Demonic Valor
Author: D. W. Jackson
Date: 2015-11-14 08:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Fantasy; Magic
Description: Ash has never been so nervous in his life. He sits no more than five miles away from where his wife sleeps yet he can not go to her. A large battle is about to break out and Ash's presence cannot be known until the proper time. As the battle draws nearer Ash can only hope that his training in the demon lands was enough to prevail otherwise he will lose everything. Ash has never been so nervous in his life. He sits no more than five miles away from where his wife sleeps yet he can not go to her. A large battle is about to break out and Ash's presence cannot be known until the proper time. As th

10-1

After learning of the movements of the kingdom against Emelia and her duchy, Ash had been very busy. Ash had been working on training at a leisurely pace, but over the past few weeks he had been forced to speed up his progress. The main difference was that now, once he had gained his new abilities and trained in them for a few days, he would move onto the next demon clan instead of spending time within their labyrinth to train himself and his new guard and wife.

Over the past few weeks, Ash had been able to make it to five different clans, though he didn’t get to spend much time in any single one. He would arrive and go straight to the labyrinth. Most the time, Ash wouldn’t get to sleep until late and then he was only afforded a few hours before he was forced to start training. His time had been pushed so thin that his eyes started to gain permanent bags underneath them.

In the end, not a single second was wasted. Ash knew that he had to rush, but he felt bad about neglecting the new wives he had collected at each clan, but whenever they saw him they never gave him a judging look which made things much easier to bear.

Mia was a short demon who belonged to a tribe that looked like a short version of an elf. They were very connected to nature as they were created from plant type demons. Lena looked like what one would consider a typical demon with ash grey skin and large bat-like wings. Tina was a robust young lady with a forked tail that had been descendent from animal type monsters. Gena was another warrior who, unlike Tolarea, had a short slender frame. She used a single handed sword along with a shield. Eun was the latest addition and Ash had yet to learn much about her. She was a tall woman with long blue hair and silver eyes. She used a mix of magic and a spear to fight.

The abilities he had gained were as varied as his new wives. Most of them were simple, but it seemed that each clan had one that stood above the rest. The best abilities as far as Ash was concerned were the passive abilities since they didn’t require him to do anything for them to be of use.

[Echo Location: advanced hearing that allows you to the placement of people and items even in total darkness. Level max.]

[Darkness Resistance: 5% reduction in damage from any sources using the darkness element. Level 1-0%.]

[Darkness Affinity: cost of using darkness attribute skills or abilities will be reduced by 10%. Level 1-0%.]

[Dark Soul: turn 100HP into soul MP.]

With an extra way to increase his soul MP, Ash was happy, and since his HP recovered faster than his MP, it was a godsend. The more abilities that Ash gained, the more he began to understand that the demons had thought out their training program well for the demon lords. Though his passive abilities were his favorite, Ash also liked many of his new active abilities.

[Dark Spear: Cost 80MP create a spear of pure darkness that will last for five minutes. Can attack through armor as long as it is not blessed. Level 1-0%.]

[Infuse Darkness: cost ***- infuse the air with Darkness energy to strength and control it. Level 1-0%.]

[Darkness Essence: cost ***- ability to infuse MP with the darkness essence. Level 1-0%.]

[Sword of Illusion: cost 40MP 10SP- create three illusionary replicas of your sword blade that can do 10% of the original strike. Level 1-0%.]

[Phantom Strike: cost 10SP- attack with a phantom strike that does no damage but can deceive your enemies. Level 1-0%.]

[Armor of Thorns: cost 40 MP cover your body with thick wooden armor that is covered in thorns. Lasts for 10 minutes. Level 1-0%.]

[Tremor: cost 75MP- Shake the whole earth within five hundred square feet. Level 1-0%.]

[Wind Slash: cost 10MP 5SP- eject a blade of wind that follows on a straight path. Level 1-0%.]

[Wind Wing: Cost 15MP 30SP- create wings made of air that can let you fly and increase your speed by 5%. Lasts for 5 minutes. Level 1-0%.]

[Total Destruction: Cost 300MP 100SP- create a massive storm of pure magical energy and physical force that spreads out over fifty yards attacking everything within its range. Level 1-0%.]

[Agis Shield of Protection: cost 120MP create a large massive shield that can cover fifty square feet. Can take a total of 150 HP before disappearing. Level 1-0%.]

A lot of the abilities that he had gained were costly, but would be of great use in a large scale battle. Ash wasn’t sure, but he figured that the sage had changed the normal training to focus on what would be useful to Ash in concerns to the upcoming war.

At level 1, most of the skills were still useful, but not as good as if they were at a higher level. Ash tried his best to get them to level them up, but it was not something that could be done overnight.

As the time passed and the coming battle drew nearer, Ash started to reflect on his new skills and the last large battle that he had been in. At that time, Ash had only been in small one on one battles against other humans. He had been slightly overconfident at first, but after his near death experience while running from the scouts, he had learned that no matter how strong he was, he was still vulnerable. His stats were high and he had a number of impressive skills and abilities, but all it took was one fatal strike to end his life.

The main difference between Ash and one of the monsters that one might fight was that he was human. The monsters had weak points that could be taken advantage of, but they were often small or well concealed. As a human, he had many weak points that could cause his death. Not only that, in a way his whole body was a weak point. If he got a deep would, he would bleed and his HP and SP would quickly drop as the blood left his body. If he lost an arm, it was nearly impossible to get it to regrow, though it could be done if he could find a person with the right ability, or if he got his own mend ability ranked up high enough. Though it was hard to tell how long that would take.

With this knowledge, Ash spent the small amount of free time trying to envision on the best way he could fight when faced off against more than a few people at the same time. If he only had the same abilities as before, he would still be limited but he was sure that now he could do better, though he knew part of himself would still be scared. No matter how much time passed, that was one thing that didn’t really change. It was different than when he fought against monsters in the labyrinth. When he fought against humans, his heart beat so fast he could feel it beating against his ribs like a beast trying to escape its confinement.

With his new abilities, Ash was sure that he could fare much better, even though a few of them that would be good to use against heavily armored opponents cost a great deal of MP. Ash had thought about upgrading his own gear and after spending time not only discussing it with the sage, but also his wives, Ash was assured that before they left the demon kingdom to prepare for the war, they would stop by the demon Maoh’s castle and he could take what he wanted from the treasury.

From what the sage said, the castle’s treasury was filled with a number of things that each Maoh had gathered over the years. This was not only weapons and armor, but also ability books, monster cores, gold, gems, and a number of other precious objects. When Ash heard this, he made a quick decision that he would not only take things for himself, but for his wives as well.

As Ash lay back against the headboard of the bed he was currently using, he looked up as if he could see through the darkened wood of the ceiling to the sky above. “It is almost time,” he said to himself. Though his words were uttered softly, Ash felt Eun shift next to him.

So much had happened lately it was hard for Ash to keep it all in mind, but one thing was sure. His training for the time being was over and tomorrow they would head to the Maoh’s castle so that they could prepare for war. Ash wasn’t sure how long they would be there before heading to the front lines, but he knew that many of the demon clan heads would be at the castle as well to help him prepare. Many of whom Ash had yet to meet other than the quick greeting he had gotten from them on the day he had taken the role of the next Maoh.

The demons could be placed into four main groups. There was the flying troops, scouts, mages, and melee fighters. Each group could be broken down into a number of different smaller parts, but due to the diversity of the demons it was hard for Ash to grasp. Many of the demon clans had similar abilities or at least it looked like it on the surface, but how they put them to use was completely different. For instance, there were two major clans that used light magic. One of them used it mainly for healing and support, while another used it for attacking and defending.

Ash had asked the sage to give him papers with an overview of all the clans and their main abilities, but Ash hadn’t had enough time to go over them well enough to learn much. He couldn’t even recall a quarter of the clan’s names, let alone their abilities and how they could be best used in a large scale battle. Before, Ash had only been one among a number of other soldiers with only a small amount of responsibility, but now he was the at the head of the proverbial snake. It put a lot of pressure on him and it was something that he felt most keenly. Each day that passed, it felt as if more and more weight was pressing down on him, as if an inviable giant was sitting on his shoulders. A few times late at night, Ash woke sweating. His eyes wide and his chest tight as if it refused to let him draw in breath. Ash knew that it was a weak version of a panic attack, but he was too ashamed to tell anyone about them. A few times, one of his wives woke up with him, but he was able to defer any questions by merely saying he had to go to the bathroom.

As he lay there, Ash had tried to sleep a number of times, but each time he only ended up fidgeting until he finally gave up and sat up and started to think of what would be soon be happening. Ash couldn’t really do much planning on his own due to his limited experience, not only with war, but also the demons. It would be like playing a game of chess for the first time, completely blindfolded while being spun in a circle. The only thing he could do, was try and imagine how things might go. Though each time he tried, it didn’t end very well within his own mind.

It was not that Ash thought that they would lose, but he feared about how many people would be lost fighting a battle that was not their own. He hated the thought of using the demons for his own personal goal, but he had been left with little choice. He had only known the demons for a short time and while he had enjoyed their company and there were a few he might even consider friends, the truth was that none of them could compare with how he thought about Emelia, Yuki and the others. He would gladly trade a thousand of their lives to save any one of them. When Ash thought of this fact, he started to wonder if that made him evil or just selfish. He knew deep down that it was wrong, but no matter how much his conscious fought against him, he remained determined. Most the time he alleviated some of the guilt by telling himself that he would be building a better world for more than just himself, but it was like putting a band aid over a severed arm.

Looking to his side, Ash looked at Eun and a pang of guilt ran though his body. He planned to fight at the front of the army during the battle in hopes to save as many as he could using his abilities and heightened stats, but that would mean that Eun and his other wives would be front and center as well. Ash knew that if he tried to keep them back, that it would not work. At most, he would only be able to reduce the number that would tend to him at the time, but most of them would still be in danger.

Ash couldn’t say that he loved any of his wives and that alone still bothered him. He had agreed to marry them for the sake of tradition and at the time, he had not seen any danger to doing so, but now he was thinking differently. If he could go back in time, he would have thrown off the shackles of tradition. It wasn’t that he didn’t like his new wives, but it was the complete opposite. Ash didn’t love them, but he liked them well enough and the thought of them dying pained him. He thought it would be better to not have gotten to know them at all, or at least wait until after the war to start taking them as wives so that that he wouldn’t know so many of those that he was putting in danger. It was a selfish thought and Ash knew it, but it was one of his many honest thoughts. Looking once again at his wife, Ash turned on his side and closed his eyes and attempted to sleep.

10-2

Ash woke when he felt Eun stir beside him. His eyes were red and it felt as if he had only closed his eyes for a few short seconds, even though he knew that he had at least been asleep for four hours.

The flight back to the demon lord castle would take more than half the day. It was for that reason that they would be leaving as soon as the sun was high enough for them to see. Ash had wanted to leave earlier, but the sage had told him that it was impossible.

After waking, Ash quickly dressed and woke Eun before he left to find the others. It didn’t take long to find everyone as they were gathered in one of the large meeting rooms talking amongst each other.

“My lord, it is good to see you awake so early,” the sage said as soon as Ash entered the room. “It will still a bit before we can take flight, so the clan head has saw fit to prepare an elaborate feast. Since you haven’t had much chance to enjoy even a decent meal as of late, I thought it would be a good change of pace for you.”

Shortly after Ash had been seated, the food was brought out. When the sage had said a large feast, Ash had thought that it would just be a decent sized meal, but he had been mistaken. Ash had never eaten a heavy breakfast since it normally left him feeling as if he didn’t want to do anything for hours afterwards.

Of the dishes that were brought out, many of them were Ash’s favorites. There was fried toast with syrup, though in his previous would they would have just called it French toast. There were flapjacks, sausage, bacon, and eggs cooked in every way one could imagine. There were also a number of things on the table that Ash had no clue what they were. He tried to just eat a little of his favorites, but each time his plate was almost clean, someone would put something else down on it until his stomach was so full that he was afraid that if he even dared to take a deep breath, he would rupture something inside.

After the meal was finished, Ash and the others headed to a large open field where their riding mounts were already waiting on them. As Ash climbed on the back of the large bird, he felt his stomach protest.

Once he was mounted, the large bird reared back on its hind legs and kicked off the ground, coming to soar through the air as it wings flapped furiously.

It was not the first time that Ash had ridden one of the large hawks and he knew that the only rough part of the ride was the takeoff and landing. The rest of the time, as long as a shield was in place, it was even more comfortable than riding on the back of a horse.

Thanks to the large meal that had been forced upon him, Ash had to force the contents of his stomach to remain in place as the bird too flight. His face paled slightly and Ash felt light headed and used the little strength left in his body to stay in his seat.

With the long flight, Ash had plenty of time for his stomach to settle and as the time passed he took more and more time to enjoy the scenery that passed below him. From so high above the earth, the land looked beautiful no matter where you flew. It made a lot of the problems that had been pressing down on him for the past few weeks seem insignificant and lifted Ash’s spirits.

Due to the long flight and the large amount of food that had been stuffed in him, Ash found himself feeling sluggish and tired. Knowing the danger of falling from such a height, Ash used the small harness to strap himself to the saddle. Ash knew that he could fall at any moment if something happened that he wasn’t expecting, but he rarely used the harness since it pinched his body uncomfortably, and if he tightened it too hard it would leave large red marks on his legs that would stay for hours after and make his legs fall asleep. Since Ash had his own pair of wings and could slow his decent should he fall, the sage only complained every now and then about his reluctance to wear the safety harness.

Ash woke a number of times during the flight, but he always quickly fell back asleep. The last time he woke was when the large birds started to circle around the demon lord castle as they prepared to land. Ash didn’t enjoy the takeoff, but the landing always left him feeling more than a little queasy and dizzy. After landing, it always took a few moments before Ash regained enough of his baring that he could walk again without the fear of tripping over his own feet.

“Master,” A light airy voice called out as soon as Ash entered the large castle as a bolt of white flashed through the air before hitting him hard in the chest.

“Allice,” Ash said, patting her head a few times before pushing her away. Ash had hoped that after the weeks of separation, she wouldn’t be as clingy, but it seemed as if he had been mistaken as she looked and acted the same as before. Letting out a heavy sigh, Ash pushed her away and started introducing her to his new guards.

Allice had a complicated look on her face when she heard Ash refer to the other women as his wives, but she retained her silence. After the introductions were finished, Ash had Allice show the women to their room while the sage took Ash to the hidden vault.

At first Ash wanted to take the women with him, but the sage had refused. It seemed that only the Maoh and the current sage was allowed to know the location and enter the vault.

It was the first time that Ash had head that there had been previous sages and after a few questions, Ash learned that just like the title of a clan head and Maoh, the sage was one that had been passed down for hundreds of years.

Surprisingly, the vault was far better hidden than Ash would have thought. First he was taken to his personal room. It was just as he remembered it. On the far side of the room was a large mirror about seven foot tall and five foot wide. Ash had thought that it was so large since the size of demons varied greatly, but when the sage moved beside it, pulling the silver and gold claps on its corners, it slid to the side and he started to understand.

When the mirror was pushed aside, it revealed a hidden set of stairs that lead downward. Lifting his hand, the sage said a few words and a small globe of light filled his hand. “Shall we go my lord?” the sage asked politely.

“Why all the need for secrecy?” Ash asked as he started down the stone steps. “By nature, the demons cannot revolt against their lord, so why the need to go through all this trouble?”

“It is true that they cannot openly revolt,” the sage admitted. “If they did, all the current Maoh would have to do would be order them to take their own lives and it would be over, but that does not stop them for secretly doing so. Just like with any race, there are both good and bad among the number of demons that live within the kingdom. There are more than a few that would let go of their better judgement and try to take whatever they could get their hands on.”

“I see,” Ash said as he once again started to think about the demons. He still knew far too little about them to call himself their king, even though that was what he was, no matter what name they gave to it.

They continued down in a spiral for so long Ash was sure that soon they might reach the center of the earth. To help pass the time and to keep himself busy, Ash started to count the steps as they walked further down. He didn’t know how many he had passed before he had started counting, but Ash counted 547 before he stopped at a large steel door that looked as if it would take four men to open.

“Place your hand on the plate my lord,” the sage said as he pointed to a set of small gold plates slightly bigger than a hand. Ash did as he was told and put his left hand on one of the plates while the sage placed his on the other. A small spark of blue light flashed in the air before the sound of grinding could be heard.

The large door started to swing forward to reveal a room three times the size of the bedroom above. As Ash entered the room, he looked around to see a pile of coins twice as tall as he was with the based as wide as he would be laying down. Reaching over, Ash picked up one of the coins and looked it over. It was clearly made from gold, but the coin was different from what he had seen before.

Other than a number of piles of coins, there was also numerous chests filled with everything imaginable. Since he worked for the duchess and he was her husband, Ash has some understanding to how much gold the duchy had saved over the years, but compared to what was before him now, it was like the difference between heaven and earth. Ash was sure that if Emelia had a quarter of what was within this one room, she could easily compete with any of the major kingdoms.

“The equipment is kept over here my lord,” the sage said, pulling Ash away from his thoughts.

Letting his eyes go to where the sage was indicating, Ash found a number of large stands against the east wall. Ash’s eyes widened as he noticed countless weapons and suits of armor, all presented as if they were showcased in front of a prominent store.

First Ash headed to where the weapons were located. There was almost enough to outfit a small army, let alone just himself and his current guards. Picking up the first one, Ash used his ability to analyze it.

[Devil’s Blade: sword made from a unique metal ore that was gained from killing a greater devil. Attack 32-36, durability 65/65. Strength + 5, agility +5, drain 10%.]

“What does the ability drain do?” Ash asked as he held the sword.

“It turns a certain portion of the damage done to an enemy to HP.”

Setting aside the first sword, Ash picked up the next one.

[Blade of the Serpent. Durability 70/70. Attack 33-37. Strength +4, agility +6, poison.]

Ash picked up sword after sword and found that each one of them were things that far exceeded what he was using now, but still they were below his expectations.

“Where you expecting something different?” the sage asked when he saw the pensive look on Ash’s face.

“I don’t know,” Ash said feeling slightly awkward. “I was thinking that I would find an overpowering weapon that was something that people would write songs about,” He said honestly.

The sage gave a short laugh and shook his head. “I guess that would be the dream of any warrior who came here looking for something, but the truth is that the best weapons of the kingdom are gathered here. This isn’t a story, but real life so how could there be something like that. Any of these weapons will serve you well, but there is nothing that will make you the equal to a god on its own. For that, you will have to train, gain strength, and have a great deal of luck.”

Ash nodded his head, feeling more than a little foolish as he continued to search through the weapons. After almost a quarter of an hour of searching, Ash found something that caught his eye.

[Fouremar. Durability 60/60 attack 35-40. Strength +10, agility +5, fire brand.]

It didn’t have the largest attack out of the swords he had seen. At most it was only slightly behind the others. What he really liked was the extra stats were slightly higher and the addition of fire brand. It was an ability that he had seen before. It meant that the blade would heat up as MP was poured into it, making it able to melt through most armor.

In the end, Ash decided on the sword. He wasn’t really sure why, but it seemed like the right choice and Ash had always liked to go with his gut when he was unsure.

Normally Ash would pass his armor and weapons down to someone else, but the sword he had been using had been given to him by Emelia and was a family heirloom, so he couldn’t do that. It just wouldn’t feel right and he was sure that Emelia might skin him alive if he let another woman use it. Putting his old sword away in his inventory, Ash strapped the new one onto his waist.

After finding the right weapon for himself, Ash looked through the others to search for something for his guards. For a brief moment he thought about looking for something that Emelia and Yuki could use, but decided against it. Right now there was still no knowing how they would react to the news that he had become the next Maoh. He loved Emelia, but he couldn’t turn his back on the demons. Until everything was settled, Ash thought it would be best to wait until after the war to make any real decisions since no one knew what the future might hold.

It didn’t take him long to find weapons for the guards since he knew their preference thanks to the long talks they had. There were a few he was unsure of, but he used his best judgment in those cases. Once the weapons were picked, Ash moved over to where the armor was placed. There were far less choices among the armor. It seemed like people preferred to give weapons as a gift compared to armor, even though right now armor was the main thing that Ash wished to upgrade.

Ash had given more thought to what kind of armor that he wanted over the past few nights. He had thought about taking full armor, but in the end he had to throw away that idea. The extra defense would be welcomed, but Ash’s fighting style relied heavily on his mobility and if he word heavy armor that would be decreased dramatically. In the end, Ash decided to keep the same kind of armor he had been wearing. He only hoped that he could find some better than what he was already wearing.

After looking around, Ash found three pieces of chest armor that could be used. All of them were better than what he was using, but he finally decided on one after giving it a lot of thought. It had slightly less defense than the other armors, but it had elemental properties that Ash felt offset the lower defense.

[Gold Dragon Light Armor. Durability 65/65 defense +35. Vitality + 15 elemental defense +15%.]

Next Ash looked at gauntlets and accessories, but none of them looked much better than what he was already using. From what Ash saw, they had various different abilities tied to them but none of them offered much in the way of defense so Ash deiced to keep what he already had.

After looking at the rings and gauntlets, Ash moved over to where the leg armor was located. Just like with the chest armor, there was not much to choose from. In fact, there were only two pieces that looked as if they would be useful. Thanks to the low number of choices, it only took him a moment to choose the one he wanted.

[Pants of the Fire Drake. Durability 45/45 defense 22. Agility +8, spirit +6 fire defense +20%.]

“Have you found everything that you wanted my lord?” The sage asked once Ash walked away from where the weapons and armor were kept. The whole time Ash was looking through the items, the sage had stayed in the center of the room as if he was afraid to take another step into the room.

“I have found what I like, but if you don’t mind, I would like to look around the vault for a bit longer,” Ash said as his eyes scanned past the other numerous objects in the room.

“My lord, everything within this room belongs to you,” the sage said in a slightly confused tone.

“I thought it belonged to the kingdom, not me personally,” Ash replied just as confused.

“No my lord,” the sage replied, shaking his head. “The kingdom treasury is kept at a second place and is easily three times as large as what you see before you. If you wish to see the treasury, that can be arranged, but we would have to gather at least three clan heads to open it.”

When Ash heard the sage’s words, his head started to swim. “Three times as large,” Ash muttered to himself. What was in the room alone could easily match any kingdom, but three times the amount would make them the wealthiest country as far as he knew. “How did we amass so much?” Ash asked, his knees feeling a little weak.

“Well, each clan pays a small amount each year in the form of taxes. Since most the youth train in the labyrinth, it was not hard for any one clan to amass a small wealth and since each clan takes care of its own lands, there is very little for the kingdom to spend on it, so we have been lax in taxes yet it still starts to amass over the years. A great portion of both your personal vault and that of the kingdom was gained during the time of the great wars before the kingdom was sealed off. Whenever we destroyed a city or army, we would take 20% of anything of value while the rest went to the human king and his men. At one time, we did pay a small tithe to the churches and human king, but it never amounted to much. Thanks to that, we now have what you see before you.”

“I see,” Ash said as he tried to imagine the grand battles that must have taken place in the past.  Shaking off the thoughts, Ash started to look around the room. Most of the items were just for looks, but a few of them gave odd benefits. There was a small statue of an angel that could bless water and turn it into holy water to be used against the undead. There was also a gaudy cane that could increase magical power greatly, but the drawback was that it decreased your HP by 25%.

Ash picked a few items that he thought would make good gifts to Emelia. Before he was hesitant about using the contents of the vault as gifts, but now that he knew they were his and didn’t belong to the kingdom, he didn’t feel as bad. Though it still caused a slight twinge of pain when he thought about it too deeply.

Once he was finished, Ash headed back up the long stairs. Even with his boosted stats, Ash found them tiring, not physically, but mentally. One could only stare at the same blank walls while walking up the stairs for so long before his mind started to feast upon itself.

After returning to his room, Ash went to find his wives and pass out what he had gathered for them from the vault. Most of the women accepted the gift with a small smile and a bow, but Tolarea had to be the one to take it a step farther. Ash had picked out a large double sword that even with his enhanced strength would make his arms ache if he tried to use it for too long. The attack power of the large weapon alone was 120. It was far higher than his, but it did have a small drawback since it reduced agility by 15, but it increased strength 25. Ash didn’t find any single handed weapons that had drawbacks, but then again none of them seemed quite as good as the one he had found for Tolarea.

“Let us try it out,” Tolarea yelled as she pulled Ash outside the palace to spar. Ash didn’t know if he should laugh or cry. In the end, he just let her have her way. A good spar could do a lot to settle his nerves that were starting to press down on him once again.

10-3

The next day Ash woke when the muscles in his legs began to spasm, the night before Tolarea had not let him rest until they had fought five times. When he had finally thought it was over, she lifted him up like a newlywed wife and carried him to his bedroom for another kind of fight, leaving him more drained then if he had spent two days straight fighting in the labyrinth.

Today was the start of the war, even though there would be no fighting. The sage had called in all the clan heads and soon the palace would be filled with forty-two demons who each had their own opinions about the coming war. Ash was sure that more than a few of them would protest the demons helping out such a small land with nothing to gain from the fight, but Ash was resolute in his decision and he would not be swayed.

Today would be the start of his personal war against his own people. In Ash’s mind, the clan heads were much more qualified to make decisions than he was, but the sage warned against this way of thinking. “If you don’t take the country into your own hands from the beginning, then you will never be taken seriously,” the sage had said over and over. Ash understood what the sage was saying, but he was unsure if it was such a bad thing to leave the country in the hands of the clan heads. The ones he had met were all nice people, if a bit odd. In his eyes, they were much better than many of the nobles he had met when he had been in the human kingdom. Still, if he let the kingdom get too far out of his hands, there was no telling what could happen with Emelia and the war. There was even a chance the demons might decide to turn on the small duchy after the battle was over and force Emelia into the demon kingdom while giving her lands to one of the smaller clans and upgrading them to a major clan. From what the sage said, many of the smaller clans had once been major clans and vice versa. It seemed that every three hundred years or so, one clan would take the place of the other in internal wars though they were never as big as the one that was going on now and more often than not they were bloodless.

Ash took his meal in his room while he looked over the large stack of papers that had been placed on his desk during his absence. In the short time between the death of the previous Maoh and Ash taking the place as the next one, the sage had done most the work needed to keep the kingdom working, though in truth there was little to be done. Most the papers were simple requests from clan heads for one thing or another, mostly requiring the help of other clans. The Durmor clan needed three thousand enchanted bricks which meant Ash would have to request them from one of the two clans that dealt with such things. As Ash looked through the papers, he started to understand why Emelia always seemed as if she were working. For her, it was even worse since she couldn’t really trust any of the nobles since they didn’t think that a woman should hold the post of a leader.

In an hour, Ash had only gone through a tenth of the papers. Most of them were simple requests that Ash was sure the clans could take care of by just asking the other clan that dealt with what they needed themselves, but it seemed that many of the clans didn’t get along and often small fights would break out when opposing groups would get together. That was why all deals between clans went through the Maoh, otherwise the county would be constantly embroiled in small civil wars.

Rubbing his eyes, Ash stood up from his chair to find Tolarea standing silently behind him like a statue. “My lord,” she said with a gentle bow that didn’t fit her large frame.

Ash knew that it was expected that at least one to three of his guards were with him at all times, but it was hard to get used to it. Ash liked his privacy, but since coming to this world, it had slowly disappeared. First there was Emelia who was fine with him spending time on his own, which was one of the things he liked most about her, but she still demanded a small portion of his time. Next came Yuki who was loveable like a small pet, but at first she always seemed to be all over him, but that had changed once she joined the adventure school and had made a friend. Slowly Ash had gained more and more women around him, each vying for his time until he barely had a moment to himself to use the bathroom in peace.

Before Ash could say anything, a knock came at his door. “Come in,” Ash said without thinking.

When the door swung open, the sage bowed to him. “My lord, many of the clan heads have arrived and are waiting for you in the war room,” the sage said as he raised his head.

“How did they get here so fast?” Ash asked, his stomach starting to grumble in protest.

“All the clans have a small villa within the capital. Since you have not spent much time here, you should know that there is a large city not far from the palace. It is mainly inhabited by partial demons who do not fit in any one clan.”

“Do the clans force them to live there?” Ash asked as a bad feeling started to rise, but it quickly dissipated when the sage shook his head.

“No…Not in the sense that you are thinking,” the sage replied. “We once had humans living within our kingdom. They were servants and just simple villagers who did work that many of the clans were not so talented with. As I told you, we were created for war so farming and building were not our strong suite. After we were cut off from the rest of the world, there were demons who fell for the humans and now I don’t think we have a full blooded human within the lands. The clans don’t hate them or force them out. In fact, since they are skilled in areas that we are not, many of them hold great positions within the clan’s eyes. That said, I cannot say that there are no demons who don’t look down on humans as inferior and the same can be said of those not having full demon blood, but they are rare and not the norm.”

Ash nodded his head. “I think you can find those among anyone or any race,” Ash replied. “Some people will always find a reason to dislike those different from them in any way. It is sad, but I think it is just a natural response from those with weak minds.”

“You might be right about that,” the sage said laughing. “Though I wouldn’t suggest you say that in public…or at least find a better way to put it into words. Otherwise the people who dislike humans will feel as if you are calling them idiots. Even if it is true, it would cause too much trouble to be worth the effort,” the sage added with a thinly veiled smile.

Ash had never been one to watch his words before, but then again he had never been in a spot where he needed to. He had many conflicting views from those around him, but that was to be expected considering that he came from a completely different world. He had given those feelings of his a lot of thought over the past year and he had never come to a concrete decision.

The more Ash had thought about it, the more he came to understand that morality was in a lot of ways in the eye of the people and person viewing them and when they were viewing them. There was no clear black or white and even calling it a shade of grey was not completely accurate. The question had been posed many times by many great thinkers and Ash knew that he was far from a deep thinker. In the end, all Ash could do was follow his own heart and try not to let the people and world around him change him too much, but he knew that he would have to change some, otherwise neither he nor those around him would be happy. He was still a bit stiff and felt out of place sometimes, but it was getting better with each passing day.

When Ash walked into the room, he found seventeen of the clan heads waiting on him. He recognized a few faces in the crowd, but most of them were completely unknown to him. Ash took a brief moment to look at each face, not to remember them, but to see their expression. As he expected a few of them looked more than a little displeased to be present. Sighing inside, Ash forced himself to walk forward until he reached his seat which was at a raised chair at the end of a long table with a map of the world etched into it.

Having never been in the room before, it was the first time that he had seen the large map. As he looked at it, Ash noticed that it wasn’t an old version and even had Emelia’s duchy capital along with all of the small villages that he remembered.

“As I said before, we keep a close eye on our neighbors, even if we are separated from them. Every three years, if there are any major changes in the land, we have people come in to update the map,” the sage answered his unasked question. “We never know if we were going to need it, but better to have it and not need it and need it and not have it.”

“Couldn’t have said it better myself,” an older demon said gruffly.

“Why don’t we get this over with?” A demon with long red wings and silk black hair asked. “I don’t feel like babysitting the new Maoh all day while he plays war.”

“Barborus, if you are getting that crotchety then maybe it is time for you to ask the goddess to give you an eternal slumber,” a female demon with dark black skin and light grey hair said.

“Tenna, I didn’t know you were still alive,” Barborus replied. “I am surprised you haven’t asked for the goddess’s slumber yourself. Then again, given how nasty you are, even hell would spit you back out.”

“Enough,” the sage said, his tone even yet carrying a lot of weight within that one word. “We are here today to discuss the coming war. I know many of you have generations of animosity, but right now we must do our best to make sure that as few demons as possible fall during the battle. The only way to do that is for us to think of everything that might happen and come up with an appropriate response for it.”

“If you want to keep the demons from being killed, then just keep them from the human’s foolishness,” Barborus said.

“That isn’t possible,” Ash said slightly louder than he planned. Everyone turned their attention to Ash, who they were mostly ignoring before. “This war isn’t just two groups of humans killing each other, but about the rights of those bearing the blood of demons and that of the beast tribe.”

“I haven’t heard of that before,” Barborus said, the scowl on his face deepening.

“In a way, he is right,” the sage interjected. “As all of you know, for years we have been searching the human lands for those bearing demon blood and bringing them back here if they wished. That is because the humans treat our brethren worse than trash and they do the same with those belonging to our cousins the beast tribe. We have debated many times whether we should bring them into our land or not, but so far we have never come to an agreement on the issue, but I know all us believe that their treatment is detestable.”

“It is a shame that humans are so shameful,” another demon Ash had not seem before said.

“My wife Emelia believes the same,” Ash said, interrupting the group’s discussion. “She knew that I carried demon blood, yet chose me as her partner. We made laws to protect those with nonhuman blood, but the other nobles of the kingdom used this as a reason to go to war and demanded my head as recompense. If not for me, then this war would not have started and I will not leave Emelia with a fate I started alone. If the demons will not stand at my side, then I shall still go alone to fight my enemies.”

“Don’t say it like that my lord,” Celina said from behind Ash. He didn’t know when his wives had entered the room, but tried his best not to act startled when he heard her voice. “If you go to fight, then we will follow along with you.”

“Well said young lady,” Tenna said with a smirk to Barborus. “My lord, most of us have been clan heads for longer than anyone has a right to be alive so we tend to overthink things and since we have been separated from the outside world for centuries, we tend to forget the problems of others. Right now we shouldn’t be arguing about whether we should go to war or not, but how we will be fighting it.”

“Right,” the sage said as he started to place a number of stone circles on the map. Each stone had a different symbol etched into them and it didn’t take long for Ash to understand that the stones were meant to represent different groups or clans of demons. “We have already moved around two hundred demons to stay inside the walled city. They are acting like adventures who have moved there in light of the new laws offering protection to those of the demon race. We have also started to open up a tunnel into the human lands. It was finished not long ago, but it still two day’s march from the city so it won’t be easily discovered and given the limited movement in the outlying areas of the duchy, I doubt it will be at all unless we advertise its location purposefully.”

“Have any other moves been made?” another demon asked leaning forward in his seat.

“We have moved around four hundred demons through the tunnel and set up a small camp in the woods, but we feared to take more through. There was just too much chance of being discovered.”

“That fear would be alleviated if we used the Tao to cast and enchantment aura over the forest. It would keep out any unwanted visitors and then we could move close to two thousand troops over.”

Slowly more and more ideas were brought up and each time the sage would secretly pass Ash a note. Since only a quarter of the clan heads were currently present no final decisions were made but there was no rush. The plan was for the conference to last three days and once everything was finalized everyone would start moving. That still left them about three weeks before the fighting started, but it would be a tight fit as far as time went. The farthest clans would take nearly a month to arrive. They could use the large eagles to transport a small number of them, but the number of mounts were limited and even if they organized all of them, it would be less than four hundred.

Ash had asked why the demons didn’t breed more of them. The answer was simple, the birds ate a lot and were hard to train and keep so they were mostly limited to less than ten per clan. The only one that had more than that was the Maoh who kept fifty of them to be used by himself, his wives, and his children. Ash wanted to use his personal mounts, but it was forbidden by their own laws and while Ash could countermand them, there would be few demons who would dare ride on one of the Maoh’s mounts.

It wasn’t the first time that the laws that had been in place bothered Ash, but he knew that he simply trying to force the issue wouldn’t work and would only end in him wasting valuable time.

Throughout the meeting, more and more clan heads began to show up and by the end of the day, only seven were missing and they were the ones that belonged to the clans that lived at the far end of the kingdom. The sage assured Ash that they would arrive by tomorrow morning. He hoped so, otherwise the war conference would have to be lengthened and though it would only be by one or two days, it was time that they didn’t really have to play with.

As he thought about this, Ash started to think he should have left his training a bit earlier, but the sage assured him that it wouldn’t have really have made much of a difference as they had to have enough time to inform all the clan heads of the coming meeting and that was only done a few days before he left for his own palace.

After the meeting, Ash ate a large meal with the gathered clan heads and they talked about his previous life and what his plans were for the demon race. When Ash mentioned that he planned to bring the demons back into the outside world, he thought he would receive more than a little dissension, but no one seemed to think it was a bad idea. In fact more than a few thought it was far past time they had joined the rest of the world instead of hiding away from it. Once that was passed, the tension that had been building with him throughout the day seemed to evaporate and Ash enjoyed the rest of the meal talking with the clan heads as if they were old friends.

10-4

The few missing clan heads arrived the next morning as promised but Ash was still forced to length the war council by one day due to the large amount of ideas that were being brought up. That alone could have been finished on time but Ash didn’t think that he was expected to assign the commanders to any post that was considered important.

Having no real knowledge of who would be good for what post Ash could only listen to the suggestions made by the clan heads. Not even the sage was of much help since it was almost impossible to know the name and abilities of each person within such a large number of people.

Each clan head nominated someone from their own clan for each post and Ash was forced to choose between them. No matter what decision he made there would be a number of people who were not happy about it but since a decision had to be made he did it and hoped it would work out. Once all the positions were appointed the council was over and a large feast was prepared. Out of the forty-two clan heads only nine of them would be participating in the war itself. Most of the others would be remaining within the kingdom to help with logistic and support.

The night after the meetings were finally finished Ash didn’t sleep well but that was due to the fact that in the morning he and the others would be flying over the mountain to join the few demons who were already camped awaiting the start of battle.

The next morning before Ash was going to set off he received the news that Emelia had pulled back all her forces to the partially complete fort outside the capital. Ash wasn’t sure if it was a good move or not but the sage and the other demons seemed to applaud it. When they saw Ash’s confused look Tolarea voiced the answer to his unspoken question.

“When greatly outnumbered it is best to consolidate your forces in one defensible place rather than to string them out. Tough her chances to win the war are extremely slime she has a lot better chance this way to hold out for much longer. In a way you could say she is playing a game of chance with time, but it is still a smart bet on her part.”

Ash didn’t respond and merely kicked the flanks of his steed making it jump into the air. He had done his best not to think about Emelia over the past weeks. Not because he was bothered by thoughts of her but bothered by the fact that he had left her in the dark about whether he was alive or dead. Emelia was a strong woman but she also had her soft side even if she hid it in front of everyone but him.

Once he was in the air Ash couldn’t help but keep his eyes on the ground. The Maoh’s palace was not located in the center of the country but instead was located only a couple dozen miles from what had used to be the mountain pass between the demon country and the human kingdom that had once been there.

The reason for this was simple enough. The humans and demons had to visit often in order to coordinate the many wars and the humans didn’t want the demons within their own lands so they would send people to visit the demon lord. To make this easier the demons had built their palace near the border between the two countries.

When Ash had read the history of the demons it was not hard to see what the humans really thought of the demons at the time. Yet it was as if the demons didn’t even notice that they were nothing but tools even to the humans they had made friends with. When he had asked the sage about it the look on the sage’s face had soured.

“You must understand the demons had never had much contact with anyone outside the facility where they were created. When they first came across the humans it was a small group of knights who had fought under the goddess’s name during the annihilation of the mage’s experimental facility. At that time the demons numbered less than a thousand and under the orders of the king they were placed at edge of what would be become their new kingdom. Then it was only a vast sea of trees that were filled with dangerous monsters. As the years passed the number of demons started to increase and the land began to be cleared. Then came a small war and the king called upon the demons for aid. During their first battle the power of the demons were seen and that was the start of the vast war the devastated the continent for nearly a hundred year.”

When the sage explained it to Ash it seemed reasonable but it was still hard for him to accept. Shaking the thoughts away Ash looked down in time to see a large number of demons at the edge of the mountain range. Ash knew that they were the soldiers that were waiting to be moved across. They were men who were marked to fight and if need be die if needed.

Soon the sight of the demons disappeared and all that Ash could see was the gray stone and white snow of the mountain as they passed over. This was the second time that Ash had passed over the mountain but it was the first time he had done so awake.

The mountain was much larger than he had expected but each second that passed the scenery of the mountain changed slightly. It was much more different than flying over a forest which simply looked as if he was flying over a green blanket. It was beautiful but it quickly got old. The mountain on the other hand changed every second.

It took a little over two hours to fly over the mountain but Ash had been so absorbed in his own thoughts and the surrounding view that the time had passed by quickly. As the scenery changed from gray back to green Ash looked and tried to find the demons who were awaiting him below but die to the trees he couldn’t even see a hint of the ground below. Ash pulled back on his eagle’s reigns letting it know to slow down as he watched the sage. Once the sage started to descend Ash followed suite by leaning forward in his saddle and pulling down on the right reign then the left.  As the large bird started to tighten its circles as it lowered toward the ground Ash looked off in the direction of Emelia but even from his height al he could see was the blue sky in the distance.

Once they neared the tops of the trees the bird stop circling as it looked for an opening in the foliage so that it could land. After a few moments the bird spotted what it was looking for a dived through the tops of the trees landing hard on the ground below. Unlike when it landed in the open land there was no for the bird to slow itself so the landing was rough leaving Ash’s stomach in his throat.

After dismounting Ash looked around but couldn’t see any sign of the sage or the others. “Can anyone hear me?” Ash yelled loudly.

“Over here my lord,” Ash heard Celina’s musical voice yell from his left.

Soon more and more voices began to call out and Ash started moving in the direction of the loudest. It didn’t take long before the companions were reunited. Once they were all back together they sage led them to the east where the large camp of demons were supposed to be waiting.

As soon as they neared the camp Ash started to see tents hung in-between trees. They were done differently than he had seen other army camps do before and in a way helped mask the presence of the force. If he had been with humans they would have looked for a large cleaning or during the long stay would have cleared some of the land themselves to make it more accommodating. The demons on the other hand didn’t chop down a single tree and instead used them as support poles for their tents since the root filled ground made it hard to place anything more than a few feet deep into it. Seeing as how for the past countless years the demons had only fought against each other, it was a smart move. It didn’t make sense to hide in open ground when your enemy could fly though as far as Ash knew none of the humans had such an ability.

Near what Ash figured was the center of the camp they found a large tent with four trees sticking out from the top. They were greeted by two armed guards then quickly let inside. One through the flap of the tent they found an imposing demon with green skin awaiting them.

“Greetings my lord I am Uthla and the current commander of the forces you saw outside,” the demon said with a slight bow of his bald head.

After the greetings Ash started to explain the current plans that had been decided during the war council the day before. The commander listened without interrupting though from the look on his face though Ash could tell that there were a few time that he wanted to. When Uthla heard that he would be left as the commander of the force he looked surprised. It was one of the many decisions he had been forced to decide on. Since Uthla had already been on site Ash no reason to have him disposed so he decided to allow him to continue on as the commander.

“Thank you for your trust my lord,” Uthla said bowing once again.

“I know none of the people who were suggested for the post so trusting you was just the same as any of the others if I were to tell the truth,” Ash said. “That said if you do well it could guarantee you a great post within the kingdom. It is one of the benefits to serving a new ruler who has no other ties within the kingdom.”

“I shall endeavor to do my best,” Uthla said holding his hand over his chest in a form of salute.

“Well my lord they are preparing your tent as we speak,” Uthla said. “While we wait would you like to have a tour of the camp and here what we have learned thus far about the duchy’s defense and the enemy’s current forces.”

“Yes I would like that very much,” Ash replied nodding his head.

The camp was much more spread out than Ash would have thought. Around the edges of the camp the demons had asset up a hasty defense and camouflage just in case someone stumbled to close. Using their abilities and magic they caused large brambles to grow. They couldn’t completely block out everything but they made it nearly impossible for the camp to be discovered without the people who stumble on it being discovered.

The news on the duchy’s defense was not much different than what Ash had head back in his palace. Emelia had ordered all of her forces to pull back to the capital while at the same time sending out a general notice that any villagers who see enemy forces to retreat and hide and by no means approach them.

The news on the enemy armies was much more detailed than he had heard before. They still hadn’t crossed into the duchy territories yet through they were close to the brooder and since two days before they had started to move. Just as the clan heads had expected the kings forces started to move once they had enough supplies prepared. The number was larger than they had expected but not by much. They vastly outnumbered Emelia’s forces but they weren’t expecting a demon army to flank them so not only would they have superior numbers but they would also have the element of surprise.

Once his and his wives tents were ready he retired for the night along with all the reports that Uthla had prepared upon his request. Most of them had to do with scout reports but others told him how much food and supplies that the current force was using. While the information wasn’t really needed by Ash he thought it would be a good idea to get a full grasp of the situation in case he found himself in a similar position in the future.

10-5

Six days passed quickly with little for Ash to do. Even the large number of reports only took a quarter of the first day to completely go through. After the second time reading through them Ash found himself staring at the papers that talked about Emelia even if it was just in passing.

Once he grew tired of staring at papers Ash started to venture into the camp to meet the soldiers. At first he was a little apprehensive about meeting those that he might be sending to their deaths but Tolarea urged him to show his face.

In the beginning he was nervous but from the actions and look on the soldier’s faces they were as well. It was once again Tolarea who broke the tension between the two groups when she started dragging soldiers to spar against them. At first the soldiers were against fighting against their lord but when Tolarea explained that she and the others guards were still new and needed to practice on how to work as a group many of the soldiers began to join in. Ash himself never fought much during the battles as it was his job to play the useless protected lord though he would quickly grow tired of the role and ask one of the more skilled soldiers to fight one on one without the use of skills or abilities.

It had been so long since Ash had fought merely based on skill. 90% of the demons that were in the camp belonged to the same clan though there were a few of the others mixed in. they were a large yet agile race of demons with green skin and light scales coving their back and chest. From the sages explanation it was believed that they were a mix of lizard based monsters which made them of use in a variety of situations since they could move quickly in almost any terrain.

With their speed and agility they used mainly bows and daggers and their fighting style reminded him of how Shina fought. It was challenging to fight against them but with his stats and personal skill with a sword Ash found that one of the demons were his equal one on one. If they were like Tolarea and had absurd strength then they might be able to cause him a problem but with them fighting with speed like he did they were at a disadvantage. Soon Ash started to fight against two demons at a time then three. Three made it hard for him to keep his pace and two out of three times he would lose. Ash didn’t feel bad about this but instead it was what he wanted. He knew that he didn’t have enough experience when fighting against superior number and with the war that was coming it was something that he would need to know otherwise the chance of losing his own life would be increased greatly.

Ash wanted to continue his training but today more soldiers were going to be arriving. One of the main addition to the troops were mages who used a mixture of wind and light magic to cast illusions. They were mainly skilled in small operations and extremely deadly when used for infiltration since their magic could increase their speed and help them disguise themselves as anything they wanted. Though it wasn’t what they were mainly used for their main role in this war would be helping disguise the current forces so that they could expand the number of troops currently present.

Other than the mages there would also be more melee soldiers coming to join the ranks. There would also be more officers that would be joining them as well to help command the new troops.

The setup of the army was easy to understand. For every twenty regular troops there was a sergeant. Once there was ten sergeants a Lieutenant was place over them. After three Lieutenants there was a captain. If there was three Lieutenants a general was placed over them.

Right now there hadn’t been a need for a general yet but soon there would be but since Ash was taking over the forces he would currently hold that post. If the forces grew so much that he couldn’t keep up with them a second general would be appointed to help pick up the slack.

Ash couldn’t meet with all the soldiers and even meeting all the officers was nearly impossible and while he did try and get out to mingle with the common troops most of his time would be spent with the captains once the new troops arrived and the preparations for the war started in earnest.

Ash didn’t meet the new commanders as soon as they arrived instead he allowed them to get settled into their positions while at the same time a letter was sent to the commander leading the forces within the capital so that he could be present during the coming discussion.

It was three days after the new soldiers arrived that Ash first sat down with the new commanders. It was not as if he had not met any of them but mostly he had only greeted them in passing while he was out amongst the common troops. It was not only him and Tolarea that was moving amid the troops either. Each one of his wives moved around working with the troops and their commanders in any way they could. It was hard for Ash to remember but his wives were amount the elite of each of their tribes younger generation. They had been given the best training and resources so in many ways they were much more skilled than a common troops not to mention their levels were much higher than the average soldiers.

Celina having the same standard fighting style of most the troops worked with them daily. Ash had feared that it would cause problems with Uthla but instead he was quite happy with the troop’s small advancements.

Seia worked with the few archers within the group from time to time but mostly spent her time hunting for Ash’s supper. It wasn’t that the army camp didn’t have good food but it was mostly bland food that was made for a large number of people and while filling was not that tasty.

Li spent her mornings and evenings cooking for Ash but when she was not in the kitchen she moved among the troops healing any wounds they might have received during training. Ash did this as well so that he could help increase his abilities level but the troops were much more comfortable asking Li for help than him.

Mia created a small farm at the edges of the camp where she used her nature magic to grow vegetables. The rest of the time she spent moving amount the woods helping Seia hunt. Ash still didn’t know much about nature magic since it was what they called a melded or unique magic.

Tina spent most of her time taking care of the large hawks that had been moved to a small pin in the center of the camp. The birds didn’t like the forest and at first would squawk noisily all night but now that Tina groomed them each day they had started to quiet down.

Gena like Tolarea never left Ash’s side but she didn’t involve herself in the battles and remained silently at his side watching anyone close to him with narrowed eyes. Ash knew that she had no problem talking like Li did but when she was working she was almost like a moving statue.

Eun spent most of her time with the commander Uthla and reporting everything back to Ash. The main reason for her post was because she and Uthla had trained together when they were younger since the two were close together in age and their clans were close to each other. It was also Eun who had spoken up and helped Uthla keep his post. If Ash had been the jealous type he might have suspected something untoward but given how many wives he had Ash didn’t have the time to worry about every one of the actions.

Though each one of his wives had things they tended to throughout the day today they were all by his side as he sat in the large command tent waiting on the officers to arrive.

Taking a deep breath Ash look up at the dark green cloth ceiling of the tent then looked back to the group of demons gathered before him. There were far more than he had anticipated. It seemed that the clan heads had moved fast after leaving his palace and almost all of the commanders were present.

“We have received new that the enemy forces are less than two weeks away from the duchy capital,” Ash said trying to keep his tone even. “I am sure that each of you have received your orders but I wanted to bring you all together at least once so that we could make sure that everyone was sure of their part in the coming battle.”

When none of the commanders said anything Ash continued. “We are expecting that the enemy forces will surround the fort and erect siege weapons before attacking but if they directly assault the fort then we will have to skip the first to plans of action and move directly to their third…So please keep that in mind.”

“First for the positions and jobs. We have the first advanced company that is within the city itself. Your job is to make sure the citizens stay safe and to fight off any enemy troops that try to scale the wall. If everything goes as predicted they enemy will pay little attention to the city until the fort has fallen or unless they start to run down on supplies. If that is the case you may use your best judgment on how to hinder the enemy during the main battle.”

“Understood,” the commander said nodding his head while his hand was rested gently on his chin.

“Second is the second through seventh phoenix companies. You are the main fighting force of the army. You job is to attack the enemy forces on the side when they are occupied with the fort. This should throw them into disarray and allow our other forces to be more effective.”

“The first and third mage companies will use fire and earth magic to help heard the enemy to the north when they try to retreat. While the second through forty flying corps will sword down from the north after they have been fully committed to retreating. Do we have any questions?”

“What if they do not retreat?” the commander of the flying corps asked.

“Then I don’t want you to expose yourself. If they entrench their forces and prepare to fight it out we will pull back and reevaluate our choices.”

A few other questions were asked but for the most part everyone knew what they were supposed to do during the battle since Ash and the sage had tried to keep it simple. There were a number of problems that could occur during the battle but each commander was given enough leeway that they could make decisions if things do not go as planned.

After the meeting Ash retired to his personal tent to look over the new reports that had come in. Not only did it have troop number but it also have the average level and equipment of each group. The reason Ash asked for this was just because of the war but because he knew he was still lacking in common knowledge.

The army was broken up into three types of troops; common, advance, and elite troops. Even though the demons had been created for war there were some that were still better built to fight than others. The common troops had only one to two abilities and the average level of a soldier was forty-three. The advanced groups had three to four abilities and had an average level of forty-seven. Lastly the elite troops had five or more abilities and their levels average was forty-five.

Ash was more than a little startled when he found that the average level was the same but then again the number of abilities one had did change how good a person could fight during a battle.

Just like humans demons also had guild-like groups though it was all based on army. Every demon joined their clan’s army and gained one of four jobs. There were a few cases where a demon was born within a clan who didn’t have any abilities that would be good with a job the clan had and they were often sent to another clan if they were acceptable.

Ash had once asked the sage how jobs were made. It seemed that the description of the gods helping make them was mostly a lie. Each guild or job center was made of a large crystal that was made from processing monster cores and turning them into soul crystals. The small one that Ash used when he advanced to his second profession level could be made from two processed monster cores while the large ones which were the source of the guilds skills that had been saved over the years cost fifty cores to make at a minimal.

From the way the sage explained it the soul crystals worked like an ability scroll instead it was reusable and could be loaded with any skill that a person made on their own. Ash knew that one could receive a job title even if they didn’t go to a guild as the heavens would assign it but that person would have to create their own skills. It seemed that at one point one of these people learned how to make a soul creature so that they could pass down their jobs and skills to the next generation.

Thanks to this even if the soldier’s levels were close to being even there was a vast difference in their jobs and what skills and abilities they could use. The elite members got a higher level job and were offered more advanced and desirable skills. It seemed a little unfair but no matter where one looked in life they would find that some people were born with talent while others weren’t and while some could overcome this with hard work the majority could not.

While the soldiers levels were all close to each other the same could not be said of the commanders.  The weakest of the officers was only at level forty-one while the strongest was level eighty-seven. In fact there were a number of high level regular soldiers though most of them were soldiers. The only reason the average level was so low was because most of the troops were only around level twenty.

Though Ash was able to level up fairly easy once you reached level twenty it became incredibly hard and time consuming to reach the next level. The humans used the party formation to level up but the demons didn’t do the same thing. In fact many demons died every year during training. The reason for this was because that the demons felt that outside of sparing leveling should be done by one’s own skill. It was for that reason that only people of the shame level were paired together to train within the labyrinth.

Ash could see the reasoning behind the demon’s decision. A person without training with a sword would be far weaker than a person with training no matter what their level. The same could be said with how to use ones abilities and skills. Ash had already learned firsthand the difference between having an ability and understanding how to use it. If a person was forced to borrow another person’s power in order to gain levels then the levels were never truly their own and they would be far weaker than a person of the same level who gained it through their own power. There stats might be close to the same but the experience in real battles between the two would be vastly different.

As Ash read through the papers he thought about a number of things as he made marks on a scrap piece of paper.

10-6

As the day passed more and more soldiers arrived from the other side of the mountain and soon the forest was so full of demons Ash was afraid that the illusion that had been put up wouldn’t be able to hide them all.

Two times over the past weeks Ash had moved with the scouts to check out the area. One time they flew high over the enemy troops. To keep from being seen they brought along one of the illusionary mages to make them the same color of the sky. If they were close to the army it would be easy to tell the difference but since they were flying more than a hundred feet overhead they were completely undetectable.

The second time they went to the duchy capital to see how the condition of the regular people were. It was odd for Ash to be so close to Emelia without seeing her. It had never been as hard as when they flew over the fort. He wanted to do nothing more than to land and let her know that he was alive but Ash had to admit it wasn’t worth the risk.

There was too much of a chance that there were spies within the fort, or those who hated demons so much they would turn on Emelia if they knew that Ash was waiting not far away with an army of them ready to come to her aid during the coming battle.

During his short say within the limits of the city Ash spent a good amount of time looking at his own house from more than fifty feet away. He had seen Yuki coming back from her school. The young fox girl looked slightly older than she had last time Ash had seen her but she was so far away that it was hard for him to tell for sure.

Today once again Ash looked at the fort where his wife waited for him though this time it was different since he was not the only one watching the fort. Coming from the west was an endless number of soldiers marching with hate filled eyes.

Ash wanted to move closer but the mages had only cast a think illusion of a tree over him so the closer someone came to him the easier it would be to see through his disguise. Just before he turned around to go back into the forest Ash noticed a woman wearing a dark red dress step on top of the battlements.

There Emelia stood looking more beautiful than she had ever looked before. She raised her head and looked across the field at the enemy approaching her and let out a sneer then her eyes flickered and she turned in the direction of where Ash was standing. For an eerie moment Ash almost thought that she was looking right at him before she let out a weak smile and left the battlements.

With his stomach tied in knots Ash turned around and left the field at a dead run. “How does it look my lord?” Li asked holding her staff tightly to her chest.

“Everything is happening as planned so far,” Ash replied. Now we just have to wait to see if they set up camp for or go straight to attacking.”

Ash and a number of other officers crouched near the edge of the forest to watch the enemy. Even though they could clearly be seen it still took more than two hours for all of them to come to a standstill. Just as expected they started making camp and then started sending soldiers towards the forest to gather trees in order to start making siege weapons.

When the near two hundred men broke off from the main force Ash and the others moved back and sent a signal to the soldiers.

Though they couldn’t risk the enemy learning that a horde of demons were waiting for them not only inside the forest but in a number of other locations as well that didn’t mean they couldn’t do anything to the soldiers. When they were far enough back Ash once again crouched down as twenty demons sung through the trees with bows on their backs. The illusionary mages would play much of a part in the larger war but this was the perfect place for them to display their skills.

Once they were in position the demons made themselves look like parts of the trees they were standing in and waited until the enemy soldiers came close. Soon the twang of bows filled the forest followed by the shrill sounds of soldiers dying. Within moments the enemy soldiers ran from the forest in full flight.

Once they were clear Ash once again moved up to the edge of the forest to watch the movements of the enemy. Ash could clearly see when more soldiers broke away from the main force to check on those returning. Even though the small encounter hadn’t lasted long the demons were able to kill over thirty of the enemy troops but it seemed as if they wouldn’t be deterred by such small losses as soon more soldiers were sent toward the forest though this time instead of a few hundred it looked closer to half a thousand troops had been dispatched.

With the increased numbers the demons couldn’t afford to continue their attack without heavy risks of being exposed so leaving only a few well-hidden scouts behind Ash and the others returned to camp.

Once they were back at camp reports came in every half hour. Just as they had expected the first order of business had been the construction of siege weapons. With such a large number of forces working on transporting the lumber most of it would be finished before nightfall but no one expected them to attack before the morning. There was always a chance but only a foolish commander would try a full assault when the light was waning. That was unless he was certain of a complete and quick victory.

Other than preparing the siege weapons the enemy forces had also sent a small group of people to parley with the fort commanders but they left after less than a quarter of an hour.

When the news came back that the soldiers had withdrawn from the forest Ash had wanted to return to watch them but neither his advisors nor his wives thought that it would be a good idea.

Ash felt as if he had drank a bottle of snakes as much as his stomach was writhing around. He knew that most likely the battle would start in full but he still wished that it would begin earlier. Ash hated waiting and a part of him knew that once it was over he would wish it had never happened at all but that was life. He always seemed to be waiting on something that he never wished was needed.

That night Ash didn’t sleep a wink but he was not alone in this as both Tolarea, and Li joined him in his nightly vigil though for different reasons. It was clear that Tolarea was eagerly awaiting her first real battle while Li much like Ash was nervous about what the dawn would bring.

About half way through the night a messenger ran into the camp and straight into his tent. Since Ash was away from his tent he had to hurry to see what was happening. Just as the scout was leaving the tent Ash ran into him.

“My lord we just received news that the enemy has launched a sneak attack on the city,” the scout said his words almost jumbled together.

Ash let out a string of curses under his breath before calming down slightly. “What happened?”

“They tried to send a thousand men over the eastern wall under the cover of darkness but out men were waiting on them along with a large number of civilians. They were able to push them back but more than a hundred civilians were kills and thirty of our demons. There were more injured but none of them fatal.”

“What about the enemy?” Ash asked through gritted teeth as he worried about the many people he knew within the city. Ash didn’t know if he could take it if many of the people he knew died.

“They lost more than half of their attacking force. It doesn’t seem like they expect the wall to be defended at all. Most likely they have some inside men within the city but they weren’t able to interfere thanks to our men but since we didn’t get a detailed report it is hard to tell,” the scout replied.

“Is there anything else?” Ash asked though he was afraid of the reply.

“No my lord,” the demon said hesitantly.

“Then report to the rest of the commanders and let me know if anything more comes from the enemy’s side.”

“Yes my lord,” the scout said before running toward the next tent.

Once he had finished his talk with the messenger Ash returned to where he had been sitting previous at the edge of the camp. As soon as he was seated Ash pulled a small knife from its sheath while picking up a thick piece of tree about half the size of his hand and started shaving away thin strips of the wood.

“Is everything ok?” Li asked in a slightly worried voice.

“Just worried,” ash said without looking up.

“Why worry,” Tolarea said as she pulled her sword from her back and practiced her swings. “If something happened then you can’t change it now. All you can do is prepare for tomorrow so that you can limit what you might regret.”

As nearly dropped the knife in his hands. With a slightly surprised look on his face he turned his eyes toward Tolarea who looked at him and narrowed her eyes.

“What?” She asked with her lips tightly pressed together.

“I just never expected such inspiring and thoughtful words to come from you,” ash replied honestly without thinking.

“Then what would you expect to come from me?” Tolarea asked while Li let out a barely contained giggle.

“Something like. Tolarea destroy,” Ash said trying to do his best impression of an ogre.

Tolarea’s face turned beat red as she stormed over to Ash and easily lifted his feet from the ground. “I am not an ogre,” Tolarea said with small flecks of spittle hitting Ash in the face.

Even though he knew that he had already said too much Ash couldn’t help but laugh. When he saw Tolarea grip the handle of her sword he quickly raised his hands in defeat even though he knew that she couldn’t strike him with the intent to hurt him purposefully. “I was wrong,” Ash said quickly.

Tolarea sat him down then stalked off back toward her tent while muttering. As he watched her go Ash couldn’t help but laugh again. He didn’t know why but it was fun to tease the giantess.

“That was mean my lord,” Li said though with the large smile on her face it was hard to take her serious.

“She will be fine,” Ash said confidently. It was not the first time he had teased Tolarea and she always got mad easily but she forgot it just as quickly or at least it appeared that she did though she was always a bit more aggressive the next time they practiced.

While he was thinking he felt something soft and warm sit on his lap and noticed that Li’s arms were wrapped around his neck. “Everything will go well my lord,” Li said her voice holding far more confidence than he felt.

“I hope so,” Ash replied weakly.

Li didn’t try to comfort him more with words instead she gave him a warm kiss then jumped from his lap and headed back to her own tent only a few steps behind Tolarea.

Shaking his head Ash thought about returning to his own bed but knew that it would be pointless so he turned his mind back to the small block of wood in his hands.

10-7

As the sun crested the horizon the next morning Ash along with thousands of demons waited at the edge of the forest while they watched the large human army as it formed up ranks to start their first assault on the fort.

Heavy knights moved too slow and would make easy targets so they were at the rear of the group. At the front were thinly armored troops carrying long ladders. Before they started to charge the trebuchets that had been built the night before started to launch stone at the battlements. The first attack landed short of the wall so they were readjusted and the second attack more than half slammed into the magically enhanced walls.

As the sound of stone hitting stone filled the air the fort counterattacked using two trebuchets of their own that had been built within the confines of the fort. It took much longer for each volley coming from the fort and they were much smaller in number but with the much larger number of condensed enemies present they were much more effective.

After the fourth volley of attack the enemy charged with more than a third of their numbers running toward the fort.

As stood up ready to lead his own charge when a hand landed on his shoulder. “Not yet my lord they haven’t committed enough forces to the charge yet. We have less than a quarter of their numbers with us. If they are able to turn and fight us head on then our losses will be great.”

Ash returned to his position but his hand never left the hilt of his sword as he watched the soldiers’ charge where his wife was while raining down heavy boulders on the fort. Whenever one of the rocks made it over the wall Ash had to remind himself to breath.

“Looks like they want to end it at once without caring about their losses,” Uthla said as he watched as more and more soldiers rushed toward the fort. From where they were sitting it looked like a tidal waves of bodies looking to crash against a stone wall and from the looks of the numbers it would be the walls that would be the one to give first.

“Time to go,” Uthla said as he got to his feet and unsheathed his sword. Ash followed suit releasing his own sword while getting to his feet.

Ash led the charge. Not because he was the strongest but because he had abilities that could only be used if he was out front that could help devastate the enemies moral and numbers. Some of the officers were considered about him being put in such a position of danger but when he explained his plan they all ended up agreeing. In the end the demons were a people of war and there was no way they would truly accept a maoh who hid away from a battle.

At the forefront of the charge Ash couldn’t see those that were behind him but he could hear the roar that rose from their throats as they thundered toward enemy.

Ash could hear, feel, and smell everything around him as he ran across the ground. The sound of his and his guard’s feet on the ground. The smell of the freshly growing grass, and the feel of the morning dew as it covered his boots.

Ash could almost see the second the enemy noticed them. Ash couldn’t hear the voices of their commanders shouting over the sound of thousands of feet hitting the ground but he could see as thousands of enemy soldiers turned to meet their charge.

When Ash was only twenty yards from the enemy line he came to a quick stop and just as planned LI covered them with a shield of light as he used gambler’s boost.

“Tring.”

[You have activated gambler’s boost. All stats increased by + 34.]

Ash had wanted to use boost and double his stats but the cost was too high and would leave him almost devoid of SP. Which could be deadly in a prolonged battle.

Once his stats were boosted Ash quickly activated the ability total destruction which took 300 MP and 100 SP.

As soon as the ability was activated the feeling of being drained overcame Ash for a second as a massive force of magical energy spread out in front of him hitting everything in its path. Ash had learned after practicing the ability a number of times he could focus the attack in one direction. This was vital since if he just cast it normally it would spread out in a perfect circle and hit his troops as well. That was the main reason he had lead the charge since he was unsure that he could completely control it in the heat of a battle.

As soon as the storm of magic ended Ash activated tremor causing the ground beneath his feet to shake as if one was trying to stand on top of a roaring waterfall.

Ash had spent days training on how to move with the ground shaking below him and while it wasn’t easy it wasn’t impossible. The enemy was completely taken by surprise given the large abilities Ash had used. If he was a normal person his MP would already be drained but he had only used a quarter of what he had so he was still fine to continue the battle. Taking a deep breath Ash took a quick glance at his wives who sounded him and nodded his head.

When the enemy started firing a cloud of arrows Ash used aegis shield of protection. While it only covered a small portion of his forces it still blocked a good number of the incoming arrows. Before the shield disappeared Ash continued his advancement forward looking for anyone who might have the sign of the reaper above his head.

When Ash had previously looked over the enemy he had noticed a number of them with the sign of the reaper above their heads. Ash had been slightly surprised that none of the normal troops had the mark but it seemed that the higher rank a person obtained the more likely that they earned the mark. Ash had given it some thought and started to understand that under the laws of a goddess that if a person was following an order that they would not be blamed for the breaking of a law instead it was the person who ordered it that would be. The only exception he could think of was when one killed an unborn child or salted the earth. Since there were few humans who would do that unless they were truly evil there were few low ranking soldiers who earned the mark for death. That meant Thad Ash’s main goal during the battle would be to kill as many high ranking soldiers as he could, which was a good plan no matter how he thought about it.

Ash met a number of soldiers but due to the two abilities he had used they were almost defenseless and easily killed. The few soldiers who had kept their wits never even had a chance to meet with him sword to sword since they were quickly taken down by Tolarea, Gena, or one of his other guards. Seeing this Ash felt slightly annoyed since a large part of him wanted to join the battle more than he was given the chance currently.

Ash didn’t have to wait long before he was given the chance to prove his mettle in battle as soon the enemy regained their composure and put up a united front. Ash kept looking through the crowd as he blocked blow after blow until he noticed the floating symbol of a reaper in the distance. Taking a step back Ash let Tolarea intercept the next blow and pointed in the direction he wished to go. Due to the noise of the battle around them talking was pointless but his wives seemed to understand his meaning even without words.

Ash retook his position at the front though with Tolarea standing at his side while the others moved to form a protective circle around LI who was the only one who was weak in direct battle.

As they pushed forward Ash took a step to the side to dodge an incoming blow while bringing his sword up to block a second strike. Without thinking Ash activated dark spear and sword of illusion at the same time. Ash attacked the first man with the newly created spear in his left hand and the other with his sword. The first soldier tried to parry the spear with his sword but due to the nature of the weapon it passed straight through it as if it were made of water and stuck the man just below the neck. Seeing what had become of his comrade the other soldier didn’t try to block it but instead tried to doge Ash’s sword but with three versions of it coming at him at one he was unsure of which way to move. Luckily he choice to go to the right which only left him with a small cut on his right shoulder from one of the illusionary swords but Ash quickly followed up with a second attack this time using both weapons at once.

The soldier’s movements were well trained and Ash could tell that he was not among the common fodder as he sidestepped the black spear while bringing his sword up to block Ash’s sword which had returned to normal. Seeing both of his attacks come to nothing Ash didn’t let himself become shaken and altered the path of the spear tearing through the side of the soldier with the edge of the spear as he brought it back to his side.

When the bold words “Trick attack,” appeared above the soldier’s head Ash prepared himself for something unexpected.

The soldier attack with a straight stab but just before it reached where Ash had positioned his sword it suddenly moved to the left heading straight for where Ash’s heart was located Ash gritted his teeth and quickly activated armor of thorns while trying to slid his left foot back to move his heart out of the way of the strike.

Ash’s luck shilled didn’t activate but his armor of thorns was fast enough to cover his shoulder when the blade stuck which left behind only a small wound which Li quickly healed before more than a thimble full of blood had been able to spill out. Ash readied himself to strike back but a gust of wind passed by his ear as a black arrow flashed past his ear. The soldier battled the arrow away but it still left a small scratch on the back of the man’s hand.

With an evil smile the soldier brought his sword back up but his face started to stiffen and the sword fell from his hand. The man looked at his hand as if it had betrayed him before his knees gave out and he collapsed to the ground. With his eyes going wide he only got a second to look up before the blade of Ash’s sword passed through his neck sending his head tumbling across the ground.

With a look back to Seia Ash nodded his head knowing that the arrow had to be poisoned.

Ash continued forward but the soldiers around him were starting to lose their footing and were being pushed back quickly by his demon army but Ash wasn’t sure how long it was last since a large portion of the force attacking the fort had started to turn back to try and repel the attacking demons. It was at this time the second magic company moved from their position in the forest casting together to create a tidal wave of fire at the forces retreating from the fort.

Seeing the large force coming to help the forces from the fort let out a cheer as they doubled their efforts to repel the invaders.

Most the time when a small group was defending against a much larger force they had limited supplies and would hold back on using all of their arrows and oil on the first attack but with hope of breaking the siege early they had no reason to hold back.

Ash didn’t know if but Emelia was watching the entire battle from her place in the commander’s tent through one of her personal abilities called “ruler’s vision.” Just like Ash’s ability it was a blood ability and one that allowed her to view anything within the domain of her realm through magic though it was quite costly on her MP so she could never use it for long if she moved it more than a few miles away though if she kept it within a mile she could currently easily sustained it for a little under an hour.

When Emelia had received the news that a horde of demons had attacked the enemy she had quickly used her ability to check on what was happening outside the walls of the fort and it was then that she noticed a young man charging at the front of the battle.

“Ash,” Emelia said as a thin line of tears streamed down her face.

Emelia had known that Ash was alive. It had taken her more than a day to calm down enough to think to look for Yuki and Ash’s other slaves. When she checked their slave tattoo and noticed that there had been no change she knew that Ash was still alive.

The slave bond was made using spirit magic and if the owner was to die then the tattoo would turn a light grey so that the slave guild knew that they were free of ownership and could be transferred as long as a person bearing the right appeared with proper documentation.

When Emelia learned that Ash was alive it only alleviated a part of her worry. If they had not killed Ash where had they taken him and what had they done to him? She had worried endlessly over this but when the king’s army approaching she had to put her personal worries aside though she still held out a small ray of hope that she would see Ash again either in this life or the next. Now she was getting that wish.

“Order all troops to the battlements,” Emelia said to the older soldier standing at her side. “Don’t hold anything back. We will break the siege today and chase those godless bastards to hell.”

“My lady what about the demons?” the man asked hesitantly. “Should we not simply let the king’s men and demons kill each other.”

“Fool,” Emelia shouted her face turning red in anger. “Those ‘demons’ are trying to help us. Why would we return their bravery by simply letting them go to their own slaughter? Now do as I told you and order my men to hold nothing back. If I find out that so much as a single arrow was kept from a bow then I will have whoever is at fault boiled alive and given to the demons as an apology.”

The older man’s face turned slightly white as he ran from the room at a full run. When the man had gone Emelia leaned back in her chair and rubbed her temples. “Idiot…Why are there so many idiots?” She asked to the empty air. It had not been the first time her orders had been questioned. She didn’t know why men refused to believe that a woman could do as good as a job just because she didn’t have something swinging between her legs.

After drinking a bottle of light blue liquid to help recover her MP Emelia once again focused her ability on the battle.

10-8

Ash continued to push forward. After the last hard fight Ash had yet to find another challenging opponent. Most of that was due to the increasing panic of the enemy forces but also because his guards would all aid him the second a fight took more than a couple of blows. So far he hadn’t even really had the chance to use many of his abilities which was more than a little disappointing to Ash.

Just as he was thinking this a large man on horseback broke through the lines of demons swinging a large two handed sword that was only slightly smaller than the one Tolarea wielded. Ash couldn’t contain his smile as a large floating scythe was hanging above the man’s head.

Raising his hand Ash activated light arrow. As a small three inch long arrow flew toward the horse Ash activated the spell three more times. Light arrow was still weak, it was one of the few abilities he had that could be used at a distance of more than fifty yards with any precision.

When the first arrow hit the flank of the horse it reared up allowing the next two to strike at its exposed chest. While the three arrows only caused flesh wounds to the horse it was enough to send it into a frenzy bucking its rider from its back. Ash didn’t care about the horse and used one more light arrow to make it run in the opposite direction. Ash couldn’t help but to cringe when he saw the massive horse trample two soldiers and a demon in its attempt to escape.

Ash rushed forward not waiting to give the man on the ground a chance to regain his footing before attacking. It was true that Ash was hoping for a real fight but when he was faced off against someone marked for death he would rather have it over quickly. That way his target would have no chance to escape. The call of the experience and abilities was just too great to deny.

Before Ash knew what was happening he heard a loud horn signal not too far away and suddenly everything changed. The soldiers were no longer trying to fight but instead they were trying to retreat. Ash was currently at the edge of the battlefield but he just happened to be at the end where all the soldiers had decided to flee toward.

With such a large force rushing toward him Ash had only one choice to keep his prey. Rushing forward Ash used his MP to bring up a wall of earth around him and the other man. Since he had little time to think about it a soldier who was rushing past at the moment got caught in the formation of the earth wall covering all of him but his right arm and part of his head.

Ash could see the man’s face turn red as he was denied oxygen and the feeble attempts to break free as her arm moved wildly. Then as quickly as it had begun the man’s face lost its color and his eye lost slowly dimmed as life left his body.

“A bad way to die,” the enemy soldier said as he got to his feet and shaking his head. Ash looked at his and held his sword tightly ready to attack. The man didn’t move and instead slammed his sword down burying it nearly a foot into the ground. Thinking that he was up to something Ash took a half step back while lowering his center of gravity.

The other man let out a chuckle as his right hand moved to his shoulder and within a few seconds his thick armor banged to the ground exposing a another layer of leather armor. Next the man pulled the helm from his head and tossed it aside. Within the space of a few heartbeats he was standing in front of Ash while his metal armor lay on the ground at his feet.

“I don’t know why you are removing your armor,” Ash said without moving. “Even if you surrender I would still take your head. You have been marked by the goddess for death.”

“Oh,” the man said with a surprised look on his face. “I wonder what I did to gain her ire. Though maybe I shouldn’t be surprised, this war alone would probably have gained me that mark. You don’t have to worry though I am not surrendering it is just hard to fight on the ground when weighed down. It is great on horseback though,” the man said his voice light and carefree as if he were simply discoing the weather over a cup of afternoon tea.

“Shall we get started,” the man said as he pulled his sword free of the ground. “I don’t think I want to wait for the rest of your friends to get here.”

Though the man’s sword was only a few inches shorter than he was and the blade was half as wife, he was able to wield it as if it weight nothing. When the first strike lashed out, ash quickly brought his own sword up to parry but the blow was so heavy that his sword was almost knocked from his hand and even though he had kept hold it he still felt the numbness run from his hand to his elbow.

“Not bad boy,” the man said with a half concealed smile. “Why don’t we try that again?”

This time Ash noticed the bold flashing words, “Heavy strike,” before the man attack. Instead of trying to parry the strike Ash pivoted back on his right leg and let the sword pass by harmlessly.

Not one to play defense Ash countered with his own ability. Activating phantom strike first to make it look as if he was coming in with an overhead blow then quickly activating wind slash and blood strike in quick succession.

The other man didn’t even try to block the phantom strike as if he knew that it could do no damage to him. Instead be placed his heavy sword in front of his body and took the blade of wind head on causing it to break apart. Ash had a devils smile as he lunged forward with his sword but it instantly disappeared when the larger man used his sword to pull himself away from Ash leaving his blade to touch only air.

When Ash saw the smile on the other man’s face he couldn’t help but think that he was enjoying the battle though if a mirror was present Ash would have noticed that the same smile was present on his own face.

“Guard break,” flashed over the man’s head as he jumped forward his sword still sticking in the ground behind him. The man’s elbow struck out so fast that Ash didn’t have a chance to block it hitting him straight in the nose.

Jumping back Ash wiped the blood from his face as tears began to sting his eyes involuntarily. Gritting his teeth Ash tightened his grip on his sword and let out a deep breath as he closed his eyes as he activated flare. Ash couldn’t see the flash of light but from the startled grunt he knew that it had worked. When he opened his eyes Ash found his target and activated blood strike once again.

Though he couldn’t see the other man still sensed Ash’s movements but he couldn’t move well enough to completely evade them. Ash had aimed for the man’s heart but instead his sword buried itself to the hilt in the man’s shoulder as he moved back at the last minute.

With a grunt of pain the man’s hand shot up and grabbed Ash around the throat. The man’s iron like grip kept any air from being drawn into Ash’s lungs. His face slowly turning blue Ash tried to pry the man’s fingers loose but the man refused to let go of his vice like grip. In a final attempt Ash turned the sword and the man grunted in pain again and his grip loosened slightly. Ash took this chance to twist the sword again as he brought up his left foot kicking the man in the shoulder and separating both himself and his sword from the man.

The man fell down to a knee while his right hand went to the wound on his left shoulder that was wounded. Rising his head he looked at Ash with a thin smile as if admitting his loss. At first Ash didn’t understand until he saw the man get to his feet and try to raise the sword into a ready position.

Ash could clearly see the man’s arm trembling under the weight of the sword. Ash took a deep breath and nodded his head in admiration of the man’s skill and determination before moving forward. Ash’s first strike knocked the weakly held sword aside. Ash didn’t even hear as the sword fell from the man’s grasp and landing on the ground as he was so focused on his attack. A second strike chopped down on the man’s leg as he was bringing it up to kick Ash away and Ash’s third strike left a think line across the man’s throat opening it up.

The man raised his hand vainly trying to stem the tide of blood that was pouring from his throat as his face quickly lost it color. Ash had seen a lot of men die before but for some reason the man’s death seemed like such a waste to him. Even if the man was marked by the goddess he didn’t seem evil. He was just a soldier following orders.

“Tring.”

[You have killed a level 42 person marked by the goddess for death. Since the person was more than five levels ahead of you will receive 14,324,101 experience.]

“Tring.”

[You have received the ability break guard, over boost, and flash step.]

“Tring.”

[You have reached level 37.]

Ash didn’t have time to look at his new abilities or place his stat points with a war going on around him. Using his mana manipulation Ash brought down the wall of earth and quickly took stock of what was happening. After a quick scan he found his guards frantically searching for him about fifty yards away. Ash quickly called to them as he moved in their direction.

Though his personal battle seemed like it had taken forever in truth it had taken less than five minutes so the enemy was still in full rout with the demons chasseing behind them.  Just as they reached the designated area the second and fourth mage units moved out forcing them to move in the desired direction. Ash thought about chasseing after them but in truth he was exhausted after his last battle and even if he was added to the fray there was little he could do at the moment.

As they king’s army was moved farther away the flying corps came in from the front firing bows and casting magic to devastating effects. It was at the point many of the soldiers not knowing what to do dropped their weapons and started to surrender. At first it was just a few but quickly there wasn’t a single person left standing against them.

Ash couldn’t hide the smile that spread across his face. They had won though not without cost. Ash looked across the field where they had fought a noticed a number of demon bodies that would never rise again. With a deep sigh Ash forced himself to take a step forward so that he could join the others and decide on the fate of the captured enemies.

Just before meeting up with Uthla Ash glanced back over his shoulder in the direction of the fort to see Emelia looking across the field of battle her eyes focused directly on him. Ash was too far away to see the smile on her face but he could clearly see the way her hair fluttered in the wind.

Emelia had watched the battle with rapt attention though most of her time was spent watching Ash she did move about to check on how her own men were doing.

Just as she had ordered the men held nothing back. Those that could use magic exhausted their supply of MP casting anything they could on the enemies below while the archers fired arrow after arrow so fast that their fingers started to bleed from the strain.

It didn’t take long for the combined attacks from the fort and the unexpected advance of a demon horde to force the enemy to sound the call to retreat. Emelia didn’t have to check on her mean as the sound of the horn reached her ears as the loud outcries of joy were clearly audible.

They had won the day though depending on how things went they still might not win the war so Emelia had quickly turned her attention back to Ash who was currently fighting against a man she knew all too well.

Knight Captain Regan was well known for his skills on the field of battle. He had been given the honorary title of viscount by the king himself after the last war. Emelia had never met the man but when she saw the heavy sword the man used and the crossed talons on its hilt she knew who he was.

Throughout the whole battle Emelia feared that Ash would lose. It was not that she didn’t have faith in his abilities but Regan was a legend so it was hard for her to see her gentle husband winning against such a man.

Emelia was surprised when Ash blocked Regan’s first attack and even more surprised when he launched one of his own. As the battle continued Emelia watched it as if it were a play put on just for her. With each move Emelia found herself cheering whenever Ash struck and holding her breath when he was in danger.

When Ash made the final strike Emelia yelled so loudly that she feared that everyone within the fort had heard her. Blushing Emelia rose from her seat and quickly canceled her ability before running out of the command center.

Outside Emelia found many of the troops cheering while others were having wounds tended but the vast majority of soldiers were still on the battlements watching the fight between the demons and the king’s arm.

There was quick way to reach the battlements. This was done so that anyone who was able to make it over would have a harder time getting below. At this moment Emelia hated the decision to block off the ramps that led up. Cursing herself Emelia climbed the wooden ladder up so that she could look on the field of battle with her own eyes.

What she saw when she reached the top took her breath away. Small wind tunnels mixed with light struck out against the fleeing army forcing them to turn to the north. The majestic army that had been reduced to less than half its previous size and the ones remaining had lost all will to fight.

Just as it looked as if the king’s army had found a path to escape the sky was filled with large forms that almost looked like oversized birds but when a rain of arrows and magic fell down from the sky the last bit of will left to the king’s army broke and their swords started to litter the ground as they raised their hands in defeat.

Seeing the king’s army surrender was something that Emelia had never imagined even in her wildest dreams. Her best hope what that they could hold off the army long enough that they offered pleasurable terms of surrender for her people.

As a warm wind blew past Her Emelia couldn’t help but smile as a tear ran down her face. Searching the ground below she looked for Ash but in the distance it was hard to tell who was who. Then she noticed a figure surrounded by a number of women and the smile slowly faded from her face.

Emelia had seen the women when she had first noticed Ash but due to the ongoing battle she hadn’t given it much thought. Now with the tension of the battle gone she was starting to wonder who they were and what connection they had to her husband.

10-9

“What do you want done with the prisoners?” Uthla asked Ash as the two looked over the large number of prostrating humans.

“I don’t really know,” Ash replied honestly.

“For now we should keep them under guard and find out what the duchess thinks we should do. She has far more knowledge in these matters.”

“Understood,” Uthla said bowing. “Then I would suggest that you consult with her as soon as you can. We have removed their weapons but that doesn’t mean there is no way for such a large number of enemies to cause problems if left unattended for too long.”

As Ash walked toward the fort he kept his pace slow and even as his heart beat like a drum in his chest. He could still see Emelia standing on the battlements her eyes focused in his direction. Ash was surprised because he had not once gotten close enough that she could have made out his face yet her head was clearly turned in his direction.

To settle his nerves as he walked Ash took the time to place his new stat points and to check out his newly acquired abilities. Unlike before when Ash put all his points in luck Ash spread them out into luck, strength, agility, and stamina. The reason for this was simple. His boosted stats still depending on his base states and so the higher they became the more of a boost they would gain so not it more efficient to place points into them instead of just luck. After finishing with his stats Ash checked out his new abilities.

[Break guard: cost 50SP- fast movement that allows one to break through their oponets guard. Level 1-0%.]

[Over boost- cost 75SP- double the damage of the next attack, level 1-0%.]

[Flash step- cost 25SP- quickly move to any place within five steps. Level 1-0%.]

Looking at the new abilities Ash couldn’t help but think how useful the reaper blessing was. Not only did it allow him to gain abilities from certain humans but also a great deal of experience. Which was something that was dearly needed since after the twenty-second level it cost more than a million experience to reach the next level and with each level after that it went up by a great deal. If he tried to gain a single level just by fighting he would have to spend months doing nothing but fighting. When he thought of the fact that all of his wives levels were in the mid-thirties he couldn’t help but suppress a shiver. Just how much had they been forced to fight during their youth? It was no surprise that Tolarea who was a battle manic was the highest level at forty-one.

Before Ash knew it he was standing in front of the large wood and iron gate of the fort. Taking a deep breath Ash raised his head. “I am Ash Hawkwing open the gate and let me talk with the duchess Hawkwing,” Ash shouted as loud as he could.

In the time it took to take three breaths a loud sound could be heard on the other side of the gate as the chains were turned and the large gate began to swing open. As soon as the gate opened a few feet a blur of blue and red rushed through the gate and charged into Ash’s chest.

Tolarea and Ash’s other guards gripped their weapons but Ash waved them off as he wrapped his arms around Emelia’s slender waist. “I’m home,” Ash said as he held Emelia tightly to his chest.

After a few moments Emelia pulled back from Ash’s embrace and hit him hard in the arm. Emelia looked up at Ash with slightly red eyes. “Welcome home.”

“Shall we go inside?” Ash asked with a warm smile. “I don’t think we will get much done just standing out here making a show for everyone.”

Realizing that hundreds of soldiers were looking down on them with more than a few of them wearing broad grins Emelia face blushed. “Yes…Very well,” Emelia said curtly before walking back through the gate.

Emelia never looked back as she walked straight to what had been set up as the commander’s quarters Ash couldn’t help but look around the fort as he followed behind Emelia. It wasn’t really that long ago that the fort was nothing more than an idea he had. The last time he had seen it the inner wall was only just being started. He had heard that it had been finished but he didn’t think it would be so impressive with just the inner wall finished. Other than the wall nothing much had changed since all the buildings inside were made from wood.

Ash was so immersed in his own world that he didn’t even notice when he walked through the door to the small log cabin until it shut behind him. As soon as the door was shut Emelia turned on Ash like a rabid wolf. “Where have you been?” Emelia asked her voice raising with each word. “What have you been doing? Did you even care that I thought you were dead? Couldn’t you have even came to visit your daughter?” By the time Emelia finished her tirade her face was flaming red and her voice was starting to break.

Ash quickly wrapped Emelia in a tight embrace. “I’m sorry,” was all he could say to her words. “I couldn’t risk coming back before the battle,” Ash tried to explain. “Otherwise the surprise attack might not have worked.”

Emelia struggled in his arms for a bit trying to pull back from his embrace but she quickly calmed down and wrapped her own arms weakly around him. “So we have a daughter?” Ash asked once Emelia had calmed down.

“Yes,” Emelia said as she took a step back. She moved over and took a seat in a wooden chair behind a large oak desk. “I named her Ashley. She is the cutest thing you have ever laid your eyes on,” Emelia said her eyes glazing over. After shaking her head she narrowed her eyes at Ash again. “We can both go and see her later. I need to know what has been happening in your absence.”

After taking a deep breath Ash started to tell his story. He started with being rescued by the demons during the battle. He explained that after he woke he learned that he had a blood ability that had signaled him as they next demon lord. Ash continued his story until he reached the part about taking wives.

“What wives…As in more than one?” Emelia asked her face holding a look of astonishment. “Just how many wives do they expect you to take?”

“Forty-two,” Ash said with a slight cringe.

“Forty-two…Forty-two,” Emelia said lightly at first then shouted. Ash remained silent until Emelia had calmed down. He knew that she was a rational person and would understand the situation. Just as he expected after a few moments of grumbling she pursed her lips and looked at him. “I guess it doesn’t really matter if you have one or a thousand extra wives as long as I am the first.”

“Always,” Ash replied with a warm smile.

Ash continued with his story explaining his training and then the planning for the battle. She had been present for the battle itself so that was where his story ended. “Now we have thousands of soldiers and have no clue what to do with them,” Ash said getting to the reason he had originally came to the fort. “I figured that you would know how best to handle this situation.”

“Just kill them,” Tolarea said in an offhanded manner. “It is never good to leave a live enemy at your back.”

“I would like to agree with you,” Emelia said nodding her head. “Sadly if we just killed all of the soldiers the people would lose faith in us. Most of the men are just normal people who had been forced to fight. Killing them wouldn’t really solve who are real enemy is and that is the nobles and kings who didn’t even have the guts to fight in the battle themselves.”

“Then what should we do with them?” Ash asked again.

“We have a few choices. We can ransom them back to the king, release them, or put them into slavery,” Emelia said ticking off the choices with her fingers.

“What do you suggest out of the three?”

“First there is no way the king will pay a ransom for a low level soldier so it would be best just to release them. As for the mid and high level warriors it would be best to take it person by person to see if they are worth the ransom but we shouldn’t let any officer level soldiers leave easily. They are the real threat in a battle since it takes years to train a decent field commander.”

“My lord if you wish I will send a message back to commanders Uthla so that he can start separating the prisoners,” Li said interjected.

“Please see to it Li,” Ash replied quickly. Turning back to Emelia he noticed that she didn’t have a please look on her face as Li left the room. “No reason to keep them waiting longer than needed. It takes a great deal of work to keep so many people under watch,” Ash tried to explain.

“And here I thought we could at least have a day to talk before all the work started,” Emelia said with a frustrated sigh.

“Sorry.”

“It is fine,” Emelia said waving her hand. “We will have plenty of time in the future though as soon as you can you should visit Yuki. She has been frantic since you disappeared.”

Ash couldn’t help but smile when he thought about Yuki and the rest of the people awaiting him at his home within the city.

After Li had left it took a little over an hour and a half for the first prisoners to start arriving. The low level soldiers were easily separated out thanks to Ash’s analyze ability though even then the sun had long since set before they had gone through a quarter of the  prisoners. Whenever they found someone who was worth keeping they were moved into one of the buildings that had once been a barracks so that they could be guarded with a limited number of resources. The ones that had yet be interviewed were brought inside the fort and were guarded by both demons and humans.

After night had fallen Ash followed Emelia back to the city where a large group of people awaited them. As they rode through the city gates people cheered not only for Emelia but for him as well. Though most of the faces showed nothing but happiness a few showed a look of hatred when they looked upon the demon women who rode behind and beside Ash.

It was one thing for the citizens to accept demi-humans with demon blood since they were still partially human but it was something different altogether to accept full blood demons since they had been the scapegoat for everything that unexplained that happened.

When they reached Emelia’s manor Ash was glad to be out from under all the eyes that had been focused on him.

“Master,” a familiar voice rand out before a red haired fox girl jumped into his arms.

“Hello Yuki,” Ash said as he gently patted her head which now reached just below his throat. Over the past half a year she had indeed grow a lot. She now looked her age which Ash didn’t know if it was a good thing or not. Before he separate from Yuki he felt something else tug on his pants as it started to crawl up his leg.

“Did you miss me Milly?” Ash asked as he lifted the small panther girl into his arms. Just like Yuki she had group but not nearly as much but Ash was sure that she was a few inches taller.

Milly rubbed her soft cheeks against his while let off a contented purring sound like a cat. Milly seemed to have the same effect on the demon women as she had on everyone else as they all seemed to coo over he uniquely cute look but it was Tolarea who won the right to hold her. What surprised Ash the most was not that Tolarea was so aggressive about getting to hold the young beast girl but was that Milly didn’t seem to object. When he had first met the young panther girl she was immensely shy and hid away from everyone.

Once Ash had greeted everyone they moved into the dining room for a well-deserved feast. Since it was not expected that Ash would be attending the cooks had made Emelia’s favorite foods; steamed asparagus, steak, a light fruit salad, and lightly fried potatoes. In fact from what Ash understood they had cooked the same feast every day for the past week in hopes that she would return to the manor to eat.

At the start of the meal Milly started in Tolarea’s lap eating off the giantess’s plate until the fruit and meat was gone then she slipped down moving from lap to lap eating her favorite food off each one before moving to the next.

Once the meal was finished the mains showed Ash’s demon wives to their rooms which took a lot more work than Ash would have expected since they believed they should stay at his side. In the end they were able to come to an agreement with allowing one of the women to stand guard outside Emelia and Ash’s door.

After the rooms were assigned Emelia drug Ash to the study instead of heading straight to bed. He was tired but Ash had to admit it almost felt as if he had gone back in time as he sat beside Emelia in the book filled room with her head resting lightly on his shoulder while a book was resting in his lap.

“I missed this,” Emelia said with a contented sigh.

“I did as well,” Ash admitted honestly. “Where is Ashly?” Ash asked when he remembered his newly born daughter.

“She is with Helen at the moment,” Emelia said. “I didn’t think I would survive the war so I sent her to stay with Helen and their family. If anyone could keep the child safe I thought that old bat would be the one to do it,” Emelia then turned to Ash with a pained look in her face. “I know you want to see her but we should wait until we finish the business with the prisoners. We will have to be out a lot over the next few days and we can’t risk her safety.”

“I understand,” Ash said pulling Emelia close to his chest. “I have been able to stay away fir months a few more days won’t kill me.”

“Do me a favor,” Emelia said after a few quiet moments passed.

“Anything,” Ash replied his voice full of warmth.

“Don’t leave me again. I don’t think my heart can take it.”

“Promise,” Ash said with a light chuckle. “Though I hope you know I won’t be able to spend all my time with you,” Ash added after a few moments. “I have my duty to the demons to preform, and I am sure that the war is far from over.”

“I am not a fool,” Emelia said her voice holding an edge of annoyance to it. “You won’t be the only one who will be busy. With the battle over I will have to declare our independent from the crown. If the king himself would have stayed out of the war I might never have done it but now that he personally sent troops there is no way that we can stay a part of the kingdom.”

“Looks like we are going to have a very busy future,” Ash said in a joking tone.

“I wouldn’t be laughing,” Emelia said hitting Ash lightly in the chest. “It will be hard for us to find one day a week to spend with each other at this rate,” Emelia said pouting.

“Hasn’t that always been the life of a noble?” Ash asked seriously.

“Yes but before I was the noble and you were just my cute arm candy,” Emelia said pulling Ash into a kiss. “Who would have thought that my husband would turn out to be the king of demons?”

“I am just as surprised as you are,” Ash said returning the kiss. “Looks like life is never as simple as we think it will be.”

“Are you going to be going back to finish your training once the war is settled?” Emelia asked her voice sounding slightly lonely.

“Yes though you should really join me in the training,” Ash said with a warm smile. “You could do with putting a little muscle on that body of yours.”

Emelia crossed her arms and huffed. “I don’t want to become one of those muscle bound women. I much prefer the way I am thank you very much,” Emelia said in a dignified tone. “If you want to follow me to the bed chambers I can show you the benefit of having a wife that isn’t all muscle.”

10-10

Over the next three days Ash spent his time interviewing prisoners. Just as expected 97% of them were standard soldiers. The rest were knights were high level officers belonging to one of the nobles and a few to the king himself. In the end they were left with a little over sixty people held captive. The only exception the Emelia’s decision were the two standard soldiers who had the reapers mark above their heads.

Ash couldn’t simply execute them without cause, instead he consulted with Emelia and they held turned them over to the church for trial along with the other fourteen officers who were marked as well. This was done to give a reason for execution that made both Ash and Emelia blames since not even a king would be foolish enough to denounce the rulings of a church even if they wanted to. It also allowed Ash to kill them openly once they were found guilty so he could reap the rewards from their deaths. Ash felt slightly bad about killing men who had surrendered but he knew that to get the mark of death they had to commit grave sins that were unforgivable but it did little to alleviate the nagging of his conscious.

The remaining prisoner’s name was taken and sent to the king along with the prices for their release. Once that was finished Emelia contacted Helen and had her bring Ashely back to her house.

The first time Ash had seen his daughter his heart had been taken away by the miniature giggling face. She only had a small amount of hair and no teeth but she was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen in his life. It was when Ash noticed the small pair of wings on her back that Ash started to understand what Emelia had done in his absence. He was not the only one surprised as his demon wives all held complex feelings about the small child who could very well be the next maoh if she carried Ash’s blood ability.

When Ash had asked Emelia why she hadn’t gone through with the purifying rite she had simply said that she wanted their daughter to be fully theirs as the gods decided. Ash couldn’t blame Emelia for her choice but he knew that the small child would have a much harder life thanks to those small wings on her back but at the same time she signaled a new hope. She could very well be the bridge between the two races though Ash knew pinning such hopes on such a small being was asking far too much.

It didn’t take long for the church to convene a court in order to try the criminals and even faster to judge them. The priests had a skill that allowed them to call forth any crime committed against the goddess so there was no way for the prisoners to deny what they had done. In the end Ash gained four more levels and an amazing nineteen abilities.

[Binding throw: cost 10SP- warp up the enemy and throw him. Level 1-0%.]

[Bludgeon: cost 20SP- increase attack with blunted weapons by 25%. Level 1-0%.]

[Bolstered resilience- increase damage resistance by 5%. Level 1-0%.]

[Hurl: cost 5Sp- throw weapon doing 10% more damage. Level 1-0%.]

[Weaken: cost 50MP- weaken an enemy by one level. Can only be used if enemy is at a higher level. Level 1-0%.]

[Cluster shot- cost 40MP 5SP- when the next arrow is fired it will burst apart damaging all enemies within its striking area. Level 1-0%.]

[Replenish: cost 10% of channeled MP. Pass MP onto an ally. Level 1-0%.]

[Holy fist: cost 20MP- coat fist in holy light. Level 1-0%.]

[Crushing blow: cost 40SP- strike with three times the force as normal. Level 1-0%.]

[Deadly finish: cost 100SP- upgrades the next attack 1 level. Level 1-0%.]

[Destructive dispel: cost 75MP- cancel enemy spell or ability and does damage equal to the cost of the spell canceled to the caster. Level 1-0%.]

[Dimension door: cost 25MP- open a dimensional door from one place to the next. Range 100 feet. Level 1-0%.]

[Port: cost 20MP- teleport an item into your hand. Range thirty feet. Level 1-0%.]

[Final embrace: cost ***- sacrifice yourself and deal damage to all enemy equal to that of your remaining HP, MP, and SP combined.]

For his new stat points Ash used them all in strength, agility, stamina, and vitality. The reason for this was because his current goal was to get all his stats up to at least 100. Ash knew that it would be nearly impossible but he figured it was worth the try.

It was two weeks before they received word from the king regarding both the war and the captives. When the reply was brought over to Emelia she unrolled it and read it aloud.

Emelia Hawkwing We have received your demand for ransom of the soldiers of the kingdom and the declaration of your right to succession from our domain.

In regards to this We demand the release of our men and that you and the one you have taken as your husband present yourself before us that We may pass sentence on your unlawful and unholy collusion with those of the demon race. If your refuse our royal decree then you shall face the full wrath that we can bring down upon you.

“Foolishness,” Tolarea said when she heard the king’s response.

“Indeed,” Emelia said her voice holding more than a tint of anger in it.

“What should we do?” Ash asked.

“We have a few choices,” Emelia said after a few moments of thought. “The first is to do as the king has demanded and turn ourselves over to be judged and sentenced to a public death.”

“Unacceptable,” Gena said harshly.

“Agreed but I always like to start with the least desirable so that the most desirable one is the last one you hear,” Emelia said with a giggle.

“You mean the choice that you like the best,” Ash said while rolling his eyes.

“You’re no fun,” Emelia said sticking out her tongue playfully. “The second choice is to refuse and wait to see how the king responds. We can also start killing the prisoners to make a point as well. The third choice is to send a force against the king and declare war. Finally we can send someone to negotiate a truce with the king and see if we can find a compromise.”

“I like the third choice,” Tolarea said firmly as a smile spread across her face.

“I think the second would be best,” Seia said with a look of thought on her face.

“What about you Ash?” Emelia asked looking at the two women with a slightly worried look on her face.

“AS much as I hate to admit it at this point I think the last option is the best,” Ash said in a defeated tone while a smile spread across Emelia’s face.

“I agree.”

“The real question is who should we send,” Emelia pondered. “It will have to be someone whose words can carry a bit of weight and also someone we can trust.”

“I will go,” Ash said after thinking for a bit.

“Out of the question,” Emelia said standing from her seat.

“Who else could we send that you trust?” Ash asked with a raised eyebrow. “Not only am I your husband so I hold a good deal of sway with the duchy.”

“Kingdom now,” Emelia corrected him. “Albeit a small one. We have broken away from the king so now we are independent.”

“Noted,” Ash said rolling his eyes. “I am also the maoh or demon king if you wish to look at it that way. If I go the king will not be able to overlook my words.”

“No he couldn’t but he could have you hauled before a mass of people to behead,” Emelia almost screamed.

“I would like to see him try,” Tolarea said menacingly.

“Emelia we both know this is the best choice,” Ash said reassuringly.

“I don’t like it,” Emelia said crossing her arms and pouting.

“Neither do I, but it has to be done,” Ash replied.

After the decision was made Ash spent the next three days with Emelia and his daughter. Ash had to admit that he was more than a little nervous about the coming meeting. Thankfully Ash would not be going alone. Not only would his guards be going with him but he would also bringing alone five knights from the former duchy and two more high ranking demons that had fought in the war for extra protection. The main reason for the two extra demon guards were that both could fly and in an emergency they could get him out. Ash didn’t like to think about this since it meant that he would have to leave his wives behind while he fled but none of the seemed to give it much thought.

The night before he left all of Ash’s friends and adopted family gathered at Emelia’s house for a large farewell party. Yuki, Shina, Milly, as well as Helen and her family were all present.

Helen was just as forward and outspoken as he remembered. She might have even became a little more forward since the last time they had met since she had taken over a government post close to Emelia. From what Emelia had said Helen was doing a great job, even better than expected. She had no problems dealing with snotty nobles and Emelia enjoyed the few that came to her personally to complain.

Surprising to Ash Yuki was not clingy. It seemed that in Ash’s absence she had grown up a lot. Ash couldn’t help but have a complicated feeling about her new independence. Milly on the other hand spent the whole night clamped to Ash. She was still young but she was not dumb and understood that soon as would be leaving again. Thankfully no one seemed to mind the small panther ear girl as she rode on his shoulders. In fact the only looks he got were ones of envy from many of the women in the room.

As the night came to an end Ash snuck away to a small sitting room away from everyone else. As soon as he was seated one of the maids brought him a small glass of wine. “Do you need anything else my lord?” The maid asked after sitting the bottle of wine on the table.

“Just some quiet,” Ash said as he leaned back in his chair.

“It had been months since Ash had really had any time to himself. When he was in the demon kingdom one of his new wives was always around and the only time he had to himself was the time he spent in the privy. Then there was the war, which kept him completely occupied and ever since he had returned Emelia had barely given him enough space to breath. He loved all of the people in his life but that didn’t mean he didn’t want some time alone every now and then so that he could recharge.

Taking a deep breath Ash took a small sip of the win and look at the white ceiling. “When will this be over?” Ash asked himself.

He knew that going to meet with the king was the best choice for a quick and hopefully peaceful end to the war but he also knew that it could turn blood fast if things didn’t go well. If that happened a war could drag on for years if not decades.

While he had some time to himself Ash started to look over his new abilities. He had gained the abilities weeks ago but he really didn’t have much of a chance to look them over. Ash was always amazed when he gained an ability from another human since they seemed to be much better than the ones he gained from monsters. He knew from his own research that almost all of them could be found if he killed the right monster but that was easier said than done since many of the monsters were very high level. The more he thought about it the more he started to form a theory. Most likely the abilities from stronger monsters had a better chance to be passed down among bloodlines from generation to generation.

Most of the abilities had a number of uses but two of them stuck out among the others. Port, and dimensional door could be extremely useful. Even at a low level port could be used in a number of ways while Dimensional door would make likely have to be leveled up a great deal before it could be used for more than a quick escape during battle.

Thinking of this Ash decided that the trip would be a great time to practice the two new abilities and level them up since neither of them required an enemy for them to be used against. Happy with his choice ash quickly drained the rest of his glass and moved to rejoin the others in the main room.

10-11

The next morning Emelia, Yuki, Shina, and Milly all gathered at the front gate of the city to see Ash off. After giving each one a hug and light kiss Ash mounted his carriage.

After they had left the city far behind Ash removed himself from the carriage and stretched his legs. Even though he had not ridden for long Ash had found the ride very uncomfortable.

“My lord has something happened?” one of his demon guards asked when Ash exited.

“No…Not really,” Ash replied. “There are just a few things I would like to try out.”

“Understood my lord,” the demon said bowing before returning to his post.

Ash had planned to use dimension door to catch up to the carriage but it seemed that he was not on board it wasn’t going to move. Looking around Ash noticed that everyone was watching him. A sudden idea hit Ash and a mischievous smile spread across his face.

Ash looked around and found a place that looked to be about seventy feet away and activated dimension door. As soon as the ability was activated a large obsidian doorway appeared in front of Ash. Shrugging his shoulders he quickly stepped through the door and found himself exactly where he had wanted to go. Quickly checking his ability page Ash looked at the experience earned from one trip and found that it was only 2%. “I have to do this fifty more times just to reach level two,” Ash said with a deep sigh before looking back at the people he had left behind. “Hay guys why are you all waiting back there?” Ash yelled in a teasing tone.

“My lord,” Ash heard a few of the call out as they rushed to where he was waiting the looks on their face showing more than a little confusion.

Just before they could reach him Ash activated dimension door again and moved another eighty to a hundred feet away. This time as Ash came through the large black door he quickly looked back at the people coming up the road. From the way they were acting they couldn’t see the doorway that he had opened. This brought up a lot of questions in Ash’s mind but he was not knowledgeable enough to even begin to answer them so he pushed them aside until he had more time to think.

Oddly enough dimension door was far cheaper than Ash would have guessed at only 25MP per use. With his current MP levels that meant that Ash could use it around fifty-five times before he would run out of MP, though that wasn’t really true since his MP would slowly recover even while he was using abilities. Still It left Ash knowing that he had enough MP to level it up at least once without having to take a long rest.

It didn’t take long to activate the ability so Ash was easily able to stay ahead of the group but after his fifth jump Ash noticed that while those on horseback were leaving the carriage behind. Grumbling to himself Ash was left with no choice then to wait on all of them to catch up to him so that he could explain what he was doing.

“MY lord,” Tolarea said in a harsh tone being the first to catch up to Ash her large warhorse panting heavily.

“Calm down Tolarea,” Ash said taking a step back when he saw the scowl on her face. “I was just training one of my new abilities.”

“And it never crossed your mind that you should let us know beforehand what you were doing?” Tolarea asked as she narrowed her eyes at him. “If you haven’t forgotten there is currently a war going on and I am sure there are any number of people who would like to see you dead. That is the whole reason that we have brought so many guards. What are their use if you run away from the safety that they bring you?”

Hearing Tolarea’s words Ash looked around to see that the others who had caught up with her were silently nodding their heads in agreement. “I apologize,” Ash said weakly as a feeling of remorse ran through him. “I was wrong.”

Once the carriage had arrived the small group took a break beside the road to let the horses catch their breath and so that they could talk.

“What is the new ability that you are training?” Seia asked as she came to sit beside Ash. “It looked like you just vanished and reappeared.”

“It is called Dimension door and allows me to move from one place to the next as long as it is within a certain range,” Ash explained.

“Can you take others with you?” Li asked weakly her voice barely audible over the sound of the blowing wind.

“I don’t know,” Ash replied honestly.

“Then we should try. If you can take two along with you I don’t think anyone would complain as long as you don’t move so far that the others can’t see you,” Li explained her idea.

“That could work,” Celina agreed making Li smile bashfully.

It was decided that Tolarea and Li would be the ones to go with Ash. Tolarea to fight any threat and Li to use her protection and healing spells. Once they were ready Ash activated Dimension door. “Can you see it?” Ash asked as the large obsidian doorway opened up in front of him. Having already heard Ash explain how the ability worked they both shook their heads. With Ash guiding them the three walked into the doorway. After being transported Ash looked around only to find himself standing alone only a few dozen feet away from the others.

“It didn’t work,” Seia said slightly disheartened as Ash walked back to where they waited.

“We should try again,” Tolarea said as if it was a challenge she had to beat.

Once again the three stood arm to arm but this time their arms were linked with Ash in the middle of the two women. “I see it,” Li shouted happily as soon as Ash activated the ability.

“It seems we have to be touching for it to work on more than one person,” Ash said nodding his head as he looked as his stats page and noticed that his MP consumption had also been raised to seventy-five. It was three times but it was good to know that he could move more people than just himself.

For the next three hours Ash transported himself and two of his guards forward while the rest of the party followed behind before his MP ran dry. Checking his stats page again Ash noticed that he still had 22% left before he could level up dimension door to the next level. Not only did traveling with others increase the cost it also increased the experience gained from one trip but it only increased by 1% per person.

After he had ran out of MP Ash was forced to retire to the carriage to recharge. As they rolled along Ash kept readjusting himself but no matter how hard he tried he still felt every bump that the wooden wheels went over. Seeing his discomfort Seia let out a laugh. Unlike the others Seia had the bottom half of a snake so it didn’t seem as if the rattling of the carriage bothered her as much.

To help pass the time Ash tried to read one of the books he had borrowed from Emelia’s library but at first it was hard for him to concentrate with all the rattling around though once he was able to get absorbed in the book it was as if the entire world around him disappeared.

After three hours of rest Ash had recovered enough of his MP to use dimension door again but he decided that it would be best to wait. He was still trying to build up his soul MP in case it was needed when he reached the capital and considering that it would take more than a six weeks to reach the capital Ash didn’t feel as if he was in a rush to level up the ability. Even the fast letter delivery using the adventure’s guild still took a week.

This also caused a bit of problem since Emelia would have to notify the king that she was sending a delegate to discuss the current situation, so the king would know long before Ash arrived that he was coming. That meant that there was a large chance of people moving to intercept them since more than a few say him as the catalyst for the war and believed that if Ash were gone the war would end without further trouble.

Emelia had promised not to send the letter until they had already been gone for a week. That would give them at least two weeks or a third of the journey without having to worry as much about assassins but there was no telling how many spies were watching Emelia’s every move so there was always a chance that the king would know long before the letter arrived and that meant that they couldn’t really keep their guard down. That was the reason everyone had been so agitated when Ash had simply disappeared from in front of their eyes.

Emelia had planned out the rout they would take so that at least a quarter of the time they could rest in a real bed at an inn. It sounded nice but the truth was that the first half of the trip would be spent sleeping under the stars since the cities gradually got closer together the nearer one got to the capital.

Ash didn’t mind as he enjoyed the outdoors. In fact sleeping outside was a lot better than sleeping in some of the low end dives that one would find in some of the villages.

Thanks to the carriage they couldn’t travel as far or as late as they could with horses but it wasn’t a choice that was given to him. For one Seia couldn’t ride a horse easily. Even when she rode one of the demon birds she had to use an especially made saddle and sadly they didn’t have any for her within the human kingdom. There was also the fact that delegates were expected to ride in a carriage and not just a simple one. The carriage that Emelia had prepared was made of an expensive wood that looked dark purple in the sunlight and almost obsidian in the darkness. It had a large crest painted on it in gold leaf on each side. One side had the crest of the Hawkwing family while the other had the crest of the demon lord on it. Ash didn’t see the reason for the demon lord crest since he doubted that anyone in the human lands would be able recognize the crest of the demon lord.

Since they were forced to set up camp as soon as the sun began to drop below the horizon it left them plenty of time for them to train before settling down to sleep. Ash had planned to use this time to look over his large number of abilities and try to learn them better and think of ways that they could be used but Tolarea and his other wives each had their own plans.

First Ash was forced to spar with Tolarea and Gena. Once he was finished sparing Ash helped Li cook the meal for the entire group. As Li moved from pot to pot stirring and checking the fire she had an almost angelic smile on her face which Ash couldn’t help but find captivating.

After the meal Ash helped Celina and Seia wash the dishes then spent a few moments with each of his other wives. Though all he did was simple things they all seemed to enjoy the time he spent with them.

When it came to sleep they set up a watch rotation. Ash had wanted to take his turn but he the idea was completely denied by everyone. Ash didn’t know why but he hated being told what he could or couldn’t do and hated even more being protected. Before it hadn’t really been that apparent but now it seemed to shine through like a beacon on a clear night.

Ash knew that it was something that he was going to have to get used to but he wasn’t sure if he could. Sighing Ash pulled the thick comforter over his shoulders and closed his eyes.

Ever since coming to this world Ash had wanted to explore it but things kept getting in the way. As long as he had been here the only time he had left the duchy was when he went to the demon kingdom. Though it was not under the best of circumstances he was still getting to see a little bit more of the world so Ash couldn’t help but get a little excited.

Thanks to the building dreams in his mind Ash had a hard time falling asleep so he was still wide awake when he felt something warm slip under the covers and press against his back. Turning slightly Ash found himself staring in the eyes of Li who was quietly looking back at him with a worried tremble in her eyes.

“My lord,” Li said her voice so weak that Ash had to strain to hear it even though she was only a few inches away from him.

“I told you to call me Ash when we are alone,” Ash said in a slightly rebuking yet teasing tone. When Li nodded her head but didn’t say anything Ash couldn’t help but feel as if something was bothering her. “Is something on your mind?” Ash asked once the silence had become too overbearing.

“I don’t think you should meet with the human king,” Li said her voice firmer than he had ever heard it before. “Any of the clan heads or nobles from your human wives lands could perform the same task.”

“That is true,” Ash admitted. “But I don’t think the king would be able to handle meeting a full demon,” Ash said with a slight chuckle when he tried to imagine the look on the unknown king’s face if he had sent Tolarea’s father to meet with him. Also only a few of the nobles can really be trusted once they get out of eyesight and there is no telling what the clan leaders might door say that could unnecessarily offend. I want to stop the war with the least amount of life lost while retaining the Hawkwing lands independence.”

“I understand,” Li said though her voice still had a hint of defiance to it. Li seldom talked and when she did it was kept very short but Ash was starting to understand her from the small movements she made whenever something was on her mind.

Leaning down Ash kissed Li lightly on the forehead in a reassuring manner. “Everything will be fine,” Ash said pulling LI tight into his chest. “I have you and the others here to protect me don’t I. Not to mention the human king would be foolish to start a war with the demon kingdom. We have six time the forces and each one our men are worth three of his.”

“Then why don’t you just take over his lands?” Li asked softly.

“I want the demons to renter the world,” Ash said since the thought had crossed his own mind. He hated the way the humans nobles treated the other races. It pulled at his every fiber but he knew that destroying them wouldn’t solve anything. “If we start that with such a war then the other kingdoms might rise up and join together and the end would be fatal for everyone involved.”

Li nodded her head but she didn’t look convinced of Ash’s words. Giving her a light kiss again Ash pulled her close and closed his eyes.

10-12

Over the next three weeks Ash and the others were able to travel without trouble. Ash had been able to raise his dimension door two levels. With each level the distance he could travel increased but the cost increased with the distance. The largest problem that Ash found with the new ability was that he had to be able to see where he was going to travel there. It would also work if he could envision it clearly so he had been working on it by closing his eyes each time he activated the ability.

The first day Ash had tried to activated the ability without looking where he was going the obsidian door appeared then large cracks appeared on its surface before it shattered like an overheated piece of glass. It took three days before Ash could use the ability with a 50% success rate without looking directly as he designated target. After a little over a week he could now do it with a 90% chance of success.

Ash also worked on leveling his new port ability at night before sleeping. At first he tried to use it to move his sword but just like with the dimension door ability it activated draining his MP but the sword never appeared. When he couldn’t move the sword Ash tried something smaller and soon learned that the biggest thing that he could move was something the size of a small dagger.

Though he didn’t use it as much Ash was able to raise port to its second level. Once it reached level 2 not only did the distance raise slightly it also allowed him to teleport something slightly larger though it only upgraded from a small dagger to one with a slightly larger blade. Still it gave him hope that once it was a high enough level he could port his sword which was his ultimate goal.

Other than training his abilities Ash spent time with his wives. When he had been in the demon kingdom he had been with them almost all day every day but he hadn’t really spent any quality time with them just sitting and talking since most of it was spent within the depths of one labyrinth after another.

Ash still couldn’t say that he truly loved any of them like he did Emelia but he knew that if any of them were to disappear he would feel the loss. He didn’t know why but this made him happy as it was a sign that they were becoming people he considered true friends.

Though since they were on the road he couldn’t do anything that normally happened between married couple but each night one of them would sleep next to him enjoying his embrace while talking late into the night before sleeping.

In the three weeks they had left the lands of the previous Hawkwing duchy and already at the edge of another. So far there had been no attacks. Not even the normal thieves that prayed on travelers appeared but that was most likely do to the fact they were so heavily armed.

Tonight was only the fourth night that they had the chance to sleep in a decent in. There had been more chances to sleep within the confines of an inn but they looked so run down that Ash was afraid that he would spent most the night fighting off bugs that lived in the bed he had opted for them to sleep under the stars.

Tonight they were in a fairly large border town and since money was not a problem Ash picked the largest inn that he could find. The room he was currently in was only slightly smaller than the room that Emelia stayed in within her own manor and the bed was so large that Ash and four of his wives could sleep comfortable. It was even long enough that Tolarea could fully stretch out on it.

Though they were in a city Ash didn’t feel very comfortable since everyone openly started at him and his escorts. There was a decent number of people with demon blood in the world but it had been a long time since full blood demons had been seen in the outside world. With ten full blood demons walking opening they were bound to draw more than a few stares.

Since it was one of the few chances that Ash had to rest in an inn Ash took the chance to pull out some blanks pieces of parchment and started to write down all his abilities. The more he looked at the more he noticed that he had neglected many of them that could be used.

Ash sighed and looked out the window as he started to think of what would happen in the future.

Notes

Notes

Name: Ash

Level: 41

Experience needed for next level: 1,541,452

Race: Human/Demon 70/30

Occupation: intermediate gambler

Title: First Knight

Blessings: Blessing of the reaper

HP: 1400/1400

MP 1320/1320

SP 267/267

Strength: 79 (+10) (+2) (+1) (+10) (+10) (+194)

Vitality: 82 (+3) (+202)

Agility: 56 (+10) (+5) (+132)

Stamina 77 (+5) (+191)

Spirit 38 (+10) (+97)

Intelligence: 67 (+175)

Endurance: 40 (+10) (+1) (+2) (+10) (+102)

Luck: 232 (+999) (+1)

(Special stats)

Hardness: 1

Soul MP: 920

Sun Mana: 131

Abilities

Passive:

Devil’s Luck: 500% bonus to luck.

Fleet foot: +10 to agility. Max

Wolf eyes: See in the dark. Level Max

Mining: Ability to use a pick to extract ore from hidden locations. Able to tell where mining locations are located. Level 2- 23%

Poison resistance: level 2-81%: 10% poison resistance.

Grave domain: Damage resistance to whole body with the exception of the head increased by 10%.

Spider senses: able to detect prey that is up to three levels higher within a 200 foot radius. Able to sense hostile intent within a 100 foot radius. Level max%.

[Fire resistance: 15% fire resistance. Level 3-32%.]

[Natural armor (small). When fighting your skin acts as a natural armor blocking 10% of physical damage. Level: max.]

[Frost resistance: 10% resistance to frost damage. Level 2-47%.]

[Yeti strength: +10 to strength. Level Max%.]

[Electric resistance. 5% resistance to energy attacks. Level 1-87%.]

[Water glide. When moving in water it flows naturally around you decreasing water resistance by 25%. Level max.]

[Cloak of shadows: When in a dark area cloak of shadows wraps you in shadows making it harder for you to be detected.]

Dragon sight: You can see the magical flow of items and creatures

[Reaper’s sight: people who have received the ire of the goddess will now appear with a small sickle above their head.]

[Reaper’s soul: after killing a person who has been marked by the goddess you will absorb a portion of their soul and receive any abilities they possess.]

[Earth affinity- cost of using earth related skills will be reduced by 14% and power of earth related skills will be boosted 7%. Level 3-96%.]

[Mental resist- 5% bonus when attacked by a mental attack. Level 1-48%]

[Iron stomach: for each ounce of iron you eat your strength will raise by 1 but at the same time your intelligence will be reduced by 1.]

[Fire Affinity - cost of using fire related skills and abilities will be reduced by 10% and power of fire related skills and abilities will be boosted 5%. Level 1-73%.]

[Blood drain- ability to absorb 1% of a person’s experience by drinking their blood after their death.]

[Heart of stone: slowly absorbs the essence of the earth into your blood strengthening the body over time. Level max.]

[Diamond soul: Ability to convert MP into Soul MP. Ratio 100/1. Level 1-76%]

[Poison affinity: cost of using poison related skills and abilities will be reduced by 10% and power of fire related skills and abilities will be boosted 5%. Level 1-98%.]

[Ogre’s strength: +.1% to strength. Level- Max.]

[Blood strengthening- cost 10 vitality: gain 1 point in hardness. Level 1-0%.]

[Light shield. Cost ***Sun mana. Blocks attacks using the power of light energies.]

[Sun mana. For every one hour spent under the sun gain 1 sun mana.]

[Echo location: advanced hearing that allows you to the placement of people and items even in total darkness. Level max.]

[Darkness resistance: 5% reduction in damage from any sources using the darkness element. Level 1-30%.]

[Darkness affinity: cost of using darkness attribute skills or abilities will be reduced by 10%. Level 1-23%.]

[Dark soul: turn 100HP into soul MP.]

[Bolstered resilience- increase damage resistance by 5%. Level 1-33%.]

Active:

Demon Absorption: Cost 25MP: Absorb defeated enemies to obtain skills. Level 4- 53%

Bash: Cost 1SP - Slam into enemies with your body to do X10 damage. Level Max%

Rabbit Punch: Cost 1Sp- Using feet or hands quickly lash out with a lighting quick attack. Level max.

Stab: Cost 5 SP- Thrust forward with weapon (sword, spear.) level 3-8%

Poison spit: Cost 5MP. Level Max%: Spit a corrosive poison that sticks to enemy doing 5 damage a second for ten seconds.

Analyze ability. Cost 5MP: Ability to see opponents name, level and skill as long as they are no more than 5 levels above you. Level max.

[Poison: cost 10MP- ability to make a small amount of toxin that paralyzes. Can be placed on weapons.]

[Sticky thread: cost 15MP- shoot out a stream of sticky thread to trap opponents.]

Stealth: Cost 20 MP. Erase your presence from enemies any movement cancels the ability.

[Fire ball: cost 10MP. Create two ball’s of fire and throw it at an enemy. Level 3-15%.]

[Cone of frost: Cost 15MP: send out a cone of frost freezing everything in its path. Causes 15 frost damage every second for eight seconds. Level 3-53%]

[Crushing blow: cost 5SP: strike with a hard blow bypassing 55% of opponent’s defense. Level 2-32%]

[Shock armor: cost 12MP. Covers a small area with electoral energy that will stun an opponent struck with it for two seconds. Level 2-11%.]

[Shock strike: cost 25MP. Hit an opponent with an energy attack that paralyses the part struck for seven minutes. Level 2-54%.]

[Pounce: cost 5SP jump straight forward with great speed doing 2x normal damage.]

[Poison vine whip: cost 40MP. Call a vine dripping with paralyzing poison to strike your opponent. Level 1-99%.]

[Reaper’s blessing: cost 50MP- bless a weapon or item with the goddess’s power. Lasts for twenty-four hours.]

[Sharp strike: cost 10SP- strike with a bladed weapon to deal 1.5 the normal damage. Increased chance for a critical strike. Level 1-92%]

[Fire lance: cost 25MP- casts a long lance of fire. Level 2-18%]

[Ice spear 15MP- coat a weapon in ice giving it an added ice attribute to its attack. Level 1-72%.]

[Ice shield 20MP- created a shield of ice that can fend off attacks. Level 1-21%]

[Lullaby of subduction: cost 20MP- chance to charm an enemy confusing them. A strike releases the confused state. Level 1-21%]

[Death wail: Cost 40MP- a loud wail that strikes at the mind of them enemy deal direct damage. Damage based off of spirit. Level 1-41%]

[Shadow whip: cost 20MP, 5SP- attack with a whip made out of pure shadow that will follow the enemy wherever they try to run. Level 3-51%.]

[Shimmer: cost 10SP- surrounds the body with light making it hard to discern movement.]

[Shadow armor: Cost 25MP 10SP; creates an armor made of shadows to protect the caster.]

[Mana manipulation: Cost: 30MP- able to manipulate pure mana and give it form. Level 4-31%]

[Hide: Cost 10SP- erase your presence.]

[Boost: Cost 50%SP- Double all stats.]

[Dark eyes: cost 50MP- strike directly at the soul of the opponent causing them to lose strength and dealing a small amount of damage. Level 1-32%]

[Flame sword- cost 30MP coat a weapon in flame essence.]

[Burn out- Turn 10% of your HP into a white hot flame to attack your opponents.]

[Infuse earth-cost ***- infuse earth with magical energy to strength it. Level 3-42%]

[Earth essence: cost ***- ability to infuse MP with earth essence. Level 3-27%]

[Earth shield: Cost 40MP- create a stone shield made of condensed earth. Level 1-34%]

[Toxin- cost 25MP: spew out a cloud of toxic poison that does 1 damage per second for five minutes. Level 1-88%]

[Poison control- cost ***: merge poison with mana to use it more freely. Level 2-12%]

[Secrete- cost ***: create a liquid form of poison that will last until needed. Cost depends on poison made and amount created. Level 2-31%]

[Hemlock oil- cost 60MP: thin oil that can be used as medicine for swelling and pain when used in very small amounts. Causes complete paralysis when used in a concentrated form. Level 1- 32%.]

[Sealing poison-cost 60MP 10SP: seals all MP and SP based abilities and skills for 120 seconds. Level 2-6%.]

[Slash- cost 5SP: create a blade of light that extends the reach of your blade. Level 2-17%.]

[Sunder- cost 25SP 5MP: hard strike that has a large chance of crushing or cutting through armor. Level 2-46%]

[Blood strike- cost 40SP 20HP: a fluid strike that ignores all defense to strike directly at an opponent’s heart. Level 2-61%.]

[Heal: cost 10MP- heal 5HP. Level 1-18%]

[Earth shroud- cost 15SP enter the earth to hide. Level 1-17%.]

[Light strike: cost 15SP- coat your weapon in light when attacking. Level 1-9%.]

[Light ball: cost 20MP- create a ball light. Level max.]

[Hemostat: cost 20MP- stop bleeding. Level 1-0%.]

[Light arrow: cost 10SP- attack using 1 arrow made of light. Level 1-26%.]

[Flare: cost 25MP- create a flash of light to blind your enemies.1-26%.]

[Burst: cost 20SP- infuse your body with energy allowing increasing damage by 5% for 5 minutes. 1-27%.]

[Dark spear: Cost 80MP create a spear of pure darkness that will last for five minutes. Can attack through armor as long as it is not blessed. Level 1-13%.]

[Infuse darkness-cost ***- infuse the air with Darkness energy to strength and control it. Level 1-26%.]

[Darkness essence: cost ***- ability to infuse MP with the darkness essence. Level 1-52%.]

[Sword of illusion: cost 40MP 10SP- create three illusionary replicas of your sword blade that can do 10% of the original strike. Level 1-86%.]

[Phantom strike: cost 10SP- attack with a phantom strike that does no damage but can deceive your enemies. Level 1-72%.]

[Armor of thorns: cost 40 MP cover your body with thick wooden armor that is covered in thorns. Lasts for 10 minutes. Level 1-51%.]

[Tremor: Cost 75MP- Shake the whole earth within five hundred square feet. Level 1-13%.]

[Wind slash: cost 10MP 5SP- eject a blade of wind that follows on a straight path. Level 1-65%.]

[Wind wing: Cost 15MP 30SP- create wings made of air that can let you fly and increase your speed by 5%. Lasts for 5 minutes. Level 1-33%.]

[Total destruction: Cost 300MP 100SP- create a massive storm of pure magical energy and physical force that spreads out over fifty yards attacking everything within its range. Level 1-8%.]

[Agis shield of protection: cost 120MP create a large massive shield that can cover fifty square feet. Can take a total of 150 HP before disappearing. Level 1-49%.]

[Break guard: cost 50SP- fast movement that allows one to break through their oponets guard. Level 1-0%.]

[Over boost- cost 75SP- double the damage of the next attack, level 1-0%.]

[Flash step- cost 25SP- quickly move to any place within five steps. Level 1-0%.]

[Binding throw: cost 10SP- warp up the enemy and throw him. Level 1-0%.]

[Bludgeon: cost 20SP- increase attack with blunted weapons by 25%. Level 1-0%.]

[Hurl: cost 5Sp- throw weapon doing 10% more damage. Level 1-0%.]

[Weaken: cost 50MP- weaken an enemy by one level. Can only be used if enemy is at a higher level. Level 1-0%.]

[Cluster shot- cost 40MP 5SP- when the next arrow is fired it will burst apart damaging all enemies within its striking area. Level 1-0%.]

[Replenish: cost 10% of channeled MP. Pass MP onto an ally. Level 1-0%.]

[Holy fist: cost 20MP- coat fist in holy light. Level 1-0%.]

[Crushing blow: cost 40SP- strike with three times the force as normal. Level 1-0%.]

[Deadly finish: cost 100SP- upgrades the next attack 1 level. Level 1-0%.]

[Destructive dispel: cost 75MP- cancel enemy spell or ability and does damage equal to the cost of the spell canceled to the caster. Level 1-0%.]

[Dimension door: cost 25MP- 50MP- open a dimensional door from one place to the next. Range 250 feet. Level 3-76%.]

[Port: cost 25MP- teleport an item into your hand. Range thirty-five feet. Level 2-26%.]

[Final embrace: cost ***- sacrifice yourself and deal damage to all enemy equal to that of your remaining HP, MP, and SP combined.]

Skills

[You have gained the skill gambler’s boost (passive) .2% boost to all other stats for each 1 point in the luck attribute. Level 2.]

[You have gained the gambler’s gambit (active) skill. Cost 20MP: boost all stats for one minute. Boost is random. Level 1.]

[You have gained the poker face (active) skill. Cost 5MP: forces a calm face no matter the situation. Level 2.]

[You have gained the bluff (active) skill. Cost 5MP: bluff opponents to make them think you are stronger. Level 1.]

[You have gained the read (passive) skill. Chance to see what skill your opponent is using. Based on luck.]

[Gambler’s game (active). Cost 100 MP. Call of The gambling god using your stats as chip to play against another gambler. Can only be used against those of the same rank or higher. Can only be used once every six months. Time until next use 0 days. Level-Max.]

[Luck shield: passive/active. When attacked has a chance to block attack. Amount of MP used is depended on the attack.]

[Gambler’s stake: cost 40SP- During a battle you can sacrifice gold in order to temporarily increase you stats. The amount of gold sacrificed determines the rise in ability.]

[Lucky find: Cost 25MP- search the area for hidden treasure.]

[Luck toss: cost 100MP- toss a gold coin if it lands on heads your luck will increase by 10%, if tails luck will decrease 10%. Can only be used once a day. Effect lasts for eight hours.]

Equipment

Silver gambler’s emblem: emblem signifying that one is an intermediate gambler of the gambler’s guild. Durability 10/10 luck +1.

[Fouremar. Durability 60/60 attack 35-40. Strength +10, agility +5, fire brand.]Mithra armor: Armor blessed by the god of light. Durability 40/40 defense + 20 Endurance +10 spirit +10 agility +5.

Dragon skin gauntlets: durability 25/25, defense +10, magical defense +5, strength +1, endurance +2

[Pants of the fire drake. Durability 45/45 defense 22. Agility +8, spirit +6 fire defense +20%.]         [Necklace of the dragon: defense +15- when HP reaches 0 necklace will break fully restoring the persons HP.]

[Superior mana ring: increase mana by 10%.]

[Gold dragon light armor. Durability 65/65 defense +35. Vitality + 15 elemental defense +15%.]

Table of Contents

- 10-1
- 10-2
- 10-3
- 10-4
- 10-5
- 10-6
- 10-7
- 10-8
- 10-9
- 10-10
- 10-11
- 10-12