Refining the Heavens 4 (炼天四)

Chapter 15: The Frosthral Warlord Trials

A circle of dead covered by arrows lay around the thousand eight hundred of the Snowdrifts. Many of the cavalry that retreated and quite a few that stood too close had fallen. During the short period of engagement, every archer had fired at least two shots while plenty loosed three or four arrows.

The northern cavalry of five thousand strong had lost nearly five hundred by the sudden attack, in addition to the two groups that tried unsuccessfully to charge through the Snowdrifts, nearly nine hundred were killed in a single turn.

The barbarians were distraught – though that may be an understatement of their actual feelings.

Their leader was a Chief that was half-way becoming a War Chief. Once he recruits ten thousand units, he will automatically have his promotion.

It may sound a distance away, but considering the requirement to reach Chief-level is only having a hundred subordinates, he is pretty strong for recruiting five thousand.

Barbarians challenge their brethren regularly to climb up the ranks from childhood, and also as a measure of strength.

There is only one simple rule: The defeated must follow the victor.

To be considered grownups and receive their warrior title, they must first complete their adulthood trial: to brave the monster-filled savage lands and hunt down B ranked practitioners.

Afterwards, to raise in ranks, they need to defeat a number of kinsmen concurrently.

The ones they challenge must also be at least the same rank as themselves or above.

For example, to become Chief one needs to defeat a hundred barbarians that have completed the warrior's rites.

To turn into a War Chief, one needs to have ten thousand followers – and that means challenging a hundred Chiefs and defeating them all in one go.

The underlings of those defeated Chiefs will automatically join under the War Chief's banner.

Afterwards, War Chiefs can promote into Lords by defeating ten War Chiefs, and in the future they can become Warlords by defeating five Lords.

They will become a king, or Khan as called in their language after defeating five Warlords.

But to be the Great Khan it will require them to trounce all the Khans in the land.

Right now, the barbarian cavalry that surrounds the Snowdrifts numbered five thousand – including the newly dead. That means, their leader must've defeated around fifty Chiefs in a single battle.

Yet such a guy was offed right after the initial engagement against the Snowdrifts.

The Northern culture of leadership may not produce the brightest people-in-charge, but it certainly breeds those that could fight, and the barbarians knew fully the implications of their leader being killed so easily.

Those muscular men flew into hysterical panic and many of them scrambled backwards and away from the Snowdrifts. The few that had some semblance of rationality desperately searched for the killer who took down their Chief, all the while running away at top speed.

"It's him!" a wail suddenly from a sharp-eyed individual, attracting everyone's attention.

The person pointed repeatedly towards the Snowdrifts, particularly a person in the crowd.

"That archer! That blonde one!"

He was incoherent. His stretched out index finger was jabbing so quickly it looked as though he was trembling, and the direction he gave was a general one.