The Evolution Chronicles

While the demi-humans and Beastkin were busy planning their next moves within the Bolvar Tribe's territory, the humans were already taking a step ahead of them.

"How did this happen?!" King Fredrick slammed down his fist on the table before him. He was currently seated in his study, alongside his first son, Prince Alaric, and his wife, Queen Esmeralda.

"I do not know, Your Majesty." The messenger that had been unlucky enough to get tasked with delivering the letter to the King shuddered as he was pinned with King Fredrick's scorching glare.

"Get out of my sight, you lowly worm!" King Fredrick spat, his current image being the polar opposite of what he showed in public. The servant quickly turned around and fled from the study, leaving the members of the Royal Family to themselves.

A stifling silence filled the room before Prince Alaric sighed. "At least Brutus was able to find them before it was too late."

"Indeed. There must be more to this, or else the demi-humans would have acted sooner. From Brutus' letter, the bodies were still fresh, meaning that they must have been killed recently." King Fredrick nodded in agreement.

The two men began brainstorming and exchanging ideas, while Queen Esmeralda remained seated in silence. She was similar to her two children, Lena and Brendan, in that they frowned upon the unnecessary oppression of the demi-humans. She believed that such violence and hate was not necessary when the demi-humans had nothing to deserve it, but exist.

After a while, the two intelligent men arrived on a possible explanation to what was ruining their plans.

"You don't think..." Prince Alaric trailed off.

"...That this is the work of the demi-human that snatched the last Gift..." King Fredrick continued the sentence for his son. As the realization dawned upon them, they were finally able to settle upon a possible reason as to why their plan was falling apart.

The fact that the Gift they had set their eyes on was lost to their enemies, as well as the fact that they had lost their only Pillar seta great flame of anger and resentment in their hearts.

"At once, send out a troop of warriors to support the teams that are handling the other packs and tribes. We must not let them fall, or else..." He trailed off. He didn't need to complete his sentence to get his point across. If they lost their grips on all those packs, then they would immediately face a backlash that could very well topple them from their seat of power.

The Henshaw Dynasty was at its weakest at this moment, and they could not allow their enemies to get the better of them.

.

.

While the King of the Henshaw Dynasty and his Crown Prince were busy cursing the demi-humans, a massive fleet was currently sailing through the sea, with the shores of the Northern Continent as their destination...

Malim stood on the deck of the flagship of the Harondian Giants, the elite legion of the Kingdom of Haron, with a slight smile tugging at the edges of his lips. The chilly winds of the sea brushed by him, whipping around his long red hair in a frenzy.

He raised a telescope to his right eye so that he could spy the distant lands that awaited their arrival.

"Sir Malim! A message from Sir Delk!" One of the crewmembers suddenly shouted from behind him, pulling Malim away from his musings.

"Oh! Why, what a wonderful time to send a message." Malim replied with a wry smile before jumping down from the higher vantage point he stood at, and onto the main deck. His fine shoes clicked against the strong wooden boards when he landed, before he promptly set off toward the lower floors of the warship.

There, another crewman handed Malim a smooth brown scroll, which he quickly unfurled and threw into the air in front of him.

Surprisingly, instead of falling to the floor, the scroll simply caught itself in the air, before it started to glow with an eerie white light.

Malim simply stared at the glowing scroll, and soon after, faint writings appeared on the scroll.

~

An update. The Bolvar Tribe has broken free of the hold of the Henshaws. I can only attribute this feat to the new Gifted.

...

Malim continued to read as letters kept on appearing on the surface of the scroll. After a couple of minutes, the message came to an end, and the scroll rolled itself back up before dropping to the ground.

The crewman that stood nearby quickly picked up the scroll and ran off to store it, leaving Malim to his thoughts.

'Hmm, this new Gifted. Is he already that good with his Gift? I recall it took Sir Delk a couple of years to get used to controlling his powers.' Malim thought to himself as he made his way back up to the main deck.

He walked over to the side of the ship before looking down into the water.

"Oi! Shark!" He called out to the blue waters that foamed at the passing of the mighty warship.

"What?!" A harsh voice rang out. The voice was rough and thick with irritation, and also carried a hint of a slur in its undertone.

Not long after the voice replied Malim, a shark fin raised itself up from the water, before the fair, but well built back of a male showed itself underneath the fin. The back was covered in all kinds of faint scars that had healed over the year. Each scar told a different story, stories that told of the strength of the bearer of those scars.

Splash!

A mighty, blue tail fin appeared over the water for a split second before slamming back down with a lot of force; enough force to splash water all the way up to where Malim stood.

Thud.

Followed closely by the splash, a thud sounded beside Malim. He turned to see a huge, blue haired man staring down at him with sharp onyx eyes.

"Don't call me a shark. You know my name." The blue haired man grunted out, that slight slur still present in his speech.

The blue haired man's name was Tide. He was notorious for being known as a deep sea hunter among his kind. Although he looked, and sounded much older, he was only just twenty two. His bearing made him seem much more mature, and because of that, he was able to contract a lot more business opportunities than his peers.

Tide took part in a trading business where his kind, the Merfolk, traded rare and precious resources, and scarce materials of species of underwater life, for money and other similar materials that could only be found on the surface.

Not only trading, but also hunting and mercenary-like jobs could be handed out to the Merfolk who were into this line of business. For example, perhaps a Merfolk offended a human or someone from a race that was bound to the surface. The offended party could hire a Merfolk as a mercenary to hunt down the one who offended them.

It was exactly in that area that Tide specialized in. However, this time, Tide was hired for a job that was a bit different.

"Cover yourself up." Malim had anticipated Tide's possible actions, and already had a towel ready for him. He handed over the towel and waited for the Merman to cover himself before speaking again.

"Sir Delk has sent an update on the mission." Malim informed Tide as he led the way up to the highest point of the deck, just at the front of the warship.

"Oh? Please do speak up, I already miss the water." Tide snorted. He would rather not listen to the update, but he didn't have a choice considering who his employer was.

The famous Sir Delk.

Sir Delk had become rather famous for his abilities in the past decade. Very few people and organizations dared to mess with him, or stay on his bad side.

A chill ran up Tide's spine when he envisioned that lax and unbothered smile that the lizardman always wore on his face. He too, would rather not get on Sir Delk's bad side.

"The Bolvar Tribe has been freed of the control of the Herder Drug, leaving only five more packs and tribes under its control. We will focus our attention on the one furthest from the Henshaw Dynasty. The talismans and pills given to us by Sir Delk should be able to keep up immune from its effects, no matter how strong it is." Malim explained as he lifted the telescope he held back to his right eye. In the distance, he could spy a dark mountain. They were close to their goal.

Very close.