The next day Ben sent messages to Colton, Lilith and Shenelle that he would be training his parents and Grayson today. After a quick breakfast Ben took his parents and Grayson to the north gate. This gate wasn't every busy and had few hunters leaving from it.

Ben’s swords were still being upgraded by Ulfric so he didn't have any weapons and would be using his fists today. Ben sent Duke with another hunter group to help train some more rookies to level 30.

Ben summoned Ava and climbed on her back. Thanks to Ava’s skill, Shape Shifter, she was able to change her size. If she turned bigger it would slowly use up her mana so she tended to stay normal size but Ben asked her to turn larger so she could carry him and his family.

Ben decided to head towards the Red Forest Wolf's lair. Even though it was only a day since they met, he wanted to check in and see what they had found out.

Landing in front of the large cave, Ben and company were met with tens of large red wolves growling at them. Ben held his arms out in front of him before yelling, “I'm here to see your alpha, Eve.”

Hearing him the wolves stopped growling and looked at each other before one wolf ran into the cave. A couple seconds later a extremely large red wolf walked out of the cave.

“Hello Eve, good to see you.” Ben called out cheerfully.

Eve glared at Ben, obviously still sore from the beating Ben gave her yesterday. “What do you want human? Our agreement was to meet tomorrow.”

Ben smiled at her, “Don't be a sore loser. I am just here to check up on you and your pack.”

“Then who are they?” Eve said gesturing with her head towards Grayson and his parents.

“There my family actually. I am here to take them hunting. Do you know of any monsters or beast nearby that would make for good practice?” Ben asked Eve.

Eve was surprised that Ben had brought his family out into the wilderness, let alone to hunt. “Ogres to the north, around 1.6 kms. They are fighting a nest of Steel Jaw Ants. Straight west of here is a tribe of short people. They smell funny, like they aren't from the forest.”

“Short people? Were they hostile?” Ben asked curiously.

“No they were only cautious against us but didn't attack.” Eve answered simply.

Ben was deep into thought, ‘Short people? More slaves probably. I will have to check that out.’ He planned to bring the slaves into the city and give them a place to call home. He believed that the humans could learn from these aliens and help prepare them in the future.

Of course if the slaves caused trouble and killed humans he would wipe them out himself.

Ben thanked Eve and started walking north towards the ogres and the ants. Ben had never fought against ants but he had killed ogres before and thought they would be a good a opponent for his family.

Ben let Ava fly ahead of them scouting the situation. Ben and his family walked through the forest, enjoying the scenery and the quiet.

Ben was the first to hear the grunts and yells from the ogres and told his family prepare themselves. His dad brought out a large axe and his brother a wand. His mother chanted something under her breath and touched the backs of Joe and Grayson. A light glow enveloped their bodies.

‘A blessing?’ This was the first blessing Ben had seen and was curious about how it worked. ‘I'll ask her later.’

‘There are two injured ogres just ahead of you.’ Ava told Ben.

Ben relayed the information to his family and added, “I won't be assisting you unless it is life threatening. Kill them as soon as quick as possible.”

Giving Ben a quick nod, Joe and Grayson started walking again with Cathy behind them.

Ben went to the side to watch the fight.

…

When Grayson saw the two ogres he involuntary gasped. These monsters were 3m tall with a giant two handed axe. Their body was a mass of pure muscle that could crush Grayson with a single squeeze.

These ogres were sitting down, their legs were cut up and bleeding. Grayson lean over to Joe and whispered, “I'll focus on the one on the left. You keep the other one occupied until I kill it and then I will join you. Mom will go with you for healing.”

Joe nodded his head as he quietly tried to get closer. Grayson focused his mana in wand and yelled out a spell, “Fire Spear!”

A string of flames made in the shape of a spear appeared in front of Grayson and with a wave of his arm it went shooting at the ogre.

“ROAR!”

The ogre yelled in pain, as the fire spear pierced his chest. Not wasting any time Grayson summoned another one and sent it towards the same ogre.

“Fire Spear!”

Grayson continued to send spell after spell at the ogre.

“Fire Spear! Fire Spear! FIRE SPEAR!”

Finally the ogre dropped to the ground dead as Grayson heard a faint ding in his head.

Ignoring that, he focused on his father fighting the other ogre. The ogres legs were injured so it wasn't very steady on its feet and stood its ground but didn't pursue them. Joe was using his speed to attack quickly and then retreat before the ogre was able to hit him.

Cathy was casting buffs on Joe while he fought. Grayson ran over and checked his mana, he had around a quarter left.

Grayson thought of an idea. “Dad activate Berserk and get ready!” Grayson yelled.

Giving a short nod, a red aura surrounded Joe and his eyes turned pure red.

Grayson called out a spell, “Fire Whip!” A string of fire appeared in front of Grayson and he sent it flying towards the ogre. The whip wrapped around the ogres legs, making him unable to move. Grayson started pulling on the fire whip, hoping to trip the ogre but his strength was insufficient.

Seeing his sons dilemma, Joe grabbed the whip and started to pull, burning his hands in the process.

Giving a loud yell, Joe and Grayson managed to pull the ogre down.

“NOW DAD!” roared Grayson.

Joe quickly jumped on top of the ogre and sunk his axe deep into the ogres skull.

The fight was over.

Cathy quickly ran over and started healing Joe’s hands.

…

Watching his family defeat the ogres Ben had to say that his brother was pretty powerful. No wonder Grayson created a name for himself in the city before he got there.

Ben gave a faint smile as he saw his mom healing his father. Grayson seemed to be happy about killing the ogres but he had wasted too much mana in doing so and his dad should have used his skill so quick.

They were about to find that out the hard way.

…

“What’s that?” Grayson asked as he heard rustling.

“No idea.” Joe answered.

The rustling continued to get louder until a horde of ants could be seen. These ants were around a 30cm tall and 120cm long. Their exoskeleton was silver in colour and gave off a metallic shine. What gave these ants an intimidating look was their mandibles. 30cm long mandibles that were razor sharp and could cut through ogre hide like nothing.

There was over a hundred of these ants and they all were heading towards Grayson and his parents.

“Quick let's run!” Grayson said in panic.

“No point, they are quicker than us. They'd catch up in no time.” Joe said seriously.

“Ben hasn't made his move either so he wants us to fight them.” Cathy said.

“Does he want us to die?” Grayson cursed under his breath.

“Grayson, use a spell that covers a large area. Cathy you stay back and buff me.” Joe gave them each orders.

Taking a deep breath, Grayson prepared his largest spell. “Raining Hell Fire!”

Tiny droplets of fire fell from the sky, landing on the ants. The droplets became heavier and more frequent, burning the ants.

The damage the spell caused was incredible as the ants scurried around trying to avoid the fire. Grayson fell to his knees, the spell over taxed his mana and he was feeling the backlash from it.

Joe used the ants disorganization as an opportunity and started to slaughter the ants.

The spell had ended but there was still fire on the ground burning the ants. Joe danced through the fire, killing as he went. Different colour of lights came off his body from the buffs Cathy was blessing him with.

Though Joe was killing at an incredible pace, the ants numbers were endless and kept coming. Soon Joe had cuts and burns covering his body. Cleaving an ants head, Joe didn't react fast enough when another ant bit his leg.

“DAD!” Grayson screamed.

Joe quickly killed the ant that bit him but his leg couldn't hold any weight now. Grayson rose to his shaky feet and tried to help his father but ended up just falling. Cathy sprinted towards Joe but was stopped by a couple of ants.

A loud cry came from the sky as a huge black shadow covered them all. Black flames covered ground and the ants quickly turned to ashes.

Grayson looked up at the bird and said, “Thanks Ava.”

…

Ben jumped down from Ava and saw his mother already healing his dad. Grayson was still unable to get up and was glaring at him.

“What? You think I should have acted earlier and prevented dad from getting hurt? Grow up. It your fault you idiot. If you didn't waste you mana like a moron you could have helped him with the ants more and not sat there like a spectator.” Ben spoke harshly. He was upset with how Grayson wasted his mana so stupidly.

Ben turned towards his dad, “Dad, you used your Berserk skill way to early. You could have killed that ogre without using it. If you would have used it against the ants it would have had a stronger effect. Another thing, you dove into a horde of enemies by yourself. While brave, you aren't strong enough for that. Don't waste your life.”

The two of them looked slightly ashamed as they looked down.