Chapter 2 - Coming of Age
After finishing the food, Leon and his father went to the garden. Fabious took a block of high carbon steel out of his spatial ring, activated the shield formation in the middle of the garden, creating a dome, then he created a formation that formed an anvil with some shaped shields.
Leon focused for some seconds, creating his furnace formation. Taking the 10 kilos block of steel from the ground, and putting it in the middle of the furnace. Turning on the fire, the furnace starts heating up at a constant rate, to not damage the steel. After passing from a thousand degrees, with the block red with heat, Leon takes it off the furnace and puts it on the anvil.
Taking two hammers from his dad, one normal heavy hammer and one with a cutting edge and a normal edge, like a triangle. He put the cutting edge in the middle of the block, and brought the other hammer down upon this one, cutting through the block of metal easily. Separating it in two blocks, one with 60% of the original size, and the other with the remaining 40%.
He takes the biggest one and puts it back on the furnace, commanding the furnace to keep a constant heat so it won’t heat the metal more, but won’t let it cool down as well.
The remaining one will be the head of the axe. So he will need to flatten this rectangle a little, and add the curves.
Controlling his mana to form the runes for a hand formation, he creates two hands of mana and uses them to hold the hot block of metal in place. Take another heavy hammer and start hammering down with both of them in the metal block.
It takes him ten minutes to flatten the block to the height he wants.
Turning the block to its sides, and holding it still with the hands he measures the exact size, and starts hammering on the 65% mark, this will be the place where the head will connect to the handle. With precise and powerful strikes, he starts making a curvature in the middle of the block, letting the two future edges intact. After five minutes of intense hammering, he takes the steel back to the furnace, sits on a chair by the side and takes five minutes to rest his sweaty body.
Going back to work, with the steel a little easier to hammer, now that it’s hotter, it takes him twenty minutes to finnish hammering the right shape into it. The steel now looks like a head of an axe, with a big end and a smaller one.
Putting it back into the furnace, he takes the other block out.
It is a big rectangle, so he takes back the cutting hammer and splits it into three. Putting one by the side of the other he measures the right size, but cutting in the diagonal, so that the resulting metals can be linked by hammering the points together. It needs to be one meter long and ten centimeters wide for all sides. Calculating and making the demarcations in the metal, he cuts it easily.
Putting all the angled sides together, fitting one in the other, he starts hammering in the joints, fusing them perfectly. Just this takes him 15 minutes of hammering, so he puts the handle back into the furnace and takes a rest again.
Five minutes later he is again hammering the handle, but this time he is hammering the edges, to make it into a cylinder. Finishing all the edges, he just keeps hammering till he arrives at the right circumference.
Taking the handle to a formation in the side, he puts the handle inside a cylinder made out of runes and mana, and with his hands starts to bend the cylinder slightly, to give the handle a little wave in the middle and top, nothing big, but still easy to see.
Putting the handle back into the furnace, he takes the head out again and starts hammering the edges, creating the right angle for the future blades.
Thirty minutes later he finishes, all he needs to do now is sharpens, and the edges will be perfect. After letting the steel heat again, he takes a new hammer, a pointed one, he holds the head up, puts the point of the hammer in the place the handle will enter, and starts hammering with the heavy hammer on it.
After making the hole, he let it heat up again in the furnace, and took it and the handle out at the same time.
Putting the handle inside the hole of the head, he starts hammering with two heavy hammers, to fuse them. Finishing fusing and hammering the excess mass in place, to let the axe with the perfect shape, he starts sanding the axe.
He controls his mana to form a set of runes for spin, speed and malleability. When putting it in a sandpaper, it creates a formation perfect for sanding objects.
After sending the whole axe, letting it shiny, Leon turns to a formation in the side.
It’s a strong formation that his father installed. It can rotate an iron drill strongly enough to drill through anything.
Putting the axe below the drill, marking the right measurements of the hole he will drill, and putting the right drill in the formation, he starts drilling.
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It doesn't take the formation much time to drill through the axe, making a perfect five by five centimeters circle.
Taking the hammer, sitting down on a table, he takes a pen and starts drawing the runes into the handle and the head of the axe.
This takes him more than one hour, thanks to him needing to rewrite the runes some times, to find the best places to put them, and the right sizes.
Going back to the drill, he changes the drill for a round pointed one, and starts carving the runes out of the hammer, half a centimeter deep and one quarter wide. Thanks to the extra pair of hands, he can keep a stable hold on the axe.
Changing the drill sometimes, to smaller ones, to carve the runes in the edge on the blades.
Finishing the engravings, Leon takes a pure block of silver and puts it inside the furnace, melting it into liquid. and put it into forms, creating a lot of one centimeter tall, and one quarter of a centimeter wide rulers of silver.
He then cut it in forms to fit inside the engravings of the runes on the axe, in a way that leaves little to no spaces between them
After putting the silver in all the engravings, Leon put the whole axe inside the furnace again, but this time only enough to make the silver malleable.
Bringing it back to the anvil, he takes his heavy hammers and starts hammering down on the silver, thanks to its bigger size it was protruding out of the engravings, but as Leon hammer it, the silver fits perfectly inside the engraving.
Now, with the whole body finished, Leon makes another round of sending, then polishing.
If you look closely, you can see the difference of color between the silver and steel, but from afar it looks like a solid seamless axe of steel.
“I’ve finished, dad.” Leon brings the axe to Fabious. “What do you think?"
Fabious looks closely at the axe. then says. “It’s as good as a professional’s work. Well done son.”
“So, can i have a core now?” Leon asks, then extends his hands. “I’ll finish this axe today.”
His father nodded his head, waved his hands and let out of his spatial ring a blue small ball. This is a core, every living being has one, and the size and amount of mana inside depends on the owner’s body size and cultivation, respectively.
This particular core is from a Black Mamba, it’s good to use to power formations specialized in venoms, but can be used just for its mana and ignore its traits.
putting the core inside the hole in the axe, Leon takes a box of clay, filling the hole to form a mold of the remaining area.
Using the clay as a guide, he takes two pieces of steel and cuts it in the same shape using the drill. He then draws the rest of the runes for the formation to return the axe to his hand on one, and the full poison formation on the other, using a small drill to carve small runes. He makes a hole in the middle, to connect the runes to the core with silver.
Putting all in place he takes a pan of liquid silver and pour it in the runes filling the hole and the engravings. As the silver connects with the core, the core spreads its mana inside it like a conduit, and as the mana passes through the runes of the formation, the formation activates and start sending poison to the blades, lighting up the runes in the process.doing the same with the other side, the runes light up as well, but do nothing.
Putting the rest of the silver back into the furnace, Leon takes a little cube of steel and cuts it like a coin. then he engraves the runes to give the axe a place to return to, and put the silver into it. Every time he sends his mana inside the formation, and is in a 30 meters radius of the axe, it will go flying towards him.
Passing two leather ropes through two holes in the coin, he makes a bracelet with it and puts on his left hand. Sending mana inside it, he felt a push, with the same weight as the axe, and the axe came flying toward his extended hand. “Great!”
Making another sanding formation, he starts giving the blades of the axe a sharp edge.
“Now it’s finished!” Leon says. Then he starts spinning the axe, and cutting some discartable things, to feel the edge.
(That’s the one I based Leon’s axe from. Leviathan. But made entirely of metal.)
He has been training since young on wielding an axe, but his level of skill on close combat isn't near his level of talent on formations and runes, or manipulating his mana.
Five minutes after finishing the axe, Leon is laying on his dad's arms, sleeping soundly. A full day of concentration and crafting finally took its price.
Seven days later, in the Black Bull City, in the main arena of the Coliseum, is Leon, his head bald, his clothes new, his dark skin shiny, and his axe in his hands.
The Coliseum is a big circular amphitheater, with a big sand arena in the center. Every son of important peoples for the Black Bull Tribe has their coming of age here, and today is Leon’s coming of age that all the people in the bleachers have come to see.
The bleachers are not full, there must be only one thousand people or so. Some are here because they know Fabious, others because they like to see people fight with their life in the line.
At the arena, Leon nods his head at the man controlling the formation to the cell of the bull that will be his opponent.
The next second, the door vanishes, and out of it comes a two meters tall, three meters long bull. Its big hooves send shock waves through the ground, the long horns pointed at Leon, its big powerful muscles leaving no doubt at its power.
Without taking his eyes from Leon, the bull starts charging forward, its hooves leaving deep footprints in the arena.
Not wanting to stay in the defensive, Leon also runs in it’s direction, circulating the mana inside its body to make his bones, tendons, muscles and blood circulation stronger and more efficient.
They both meet at the center of the arena, the bull aiming his horns at Leon’s chest, and Leon holding his axe pointed to the ground.
In the last second, Leon takes one step to the right, then two quick steps to the left. The bull followed his step to the right, but missed the two to the left, missing Leon.
As Leon passes by the side of the bull, he moves his axe upward in a diagonal movement, aiming at the frontal leg of the bull.
The hit leaves a five centimeters deep cut in the leg, and the venom starts working, making blood gush out way faster than it should.
As their momentum keeps them moving, the bull takes advantage of the position and kicks back with one of his legs, aiming at Leon’s ribs, but Leon puts one of his arms in front as a shield.
The kick sends him flying, but it's not strong enough to break his bones.
As the bull makes a circle to run back at the boy, Leon gets back on his feet and looks at the bull, now running at him.
He changes the hold of the axe from the good hand to the injured one, and starts making runes in the air with the other, writing the runes of malleability, strength, sand, toughness, obedience, and a rune of connection between him and the formation.
As he finishes, the formation shines brightly and falls to the ground, fusing with the sand.
By now the bull is almost upon him, so he jumps with all his strength to the right, and activates the formation. As the bull ran through the place Leon laid the formation, stopping a little to change its direction, ten sand tentacles burst out of the ground, and bound him in place.
Two on each leg, two on the neck, one on each horn and the rest on its torso.
The bull starts kicking and pushing, and the formation starts breaking, but Leon is already upon the bull. He makes a semicircle with the axe, digging it down on the bull’s ribs. Then he takes it out and in the same movement makes a full circle back and brings the axe back inside the bull, but now on its neck.
The attack hits an artery, and together with the venom, the bull’s blood cascades down like a fountain.