Joshua

  I am handcuffed, pulled like a dog through the alley of gruff-looking soldiers with straightened backs. Below flying banners of the proud wolf, Vioden men stand proud in their red garb over their chainmail, marching to the battlefield. My uncle held my lead, holding his head higher as we arrived at the front. The family watched us. Many cousins, uncles and granduncles leer in their horses at their newly appointed Wolfburn with hateful eyes searing with jealousy. An eighth circle stood in front of Kellen. Crossing his arms, in beautiful silver-plated armour, his cape flapped in the wind as it merged with his flowing red hair. A large, broad blade like his father but double-edged was sheathed on his left side of his hip. Laurent's contempt for his half-brother could not be hidden.

  “No matter what gifts Father has lent to you, you are not one of us,” Laurent said with icy eyes. “Spawn made of common blood shall never dirty our-”

  “Why does it matter which hole our Father threw his seed into?” Kellen interrupted.

  “KELLEN!” flaring his aura with rage, Laurent's shout caught the attention of bystanders.

  “Does it distress you that our father found your mother a poor lay?” Kellen said with a smile full of guile between his long scraggly blonde hair. “I have had to deal with your mummy issues for too long.”

  Before Laurent's finger touched his hilt, Kellen's blade cut a few of his neck hairs.

  Nervous energy filled the air as the rest of the family watched on.

  “Always me. Just me, Laurent. Half of the many brothers here do not share a mother with you. So why just me? The insults, the beatings… For years I asked the lands above. But instead of answers, it gave me strength. And this new strength has given me new awareness.” Blade to Laurent's neck, Kellen's impressive, yet icky-feeling hue pressured him to retreat backward slowly.

  “My birth brought to light what you were hiding inside. Your true feelings. ‘If father can lay with a common wench, give her his heart that he never gave my lonely mother, then what am I? What am I to him?’”

  Laurent pursed his slim lips tight; I watched the man's eyes watching him think of any excuses for what my uncle said.

  Kellen heard no retort and sheathed his sword. Stepping to the side, he patted his brother on the side of his armour-plated arm which made Laurent almost jump from the contact.

  “I mind it no more, for we are not children anymore. We are a clean slate.” Kellen walked to the front and yanked me along. “Results. Bring him results, then you can become the favourite son once again.”

  “That is for certain, commoner!” Laurent marches to his men with a more determined face and eyes burning with passion.

  Strange family.

  “You were bullied. I thought you would be the bully.”

  Pulling me along, he sighed. “Be thankful you had a brother like yours. They aren't common.” The chain crumpled in his fist. “I had brothers like yours. Albert and Thorn.”

  “Get over it already.”

  Pausing his stride, he turned to me. “Wha-”

  “GET THE FUCK OVER IT!!” I try and try, but these shackles on my wrist hinder any mana within me. “Again and again. Tarion this, brother this! Do you think you will have my sympathy, you MONSTER!?” Kellen's eyebrows pinched upward in surprise. In his search for power, did he forget what he had become?

  “Just like your brothers, you chose this the moment you ate that… that black smoke thing. The souls of thousands! And not a thought went by that said, “Should I?”. Like the demons you idolise, YOU fall to hell like your kin!!”

  I looked around. Soldiers at attention quivered in their positions. I pushed past the still monster.

  “I can't believe Tarion wanted you by our side.”

  “Our ‘side’?”

  “Ah, finally,” said a loud old voice, projecting power wide. Mana weighed down on all near, like rain made of iron. Resting on his treasured blade stuck in the ground on the high hill, Kellen, the first of his name, scanned his coming battlefield.

  “Son, grandson. Can you feel it? Our enemies approach.”

  The ground trembles as ten thousand men march down from the forest. In the dark of night, their torches gleamed on the Osberg Knights like diamonds in the sky.

  “Seems the reports were true. ” Kellen said on my left. “Soldiers were sent back home to help with rebuilding. We outnumber them manyfold, our victory is certain.”

  “He is still alive. Nothing is certain.”

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  “If you were there, you would have seen his eyes-”

  “Here he comes.”

  From the mass of silver suits, an armoured figure separated the crowd. On his horse, brilliance lit the field from his outstretched hand. The rune hummed in my pocket.

  Oooh. This brilliant brother of mine. Ahahah!

  “Your smile will fall with brother tonight.” A black tendril wandered near my face and bounced off a bubble of impossibility.

  “Mm?”

  With the biggest grin and the sharpest of middle fingers at the shocked Wolfburn bastard, I taunted Uncle beyond saving. “I’ll leave you something to ponder, arsehole!!” Kellen the second’s sword cracked against the spell, and several shields activated. “Why haven't you heard from your mother!?!”

  In a blink, I surprised Osberg soldiers with my rude fingers. A strong grip grabbed my shoulder. “Milord,” Beatrice spoke in her dark Umbra clothes. “Please come with me to the camp to remove your shackles.”

  A light radiant enough to change night to day shook the world. My ear, deafened by the blast, struggled to hear Beatrice as her claws of wind sliced large debris flying my way with ease. Throwing me by my clothes, I landed on my brother's discarded horse.

  Tarion…

  I followed the flames at the Wolfburn side. My mouth was ajar at the hell my brother brought. Only smoke and fire were where my troubled family was.

  “Maid! My shackles! Where!?”

  “Follow me. Milord.” She said before sprinting off.

  Whipping the reins, I made a promise.

  Wait for me, brother! I am coming for you!

  Tarion

  Eradication.

  My first time wielding fire, and it will be the biggest flame I will possibly make. 100 points into mana capacity aided as I condensed it all into a ball with the wind.

  “Sir…” Like a puppy missing his owner, Kurt walked by my horse. “Take me.”

  “Let me have this,” I said, still pouring all my mana and qi into the ball of fire. Its glow slowly illuminated the field. “Stick to the fucking plan. Please.”

  “...Yes.”

  “Duke!” A soldier shouted, pointing to the hill on the other side.

  “Oh… I see…”

  With the sight of my brother after my night of remembrance, it became clear. Even their cheeky smile was the same.

  Within my helm, silent tears fell.

  Thank you for giving me another chance.

  “Beatrice.” I held my hand to receive a rune given by the mage tower. “Keep him safe.”

  A nod from my trusty follower, and she melded into the darkness.

  “TODAY, MEN, WE WIN A CITY!!!” weapons were raised in cheer and an overexcited uncle hungry for blood licked his lips. Sorry, uncle. But I will have to go first.

  “Follow Lieutenant James's orders while I go have fun!!!”

  Surrounded by confused gazes, impossibility formed around me.

  My armour cracked all over; it flashed back into my inventory. I now stand alone in the crater of my making. My precious greatsword returned to my hand. Sapped of almost no mana, I chucked a stamina pill in my mouth.

  Sense 25, strength 25, agility 25, vitality 35

  I twisted around, parrying a familiar old man's sword. Kellen's uncle. He cried for children he didn’t raise. I smiled, breathed in deep and calmed. No mana to use qi armour protected my body, Concentrating to a tiny point on my greatsword’s edge, qi blocked the season fighter's mana blade. The crying-man sliced up. I evaded with a lean, letting a mana slice pass by. A horizontal slash from me was dodged. I sliced down, feinting with a disappearing sword, and a fist of gold broke the armoured chest of the wolfburn and burst his sternum.

  “HONOURLESS BASTAAAAAAARD!” The crier sputtered before my sword beheaded him.

  Mmmm… I don’t see their armour. Must have been blown away by the blast.

  I smiled as injured men approached. Three men, one 8th circle with two 7ths encircle me. Soot covering their surprised face, they were awestruck by the ordeal. But they move well. All three sprint forward for the attack.

  My sword swooped to my right, aiming to cleave a 7th's feet, but he deftly jumped over my blade. As a left hand of gold parried down a sword of fire, with a stomp, my right flicked my greatsword up to their nether regions to be blocked with skill. bend my head away from a lunge from Laurent, my sword disappeared and with a flash step, I propelled forward with a twin palm strike to Laurent's chest, shattering metal and mana armour.

  “Brother!!!” the two 7ths shout. One’s strike was caught with golden fingers. A quick uppercut broke through the 7th's mana armour, and a seven-strike combo blurred in motion, turning the lord's head into red mist.

  Senses bowed me under a sharp mana blade that my golden skin couldn’t block, and I countered with a left hook to the body. Breaking his right ribs, a kick to his left ruptured organs. A dagger flashed to my hand to a neck, ending the second lord’s suffering.

  “Eldest.” I walked to the kneeling wolf, coughing blood from metal puncturing his lung. A greatsword replaced the dagger, and I lifted it up for an execution.

  “GREYSTONE!!!”

  I smiled with glee as the Duke of Vioden approached alone above the crater with armour half destroyed.

  “Hello, fellow duke.” A slice cut down the firstborn of Kellen the first. “Oh come on, don’t look so glum. You still have your favourite left. Where is he? Distracted? Hahahaha!” I asked the dismayed duke.

  A large sword grazed my right cheek, creating a meter-long crevice with the duke's slice. Slash turned to a burning lunge as his blade shot at me like a missile.

  The engine in my chest whirred. Mana shields and wind block the blaze that annihilated everything it burnt.

  I sliced.

  My great crescent sliced heaven and earth. But not him. Flapping the smoke from his blade, Duke Kellen walked forward undeterred.

  “You are stronger than him… Good. But it's still not enough.”