Grand Saint Alloy

The other four stared wide eyed at Tristan as he dragged the still living crab towards them. None of them could have done the same thing. Three tier three crabs was a little much for them. Frankly, it was too much for Tristan, he only won because his blades had hard countered armor that lacked essence. If they had been normal blades they would have been about as useful as the spear had been.

Tristan strode inside the warehouse, “C’mon the smell of blood will attract more.”

Ray jumped, “But we need to get back to the fort.”

“Yes, but if we leave now, we will be traveling in the dark, and while you can see in the dark, the rest of us can’t,” Tristan said.

The rest followed him in and closed the door behind them. The bar was cut into two equal pieces and lying on the floor. Fortunately, both halves were long enough to keep the door shut behind them. Eve and Bruce worked on locking the door, while Clive worked on creating some light. Evidently he found a lamp and some oil in the utility closet.

Ray started panicking, “What are you talking about, we need to go now, while we have the chance.”

Bruce shook his head, “No, Sage is right, whatever these blades are, they are ridiculous,” he held up the sheathed sword breaker, “He would be the only one even able to hurt a large ghost crab. Without time to react in the darkness, we will die.”

Bruce handed the knife back to Tristan before going to Clive to help with lighting. Two people with light kerns did help when you were trapped in a warehouse that lacked lighting. Tristan strapped the knife back onto his belt and dropped his crab. He picked up Ray’s spear before jabbing the crab with it. They had to have a weak point, and in a way they did. The joints of the legs, arms, and tail, however those were small targets, a machete would be a better tool for them.

The huge maw that made up its body would be a weakness, if they ever considered biting an attack. Instead they kept their mouth shut, until their prey was dead. The ghost crab was basically a mouth with legs and a stinger. Only the eyes seemed to be a valid weak spot. The small orbs allowed direct access to the creatures brain, but not the part that controlled vital functions. It seemed to control coordination for the other half of the body. Biology was weird, but he had his answer - go for the eyes, then walk away.

He was so absorbed in his thoughts that he missed Eve walking up behind him, “You visited the alchemist didn’t you?”

Tristan jumped a bit, but answered, “Sure, remember thinking you looked familiar,” He chuckled, “ Your sister does not like me.”

“Why would you even consider working with a silver blooded demon?” Eve asked.

“Eve, your grandfather is arguably the leader of the Caldera, you and I come from the opposite side of society,” Tristan held one hand high and the other low to demonstrate their relative social statuses. In reality, he was the nephew of Elder forest, making him only one step further removed from Eve’s place. “So I do wonder why the silver blooded demon’s are so hated. The man is aggravating to the extreme, but he definitely doesn’t fit the description of a demon.”

Eve did not get mad at his question, after all he had admitted his own ignorance and respected her pedigree, “Just like all things, it is a generalization. However, just because a rat does not bring the plague, we still kill it because it is better than risking the chance of an epidemic. The alchemist was supposed to be killed, but he kidnapped my sister and used her as a hostage until he had his base and network set up. He then released her, but by then she had already developed some kind of attachment to him.”

“When a man like that is the exception to the rule. The benevolent version of the whole, then the whole should be exterminated. My family specifically hates him, but the other Elders actually support the alchemist to limit my grandfather’s power.”

Tristan could only shiver at her rather blood thirsty outlook. He made up his mind to never show Eve his essence. Bruce had beat him as a thirteen year old, Eve would definitely kill him. He wondered how widespread this mindset was, if people looked at Hadrid as a representation, then Tristan was not surprised that people looked at him with disgust.

A bright light and heat caught their attention. Bruce and Clive had managed to get a fire started. Tristan briefly wondered where the smoke would go, but a quick look up revealed a sky light that had been opened. He made a mental note to close it before they went to sleep, it would be terrible if a ghost crab crawled through their smoke hole.

The light reflected off dozens of wooden crates with open tops. They were all about a square yard and inside Tristan could see grain. There were a couple hundred crates, which looked like a lot, but it was not enough to satisfy even a single Caldera over the winter. Tristan grinned when he saw other supplies including salt and water in an animal trough. If they got stuck here, they could hold out for a long time. They had two light affinity people, who were good with plants and a water affinity person who would be able to purify the water.

Bruce looked around, “Does anyone here know how to cook?”

They all looked at each other, eventually Clive raised his hand, “I do, but there is not a lot of ingredients here.”

Tristan pointed at the crab that had a spear stuck in its eye, “Can you cook that?”

Clive looked horrified, “Didn’t that hatch out of a human?”

Tristan rolled his eyes, “No, It is most likely from one of the cows in the central plains, there should be between fifty and a hundred thousand of them.”

Eve seemed skeptical, “You thinks that there is a hundred thousand cows in the plains?”

Clive nodded, “Yes actually,” He got an unbelieving look from the other three team members, “You are thinking of cows that will pull plows, or serve as an alternate income source for farmers after harvest. In the plains, they pack them together tightly, many times a cow will live in a stall barely bigger than itself, while living its whole life giving milk. After that it will be butchered. “

Eve was horrified, “That sounds evil.”

Tristan snorted, “What, you have never eaten meat before?”

Eve glared at him, “Of course not, its wrong to eat something that has feelings.”

Tristan was not sure if she was being serious. Everything that did not eat animals was on the bottom of the food chain. There was a reason why humans feared mythical beasts, they ate people. Not because they were malicious, but because it was weird to expect a hungry animal to turn down easy food. Maybe thats why Eve’s sister stayed with Hadrid, he most likely fed her meat.

Clive interrupted them, “Sage, could you cut the top half of the ghost crab off I think that I might be able to use the meat inside.”

Tristan obeyed and used the long knife to cut the sides and back of the crabs mouth torso. He pealed it apart revealing something startling. The roof of the mouth was covered in teeth that curved inward. This would stop food from sliding out. A large tongue with a barbed tip was coiled up near the back. The surprising thing was the mouth’s floor had a black object set into it.

Tristan actually recognized it, “What is a dark artifact doing in here?”

Tristan expected a reaction from Ray, but Bruce was the one who inspected it, “It is a dark artifact, I heard some mythical beasts had them. I suppose that it uses the dark artifact to help digest its food as it lacks a stomach.”

Tristan looked at Bruce, “how much do you think its worth?”

Bruce could only shrug, “I don’t know, normally artifacts sell for a lot, but this one has no utility outside of absorption to increase one’s tier. That will drop the price, however, it will be highly sought by any tier three warrior with a dark kern.”

Clive snagged the crab while they were talking and started scooping out meat and putting it into a bucket with water and salt in it. He cut up some potatoes that he brought and started stirring it with his knife. Everyone slowly gathered around the fire, except Ray. He was peering through the crack in the door, while shifting from foot to foot.

“Guys,” Ray said, panic tinging his voice, “There are more, a lot more. They are eating the dead ones.”

“Its Ok,” Bruce said, “they should be done by tomorrow morning, even if they are not, we have enough supplies to last a few weeks.”

Ray groaned, before continuing to brood while looking out the door. Clive finished making dinner and they found that it rather bland. Salt could only take crab and potato so far. Crabs were basically giant bugs, so Tristan believed that they should be happy that it was edible at all.

They discussed setting up a guard rotation, though they had no way to keep time. Despite this issue, they still decided it was important and Clive took the first watch. He had been scared for most of the day, but everyone else had been more helpful so he felt like he needed to do this much.

That was fine with Tristan, he could not find a comfortable spot. Thankfully padded cloth armor was good at stopping all the little grain kernels from digging into his back. Tristan was used to sleeping on top of a time bomb, since the mine was located on top of an elemental hot spot. Because of this he was the only one to get a good night’s sleep.

Well at least until the screaming started.