Hector shot right up and unleashed a flurry of punches into the air. "Wah PAA!!"
"Shut up."
"SHH!"
"Quiet."
A tattered gloved palm covered his mouth and pushed his head back down.
Hector's body groaned in protest from the violent movement and his head was throbbing so hard his brain was about to spill out of his ears and nose.
He was in awe of his own reflex for sitting up as he wasn't able to move a single muscle. Well, except those required for beating his heart and controlling his voice.
He saw all his crewmates surrounding him. They were hiding behind a massive tree and were all tensed up.
'One two three four five…' Hector counted.
"Wh-where's the captain?" He whispered as softly as possible, his lips and throat were dryer than he expected.
He only got another hush in reply as he made everyone tenser. The situation they were in was probably worse than he imagined despite everyone who was alive before he made himself unconscious still being alive with the exception of his captain's absence. It felt like an hour before all the non-moving crewmates breathed a sigh of relief as they slumped down and rested their tense bodies.
"Still alive?"
"He better be! We carried his sleeping ass!"
"You bastard! We were almost busted thanks to your noisy ass."
Hector chuckled at their comments.
He did his best to move his body to get another healing potion out. It worked wonders but his body wasn't listening to him well.
'At least I'm not missing any parts.' Hector didn't have any type of perception to check his internals but he could stiffly move around without coughing blood and he decided that was good enough.
"Can someone catch me up?"
He got a debrief and he didn't really like what he heard.
"So capta-"
"Is not dead."
Hector was cut off before he could continue. His squad leader and everyone else were sure. They had eyes filled with hope. After the journey on the sea, Hector realised that those that had hope tend to struggle and live longer while those who may be stronger but didn't have a glimpse of hope in their eyes tend to give up easily.
"But he's injured. We were tracking his trail of blood but had to hide from that procession of Trolls." The scout from a different squad and everyone else had a look of fear when he talked about the Trolls.
'Damn trolls are durable and that regeneration is far more than I imagined.' Hector remembered that his punch didn't actually kill those Trolls. He expected more from himself despite being a Journeyman.
Supposedly he had been unconscious for more than a month which is mindblowing to him.
His captain was also crazy, he remained to take the 8 Trolls himself and somehow found his way back to the group. Then he changed tactics and went to scout on his own even though he only had Generic Stealth and Tracking.
They were soldiers and were forced to listen to orders since the captain didn't want anyone to hold him back. With precedence of the first battle against the Trolls, the others had no say. They weren't capable enough.
Captain Cain gained confidence, reporting that the Trolls weren't that strong and the group they struggled against had been a more particular group. To which only he was guessing it was a clan that focussed on their regenerative abilities. He went on to hunt them himself if he decided that the squads were not something his men could take on but also let them go into the fights so that they could increase their skill levels.
Thanks to the hunts, all of them had gotten stronger.
During the period he was getting carried around the coast, they found out that the population on the coast only increased over time. It made staying hidden extremely difficult and they were no longer able to find singular squads to hunt. It was almost as if the Trolls were migrating.
They were close to reaching the hidden camp that one of the Truewater family is in charge of. Captain Cain had to hide from this 'procession' that had a King Classed Shaman in their midst and they split up. Hector got his bearings and stretched his aching body. He breathed mana into his body and told the others he would carry his own weight now.
It was a miracle all of them were alive and that they even managed to protect his unconscious limp self in this environment. To that, he had unending gratitude for them.
"Well…we're lost."
Hector wasn't that surprised since this place was huge and they were forced to hide all over the place. "Aren't we close to Truewater's camp?"
Hector forgot to speak 'respectfully' but he didn't care at this point, they all knew he was part of the Lord family and his casual mention of the duke's family name was a habit.
"It's called a hidden camp for a reason. We only saw a few tracks too small to be from Trolls and there aren't any monsters here but we can't pinpoint their location."
Hector clicked his tongue. "Truewater's Watershade…"
'Crap…a group of masters with no real scouts can't find that.' Hector was sure that the one in charge of Tova's hidden camp would be a King from the Truewater family. The Truewater family was capable, the best water mages of a myriad of usage with water magic that one could find in the whole of the Empire. Even his family's young who have an affinity with water magic learns the basics of water barriers from them.
Hector had no doubt that a General of the Truewaters sent to enemy territory to make a foothold to be very capable. The Truewaters was an Archduke candidate for the humans, famed for the array of tier 3 skills they have from movement to perception to enhancement to offensive to defensive to physical skills and spells, they had them all. Those that joined the army always had them trained to tier 3 already as part of their family head's policy and if this General was who he thought it was, they had zero chance of finding a camp that this General wanted to keep hidden.
"Anyone knows the General's name?"
"Captain didn't say. There are only 2 General Truewaters, does it really matter who?" One of the older squad leaders answered.
"Ell, if it's the next head of the Truewaters, we might as well give up on searching and scream for help so that they find us instead." Hector blurted out his thoughts. There were more than that but only two were real, Major Generals.
"That's actually a good idea!" Captain Cain's voice came from above and scared all of them into alertness.
"Crap! Don't scare us cap!"
Captain Cain jumped down the tree branch and knocked the head of the one complaining for letting him get so close without realising.
"Sleepyhead finally woke up huh? Time to get to work!"
"Yes sir!"
Hector got his directives as they lay in wait for a bit more, just for the procession to get further.
"Why are they all moving here though? There were barely any ships on the coast right?" Hector asked.
No one had a good answer for him, they had little to no information.
'Wait a damn minute, where are they hiding their ships? Those things are massive…did Truewater destroy them?'
Hector shrugged, they really knew too little. They had no way of ranged communication in their current situation and that was probably the biggest problem. Since much of their equipment and tools were destroyed or lost at sea, they were pretty troubled.
His stomach grumbled and it led to a chain effect.
"Gah! Why did you remind me of my hunger!"
Hector got another round of complaints, they were all hungry and he was supposedly only stuffed with water down his throat while he was unconscious. He ate a pill that could sustain him longer without eating before he fainted but an entire month passed. The others had more and more trouble finding food and they had been going hungry for some time now.
They haven't resorted to eating Troll flesh because shamanic plagues were a common story amongst the soldiers.
Captain Cain took Hector's suggestion a bit too seriously and Hector couldn't stand the looks of pain and exhaustion on his allies' faces so he boasted that he would take any dangerous mission they wanted him to take. They did save his life.
"Let's move out." Captain Cain ordered.
They followed closely behind him for about an hour before he gave Hector's shoulder a pat.
Everyone else came up to give him a pat and some thanked him for his 'sacrifice'.
Hector grit his teeth, he couldn't take his words back after his boast.
He climbed up the tallest hill and tree in the area and took a deep breath.
"GENERAL, WHERE ARE YOU!" Hector screamed at the top of his lungs for the entire forest to hear.
'I'm not getting off with a light scolding…'
Hector continued screaming as if he wanted every single Troll to come and eat him.
❅❅❅
"Come on Willow, let go. I have to leave now." Ebony tried his best to be as gentle as possible but it was hard to pluck the hugging bear on his leg without hurting it.
Korben had been backing Fifth Tide up himself while they waited and trained their skills against Milly. Well, they didn't spar or fight. Milly had them throw every attack they could at her and it did wonders for their skill level. Due to how their skills were under levelled compared to their actual level, these 8 days gave them vastly accelerated skill levelling. The normal-sized bear that wasn't exactly normal didn't have that much control, it got a little 'excited' when her fur got singed by the fire wielder.
He was lucky Koawe swooped in to push both of them aside, the older man was watching out for them.
As for where they trained, it was inside the Arch Wood Mage's creation. Neither of their flames damaged the wood surrounding them. No one questioned his cold flames but even Milly wasn't able to rip control of his flames despite it being ice mana just the same.
One unexpected gain was a new Class Skill, it was unexpected since it's a byproduct of his manipulation control training that was mostly just him making things difficult for himself. After his evolution, bending his flames to his will had become much easier.
Blazing Deep Freeze Petals - Highly condensed flames of frost take upon an increasingly solid form of plum petals. Embers and residues of all your freezing flames that are packed into petals have an effect of 80% + 2.5% Intelligence. Petals of flames are 15% + 2.5% finer facilitating the penetration through physical matter.
Consumes MP
Classification: Ice Magic
It was just an idea for fun when he made the wisps of flames that escaped his greatsword to form a petal shape. It was not easy and made great control training. When these petals land on his targets by luck, he thought it was a waste of mana not to use them and made a conscious effort to have them scatter. They were made finer to seep deeper. Due to his increasingly denser mana and hence, denser ice mana, his pure mana can almost be touched as 'condensation' forms. He was close to compressing mana so much that it was a liquid. This made his flames harder and harder to extinguish.
The new skill had been unrefined for a tier 2 skill with the base 80 and 15%. He saw a lot of potential in the skill, especially because of the 'physical' in the description.
Ning Xin recently got her magic body. The opponents he faced in future would definitely have something similar as he found that this magic body or even the Troll's vitality enhancement could ward off cold and most forms of attacks in some manner. Ebony focused on trying to make it such that these petals could dig through magical defences just as well or maybe better.
The utility of the skill was pretty high too, he just had to make all his flames in these petal forms and they would have the strengthened effect. His tests using it against Ning Xin showed that these petals acted quite a bit like normal petals and float with the wind. She could cut them only when she coated her blades with wind magic otherwise, they would flutter to the side as her blades passed them. The only drawback is that they have to be highly compressed mana and the mana cost isn't low even for him.
This was a pretty impressive discovery for him. Even with her speed and accuracy, the petals could actually dance away from her strikes. He made it rain blue flames of plum petals that trapped her even further. Incorporating into his domain was still a work in progress but he was planning to fill the entire domain with these petals just floating everywhere. No one was going to be able to take a step inside his domain and move properly.
He was still trying to make Preservation Bubble a Profession Skill but he didn't make much headway except a couple of levels increasing the size of his mana pool.
The masked swordswoman admittedly took inspiration from the Trolls. Magic body simply referred to one's magical defence and the most generic ones that the Imperials used were to bloat themselves with mana in some method that no one had taught him about. There should be some technique to it but Ebony didn't have to know since he already had it. He didn't understand it but according to the others Stock Mana Compressive Chassis could be considered his magic body skill. Albeit quite different from what people refer to as a magic body Ebony didn't really care as long as it had the same effect, he wasn't completely human anyway.
This only gave her the kick she needed to move within his domain. Before, they were burning off each other's mana and would usually end up with both of them out of mana since his consumption speed was much higher than hers. The only difference was that she needed her flames to keep her warm rather than him needing to keep himself cool. With her magic body, her resistance to cold was increasing by the day. It didn't even cost her mana consumption to increase much.
He took the chance to bully her ever since he could cast his domain stably. He would take the choice of increasing her defensive capabilities any day. With his Inscripted Mana Moulding, he had made all his Imperishable Frost Scales to be even more heat resistant and durable, individually.
Koawe respected them and let them know that even with Korben's backup, the Trolls were actually gaining more ground. The added stress was nice as Everlasting Tranquillity needed the push.
The older Frost Elf that Roya had stood behind was apparently a tailor, her work was ready along with hundreds of bows and tons of arrows that wafted off an aura that none of them wanted to get close to. The elders of Arcta seemed insistent on staying in the village rather than reinforcing Fifth Tide.
"Alright, we're leaving once Korben arrives," Koawe reported with about 50 bows resting on the snow.
The old lady tailor was the only one that was going to go out of the village as well, she was due to First Tide to deliver her craft. Ebony didn't get a chance to see the end products and Roya only told him that the elder used to teach some of her ancestors tailoring but she had more traditional methods and did not use mana tailoring. Ning Xin's intuition told her that the non-combatant was equally scary as Koawe leading him to think that Koawe was King Classed too but his gut feeling told him otherwise.
"Do you need me to carry these?" Ebony asked as he got ready. There were too many crates of arrows to fit in both his and Ning Xin's bags.
"Arti will take care of that." Koawe whistled for his companion that would also be their ride.
The considerably short Bow Artisan King walked over with the last of his bows and clapped his hands. "Come on, time to wake up."
Ning Xin's eyes widened when 50 bows started shaking and floating up. Some slowly, some excitedly but they all made their way to the 1.9 metre tall elder and rubbed their bodies against him.
Ebony was surprised too but it didn't show on his face.
"No need to be surprised, not many Imperial archers can wield a bow made by me. These kids can recognise Trolls' essence, they will do well but please watch out for them if possible. And you kids watch out for them too." The elder gave his affectionate pats to the bows who made way for other bows to get a pat.
The bows avoided Ning Xin entirely but a few moved to him. It took some coaxing from the elder before the bows willingly got close to the fire mage.
"Give it a tug boy, they like your essence." The elder said.
Ebony touched the bows near him but some recoiled away. He didn't hesitate to try pulling the bowstring but the string didn't even budge. Not even when he enhanced himself. The elder was clearly humble, no one could use these bows. Definitely not any Master archer, perhaps a few Grandmaster archers could.
They ate up his flames in glee but ignored him after he wasn't able to pull their string. There were only 2 that he could move a little and according to the elder, those two liked him more.
He wasn't an archer so he wasn't bothered by it. Picking it up as a generic skill or hobby might be fun though.
It didn't take more than a minute till he sensed the village guardian's return with a robe that was a little banged up. Ebony began to worry for his own set, it was getting cuts big and small. Even with the Rare materials they were made from and the runic tailoring, his power and the opponents he was against were just putting too much stress on it.
'I should allocate most of the ice mana inside just for Imperishable Frost Scales over my robe.' Ebony had a very small amount of practice with tailoring recently but he had been replicating his current robe as much as possible. One day, he might make it better or at least, more suited for him.
The battle must be far fiercer than he imagined, he should not overuse the spare mana he has for offence. He needed to keep a closer eye on his partner but that would really distract him. He hoped that wouldn't push him out of Everlasting Tranquility.
"Korben, how bad is it?" The bow craftsman asked.
"We pushed the vanguard back about half a gur. I've not seen such a vast number of them at the same time, not for Fifth Tide. They are more serious than ever, almost desperate." Korben reported. Half a gur or 2500km was quite a lot, although it wasn't a distance that was hard to cover for anyone at their level it was a vast distance for a battlefield at constant combat.
Arti screeched and flapped her wings, disrupting or rather, rushing them.
Korben went there to buy time for one of them to get to the other village to ask for support. That job was passed down to Ebony and Ning Xin.
"Well then, time to revisit the battlefield." Koawe smiled yet again.
The three of them sat tight on Arti with crates of arrows they held down together and they flew off.