Outcast

With a grim determination, I start to call down lightning. It starts to shoot down hitting the soldier as it starts to get up again.

it staggers, taken off balance by the multiple hits. I use the opportunity to rush forward and slice it open again with my claws.

It falls to the ground struggling to get up. I pin it's arms down, and start ripping his throat out. After several minutes, it bleeds to death.

Panting, I lay next to it before looking at Vanor.

"Nowhere near good enough. That might have been okay for a single duel, but what are you going to do when it's got a half of a dozen squadmates next to it, also trying to kill you? Fighting in a battlefield is completely different than a one on one fight.

You cannot allow yourself to get drawn into a drawn-out fight with a single opponent. Otherwise, one of the others will sneak up behind you.

You have to be mobile, constantly moving, keeping all your enemies within your line of sight. Don't waste time on powerful moves that take time to build. Instead, go for moves that have little to no casting time, and that you can stack on each other.

Take the soldier caste, for example, they have a glaring weakness you could have exploited. Their necks, send four or five wind blades to their neck and cut its head off.

Remember, they have no self-preservation, they won't try to protect it as you or I would." lectures Vanor, he then explains several tips or tricks that help when fighting multiple soldier caste demons.

We head back to the Taleos branch clans living quarters before going our separate ways. Back inside my room, I go open up the diary left by the original Valoris, going to the last entry I read

"This will be my last entry for a while, I leave this here in case I should fail. So that my family will always have a reminder of my love for them. I plan to head west, to the outskirts of the lands of the nation.

clan servant, Selena Bloodyfang offered to join me, but I refused. I would take this journey on my own, with no help from the clan. Not even a servant who had sworn to me their undying loyalty

Father, if you are reading this, then most likely I have failed. Know that you helped me in my darkest time.

Valoris Taleos Stormfury"

Shocked, I reread the entry multiple times to make sure I was reading it correctly. Suddenly I run to Vanors room as fast as I can.

"I'm sure Vanor never read this," I think as I arrive at his room.

Knocking on the closed doors, I hear a faint "enter". I open the doors to find Vanor looking up from reading a report of some kind. Before he can even say anything I put the diary in front of him and open it to the last entry.

"Read this"

Interested, Vanor begins to read the short entry. By the time he finishes his face is snarling, his eyes burning with wrath.

"Do you think it's true?" he asks

"I don't know for sure, but it makes sense doesn't it? why she moved the clan there, how they got the idea to try and replicate the dragon gods' bloodline?

She was experimenting at the Ruins while making herself a servant here to get information on it. When she saw Valoris striking out on his own, she realized that this was the perfect opportunity to extract the tiny amount he had within him.

Then, after her clan was banished from the Ruins, she set them up where she was conducting experiments. Actually, I think she still is. I remember Thinblood's disappearing all the time in the mines." I explain my reasoning.

"It explains more than you know, I was reading a report on the findings a scout I sent to the Bloodyfang Clan. It appears that Selena Bloodyfang was a clan member of a small poison dragon clan.

She was born a wyrm with a pitiful amount of dragon blood. Enslaved by her clan, she served until her clan made the mistake of trying to expand into our lands. As a show of force, we wiped the entire clan out, leaving only the servants alive.

She offered to become a servant to our clan in gratitude. Looking at her talent, resources she received, and age. Dragoness should have been the highest she could have ever achieved unless she somehow managed to get something that would both purify her lineage and increase her talent. Dragon God's blood does both. With it, she has managed to evolve into a dragon elder, at a young age"

"So now what?" I ask

"Now we prepare to destroy that filthy worm. I'm going to personally rip her wings from her and make her suffer for what she did to my son" growls out Vanor, hatred spewing from his every word.

"Thank you for showing me this, I will hold on to this for now. Tomorrow we plan to raid and destroy the Bloodyfang clan permanently!" says Vanor dismissing me.

Walking back to my room, I struggle with some inner turmoil. I am playing a direct part in the destruction of hundreds of lives. Sure, I had fantasies of destroying the clan for what they did to me. But this was real, people would die from my actions who I had never met.

Resolved, I realized something, most likely, most of the a.d.u.l.ts in the clan were aware of what Selena was doing. How could they not be when most of them had been alive when they moved from the Ruins.

As for the younger generation who were unaware...it was doubtful that I could convince them of their elder's crimes. It was a sad truth to realize but it was the truth none the less. I would talk to Vanor tomorrow, on exactly what he plans to do with the children. The main point, however, was that finally, I would have my revenge!

With that thought in mind, I laid down to sleep. Eager for tomorrow to arrive.