Stone Raiders' Return (Emerilia Book 6)

by Michael Chatfield

  The ground seemed to pick Dave up.

  Deia just sighed and shook her head, an amused smile on her face. “Just what am I supposed to do with you?” Her fingers brushed some hair out of his face.

  ***

  As Alkao’s shield rang with Anna’s hit, he jumped sideways, using his wings to allow him to glide away. The air currents changed, making him pull his wings closed as Anna forced the air to her will. She was on him in seconds.

  They traded blows with blinding speed.

  Even with two weapons, Alkao was the one on the defense. Anna’s fighting style made every motion an attack.

  It was clear that if Alkao did anything other than his best, he would die. At first, he had been scared to try to go all out, but Anna had firmly beaten into his head what she would do if he didn’t go all out. He had only landed one solid hit on her, cutting her clothes, but she’d moved faster than he’d been able to track. His blade never made it to skin.

  His body, on the other hand, was battered and bruised from her hits. New scars covered his body and bruises made themselves known.

  Alkao grinned. It had been so long since he felt truly alive, to dance with death. The need to spill blood, the hunger that ached in his very soul, pulled on his mind.

  He had felt it when he was fighting the Dark Lord’s Champions, but he had pushed it down, needing to concentrate on the battle and stay in control.

  He slowly let himself go into his berserker mode. He sped up, slowing his retreat as his muscles bunched up and his veins started to show themselves. He looked slightly mad with the crazed smile on his face and obsidian eyes. He felt the undeniable power of his berserker state kick in.

  He pushed back the red state where he would lose complete control. Anna, Kala, and the other trainers he’d had regularly beat into him how useful control was.

  Anna and he traded blows. Anna seemed to glide, her hits raining down with power that shocked Alkao. Their hits made shockwaves through the training ground. People stopped to watch their battle as they danced around the training square. The force of their hits shook the very ground.

  Alkao heard the noise of a notification after a while and the falling red that would make him lose control fell away. He felt confusion as his finer control came to him, no longer fighting berserker mode, but instead bending it to his will instead of his impulses.

  In his confusion, Anna got the opening she needed. A wind blade cut Alkao’s leg, making him cry out in pain. He rolled and brought up his shield, defeating her next attack. She jumped over him, assisted by the air around her bending to her will. She let out a shriek.

  Alkao shuddered as his body was stunned by the noise. He started to move, only to have the flat of Anna’s blade next to his face.

  “Well, looks like I lose again.” Alkao sighed and lowered his arms as his berserker strength left him.

  “At the end there, you seemed to get a lot faster and stronger, though you lost a bit of control.” Anna pulled her sword away and put it in the sheath on her back.

  Alkao groaned as he rose, putting his sword and shield away.

  “Berserker, though it seemed that I was able to control it.” Alkao secured his weapons and pulled out a small Health potion. He drank a bit. The wound would heal soon enough.

  “I got a notification!” Alkao remembered, opening up his notifications.

  New Active Skill: Control the Beast

  Look at you, master of control, Zen, and ugh—whatever. Seems you’re not just some raging monster, but a more collected and understanding one… Whatever.

  Level: Novice Level 3

  Effect: Instead of giving into that pesky raging impulsive berserker, you can utilize the buffs of the berserker mode while remaining in control. 11% increase in control when in berserker mode.

  “How the hell do I level this up?” Alkao asked, re-reading it.

  “What?” Anna asked.

  Alkao shared the new skill he’d earned with her.

  “Impressive. It’s hard to break some of the racial trait abilities. Might actually give me a challenge.” Anna smiled at Alkao as he gave her a sour impression.

  “Thanks. Good to know I’m a slightly more interesting punching bag.” Alkao sighed.

  “Don’t worry, you’re a cute one, too.” Anna grinned as she stepped on her tiptoes and kissed Alkao’s cheek.

  Alkao’s frown was erased as he looked over Anna.

  “Keep those thoughts to yourself, pervert. We’ve got a lot more training to do before I even think about going on another date with you!”

  “Are you one of those people who love to hurt others?” Alkao asked, stretching.

  “Just think of it as lesson reinforcement.” Anna laughed.

  Alkao groaned as Anna tossed him a Stamina potion.

  “Five minutes and we’ll go again. Now about your footing—you’re not putting it into play enough. You can use your wings with great dexterity, but with the combination of the two, you fall short. You’ve never really worked on footwork, taking to the air where you have an advantage due to your natural abilities. So, we’re going to work on your footwork some more, then we’ll work on fighting in the air. Time, you learned how to really fight up there and use tactics instead of just wild melee actions.” Anna paused, a thoughtful look on her face.

  “We’ll have to pass some of these lessons on to our forces, though they should be staying at range, only coming close to target when they’re bombing it.” Anna shrugged and pulled out her blade. “You ready?”

  “As I’m ever going to be,” Alkao said, freeing his weapons. He tried to activate his berserker mode, but couldn’t. He’d have to see how he could activate it and then trigger it at any time. Having the bonuses of berserker racial trait and the ability to control it would be rather impressive.

  “Begin.” Anna rushed forward. Alkao’s shield was there to meet her. Their blades rang out as the wind around them turned into a maelstrom, dirt and debris flying away.

  Alkao was focused, not on hitting Anna, but making her have to use all of her skill. He still felt as if there was a ways to go until he truly saw the upper limit of her abilities.

  He felt the hunger for violence and destruction rise as his serious face broke into a grin. His berserker trait activated as their speed doubled. To many, they were slightly blurred as their hits slammed into each other, Alkao defending from invisible blades of air as well as Anna’s devastating two-handed sword that she wielded as if it was a rapier through a combination of speed, grace, and strength.

  Not how I thought my first relationship would start, but definitely interesting. Alkao let out a growl, actually holding Anna at a stalemate as they traded blows. Alkao took a hit to the side. He turned; his wing flashing out and making Anna dodge and unable to follow up with a killing attack. Alkao’s pain was dimmed as they continued the fight.

  The two of them smiled like the predators they were as DCA soldiers watched. Many of them saw the strength of their leader and one of the most respected advisors to the DCA. Some doubted their ability to ever get to that level; others took heart in that even their leader trained as hard as possible to protect his people. Others vowed to one day be as strong as them.

  DCA officers went around, bellowing out orders and getting them back to training. They fought with a new ferocity compared to before, focused on the future.

  Chapter 9: Crowning Achievements

  Malsour manipulated the walls with his Mana. There was something incredibly satisfying with building things through his magic. In the space of a few hours, he could do what would take miners, repair bots, and lower-level mages days.

  He was working on the refinery within Terra. The refinery in the attached housing complexes was backed up with several weeks’ worth of material. The refinery had one complete line of crushers working. Past the crushers, a heating and extracting assembly would pull out the various materials, sorting them into different groups. A number of materials were removed from here, to be used or placed in
the Stone Raiders’ storage, which had been moved out of the housing complex into a large warehouse that was heavily runed and protected.

  Anything that wasn’t picked up or thrown out was sent to the smelting area to completely refine down the metals and materials. The heating and extracting assembly was working at thirty percent, with crafters and coding apprentices working on the different runes.

  Malsour was working on the smelting area. It was pretty simple. The most complex work happened in the extracting area, with a number of Aleph limbs sensing and sorting out materials.

  He just needed to make an area that was capable of moving the sorted materials into various furnaces to be heated so that the slag could be pulled out and the molten refined metal could be poured into shiny new ingots.

  He had a ready supply of metals that had been delivered to the area. He willed them into shapes, from smelting crucibles to massive furnaces, cranes and lifts that would move the materials around the area. He compressed the stone to make surfaces that would be okay if some of the molten metal spilled.

  He engraved some large runes in different places.

  To someone watching, it seemed that the metals were picked up by the ground and formed into various shapes, the different parts of the area coming together like some elaborate puzzle.

  Standing on a pillar of stone, Malsour looked over it all with pride. Materials were moved through the facility on rails affixed to the ceiling. Beyond the doors out of the area were the cooling facilities where ingots were magically cooled after they were poured. Waiting for the metals to naturally cool would slow down the process too much. Here, every single metal other than Mithril could be smelted down into its component parts.

  When he said every metal, he meant it.

  His refinery was the first one ever built with the ability to process all of the rarer materials. Aluminum had its own run, which was much more complicated because of the need to further separate it and combine it with different materials. Iron and steel lines were next to each other. Only five percent of the iron that entered the refinery’s smelting area actually became refined iron; the rest would go on to become steel.

  He had been studying how different metals were refined and worked with for many years. His Dark Affinity and interest in metals and materials meant that he had dedicated extensive time and effort researching and refining the processes. He’d made a number of trips to the Aleph college and talked to Bob, Shard, and Jeeves, the Dwarven AI, to gather as much information as possible. With everything, Terra would be the largest producer of titanium and aluminum, and that was with just one refinery.

  Malsour wiped sweat from his brow as the last of the pieces were put into place. He opened up a hole through the floor and created a ramp upward. It opened up to the underground pathways.

  These were an innovation of Dave’s.

  The underground pathways were the supply tunnels of the city. The carts could move down here as fast as they desired, never having to stop for people walking in their way. They were also without air. So, carts could move even faster without air resistance.

  Malsour fitted an air lock to the hole he’d made and started working on the magical coding for the doors and the air tubes leading in and out of it.

  I wonder if Dave will get permission to put them throughout Terra? Would be pretty sweet to look out over the city while accelerating in a bunch of carts.

  “Though, there would be a massive demand for silicate—that will be pretty costly. Maybe, when we’ve mined enough resources.” Malsour used his finger to carve out a rune; others started to appear around his finger, creating a complete magical code.

  “Well, with Dave’s sensors, we probably have a bunch of different material deposits that we can find already,” Malsour muttered to himself as he looked over his work. He pulled out an ingot of silver and willed it to fill the runes. That done, he left and activated the air lock.

  It worked perfectly. Malsour looked out over the smelting area. It had taken him nearly five hours, but it had come together into several smelting lines, all ready and waiting for their materials.

  Malsour started working on the magical coding, but the thought of it made his brain feel as if his head was too small. He groaned, holding his temples.

  “Damn, dude. I know you’re a Dragon and all, but this is some impressive ass work.” Steve walked into the smelting area, admiring it all.

  “All in a day’s work.” Malsour grinned and took a sip of a Health potion. His headache lessened, but he was pretty Mana-fatigued.

  “How’s the coding going?” Malsour asked. Although there were dozens of coders in the refinery, there needed to be some quality control so that an essential part of the refinery didn’t break from a wrong rune or line of them. So, looking over their coding was Steve.

  After a talk with Kol, it seemed he’d understood just how vital coding was to him. He’d downloaded all of the information Dave could give to him, and then went and asked Dave for everything he’d runed. He downloaded all of that and Dave had given him a test: create Dave’s one-way teleport pads.

  He’d done it within a week and Dave had qualified him as a master coder. Steve had even got a title for it. Being technically a created creature, he couldn’t gain skills or increase in abilities other than fighting, the strength of his soul bound master, or having his physical body altered, like with his new limbs.

  “Coding is coding. Once you know the symbols and the right order to put them in, it gets pretty easy. We should have most of it done within the next few days. I’m going to get some repair bots working in here,” Steve said.

  “I heard that you are now using the repair bots in order to code?” Malsour asked.

  “Yeah. It’s not hard for me to control them and I can work with all of them at the same time. I need to do some changes to my personal coding and circuits, but I think that I’ll be able to control more of them after some work. It’s simply a factor of processing power and memory, no need for Willpower or any of those stats.”

  Malsour nodded, impressed. “Well, I wish you luck with that. You going to be ready for those greenhouse units next week?”

  “Well, I think that Dave is working on a way to make the greenhouses faster than we thought. Looks like he’s been messing around with something like that growing soul gem smithy in Devil’s Crater.”

  “Well, he isn’t one to just go with what works.” Malsour sighed.

  “Ain’t that the truth.” Steve grinned.

  “I’ll see you later; I’m going to get some sleep and nurse this damn headache,” Malsour said.

  “See you tomorrow. Good thing we don’t have to walk all the way to the housing complex!”

  “Agreed!” Malsour snorted and headed out of the refinery.

  ***

  It had been two weeks since Terra had come online. With the abundance of power from the power station facility, the city had a ton of extra power. In fact, it had been cut to a twenty percent draw while the power station on Terra only had two running power extractors.

  It was why Dave found himself working in the location of what would be his third smithy subsidiary, working on a soul gem in his hands.

  He carved the last rune into the ebony covering. Blowing the shavings clear, he took a pot of silver resting on top of a torch and poured it on the ebony. He carefully controlled the metal, using his soul smithing so that exactly enough silver fell into the runes.

  He conjured metal over his hands, grabbing the soul gem and holding it over the torch. He used his Touch of the Land, and then his soul smithing to meld the soul gem and ebony band together.

  He studied what he was doing, making a few mental notes. He was the only person capable of making soul gem buildings currently so he was trying to break down what he was doing and make a spell that could meld soul gem with metals.

  The soul gem was large, weighing about ten pounds, thirty centimeters long and ten wide.

  He took it, leaving the table he had been working at a
nd moving into the center of where the smithy would be.

  It was a wide open area, slightly curved with the city. Smooth stone covered the area. He’d carved runes into the ground; silver filled them. He walked to an indent in the ground in the center of the open area. He put the soul gem into the hole. A bit of Dark magic made the rock close on the soul gem.

  “Okay, so let’s see how this goes.” Dave turned the ebony covering and lined up the runes. He jogged away as he heard a cracking noise behind him, as if ice were growing across a cold lake. He got to the edge of the smithing area where his table was located.

  “Uh, well, I guess that’s what I get for using a vault-classed soul gem.” Dave scratched his head. The soul gem seemed to have erupted from the ground. A floor stretched out around it for fifty meters. Posts grew upward, creating a second story. It grew upward and outward at a rapid pace. Workbenches, tool racks, furnaces, and burners grew from the soul gem’s central location.

  Dave watched the smithy grow before his eyes, smiling at it. A number of other Stone Raiders in the area came over to have a look at what was going on. Carts with soul gems on them appeared, pouring power into the construct and speeding up the growing process.

  It continued to grow as Lucy found Dave working on another ebony band, a soul gem next to him.

  “So, I guess this is how you proposed to fix our power-saving issues?” Lucy pointed at the growing multi-floored smithy.

  “Well, one way. I was already working on this, pretty much a scaled-up version of what I made in Devil’s Crater. We can run our power station at full and it will take just a few days to build this. Once it’s done, then it can hold a hell of a lot of power. I’ve connected it into the power grid I ran so that if the power station is creating more energy than the carts can hold, it will be distributed through the grid and into here. In the later modules, I want to make all of the buildings like this so that they can hold a charge. I hate wasting energy.” Dave grinned. “I didn’t want to use this on the greenhouses right away. It needs some more testing first. If this fails, then it’s not that big of a loss, but if we have it with the growing towers which are supposed to be ten floors tall and all over the place, it wouldn’t be the best.”