Taking Control
The entire Evernight Tribe only had about seven hunting teams added together. For three to be ambushed and killed meant nearly half of the tribe’s soldiers were lost. Richard had reinforced Tzu’s order to stay within the bounds of the Tree of Life before he left, which was something Tzu herself had left absolute orders for. How did three entire hunting teams leave?
The surviving hunter quickly explained that they had been attacked from all directions by the Duskword Tribe’s alliance. The ambush had been a complete encirclement, so there was no way to retreat. He had only managed to sneak away by chance, and had come here to make the report.
Once he heard the report, Richard said coldly, “The Duskword camp is still a thousand kilometres away. Your whereabouts were leaked intentionally. Who sent the teams out?”
“How do you know a scout didn’t find them?” an elder stood up to ask.
“Because I killed all their fucking scouts before I left, you bastard! Now, who sent the teams out?”
“These are affairs of the Cou—”
“Fuck councils.” The elder could barely finish his words before there were three fireballs flying towards his face. Landing in a triangle around him, they immediately exploded into a column of fire that sent the elf flying. A loud explosion resounded in the night as a large hole appeared in the ceiling, raging flames spewing out of the hole and shooting up dozens of metres. All that was left behind of the elder was a charred skeleton.
“Richard, why are you doing this?!” Melia jumped up, but the other elders only remained silent.
However, Richard completely ignored her as he picked up another of the elders by the scruff of his neck, “Who sent the teams?”
“I-It was Greyfeather!” the old man screamed, “We were only following his suggestions!”
Richard threw the man away and looked at Greyfeather who was on the ground cupping his eyes, “You actually colluded with the Duskword Tribe… Well, now you’re in my hands… Tch… Your end will only be worse.”
He then sighed softly, dispersing his aura entirely. Free of the pressure, the surviving elders finally started breathing properly, but before they could do anything else a faint red halo burst out from Richard and broke the walls of the treehouse entirely. A huge fireball appeared above the tree of life, leaving the council hall smouldering. Richard and the others remained in the same place, the violent explosion not hurting even Greyfeather.
The repeated explosions had drawn out the rest of the Evernight Tribe, and at this point the paralysis had worn off as well. Everyone looked up, recalling Richard’s words about the Grand Elder’s will.
Richard’s cold voice rang out from above, “The Grand Elder and I battled the demon god who had cursed her for days on end, and when I return these so-called elders have formed a council and aren’t willing to obey her will. Tzu passed on the Evernight Tribe to my command when she died, and anyone who dares question my authority will be considered a rebel.”
A gale blew out with him at the centre, leaving every tribe member shivering in their boots. Elves had natural resistance to magic, but with his new Magic Break rune his spells were as effective as those of a legendary mage. That resistance was nothing in front of his power.
“You,” he tapped his foot on the floor, “If you stay quiet I’m going to take your heart and leave.”
The tree of life was silent for ten minutes, but Richard remained patient for the entire duration. When the members of the tribe started talking about it, however, the tree shook a little as countless motes of green energy from the branches and leaves gathered into a winding band of light around him.
The elves immediately shut up and bowed. There were two primary ways for Richard to get them to acknowledge his rule: one was Tzu’s will, which had just been destroyed, and the other was the recognition of the tree of life. Of course, if neither had worked, he would have just turned them all into slaves; Tzu wanted them alive, and that was his priority. If they could only be alive as peasants, that was what he would turn them into.
Richard nodded and grabbed Greyfeather, throwing him into the air. The tree of life stretched out a few branches and wrapped them around the middle-aged elf’s hands and legs, stretching him apart.
“This was a rebel who colluded with the Duskword Tribe, sending three hunting teams to their deaths. Look carefully, this is the punishment for such traitors.”
Hearing this, Greyfeather seemed to sense his end and screamed with all his strength, “I am the Grand Elder’s blood nephew, the Skylance and Evernight Tribe should be mine! MINE! I WANT YOU DEAD, FOREIGNER! MELIA YOU BITCH, THIS WAS ALL YOUR FAULT! YOU’LL ALL DIE WHEN THE FOREST CAMP COMES!”
Richard ignored Greyfeather’s hysterical screams, lighting a small flame on his finger and sending it towards the man’s torso. The flame was extremely dull, not even looking like it could burn Greyfeather’s clothes, but the elf immediately screamed in pain upon contact. The branches of the tree of life squirmed as well, fully intent on staying as far away from those flames as possible.
This flame had been imbued with the power of his truename. Abyssal destruction was not restrained by the environment of the forest, so it was a huge threat to the tree of life. So long as the energy within was not exhausted, these flames would continue to burn forever. Richard only needed to replenish the power ever so often and Greyfeather would writhe in agony for an unbelievably long time.
With the overall situation decided, Richard finally turned to Melia, “Get your tribe’s strongest people to come see me.”
……
This time, the meeting place was in the living room Tzu had left behind. The Evernight Tribe didn’t have many important figures, only two level 17 druids, three saint hunters including Melia herself, and a mage. The mage was originally from Silvermoon and level 16, but in the environment of the Forest Plane he had actually dropped a level and wasn’t very powerful at all.
Richard turned to the hunters first, pulling out an ordinary metal longsword and throwing some to the rest, “Take these, we’ll test your martial arts first.”
The three hunters all looked at each other in confusion. Longswords were the traditional weapons of the elves, and all three of them were proficient, but they knew that Richard was actually a mage and not a swordsman. Was he some sort of spellsword? It seemed rather implausible.
Melia took the lead and went over to grab one of the swords, but she didn’t understand what Richard wanted her to do. He stood casually and stared at her, “Attack.”
“Umm… Okay…” She took a breath to calm down, focusing on Richard. Although she had accompanied him for quite some time, she wasn’t completely sure of his prowess because of how fast he killed most enemies. She stabbed testingly towards his arm, scared of hurting him.
Richard’s heart calmed down the moment she started her strike, dark red lava flowing through the depths of his eyes. Under the power of Insight, even a daughter of the forest was laid bare before him, her energy flow clearly visible. Wisdom instantly broke through to grade 6, boosting his thought speed once more. The entire world seemed to slow down as the data he had on Melia coalesced, allowing him to predict all possible trajectories of her blade. The number of possibilities dropped with every inch she moved forward, making her target clear.
Once she was close enough, Richard took his sword and stabbed straight into Melia’s blade. He immediately shattered the weapon in a single stroke, continuing on in the same motion to place his weapon at her neck. Melia immediately froze up, but he only patted her on the shoulder and turned away, “Next.”