty of Keythong being reared," he added with a grimace at the end of the mention of the Keythong.
There were many kinds of vassal to have some De Jure Vassal which were families more independ and had their own magical beasts. Others were cadet branches made up of second children who made a new line in another country who had access to the family magic and beasts. Then there was the more direct vassals who were given a beast to rear and expected to help bring arms in time of need and of course by tribute, like House Chalet
"But how," the Commander sputtered out, "House Chalet could only call upon 3 Centuries at most(150 men) Even forgeting the armed limits put on him!"
Once again looking to the Micro Griffin who chittered about, Harry translated, "Different men, different arms, separate housing. I think he means mercenaries."
"He really is preparing to go to war with your family," Sirius scoffed.
"Yea," Harry agreed, and if he hadn't come to raise his family the bastard might have succeeded with the way things were. "We need to put in down right away."
Facing the Commander, he asked, "How many men can we prepare?"
"As you know we almost got four fully prepared Cohorts(2,000) and 800 support units. But we need to continue guarding the Pass so one cohort has to say and the other is just made of unblooded lads who would be a hinderess more than anything. So I can give you two Cohort (1,000) at the moment with some support units."
"What about you General? Sirius asked, looking to his new family army leader. "And this is my adoptive son, so don't be stingy with me."
"I can give you one fully refurbished regiment(900), my lord," the man answered glumly as his Host was still recovering from long years of neglect and recent battle.
"Well then, we will just make do with," Harry nodded his head. Then looking at the people in the room, he announced, "Gentlemen, and ladies," he added to the benefit of Lieutenant Tia, "we are off to WAR!"
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5 soldiers make a Contubernium lead by a decanus, 10 Contubernium make a Century lead by a centurion, 10 Centuries make a Cohort lead by a lieutenant, 10 Cohorts make Legion leader by a Commander.