In small tribes like these, most elves in a tribe practiced whatever magic their tribe specialized in, but in more powerful clans there were a variety of hair colors because there were a variety of cultivation techniques and styles available to them.
The primary demographic being represented in our area was the Songstone clan survivors, with their hair in various shades of gold. Mixed in was the occasional green-haired Riverweed tribe elf, but the other clans were loitering nearby, casting curious glances at the tables we were setting up.
I was worried that I’d have to harry the people I’d asked to bring food and harry somebody to help me start setting up tables, but thankfully my instructions seemed to have been taken seriously. Many tables were already set up; it seemed there was more than just the food I’d requested from the tribe’s larders out in the open. Some people must have been inspired by the feast set up and donated some food of their own.
The three clan chiefs were at the back end of the field, under guard by Melise, and three of Yulli’s other warriors, though from a distance.
Chief Antgut of the Ironwood clan was consoling an older woman, holding her shoulders as she appeared to be crying into her chest.
Chief Conadur and Chief Wisdom seemed to be meeting with groups of elves of their own. Chief Conadur had a brush in hand and was writing quickly on a long scroll of papyrus. Chief Wisdom was lecturing a young woman with purple-blue hair, whose eyes were red, with features locked in a furious gaze.
The older woman from the Ironwood tribe and the younger woman from the Waterbeetle tribe would be ones to watch. If they ended up taking any sort of leadership position, their clan would remain opposed to Yulli’s rule. There didn’t seem to be anyone like that in the Myriad Hues of Flame tribe, but they would still bear watching as well. I still cursed my inability to interfere. Yulli had told me this was the way those of higher cultivation asserted their power, but I believed in building stable foundations for the future. Yulli could make them fear her, but that wouldn’t stop them from plotting against her when she wasn’t around. Only true loyalty would do that.
“The girl with the blueish purple haired girl’s name is Assyrus. From what I’ve heard, she’s a tremendous young talent. Already a mage acolyte at the young age of eighteen. She’ll make the true mage rank someday if things keep going as they are.”
I turned to see Sava standing behind me.
“It would be unwise for Yulli to allow a potential enemy to grow up under her nose.”
Assyrus I’d remember to ask about her.
Sava shook her head. “The matriarch is many things, but she adheres to the old traditions. When two mystic artists fight a duel, the outcome is not questioned, and all thoughts of vengeance against the winner are put aside. To hold a blood vendetta would negate the point of such and official gathering.”
“Somehow, I doubt that girl cares too much about tradition right now. She knows that Chief Wisdom is about to die. Her mentor, I assume?”
“That’s right. Once Chief Wisdom found out about the talent Assyrus possessed, she took the young girl under her wing immediately.”
“A smart move on Chief Wisdom’s part. If you’re going to have somebody important growing up under your influence, it’s best if they’re groomed by your own hand. I can’t imagine her not causing problems for Yulli in the future though. What about the older woman?”
“I believe that’s Chief Antgut’s beloved. The first among the women of her harem. She never reached the mage acolyte ranks, like Chief Antgut did, which is why she looks so much older than her chief. It’s said that she manages most of the Ironwood tribes’ commercial affairs. Chief Antgut is basically the muscle and the face of the tribe, while she handles the details.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Two women in a relationship?”
Sava shrugged. “What’s strange about that?”
“Nothing, my homeland is a bit weird in some ways is all.” I sighed. “But this woman? Another problem for Yulli it looks like. If she manages to stay in power after her husband’s death, despite her low cultivation base, she’ll be certain to cause more problems for us.”
“Maybe.” Sava said hesitantly. “But Yulli’s power as a true mage is undeniable. That’s what this whole duel today is about. She’s proving that she can crush the best fighters their tribes have, and she can do it with impunity. Surely that alone will cow the other tribes.”
I gave her a shrug in response. “Maybe it will. Maybe I’m wrong. But my intuition is telling me that neither of them will be quelled easily. They might not be up front about it, but they’ll resist in little ways. But mainly what I’m worried about is something happening to Yulli. She’s made herself the lynch pin for her entire set of conquests. None of her warriors are good enough to take her place if something happens to her, and we know how she likes to run off by herself. This wild plan of hers to kidnap the chiefs of three of the neighboring clans proves that. What if she dies or disappears? Or even simply wounded and unable to fight? Then we have three pissed of clans looking for revenge right on our doorstep.”
“Mhhhhmm. At least she didn’t try to kidnap the chief of the Crimson Dragonfly clan. Rumor has it she’s reached the rank of true mage as well.”
I nodded and was about to give a response when the overly zealous gong-banger went to work again. The pounding reverberated through the air, even louder than last time. All conversation died down as one of Yulli’s mage acolytes took a position before the grassy area.
“Attention all members of the new Songstone clan!” the mage acolyte announced loudly. I winced at the name. I’d picked out the perfectly good name of the Heartwood clan and Yulli had to go and use her old clan name. That was practically begging old enemies to come knocking. From some quiet grumbling around me it seemed I wasn’t the only one to have that train of thought.
“We are gathered here today to bear witness to a duel between your matriarch, Yulli Songstone, and these three tribal chieftains. These fights shall be to the death. The winner will claim great honor for themselves and their clans, while the loser shall die with grace. They shall be given all appropriate funeral rituals and their bodies and souls shall be handed over to the representatives of their respective tribes. ,”
This announcer wasn’t even trying to hide the fact that Yulli’s victory was a certainty.
“An agent of the crown from Queenshold shall stand as witness and arbiter, and a record of these duels will be sent to the capital, along with our Songstone clan’s request to once again be recognized as an official clan of the kingdom.”
The mage acolyte stepped back, allowing an older elf wearing long azure robes and a royal crest to take her place. As soon as she did one of the chief’s shouted to her.
“Arbiter.” Chief Antgut called out. “I would like to propose that all three duels be enacted simultaneously. The three of us will last longer if we are allowed to work together against Matriarch Yulli.”
The mage acolyte glanced at Yulli.
“Fine by me. I’d like to have this done with quickly.” Yulli said with a shrug.
“Your opponent has accepted your proposal. Normally, this would break with tradition, but seeing as matriarch Yulli is an advancement level ahead of each of you, I’ll allow it.”
There was a light cheer from the opposite side of the dueling arena, where the representatives of the opponent chief’s clans were standing. It wasn’t very loud though.
Before I even realized that it was starting, the duel had begun.
***
Yulli stood on one side of the field, and the three chiefs stood on the other. Chief Antgut, Conadur, and Wisdom all bowed from the waist. Yulli returned the gesture, but not to the same extent as the three tribal chiefs. She was of higher standing than the three of them after all.
The chiefs took a few moments to exchange words. Though each of them were bitter rivals, they knew that they stood no chance against a true mage. Still, none of them wanted to embarrass their clans wi
th an easy death, and the three of them seemed to come to an agreement. They would work together to last as long as they could.
Yulli, for her part, simply walked towards the center of the arena. Not too quickly, but not too slowly either. She simply walked forward and took her stance, daring her opponents to make her move.
And then the same gong that woke me up that morning rung again, except this time it was a single loud and clear note. The three clan chief’s burst into action, moving in a semicircle and trying to quickly surround Yulli.
The true mage did nothing except lazily glance at each of her opponents. She held up a hand and beckoned them forward, daring them to attack her.
The three chief’s each exchanged a glance. Each of them drew on the power of their spellhearts, which had been embedded in their bodies once they broke through into the mage acolyte ranks. A shoulder was glowing on one, and a hand on the other. I assumed that the third had put their spellheart somewhere covered by clothes, and that was why I couldn’t see the distinctive glow of its power.
Yulli, in the center of the arena, sank to her knees. She closed her eyes, seemingly deep in meditation. If I had been blind to zeal the way I was when I first arrived here, I would have thought she had gone to sleep in the middle of the arena. Now though, I was able to tell she was more alert than ever. With her eyes closed, she was able to devote her full attention to her mage sight, something far more powerful than ordinary vision. She was likely studying each of her opponents, analyzing their techniques and the flow of zeal throughout their bodies. Yulli wasn’t known as a genius cultivator for nothing. Even now, in the middle of a duel, she was trying to craft new techniques for herself to defeat her opponents as efficiently as possible.
As for the three chiefs’, each of them used the magic of their cultivation bases to prepare themselves for a life or death burst of power. From their techniques alone, I would have been able to guess what tribe them came from, as each chief was marked with the distinctive magic of the organization they governed.
Chief Antgut of the Ironwood tribe pulled out what looked to be a metal baton. In her hands, the wood began to glow and shape itself into something that resembled a wooden blade. The Ironwood chieftain took up a defensive posture that made me certain that she had practiced with it extensively, and maybe even had some measure of formal training with the weapon.
The Chief of the Myriad Hues of Flame tribe was chief Conadur, and she immediately began waving her hands about two and fro. From a variety of pouches on her belt she was pulling a combination of flakes and particles with her right hand to feed into a small multi-colored flame sitting in the palm of her left hand.
The skin on Chief Wisdom of the Waterbeetle tribe started glowing blue and began to develop a sense of rigidity to it, probably after their tribe’s namesake.
And then the preparations were over. All three of them struck at Yulli simultaneously, using what were likely their strongest techniques.
Except when their blows landed. Yulli wasn’t there.
She had gotten to her feet so fast it was like a blur, barely perceptible to these mage acolyte rank chieftains, let alone us mortal spellheart users.
The opponent she had appeared behind was Chief Conadur. Her flame was fizzling from being slammed into the ground without finding flesh to serve as new tinder, but it was still throwing off motes of light across the color spectrum. Chief Conadur turned as quickly as she could, arm holding the flame in her hand as if were a ball she was about to throw.
By the time the Myriad Hues of Flame chief was halfway turned, Yulli had already slipped out of her reach, hand red with blood. Chief Conadur grasped at her torso, which was bleeding heavily. She fell to one knee with a thud.
Chief Antgut was able to close the distance between her and Yulli first, thanks to the additional reach granted towards her by her sword. She slashed with it, and as she did so her blade extended.
Despite the fearsome swiftness of the blade, Yulli caught it with her bare hand, which quickly started smoking.
Antgut leaned into the blow, but surprise shook her face when she realized that Yulli was able to hold a rock steady grip on it.
The Ironwood chief blinked in surprise. “How?”
“Fire barrier.” Yulli answered simply. And then she tore the blade out of Antgut’s hands and tossed it aside. What followed was the first true use of Yulli’s specialty that I’d seen up close and personal without having to worry about my own skin.
Antgut simply burst into flames. Moments later, the Ironwood chief was a pile of ash on the ground. A small, fist-sized ball of light rose from the pile of ash and floated slowly in the air. The soul of a dead elf.
Yulli turned around again to finish off chief Conadur, who was slowly getting to her feet. Chief Wisdom jumped in front of her though, with her blue skin covering her head to toe. She made no effort to attack, and instead simply crossed both her arms in front of herself, as if they were a shield. Considering the magical blue light her forearms were emitting, they probably were.
Yulli punched her, and surprisingly, Chief Wisdom didn’t explode into a fountain of goo. Instead, she merely grunted and was pushed back several feet. Conadur scrambled to get out of the way while still clutching her wound.
Yulli made an appreciative noise. “Rumors of the defensive abilities of the Waterbeetle tribe aren’t entirely unfounded. The way you’re using water zeal... I’ll have to see if I can incorporate that into my own defensive techniques.”
The mage acolyte’s hands lit up with a fiery glow, she closed them and the flickers of deep crimson flame traveled up her forearms. The fire shrouded her arms like fists of flame.
Chief Wisdom grit her teeth as Yulli pounded away on her crossed arms. Slowly, cracks began to appear on her skin. There wasn’t a moment for retreat or to go on the offensive.
Chief Conadur was able to stabilize her dwindling flame as Chief Wisdom absorbed the blows of their opponent. She was just barely able to climb to her feet, and when she did, she stretched out her hand from her position behind Wisdom’s back and destabilize the multicolored flame in her left palm, which shot out in a cone of destruction.
The Waterbeetle tribe chief’s defenses were entirely concentrated on resisting the fire fists of Yulli in front of her, and she was entirely unprepared to deal with an attack from behind. She glanced back at Chief Conadur, her eyes registering the betrayal for the one moment before they burned to ash.
Chief Conadur has sacrificed her only remaining ally in the dim hope that she could deal a powerful blow against a surprised opponent.
The cone of fire was tremendous in scale, and as the moments past in only grew in power. Some members of the Songstone clan off to my left were too close and were burned blow, even from this distance. Three of them had stepped over the line to get a closer look at the fight, and they took the heat of the fire worst of all. Three dots of glowing light sprang up from where the clan members had been standing. These souls were much smaller than that of the mage acolyte sitting out in the field, but they were still souls. Several other clan members cried out as three tribe members were lost in the blink of an eye, and the souls were quickly collected and taken away. Everyone else in the arena scrambled back another hundred paces.
Me and Sava decided we should pull further back to watch the rest of the duel like everyone else, but we needn’t have bothered. Yulli was burned by the gout of fire, but still standing. There was more fury than pain in her eyes, and everyone knew the fight was as good as over.
“I admit, the multicolored flame your clan produces carries the strangest sensations as it burns. I can tell you infused much of your own life force into that blow. It might have actually harmed me if I wasn’t a flame mystic artist myself.”
Conadur fell to her knees, thoroughly exhausted by her last attack. “Do it. With so little life force left I will die today one way or another.” She said with a bowed head.
Yulli nodded and snapped her fingers, still encased in a s
hell of fire. A small spark of deep crimson shot into Condur, burying itself in her abdomen. Then Yulli lifted her other hand and snapped her fingers once more. In an instant, Conadur exploded, leaving nothing but an elven soul and a thin red mist.
The arbiter stepped onto the field once again. “The victor is matriarch Yulli, of the Riverweed— sorry, the New Songstone clan! The kin of the fallen mystic artists may now retrieve the souls and remains of their departed.”
The representatives of the three tribes walked forward, trying to hide vicious glares behind somber faces. Yulli did not deign to meet their gazes and turned her back to them, knowing that these lesser tribe members weren’t even the slightest threat to her.
“Hold, arbiter!” A powerful voice commanded. A deep female elf voice shouted.
There was power in that voice. Power that I could feel like a physical prickling on my skin. It felt like it was on the same level as Yulli’s. I could feel Illiel stiffen beside me. The representatives of the three tribes also froze. Even Yulli reacted.
“So, the rumors are true, the Crimson Dragonfly tribe has created a true mage rank cultivator.”
The figure she was speaking to came into view. She was tall and lean, carrying an assortment of a variety of weapons and armor. She exuded the same feeling that Yulli did, but seemed far better armed.
“Enough slaying children, fellow cultivator.” The Crimson Dragonfly chief announced. “It is time I settled affairs in the Hearthwood forest once and for all. You shall pay for your crimes.”
Yulli blinked. “Oh? And what crimes do you speak of?”
“Stirring insurrection in the territory of the Crimson Dragon clan. This land belongs to my clan, and those cultivators you slew were subjects of the Crimson Dragon clan, even if they hadn’t bent the knee yet.”
Zeal of the Mind and Flesh Page 30