Grand Saint Alloy

Tristan and the team looked out at the plains from the Lake Fort. This base was the most professional one that Tristan had visited, he was not sure why. The people were dressed the same and armed the same. There were fewer injured, and the food was better, due to the lake being unaffected by the ghost crabs. If he was forced to point anything out it would be the far higher numbers of tier three warriors participating. It was almost like they were preparing for something, which was a ridiculous thought. The issue was right across the trench.

At first, Tristan thought they would be crossing the plains again to deliver the gel packs with the eggs in them. That was incorrect. They were too weak to be trusted with such an important mission. Tristan felt this was odd because they had been trusted with the wealth of the Forest Caldera in the form of a tier-six artifact. It was odd unless delivery was not the point of that task. Tristan shook those thoughts out of his head, it did not really matter now.

“It feels weird to just go back to hunting,” Eve said.

Bruce nodded, “We have been through way worse than the standard kill squad.”

“I think it's weird that we have been facing what amounts to murderous shrubbery,” Tristan griped.

He had been disappointed that the ghost crabs that he had struggled with were an alchemically bioengineered combination of a crab and two different kinds of carnivorous plants. The fact that he had run from them on multiple occasions made it all the worse. However, the fact that an alchemist could turn something that would ordinarily fit in his palm into a city-destroying disaster, made him more interested in the art of alchemy.

“Regardless, let us head back to the Stone Fort,” Bruce said.

When the sun cracked the horizon, the draw bridges started lowering. Over fifty, five-man teams crossed and left to go hunt. Most would not go so far as to spend the night out in the plains, so Tristan believed that they would make good time for at least the first few hours. After that would be two and a half days of enemy territory before they made it back to the Stone Fort.

Clive led the way, his knowledge of the farming communities led them straight to the nearest one. It was the standard pinewood structure with a tile roof, with a large swath of harvested fields around it. Just like before, abandoned farming implements littered the surrounding area, and the bones of animals had been scattered around.

Bruce placed a hand on the door and pushed. Nothing happened. He frowned, “The door is barred?”

Tristan shook his head, “How, that would mean that someone is already inside.”

Bruce rubbed his chin, “That's true, cutting the bar went badly on our first outing,” he turned to Clive, “Were there any issues when we went through the wall in one of the bunkhouses?”

“Aside from William running off, no,” Clive said, “It was actually much more comfortable, as we had the opportunity to sleep on beds in them.”

Bruce nodded, to Tristan, “Go into one of the bunkhouses and inspect what is inside.”

Tristan nodded back and trudged over to the nearest one. He slit the bolt keeping the door locked and stepped inside. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, but he still inspected every cot. He was looking for signs of recent activity. A warm fire pit, or a cup of water, anything to determine it was lived in. All the blankets were missing, but that did not mean that anyone was here, it was not uncommon for the farmers to forgo them entirely as they grew crops during the summer.

He turned his attention to the wall and slid the swordbreaker through. It was barely long enough to get through the wall, which would make it hard to see from the other side. Carefully, Tristan cut a square hole in the wall and removed the loose block of wood. As soon as the block was free whispered voices could be heard on the other side.

“So these little things can get rid of the crabs?” A man whispered.

Tristan placed his eye to the hole and found a familiar scene. A team of five men sat around a large rock, which had sizzling meat on it. All of them were wearing half-plate armor with metal covering their shins, forearms, and chests with their helmets sitting beside them. One man who obviously had a fire kern was heating the rock, he had quite a strong kern to be able to cook with it.

The kerns of the other four were a mystery, but there was a stack of gel packs beside the cooking stone. One was in the hands of a man with black hair, he inspected the white sphere inside.

“I doubt it,” another man said, “Trusting the alchemist is the shortest possible path to ruin, it is like listening to the song of a siren.”

“Well, the Elder sees it your way, with the River Caldera mobilizing, there really is no reason to risk using them,” The fire kern said.

“Why do the Elders put up with the alchemist,” the man holding the gel pack asked.

“No idea,” the fire kern said, he gripped one of the slabs of meat and flipped it with his fingers, “I am a soldier, not a general.”

Tristan quietly stepped back from his hole and made his way back to the others. They had set up not far from the bunkhouse he had been spying from. Clive looked around uncertainly, while Bruce and Eve had hands on their respective artifacts, inspecting the crop line. Nothing had happened so far, which was odd considering their location.

“Is anything inside,” Bruce whispered.

Tristan nodded, “Five people, at least one is a warrior, they are the team sent with Hadrid’s seeds. They are planning to destroy them.”

Bruce frowned, “Why, what’s going on.”

Tristan could only shrug, how would he know, however, Bruce might get something out of another tidbit, “They mentioned that Elder River is mobilizing.”

“What,” Bruce’s eyebrows rose, “a hole in the rampart’s defenses was what caused this mess, why would the Elder remove a full sixth of the forces? It's like he wants to get invaded.”

Eve looked very uncomfortable at the less-than-positive talk about her grandfather. However, she had no context for his actions and could not defend him. Unfortunately, Kerri had been one of his more recent decisions, and that decision had tried to kill her sister. That made it difficult to defend his judgment.

“What should we do,” Eve finally asked.

Bruce rubbed his chin, “Here are the options as I see them. We can ignore them, we can fight them and plant the seeds ourselves, or we can simply talk to them.”

Tristan grinned, “I’m partial to the middle one.”

Eve and Clive gave him exasperated glances, Bruce shook his head, “This is not a democracy, I believe communication will be our best course of action.”

“What if they attack us,” Clive asked.

“They won’t, I am the son of one of the most important figures in the Forest Caldera, and Eve is the grandchild of the most important person in the River Caldera,” Bruce said, “Clive, you are not an issue in the slightest,” he paused when he got to Tristan, “You, you might need to hide. I don’t know how they will react to a silver devil.”

Tristan nodded, “Then I will plan for option two while you guys pretend option three will work.”

Bruce opened his mouth and frowned, “Just don’t do anything crazy unless I tell you to. I want this to be peaceful.”

“What is the signal,” Tristan asked, his definition of danger was substantially higher than Bruce’s despite what they had been through together. He had fought some crabs, whereas Tristan had fought elementals from multiple worlds, tier four warriors, and he had taken most of the tier three crabs they had met.

Bruce shrugged, “I guess, I’ll just yell for help.”

“I’ll be ready then,” Tristan said.

Bruce gave him a few minutes to distance himself before knocking on the double doors. For a few moments, he worried that he had not been loud enough. Then the door pushed open a crack and he could see a blue eye peaking out from a metal helmet. Likely a water kern then, Bruce thought. Iris’s weren’t always the color of one's essence, but it was extremely likely. Blue was a common eye color, as water, fire and some gemstones could all be blue.

“Who are you,” The man asked. His voice was confrontational like they did not want visitors.

“I am Bruce, we left the Lake Fort this morning, and this seems to be a good place to rest,” Bruce gave his best charming smile.

“Ah lake folk, come on in,” The man gestured for them to enter, “Hope you brought your own food, we have none to spare.”