William

William was known for being the Commander of the Griffin Knights. Being the youngest 3rd stage in Aura in the kingdom at the young age of 23 along with leading the 2nd most powerful knight order in the Hedal Kingdom earned him quite a reputation.

Born in the slums of the kingdom's capital city, he lived his life freely and did whatever he want. He was a street rat. Living in the streets, stealing food from market stalls, pickpocketing oblivious people, that was his way of life—until he met an old butler.

One day, while playing with his fellow orphan friends, a group of thugs approached them. The one leading the thugs apparently had some grudge against the young William. The situation broke out into a fight. Pitting children against adults is unfair, but the thugs didn't care about that, nor did any of the bystanders who witnessed the scene.

The thugs easily beat the orphans, leaving them all bloody and bruised, unable to even stand up—except young William.

When the fight started, William picked up a thick stick and used it as if it was a sword. He swung, stabbed, dodged, and parried like a swordsman. He was still hit a few times, leaving bruises here and there. But compared to his unconscious friends, he was putting up a fight.

Weiss saw this as he was walking by. He got interested in William after seeing him fight against the thugs. William had zero experience in actual swordsmanship. He was clumsy in some of the stances and swings. But the movements he made looked as if he was trained by an experienced swordsman. Weiss clearly knows the kid wasn't trained by one. Who would waste their time teaching a random orphan the sword?

Weiss' curiosity got the better of him. He stepped in and dealt with the thugs and asked the bruised William, "Where did you learn to fight like that?"

William simply replied, "I sometimes watch the soldiers train when I'm bored. I just tried to copy what they were doing."

Weiss went wide-eyed. The kid had talent! He simply watched the movements of the soldiers and yet he was able to achieve this level of prowess. Of course, his current skill wasn't anything special, but if he was able to copy swordplay from just watching, that was definitely something else.

Weiss immediately offered the young William to be trained under him. William was surprised. He saw how effortlessly this old man took care of the thugs that he was having trouble with, and yet that same old man was offering to train him? Only a fool would refuse. But just as William was about to accept he heard something...

"Urgh..."

He looked back and saw his fellow street rat orphans lying on the ground. All of them bruised and battered, blood leaking out from their wounds.

He turned back to Weiss and said, "I'll accept if you help my friends first."

Weiss smiled. The kid was about to climb up in life just by taking his offer, but he prioritized his friends first. Weiss' impression of him increased, 'He's definitely worth it.'

Weiss nodded and pulled out several healing potions from an unassuming pouch. He poured each vial on William's friends, bringing them back from the brink of death.

As soon as his friends woke up, William explained the situation. His friends supported him wholeheartedly, even teasing him that he might forget them, to which William replied that he wouldn't.

William bid his farewells to his friends, promising to come back and help them with life.

After getting the approval of Duke Montampes, William started his hellish training with Weiss. Weiss never held back on William, he wanted William's talent to fully bloom and bring glory to the Montampes family.

Years passed ever since then, with many adventures, hardships, greetings, and farewells in between. William fulfilled his promise with his friends and hired them to be guards in the Montampes manor. All of them happily accepted the job offer from an old friend and they all faithfully do their job, some of the more talented ones even joined the ranks of the Griffin Knight Order.

Going back to the present. The Griffin Knights have finally arrived and William rescued Elijah, the captain of the Leghorn city guards.

The necromancer saw William's arrival and screamed at the top of his decaying lungs, "WILLLLIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAM!!!! I WILL KILL YOU!!!!"

Almost immediately, the entire undead horde suddenly stopped attacking the people defending Leghorn City and attacked William. William swung his sword in a 360-degree motion. A blast of mint green colored Aura destroyed every undead that was coming at him in a 60-meter radius. That was a casual swing of his sword.

William raised his fist and hollered to his knights, "GRIFFIN KNIGHTS!! LET'S GO WILD!!!"

"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHH!!" The Griffin Knights pump their fists in the air in response.

In an instant, all of them were covered in a thick Aura. Almost half of them were at the chromatic stage, with a few being at the 3rd stage like William.

There were only two words that could describe what happened next: a massacre. Well, the enemies were all dead anyway. The undead horde's numbers were quickly whittled down, however, there were still many of them and the knights haven't scratched the surface yet.

William soon did the same. After bringing Elijah back to safety where the medics can treat him, he channeled Aura to every inch of his body. Using Weiss' teachings with no failure, he effortlessly channeled the energy to his blood vessels with terrifying precision, spreading Aura efficiently to every single muscle, organ, bone, etc. It was like how blood distributes oxygen efficiently to keep the body functional, except instead of oxygen, it's Aura.

William also channeled Aura to his sword and armor. However, it was different from conventional weapon imbuing. He was forming pseudo-blood vessels in his equipment, imitating how a circulatory system works. Doing this allows him to waste less Aura and strengthen his equipment far better than normal methods of Aura weapon imbuing.

William wore a carefree smile as he muttered, "It's showtime!"