Grei Potterfang

“I, Grei Potterfang, captain of the 9th Brigade of the 3rd Heavy-Armored Corps, am willing to take Norton Lorist as my lord and liege and pledge my allegiance to the Norton Family. Under the witness of the War God, I am willing to give my utmost to contribute and serve under the banner of the Nortons and will absolutely not let my lord down.”

Three-star-gold-ranked Grei Potterfang, nicknamed Pog, was of common birth and use to serve as a regiment leader in the Krissen Empire’s Whitelion Legion. He was the first gold-ranked knight to pledge allegiance to Lorist.

## Personality

He had a military background and is already accustomed to seeing the death and despair on the battlefield. Given his strength as a peak Silver rank expert, he could’ve easily robbed the common folk and made a decent living for himself, but instead, he would rather live a harsh life with his children in the streets. It isn’t easy to find a person that’s as upright as him.

## Appearance

Potterfang looks to be in his forties.

He takes a defensive stance while awaiting his opponent's move. He keeps an unfazed expression, calm and cool breathing. With one leg in front and the other behind, he seems pretty relaxed and unconcerned. Every time his opponent makes a dash to his side, he merely swiped his front leg to point it in his direction, not once exposing his back to him.

He was a real expert who had the potential to break through to the Gold rank in the near future and has experienced his own fair share of life-and-death battles given his calm and reactive disposition and the solid swordplay that he has displayed. He can successfully deflect lethal blows by relying on his great reflexes. He has fully mastered all the eight basic moves of swordsmanship to the point when every move was as natural as breathing which allowed him to emerged unscathed from the flurry of strikes.

## Background

Potterfang came from Mond Town, in the north lands. When he was 21, he left my home to enlist in the army and worked his way up from a common soldier to a military officer and continued living his life in service. Given that he had no other relatives, he got married and settled down in the capital city. Never would he have expected internal strife to consume the empire. During the six years the three princes fought for the throne, the capital was totally decimated. After the chaos calmed down, he went back to the capital only to discover that almost everything he had was lost. With my wife dead, his two children had to rely on scraps and leftovers and somehow managed to survive. Had it not been for the care of certain neighbors, he might have lost even them. After that, he packed whatever he had and made his way to Morante City in hopes of being able to start a new life.

The first reason why Potterfang came over to Morante City was because the city allowed anyone to come and go as they wished because of the propaganda of freedom and equality propagated by the Forde Trade Union. It was his intention to let his children have a peaceful and blissful life over here. The other reason was because the standard army Battle Force technique he had trained in had already reached the peak of the Silver rank so he could no longer advance any further. With that in mind, he intended to continue working as a mercenary to save up some money and purchase a high-ranked Battle Force manual to break through to the Gold rank.

In Morante City, Potterfang had a much better chance of buying a high-ranked Battle Force manual as in the former Krissen Empire, such techniques were usually monopolized by the nobles. Unless Potterfang managed to serve under a noble family for more than ten years or have a major accomplishment and get a high-ranked Battle Force manual as a reward, there was no way he could get his hands on one there.

He regretted his decision to travel to Morante City. He didn’t expect the ‘freedom and equality’ he sought so much in Morante City was nothing but a mirage as the local citizens were extremely abhorrent and discriminatory towards us outsiders. He witnessed several nonlocal mercenaries having trouble finding requests in this city’s mercenary guilds and are sometimes forced to accept difficult missions for an unfair price. That was especially the case for a citizen of the Krissen Empire like him, who was even more despised by the city folk among the other outsiders. Even though the war had ended over 20 years ago and the empire was already no more, the people of this city still treat them as enemies. He also had to consider the future of his children so he could not accept missions that were too risky. He was too greedy and believed that he would definitely win against him in the challenge and get the reward money, so he bet the rest of his savings for the registration fee. Before arriving in the city, he relied on selling his belongings to survive. Until he dueled Lorist, he was quite confident in his abilities. He would never have expected to lose to Lorist’s hands and disappoint his children. If he had won against Lorist, he would’ve used the reward money to leave this place and go to another kingdom or nation. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to receive the freedom and fairness that he had sought so much in futility in this city. If he had not been overconfident in his abilities and not caved in to the landlord’s encouragement nor blinded by the luxurious prize money, he wouldn’t have bet all his savings on the registration fee. Those 10 gold coins would have been enough for him to bring his children to leave this cold and materialistic city and settle down in another small village where he would be able to afford several acres of farmland and a small hut, which would be more than enough for his children to lead a stable life.

Having lost a large sum of money by betting on himself and because of the overdue rent, the landlord kicked him out and left him homeless. He had nowhere to return to, nor any identification documents, so he could only spend the night in a public space.

Potterfang had been to the Hanayabarta kingdom twice before. The first was when he went there at the invitation of Loze. Loze had been a bodyguard for a slave trader back then. Potterfang couldn't bear the practice of slavery, he left after a month had passed.

His second trip was when he went to Nupite to purchase slaves to add to the fighting strength of the northbound convoy, as well as to recruit Loze and Malek.

## Story

Lorist’s friend from the same homeland, the peak Silver ranked mercenary Potterfang, had recovered after two months of rest. The two of them didn’t talk much, but their implicit mutual understanding made them intimate friends. As for Potterfang’s two children, Lorist spoiled and took great care of them. Howard was a studious and hardworking child. When Potterfang saw Lorist giving Reidy some pointers in swordsmanship, he told Lorist that he would like Howard to also become Lorist’s disciple when he awakens his Battle Force in a few years.

Originally, Potterfang only intended to mention it casually but Lorist reconfirmed it with him in a serious tone. Potterfang only nodded and Lorist instantly got Howard to bow down to him 3 times and had Reidy perform the same ceremony as well. That was how Howard officially became Lorist’s second disciple with his senior apprentice brother being Reidy.

As for Potterfang’s daughter, Alisa, Lorist cared for her very much and was often reminded of his own daughter back in his past life. That resulted in him granting every request of hers to the point where he had a craftsman hired to renovate the attic into a proper bedroom for the siblings, much to their excitement and joy. Potterfang was even a little jealous that his children were closer to their beloved Uncle Locke than him.

When Potterfang fully recovered and was about to leave with his children, he was stopped by Lorist with tons of excuses. Some of the main ones were the fact that the children absolutely loved it here and the city would be a better environment for the children to grow up as opposed to having them wander around with Potterfang. And, given that Howard is already Lorist’s disciple, there was no way that he would leave before he was taught anything right? The other reason was that since Potterfang didn’t really have a set destination to go to, he shouldn’t let his children suffer along the journey with him. The final reason was the most convincing, that is, Potterfang would be allowed to leave whenever he manages to defeat Lorist.

Lorist offered to recommend Potterfang as a Silver ranked instructor for the Dawn Academy, but that proposition was rejected by him as he did not intend to permanently settle down in Morante City. Lorist knew that there wasn’t a point in forcing it so he brought him to the Red Grace Inn and introduced him to Charlando so that he may accept private requests there in the future.

After Lorist was entitled Duke of the Northlands, the house entitled twelve barons included Potterfang.

## Abilities

Potterfang was a citizen of the Krissen Empire and practiced the standard middle-ranked Battle Force technique taught in the Krissen Imperial Army. It was a technique that allowed one to train to the Silver rank and allowed the practitioners to train further in any other higher-ranked Battle Force regardless of attributes. However, it was much more complicated than most normal Battle Force techniques and even had higher requirements if used to awaken one’s Battle Force.

He takes attacks with his body to land a hit on his opponents. He takes two of their strikes to deal one back. Three for one if he had to. Seeing who can take more attacks before collapsing. This was how he took care of Gold ranks on the battlefield.

Lorist gave Pog a high-ranked metal attribute Battle Force manual that he prepared for Pog that’ll enable him to train all the way up to the Gold rank. It even contains some insight from the original owner of the manual who had managed to break through to the rank of the Blademaster. This was given to Lorist by his ex-girlfriend as a memorial gift before breaking up with him, but he had totally no use for it. He gave it to Pog in hopes that he would be able to break through into the Gold rank. As for whether he could become a Blademaster, it would have to depend on his ability and effort.

Compared to blademasters, Potterfang was a bit lacking. But his swordsmanship was strongly defense oriented, so he could keep the enemy occupied without trouble.

## Relationships

* Norton Lorist: Lorist’s friend from the same homeland, the peak Silver ranked mercenary Potterfang, had recovered after two months of rest. The two of them didn’t talk much, but their implicit mutual understanding made them intimate friends. As for Potterfang’s two children, Lorist spoiled and took great care of them. Howard was a studious and hardworking child. When Potterfang saw Lorist giving Reidy some pointers in swordsmanship, he told Lorist that he would like Howard to also become Lorist’s disciple when he awakens his Battle Force in a few years. Originally, Potterfang only intended to mention it casually but Lorist reconfirmed it with him in a serious tone. Potterfang only nodded and Lorist instantly got Howard to bow down to him 3 times. That was how Howard officially became Lorist’s second disciple with his senior apprentice brother being Reidy. As for Potterfang’s daughter, Alisa, Lorist cared for her very much and was often reminded of his own daughter back in his past life. That resulted in him granting every request of hers to the point where he had a craftsman hired to renovate the attic into a proper bedroom for the siblings, much to their excitement and joy. Potterfang was even a little jealous that his children were closer to their beloved Uncle Locke than him.
* Second Highness: Ever since the experience of being manipulated and used by the second highness, he had held the grudge close to his heart, especially with regards to some of his friends which the second highness had poached.