Chương 103: B2 Chapter 24

Challenge of Blood. That was what Ulfar had just declared. It was smart, incredibly so. For one, the Challenge of Blood had existed long before the first Warlord. It had existed for a long time and was used as a measure of power, but that was not all it was. The Challenge of Blood was also a verdict of the Ancestors. A fight of blood between two tribesmen who could no longer allow the other to exist.

In the past, warriors powerful enough to believe they could replace their chieftain had issued a Challenge of Blood, but it was usually a sign of hatred. A declaration of war within the tribe. So that was what Ulfar did, rightfully so. He clearly knew what he had to do to regain the tribe's trust, namely to reclaim his honor by claiming the glory of another. Killing me in the Challenge of Blood will give him all he ever wanted. And it would destroy Hakon's Saga at the same time, if he was to die.

His Feats and achievements… everything Hakon had worked for, everything the Ancestors had deemed worthy in him would fade into nothingness, and he would never get to feast with the bravest of Barbarians and the Ancestors. But that was the case for both of them. Killing Ulfar would remove his Saga all the same, and that was something most Barbarians feared, more so than death. Dying a worthy death against powers greater than oneself was acceptable, but Sagaless?

That was the greatest of humiliations, and it was not something most Barbarians would force upon even their greatest enemies. Ulfar did not care about that. Of course, he didn't. Why would he care about something he never thought would happen to him? He was confident in his victory.

"I accept." Hakon responded calmly, fists clenched.

"I will fight you when the Blood Moon is ripe. As the Challenge demands." A Challenge of Blood against Ulfar was certainly not what he expected the next fortnight to bring forth. And it was not like he could reject it. The path of the Barbarians demanded that he accept any reasonable challenge. And even that was only to make sure hotheaded children wouldn't be needlessly killed by challenging one another. Ulfar was strong.

His presence surged across the training ground like a starving beast, one that was about to feast. His challenge was reasonable and rejecting it would shatter the trust and loyalty Hakon had acquired through restless work. After making it this far, he could not accept anyone challenging him for his position as the Successor. Not without punishing them mercilessly. A flash passed through Ulfar's eyes. Dissatisfaction. Seeing that, the corner of Hakon's lips tilted upward.

Ulfar let out a low growl, and his presence grew more intense. His neck cracked as he tilted his head. He clenched his fist and closed the distance with a step. The training ground beneath his feet cracked as he pressed his feet deep into the stone but, surprisingly enough, Ulfar did not attack. He breathed out heavily, like restraining himself cost him a tremendous amount of effort, and turned away.

"Till the Blood Moon swallows you." Ulfar snarled before leaving. His presence lingered behind even when the one-armed warrior disappeared beyond the huts, and so did his impression. Hakon had only read a little about the Challenge of Blood. Even then, it had been no more than two or three lines mingled in big words noted down in one of the more ancient scrolls. And he highly doubted Ulfar had ever read a scroll. Like most Barbarians, he probably couldn't even read.

Ulfar would have never known about the laws revolving around the Challenge of Blood, let alone how to issue it properly. Behemoth. Hakon mused, using [Scent of Lifelight] to locate Ulfar's departing figure and etch it into his mind. The Behemoth Blood warrior was stronger than he used to be. He'd reached the 2nd Ascension several nights before Hakon did, and he'd been out in the dark forest for a while now. Still… how could it be that Ulfar felt more dangerous than some of the old 3rd Ascension warriors?

Because they don't want to see me dead. It was a simple answer, and likely the right one. The second-most reasonable answer was that Ulfar was closing in on the Peak of the 2nd Ascension, and that was completely unreasonable. Except… except if the Ancestors were on his side. If the Ancestors wanted to push him and Ulfar to greater heights, what did that mean about the Challenge of Blood? Did they want to find out which path was the best for future Barbarians to walk – the old or the new?

Hakon banished all ill thoughts from his mind as the young warriors swarmed him, some drenched in sweat, others looking visibly ill.

"What happen?" one asked, all eyes lingering on him.

"We are going to fight." Hakon simplified.

"To death." It was as simple as that, though he left out that whoever died would never get to feast with the Ancestors. Clearing his throat and pushing his chest out, Hakon appeared unbothered yet confident.

"Ulfar will die during the Challenge of Blood." He promised, his voice laced with indomitable force. But it was unfortunate. The turn of events was unpleasant, to say the least. Hakon hadn't been aiming for a happy ending, especially not after his father celebrated his Second Ascension while pointedly ignoring Ulfar's even greater achievements. The chieftain had deliberately provoked Ulfar, and now Ragna's son had to fix it. That's it. There was no hope of changing Ulfar's mind.

All the ideas to turn Ulfar into a valuable asset of Tribe Taskur were for naught. And the worst of it was that neither his nor Ulfar's death would help the tribe. It would weaken them. Peering to the left, following a strong smell of [Scent of Lifelight], Hakon's eyes met the towering figure of his father. Chieftain Ragna stood there, his eyes betraying no emotion. He offered a curt nod and disappeared from Hakon's sight and the reach of [Scent of Lifelight].

"Sometimes, I really hate you." Hakon growled, taking his father's visit as confirmation. Chieftain Ragna wanted the fight to happen. Ulfar had to die.

"What? Hate?" another young warrior asked, only to be punched in the side by Teraq.

"We no hate nobody!" he roared confidently, yet Hakon could clearly see tiny motes of fear and uncertainty in his eyes. Almost everyone looked like that, unsure what to do with themselves. They clearly didn't want Hakon to die, though that made him wonder if they were worried about him or if it was just about Ulfar replacing him as the Successor. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Hakon pushed the thought away again.

"Less shouting." He clasped his hands together and smiled.

"We're going to train together."

"You need train. If kill Ulfar." Teraq nodded vigorously.

"Or hunt. Hunt good. Level is power." The Barbarian beside him added while rubbing his sore side.

"No [Flow Control] need. We can train alone." The third threw into the fray, but Hakon could only shake his head at that.

"I think you misunderstood." He conjured a set of bluish daggers in his hands in a moment, followed by a chain of a dozen shields that snapped into a ring shape and revolved around him.

"We are going to train. Charge at me, at full power. Everyone. Together." The Blood Moon was not far away. It would be ripe in a few nights. While that was not nearly enough to push himself to the Peak of the 2nd Ascension, it was more than enough to earn one Level or two. If he threw himself into the deadliest of fights, that'd probably work, but even if he was going to earn three Levels until the Blood Moon was ripe, he would not catch up with Ulfar. He had to do something else.

Something that gave him far more power than two more Levels would. Using Enhanced Comprehension, for one, sounded like a good idea to make that happen. Fusing his Skills, however, sounded like an even better idea. With that in mind, Hakon charged at the young warriors, his Ancient Power screaming at him, prodding him as he used his Magic Skills extensively and even more aggressively than usual.

The sun and moons moved as tirelessly as Hakon. Or, at least, that was what he'd wished for. Unfortunately, neither his body nor his mind was nearly tenacious enough to keep up with the constant and never-ending movement of the sun and moons. But he tried hard, and the Ancestors rewarded him for that. [Weapon Mastery] went up by one Level after several nights of constant battle with the younger warriors.

Alas, they were only at the 1st Ascension, which was how Hakon ended up requesting the older warriors to spar with him. If one could call their bloody thrashing a spar. It was a generous word, one that was wholeheartedly crushed, just like Hakon. Despite that, he was happy enough with the results. Not only did [Weapon Mastery] improve by one Level, many of his other Skills improved as well. [Scripture of Improvement Intimidation Lv. 13 → Lv. 15 Unhindered Movement Lv. 8 → Lv. 10 Weapon Mastery Lv. 23 → Lv. 24 Bleeding Lv. 11 → Lv. 13 Predator's Gaze Lv. 4 → Lv. 8 Edge of Awareness Lv. 9 → Lv. 14 Accelerate Lv. 4 → Lv. 5 Circulation Lv. 18 → Lv. 20 Sensory Expansion Lv. 17 → Lv. 18 Flow Observation Lv. 16 → Lv. 18 Reinforcement Lv. 16 → Lv. 19 Compression Lv. 13 → Lv. 16 Mana Bolt Lv. 19 → Lv. 20 Mana Shield Lv. 18 → Lv. 20 Aether Spiral Lv. 14 → Lv. 15 Magical Warhammer Lv. 12 → Lv. 15] Precisely, a lot of his Skills improved.

Some gained a decent enough improvement to be worth mentioning, yet the one truly worthy improvement belonged to the last few Skills mentioned in the Scripture of Improvement. [Aether Spiral] not so much as the rest, but without the right amount of mana and the ability to replenish a considerable amount of it mid-combat, the other gains would be nowhere near as remarkable. [Mana Bolt] was up to Level 20, and so was [Mana Shield].

Their spellweaves were thrumming with power now that they reached their limit, yet even with the third Level 20 Skill, [Mana Shaping], added to the fray, a Skill Fusion hadn't been offered. Pushing three Skills to Level 20 had been cumbersome enough to make him curse more than once, but it was fine. Because he knew what was missing to finish the fusion. A fourth Skill at the spellweave's limit to unravel alongside the other weaves. Or so Hakon hoped as he charged at Astrid's mother.

"You are weak." She snarled and disappeared before Hakon's eyes.

"My daughter deserves someone better than you." Mera's voice rang out from behind, prompting him to conjure several shields made of mana. He topped them up with as much mana as possible and triggered both [Reinforcement] and [Compression]. That wasn't enough, and sharp pain raced down his arm and back as Mera's daggers cut through mana shield, skin, and flesh.

"Your death will sadden my daughter." She hissed and appeared before Hakon, eyes filled with fury. Her daggers flashed once more, yet he was already prepared to counter her. His head, covered in a thick sheen of [Reinforcement], crashed down like a warhammer. Headbutting his mate's mother may not necessarily be the best idea in human culture, or so Ava would probably say, but there was no hesitation as his forehead collided with Mera's skull.

Her head snapped back ever so slightly, and the faintest hint of a smile crossed her features.

"Is that everything? You need more to beat Ulfar." She said something else, but Hakon was already lunging at her. One of his hands reached for her neck, blades of mana protruding from his knuckles, while his other was encased in mana-made stone. Mera snorted and accelerated. As a 4th Ascension warrior, she was obviously faster and stronger than Hakon, yet she'd restrained her strength to how strong she believed Ulfar to be.

And yet she snapped the mana-blade coming out of his knuckles and cracked the stone fist made of mana. Or so was the plan. Hakon empowered [Reinforcement] enough to nearly empty his core. He enhanced the stone fist over and over again, from its base to the outermost layer. It was not enough to keep the structures unblemished, but they only showed signs of cracking when his fist descended. At the same time, something within him stirred.

Waiting for this very moment, he let himself be distracted and glanced to the Scripture of Improvement once more. [Reinforcement Lv. 19 → Lv. 20] That was all Hakon had been wanting. Descending into his spirit form in a moment, ignoring the pain of the sudden punch Mera delivered in his moment of distraction, Hakon reached out to the cluster of spellweaves. Floating strands of mana wove through his spirit like glowing veins.

They resembled one another, yet they were all different, each carrying a different intent, texture, and rhythm. The longer Hakon stared at the cluster, the less he understood all they entailed. But it was actually because he understood that there was more to each of the lines within even the frailest of spellweaves that he couldn't grasp the greater meaning. Hakon smiled at the scene unfolding before him.

A mishmash of several spellweaves resembling a crystalline lattice with countless nodes connected by impossibly thin strands of spellweaves. But it was not complete. Their edges were close to each other, yet not quite connected to one another. The smallest of gaps separated them from becoming one, and it was not until Hakon had seen the gaps several nights ago that he grasped what he had to do.

The edges of the spellweaves reached toward each other, seeking connections that had not yet been made, yet it was not until the final piece of the puzzle fell into place that everything went into motion. After spending countless hours working with each individual weave, analyzing the flow of energy, the patterns, and how they reacted with one another, adjusting even the slightest of imperfections, Hakon was ready. The final thread extended from [Reinforcement]'s spellweave, and, for a moment, nothing happened.

Then the entire structure trembled. It was nowhere near the violent reaction Hakon had expected. Instead, it was something far more profound. Recognition. The spellweaves of the cluster reacted as if suddenly remembering something they had always known. They began to shift, and their boundaries dissolved as their edges connected. And what had once been separate structures began to merge into something much greater. Countless fragments of light folded into one another inside Hakon's spirit form.

The air grew heavy with something grand he desired to grasp yet couldn't. And yet he still reached for it, knowing it wouldn't make a change. As the spellweaves folded into one another, their layers overlapped and intertwined until the distinction between individual spellweaves disappeared. The smaller structures became the foundation for the larger ones, whereas the four larger ones became the framework for something beyond them.

Time seemed to slow to a crawl as the completed spellweave expanded before Hakon's inner eyes in the form of a vast network of pristine lines stretching in every direction. It was seemingly impossible to tell where it began and where it ended as every line connected to another. Patterns moved within patterns, and, as mana flowed through the structure like rivers running through the land, Hakon felt immense power rocket through him.

This may not have been his first Skill Fusion, but it was the start of something new. Hakon initiated his first Skill Fusion, one of magic to boot, and it would be nowhere near his last. His eyes snapped open to a plethora of Scriptures, as well as Mera's fist digging into his face. Maybe it had not been the best idea to fuse his Skills in the middle of the spar. Then again, Hakon was too happy to care.