Born in Blood

499  Enemies

Nord went silent, a deep frown on his face. Liam added nothing.

Rin was also quiet, but visibly annoyed. It was clear that she was frustrated over the loss. Worse, how Liam outlasted her.

Kamjin raised a brow at the viciousness of the insult, shaking his head a second later.

"Youngins, nowadays," Kamjin uttered. "Anyway. Kid, I wanted to ask, you don't happen to have something called Vicirum metal in your clan, do ya?"

Vicirum…

In fact, Liam did!

It was an incredibly rare metal found in the midst of the original Temple of Shadow island. Unfortunately, Liam couldn't utilize it in the least. Even by magical-metal standards, it was incredibly robust, resilient and long-lasting. Aki specialized in working with it. "I do," Liam responded, and the old man beamed with joy. "Ya don't say?" Kamjin smiled with his signature missing teeth. "Well, you should've begun with that!"

"What?" Liam asked with a subtle frown. "You want to join?"

Kamjin nodded shamelessly like the gold-digger he was. "As long as you give me access to Vicirum, I'm down for anything, really."

Liam sighed. Having a person like Kamjin on his side wouldn't be bad… but the man was even more shameless than Liam.

Oh well. "Fine," Liam said, and the old man smiled uglily. "But the Vicirum supply doesn't belong to me. It belongs to someone else."

Well, that was a lie.

Obviously, everything the clan owned belonged to him. Plus, his commands were always listened to.

But Liam didn't want to deal with the hassle.

"Put in a good word for me?" Kamjin asked as nicely as he could. "Whatever," Liam responded. "You have your own ride, right?"

Kamjin nodded. "Yeah." Kamjin pointed towards a beast in the distance. A… rhino, of all things. It was magical, though. Bulky, with a vicious looking horn on the front of its face. It looked bigger than a tank, and was even heavier armored! It was a water and wind elemental, perhaps capable of treading upon water and soaring through air. Liam gave him the directions to the island, and the old man nodded.

A moment later, he jumped atop the rhino and flew away almost immediately.

It looked funny.

Liam made a beeline for his Quartz Dragon next, passing by Rin and Nord as they glared over at him.

Silence.

Liam still said nothing.

And it stung even more! Valerie followed like an obedient dog.

"I thought I told you to walk there," Liam glared at the obsessed woman from the side. "I'm not letting you fly with me."

Valerie whistled to herself, averting her gaze. "I tried to look for the island but… I suck at directions. I just thought we could go toge-"

"I'm still not letting you fly on the dragon."

"No fair!"

"Quiet."

Silence. Finally finding the Quartz Dragon, Liam leapt on its back and rubbed its head. "Fly," Liam told the beast, which instantly took to the sky.

WHOOSH! Nôv(el)B\\jnn

Like so, he was on his way back. Liam looked towards the horizon. Dusk was nearing. Golden rays of sunshine illuminated his expressionless face as he watched the ocean waves.

…And there was Valerie, flying behind his dragon and scribbling something onto her massive book. She peeked over it when looking at Liam, only to blush when he glared at her. Right. He had forgotten Zeniths could fly. And since she was nearing the fifth Rank, she wasn't too far behind the Quartz Dragon. Once he was past Mount Mayhem, the crystal ribbon on his wrist disintegrated into motes of glitter.

Along with it, all of his powers finally rushed back to him, like a baby running back to his mother. 'Ah, my lovely vision,' Liam thought with a slight smile. 'How I've missed you.' ***

The Quartz Dragon rounded the edges of the Temple's lands. Below, Liam saw Kamjin's rhino, and the blacksmith was already conversing with Aki and Verium. Judging by their mutual smiles, it seemed as though Kamjin had already been accepted as a part of the clan.

'That's not possible,' Liam thought with a slight frown. 'Is my dragon somehow slower than a damn rhino?'

WHSH!

Liam descended alongside his dragon. Then, he jumped off its back. Jargon and Kerian were the first to arrive at his side, both making a respectful gesture unique to lands.

"My liege," Jargon said with a smile. "Welcome back."

"Sire," Kerian said with a slightly lowered head. "Welcome back." Liam nodded wordlessly. Elders swarmed him from all sides, excited to see him back but wary of the strange woman that followed him.

They bit back any questions they might have.

Elder Jane looked at Liam with tears in her eyes. Liam furrowed his brows in confusion. They weren't tears of sadness.

They were of happiness.

The perfume! Did Liam finally make friends?

Jane pointed at Liam and looked at Jax. "I raised that man."

Liam sighed. "We have two new people joining us," Liam said casually. "That one there is a blacksmith."

He pointed towards Kamjin, who smiled with his missing teeth. "He snorts Vicirum, so hand it over to him in careful amounts." Then, with his thumb, Liam pointed backwards at Valerie. "That one there is a Formation master. Don't let her near any of my things, cause she's a creep." Valerie blushed.

Definitely a creep, the Elders agreed.

"But they are trustable," Liam added. "Get the torture sessions over with and they can start tomorrow."

Silence.

Torture?!

Kamjin and Valerie's eyes widened a little. "Alright," Liam said, nodding to himself as he made a beeline to his home. "I go into seclusion now."

Shocked silence.

Just like that?!

No stories?!

No gossip?!

No souvenirs?! No explanations?!

The Elders parted to make way for him, still a little incredulous. "Figure things out until then," Liam said over his shoulder. "And tighten up on the defenses. I might have made a few enemies with a couple powerhouses."

Silence again.

Deigning no explanation to the worried figureheads, Liam closed the door behind himself. priv