Chapter 35: Briefing

A month passed since Kartius informed Zax about the state of the household along with its allies and enemies.

After their conversation, Kartius finished by clarifying to Zax that for the mean time he cannot return to Kingdom Earth, the household is on a lockdown and he would have to stay until after the upcoming confrontation.

As a result of being confined to the two caves under Grandmaster Kartion, Zax had no choice but to get back to training, but instead of searching for the fourth spark of light, his preference was to prefect the Soul Binding Formation.

In the month that gone by, Zax spent roughly twenty days on reaching the perfect phase of the Soul Binding formation. That being the case, his sea of consciousness possessed now five perfect, dark emerald Soul Binding formations.

Although the number was small, with the current strength of his soul, Zax had to spend two days in order to erect one perfect formation. Thus, five was the most he had created in the last ten days of the month.

Nevertheless, the most important point was, even though the quantity was small, each of Zax's five perfect Soul Binding formations had the subduing power of thirty or forty Advanced Soul Binding formations.

Testing one on his Martial brother Raroen, whose soul was in the Advanced phase of the third Core Master's level, Zax was able to incapacitate Raroen for six seconds. When Raroen used his mist energy to try and block another Soul Binding formation, his Intermediate phase of the third Core Master's level mist energy hindered the formation and weakened it, but eventually it got through and disabled Raroen for almost four seconds.

Something that Zax was unaware of and discovered following the second attempt, was that for Raroen to hold up the second Soul Binding formation with his mist energy demanded so much preciseness and concentration, that he had used up ten percent of his mist energy.

...

Laivien's valley.

"Staying behind?!" Zax reluctantly held his tone of voice from rising in defiance.

"Their numbers are overwhelming us twenty to one. Without mist energy you don't have the ability to join and coordinate with our formation, and your body fitness level is not high enough to defend against their stronger experts". Kartius was decisive.

The household preparation has reached a climax and Grandmaster Kartion decided to execute their assault tomorrow.

"But-" Zax wanted to retort. What more he had to worry about if he could use a Soul Binding formation to deal with a third level Core Master?

"Don't be impulsive!" Kartius scolded. "There are not perfect plans, saying for sure how many, if at all, will manage to pass our formation is uncertain. That is why placing someone in the rear, protecting the entrance to the cave, is not a job that big brother can trust anyone with. Only a person he recognized will soothe his worries".

"You are, too, need to consider what will happen if a Mist Lord will sneak into the cave. Just one would be enough to eradicate the population of whole villages, while we are fighting outside, in mere minutes. And if the Essence Cave will be found and a second level Core Master will get in..." Kartius solemnly made eye contact with Zax and gravely said. "It's true that with your soul formations you have some ability to face the strong expert, but in the erratic field of battle, after handling one such expert, it would be the masses who will take you out".

There was really no leeway for Zax to ensure his position in the vanguard of the household's assault, however, lurking behind while his big brothers and sisters risking their lives did not sit well with him.

"Master-"

"Zax!" Kartius snapped at him.

Zax hushed. His Master's voice was full of intolerant to further bickering and carried wrathful intent. Due to this, from the shock, Zax felt his throat shrinking and the words he wanted to say unable to come out.

"The arrangements big brother made are not for you to agree with, only obey. Each member of the household has his and her own placement, and if you are in the rear, no further discussions will change it!"

To say that the point was made loud and clear would be an understatement. There was only so courage in Zax to challenge his Master to a longer argument. Now more than ever, with the warmonger air the looming battle made him exude.

Seeing his Martial son submitting, Kartius exhaled heavily from his nostrils and his tone slightly changed. "Come with me. Big brother summoned everyone who will participate in the assault for a Debrief, and even though you are the last line of defense, it would be good for you to be aware of the grand plan".

...

There were eight human figures, beside the genuine humans, Zax and Zetsa, and six humanoid beasts in Grandmaster Kartion's blue tower.

Five of the human looking figures were the five tribe leaders who supported Grandmaster Kartion. They were respectfully distinguished as the Reptilian tribe's leader, Meron, the Ape tribe's leader, Somi, the Blue Griffon tribe's leader, Vinesha, surprisingly the Krikitory tribe's leader, Ham-Bar, and the Grayfeather tribe's leader, Harhenia.

What was quite astonishing about three of these five tribes' leaders were none other than their advanced cultivation levels. Considering that the Blue Griffon tribe, the Krikitory tribe and the Grayfeather tribe are outer territory tribes, one would wonder how their three leaders managed to reach the Core Master realm. A level of power even the leaders of some of the inner territory tribes had not attained.

From his Martial brothers and sisters, Zax learned the names of the leaders of the five tribes, and the connection and source of loyalty of these tribes to Grandmaster Kartion.

The close relations of the Reptilian tribe and the Ape tribe with Grandmaster Kartion were actually very old. Their leaders were old friends of Grandmaster Kartion. They both got to know him since the time of his, Laivien's and Kartius's stay with the Red Rose Beaks tribe. A deep bond was sewn between the three parties and became even more profound when the successors the Reptilian tribe and the Ape tribe were accepted as Grandmaster Kartion's apprentices.

The Blue Griffon tribe swore loyalty to Grandmaster Kartion after he accepted Shulip as his apprentice and bestowed the tribe a mist refinement technique of his making.

How the Krikitory tribe earned Grandmaster Kartion's favor was self explanatory.

As for the Grayfeather tribe ... It was once called the Silverfeather tribe, but it suffered extermination from the several tribes allayed with the Black Horns tribe. In the end, the survivals escaped to the outer territory of Valgarel and formed a new tribe, the Grayfeather tribe. Since the Grayfeather tribe was formed not far from Grandmaster Kartion's cave, when he detected the movement of the Black Horns tribe's allays, his enemies, he obstructed from getting to the Grayfeather tribe to finish what they started. Couple of years later, Hagen was born, the only Chaoyue type beast of the Grayfeather tribe, and was accepted as Grandmaster Kartion's apprentice.

Of the three outer territory tribes, the Grayfeather tribe was the only one who did not require a mist refinement technique from Grandmaster Kartion, since it already had a suitable mist refinement technique, which it inherited from the glorious days of the once Silverfeather tribe. Nevertheless, in terms of loyalty it was difficult to say if the other two could compete with the Grayfeather. After all, Grandmaster Kartion is more than its benefactor; he is the tribe's savior.

Inside the blue tower everyone sat in a large circle. On the floor was a detailed parchment of the adjacent cave with all sorts of marking.

Squares signified the known locations of the enemy's forces. Rings marked the places of first level Core Masters, double rings were the signs of second level Core Masters, triple rings showed were the third level Core Masters are and triangles, merely two were on the parchment, showcased the estimated position of Karns and Kardelion.

By Zax's count, there were forty seven single rings, twelve double rings, two triple rings – one had a dot in its center – two triangles and a whole lot of squared area.

The closes enemy's line to the entrance of the tunnel of Grandmaster Kartion was roughly eight hundred meters within the vegetation. One cluster of forces guarded the entrance to the only tunnel that could be used as escape route and the rest spread, behind the first line.