Grand Saint Alloy

Kerri stood slowly, inspecting the new arrival. Tristan did as well, just without getting up. His body still had energy, but no essence. It felt odd having his muscles be fine, with burning bones.

The figure exiting the castle was familiar, she was wearing a white chest plate that covered her upper torso. A dress extended down, it was belted at the waste with a white chain, the dress was slit below that. The legs below had a set of ergonomic plates covering them, a spiked helm covered her head, and bone white gauntlets covered her hands.

Three different weapons orbited around her. A hammer, a chisel, and blue blade. Ice spread out from her feet and a snow storm raged around her. It looked awesome, but it was obviously made more for style than combat. The blade looked like an oversized scalpel, and the hammer was flat on one side and rounded on the other. They appeared to be oversized crafting tools.

Tristan tried to roll away, he was in no way ready to fight the ice queen. Unfortunately, he couldn’t even do that much. The little energy he put forward caused his vision to waver and darken at the edges. Only then did Tristan admit to himself that he was in a bad state.

Kerri looked at her and whistled. After scooping up his sword he addressed her, “Are you a thrall of the alchemist. Don’t stand between me and enslaving the silver blooded devil.”

Tristan wondered if he could dig his grave any deeper because he had just recognized this woman. Not from her posture or her stride, but from the grinding of teeth. He only knew one person who would get that angry when Hadrid was insulted.

“I was going to ask how you knew my sister,” the alchemist’s maid snarled, “But I think she would be better off without you in her life.”

“What are you going on about,” Kerri said, obviously confused.

He was forced to refocus as the chisel was thrown at him. Kerri stopped it with the flat of his blade. However this was a tier five artifact and only one of the two that were thrown at him.

Kerri’s blade bowed, then the hammer smashed the chisel. His tier three artifact snapped, but it did stop both attacks. The maid snatched the sword out of the air. To Tristan it looked a lot more like an oversized razor blade, which would make it very unwieldy.

At first Tristan thought it was made of ice, but it was ,in fact, a translucent metal. With a little bit of jealousy Tristan watched as the maid deftly wielded a four foot version of his knives. Kerri opted to dive out of the way of the sword.

“Are you one of my grandfathers good ideas,” the maid yelled, taking another swing at Kerri.

As she walked by the hammer and chisel levitated and returned to their satellite positions. Kerri drew his secondary weapon, a war pick that seemed to be standard issue for all warriors. It was not an artifact, just a sturdy piece of metal.

“Yes!” Kerri yelled, “I am his best idea he ever had.”

The maid screamed, but when she attacked, Kerri was ready. Tristan wondered what Eve’s parents were like to get this reaction. Unfortunately, the maid was clearly not a warrior.

She had excellent control over her weapons but it was technical. No forethought was put into how an opponent would react. From what Tristan could tell she had enormous intelligence, but only tangentially used it for violence. Even the artifacts that Tristan could sense were more for controlling an areas temperature and reducing contamination.

Predictably, Kerri side stepped the swing and kicked her in the gut. The blade hit the ground and the maid lost her grip on her razor and staggered back. The armor did a good job keeping her safe. She was able to get her own hammer up in time to stop Kerri’s war pick, but she was clearly a lower tier.

“How can a tier three woman use tier five artifacts,” Kerri yelled as he pushed the maid to her knees.

Tristan was not sure how he noticed the razor returning, but he side stepped avoiding its point as it returned to orbit. The maid followed Kerri as he regained his balance. She had the razor in one hand and the hammer in the other. Her technique started to slip as Kerri wove his way between the two weapons. He avoided the sword and parried the hammer.

The armor did an admirable job of protecting the maid, she would have beaten Tristan with no issue. Unfortunately, the aura of cold was largely ineffective. Kerri’s clothes crusted over with ice, however it was not thick enough or fast enough to impede him.

After a serious blow to the head, the maid staggered back, “What will you do to my sister?”

Kerri shrugged, “Eve, I’ll marry her, have children with her, and rule the Caldera with her. Unfortunately, you sided with the enemy, you are little more than a traitor. My rule won’t tolerate traitors.”

Tristan wondered if Kerri had set all this up just to get rid of Hadrid’s maid. There was no way for that to be true, Kerri was too impulsive and the maid could not be a threat. Elder River could just declare her a traitor and disown her. It worked wonders for family social standing in Tristans experience.

Kerri raised his war pick, he was not smiling, but triumph was in his eyes. Tristan tried to get to his feet. He did not really have any attachment to the maid, but letting her die would dissolve any chance that the caldera and the alchemist would cooperate. The edges of his kern had not even started to heal, moving caused it feel like he had bones made of broken glass.

Tristan focused on his muscles, instead of the pain. They were still functional. As soon as he did the source that he could vaguely feel seemed to draw closer. It seemed to inspect him like a museum curator searching for counterfeit antiques. Tristan frowned and pushed his muscles harder. It seemed like the last piece would fall into place.

“Everyone stop,” a casual voice said from the steps of the house.

Tristan felt something immense pressing down on him. It told him to fear, to run and hide. He had heard stories about blood lust or killing intent before. Truthfully he had not believed it was a real thing. He believed it was a measure by which story tellers could show off the power of their characters without them actually doing anything.

Hadrid pointed at, Kerri, “Leave, now.”

Kerri was on a roll today, he had already beaten one silver devil, fought ones assistant, and now he was ready for the master. He seemed immune to the killing intent. It made Tristan believe that it may be more related to the perception of the viewer than the danger posed by the aggressor.

“Ah, no,” Kerri said, he pointed his war pick at Hadrid, “I am here to subjugate you. Now submit willingly, or struggle. I don’t care.”

Hadrid tilted his head to the side, “Get off my lawn, blood is not good for the grass. You, because of the salt content.”

Kerri smirked, and pointed at Hadrid, “Get him.”

After a few moments of nothing happening Kerri looked back. The escort he brought was still with Eve. Kerri also seemed to notice the one or two hundred artifact weapons pointed at his fiancé. He also saw the alchemists living creations. Dozens of golize crawled around the home, actual flames leaked from between their teeth. Black birds the size of a man started standing, at a glance, they looked like bushes with their heads tucked beneath their wings.

The metal statues of Hadrid in various heroic poses shook the dust off of themselves. Their heavy footsteps sounded like thunder. Tristan had to do a double take. They were tier six artifacts, they would be borderline invincible to anything below the heroic realm. Hadrid’s audience started realizing just why the Caldera left him alone. Its not that they did not want to remove him, they simply couldn’t.

Hadrid clapped his hands, “I’m sure you have heard that I am a forgiving man. Indeed I am awe inspiring in my perfect character. However, I am very much like your grandfather in law in one crucial way. Don’t touch the people I care about.”

Hadrid started walking forward. Every step caused every piece of metal around him to vibrate. Kerri took a step back, he seemed to be just starting to understand that the pudgy short alchemist was left alone for a reason. He took another step back, then glanced at the maid, who was staring at Hadrid with sparkling eyes.

Tristan saw the moment when the thought ‘hostage’ went through his head. Kerri lunged for the maid and Hadrid chopped horizontally with his hand. The motion created a silver crescent that smashed into Kerri’s chest. It threw him off his feet and into the short retaining wall. Kerri only survived because his armor was made out of mythical leather not metal. As it was the metal essence crescent still cut into it.

Kerri dodged a bird pecking for his eyes. Hadrid crossed the distance in a moment. His face was calm and silver liquid coated his hand creating sword like claws. Someone shoved Kerri aside. It was a man dressed in black, but the move that saved Kerri cost him his life. The man fell into five slices, along with the retaining wall behind him.

Another one showed up, stepping from a shadow, “Run, my Lord, we’ll hold him, akk,”

Hadrid cut him like a loaf of bread, the sheer speed of his movements causing a delayed reaction before black garbed man fell apart. Kerri needed no more encouragement, he fled.