Arriving at Shadow’s mansion inside the capital Ajax saw a lot more activity than he was expecting. He knew Shadow was deploying tomorrow but from the looks of it he would be leading a group of his own people, that didn’t add up with what he had heard about champion movent.
“They are going to be sending him to scout.” The prince said as he noticed Ajax’s curiosity. “All the people going with him are those who can hide since a fight against the number of champions they might run into wouldn’t end well. He’ll only be traveling with two or three people but they will have all the preparations they can get to escape if they are seen.”
“Why bother with scouting?” Ajax asked. “I thought the whole point of grouping like this was to make the battles between champions more predictable in terms of where and how they happen.”
“Because you want to know who it is you are going to be fighting.” The prince pointed out the flaw in Ajax’s argunt. He was still relatively new to being a champion and very much on the extre young side, all the other champions have had centuries to scout their rivals, while all the groups would be balanced to not have any weaknesses information on who you were going to be fighting would be priceless. “That’s not what we have to worry about tonight.”
The butler greeted them at the gated entrance and offered to lead them to an open air dining area, from the layout of the place Ajax guessed that this wasn’t actually supposed to be an open air dining area but there was no place inside the mansion that could Aurexion could fit in comfortably so they prepared this in a rush.
“Your Highness, it is so good to see you again.” The mont the duo turned the corner Ajax could already hear and feel the influence of the words of Archduke Goldenmouth. “I wanted to personally give you my thanks for the support Gryndor is offering the Republic.”
The Legendary Skill wasn’t influencing Ajax on the content of his speech but he did find himself wanting to jump into the conversation, sothing he knew was out of character for himself.
“That’s an interesting Skill you have there.” Aurexion joined the conversation. “I don’t think I’ve encountered anything like it before, dragons aren’t much for words you see and people who like to talk have a healthy aversion to being around us for extended periods.”
Ajax was surprise to feel that Aurexion was actually interested in the Skill. “Why the interest in a social Skill?” Ajax asked, it was one of the few tis Aurexion had shown interest in sothing like that.
“Because I can feel it getting around my training.” Aurexion answered.
“You train against social Skills?” The archduke was just as intrigued by the font of knowledge that was Aurexion.
“My father’s territory bordered a tribe of pixies.” Aurexion scoffed. “Anoying half elental half faerie awakened race that like you humanoids can evolve to beco Ascended, they usually work with the sidhe but they as a race focus have a tendency towards Skills that make use of their speech during combat. They use them constantly to make their opponents make mistakes out of annoyance or anger, they have Skills to find the right words to get to you so we learned to ignore the speech as a whole but your Skill works around that training.”
“You think these pixies would be interested in trading with him?” Ajax asked, wanting to see if he might be able to use that in a trade with the Archduke.
“Intersted?” Aurexion scoffed. “After two sentences are exchanged they’ll start planning to kidnap him and try to work out how to gain his Skill.”
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringent.
That remark cut that conversation off there but Ajax made a ntal note to revisit it at a later ti, he would also like to learn more about pixies, he didn’t miss the small reaction both Shadow and Goldenmouth had when Aurexion ntioned humanoids can evolve. Gryndor hadn’t yet spread the information but with that little slip there Ajax was certain they now knew he had sohow evolved.
“Your Highness, Ajax.” Shadow greeted them before turning to the dragon. “It is a pleasure to get a chance to get to know you better, Aurexion.”
“Shadow.” The prince responded with a small nod.
Ajax however was a little ticked by the way he was addressed, he knew he was young and that only two years ago when they had last t their stations were very different but a lot had changed since then, a key point being Ajax’s bond with Aurexion and the influence of a dragon’s pride could still be felt.
“Whisker.” Ajax responded with a nod of his own catching both the Republic champion and Archduke Goldenmouth by surprise while triggering a loud laugh from the prince.
That’s when Ajax felt it, the Legendary Inspection Skill Shadow had. It wasn’t the first ti since the beastkin had used it on Ajax once before but this ti it was different, Ajax focused [Enigma] to hide his Skills as much as possible. He assud it was the Pseudo-Mythic Skill that Shadow was after.
Much to his surprise Shadow’s Inspection Skill hardly focused on his Skill or his Stats, instead it was fully targeted towards his na, his race and his age, information it easily got thanks to [Enigma] guarding his Skills instead.
“My apologies, Lord Hearthbound.” Shadow said with an apologetic bow. “Both for my improper address as well as the inspection just now. Your growth and attitude are so different from the last ti we t that I couldn’t discount the possibility that what returned from the Wild Lands wasn’t the sa being I t two years ago.”
That was not sothing Ajax had considered at all. In truth he couldn’t really bla the Republic champion for his reaction seeing how Ascended races kept their distance from humanoid lands yet a dragon returned with him. Ajax’s growth had been even more explosive since his trip, in terms of levels at least and while Ajax knew this was because of his tripled experience Achievent that simply wasn’t information Shadow had.
Nobody got a chance to respond as Shadow pulled out a scroll from his spacial ring and offered it to Ajax. “Please accept this as my apology.”
Ajax peeked at the contents of the scroll for a mont before stashing it in his spacial ring. It wasn’t sothing that was directly useful for him but the scroll contained information on a chanted spell with Shadow Mana. Sothing that Lexi would very much be interested in especially considering the source was arguably the best Shadow Mana user in humanoid lands.
“Your apology is accepted.” Aurexion spoke having felt through the bond how valuable Ajax found the scroll. This ti neither the Archduke nor Shadow could hide their surprise at Aurexion answering for Ajax.
“I can’t help but ask, is your bond the reason why Ajax evolved and beca an Ascended?” Shadow asked, choosing not to try and hide that he had gotten a good look at Ajax’s race.
“It is not.” Ajax very much wanted to cut off that train of thought. If people thought the way to beco an Ascended was to bond with an Ascended being, there would be a large number of people heading out to find a bond of their own, undoubtedly pissing one race off at least and then they’d all have to deal with the aftermath. “ I evolved before our bond ford.”
“I see you humans don’t seem to understand what a bond between equals is.” Aurexion pointed out. “Not all that surprising since it can’t be made between mbers of the sa race and there are no other awakened races here.”
“There are four races in our lands.” Archduke Goldenmouth pointed out, the Republic took pride in the way their people celebrated yet maintained the traits of their races while living together.
“Different paths of the sa race, while there are clear differences, you are all still humanoids with the sa racial ability. A rainbow dragon and a black dragon are extrely different yet they are both dragons, as such they cannot bond each other.” Aurexion waved away the objection just as the butler and the rest of the servants brought out the food. Aurexion’s portion was being served in a cart and from the Mana Ajax could feel from it his bond was going to enjoy it.
“Why the explanation?” The archduke ignored the food and focused on the conversation.
“You all seed surprised by the way Ajax and I behave.” Aurexion took a mont to rip apart a chunk of at and devoured it in seconds. “But a bond between equals is different from the bonds you are used to.”
Aurexion took the ti to explain the differences in approach that a bond between equals entailed. The tension dropped as the al and conversation continued. It continued beyond just the explanation of a bond between equals and as the most pressing matter it quickly turned to the war, the one topic that had the Archduke more silent than he would normally be as in the presence of four champions he wasn’t in a position to contribute as much to the conversation.
Once the food was finished and the plates cleared away the Archduke only then opened a topic Ajax was already expecting. “The terms of the contracts have already been agreed to with the king but since you are going to be signing them I feel it's best we go over them and make any last minute minute changes that might be necessary.”
Reviews
All reviews (0)