wardenraime

Chapter 909 - Hector's Rebellion III

While the blasts from Leon’s arks were absorbed well by Hector’s shield the first couple of times, it began to shimmer and flex as the Lances fired again and again. They couldn’t keep up too sustained of a bombardment, though, so while his army continued to advance through the forest, Leon decided to add his power to the mix.

Lightning fell upon the shield like rain, shaking the ground beneath the castle and filling the air with peals of thunder. Red, not wanting to be left out, d...

Chapter 908 - Hector's Rebellion II

War.

Leon knew that having matters come this far wasn’t a good thing, but he had to admit that being back on the warpath felt quite nostalgic. He was now pushing forty, and the last time he’d been at the head of a proper army had been during the campaign on the Serpentine Isles nearly twenty years ago.

Now, he departed Stormhollow with four thousand troops at his back.

He’d initially only sent out calls to assemble an army of about three thousand—his Tempest Knights ...

Chapter 907 - Hector's Rebellion I

Wrath burned hot within him. He simply couldn’t believe it; everything that he’d worked for, gone in a matter of a few months. Ever since that Thunderbird brat appeared, everything had started falling apart.

Hector fumed as he paced about the office of the small castle he’d occupied east of Lake Ontarii, not far from the river that drained the lake into the Straits of Keraunos. It was built in a heavily-wooded location, but it had never been built for stealth. His time there would...

Chapter 906 - Raidankana

The place where the three elders who’d defected from the Jaguars to the Tigers were being held could hardly be called a prison. They’d exercised their rights as elders to cast their vote and had broken no laws, though they’d still likely face ostracization if they were returned to the Jaguars if not death, but the Tigers had allowed them to stay in a fairly small villa in one of Stormhollow’s suburbs under their control, on the condition that they not try to leave.

It was this v...

Chapter 905 - Unofficial Negotiations

The days following Leon’s strategy meeting with the top elders from the eight Tribes now loyal to him were packed, and little of it was of much interest to him. Meetings and meetings and more meetings with bureaucrats put in place by Iron-Striker when he was Thunderer, ensuring that each and every one of them were, if not loyal to him, then at least competent and trustworthy enough to continue on a provisional basis.

For the most part, the bureaucracy that Iron-Striker had built was q...

Chapter 904 - Leon's Agenda

Leon wasn’t sure if he’d ever been in a more tense room than the one he found himself in just a few hours after consulting with Xaphan and the Thunderbird. Perhaps some of the meetings back in the Bull Kingdom when August and Octavius were in the same room, but he wasn’t sure.

He sat in a chair—one that was decidedly too normal to be a proper throne—in one of his temporary palace’s meeting rooms with Cassandra and the rest of his family at his side. Joining him were the nint...

Chapter 903 - Divine Counsel

The days following Leon’s election were hectic and tense in equal measure, not least of which due to his decision to bring Iron-Striker into the fold. The Jaguar wasn’t happy, but with Leon’s decision to give the former Thunderer a chance, he let the matter be, though not without making sure Leon knew he’d be watching Iron-Striker for any signs of betrayal.

The other big reason for the tension was that Leon started bringing Cassandra with him wherever he went. As one of his wive...

Chapter 902 - Iron-Striker

Following the vote, Tribesmen shot out from the Elder Hall in all directions, bringing word of the new political situation to all corners of the island. The Ax-Bringer took care of spreading the word within Stormhollow, and he was so efficient about it that by the time Leon strode out of the hall, the streets were lined with countless Tribesmen waiting to get a glimpse of him. Celebration could be heard throughout the city as the people almost spontaneously began partying, and with his tour t...

Chapter 901 - Elder Council III

Sadness. Betrayal. Crushing despair. Even a bit of embarrassment. Negative emotions flooded through Leon’s body as he stared at the vote count, but none were quite as pronounced as anger. Wrath flashed through his body like a lightning bolt, white-hot and wild.  Rage had his hands twitching. Fury lit a fire in his chest that threatened to spill out into the world.

But, after exercising a titanic amount of self-control, Leon took a few deep breaths and forced himself to remain cal...

Chapter 900 - Elder Council II

“Leon Raime,” the Ax-Bringer said as he turned in Leon’s direction, nearly giving him a heart attack, “the Tiger Tribe accuses you of the crime of treason.”

For a short moment, silence fell upon the hall. However, once everyone had processed what the Ax-Bringer had said, pandemonium just about erupted among the elders. Nearly all of the elders supporting Leon began hissing and shouting and stomping their feet in outrage, and several of his ninth-tier elders sprang to their fee...

Chapter 899 - Elder Council I

Leon knew that it was often hard to appreciate the importance of events as they happened. However, as he took off from the Jaguars’ guest estate and made for the Elder Hall, he couldn’t help but feel the weight of all his Ancestors settling in around him.

He knew he had to make this spectacular. This was going to be a momentous occasion, one that either solidified his hold over the Ten Tribes or ruined it. This would be the final foundation stone he laid for his power base, and if t...

Chapter 898 - Final Moves II

The Thunderer’s home was delightfully humble in Leon’s opinion. It was relatively small, built around only a single courtyard, but it was located quite close to the Elder Hall. Due to its size and the Thunderer’s power, it wasn’t heavily guarded, either, with only two people rising to meet Leon as he drew close. It was, however, quite well-fortified with strong enchantments, and it was located close to another building that the Thunderer had constructed to house the government he’d ...

Chapter 897 - Final Moves I

Of the four Tribes in the Thunderer’s camp, the Rock Mane Bison were the ones that Leon most wanted to visit. The Tigers and Ji Spiders had been the Thunderer’s supporters for decades, while the Thunderer himself was a member of the Booming Brown Bears. Those three Tribes Leon had lesser hope for, but the Bison… especially after witnessing the muted tension between the Tribes the night before, he felt reasonably confident that the Bison would be at least amenable to his presence if not ...

Chapter 896 - Tribal Justice

“FUCKING TURNCOATS!” the Jaguar thundered as he split a table in half as soon as he entered the room.

“I take it everything went well?” Nikolaos drily asked.

Leon and the rest of his party, including Red and those elders left behind at the rally point, had just returned to the Jaguar Tribe’s enclave. Waiting for them there was the rest of the Jaguar Tribe’s high leadership, along with the leaders of the Tribes sworn to him that were in the city.

“Learned of som...

Chapter 895 - The Thunderer's Strategy

The meeting that Solomon had warned about was to be held not too far outside of the city. It was just to the east of the city’s outskirts, past the army barracks and close to the fields where the Bears were keeping their war beasts.

Leon didn’t much like that, but with the group he had, he didn’t think it would be too big of a problem.

Accompanying him were Anzu, Cassandra, Valeria, and Maia, all quite powerful in their own right. Of his retainers, only Red was coming with, ...

Chapter 894 - Suspicious Message

One hundred and one votes. On paper, that was the size of the margin Leon was estimated to win by if the question of his Kingship came up during the meeting of the Elder Council. At first, it seemed like he might actually get to that number when only one day after his arrival near Stormhollow, the Eagle Tribe arrived, and they came with every elder in their Tribe, bringing the total number of potential votes he had to three hundred and forty-seven.

What made him nervous was that his two...

Chapter 893 - Outskirts of Stormhollow

Stormhollow was a rather different city compared to what Leon had seen so far on Kataigida. It was most like the Raimondas, the capital of the Screaming Eagles in that it was dense and always populated, as opposed to the more open and sprawling Raichaiti or the only transiently occupied Raikos. The architecture of its largest buildings reflected the cosmopolitan heart of the Ten Tribes with influences from all Tribes present, but the Jaguars’ style was clearly dominant. It made sense, howev...

Chapter 892 - Pulling the Rug

Things moved quickly in the wake of the Ravens declaring for Leon. He stayed in Raiginn for only a few days, and in those days, he handed over his transformation enchantment, the roc feathers, the bull horns, and a significant amount of thunder wood. He had other business he could discuss with the Ravens regarding arks, Titanstone, and a host of other matters, but unfortunately, he couldn’t spare the time; he left the city with the silent promise to return as soon as was convenient.

I...

Chapter 891 - Raven Tribe III

Though he’d hoped for them to move faster, Leon spent near a week in Raiginn before the Ravens called their elder council together. It was a fair consolation that they had to call their other elders and Chiefs together first, but Leon had still felt some amount of impatience, especially with how interested Asger had been in what he had to offer them in exchange for their support.

But in those days, Leon wasn’t idly waiting. Instead, he spent almost all of his time in the Ravens’ r...

Chapter 890 - Raven Tribe II

The super Lances were given several other tests during the course of several hours, including having most of their now white-hot internal components removed and replaced so that they could be fired again without waiting the week Asger had claimed they’d need. Showing the weapons to truly be prototypes, nine of the twelve Lances had broken down for one reason or another during the tests even with the constant swap in components, though none of the Ravens appeared too put out by that. If anyt...

Chapter 889 - Raven Tribe I

The Raven’s capital, Raiginn, was as large as Leon expected from a medium-sized Tribe. A city of hundreds of thousands tucked into the wide valleys between the tall, imposing mountains of Kataigida’s northwest. However, it was far from a normal city.

For one, more than a dozen arks were flying in lazy circles around the city. They weren’t as large as those Leon had seen that had been built by his Clan, but by and large, they were larger than those he’d seen built by the Empires ...

Chapter 888 - Hart Tribe IV

Raithellion wasn’t as deserted of leadership as it had appeared on Leon’s arrival; as soon as Sar finished his declaration of support, he sent out word for the elders and Chiefs in the city to assemble in the gathering hall.

That being said, there weren’t many around, and nearly all of them were relatively weak. Still, when they had gathered, it was better than an empty hall.

In the end, Leon accepted the swearing of about three dozen elders and Chiefs of the Hart Tribe, wit...

Chapter 887 - Hart Tribe III

Post-release edit: Re-reading this chapter again today had me feeling pretty bad about it.  Not liking chapters isn't an uncommon thing for me, but I felt this chapter was in special need of some additional editing attention, so that's what I gave it.  I hope it reads better, let me know what you think in the comments! =)

---

---

“Now,” the newcomer said, “what brings you down here, to the land of the dead?”

Leon, still unsettled from seeing the visio...

Chapter 886 - Hart Tribe II

Leon stared at the open tomb with great apprehension. What was visible was little more than a rough stone staircase descending into the earth, but the walls around the stairs were so heavily warded that he couldn’t sense anything beyond the threshold.

Turning back to Sar, he hesitantly asked, “You… want me to go down there?”

“No,” Sar replied, offering no elaboration.

Leon frowned as he slowly paced around Sar, who appeared not at all fazed by Leon’s reaction.<...

Chapter 885 - Hart Tribe I

Hart territory was immense. A sprawling forest covering most of the northern half of Kataigida’s interior, flanked by mountains in the north, east, and west, and the island’s central plains to the south. There were a couple long rivers running through the region, along which most of the Ancestral Harts lived, but for the most part, the forest was uninhabited.

The Hart Tribe was even smaller than the Heart-Stabbing Hawks, but they controlled a territory several times the size of that...

Chapter 884 - Captains

Leon stared down at the maps before him. Many elders were there with him, waiting for him to finish his inspection. Marked on the maps were the best and most fertile fields that the four Tribes that had sworn themselves to him had. Naturally, all those fields were currently being worked already, but for what Leon had offered them, those fields could be bought and repurposed.

It was the last day before Leon went north, and in the week he’d been back in Raikos, Leon had been thinking. T...

Chapter 883 - Tests

Anti-magic was a kind of magic that Leon was only somewhat familiar with. He’d devised some anti-magic on his own, but the skill with which it was used in the Ten Tribes was far beyond his abilities. He saw that skill for himself in the Lions’ arena.

He’d been resting in Raikos for five days now, and he would be leaving to win the support of the Ancestral Harts and Ravens-of-Hail-Hall in just a few more days, so in preparation, he figured he would brush up a bit on his enchanting ...

Chapter 882 - Tempest Knights

Leon stood on a balcony overseeing a collection of some four hundred tribesmen. All were fifth to seventh-tier, and all, he’d been assured, were the best of the best.

He could believe it, even the relatively inexperienced Hawks and Eagles. All of them were standing at rigid attention in full armor, their discipline on display as Leon evaluated their auras from his perch.

Standing with him were the Jaguar, Xanthippe, Ipatameni, and Singer-in-Caves, as well as several dozen other ...

Chapter 881 - Simmering Tensions

“Keep it in control,” Xaphan reminded Leon in his crackling voice. “It’s your power, but if you let it, it’ll grow some brains and flee from your scrawny ass.”

Leon grunted in irritation but kept his attention fixed solely on the ball of lightning he had in his hand. He was forming it into the shape of a bird, something he’d done before but never in the kind of fine detail that Xaphan was demanding. Instead of a vaguely raptor-shaped bolt of lightning, Xaphan wanted the bo...

Chapter 880 - Loyalties Tested

The entire gathering hall was silent as the grave. Most of the mages there didn’t even seem like they were breathing. Every tribesman was staring at Cassandra, still wrapped protectively behind one of Leon’s wings. Leon could feel their auras growing and more than a few hints of growing killing intent.

The first one to make a move was Xanthippe. The Lioness took a few threatening steps forward and growled, baring her teeth at Cassandra.

Nikolaos, however, returning to human fo...