Grand Saint Alloy

Lesly watched with tears in her eyes as her brother crossed the makeshift bridge. He would live. The black haired man, whom she now remembered as the unruly one who had punched a farmer, carved into the crabs. Lesly was glad that her brother had managed to take him. He did not slaughter them indiscriminately as he was a lower tier, but he gave better than he got.

Vin shoved Lesly away in disgust, “Take that bridge down now!”

No one answered him. The warrior caste was proud and looked down on others, but there was one thing they understood. It was taking your brothers place in the grave. The very concept that their world view was constructed upon recoiled at Vin’s words. Three dozen glares were leveled at Vin as he asked them to sentence a valiant person to death.

“I am still in command, and you will obey me,” Vin drew his oversized machete, “Anyone who has any problem can take it up with my blade.”

Vin may have been in the wrong, but he was still far and away the deadliest warrior here. He snorted at the glaring warriors, who refused to budge. If no one would obey, he would do the task himself and worry about the consequences later. He started walking towards the board muttering profanities under his breath, but some one stopped him.

Eve, stood, holding a spear pointed at Vin, “Stay back,” her voice was shaky, she was a tier two civilian woman, this would be death if Vin attacked, “You should be helping, we’re on the same side.”

“Who do you think you are,” Vin raised his blade to cut her in half. Tier twos needed to know their place.

“I am Elder River’s granddaughter,” Eve flinched away from the blade, which had already cut halfway into the spear.

Vin trembled in rage. This was a tier two that he could not kill, she was not only guaranteed a smooth ride to tier three, her grandfather would most certainly execute him. Vin was not arrogant enough to believe he was a match for Elder River. So instead he placed a hand on her shoulder and pushed her out of the way. At the moment, she was just a tier two woman, sho could not resist his strength.

Just as he pushed her aside, his danger sense exploded. Vin whirled and barely managed to stop the war pick from giving him a third eye. Lesly was glaring at him with blood shot eyes her metal shafted pick grinding against his sword. Vin grimaced, he was using a regular steel sword so Lesly was blunting the edge. With a heave, he pushed the woman away and tried to cut her down. Lesly followed his blade with the pick, keeping control of the swing.

Once the blade was safely off to the side, Lesly grabbed the blade with a gauntleted hand. It cut into the leather palm, but her armor held. The war pick came down right above the cross guard, right where the tang started. Lesly’s palm was cut, but the blade broke, leaving her holding the bulk of Vin’s weapon.

Lesly instantly swung back around, aiming for Vin’s skull again. He grinned and deflected the shaft with his artifact bracer , his other hand slammed the broken machete’s pommel into her nose. Vin’s forearm cracked under her swing, but Lesly’s nose broke. Tears filled her eyes, she did not have time to clear them, before Vin struck her again. A left handed jab took her in the solar plexus while the his fist with the pommel struck her jaw.

“This is what people who defy me get,” Vin growled, he had his courage shattered in the Plain’s Caldera. He had betrayed his duty and murdered over five thousand people. All he got from it was loneliness and depression, but he was the type of person to bring others to his level as opposed to raising himself up.

Lesly stared up at Vin, she tried to shove off the boot on her chest, but he was too strong. She could still fight, if only she had grabbed her knives all she had to do was put the belt back on. She screamed at Vin, the unfairness that a coward could be blessed with such strength. Vin shook his head like a disappointed father, drawing a single edged knife meant for gutting animals.

His expression froze. Lesly squinted at what he was looking at. Vin had a hand over his chest like he just had a heart attack. The pressure of the foot lessened. Lesly, took the opportunity and shoved the boot to the side. The imbalance caused Vin to stagger and fall, which was shocking for someone of his capabilities.

Lesly sprang to her feet scooping up her war pick. She would kill the coward while he was down. Lesly would not get the chance, behind Vin stood Eve. She was gripping half a shaft of a spear, the other half was shoved into Vin’s back. Lesly looked at Vin as he writhed, clutching at his chest. Eve missed the heart, but Lesly guessed that she had gotten a major artery. It felt odd to be saved by someone of lower tier.

“Thank you,” Lesly said to her savior.

Eve simply pointed where her team mate was fighting, “Go now!”

Lesly nodded, and yelled at the other tier threes, “Come on, its time to pull our weight!”

A third of them chose to join her, making this fight about two on one. Lesly darted across the plank, her tier three physique making easy work of the small platform. The sight that met her, was shocking. Bruce’s team mate had given up on self preservation, and started cutting down the ghost crabs one after another. Something caught her sight.

A cut on his cheek that should have crushed his jaw was bleeding silver tinted blood. Lesly almost tripped over her own feet, a silver devil, no wonder he was cutting through higher tier monsters. Her mind went back to a time that Bruce had returned home, bragging about giving a silver devil a beating.

Lesly narrowed her eyes. His actions were not those of the blood thirsty creatures of legend. He was more than capable of killing Bruce in revenge, with no consequences, yet he saved her brother. She would need the whole story before judging. Lesly was part of a merchant family, if there was one thing she understood, it was being debt free. She currently owed this devil a debt. She intended to pay it. More importantly, as a merchant, Lesly never wasted an asset.

The devil collapsed, and the silver essence started crusting to the side of his face like a steel scab. Then the thirteen tier threes smashed into the ghost crabs. Humans were innately better than beasts of the same tier. The ability to augment their bodies with armor and carry force multipliers allowed them to make more use of their abilities. Martial arts and tactics only further widened the gap allowing for people to face beasts multiple tiers higher. Mythical abilities, could mitigate this, but ghost crabs seemed to lack those abilities.

One strike from Lesly cracked the upper shell of the crab she was facing. The shell that had required so much effort for her squads to crack, split in a single blow. Staggering from its brain injury, the crab tried to sting Lesly. She caught it on her gauntlet and beat it another two times to finally kill it for good. The next one went down faster, two blows was all it took.

Lesly turned to her next opponent only to find that there was nothing. A merchant with a tier three kern was rare, it was easy to forget that Lesly was the weakest warrior here. The others ware all hardened on the wall. They finished with time to watch her finish her second crab.

The silver devil was already being dragged off by the man who had placed the plank. She noticed that he had already wiped the silver blood away and replaced the daggers in their sheaths. Lesly sighed in relief, she would be able to investigate without being obstructed by twelve warriors.

“Lesly, we understand your point of view,” The eldest warrior said, Kale if she remembered correctly, “but you attacked a superior, we will need to detain you until we can get an Elder out here to appoint a new commander and decide wether to reward or punish you.”

Lesly sighed, well she would be obstructed after all, “Fine, we don’t have a prison, where would you like me to stay?”

“The dining hall will be fine, we trust you not to make a scene,” The Kale smiled a little, “That is, if we don’t stop you from seeing your brother.”

“Can I run an investigation from the dining hall?” Lesly asked.

The older warrior shrugged, “That depends on what it is.”

Lesly started walking to the large wooden building, “I want to find out more about the person who saved my brothers life.”

“Well, that should not be a problem. We would not stop the Golden Heart family from repaying their debts,” The old warrior said.

That was not exactly what what Lesly intended to do, however that was not something that they needed to be aware of. She entered the dining hall and sat down at a table at the far end. It would be her office for now. She called for the first person to come in.