Nen, Mateo, jaxon were the names of the three that accompanied me.
All of which had varying degrees of combat experience and skills. And of the bunch only one had low talent when it came to actual combat, jaxon had profound achievement in hou-intent. One of the very few formation masters in Aurelia's battalion.
Formation masters are held in very high reguard and usually seek recognition and fame through other means than through military employment.
Marko, Aurelia's close friend is an example of a formation master, using formations to refine pills of various kind to help Dragonborn enhance their attainments in the mastery of hou or even simply to heal. The variaty of formation masters are almost endless but the one thing they all have in common is that they are always well sought after and highly revered and as such they very rarely lack amber pieces or resources needed for progressing their realms.
Jaxon with black hair and shocking eyes, mostly had talent as a rune formation master.
Able to create various types of formations and well as break seals and detecting as well as creating near impenetrable hou barriers.
Even though he didn't have much in the way of talent with actual combat he was most definitely the core of the team and the others were there mostly to protect him. See, we could enter the iron region with some amount of difficulty but the pit itself is located in a natural restricted body-tempering zone and one of the most restricted areas. So as a counter to the barrier the strength dragon overlord had erected to protect the place I had opted to bring Jaxon.
...…
With my hands bound, disheveled hair, dirty and tattered robes and no shoes i trudged along behind Mateo a loose rope pulling me along every few steps to keep me in pace. As a naturally bulky guy with the help of a little makeup Mateo could easily pull off the strength dragon's signature dark skinned white horned appearance. Nen and Jaxon also similarly were being pulled along by Mateo.
"Stop!" a guard from beside the tall opening in the wall walked over towards Mateo who slowly stopped a turned towards the guard that had barred him from entering. The guard slowly looked him over before. "What's this?" he asked pointing at us with a rather large gloved hand.
Mateo in black robes pulls out a token and a small pouch filled with amber pieces.
This was a part of our plan, the token was simply one that acquirers needed in-order to re-enter the iron region after 'acquiring merchandise' for the wealthily young lords of the iron region. The acquirers basically no more than kidnappers, bandits, thieves and every low-class scum you can think of. The amber pieces, a small fortune to grease the palms of the lucky guard on duty to make the passage as smooth and as record-less as possible.
Honestly I never had much of an understanding of the currency of the dragonborn until I saw the way Aurelia had spent the amber pieces and losing this much like this peaved me to no end, but it was a necessary step.
The guard would then simply wave them through, accept that the token as an official pass and then the 'offering', this time though.
"a human female huh?" he walked over towards me and i held my head down to avoid meeting his gaze. "hmm, not too shabby."
Before I could do anything he took the rope in his hand and with his free hand ripped my clothes and coped a feel, many in fact.
I clenched my fist so hard i could feel my nails cutting into my palm.
At that moment I was so shocked I almost locked eyes with him. This would definitely make him suspicious or at least annoy him.
And I didn't want to give him a reason to refuse us entry so it was all I could do to stand still and barely suppress any killing intent that would make him suspicious.
But… how dare this insect, lay his hand on me?!!!
I wanted to punch him with all the ki I could muster or drain him to death by absorbing his hou.
But i couldnt risk drawing the attention of the other guards on duty, for all i know there could be late second ranking general or even an early third ranking one in the mix. Since i have no way of actually knowing this before hand my best bet was to play it safe.
But even so, i wanted to end this creep, but I simply held my head low and suffered through it.
-all for master, its all for her.-
"heh heh heh!" the guard chuckled after having his fill of feeling me up. "After sampling the product I feel another twenty high grade amber pieces are..." He sauntered toward Mateo wiping his hands on Mateo's robe as if he accidentally touched something unpleasant while letting his words seemingly fall off.
This!!! Bastard!!!
Ugh...
I bit my lip hard to distract myself from the rage of the humiliation I had just endured.
Forget draining him. I want to beat him until he was a bloody pulp in the dirt.
I could sense the tension that this had caused for the others in my squad, the bloodlust was so thick that the guard took half a step away from Mateo before. "Its just a joke, why so serious over the merch?" Mateo didn't reply and instead eyed the guard with cold steely eyes.
"Right, go'on through." The guard started back to his post muttering under his breath. "Crazy bastard."
Without saying anything Mateo continued his advance through pulling us along through the border and out the other side onto a road which entered the forest behind the vast border walls.
The moment we were out of view from the guards at and on the wall, the Mateo dropped the lead rope and continued to look away till I retrieved my clothes and gear from Jaxon's temporary spatial storage runes on his forearm.
"Commander-"
"-I'm fine." cutting him off before he could start. "Mateo, what the hell was that?" He still avoided my gaze. "When I talk, look at me you punk!" Slowly he turned. "Next time keep your urges in check, because if you blow this mission then not even Aurelia will be able to save you from me."
"Yes sir!"
"Now if you're all done, get changed we have more pressing matters, so lets proceed."
I pulled my hair back and tied it with one of the ribbons Aurelia had gifted me previously then hung my sword on my waist. With this the last of my gear was donned and my outfit spoke only if the authority I possessed.
I was commander but in all honesty we were dressed for infiltration.
Stealth and lethality.
Apart from the blade I also had a short-sword in a scabbard horizontally across my lower back.
I was pissed, and they knew better than to continue or speak of what had happened since they knew my temperament all too well.
I had been forced to strong arm the majority of them since many opposed to me leading. Honestly it wasn't something I wanted to do but after a day or two of the majority of the soldiers refusing to do their tasks. I got upset and earned myself the moniker 'demon queen'.
I hated that too but I let it slide since it helped move things along and finally allowed the old military advisors to feel comfortable enough to not pester me finally giving me enough time to cultivate in moderate peace.
Though it helped that they dared not say that when I was around.
But even though I was strict with them the fact that I reunified them and brought the city back to some amount of normalcy in record time was something they all understood and maybe even silently thanked me for.
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Soon enough it became apparent that I had indeed, been hiding something from them.
The area was mostly deserted and not to mention, there were groves and murky waters off the singular dry path that marked the only way into the swampy and humid area before it stopped abruptly.
Through Jaxon's visible confusion as to why we were at a swamp instead of an area which would be more suitable for fighting he finally decided to speak up.
"commander," he waved calling my attention from the other two who were just as confused as he was.
The area was mostly small trees and murky waters all round save for this path.
He pointed in the area where the path was supposed to continue, where it fell off under the still murky waters and where it re-emerged. "There's a barrier here but I've never seen anything like it." He pointed to the area where the path dipped under the water.
"It's possible that this array is very old so it'll take some time to open."
"Ok, go ahead."
I nodded
"I'll have the others guard you while I scope the rest of the area."
He nodded in agreement before casting me an empathetic glance. "No matter what happens you'll always be the commander."
i returned a glance of my own, allowing the pressure of my cultivation to permeate the air, softly causing it to vibrate silently.
"Overstep your boundaries again and ill personally revoke your status!"
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I had asked jaxon earlier to show me how runes worked and through his guidance I more or less understood now.
Archaic runes are a sub level compared to saint runes and within each of the ten different runes were 3 levels: early, intermediate and profound. Being only at the intermediate saint stage he couldn't help me to understand much of the markings on my arms except that the winding tattoos were from rune intent which could only be obtained by reaching the pinnacle of rune mastery.
I had only just begun learning about them so it couldn't have been my doing.
Marko suggested that I use my hou to suppress the marks from growing further.