‘You must uand, Adam,’ Jarot thought as the Iyrmen shouted out their song, a song which all children of the Iyr learnt. Lanarot shouted the song, as was taught to her by her family, but even Jirot and Jarot shouted out the song, taught by their greatfather. ‘Even if you do not call me yrandfather, you must uand!’

  “Through my home!” the rest of the Iyrmen replied.

  “Brisk!” Jarot said alone, alternating with the rest of the Iyrmen.

  “Cold!”

  “Where do the hills flow?”

  “Along the horiiiizon!” the children shouted, holding up their arms and swaying them lightly.

  “Tall!”

  “Wide!”

  “I call it my home!” the old Jarot shouted, hoping Adam uood.

  “I call it my home!” Jirot shouted, staring out towards the west, towards the hills that hid her home, feeling the emptiness within her heart.

  “Where the wind flows.”

  “Where the hills flow!” Little Jarot’s eyes darted towards the hills too, the hills which were se, near endless. A cold shudder ran through his spine, but he tio shout out the song, for the words of those around him filled him with ce.

  “Brisk!”

  “Cold!” Konarot shouted, feeling the chill enter her, the girl’s eyes glistening. Perhaps out of all the children she knew. She knew why her father stepped forward that day, just as she had stepped forward to protect Kirot and Karot when they had been born.

  “Tall!” Jarot shouted, standing taller upon his wooden leg.

  “Wide!” Kirot shouted, thinking of her father’s wide back as he crossed the bridge, the same kind of back she had grown up seeing thanks to her elder sister.

  “I call it my home!”

  “I call it my home!” Karot’s tail swayed behind him a moment before it stopped, the boy’s eyes firmly glued to his father’s back. He was used to it too, this sight.

  “The path outside is treacherous!” Jarot excimed, the pain in his voice evident to the rest of the world.

  “Brutal!” Lanarot excimed, far too excited.

  “Bloody!” Jarot excimed, feeling the heat e fill his body.

  “Where do we march?” the rest of the Iyrmen asked.

  “To war!”

  “To war!”

  “What are we?” Jarot shouted, throwing up a fist.

  “Ready for death!” the Iyrmen replied, each throwing up a fist.

  “To whom does death call?”

  “To all!” Nirot excimed from ahead of the fring at the warriors before her, those which had tried to deny them their justice. Even if she should have stayed in the fort, this time they would be uo stop her.

  “To all!” Jarot firmed.

  “I walk the treacherous path!” the Iyrmen each shouted, and even in the rare instahe Iyrmen thought of the individual, it was shouted together.

  “Brutal!”

  “Bloody!”

  “I am ready to be called!” Jarot excimed.

  “Death!” the Iyrmen cried.

  “Death!”

  “Call to me!” they all cried, most of the children not uanding the words, but feeling the joy in their hearts.

  “Brisk!”

  “Cold!” Jaygak lifted Kavgak up, allowing the girl to throw up her arms, for even she did not speak so promptly when it came to this song.

  “I call it my home!” ‘Baktu, please!’ Jarot begged within his heart.

  “I call it my home!” Jurot’s heart stirred, and it was in this moment, he uood why his grandfather had begun the prayer.

  “Tall!”

  “Wide!” Taygak stood tall and proud, holding up her sisters within her arms, staring out towards Adam. She knew. Just like Jaygak, she knew.

  “I call it my home!”

  “I call it my home!” Asorot shouted proudly, the boy g his fists tight. ‘If it is you, cousin Adam!’

  “Brutal!”

  “Bloody!” Turot koo, if anyone could do it, it would be Adam.

  “To war!”

  “To war!” Iromin could feel it in the air. The expectations of the children rose taller and taller. Now, he would have to hope his bet would pay off. Adam just o win, and then? This geion of Iyrmen would go down in history as the greatest, he was certain of it. ‘Engrave this day within your hearts, children of ours.’

  “Death!”

  “Death!” Elder Peace shouted, for even she was not above this song.

  “I call it my home!”

  “I call it my home!” Sonarot prayed Adam would hear their words.

  “Death!”

  “Death!” Tonagek wi the word, almost uo plete the prayer.

  “I call it my home!” Jarot excimed finally.

  “I call it my home!” came the roar from the Iyrmen.

  Jarot stared out from the walls, his throat ag. He should have been there, upon the field, but his pce was here. Gangak, too, wished to be on the field, but she held the twins closer within her chest, pnting kisses on their ear tips.

  Jaygak’s eyes fell upon the on at Adam’s side. “Chief Iromin.”

  “Yes?” Iromin replied, his eyes glued to the half elf in purple.

  “You will not have my permission,” Jaygak said.

  “Do I ?”

  “Soon, you will.”

  Iromin smiled. ‘If you were this smart, you should not have teased Elder Zijin so much.’

  “Are you watg?” Lanarot asked, gng up towards her cousin.

  “I am,” Tanagek replied. “Do you think your brother will win?”

  “Of course!” Lanarot replied, before reag into her pocket. “I bet my gold brother will win!”

  “A gold? Where did you get it from?”

  “W hard! I, look, I water all the pnts!”

  “I see… one gold? I will bet against you then.”

  “You will lose yold,” Jurot warned.

  “Why?”

  “Adam is strong,” Jurot said, the Iyrman tensing up at the words, for though he wasn’t lying, was Adam strong enough to defeat the Grand ander?

  “Adam is Adam,” Kitool added, but the phrase was equally as likely to mean Adam was going to lose.

  “Adam has Thunder’s Triumph,” Jaygak said, causing the Iyrmen to gnce her way, though Iromin smiled knowingly. So far, hers was most truthful, and the oke without even a hint of doubt.

  “Silly!” Lanarot huffed, gng up towards her brother and her cousins incredulously. “Brother never loses when I watch!”

  Jaygak ughed, and even Jurot cracked a wild grin at his sister’s words, while Kitool bowed her head.

  Lanarot was right.

  Adam wouldn’t dare to lose in front of his children.

  “You must watch carefully,” the old Jarot stated firmly. “You ot look away, or your father might lose!”

  “I will not!” Jirot promised, the girl staring at the purple form of her father, her eyes almost pierg through the puthral.

  Konarot’s tail swung behind her nervously, Kirot and Karot’s tails still, the pair’s ears fallen low. ‘You do it, daddy! You do it! You are s! You are big, daddy!’

  ‘Hmm?’ Jaygak thought, seeing a particur figure on the field. ‘What are you doing there?’

  Tanagek followed the Iyrman, while another shouted behind him.

  “Cousin! You are running away?” Lanarot smirked, the girl crossing her arms, as her brother had.

  “I will return with the gold,” Tanagek promised, before swiftly making his way out. ‘How cute.’

  Tonagek gred at his son, who rushed up beside him, the jangling armour adding a gentle rhythm to the Great Elder’s words, inf the Aldish of the promises made. “You should remain in the fort.”

  “My sword is g,” Tanagek replied iongue, and then his eyes darted to Chosen.

  Chosen smirked at Tanagek, in the same way Lanarot had barely a minute ago. He had given the smirk to his father until then, because the heavily armoured figure with the sword as red as blood stood beside him, so Mosen couldn’t beat his son.

  “I thought you would arrive sooner,” Amokan said, his eyes teasing the Iyrman, but Tanagek ignored him. His eyes fell back, towards Jaygak, who was creeping her way along quietly onto the se, before they darted back to the half elf, who stood so close, a so far away.

  Adam had stood still for a long while. The pair remained alone for quite some distahe river behind Adam’s back, with the Iyrmen and the Aldish blog his path, while the Grand ander had the hills of the Iyr block off his retreat.

  “I did not expect the Iyr to hand you to me so easily,” James finally said, breaking the silence.

  “…”

  “I had thought they would have sent ahe Mad Dog? No, he is too weak. Duteous Dogek? I heard he caused a mess for the Sky ander.”

  Adam remained silent, though recalled how viciously Dogek had beaten the Grand ander of the Order of Eagle Wing. The se had engraved itself into each who had watched the beating, but the Grand ander before him had not seen it, otherwise he wouldn’t have dared to speak Dogek’s name so lightly.

  “Perhaps, Shaool, was it? One of the Iyr’s many Paragons? I heard she used some kind of wickedry to defeat the Ptinum Shield?”

  Adam’s eyes darkened beh his visor. The half elf swallowed, feeling the heat rise within him. ‘Fug Aldishmen. You always do that sort of thing, don’t you? You ’t accept it, so you make shit up?’

  “Why are you so silent?” James asked.

  “…”

  “You should at least speak your st words.”

  Adam inhaled deeply, a out a long sigh. He strapped his shield onto his left arm, having already spoken the only st words he was allowed to.

  ‘Five rounds,’ the half elf thought.

  Five rounds. That’s how many rounds he thought he needed against the Viander and his apprentice. He had mao end it ly at two, but five rounds, with typical luck, was about what he expected. With Phantom or Vengeance, he just o Critically Hit once, and he could make almost anyret ing against him.

  Even though he wao torture the Grand ander sloainfully, how dare he refuse the half elf’s mercy, but, if he did that, what kind of lesson would his children learn?

  Vonda would be disappointed.

  Did she even know?

  The Iyr must have told her, right?

  Should he have sent her word?

  He hadn’t even written her a letter this time.

  No.

  She knew.

  She definitely knew.

  Not that Adam was duelling, but she khe most important thing of all.

  Adam reached down to the magical bde at his side. Adam drew Thunder’s Triumph. As he drew the bde, the tingliion filled him. The world fell silent.

  James Greatwood drew Sentinel’s Rest, the Legendary Enhanced on passed down through the history of the Order of the Thousand Hunts.

  ‘Two rounds,’ Adam thought, feeling how light Thunder’s Triumph was within his hand. ‘Don’t worry, Ranya. I’ll make sure you show off.’

  Elder Peace cpped her hands, shouting out a word that was drowned out by the silence of death.

  Battle OrderD20 + 1 = 13 (12)

  The Grand ander was quicker.

  Sentinel’s Rest threateo cut the half elf down. Adam had been prepared to fight, but unfortunately for both of them, a stronger force threateo overwhelm him.

  Elder Peace flinched, feeling it in the air, her eyes darting to the half elf, the old woman’s hands turning bck as she prepared to kill Adam as the Rage Fever threateo overwhelm him.

  Adam's theme song is now the Iyr's war cry.