Chapter 825: Harmless prank

Chief Lupan and Michael did some more tests on the lazy Jaku, confirming their guesses about his ’Ancient Roar’.

His voice could only reach those who had a speed-based power. This included a physical boost that most Werewolves had.

For example, they tested it to a Werewolf who had the power to increase the effectiveness of his own punches. Essentially, it had two aspects: one for speed and one for power.

They found out that the Werewolf’s punch slowed down to his normal speed, just as they predicted. However, its power was not diminished at all. When that slow punch landed, it delivered the same destructive power as before.

They also tested it on a Werewolf who could throw javelins with extreme power. The result was the same. The javelin that used to travel at the speed of lightning, now arced the same as if a normal human athlete had thrown it.

But as soon as the javelin landed onto the dummy target, it eviscerated the straw body, leaving nothing but charred ashes in its wake.

"Any reality-altering speed is disabled," Michael concluded.

Although this meant that the power stayed the same, its speed being slower meant that it was much easier to evade, especially if Jaku used his speed.

It was different, though, if the Aubility only pertained to speed. If the power came directly from the speed, then that power would also be disabled.

He and Chief Lupan wanted to test out the effectiveness of Jaku’s Ancient Roar in long distances, but it seemed that they would have to wait for a little bit longer.

"...hhhwait.... A... mohhhment...," Jaku growled with a raspy voice.

The dark-blue Dragonborn was constantly coughing after so many trials. With each use of his ’Ancient Roar’ his throat became more and more sore as if he had been shouting at the top of his lungs for days on end.

Not only that, but the Ancient Roar’s effectiveness started to drop drastically as this happened.

In his peak state, Jaku could disable someone’s speed for about five seconds before his target was able to recover and use their Aubility Powers. Once Jaku’s voice became hoarse, that effectiveness lowered down to two seconds, to one second, then a few milliseconds.

Michael stopped the testing once he saw the adverse effects of overworking the Ancient Roar. He was afraid that Jaku’s voice wouldn’t recover.

Thankfully though, after resting and relaxing his voice, Jaku returned to normal, and so did his Ancient Roar.

They did a few more testing and found out that the stronger the opponent, the more resistant they were to the Ancient Power.

When faced against an opponent that was 7 stages ahead of him, Jaku’s Ancient Roar only lasted for half a second.

This might seem insignificant, but in the heat of a battle, half a second was the difference between life and death.

The fact that Jaku’s voice could even affect those in the 8th stage and higher was an astounding feat that would be feared by anyone.

Even with only half a second of effectiveness, Jaku could basically stun-lock his opponent by frequently activating his Ancient Roar.

There was a problem with overuse, but this was almost insignificant for most normal fights. Unless they lasted for literal hours, Jaku could easily spam his Ancient Roar until he turned the tides of battle.

"This is even more amazing than I thought!" Chief Lupan celebrated. With this Ancient Roar, Jaku could completely dominate the Lunar Celebrations!

He took a deep breath and straightened his posture.

After seeing Jaku’s capabilities, Chief Lupan no longer worried about their performance in the coming days. It was as if a huge weight was lifted off his shoulders.

Because of this, Michael and Jaku were treated like royalty within the Brownblood Werewolves.

They’d only been here for two nights, but each one had been like a full-blown festival, with feasts, dancing, and drinking all around. Chief Lupan declared them to be VIP guests to be treated even better than they treated him.

...

...

...

After the festivities, Chief Lupan retired in his cabin with a wide smile on his face. All that’s left was to wait until the Lunar Celebrations commenced, and the Brownblood Tribe could finally escape their reputation of lackluster performance.

But just then, he heard the sound of hurried footsteps coming from the outside.

"What, did Jaku win in a drinking game again—"

Chief Lupan’s expression changed when he saw the state of the Werewolf in front of him.

He looked haggard, hair disheveled and sweat dripping down his forehead. Werewolves don’t sweat much, even with extensive exercise. The fact that the Werewolf in front of him was perspiring to this extent meant that he must have come from an extremely long distance, or hurried with extreme speed.

"What happened with the other tribes?" he asked.

This specific Werewolf was one that Chief Lupan personally tasked to look at the current situations between the tribes. He was a spy.

"Chief... they... they changed the Lunar Celebrations!"

Chief Lupan frowned. "Changed? That’s not possible."

His confidence came from the fact that anything that related to the Lunar Celebrations were to be decided by all Tribal Chiefs in a meeting. If there was a change, then he would have known about it and deliberated with the other Chiefs.

"They... they had a meeting," the Werewolf said, struggling between breathing and talking. "Without... without you."

Chief Lupan immediately got up, the borderline of his irises and pupils glowing golden.

It was deep in the night, with the half-moon showing in between the clouds of the starless skies.

A giant Brown Wolf emerged from the cabin, dashing through the pinewood forests with extreme speed and agility.

And in his Giant Wolf form, Chief Lupan’s mind wandered.

What were the other Tribal Chiefs doing?

It certainly wasn’t with good intentions. The fact that he only heard about this meeting from his own Werewolf meant that they purposefully left him out of the loop. For what reason, he didn’t know. But he wasn’t going to let them get away with this.

Soon after, he arrived in a lone cabin in the middle of the pinewood forest atop a tall plateau.

He transformed back into his human form and busted through the door, seeing his fellow Tribe Chiefs sitting at a circular table illuminated by candlelight.

"What’s the meaning of this?" he questioned them.

All eleven Chiefs were present for this meeting, except for him.

"HAHAHAHA! You should see the look on your face!"

"What?"

One of the Chiefs, who had streaks of red paint on his face, pulled the chair and gestured for Chief Lupan to sit.

"Relax, brother. We were just about to call for you. You didn’t actually think we would have left you out, did you?"

"But you should look at your face. It’s priceless!"

"Bah. You act as if you didn’t act the same way earlier!"

"Shut—shut up!"

Chief Lupan’s expression changed from one of anger, to disappointment, then to exhaustion.

As it turned out, this was another one of their pranks that the Tribal Chiefs played to each other. Harmless, but annoying.

Usually, it was just some jokes and teases against each other. But it seemed that this time, they fancied seeing the hurried look of everyone’s faces thinking they’d missed a meeting. Lupan was just the latest of their victims.

"Now gentlemen, let’s talk about the Lunar Celebrations."