Rise of the Living Forge - Chapters 209-210 (Patreon)

There were times when Arwin knew holding back was important. Times where he kept the full extent of his abilities hidden so nobody would ever have so much as a reason to connect him with his former life.

This wasn’t one of those times. Revealing his strength was only an issue when someone lived to spread the tale. And, today, Arwin didn’t plan on leaving any witnesses. He heard the rest of the Menagerie pouring out of the door behind him, but he didn’t wait on their arrival.

He exploded into motion. [Scourge] pumped energy into his legs as he burst forward, Verdant Blaze’s head streaking through the air like a falling comet toward the nearest assassin. The man’s eyes — the only visible part of his face — widened, but he was well trained.

Leaning back, the assassin just barely managed to move out of the way of the hammer. He moved with blinding speed as he grabbed a dagger from his waist and drove it up for Arwin, aiming for his exposed palm.

Arwin’s gauntlets slammed into place around his arms. The assassin’s dagger rang off them with a resounding clang and he dismissed Verdant Blaze, plunging his right hand straight into the assassin’s chest and using [Scourge] to accelerate his movements.

The claws on his fingertips ripped through the man’s light clothes and into his flesh. Hissing in pain, the assassin arched back and vaulted off his hands, landing several feet away. Streams of twisting red and black energy swirled from the wounds and into Arwin’s left gauntlet, vanishing into the gem in its back.

One of the assassins hurled what looked to be a small stone. It flashed through the air before striking Arwin in the side of his helm. The purple gemstone in the center of his armor flared as a brilliant flash lit the street, momentarily blinding him.

Several feet scuffed on the ground beside Arwin. Thick white spots still danced in his vision, but he’d fought Lillia’s armies in the dark more times than he could count. It had been a long time since he’d relied on just a single sense to fight.

 Arwin leapt to the side, driving his shoulder into an unsuspecting assassin’s chest with a snarl. He felt the bone in their chest crunch under his weight and he threw himself forward, slamming the man to the ground.

The back of the man’s head struck the hard stone with a crack. Arwin’s hand moved before the sound had even finished echoing through the street, driving down into the assassin’s head with a wet crunch.

His helm activated and a sickly aura rolled off it in a wave. At the same time, energy pumped through Arwin’s legs and burned into his muscles as the greaves stole power from the dead man and entered him.

Two loud clangs of metal on metal rang out behind Arwin. He rolled to the side, rising from the dead assassin’s body and blinking furiously to clear the rest of his vison. Rodrick and Olive stood behind him, their swords drawn and matching the blades of two assassins.

Anna had taken up position in the doorway and held her staff before her defensively. Reya stood with Madiv a short distance ahead of her, squaring off against one more assassin of their own — and they were right below the assassin on the roof.

“Above you!” Arwin roared, even as the gray-clothed man dropped down like a shadow, two blades extended to drive into Reya and Madiv’s backs in a single motion. They both looked up and Reya extended a hand, blue magic gathering at her fingertips.

The spell didn’t get a chance to go off. The assassin jerked to a halt, the swords spinning from his hands. A loud snap rang out and his legs kicked desperately as he grasped at his neck. A garrote had wrapped around it and ran back into the pale hands of the blue-eyed drunkard as he rose to stand at the edge of the roof.

 The back of Arwin’s neck prickled. He spun, summoning Verdant Blaze and lifting it horizontally before his head. A glowing white sword slammed into the haft of the weapon and a flash of light split the air, momentarily blinding Arwin again.

One of the hidden assassins.

He staggered back and swung Verdant Blaze to keep the man at bay, blinking the momentary blindness away. The gemstone in his chest burned with energy, ready to activate. He didn’t have long to assess the situation.

The assassin lunged at him, unleashing a blur of sword strikes. Arwin was forced back several steps. He didn’t have a chance to retaliate. Even with the increased speed from his greaves, the assassin was one of the best swordsmen he’d run into since becoming a smith.  His sword was also almost certainly poisoned. Arwin couldn’t risk getting hit, even if it was just a nick.

Frustration creased the skin around the assassin’s eyes and he let out a snarl of fury as he brought the sword down in a powerful overhanded swing for Arwin’s head. He lifted Verdant Blaze, blocking the strike once more, then used his heightened movement speed to lift his leg and slam a foot into the gray-clothed man’s chest.

The assassin rolled with the kick before springing back to his feet, largely unharmed. Dark energy curled up from the shadows and enveloped his body. He dropped into the ground, vanishing, only to reappear at Arwin’s side. The assassin thrust the glowing blade for a gap in the heavy armor.

Arwin banished Verdant Blaze to free his hands and batted the blade out of the way. It scraped along his armor with a loud screech. Energy flared up from the Ivory Executioner’s Chestplate as a whip of [Soul Flame] materialized in a flash and struck the assassin in the side.

Hissing in pain, the assassin leapt back to keep out of Arwin’s range. He pressed a hand to the wound and energy sputtered around it, but nothing happened. “How are you stopping me from using—”

Arwin swung Verdant Blaze. Not at the assassin, but at the ground. It struck the floor with a crack and he released the power stored in his chestpiece while squeezing his eyes shut. A flash of brilliant light lit the street and the assassin snarled in pain and surprise.

In the brief instant Arwin had bought himself, he dashed forward and drew on [Scourge] as he thrust his right hand for the assassin’s chest. The other man tried to twist at the sound of his approach, but he wasn’t near fast enough.

Blood splattered across the street. Arwin’s razor-sharp gauntleted fingers tore through skin and muscle. They shattered the man’s ribcage and crushed the heart within it. Arwin planted a foot against the assassin’s chest and shoved him back, ripping his hand free and sending more blood splattering across the street.

More black energy twisted through the air and entered his gauntlet. The aura roiling off his helm intensified and Arwin felt himself speed up slightly once more. He spun toward the others to see where his help was the most needed.

The other assassins had all made themselves known when it became evident that the fight wasn’t going in their favor and they couldn’t just keep waiting around for something to change. It was clear that they were well trained. Not a single one of them had run.

Training, unfortunately, did not a victor make.

One of the assassins laid dead in a pool of blood before Rodrick and Olive, run through the chest and split almost completely in half down the middle. Another two laid slumped against each other. They’d both been strangled to death.

Reya stood above another. His body was shriveled and dry, having been drained completely by Wyrmhunger. Madiv had claimed one of the other assassins, having bitten into his neck. He was in the process of draining the man like he was a tankard of ale.

The rest of the assassins laid in a bloodied mess across the ground. Not a single one of them still drew breath. Anna still remained at her spot in the doorway.

Arwin drew a deep breath and let it out slowly in attempt to calm the adrenaline racing through his veins. The assassins hadn’t been anywhere near equipped enough to handle the Menagerie, especially after everything they’d already dealt with.

Good riddance. Vile scum.   

He activated [Dragon’s Greed] once more, detecting the presence of several magical items on the assassins. More importantly, there wasn’t anyone else in the area with magic. They were all dead.

“Madiv!” Reya said, panic tinging her tone as she ran over to the vampire’s side. “Are you okay?”

Arwin stiffened. The vampire had several long, thin cuts running along his body. With that many wounds, given the nature of the assassin’s weapons…

“By the Demon Queen,” Madiv breathed. He dropped the body he was draining and clutched at the wounds, a distraught expression warping his features as he pulled his hand back to see the blood smeared across his fingertips. “My clothes! They’re ruined!”

“Forget the clothes, you idiot!” Reya snapped. She spun to Anna, but the healer had already rushed to their side, glowing energy gathering at her hands.

“Just stay still,” Anna ordered. “Moving will make it enter your system faster. You’ve got a lot of cuts, but they’re all fresh. I should be able to—”

“I am not poisoned,” Madiv said with a scoff. “I cannot be poisoned. My physiology is far too superior for something as pathetic as that. The only healer I am in need of is a tailor — though I do believe I would accept a grief attendant as well. These are older than the fools that lie dead at our feet.”

Everyone stared at him. The tension slowly seeped out of the air, replaced by the thick stench of blood and sweat. Anna lowered her hands and the magic gathered at her fingertips faded away.

Arwin did a quick count of the assassins on the street. Then he froze. There were only seven. One was missing.

He burst into motion, dashing past Anna without even wasting a second to explain, and skidded to a halt inside the tavern. An imp knelt beside a single patch of blood on the ground, scrubbing at it with a wet cloth.

Lillia stood before Melissa, wings of shadow rising above her and a pan held defensively in her hands. Blood was splattered across its base. Her shoulders relaxed when she spotted Arwin.

“Is everyone okay?” Lillia asked.

“All safe,” Arwin confirmed, blowing out a relieved breath. “What happened here?”

“One managed to teleport in. He had shadow magic,” Lillia said. She lowered her pan and a small grin tugged at the corners of her lips. “Mine was stronger.”

Arwin didn’t ask where the man’s body had gone. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know. Every assassin had been accounted for, and that was all that mattered. Arwin dismissed his armor before Melissa could notice his gauntlets. Their stats weren’t hidden and he didn’t want to go around announcing his abilities too much.

 “Are you okay?” Arwin asked Melissa.

The whites of Melissa’s eyes had nearly swallowed her pupils entirely. Her hands trembled despite her best attempts to keep them under control. She gave him a stiff nod.

“Yes. I — I’m fine. Lillia protected me. What about—”

“Everyone we care about is alive. Everyone we don’t care about is dead,” Arwin said in what he hoped was a comforting tone.

Melissa stared at him in disbelief. “You… killed them? All of them?”

“They were just assassins.”

She swallowed. “Are you sure you aren’t for hire as mercenaries?”

“I’m afraid not,” Arwin said. “Do you even need that anymore? The whole squad is dead.”

“She does,” Rodrick said, stepping into the tavern as he rubbed the blade of his sword with a cloth. “Anyone willing to hire the Falling Blade isn’t just going to give up this easily. They’ll come again, I’m almost certain of it.”

“And they’ll send a stronger group next time.” Melissa’s face paled. “That must have been one of their lowest tiers.”

“Probably. I don’t see why they’d hire anything better for a single girl,” Rodrick said with a nod. “But it’ll take time for that. The Falling Blade isn’t going to just throw men away. They’re going to try to figure out what happened — and that’s time you can use.”

“How do you know?” Melissa asked.

Arwin had been wondering the same thing. He definitely knew a fair bit about the assassins — more than just passing knowledge. Rodrick coughed into a fist. “That’s a story that’s too long for the time you’ve got. They’ll be sniffing around soon, and you’ve got a week at most before they move again as long as the money is still flowing.”

“Will it?” Lillia asked. “Was this business really that lucrative as to justify hiring a second group of even more expensive professional assassins?”

Melissa’s fists tightened and she nodded. “Yes. It might be.”

“Then I suppose we don’t have any time to waste,” Arwin said. “Let’s go see what these assassins donated to us. There’s a whole week to get you outfitted.”

“Can you really do that much in just a week?” Melissa asked, doubt and worry dripping from her words. “All the best artificers and smiths I’ve known took weeks just to make a single item, and it wouldn’t be anywhere near strong enough to help me fight anyone this talented.”

“There’s your problem,” Arwin said. He put a hand on Melissa’s shoulder and crouched to be at her eye level. “I am not most smiths.”

Chapter 210

It was tempting to launch right into work. With only a week to get Melissa ready for what would probably be an even stronger group of assassins than the ones they’d just killed, a large part of Arwin wanted to just start making as many magical items as possible.

Arwin didn’t let himself fall into that trap. If he did, Melissa was dead. This wasn’t a problem that he could brute force just by making a bunch of powerful set items. He needed to think. To determine a plan. There were just too many restrictions and limits he had to account for to do anything else.

The first was that Arwin couldn’t just make anything he wanted to. He needed to outfit Melissa, but he didn’t want to completely reveal the full extent of his powers. Giving her a bunch of [Awakened] items would be the end of his freedom if anyone figured out he could make them.

Even making his “normal” magical items had the potential to overplay his hand. Given the magic weapons that he’d seen in Milten so far, nearly anything he made was liable to give the average adventurer a heart attack.

 The Falling Blades’ magical items had only proven that even further. Arwin and Lillia stood in his forge, looking down on the pile of enchanted equipment they’d taken from the grey-clothed men.

Swords that could flash with blinding light at will. Small metal balls with the same enchantment. Rings that connected to each other and let the wearers send brief messages with their minds at a significant cost of magical energy.

The strongest weapon of the lot was a wicked looking black dagger that could inject poison stored in its hilt out through its blade the moment it touched someone, ensuring a lethal dose of liquid death was sent straight into a victim’s veins.

While the magic equipment was effective and useful… it just wasn’t anything compared to the work Arwin could manage.

It would be stupid to let that get to my head and manifest any arrogance. I’ve seen magical items that make my equipment right now look pathetic, and I’ve seen it used by adventurers not that much stronger than I am now.

While I’m confident I have the potential to reach and surpass that level in the future, this isn’t the future. The reason my equipment is so much better is because the competition is just so much worse. There isn’t much magic this far out in the kingdom.

And, because of that, it makes everything I can make considerably more valuable. If people discover what I’m capable of, every large guild in the outskirts of the kingdom will be knocking on my door. I can’t let that happen.

That was a bit of a problem. Arwin had fully planned on making relatively weak items, similar to the ones they’d taken from the assassins. But if he made items at this level… there was basically no chance for Melissa to survive.

“What do I do?” Arwin muttered. He picked up one of the marbles and rolled it between his fingers, his lips pressed thin. “I promised Melissa I’d make her something that would let her have a chance of surviving this. How do I do that without completely exposing my own back?”

 “Definitely no living items,” Lillia said. “Those are more long-term weapons anyway. We’re not trying to make Melissa the strongest warrior in the kingdom. We just need her strong enough to survive.”

“Right,” Arwin said with a nod of agreement. Frustration made his hands clench. “But how strong is that? And how do I pull that off anything strong enough to accomplish that without making an item too strong to reveal?”

Lillia didn’t respond immediately. They both thought in silence for several seconds. Then the former demon queen tilted her head to the side.

“You know, it’s impossible to tell how strong most of your armor is when you’re wearing it. I saw the description of your gloves — good job with them, by the way — but everything else just looks like normal, well-made armor.”

“Right,” Arwin said. “I could make sure the stats were concealed from other people, but I don’t trust Melissa enough to put our potential future in her hands.”

“Of course not. That would be stupid,” Lillia said. “But what if you took it a step further? If you can hide the stats from other people, couldn’t you hide them from her too?”

He hesitated. Hiding stats was a common enchantment. When he’d been the Hero, basically every single piece of equipment he’d used had borne it. But hiding stats from the wearer themselves… if anything, that was more of a curse than a blessing.

Nobody in their right mind would put on magical equipment when they didn’t know what it did. They were liable to find themselves in its control rather than other way around. But Melissa wasn’t exactly grabbing armor from the middle of a haunted dungeon.

He was making it from scratch. A smile slowly crawled across Arwin’s face. He grabbed Lillia by the shoulders. “That’s it! I just have to make it so that absolutely nobody can see what the equipment does! I can maybe even find a way to ensure it breaks down if anyone goes digging too hard. That’ll make it so that Melissa has what she needs to survive, but it’ll keep my interests protected as well.”

 “Can you do such a complex enchantment?” Lillia asked, clearly trying to restrain from getting too excited until it was clear they actually had a path forward. “You’d have to conceal the item’s stats, put in a failsafe, and also make all the actual magic that keeps her alive.”

Arwin hesitated for a moment, a stopper put in his excitement. He’d gotten pretty complex with the enchantment for his gauntlets, but this was yet another level. A few seconds of thought passed. Then he nodded.

“Yes. I think I can. If I have all the monster parts I need, I believe I can do it. The gloves showed I can make items piece by piece. So as long as each enchantment is tied to a different focal piece, I believe I can get pretty complex. It won’t be easy… but I’ve got a week.”

“So that just means we need to figure out what enchantments you’re going to do and the type of armor Melissa needs.” Lillia took the marble from Arwin so she could roll it around herself. Arwin glanced down at the pile of equipment. There were several other marbles sitting there that she could have taken. Lillia followed her gaze and her cheeks reddened. “I wanted yours.”

Arwin suppressed a laugh. “What are you, a cat?”

Her tail poked him in the leg and he cleared his throat, taking Lillia’s hand and trapping the marble between their palms. “There. Now we can both hold it.”

If the assassins knew their magical item was getting used as little more than a fidget toy, they’d probably cry tears of blood. Eh. Good riddance. Bunch of vile, arrogant pricks.

“I suppose I can settle for that, but don’t get used to it. I don’t like sharing.” Despite her words, a satisfied smile crossed Lillia’s lips and she leaned against his side. “It really does feel like the work keeps stacking up, doesn’t it?”

“There’s never enough time,” Arwin agreed through a sigh. He looked over at the heart, still thumping away in the corner of the smithy. “But we can try to fit in some extra work while we get everything ready for Melissa. It’ll be a bit before I can actually start on her equipment.”

“What?” Lillia blinked. “Why? Do you have the time to waste?”

“Waste? No.” Arwin shook his head. “Not at all. But I’m not going to waste time. I just need materials. I can’t make Melissa’s armor with what I’ve got now. I need monster parts. Specific ones. That takes time to get.”

“You mean you’re going to squeeze in both dungeon diving and crafting this week?” Lillia squinted at Arwin and her tail flicked in irritation. “You realize that’s impossible. You won’t finish.”

“I have to. Today I’ll figure out the enchantments I’m doing and what materials I’ll need. Then we’ll figure out where to get those items. It’ll be too late to head out so we can work on the bellows again. Then we’ll get the bits I need the next day and I can start crafting after that.”

“Right. I forgot you were like this,” Lillia said with a sigh. She rubbed the bridge of her nose. Then she flicked him in the shoulder.

“What was that for?”

“Do you really think we’ll find everything we need in just a day? It’ll be days of dungeon diving if you need a bunch of specific things.”

“Then that’s what we’ll have to do. What’s the alternative?”

“You have a guild, Arwin. You do realize that you don’t have to do every single dungeon dive yourself? Allocate tasks. We agreed that you’d stop trying to do everything yourself. You’ve been including me, but have you forgotten about everyone else?”

Arwin’s brow furrowed as he sought an answer, but the words died before they could even form. No excuse he could come up with sounded even remotely reasonable. Lillia was right. Trying to go through a bunch of dungeons and craft an entire set of armor in a week was just impossible.

But sending the others without him… no matter how hard Arwin tried to find a workaround, his thoughts always fell right back to the exact same issue.  

“I don’t want to send them alone.” Arwin’s shoulders slumped. “I’m worried someone will get hurt if I’m not there.”

“Arwin…” Lillia’s voice was gentle.

“I know,” Arwin said. He swallowed. “I can’t protect everyone. I know that. But at least I can protect the Menagerie while they’re next to me. If they aren’t… what can I do?”

“They’re adventurers and adults, Arwin. Even Reya. And they’re far from weak. Your equipment has taken already talented people and pushed them even higher. That’s how you protect them. But you know what isn’t protecting them? Keeping them permanently under your wing and out of a situation where they can truly grow.”

Lillia’s words, although softly spoken, bit into Arwin like an icepick. Her hand tightened around his and with her other she cradled his face, moving his chin so they were looking into each other’s eyes. “You need to trust them, Arwin.”

“I do trust them,” Arwin said. “I just don’t want something to go wrong.”

“You can’t control that. And let’s be real — you don’t have the liberty to shelter them if you want to save Melissa as well. Let them make the decision for themselves.”

She was right and they both knew it. Arwin heaved a defeated sigh.

“Damn it. You’re right. I don’t like it, but you’re right. How is it you’re so good at this?” Arwin nearly asked if Lillia was worried about the others, but he stopped himself before the words could escape. He knew she was. Insinuating anything else would have just been an insult.   

“I think demons had a much more effective way of training soldiers than humans do,” Lillia said, pulling Arwin into a hug and resting her cheek against his shoulder. “You aren’t doing anyone a favor by keeping them completely safe. People need to overcome danger to grow. Let them grow. You’ll be with them in your equipment. Besides, it’s not like they’re going to be doing the hardest dungeons in the world. They can still take things slow.”

Arwin nodded slowly. “Yeah. You’re right. As usual. It sounds like I need to focus in and figure out the traits Melissa’s items need — and then I need to speak to the rest of the Menagerie. I’m going to need their help.”

Lillia released Arwin and took a step back. She set the marble back down in the pile.  “Then let’s get those traits locked in before tonight. How can I help?”

With a path already starting to emerge in the clouds in Arwin’s mind, it only took him a moment to answer. “Help me act out a scenario and brainstorm what the assassins can do. Let’s get Rodrick as well. He knows their abilities more than we do. Then we can figure out what I’ll need to make the enchantments we need.”

Lillia gave him a confident smile and Arwin returned it. They had a plan — and if all went to it, the Falling Blades would never know what hit them when they came for Melissa the second time.

No matter how this all ends up falling out, our time in the shadows is over. We’ve taken the first step into the light. It’s time to fully emerge onto the stage.