Chapter 5
Sea Goblin's Pit
Rain
The assassin had tried her best to act as if she doesn't care about the ongoing conversation between her fellow squad leader, Pole, and the prince. In truth, she was more than interested to find out the prince's MS level. But in the moment of revelation, something impossible happened.
The assassin had never heard of a StarStone that broke during appraisal. Twice, for that matter, and it happened on the same person. That can't be coincidence, the assassin thought, the Order needs to be informed. She thought of sending a bird but she dismissed the idea being too risky.
The prince was really full of surprises. She wondered at the extent of the knowledge of the Order about the prince. She shuddered at the idea that the Order had to keep off few things regarding her own mission. The Order of the Silent Talons, being one of the oldest institution in all the continent of Karibor, had a massive network of spies scattered throughout the continent.
She knew the Order have everyone in the royal family observed. Yet, the only information the Order had given her was that the prince was a sixteen year old who always sneaks out of the castle. It is possible, she thought, that the prince had managed to throw off the spies that were observing him, thus, no one knew what he really does during those times. Not even the Order.
The Order of the Silent Talons, throughout the course of their long history, had been responsible in sculpting the history in the shadows. Every major event that could potentially change the course of history, chances were, the Order was behind it.
After their last scuffle with the horde of sea goblins, the prince had ordered them to continue their physical training. However, during the morning run, the prince ordered to empty their bags and stuff it with sand. Everyone wanted to voice out their complains, however, they sucked it up when they saw the prince had fully stuffed his bag with sand as well, unlike the rest of them with only a half-full bag of sand.
After the run, the prince personally taught some of the basics of swordplay. Though, the assassin knew most of them, she played along. The prince taught the correct body position when delivering a stab at different angles to maximize their effect.
"Move your legs spread apart, you need to lower your center of gravity to obtain a better balance." The prince said to one of the recruits. "you wouldn't want to sprawl in the ground when you parry an attack, would you?"
The assassin couldn't tell if the recruits were actually eager to learn or they were just good at pretending to be. They should be thankful, the assassin thought, this kind of training will save their life someday.
The sea goblins didn't come today, instead everyone suffered from continuous repetition of sword strikes in a whole day. The assassin was a bit impressed that the prince, and the Milo guy, spend their whole day in correcting everyone's mistake. She could already see an improvement in everyone's swings.
During the sword training, the villagers were also busy fixing their wooden fortifications. The villagers were quite surprised, and deeply worried, by the number of the sea goblins that just attacked. The prince had asked the chief to fix and strengthen their fortifications. Though, the assassin believed, the prince did that to extinguish the growing anxiety of the villagers about the sudden increase in number of sea goblins.
The next day, the prince ordered to increase the sand in their bags. Everyone was still sore about the yesterday's morning run, even the assassin felt some of the fatigue. 'The more you bleed in training, the less you bleed in battle.' She knew there was truth on that saying. Her many experience in near-death missions were a living testament of that.
At least, she thought, there were less and less recruits who have puked their guts out. She could sense, though, the prince was going easy on them. She wondered quickly, but managed to come up with the answer: the prince was actually worried of another surprise attack by the sea goblins, and having his troops near exhaustion before a battle is a dire mistake. Besides, the assassin thought, there's not enough amount of training that could replace the experience gained in a real battle, the kind where the stakes are real.
In their fourth day in Sitio Village, the prince's sword training was upgraded to one-on-one mock battles. Each fighter had to execute some of the basic attacking combos, while the other had to simulate the possible counter combos. When the sun was at its highest, everyone seems to have a good grasp on how to correctly parry a slash or when to dodge a stab, though, their execution may be lacking.
The assassin had the chance to observe Milo, the prince's friend. When the two of them had to demonstrate a combo. The prince was the defender and Milo went on the offensive. Milo, she observed, know by heart the basics of swordplay. His movement was fluid, like the kind you would expect on someone who had performed a certain move a thousand times.
Milo didn't hold back. The combo he had just executed was meant to kill an opponent. Yet, the prince, with an extraordinary fluidity, managed to dodge and parry the attacks. Everyone's jaw had dropped, everyone was so sure the prince would be skewered, and chopped to little pieces, yet for some unknown reason he had deflected and dodge everything.
"You have been slacking off, Milo" The prince said.
Milo sighed. "I have no excuse, my prince."
The assassin knew she had to watch Milo as well. If a certain time comes, she knew Milo could be a hindrance to her mission.
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Musk
He was dead tired, the overflowing energy he felt during the battle seems to have been vanished along with every reserve of energy in his body. But, the thirst for learning, the ever burning curiosity within him had managed to found some energy to dragged Spiel with him to examine some of the sea goblin's corpses.
"Come on, Spiel." Musk said. "we could probably earned some money if we could find some valuable material over the goblin's corpses."
"You were not interested in selling them anyway, you just want to study it." Spiel said.
"Oh, come on. Where's your sense of adventure?"
"I think this would hardly classify as an 'adventure'." Spiel said.
"That my friend is where you are dead wrong." Musk said, rushing to the nearest goblin's corpses. "For there is nothing more grand than the quest for knowledge."
Spiel sighed. "You sound like Master Uchivev."
"Or master Uchivev sound like me." Musk smiled.
Spiel resigned, and returned the smile. He knew it was pointless to argue with Musk when he's on his quest for knowledge. And now that he thought about it, it was the very reason why Musk was here, fighting for his lives against sea goblins instead of basking in the heat of a furnace.
Musk turned the green corpse around, revealing a massive wound in the chest area. Musk found the sea goblin's armor rather thin and weak. He suspected it was made out of a dried skin of a large sea animal. He examined it and found it useless. The leather armor had all its moisture removed making it vulnerable to shattering. He knew he couldn't reuse it anymore.
On the other hand, he found the bone-like weapon the sea goblins used, and was surprised by the lightness of the weapon. At one point in the battle, when he had to exchange blows with a sea goblin, he thought the heaviness of the sea goblin's strike was due to the weight of their bone-like weapon. But it seems that was not the case.
It weighs like a wood, Musk thought. He then asked himself, if not due to the weight of their weapon, what makes the goblin's strike so heavy? The answer came to him fast, and he shuddered. He then thanked his luck that he had managed to survive the battle against the sea goblins.
The bone-like weapon had intrigued him. It could withstand a blow from a steel-forged sword without being shattered or sheared into two. His mind quickly work to seek possible answers. He had observed the strange grain structure of the weapon and compared it to his knowledge about grain patterns in steel, iron and other materials.
It has little similarity to a cold-rolled steel, the kind the blacksmiths and the crafters popularized in the western Kingdom of Averin. That might explain the lightness, Musk thought.
"Musk, the prince is coming." Spiel whispered.
They both saluted. The prince had asked them what they were doing. Musk looked at his friend to say something or lie to bail them out. Musk knew Spiel was the better liar between them, no, probably the best in all Calis. But to his surprise, his best friend looked at him.
Must returned the look, with an implied question of 'What are you doing? Tell him something'.
Spiel gave Musk a 'Tell him you are grave robbing' look. Even without words, Musk knew what Spiel was trying to say with those look. Their years of friendship had made them achieved such sensibilities.
When Must was about tell the truth, Spiel beat him to it with his usual grinning face. Spiel told the prince that they were examining a remain. The prince quickly asked what was their discovery. Musk though fast, he didn't know whether to tell the prince about the interesting property of the bone-like weapon or to tell a lie that he found nothing interesting.
He knew he sucked at lying, so he went on and tell the prince the truth, in fact he couldn't help himself and told the prince a very detailed truth. When he was finished telling the prince the truth, he sighed, such an interesting discovery has the potential to be a good source of profit. If the prince was motivated in such thing—money, his chances of examining and studying it on his own has dropped down to zero.
When the prince had asked him about his name, he knew it was over. He expected the prince will order them to collect all the bone-like weapons for the prince to sell. Unexpectedly, the prince had asked them if they were a crafter. Musk anxiousness grew, he had probably let out technical details that only a crafter knew, and if he told the prince the truth—that he was a crafter apprentice—there might be a good chance that the prince knew the law about the forbidding of unlicensed crafter to craft, fabricate, or examine above D-rank material.
If the prince knew that law, he could report Musk to the Freethinkers Association, and that could land him in jail for a week or three months depending on the extent of the raw materials wasted. But that was not the worst thing that could happen, the Court of Calis will be forced to revoke their agreement about serving his time in the army instead of jail. This could put Musk in jail for a very long time for thievery.
He knew he had to lie, so he looked at the best liar, the best thief, and the best conman in all Calis—his best friend. He had remembered his best friend had once tricked a visiting merchant that he was a customs inspector with nothing but flowery words and a few good clothes But to his surprise, his supposedly rescuer had blurted out the truth.
“He was, sir.” Spiel pointed at his friend. “A damn good one at that, sir. While yours truly was an aspiring businessman and entrepreneur sir.”
Musk fought the urged to tackle his best friend. Entrepreneur, my ass. Musk thought.
However, Musk had learned over the course of their relationship that Spiel would do nothing to endanger him. Well, except the last time they were caught stealing a nobleman's diary. But to Spiel's defense, Musk thought, it was mostly my fault.
As his best friend had expected, the prince had said something that impressed Musk. The prince asked Musk if he could do something out of it that could help them. He told the prince that he can't since he had lost his license. But Musk wanted to do it. He had already thought of ways on how to refine the material.
Musk sighed, such a waste of opportunity, he thought. Even the prince would be smart enough to go against the Association's laws. But the prince clearly doesn't care, for he had given arguments compelling enough for Musk to accept the duty of making something out of the bone-like material.
At morning, Musk ran along with his fellow recruits with bag of sand on his back. At midday, Musk tried to instill in his body the correct posture in holding and swinging a sword. He tried his best to concentrate but the thoughts and ideas of what to do with the collected bone-like weapons seems to keep on entering his mind.
At night, he always visited the village's blacksmith house. The blacksmith's house was also his temporary workshop. It was small even for Musk standards who had worked with the poorest master craftsman in Calis. But the villager's blacksmith tasks was usually mending and creating fishhooks, fish spears, fishing weights and fishing net anchors, in a way, the small workshop was sufficient.
The Blacksmith was a rogue crafter. Basically, the association had insisted that all person that alters the properties and composition of certain things should be listed under them. The association's main reason was the regulation of rare materials. The Association strongly believed that it would be such a great waste for a good, possibly very limited material being handled by a poor craftsman.
The Blacksmith mostly worked on F-Rank materials, thus, even if the Association knew, he would receive no punishment. Because F-Rank materials, after all, are the most common and most abundant material that could be found in nature. So the threat of that running out in the world is non-existent.
"Still working on your bones, eh." The Blacksmith said to Musk.
"Yes, Mr. Dankel." Musk said. "I'll be in your care again."
"Just fine with me being called Dan, and you're always welcome in my shop." Dankel, the blacksmith said. The blacksmith towered over Musk, and with burly arms that could compare to Lt. Brax. "Though, I am worried that it might not be enough for you, eh." Dankel laughed and pointed out the towering stacks of the bone-like weapons just outside his shop.
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Musk sighed. The prince's recruits had collected at least twenty and hundred bone-like weapons. His heart ached when he had found out that the villagers used to burn every sea goblin's corpses they slain, including the bone-like weapons.
Such a huge waste, Musk thought. He tried every tests well within his new workshop capabilities on the bone-like weapons. Tests such as application of sudden shock (using Dankel's big-ass hammer), bending, tension and compression tests, shearing, flammability, abrasiveness, and others.
The more tests Musk performed, the more he found the material interesting. For one, the material was surprisingly ductile despite its lightness--the material tends to deformed instead of shattering, he also found out the material can't easily be cut into two. It requires a special cutting tools, unfortunately, Dankel doesn't have any.
Musk started to feel the fatigue both in his body and mind. He knew he could do it, he could refine the material if need be and produce something out of it. However, reality had a queer and cruel way of revealing your limitations. This time, Musk was beset by the limitations of the tools and methods currently at his disposal.
And it is very far from being easy to obtain it, especially if you were a convicted felon and an unlicensed crafter. He thought of asking the prince: 'your royal highness, the most benevolent, and most kind, would you humble your poor servant a truckload of fire bricks and clay, and some coals, a new anvil, tongs, hammers, basically a new workshop, my greatest commander, sir.'
Musk laughed when he had heard himself. Despite all the flowery honorifics, he knew the prince wasn't an idiot that could fall for such flattery.
"Had you created something worth selling, yet?" Spiel asked. as he entered the workshop.
Musk sighed. "Oh, I'm fine, not tired and all. Thanks for asking, my good friend."
Spiel laughed at his friend sarcastic tone. "Alright, what's bothering you?"
"This place won't cut it." Musk said. "I need a forge that has no cracks in it for the heat to escape, I need a hammer that won't give me worry that it might flew off every time I swing it."
Spiel held the hammer Musk was talking about. It has been repaired by Musk but it was from far okay.
"Let's just ask the prince for some of the stuff you might need." Spiel said with a grin.
Musk sighed again. "Do you think he'll agree?"
"Can you give me a reason why he shouldn't? Besides he's the one who ordered it, you know."
"It's really expensive" Musk said.
"He's a freaking prince, Musk. In case you forgot, he's loaded." Spiel said. "Come, I saw him just near the camp fire eating some fish."
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Calex Zath
"Here, sir." Milo offered me a grilled fish, then sat down beside me.
Milo had changed. Hard times really changes people. Milo and I have been known each other since the first time I had arrived in their village. Our first encounter was in the middle of a sea goblin raid. They were on their way to the mountains to hide from an incoming sea goblins attack, they could have escaped if it were not for the fact that Vinny had just given birth to another twins.
Milo, Miko-Milo's twin brother and their father, Ker, tried to fend off the sea goblins so that Vinny and the newly born twins can escape. If I had arrived a minute early, I could have saved Miko from having his skull bashed in. Ker broke three bones in his rib, while Milo had a perforated, bite wound in his right arm.
When the sea goblin's had their fill for destruction they scurried back to the sea.
I remembered Milo crying over his twin brother's corpse, with his Dad beside him. Now, he was not the same sniveling kid who I had met back then. I taught him how to fight, and fueled by his burning desire for vengeance, he became very good at it. He did everything I had asked of him, and sometimes even doubled the tasks.
He had become a warrior. The kind I'm gonna need to help me fight this world's cursed fate.
Lt. Brax came up behind us, eating, again, god-knows what. This time, he's eating a stretch of worm or gut intestine skewered in stick. It looked liked an entrails. No, it couldn't be, a sea goblins? But, we have enough food to be that desperate. Lt. Brax sat in an empty log in front us, where the fire was between us.
Milo and I looked at the lieutenant, and probably thinking the same thing. Lt. Brax seems not to notice that we are looking right at him, and clearly enjoying his food. When he was done, he gave us a confused look.
"What is it, sir?" Lt. Brax said.
"Nothing." I said, while Milo shook his head.
Lt. Brax licked his fingers, then said. "By the way, commander. Some of our men wanted to go back to the city."
Glad that Lt. Brax called my men, as his own too. This means, I think, he approved my men. That kind of bonds only develop when you dipped your blade alongside everyone. But the real issue made my heart sank. Different thoughts flooded my brain. Am I being too hard on them? No, but I was going easy on them.
"Just for half a day, sir." Lt. Brax quickly added.
"Why?" I asked.
"They want to apply for promotion. A lot of them had leveled up, sir." Lt. Brax said.
I know. The mystic star thingy. If I don't let my men go back to the city, they might lose motivation to continue the training. On the other hand, I can't let something like this disturb our training. We already had a lot in our plate.
"I won't allow it." I said, firmly. "We will not go back until all of them can properly wield a weapon."
"Very well, sir." Lt. Brax said.
"However, please give me the list of everyone who had ranked up, their previous position, the required increase in their stipend, everything" I said. "I'll take care of it."
"You will have it in the morning, sir." Lt. Brax stood up.
"How about you, Lt. Brax?" I said before he could leave.
"what about me, sir?"
"Do you also wanted to go home?" I asked. But he knew what I was really asking. I know the rumors that he was stuck at being lieutenant for years. Back then, I thought he just pissed off a high ranking officials, but clearly there was more to it than petty politics.
His face showed sadness and disappointment directed at himself. "No, sir." Lt. Brax said, then he left.
Minutes later, Squad Leader Spiel and the craftsman Musk sat came at us. Spiel was with his usual 'nothing could go wrong' face. While Musk, was seemed a bit uneasy. They were an odd pair. The other was confident while the other is a bit timid.
"A pleasant evening, my prince." Spiel said. I could always sense the mockery behind people's voice when they call me their prince. But not this guy. He was sincere though he sound as if mocking. A very strange individual.
I really wondered if I am being too hard on my men, for a brief moment I considered asking this guy. But, I can't. I have started this path, and I shouldn't be having this doubts now. Instead, I tried to offer my grilled fish, a friendly gesture.
"Oh, thank you, sir." Spiel quickly grabbed it.
I really expected he will decline. That's what I get for trying to socialize. "How's the shop?" I asked Musk, the craftsman.
"Um. Not good, sir." Musk said. "We lack some tools and equipment, sir."
He sound defeated, but I could see a lingering drive in him. I had expected it, Mr. Dankel is very kind, but his workshop is as ancient as he is.
Musk sighed. "I ..."
"You can have everything you need, but, I need something from you." I said. Musk's eyes glowed like a wildfire. I knew it, he really wanted to do this so badly that he didn't even care what I wanted in return.
"Yes, sir." Musk said. He looked at his friend, who now chewing my grilled fish, and smiled.
"I can sponsor you to create your own workshop if you like, but I need it to be mobile." I said. "I need this workshop to be transferred wherever I want without so much a hassle. Can you do it?"
Musk, the craftsman, thought for a while, and nod.
"Is that a yes." I asked.
"I'm sorry, sir. I mean, yes sir, I can." Musk said.
"Then draft me a plan and give me the list of things you wanted, and also don't hold back. The thing must be sturdy and should lasts for a very long time." Our very own workshop, that would come very handy in the future.
"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir." Musk said. Then pulled his best friend along.
"Thanks for the fish, sir." Spiel said. Then they were gone, heading back to Mr. Dankel's workshop.
Now, I'm hungry. Milo offered his uneaten grilled fish to me, with all the distraction that happened, he wasn't able to take any bite.
I was reluctant to accept it, but...
"You have to eat, sir. If Master Digby saw you on that state, he might really stay here, and worse, he will scold me, Da and Ma for not taking care of you, just like the last time you spent a week in our house. Besides there's more where it came from."
I sighed, and took his grilled fish, then started ravishing it, wishing there would be no more distraction.
|| || ||
Rain
The sun was still shy away from completely revealing itself when another horde of sea goblins started to emerge from the depth of the sea. Shouts of warning, sound of bell, and distant accumulation of groans by the sea goblins echoed throughout the valley. The villagers quickly grabbed their spears, her fellow recruits quickly arranged themselves in their respective squads.
The prince was looking at the sea horizon. If there was any sign of anxiousness or worry in the prince's face, the assassin didn't see any. The assassin roughly estimated the numbers of oncoming sea goblins based on the fins sticking out in the sea. She guessed around a hundred, highly likely many more.
"Lt. Brax, Milo get your squads to prepare to cut off their reinforcements when I gave the sign." the prince had ordered. "My squads. on me."
The assassin lead her squad to follow the prince into the front of the wooden fortifications. She remembered the exact same place because it was where the prince had ordered them to dig a massive hole. Along with her fellow recruits, they had poured buckets of sweat in digging a fifty meter long, three meters wide, and three meters deep hole.
It was already a hard task, but the prince made it even harder by imposing a strict deadline. Granted, the sand was rather soft compare to a stony ground, but still, digging that big of a hole in a sand, in a matter of hours, was really challenging. When digging, she wondered if the sea goblins would actually for it.
The assassin and her squad, along with Cadet Pole's squad followed the prince in charging towards the sea goblins. She guessed their primary job would be to lure the sea goblins into that pit. They had engaged few sea goblins emerging from the sea, but soon they were overwhelmed. The sea goblins just kept on coming.
"Retreat slowly to the pit." The prince ordered.
Slowly, but assuredly, they had reached the pit and hidden bridge created in the middle of it. One by one, they passed through, spread out behind the hidden pit.
The prince was the last person to have stepped onto the bridge. What a reckless behavior, the assassin thought.
Even without order, the members of the Prince's squads started to give out annoying noises to draw out the sea goblins into them. Ten goblins charged mindlessly towards the pit. Then, one goblin, then another, fell into the pit.
"Now!" The prince shouted to where the Lt. Brax and Milo's were hiding. "Cut them off and try to push them into the pit."
Roars of men charging for battle obscured the groans of sea goblins falling into the pit. It just took a minute or two before Lt. Brax and Milo had entered the battlefield, and they had already making huge waves. Their wedge formation broke through the messy formation of the sea goblins easily.
Soon, they reached the edges and divided themselves. Lt. Brax's group dealt with the sea goblins coming from the sea, while Milo's group along with Cadet Spiel's squad fend off the sea goblins trapped in between.
The assassin saw Remus and Fenrir unbelievable ferocity in killing the sea goblins. Remus had always wanted to compete with Fenrir's frenzied state. Fenrir was very timid at normal times, he can't even look at someone's eyes properly. But, when he snapped onto his berserk-like state, the Assassin thought even the prince might not be able to stop him.
The assassin had observed that Milo was fast. Not insanely fast like the prince, but very close. Along, with Remus, Fenrir's squads , Milo lead the charge toward the prince's location, easily cutting everyone in the way.
The goblins must have felt their combined frenzied and crushing aura, since most of them started to back off toward the prince, thus, making the pit very profitable of sea goblins.
The battle lasted an hour and the Assassin easily counted hundred or more sea goblin's corpses lying in the sand. Last time they had killed around a hundred of sea goblins, now those numbers had increased by a hundred more. Not counting the fifty that had fallen in the pit.
If that kind of number had attack them last time, the assassin swore they won't escape such ordeal unscathed. But, with the prince's physical and sword familiarity training, they have gained enough confidence to deal with the sea goblins. In fact, their improvement in sword had made them grow enough confidence not to pissed in their pants.
|| End of Chapter 5 ||
Sorry, about the long wait for this chapter. I have actually written this weeks ago. It just that some technical problems had arisen forbidding me to upload it. Now, that it has been temporarily fixed, I'll try my best to keep up. Thanks, again everyone.
Note: I'm sorry for the quality of this chapter. I encoded it on someone's laptop, so my time for proofreading was very short.