BOOOOMMMM*

As the sound of the crash was heard, the village was put in disarray, the force of the fall was so big it shock the valley, in Stonewood village many people around nervously, in front of the village about fifty warriors from different races were waiting.

After about fifteen minutes, three people came out, out of the two one was an elf, he looked to be on his late forties, he had long silver hair and a small beard growing, he looked full of energy, he was about 1.80 meter tall, he was dressed in a white mage robe, he was holding hands with a little girl that was a about a meter tall, she had two cute wolf ears in her head, white hair and cute green eyes, the same as the two men by her sides, these were none but Grandpa Domor and little Sheria.

Once they appeared all the warriors stopped what they were doing, and turned their attention towards them, the three didn’t say anything until they were in front of them, where Domor started talking.

“Good!!”

“As you know, not long ago a star fall was seen, out of all of them, one crashed into Sunrise Mountain” (Domor)

This mountain is called like this, because in the morning the sun can be seen rising from behind it, behind the mountain where the valley ends, an enormous lake with connection to the sea exists.

“There are many possibilities of what that light could be, it can be any kind of divine treasure, but as good it can be, It may be something bad, because of that we need to know what it is.” (Domor)

When Domor started talking many warriors where excited because the possibilities of a treasure, hearing his words were akin to pour cold water on their heads.

Some of the other tribes living close to us will send some of their warriors too, if it turns out to be a treasure, we cannot let it fall in other’s hands, with a treasure on their side, taking control of the valley will be easy, even though everyone has respected the treaty, that won’t be true if they get a treasure’s help.

“We need to act fast!! Because our tribe is the closest to the sunrise mountain we will have the advantage!!” (Domor)

Grandpa Domor then looked at the man at his side.

“All yours Tibarn” (Domor)

After Domor finished talking, a tall wolf demi human walked to the front, he was a head taller than Domor, he had brown hair, his ears resembled of an elf they weren’t as long as one and at the end of them there was fur, he didn’t have a tail but part of his body resembled of a wolf, he was a type of Halfling but he was not born with human blood, so his appearance differed from one, he was bulky and his green eyes gave a sharp feeling, he had a halberd at his back, he wore a breastplate and gauntlets the rest was leather, he looked to be at his early thirties, at difference from Domor’s voice it was more rough.

“Ok” (Tibarn)

“Hear me well Brothers, Sunrise Mountain is about fifty kilometers far, it will take us at least an hour and a half to get there, because its greenwood wolves territory, we are not gonna take horses.”

“So finish getting ready, we part in fifteen minutes.”

“UNDERSTOOD?”

“HAAA!!” (Warriors)

After saying this Tibarn turned to look at the little girl behind him.

“Now Sheria be good girl and stay with Gramps, we will come back soon ok?”

“Daddy!!” The little girl just threw herself at his arms.

“Are you and mom going to be ok?” (Sheria)

“Everything is going to be fine, you’ll see,” Tibarn just smiled at her.

“Tibarn!!” (Domor)

“Father” (Tibarn)

“If the situation turns bad, you must stop and come back immediately.”

Tibarn didn’t say anything, he just nodded.

Domor could tell that he was not going to turn back; this was his son’s personality.

“All right!!"

“Warriors at the sides, mages at the middle, let’s move.” (Tibarn)

As the strongest warrior on the village, he knew the difficulties the village was going through, compared to big cities that enjoy big resources; there are villages of people that live in the country side, hunt beasts and do mercenary jobs, yet not all of this villages live under the banner of a city, this is the case, with most of the tribes living in forests, they don’t get any attention so with time they deteriorate, this is the case with Stonewood village, sometimes food is not enough to survive, and even if they moved to other villages the conditions wouldn’t be favorable, what forces them to stay, only a treasure save them, this is why he can’t turn back, every warriors knows that.

Out the fifty soldiers there were fifteen mages, so to avoid being ambushed by any monster, they were circled and protected, a few scouts moved forward to detect and intercept anything that could delay their travel.

This proved right as they neared the middle of the valley, where they encountered a few monsters which were quickly suppressed by the warriors.

After an hour of traveling across the forest Tibarn suddenly gave a signal, halting the group.

“Ok, we are about to enter the greenwoods territory, rest for bit, we’ll move soon.” (Tibarn)

Hearing his commands the troops sat to catch a breath.

Tibarn stood in front of the group, as it waiting for something or someone, after a few minutes he said.

“Alder, what’s the situation?”

Hearing his question, a shadow jumped down from a tree and stood in front of Tibarn.

It was an elf, he looked a little younger than Tibarn, compared to Domor Silver hair he had short green hair, while Domor was a Moon Elf he was a Wood elf, wood elves had a great scouting abilities, this was some racial traits that wood elves were born with.

“It’s weird I haven’t seen any greenwood wolf neither a trace of the impact, I checked around three kilometers, all that’s left it’s just the core zone where the wolf king lives.” (Alder)

A king class beast, it’s a stronger type of beast compared to others, in Astoria once one reach the core realm this one will awaken, evolving into a higher species, this is normal yet there is another type of awakening it is known as bloodline awakening, this type of awakening is even rarer, and not many beings are capable of, there is three levels of bloodlines:

Lords, once a human reaches the core realm, their blood’s essences will thick as they awaken, so when they have descendants, the blood flowing through their veins will aid them into becoming core practitioners themselves, they are referred as human lords, but their bloodline will weaken with the pass of generations.

Kings, they usually have the strength to jump levels of a realm, a black core low level fighter would have the strength of a black core middle level fighter, someone that has a king’s bloodline will have a bigger chance of reaching the mana seed realm that normal practitioners, not many of them exist thought, many kingdom’s royal families are descendants of a king’s level bloodline practitioner.

Emperors, they have an even larger strength, a black core low level fighter would have the strength of a black core peak level fighter, there doesn’t exist many of them now days but many empires of the past were ruled by this same type of bloodline practitioner.

Everyone will become a lord once they awakened, to awaken a king’s level bloodline is something not many can do, for someone to be able to awaken a king’s level bloodline requires great encounters and luck.

For these are types of blood awakening, the earlier that happens in the life the stronger it becomes when advancing, obviously one can have a lord level bloodline as a mana manipulator practitioner, but once it reaches core realm the bloodline will strengthen, giving them advantages over other practitioners, but this advantage could be covered with practice and sometimes is not even noticeable.

The greenwood wolf king is feared because of this, no one knows how he was able to awaken a king’s level bloodline but he was able to do so, so even though he is at the peak of the mana manipulator realm, his strength is already at the core formation.

Hearing the report Tibarn was shocked, most greenwood wolf packs hunted around this zone, they never get close to the king beast, yet this time they not being around, only thing could mean is that they were called by the king, a king type beast have the rights to command lower bloodline beasts, so for them to be called back something must have happened.

“Alder have there been any sign of other tribes?” (Tibarn)

“No and It doesn’t seem we are being followed” (Alder)

“Ok thanks, good work.”

Tibarn turned his back and gave signal to the group of warriors, telling them to get ready to move, as soon as he did that the troops stood up.

Even though they are mercenaries, most of them received training from Tibarn, in the past when he traveled to a city for work, and saw a soldiers training, he thought their coordination as fascinated when he came back. He implemented the same training and teachings, so all of them knew of soldier signals.

The group moved across the forest getting closer and closer towards the king’s zone, when they caught traces of the impact, a few broken trees and burning flames were seen in the distance.

They fastened their pace to reach the place of the fall, where they found a massive hole; it had a diameter of sixty meters and a profundity of fifteen meters.

Standing inside of the massive hole, Tibarn frowned as he looked around, there were traces of energy around the place that he had never felt on his entire life, it did not hurt him, in fact it felt comfortable.

This is doesn’t mana? What is it then?

“Tibarn!!” Hearing his name called he turned to look at his friend Alder, who was at the top of the hole.

“What’s wrong?” (Tibarn)

“We found foot traces” (Alder)

“What did you say? Where?” (Tibarn)

“Come” (Alder)

Moving along with Alder, he soon found what he was talking about, yet this just cause him to frown even more.

Why?

Because these were not but a kid foot traces, they were a little bigger than his daughter, so it mean the kid was a little older, even though there were small races, many of the ones that lived on the forest weren’t this small, so he could only think of a kid.

Alder understood what he was thinking so he was just silent, as the vice leader and his best friend, he understood what he was feeling, he had a small daughter just like him and she was around his daughter age.

So this caused him to feel uncomfortable too.

What the hell is a kid doing on a place like this?

Soon a woman came to the front, she was beautiful and wore a mage robe, she had white hair and wolf ears on top of her head, she looked to be around twenty five, her face was full of anxiety, she was the one that discovered the traces, she was Tibarn’s wife, the reason why she didn’t appear before was because she was a nature mage, using a spell called Nature Network, she was able to lessen the scouts burdens, helping the group leave even faster.

Tibarn sighed knowing what was gonna happen.

“Dear” (unknown woman)

Before she could continue she was cut short by Tibarn.

“I know Aura, I feel the same, but you gotta know that we don’t know what we are truly looking at.”

“But it’s a kid!!” (Aura)

Her voice attracted the attention of the members, as they looked at the couple quarrel.

“I know it looks like a one, but what if it isn’t?” (Tibarn)

“For Astoria Sake!! There is nothing in this forest that could imitate one.” (Aura)

Sigh* (Tibarn)

Before he could respond, a wave of energy that created a torrent of air which pushed against them suddenly appeared, making the warriors use their hands to cover their eyes, after a few seconds later it finally calmed down but soon as that happened, an addictive sensation engulfed them, a feeling of power, it made their blood pump crazily, boil, made their bodies excited, making their bodies move towards the source desperately, as if it could not wait to go to where it originated, it was not only them, many beasts around the zone felt the same too, yet it different from them, it made the beasts lose their minds, the group didn’t completely lost their minds, there were still half conscious or at least a few of them were, around the group, many bird type beast flied towards the direction it originated, around them, all kind of beast roars where heard, fighting to get first.

A small pillar of light was seen making all eyes be on it, no being could take its eyes off it, as they moved, many of them crashed against each other.

Because of this Tibarn stumbled on the ground, helping him to wake up of the trance he was, looking at his group running that were bumping against each other, he screamed.

“WAKE UP!!!”

The group reacted, finally taking their eyes from where they were looking, they sensation they were experiencing was, as if you were suddenly experiencing an awesome dream just to be woken by a terrific sound, some of them were about to refute, when they realized what they were doing, noticing their situation Tibarn didn’t say anything and just let them compose themselves, before speaking again.

“Are you all ok?” (Tibarn)

“Yeah what was that?” (Alder)

As they talked the pillar of light finally disappeared, the duration of the light took no more of a few seconds.

“I don’t know it took me time to wake up. Look we are already half way there.”

“Anyways we got to move, we don’t know what that was but from this far caused such a reaction on us, it could only mean is a heavenly treasure.”

“We got to investigate it; we cannot let it fall in wrong hands.”

It took them some time to get back on their tracks, but once they did, the group hurried toward the location, once close enough they could hear the sounds of battle, soon the trees ended and they finally arrived, when they did they saw that many greenwood wolves were protecting an enormous cave up in a hill, many of them were fighting against beasts, and there were some fighting a group of humans, obviously the wolves were at disadvantage.

“THE BLACK BONE TRIBE!!” (Alder)

This was the Stonewood rival tribe, in the past, a few years after the first leader of the Stonewood tribe settled on the valley, another tribe moved to the valley it was a tribe that believed in human supremacy, they hated other races and loathed mixed bloods, because of this many conflicts happened, but during that time they were a lot bigger and stronger than Stonewood tribe, but that changed years later when other tribes started to appear in Stonewood valley, the other tribes had mixed races, so after years of war the mixed races made an alliance, defeating the black bone tribe forcing them to sign a peace treaty in exchange for not being annihilated.

“How did they get here?” (Alder)

“They probably were close to this place when that energy wave happened.” (Aura)

“What do we do Tibarn? We cannot let the black bone tribe get whatever treasure there is” Alder asked worried

Tibarn frowned, in this moment in his mind he was analyzing the situation, looking at the wolves, they seemed to be fighting desperately, why were they doing this, were they protecting something? Whatever action they took, they would be at disadvantage.

But something deep inside his mind told him, HELP THEM it was his instincts, his mind said wait, but his instincts said another thing, the more he thought about it the stronger his instincts pressured him.

Finally a voice resounded within his head, “HELP US”

It took him a few seconds to understand the situation.

Tibarn finally said, “we’ll help”

Who? (Alder)

“The wolves” (Tibarn)

“Are you sure?” (Alder)

“I am sure”

Looking at Tibarn eyes, Alder finally nodded

He turned around and said to his friends “You hear the boss!! Let’s go!!”

WOOOOHH, the group ran to the battlefield, they started to kill the beasts yet strangely enough the wolves never took actions against them, they were wary of the Stonewood warriors but never attacked them.

With the help of the Stonewood warriors, the situation was able to turn around.

Just then a shadow rushed out of from behind a group of beast that were fighting and a voice screamed.

“TIBARNNNNN!!!”

The figure jumped, it was a human he had a great sword in his hands, his features were normal yet his whole body radiated a bloodthirst aura.

The man moved his great sword downwards, slicing towards Tibarn.

Tibarn just snorted and used his halberd to counter the great sword.

BOOM!!

The shock caused the earth to tremble and cracks to appear on the ground.

“KAYDENNN!!”

“Should have known you would be here!!”

“Humph, I don’t know about you, but I won’t let you take anything from here.”

“We will see about that!!” (Tibarn)

Both warriors moved. Tibarn was a third order low warrior, the same as the man in front of him.

Tibarn Halberd handle was two meters long, the head was half a meter long, it had a one side blade, compared to Kayden great sword, which was a meter and a half long, Tibarn used distance to fight Kayden, using the top of the halberd to thrust, he moved truly fast, in just a second he had already thrusted the halberd more than ten times, as a third order warrior he already bypassed the limits of body, he had a strength of 700 pounds, just his halberd alone weighed 400 pounds, Kayne great sword weighed 300 pounds so he was at disadvantage if he meet Tibarn’s weapon head on, but because his weapon weighted less he was faster than Tibarn.

Thrust, swipe, slice both of them exchanged many moves in just seconds, but even though Kayden’s great sword was fast, he could never gain advantage against Tibarn.

It’s true that Kayden’s great sword was fast, he used it as he was using a one handed weapon, he was swift and precise, but Tibarn used technique to fight against Kayden’s speed, in other words from the beginning he controlled the fight, using the fact that Kayden evited meeting weapons head on, he forced him to do and move as he pleased, without letting him realize this.

BOOM!!

BOOM!!

BOOM!!

The weapons meet again and again; with last one exchange they pushed each other 20 meters apart, the terrain around them had already changed because of the force of their blows.

Both of them looked to each other, suddenly their weapons started to glow, both weapons glowed red but even though the colors were quite similar they had their differences, Tibarn’s halberd was fiery red but Kayden’s great sword was blood red, this glow meant that things were about to get serious.

Just when they were going to rush towards each other, an enormous crocodile appeared from the trees close to them, his immense body of 20 meters long destroyed the things around him.

ROAR!!!

It pushed both of them out the way, and rushed towards the cave, it dint even bother to look at them.

Just then a powerful howl was heard, a green light moved out of the cave at enormous speed

BOOM!!

The crocodile didn’t have time to react before it was crushed to death, by the green light.

On top of it a 3 meter and half tall green wolf appeared, his eyes swoop past the beasts causing them to freeze in fear.

Just then the wolf’s body glowed; vines appeared out of the ground attacking the beasts, piercing towards their bodies, killing them instantly.

“Damn he is out, We will finish our fight another day!!” (Kayden)

“LET’S GO!!” (Kayden)

After saying this, the black bone tribe hurriedly leaved the zone with some beasts that choose to escape too.

“Tibarn we should withdraw too!!” (Alder)

“No, wait” (Tibarn)

Tibarn ordered the group to stay, after a while the zone became deserted, the battle was over, the only ones left were the Stonewood tribe and the greenwood wolves.

The wolves encircled the warriors looking at them warily; they didn’t try to hide the killing intent from their eyes.

The 3 meter and a half tall green wolf howled once more, making the wolves retract their gazes and make a path on which the giant wolf walked, stopping right in front of Tibarn.

“Wolf King!” Tibarn murmured.

The wolf king looked at Tibarn with his sharp eyes for some time before using a mighty power to pressure his body.

Tibarn felt his body pushed to the ground, trying to force him to kneel, not only him, his wife and all the demi humans with wolf traces on them were affected too, under the pressure some were even unable to breath, this was a king class bloodline pressure, all of them but Tibarn kneeled, his knees bent but never touched the ground.

Tibarn looked at his eyes, his face never panicked, just showed great resolution.

The wolf king smirked, and the pressure vanished, letting them all finally breathe again

The wolf king voice sounded in Tibarn mind

“A Lord bloodline, you have great possibilities of becoming a core practitioner, that’s great.”

“So it was you!!” (Tibarn)

The wolf king voice sounded again but this time in everyone’s mind

“I thank you all for your help, as reward for it; I shall let you take half of the beasts and the body of the crocodile.”

As he finished, most of the Stonewood warriors cheered, this was such a great reward, with the village situation all of them how helpful this was.

The wolf king turned around and walked towards the cave, his voice resounded again in Tibarn’s mind only.

“Come with me” (Wolf king)

Hearing his voice, Tibarn followed the wolf king to the cave, once inside he was greeted with an incredible scene.

A beautiful female wolf was lying on the floor; her fur was white with green lines. This was a Queen Class wolf.

Within the bloodlines there are three types of bloodline acquisition, the first as the strongest while the rest are weaker.

Blood Awakening, when the being forced his blood essence to awaken all by himself, gaining great power, when someone awakens the bloodline by themselves the power is greater than if one acquired it from another.

Essence Acquisition, when the being copulates with its partner and uses its own essence to trigger the blood awakening, this one is normally not that used, because it weakens the being for some time.

Bloodline Inherit, a descendant born from the being, will carry a part of his power; this power becomes weaker with the pass of generations.

Tibarn could see she was tired her expression said it all, but what shocked Tibarn, was that she was cuddling three beings, two little wolf pups, one which had a beautiful white fur and the other one had a black fur.

But the last one of them was a little boy, with long white hair and black streaks.