Ebony felt a shiver down his back when he passed a symbolic and physical line on the floor. Something or someone was watching him and looked away after sensing the energy in his hand.
‘A Saint for sure.’ Knowing the aura of a Saint, he was certain what kind of creature set eyes upon him for a moment.
“Formation - Cluster!!”
Ebony was convinced that people with leadership sub-classes or professions had skills that increased their volume or made themselves heard throughout a wide area because he was more than used to deafening voices from this group of people.
Ironclad had the Raizers group up closer together the moment they went past the borders demarcated by a line on the ground.
“Esteemed Spirit Blesser, please don’t get far from us. Everyone, not a Ferroquad, except yourself and a few others, are going to attack us on sight. This is a warzone, Kings and Emperors traverse in large groups and we are not a particularly strong group nor are our numbers large enough to fend off a decently sized army.” Axel’s younger brother, Weklom Steele put his hand out as his entourage, a group of 4 huddled closer to him and the wagon he was sitting on.
Working on a bunch of cold arms, he nodded to indicate that he heard them and continued working while occasionally looking up to ‘bless’ a group of hundreds that came to him to recharge their load-bearing and weapon blessings.
It had not been long but their dependency on his aura and blessings had grown. The Raizers as a whole seemed to understand that his presence alone had made battles and traversal a lot easier. They used twice as little lustregrass meant for their main stronghold than the initially estimated which was a huge merit and even arrived over a week ahead of schedule.
‘I wonder if my job’s done. Well, I’ll just deny the requests to ask me to bring them back and forth.’ Ebony got the pass and paid with his services but he hoped to remain doing this job. His skills and abilities with countering the drain on mana were rising quickly by working on their equipment.
He was getting ahead of himself because the trip wasn’t over and they were in a hot zone where meeting an opposing army of far greater size might not be out of the question.
Moving cautiously at the outskirts, he had the time to finish weapon after weapon and move on to his speciality which was durability and toughness runes. Since not every troop in the Raizers wore armour thanks to their confidence in their fur, the batch of equipment he had to go through was smaller.
By the end of the week and after 4 direct clashes with Cinderashians and the other humans, Ebony was done with every piece of equipment. For all two thousand eight hundred and twenty-one of them.
The Raizer’s morale was not low, they’ve fended off and ran away from groups thrice their numbers. Without magic, Ebony couldn’t save them even if he tried his best. The knowledge that their assault team that had been in charge of transportation was moving at ‘high’ speeds was being spread. While the defence increase wasn’t noticeable for enemies, it was noticeable for the Ferroquads.
Ebony had slipped away from his guards to help Ferroquads who were about to be sniped by red hot slugs of molten metal from Cinderashian weaponry and snipers but no one seemed to suspect him to be someone strong yet.
There were murmurs about a native ghost or spectre backing the Ferroquads. Ebony could hear every conversation and he realised that 400km was wide enough to cover a few armies that were nearby.
‘I can understand Cinderashians terrible perception but is it not normal to be able to perceive within this range? What about eye skills or simple binoculars? They have archers and snipers so they probably know…so they are keeping track of each other.
“How long to your base of operation?” Ebony asked Axel while offhandedly settling the line of troops that thanked him for the refill of his blessing.
“At our speeds, three days if we don’t have another skirmish.” Axel rubbed the back of his helmet.
“So 5 to 7 days is more accurate.” They were clashing more often and their wagons were almost always targeted so he was well aware of the delays.
‘The average is almost King ranked, I don’t think I can clear the route in the middle of their next rest stop. I would be found out for sure.’
“No, I believe we are safe now. We’ve just stepped into Ferroquad territory. Unless an entire attachment of Emperors is here, we are pretty much secure. Look, I think our commanders will send out some escorts to dissuade attacks in a day or two after getting news of our early arrival.”
“Mmm.”
Uninterested in the territorial conflict, Ebony was just glad that it meant they could move faster. He was always on the lookout for Xin or news about her but it didn’t sound like the humans or the Ferroquad had a superhuman fighter amongst them. He ruled out her working with the Cinderashians but kept in mind that she might have been captured. Knowing their natural heat resistance and warrior caste, he knew the Cinderashians had a strong advantage over her in terms of martial prowess where magic was mostly ruled out.
An assault team fit his needs. They would be on the move consistently and he would be able to scout more of Central without standing out. It made finding a person and gathering information easier.
Axel was right for once as their trip to their main Golden Field was unhindered. Ebony was placed under momentary suspicion even with the accounts of thousands of Ferroquads that backed him up. Still, he was surprised at how short their open suspicion lasted but even more so when he saw humans and other races present in the Ferroquad’s Golden Field.
It was less than half the size of Tidal, the Capital of the Empire back on Elcra. He couldn’t tell from a glance what the main resource being farmed was due to the wide variety.
For once, there were walls but it was because they invaded and kicked the Cinderahians out. Humans loved their walls, Ebony had seen in history and multiple planets at this point.
The Ferroquads didn’t live in the houses that were already built since they had different biology from humans. Their width for one made it difficult to enter human doors. Chairs and beds were a huge cultural difference between them.
Ebony stuck with the Raizers. He followed them to another camp, where the rest of their group seemed to be. They moved as a whole if they were to remain in Central. A total of seven thousand of them made them hard to pick on by large armies and small enough that they were more mobile than most.
“Ebony, come meet our commander.” Captain Ironclad dismissed his bodyguard now that they were within the safety of their camp.
‘That scarred ferroquad gives me a bad feeling. Strong but nowhere close to Boiler Knight strong, maybe stronger than Bellicose Savant squad leaders.’ Ebony nodded.
He already knew who Ironclad was referring to since he walked into their Golden Fields. There were a few dozen people that stood out to him. He assumed that was how many Emperors and particularly strong Kings there were. He knew how the ferroquad looked before he was brought to her.
“Commander Steelbreaker. This human is the Spirit Blesser we hired. We arrived weeks earlier thanks to him.” Ironclad saluted with two right arms.
The woman he was speaking to was on the field surrounded by cloth partitions to prevent their men from peeking. There was no ceiling but these people didn’t have supernatural all-seeing perception. Sparring with two people that seemed about as strong as Ironclad. She was barely taller than Ebony but had a wide torso like any Ferroquad. Overall, she was still lithe for their race.
‘That movement skill is confusing.’ Ebony already figured out their 4 legged movements but this lady’s was different. He would likely make wrong predictions about her moves if he were to fight her right now. She wields 4 weapons, 2 blunt and 2 sharps instead of their common half shield half weapon format.
In a second, she hammered the bellies of her opponents and sent them sprawling before she stopped the spar.
“You are dismissed.” She muttered to her opponents before coming over. Waiting for her opponents to walk out of the training ground and past the partitions while Ironclad brought Ebony closer to her.
“Ironclad, no need to lie anymore. Who is this human?”
“Domain mage, budding domain user. Will, runic and arcane buffs that need constant refreshing.” Ironclad reported.
Ebony never told him that his Domain was tier 3, also known as budding domain. That meant Ironclad could tell from the strength of his Will. Somehow. Perhaps the duration or intensity of his resistance to Teheils mana absorption.
“What do you want from us?” The Commander hadn’t put her weapons away when she finally addressed him.
“I’m looking for someone. Human. Masked. Xeng, if that means anything to you.”
“No idea what a Xeng is, masked humans are everywhere. Tell me, mage imposter, what kind of monster are you?”
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‘The Xeng are either less famous than I assume or the Ferroquads are new to many other worlds and not as well connected. They don’t have high perception but their sixth sense for danger is a lot stronger than normal humans.’ Ebony watched Steelbreaker’s hands clench, fur stood and her entire posture getting ready to fight him.
“As long as who I’m finding isn’t here, which I already confirmed, I come here in peace. I'm asking to travel around with your Raizers. My services will stay the same, making your group more mobile. Until I find who I’m looking for. But if you’re looking for a spar, I’m more than willing to partake.” Ebony exchanged eye contact with the glare of a white pupil Ferroquad.
She acted as if he wasn’t there and exchanged nods with Ironclad before she put her weapons away.
“You have no malice. We welcome you into the Raizers. You can call me Steelbreaker.” Steelbreaker reached two right hands out.
“Ebony.” He shook both right hands one after the other. The fur on her arms was longer than the male Ferroquads, smoother but also more metallic than anyone he had seen so far. It zapped straight when they shook hands but she maintain composed and didn’t draw her weapons again.
“The tree?”
“You know about it?” Ebony had more trouble finding the translation for his name than most but Ironclad, the other Raizer members or even the Cinderashians never reacted to his name this way. Mr Guru was more shocked at his last name than his first.
“I don’t know if you’ve heard of it but the Eclipse Iron Ebony is a legendary species of trees in our home world. It grows out of a metal mine, near indestructible, absorbs light, heat, sound and just about any common energy rumoured to be able to eclipse the energy of a star. Too bad it’s thought to be extinct now, weapons made out of it are now legends amongst our people because we’ve only ever heard of it.”
“Interesting.” Ebony would think that alone was worth a trip to another planet but it was too bad he had too little information on it.
“Our operations begin in two days. Make yourself at home. I’ll take you up on the offer another day.” Steelbreaker pushed the cloth partition aside and walked away.
‘I was convinced we were going to fight.’ With a silver of disappointment, he let Ironclad deal with the logistics and bring him more equipment to work on. Since they didn’t need to transport cargo any more, it was fewer wagons and more boots and armour.
Standard days pass by quickly when he falls into the mundane repetition of working on skills his clones rarely had the chance to work on. Before he knew it, he was back on the figurative road.
Steelbreaker and her unit were the aggressors on most occasions. All sides seem to attack the Cinderashians more than each other.
The Raizers quickly felt the weight of his help and their opponents found out not long after.
They moved too fast. They striked fast and hard. They escaped from large armies even faster.
It didn’t even take 3 weeks before Steelbreaker and the Raizers were rewarded by their leaders and became more infamous.
Ebony, more accurately his title the ‘Spirit Blesser’ was also known to many within a short time and merely two dozen battles and skirmishes.
Amongst these battles, Ebony encountered a new race. The Native race of Teheil was a short humanoid young teen sized people. They had very short grey fur all over them except their torso and horn-like claws for fingers but almost normal human feet. They ran and moved around on all fours and were not nearly as affected by the cushioning as any invading race.
Some had horns on their heads and others didn’t but he wasn’t sure why. He didn’t observe any difference in fighting power or if it was something like status amongst the race. They were all shirtless and showed off skin so he wasn’t sure if that meant they were all male fighters or not.
On the two occasions these Natives popped up, they fought a bloody battle. Ebony barely managed to keep their casualties down on both sides, even doing his best. The Natives were intent on killing every invader. No one was spared. Worse still, they didn’t speak Gia and magic items like the mental transmission items didn’t work since mana didn’t work on Teheil.
Without the ability to communicate, peace was difficult.
‘Found her. To think she became some kind of worshipped figure to the natives. How did that even happen?’ Whenever and wherever they were camping, Ebony was usually in the range to hear multiple camp's inhabitants talking.
Amongst the humans, Cinderashians and even other units of Ferroquads were mentions of a human woman that was worshipped. Red hair. Speed. Dual longswords and terrifying fighting abilities. The rumours and known details checked out.
The part about a mask wasn’t being discussed at all, the description was closer to a feather flashing past. Most people who saw her didn’t survive.
‘How did the Natives trick her?’ Ebony shook his head and continued doing his job. As amazing at hunting as she was, he knew that she didn’t kill people without reason. The fact that they were ‘survivors’ also backed his premise that she didn’t kill everyone in sight.
It was odd to him. The chances that she was following orders was extremely low and he couldn’t think of another reason that she would fight in a war and kill ‘enemies’. It was one thing if they were monsters or animals since she could hunt and eat. So he boiled the reason down to her getting tricked in some way.
Ebony had made some friends, his bodyguards, the Steele brothers and their small group that had meals together with him. He learned about their lives, their families, their jobs and purpose here. They even shared dinner with Steelbreaker a couple of times as she socialised amongst her men just like Ironclad did.
Like Cinderash, the Ferroquads homeworld was low on natural resources. Unlike Cinderash, Teheil was their only other avenue for food and resources. Their homeworld was a lot less advanced and monster attacks on their populace were still a major issue. They were more poor and their craftsmen were less skilled with defensive constructs and they needed to be able to afford services that helped build safe spots for their populace.
Interestingly enough, they said that Teheil was easy for them since they felt a lot lighter when the cushioning wasn’t a factor. It was an indicator to him that they didn’t know what gravity was and their home planet was even larger than the massive Teheil. The lack of magic did make them more specialised and suited for Teheil compared to the human group and a slight advantage over the Cinderashians in terms of pure physical might, they lost in terms of technique but that was easily covered by their unique 4 armed and legged fighting style.
“Commander Steelbreaker. How about that spar we talked about?” Ebony figured he needed a real warm-up now that he confirmed Ning Xin was somewhere in Central. She never brought it up but she was one of the few people that could see him punching the lights out of soldiers while still appearing as if he was sitting behind his guards and blessing people.
“Sure. Fist fight?” Steelbreaker looked at him walking into the partitioned field. She was practising by herself. Her back arms held a war hammer each while her front arms were wielding one handed swords. He doubted they were Ferroquad craft.
Ebony drew Icicle from his back. These people had assumed it was just decoration.
“You’re a Grandmaster. Go ahead.” The confident Commander had more than enough time to confirm his strength over the time he worked with them. He was sure she knew when her strategies got more aggressive and she relied on him to protect their troops from ambushes or their vanguard having pierced through.
He held nothing back and Flickered across the field and unleashed Ethereal Arctic Rivertide art. Six images of him could be seen attacking her arms, legs, head and chest. Micro-Flickers were used instead of ice magic to refract light.
Steelbreaker smiled and swiped her right hammer diagonally. It contacted the nearest Icicle, the ‘real’ one. But she wasn’t tricked and followed through with her strike, hammering away the second and third strikes at her chest and leg. Ebony used the momentum from the first contact, pulled back and attacked centimetres away from his second afterimage.
However, all his strikes were thwarted and his petty trick of the eye didn’t work. Ethereal Fluid Blitz had been refined to use 8 times more stamina than before for triple increase in power and speed build up compared to his old version. Thanks to learning from the Cinderahians’ good use of stamina.
He effectively used his excessive stamina and Cinderashians had the technique to use even more. 8 times was enough for him to dip into his stamina regeneration completely so he stopped there. He didn’t have to worry about too much stamina for a long time as he was now capable of directing it into power.
No matter how he danced, how it looked like he was flooding Steelbreaker with attacks she just stood on the spot and slapped all his attacks away.
Unable to augment himself properly with mana, he was approaching the limits of his body to maintain the momentum he was building up. Thankfully, Steelbreaker was affected by what they call level 3 cushioning right now while he was less affected and she began to take him a bit more seriously as his speed built up.
Icicle’s sword tip got deeper and deeper past her guarded range until Steelbreaker had enough and demonstrated why her family name was Steelbreaker. Her front arms with swords started to pierce at Icicle from both directions whenever they clashed.
It was a dedicated weapon breaking technique and Ebony had been studying it to no avail for the past few weeks. The Ferroquad’s wide chest gave them the reach and angle required to pull off the specific moves she was making and he was sure it was a Skill backed active technique.
Weapon breaking wasn’t accurate since it was also poised to destroy weak points in plate armour and the like. Ebony wasn’t wearing any of that and this was just a spar so she spared him from those skills pointed on his body.
‘My arms are numb from the clashes. Her pure physical stats are crazy but it's her technique and skills that buffed those up. I wonder if that Art can be considered tier 6.’ He coped with the clashes but surprisingly made it harder for him to build momentum when she found out the reason why his attacks were getting heavier and changed her attack patterns to attack in opposing directions to force him to lose momentum.
It was a mere hindrance and she failed to stop him from making Micro Flickers to make full use of her strength.
Until Ebony had a good slam in his belly when her legs tapped like shadows pecking and her body vanished for a moment. Appearing above him as Icicle sliced down with a Stalactite Sunder, the tip barely ran over her shoulder when she flipped herself and ran her hammer down on him. Effectively dodging his open strike and countering him.
‘Not only did she copy Phantom’s Flicker to a degree, she made it fit her 4 legs and managed to slip through my perception. Proper Emperors are no joke.’ He kicked the air and used the cushioning’s resistance to push him, spinning using the belly slam’s force and parrying the follow-up cross slash from Steelbreaker.
With another awkward spin to disperse the force, he skid across the ground and had his back against the cloth partition.
Unable to stop since he would lose the momentum, he continued to fight back against the pressure he was facing. Ethereal Fluid Blitz and Arctic Rivertide were having a field day till he heard his bones creak and felt a muscle pull on his back.
Steelbreaker was only hindered by the cushioning. They were not a race that relied on mana to begin with and this led to all their focus of stats on their physicals which was probably much higher base traits compared to a human. Being many levels and two evolutions above him helped her a lot.
He was unable to augment himself properly excluding a percentage that was still working thanks to Will, his Domain and coagulated mana but most of his magic was essentially sealed. His loss was guaranteed. It was people like her that kept his caution up when coming into the Central region.
Even so, Ebony let his body break a little and never let up. Icicle regrew and healed at a visible pace. It was clear to his opponent that he was faster and stronger than her Captains. None of his Stalactite Sunder managed to land a clean blow on her and he was more convinced that in terms of pure technique, her 4 armed art was more refined than his Ethereal Arts by a large margin and he wouldn’t land a hit even if he was as fast as her.
He would not let this rare chance go in a short spar.