Chapter 2: the smith
"So where is the best place to get something to drink, uh I mean work?" Talon asks Garett, leaning back against some stairs.
"At the nightshade inn. It isn't fancy but it's all we got, follow me and I'll show you where it is." Garett says.
"Not necessary, just tell me in which direction it is." Talon says.
"Oh, no. You've heard my father. I'm responsible for the two of you." Garret tells them.
"Isn't the marshal's name Wythers? How come your last name is Spears?" Xu asks.
"I chose this name when I became a solider, when I was 14." Garret explains.
"It sounds like the name a 14-year-old would come up with." Talon teases him and walks up the stairs, leading to a wall overlooking the greyskin territory.
"Deep below us are mines which are rich with ores and minerals, we're forging armors and weapons with them. As long as the Prime Order receives their shipments, they'll leave us in peace." Garret explains while he's leading the two newcomers over the walls.
"There are so many lights." Talon says, stopping and looking over the wall onto the wild area underneath them.
"Greyskin camps. My men count them every night, there are already more than 50." Garret tells them, looking at the fires with concern.
"Did they ever attack?" Talon questions.
"Once, they made their way up here but we were able to push them back and they've been quiet for 11 years. But everyone is still weary of these monsters, I was stationed at the front lines for three years. It is a bloody war." Garret tells them, making Xu grasp at his cloth, around his shoulders with sorrow.
"These monsters aren't the only ones being a threat. I've seen what the Prime Order does to the people. Who protects us from you?" Talon asks him pissed.
"I'm not a soldier of the Order, I'm captain of the border-guard." Garret defends himself.
"Same difference, you're still working and killing in their name." Talon says.
"the only one I killed recently was a plaguelings who was attacking a woman and his companion." Garret snaps back.
"Thanks for helping us. I'm in your debt." Talon says and starts to walk away.
"Do me one favor, don't do anything which will get me in trouble alright?" Garret requests but Talon only smirks mischievously and continues on her way.
"So, you want to join our ranks as a border-guard's man?" Garret asks the remaining newcomer, who towers over him by maybe 4 inches.
"Yes. I yearn to fight strong opponents and I've been told that this is the perfect place to do that. With this outpost being surrounded by plaguelings, spikewolves and greyskins." Xu tells him.
"Well, walk with me then, I'll show you where you can meet me tomorrow. I and a few of my men are going on patrol and I think it's best if you join us so we can assess your skill and abilities." Garret tells him, leading him a bit further down the wall until they reach the main gate.
"There, meet me over at the stables around midday." Garret tells him, pointing at a building.
"I will see you tomorrow." Xu says, extending a handshake, which Garret accepts and Xu leaves afterwards, heading for the tavern to look around.
When he gets there, he walks over to the man around his age who's pouring in beverages for the customers while Talon is already on the second level of the building, about to head down a corridor leading to her room.
"Hey, have you seen a gorgeous woman, about this tall with beautiful black, braided hair?" Xu asks Janzo.
"Talon?" Janzo asks excitedly.
"This is really starting to piss me off. Yeah Talon, is she around?" Xu asks, looking around the big room.
"She retired to her room, she looked tired." Janzo tells him, eyeing Xu with a mix of wonder and distrust.
"Meh, I guess I'll see her around then." Xu says and leaves the inn again, being penniless from when Talon took his money. Meanwhile on the upper floor Talon stopped at hearing her travel companions voice and is smirking to herself at his description of her and chuckles when he gets annoyed that she told the brewer her name.
Talon then continues her way to her room and gets in, throwing a blonde girl over her shoulder once she reaches the doorway and pins her down with her protesting, saying "let go off me."
"I need to hide in your room." The woman tells Talon who wordlessly gets off the blonde.
"Guests aren't allowed." Talon tells her.
"Please, I need your help. Down there is a man who will kill me once he sees me. I will stay here and leave in the morning." The girl says.
"No, you won't." Talon tells her.
"If he sees me he'll kill me." The blonde says fearing for her life.
"Who? Someone you cheated on Octagon?" Talon asks, throwing her bag on a table in the room.
"No, no. A member of the Order. You must've seen him." The blonde explains.
"Toru Magmoor?" Talon asks surprised.
"That is his name. How do you know that? Are you with him?" The blonde asks, taking a few steps back.
"You came to my room remember." Talon says shaking her head.
"If you hurt me my father will behead you. He's commander of the whole outpost. I order you to help me." The blonde tells her while Talon starts to climb out of her window.
"I'm on it. You should lock the door. I'll take care of Magmoor." Talon tells her, shutting the blinds behind her and gracefully makes her way to the ground by jumping onto a few things like stairs.
Once on the ground the blonde suddenly falls out of her window, landing behind Talon.
"He saw me go upstairs. Your room isn't safe. I will follow you." The blonde explains, seeing Talon's annoyed expression.
"I told you I'd take care of it." Talon says.
"I'm in great danger! You have to bring me home." The blonde tells her.
"Tell me, why is Toru Magmoor after you?" Talon asks.
"First tell me how you know his name." The blonde says.
"Can't you just disappear?" Talon asks, walking away.
"You will only get rid of me if you bring me home." The blonde tells her and follows Talon, who steals a sword out of the barrel in front of the tavern.
A couple minutes later Talon brought the girl to the commander's quarters where the blonde embraces Garret and gives him a kiss in relief.
Talon then explains how she knows Garret from a few hours ago after the knight stumbled over his words for a bit.
Once the girl is inside the building Talon gets paid 5 gold coins by Garret before she makes her way back to the tavern, where she waits for Toru Magmoor to leave.
When the tall man leaves, retrieving his swords and goes to an empty passageway to relief himself Talon confronts him.
Drawing her sword she waits for him to face her.
"Can't this wait until I've finished?" He asks annoyed.
"I've waited 13 years for this." Talon shouts angrily, waking Xu who has been sleeping on the street on the other side of the wall and makes his way to the entryway to see what the commotion is all about.
"My my, sounds like revenge. Who did I kill that you want to get revenge after all these years? Your father? No, your mother." Toru Magmoor says, drawing his two swords.
"A whole village. The valley of Garland." Talon snarls.
"Oh, yes. The blackbloods. We killed them all." Toru says remembering the event.
"Not everyone. One you've overlooked." Talon tells him, shaking her head.
"No, we didn't." Toru disagrees.
"You did, in the crypt." Talon tells him.
"The girl? The wolf killed her, I saw him shoot." Toru says.
"He missed." Talon tells him.
"I'll take care of him then once I've finished with you." Toru says angrily.
"He lives here? In this outpost?" Talon questions surprised.
"You didn't know did you? Yeah, he's just around the corner." Toru tells her cockily.
"Who is it?" Talon asks.
"That is of no importance to you anymore. You will be dead in a minute anyways." Toru tells her.
"Then at least tell me why?" Talon shouts.
"We were paid handsomely." Toru tells her and Xu arrives at the doorway to the passage, waiting there while staying hidden.
"Who paid you?" Talon asks angrily.
"Kill every blackblood. He didn't say any more than that and now I'll finish that task." Toru replies and swings at her.
Talon blocks his first two swings, before rolling underneath his third.
She then swings at him but Toru blocks it with his two swords. Talon attacks him from the side but He blocks this with one sword and slashes at her with the other.
Talon rolls aside and swings at his back, only for him to block with a sword behind his back.
Talon then kicks him in the back of the knee and tries to push him to the ground by throwing herself against his back but Toru is simply stronger and pushes back against her, throwing her against the wall behind her. He attacks with both swords again, one aimed at her head the other for her stomach, but Talon barely blocks this and punches him in the face. She puts some distance between then but not before Toru manages to slice her across her stomach. When she's lying on the floor, holding her wound with one hand Toru steps onto her sword when she tries to stab his leg.
"Who paid you?" Talon shouts, making him only chuckle evily.
Toru then attacks her again and she dodges the first two swings before she starts to wrestle for the swords with him, with each one ending up with one blade and they stab each other in the stomach simultaneously, worrying Xu who thought she was handling herself well against him to that point.
Talon is pinned to a beam of the wall while Toru is standing in the middle of the passageway.
Xu makes his way over to the two slowly while Talon tries to free herself to no avail.
Toru on the other hand manages to pull the sword out of his stomach and is about to stab the wheezing Talon again when a shadow falls over him and Xu stabs the man with the sword he's holding through the chest by twisting the man's grip so the blade is facing himself and then punching Toru in the back with enough force for him and Talon to hear bones shatter while the dead Toru Magmoor is falling towards the ground.
"What are you doing here?" Talon hisses out her face twisted up, due to the pain.
"Saving you apparently." He says, taking off his blue belt and then rips the sword out of her easily, throwing it aside and catching her when she falls forwards.
"Hold still." He tells her sitting her down on the floor, wrapping the blue cloth around her stomach, over her stab wound so it's as tight as possible, making her scream out in pain only for him to cover her mouth with his other hand to muffle the sound.
When she finishes her scream, he brushes some hair out of her face which has covered her eyes and smiles at her saying "Come on let's get you out of here." The next thing Talon sees it the sky when Xu lifts her up in his arms.
"Come with me." An older man tells him, already carrying Xu's giant axe.
"Who are you?" Xu asks suspicious of the man.
"Someone who's been waiting for her for a long time." The man says and leads Xu to his smithery.
Once there the two try to patch up the girl to the best of their ability, well the old man does Xu only holds her down so she can't struggle while the man stitches her up.
|next day|
The next morning the marshal inspects the scene where the dead Toru Magmoor is lying on the floor, having written "Tell Dredd one remnant" with his dying breath and the marshal order a manhunt for whoever or whatever is responsible for it, assuming the black blood belongs to the murder of Toru.
Across town Talon starts to wake up while the old smith is treating her wounds with a cloth, telling her "You can be glad I had some ointment remaining or you'd be dead by now."
She shoots up in pain at the contact and sees the old man who tells her "Stay still, you've lost too much of your black blood."
Talon, not knowing who he is and angered by her missing shirt grabs the man in a chokehold.
"I've helped save your life." The man says with difficulty.
"So you say, what else have you done? Why am I semi naked?" She asks venomously.
"Calm down braidy. We only treated your wounds. I'd never stoop so low as to force myself on someone, no matter how gorgeous and I'd never let anyone else do so either." Xu tells her, walking in the room with a fresh bucket of water, setting it down next to the other one and grabs Talons arms, prying them off the old man as gently as possible, making Talon scowl at him, feeling helpless against the tall man's strength.
"You've both seen too much!" She says, struggling against Xu's grip.
"If you mean your black blood. That's the reason I saved you." The old man tells her.
"And I don't give a shit. I have my own problems to worry about." Xu tells her honestly, looking deep into her eyes to show her he is no threat to her.
"You can't lose any more blood! Lie down right now." The smith orders her and Talon complies, passing out almost instantaneously.
When she comes to a couple hours later, she winces in pain and looks down herself, seeing her stomach covered by a bandage.
"I patched you up as best as I could, but I'm a smith not a doctor. As long as it's bleeding you need to lie down." The smith tells her.
"You were there last night?" She asks him.
"Yes, your friend and I brought you here and treated your wounds." He says.
"Is he dead?" She asks hopeful.
"Magmoor? Yes. Here drink this, it'll help stop the bleeding." The smith tells her, holding out a cup for her and helping her drink.
"disgusting." She says.
"Why did you save me?" She asks him, getting in a sitting position.
"Did you ever hear of the blackblood prophecy?" He asks.
"What?" She questions confused.
"I've spent half my life studying this prophecy. When the moon is burning a blackblood will call upon the murders of mankind to kill those who suppress the old." He tells her.
"Never heard of it." She replies, taking a bite from a loaf of bread.
"That is the reason however why people like Toru Magmoor want to see you dead, so the prophecy will never come true." He says.
"Well now he's dead." She says cockily.
"Dead he's even more of a threat to you. Others will come and look for his killer." He tells her.
"Good, let them come I'll kill them too." She says while putting on her shirt.
"I have something for you." The smith says, holding out a small rolled up parchment for her.
"I'm not interested in your prophecies." She says.
"It belonged to your kind and now it belongs to you. Remember those words but don't say them aloud" He says when she takes the parchment.
"Remember for what? They are meaningless." She says and starts to get dressed.
"Your wound is healing fast but it's still a fresh wound. Wythers is looking for Toru's killer and I bet you and your friend are on the top of that list." He warns her.
Where is my supposed friend anyways?" She asks, not seeing the giant of a man in the smithy.
"He has a rendezvous with captain Garret, so he can join the border-guard." The smith tells her.
"I see, thanks old man." She says, opening his door.
"We'll see each other again." He says knowingly.
Talon after leaving the Smithy makes her way to the Inn, sneaking past the couple guard who are scattered over the town and enters the building through the loading ramp in the basement. When she arrives down there, she takes off her shirt, to inspect her wound which is when Janzo enters.
"You, oh you're down here. Is everything OK?" Hey, that's a wound. You need a healer, I'll alert the guards." Janzo says, seeing her stitches while she tries to cover herself by holding her shirt in front of her.
"No, just take me upstairs. I'm OK." She tells him, making Janzo help her up to her room.
"Come on you're bleeding. You need help." Janzo says, entering the room after her with her trying to close the door.
"Not the help of a barkeep." She tells him.
"I'm brewer and I'm an alchemist. Listen I know some medicines and have very skillful hands. And I already know about your black blood." Janzo tells her.
"Don't talk about it or do you want to see us both dead?" She threatens him, pulling him in her room and pushing him against a wall.
"I won't tell anyone. I promise. Just let me treat your wounds. Whoever did this, did a poor job." Janzo tells her and she accepts the offer.
Moments later she is lying on her bed with Janzo removing the stitches and he pours some liquid on her wound.
"The wound goes through your organs; you should be dead. Was it a sword?" Janzo asks, cleaning her wound.
"Wait, the member of the Order they found dead. That was you wasn't it?" Janzo says, realizing how she got the wound.
"It was a bad man Janzo, he got what he deserved." She tells him.
I hate the Order as much as the next guy but bloodshed only leads to more bloodshed." He says.
"I'm counting on it." She agrees.
"Then we'll need to fix you quickly so you can escape." Janzo tells her.
"I agree." She grunts in pain and Janzo starts to spread some powder into her wound.
"Done, you won't even need a bandage. Just a lot of rest." He tells her and gets then called away by his mother.
While this is going on Xu and Garret take a trip to deliver weapons to a training regime with some guards. Once there Garret decides to test Xu's abilities, which ends in Xu fighting against 20 trainees as well as the five guards who arrived with them.
"He must be crazy to think he's got a chance to win, he'll be lucky to survive. I bet just Rodger, Fritz and Kurt would be enough to deal with him." Garret says, standing aside with the camp's commander at his side, who is one of his closest friends.
"He certainly got balls." The man says.
"Begin!" Garret shouts, and the group of soldiers annoyed at Xu, thinking he's being cocky and underestimates them rush at him like a wall coming down on him.
Xu smirks and poses his giant axe sideways with the pole towards the group, he then crouches down and once the group is only three steps away he takes a step and jumps forwards, hitting his opponents on shin level, causing almost everyone to fall over, landing face first and holding their shins while Xu rolls after flying through the crowd and jumps up, holding the axe ready, sideways behind him.
Garret and the commander who watched this lose their cups at this.
"Maybe he does show some promise." Garret says, seeing around 10 men hold their legs in pain while the ones to the far sides get back up and ready themselves for an attack, this time taking him seriously.
Xu sees the opponents wait for him to make the first move but he decides against using his axe again, because he could accidentally kill them with the force behind the weapon.
He rams it in the ground so it's sticking upwards and goes over to a table where a pair of gauntlets is lying. He slips them on while the group watch him confused.
Once he's equipped them he signals for them to come at him.
"Bold choice." The commander next to Garret says.
"Wise choice, for you at least." Garret says, hearing the wind howl violently against Xu's axe.
"What do you mean?" He asks.
"Look at that massive thing, if he hits one of the recruits, they'd probably be lucky to still be able to walk." Garret sighs, already knowing the man will cause him troubles left and right.
"True. Why do you look like you've been kicked in the balls? Isn't it great he decides to join us in the fight against he greyskins? And think of what he could do against the Order." The commander asks.
"Yeah, all true but I can practically feel the trouble he'll bring with him." Garret says, watching Xu fight off the remaining 15 soldiers in a matter of minutes with only the gauntlets.
"Sorry if I went a little overboard guys." Xu apologizes, helping some soldiers back to their feet before putting back the gauntlets and retrieves his axe, getting fearful stares from the soldiers, with the ones who haven't participated looking at him with either fear as well or awe.
"So, what'd you think?" Xu asks, standing tall before Garret.
"You definitely have what it takes and thank you for not using your axe on the recruits." Garret replies.
"No problem, in fact I need to look for a pair of custom-made gauntlets." Xu replies, muttering the last part mostly to himself but the two commander hear him.
"Why? Your axe looks plenty strong." Garrets friend asks.
"It is, but it's too big for some terrain. Like if I had to fight in a tunnel with it I'd be useless." Xu explains.
"True. Well I'm sure Garret can help you out with your weapon request, after all we have some of the best smiths in your outpost." The commander tells him, patting Garret's back.
"Yes, I'll see what I can do." Garret agrees grumbling.
"I already met someone I want to ask if he'll make me some gauntlets." Xu tells them.
"Who?" Garret asks confused.
"Oh I met this nice smith yesterday, he let me stay the night at his place because I was sleeping on the streets actually." Xu informs him.
"Well no need to worry about that anymore, you're going to be staying at the guard's quarters. You'll have food, shelter and a fair salary." Garret tells him, patting Xu's back as they head back to their horses.
"Thank you, I have a request though." Xu tells him.
"What is it?" Garret asks intrigued since he's the first one with enough balls to actually demand something while asking for a job.
"I would like to have the possibility of getting some time off duty, I'd like to go explore in the land beyond the walls and fight some greyskins." Xu tells him.
"Are you crazy?" Garret asks with a sigh.
"No, but I like to be prepared. I've fought against many creatures, but I rarely went head to head with a greyskin. Plus is you want I can gather some intel on their strength and locations…" Xu says baiting him into agreeing.
"Oh fuck, I'll get an earful from my father for this but I accept. You are way to strong to be used as a regular guard anyways. I was thinking for now front-line, meaning guarding against plaguelings and then you show potential to be the royal's guard, depending on your manners and loyalty." Garret tells him, already hoping he'll get Xu to join him as the princess's personal guards.
"Sounds exciting, I'm in." Xu agrees with a handshake, making Garret wince slightly at his strength.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone