Chapter 56 Horis, The Immortal

Aion spent the morning fixing his armor and being scolded by his mother. Even if he won, Artemisia was more worried about him returning safe and sound than winning like that. Once Aion headed to the garden, he found his brothers there, and they congratulated him, but they looked troubled.

"Vangel is fine, but beating the future king of this kingdom like that sure will bring you some future problems," Henri said.

"It wasn't my fault if he knew how to take a hit," Aion said. "Regardless, I am only interested in winning. Whatever happens next is inconsequential."

"That sure sounds like you… still, it will be hard for you to follow the same path as us after this," Georges said. "Considering your lineage, I guess the possibility of you becoming an officer in the army was pretty small, to begin with."

"Years ago, father mentioned that, he also mentioned that I could reach my goal if I win this tournament," Aion said.

"That explains a lot… you prepared three years for this, huh," Philip said. "I guess our chance of winning was that small, to begin with."

"What are your chances against father?" Elio asked.

"I don't know. I need to defeat two others before reaching him… Besides, he has more tricks up his sleeve," Aion replied. "May the smartest man win."

"Not the strongest?" Henri asked. "In any case, it will be interesting if you manage to make father fight seriously. I heard from many people that only a handful of guys could make him fight seriously."

That was more annoying and disrespectful than anything… on the other hand, going all out against a weaker opponent would look like bullying from other people's perspectives. Still, it was within Aion's plans to win against his father, and he needed a pretty good battle plan, and that was why he said that earlier…

Aion headed to the arena and saw the next matches on the board. He frowned when he saw that some people had withdrawn from the tournament… he thought that only the strongest and bravest had survived in the matches so far, but it didn't look like that was the case… Between the two opponents that Aion might have faced, those two had withdrawn. As if things weren't troublesome enough, the matches had already been decided… Aion was going to fight his father without a proper plan…

"For real…" Aion thought while facepalming.

"You can also give up now if you want," Lexus suddenly approached and said.

Aion didn't look at his father since he knew that he would show a very annoyed expression… the fact that he wasn't trying to enrage him only made things worse. Lexus was strong, had powerful techniques, and was considered a war hero, so many people wouldn't want to fight him. However, Aion was different…

"Remember what you said before," Aion said. "Don't blame your age once you lose."

"I will keep that in mind," Lexus said.

Aion had forgotten about it, but Vangel's birthday was tomorrow, so the tournament was supposed to end tomorrow as well… in one way or the other, Aion probably would fight his father that day since only the final would be on the last day. They couldn't let the tournament overshadow the real main event.

Despite the fact that Aion knew that he was in a bad spot, he still had one option… he could reset the other classes and transfer the experience to the berserker class. That would at least make him increase his level by twenty times. That would be a decent boost in power…

"This will be hard, but I would rather defeat him on my own, using the skills and techniques I mastered over the last three years," Aion thought. "Unless the difference in strength is absurd to the point that I can't do a thing even with a decent plan, then I won't rely on that… I need to test my strength before anything."

While he was lost in thought, someone bumped on his back and almost made him fall. Before doing anything, Aion turned around and then found a two and half meters tall man wearing a black armor and looking at him as if he was dirt.

"The fuck is wrong with you?" Aion asked.

"Move it, if you don't want to be kicked," the man said.

"Let's see you try, fucking asshole," Aion glared back.

The armored man had white hair all over his head and had been brushed backward. He was insanely large, and one could even see bulging muscles in his neck. He probably was in his fifties, but there wasn't a single sign of weakness on him. It almost looked like he had won the battle against his age.

"Commander… you shouldn't act like that when the tournament is still ongoing," Lexus suddenly appeared and said.

The old Man ignored Lexus and kept staring at Aion as if he was thinking of the best way to crush his skull. He sure had a powerful aura, and all of his instincts were telling Aion not to mess with that guy. Still, he didn't die once and waited ten years to free his mother from her prison, and trained hard to bow his head to assholes…

Aion wondered why he never saw that guy fighting… in any case. There was only one person that his father would call commander. That was Horis, the immortal. He read some tales of his accomplishments over the years and even some of the things that he pulled off during the war. When the Milleris kingdom attacked the Zaera kingdom thirty years ago, he was on the eastern border alongside his battalion. All of them were killed, but Horis survived and fought the invasion by himself for a week and didn't let the enemies advance until his allies had arrived to help.

Some people believed that he had mutated and that his powers couldn't even be considered human anymore since no one ever saw him having a hard time against any opponent.

"Commander, are you going to disrespect this event in the name of your future king like a mad dog?" Lexus asked.

This time, Horis glared at Lexus with murderous intent…