Will looked out the carriage window at the change of scenery. Summer had passed quickly by, a today was his last night in the Tribal Lands. The carriage role over a bumpy gravel road, as it traveled north to the Tiger Clan ancestral home. The carriage ascended the mountain road, through the dense forest. Will felt the weather become colder the farther north they traveled. The Tiger Clan's ancestral village was almost 60 kilometers from Rijilir.

Last night, Lawrence, Holo stopped over in a roadside inn, just over the Bear Clan border in Tiger Clan territory. The mood in the inn was festive, with several people eating and drinking toasting to Eleanor and Ye Fan's future wedding. Guests discuss the Tiger Clan's victory over the sneaky, devious Snake Clan. Will could already hear the folklore around the battle sounding more and more fabled.

Lawrence and Holo had gone to bed early, Will sat at a table by himself in the back. Will, Lawrence, and Holo bought Eleanor and Ye Fan an expensive standing vase, jewelry, ancient tomes, and 500 Fermion gold coins. Even though Will was not a miser, he felt the number of credits and coins spent on the gifts was excessive. Only to be scolded by Holo seconds later, arguing these presents were insignificant to the amount the other clans were sending over. In truth, the ancients tomes were sent by Elder Thaddeus as a wedding gift.

Will at the table thinking, when he came to Rijilir he brought 100,000 Fermion gold, and he would be returning to Guidon was 500 gold. By his own estimates, inflation had almost halved the cost of a silver credit. He slowly drank inn's ale and tore off a piece of bread. He realized what he missed the most was the Aether-infused food. This time next week he is back in the cottage.

The next evening the carriage rolled to a stop in front of a large compound that resembled a Chinese ancestral estate. Sentries, wearing tang suits, were posted outside the gate checking invitations and accepting gifts.

As Lawrence, Holo, and Will passed the guards, the men were a large white tiger man and a slender white tiger. Both hosts wore matching patterns, the wore a hanfu, the woman a cheongsam with matching white tiger designs.

"Welcome to our home, friends of Eleanor are friends of ours," the tiger man bowing his head slightly. This was the tiger man Eleanor had pleaded to for his release. Will, Lawrence, and Holo greeted the host with a deep respectful bow. Will noticed the man's aura felt similar to Marshall Rolf's battle aura. The man's palms were almost as big as Will's face, the man exuded strength incarnate. No other beastmen gave off such a dangerous presence when standing still. Will secretly wondered, 'how strong is this man?'

Past the main gate was an elaborate courtyard with cherry blossom and magnolia trees. A large pond with koi fish stood in the center of the courtyard. Will, Lawrence, and Holo took turns signing the guest book. Several lavishly decorated tables sat in the courtyard for the hundred or more so guests, many of them Will had met during his garden parties. Along the courtyard stood hundreds of flats. The house resembled a fortress or compound. Tiger women served hors d'oeuvres, as guests stood around chatting.

"Will it's good to see you again," said a familiar voice.

Will turned around to see his master, Elder Thaddeus happily munching on sardine rillettes, crumbs fell into his long white grayish beard.

"Master, it is good to see you again," Will was surprised how easy he slipped back into his discipline etiquette. A week before the wedding Elder Thaddeus asked Will to transport the ancient tomes to the wedding for him.

A bell sweetly chimed, and Will saw the guest begin to find their tables and sit. Will looked at his invitation to notice his table number was all the way in the back. Will, Lawrence, Holo, Elder Thaddeus, and few other guests joined the table. The tables in the front were filled by Tiger and Cat Clans. Behind the family, were tables for the clan leaders and high-ranking clan members, even the Snake Clan showed but they were noticeable upset. Holo told Will she was invited to sit at the Wolf Clan table but passed to sit next to Lawrence.

After everyone sat Ye Fan and Teacher Eleanor were introduced. Both wore traditional red wedding gowns and sat at the head table facing their guest. As the wedding couple sat, immediately the servers brought out the first of six courses, fish, suckling pig, duck, were severed with copious amounts of wine. Halfway through the meal, Eleanor left to change into a beautiful red qipao with prancing cats and sleeping tigers.

Beastmen and women's wedding ceremonies are long-drawn-out affairs. According to Holo, Will learned beastmen weddings could last a week or longer, and what Will was invited to was not a wedding ceremony, but a wedding banquet. Holo talked in detail about the responsibilities of the groom, groom's family, bride, and bride's family. Marriage required sending happiness cakes, bride's hairdressing, tea ceremony, a display of strength by the groom, then comes a brief wedding ceremony that was held earlier this afternoon, afterward the wedding banquet, and lastly, the happy couple visiting the bride's clan three-days after the wedding.

Regardless of the culture, weddings were bothersome. Will sat listening to the music as he ate sweet lotus cake. The musicians were playing different size flutes, a zither, and a drum. The music was lively and melodic. The music lulled people into a sense of calm happiness. People smiled and table by table went to congratulate the bride and groom.

Will suddenly felt cautious, like a trigger warning was going off. Ever since Will gained his subclass Spellsword, he constantly practiced his class skill [radar]. Eventually, [radar] became like breathing for Will. Sensing the metals, materials, rock sediment in the ground. Due to the spell [radar], Will no longer needed to keep an iron ingot in his pocket, he learned to pull iron from the earth when he cast [iron lance]. But, now [radar] was telling Will something wrong was beneath him. Will could detect sandstone, quirk, and limestone 10 meters away, but whatever was underneath him now was not of the earth.

Will stood up from his seat and looked at Elder Thaddeus. Elder Thaddeus frowned at him; Will could tell he was sad like he knew what was about to happen.

The music stopped as Ye Fan and Teacher Eleanor were encouraged to leave and consummate their vows. A large crowd cheered them on to their marriage bed when the ground split open.

Out of the ground came a thousand Naga soldiers clad in iron armor with crossbows and short swords at their waist. The flute musicians began using their instruments as blow darts slowly picking off the Tiger and Cat Clans. The Naga soldiers began firing arrows indiscriminately.

Will saw Teacher Eleanor collapse her throat was slit open, and blood bubbled out down to the floor. The cheering crowd turned to mass hysteria as Tiger, Wolf, Orca, and Bear Clans battled the Snake Clan. However, the Naga soldiers outnumbered them 5-to-1.

Ye Fan fought one of the soldiers, but eventually, he was shot down by a bevy of soldiers. Ye Fan resembled a porcupine at his death. One after the other, guests were injured or killed. Some fell by the sword, others by an arrow to the head of lungs.

A tiger was able to make it to a horn and blew it with his dying breath. A horde of tigers in golden armor kicked through the main gate and match the Naga soldiers blow for blow.

Will stood by his seat at the table, Lawrence hid under the table with Holo, and Elder Thaddeus sat calmly at his seat. With a snap of his fingers, their table was covered by a wall of fire. No arrows were able to penetrate the defense. Will was in shock. Teacher Eleanor was dead, he saw her throat ripped open. She was dead. He was in denial.

Even now, during the fighting Will stood still, unmoving. His guilt overwhelmed him, "Master drop your wall we need to help!" Will who didn't like fighting, battles, or wars was maddened into action.

"This is not our fight Will, we can not intervene," said Elder Thaddeus with a depressed sigh.

"Master you saw Eleanor die; we have to fight the Naga! We need to get revenge!" Will shouted.

Will and Elder Thaddeus never fought, Will had never raised his voice to his master before. Yet now, he couldn't hold back his emotions. He screamed, "Why are you stopping me?" Will tried unsheathed his sword, memories of Teacher Eleanor's throat replayed in his memory, and slashed at Elder Thaddeus' impenetrable firewall. The barrier was cool, but any Naga that approached the wall burned to a crisp.

As Will was slashing the firewall, he saw colossal white tiger beastmen who were killing ten Naga at a time. The shockwave from one punch was phenomenal, tables five meters away crumbled into dust. Yet, the Naga endless swarmed the man, it was like a tidal wave beating against a strong stone. Tiger man's claws were like daggers, ripping the flesh of foes like a hot knife through butter.

To his left, he saw the Rijilir City Lord bloodied, but he decapitated foes biting his head from his next. The Bearman's strong jaws ripped arms, hands, heads from the body of his foe. The Orca Witch laughed maniacally as toyed with her victims before killing them. The crazed woman was like a toddler in a room full of toys, and each time a toy broke she seemed sad for a second, before moving on to a new target. Heavenly Eagle looked graceful from his rooftop perch. He skillfully assassinated his enemies from range. He ran around the roof killing anyone with a crossbow, occasionally helping another Clan leader. Will surveyed the room, but he couldn't find Stalking Wolf. Will knew he saw the old Wolfman earlier. Finally, he saw the proud grandfather floating dead on the koi pond, his face underwater.

"The Naga will have our revenge," said a four-meter-tall man with long black hair, his face was scarred, he was missing an eye, his long round snake frame constricted around the Tiger Clan leader trying to crush his lungs.

Holo peaked her head from under the table and saw the battle raging. When she saw Stalking Wolf dead she looked at Elder Thaddeus and growled, "let me out!" A small slit opened in the firewall, and she ran out. The Wolf Clan members were worthy fighters, but their numbers were small. Regardless they fought, the Wolf Clan were deadly pack killers and with the addition of Holo, they mercilessly mauled their opponents to death.

The Wolf Clan dragged Stalking Wolf's arrow-riddled body out of the water, to a corner of the compound. The Naga may have thought they trapped the Wolf Clan in the corner, but it was the Wolf Clan who lured their prey into a trap. Five Wolfmen and Holo killed were able to kill over 100 Naga warriors. Holo always remind Will, "there was safety in numbers."

All of a sudden Will heard a loud boom, like someone set of fireworks indoors. Will turned his head to the White Tiger to broke free from the giant Naga entanglement. The Naga man looked like a wad of trash.

The Naga man yelled, "We may have lost, but we had our vengeance!" Will saw the emotionless Tiger man crushed the Naga's skull with one hand. Will thought, 'that beastman must have superhuman strength.'

After what turned out to be the Snake Clan leader's death, the insurrection did not last much longer. The Tiger, Bear, Wolf, and Orca Clans bludgeoned, ripped, claws, disemboweled, decapitated the rest of the Snake Tribe. The last Naga alive was a mentally broken woman, the Sea Witch playfully toyed with her, "pick out your clansman's brain for me, I want to see what idiot's brain looks like." As the deranged Naga woman complied with the Sea Witch's orders, the old Orca women crept behind her and slit her throat. The woman bled to death, still trying to take out her clansman's brains.

When the action was over, Elder Thaddeus dispersed the firewall. The ferocity of battle made Will realize in this medieval period, physical or magical strength was all that mattered. This was not Earth; businessmen were not untouchable. Only high-ranked mages and knights could earn freedom. Never before did Will have a zeal to increase his rank, but no everything was different.

The White Tiger beastman marched over to Elder Thaddeus and bowed. The beastman had blood and viscera dripping from his arms and hands. He spoke resolutely with a tinge of sadness in his voice, "Thank you Grandmaster Thaddeus for honoring our ways."

"You honor us," said the beastmen and women bowing in chorus. Even Holo bowed and repeated the phrase.

Will was full of questions, 'what did mean our ways?' and 'how did Elder Thaddeus honor them by doing nothing?'

"Come Will let us gather your things and head back to Guidon. I will answer your question in the carriage," Elder Thaddeus said, taking one last look at Eleanor's dead body before slowly walking out the door.