Grand Saint Alloy

Tristan ran, dodging between the citizens of Alchehall. He was not willing to push them out of his way, for some reason, a metal kerns could identify artifacts with a great degree of certainty. His working theory was that artifacts were a metal like material most of the time, giving him a greater affinity with them.

Bow- air essence, arrows would shoot farther and harder

Bow- metal essence, draw weight is negated at full draw

Arrow- fire essence , explodes with fire on impact

Sword- air essence, carbonates liquid it contacts

Dagger- sound essence, cuts with vibrations

Cloak-light essence, bends light around the wearer

Tristan was bombarded with so many weapon type artifacts that he could not tell them apart. There were more here than anywhere else in the Caldera. Way more. Weapon type artifacts were rare, as they were made by people for their descendants, and most people were not warriors. A ring that could light up a room at night was way better than a sword that would do the same thing.

He darted past carts full of supplies scarred men and women who ignored him. Tristan had to make it to his goal. There was an army of hybrid creatures guarding his home, they would be enough to deal with Kerri. No doubt about that, Kerri was raised in sparring matches, not death fights with lizard monsters.

The sound of arrows being removed from their quivers and blades being drawn sounded behind Tristan. Kerri was quickly gaining ground. Tristan was not even sure that the citizens could stop Kerri, most were probably tier one or two. If they were willing to throw away their lives, sure they could. However, they were mostly criminals and outcasts, there was no way they would be willing to throw their lives away for him.

“Stop running coward!” Kerri yelled.

Tristan gritted his teeth and accelerated. A five second head start did not amount to much. The low fence around the castle came into view, it was about waist high and easy to climb. After all it was only for decoration, no one would be dumb enough to trespass on the alchemist’s lawn. No one but Tristan.

He vaulted the fence and landed on his feet. Then he made a run for the castle. The pounding of boots made him look back, just in time. Tristan turned, drawing his long knife to deflect the sword slash. It was extremely powerful.

The difference in their capabilities was roughly the same as the difference between Tristan and the dark elemental in the mine. However, Kerri made full use of his skills. The sword was a force multiplier and tossed Tristan back.

He looked at Kerri’s sword, expecting to see severe damage to the blade. His eyes widened to see the edge of Kerri’s sword unmarred, while the long knife’s essence reservoir had dimmed. The tier one artifact would not be able to hold up to Kerri’s tier three artifact for long. It would have destroyed the knife in one blow if it did not run on a reservoir for its durability.

Kerri sneered, “You even plan to use the alchemists products to fight me, I knew you were in collusion.”

Tristan was not sure if Hadrid could see them, but he was sure there was some form of detection system. He would have to put on a show and delay the killing blow as long as possible.

“You plan to fight a tier one in some sort of duel,” Tristan said, “You even chased me onto Mister Hadrid’s lawn. That is rude and shows a lack of respect to your host.”

“Grasping at straws,” Kerri yelled as he ran in again.

If he wanted a fight, a fight was what Tristan would give him. He had no way to escape, and had the lesser weapons. Kerri reached him and chopped down at Tristan’s skull. This was the first time Tristan fought someone with a sword before, and luckily he had just the tool.

Kerri’s longsword slid nicely between the teeth of the approaching sword breaker. Tristan had to use both knives to stop the blade and was still driven to his knees, but he was still alive. He twisted the sword breaker to break Kerri’s blade. Unfortunately, neither Tristan or his tool was up to the task. It did however bind to the blade.

Kerri was stronger than Tristan, but with two and a half feet of leverage, he was able to exert just as much control over the sword. So, with the sword breaker as a handle Tristan jerked the sword aside, and chopped at Kerris hands. Tristan was not sure what he expected the young man to do in response. Drop his weapon was not it.

Weapons and tools got heavier as they rose in tier. The hammer that they were going to use as payment weighed around fifty pounds, where a hammer of identical make for a tier zero would weigh five pounds. Stronger bodies could use heavier weapons. Still, Tristan was not expecting to bear the entire weight of a fifteen pound longsword.

Kerri removed his hands and Tristan’s delicate foot work was thrown off by the extra weight. There was no way for Tristan to block the punch to his face. He poured essence into the impact sight and his brain, getting a concussion now would be a death sentence. The strike threw him of his feet and caused him to roll a few feet.

Kerri shook his hand, “Does the silver blood give natural armor or something. You people are really closer to the crabs with their shells than us humans.”

Tristan got back to his feet, his cheek hurt and would bruise. But the ringing noise that came from head trauma was absent. The effectiveness of brain reinforcement was staggering. It should not have surprised Tristan, the he could harden his kern which included bones, blood, and his heart. An extra hard skull was a good way to survive head blows.

Kerri walked to his sword, “No matter, armor can be broken just like a shell.”

Tristan was not going to let the mad man get to his weapon . He charged Kerri and tackled him. Tristan would have stabbed him, but he had also lost his weapons. Kerri squawked, evidently not expecting Tristan to turn this into a wrestling match.

He some how ended up on top. Pouring essence into his knuckles, he started punching Kerri in the face. After receiving two punches and a bloody lip, Kerri caught Tristans right fist in his right hand. He dragged the arm across and out to the side so that Tristan’s own arm blocked his own punches. With a jerk Tristan found himself on his back with Kerri straddling him.

Tristan was bigger than Kerri, but that did not seem to matter much. He copied Tristan, however unlike Kerri, he lacked the physical strength to catch Kerri’s fists. So he would have to endure. Tristan filled the bones in his forearms with metal essence and used them to block. His muscle was no where near as strong as Kerri’s. When the blows started, Tristan took them on his arms, though several times his own fist was punched into his face.

After a few minutes of futility, Kerri grabbed Tristan’s arms and forced them aside. He pushed them to the ground and repositioned himself so that his knees held his arms down. Tristan tried to buck him off, but that failed. He tried to kick Kerri in the back of the head, but it was a bad angle.

Kerri started raining punches down and Tristan did the only thing he could, he turtled up. He could sense a mass of metal just below him. The alchemist had to do something, anything. However, he did nothing. Tristan could feel his essence get exhausted and it became harder and harder scrape together enough to stop the next strike from being the last.

The pain of his bones being squeezed and wrung out hurt every time. This time he was able to focus through the pain, Luke was right, it did get easier to endure. Then his kern broke, but Kerri did not stop punching.

“In the future, know your place,” Kerri snarled, “stay away from Eve.”

Tristan reached out for something anything to save him. He felt something in the space beyond his kern. It was not something that was his, but it was something he needed. He pulled on it and it ignored him, like it was a long way off. Tristan screamed, he would not die because an angry young man could not control his hormones.

So he tried harder, he pulled. It was not essence he was trying to get ahold of, it was something more removed. Like if the essence in the world came from a river, this was its source. Unfortunately, one cannot simple drag a lake and will it into obedience. Whatever Tristan was doing, it finally caught someone’s interest.

Kerri froze mid swing as half a dozen artifacts, too powerful for either of them to use were activated. Tristan was shocked, they were a tier higher than Sirens sword, so that would be tier five. Another thing, they were water artifacts.The door to the castle opened and someone stepped outside, covered in frozen armor.