Stepping Stone

When I assumed the name of Nomad, I thought about the many years I spent alone. Since I was a little god, my position as the prince of a divine empire made many others afraid to approach me. The only thing I had was my weapon and the lightning I always had inside me.

"Still nothing, huh?" I tried to search within my body, but there were no signs of "my power".

"Mom, Mom! The Magma Tribe is coming!" Lila came running in the hut, her paws full of mud as she breathed heavily.

"I see, then let's go." I took the three wolves with me as he headed into the forest. Since I woke up with my mind being in a much clearer state, felt my mind loading huge amounts of information.

Assimilation, Transmutation and Resonance. I could feel three innate abilities of this new body of mine as well as the one hidden in the choker on my neck. And it was using these abilities that I would rise to power.

Before meeting the magma wolves, we stopped in distant position from the tribe. From the drops of blood Liena and Lorel gave me earlier, I could feel the innate ability assimilation taking place.

Lorel and Liena watched as an intense cold and heat was unleashed at the same time, the air grew heavy as an Aura as massive as a mountain pressed down on them.

Lila watched the boy slowly transform into a wolf, a crimson wolf. Its eyes were like a pair of rubies shining brightly. Despite being similar to the other time he transformed into a wolf, the patterns of his fur were much more like the Darkmoon Wolves than the Magma Wolves.

"Really nice, right? I heard a few gods back then had similar abilities like my brother, but this is the first time and it is so amazing. My ability can analyze any blood and create a mutant version of the same DNA, I think this form of mine will be called... Blood! Bloodmoon Wolf!" For the first time is years, I was really excited with my current powers, but when my attention turned to the three I noticed none of them could understand a word of what I was saying.

"Ah... Sorry I was too excited, let's meet the Chief of the Magma Tribe. Howl!" Feeling the need to immerse in my character, I howled to the sky before bursting forward at high speed.

"Hey, slow down a bit!" Behind him, Lila called out to the crimson wolf as he left a streak of light as he moved and both she and her mother had to struggle to keep up with him.

"Ah, this is good." Feeling the wind in my fur, I really started to understand the reason why dogs liked to put their heads out of the window. Far away, thousands of reddish silhouettes were coming in this direction, surely they were the magma tribe he heard about.

And just like I guessed, all of them were between second and third stage elemental masters, or 2-star and 3-star as they use in this kingdom.

If so, then 4-star, 5-star were kings and the next ones were the following stages like the Elemental Saint he saw once. Lorel did tell him that the Espar Kingdom is just vassals of the Beast God of Earth, and that none of tribes other than the noble and royal clans had kings.

Leading the pack was a larger wolf, despite not having one of its eyes. Its huge body and fiery gaze was not just for show.

"Lorel, Liena, follow me." Whispering to them, I slowly stepped out of the shadows and moved towards the huge crowd of wolves. All of the wolves behind carrying a heavy smell of blood and death, it didn't seem they planned to make friends by coming here.

I was thinking of leaving a way out to them, but they don't seem as easy to talk with as the Darkmoon tribe, I thought to myself.

"Look chief, we finally found one. Why did a young brat walk so far from his family? Hehe..."

Noticing my presence, one of the wolves moved toward me with a strong killing intent, but it was a bloody arrow was shot from my throat and hit its head.

*Thud* Seeing their comrade fall dead on the ground, all the killing intent of two thousand beasts was focused on me.

"Brat, you are really stupid to attack our brother. Brothers! Let them taste our Magma Killing Formation!" The leader of the troops standing next to the tribal chief exchanged gazes with him and the latter nodded. All the wolves turned their a blur as they attack him, resulting in a huge storm of fire that covered the vision of Lorel, Liena and Lila who were watching the battle from the top of a tree.

*rumble rumble rumble*

In an instant the fire washed over the forest burning everything on a range of one hundred kilometers to ashes. Shock waves from the huge battle went all directions as it was impossible to know what was happening inside the dome of fire.

They were starting to get worried when a pillar of brownish-yellow fire was shot towards the sky together with a strong wind that blew all the wolves away.

"Shit, this human form is still better than the wolf." As the dust dissipated, a crimson silhouette slowly left the shadows. A humanoid figure with a large ball of blood floating above his right hand.

Human! All the red wolves thought the same thing in their mind and felt the impulse to flee when they stared in the deep crimson abyss that were this small human's eyes.

"Not bad, I think you managed to evaporate 1% of my blood with the last attack. Now, it is my turn." Activating the second innate ability, I made my blood boil hotter until it surpassed the limits of blood and a beautiful ruby-like flame rested atop his hand.

Like I tested before, my blood could simulate, and transform into crystal, metal and even cloth, so being able to change it to fire wasn't that surprising. The living counciousness of this planet is really nice for giving this to me and I will surely make good use of it.

But even knowing it was possible, the resuilt really surprised me. The color a flame has is nothing more than an effect of the oxygen, gas or other materials burning and I learned as well that the color could change depending on what was being burned and the color in itself wasn't that pure as it was possible to see other colors as well. When I observed the flame on my hand, its imcomparably pure crimson flame, so beatiful and deadly, only a few gods I knew back then could hold flames as pure as this one like Ra, Hestia and Black Sun.

"Well, its feels a bit different from a normal fire, but I guess it can burn just as well..." A huge wave of deep crimson flames was shot out of his hand like a tail. The air in the forest was as dry and hot as it could be because of the scary heat of the crimson flames that jumped off the magma wolves who could do nothing to defend themselves as these bloody flames consumed everything on their way.

Three bursts of power filled the sky, trying to combat the fire I threw at thin. Having achieved the third stage, the magma chief and his commanders thought they could extend their control over to my flames in order to dissipate its power, but luckily what they tried to control wasn't the fire these elemental beasts could control.

"What isn't working!" The magma chief cried when he felt a drop of a dark red fluid fall on his body.

"Water... Blood! Boys this isn't fire, retreat!" Wow, I found really surprising their tribal chief was smart enough to realize what he used wasn't the same type of fire.

Being only 3-star beasts, there was no way they could bring any danger to me.

Standing above the ashes, I called over Lorel and the others. "I believe this was all the experts on their tribe. It's done now, I think the other tribes would think twice before doing anything against us. Soon, the big clans will send people to investigate what happened as it caused a huge disturbance in this region."

Since the magma tribe decided to attack this tribe, I was already thinking of using them as stepsons for me to reach a higher position in this kingdom.

"Dad, mom, Mel and Nerys, I will find you all."