Chapter 79 - Family Heritage

Chasing down Sarpit would've been a stupid idea. Even worse than diving into an active lightning stormcloud.

If not for three factors.

First, Sarpit was injured and alone. And the fastest way for him to heal was to slaughter the people of the vales, and then feast on them alongside his wolf.

Second, there were two Waygates that had only required modest repairs. The first had led to the refugee valley. Once the storm had descended, I'd realized that being able to quickly move people from place to place would be critical, especially if I needed to evacuate them.

Or if we wanted to strike.

The last Waygate led to the same ridge where we'd parted ways with Vaserra, at the edge of the Frost Riven's territory. Where we’d hoped to strike Sarpit from originally.

We emerged less than a mile from the road we'd taken to reach Tetherfall.

It'd only been three weeks.

Lot could happen in three weeks.

I picked my way through the snow as I looked around. The Waygate sat next to a broken building, one that barely provided shelter from the whipping wind.

The third factor, as to why I thought it would be a good idea to go after Sarpit, came screaming down the road, throwing up giant streams of snow.

Calbern had rode alone, since he'd said no one else would be able to handle the speeds he'd be moving at.

The fact that he'd arrived less than a minute after we'd passed through the Waygate implied he was correct. Even if he had left a few hours before we'd finished preparations on our end.

We didn't have Inertia on overwatch but we didn't need air superiority to track Sarpit when he was running out of my domain. If he decided to go anywhere other than the closest vale, we wouldn’t find him. Climbing to the upper level of the half-collapsed building, I could see Vaserra had been right. He was making his way straight towards the nearest vale. Straight towards the pass. We couldn't let him reach it.

Vaserra was going to attempt to stop him, but if he tried to slip passed, that's where her pack would come in. They'd be out of range of his avalanche, but they'd be there to hem him in.

And me? I'd be keeping Calbern company as we cut off the only route between my domain and the vales.

Thankfully, my mana still recovered in an hour, even without excess to draw on. That meant that Tresla was as stable as I could get her, and Vaserra was only sporting a couple cracked ribs. Couldn’t do much for Inertia’s busted up frame.

Vaserra challenging Sarpit hadn’t been my only suggestion. It was just the only plan Vaserra had been willing to agree to. She had the honor of her clan to worry about. If she didn't defeat her father in single combat, then how could they believe she was worthy to rule. Even now, the Frost Riven she’d saved weren’t behind her. Not totally.

So, while Calbern and I would ostensibly be moving between Vaserra and her father to keep him from simply running to the vale… it wasn't all we'd be doing.

I didn't have any honor to worry about. The old man had beaten that out of me long ago. My idiotic fight with Red Beard 2 had simply been a reminder of who I was. Who I'd been.

I wasn't the boy who'd walked into the ring, hoping that, this time, this time, if I hit hard enough, won him enough money, then finally, his father would love him. Nor was I the young man who'd embraced oblivion in his cups, night after night, questioning why I got up in the morning.

I was the mechanic who'd kept the shop afloat after. Who'd ended the fighting ring not by coming at it head on, but by going in sideways. Magic like Lightning Bolt had made me forget that.

Sarpit was like a glacier. Big, immovable, and something I couldn't hope to affect directly.

So I didn't bother.

Balthum's staff was incredible. Earth Star was a fantastic spell. It bordered on the tip of third Order spells. Using it once cost me half my mana.

And if I attempted to use it on Sarpit, he might, if I was lucky, get bruised.

Crumble on the other hand, was entirely useless against him, but was incredibly cheap, even for a first order spell.

There was a reason he'd come directly where we'd passed through with Vaserra. It was the only pass within two hundred miles that led back to Frost Riven territory. On either side, massive cliffs rose high into the sky. A normal sight, in the Frigid Peaks, where there were literally thousands of mountains. So normal, they were easy to overlook. Back before Sarpit snuck his way into Mistvale, I’d been seriously considering knocking down the cliff to keep him out. It would've allowed us time to build up.

I hadn’t been willing to commit to it by the time he attacked Vaserra.

Fang roared into place at the base of the southern cliff face. It towered above us, and I swallowed as I looked up at the mountain, pulling forth the Staff of Stone.

Sarpit had started the avalanche that allowed him to escape.

Calbern and would I cause the one that forced him to fight.

"Are you sure about this, master Perth?" Calbern asked with a great deal more concern audible in his voice than I was used to.

"Not exactly excited about it," I admitted as I used crumble to weaken yet another part of the cliff's foundations. Most of them had been marked out by Inertia during her patrols over the last week, though she'd done so as a warning, so I could shore up the cliff's strength to prevent exactly what we were here to cause.

"Surely I could simply stab him," Calbern suggested, his gaze drifting to where Sarpit and Vaserra were already fighting.

"You really think that's less risky than this?"

"You're bringing down a mountain, master Perth. It is a bit early in your career for such feats," Calbern replied, though he'd recovered his composure.

"Oh? When's the right time? Peak Pegasus soul?"

"That was when your father knocked down his first mountain," Calbern said even as he revved Fang, keeping the exhaust from freezing over while causing the bike to let out a billowing cloud of steam.

I paused in my preparations at that. It wasn't so surprising that Perth's father had knocked down a mountain. But the fact Calbern knew the specifics implied a sort of familiarity I hadn't been aware of. Then again, knocking down a mountain was the sort of thing people tended to talk about, even on Ro'an, so maybe it was nothing.

Ideally, I wouldn't be bringing an entire mountain down just to slow down one man. Especially since it was going to make trade with the Frost Riven and their vales more difficult.

Which is why I’d been avoiding making the call, hoping that Vaserra could somehow defeat her father before he made it this far.

"It is time, master Perth," Calbern said, his sharp eyes picking up on details too far away for me.

"Front," I muttered even as I double checked the straps holding me in place on Fang. Then I turned back to the mountain side which had been strategically weakened with numerous applications of crumble, leveling the staff over my shoulder. "We should get moving."

Even as I started my sentence, I'd unleashed a single Earth Star, sending my mana plummeting nearly to empty.

A single Earth Star on Sarpit would hardly bruise him. His body was too dense, too full of water.

A single Earth Star cast on a cliff face that'd had multiple Crumbles used on places Inertia had assured me were weak points? Earth Star's reactions were at their most violent, when confined to the stone. I watched as the entire surface of the thousand foot tall cliff seemed to ripple in response. Then it gave way.

A mountain that'd stood for thousands of years chased us along the remains of the high road. Yet even the leading edge had no chance of catching us, not while Calbern was driving.

The roar managed to eclipse the clashing coming from where Vaserra and Sarpit fought. I saw Sarpit leaping towards us, his blade flashing down. I'd barely registered his form by the time Fang had shifted, sliding to the side.

I was left staring straight at the ground as it rushed by, inches from my face.

Then we were upright again, and Sarpit was behind us. Calbern didn't have to go much further, taking us to the top of the next ridge where we stopped to watch.

Vaserra had cornered her father, still mounted on Frost Lily. The avalanche had been more successful than I'd hoped. The mountain hadn't simple crumbled, it had broken off near the base, and the entire thing had slid forward to close the gap.

The near vertical surface was going to be a nightmare to cross. Which, in that moment, kept Sarpit from escaping. He could've made it up, had he been alone.

But his wolf wouldn't have been able to follow. And if Vaserra killed his wolf, all his power… would be gone. As weak as the sheep he slaughtered to get his strength in the first place.

It would’ve been poetic.

Sarpit roared as he charged towards his daughter, carried forward on a wave of transparent ice.

Vaserra met him, and they exchanged blows at a speed I couldn't follow. Ice shards filled the sky and I found myself tensing. Vaserra had gotten the better of him before, but he was trapped now, with nothing left to lose.

Before I could get too worried, the fighting suddenly stopped.

The cloud of ice settled, leaving only Vaserra and Frost Lily still standing.

The dread white wolf he’d been riding lay to the side, blood pooling around a vicious looking ice spear impaled in its side.

Vaserra slid off of Frost Lily, taking several long steps forward before kneeling over the collapsed form of her father.

Eagle Eyes allowed me to see what happened next, though I wished it hadn't.

Vaserra plunged her fist, covered in transparent claws of ice, into her father's chest.

Then she pulled out his still beating heart.

Holding it above her, she let out a scream that shook the entire valley. In it, I heard emotions I knew I couldn't fully comprehend. Pain and anguish, mixed with relief and satisfaction.

Her scream was echoed by a dozen other voices, the Frost Riven acknowledging their new chief.