Kai was a simple man. Despite being the heir of the third most influential family within the Ashrend clan, he was not destined for greatness. He had failed to obtain a ranking in The Incarnate Trials, leading to his family giving up on him in favor of his younger sister. From that day on, he was left on his own. Struggling to reach each level requirement before the next horde came. He barely reached the second threshold before their last move, granting him safety again.

  He had resigned himself to this life, making just enough at a blacksmithing job to pay for his own home. Until one day, his family reached out to him with a proposition. Reach level 25 in the next month, help with some scheme they were planning, and he would be reinstated as the heir. Kai worked hard and reached level 25 less than a day before the deadline. Now, all that was left was to make his family proud by helping with their plan.

  He never expected that it would all end up this way. His vision swam as he looked from his blood-stained hands to the piles of rubble and corpses. He tried to blink his confusion away and remember what had happened. All that came to him were memories of entering the Elborn’s home, followed by an overwhelming sense of anger.

  He wondered as he looked himself over for wounds.

  A gust of air flew past him, followed by a boom. He scrambled back, looking over at the sound, seeing a silver spear embedded in the wall. He traced the spear's trajectory, his eyes finally landing on Ren griping his neck, and facing down a pissed off Vaelora.

  He backed away from the imminent clash until he ran into a wall. The two warriors blurred into motion. Ren was forced to stay defensive as Vaelora overwhelmed him with speed and strength. He finally saw an opening and threw a punch, but it sailed wide, and a kick sent him crashing to the ground.

  He groaned and tried to push himself back up, but Vaelora was already on top of him. She stomped on his chest, causing a small crater to form and shockwaves to ripple throughout the building. Ren coughed up a spout of blood and fell unconscious.

  That was all that ran through Kai’s head as the silver viper walked over and pulled her spear from the wall. When she turned back toward Ren, he seized his opportunity and ran for the exit. He ran through another horrific scene as he left the building, as he ran past bodies strewn across his path.

  He collapsed against the outside wall, hyperventilating as the elder's final message echoed over the clan.

  “Please do not avenge me. Create the bright future that my clouded vision prevented me from seeing. Don't repeat the errors I made.”

  The words did not reach him until the third time they repeated. The worries plaguing him faded away momentarily as he heard the message.

  He celebrated.

  The next few hours hit him like jumping into a lake when it was below freezing. First, he receives a quest to kill the Horde commander. Then he finds himself standing over the lifeless bodies of his mother and father, and finds out his younger sister is missing. He threw himself entirely into helping clean up the fight's aftermath, ignoring the feeling welling up inside him.

  Several hours later, he sat down on his bed. With nothing else to focus on, his emotion was finally allowed to come out. Laughter echoed through the house.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

  “They treat me like trash, abandon me, offer me to return to the family if I can impress them enough, and when I finally succeed, they die.”

  The laughter slowly turned to quiet sobbing, and Kai covered his face with his hands.

  “Why?” was all he could ask.

  The following day, he was awoken by an announcement echoing throughout the clan.

  “Members of the Ashrend Clan, today, the hypocrisy propagated within our clan ends. Today, we will prove our strength and begin down the path of destroying the hordes for good. No more sacrificing our own. No more running and hiding. Today we take control of our future.”

  Kai pushed himself out of bed as the message repeated several more times. A pounding came from his front door when he was ready for the day.

  “Open up!” a gruff voice shouted.

  Kai scrambled to the door and pulled it open, revealing a large man dressed in chainmail armor. He held a large parchment and a magical writing utensil.

  ‘Name, level, class, and rarity?” the large man asked.

  “What?”

  “What is your name, level, class, and rarity?” he asked again, his tone of agitation growing.

  “I heard you the first time, but who is asking and why?”

  The man let out a long sigh of frustration and launched into a practiced speech. “By the order of Draven Elborn, new elder of the clan, we are to collect the name, level, and class of all individuals within the clan. This will allow us to plan for the upcoming battle properly.”

  “Sure, but shouldn’t he already have that information? I know the old elder collected it before each move, and the last one was not so long ago to make it inaccurate.”

  He let out another sigh and continued. “The traitor and daughter of the former elder destroyed all records kept by him before fleeing like the coward she is.”

  “Kai Rheihram, level 26 apprentice blacksmith, common.”

  The man jotted something down on the large piece of parchment. “Report to the front gate at noon today for basic training.”

  “But I'm a blacksmith.”

  “You're close enough to a class evolution to change that. Make sure you're there at noon.”

  The man left before Kai could protest further, leaving him to contemplate what was happening.

  With no other choice, he went to the front gate at noon. A sizeable crowd was gathered before a small stage that looked like it had been built hastily. As he approached, another man dressed similarly to the one at his door this morning blocked his path.

  “Name?”

  “Kai Rheihram.”

  The man crossed out something on the parchment he was holding. “Go on and join the others.”

  Kai made his way into the crowd and did not have to wait long until Draven took the stage.

  “Welcome, everyone. If you are here, you have been selected as a candidate for the Elborn clan defence force. The goal of this force will be to fend off attacks from not only the hordes, but the other clans.”

  “Is he planning to attack the other clans?” Kai heard someone whisper nearby.

  Similar questions asked in hushed tones could be heard throughout the crowd, but Draven either did not hear them or ignored them as he continued to speak.

  “The training ahead of you will not be easy, but if you come out the other side, you will be guaranteed a spot in the defence force. Good luck to you all and my the strongest prosper!”

  An enormous cheer erupted from the front of the crowd. However, their enthusiasm did not travel much farther, as no one around Kai cheered, most of them wearing confused expressions. Another man took the stage, whom Kai recognised as one of the hunt leaders for his clan. The man was easily distinguishable by his missing left arm, which he had lost to the horde during the last migration.

  He cleared his throat. “I will be splitting you into small training teams, and we will start with proper sword and shield use.”

  He listed names one by one, forming 20 groups of four. Kai made his way over when his name was called, joining a few others he had seen around the item creation part of town. The group was silent; everyone in it looked like they would rather be elsewhere.

  “Alright, everyone, come up when I call your group and grab a practice sword and shield.”

  Kai got his equipment, the dulled sword, feeling awkward in his hand. While he had held one before, that was only during the forging process, and even when he would go out hunting, trying to improve his level, he would stick to some light magic he had learned and a crossbow.

  “Alright, everyone, split into pairs within your team, and we will start with the basics.”

  When the sun had long since faded, Kai collapsed onto his bed. He thought his brain would pop if any more knowledge on sword play was crammed into it in such a short amount of time. He silently cursed Draven for everything that had happened to him in the past two days. He cleared his mind the best he could with a sigh. He had training early tomorrow morning and did not want to be tired for it. Closing his eyes and trying to focus on anything else, he slowly drifted asleep.