[Ogre Camp]
Awoken by a commotion outside early on the next morning, Darganth stepped out of the tent provided to him and his wives with a groan. Still tired after having spent until deep into the previous night being brought up to speed on what Scalladras had been up to in the past millennia, he frowned in annoyance when he found a chaotic crowd of ogres gathered in one of the larger empty spaces in between the tents.
Unsure what to make of it, but finding Scalladras after a quick look around, Darganth let a small portion of his mana surge out of his heart and rose into the air. Flying toward Scalladras, he rose to tower over the crowd before coming to a stop next to the god of flames.
"Since when are you awake?" Darganth asked as he came to a hovering stop.
"Didn't bother sleeping. Wouldn't be fair to Traleor to waste the time he is giving me any more than I have to, so I was helping the ogres with a few things."
This wasn't an answer Darganth had expected, though he could understand the sentiment. While the Asfyrii were reborn after their deaths, when it was caused by Scalladras descending into their bodies, this process would only begin once he stopped channeling his will through their body. Until then, the Asfyrii in question existed as something akin to a ghost, with their soul being able to roam the realm of fire but being unable to interact with anything or leave it.
Darganth thus found it understandable that they almost universally disliked it when he used them as his avatars for a long time. Oftentimes, this meant that when such longer periods of activity were necessary, multiple Asfyrii would volunteer to all become his avatar after another. Though inefficient from a purely logical standpoint as it meant that all of them would have to recover their strength instead of only one of them, Scalladras empathized with their situation and allowed this in most instances.
"Be glad about that, the inability to ignore sleep was such an insignificant yet annoying thing to get accustomed to. And I even had the memories of dozens of lives as mortals to help me with it." Darganth said, remembering the first few days since his rebirth.
Though he did still sleep before his death, it was almost exclusively for comfort as he hadn't had any need for it. In fact, no ascendant required sleep. Though that just meant that they don't suffer from sleep deprivation and other negative consequences. A good rest still benefited them, especially when it comes to mental exhaustion.
Most other biological needs were in a similar situation, with even food being a beneficial but not necessary thing for ascendants. Mana users in general, meanwhile, only had a reduced need for these, at least as long as their species doesn't innately lack the need for things like rest or nourishment in the form of food.
"I'd say I'll keep it in mind, but I have no intention of ever getting into the situation where I need that knowledge. Well, I don't even think I could get into that situation, so this time your tendency to do the impossible really backfired on you."
Shaking his head with a sigh, Darganth had nothing to retort with. Even though it might've also taken longer, a primordial would've likely resurrected fully healed when hit with the attack that had killed him, so for once their reliance on Vunreon would've been an advantage.
Instead, he switched the topic, "By the way, what's happening down there?" He asked, motioning toward the rowdy crowd of ogres that covered the ground below where they hovered.
"From what I had sensed throughout the morning there were quite a few evolutions. Even a few with some potential, that's why I'm watching this in the first place." Scalladras said.
"Ah, so the hierarchy of strength needs to be reestablished. That explains this mess." Darganth said, sighing in resignation and annoyance over what had woken him up.
With that in mind, Darganth agreed with Scalladras' idea and stayed to watch the myriad of brawls that unfolded below. Though unimpressive compared to the standards they were used to, these fights weren't boring and also helped them get a grasp of the tribe's skill.
One of the first things he noticed through this was the prevalence of fire-based powers. In fact, around two out of every three times an ogre conjured attacks of elemental power, they came in the form of flames. On the flip side, there also seemed to be an abundance of fire-resistant ogres, both as a side effect of their own fire-based powers as well as through specialized abilities. This meant that despite the high potential for ranged firepower found in the tribe, it was nonetheless physical strength and raw brutality in melee that decided most of the fights.
Soon, yet another ogre in the crowd sank to the ground. Having grown overconfident after weaving around his far slower opponents' attacks for at least the minute Darganth had been watching, he spent just a moment too long taunting the other ogre and caught a punch straight to the face. Immediately, the now winning ogre followed up his hit with a rapid series, throwing punch after punch until his nimble opponent sank to the ground bleeding and unconscious.
Before the loser had even fully dropped, the crowd already erupted into roaring laughter. Acting as if nothing had happened, they stepped into the circle that had formed around the fight while the winner was celebrating. Intermingling again and either turning their attention to the food in their hands or other fights that were still ongoing, the crowd was quick to search for their next entertainment even as the still-standing fighter lifted a surprisingly well-crafted mace and roared triumphantly as he displayed his prize.
For multiple minutes, Darganth kept simply observing this from above. Occasionally, interesting fights would keep his attention on one part of the still-growing crowd. Otherwise, he watched fights only briefly, gauging the usefulness of the ogres.
Though as he did, a specific aspect of the events that transpired below started to stand out to him. While most was perfectly in line with what he was accustomed to from ogres, throughout the entire time he watched the crowd, he didn't notice a single shaman.
Even as losing fighters continued to sink to the ground one by one, they were left like that until they regained consciousness and stood up by themselves. The only reason this didn't cause casualties was the ogres' innate resilience.
But even with that, it was only a matter of time before the first fatal wound was dealt, as there was nobody to rein in the tempers. Though the still-standing ogres took care not to step on the fallen and the fighters purposefully missed vital spots, it would take only one ogre who believed he could get away with disgracing his honor to bring all of this crumbling down.
"Where are the shamans, and what did Traleor do to cause this?" Darganth wondered out loud, his thoughts arriving at nobody but the Asfyrii as the cause of their absence.
"They're alive if you're wondering that." Scalladras interjected, "In fact, it might be more so my fault than Traleor's, considering they're probably still busy from when I visited them."
"What did you do?" Darganth asked with narrowed eyes.
"Traleor might've converted them into fanatic worshipers of me, so I decided to reward their devotion and show them how to draw power from their belief. And apparently we now can't expect them again until they've achieved that."
Already half sighing when Scalladras claimed responsibility, Darganth's annoyance shifted target as he listened to the explanation. The ability to draw power from belief as a priest of a god isn't something that only so many can attain, so for it to take up the attention of all shamans at once is pure neglect on their part. It isn't even limited in how often one can attempt to forge the connection required for this, so it wouldn't be an excuse even if some have already started to process.
In fact, Darganth always considered it a surprisingly easy way to gain some extra power, requiring only a strong enough belief in the deity. And while the people who can outright forge such a connection through sheer devotion are few, by focusing on a mantra or other idea that the god views as part of their doctrine, it can still be done by those whose devotion isn't enough on its own.
Through this, a non-ascendend mana user can then empower everything from their spells to their aura with traits associated with their god's divinities. In Scalladras' case, this means a general increase in the power of fire spells, as well as an increased resistance toward heat and a few more minor enhancements.
With this in mind, Dargant didn't keep frowning for long and instead turned his attention to a more productive line of thought. Just as this led him to consider intervening to prevent the situation from escalating, his head snapped to the side as he felt an ogre's mana flare up. Having paid too little attention to the crowd in the minute or two he had been deliberating, he was taken by surprise and couldn't react before an inferno already erupted before his eyes.
Luckily for his plans and the tribe, Scalladras was already turning toward the offending ogre. Though just as disinterested as Darganth, his avatar still possessed his abilities, lacking just the raw power of his true body, allowing him to sense the activation of the innate ability the moment the fire elemental energy moved.
Lazily raising an arm, he didn't even need to mobilize his mana to neutralize the attack. Instead, he simply enforced his will onto the flames, using the authority his divinity granted him to literally usurp them out of the ogre's control before pulling them toward himself.
Simultaneously, the crowd fell silent. Not only did the offending ogre use force far out of the norm for these duels, with only fights for the position of chief regularly ending in the death of one fighter, but a few close-by ogres also soon started to realize that the one who had launched the attack wasn't one of the two fighters in the duel.
Immediately, the crowd erupted in fury and disgust. Faster than the offending ogre could process what happened to his attack, one of the bystanders closest to him landed the first punch. In the moments that followed, more and more ogres joined in on this, ganging up on the initial aggressor.
This then continued for tens of seconds, with attacks raining down too fast for the targeted ogre to break out of the encirclement. Or at least they did so at first, as this scene abruptly changed a few moments later when a surprise punch struck one of the attacking ogres in the back.
Whether that was in support of the targeted ogre or just a mishap, neither Darganth nor Scalladras could tell, but it also didn't matter for what happened next. Because, irrespective of the truth, the attacked ogre assumed the worst and struck back against whom he thought attacked him, setting off a chain reaction that resulted in the entire crowd devolving into a massive brawl.
Watching this happen with a sigh, Darganth turned to Scalladras, "They're your believers, so do you want to solve that mess?"
"I should." Scalladras answered, though his tone was devoid of any motivation for doing so.
Waiting a few more moments, he then nonetheless floated down toward the crowd. Meanwhile, Darganth stopped paying attention to the brawl as he wasn't particularly interested in watching the foregone conclusion of Scalladras breaking up a fight.
His thoughts were seemingly confirmed when, a few seconds later, a booming voice echoed across the camp, "What is the meaning of this?!"
Hearing this and guessing, correctly, that a high-ranking ogre intervened at that moment, Darganth briefly halted as he felt his belly rumble in hunger. Just as he was then about to fly toward the pit lined with ice walls where two spoils from the past days' hunts were stored, he was interrupted when he felt Yldra's dragon's fear being unleashed behind him.
Swirling around on instinct, his eyes narrowed as his gaze followed the direction her head was facing, causing it to fall onto an ogre even larger than the chief. Though appearing as something akin to a centaur in the first moment, the lower part of its body looked draconic instead of horse-like. Standing at almost four meters tall, even without measuring the ogre torso growing from where its neck should be, this wingless body resembled the general outline of drakes, and thus also dragons, surprisingly closely.
But though the ogre closely resembled draconic creatures, when Darganth's gaze fell on him, his eyes narrowed. Immediately, his dragon's authority burst forth and mixed with Yldra's, rooting the draconic ogre in place as Darganth slowly flew toward him with fury in his eyes.