by Andrew Rowe
Moreover, I was extremely pleased I’d managed to manipulate the crystal, even slightly. If we’d gotten an earlier start with the walking, I might not have made that progress.
The rest of the day was uneventful. I asked Reika if she’d seen the ball of light the night before, but she had no idea what I was talking about.
We stopped again for the night, and Reika helped me build a shelter that was just a little bit larger and more comfortable for the two of us.
She read a bit of one of her books to us that night, until Dawnbringer fell asleep. I encouraged her to think of a story of her own to tell us, but she wasn’t ready for that. Not yet.
We slept a little better that night, at least at first.
It’s usually right when you get comfortable that things begin their swing toward the dangerous.
***
Every sense has its own particular way of waking me up in the middle of the night.
Sometimes it’s the brightness of the light in my eyes, telling me the Dawnfire has risen and that it’s time to drag myself out of whatever peculiar sleeping arrangement I’ve managed.
Many times it’s the feeling of heat on my skin, or the sweat that forms as a result of it. I overheat pretty easily, which is pretty ironic for a flame sorcerer.
On better days, it’d be the smell of bacon cooking in the kitchen or some sort of delicious chocolate pastry. On worse ones, it might simply be the scent of smoke.
Taste? That’d be the least likely one, I suppose, although I might notice the dryness of the air if I’m having a hard time breathing.
Most often, it’s a nearby sound.
The sound of footsteps coming toward me.
The rhythm of Reika’s gentle breathing.
The cacophony of steel ringing against steel.
None of those senses woke me that night.
No, it was a different sense — one that was harder to describe, since it felt more like an extension of so many others.
It was the sense of new sources of metal rapidly approaching.
I woke with a jolt, Dawnbringer cradled in my arms. Reika was warm next to me, still asleep. I shook her, but she just mumbled something and didn’t wake up.
After that, I stood up to assess if there was a threat. I got my answer as soon as I pushed myself out of the shelter.
Half a dozen figures stood around where we’d been sleeping, holding weapons at the ready. Not just swords. No, they’d gone for variety.
A momentary scan took in two sword-wielders in front of me, a spear-wielder to my left, an axe and shield user further left, and a halberd to my right, and some fancy bastard with two maces further that way.
It was dark — morning hadn’t reached us yet — but my eyes had adjusted enough that I could make out some other basic features. Half of them were wearing dark robes with some sort of symbol on the front. The two swordsmen in the front were wearing some sort of lightweight armor that only faintly detected as metallic — maybe an unfamiliar variety of brigandine.
The one with the axe and shield was in heavier metal armor, but not the kind of plate armor I was used to at home. It was constructed from individual plates that were woven together somehow, in a way that reminded me of chain armor, but with larger sections that were entirely solid. I’d heard of the Xixian Empire using some sort of scale-like armor, but I’d never actually seen it before. It had gone out of fashion before I was born.
They all looked human. Some male, some female. One of them had a glowing mark on their forehead that I initially processed as being a Dominion Mark. It took me a moment to realize it was probably one of those “attunements” that I’d heard about, but I’d never seen one before, and I wasn’t familiar enough with them to recognize which type it was.
Beyond the whole group, I could sense more metal. It was faint, but they had backup somewhere.
The main group was about ten feet away from me at that point. Outside of weapon reach, but close enough that someone could close the distance with a lunge very quickly, especially with the spear or halberd.
I’d left the Sae’kes in the shelter, but I had Dawnbringer with me. I lowered her into a defensive stance.
“Good evening.” I kept myself in front of the shelter, ready to block anything heading toward it, since Reika still wasn’t awake. She was in her most human-like form while she slept, and I wasn’t sure if ordinary weapons would hurt her in that state.
I also wasn’t confident they were merely using ordinary weapons.
A couple of them looked at each other, then they hastily exchanged words that I couldn’t understand.
One of the swordsmen stepped forward. “Forgiveness. Do you speak Dalen?”
I shook my head. “Only Velthryn...er, Valian.”
“Ah. Not our normal tongue, but I speak a little.”
I nodded, keeping my eyes searching for any hostile movements. Conversation was good. It was likely Reika would wake up to the noise eventually. I contemplated “accidentally” kicking the shelter, but it wasn’t necessary yet. “How can I help you?”
More speaking between the group, which I presumed involved a bit of translating. Then the swordsman spoke to me again. “We would like to commend you on the accomplishment of earning the Sword of Dawn’s Bright Light. We would ask you to turn the sword over to us, otherwise regrettably we will need to kill you.”
Well, that’s straightforward, at least.
“Sorry,” I replied. “I don’t suppose you would be willing to resolve this some other way?”
“No, our orders are clear. We must take the sword.”
I raised a hand, and the group tensed. “Wait. Who are you, and who are your orders from?”
“Forgiveness, stranger. You deserve to know who will be taking your life. I am Kaito, humble supplicant of Zenkichi, one of the Tails of Orochi.”
I had no idea who Zenkichi or the Tails of Orochi were, but I was impressed about how polite and confident someone could be while making a death threat. It was honestly rather refreshing.
And it did give me an idea.
“Could I...say, challenge your leader to a duel to avoid fighting the rest of you?”
The swordsman blinked at me. “You would...challenge one of the Tails of Orochi?”
From the horror in his tone, it sounded like he thought I was making a bad move. That meant whoever I was challenging had to be stronger than he was, and I was all about fighting as strong of opponents as I could find.
I smirked. “Absolutely.”
I had a moment of hope for the possibility of getting an even bigger fight out of this.
There was a hushed conversation as the swordsman translated, then a series of rapid words with other members of the group. Finally, the swordsman turned back to me. “Regrettably, as Zenkichi is not here to accept your offer, we must perform our duty. We will, however, remember and honor your bravery.”
That was disappointing. “Okay. I suppose I’ll take what I can get.”
Kaito seemed confused by my answer, but he bowed his head and offered me a few more respectful words. “We will allow you a moment for any final prayers.”
“Thank you.” I took a cautious step backward, kneeling down.
My hand moved to the hilt of my sword. I concentrated on Dawnbringer’s scabbard, loosening the crystalline material significantly.
I processed the positions of my potential attackers around me, judging the most likely threats.
A smile crossed my face.
Six against one?
This could still be fun.
And then I got started.
I stood up and whipped Dawnbringer toward the spearman. The scabbard — which, I’ll remind you, is solid crystal — flew off and slammed straight into his chest.
My next move was to kick backward, knocking down one of the supports for the shelter. Branches and leaves collapsed on top of Reika. None of them were heavy enough to cause any harm, but I did hear an alarmed “Gah!” come from inside.
I didn’t slow down to wait for her. I couldn’t. The first responses were already coming.
An arrow flickered out of the trees to my right, the metallic tip just barely large enough for me to detect. I side-stepped it, simultaneously swinging Dawnbringer toward the weapon closest to me — the halberd.
Ordinarily, swinging directly at weapons isn’t an ideal strategy. You typically want to hit the person, not their weapon. There are, of course, cases where you need to deflect a weapon that’s already in motion, but it’s considered more efficient to side-step or pivot your blade into a parry in most cases.
As a metal sorcerer, however, I had made a career out of unorthodox fighting practices.
Dawnbringer crashed into the metallic head of the halberd, and in that moment of contact, I could sense my attacker’s weapon as if I was touching it.
I felt the halberd’s structure in my mind and commanded it to break.
My attacker’s weapon exploded into fragments.
The scream in my mind was so sudden that I barely dodged an attack from Kaito, and loud enough that I did drop Dawnbringer entirely.
And without a sword, my odds of winning against six people on my own were plunging as quickly as she was.
While Dawnbringer was falling, another sword was still coming in my direction.
I spun, side-stepped, and smacked the other swordsman’s blade on the side. He was quick enough to turn the blade slightly, which meant I earned a nasty gash across my left hand. On the positive side, however, that momentary contact was enough time for me to reshape his weapon. His blade fell to pieces at my command.
Then my right hand came forward and smashed him in the face, carrying him back a half-dozen feet and into a tree. He fell still.
I didn’t have time to worry about whether or not I’d hit him too hard. Two sources of metal were rapidly approaching my back, one sharp and one flat.
I kicked backward, my boot impacting against the axe-wielder’s shield and sending him stumbling — but not very far.
By the time I spun, he was swinging again, and the mace-wielder was almost on top of me from the other side.
I managed to side-step the axe, but I couldn’t block the mace coming from behind me at the same time. I had to hope that my sharp movement had thrown off his attack and brace for impact.
Body of Stone.
Even with that spell active, I knew that a hit to my spine or head had the potential to be fatal.
Snap.
Fortunately, the noise wasn’t my spine. It was the sound of Reika bowling into the mace-wielder behind me, tackling him straight down into the forest floor. “Raww!”
She wasn’t always the most articulate when she’d first woken up, but a smile still crossed my face when I heard the sound.
Fighting alone was fun, but having friends to share it with was even better.
I didn’t have any time to pause and greet her. An arrowhead flickered through the night a moment later, and this time, I was too distracted to dodge it entirely. I felt a sharp pain in my right shoulder, but I didn’t have time to see how badly I’d been hit.
That axe was coming at me again, and so was Kaito. And now, Kaito’s sword was surrounded by a swirling coil of shadows.
I didn’t have time to think about what kind of magic that might be.
I jumped sideways, toward where I’d dropped Dawnbringer. The halberd-wielder was in the process of kneeling down to grab it, and I kicked him in the head as a reward for his enterprising move.
He fell backward, but I didn’t have time to retrieve the sword like I’d hoped. Kaito’s blade whipped out at me, and I stumbled backward to avoid it.
The coils of darkness swept out beyond the reach of his blade, striking like a snake.
I felt a moment of pain as the coils of darkness raked across my skin, then a feeling of cold spreading across my chest. That was never a good sign.
Moreover, I hadn’t been able to sense Kaito’s sword as he’d swung it toward me. The coils of darkness seemed to be inhibiting my ability to properly sense the metal.
Fortunately, I frequently used a similar technique to extend the range of my sword swings, and I knew some methods to counter it. Less fortunately, I hadn’t felt the aura until it had hit me, which meant it wasn’t a type of magic that I could easily sense or shape.
Also, he’d ruined another one of my shirts, and I was very swiftly working my way toward perpetually looking like the model on the cover of one of Reika’s novels.
I ignored my somewhat badly bleeding torso for the moment and stepped forward and around a swing from the axe-wielder, grabbing his wrist.
“I am very sorry about this.”
I twisted. So did his bones.
He screamed.
My other hand caught the axe as it fell, and then I was armed again.
A half-second later, Kaito’s sword swept forward and cut the head off my newly-acquired axe.
Then I was mostly unarmed again. I threw the stick at him, more out of spite than strategy.
Kaito fell back as if the stick was the most dangerous object in the world — which in fairness, is the proper response to anything that I throw at someone.
That gave me a moment to grab onto the axe-wielder’s shield, wrench it out of his hands, and slam a fist into his face.
I turned, carrying the shield the wrong direction, and smacked another arrow out of the air.
Reika blurred right past me, now covered in scales, her hands formed into claws. She threw herself at the spear-wielder, who had finally managed to get back to his feet after recovering from a severe stone scabbarding.
He managed to whip his spear right into her path, and Reika ran right into it.
For a moment, my heart nearly stopped. Then the spear bent, buckled, and snapped in half, and Reika was on top of her prey.
I turned away just in time to raise my awkwardly-carried shield to block a swing from Kaito. His gleaming sword bit into it, but stopped halfway, getting stuck.
I twisted the shield in an attempt to disarm him, but he quickly retreated, wrenching his sword free and cutting my left hand in the process.
I winced in pain and my left hand slipped off. Kaito took that as a window of opportunity and prepared to strike again, but he was a hair too slow.
I hurled the shield at him with my good hand. He cut it in half in mid-air, which was pretty impressive, but I was right behind it.
I punched him in the chest. Usually, that was enough to end a fight outright, but I got my first experience with punching through a shroud. I felt my hand going through invisible resistance, almost like pushing a magnet against an opposing magnet. I still hit him, but the shroud ate up some of the force.
He responded almost instantly, showing good instincts. Unfortunately, his particular instinct was to kick me, and I still had Body of Stone active.
He fell backward, nearly toppling himself over from the force of his own kick hitting something much more solid than he’d expected.
I was just about to pursue when another arrow hit me in the back.
“Aah,” I managed, stumbling and falling to my knees.
Kaito approached, raising his sword high. “You have fought well and will be remembered.”
I could sense metal nearby on the forest floor, just barely out of reach.
I hurled myself to the side, rolling out of the way of Kaito’s swing, and grabbed onto the metal.
Dawnbringer’s blade bit into my good hand. I swung her anyway, deflecting Kaito’s follow-up swing with Dawnbringer’s hilt.
I felt another large source of metal approaching from behind me, swinging Dawnbringer again just in time to smash the former axe-wielder in the face with her hilt. He fell backward, clutching his nose.
>
“I’ve never cared much about being proper.”
Kaito was preparing for another swing, and I was at an awful angle to keep trying to block, so I raised my other hand. Burn.
A blast of flame shot outward; just strong enough to alarm my opponent and drive him back.
With that, I had a moment to flip Dawnbringer around to a “proper” grip, but I was still on the ground when Kaito swung at me again.
I managed to parry, but injury to my hand burned from the weight of the impact. I made a lazy swing at his knees, but Kaito stepped back out of range easily.
He leveled his sword, then stepped back and raised it above his head.
A single bolt of lightning descended from the cloudless sky, meeting with his extended blade. The weapon flared with electrical energy, and he adjusted his stance to swing.
He was too far away for the sword itself to reach me, so I had a pretty good idea of what was coming next. In my current position, there was no reliable way to dodge — if my opponent was calling lightning, there was a good chance he could control it to arc straight to wherever I ended up.
I didn’t have time to stand, and he was too far away for a counter-attack. And with both hands bleeding and my position on the ground, I didn’t think I could manage an accurate throw.
I was planning to use my destructive aura to try to stop some of it, but I didn’t know how much it would accomplish. It wasn’t like a traditional shroud; it didn’t have a lot of defensive power.
Kaito began to swing.
It was one of the most absurd things anyone had ever asked me to do, but I was half-dead and out of options, so I didn’t even question it.
Lightning flashed toward me, but my sword arm was faster.
Electrical energy collided with Dawn’s brilliant light — and then rebounded back at Kaito, slamming into his chest. His grip on his weapon failed instantly, and he fell, twitching and writhing, to the forest floor.
Also, there was a small forest fire starting, but let’s not worry about that.
