The soldiers of the blood tribe are not like the other people of the snow tribe. Firstly, they do not seem to have a dome. I never personally seen a dome so who can tell and secondly, almost the entirety of their kin seem to be able to survive in the cold. And lastly they are supposed to be the smallest tribe in the trueland. Their members all can live in one city supposedly and Even i who has never stayed in the true lands can tell that the place they live in is a step colder than the surrounding regions on top of that. During my journey to here, i could see their children in the edges of my vision following us and looking at the strange outsider. I have been assured that they won't disturb us when I enquired about them.
Part of this could be the fact that these people live in mountains. Even I struggle to believe that mountains exist in this frigid hellscape. Well, anywhere else i would not like to call it a hill, but here where nothing should last these humble hills are the tallest of mountains. I would assume that these mountains would crumble under the constant onslaught of ice mana in the region, let alone the constant storms that must blow through them.
Still, no sledder can enter into this land obviously which must already make things hard for any other tribe. Almost a couple of days ago, we had to leave our sledders and begin our trek. The folks of the blood tribe seem to be very familiar with the mountain, scaling it like mountain goats. They seem to discover paths through which only one person would be able to make it through almost as if they were wishing it into existence. They could scale the entire thing in a couple hours i am sure but They had to seriously slow down for both me and cloak.
The reason for our being slow is different though. Mountain scaling is a skill that I can do little without in my home. We do make the largest mountain in the continent our base. Anybody from the black mountain and the surrounding regions is a mountain goat in his own right. For me it is the cold, the bone chilling cold that seems to penetrate through the defenses set by cloak and enter into my very bones.
I can climb through the path quite easily, but after ten minutes i stop feeling my arms and after half an hour my body begins to feel oddly hot after which we have to take a rest. That warmth is quite deadly it seems, caused by an overdrawing of vital mana. If not managed correctly one can end up in the mountains without mana to protect his body. If that happens, people will wish for the chill it seems. So we have to sit in cave that seem to be designed to trap in heat and rest as i try to circulate mana to ensure nothing ends up freezing in my body. Even with cloak's protection, I do not dare to understimate the coldness of these mountains. Just in the temporary fort, I could feel mana vessels freeze. I am sure this much farther north I will lose quite a lot more and more easily at that.
Meanwhile cloak can barely climb the thing. He is doing it as a child would, charge through the mountain paths, without any grasp of footing. He is literally using his ridiculously strong body to climb the mountain. If I climbed as he did, i would be end up falling in a ditch with my bones broken in multiple sites.
Still it was due to the both of us that it took two days to end up where we are. The blood tribe would be able to do it in a couple of hours. We are presently in the capital of the blood tribe, high up in mountain built like a fortress. They call the city anku tloth or the holy blood which would be a more accurate translation. I will call it the blood city for now. Sadly I am not here for tourism so I cannot see much of the place. I have been staying in a room that they have provided.
As i was saying the blood city is a fortress. One that is quite easy to defend given the performance of cloak coming here. Entire armies can thrown against the city and still nobody will be able to make it to the walls of this fort, let alone enter the city. The instant that the vote was confirmed to be rejected cloak made sure to request the blood tribe to take him and me in till the alternate punishment could be arranged. Clearly the tattoo tribe seems to quite influential among our enemies, for me to be placed in the most remote location that cloak could find.
The punishment is the reason I am recording at the moment. The man is supposed to explain the exact rules of what i am supposed to be even doing for the alternate punishmenta and if there are any changes in the rules. We left the council meeting quite early. The man has been teasing the explanation of these rules like a candy to a kid. Then again, i have seen the man slip and fall so many times that i am surprised that he still has a nose and most of these falls were into quite deep pits in the ground.
Well, i can finally get to business as the man finally appears.
"Well, there you are, little wolf. I have been looking for you since the morning.", he speaks, his arm in a splint. I remember when he got that particular injury. He had slipped from a path and tumbled down the side of the mountain until I could not see him. I doubted his survival for a couple of minutes too. He came back after almost a couple of hours with a nasty gash on his hand.
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"The blood tribe a fussy lot. They find it better to overeact on injuries early on I guess. They certainly cannot afford infections after all. It is a simple scratch.", cloak speaks, seeing me look at his splint. "Regardless, you need to focus. You have quite the sledder battle to undergo."
"Well, first I will have to begun by telling you that you have managed to thoroughly piss off the tattoo tribe. They are certainly not going to be forgiving in the least to you. Granted they would never have been forgiving in the first place.", cloak speaks. "You managed to wreck the relation between the spear tribe and the tattoo tribe. The spear tribe has always been sure that the tattoo tribe has been using legion arts and more importantly formations. Your final declaration almost confirmed it to them. Your one statement will cause chaos in our lands this season."
"So do they use legion arts." I ask, quite curious. "What i have admited is merely a speculation on my side. All major armies tend to have a mana sharing skill. Most battle formations would not work without techniques like that. They could have a thousand ways of doing it."
"It doesn't really matter. The spear tribe will not allow formations to exist in this land and they certainly hate the legion.", cloak replies. "All of us born in the truelands know the risks of using formations, but the spear tribe is literally the group that has the most to lose from formations. the tattoo tribe literally used your bloodline to get the spear tribe on their side against you in the first place."
"So why did they finally side with me. Seems counterintuitive.", I ask.
"Well, the spear tribe fears the sages for their abilities with formations. Formations in the truelands is dangerous. Most formations can seriously affect the flow of mana in this land. it literally can make our storms ten times worse. The spear tribe is particularly susceptible to something like this.", cloak replies, though i am not sure why. This is pretty sensitive information isnt it. "If the tattoo tribe is actually using formations in their magic they will enter into a state of war against the tattoo tribe. This is just a more diplomatic method of showing their disagreement. Nobody wants war if it is possible to not have it after all."
"So what about the punishment.", I ask. Politics and all is fine but at the moment survival is more important.
"Most of the rules are the same, except for one thing. Your survival will not assure your victory. The other ship will need to fall for you crime to be forgiven. That means it is still a duel, just more fair.", he says. "It was passed in our absence, sadly but i needed to get you out of there quickly."
"Why?.", i ask.
"Well, the tattoo tribe holds quite the bit of influence and they have access to tricks like Assassins. Only the blood tribe is truly free of their influence. If the council made you stay at one of the other tribes I would have quite the headache guarding you, you know", cloak says. "Other than that, both you and shakok will be provided with a ship from the council's stores. I will be making sure that there is no tampering occuring but that won't be preventing them from giving you an older sledder. Thankfully the council will not have any truly shitty sledders so the competition is still pretty even. They have to constantly keep their sledders in a working order. Even one bad sledder would cause permanent damage to the council's reputation."
"What about the sledder that I have been given. Can I not use it.", i ask. My sledder is supposed to be a step above the other sledders and significantly more durable. It would have given me peace of mind.
"Sadly, no though I have to assume that you shall face no real challenge. I have seen you drive. You have taken to the sledder like a blood bastard takes to the mountains.", he replies. "Still you will need to be careful. The other side is no slouch. All snowlords are trained in the art of driving sleds and the tattoo tribe tend to be quite skilled in art of sledding. They create a majority of the sledders that you are using after all."
"So what can I do. I haven't even properly used a sledder in a storm. There is no guarantee that I won't fall immediately don't you think.", I ask. Somehow at the moment a direct fight seemed to be fairer.
"Well, surviving a Storm is more related to the strength of your senses rather than you skill at driving a sledder as i have told you before. You are a child of a sage. Only sages can compare to you in the sensitivity of your mana sense. Anyways, you would make a half decent sledder at your present skill. I won't say it will be easy but you have a chance.", cloak speaks.
"Well, that is nice to hear. what is the problem that the spear tribe has with the legion then. It does not seem like we would have much reason for their enmity atleast not more than other people of the true lands .", I ask, my mind wandering due to the politics of this land.
"Well, everybody hates the legion to their bones. Any person will kill a person of the legion even if they have bite you to death. The only reason they have a lukeworm reaction to you is simply the fact that you are not a core member of the legion anymore and don't know their hidden arts. Your masters identity certainly helped.", cloak replies. "As for the spear tribe, they are the most proactive in fighting the legion. No other tribe has killed more legioners nor lost more members to the legion. The spear tribe have lost too much and gained too little to back away from that particular fight. They call it a blood debt now, not a holy war.