Chapter 412 (2/2)
Gideon clapped his hands together “I’m sick and tired of lab tests, that’s why It’s time to see these babies in action” He waved towards the rest of the boxes while shouting at non-et ready” After aI need is my test scuttled because so at Gideon, but he see loved hand “Sorry, he insisted You don’t have to, but you really are the best choice If so, you can just heal, after all…not that I expect any of these people to even land a hit on you” She set a couple hits in, it would help with the testing”
“I think you need to spend soto sound just like hies had already been training with the weapons, both to test them for Gideon and to prepare for a live combat exercise Crohlb and the other dwarves had been involved first, but Gideon had gone out of his way to find both a human and elf volunteer with previous combat experience, to ensure the heat and force of the blade wouldn’t be too enetically tough skin
It didn’t take long for thened to protect them—not from me, but from the weapon each of thehtly different design, three battle axes, and one long glaive As Gideon explained, they wanted to see how the fire salt-infused steel reacted when forged into different shapes, as well as vary the size of the mana-crystal rods that had been inset into the handle of each weapon
Standing in the center of the large cave, surrounded by the leather-wrapped warriors, I brandished a plain metal rod pulled from some of the abandoned materials—a much safer “weapon” for the experio easy on him, you lot Reet to it!” Gideon’s eyes glearily from where he and Eer shi+eld generator Next to him, Emily was hunkered silently over a notebook and quill, ready to take note of everything that happened
I exchanged a respectful boith my opponents, then settled back into a loose defensive posture
The elvendoard and exploding into flaave the command But the force of the burst was too powerful for the lithe elf, especially since he couldn’t strengthen his body with round in front of Crohlb, who had jus The dwarf tripped over the glaive’s handle and went sprawling
I spun away fro fro dwarf Ito th ofbones or dislocating limbs with my blocks and counterstrikes
The fire salt sword bit into the iron rod, then exploded in a coed doard, shearinghar my skin
With a short iron bar in each hand, I s it rebound offto block it and instead throwing h to injure, butonto his back
The huht her sword doith both hands toward me I crossed the short bars over ered the fire salt burst, creating an explosion of fire and a burst of h the rele short step back, I purposefully let the blade’s glowing point claw across h the thin skin of aether that always clad my body, and scored a line across the front of round atinto the solid rock
The woman’s eyes ide, and she started to y, but the words never er was still compressed, and mana built rapidly in the blade until it vibrated Before I could warn her to release it, the sword exploded
A stor forward, I wrappedher off her feet and pulling her leather-covered body close againstto ht to look, and I stepped into the while the white-orange fla behind us Hot steel shards pinged into stone all over the chamber, so hot and fast they buried the
The others dove away fro up as best they could, their heavy leather arainst the heat, but very little against razor-sharp shrapnel
The woled to rip off her protective hel at the helmet with one hand while her other trembled violently in her lap I helped to unbuckle the helmet, and she tossed it aside Her face was red with exertion and the heat of her ar as she stared atdown, I realized my torso was peppered with small wounds As I watched, the line she’d dran my chest with the tip of her blade and theout sround at ru out from behind the shi+eld “Rule nuer!”
“I-is anyone hurt?” E at a crater in the stone where the wolanced around the space, but it didn’t seem as if anyone had been badly wounded I appeared to have absorbed a significant amount of the shrapnel, so that even the human woman only had superficial cuts and scrapes froh I could tell from the holes burned in her armor that there had been a few near ht sourly, listening to the other co out to one another to ht more quickly, I could have forced the mana to implode instead of explode, or even stabilized the sword itself to prevent the accident entirely
This was a problem I had been dihted by this incident As I gained more abilities such as Realmheart, it becah I could teleport instantly with the God Step Godrune, my reaction times and evenand physical attributes
A hiss of pain drewas she tried to pull off her heavy gloves Gently, I took hold of the fingers and eased the gloves off her Underneath, her hand was already turning purple
“Broken,” I said softly “But not irreparably so We have emitters in Vildorial who can heal this painlessly”
“Emily!” Gideon shouted as he walked up He chewed on his bottom lip as he stared down at the wound and waited as E her notebook and pen, the other adjusting her glasses as they bounced up and down “Get Shandrae here to a healer, would you? I suppose I should’ve had an emitter on standby, just in case, but then, I didn’t expect one of you to iet the rules and…” Gideon trailed off as Eive rasp “The rest of you, back to your places We go again”
Emily wrapped her arm around Shandrae and helped her up The woreen, and she couldn’t take her eyes off her shattered hand and wrist
“And for the love of life itself, don’t hold down the da Emily and Shandrae stumble from the cavern
The experier, during which tithe rest well, I hurried back into the city to check onher with an ene cell door watched over by a Lance and my own companion, had been uncomfortable When I returned, however, it was to the sound of Ellie howling with laughter, the noise of it carrying far down the halls of the Earthborn Institute
When I rounded the corner that brought Lyra’s cell into sight, I found Ellie sitting cross-legged on a lee, while Regis pranced around on his hind two legs, flailing as if he were in terrible pain Mica was gasping for breath, one balled fist pounding on the wall and she, too, seeis, it’s the only way,” he was ru in a cartoonishly affected baritone “I just have to boil ht sight of me and stopped suddenly, then slowly sank down on all fours “Oh, hey there, boss…”
Ellie’s eyes opened, and she pointed at ave a wild snort, and then the two only laughed harder
Once I was close enough to h the bars, I sent her a serious frown “Are youwith your sound-attribute spells?”
Lyra, as leaning against the inside ith her ared “No, your su I was happy exploring the depths of your sister’s new regalia, but I won’t pretend not to have enjoyed his stories about your time in the Relictoent Leywin”
Mica was struggling to stand up straight and suppress her fit of giggles Her jaas clenched tight, but both her lips and aconstantly She threw me a lazy salute and said, “Welcome back, General ly well-behaved”
“Thank you, Mica,” I said with a bone-deep sigh To Ellie, I asked, “Did you accorinned up at s out, I think It’s hard—not hard, weird Like…relearning how to useBut there is all this power there, ready to respond Lyra thinks I’ll need to grow into the regalia”
Lyrajust inside the runed bars “I’alia’ is even the correct term This ability of yours to impact the bestowment, it is…” She trailed off with a shake of her head, her lips curling up wryly “The High Sovereign would pull off his own horns to be able to do what you can, I’m certain of it The rune she received is powerful, beyond what I’ve seen received even by other retainers or the Scythes themselves To be honest, it is tooa lower rune before gaining a crest, eical talent Most alia Your sister, well, I’alia properly It will require a significant strengthening and clarification of her core to fully control
“Beyond that, as I have atteerous If she pushes too hard, the rune could empty her core and leave her crippled”
I didn’t respond iest Lyra’s words as I looked down at my sister Her ash-brown hair—the sahtly disheveled As the retainer had talked, the mirthful expression had slowly slid off Ellie’s face, replaced by a s her look more like our mother
I couldn’t help but be of twoable to instantly clarify a ranting thee how Dicathen viewed es at a pace previously unheard of But, to get the best results fronificant ae
And I’ this drastically liht now Also, I’d spent enough time in Alacrya to see how the presence of these spellforical culture There were benefits, certainly, but the potential dangers were so varied and widespread that it was difficult to see the whole picture
A deep-set guilt was also already seeping into iven her this power, knowing it could be dangerous, but having such clear confirmation that she could easily harm herself with the spellforht happen to her
I looked deep into Ellie’s alht frown that turned down her lips, it was her eyes that revealed the depth of her e
I are that, during my absence, she had stepped up for our mother, for Dicathen, at a level I wish she didn’t have to Yet, I still thought of her as a child And because of that, I hadn’t allowed myself to trust her, especially not with this newfound power She was reckless, true, and had proven herself irresponsible on eous, and self-sacrificing
She’d been through far too much to still be considered a child…but she was stillan adult But I knew at that er saw herself as a child, and I needed to stop treating her like one
Rather than constantly opposing her desires as I tried to force her into a role I was corow in the direction she found uidance instead of opposition
I held back a sigh and forced a smile on my face, then reached out a hand to pull etically
“Come on, El Walk with me for a bit”