Forty-Sixth Post - Sword Mage

Greetings All,

I’m at a tough spot in the writing process. I can’t just make up more stuff to be a filler. There are a couple more good chapters coming once I get them done. I have one long (2.9k words) chapter done that fulfills a promise from a couple of posts ago. To keep momentum, I will post it now by itself. Enjoy!

Tim G. Sends.

Chapter Eighty-One – A Sword Mage Receives a Great Prize

The homecoming was a simple affair. The Ducal Prince and Princess hugged all the children and settled into home life again. It was two ten days later they received a very significant and impressive gift. “Aye, Commander. We finally figured out how to make that material you described. And yes, the heat required is absolutely incredible. After that, making the armor was almost trivial. We even had enough material left over to cast a sword blank. Sharpening it challenged our ingenuity even more until I remembered something you casually mentioned about using crushed diamond on a whetstone wheel. Heh, now we have a new tool that will sharpen anything.”

The Master Armorer sat back in his chair in their family meeting room and sipped his excellent tea. Every visit he had with nobility was the best. After a minute, he stood and opened the chest-high cabinet his assistants had carried in. The armor gleamed a bright golden color that belied the incredible toughness of the bond with the titanium metal.

Kalara stood and examined the individual pieces of the armor with a very experienced eye. It was all cast, trimmed and buffed to perfection. She straightened and said, “Bring it to the yard.”

A large crowd of warriors gathered as Kalara had the breastplate of the new armor mounted on a heavy target post. She selected a new steel sword. It was one of the best their sword masters had ever made. They all watched as she poured her white magic into the blade. The Master Armorer’s face tightened with apprehension as he watched the Sword Mage prepare. Everyone in that assembly had seen her cleave heavy demon armor with one blow using that magic.

Kalara took a two-handed stance facing the breastplate and the post. With a loud shout she took her best swing at the center of the plate. The sword snapped in two with a clang and Kalara’s forearm snapped with a more muted crack. She shouted and dropped the sword hilt. “Julian. Please pull it straight.” He hurried to take a two-handed grip on her wrist. It was a nasty break where the bone was close to piercing her skin. She grunted as he pulled the bones back into position and held it as her Perfect Health gift began to knit them together.

In a few minutes her arm was healed enough to leave it alone. The Master Armorer and a growing group of knights were examining the armor. The only mark was a smear of the sword’s steel left on the plate. The Master Armorer pulled out a steel brush and polished the plate until it was gleaming and unmarked. Julian stared at it in wonder. “Sir, you said there was a sword as well?”

Inside the cabinet’s tall lid was another compartment. They pulled out a fine scabbard with a perfectly wrapped hilt. Julian accepted the formally presented blade, buckled it on and drew. If the armor was impressive, the crowd gasped at the beauty of the metal. It gleamed and sported a beautiful design along the center of the double-edged blade.

He took his stance before another ten-inch-thick target post. This one was fairly new and had only a small number of slashes. Julian used the enhancement magic from the green gem on his wrist and poured his native fire magic into the blade. Two quick slashes and the post collapsed. Two large pieces fell in different directions and only a smoking stump was left standing.

The crowd stood silent until Kalara coughed. “Does this mean I won’t worry quite so much about you?” Julian stared at the new blade with a grin. “I think it means I have more demons to hunt in the future. I want to try it all on.”

It took a few minutes to assemble all the pieces into his complete suit of armor. He buckled the sword and worked for the next hour several times through the complete set of forms. When he was done, he took off the helmet and accepted a towel. “This metal is not only tough, but also extremely light.” Kalara smiled at him and said, “It’s four times harder than the titanium metal alone but is actually lighter than steel.”

She then moved Julian to a position about ten feet in front of one of the other target pillars. He just said, “What?” Kalara activated her full enhancement magic and kicked him as hard as she could in the chest plate. Her husband went flying to slam into the pillar. Everyone stared at her in shock until he stood up laughing. “You didn’t give me any warning, dear.”

Kalara stared back at him with a wicked smile. “The demons won’t give you any warnings when they get their shots in. You know they will. In the thick of the fight, it will be impossible to stop them all.” Julian sheathed the sword and waved for his attendants to start removing the armor. “That’s true. But a lot more of them will go down before they get the chance again.”

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King Harlan closed his eyes and said a quick prayer of thanks to the Goddess. Her Chosen One, the Sword Mage, His Royal Commander and so on for many more titles had done it again. Out of concern for her husband, Kalara had given them an incredible new metal. It made an indestructible armor. She wrote in her report, “This metal literally cannot be broken by any force driven by muscle or magic.”

The sword they made from it was nearly as amazing. It was so hard and sharp, they expected it to cleave even the demon giants into pieces. He was about to order Julian to the Line immediately, then paused. Another pair of ten days. They knew the King would be more than eager to use this new power. Out of concern for the Chosen One (the way he often now thought of her), King Harlan gave them another pair of ten days.

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When Julian finally returned to the Line, many of the knights laughed at his outrageous golden armor. He gathered ten Senior Knights and had them use old swords. “If my armor is so inferior, have at it!” He simply stood in the middle of their loose circle and let them bang away. The noise was incredible and Julian soon regretted not wearing earplugs.

After fifteen minutes of straining and banging, he stood unmoved. His new armor was also unmarked. Every sword was bent and chipped if they hadn’t snapped in half. Sir Starlen exclaimed, “What in all the Blessings is that metal?” Julian put his hands up and clasped fist in hand over his head to signal the end of the fight and removed his helmet.

He took a slow turn to look at the Knights as they recovered their breath. “This is an alloy of gold, and a tough new metal called titanium. You heat it to an incredible temperature, and it becomes something that cannot be broken by any muscle or magic. My wife used her strongest magic and most powerful swing and couldn’t scratch it. And it’s not alone.”

Julian drew the sword and let them see it properly. As the light hit it, you could see from the gleaming color that this was not gold alone. “Starlen, that’s your old armor, right? Did they finish your new plate?” Sir Starlen nodded yes, then asked for a new sword. They took their stance and as the blades met, the steel sword was neatly cleaved in half. Julian then drew a line across the Knight’s breast plate. The incredible sword made a swift gouge as if it were slicing a loaf of bread.

Sir Starlen jumped back with a shout. “Goddess preserve us.” He looked at the broken sword and tossed it away. He placed his left fist in the right hand and bowed briefly. “Lord Knight, we will follow you into the fight!” Loud cheers sounded around the camp.

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The demons quickly forgot all about the Kalara the Hand Cutter. Only the most senior of them had ever faced her. This new creature they simply called the Golden Death. Nothing could touch it. It moved with a speed and technique none of them could match. Every weapon or dart it simply shrugged off.

Their commanders ordered them to isolate it. If they could surround the creature then it could be overwhelmed with sheer mass. But the monster was too canny. It caught on to their maneuvers and would retreat behind its warriors and their shields before they could catch it. After a brief rest, the creature would again explode from behind the shields to tear through their lines.

It did not even retreat from their giant warriors. If anything, the monster sought them out and carved them to pieces while its fellows guarded its flanks. After three major battles where the center of their army was cut apart until a mage could use the killing spell, the Demon Lord ordered them to retreat.

The demons returned to their old tactics of quick raids to snatch whatever could be eaten then retreat to their tunnels. Even that was often defeated as Air Commander Nevissan and Senior Bomb Knight Justan found and destroyed half the tunnels before the raids could begin. The demons quickly went from an existential threat to a nasty nuisance.