I said it once, and Ill say it again. This is stupid. Im going to check up on the kids.
Everyone stares at Selis, who has done nothing but pace around since she regained full control of her faculties. Look, she continues, obviously exasperated by everyones lack of ability to understand. Ferah is bound to have annoyed half of them. Flor surely has stolen sothing again, while Kosie is probably lost in the desert, counting her six billionth grain of sand, not aware of, or even seeing, the desert mutant thats about to eat her.
Every single conscious person stares at Selis. Even the two dragons that managed to wake up, Keeneff and Ka-Gaar, are looking at the flustered girl.
And Corl must have managed to find so way to injure himself. Theres no way that little masochist can go a single day without losing a limb. And of course, Willa is right behind him, steering him away from the worst stuff while furthering her own agenda. The conniving little pointy-eared Selis stops pacing again. She also hides her fingers behind her body, suddenly pretending like she wasnt anxiously biting her nails. Screw all of you! Teach is doing fine, and I can beat him up later. Im leaving!
Selis stomps off, followed by every single pair of eyes that is not completely focussed on smithing.
I dont even dare to look at the girl as she leaves. I have to keep my full attention on the most evil, the purest of blacks, the most despicable of all things that ever was, is, and will be - naly this shitty little hamr. I have no idea why, but the mont I started hamring with it, it stopped trying to kill everything. From the first ti I lifted it into the air with the purpose of using it to shape tal, it seed sated.
And the worst thing is, I have no idea whether or not that was pure coincidence. Stopping with the hamring now will have one of two results. One, everything will be fine. The hamr was simply sated, had taken in enough qi the mont I started bashing my sword with it. Two, and this one seems more likely to , the mont I stop, it will continue killing everything and everyone.
Either way, its been half a day since I started hamring, and I havent dared to stop since. I think its been half a day, anyway. Im not sure how long its been, as Database is still gone. Its body, Trees moon, is still lying on top of Trees lands, just off to the side. That also goes for the toxic moon, which isnt doing Trees ecosystem any favours by lting large stretches of land. At least, I once again think so. I havent dared to look up from my hamr work.
I just know that those two small celestial bodies are a problem, as thats what Tree is constantly whining about. It keeps bugging about the many stretches of land crushed beneath Databases white body, or the massive tally of trees, plants, animals, and mushrooms reduced to goop by the toxic moon. Rhea has also been bugging about a lot of stuff. My students are only now ceasing with the continuous stream of insults and banal questions they have been hurling at . And those two dragons only added fuel to the fire of insulting . And yet, I havent even dared to entertain the thought of responding to them, afraid that even the barest slip of my smithing fury will let the greed of the hamr return.
And actually, Im totally fine with them spewing vitriol at . I more than deserve so of it for ssing up and saddling them with part of the chaotic aftermath, after all. The Flight are entirely correct, I totally forcefully conscripted them into a survival ga from hell. Tess and Ket are also correct in that it would have been pathetically easy to prevent their overlapping teleports to their respective towns. Yes, yes, I can only nod along as my sins are laid bare.
The only thing that I cannot stand in my current situation cos from a much fluffier corner, though. Lola - probably woken from a combination of rising qi levels and my loud hamring - is staring at my sword. If I ever doubted the existence of the link between her and my door-sized slab of tal I use as a weapon, I no longer do so. She is totally ignoring the massive blasts of superheated air and fire that explodes from the sword when I hamr its fiery side. She is entirely unphased by the shards of ice that spontaneously erge when I work on the ice-cold side. Instead, she just sits there, staring at the blade with her little annoyingly cute and beady eyes.
And here she cos again. I grit my teeth, the small hope that I could get this one past her quickly wilting. I started hamring without much of a plan, to be honest. Only when I was a couple of dozen hamr strikes into reforging my sword did it cross my mind to work towards improving the thing. Originally built for the sole purpose of chopping, pre-cooking, and freezing large and tasty beast hordes, I never really thought this hunk of tal would serve any other purpose.
Yet the hamr wasnt content with just letting hamr away randomly. No, it basically forced to start working towards so form of a goal. I felt its dissatisfaction when I randomly struck the sword on the anvil, and it forcefully encouraged to employ traditional smithing techniques to improve the blade.
And Lola caught wind of it, and now the little shit is interfering. Ive been working on the handle for the past hour, trying to force the straight smooth piece of round tal into a more ergonomic shape. I was planning on hamring in a complex weave pattern, to simulate wire wrappings for added grip. Im nearly done with the first wave, so to say, the rough shape of interwoven threads already roughed out. Im carefully hamring out the last series of delicate decorations, and Lola must have slled that Im nearly done. The pattern I create now, I will have to repeat across the entire handle.
I feel like crying as Lola carefully extends her paw. The little animal has never been good at fine control, so why is she capable of such delicate work all of a sudden? I watch on with tears in my eyes as the distinctly neutral wire pattern twists into new shapes. Lolas horn shines brightly with blue and orange as she uses it to carve cute little leaf patterns. One engraved fibre bundle warps into a series of round hearts, while cartoon paw prints form another band of adorable texture.
I then spend the next couple of hours repeating the sa kid-friendly pattern over the entire handle. Each ti I even think about changing it back into sothing manly, Lola hops closer and starts forming her horn threateningly.
For over ten hours now, Ive been forced to engrave cute little leaf patterns, adorable bunny prints, and girly iconography all over the sword. As if the two cartoonish bunny heads werent enough. As if the super cute little bunny paw at the poml of my blade wasnt hard enough to hide already!
Rhea! Please take Lola away from here! I cant stand this any longer, please, I beg you! Once again futilely begging the dragoness, I resu imploring her with tear-filled eyes.
No! That row of hearts is way too sweet. Lola, be a dear and incorporate so dragon scales in there, maybe so cute fangs?
Lola and Rhea then have a small staring contest. I dont know who wins until a while later. By this ti, Im done with the handle, which now looks like it could fit into a small little girls bedroom. I hamr listlessly on the poml, hoping for sothing better than cute bunny ears or a cartoonish snout. A lovely dragon head forms under my blows, Lola manipulating her energy at levels even I would have trouble with while helping shape the tal.
Aww, thats adorable. Thanks, you little fluff ball! Look, its , in dragon form!
Please dont encourage her! I beg.
Hey Lola, how about so adorable daggers? Look, this could be cute. I look up briefly and see Tess holding a black pattern between her fingers. Stumpy daggers interlock in a thickly lined pattern, and I can just see Lola eyeing my blade for where it would be best placed.
And the worst thing is, my fullblade is undoubtedly getting a lot stronger. Id placed all its atoms in the most optimal of tallic crystalline patterns. Every single shard of alloy and structural piece of reinforcent is designed for structural strength and material efficiency.
And yet, sohow, with every hamr blow I bring down on the thing, its aura grows slightly stronger. What used to be a solid hunk of tal interwoven with silver and mana stone is now a lot thinner. The mana crystals are slowly but surely interweaving through the tal, the edge between alloy and energetic dium fading slowly.
Its shrunken down to an ordinary blade thickness at this point, while it retained all of its weight. The qi inside it flows smoother with each hamr blow, an organic quality improving the chanical efficiency it was previously operating with.
And yet, I cant really be happy about it. Half the blade is now covered in a bunny print that would look childish on a five-year-old girl. The tapered edge has a fur and leaf pattern that just screams to be coloured in with crayon by so enthusiastic three years old. The handle is now an intricate weave of hearts, bunnies, paws, and more absolutely adorable stuff.
I really thought that the four bunny head prints and the paw poml was bad at first. Please co back, my innocent opinion from back then, please save from this hello-kitty-level murder weapon!
More tears drop from my eyes, quenching parts of the sword that have grown too hot under my constant hamring.
He seems really sad, comnts Vox.
It kind of hurts, looking at this Tess says hesitatingly.
That all of our combined efforts hurt him less than his own pet rabbit? asks Ket.
Yeah, this is aweso, but deaning on a whole different level. Revenge is supposed to be sweet. Im just feeling uncomfortable seeing him in this state.
My tears continue to flow as each hurtful sentence spewed from my students mouth stabs another cute little dagger into my heart.
Ket, lets go. Re-Haan, please make teleporting free for us. No need to waste points on that now.
Ah, sure. Every one of the foundation realm, you just need a one ti fee, cos Rheas leisurely voice. I can hear the fact that shes relaxing in a lounge chair while sipping on so drink.
That works. Co Ket. I wanna see how that iron-loving mayor Elbogar is doing.
Lets visit the northern town after. Im curious how you managed all those useless noble factions. Teach, well be back to discuss Nexus later.
I sense Ket and Tess walk towards Tree, where they disappear with a soft pop of displaced air.
I cos Angetas voice, Ive got to go and check whether or not those lazy primitives let any of those disgusting beasts through. Also, Re-Haan, your order will be taking a while longer, sorry about that.
Its fine. Unforeseen circumstances and all that. Can you try to create a new fabric for this chair? Its getting worn out.
Ooh, this is nicely made. It folds! Yeah, sure. Ill get so people on this. Bye, is the last thing I hear Angeta say before she also vanishes with a whoosh.
One by one, my students all abandon , leaving alone with a rabbit that's way too focussed on ruining a sword itll never wield anyway, an enabling sadistic dragon, and so more unconscious people.
I swear I saw Bassik, Rityn, Ares, Rodrick, and a few more hanging around. But then again, I also saw a couple of those students faint from being in the re proximity of the qi sucking hamr. My theory is proven correct a while later, as I hear the colourful married couple of braincore and eyecore bickering about where to go first. They also leave, but not before spitting in my direction.
So, Re-Haan. You will tell your senior who ca up with this plan of kidnapping the entire Flight. A rough voice that I dont recognise sounds out.
Hey, hairy dude. Wanna fight? Thats Bord. Why hasnt that fat-ass left yet?
Who's that, Tooth Bord? cos a female voice I also dont recognise.
No, you insignificant fat human. I do not want- A sudden beat down shuts the shouting person up. Fighting sounds co from the side, and I once again curse this hamr for demanding my full attention.
Now that the younger generation is playing, Re-Haan, how about we talk so serious business, says the older sounding dragon.
Im not calling you ancestor anymore, Ka-Gaar.
I hear the frustrated grinding of teeth from over here, you know. Of course, this ancient fossil of a dragon is going to mind that Rhea doesnt want to honour him anymore, just because he hatched earlier.
Wait, do dragons co from eggs? Did Rhea hatch from an egg? Will she lay eggs? I try to banish the thoughts, and suddenly see that Ive been hamring a nice decorative series of cracking cartoon eggs along the blade. Now the hamr is psychologically torturing ? Lola looks between the egg decorations, my face, and Rhea for a few monts. She then seems to nod before continuing her little nap.
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