Chapter 79: Fully Armed
The next day came sooner than anyone wanted it to. The wolves moved with Silas, and they lay in the forest while keeping watch. Their instructions were clear: watch until they saw something, and then report back to the settlement.
Silas was at the lead and kept his eyes pinned ahead. He watched every single movement, every single shake in the leaves. He watched with such focused attention that his breathing slowed down. He had learned from the last time and knew that these royal knights could sense him if he was not careful.
While they continued to watch, he sensed something. The smell came first, the smell of humans, and what followed were silhouettes of humans headed their way. They were armed in the royal armor that Fang had come to recognize.
Fang got on his feet to command the wolves to move back, and only then did he notice that not only were the royal knights coming, they had behind them a large number of adventurers and town guards as well, easily pushing their numbers into the fifties. It was clear that this was no normal confrontation. They had a larger plan at play.
With a subtle growl, Fang gave the instruction that made all the wolves back down and rush back to the settlement to inform Ren of what was coming.
They made it back to the settlement, and immediately the wolves started howling while Silas rushed in. This was the sign that was set up. When the wolves howled, everyone knew that something was coming. The information was passed late in the night.
Immediately, everyone got on their guard. They did not panic, but they started watching and keeping their eyes open for whatever was coming. Monsters with young ones ensured that they went into their homes to keep them safe.
Silas reached where Ren was. Ren was standing with some orcs and raising a new house.
He turned when he saw Silas there. Silas very quickly relayed what was happening to him.
"I see, they are coming in numbers. Tch, tell the others to meet me at Grent’s smithy in five minutes," he gave the instruction.
Silas nodded and rushed to find the others.
Ren looked at the orc.
"Keep working," he said.
"Master Ren, should we not follow you to battle?"
"No, no, you all should work on and enjoy your day. I’ll handle this," he said while waving his hand over his head.
He arrived at Grent’s and walked into the building.
"Master Ren, it’s nice to see you. I’ve worked on what you asked me to last night, a weapon for each of the monsters that will follow you to battle," Grent said. There was a smile on his face, the type of smile that came when you were confident in what you had done.
"Did you manage to get the specific ones I said would fit each of them?" Ren asked.
"Yes, I did. Haha, I had fun working on them with dragon scales. These weapons could be considered artifacts, to be honest."
Knock knock.
The others arrived and walked in.
"Good, all of you are here now, which means I can hand to you what I asked Grent to work on.
Remu, you first."
Remu stepped forward, and Grent went to grab what he made for him. He brought a clean and very slick black longsword with a blood-red color infused right into the sword. The sword pulled the attention of everyone there instantly. They could already tell that this weapon was extremely unique, and they barely knew weapons.
Ren took the sword and handed it to Remu.
"This is for you. It’s made with my dragon scales and built for your specific affinity for fire."
Remu stared at the blade. His eyes glowed with excitement as he reached for it.
"Thank you, Master," he said while bowing his head.
"Alright, to the next. Ragna."
Ren called to Ragna.
Grent proceeded to bring out a massive cleaver made of the same material as the sword, but that was not all, as he brought out a lightweight shield. It was the engineering brainchild of Ren and Grent.
Ren gave Grent the idea to make a shield with ground wood that was compressed together into a lightweight mix, and they had iron wires less than a finger thick and used them to create a mesh inside the shield when it fully dried and compacted. The shield had no color yet, but its design was stunning and made to look like a coffin-type shape, a simple design choice by Ren.
Ragna took both of them with a shine in his eyes. He bowed his head to Ren.
"Thank you, Master."
"Yeah, yeah, I’m sure you’ll know how to use it. Now, Riker, step forward."
Riker came forward, and Grent produced two gauntlets.
"I noticed your fighting style, and I realized that you fight up close and personal, so I figured that this would work best for you."
Riker came close, and he stared at the gauntlets for a few seconds.
"These are awesome, Master. Are they really for me?"
"Yeah, yeah, take them. We don’t have time."
Riker took the gauntlets and put them on immediately, already throwing punches in the air.
"Ezra, you’re next."
Grent pulled out a spear.
"This was my best work yet. Haha, Master Ren said you are a dual affinity and that you have a lot of talent. He really wanted yours to be special."
The spear was a beautiful black metal shaft with some soft, rough grooves that allowed for a better grip. The spearhead was black and had a red tinge to it.
She took the spear and stared at it before bowing her head deeper than anyone else had bowed.
"Thank you, Master."
She stepped back, and Ren turned his attention to the last of the group, Silas.
"You really did not need much of a weapon, but I kind of had an idea of what would work for you."
Grent brought out what he had, which was metal claws that would be worn on all four paws, or hands, long metal claws to help his attacks have more lethality.