Chương 85: B2 Chapter 7 - Interlude

Ulfar The dark forest crumbled beneath Ulfar's power. Its branches snapped as he stomped upon them, the undergrowth seeming smaller than it used to. His feet were wet, yet they burned with the searing heat of the ash and smoke that never seemed to fade. A moon had passed since his greatest loss and mightiest victory. It had also been a moon since the Ancestors rewarded him for achieving the impossible. Overload, the Major Runeskin, spread across his broad shoulders like wings waiting only to unfurl.

He had yet to see the magnificence of the Runeskin etched across his back, but he knew that it was there. He also knew that it traveled down his spine, seeped into his very bones, and was even mightier than it felt. It was the most generous gift of the Ancestors, other than the legendary Ancient Power, and he deserved every little bit of it. They reward me through you. To give you the power I deserve. A thunderous voice echoed in Ulfar's head.

The insides of his skull twisted and churned, making him wince as yet another 'gift' bestowed upon him a moon ago rang out. Behemoth Blood, his Ancient Power. It was something all Bloodbearers experienced as they ascended, yet Ulfar could not remember the Barbarians ever mentioning a talking Bloodline. It spoke to him, fed him with power, and helped him surpass even the greatest hurdles. In return, it demanded greatness. And he gave it exactly that. If only you were not a cripple.

Behemoth Blood growled, making him wince again. Anger bubbled in his chest, yet how was he supposed to release it when the target of his frustration was inside him? Ulfar nearly tore through his own body a dozen times over the last moon, yet he did not.

"Shut it. You were weak. Too weak to fight the chieftain!" He snapped, speaking nothing but the truth. If Behemoth Blood had been stronger, he would never have lost his arm. Tribe Taskur would have been his, and they would have conquered the other tribes already.

As the words left Ulfar's lips, something within him stirred, yet it was not until his true feelings intertwined with the words that his insides churned violently, forcing him to his knees beside the corpses of the mighty monsters Behemoth Blood helped him defeat. The Ancient Power was not weak. Ulfar knew that. But he was not weak either. He had never been weak!

"The others are weak. Too weak to protect anyone." He growled, yet the old Barbarians failed to understand him. They simply didn't want to acknowledge how weak their young ones had been. And that was why they hated him. For he forced the old Barbarians to acknowledge their offspring's weakness. The older generation hated him. It didn't make sense to him, yet their hatred was real.

"But I am the strongest. The greatest among them all!" A guttural growl escaped Ulfar's lips. His rise to the 2nd Ascension had been lightning fast. It was unprecedented, transforming his Saga into something greater than any of the others. Yet, just because some foolish, weak warriors died, he was punished.

"Just like my father. That fool." Your father is alive. Behemoth Blood rumbled sagely, yet its voice was laced with savage bloodlust. Ulfar stopped at that. His old man was still alive?

"So be it." He spat. That man was just like everyone else – blind fools – but his father was a special kind of fool. He may not have been as blind as the rest of Tribe Taskur, but his old man was a coward. A scared, pathetic man whose mere existence tarnished the Ancestors and the Barbarians alike. Just thinking about that pathetic man made him growl. He spun around as he sensed danger approaching from the undergrowth behind him and faced the half-dead Vocerious Chimera crawling toward him.

Its windpipe was crushed, its wings torn out of the beast's back. Yet, even as it whimpered and writhed, it attacked Ulfar. Its scorpion tail shot toward Ulfar's chest, prompting him to unleash Overload's power. Warmth was sucked out of his body, yet he didn't feel any weaker. Quite the contrary, Ulfar was overflowing with power as he directed Overload toward the Ancient Power. The forest trembled as a mighty roar escaped the depths of Ulfar's body. Lifeforce transformed into raw power as the stinger struck him.

And that was all it did. It struck Ulfar's chest but failed to penetrate his skin. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Blocking the attack with barely any effort, Ulfar smiled savagely at the monster. His skin tore and blood gushed out of him a mere heartbeat after the stinger was repelled, but the details never mattered to him. Neither did the pain matter. On the contrary, the power rumbling through him did matter.

It was all he could think about. His arm shot forward with blinding speed, his fingers coiling around the Chimera's neck. Then he snapped his grip shut, breaking the monster's neck and killing the creature that instilled fear in the hearts of most of his generation. But to him, this was nothing. The Chimera was weak, confirming once again that he was the greatest.

Astrid"Enter the Fracture again. Or we spar." Mera spoke, her voice laced with ever-growing impatience.

"We can go into the forest too. I have so much to show." Astrid didn't even bother to look up. She knew what her mother wanted, and she was not going to give in. Not after following her mother's well-meant 'suggestions' so often in the last month. Mera only wanted the best for her flesh and blood, but it was not like Astrid was in a rush. She doesn't understand. Of course, Mera did not see it that way. Astrid's mother was the first who had found out about Ulfar's second Ascension.

She had seen him fight off Pearot's hunters and expected her daughter to follow Ulfar and ascend as well. After all, Astrid possessed a legendary Ancient Power and had to keep up with Ulfar's Behemoth Blood. Falling behind would endanger the entire tribe. Astrid couldn't help but think her mother was exaggerating. Her instincts were great and helped her reach the Fourth Ascension, but it was not like one could rush the Ancestors, let alone the Ascension itself.

Furthermore, she was trying to improve, giving her utmost to become strong enough to break through the Wall and ascend. But it was not that easy. The right challenge had yet to come knocking at her door. Hakon is not in a rush. She wanted to respond to her mother, but Astrid knew that it would only escalate the situation. All she hoped for were calm and peaceful moments, silent stretches of time she could enjoy before returning to training. Unfortunately, those moments usually devolved into chaos.

And that was usually not her fault. All she wanted was to focus on that one Skill – or what should transform into a Skill soon enough, hopefully – yet her mother kept trying to force her opinions onto Astrid.

"You waste your legendary Ancient Power!" Mera exhaled deeply when her daughter didn't make a move.

"Forget about Hakon and those beetlebrained things he said!" What her mother meant was that Hakon told Astrid about his Skills and how he acquired them. He showed her and the others all about moving energy through the pathways rather than around them, but that was foolish. It was cumbersome, slow, and riddled with obstacles that were annoying to remove. Yet, Astrid wanted to learn it. She practiced that nonsense all day instead of focusing on her Ancient Power, when that was exactly what Hakon had done.

He relied on the Mind and learned things that others couldn't. At least, that was what Astrid's mother thought. Her opinion of Hakon was... well, obvious, in the first place.

"Do you want to see Intent?" She finally offered. It was obvious that she didn't mean it seriously and that it was more meant to distract Astrid… and it worked. Astrid glanced up at her mother, brows furrowed at the self-satisfied smile before her, and then focused back on the task at hand. She reached out to the Core, as Hakon called it, and drew tendrils of Lifeblood from it. Muffling the noises of the world around her, Astrid focused completely on herself.

More precisely, on the twisting tunnels spread throughout her body. pathways, or so Hakon called them. After a moon of practicing whenever her mother didn't disrupt her, Astrid could sense most of her pathways within two dozen heartbeats. The thickest pathways appeared before her closed eyes right away, while the others took far longer to reveal themselves. Moving Lifeblood through her body and through the pathways was fast. And now that she had learned how to sense the pathways instinctively, it was even faster.

That, if nothing else, was a great boon and something she learned thanks to Hakon. Her mother didn't want to give him credit for that, but Astrid did. He helped her grow stronger and move her Lifeblood faster and more efficiently. Still, it was difficult to move Lifeblood through the pathways rather than around them. He can help me. Astrid told herself and got up to leave the hut and her fuming mother behind.

She rushed toward the chieftain's hut, a thousand questions forming in her head, only to freeze when she saw them. The questions dispersed, leaving her stranded and staring at Hakon, surrounded by the mythical structure he had learned to manifest, with Ava standing beside him. That human. She wasn't even that young, even if she hardly looked older than Hakon and herself, and she was weak. Pathetically weak and certainly no competition for someone wielding a legendary Power.

However, the determination burning in the human woman's eyes bothered Astrid. So did the closeness between Hakon and this Ava. He's mine. She pressed her lips together, reminiscing about what Hakon said many nights ago. He was hers and she was his. And she would not share, unlike many Barbarians. No, Hakon belonged to her, and only to her! Fueled by emotions she failed to control, Lifeblood poured out of her Core. It flooded Astrid's entire being, creating a bloodlust that made the frail human woman flinch.

But as Ava looked around, Astrid was no longer there. The young Barbarian woman was out of sight, gagging as her Lifeblood flooded the pathways, forcing itself through them, forming hairline cracks and extracting a black sludge-like substance that nearly made her retch. [Skill [Flow Control] has been learned.] That was not how she wanted to learn Hakon's Skill, but it was the Ancestors' decree. And they agreed with her, whether about the way she trained or the little human.