Chapter Thirty-four
"Alright! Stop! Take thirty minutes to rest. After that training will resume!"
Hundreds of trainees collectively fell to their butts, some even laying down; all exhausted. The Firey flame mane of the Warmaster danced in the wind as he too sat down on the grassy plains with the youths. With both legs crossed and both hands resting on his knees, the Flame Warmaster entered a state of zen. Time and space fled his perception as he silently communed with his internal state. Then his eyes opened. Thirty minutes had passed in shared reality while only thirty seconds had passed for him. A clever trick that many fairies employed to deal with the tireless eternity that all had to contend with.
The Fire in the Warmasters core rekindled, self-perpetuating purpose. With explosive radiance, he shot up from his meditative state with a holler for all the would-be warriors under his guidance to hear. The dreary-eyed disciples all looked at the mammoth of a man.
"Rouse from your rest! We continue to forge our bodies unto eternity!"
His roar was met with two feelings primarily. The first being fatigue and sloth, which much to his dismay was primarily coming from the youngest Fairies who've found comfort in the luxuries that come out of the Arch Mages tower.
The other thought was far more honest and worthy. Warriors who remember the shattering of war, relishing the chance to once again fight on a battlefield that means something. This crowd was one that the Warmaster cherished. They could be trusted to fight with honor in the prophesied conclusion to the end-times that the seers of old frequently spoke of. The mammoth man walked forward to join his men but stopped suddenly as he felt his leg stop on something that reminded him of the sensation of walking into a wall without the intention of breaking it down. The Warmaster cast his gaze down and saw the most bizarre thing. Two Platnum blonde-headed children standing side by side with both arms crossed and… and smirks that were ghastly reminiscent of the smug aura that his sworn enemy always so casually had affixed to their faces.
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"Hello there Mister Lugh! We've just come to inform you of a little change in this week's planning!" Said Tira.
Mono followed with "The Great Arch Magus of the eternal realm is going to leave the remaining time for the development of the new generation under your careful purview. You should take this Honor happily."
Warmaster Lugh's face grew fierce as he heard the words from the little pygmy fairies. His hands reached to his waist where his two war swords, great curved cleavers whose edge was hidden by some largely forgotten fairy technique, hung against his sash.
"She has no right to turn away orders from the crown. Take me to where she is so that I may… Ensure, that she does not disgrace our peoples' pride once again."
Group by group starting from the closest and spreading further out looked away from their training efforts and instead at the confrontation. Their mammoth Warmaster and… two pygmy beings that looked eerily like the Arch magus. A general feeling of confusion and worry for the two trespassing pygmies floated in the opinions of the onlookers for the most part.
In the past, trespassers had been dealt horrific fates as per the rules to deal with such threats.
Lugh's fingers tightened around the hilts of his weapons as he walked forward, leaving the grass behind him singed to a crisp. His eyes grew ever more fierce as they shifted from the boy to the girl and back again.
Mono and Tira stood unshaken by the Warbeast before them. The reality of the situation is that they simply did not fear this man, even knowing that should he get a solid grasp on either of them that they would shatter.
The sight unnerved Warmaster Lugh.
~Why are these strange pygmy folk so anger-inducing…!~ He mentally questioned himself. Only one person could ever bring out this level of madness within him, but for some reason, he couldn't help himself when looking at these two.
Regardless of whatever answer he could work up in his mind, he drew his blades and leveled them at Mono and Tira. So close was the sharp edge to their faces that it shaved off the tiny locks of platinum hair that it did touch with just the flat of the blade. This was not due to the weapon's sharpness, though it did possess a blade keen enough to slice through the hardest materials with minimal effort from its user. No, that was not it. In truth, the hidden blades that measured four feet between the Warmaster and his potential victims were radiating heat so fierce that the grass between them was reduced to nothing but standing monuments of ash that played service to the idea of grass that had once been a reality.
"If you two wish not to return home in one piece then I suggest that you acquiesce to my orders in the next five seconds."
The threat was given. Despite that threat though, the two didn't so much as move a single bit. Instead, they remained standing with arms crossed in defiance.
Though already unnerved due to the uncanny resemblance to the Arch Magus, Warmaster Lugh felt a level of threat from the display that he had not felt since his most recent encounter with said Arch Magus in which she totally and completely suppressed him.
If the Warmaster were organic, one would be able to observe beads of sweat forming on his palms. Despite his words and trust in himself his instinct honed through countless years of bathing in the blood of battle screamed at him. That sense of danger that threatened his focus was lost on the younglings who were now observing the interaction. He peered down at them, giving them one last chance to respond appropriately to his demand.
"You have five seconds left before I melt you and find her myself."
…
...
Nothing happened.
Lugh's hair burst out wildly, sending fire sprites flying out and into the ground, burning four-foot holes into the grass as he thrust both of his hidden blades forward. The Swords slid through the forms of Mono and Tira effortlessly. Too effortlessly in fact. The forms of Mono and Tira turned into a wispy mist that swirled around the flats of the blades like a snake. Lugh looked to his sides whilst flaring his flames through his blades, evaporating the mist around them.
"Clever tricks will get you far, but won't stop me from finding Tryamon."
Not seeing either of the small ones, the Warmaster turned around and began to full sprint towards the tent that Tryamon had built for herself upon her arrival to this domain.
*THUMP*
*THUMP*
*THUMP*
*THUMP*
*THUMP*
*THUMP*
*THUMP*
*THUMP*
*THUMP*
Each footfall left a meter-wide crater in its wake, destroying a myriad of traps and tricks that Mono and Tira had made in preparation for just this scenario.
The two watched in annoyance from a soon to not be safe distance as he foiled their carefully laid out traps. From atop the tent, Tira's hands shook violently as a non-existent vain popped out of her forehead.
"Tch! He's just destroying everything we put together! Brute! Savage! Animal! Just die on our traps you damnable jerk!"
Mono raised his hand up over his eyes, squinting down at the approaching firestorm of a man.
"I… I can't see him too well with these eyes. They're not dilating at all."
Tira looked over her shoulder back at Mono, rolling her eyes.
"All you'd have to see is the ball of stupidity running this way!"
"It's no problem. We've got something to do."
Mono grabbed Tira by the wrist and jumped down inside the tent through a small hole in the sheet top.
Tryamon looked at the two returning with a worried face as she nursed her wound with both hands, drawing the black ichor from out of her body where it was thickest on her left side. Tryamon questioned the two as Mono and Tira ran over and began to help her up.
"I can already hear stomping so I'm guessing you two didn't handle it well. You just…"
Tryamon sighed, withdrawing another globule of ichor from the gored hole in her lower left-hand side ribcage.
"Forget it. We don't have time for non-sense. Help me to the center so we can start the shift."
Mono and Tira hurried over to support Tryamon without saying too much, though Tira's face was doing enough conveying of her feelings of annoyance for both Mono and Tryamon to get the picture, not that they cared in this instance since time was of the essence. Together they all laid down in the center of the Pyramid within the circular boundary. Tryamon laid in the center acting as the source or will of the spell while Tira and Mono lay at her left and right side. In this way, they would act as replacement conduits for the mana that the compromised main form could not facilitate. In unison, the three's lips began to move at a speed so rapid that one could only see afterimages.
Rapid casting.
Reality itself tore violently at the seams around the circumference of the glyph as the trio spoke logic into the world around them. Countless formulas strung together justifying the irreconcilable fracturing of long-lost laws of the universe. A clean and clear separation of space formed at the boundary.
Finished casting, Tryamon sat herself up and held her face in her palm as she awaited for the results of the spell.
~This is not how I thought things would develop, but it can't be helped. You'll all have to manage without me for a little while.~ Tryamon thought to herself.
Not a moment later the area in which they carved the glyph completely vanished, leaving a perfectly formed half-sphere in the ground.
Lugh charged into the tent only to find the remains of the spell that had sent them elsewhere. In a furious rage, Lugh lashed out with his blades. Columns of red flame sprouted with each slash leaving nothing behind. What had been the mobile abode of the Arch Magus had been reduced to merely hell-raized land. So vicious was the wrath of Lugh that even many miles away one could see the smoke clouds bellow and dance in the sky. Lugh stood in the middle of the carnage. His body burning so hot that the ground beneath him turned to glass. There he seethed, alone and with rekindled hatred.