by Philip Read
At the end of it all, there would be more artifacts than there were people to wield them amongst the tribes for a while until new warriors are born to our people. Every weapon had a story though, a story of who had wielded it and how they died and if possible who the opponent that delivered the killing blow was.
An entire building two stories high and 10 stories deep is being built and dedicated to such stories. Each weapon put on displace with a likeness of the first wielder, the creater, and the story of its involvements in battles. It is becoming a building known as the Museum and even includes regular steel weapons that the original wielders have donated in favour of the new artifact weapons.
And of course, this all means I could get a hammer made because the is currently more ore than is actually needed and it is being given as a reward to everyone that is part of the tribes, every surviving Barbarian warrior and then minted into our new coinage in small amounts.
It is a way to try to ensure that the original tribal families always have more wealth that the people we are sure to share our Tundra with in the future. With the help of Master Nikitich and some donations and bribes from Sachi, I’ve managed to convince a grandmaster dwarven Hammersmith, the only one of his kind in all the Dawn according to him, to travel to the new mountain Hito settlement and participate in a soul forging so I could get a soul-hammer.
The ritual is not what I had expected and the pain is unbearable, I’m not just saying that as a figure of speech. I really couldn’t bear it and passed out a number of times but passing out during a soul forging doesn’t relieve you from feeling the pain of the process. It took something like 48 hours to forge my hammer to completion and almost the entire time pieces of me were being shredded away and placed into the thing.
*
I had sacrificed my entire shin bone to the furnace fire when I was told that having the carbon for the smelting come from the prospective wielder sometimes makes it easier to bond with the finished weapon and sometimes even the soul forging easier. Nothing was easier in there and Grandmaster Smith Bogatyrs was thoroughly worked to the bone and weary-eyed after the entire thing I’m told. By the time the bonebender fixed my leg I was actually relieved to feel pain I could interpret and understand.
From the mountain settlement now known as Ōshima we travelled straight towards these Hidden Valleys Sachi speaks so fondly off, just Sachi, Gorr, his wolf and I. It was a long journey, one Sachi had to ask for permission for us to accompany him on. But I wasn’t about to let him into the Titan mountains without me or some backup.
The trip was enlightening in many ways but I struggled through it. I felt like staying alive was an uphill battle let alone continuing on with the trip. But my hammer was beautiful and taking care of it was the only time I felt a modicum of normal.
The head of the hammer is big, as big as a person’s head but rectangular in shape. The head is made of layers with the core of the head a type of celestial steel while the middle portion becomes softer iron and the outmost a layer of dross that looks and feels more like a covering of stone than metal. The head isn’t smooth or polished or decorated as one would expect from a dwarven made weapon but instead, it has uneven grooves, humps and bumps on its surface as though while it was wet a child used it for finger painting. It’s an ugly dark weapon that is nothing but a tool for making things quiet, it’s perfect.
The shaft is as long as my arm and has some engravings decorated into it under the bindings for the grip.
The shaft is a square cylindrical shape instead of a circular pole and has a beautiful cone-shaped spike at the bottom. The metal of the shaft goes partly into and partly around the metal head, meeting at the top and enclosing it almost like two separate pieces fastened together by thick metal wires. I keep it holstered on my back with the stone-metal head between my shoulder blades and the shaft going down and to the side.
* * *
We reached the Hidden Valleys after six months of travel and spent another six months there with Sachi’s family as they all got reacquainted and Sachi got back into training with the other samurai.
The Hermit and I eventually joined a beginners class from sheer boredom as at certain hours of the days and nights almost everyone goes to practice some variation of the sword. An entire people dedicated to a way of life inspired by a beautiful weapon Sachi described them as, more obsessed by my opinion.
I learn a lot there though I have to admit, and the peace and quiet of the mountains is something I’m realising I deeply appreciate. Or I could just be suffering from this soul sickness that befalls all who undergo the forging. Toska the locals call it and they have no one to remedy it or reduce the pain, how I miss my mate.
Gorr has found himself numerous lovers here from a number of Awakened women that apparently don’t want to get involved with the other Awakened men of their own tribes for some reason. Here and now he seems to be trying to make up for all the sexual encounters he denied himself back home, denying no woman that approaches him. Even availing himself to sex with the forest nymphs that are infamous in these parts.
Sachi is also having sex on a daily basis with his adorable Awakened Hito woman. The sounds that sometimes permeate through the small house are distracting to say the least. But the training, peace and discipline here resonates with me, I like the way these people lead their lives.
We leave there six months after our arrival with Sachi’s new mate Kuyoki, a recently Awakened petite beauty of a woman with beautiful black hair and deep dark eyes, Mira a redheaded southerner with highlander blood and their two children Vigdis at 7 and Deshna at 4 years of age.
* *
The trip back is slower but we travel with a larger group heading to Ōshima so it was hardly a difficult journey and the children love it. When close we took a little detour to visit some cults in the monastery was Sachi spoke to a cult leader of the following of Eolas the deity of knowledge. Letting his children receive a strange blessing from said deity.
From there we travelled back to the Tundra where Sachi’s parents met his new family. We all made a home in Paradisum and lived our lives simply but well for three years in Paradisum, furthering our development and the development of our homes. Keira and I truly got to know each other and the ache of my soul caused by the forging of Stone-hammer subsided some.
We continued our training with a Gorr who divided his time between Paradisum and questing deep into the Dawn Forest with Fenrir. We had three good years of relatively simple peaceful lives with our families. We stayed in the tundra even joining the newly established military patrol units for two seasons.
We stayed in Paradisum until Sachi was satisfied his children wouldn’t forget him and Ava’s nagging finally won through and we travelled with the next group going south to Asriel’s people and Pangaea.
*
The trip was interesting and eventful. We passed through Sandoria since our borders are now open to each other but the glares and hateful speech we got exposed to was grating to endure without shedding blood. There were 83 of us in the group, including some of the ones that have been to the Conclave before, acting as our guides.
I never knew there were so much land and forests in our continent but there are. Some we had to skirt around or face Ancient beasts, others we could carefully travel through but have to be alert the entire time. We met some interesting people and had to face a group of what is known as bandits, after killing a few dozens they all scattered away except for one, who followed us for days.
I don’t know why we didn’t kill him but by the time we got to the coast at the edge of the continent Sandaria, he was emaciated from starvation. Teà and Belgaria went to talk to him and determined he was no threat before we let him travel with us the rest of the way through the Undine underwater tunnels and islands. There is nothing that broadens one’s horizons like travel and getting to experience other peoples.
We eventually reached Pangaea and from there it was simpler to reach the Training Camp of the Conclave.
> Chapter 46
Sachi
Om, Asger, Caden, Victor, Justin, Teà and I are exceptional warriors. We are experienced veterans of combat both in bush ambush tactics and all-out melee battles. I’m even an exceptional duelist dure to my time with the Hito. We have superior strength, reach and endurance in comparison to the other races of human beings on Gaia.
We have been born and bred in a culture that exalts martial strength above all other virtues and appreciates a death on the battlefield with a weapon in hand. Being born natural warriors haven’t been enough for any of us and we have sort out the exotic teaching of other peoples the tribes are friendly with in order to master as much of combat as we can.
Om specializing in the Dawn Dwarves’ way of the war hammer and destructive unarmed combat discipline known as krav maga. Asger and Caden learning the spear from a fae warrior that took on half the tribe in the Never Ending Battle and came out alive at the end of it. Victor learning the longsword from a Highlander Sword Master and that title speak for itself among those people. Teà, after recovering from childbirth and weaning her child immediately joined a class of young warrior women taught by the recently Awakened Sytar the Awakened. A Viking warrior woman and the youngest person to ever Awaken in the history of the tribes at 37 years old. Dustin training with his father Village Chief Dean and his Awakened grandfather Norse Chief Storm in a drooling training program that is a result of my defeating Victor in a duel.
And me, I spent over two years in the mountains with Asriel and half that time I spent among the followers of the way, the samurai. Oh and I have a legendary quality artefact o-katana made by the Master Sword Smiths of the Hito in the Hidden Valleys, and I have a ‘fucken’ zanpakutō of grade A legendary quality with the potential of becoming mythical or even divine some day.
We all have legendary quality weapons because we all have superior grade weapons or above made by master smiths with celestial ore and every single well made scalable weapon moves up a grade in quality. Moving from rare to legendary just because of the material it’s made out of and becoming a boon for smiths who want to increase their skill in smithing by consistently making weapons of such a high-grade quality.
And yeah, we’ve all had our personal weapons magically appraised once we got here. I’m not sure why this wasn’t done before but we all now know the exact quality and grade of our artefacts. But that hasn’t been the extent of our training since the end of The War With The South four years ago.
Om and I are even a step above the rest of our peers because we have had the advantage of visualization training, something that started as an experiment from our teacher but became so effective that he had to go into the deep Dawn Forest in order to find a teacher himself lest we catch up to him in some skills. And yes through visualization and aura Om has acquired skills, so have I through visualization and chakra.
Yet through all that we stand before the Volvocale siblings panting after each of us has had an individual defeat in single combat with one of them. After everything I’ve been through till reaching this point, I thought myself well above the par of anyone who isn’t an Awakened in skill and power, what stupid pride. The world is just too big and filled with people that far surpass me still.
We travelled a long way leaving our children and families behind to get here because Ava and the others said it was a great experience, but mostly because they managed to beat everyone they came up against who didn’t go into the rage to win.
I also came because I wanted to see Asriel again but I didn’t expect to learn much that he or my other sensei hadn’t already touched on. And initially I was right as we stayed the first month with everyone else that made the trip onto Pangaea from the Tundra but the seven of us went through their first two month’s training regiment in a single month and a few days, eight of us actually when you include Gaia. I had never heard of Gaia before meeting him at the beginning of the trip south but he always stays quiet.
I look up at my opponent and slowly get up again, the rage for off as my zanpukutō lies against the wall with the other weapons. But our connection so intimate that I don’t even need to be touching her to bring our connection up fully and delve deep into the cold rage. But I refrain from that, this is an exhibition fight to prove ourselves to these conclave masters, or at least I assume it is.
The others have already lost their matches both in unarmed combat and with their chosen weapon types, a very surprising outcome for Om to lose with a hammer in his hand with his cheat aura skills. But it is what it is.
I spit out some blood from the cut on my tongue, I’m still on my hand to hand fight and I’m getting the crap beaten out of me by Volvex who is lightly bouncing on his toes waiting for me to get up. I don’t like the grin on his face but he is a definitely more accomplished unarmed fighter.
Almost the sum of my entire unarmed arsenal is aikido and a little brawling from when I was a kid or in a tight spot in battle. Aikido is mainly unarmed fighting against an opponent with a bladed weapon for disarming said opponent or saving myself from getting cut. It has very little efficiency against another unarmed opponent that is trained in fighting other unarmed opponents. And brawling just doesn’t take into consideration all the openings that appear to the keen eye of a trained fighter.
“I forfeit,” I say as I move far out of his legs reach and off the mats.
The adjudicator nods and indicates that we can take a break and have our injuries seen to. I look at the Volvocale siblings one last time before limping to the healers. I wave away a worried Teà and frown at the amused grin Ava has on her stupid face from the sidelines.
Chlomidomonas and Gonium are siblings from the same parents. Pandorina, Eudorina and Pleodorina are from another set of parents and cousins to the first two, then Volvox is from another parent. Their parents are all siblings and they have been trained by their grandfather who is apparently one of the founders of the conclave if rumour has it right.
The cousins aren’t Awakened, in fact, they are quite young only being in their 20’s with only Volvox in his 30’s. But they are almost without equal in skill with their chosen weapon, unarmed combat isn’t even their speciality. But of course neither is it mine.
Chapter 47
Sachihiro
After being seen to by the healer and having most of my most immediate aches and bruises magically whisked away I walk to the weapon’s rack to chose a sparing weapon. Sparing is usually done with these beautifully made dull bladed weapons that have been enchanted to be nonlethal. It first seemed an extravagant waste to me when I was first exposed to them. To have a smith and an enchanter waste their time and effort to forge what feels and appears to be a beautifully crafted practical weapon only to realise it can’t kill, designed that way in it’s forging.
But then I saw how good Om really is when he has a hammer in hand and no worries of killing his sparring partner. I saw how really good Ava is with a polearm as she spun around the sparing area facing off against three tribesmen. And I got to let loose with my sparring partners as well without the fear of maiming or killing them, but nothing feels as good in my hands as my single handed throwing axe Kata, my beautiful razor sharp o-katana Razor, and my beautiful destructive monster nodachi.
And yes, I’ve named my weapons but to be fair they have been with me through a lot and have saved my life and the lives of my comrades many a time. I know my zanpakutō‘s name as well, at least part of her name but I can’t say it with full effect until her soul is fully healed or mine is. It’s only been 7 years since her forging and we’ve made many strides towards the healing process but not having people to kill anymore to harness the energy a soul releases as it departs has slowed that recovery some, at least the war was good for something.
I grab a practice o-katana from the rack of weapons as Volvox grabs two straight short swords. I was surprised to find that the Conclave has weapons designed to be katanas in their armoury but I suppose it makes sense since they are the ones that sent Asri
el to the Hidden Valleys. Volvox grins at me and his eyes flash emerald before he moves off with a few steps and a jump. Just because practice weapons won’t kill you, doesn’t mean they don’t hurt you when they hit. Time to test myself against a good opponent with no need to hold back much, this should be interesting. I grin as well, a little sinister grin as I loosen my neck and shoulders, it’s definitely payback time.
*
We face off as I take a high guard stance jōdan-no-kamae facing my opponent with loose shoulders, my left foot forward in hidari. There are a few snickers from the other spectators but I have already found my centre, my focus. I’m already visualizing the combination of moves that I will open with so vividly that I’m practically having a waking dream.
The adjudicator says something and Volvox moves in an instant and we clash in the middle of the mats for I also moved and my follow up results in thick orange sparks like the hot dross coming out of a furnace. I move and we clash again even as I duck and carve a path up diagonally through the space his torso just was at to the sound of a blade displacing air and my opponent swerving away.
I step in and follow through with the most basic of all moves one I have done a million times before, the first move of the 36 kenjutsu moves, jogeburi, the straight down slash but the power behind it is devastating. He stops it with crossed blades and I frown slightly, that didn’t have as much power behind it as I was expecting but I’ve been practising with my artifacts and this blade in my hands certainly isn’t my Razor.
Our eyes meet for less than a second and I see the frown on his own face as the impact rattles his forearms some. We separate even as he parries the remainder of my strike with his left blade as his right swings for my face. I move into it and am in his space taking the power out of his swing even as I release from his parry and use the neck of my blade to catch the strike with raised elbows.
