Jule had been told many times in the past that Parn was one of the strongest men in the Redshield Dukedom, just behind his father…

Nevertheless, Jule sparred with him nearly everyday, and in his opinion, they were overestimating his abilities. Sure he was strong, one of the strongest that Jule had ever faced, but in their training Jule thought he could see the limits of Parn’s strength.

A hot feeling covered Jule’s face, he had looked down on Parn because of his personality, believing that he was acting in such a way due to his inferiority complex. Seeing the scene in front of him, Jule realized that Parn was not even trying when they fought.

It was like entertaining a child to him.

“SKREEEEEE!!”

The banshee-like scream of the Wendigo echoed throughout the battlefield, many of the rank 1 refiner’s ears exploding, only the rank 2s were able to deal with it… Though they were not unharmed either, a massive headache occupied their thoughts.

Parn though was completely unharmed.

He turned towards Jule, his eyes not visible thanks to his helmet, and spoke, every single word making alarm bells sound in Jule’s mind.

“You guys take care of the weaklings” He ordered and turned around to focus on the Wendigo, not sparing Jule another glance.

The blush of Jule’s face turned an even brighter shade of red, he had never been commanded to do something in his life and he didn’t enjoy it one bit. He wanted to curse Parn’s rudeness, but something stood in his way.

Something from the depths of his heart, something he couldn’t even understand as he had never felt it.

Jule hated the incompetent, those who are completely beholden to another’s will and choose not do anything about it. Those who, like him, could manage to carve their own place in history without anyone’s help, he respected. Though they were a precious minority, mostly nobles and the educated.

He thought Parn stood on the opporsite side, a part of the foolish.

It seems that Jule had fallen for his trap, a trap only the smart could work on for so many years.

Jule felt like a fool for the first time in his life and it was imprinted deep into his soul, he would never judge a book by its cover ever again.

....

Parn observed for a bit as the rest of the soldiers ran off to face the other monsters, most of the rank 1s had to be dragged off due to their poor balance, all thanks to their blown out eardrums. It was a godsend that rank 2s could drag many of them at once, otherwise they would have been affected by the aftershocks of the battle.

Parn took out a bright red scroll from a pouch in his belt, he slashed the red scroll, dozens of inscriptions that decorated his blade turning brighter. Parn’s sword burst into flames, the intensity of which made Jule’s gale look like a simple breeze.

The Wendigo realized the danger of such a weapon just by looking at it. It crushed one of the pieces of rock armor covering its body and swung the tendril back before rebounding it, throwing thousands of small rocks towards Parn.

Parn did a simple slash with his sword, a veritable storm of fire following each of his movements. The slash released a blade made of fire that clashed with the rocks.

Inside the blade, the trapped rocks melted and dripped towards the ground, burning all the grass they touched. Though the slash, having lost all its potency, also dissipated into steam.

Without waiting for another second, Parn rushed towards the monster, his sword leaving a trail of smoke behind.

Tendrils once again left the rock armor and grabbed the lifeless arm laying next to the monsterkin, the tendrils absorbed the arm as fast as they could and a new one grew where the bleeding stump was earlier.

Using the newly regenerated arm, the Wendigo grabbed one of the dire wolves that wandered too close and threw it at Parn.

Parn had to stop his momentum, long ridges of earth forming at his sides as he planted his feet into the ground. His sword shone a tone brighter and he sliced once again, turning the body of the dire wolf into cinders.

Behind the wolf though, the monsterkin had thrown a complete piece of the rock armor flying, trying to at least damage Parn through his blind spot. Parn was caught open, having just finished the slice that burned the wolf.

He didn’t hesitate though, he clenched his free hand and threw out a punch, blasting the rock into pieces.

Even the Wendigo had to freeze for a second when witnessing this, no normal rank 4 body enhancer could crush an elementally charged rock like that and come out unscathed. As he watched this, Jule wondered if this was thanks to his rank 2 mind refining.

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Parn wasn’t completely scott free though, although his sword was an inscribed item, the scrolls that Parn used were made by him and completely overpowered the inscription on the sword.

Parn had clearly not expected his scrolls to be powerful enough to melt his sword away, especially as he hadn’t gone all out for a long while.

The sword changed colors to scarlet and the edges turned to dripping molten metal.

The Wendigo realized that it only needed to extend the time of battle, and the fearsome sword would be rendered null.

The monsterkin got closer to his minions and threw them nonstop at Parn, saving the soldiers a bit of trouble. Thankfully, Parn’s ma finally took effect and a cyclone of fire covered him, turning every monster that got close to him into dust.

When body cultivators reached the enhancing rank. their ma begins to take specific properties, and it just so happened that Parn’s was a field of fire that surrounded him.

The monsterkin kept running away, pelting Parn with pieces of rock and monsters, fire was its worst enemy and to its back luck, he was facing an enemy that specialized in it.

“Stop running, you gooey bastard” Parn finally broke and shouted with all his might. It made sense, after playing a certain role for years, it would eventually leave some marks on you.

Parn’s sword had lost most of the metal that made it up, only a thin slice of it remaining. He didn’t have much time left and just began actively avoiding the things that were thrown, he didn’t want to lose even a second.

The Wendigo saw that the sword was nearly done and crushed dozens of the pieces of armor that covered it, tens of thousands of small pebbles stuck to the tendrils like glue.

“Fine you bastard!, let's do this head on!” Parn slashed another two red scrolls on his blade, turning the flames into a conflagration. Parn charged his arm and concentrated all the ma in his body towards his arm, the sheer concentration charing his flesh.

The monsterkin threw the pebbles in hopes of stopping Parn, but Parn answered back by throwing his blade like a spear, a spiral of fire forming around it. The fire melted all the pebbles and continued its trip, reaching the Wendigo.

It screeched endlessly, concentrating all the tendrils it had towards pulling out the sword…

The tendrils could not even be near the core of the sword though, and after a few more minutes of struggle, all that was left was a blackish-crimson puddle of goo.

…

Jule sighed in relief, only a few more dire wolves and goblins were left, and they could be taken care of in a few seconds.

His body finally lost all the strength it had mustered and he collapsed into the grassy field, this time for good, though a weak smile was plastered on his face.

...

After a bit, loud cheers woke up his tired mind, he had passed out for a few seconds.

He could barely hear some footsteps nearing his spot on the ground.

“Hey...would you mind lending me one of those fancy,white scrolls?” Jule’s face cramped once he heard these words.

Even though he respected Parn’s strength, that didn’t mean he suddenly stopped hating him. Besides, the white scrolls of the church are an extremely limited item, only sold to the highest bidder. Jule’s father had a hard time finding them.

The thought of letting Parn use one gave Jule a bad taste in his mouth…

He couldn’t just refuse him now though, after saving the whole excursion.. it would give him a bad look.

Jule took out the last white scroll he had and threw it towards Parn.

Parn rested the scroll on his blackened arm and activated it, the burnt skin falling off and being replaced by a brand new layer of it, tender and pink.

After all the skin was replaced, Parn sat next to Jule on the ground, causing Jule to try and shift away. Parn just chuckled and moved closer once again.

Well whatever, Jule couldn't care less what Parn did, his mind was occupied with other, more important things.

All that was left was to gather the dead, grab the spoils, and head back. Even though they had suffered more casualties than expected, Jule considered this mission a great success.

His tiredness flew away as the thoughts of reporting to his father made his heart pump, he couldn’t wait to see his face.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Ethan Redshield sat in complete silence, taking care of the endless amount of paperwork needed to keep the Dukedom afloat. He didn’t need to do it himself, but it distracted him and served as a pastime.

It would be a lie to say he wasn’t worried about his son, it was the first battle he led after all, any father would be scared out of his wits.

Still, he had to trust that Parn would be able to take care of any unexpected situations.

...

Rythmic knocking broke the almost serene silence in his office.

He immediately stopped what he was doing, hoping for some news over his son’s expedition.

“Come in”

A leather clad scout entered his office, going on one knee. While he seemed a bit relaxed, the sweat on his face betrayed the fact that he had run all the way here.

Ethan looked at the scout for a second, trying to gauge the severity of the situation before motioning the scout to speak.

“Sir, Viscount Dandelion is has arrived and is requesting an audience”

Ethan frowned, he was expecting news about his son.

Besides, he was not pleased with the other nobles, who often knocked on his door and tried to include him in their political schemes, even after he had publicly stated his retirement many times. Worst of all, sometimes the conversation would wander towards rebellious statements against the crown.

Ethan had always been a steadfast ally of the crown, and when he realized what they were trying to incite him to do, he stopped accepting noble visits. He even refused to attend The Conference in order to strengthen his point that he was no longer even slightly interested in politics.

Even so, he couldn’t just refuse the Advisor of the King, especially when he was knocking on his figurative door.

That wasn’t all, although he tried to suppress it, he still held some love for the young man, after all, he had trained him with his own two hands.

“Lead him to my study” Ethan told the scout and began gathering his papers, but the scout didn’t seem to move or talk.

Ethan cocked his head.

“Sir...that would be a problem, he didn’t come alone” Ethan growled, the veins on his temple becoming pronounced, was his capital now the conference place for disgruntled nobles?

“Fine, prepare a Hall, I will meet them all there” He snapped and looked back at his papers.

But the scout still hadn’t left.

“S..Sir, that would be a problem, It would be for the best if you observed it yourself”

Ethan felt like he was going crazy, just what was happening?

He dashed to the closed windows in his office and pulled back the curtains. His office was at the highest point in the castle, he could easily see all the way to the main walls.

The view he saw took the breath out of him, thousands of men were formed outside his city walls, completely surrounding it, small canvas tents popping up here and there.

Only a small selection of words could explain what Ethan was feeling now.

“What the fuck is this?”