Lord of Creation

by Lawrence Blackwood

  I was honestly kind of excited to get back into melee combat. Don't get me wrong, Force Slash was absolutely devastating, but I felt much more confident in my abilities when I knew I could pack one hell of a punch. It also meant that I could use new armor and weapons from the old- and frankly outdated- Tainted Boar armor that I wore.

  It was time for an upgrade.

  ◆◆◆

  "This is way harder than I expected." I griped, flopping backwards to lay down on the soft grass of Haven Clearing. With a distasteful look at the small building I had just exited, I closed my eyes to fall asleep and relieve myself of the exhaustion that filled my entire body.

  That was all disrupted by a sharp kick to my ribs.

  "Ow, what the hell Gida? I'm trying to get some rest!" I yelped, jumping to my feet.

  Gida laughed, shaking her head. "Picking materials for your new armor isn't considered work, by the way. Just be glad you can make it with magic. Us normal folk have to forge it ourselves, or at least have it commissioned by a Crafter."

  I groaned but got back to my feet. "Fine, you got me. I bet I could beat you in a fight now though." I jested, hoping that she would get that it was only a joke. "And you can bring Antuhr too if you want."

  Gida considered for a moment, taking my request way too seriously. "Fine, but hand to hand combat only." She said, nodding to herself, "Oh, and I get Austin too. If you're really cocky enough to fight me and Antuhr on your own I'll have to teach you a thing or two." She said, and winked before running off.

  Despite the ever encroaching end of the world, I was definitely looking forward to the fight. It would be nice to have some friendly competition. But first, there was the matter of arming myself. Grudgingly, I got back to my feet and went into the storehouse.

  Dozens of piles of leather, ore, and refined metals were stacked in neat piles. Each different type of material had its own section so that it was easy to distinguish from the others. I pored over them, quickly dismissing each one as I went over it. We had a little bit of iron, twenty pounds or so, but that was nowhere near enough to make a suitable set of armor.

  Which left me with nothing but copper, or maybe bronze if I could figure out a good ratio for the alloy. Then again, Shard could probably help with that.

  "Yes, I can. It will cost a fair bit of mana though, so you may want to quit Channeling."

  "Alright, go for it." I said, dropping the Channeling spell.

  All of a sudden my mana plummeted, falling to almost 10% of my maximum. "Holy shit Shard, that really was a lot. Did you figure it out at least?"

  "Yes, I've got it. I should be able to refine copper and tin into bronze more efficiently now. Not only that, but it will be at the perfect ratio for an alloy, and you will be able to infuse it with mana too."

  "Well then, let's get busy Shard." I said, eyeing my mana bar as it slowly filled back up, "We actually might have to wait a little bit for my mana to regen though."

  A few minutes later, we started. It took a while, not to mention tons of mana, to convert enough bronze to actually work with. Bit by bit our stores of copper and tin diminished, only to be replaced by neatly stacked shiny bronze ingots. They were each a foot and a half long by six inches wide, and made a satisfying clink as it was added to the pile. I sent a nearby Gruff to gather leather for straps and padding while I worked.

  "That should be enough, depending on how hefty you want your armor to be. If you get into a tight situation and have to drop Inner Channeling, though, a heavy set of armor may weigh too much. Something akin to the Spartans of your world may work, with a few changes here and there. Allow me."

  I let Shard take control of my magic, watching in poorly concealed awe as he expertly expanded and melded them together until before long a full suit of armor sat before me.

  "Uh... Shard, I'm supposed to wear that ya'know. It's just one solid piece!"

  "Oh, right."

  Gaps suddenly appeared at the joints of the armor, making me cringe as it clattered to the ground.

  "Shard! What the hell, man?"

  "I-I feel unwell, I think I-"

  "Blegh!" The remnants of my last few meals fled my stomach as I retched, falling to my knees. Something akin to acid began to bubble up and spew from my mouth on the heels of my vomit and spewed violently from my mouth.

  The sound of something sizzling reached my ears, and it took me a while to realize through the pain that it was my own hands, planted firmly in the puddle of vomit and acid were dissolving before my very eyes.

  I let out a cry through my ruined throat and tumbled backward, struggling to make sense of what was happening. Was I dying? Why was this happening? Was my body rejecting Shard, or had I just pushed his dwindling power too far? Before I could grasp the answers to my questions, I hit the ground with a thump and the world dissolved into blackness.

  Chapter 10

  "You take power that is not yours, mortal. Even worse, you have convinced a fragment of myself to join you. For that, you shall die."

  There was nothing. No sounds, smells, nothing to feel and nothing to prove to me that I was still alive save the booming voice in my head and a sense of being very, very small.

  "What do you want?" I asked, though without a body I don't quite know how I did it.

  "As I have stated, your life will suffice for the atrocity you have turned my fragmented self into. No longer does he speak with the same understanding that he once did. No longer does he realize the power we wield as a whole. He serves you instead, lowly vermin unable to even understand the scale on which our power is weighed. Even now the lost part of myself fights to keep you whole. Even now, he rejects me from your body."

  The voice ripped through my mind, my very soul as it spoke. I howled in pain, vaguely hearing the ragged sound of my own voice through the haze of nothingness that surrounded me. Distantly, almost so far away I couldn't see it, a speck of light began to appear.

  I felt movement, as if I were soaring through the sky untethered, a bird or dragon in the wind to do anything he wished. Gorgeous landscapes sprouted up underneath me, but even as I tried to drift over to them that strange light pulled me in.

  A ball of dread settled deep into my stomach, tying it into knots. I had heard stories like this; Icarus, the boy that flew too close to the sun and lost his wings like a moth to the flame. But I was a mighty winged beast, no foolish human or moth. I beat against the pull of the light, straining with every muscle in my body against that unstoppable pull.

  I slowed, slowed, slowed to a halt. With a grunt of effort, my impossibly powerful frame began to pull away from the light, but even my strength began to wane after a time. Scarcely a hundred feet away from where I began my fight, I fell limp and allowed the strange light to drag me away.

  ____________________

  "LET! GO OF ME!" I screamed, whipping my powerful wings to the side to dispel my attackers. "Foul beasts, you will pay for this!" I screeched a war cry and dove at my captors, scattering them like so many bowling balls. Gida and Antuhr went flying, followed by Austin and Murlough.

  I quickly raced after their rag-doll like forms, wanting nothing more than to end their miserable lives. But wait... I shook my head, feeling the buzz of forgotten memories tickling my mind.

  "Donovan! Donovan, come back to us!"

  "Shard?" I murmured, falling onto my buttocks at the sudden voice in my head. Why did my adversaries have names? No, that wasn't right. Allies? Friends?

  "Good, Donovan. You're remembering, just relax. This may be a bit of a shock."

  Like rewiring a broken circuit, my brain finally fired up and started working properly. A pounding headache began to build as my memories flooded back, but it was worth it. I stumbled to my feet, marveling at just how painful a migraine could truly be.

  "S-s-sorry guys." I stuttered, trying and failing to form a coherent thought through the pain.

  Antuhr, being the toughest of my Advisors, recovered and came to my side before any of the others. "Do not wor
ry milord, forces beyond your control were wreaking havoc upon the Clearing and your mind. But you still live, and the invaders are vanquished." His deep, rumbling bass soothed me, but I started at the mention of invaders.

  "What do you mean? Who attacked us?" I nearly shouted, suddenly energized and ready to fight. My body felt lighter than air as I activated Inner Channeling, and my headache was erased in an instant.

  Antuhr chuckled and said, "As I told you sire, we killed them. Their bodies have been moved to a storage unit Murlough had us construct. They freeze in there so there isn't any rotting meat around."

  I nodded, but my thoughts were already beginning to stray. Whatever I had become in that vision, it was powerful. So powerful, in fact, that I was pretty sure it had another Shard inside of it. One that was plenty bigger than mine... talk about a blow to the self esteem.

  But why did I turn into it? Did it have something to do with our Shards connecting, or was the beast trying to consume my soul? It sure felt like it, especially when the thing talked. It even made me think I had wings when I first woke up, and its disdain for humans seemed about right for an all powerful badass.

  Just one more thing for the checklist.

  "Alright Antuhr," I paused to crack my neck with a series of satisfying pops, "let's get down to business, and I ain't talking about any Huns. Let's go check out those bodies." I started walking toward the Reservoir. I didn't ask how long I was out, and frankly, I didn't care.

  Antuhr glanced at me strangely, not getting the reference, then followed along like a good soldier. It didn't take us long to cross Haven Clearing, a few minutes at most, and soon we stood in front of the newly constructed building. Izveir all around glanced at me with a mix of concern and relief, and a few even came over to ask how I was doing.

  Like the badass god-king I was, I wholeheartedly assured them that I was no worse for the wear even after vomiting up pure acid. At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if the Izveir in the distant future actually would remember me as a god in their mythos. It was funny to think about, really.

  I threw open the place's door, pleased to see that I had plenty to work with. A variety of bodies littered the floor, ranging from Orcs and Goblins to enormous spiders and other horrifying arthropods. What stuck out most, though, was a pile of- relatively -neatly stacked creatures that looked like dark, feathered wolves. Stranger still, it looked like they were bipedal.

  "Holy feathered fang freaks..." I mumbled to myself as I stepped into the cold storage to get a better look. Each of them had padded feet like a wolf, but their vicious talons would have looked more at home on a raptor. Despite the feathers, their hind legs were shaped like a wolf's, only changed slightly to provide the ability to walk on two legs. The feathers continued up their whole body and up the neck, where they puffed out into a sort of mane. From there, the strange beasts had wolfish snouts and teeth but startlingly human eyes.

  "Well," I said, stepping back from the bodies, "they certainly are a strange bunch. Any idea where they came from?"

  "They attacked from the east, though we have yet to explore much of that area." Antuhr grumbled, his deep voice resonating through the small building, "From what we can tell, though, the forest eventually thins out into a hilly pasture. We have not had time to scout any farther than that, and felt it best to leave that to you, sire." He finished with an elegant bow, well executed for someone his size... and with four arms.

  "Understood, Antuhr. Thank you for your patience. I'll see what I can do about turning these corpses into something useful, then we'll be off. Oh, and fetch me the remnants of that armor I tried to make, will you?"

  Antuhr nodded, then trotted off to see to his tasks. Meanwhile, I turned back to the strange feathered creatures. They were strong, I could tell that much just by first glance. Their legs were tight, full of powerful ligaments that weren't present in their arms, so I could only assume that they could jump well; kind of like feathered jackals.

  Knowing that, there was plenty of things I could use them for: shock and awe tactics as an elite cavalry force, siege breakers that could hop over walls, or even just pack on more meat and muscle to create stupidly fast brutes.

  Realistically, though, with my Earthshakers I would never need a force to open gates from the inside, and I already had the Gruffs to cover the last option. And, let's face it, I still missed Arach. Not to mention that I needed a new mount, and from what little I knew from history back home, a well trained force of heavy cavalry could win almost any war.

  Cavalry it was, then. Borrowing some of the muscle and brawn from Tainted Boars, I beefed up the beasts' shoulders while modifying their bone structure slightly so that they would move on four legs instead of one. They would be stronger up front now, but they needed to be defensive as well as offensive.

  "Hmm," I muttered to myself, hefting the large pelvic bone of some manner of large animal, "this might just work." I flattened the bone out and melded it under the feathered wolf's skin, stitching it between muscle and flesh of the thing's now massive front shoulders. Trying to keep the creature balanced, I added some lean, taut muscle to its hind legs and nearly doubled the strength of its tendons and ligaments all around.

  "Sir, I've got your armor!" Antuhr shouldered his way into the building, momentarily gawking at my creation before setting down a heavy sack that held the pieces of my bronze creation.

  I smiled, saying "Thank you Antuhr. I know you've just been to storage, but I need you to gather me more bronze. As much as you can carry." He nodded, not bothering to bow this time, and left.

  Mostly satisfied with the state of my creation, I set to work on the rest of them. I only had the materials to make half a dozen more, leaving seven in total and me with a near empty cold storage- save, of course, the regular animals we kept for food. The first of my creations, the one I would likely keep for myself, I made about half again the size of the others. Kings had to make their impressions, after all.

  Speaking of kings, how was Niko doing? I should stop by and visit him, but with everything going on I hadn't really had the time for it. I shook my head, pushing thoughts of my old friend to the side. He was my friend, yes, but he would have to wait.

  Smiling, I added the finishing touches to my new mount. With a little guidance from Shard, I coated each of the now massive creature's feathers in a shiny, protective layer of bronze, and tipped each of their already vicious talons in it as well. I chuckled a little, barely fighting off the urge to yell "It's alive!" as I brought the creature to life.

  It rose, shaking its mane of feathers in an almost musical tinkling of bronze on bronze. "Welcome to the world and your new life, Ur'Rak, first of the Bronze Aurrelites." I greeted my new mount, immensely pleased as I took a glance at its stat sheet.

  Name- Ur'Rak, Alpha Bronze Aurrelite

  Level- 1

  Health- 335/335 (2% regen per second)

  Stamina- 1473/1473 (5% regen per second)

  Mana- 0/0

  Strength- 140

  Endurance- 480

  Dexterity- 440

  Perception- 398

  Intelligence- 150

  Wisdom- 38

  Luck- 111

  Condition- Healthy

  Humanity- 5/5

  Alignment- Neutral

  Inventory-

  None

  Spells-

  None

  Abilities-

  Bronzed Coat- The bronze layer over Aurrelites' already defensive feathers creates an almost impenetrable shield. +205 defense.