[White Fang Clan]

Ever since the sea serpents attack a few days ago the tribe kept vigilante. They knew that they had been lucky that there were no casualties thanks to Darganth and Allaire's vigilance. This lead to a constant presence of at least one third order warrior on deck in case of further attacks.

With the knowledge that there is at least one person on the lookout, Darganth and Allaire reduced their vigilance. Spending most of their time in their cabin and cultivating with the mana that his mana heart forming had produced, he finally managed to reach the peak of the second rank.

With the magic symbol forming, he regained his control shield as well as the ability to cast formless magic. Formless magic refers to spells that directly target someone over a distance and can't be dodged, only resisted. While fairly useless against similarly strong opponents, their ability to instantly take out weaker opponents without giving them a fighting chance means that this ability is a dividing line for magicians.

The control shield is the other side of that coin, defending against such spells as well as reducing the effectiveness of distance casting. It is a spherical zone around the magician in which his spells have a reduced cast time, meaning the time between finishing the chant or circle and the spell taking effect, while making it impossible for others to manifest spells inside of it unless they first break through it.

How powerful of a control shield a spell can overpower depends on both the caster and which spell is used. Some spells require more power to block, but in return either have a weaker effect or require more mana. Among the spells that are the easiest to block are instant death spells, while weakening spells are hard to block completely and commonly only get their effect reduced.

The size of this shield depends on a multitude of factors, making it possible to specialize in increasing its size. Against such mages an opponent would have to set the point of origin further away, making dodging easier. In addition, when two such shields meet, they push against each other with the stronger one pushing the weaker back. While they get stronger the closer they are to the magician that projects them, it is possible albeit hard, to completely push an opponents control shield away. This has the same effect as overpowering it and breaking through it with a spell but more permanet. As long as the shield is pushed away like this, a mage can't defend against any formless spell.

Reaching the third order is a double edged sword for him as it means on the one hand that he wouldn't be helpless against others at or above this level anymore. While he previously could have used his body's mana to resist a formless spell, it would deplete his mana pool extremely fast. On the other hand this marks the end of his fast progress, with the time needed between each order being far longer from the third rank onwards.

Shortly after he had reached the third order Darganth and Allaire have reduced the time the spend absorbing mana as its density in the room had returned to normal levels. Instead they spend more time on deck, watching the seas together.

Currently they were doing just that, when they noticed a ship on the horizon. While initially they initially ignored it, it soon changed course towards them. Once they noticed this they informed Elastan and were now standing on deck together with the other warriors of the tribe. While they hoped that it would be unnecessary, the last attack brought the tribe on edge.

Once the ship closed in Darganth saw that it was armed with cannons and other physical projectile weapons. This lead him to be sure that its crew's firepower was small enough for him to disregard. In naval warfare most groups would use cannons and similar weapons as a last resort, preferring to use the limited space to bring as many magicians as possible into firing positions. Magicians had the advantage that they would need no ammunition, had more versatile options to attack and could aid in the ships defense.

“Am I seeing this correctly that even their strongest individual is only a third order aura soldier?” Allaire asked once the ship were withing a kilometer of each other.

“Yes. No mages, no third ranks. No kingdom would send ships with such a weak crew into waters inhabited by second rank beasts.”

“When they aren't a kingdoms navy, what are they?” Elstan asked.

“Hard to tell. Can be a small city-state's navy, merchants or pirates. Maybe even a combination as I wouldn't rule out that there are pirate states in the area.”

“Are you two confident I repelling them if they are pirates?”

“Of course. While I am not sure, it would be likely that even returning to my true form on deck would sink their ship.” Hearing this reassurance, Elstan turned his attention back to the ship closing in on them.

“Should a fight break out, can I try and take on their leader on my own?” Allaire asked.

“Of course. But keep in mind that he likely reached the third order for far longer than you did. While your bow may give you an advantage, it is only a first rank weapon and no artifact. He may have a stronger one or multiple similar ones.”

“Are magic treasures and artifacts really that common at the central continent?”

“Yes. Every half decent mage can craft at least a weak magic treasure of the same rank as he is in. While most don't focus on creating magic weapons, there are enough circling around that most have at least one. Artifacts on the other hand are rare enough that I wouldn't expect him to have one as they are mostly heirlooms in noble families.”

Waiting for the ship to arrive, Allaire started focusing on whether or not the leader has any magic weapons. Other magic treasures that can be used in combat, like spell rings or similar, are harder to find so she didn't even try.

Once the two ships were close enough, the other side threw two ropes over and pulled them in. Placing two planks over the space in between, the peak second rank man walked over, flanked by two men at the second order.

“I greet you esteemed captain. I am Elstan, chief of this tribe and we are currently on our way from our continent.”

“A group directly from the beast continent? This is rare these days, most prefer to first make their way to either of the other two continents. Direct crosser rarely make it till here alive since the regions beast lord died.”

“This region had a beast lord?” Elstan asked surprised. After all, from what Darganth told them, beasts would not get too close to the coast as that would invite a response from the kingdoms there.

“Officially at least. He ruled quite a large piece of ocean, up till the coast but didn't care for ships as long as they didn't venture too far in too large groups. Sadly he died about a decade ago, tried to become a god and met the same fate as everyone before him. Now every mythical rank beast tries to succeed him, making the region further outwards chaotic and driving more and more beasts to attack the coast.”

“So you are tasked with keeping beasts away?” Elstan asked.

“What, no. I simply use this chaos to get rich. With rampaging beasts no navy dared to go here just to hunt a few pirates as long as we don't overstep. But we are nice, as long as you don't resist you can go you way after this.” Seeing the man's smile, Elstan stepped back while grabbing his sword.

“Don't be like that, I already said we won't harm you. We will only take you riches, we won't even take you as slaves. You should know that female beastmen are quite valuable on the market.”

Just as the man turned to his men to motion them to also come over, he is forced to jump to the side and barely avoid Allaire's aura strike. While missing him, the fist of pure energy impacts one of the two men accompanying him, sending him flying dozens of meters as his body was not reinforced with aura.

Covering himself with external aura, he reacted just in time for the earth elements defense to barely stop her arrow from piercing his heart. Enraged he prepares to dash towards her, just to remember in time that he is currently standing on the deck of a ship. Not able to to put much force behind his steps and thus unable to cross larger distances quickly, he is forced to continuously defend himself form her attacks. Normally one would spread aura around into the ground, fortifying it as it is done with weapons, but her constant attacks force him to dodge before completing the process.

While this is happening, Darganth makes his way towards the pirates ship. The man still standing on their ship tried to stop him but suddenly felt his mana drain nearly completely. This was due to Darganth casting a weakening spell on him.

While he would have preferred to end this fight instantly with a direct death spell, aura offered a limited protection from formless magic, using ones own mana pool to offset it similar to how beasts do. To completely empty the man's mana with such a spell would require more mana from himself as it was easier to resist, so he opted to first drain it with a weakening spell. Most low ranking aura users wouldn't practice how to only weaken a spells effect, making their mana drain especially efficient.

Additionally, Darganth had the advantage of having an even higher mana quality. A difference in mana quality had much more impact than the same difference in mana quantity, something that is a large part of why most aura users don't bother to learn how to control their defense against direct magic. For mages with their normally lower mana quality to succeed in an instant death spell, the easiest kind of direct magic to resist, was rarely even considered possible in the same rank.

Only those who remained stuck at one rank for especially long could have a chance to achieve this. Despite being possible, growing indefinetly without advancing was exetremely hard as each rank had a limit after which power growth stalled. While this ceiling was exetremely high, only after surpassing it would an mage with average mana quality be able to affect an aura user in a meaningfull way with direct magic.

This lead to the man being unprepared for Daranth's attack. Before he could even understand what was happening, a gust of wind threw him towards his comrades. Following the man, Darganth stepped onto their ship before undoing his transformation. Returning to his dragon form, he stood only about as high as a human.

The reason for this was that by doing this he would reduce his mass while staying as strong as in his full form. The only disadvantages this had were that his attacks had less mass behind them and attacks that managed to pierce his skin had an easier time dealing meaningful damage as his organs were smaller and protected by less flesh.

While one would think this would be offset by the increase in speed due to having less mass, this wasn't the case. Due to the intrinsic connection between mana and their bodies, dragons, like beasts and all other large species, always needed the same amount of force no matter how much they shrunk their true form. Whether they are weighing thousands of tons, or sometimes even more, or only a few kilograms didn't matter for them when moving their limbs, meaning they can only move their limbs with the same speed relative to their size.

This was done with an automatic response and with the help of mana, being developed over time as a safety precaution to prevent the body and mind from falling out of synch, especially among younger individuals. It also serves the purpose of preventing them from collapsing into a black hole, as while they shrink themselves, their weight will remain above the expected one of a being that size due to the added strength. While a large part of it will come from mana and thus without added weight, no matter how small the increased muscle density adds it has an effect.

Seeing a dragon appear in front of them, rattled the remaining men. While they started backing away, Darganth had turned his focus to the horizon. With his senses in his true form being far greater than when transformed, he noticed a group of three ships making their way towards them. While he would normally not care for this, they each had one third rank mage on board.

Keeping an eye out for them, he conjured a boulder above the ship and turned his attention towards Allaire. While she was currently suppressing her opponent, he knew that one mistake would allow him to close the distance. While she had by now caused multiple wounds, none of them were deadly or reduced his fighting capabilities by a large margin.

While observing this fight for a few minutes, he would let a few pebbles drop whenever one of the pirates tried to walk towards him. During this time he also watched as the tribe tried to attack the pirates leader, but retreated with just one aura slash from him.

By now it became clear to Darganth that while Allaire gradually became more skilled, she would be exhausted before managing to land a decisive strike. Additionally her opponent still had a magic weapon he hadn't used. While his sword was one that was similar to he bow, being more durable and sharper, the other one had a completely different effect.

Wondering how long until he would use it, Darganth waited for nearly two more minutes for the man to draw the small dagger. Wasting no time, he threw it towards her before dashing after it. Realizing it to be a magic weapon but not knowing its purpose, Allaire moved out of its path. Turning back to him, she raised her bow again while aiming towards him. At this moment the dagger impacted on the mast behind her, crackling with lightning for a moment before erupting in a spherical lightning bubble that expanded.

Leaving no marks on the ground, it reached her just before she managed to shoot the arrow and stunned her for a moment. Once the lightning died down a few meters later and the effect on her subsided, her opponent had already hardened the ground and shot towards her with a dash.

Piercing his swords towards her heart, he had already considered this fight won and had started to grin. When his sword was only a meter away from her, his entire body abruptly stopped. It didn't feel like he had collided with something or someone held him, instead he felt no different until he realized that the distance between them remained the same.

Only a second later he noticed that his entire mana pool was empty and he was still in the air. Wanting to look around, he found that he couldn't even move his head. Forced to wait and watch how Allaire recovered, he saw that she looked towards his ship once she saw his condition. Seeing her mouth move, he realized he couldn't even hear.

When she walked towards the side a few seconds later, he became irritated until his movement suddenly resumed. As his thoughts had continued while his body was stuck, his dash ended ungracefully with him falling over and failing onto the ground. Turning towards his left while getting up, his gaze first fell onto Allaire.

Just as he wanted to mock her, he noticed Darganth lying on the deck of his ship, without any care. Seeing her lean onto him, his mockery remained stuck in his throat. While Darganth's current form was barely six meters long, he knew that this was likely a shrunken down form to prevent the deck from caving in below him.

“Not as brave anymore?” Darganth asked him mockingly. While he wanted to retort, he didn't dare to.

“Don't be too vicious to him. While it may have been involuntarily, he helped me grow accustomed to fighting with my new found strength.” Hearing Allairs words he wanted to spit out blood.

“Fine, I won't.”

“Wait, really? You know that I was just joking.”

“Of course. Why would I do such a thing when there is a group on their way who would do it for me?”

“How do you know they are here for him?”

“Found three ships coming towards us. From reading his mind I learned that their flag is the one of the group he had been a part of until recently. Some time ago he started becoming illoyal out of greed and yesterday he deserted.”

When he heard that his former bosses were on their way here, the man tried to reactivate his aura and escape. Once he noticed that his mana was completely empty, he looked at Darganth in shock.

“What did you do to me?”

“What do you mean?”

“My mana? Why don't I have mana?” He continued desperately trying to search his mana pool.

“Oh, that. Don't worry, it will refill with time. But in your place I would rather trouble myself if I would live that long.” Hearing Darganth's explanation the man remembered the problem at hand and panicked.

Looking around, he found the tribes warriors who were keeping as far away as possible as they were completely outclassed. Thinking about taking one of them hostage, he quickly discarded this idea. While a peak second ranks body was stronger than a normal persons even without aura, it was not to the point of being able to content against a group of aura users. The most he could hope to achieve was to win against a second order aura trainee with aura, a group of them or a third order one were out of the question.

Such a thing would only possible for people who possessed a rare kind of aura technique that allows the user to strengthen his natural body. But they were so rare that even nobles would find it difficult to get one, not to mention a mere second rank individual without any background like him.

Thinking about another method of escaping, he only realized after it had happened that Darganth had encased him in a block of ice, leaving only his head free. Turning towards him, he saw that the dragon was completely ignoring him and had turned towards an empty spot on the deck of his ship. Just as he wanted to shout out his frustration at being ignored, Dargant spoke seemingly addressing the empty air.

“Perfect timing. Lets see what his former bosses have to say.”

At those words everyone followed his gaze, finding three figures suddenly materializing themselves at the previously empty spot.