Adam stood on the right side of the Desolate Slayers troop. Clad in refined, adamantine armor with intricate adornments of gold patterns at the edges of his plate armor.
Adam looked like a black knight that emerged from the unknown. The upper part of his helmet protruded like a face cap, and the lower side covered the other part of his face, except for his eyes. Gold patterns adorned the edge of the opening for his eyes.
His thick brown gambeson could be seen through the spaces left by the plate armor. Most particularly the gap between his shoulder guard and the vambraces.
A blue cape that had golden lines at the edges fluttered behind him, and the couter, which is the armor that protects his elbows, had the image of a wolf head.
The same but bigger was on his right pauldron.
His ‘Mountain Cleaver’ upgraded and became the ‘Great Mountain Cleaver’ and it was attached to his back. The cleaver was too big to be carried on his waist without damaging the belt.
When everyone set their eyes on the black armored knight whose blue cloak and a darker shade plume billowed, they sucked in a breath of cold air.
This was a diamond general knight clad in a full set of diamond-ranked armor!
The effects of his upgrade were noticeably more pronounced than those of Asher’s commanders. Commanders were capable of leading fearsome troops but were limited to the number of 1000, while Generals were able to lead 10,000 men. This meant as a commander had 10 captains below him, so did a general have 10 commanders under him.
Asher noticed the wind causing everyone’s cloaks to billow and looked at Adam with one raised brow. “Do you practice a battle force connected to the wind element?”
“I do, Your Lordship.”
Adam fell on one knee and lowered his head. There was a palpable sense of reverence in his tone as he had experienced the upgrade. Such miraculous ability was beyond the horizons of his understanding.
He even had decades of knowledge and battle experience of being a diamond-ranked knight!
Adam knew his muscles had expanded, but his strength was more than the expansion, meaning he could do over ten times what the previous him, who was a gold-ranked knight, could.
“Arise.”
When Adam got to his feet and looked at his Lord, a panel appeared in Asher’s retina.
[Name: Adam
Age: 50
Rank: Diamond
Talent: Ancient Roar (S)
Loyalty: 95
Job: Ashbourne General]
[Talent description: Ancient roar is a primal talent that can be traced to the very beginning of existence, back when the power of sound existed among men. With this talent, an individual can destroy both living and nonliving with a mighty roar].
Asher took a step back.
Didn’t this mean that by just unleashing a war cry, Adam could cause mass destruction?!
“What is the worst your talent has done?”
Adam had creases on his forehead as he struggled to understand the meaning of Asher’s question.
“He means, what has your gift done?” Katarina said with a soft chuckle. In Bashan, talents were known as gifts, which explained Adam’s misunderstanding of Asher’s question.
“Broken down walls, split an ovok stampede, killed one hundred men instantly, cleared 200 yards of every grass and tree it had.”
Asher blinked.
“You killed one hundred men with a roar?” Nero cocked his head in disbelief.
“May I?” Adam looked at Asher.
“Give him space!”
Asher commanded, and everyone created a 300 yard space.
Adam took a deep breath. He faced the sky and roared with veins protruding from his neck, but it was hidden by his armor.
Instead of seeing a gale blowing upward, what Asher encountered was a forceful blast that knocked him, who was almost 370 yards away!
Bam!
Asher found himself against the wall. All his soldiers were scattered; some were blown over the wall, houses collapsed, and even the ground beneath Adam’s feet cracked and sank.
Adam stopped, cracked his neck and let out a deep growl that rattled everyone’s eardrums. By the time he looked around, he was shocked.
Now that he was a diamond-ranked knight, his talent performed several folds higher than before but at the cost of such destruction.
When he saw Asher groaning and massaging his shoulder, Adam fell to his knees and lowered his head.
“Your Lordship—-”
“Rise. It was my mistake, not yours.” Asher interrupted him. He saw many of his men groaning. Some were bruised because they crashed into buildings.
Luckily the Bladebreakers were outside, or that accident would have cost them some centraks and maybe few riders.
That loss would have been steep.
He looked back and saw Bezerk emerging from a collapsed building. It shot Adam a hard look but was also apprehensive.
“Where is the one that caused all this in the first place?” Alex said, looking for his son.
After some time, they found him in the fields. He was the lightest and therefore the one who was affected the most.
“I thought the wind would go straight up.” Nero grumbled.
“My roar moves in two ways. The first one is just a forceful flow out of my mouth, and the other is like commanding the air around me to do my bidding. The roar is like an order.”
While Adam explained, Nero could only hear ringing sounds. The volume of the roar hit him badly, and the same was for the other troops who were also silver-ranked.
“We shall rest for the night. Have the apothecary and his apprentices attend to those in pain. We’ll leave once they’re healed.”
…….
Inside the lord’s tent in the Ashbourne camp, Eritrea and Katarina stood before him.
“Although we lost some of our elite soldiers, we gained a lot, Your Lordship.”
Eritrea, clad in her armor with her hood over her head, clasped her hand behind her.
“Oh?”
Asher leaned back and tilted his head. “Isn’t their population our main gain?”
“It’s not. We gained 8000 ovoks.”
Asher sat up.
“8000!”
Ovoks were such a delicacy that once he could start rearing them, nobles would pay thousands of coins to purchase from him!
And that was just one part. What about creating an Ashbourne Ovok Archer troop?!
