‘The Lady’ had arrived in armor very similar to what Tristan was wearing. It had one difference that made it look much more impressive. The metal plates were absent. Navy blue with black accents looked very professional. Eve arrived with two other people, one was Kerri and the other was a portly man.

Tristan had always associated fat with laziness. He had to reconsider his assumptions about this man. From the two tier one artifact rings, he had a fire kern, however, there were also callouses on his palms and scars running across his fingers and knuckles. Those weren’t injuries from a life of violence, many miners had similar hands, injuries just built up over a lifetime of manual labor. Tristan believed this man to be like Henry Golden Heart, a common man who worked his way to power through competence and intelligence.

Kerri was the exact opposite. He was born with talent and had let himself coast on it. Also, he was wearing golden armor as well, so he looked just as ridiculous as the rest of the guards. Kerri did not pay much attention to his protectors, which was good as Tristan did not believe an open faced helmet was enough of a disguise. The flaming artifact was though.

“Everybody form up!” Janis yelled.

The simple formation was quickly put together. Both warriors with light kerns hovered around Eve and the two others, while the other eight were staggered one warrior, then someone with an earth kern. Tristan could think of several ways to invalidate this formation, a crossbow would be the way he would attempt it. Luke was the only person he knew fast enough to react to a bolt, and even he needed to know it was coming.

Were there people with dark kerns in the area? If there was a third layer of protectors, it would cover that issue. The River Caldera most likely had them in the past, and he was pretty sure Regis’s little brother was a civil protector here with a dark kern. Tristen realized Hadrid had wiped them all out, that layer of protection was gone and they had subsidized it with a layer of earth kern meat shields.

It took another few hours for the army to get ready. Three thousand people took a while to get going. Kerri gave a speech that Tristan was sure nobody paid attention to. Seriously, who talks about the honor of serving, and the good work being done to a bunch of people who have just been drafted?

After fifteen minutes Eve stepped forward. Tristan was surprised to see many of the zoned-out people refocus. Eve looked out at them and gave a very short speech.

“I know most of you don’t want to be here, just like me. I tried fighting and killing the ghost crabs and it made me sick. It is something that has to be done though. I know what I’m ordering you to do, I have been there, and I will be there. This is not an enjoyable task, just a necessary one for the Caldera to survive. I’m not asking you to do more than I would, in fact, simply follow the tail I walk,” Eve got off her horse and nodded to the gathered people, “Let's go kill some elementals.”

With that, she turned around and started walking towards the Lake Caldera. Tristan was not sure what to make of the words, as someone who knew and cared about Eve he wanted to say it was a good speech. The cynical side of him had to point out that while she had done many things beyond what was expected of the head family, she currently had two healers and four warriors surrounding her. Kerri was well known as a tier four, he was just an arm's length away riding on his horse.

The only people in the caldera more protected than Eve at the moment were probably Siren and Hadrid. Both had an army of highly trained well armed individuals whose entire purpose was to kill any disturbances. Still, the people seemed to appreciate the gesture. Tristan didn’t understand, but if that was all it took to raise morale it would be foolish not to start walking.

Tristan had made this journey before, though last time it had been with the intent of speed. They had traveled light and had been given the best horses. It was a short trip for a small group, but a three day march for three thousand.

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

Initially, Tristan was ready for an attack of some kind, that was what guards were supposed to protect against after all. However, after the third elemental they met was annihilated by the simple weight of numbers. Three thousand armed people snaked along the road between the River and Lake Caldera.

The slow plodding of the army let Tristan ask a few questions he wanted answers to, “Hey Vulcan? How come the Alloy force seems so much more potent than any other force?”

“Where do you get that idea from?” Vulcan asked.

“Well, currently I have four forces compared to the one that Luke has, it seems unfair,” Tristan said. He did not mind the unfairness, but it was there.

Janis stepped forward and intercepted a messenger. He patted the man down for weapons and then motioned him through the ring of guards. Had Eve asked to meet with this messenger? Tristan was not sure. The man had a few light artifacts on him, so he was not too dangerous.

“Do you believe that?” Vulcan scoffed, “The only person with a force you have beaten was your father, and that was after years of training with the best your little kingdom has to offer and while in possession of the greatest combat oriented force.”

Tristan did not have an answer to that. Was the Alloy force not all-powerful? He had assumed that with time he would grow to possess every force, when that happened he would even be a match for the Steel Saint.

“The Alloy force is a jack-of-all-trades force. You can do many things with worse efficiency and higher expense. In fact, a normal force increases the effective amount of essence you have, as the flavored essence is more adept at handling certain tasks. You on the other hand have your effective essence reduced, you sacrifice quality for quantity,” Vulcan answered, “I am the nephew of the Steel Saint, do you think that I lacked the opportunity to get Alloy, but instead chose combustion, gravity, and adamance?”

Tristan detected a small amount of irritation in Vulcan’s tone. He had not intended to mock the lamp post. Vulcan did bring up a good point, Tristan had not measured up well against others with forces.

“So Alloy is a bad force?” Tristan asked, less sure of himself.

“If your only measure of good is how much damage it inflicts or negates, then yes,” Vulcan said, “However, it is a great force if you want to dabble in multiple crafts. Having multiple forces unrelated to your kern on hand can be super beneficial, after all some essences like the architect essence are very rare in the plant kingdom. In a fight the only real advantage is unpredictability.”

Tristan nodded, he had noticed something similar. He lacked the overwhelming power of either Luke or Regis, but he could surprise an opponent with an expensive splash of decay. It was odd that metals stability in the face of mounting pressure would be where he was weakest. Fortunately, he knew of a solution to his essence problems, essence reservoirs allowed Hadrid to fight well above what his tier would normally indicate.

“If I solve the essence reserve issue, it should make the Alloy force viable in combat, right?” Tristan asked.

Vulcan scoffed, “I think you are underestimating the value of always having access to high level equipment. If you snag adamance and combustion, then you will be able to make some impressive weapons when you reach tier six.”

Tristan wondered what happened at tier six, why were people at tier five impressive nobodies while people at tier six were called heroes. Did they get called heroes when they reached tier six or did the term hero come about due to their actions beforehand? He was about to ask Vulcan about something when his metal sense picked up something odd.

He glanced over at the man with the light kern who was speaking to Eve. There was a fluctuation like something was both there and not. It was an artifact that was both light and earth, neither element was problematic, especially in a tier one bracelet. The issue was it was blinking. That was the best word for it, the bracelet had also picked up a tinge of metal essence.

Tristan focused on the conversation, “The people are restless, how can the people know what is true when not even the temple does?”

The bracelet was not blinking it was a light artifact that was turning into an earth artifact, one with a fully charged hand cannon attached. The next second the cannon disappeared and then reappeared strapped to the inside of the man’s wrist by the bracelet. Why was no one reacting? Surely the tier four with the light kern could sense the odd transition, if not him then what about the four with earth kerns?

“STOP!” Tristan yelled, making everyone jump.

Eve’s eyes widened as she recognized Tristan, Kerri’s narrowed, Janis looked for a threat, and the messenger pointed his hand at Eve. Tristan did the first hint he could think of. He threw Vulcan like a spear.

“Don’t you dare, youuaah…” Vulcan yelled. The sound of him traveling away, completely unnecessary due to the telepathic nature of their conversation.