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Book 3: Chapter 8: Understand

Dyon watched with a big smile on his face as Ava cried in Arios’ arms. She had gone through so much to save him, even being humiliated by Baal, and now her big brother was finally back.

Arios smiled, holding onto his sister tightly while looking up at his elder brother, “Bro, I’ve missed you.”

Arios’ elder brother clasped his shoulder, “Dad nearly started a war because of you, you know. He tells everyone it was because of Ava, but we all know how much he loves you. And what’s up with this hair? Are women into this kind of thing?”

Ava sniffled, “You big idiot. Why did you disappear?”

Dyon decided then it was probably best he take his leave, “Take your time Arios, this battle won’t be worth your effort. Let me handle it.”

With that, Dyon left with to look around the Elvin campsite.

**

“What’s your plan?” Ri asked.

Dyon pondered for a bit, “The Phantus clan not only relies on their beast taming and breeding, they’re also expert body cultivators and earth will warriors. Because of that, normal traps don’t work against them.”

Ri nodded. Usually when dealing with large beasts, the best option was to ruin their footholds or block their paths – things of that nature. However, how could pitfalls work against warriors who could manipulate the earth itself? No straight forward plan would work against them.

“In addition, even stalling the beasts will be difficult. Their skin is too difficult to pierce for meridian formation warriors. It makes no sense to attack their eyes because their eyesight is already poor and the size of weapon that would be needed to kill them with an attack aimed there would be seen through almost immediately. The truth is that attacking their hearing really is the best option.”

Delia, Akash and the other elves listened quietly as Dyon spoke with Ri.

“But then the problem is having an attack powerful enough to effect them.” Ri said.

“Right, but, my music will isn’t good for soothing. I read about Madeleine’s battle and she succeeded by lulling the beasts into a sense of comfort – a state where they’re near useless. But, my music path is much more useful for instilling fear in my enemies and confidence in my allies.”

Ri nodded, “And instilling fear in such beasts would be a double-edged sword. They might hurt the Phantus god clan, but they could just as easily hurt us too. The best method for soothing we have would then be your and my celestial will, but the Phantus will bring at least ten beasts, leaving the rest near their gate to defend. It wouldn’t be possible for us to deal with all of them alone.”

Dyon smiled. He had given Ri celestial will in much the same way he had with Madeleine, it just seemed like she was much less shy about it.

“I agree. There is the possibility of using my crystal will to boost our celestial will to the appropriate levels, but the calming effect of celestial will is more of a symptom rather than its actual purpose. Celestial will, down to its core, is meant to cleanse, but when its not for defense, it also requires direction with my aurora to be effective. Something as intricate as effecting emotion would definitely need touch… And that’s not a viable option with so many opponents. ”

What Dyon was saying was correct. Whenever he wanted to manipulate the emotions of others with his celestial will, he touched them. That included when he wanted to calm Little Lyla, or when he had intimate contact with Madeleine or Ri. Both required the precision of his aurora.

Essentially, Dyon cheated. He used his aurora to make up for deficiencies he had in controlling his celestial will. So, without the use of his aurora, meaning his touch in this case, celestial will could only be used as a defense.

“But, what makes this even more difficult is how they use earth will to attack. Sure, its annoying when they defend with it against pitfalls and the like, but it becomes even more annoying when the manipulate the landscape to suit them.”

Akash suddenly spoke up, “That’s correct. Whether that be turning the land to sludge to ruin footing or elevating their attack position above ours to give an elevation advantage, they’re tough to deal with.”

Dyon nodded, “They’re tough. But, they have weaknesses.”

Everyone listened intently to Dyon, a strange confidence blooming in them as they watched a smile spread across his face.

“You guys have missed a glaring weakness of the scaled elephants.”

Akash’s brows furrowed, “Weakness?…”

Dyon smiled, “They aren’t normal elephants. The Phantus clan has used special methods to meld them with reptilian DNA. That’s why they’re scaled. Usually, this is good for defense – after all, what could be better than the scales as a defense?”

Everyone was still confused, what was the use in knowing that?

Dyon shrugged at their confusion, “It’s obvious isn’t it? They’re cold blooded.”

**

Later that day, Delia walked out of Dyon and Ri’s tent nervously, leaving the couple alone.

“Are you sure she can handle this?” Ri asked, listening to the flap close.

Dyon sighed sitting cross legged on the bed and helping Ri take off her armor, “The truth is, only you and I are necessary to make this work. In fact, if I include the members of our army with the necessary affinity, its almost overkill. But, I want to give her a purpose.”

Ri nodded, “What a good big brother.”

Dyon chuckled, “I almost regret introducing you to Ava, you two are too much fire.”

“I like her,” Ri said grinning, sliding into comfortable sleepwear.

Soon Ri lay to rest in bed, staring at Dyon’s meditating figure. She sighed, knowing fully well that he wouldn’t sleep tonight. In fact, he wasn’t even being his usual perverted self… But, this only made Ri smile. Dyon’s focus was one of the things she loved about him.

Dyon himself was taking deep breaths, running over patterns and simulations in his head. He thought of dozens of possibilities and everything seemed to change with just the slightest variable shift.

The first key tower was known as the Earth Tower. It sat in the closest position to the gate and the terrain around it was fairly flat. That being said, there was only one way to get here: a mountain pass called the Earthen Passage.

About ten kilometers past the Earth Tower sat two mountain ranges that stretched around in a semi-circular pattern. The only easily accessible opening in this mountain range was a wide passage. In fact, the passage itself was so wide it was almost inaccurate to call it as such. However, it served its function as the only route here.

There were many problems even knowing this, though. For one, the mountain pass was a huge advantage for Earth will users like the Phantus. In addition, a set straight passage like that severely hindered maneuverability, something that would be highly important when dealing with the Scaled Elephants.

Therefore, Dyon settled on a choice. ‘We’ll meet them about a kilometer out of the Earthen Passage. The first thing they’ll see when the step out will be us.’

Many kilometers away from Dyon’s thoughts sat a group of about ten thousand in the shadows of a mountain range.

They were made up entirely of men and they were abnormally large. Even the smallest of them would stand at 2.5 meters tall at his full height. But, maybe the most striking characteristic, was their leather like skin and oddly flat noses.

Funny enough, their flat noses were as a result of a surgery they often performed on themselves to heighten their sense of smell in order to offset the vision problems that came with their cultivation technique.

This odd collection of individuals was of course the Phantus God clan.

“Commander Draven, we’ll be out of the Earthen Passage by tomorrow.”

A towering man with robust grey leather skin nodded, standing to his full five-meter height as he walked over to what looked like a slowly roasting pig.

Picking up the thick skewer, it was as though he didn’t feel the searing heat. He rotated it in his hand, entirely too focused.

The surroundings were eerily quiet as the army watched their commander inspect his food. Many had their own, but there seemed to be a silent agreement that the first bite went to Commander Draven.

Still staring at the meat in his hand, a deep rumbling voice seemed to penetrate everyone, “What is the rule of us Phantus?”

“SKIN AS TOUGH AS THE EARTH. COURAGE AS BOLD AS THE SKY. BLOOD AS HOT AS THE SUN.”

There was no hesitation in the response, a deep fire burning in the bellies of everyone.

“Are you all aware of what they’ve said about us?”

The sound of tensed muscles and gritting teeth were the only things heard under the shadows of the mountain.

A bit less than a year ago, the mighty Phantus Clan had their reputation unceremoniously tainted… And the worst part was that it was done by a woman. The Phantus God Clan had always seen women as the weaker sex, in fact, their campaigns never had a single female member of their clan take part. And yet, their pride had been stripped of them by a being they had looked down on from the start.

Their beasts were tamed, their armies were put to heel, and their defenses were crushed… All because of Madeleine Sapientia.

In this time, they had spent all of their resources, prepared to combat that one glaring weakness. They refused to lose like they did again. Even to the point where they insisted on running vanguard in this experiment… the experiment that would change the tides of everything.

“Tomorrow. I want no mistakes. You attack when I say you attack. You fight hard and without reserve. Defeat is not an option. Only death.”

Commander Draven finally bit into the large pig. His teeth were large flat rows of an endless white, but they were immediately tainted by a scarlet blood.

His look was sinister, and his aura reverberated through the air, causing the mountains around them to tremble violently as red dripped down his jaw.

For the coming day, there could only be victory.

**

The next morning, Dyon sat still, meditating in the same position he had been in since the previous night – the faint flickering of red flames dancing around him.

Ever since he had begun dual cultivating with Ri, his blood essence had steadily increased; and, with his demon qilin blood at 31% now, his affinity for fire will had grown exponentially. As such, he began tapping into this will as well, knowing fully well the didn’t have full control over his black flames quite yet. Maybe if he started with red fire first, he could work his way to that level. But as it was now, it seemed only emotion could make them come out…

Slowly, the red flames blazed, increasing and shrinking to Dyon’s will. ‘Sixth level is my cap. If I stimulate my demon qilin blood I should be able to tap into the seventh. If I use my humanoid manifestation, I should be able to tap into the ninth. That’s enough.’

The truth was that, by now, Dyon already had the ability to tap into the ninth level of his wind and sword wills. However, his other wills were all around the sixth level. It seemed he was missing something to surpass that mark.

The more he thought about it though, the more it made sense. His Weapon’s Hall manifestation gave him high affinity for weapons, so his sword will being high made sense.

In regards to his wind will, he had been confused at first. Why was it so easy for him to learn? But then, he remembered the tattoos on his back. How could Dyon have a manifestation with wings and not have a wind will affinity?

All of this confirmed one thing: he hadn’t integrated enough of his blood essence yet. His soul was melded perfectly to him, therefore he benefited from 100% of its affinity. However, with his blood essence not being fully integrated, his affinity for wills other than wind and the sword were lacking.

That said… He had only been practicing fire will for as long as he knew he would be facing the Phantus clan… meaning he had learned up to the sixth level of fire will in a single night!

‘Those flaming black-gold circles of my humanoid manifestation…’

Dyon was perfectly right. Even though the black flames flickered in and out of existence, it still boosted his fire will affinity to this level!

Dyon took a deep breath, finally resting. Taking out some spiritual fruit, he ate hungrily to alleviate his fatigue.

Suddenly a gently voice came from behind Dyon, “Did you go out last night?”

Dyon suddenly felt like laughing, this sounded exactly like the start of a conversation in a romantic comedy. ‘Maybe those shows I showed Ri are influencing her.’

“Yea, I went to prep the battle field.”

Two delicate hands slid across Dyon’s shoulders as he felt a soft kiss on his ear, “You should have brought me with you. Did it go well?”

Dyon reached back, pulling Ri into his lap, “Let’s just say the Phantus will have a really tough time using their earth will effectively.”

Ri giggled, “You should tell people about your plans, you know. It’ll make us worry less.”

Dyon grinned, “Only me and my lovely fiancée need to know.” He said, lightly kissing Ri’s neck, “Did I ever tell you, you smell like lavender floating in an ice pool? How am I supposed to focus with you here?”

Ri pouted, “You seem to have focused just fine last night. Don’t think your flowery words will work with me. I’m not as naïve as little sister Del –.”

Dyon kissed Ri deeply, stifling her words before pulling back to enjoy her flustered features, “You make it sound like it was easy.”

Ri lightly tapped Dyon’s lips with her finger, shaking her head, “I hear that men lose their strength if they have sex before battle. Might not be the best idea.”

“Oh? But, I heard something too.”

Ri raised an eyebrow, “And what was that?”

Dyon’s hand waved as defensive and concealment arrays whirled to life, “The exact opposite is true for women.”

Ri shrieked and giggled as Dyon flung her to the bed, wrapping her arms around him happily.

Later that morning, Dyon stood beside Ri, Delia and Arios in front of his army of a thousand.

On this day, the disparity between the demon generals and the orphans couldn’t have been clearer. While the eyes of the demon generals shone with unyielding might and anticipation, the orphans shrunk, many shivering in terror.

There wasn’t much Dyon could do. Sure, instilling them with confidence through music will would work, but, constantly relying on others would only be a detriment to them. He would let them sink into this feeling for a bit longer before doing something.

Currently, Dyon stood looking toward the Earth Tower and could see passed it to the pier. They were on the flat lands between the key tower and the mountain range at a place where the ground became decidedly rockier.

But, aside from Dyon’s army, there were many questioning gazes being sent toward Dyon.

“What is he planning on doing with only a thousand men? Are the other elves really not helping?”

In the crowd of foot soldiers, familiar members of the big sects stood. They had been stunned to find out that Dyon was not only alive, but also leading the vanguard. But then, they had become secretly happy. After all, vanguard was usually the duty of them as low-ranking sects and clans. In fact, they hadn’t even been allowed to participate in any meetings.

To them, the only reason Dyon was leading this charge was because he was being disrespected – something that suited them just fine.

“Serves you right.” Hashim and Lehabim seemed to speak at the same time. It seemed they could only come together on mutual ground when it came to their hate of Dyon. Because of him, the big sects had been relegated to little else than footnotes for the upcoming world tournament.

The campaign heads had vastly different reactions to the big sect ‘geniuses’. To them, they wouldn’t underestimate Dyon again, but they could hardly believe he planned to face ten thousand men with only a thousand. Especially when the Phantus God Clan was known for even thwarting armies in the hundreds of thousands with that very number.  

“If he wins, you realize he’ll shoot to at least top 20 on the leader boards, right?” Voron Cavositas spoke to Vidar, trying to gauge his opinion.

Vidar shook his head, “The headquarters may nerf some of his points since this is an army already defeated by first in line genius Madeleine Sapientia. The honor is less when there’s a blue print already out there.”

Voron shook his head in disagreement, “He made it very clear that his music will isn’t as effective as hers. Meaning, he’ll be using a different method. That’s not even mentioning the fact she used an army of hundreds of thousands to face about fifty thousand of the Phantus God Clan and about fifty scaled elephants. He’s facing less, but he’s also only using a thousand men.”

Vidar raised an eyebrow, “Do you really think he won’t use the other elves? Don’t be ridiculous.”

Voron remained silent at this. It was indeed ridiculous for Dyon to use smaller numbers against an army that was already prepared to be severely out numbered.

“Just be ready to clean up his mess. Phantus clan or not, it’s clear that they’re only here to test something. If not they wouldn’t have sent such a small number even if it was the Phantus clan.”

Voron nodded, “We still don’t know how they brought such large beasts here…”

The jaws of the campaign heads tightened. Something was different about this campaign. They just didn’t know what.

**

Dyon’s ear twitched, he had been slowly rotating his crystal will around his ears for a while now and had finally picked up faint rumblings.

“It’s time.”

An array appeared below Dyon and Ri, shooting them up into the air.

‘He really does have an innate aurora…’ The eyes of the campaign heads narrowed.

But they all agreed on another thing… was it really smart for Dyon to leave the protection of his army like this? Wasn’t he just making himself and the princess an easy target?

Dyon’s voice suddenly boomed. It felt as though he spoke faintly, but the sound reverberated through the ears of everyone there.

“Checkered Formation: Variation 3.”

Dyon’s army moved without hesitation. A complex, yet organized movement occurred before the stunned eyes of everyone.

Within seconds, the formation was complete. Three squares of 100-man companies sat in the center of a checkered pattern of platoons.

The platoons were arranged very deliberately, their 50-man units standing in orderly five by ten arrangements. Six were arranged to the left, and six were to the right, checkered off from each other. The remaining two platoons were arranged at the back, prepared to merge into a company if need be.

In the end, the platoons form what looked like a pixilated ‘U’ around the three squares of companies.

Dyon didn’t even look to see if the formation was completely properly, his eyes were completely focused on the growing cloud of dust in distance. “Conceal.”

Dyon’s voice rang out again, causing another organized movement to occur.

The checkered 50-man platoons collapsed in on each other seamlessly, resulting in a perfect three by three set of 100-main companies with two platoons remaining in the back. Suddenly, a complex formation became nothing more than a stock group of troops. And yet, it was still more organized than the martial world was used to.

Airic Sapientia’s eyes shone watching Dyon’s army move with absolute synchronicity. He had been researching about ways to war more efficiently. He had always thought the brute strength approach was too crude, but, the Sapientia family spent little time on such things, preferring to focus on cultivation related topics.

But, because of this, he suddenly saw Dyon in an entirely new light, ‘Is Elder Ester really right about you? I wonder… Can I learn from you? Or is this nothing but a show?’

Dyon couldn’t be bothered with the thoughts of others right now. All he saw was a sight that made his blood boil.

In the distance, beasts so large they shook the very earth they walked on, were rampaging toward them.

The stood thirty meters tall but were at least double that in length. Their tusks were enormous, shining with a sheen only ivory could provide. But, that was nothing compared to their skin.

Dark patterns of grey and green alternated as their scaled armor shone under the high sun’s rays.

And yet, everyone’s eyes couldn’t help but be drawn to ten Phantus clan members that rode on the heads of these scaled elephants. They each held thick rods in their hand as their grey leathered skin trembled with anticipation.

The orphans beneath Dyon and Ri shook under their pressure. The bloodlust and unyielding will for victory coming from the Phantus was something they just weren’t ready for.

Suddenly, a deafening roar sounded. It wasn’t from the mouth of the grumbling scaled elephants, or their ten vice commaders… Instead, it came from the ground!

BOOM!

The earth shattered before the charging army. And, as though it was planned, they had already moved out of the way.

A massive scaled elephant appeared, standing fifty meters into the air! On its head stood a leader of unmatched aura. He stood five-meters tall and his hand was gripped around a javelin, his thick rod strapped to his back.

Dyon suddenly laughed, causing Ri to look at him questioningly.

“You want play? Alright then. Let’s play.”

Dyon’s demeanor completely changed, an eerie darkness exuding from him as a pagoda dripping with blood red aura manifested itself behind him.

The doors suddenly opened, a blinding white light charging for his hand.

The eyes of Commander Draven sharpened, gripping the javelin in his hand tightly as he stared at Dyon, “You dare accept my challenge?”

The rumbling of the scaled elephants never ceased, they were now within a kilometer of each other, but, this distance was nothing when it came to a javelin’s throw.

Dyon said nothing as his wings bloomed from his back.

Writhes of flames coated the javelin in his hand as he stared down at everything with disdain.

Suddenly, crystal will bloomed around him as the spear of flames in his hand lengthened again and again.

Soon, Dyon stood alone above everything, staring down at the charging scaled elephants with a pillar of flames reaching ten meters long in his hand.

Dyon grinned, propping up the javelin to throw as wind and sword will picked up, spiralling violently around it, “It’s time this martial world understood my arrogance.”