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Grueling Battle [Cliffhanger 2 of 5]

And here's the third bonus chapter of the week brought to you by Fabio F. from Brazil. Thank you so much for the support and look forward to the rest of the story next week!

Back when the distance between Lorist and the old man was around 50 meters, the three guards that had stepped forward to intercept him, only to have their throats slashed open with only one stroke, allowing the old man to further close the distance to 30 meters. When the old man's body seemed to fuse with his sword, he closed the remaining distance in a flash with the after-images of his sword filling Lorist's line of vision.

Lorist expression changed immediately. At first, he wasn't too bothered by the appearance of that man. But the instant Lorist felt the pressure as heavy as a mountain emanate from that old man encompass him, Telesti and Reidy, Telesti fainted immediately with a pale look while Reidy fared slightly better and only spat out some blood and retreated three steps.

Lorist drew his sword and rushed forward after saying only, "Bring her away right now!"

Clang! The fearsome clash of the swords shook Lorist's eardrums as he was knocked roughly 10 meters away. He felt a sudden ominous feeling in his chest and staggered, almost falling directly to the ground.

Exhaling thoroughly, Lorist straightened his body and looked at the tall old man as he mused, "A Blademaster?"

That old man himself was stunned that Lorist was able to take one of his sure-kill blows, but that allowed Lorist some time to recover.

"A Blademaster, huh? Let me guess who you are..." Lorist said as he stared at the tall old man. "You can't be Duke Fisablen, a person of high status like him won't resort to underhanded measures like this to assassinate me, and neither does he have a need for that. If he wanted to crush me, he would simply lead his Frontier Legion here and settle it all on the battlefield. Blademaster Xanthi on the other hand is a woman and I've met her before. As for Viscount Kristoph who is a subordinate of Duke Fisablen, he shouldn't look as old as you do and he's also a knight who won't be willing to carry out a dirty assassination...

"Since there are only 5 Blademasters in the Iblia Kingdom, that leaves only the two serving the Second Prince. Since Louinse is already dead, you should be Blademaster Zarinan. Given the Second Prince's temperament, it's not surprising for him to send a Blademaster to dirty his hands with something like assassination. While the other kingdoms and duchies might have Blademasters as well, I doubt that they'd want to assassinate me given that I've no qualm with them. Am I right, Blademaster Zarinan?"

The guards not far away had already been alerted and Els was the first to rush over. But Lorist was worried as he knew that the guards that were at most at the Silver rank definitely wouldn't be a match for that old man. No matter how many guards showed up, they were only as threatening as a flock of chickens to the Blademaster who could kill them with a casual sweep.

Just as Els and a few other Silver ranked guards were about to rush towards the bold old man, Lorist barked his orders to stop them. "Get back! He's Blademaster Zarinan and you're not his match!"

While doing that, Lorist signaled for his subordinates to seek out Josk so that he could pressure the Blademaster with ranged attacks. Even though Josk was only at the Gold rank, his archery skills would still be able to pose a threat to the old man. Otherwise, Lorist's subordinates could also mobilize the carroballistas which even a Blademaster would find hard to fend off en masse.

The observant Els understood Lorist's intentions right away and shouted for his men to stop. As he retreated, he instructed his men to put Lorist's plan into action. Relieved, Lorist inspected his surroundings and saw that Howard had already led his sister Alisa and the other children away from the stream near the hill and was on the way to the Tortoise Hill army camp using a detour. Reidy on the other hand had two maidservants take care of Telesti and sent them away from the zone of conflict using a carriage.

"It is not my wish to cause unnecessary deaths. It was wise of you to stop your men from giving their lives needlessly. Your guess was right, I am Zarinan and I have come on my king's orders to claim your head for him," said the old man all of a sudden as he took big steps in Lorist's direction.

"Is that so? Then let's see if you are able to take my head with you," Lorist said with a cold smile. With both his hands gripping his sword, he had already made his preparations to engage.

"I really didn't expect that you were able to receive my sure-kill blow. It seems that your defeat of my king wasn't a fluke. However, it's a shame. If you won't serve my king, then you shall die!" Jerking his body forward, Zarinan held his sword high. Countless illusory lightning bolts seemed to materialize around his sword and enveloped Lorist from all directions.

While Lorist sounded relaxed before, he wore an incredibly solemn expression. WIth his two hands grasping his sword and ready to guard his body, he proceeded to flick, wipe, parry, block, slash, drag, stab, obstruct, withdraw, sweep, hack and pierce, using the simplest basic sword movements to defend against the torrent of rapid sword strikes of Blademaster Zarinan.

Clangclangclangclangclang... The swords clashed so often that it almost sounded like it was metal was raining heavily from the sky.

From Lorist's dynamic vision, the sword strikes seemed like countless bolts of lightning that increased in intensity with each following wave. At that moment, Lorist seemed to have turned into a reef amidst the roaring sea, almost being submerged completely by the incessant waves.

Compared to Blademaster Xanthi's light and agile attacks, Blademaster Zarinan's sword strikes were both vigorous and heavy despite being as fluid and quick as Blademaster Xanthi's rapid attacks. Lorist only had one word within his mind at that moment: despair. It was as if he was thrust into a world of unlimited blade storms that barraged him with one strike after another nonstop. During that long and grueling time, Lorist could only painstakingly defend.

"Break!" Lorist suddenly roared as he knocked himself and the Blademaster apart. After making some distance quickly, Lorist struggled to stand with a pale, white look on his face and some blood in his mouth. The silver wire mesh armor he wore had a long strike across it that revealed his bloodied black undershirt within.

It was then when Lorist recalled the words of the princess. She said that while Lorist did defeat Blademaster Xanthi, her teacher and godmother, he definitely wasn't a match for her grandfather and wouldn't be able to survive more than 100 strikes from him. Duke Fisablen was a rank 3 Blademaster while Xanthi was only a rank 2. As for Blademaster Zarinan, he was a rank 3 Blademaster just like the duke.

Gosh, the gap between rank 2 and rank 3 Blademasters is really too wide! Even though I was able to keep up with Blademaster Xanthi, I have almost no chance to retaliate against Blademaster Zarinan and was busy defending for my life! When Lorist thought that he had discovered a weakness in the old man's strikes, he decided to land one strike in himself to force the old man backwards, only to discover that the opening had vanished and that he had fell into that old man's trap. Had Lorist not reacted quickly enough to parry with his sword and retreat with all his might, his body might've already been cut in half.

Lorist smiled bitterly and thought, today will definitely be tough... I can only circle around that old man from a distance for now and hope that the carroballista brigade arrives quickly...

"Brilliant swordsmanship! Your moves are not bad and it is definitely hard to imagine that someone at your age is able to fight with such astounding skill. If my master was still alive, he definitely would've taken you as his disciple and spent all his effort cultivating your talent. Perhaps, you might even become a Sword Saint some tens of years later. But it's a shame that you've chosen to go against my king. You will definitely die today!" Zarinan exclaimed before he rushed forward with his sword again.

Lorist retreated one step after another and noticed that the stream was already behind him and there was no way to run. WIth a flash of inspiration, Lorist leaped into the stream directly.

When Zarinan reached the stream, he found that Lorist was already on the opposite bank on the other side of the stream five meters away.

"If you let me kill you obediently, I will make sure that you don't suffer any pain. There's no point in running away since I'll definitely get to you," said the old man as he shook his head, as if he thought that Lorist's final death struggle was irrational and unsightly.

"Oh, is that so, old man? Well why don't you come over here and try then? Even if I were to die, I will make sure to take a nice bite out of you. Don't forget that you couldn't do anything to me either just now, so it's still unclear who will win. Let's see who'll be the victor in the end," Lorist said as he gritted his teeth.

Blademaster Zarinan did not say anything and leaped before landing lightly on a rock that was 3 meters away from Lorist.

With a grunt, Lorist kicked his right leg out and sent some internal energy-infused stones and cobblestones on the bank propelling towards the Blademaster. Right after that, he jumped forward to take the offensive since he wasn't able to do much by defending. At worst, he would take the Blademaster down with him even if it cost him his life.

Zarinan didn't expect that Lorist had that move up his sleeves. While his face was covered by the dust and grime Lorist kicked off, he managed to block half of the stones that were infused with internal energy. But those that he didn't get to deflect hit his body and tore his clothes apart, causing him to feel immense pain. That was especially the case with the few cobblestones that brushed by the old man's face, causing two long, bloody scratches to form.

Without waiting for Zarinan to react, Lorist pounced forward like a tiger and attacked without bothering to defend. His sword strikes seemed to overturn the Milky Way itself as they shot forward unimpeded. It was a double-edged sword style that harmed both him and his opponent, causing the old man to struggle haggardly.

Clangclangclangclangclang... The swords collided with each other rapidly once again.

"Ugh..." It was already Lorist's third time being struck flying and this time, he didn't remain standing and instead crashed right onto the bank of the stream, dyeing the water of the stream red with his blood.

Zarinan on the other hand retreated a few steps back. He wasn't in the best condition as his left arm and right leg both bore wounds from which blood spurted out. But worst was his left cheek which was a complete, bloody mess. Even half his ear was shaved completely off.

After trying hard to stand back up straight, Zarinan felt up his injury on the left part of his face and said in a venomous tone, "Good, good... Nobody has managed to wound me in the past 20 years... I really didn't think that you would able to hurt me for real. Anything that can go wrong truly will go wrong... Kid, I bet you can't move now, right? When I get you, I will definitely make you regret that you were born. I will deal with you ever so slowly that you will cry for mercy to have your life ended in one swift blow..."

Lorist struggled on the ground for a few moments before finally getting up, half-kneeling. His body was covered completely in slash wounds, some of which revealed even the whites of his bones with the blood washed off by the stream water.

"Kill!" A Silver ranked guard with only the thought of saving his lord charged forward with a silver blade glow emanating from his sword. The old man lightly waved his sword and the head of the Silver ranked guard landed into the stream, further coloring the water red with blood.

However, ten other guards rushed forward after the first was killed. These guards had been making their way forward when Lorist was busy attacking Zarinan and they planned to overwhelm the Blademaster with numbers without regard for their own lives. Despite that, within a few moments, around 40 of the guards landed straight into the stream, turning the stream into a bloody river.

These self-sacrificing guards of the family only managed to buy another ten minutes, during which Lorist recovered some energy and managed to stand up. However, it pained Lorist to witness the deaths of those guards. Silver and Iron ranked alike, they all rushed towards Blademaster Zarinan. That was not bravery. It was suicide. Of the company of 100 guards Lorist brought along with him, half of them had already died from Zarinan's blade.

Further off in the distance, an alert horn signal could be heard blowing at the army camp near Tortoise Hill and the regiment of soldiers would be able to arrive within another 30 minutes. But that was time Lorist didn't have.

"Release!" Els commanded loudly. Tens of arrows and crossbow bolts headed in Zarinan's direction as well as a few other thrown axes and javelins.

Unfortunately, Lorist's guard unit wasn't the longbowman unit and they only brought with them a few hunting bows and crossbows that didn't shoot far, failing to effectively suppress Zarinan completely.

Standing on top of a corpse of one of the guards that attacked him at the stream, he deflected the various projectiles headed his way easily with a few waves of his sword as he laughed eerily and said, "Hehe, your family soldiers are rather loyal. Since that's the case, I'll kill them off first before I deal with you..."

Els and the rest were only around 50 meters away from Zarinan and that old man would only take ten minutes to kill off the whole group. By the time the reinforcements coming from afar arrive, Zarinan would've long captured Lorist and fled.

Lorist stood up straight with all his ability and thought, no... I can't let that old man kill Els and the others. I'm already heavily injured and I doubt that I can deal with that crazy old man... Better think of another way, quick.

Looking back at the forest behind him, Lorist feigned laughter and said, "Kill them nice and slow, okay? I'll take my leave first."

Using all the energy he could muster, Lorist rushed straight into the ancient forest behind him.

Zarinan turned back and cursed. Killing those guards was only a small matter to him, but if he were to let Lorist escape, that would pose to be a large problem. If word got out that a rank 3 Blademaster let an Iron ranked dominion lord escape, then what pride or face would he have left? Additionally, this was his first assassination attempt and if Lorist really did manage to get away, Zarinan definitely wouldn't get a second chance at killing him. It was obvious that Lorist would increase his defenses so that the old man would never be able to get near him again. If Lorist chose to mobilize 3000 fully-equipped veteran soldiers to get back at Zarinan, he would have to run and hide for his life even if he was a Blademaster.

Zarinan hurriedly changed his direction and charged like a ghost within a blink of an eye into the forest Lorist had escaped into.

Seeing the old man enter the forest, Els and the other guards slumped to the ground. Despite facing a Blademaster, one that had massacred half their unit at that, the fact that they were able to continue to launch ranged attacks was already an amazing feat. Half of their bravery had come from their long and arduous training to instinctively follow orders while the other half stemmed from the depths of their beliefs that they had to save Lorist no matter what even at the cost of their lives.

After tens of minutes, the carroballista brigade arrived rather late along with Josk, Potterfang and more soldiers.

Reidy hurriedly jumped onto one of the carroballistas and cut off the support of the steel ballista, before planting his sword on the chariot's floor and taking three ballista bolts with him before he rushed straight into the forest.

With a flash in his eyes, Els said, "That's right. Take the steel ballistas off and form small teams of 3 ballistas each before following them into the forest..."

Josk dismounted and tugged on Els harshly before asking, "Where's milord?!"

Els pointed at the forests and said, "Milord has lured that old assassin there. That old man Zarinan is actually a Blademaster and I think he was sent here by the Second Prince. Quick, go look for milord! He seems to be badly injured..."

Josk mounted swiftly and spurred his horse forward as he said, "Depart!", before charging into the forest with his mounted archer brigade without the slightest hesitation...

Bloody Battle [Cliffhanger 3 of 5]

Hi guys! Here's the first regular chapter of the week continuing the cliffhanger from last week! Enjoy!

After Blademaster Zarinan zoomed into the forest, he quickly discovered the footprints and blood tracks left by Lorist. With those as his lead, he believed that his prey wouldn't be able to escape him. Even though he was indeed surprised by the skill in the sword showed by that kid from the Norton Family as well as the weird energy that he used that caused him to gain three extra wounds, Zarinan was sure that his counterattack caused quite a bit of damage to Lorist. Even if those tens of strikes weren't critical, they should be enough to ensure that Lorist no longer has any ability to resist.

All of a sudden, his left cheek pulsed in pain while his left arm and right leg felt a burning sensation near the wounds. Blademaster Zarinan knew that blood had stopped flowing from the wounds only because he used Battle Force to temporarily seal them. But right now, his three wounds started bleeding again.

After cursing venomously, the Blademaster brought out a small, circular, silver box and felt relieved that he had some medicine left. Back then when he departed for the Northlands, even though he didn't think that he'd get injured, he brought along some healing supplies just in case, much to his relief.

Taking off the circular cover, some semi-translucent, green-colored gel could be seen within. Blademaster Zarinan applied some of the gel on his wounds before tearing his undershirt into a few smaller cloth pieces to bandage himself up. He only relaxed after he felt the cooling relief of the gel on his wounds. Very well, Norton kid... When I catch you, I will make you beg for death...

After following the footsteps for another hundred meters, he heard a stream flow not far away and suddenly felt that something was off. Quickly stepping forward past the shrubs to check, he noticed that the trail ended at the edge of the bank of the stream.

This forest was actually near the Azure River, which led straight to the ocean and was located near some hills. So, it wasn't weird for there to be a long stretch of the bank there, where footsteps were harder to spot amidst the scattered stones. That caused Blademaster Zarinan much frustration as he didn't know whether Lorist walked upstream or downstream. But he was certain that Lorist was still nearby and could possibly even be behind the boulder near him.

"Don't let me catch you... Or I'll definitely skin you alive!" roared Blademaster Zarinan angrily. After cursing, he listened intently and hoped that Lorist would be unnerved by his scream and run further away instead of staying put.

But unfortunately for the Blademaster, apart from startling some birds within the forest, his screams did not have any other effect.

"I don't believe that he can get that far away from me just because he entered the forest only a few minutes earlier," Blademaster Zarinan mused. Right now, he could only use his Blademaster senses to search his side of the bank to look for Lorist whom he presumed was hiding nearby.

Blademaster Zarinan had heard about many assassinations back during the time of internal strife within the empire. Most of them happened between the First and Second Princes. It wasn't known which one of them began using such measures first, as both of them did things openly with a chivalrous style and it was weird for them to utilize underhanded assassination methods. But after one incident or another, both of them went all out. Since the First Prince was cruel and insidious with the Second Prince being venomous and cunning, the two of them considered each other to be their biggest rival and were willing to do anything at all for even the smallest advantage and frequently hired lowly mercenaries to carry out their dirty assassinations in hopes that they would be able to wipe their rival out without a huge conflict.

Those years were rather rowdy and most people have lost count how many times the First and Second Princes were involved in assassination attempts. The only thing Blademaster Zarinan knew for sure was that the Second Prince used to send mercenaries on assassination missions with the promise that if they succeeded, they would be able to become true landed nobles and leave their lowly status as mercenaries. However, not a single one of those mercenaries returned alive. Given that the Second Prince had two Blademasters protecting him, the First Prince was also quite cautious for his own well-being.

Bribing the servants and attendants to apply poison for assassinations is one of the most commonly used methods. Blademaster Zarinan remembered very clearly that time when the First Prince got hold of the most beautiful female dancer and sent her to the Second Prince through another noble who attended the Second Prince's banquet. The dancer's soft and gentle movements along with her slender figure caused the Second Prince to be rather excited to the point that he brought her to his chambers before that banquet even ended.

But what the dancer didn't expect was that Blademaster Zarinan was hiding within the Second Prince's chambers even when the two of them were having intercourse. When the Second Prince finally released his pent up desires on the body of the dancer, she believed that the time was right and removed a beast tooth hairclip from her hair. What was worth noting was that the hairclip's blue-colored needle was coated with deadly poison.

Just before the needle pierced the Second Prince's neck, Blademaster Zarinan stepped in and stopped the dancer.

The Second Prince who got out of his bed no longer had his previous gentle expression. The dancer then suffered a horrible fate which included being ravaged by hundreds of ravenous guards for three days and nights. Despite receiving medical care every time she was abused, she still died eventually. The moment news of her death reached the Second Prince, he had the dancer minced into little pieces to be fed to wild dogs.

That was the only assassination attempt that got so close to taking the Second Prince's life. Angered, he began his revenge against the First Prince and the two of them continued to plan one assassination after another, with neither having any success. Later, the mercenaries who were recruited for these missions knew that the chance of success was so low that they didn't bother to participate for the sake of their own lives. Eventually, the two princes had to stop because there wasn't anyone who bothered to carry out the assassinations for them.

But the one who suffered most during the assassination spree of the First and Second Princes was the Third Prince because while the First and Second Princes only had to deal with each other's assassins, the Third Prince was assaulted by killers from both sides because they didn't want the Third Prince to profit from their mutual destruction. And so, the poor Third Prince suffered a spear stab when he was asleep once and even got hit with a poison arrow in the following attempts. Even though he was rescued and attended to in time, he was reduced to only being able to lay resting in his bed weakly.

This time around, it was like the Second Prince returned to those days by sending his only remaining Blademaster to assassinate Lorist. It was apparent that his hate for Lorist was bone-deep. Given his temperament, the Second Prince thought that the sole reason he lost his whole army was due to Lorist. Having been chased out of the Northlands and humiliated so deeply, there was no way he would be able to rest well until Lorist was killed.

The Second Prince believed that as long as Blademaster Zarinan was sent, there was no chance of failure. The Sword Saint of the former Krissen Empire had already fallen 30 or so years ago in the last battle between the empire and the Forde Trade Union. Right now, among the many Blademasters of the kingdoms and duchies, Blademaster Zarinan was the only one who was closest to the level of a Sword Saint and his ability could be described as being on the borderline of the Sword Saint level, with him requiring only a final piece of insight to break through the bottleneck. It was within the realm of possibility for him to ascend to the level of a Sword Saint within as soon as the next ten years.

Apart from a few Gold ranked knights, the Norton Family didn't have any other Blademasters. That's why there was a 90 percent chance for Blademaster Zarinan to succeed retrieving Lorist's head. While the Second Prince was practically insane, he had his own reasons for doing so. First, taking Lorist's head was a form of release for him.

Second, it would be a good show of force for the other dominion lords. Even though he no longer had an army, he still had a Blademaster by his side, so that would cause the other nobles to think twice before they decide to not follow the Second Prince's orders, lest they lose their heads as a result.

As for the vengeance of the Norton Family that would come after the assassination, the Second Prince treated it as nothing more than a joke. He believed that as long as he could maintain his hold on Windbury City, he could simply wait for his father-in-law's reinforcements to defend him from the forces of the Norton Family. If they were to resort to assassination, that would basically amount to suicide as the Second Prince had Blademaster Zarinan by his side, keeping anybody with ill intentions far away from him.

Even if the Norton Family's forces were so strong that they would cause the Second Prince to lose hold of Windbury City, he could still escape to Duke Fisablen's dominion under the protection of Blademaster Zarinan. And if the Norton Family forces give chase, it would be even better because the Second Prince would be able to sit back and watch the forces of the Nortons clash against his father-in-law's. To the Second Prince, it would be ideal if both of them depleted each other's forces so that he would have an opportunity to make a sweeping comeback at their expense.

Blademaster Zarinan also held the same thoughts as the Second Prince and believed that he was only making a simple trip to the Northlands and that taking the head of the Norton Family leader was merely a small feat. He thought that his trip would only take him one short month and treated it like he would a relaxing walk in the park.

Even though the Second Prince was merely his swordsmanship disciple, Blademaster Zarinan had long considered him to be his own son. As the Blademaster was obsessed with researching the way of the sword, he didn't settle down to form a family. Apart from his junior apprentice brother Louinse, the Second Prince who had begun learning swordsmanship from him since the age of eight was one of the few people who were closest to him. Even though the Second Prince developed various ill habits and attitude problems, he still maintained a good degree of respect to Blademaster Zarinan and after spending time with each other over the course of 40 years, the two had already developed a pseudo-parent-child relationship.

But Blademaster Zarinan never would've imagined that the Norton Family leader would be so hard to deal with. Not only has he not succeeded yet, he even suffered three injuries from that kid's strikes that were infused with a weird force. While Lorist himself wasn't faring that well either and even escaped into the forests with a body full of wounds, if Blademaster Zarinan failed to claim his head, then this matter would become a mark of humiliation that would earn him to scorn and ridicule of the others for the rest of his life.

Not far away in the distance, sounds of people shouting and horses neighing could be heard. They were the reinforcements of the Norton Family forces who had begun their search within the forest. Blademaster Zarinan himself did not really mind them. If he were on a flat plain, he might've needed to retreat when faced with thousands of men and horses. But in the dense forest like this, the Norton Family soldiers did not really pose a real threat to him and he could just kill as many that dared to come at him as he can.

However, he still had no idea where Lorist was hiding and wondered if he chose the wrong direction and deliberated whether he should go the other way upstream.

In actuality, the displacement from Lorist to Blademaster Zarinan was only around 30 meters. He wasn't hiding behind the boulders around the bank or the forests. When he arrived at the bank, he saw a hanging vine and quickly climbed down it. After that, he swung himself on top of a branch nearby to make his way as far from the bank as possible. When he felt tired, he sat on the tree branch and rested after he felt that he was safe enough.

As expected, Blademaster Zarinan began searching around the boulders near the forests and bank and focused all his attention on the ground in hopes that he would be able to locate some tracks without bothering to raise his head to check above.

Breathing a relieved breath, Lorist tended to his injuries after he recovered some more energy. When he was escaping, he had temporarily tapped his pressure points to stop the bleeding, but when he climbed up that tree, his wounds started bleeding again. It was a terrible thing to be bleeding within the forest as some magical beasts that have great sense of smell would quickly be able to locate oneself based on the smell of blood. It was even harder to hide from the magical beasts than from the eyes of Blademaster Zarinan.

Lorist on the other hand carried far more healing supplies than the Blademaster did. There was a hidden pouch on his outer robe in which three or four different types of medicinal ointments were kept. The only troublesome thing was that he had to remove his wire mesh armor to access them. In his last clash with the Blademaster, he had received more than ten sword strikes and his wire mesh armor had been torn to shreds with some of the wire even piercing into his flesh.

Lorist gritted his teeth and managed to remove his wire mesh armor with much difficulty, causing his shirt to be stained red by his blood once again. Since his clothes were also wet, Lorist removed them altogether. After that, he tapped a few more of his pressure points again to stop the bleeding and began to apply some medicine before taking out a curved needle and some goat intestine thread from a small silver box. Following that, he broke off a piece of tree branch and bit on it with his teeth and shivered as the searing pain from sewing his injuries shut assailed his mind.

After cleaning his wounds, he wrapped up his injuries and began to sweat profusely. Lorist was also feeling rather light-headed when he retrieved a small silver flask from the pouch of his outer robe which contained some rank 2 recovery medicine and poured two drops of it into his mouth. Following that, he shut his eyes and rested for a bit before feeling refreshed when his body began to regain some energy.

Lorist then put his outer robe back on before wrapping another piece of cloth torn from his under garment on his body. It was then when he heard the sounds of conflict and death coming from the bank of the stream. When Lorist stood up on the branch and looked, he was shocked to see that it had already turned into a bloody battlefield with hundreds of family soldiers and war horses lying dead all over the bank who were defeated by only one enemy, that ghostly Blademaster which seemed to appear out of nowhere before disappearing altogether.

However, Blademaster Zarinan at that moment looked exceedingly haggard with his hair being all messed up and a few more additional wounds that were previously not visible on his body. There was even one arrow stuck onto his back. No matter how many he killed, when faced with waves of Norton Family soldiers who did not fear death, Zarinan himself couldn't afford to let his guard down and had to give it his all to deal with them.

Just now, the soldiers Blademaster Zarinan were fighting were a bunch of mounted longbowmen. The hundred or so arrows that flew his way weren't much of a threat as he even began to slaughter away at the bowmen. But before he managed to kill the bulk of them, a green arrow caused him quite a lot of harm. He initially thought that the green arrow was similar to the others and he used his sword to lightly block it, only to feel the Battle Force infused within the arrow explode all of a sudden, causing his longsword to be knocked away. With tens of arrows still heading his way, he had no choice to dodge, but he was still struck by one arrow on his back nevertheless.

Having fallen into that trap, Blademaster Zarinan's rage rose sky high and he proceeded to seek out the person who had gotten the better of him. It was then when he noticed that the one who fired that green arrow was a Gold ranked marksman and every time he drew his bow, it made the Blademaster feel that a formidable enemy was coming. With much difficulty, Zarinan managed to wound the Gold ranked marksman, but just as he was about to deliver the finishing blow, another Gold ranked knight parried it away and had his subordinates rescue the marksman.

It was only then when Blademaster Zarinan truly understood why the Second Prince's army of 100000 had been crushed utterly by the forces of the Norton Family. The soldiers he faced were so well-trained that he had never seen any like them and they rushed at him courageously without the slightest hesitation. The Gold ranked knight who had received his finishing blow to save the marksman also had pretty solid swordsmanship that allowed him to defend against close to a hundred strikes from Blademaster Zarinan with much difficulty before he was finally struck once.

Despite the two Gold ranked knights' injures, the Norton Family soldiers weren't the slightest intimidated and continued to rush frantically at Blademaster Zarinan. They were even willing to trade their lives for the chance to land the shallowest injury on the Blademaster. A few of the soldiers even gave their lives just to hold the Blademaster in place after abandoning their weapons and hoped that their comrades would avenge their deaths.

After killing more than 300 men, Blademaster Zarinan already lost count. His Battle Force was also slowly running out. Even if he was a rank 3 Blademaster, his Battle Force was still limited in amount and could not be used indefinitely; he could only last longer than the average Gold ranked knight. When faced with the Norton Family soldiers' frantic assault, his Battle Force was drained even more quickly as the armor the soldiers wore required more Battle Force than usual to cut through.

After that, the tens of ballistas that joined the fray caused Blademaster Zarinan even more grief. He never would've expected that the bolts fired by the ballistas would have even more force than the arrow fired by the Gold ranked knight, causing him to suffer two more injuries as a result with one of the bolts brushing against his left arm and the other boring its way through his right calf, leaving a gaping, bleeding hole behind.

The heavily battered Blademaster understood that if he did not make his escape, he would be overwhelmed by the Norton Family soldiers. So, while he still had some Battle Force remaining, he rushed deeper into the forest and headed towards the location where Lorist hid unknowingly.

Blademaster Zarinan resolved himself to give the Norton Family soldiers a good lesson when he recovered some more Battle Force and cursed internally throughout his escape. He then leaped over the shrub that was blocking his way and made his way up one large tree with the last remnants of his Battle Force before sitting limply on the tree branch.

Blademaster Zarinan was rather satisfied with the large tree as it had thick branches and dense foliage. There was no way anyone would be able to locate him from beneath the tree. After that, he looked around to inspect his surroundings, only to see a pair of eyes burning with anger and a sword gleaming with cold light heading his way, accompanied by a vicious scream. "Bastard! Give me your life!"

Executed [Cliffhanger 4 of 5]

Here's the second regular chapter of the week. I'm terribly sorry how long translating this has taken me, but I hope I will be able to make it up with bonus chapters on the weekends. This chapter (and the next) is so long that I couldn't translate it in one sitting. I hope you will be patient with me!

Clang, clang, clang!

"Ugh!" cried the Blademaster as he fell from the tree.

That old guy didn't think that he would actually make his way to where Lorist was hiding. If he still had enough Battle Force, he would've been elated, but right now he deeply regretted his actions instead and felt that he shouldn't have wasted so much time and energy on the Norton Family soldiers, causing him to fall prey to this sudden surprise attack when he was at his most vulnerable.

Despite that, Blademaster Zarinan still managed to react at inhumanly quick reflexes. However, as he had used up his Battle Force, he only managed to deflect three of Lorist's sword strikes before he revealed an opening for the fourth which left a wound on his left chest. The old Blademaster's rich battle experience dictated him to fall off the tree without resisting to avoid having his chest pierced through completely. Otherwise, he would've been nailed to the tree by Lorist's sword.

Thud! Blademaster Zarinan smashed flat onto the ground by the tree.

"Ack!" The old Blademaster coughed out a mouthful of blood and he looked incredibly bloody, especially since his left chest had been pierced quite deeply. Even though he had removed the shaft of the arrow that had planted itself on his back, the arrowhead was still within his body and the fall just now caused the arrowhead to burrow itself even deeper, sending waves of pain that caused the Blademaster to grit his teeth hard.

Raising his head, Blademaster Zarinan stared at Lorist who was still on top of the tree with a sharp gaze and said, "Kid, so you were hiding here and even know an ambushing trick or two... But as long as I don't die, I will definitely get my payback from you..."

Lorist was also breathing raggedly while he clutched the tree trunk and leaned his body on it. The attacks he launched just now had tugged onto his wounds and caused him to sweat profusely from the pain. Seeing Blademaster Zarinan below the tree, Lorist's mind filled with rage as he said the following with a cold, icy tone filled with killing intent, "You think you'll get away alive? Dream on! You will die today no matter what. Come haunt me as a ghost if you want your payback so much..."

Darn it all. All the way from Morante City to the Northlands, I've never suffered anything as bad as this! My injuries aside, the family forces also got so many casualties, Lorist thought as he recalled the corpses of the hundreds of soldiers who sacrificed themselves littered all over the stream, causing anger to flare in his mind once again. Given that the Blademaster was at the brink of death, Lorist felt that it was time for him to end it right that instant.

Just as he was about to leap downwards from the tree, the sounds of Norton soldiers searching the forest could be heard in the distance, causing Blademaster Zarinan who was on the ground to quickly roll and crawl away from Lorist's leaping range. After standing back up, he said coldly, "I'll spare you for now, kid... Catch you later..."

After saying that, he stumbled his way deeper into the forest and tried desperately to make his way out regardless of the thorny shrubs that nicked away at his skin.

"Good Sol! Aren't you a fucking Blademaster?! You're even willing to ditch your pride to escape?!" shouted Lorist from the top of the tree.

But Blademaster Zarinan didn't pay him any regard and continued to make his way forward while shielding his head.

Having no other choice, Lorist jumped down from the tree and rushed towards the Blademaster, ignoring his injuries. If he had waited for his soldiers to come first, it might allow the Blademaster to escape. He figured that it was best if he ended the Blademaster while he could lest his family suffers even more harm later on. The old Blademaster had to die!

After tens of minutes, Reidy came over with tens of other guards who brought along with them four steel ballistas. Apart from Reidy, who was blessed with extraordinary strength that allowed him to carry one ballista by himself, the rest of the guards had to carry each ballista with one person holding the front and another at the back, with the third ready to load and fire at a moment's notice.

It didn't take long for the guards to identify the footprints and blood trail left on the ground and a few of them climbed up the tree to find the wire mesh armor Lorist discarded, a few scraps of cloth and a silver medicine box that was completely empty.

"Milord is still fine," Reidy said, glad and reassured. "This silver box is the one our lord carries around in his hidden pouch for use in emergencies. It seems that he has managed to treat some of his wounds. Let's continue our search and see if we can find any more clues."

"Over here. There are tracks here left by two people who passed through not long ago." Without delay, one of the guards who used to be a hunter found the trail left behind by the two. "Look, cloth scraps of different types can be found on the twigs. It seems that they've passed through the shrubs and are headed in the direction of the wildlands..."

"One of you shall inform Sir Els about this. The rest shall go along with me to follow the trail," Reidy decided.

The sky was darkening gradually and Lorist didn't know how long he had been chasing behind the Blademaster's nor how many mounds or streams they passed through. His chest felt as if it was on fire as he struggled to take in one breath after another. The Blademaster in front of him also began to slow down and was only barely stumbling forward.

"Old... Old man... Did you freaking... Dope yourself with some kind of drug? You're... you're still able to run so far..." Lorist muttered as he struggled to keep up.

Not far away from him, a stream could be seen. Blademaster Zarinan rushed towards it immediately and dipped his head right inside, anxiously taking in one mouthful of fresh water after another.

Lorist also followed suit and stopped at the bank around 10 meters away from the Blademaster and began drinking away. The cool and refreshing water seemed to put out the burning feeling within his chest. After filling himself up with all the water he needed, Lorist looked at the Blademaster and cackled as he said, "Run, old guy... Continue running. Aren't you supposed to be good at that?"

Even though Zarinan wanted to get up, he found that he had not a single shred of energy left. After trying for a few times, he realized that he wasn't able to move and said, "Ki-kid... Don't be so full of yourself... I... I bet you can't move anymore either... J-just wait until I recover some Battle Force... I'll sh-show you..."

Lorist tried hard to sit straight and thrust his sword into the ground to stabilize himself before saying, "Alright. then let's see wh-who's able to recover faster... and who will be the fi-first to die..."

Blademaster Zarinan stopped talking altogether as if he wanted to save the slightest bit of energy that the act would cost him. And so, the area around the stream returned to its former tranquility.

Lorist also stopped talking as he had already begun to calm his breathing so that he may recover his energy sooner.

Time ticked by slowly and after a few moments, Lorist stood up and retrieved the sword he thrust into the ground before heading towards the Blademaster who laid sprawling by the bank of the stream.

When he was around 6 meters away from his nemesis, just as he was about to rush in, Lorist's expression changed suddenly and he began to retreat cautiously.

A gigantic, beige-colored python could be seen within the stream, slowly swimming towards Blademaster Zarinan.

Seeing Zarinan in front of it, the python prepared itself to land a savage bite. Perhaps, it considered Zarinan as a free meal that the heavens had gifted it with; an unmoving prey, just like a sheep with its legs broken so that couldn't escape and could only be swallowed whole while still conscious...

A gold flash of blade glow flared, after which the python's head got split into countless pieces. Blademaster Zarinan had already stood up. As his glowing sword cut the gigantic python into shreds, the blood spurting from its body colored the whole Blademaster blood-red.

At that moment, Blademaster Zarinan was incredibly frantic as the Battle Force he had spent so long to save up had been wasted on the gigantic python. He had originally intended to give Lorist a surprise attack the moment they were close enough.

But Lorist had already leaped forward. After seeing the old man having enough energy to cut the gigantic python apart, he understood that his energy recovered at a rate slower than that of the old Blademaster's. Had it not been for the 'brave' python that sacrificed itself, Lorist might really have fallen into the Blademaster's trap. But since the latter's Battle Force had obviously been used up on the python, Lorist hesitated no more.

Clangclangclangclangclang...

The crescendo of clashing swords built up slowly once again. But this time around. the one who was knocked flying was Blademaster Zarinan. While the two extra shallow cuts he got wasn't of much consequence, he was sent flying by Lorist's vicious kick and landed on the ground before curling up like a cooked, red lobster while coughing out blood nonstop.

Lorist held his sword with both hands and propped himself up with it as to not fall down. The previous flurry of attacks had completely burned him out and it was already fortunate that he didn't collapse right away. With sweat flowing all over his body carrying traces of blood and a few reopened wounds, searing pain began to assail Lorist's senses.

Blademaster Zarinan struggled to get up before making his way towards the forest in the distance at a staggeringly slow pace while coughing out blood. Lorist was already using the last remnants of his energy to control his breathing; he couldn't even move a single finger and could only look at the figure of the old man fade into the forest.

By the time Lorist recovered enough to move, he followed the blood trail into the forest. The sky had completely darkened by then and the growls of beasts could be heard not far away. What Lorist had to do now was not to find the Blademaster, but rather to find a spot for himself to spend the night safely.

He eventually encountered a large tree and climbed up on it. The tree trunk was so thick that would require more than 10 people linking hands to be able to circle it completely, and that was just what Lorist needed. Knocking onto the surface of the trunk with the hilt of his sword, he heard an echo which indicated that the insides of the trunk was almost hollow. Infusing some internal energy into his sword, Lorist pierced it into the tree and cut out an oval shape with his other hand clutching the bark before pulling it apart, revealing an empty hole within.

This was one of the survival skills Lorist learned back in the days he worked as a mercenary in Morante City. Usually, trees of that size would have holes of differing sizes within which could be used as a temporary shelter. The hole within that tree wasn't too big, but it was just enough to fit Lorist within. After climbing inside, he made two breathing holes on the bark piece he was holding before carefully closing it back and blocking the makeshift door with his sword. That way, the bark door wouldn't fall outside the tree to the ground.

Within the darkness, Lorist felt deathly tired. But he understood that there was no way that Blademaster Zarinan would lose his life in the forest that easily. He knew that he had to end the old man's life once and for all when he was at his weakest. After I take care of the Blademaster, I will definitely go to the Second Prince and to him my 'thanks'...

Lorist then sat down cross-legged to begin activating the Aquametal Technique by circulating his internal energy despite the pain it caused him. Only by doing that could he recover enough strength and internal energy by dawn to seek out the Blademaster.

The forest at night was a rather noisy place with roars and growls of beasts all over. Sounds of knocking and scratching could frequently be heard from beyond the tree bark door. However, the spot Lorist found was rather special as it was above the 1.5-meter mark of the tree trunk. While that was not an obstacle at all to humans, it was definitely inaccessible to four-legged magical beasts.

When Lorist saw the sunlight seeping through the seams at the entrance of the hole, he knew that dawn had come. After a night of circulating his energy, the internal energy in his dantian had recovered up to a third of its full capacity. Feeling assured that he felt no presences outside, Lorist pushed away the bark door and made his way out of the hole.

I definitely have to find that old Blademaster and kill him today, Lorist pledged to himself.

The beasts that crossed the forest during the night had long messed up the tracks the Blademaster left behind. Lorist could only use his senses and intuition to continue his search.

Meanwhile, Reidy looked at 4 dead guards while shaking his head in futility. During the night, they set up camp on top of a mound and were attacked by many magical beasts that came without pause. Even though they managed to fend them off in the end, they still suffered heavy casualties as a result.

Looking at the four remaining unharmed guards, Reidy said, "You guys, bring the injured and the dead back first. I will go look for milord myself. Don't worry, I grew up in the wilds and it's easier for me to travel alone. I will leave some tracks for you to follow when you're done."

...

Currently, Lorist had just found Blademaster Zarinan, who didn't make it far during the night. The old Blademaster had also hid atop a tree throughout the night, but he didn't crawl into a hollow one like Lorist did and instead climbed all the way to the top and cut off the tallest branch and carved a spot for himself to lay within.

The difference between his experience the night before and Lorist's was that he was continuously harassed by magical beasts. From time to time, magical pythons and different kinds of magical panthers would launch attacks on him, with many other carnivorous magical beasts waiting beneath the tree as they chewed away at the beast flesh chunks cut off by the Blademaster. That was why Lorist was so easily able to spot Blademaster Zarinan who was perched at the very top of the tree from rather far away.

As if he had a premonition, Blademaster Zarinan turned to look at Lorist from the distance. Even though he had been bothered by magical beasts throughout the night, given his abilities as a Blademaster, he had still managed to recover up to half of his Battle Force. Seeing Lorist appear before him even though he didn't explicitly conduct a search the Blademaster roared before he jumped from the tree he was on to the next tree in Lorist's direction.

Lorist quickly drew his sword and awaited the clash. Both of them understood that if they wanted to take each other's life, it had to be done on this very day. If they let each other go, there might be little to no chance for them to have another encounter in the future. Blademaster Zarinan only cared single-mindedly about bringing Lorist's head back with him because he wanted to release his frustration and humiliation from being injured by Lorist so badly and to fulfill the mission given to him by the Second Prince. Lorist on the other hand only wanted to kill the Blademaster for a simple reason: he had to avenge the hundreds of heroic soldiers who had sacrificed themselves, and what better time to do it than right now, when the Blademaster was gravely injured?

Clangclangclangclangclang...

During this clash, the one who was forced to retreat backwards was Lorist. It was a shock to him that the Blademaster managed to regain so much vigor within only one night, as if the wound to his left chest and left arm, the hole in his right calf and the arrow wound on his back didn't affect him at all after he bandaged them up for a bit, forcing Lorist to struggle bitterly to defend.

"Good Sol, even though you're already almost 80, you cursed old man, how are you able to recover faster than me?" Lorist barked, not understanding what was happening.

"Hehe, kid, did you think that people call me a quasi-Sword Saint for nothing? I only need to take one more step to actually become a Sword Saint. To think that you would be so dumb to seek me out only to have your life ended here..." Zarinan said gleefully while he took one step forward after another.

"Graawr!" Behind Lorist, a Savage Magical Bear around 4 meters tall appeared and waved both its paws in a slashing motion towards Lorist.

Still able to retain his calm, Lorist quickly fell flat on the ground before kicking his legs and pushing himself backwards through the two hind legs of the upright-standing bear.

"Ugh, it stinks..." Having whoosh through the bottom of the magical bear, Lorist almost felt like vomiting from the stench. But right now, he couldn't be bothered to care about such things and pushed himself up from the ground with both his hands and sending his legs kicking against the bear's back, sending it stumbling forward towards Blademaster Zarinan.

The old man who was elated just before after seeing that Lorist was about to be crushed by the bear's paws was shocked to see the it coming in his direction. But as he was not as agile as Lorist, he was forced to deal with the bear first.

After expending lots of effort, the Blademaster cut the bear into pieces. But before he managed to catch his breath, he saw Lorist stare at him with a sly smile. Without saying anything else, Blademaster Zarinan turned to run immediately.

"Good Sol, is that what a quasi-Sword Saint should be doing?" Lorist complained as he began to give chase.

Now that he had a chance, Lorist immediately grasped it. As the old man's right leg was injured, it was hard for him to dodge and evade the bear, so he could only waste his Battle Force to take it down. Lorist believed that he only had to strike the old man from a distance before retreating repeatedly to take the old man down.

Even though the Blademaster only had one leg to give him the push, he was still able to move relatively fast and Lorist still wasn't able to catch up to him despite that. Thus they ran all the way to a cliff below which a jade-green river could be seen.

"Well, keep running! Oh, wait, you've made your way into a dead end, didn't you?!" Lorist said as he gasped for air after the tiring chase.

The old man was also breathing raggedly, but he revealed a ghastly smile and said, "Hehe, did you... really think I was trying to run?! This... this spot is a good one... Over here, you won't be able to circle me around... and strike me before shrinking back repeatedly... I finally found the ideal place after so much effort! Kid, this is where your life ends!"

Even before he finished, the old man sent himself flying towards Lorist.

Clangclangclangclangclang...

This time around, their positions were reversed and Blademaster Zarinan was gradually forcing Lorist towards the edge of the cliff. In a few more steps, Lorist would fall all the way down to the river below.

"Hehe, kid, there's no doubt that this will be your end... I..." All of a sudden, the old Blademaster froze as his sword fell from his hand towards the ground. An iron ballista bolt had pierced through his stomach at that moment, leaving behind a large, gaping hole.

"Milord, milord..." Reidy cried as he hurriedly rushed forward to support Lorist who was about to collapse at any moment.

Letting out a breath of relief, Lorist slumped into Reidy's arms. Just as he was about to say something, his expression changed all of a sudden as Blademaster Zarinan whom he thought was dead jumped towards the both of them while crying out, "Let's all die together!"

Both the palms of the Blademaster struck Reidy's back, sending him flying towards the edge of the cliff with Lorist in his arms. In a desperate move, Lorist hurriedly raised his sword and pierced it through the old man's heart, but it was already too late as he was dragged down the cliff in Reidy's embrace...

Enslaved [Cliffhanger 5 of 5]

Hi guys, I know it's late, but here it is! The first bonus chapter of the week is brought to you by Pierre B. from Germany, Jakub D. from Poland and Aaron T. from the USA! Thank you for your support!

There will also be another release today in plus minus an hour. Stay tuned!

One guard rushed into the tent hurriedly with a grim look on his face. "Sir, we followed the trail Sir Reidy left us and arrived at the edge of a cliff where we found the steel ballista he left behind, the Blademaster's corpse and Milord Lorist's sword. But milord and Sir Reidy were nowhere to be found! The marks left on the edge of the cliff seem to indicate that they've both fallen into the river below..."

The four Gold ranked knights within the tent, Fiercetiger Loze, Malek, Belnick and Freiyar, all stood up and said in unison, "Bring us there!"

The nearby area around the cliff had long been searched thoroughly by the guards and when the four Gold ranked knights arrived, they were greeted by the sight of Els, Yuriy, Jim and a few other Silver ranked knights looking at the flowing river beyond the cliff.

"So this is that Blademaster? Milord said he was called Zarinan... Was he sent here by the Second Prince?" Loze said as he inspected the corpse on the ground.

"That's right, Knight Josk and Knight Potterfang had both been injured quite severely by him. The family forces also lost more than 400 good men because of him, among which 11 were family knights," Els said as he approached with a grim expression.

"Did you not locate any trace of our lord?" Malek asked.

"No... He must've fallen straight into the river. This river flows inland towards the wildlands and connects to the Azure River over there. I've already sent someone over to search." Els said.

"We must definitely find our lord. Have the other search parties come here and make sure to search both sides of the banks of this river carefully. I shall take the lead, so you guys can send this corpse back first and look after it. We'll deal with it after milord returns," Belnick decided grudgingly.

...

Lorist was currently experiencing a fever and he only managed to regain consciousness for a bit only to barely hear some people say, "Woke up... This guy... incredibly lucky... Fell straight into the... Tell the young mountain chief..."

Feeling someone place a cool water sack at his mouth, he took in large gulps of the liquid within before losing consciousness.

The next time he regained consciousness, he realized that he was within a large cloth sack which was being shaken around really hard. Lorist realized that his whole body hurt so much that he almost felt numb from the pain. The insides of the sack was filled with the stench of blood and sweat that caused Lorist to feel like vomiting, but he couldn't even if he wanted to. His head hurt so much that it felt to him like it was about to explode while he kept on sweating. Even though he wanted to cry out, he couldn't do so as his throat felt inflamed and painful with his lips so dry that it cracked. His whole body was also bereft of energy.

The cloth sack continued to shake indefinitely and before long, Lorist realized that the people who were transporting him seemed to be in a rush and believed that he had been stuffed into a sack and hung to the side of a horse, just like how the merchants hung loads on both sides of workhorses. As the shaking continued, Lorist fainted once again.

The next moment Lorist opened his eyes, he was no longer within the large cloth sack and could see the star-filled night sky above him. The chatter of people and horses could be heard nearby and it seemed that they had stopped at some kind of resting stop. Lorist found that he was tossed amidst a pile of grass and left there just like that. But he couldn't move a single muscle, not even being able to raise his head, and could only stare at the night sky quietly while laying sprawled on the ground.

This doesn't seem good, I think I've fallen into the hands of the mountain barbarians, Lorist hypothesized after hearing the noise around him. But what made him curious was why he was rescued and taken away. According to his understanding on mountain barbarian culture and behavior, when the barbarians met a heavily-injured person in the wilds, they would usually kill that person to end the suffering, or rob that person and leave without doing anything else, instead of wasting effort and resources to save that person.

He also wondered where Reidy, who had fallen off the cliff with him, had gone. Was he similarly rescued by the barbarians? If so, where would he be now? Lorist could barely remember that he was fed some kind of bitter medicine when he was still half-conscious. While the medicine did seem to treat some of his injuries, it made him completely weak and powerless with his dantian being completely empty without a single shred of internal energy within. Right now, Lorist was even weaker than the common person and couldn't kill a chicken even if he wanted to.

For now, he could only lie unmoving. Even though he wanted to activate his technique to recover some internal energy, he found that he wasn't able to do so as his body didn't react at all and only let out a bunch of sweat.

Sounds of giggling approached from the distance as two male and female barbarians approached Lorist. Perhaps they found the place to be nice as it was quiet and sheltered. Not long after, the male barbarian began to make his move, but the female barbarian said something that Lorist wasn't able to hear. But he was able to hear clearly the male barbarian's reply, "That one is gonna die soon, he can't do anything. We don't need to care. Come on..."

Even though the female barbarian wanted to push him away, she was pressed to the ground by the male barbarian and the humping soon ensued.

Lorist smiled bitterly as he couldn't even turn his head to look even if he wanted to. That was what the male barbarian meant when he said that Lorist was on the brink of death. The two continued their 'vigorous exercise' and they had already switched to another position, with the male barbarian having his mate get on all fours with her backside raised. Incidentally, the female barbarian faced Lorist and saw his opened eyes when she raised her head.

"He's awake, he's awake... I have to tell the young mountain chief," said the female barbarian before she pushed the male barbarian away and ran off into the darkness. The male barbarian remained in his ready-to-thrust position for a few moments before looking at Lorist and cursing savagely when he left.

After a while, Lorist was surrounded by a bunch of people whose faces were painted with various patterns, causing Lorist to recall a documentary he watched in his previous life about a few explorers who made their way into a cannibal settlement within a forest. There was a shot where the primitive people gathered around the camera and it was exactly like the scene he saw before him, as if he had become a meat dish ready to be served.

Do the mountain barbarians eat people? Lorist wondered as he tried to recall everything he knew about the barbarians. It was said that during the winter seasons, if the mountain barbarians lacked food, they would cook up the people who starved to death and consume them for sustenance. Given that winter was already on the way, were the barbarians going to bring Lorist back as reserve food?

At the very least, Lorist felt that it was fortunate that he wasn't about to be eaten by the primitive, hairy-looking cavemen as they were often depicted in media of his past life, but mountain barbarians who differed little in appearance to himself. Those barbarians also seemed to be more cultured than those he saw in documentaries in that they would season their food as they were cooking it, unlike the cavemen who probably didn't even know about washing their food before tossing it into a cooking pot.

Lorist shut his eyes and ignored the incessant chattering of the barbarians. Even though they also spoke the same common Grindian Language, after a millennia of living in isolation within the mountains and forests, their language evolved in their own way and included much vocabulary specific to their weird barbarian dialects. Coupled with the slightly different intonation and pronunciation they used, it almost hurt Lorist's head to listen to so many of them speak at once.

All of a sudden, the voices quieted down and Lorist opened his eyes curiously, only to see that the heads that gathered around his face had dispersed with only a young female mountain barbarian within his line of sight. She had a head of long, brown hair with a shiny, golden tiara on her head. Had it not been for the three streaks of painted tiger stripes that covered her face, she would've been considered quite the beauty based on her facial features.

The female barbarian stared at Lorist for a while before asking whether he could already talk.

Another bushy-haired barbarian appeared beside her and it was unclear whether that person was male or female. That person began to feel Lorist up and took out a stick on which some disgustingly sticky substance was stuck and poked on Lorist mouth with it. After being carefully inspected, Lorist was almost choked to death from the stinky breaths of that barbarian.

Before long, the barbarian raised his or her head and said roughly that Lorist wasn't beyond saving and mentioned that the reason he couldn't move right now was because of the side effect the medicine they fed him, and that it would wear off naturally after a while.

The crowned barbarian woman looked rather happy to hear that and instructed them to save Lorist's life. Before leaving, she looked at him and said, "This is my first flatlander prisoner who has an important position... I will bring him back for daddy to see..."

The things that happened soon after caused Lorist to feel extremely embarrassed and angered. After the crowned woman left, five to six female barbarians beside him stripped him naked. One of them was surprised when she saw Lorist's flaccid member and pointed at it with her finger while saying something that basically amounted to, 'If his member is already so big while soft, then wouldn't it be quite impressive if hardened?' And so the few barbarian women crowded around Lorist's lower body and prodded his junk from time to time.

Lorist was so embarrassed that he wanted to die. Fortunately, his junior didn't react as Lorist himself didn't have any shred of energy left. Otherwise, he was sure that he would be group raped by the barbarian women. The one who got Lorist out of his predicament was the bushy-haired barbarian from before, saying something that caused the barbarian women to leave him alone, but not before they each grabbed his member one last time before leaving, angering Lorist so badly that he almost fainted.

After that, the bushy-haired barbarian got a huge basin filled with a greenish-black paste and proceeded to apply it all over Lorist's body, with extra layers padded onto Lorist's injuries, before feeding Lorist a bottle of sticky, bad-smelling, black-colored medicine, causing Lorist to faint from all his built up anger.

The next time he awoke, he felt his whole body hurt and itch as if he had been encased in concrete. The soreness, numbness and pain he felt in his wounds were especially unbearable. Even though he wanted to scratch them, he wasn't able to as he was still so weak that he was unable to move.

At that moment, a female barbarian with thick lips appeared beside him and her face was full of circular, black tattoos. Seeing Lorist wake up, she fed him a large bowl of meat soup. Not long after finishing the soup, Lorist felt his stomach hurt badly. In the end, he could no longer hold it in and emptied the contents within his stomach while lying down.

As if she knew that Lorist would have that reaction after drinking the soup, the thick-lipped woman had made sure to stand far away before it all happened. When Lorist finally stopped, she called two male barbarians to bring Lorist to the side of a stream and they placed him on the cobblestone bank before washing his body clean.

Even though the cold water made Lorist shiver quite badly, he couldn't move at all and was at the mercy of the thick-lipped female barbarian. When he was finally washed clean, the barbarian woman wiped his body all over with some kind of beastskin before letting him dry under the sun while she began toying with Lorist member, causing him to wish for death to spare him from the embarrassment.

As the thick-lipped barbarian played around with Lorist's thing, she even mocked the other two male barbarians, saying that their manhood wasn't nearly as big as Lorist's, causing the two of them to feel rather dissatisfied and begin lifting their beastskin kilts to compare their manhoods with Loirst's. After a while, the thick-lipped woman finally let go of Lorist's member and began comparing those of the other two men with her hands and gradually engaged in a bout of pleasurable intercourse with the men.

When they finally finished, the two men brought Lorist back to their camp and tossed him into a dark tent. The bushy-haired barbarian once again appeared before Lorist and prodded his body for a bit before nodding with satisfaction. But this time, the barbarian didn't apply the green mud from before and only fed Lorist a bowl of bitter medicine before leaving.

In the middle of the night, Lorist woke up all of a sudden and realized with surprise that energy had returned to his body and he could sit up normally again. His throat no longer hurt and he tried clearing it and realized that he could speak. Even though Lorist was completely undressed, his body was covered by a strong-smelling beastskin. With his stomach rumbling in hunger, he tried to get up but found that his legs were still far too weak.

Lorist then tried to stand up by using his arms to hold onto the support of the tent, but the unexpectedly brittle support cracked and snapped before he could react and the whole tent collapsed with Lorist under it.

A pair of hands soon raised the tent above Lorist and he realized that it was the thick-lipped woman from before. Barely able to sit up properly, Lorist said, "Thank you. Do you have something to eat? Also, my clothes..."

The thick-lipped woman stared at Lorist for a while before leaving and returning with a huge basin that contained a big piece of roasted meat along with four palm-sized, black-colored biscuits as well as a flask with clean water.

Lorist wolfed down his food and quickly finished it within moments. Even the flask of water was drunk completely without a single drop remaining. However, he was still troubled as his clothes still weren't there...

And so, Lorist turned to the thick-lipped barbarian woman and said, "Clothes, my clothes..."

But that woman didn't move a single finger in response.

Thinking that she probably didn't understand the word 'clothes', Lorist tried to mime it with his hands, only to accidentally have the beastskin covering him slide off. The thick-lipped woman's eyes flashed all of a sudden and she stared at Lorist with a hungry look.

This reminded Lorist of the scene when she toyed with her manhood not so long ago. Already panicking, he clutched the beastskin tightly before retreating into a corner like a helpless little girl.

Fortunately, the sky was brightening by the moment, causing the thick-lipped woman to leave. Not long after, two male barbarians wearing beastskin kilts came to Lorist and signalled for him to follow them.

When the beastskin-covered Lorist was brought outside a large beastskin tent, he found that many other barbarian women came over to see him and whispered that the flatlander that was Lorist was awake and could already stand up.

After waiting for a while, he was brought into the tent and sitting within the middle of it was the gold-crowned woman with tiger stripe facepaint. Before her was a small wooden table on which Lorist's outfit and pants were placed.

"Who are you? What's your name? Where are you from?" asked the barbarian woman with a weird dialect of the Grindian Common Language.

Lorist narrowed his eyes and saw that she was toying around with his Gold ranked instructor badge that he had put on back then as he reminisced his glorious days at the Dawn Academy when he was showing Telesti his academy badge collection to give her some inspiration in designing the emblem for her academy. It was at that point when the cursed Blademaster Zarinan launched his assassination, causing Lorist so much trouble that he had no time to even remove his badges.

"I pay my respects to you, beautiful lady. I am called Locke and I come from the Dawn Academy of Morante City. I am a Gold ranked instructor for that academy," Lorist greeted the woman politely.

"Are you not from the Mordon Family?" asked the crowned woman.

After some deliberation, Lorist realized that she was referring to the Norton Family. But her weird pronunciation caused it to sound like 'Mordon' to Lorist.

"No, no," Lorist said hurriedly as he shook his head. If he had messed up his reply, he was certain that his head would soon end up upon a stake at the barricades outside. After all, the Norton Family had nursed a grudge with the mountain barbarians for more than 200 years.

"Respected lady, take a look at the badges on my clothes. The silver one is the emblem of the Dawn Academy and the gold one represents my status as a Gold ranked instructor there," Lorist replied with a straight face. It's not like he was lying. After all, what he said was technically true a few years ago.

"I guess you aren't lying. The people from the Mordon Family wear no such badges and you do look like someone from an academy. But what does a Gold ranked instructor do? Why have you come to the Northlands and why are you so badly injured?" questioned the crowned barbarian woman.

Thus, Lorist began to tell the tale he spun up. "Respected lady, I am a Gold ranked instructor from the Dawn Academy and I have come here because I've received the invitation from the Norton Family to help them design a castle. I ended up injured like this because I encountered with someone who bears a grudge against me. Initially, I accepted the Norton Family's invitation so that I could avoid my enemy, but who knew that he would chase me all the way here and I kept running away to no avail. Fortunately, I was saved by you, respected lady. Please accept my gratitude. I will definitely return the favor in the future..."

"I don't need your thanks or your favor, and I'm no respected lady. I am the mountain chief of Whitesnow Mountain. Since I've saved you, your life now belongs to me. From now on, you're my slave, understand?" said the crowned barbarian coldly before raising her head to signal for her servants.

Two huge barbarian men came over from the side and restrained Lorist before putting a thick collar around his neck that was connected to a long chain.

Already despairing, Lorist said, "Then, may I have my clothes back..."

Whap! A whip struck Lorist's back harshly, sending waves of pain down his nerves. One of the men yelled, "Darned pig, you shall address her as master!"

After giving it some thought, the crowned barbarian woman tossed Lorist his clothes and said, "You can have them. But these two badges, I will keep..."

Mortification

Hi guys. This chapter is NSFW and potentially triggering, you have been warned. I have also translated an author's note found in chapter 210 and posted it at the bottom of this chapter early because I feel that it is important for you to read it to understand why this arc has to happen.

On a side note, this second bonus chapter of the week is brought to you by Aaron T. and Alan W. from the USA! Happy reading.

At that moment, Lorist felt like he was within hell on earth. The mortifying humiliation he was receiving was enough to make him wish for suicide.

Being a slave was not a big deal in itself and the humiliation that came with it was still something that he could tough through. Additionally, when the gold tiara-wearing woman who called herself the chief of Whitesnow Mountain returned his clothes, Lorist was surprised to find that the medicine and ointments kept within the hidden pouch of his outer robe was still there. That robe of his also contained many useful tools which the barbarians didn't discover.

It wasn't that the barbarians were careless. Lorist's robe was basically a cloak with two long sleeves by the side and it was easy to see that its two outer pockets were empty. Additionally, it was also strengthened for defense and that was rather common, with metal plates or thick leather patches being appended onto the shoulder parts being the norm. That's why the weight of the robe wasn't an indicator that it contained anything else and after the barbarians checked the two outer pockets, they made no more attempt to look deeper.

Originally, Lorist had planned to endure being a slave temporarily and wait until he was left alone to treat his injuries and activate his technique to recover some internal energy. After that, he would be unstoppable and the party of hundreds of mountain barbarians wouldn't be able to prevent him from leaving for home.

While he was a slave, as he had just recovered from a grave condition as well as the fact that he was the first person of status captured by the female chief of Whitesnow Mountain, those other barbarians didn't treat Lorist badly and only tied his collar chain to a wooden post outside the main tent. It was worth mentioning that two other huge wolfdogs that were also chained to that wooden post.

For some reason, these two wolfdogs displayed keen interest in Lorist, licking and sniffing him from time to time. He later realized that those were not signs of friendliness as he noticed that the wolfdogs looked at him with the same look they gave the bloody bony meats the barbarians fed them. At that time, Lorist understood the true meaning of the phrase 'a tiger that leaves its mountain gets bullied by the dogs' quite literally.

In the evening, the thick-lipped barbarian woman came over and brought Lorist to the riverside before giving him a piece of linen cloth, indicating for him to wipe himself clean. Having been licked all over during the day by the wolfdogs, Lorist ignored the stares of the barbarian woman as he stripped naked and jumped straight into the river to wash himself thoroughly.

After he finished bathing, he was brought into a small tent by the barbarian woman and served a huge piece of roasted meat, three biscuits and a huge bowl of meat soup. When Lorist finished all his food, the woman cleaned up after him and brought him back to the tent's entrance.

That night, the barbarians threw a bonfire party with the main attraction being the bushy-haired barbarian who danced and sung around the fire alone, mumbling something unintelligibly for almost half an hour, causing Lorist to be impressed with that barbarian's stamina. In the end, the barbarian tossed a pinch of shiny powder into the fire, causing it to suddenly burst outward and let out lots of sparks. The barbarians that witnessed the show intently cheered out right away before singing and dancing around the fire freely.

It was then when Lorist realized that the women in the barbarian party far outnumbered the men, with each male barbarian having at least two women dancing beside him. Frequently, some of the barbarians disappeared from the dancing grounds before a repetitive thumping sound could be heard behind some bushes.

As the people dispersed, the thick-lipped barbarian woman came over and brought Lorist into the tent. She pointed at a pile of grass and instructed him to sleep coldly before leaving.

Finally being left alone to his own devices, Lorist was elated. If he could activate the Aquametal Technique to recover some internal energy and consume two drops of rank 2 medicine, his days of freedom would be guaranteed.

Patience... I must wait for a little longer... Finally, no sound could be heard outside. Lorist then sat up cross-legged and got into position. Just as he was about to begin circulating a major cycle, the tent flaps flipped open and through the candlelight, Lorist could see the face of the thick-lipped barbarian. She entered the tent, stripped herself bare before she headed towards Lorist.

Terrified, Lorist said, "What are you going to do..."

The thick-lipped barbarian said with a threatening voice, "To do you...", before leaping straight for Lorist.

Even though he tried to resist, he didn't expect that the thick-lipped woman would train in Battle Force, allowing her to easily suppress all his attempts at retaliation. Lorist was then stripped bare and both his hands were tied up using the chain on his collar. She dragged him to a nearby tree and fastened the chain before suppressing both Lorist's legs with her hands and proceeded to use her mouth to take in Lorist's member. With only but a few sucks, Lorist's manhood stood hard as steel against his own desires.

After that, she gripped onto his meatstick, positioned it against her privates before sitting herself down while letting out a moan of pleasure.

Lorist incredibly frustrated about that. What humiliation he had to endure! However, there was no way he was able to prevent the barbarian woman from straddling him over and over. In the end, Lorist fainted from the sheer anger he felt.

When he woke up the next morning, he was tossed a palm-sized biscuit by the thick-lipped barbarian woman and realized that the other barbarians were already packing their tents and were preparing to depart.

During the journey, Lorist was chained to a Northlander horse that was also carrying other loads by its side. They only stopped in the evening after traveling for the whole day. However, the barbarians didn't set up their tents and planned to rest out in the open under the night sky. While Lorist wasn't able to activate his technique to recover internal energy, he felt relieved that at the very least he wouldn't be forced into having intercourse with the thick-lipped woman since he was out in the open with the other barbarians.

During the next three days of traveling, Lorist got to eat two meals a day with the first in the morning being a large biscuit, followed by roasted meat and meat soup for dinner. He also got a flask of drinking water. By the time the fourth blister on Lorist's feet popped, the barbarians finally stopped to set up their camp properly. Upon hearing some of their conversations, Lorist got to know that they would rest for the next few days before continuing to their meeting point.

During the night, the thick-lipped woman brought Lorist to take a bath again and seeing the smile on her face, Lorist felt troubled the whole time. As expected, before the bonfire party ended that night, that barbarian woman pushed Lorist into the tent once again. His resistance was futile as he was once again taken advantage of by the barbarian woman as she pleased.

On the next day, Lorist tried to make the best of his time to execute a minor cycle when he was confined and nobody was around. He also took two drops of rank 2 medicinal mixture and by the time night came, he felt that his empty dantian refilled with the slightest bit of internal energy. If he had not been injured or not consumed the weird medicine the barbarians gave him, his internal energy would naturally recover. But right now, his condition was akin to a normal person who didn't train in any martial arts.

The thick-lipped woman came over again at night. Even though Lorist already had a very small amount of internal energy within his dantian, he was still unable to resist the woman's Iron ranked Battle Force. Surprisingly working against his favor, the rank 2 medicine he took before caused him to last even longer, allowing the woman to do Lorist three whole times throughout the night.

On the next day, Lorist sat without moving within his tent and secretly activated his technique again to recover. By the time night came, he already saved up slightly more internal energy than he did yesterday. He planned to ambush the female barbarian by knocking her unconscious with his internal energy and utilize his technique to recover more of it throughout the whole night in peace. If he succeeded, he would have at least a quarter or third of his dantian filled when dawn breaks and he should be able to make his escape.

That night, the thick-lipped woman brought Lorist to take a bath before bringing him the same meat soup she did the days before. However, the soup tasted a little weird with traces of bitter herbal taste. Even the meat within was cut into odd, round shapes with them tasting a little raw despite being cooked.

Initially, Lorist thought that it was due to the barbarians' inappropriate handling of the ingredients and he felt that it was already quite fortunate for him to have something like that to eat as a slave. But by the time he finished his food, he only realized that the oddly-shaped meat was in fact slices of some kind of magical beast's male sexual organ. And the herbal taste he detected within the soup reminded him of a few kinds of herbs with aphrodisiac-like effects. He rebuked himself internally for not recognizing it at first even though he was a trained herbalist himself. That soup was served to him to enhance his sexual prowess.

Raising his head and looking at the thick-lipped barbarian, Lorist saw her wearing a lewd smile as if she was looking forward to their activities during the night. Cursing in his mind, he consoled himself by thinking, that the aphrodisiac soup would give me more energy, if anything. When the bonfire party starts later, I will take all the time I have to recover my internal energy... By then, I will show you what I can do...

The bonfire party proceeded as usual. When it was about to end, the thick-lipped barbarian woman went to look for Lorist again.

Lorist had already made his preparations and plotted how he would go about not raising the woman's suspicion when entering the tent and knock her unconscious when she least expected it. Tomorrow, I will be free, like a released cage-bird that soars freely in the sky...

However, the thick-lipped barbarian woman didn't enter the usual tent and instead brought Lorist to another larger beastskin tent. She opened the flaps and pushed Lorist inside.

He was surprised to find that within it were three barbarian women with lustful, green eyes waiting for him. Two of those women were rather largely-built and their physiques differed not much from that of men's.

Lorist had to admit that the aphrodisiac soup was pretty effective as his lower member didn't get a shred of rest for the whole night. He forgot how many times he did it, only that he had fainted when the women were busy humping him nonstop. The internal energy that he had so painstakingly saved up had also been used up and he could no longer move in the slightest.

The next night, Lorist was also served with a large bowl of aphrodisiac soup, but he refused to take any food. And so, four barbarian women came up to him, two of whom included the ones who had done it with Lorist the night before. They forcefully pressed him on the ground, chewed on the meat within the soup before force-feeding the chewed pieces by mouth. After that, they emptied the soup into Lorist's mouth. Truly, it was a cruel sight to witness.

That night, five of them ganged up on him.

Lorist really felt like committing suicide as there was no way he could continue to live life as is.

Never had he suffered this kind of humiliation that would put even a pig to shame. Oh wait, that's not right... Pigs wouldn't feel ashamed and would simply hump away happily, Lorist thought. But he definitely wasn't a breeding pig and he didn't expect that he would be treated as such after being captured by the barbarians. He only had his large member to blame for his misfortunes...

After he was tossed underneath the sun, Lorist recalled two of the martial arts classic novels he read in his past life and considered whether he should endure the pain for his livelihood or kill as many of those barbarian women as he can before dying himself. It was truly a difficult choice.

Wouldn't it be easier to kill myself? He never would have even dreamed that he would end up in this kind of predicament. Lorist was so embarrassed at the fact that he wasn't able to resist in the slightest when the demonic barbarian women humped him night after night.

A few figures blocked the sunlight that was shining upon Lorist and with a loud whap, he felt searing pain in his back. He then heard a hateful barbarian cry out, "You darned pig... Stand up..."

Just beat me to death already, Lorist thought as he played dead without saying a thing.

The barbarian woman wearing a golden tiara, also known as the chief of Whitesnow Mountain, came forward and asked, "What's wrong with him?"

After some whispers, the few barbarians around Lorist left.

At night, he was bathed, fed aphrodisiac and stripped again in a routine manner. He was then laid onto the familiar grass patch before one of the barbarian women began teasing Lorist's member. On the other hand, he didn't resist at all and let them do as they pleased. He scanned the tent before closing his eyes and thought, well, two more barbarian women just showed up... I think I won't be able to sleep peacefully tonight...

The aphrodisiac soup he consumed moments ago worked its wonders again and Lorist's manhood stood up tall and high. The barbarian women felt the massive rod up as if they were unwilling to let it go for even a second before one of them prepared to sit upon Lorist's body.

Right at that moment, the woman who wore the golden tiara marched into the tent with four other attendants, each holding a long, black whip. All of a sudden, cries of begging and forgiveness resounded within the tent.

Lorist opened his eyes slightly and saw that the woman chief and her four attendants were whipping the seven kneeling barbarian women who were crying and begging nonstop but did not dare to run. After a drawn-out whipping session, the crowned woman shouted for the other women to scram and walked up to Lorist who was lying on the grass patch and inspected him before glancing at his erect member. After that, she ordered the four attendants to bring Lorist into her tent.

Oh no, just after escaping from a wolf's mouth, I fell right into a tiger's? However, he didn't expect that he would be brought to a section of the tent that was separated with a beastskin divider and tossed onto a grass patch there. After throwing Lorist his clothes and pants, the barbarian men left him alone.

He finally got some much-needed sleep without being bothered.

The next day, one of the attendants of the crowned woman entered and kicked Lorist awake before bringing him outside the main tent and giving him a biscuit. After that, he tied Lorist to a wooden stake, but this time around, the two wolfdogs weren't there with him. At night, that same male attendant gave him another biscuit and a flask of drinking water before bringing him back to his corner within the large tent to sleep.

Two days passed and Lorist felt that he regained a little more vitality. The time when he was oppressed by the barbarian women had drained him so much that he felt completely empty. So, he secretly took another two drops of rank 2 medicine and prepared to activate his ki technique to regain some internal energy to escape. Only, the barbarians began to pack up and leave on the next day itself and their destination was not another rest stop but rather their main settlement...

Author's note from chapter 210:

I'm really sorry I have to say this, but the recent experience of the main character with the barbarians was not a result of me receiving emotional shock that caused me to mess the story up, and neither it is an expression of my dissatisfaction with my dear readers. In actuality, I have detailed this plotline as far as two years back and I am only writing according to the draft I prepared back then.

This is one of the main character's personal experience with the mountain barbarians and unlike most other novels, I don't want to make the main character rule over the barbarians for no good reason nor give him another beautiful female character out of nowhere. To the main character, this experience is terribly horrifying for him as he had encountered a group of barbarian women whose men have gone out to war for almost a year. As the main character was injured and couldn't resist, he was subjected to that horrifying treatment as many readers have so kindly pointed out. Originally, I could have skipped this story thread. But in the interest of meaningful character development for the main character that will shape his eventual attitude towards the barbarians, I have chosen to keep it the way it was planned and wasn't able to change it.

To many, this will be a horrible turn-off much like poison and it is your choice if you choose to drop this story. As a writer, that is not something that I can force. But to me, telling a good story and bringing my readers more of the rich cultural differences of the Grindia Continent and its exciting and magnificent history is what I am really trying to do.

-Smoke is a Path, Author of Tales of the Reincarnated Lord