Grand Saint Alloy

Elder Stone was helped to his feet, shocked that he had survived. His people who were mostly women and men so old they should have grandchildren or men so young they shouldn’t even be married yet, seemed to share his opinion. Having an elemental lord bombarding the walls for the last few days had been nerve-wracking. Stones falling from the sky from foreign lever like machines had caused fear, even if only a few people had died to them.

The young woman supporting him under one arm asked, “Did we win?”

Normally, a victor would be obvious, as one side would be disarmed and bound. Not so in this conflict, no one seemed willing to surrender until the conflict in the center was resolved. It was an odd standoff, every elemental had been torn apart in the last few minutes, but the people were hesitant to give up and the new group seemed hesitant to kill their countrymen.

“Brother!” A deep voice boomed.

Elder Stone looked over and saw his younger, big brother. When they were younger that had always been a sore spot. Elder Stone was the tallest elder by quite a margin, but his little brother still had him beat by an entire head. Still, it turned out to be a good thing, bulk was rarely useful in the duties of an elder, while it was highly sought after in warriors. In fact, he was sure hitting his forehead on doorframes had resulted in brain damage that turned off volume control.

“Hey Cole, good to see you’re not dead,” Elder Stone said.

“You think anything can kill me!” Cole laughed.

The woman tried to bow causing Elder Stone to almost tip over. She quickly apologized, however as irritating as it was, Elder Stone could not be mad when people showed his family the respect they had earned. It was one of those social things that inconvenienced both the giver and receiver, while both felt obligated to complete the ritual.

“I think they could,” Elder Stone inclined his head at the last two elemental lords.

The one who had been cracking the walls like an egg was in a relatively even duel with a young blond man. Most of the stones were faintly glowing as both seemed to share the same elements. Fire and air were both antagonistic and synergistic. Fire consumed air, but air could also smother fire, and that dichotomy was visible as flames were snuffed out in some areas and lightning ignited other patches while a good acre was radiating pure heat.

The other elemental lord was a gemstone. It had translucent muscles, and Elder Stone could vaguely see an earthen brown skeleton inside. Its eyes were sky blue. It had a giant club that it swung around with great speed. No accuracy, however, as a man in a blue coat common to the Lake Caldera had encased its head in a block of ice.

Normally it would have just broken the ice off, but a second man with an axe was calmly evading the blows. If there was even a small opening, he would jump in and strike. It was clear that the second battle was only a matter of time as the elemental lord was whittled down, in a literal sense as slabs of refractive stone were carved off.

“Well, they don’t count, they’re on our side,” Cole huffed folding his arms.

“Sure,” Elder Stone said, “My little brother is the strongest, but only because his betters don’t pick on him.”

“You just watch!” Cole yelled as he turned and ran toward the gem elemental lord.

Adding another tier four ended that conflict in an instant. The elemental lord was so focused on the other two, that it missed the stone armored Cole. He shoulder slammed it off its feet, allowing the axe man to cut off its arms and legs before making Cole back down. Elder Stone raised an eyebrow, Cole never backed down, was he not the leader of this army?

“Ma’am, could you set me down on the rubble over there?” Elder Stone said, “Then send a soldier over, I don’t want to take you out there if we need to go out.”

She simply nodded, and they hobbled their way over to the large piece of rubble he could use as a chair. The woman bowed and said, “I will be back, though it may take a while. Most of the soldiers are more injured than you are.”

“Thank you,” Elder Stone waved her along.

Several armed civilians gathered by the gate to watch the duel in awe. Elder Stone had to admit two people with flashy kerns did make quite the spectacle. Green lightning clashing with the full spectrum of flame was very impressive. Especially as the scale of the essence was so impressive.

Elder Stone was peak tier three, but not impressive in any other way. He was a fighter but was more comfortable in a bar scuffle than with his mace in hand. It was always amazing to him that despite only a single artifact separating him from tier four, there was a massive difference in essence between tiers. Cole had mentioned that he only had slightly more total essence than him, but that he could infuse it and use it more efficiently.

Elder Stone had not believed his brother at the time, but now with ten or twenty times the essence he possessed contaminating his front door, he changed his mind. The tempo sped up, the clouds of superheated dust swirled around like a small funnel, the air went hazy, and static electricity coated everything.

The blond haired boy yelled, “I did it!”

Elder Stone was confused, the elemental lord was still standing. It seemed confused as well when the boy dropped the artifact he was holding and drew a simple belt knife. Frowning, Elder Stone saw nothing impressive about it, at least until the boy held it between his hands. His metal gauntlets started glowing.

The flat of the blade was nestled between his palms, in a ridiculous position. Then small pieces of metal started sliding slowly toward his palms. Elder Stone had seen him use lightning and fire, did he have a metal kern as well?

The elemental lord must have realized something as he shot straight a the boy, taking no evasive action. If any of the spectators had stepped in the elemental lord would have been killed. So would the boy’s savior.

Elder Stone’s advanced senses managed to see a ring of white air expand from the gauntlets. Then the loudest noise he had ever heard tore apart the field. He could not see exactly what happened, but the knife had flown out from between his palms on its own. One moment it was there and the next a line of green lightning connected the boy’s fingertips and a rock a quarter mile away. Elder Stone could only see that rock because everything between those two points had been annihilated.

The elemental lord’s skull fell bouncing off its now visible pelvic bone before bouncing to the ground. Nothing existed between the pelvis and lower jaw. A smear of gore and shattered bodies paved a path to the stone which had a deep crater in it. Wide eyed, Elder Stone glanced at his brother, who had a similar expression.

The boy let out a tired cheer before falling to his butt, “Ow hot, hot,” he grabbed the sickle, which was evidently the source of his fire abilities, and sighed in relief, “Can someone stomp the brain I am worn out.”

A warrior with a slight limp walked out without hesitating. The man had a fire kern, he also had a hammer which he used to smash the skull of the decimated elemental lord. Elder Stone believed the weakness of elementals was their heart. His gaze went back to the trail of broken men, what did he know about killing things compared to these people?

The sound of clattering weapons and vomiting started up as people started processing what had just occurred. Elder Stone had a similar feeling and probably would have lost his lunch as well if he had been close enough to smell the mess. The force from the Forest Caldera well and truly surrendered.

Elder Stone was left with a dilemma. He wanted to thank these people, but at the same time, he could not let them into the Stone Caldera. They were too dangerous to handle, and he had no desire to watch his people be rendered to a paste due to his misplaced trust. However, he also could not stop a child from walking through this gate at the moment due to his broken leg.

“Commander Blacklake, take care of their surrender. Luke, get to the top of the wall and use your finger cannon on any that resist,” A big man in opalescent armor said.

The boy, Luke, either disliked the term finger cannon or disliked following orders. However, he just groaned as he got to his feet and scaled the wall. It had enough cracks to make the task trivial. Elder Stone doubted Luke could use that technique again, but it was not like he would risk it if he had to face it.

The man shouting orders turned to Cole, “Get over here, why haven’t you gotten one of the healers for the elder?”

That seemed to wake his brother up. Cole grabbed a man decked out in a small fortune worth of light artifacts and followed the man Elder Stone could only call a general. Only the Caldera did not have those, those were myths who stood shoulder to shoulder with the Grand Ancestor.

When they arrived, both surprised him. The general bowed in respect, and Cole did as well. The stranger because he was definitely a higher tier, and Cole because he never followed common courtesy.

“Elder Stone, it is good to meet you,” The stranger said, “My name is Siren, we are here to break the siege, but we cannot stay.”

“Why,” Elder Stone asked.

“Because we still have elemental lords to kill,” Siren said, “And because if we fail then it won’t matter if this Caldera was saved at all.”

Elder Stone did not like those words, but he held in his anger at the dismissal of his people. He glanced at Cole, who gave a slight nod. So this threat was real. How could something more dangerous than the fire and explosion elemental lord be out there?

Sighing, Elder Stone said, “How can I help?”