Daddy's side

On that day, Victoros' father,Tracious, was walking to the village's chief's house. The house was guarded by ten men, with each wearing bronze armor. They didn't carry any weapons, as they all used magic. They opened the door for Tracious, who soon entered the room, where the chief was and they began talking.

"Please do not force him to fight! He is my only child. If something would happen to him, my line could end here!"

Hearing this, anger took the heart of the chief, who stood up and grabbed Tracious by the neck saying:

"You imbecile! We have had many of our men killed and women taken away and you dared to say those words!? Don't you remember the time you crawled to this village asking for protection? We gave you roof. We gave you food! The least you can do for us is to let your son learn to protect us!"

"They are children!", Tracious said, "You are forcing children to fight a war they don't even know about!"

The chief hit Tracious in the stomach, causing him to fall to the ground. He then stomped on his head saying:

"They are children but all capable of fighting for their home. I don't know where you are originally from, but did they not teach you that a person should do whatever he can for the honor of his family? These children can walk. These children can punch! These children can use magic. If your child is not capable of these things then your blood is really nothing but a joke and deserves nothing more but death!"

Tracious tried to move, but the chief took his own sword and penetrated Tracious' leg causing him to shout in agony as the blood flowed from his wound. The chief didn't stop there but kept stabbing his leg until there was no blood to flow out.

"Feel the pain you are feeling now", the chief said, "Remember this feeling. This is the feeling of reality! The reality where we must fight for our lives so that every member of our family could survive till tomorrow. If you are not ready to sacrifice a mere child, you are not ready to live!"

The chief detached his sword from Tracious' leg and touched the leg causing it to heal itself.

"Stand up", he said, "Get out of my sight! Remember what I said and keep it deep in your heart!"

Tracious then stood up and quietly walked out of the chief's house not saying anything.

He went to the village's port where other men were gathered with guards. This was because every man was obligated to leave the village to gather some food.

The village was surrounded by large walls made out of wood. There were scratches on the walls as the village has been under attack multiple times. Sometimes the walls have broken but it wasn't hard to replace them with new woods since the village was in the middle of a forest. That is also why there were many animals near the village, such as bears and wolves, and all of these the villagers hunted.

"Wait, there's a bear in front of us", one of the men said.

"Everybody, quiet. Let's surround it", the other man whispered.

The men were divided into three groups with each group having ten men. One of the groups sneaked to the right side of the bear and the other to the left while both hiding behind the bushes. The third group stayed behind and didn't move for they were supposed to catch the bear in case it suddenly decided to run away.

Quietly, the men approached the bear but one of them stumbled on a rock causing the bear to panic. The first group revealed themselves and started shooting fire magic causing the bear to instantly run towards them and attack them. The second group revealed themselves and used wind magic to knock the bear out. But it didn't work.

Five of the men grabbed the bear by its paws but this bear was way stronger than they expected. After knocking three of the men, the bear showed its claws and was about to kill one of them. At that moment, Tracious, who was from the third group, ran over the field and penetrated the bear with his bronze sword. In a panic, the bear stood up on its two feet, giving an opportunity for the second group to knock it down using wind magic. The bear fell on its back and one of the men pushed his hand deep into its mouth and started shooting fire magic causing the bear to instantly faint.

After all this, the man whom Tracious saved, punched Tracious on the face shouting:

"I didn't need your help!"

"Why did you save him?", one of them asked.

"Why wouldn't I? He was about to die", Tracious answered.

"If you didn't save him, he would've gotten experience which would've made him stronger! As the number of our men is decreasing, we need more experienced men"

"It's the sacrifice like those that cause the number of our men to decrease!"

Hearing that, the man, whom Tracious saved, became furious and pushed Tracious causing him to fall.

"Don't you respect the sacrifices our brothers made?", he said, "Our brothers who were in the army died for our village! They played their role and sacrificed themselves. Isn't it clear to you that each of us has our own roles where we would sacrifice ourselves for the better tomorrow? Oh yeah! You are not even from our village! I guess it's hard for someone like you to understand something like this!"

Tracious stood up while saying nothing.

"And even if he would've gotten a serious injury, the chief could easily heal him. We don't need you, Tracious. Next time, stay in your group and attack only when we command you"

The first group grabbed the bear and the second group used wind magic to help carry the bear. It was starting to rain, so they tried to get back to the village as fast as they could for the first group's fire magic would've been useless in the rain.

"I don't understand these people", Tracious said in his head, "They're more interested in experienced men than the number of the men. Can't they understand that the experience is useless if there are no men to begin with! This village is going to fall at this phase"