Forged Legacy

Chapter 167 - The Bull

As expected, the thanefire drake teeth were obscenely hard, and it took Harvey 30 minutes to file one down to size. The tooth was plenty long, but he had to straighten it out so it wouldn’t get caught in the barrel or start spiraling out of control halfway through its flight. Luckily, the set of proper blacksmith's tools he’d bought from John’s mirror at the end of the last trial included plenty of files meant for both cold and hot steel.

[You inscribing another burst array?] Julius asked.

Probably.

[Boring! You need to start getting creative. Like maybe instead of shooting flames, you could conjure roots that infest someone’s weave.]

Do you know what runes we’d need to do that?

[Umm… No? You’re the Runeforged Artificer. I thought that was your job.]

I’m sure it’s possible, but I sure as hell don’t know how to do that.

Once the bullet tip was ready, Harvey took a second tooth and dipped it into his new bottle of Legendary ink. Normally, coercing the ink into doing what he wanted was the easy part, especially compared to the battle of wills it took to refine the ink in the first place, but keeping the latent will of a revenant who’d been fed the life-force of hundreds of living beings alongside his pet dragon was harder than usual. His mom appeared in the doorway halfway through, nearly breaking his concentration as he delicately painted one rune after another. She was talking about something, but she trailed off when she saw the absolute focus on his face.

“I’ll just leave this here,” Cassandra whispered before softly closing the door behind her.

The eggs were cold by the time he set the tooth down. He absentmindedly shoveled in a mouthful, his eyes never leaving his latest creation. A steel casing appeared from his ring, one of the leftovers from his last gunsmithing session. Using a sheet of paper as a funnel, he carefully packed it full of hellpowder before affixing the tip and crimping the steel down tight around the white bone covered in teal runes.

For the third time that morning, power bloomed from his weave, the completion of his Prophet’s Suffering Round pushing his Profession up to Level 49 and his Race up to Level 50. Taking a deep breath, he savored the feeling of his weave being reforged. To anyone else, it would’ve looked like Harvey had a quiet morning. To him, it had been a non-stop struggle for his very soul.

He’d wiped the ink his addled mind had almost anointed himself with long ago, but he could still feel the danger looming within the lightly stained skin. Luckily, anointing yourself required specific patterns for the resonance to sink in, meaning he had probably managed to stave off Marcus's legacy’s attempt at staining his path. Still, that had been too close.

Outside, Harvey heard birds chirping. It had been there all along, but his mind was so focused it was like he’d forgotten how to hear anything that wasn’t part of a life-or-death struggle. Looking out the window, he saw a group of kids tossing a football around. He let out a long breath, letting his chest sag as his brain struggled to reach equilibrium. His heart rate had been jacked up like he’d been running a marathon, and it took a while to slow it down. He forced himself to stop thinking about angels, demons, bullets, and bombs just long enough to enjoy his cold plate of eggs.

“Can you inscribe my bat?” Tyler asked.

Harvey lurched, nearly falling off the stool as his head snapped towards his brother. He hadn’t even heard him walk out.

“What?” Harvey stammered.

“Can you inscribe my bat? You never finished adding the offensive arrays after we got sidetracked yesterday. We still have a few hours before the assault, and it looks like you’re already working on some inscriptions anyway,” Tyler repeated.

“Ugh,” Harvey groaned, putting his head down on the table.

“What? You’re the one who offered in the first place! How would you feel if I died, all because I needed just a little more firepower?” Tyler urged.

“I’ll do it,” Harvey grumbled. “I finally get a moment to myself, and you show up to ruin it.”

“That’s the first thing they teach us in little brother school. We develop a sort of 6th sense,” Tyler grinned.

Harvey debated using his new Prophet’s Suffering ink, but eventually decided against it. He’d definitely be adding a few arrays to his own weapons, but Tyler didn’t have his Modular Array skill to let him swap between inscription sets whenever he wanted. His bat could really only fit one, and mixing undeath with holy silver wasn’t really a good fit.

“You’ve already got a nice burst of holy from Blessed Break. I know the plan was to add something like the lightning burst I have on Aftershock, but I don’t think adding another is the right call,” Harvey mused.

This text was taken from NovelBin. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“So what else can you do?” Tyler asked.

“Honestly, I don’t know,” Harvey admitted. “There are so many runes to string into an exponential amount of arrays, but I’ve really only gotten the hang of gathering and transmuting essence into burst arrays.”

“I don’t know anything about this stuff, but please don’t do anything too crazy. I don’t want my main weapon to be your guinea pig right before the assault,” Tyler replied.

[How would you approach something like this back at the engineering firm?] Julius asked.

Well, we’d start by figuring out exactly what problem we’re trying to solve.

[Alright, that’s easy! We’re trying to solve the problem that this bat doesn’t have any inscriptions yet.]

Oh wow! Really? Thanks, Captain Obvious!

[Happy to help,] Julius replied.

The way I see it, we've got two options. Add some sort of extra lethality to the bat, or make it better for his other skills? Remember that last fight where he hit that mortarhorn bomb back over the wall?

[Yeah.]

It was cool, but I doubt most creatures are going to be one-shot by their own abilities, and the odds of hitting the same spot twice are basically zero. What if we could make the bat power up the projectiles while he hits them back?

The two mulled it over for a while. Tyler tried to offer his own suggestions, but gave up and got to work on his chainmail when Harvey ignored him. He hadn’t told anyone about the Cognition Matrix yet – mostly because he didn’t want to explain that he had the voice of his dead friend sharing his skull, which made things awkward when he was having two conversations at once.

Eventually, they settled on a System that would gather momentum as he moved, storing it in massive batteries that powered a burst transmutation array he hoped would partially convert the demon's attacks into an unstable mix of holy and infernal essence. If he was lucky, the unstable mix would be greater than the sum of its parts, increasing the lethality of the attacks and adding some resonance the demons weren’t naturally resistant to. Using data Julius collected from the many kinetic absorption arrays Harvey’s own weapon used, the AI in his head theorized that runes powered by movement would be better for Tyler with the combo of his Blessed Break and Crusade skills.

In the end, the arrays weren’t that different from those on Aftershock or the Sentinel’s Arcblade, but they stayed in Harvey’s wheelhouse while still being a better fit for Tyler.

Harvey already had all the ink he needed, and with Julius' help, the bat was finished in a matter of hours. Tyler took a few practice swings, grinning as the momentum-based storage runes began to glow.

“Should we go test it?” Tyler asked.

“Dude, there are kids outside? I’m not going to toss you a fireball and risk killing someone,” Harvey replied.

“Come on! I’ll hit it straight into the ground. I promise!” Tyler urged.

“Just wait a little bit,” Harvey chuckled. “You’ll get your chance.”

Tyler grumbled before putting the weapon back in his slipsack and walking inside. They met their father in the hallway, who was walking out to get them.

“Time for lunch,” Steve said.

“I had a big breakfast. I’m not hungry,” Tyler said.

“Too bad. Listen, it’s not often lately that we can all sit down and have a relaxing meal together where the three of us aren’t exhausted and your mother’s not worried sick. Today might be the only day we get to do this, so get your butts in seats. Mom and Eleanor will help us get strapped into our armor when we’re done,” Steve urged.

Tyler still seemed annoyed, but Harvey was happy to enjoy a quiet meal with the family. Cassandra kept it light, sandwiches with homemade french fries and a salad. Everyone avoided the elephant in the room, choosing to ignore the impending assault in favor of reminiscing about their favorite family stories. Harvey appreciated the light banter after his harrowing morning, but a knock on the front door cut things short.

“Captain!” Steve stammered as he pulled the door open. “I didn’t expect to see you here. Cash, good to see you.”

Harvey groaned, putting his head in his hands and tugging on his cheeks. The kitchen table was out of sight from the door, and he plastered on the best fake smile he could before the two angels walked into the room.

“Celeste! Always a pleasure to see you,” Harvey said.

“Mhmm,” she smiled back, clearly also forcing it. “You have a lovely family, Steven.”

Cassandra pushed back from the table, moving to offer the woman a handshake. “I don’t believe we’ve met! I’m Cassandra. These are our four children: Harvey, Eleanor, Tyler, and Max.”

Max’s chair scraped loudly against the tile as he bolted from his seat to wrap the armor-clad angel in a bear hug.

“Hello, Max!” she smiled. “You’re a sweet little guy, aren’t you? Not like your brother, I see.”

“Alllllright,” Harvey sighed. “Why are you here, Celeste?”

She kept tousling Max’s hair, not saying anything for a moment while she stared at Harvey. “Adrian told me all about your little expedition last night,” she finally said. “It sounds like you have skills we could use today, so I’m here to ask you to ride with me today.”

“I’m happy to, but Steve and Tyler stay with Cash,” Harvey replied.

“I don’t need you. I need them. Really, I need Tyler, but I know the three of you are a package deal,” she countered.

“Me? What do you need me for?” Tyler asked.

“I’ve never heard of a G-Grade capable of blocking a Mortarhorn before. Our wall-breakers are ready, but someone needs to keep them safe while they charge towards those pigs,” she answered.

“That sounds like a suicide mission!” Harvey replied.

“It’s not,” she spat. “But, I knew you would say that, which is why I will be riding into battle with you.”

Plates on the table began to rattle as the ground shook beneath their feet. It came in fits and starts, like pounding steps. Cassandra yelped, and Max dashed towards their father. Harvey shot a confused glance at Celeste, who was smiling from ear to ear.

“Earthquake?” Tyler asked.

“That’s our ride,” Celeste beamed.

The family rushed outside and saw a massive golden bull, the size of their house, ambling down the street. Its horns were made of blue gemstones that reflected the light like a glittering diamond. It walked on 6 colossal legs, each the size of a tree trunk, and could easily crush Harvey by accident. When it got to the front of their house, it leaned down and took a bite out of their yard, tearing up a chunk of dirt in the process. A deep-throaty sigh bellowed out of its mouth as it chewed contentedly.

“What the…” Cassandra muttered.