Talios-Chapter 61: Howl

Ajab squinted his eyes, his face puzzled, he wasn’t sure he was following. "Chasing death?" He turned to his mother, his eyes both seeking clarity and wondering what sort of death she possibly could have been chasing.

Eihpos bursted into laugher as she watched the puzzled look on Ajab’s face, walking up to her Sister the Queen, she glued to her face then turned to Ajab. "Your Mother might not look it, but she once was a participant in the Blood Howl. Hehe..." She smiled, the corners of her lips turgging at her encentric scar.

The Queen squinted her eyes, pushing her sister off her face. "What do you mean, don’t look it?" she stood, both hands on her waist as she struck a striking pose of someone somewhat important and imposing. But it was failing drastically, her arms slender as they were slick, complimented the delicacy of her skin, nothing wringled, nothing puff, her hands smooth like the rare surface of the calm sea, it’s current in a wave too delicate to fall short of being a likeable bed, if Ajab’s butt had not had a feel of their might, he might have also been fooled by their form, nonetheless, it was still difficult to pinpoint what exactly this whole thing meant, it wasn’t like he knew what a Blood Howl was, or it’s gravity, but from how the duo mentioned it, it might be something of note. So he asked, his pupils squintly covered by the layers of his eyes.

"Blood Howl?"

The Queen nodded, her hands still grasping her waist. "Yes. The Blood Howl of the West—The Western Blood Howl. Or as it gets called, The Swords Blood Howl."

Ajab stared at her blankly, and only blankly because that was really all he could afford to do. It was his mother after all, who knew when she’d remember he had a butt. But then, how did her answer explain anything, it just left him more confused than before.

Noticing the plight his face bore, Eihpos smiled as she threw some light into things. "There are Five Existing Blood Howls each for the Existing Warrior Bloodlines. Urm..." She slightly held her chin her delicate fingers neatly trimmed. "So there’s the Swords Blood Howl, The Scythe’s, and that of the rest, all in all the Five Warrior Bloodlines each have what’s known as a Blood Howl,each tied to it’s own location, The West, for Swords, then there’s the North, North East, East and South. I’m sure the Prince Knows the Locations of each Battalion."

Ajab kept his gaze, no response followed. Lots of talks, no real clarify had been given yet.

"A Blood Howl takes place when a candidate is needed."

Ajab sighed, it seemed the duo in front of him just wanted to make things difficult for him. Not that it would take much to give the full details, but for some reasons they just want him asking questions. "Candidate for what?" He asked.

The Queen smiled, Eihpos with her, her hands spread out as she answered. "Well it depends."

"On what?" His patience was running out, as the dark cloud under his eyes began forming again, his tone remained calm though.

"On which of the Blood Howls taking place. In our case, it was candidate for Yoab."

"Candidate for Yoab?"

She nodded. "Yeah. For Yoab. Just like anyother Blood Howl, for a Znoh, a Roah, a Linh or a Toah. You see, it’s more a title than it is a name. Your Mother and I were headed to the Slime Peak, because we were both candidates for Yoab, and so where the other One Thousand Participants."

"A thousand participants?"

She nodded. "Yeah."

"And what do they do?"

"Kill each other. It’s a Blood Howl, so Blood everywhere literally." She said as casually as one could say about drinking water, like it was the most obvious and natural thing to do.

It didn’t show on his face but Ajab had not excepted that nor had anticipated such practice was in existence. "Why?"

The Queen answered this time, her eyes filled with pride. "Only one person gets to be Yoab, General of The Sunstone Battalion."

"The both of you got into The Sword Blood Howl knowing only one person was going to come out alive?"

They both looked at each other, then nodded. "Yeah. Basically."

Ajab raised a brow, as he looked at the duo, despite that being clearly absurd being in a competition that demanded one to kill who they considered dear, they were both standing in front of him, and he had no plans on asking anyother thing. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

"It’s not entirely basically all that though." Eihpos chuckled "And we didn’t choose to. We got drafted in. To be considered Yoab material, a few things were considered, or rather one thing —potential. You awaken, you have potential, you get drafted in, there’s more to the process than just that, but that’s the basics of it. Only those in a certain Universal Layer gets in though."

"Universal Layer?" Was today supposed to be for bombardment of unfamiliar terms, and he hadn’t even thought he would ask that many questions today. This was beginning to feel intentional.

She nodded, then stuck out a finger in demonstration. "Every Potential Awakener or anyone with a Warrior’s Bloodline has a total of 100 pores each known as a Layer. Every Pore unlocked is a Layer scaled and a Layer scaled is a percentage of Aura unlocked. These all are grouped into Stages though, with each Sub Stage consisting of up to a 10th Layer for better classification and also because each of them is like a milestone, though just a Layer, moving up a Sub Stage or even a Stage is equivalent to moving ones World. It’s like scaling a Realm." Both the Queen and Eihpos couldn’t tell if Ajab was following or not, considering how, he kept a blank expression, still, it had to be said.

She continued. "When a candidate get’s drafted in most times it’s only when they barely just awakened, and within the given time before the Blood Howl —mostly years— the candidate need to have opened their 40th Universal Layer, which translates to being an Early Stage 2 10th Layer Awakener. The Early Stage of The Wear, it’s 10th Layer."

Ajab’s eyes twitched, nothing screamed confusion like an Extra Curriculum, but then, he was more interested in how this thing really ended.

"Kill or Survive, No one drafted into a Blood Howl was a mediocal, nor was anyone particular about the next. If you’re to be Yoab, prove it, Survive."

The puzzle on Ajab’s face resurfaced. "How are you and Mother here then?"

"Oh" she said as if that was a part that could easily have been understood without providing proficient detail. "We survived"

The Queen nodded in agreement, a smile etched on her face.

A burge formed on Ajab’s temple looking at the duo, he didn’t want it there, but it seemed to have had a mind of its own.

"Oh and yeah, we were separated steeping into the Slime Peak, random locations" Reminiscing the past with her sister seemed to bring ecstacy to the Queen as they both locked glinting gazes.

Eihpos nodded, a smile on her face. "Then there was the terrain, no particular hiding spots, the wild beasts in the dark, with the least having the strength to rival a Mid Stage 2 Awakener."

"The snakes where the worse, I even encountered one in the 8th Layer of the Mid Stage 2. 8 Layers above me and at that moment I was wondering what to do about Grandfather’s Sheathe, I barely sensed it till it was almost too late"

"The Sheathe huh?"

The Queen nodded. "The Sheathe." It was a lively atmosphere between the two, a pleasant sight, only Ajab wasn’t finding it as such. It wasn’t even the kind of reminiscing that was light to begin with, and he was left here with many questions and the ladies seemed to be more interested in their shared knowledge then in enlightening him. He took a deep breath, then was about to turn to leave, who said he wanted this many seemingly purposeful dropped out details.

Then the voice of Eihpos stopped his attempt at leaving. "With each person out to cripple the next and the beasts out to have their snacks, the Blood Howl lived up to its name of being a Sea of Death, a birth forge for a Yoab." Her voice didn’t carry the same excitement it did earlier, it was cold, and firm.

"Despite it being a forge and killing every other person and making it on top was the way to go, it had a second option, one never really considered since doing the latter was more convenient—tame the Mordial at the Peak."

"You see" she continued. "The Slime Peak had a Peak, that wasn’t necessarily at it’s Peak. Taming a High Mordial was already almost a death sentence, but this ’Peak’ had a guarding Beast, a Sentient, at the Late Stages of the Wear. A Late Stage 2 Sentient."