Chapter 645 |
Aranor P.O.V.
“Glandir, I want you to get me an updated report on all the captured nobles.” I trusted in Ajax’s instincts, if he thought there was something odd about the way the Republic was looking at our newest prisoner there had to be something I was missing. “Have them send me the suspected ones as well, if there is a chance someone important is being held for ransom I want to know about it.”
“It will be done before I see the healers, Lord Starfury.” Glandir saluted me before he left to make preparations for his departure, he was too low on Stamina and Mana to leave for a little while but it wouldn’t be long until he and two of the four squads stationed here would be leaving.
I couldn’t help shaking my head as Glandir walked away. As one of the few champions that worked their way up from a commoner, Glandir had the arrogance and lack of decorum for nobles they usually came with. I was one of the few exceptions to that seeing as I was one of the champions he had looked up to back when he was a kid, I had tried to get him to loosen up around me but he put me up on a pedestal.
Putting the idea of getting Glandir to treat me as a peer to the back of my mind I moved on to more important things. There were two important things at the top of my priority list right now. The first was finding out everything I could about our newest prisoner, there was a chance that he was someone important and I just didn’t recognise who it was so while Glandir worked on finding if the nobility were being pressured with a hostage I was going to find out if Ajax had gotten his hands on a possible hostage instead.
Or better said if Aurexion had gotten his jaws on a hostage. The second important duty I had was to make a report on Ajax’s growth to Sylvanthal and that would need to wait until I had access to a very secure and private way to send that message.
Ajax was closing in on being a threat to me even before he left on his trip to the Wild Lands. He was a natural counter to mages and especially chanters seeing as he could weaken and even destabilize spells as they were being cast. [Telekinesis] let him get through most defenses and his hybrid ability meant he was hard to target with precision spells.
With his most recent growth I wouldn’t be certain of being able to take him down in single combat. He still hasn’t gotten to the point where I think he could beat me consistently but if he was just looking to escape I don’t think I could stop him. And that’s if he’s by himself.
I had thought Arianwyn’s Regalia was among the best bonds out there. The size changing snake was a powerhouse in its own right that complimented the princess’s skill set and covered her weaknesses. Regalia was nothing compared to Aurexion however, what made this most obvious was that Regalia was five levels up on the dragon.
At the same time however Aurexion is young and under level one hundred yet he is already at the level of a champion. He is more powerful than Ajax and just as specialized, the only difference is where Ajax is specialized in killing mages Aurexion is specialized as a brawler.
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As one grows in power and reaches the level of a champion their classification becomes broader, the three basics of physical fighter, mage and hybrid is no longer enough. Brawlers are the rarest of them all however. Physical builds that focus on strength and endurance with a focus on offence rather than defence. Brawler builds are considered one of the weakest among champions but that doesn’t extend to Aurexion seeing as all the typical weaknesses of a brawler don’t apply to a dragon’s body.
Taking Ajax and Aurexion together is not something I would even consider without a heavy advantage, individually they are both champions and two on one fights at our level are usually one sided enough already. Considering how well Aurexion complements Ajax and how bad of a match up Ajax is for me I doubt I’d even be able to run from them under normal circumstances.
“What is going on here?” I am shocked to find that a whole quarter of our healing tent has been sectioned off and the prisoner was being treated despite there still being plenty of soldiers who were injured from the engagement that ended less than half an hour ago. “You should be interrogating him not having him take up our healer's time and Mana.”
“His value drops significantly if he is permanently injured.” I’m now starting to think that Ajax was right from the way Regis is being so defensive of the new prisoner.
“My ice prevents any permanent damage, or it would have if you hadn’t removed it.” I have to try to hold back a sneer, if only they were from Sylvanthal I would have the king take their squad out of action for such poor judgement. “The loss of his legs would be a great motivation for interrogation.”
“The loss of his legs could have become permanent, or at least extremely costly to correct if his legs rotted and you didn’t freeze them.” Regis defended but I could see the sweat drip down his forehead, he was worried about something.
“Then you should have gotten me, I would have frozen them in less than ten seconds.” I can feel my patience running out. “Unlike our healers I have the Mana to spare at the moment. I will see the prisoner ready for interrogation in two hours.”
“Two hours is” Regis tries to say something but I don’t care.
“Plenty of time for him to have his legs reattached without stressing our healers.” I finished for him. “As for you, whoever you are, you better be in a sharing mood or I’ll be taking my frustrations for this situation out on you.”
“You can’t do that.” Regis trying to stand up for a prisoner in a tent filled with our wounded soldiers was the last straw for me.
“Remind me how they treat our captured squads.” I got up into Regis' face and I could see he had nothing he could say to that. I needed to leave before I undid all the work the healers already put in but before I did I wanted to get to the bottom of this and I grabbed the prisoner’s ring and held it before him in my open palm. “Unlock this. And no funny business, if I have to come back I’ll make sure you have no fingers or toes to wear a ring on ever again.”
My threat wasn’t technically true. I knew there were some healing techniques that could make it so limbs lost to my specific frostbite spell were possible but there were hardly any healers that even knew about them let alone knew how to perform them. They would have to regrow the limb without a template for it from the body which was hard to do and even when done the digits wouldn’t feel right.
Once the ring was unlocked I left the tent. On the way to my own tent I expected to see our soldiers licking their wounds with morale so low you would find it in a dwarf’s basement. I was shocked to see most of the soldiers all gathering and keeping a distance from Ajax and his bond. They had formed a semi-circle from the pair who were under a privacy screen discussing something but while their forms were a little blurry and nothing could be heard they were in plain view of the army.
The crowd slowly inched forward. Morale should be at an all time low but considering Aurexion’s performance during the fight as well as his relentless chase once the enemy retreated it was only natural that all our soldiers were not only interested in the dragon but that it also did wonders for their morale.
More surprising yet was that at the front of the wall of people slowly inching closer and closer to the privacy bubble was Arianwyn. I knew she would be eager to see Ajax again, doubly so after he stepped in to save her but it seemed Aurexion intimidated even a princess.
Once I was back in my own tent I took a look in the spacial ring and I quickly found a solid explanation for all the fuss. Now I knew who the prisoner was and why Regis seemed so stressed. Aurexion captured the heir of one of the six Archduchies of the beastkin. Not only that but Ajax had a hunch about it from a brief interaction with Regis. Was this the dragon’s intuition that Ajax picked up through the bond? Or maybe Ajax’s social Skills grew a lot more than I thought they would in the Wild Lands.