[White Fang Clan]

It was currently the start of the ninth week since they set sail. After he had landed on the ship, Allaire had been shocked by his injuries. While he had initially hoped to heal enough by the time he returned to not worry her, he quickly realized how much slower is healing was without his mana heart. While he had already expected this to be the case, he underestimated how much slower it was. This combined with a dragons regeneration even with the mana heart formed being far from the level of vampires or trolls resulted in him taking nearly a week to fully heal.

This was one of the moments where he would have preferred a mythical rank beasts transformation, as they would not carry over wounds from one form to the other. Dragons on the other hand would keep wounds that were inflicted in their true form. Despite both transformations not carrying over wounds from the transformed state to the true form, should they die they would return to their true form, but still fall over dead. Due to this and a dragons transformed state being stronger he quickly scratched this sentiment.

Additionally he quite enjoyed Allaire constantly caring for him and pampering him. During this time she would have to help the others from time to time in defending against attacks from beasts, both from the sea and the air. When he had tried to help during the first attack, she forced him to rest.

While he didn't initially agree, when she threatened to get a chain and bind him to the bed he agreed. Of course he didn't miss the chance to ask whether this was a promise, leading her to get red in shame.

This lead to her calling him lizard for the rest of the day after her return, until he apologized to her for making a joke about her worry for him. While he would normally react quite bad to being called a lizard, even before his death he was fine with his lovers and even some of his friends doing this. Even if he wasn't, he would have reacted far better to it than with the basilisk.

After he fully healed, he once again helped her reach the second rank. Due to the ships lack of space word about this quickly spread and the other second ranks tried to convince him to help them too. Of course he quickly denied their request, something he found quite hard to do with the Zalek brothers. Of course not the denial, instead he found it hard to suppress the urge to throw them over board.

While largely due to Allaire's recount of them, his rage towards them was amplified when they tried to argue that they had saved his live by keeping beasts from his egg. When they started arguing that he owed them because of this he simply isolated the sound around them and left.

This trouble made the two of them spend as much of their time in their cabin to not be bothered by the rest of the tribe. Luckily the bothersome ones were only a small group, with most members of the tribe being happy about his presence.

Currently the two of them were in their cabin when he noticed Seraina entering the second rank. Slightly frustrated that they were too far away to watch through a portal, he asked Allaire to sit down in front of him. His current plan was to use scrying magic to view the camp while transferring the pictures to her via mind magic.

“Oh, has your little fling just started her uprising?” She asked, making her way towards him.

“I still don't understand why you call her a fling? My relationship with her started before ours.”

“But I will keep calling her your fling until I meet her. After all, I know you longer than she does and we spend more time together. Once I meet her, I will of course give her a new nickname.” At Allaire's argumentation he could only sigh. After all, following this logic his lovers from before his death could call her a fling.

Shaking his head, he ignored it, after all they had already talked about it and she said that she had no problem with him having multiple lovers. As her heartbeat remained the same along with some other indications his senses have picked up, he was quite sure that she meant this. Placing his hand on her forehead, he activated the spells.

 

Watching the camp of the Red Lion Tribe, they instantly found Serania. Even through a scyring spell, Darganth could tell that her mana pool was far above the average for a first order advanced magician, while her mana quality rivaled that of Gervas. Realizing that she delayed this long to ensure a victory, he couldn't help but applaud her patience.

She was currently standing in the chiefs tent, surrounded by quite a few guards. When they noticed her condensing the symbol, they watched the entire process with wary. The only reason why she even did this in their presence was that it was hard to differentiate between the different tiers and most would only count the number of symbols.

Once the process finished her face twisted into a bloodthirsty smile. For the past months she endured, watching the tribes treatment of women without being able to do anything. Now that she would have her revenge she couldn't suppress her smile any longer.

“Who taught you?” Gervas suddenly said, bringing her out of her thoughts.

“Why should I tell you?” She asked with a smile.

“Because it will save you. You still have value due to the child you are carrying and as long as you stay away from the rest of the tribe I will allow you to live.”

“You think that you still can force me to do anything? No, today is the day our tribe will go through reforms and that will work the best over you dead body.” At those words she openly displayed all four of the symbols she currently has condensed, identifying her as a second rank. This shocked the surrounding people and even Gervas. While he was still sure to be able to beat her, he knew that it would cost him even more men.

“Oh and just for you information, the entire thing about me being pregnant was a lie. I just wanted to gain enough time without having to entertain you pigs.” Afterward her surrounding lit up with a dozen magic circles.

Now Gervas shock turned to fear. Despite the short distance between them he had very little hopes that he could win. By now he even doubted his chances to flee, after all his last encounter was with a magician who needed to chant out loud. Looking at his men, he noticed that their thoughts mirrored his and he was quite sure that they would run at the first chance.

“Don't falter. Even if she is a magician at the second rank, she can't know many spells. Each takes time to learn and that bastard Darganth couldn't have taught her much in his time here and her experience should be even lower.” He shouted. At his shout most of them started to regain their moral.

“Sound theory Gervas, but it has a slight flaw. Why would I reveal being a magician when I wasn't confident in winning?”

“Overconfidence? Fear of your lie about being pregnant coming to light? Underestimating us? I can list many reasons besides those, but they are the most likely. Besides, I know of our kinds average affinities. Besides the fire element we have none that reach above ten among most members of the tribe.” Saying these words he stood up from his throne with a smile. Reaching for his sword, he formed red external aura around him.

“And that means that your strongest spells are from a nearly completely offensive element. You can't fight us all, just give up. Maybe I will even let you live.” At this she started to laugh. This of course unnerved her opponents, leading to them slowly backing away.

“All this confidence rests on that? On your experience with the fire element as an aura user? Yes, it isn't the best defensive element, but its weakness is mainly against other spells. How do you want to attack me when my surrounding have temperatures in the thousands of degrees? Besides, who said that my affinities are average and in you are missing an arm. I quite like my chances.” While the first part of the sentence already broke his confidence, the rest shattered its remains. Hearing the confidants in Serania's voice, Gervas started to back away just like his men.

“Oh, not as brave anymore? I had hoped that there would be some volunteers that launch a desperate attack but it seem that you are too scared. Then I should probably clean up the trash before teaching you what happens to those who badmouth my Darganth.” This brought the warriors around her out of their stupor.

While they tried to run away, the spells around her activated before they even had a chance to take the first step, launching a multitude of different projectiles that riddled them with large wounds. Most of these were deadly, with the few that survived havin wounds large enough to prevent them from fighting.

Seeing his men being slaughtered with ease, Gervas took a step back in fear. While he knew that magicians were rarer but more powerful, this exceeded his wildest expectations. Just as he wanted to flee by cutting through his tent, Serania disappeared, just to reappear behind him. With a push from her he fell forwards, far further than her strength should have allowed.

“Strengthening magic. While less efficient than aura, it can be used on others.” She explained when she noticed his confusion as to where her strength came from.

“Please, spare me. I will never again set foot in the vicinity of the tribe if you want. I can also officially make you chieftain or anything you want. Just let me live, I pose no threat to you!” He pleaded.

“No No No. I have already told you, insulting Darganth is something you have to pay for. And what better way to do that than to torture you for a bit.” With these words, she launched an icicle into his leg.

Howling in pain, Gervas started to realize that his life would come to an end one way or the other. Gathering all his strength, he launched one desperate attempt at attacking Serania by dashing towards her and swinging his swords. Seeing that she didn't even try to defend herself, he smiled, thinking that she may not be able to react fast enough.

Just as his swords would have made contact with her skin, it stopped. Looking into her face, Gervas saw a smile that send shivers down his spine. Without saying anything, she walked past him before stopping after around two meters.

“Time magic, quite handy I must say. While I still cant affect others directly, I can create an area where time flows differently. Now enjoy the next few second, because they are your last.” At those words magic circle after magic circle started forming around her.

“Sadly I would need to be in the second order to truly distance cast so for now this is the best I can do.” At this Gervas was pelted with projectile after projectile, all blunt, with their direction always coming form Serania. All the time she was walking around him, letting them strike him from every direction.

By the time she stopped, he had long since died. With a smile she used wind magic to throw him out of the tent, before stepping out herself. Greeting her was nearly the entirety of the tribe, most looking in horror at Gervas body.

“From now on our tribe will go through sweeping reforms. No longer are women going to be forced to serve the men, instead they will be their equals.” She announced.

Such an unexpected situation made most of them stand in confusion for a bit, before registering her words. When the women of the tribe did so, most started to smile in happiness. While they had always been disadvantaged, only since the start of Gervas reign it had gotten this extreme. Many of the older ones still vividly remembered the time before and spread it. While they couldn't change anything, nearly all of them hoped for a change.

The men meanwhile became split. Most of those that didn't manage to become warriors were indifferent or even supportive of this change. The warriors meanwhile looked at her with rage. They had profited the most from Gervas reign, so none of them was willing to give their privileges up without a fight.

Before anyone could react, two burst forwards. Rushing towards Serania, they drew a dagger each. Seeing the two second order people rushing towards her, she just pointed at them with a disappointed expression. She killed third order people with ease, these two weren't even a danger to her. Before they knew it, the two men found their head staring at their own headless body. Before they understood what was happening, they died.

Looking between the two headless bodies and the hovering piece of metal that decapitated them, the gathered group broke out in murmur. Ignoring this, but keeping a close eye on the remaining warriors, Searania let a wave of wind sent those two into the tent to the other corpses. Waiting in the hopes of them calming down to allow her to speak, her patience soon ran out.

“Silence!” With her shout, magic circles formed around Serania once again. This quickly shut the crowed up.

“Anyone who disagrees can follow the fate of those in the tent.” She simply said. With a wave of her hand, she send out a burst of flames that started to cling onto it. While some still voiced their opposition, most kept silence. Ignoring the crowd, Serania made her way to her own tent. She had already been sleeping with alarm spells active, something she would now need even more.

While the tribe would digest the news, she planned their next migration. Darganth had told her about this regions lack of mana, leading her to plan a journey along the coast. Additionally, the basilisk was still on its way and she didn't plan to encounter it.

 

Meanwhile, Darganth stopped his spell as soon as she left the group. Now he and Allaire were looking at each other, while she had a smile on her face.

“My Darganth? I guess I will have to teach you little fling a lesson once we meet.” This caused him to chuckle while nodding his head.

“Even though you are agreeing with me, it feels like you did so for an entirely different reason?”

“Maybe, maybe not.” His answer caused her to pout.

“Okay, I did mean it different from you.”

“Then tell me.”

“That would ruin the fun. But once you had enough time I can happily show you.” He said with a teasing smile.

These words together with his smile made her blush. While she was still embarrassed by his words, he started patting her between her ears. This intensified her blush while at the same time leaning against him.

“I had expected you to tell me to stop.” He said after a while.

“Just stay silent and continue.” She said with a muffled voice due to her burying her head in embarrassment. Saying nothing more, Darganth simply continued.

After this, the following week continued without surprises. By now Darganth had entered the second order due to his passive growth. As the surrounding mana was still not enough to help his growth, he had invested all his energy into training Allaire. Currently she was sitting in their room, trying to advancing to the second rank.

Waiting next to her, Darganth watched as her aura was flowing all around her body, breaking out of her skin for short moments. When he noticed that every time the aura would flow externally it would do so longer, he smiled. By now it was only a matter of time before she would reach the second rank.

This continued for over an hour before the glowing symbol manifested itself in front of her. Opening her eyes, Allaire jumped up with a smile. Closing her eyes for a second, the aura surrounding her changed to the Light element, before cycling through every element except space and time. Once she retracted her aura again, Allaire jumped onto Darganth with a hug.

“Thank you.” She said with a beaming smile, before giving him a deep kiss.

“Do you want to take care of them now or do you still want to wait for a while?”

“Lets wait a few more days. For now I just want to spend some time with you, after all we had used it mostly to train during the past weeks.” She said after a short moment of thought. Sitting down, the two of them leaned against each other in silence.