Grand Saint Alloy

Fire Kern sliced horizontally at the air, normally this would have been a bad move, as Bruce and Eve were fifteen feet away. However, the blade sent out goblets of liquid fire along the arc of the blade. Tristan was not sure if there was a limit to the number of times he could launch those, and he did not intend to find out.

So he did the only sensible thing. He cut the catwalk's supports. In recent weeks he had gotten fairly proficient at dropping large objects on people. The catwalk fell and hit Fire Kern. Unfortunately, Tristan was not sure if a couple of dozen pine wood planks would be able to put the man down. Tier threes were tough.

Everyone looked up, Tristan waved hi before running for the skylight. An explosion behind him notified Tristan that Fire Kern had indeed survived.

“Kill them!” He yelled, “I want their scorched corpses!”

Looking over at the ladder, Tristan saw that someone had already started climbing. Judging from the half plate, he was not friendly. Tristan looked at the skylight and freedom, he would not make it before the warrior got to him. He refocused on the armored man, he would just have to get to him first. The warrior noticed him coming and started climbing faster.

Tristan would have gotten to the top of the ladder first if he had been able to run in a straight line. Unfortunately, the catwalk was a mess of right turns that followed the rafters. The warrior reached the top and barely had time to stand when Tristan smashed into him. The ladder extended through a square hole where the walk abutted the wall, so the warrior was slammed back into the wall.

He probably could have deflected Tristan, but he correctly judged that the knives were a greater threat, and deflected them both. Somehow the man managed to get a leg between himself and Tristan, shoving him back. Tristan took a swipe with his long knife as he staggered back. The blade was just barely too short to reach him.

The man pulled some kind of tube and loaded a spike into it. He grabbed the other end and pointed the open side at Tristan. There was a hollow puff and Tristan tried to dodge, but the catwalk did not leave much space. So he reinforced his vitals. It took about half of his metal essence, but was worth it.

The spike hit him in the chest and would have skewered his heart if it had not contacted a rib. The reinforced blood slowed it a little, but the bone was what really did it, and Tristan was sure it was fractured. He was not sure what kind of artifact the warrior was using, but he had definitely sensed metal essence from the tube. It was not an artifact. He sprinted forward, he may not know what it was, but he knew that the tube was a ranged weapon.

With a cocky smile, the man fell. Tristan was shocked for a moment, yes the hole the ladder jutted through was between the warrior's legs, but the fall would still kill the man. Unable to arrest his momentum, Tristan careened into the wall, barely avoiding falling himself. He looked down the ladder, expecting a shattered warrior on the dirt floor.

Luck was not on Tristan’s side, the warrior was about ten rungs down, pointing the tube straight up at Tristan’s face. Tristan had essentially given the man a perfect target, and elite warriors were not known for missing these kinds of chances. A hollow puff jerked Tristan's head back and threw him on his back.

Wide-eyed, Tristan stared at the ceiling, he only had a quarter of his essence left after reinforcing his skull. Rolling over he spat out the metal spike and the shattered remnants of one of his canines. A gob of bloody spit came out, the spike had driven into the roof of his mouth. Tristan was suddenly glad that wind kerns had limited combat utility. He stopped at that thought, that was one of Shadow Fist’s teachings, light and wind were utility elements. Tristan shook his head, that was dumb, any talent turned towards violence could be devastating.

Getting shakily to his feet he sneered at the wind kern warrior. He probably thought he was so smart, truthfully he was, but he had no knowledge of Tristan’s kern. So it took the man completely by surprise when Tristan dropped down the through the hole. He hit the warrior about halfway down the ladder, and despite his opponent's tier-three strength, he was torn off the wall.

Tristan intended to use the warrior's body as a cushion, which was a great idea before he realized the man was covered in armor. The man tried to push Tristan away, but he lacked the leverage. Tristan punched him in the face. He would have used his knives, but not even he was willing to jump down a ladder with those blades drawn.

The warrior tilted his head forward to take the strike on his helmet, then an explosion rocked the warehouse. Orange light suffused everything as the produce caught on fire. It was a strong enough blast to change the trajectory of Tristan’s fall. Surprisingly, the fall turned into a roll, sparing Tristan any injuries. Unfortunately, it offered the same boon to his opponent.

The warrior landed by Tristan’s knee and immediately started to rise. A kick to the face put him back down in the dirt. Tristan drew his sword breaker and prepared to jump on him. The warrior was saved by one of his comrades, who had an earth kern, judging by how the man charged like a bull.

Tristan was forced to roll out of the earth kern’s way. This man could not know that Tristan was his worst opponent. He drew his long knife as well and jumped at the man as he passed. The defense that made earth kerns great warriors would be invalidated by his knives. Earth Kern was a warrior, so he managed to see the knife approaching and even had time to react. Unfortunately, he calculated that a blade specialized in slicing would be insufficient against his plate and earth essence. He decided to swing with his fists.

His tier-three body allowed him to hit Tristan’s jaw first, but it was still reinforced. Then the long knife passed unhindered through steel and flesh. The viscous nature of earth blood actually made the cut nearly invisible as nothing leaked out. However, the heart and sternum were in two separate pieces. Earth Kern’s strike lost a lot of its follow-through, and he collapsed to his knees revealing a horrified wind kern behind him.

“Grant!” The man yelled, his face was contorted with rage, “He was, you’re going, you’re going to regret that.”

Tristan made eye contact with him, he was probably going to regret it. It was his first human kill, the fact that he felt nothing would probably keep him up at night. Wind Kern charged, he had gotten his metal tube back, though it was slightly bent. Tristan was not sure why that made the weapon inoperable, but he was grateful. Raising his blades he got ready for his second human kill.

Wind Kern was not as dumb as he acted. The emotions on his face were definitely real, but the impression that they were controlling him was false. Something sharp struck Tristan in the spine. The metal skittered off the bone and lodged half an inch into the muscle. Tristan dove forward into a roll as soon as the object stabbed his neck.

He had to dodge Wind Kern before he saw the new assailant. The man was dressed the same as the other warriors, but he held a needle-like stiletto. The weapon was bent, as it was not made to stab objects as hard as Tristan. Unfortunately, he could not pull that off again, he was running on the fumes of his kern. Much more and it would dip into the survival essence, then it would shatter. He would die if he lost consciousness here.

“What blasted kern do you have?” The new man said, inspecting his bent blade.

“He’s a silver devil!” Wind Kern yelled, “Kill him!”

Tristan took the distraction of Wind Kern. The newcomer tried to reach them, but he was way too slow. Tristan grabbed Wind Kern’s shoulder and jerked him around. The man was stronger, but Tristan had a better stance and leverage. Wind Kern screamed at Tristan and hit him with his pipe. It would leave a deep bruise, but nothing more. On the other hand, Tristan's blade left much more.

The newcomer, who Tristan assumed had a light kern, judging from the energy coming off the man. It was similar to Bruce’s spear, which meant that he was the team healer.

Tristan took a step back and pointed to Wind Kern who was trying to keep his guts inside, “You can fight me and maybe win, silver devils are pretty tough. Or we can both do what we want and save our friends.”

The warrior stopped, torn between duty to his friend and duty to his leader. If he attacked now, he could overpower Tristan, but his friend would die. He decided he could always kill the silver devil later, he could not save his friend later.

Tristan nodded when he saw the decision in the warrior’s eyes. He turned his focus to the back of the warehouse. At least what used to be the back of the warehouse.