"What a fantastic fight that was. I honestly didn't know who was going to win, but the way it ended was not what I expected." Kevin spouted out.
"Agreed. It was an incredible fight even for a copper-level fight." Emmett also blurted out.
"I knew your dad was training you but I didn't expect you to know one of his sword skills. If you were a silver rank and used that against me then even I think I would lose."
Ian was standing near them but didn't say anything. He was still shocked by the way the fight ended. He was a bit tired but was recovering fast since he did activate his power.
Kevin saw this and went up to talk to him. "You know, even though you lost you still surprised me. Besides the fact you lied about your power, everything else was great. However, it seems you have a death wish because even I wouldn't have damaged her swords like that. You and I both know how much she cares about her swords so please take all the flame from her for the next few weeks."
Emmett was still complimenting Ellie on her win but when Kevin spoke to Ian they both stopped to listen. While listening, Ellie became angry again. She was reminded of the fact that Ian had broken one of her swords and damaged the other. With that, she walked up to him and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt.
"You owe me two things of equal or greater value. You can pay me back for one of the swords by becoming my training partner from now on.
Ian was afraid that she was going to hit him, but after hearing what she said, he had only one thing to say.
"Wait, that's not fair. I'll buy you something instead."
"No. you're not getting off the hook that easily. You're going to be my training partner since you have what it takes to keep up with me at full power." Ellie said.
afterwards, she let go of Ian and took a moment to think. A few seconds later she said, "Earlier you said that you needed to figure something out before you could tell us your max output of power. What do you need to figure out?"
Ian sighed before saying, "Liam is making something that will help control my power. But he needed data on my power before he could finish it. The data collected was too surprising even for me. If you thought my base power was shocking then you have no idea how terrifying my max is."
Emmett stepped in and said, "Oh really? Try us then. It can't be higher than like 200."
Everyone went silent, waiting for Ian to say something. It took a few seconds but Ian took a deep breath before saying, "It's 489."
Silence was all that could be heard. No one said a single word for a couple of seconds. Everyone seemed to be processing the information given to them, but after a while, Emmett, Ellie, and Kevin broke out of their trance, and in unison, they all yelled out, "489!"
The three of them were extremely surprised by the information. Even Kevin, who is the calmest of the three, had a hard time wrapping his brain around it.
Ian, however, was afraid. They all looked like crazy people trying to figure out why an orange is called an orange but an apple isn't called a red. They were walking in circles as they muttered to themselves.
Ian had to flick Kevin and Emmett on the forehead and snap his fingers in front of Ellie to wake them out of their trance.
afterwards, he said, "I knew it was going to be shocking but not this much. Also, please don't tell anyone. Once Liam is done helping me I'll let everyone know."
Kevin was still mind-boggled by the news but managed to gather himself enough to say, "Okay, we won't tell anyone but can I ask, when it is that you're supposed to meet up with Liam again?"
"I don't know. He came into the restaurant a few days ago to have a bowl of ramen and told me to go to his workshop within the next couple of days." Ian replied.
"Doesn't that mean that you should see him soon?" Ellie asked.
"I guess I should, but what if he's still making it? I don't want to be a bother."
Kevin walked up to Ian and placed an arm around him. "Don't worry, I'm sure he's done by now. And anyway, you don't need to go today. You're also off tomorrow so you can go then."
"You know what, you're right. I should go see him tomorrow."
"Great. Then that settles that." Kevin patted Ian on his back before continuing, "Now, hows about we get something to eat?"
After Kevin said this, Emmett, Ellie, and Ian's stomachs growled. Kevin needed no more confirmation and led the group off of the training grounds.
Somewhere near the edge of the village, a man was running towards Ian's dad.
"Captain Crest, Captain Crest!" the man, who was a guard, yelled as he ran towards Ian's dad. His face had fear plastered on it.
"What is it?" Ian's dad's face went from cheerful to serious.
The guard, now standing in front of Ian's dad, was trying to catch his breath. It took a moment but once he cooled off he said, "We found footprints."
Ian's dad became more serious upon hearing this. "How many and what kind?"
"They looked like wolf prints and from what we could tell there were three sets of them." The guard replied quickly.
"Three," Ian's dad muttered to himself. It took him a few seconds to process the information but once he did he said, "Put everyone on high alert. We need to be ready in case anything happens."
Without hesitation, the guard complied with the orders and ran off to warn all the other guards.
Ian's dad was staring quietly at the edge of the village where the forest meets. He did not say a word but in his mind, he thought, "It's been six years since the last incident. If anything happens this time I'll make sure no one gets hurt." After a while, he turned to walk into the village.
The following day, Ian was making his way to Liam's workshop. From the outside of the workshop, Ian could hear the loud noise of hammering and power drills. He had no idea what was going on.
Once inside, he could see the light of sparks flying from behind a giant curtain. The light was bright enough that Ian was able to make out the silhouette of a man and something else that was many times larger. Whatever it was, Liam was working hard on it.
Ian made his way towards the curtain as he called out to Liam. The noise was too loud for Ian's voice to be heard. He kept moving at a slow pace, not wanting to startle him. But before he reached the curtain, Liam stopped working and walked out from behind it.
"Oh, Ian. Don't sneak up on me. Especially not when I'm working with power tools." Liam said as he pulled the trigger twice on the power drill.
Ian raised his hands as he said, "Sorry about that, I didn't mean to scare you. I was trying to get your attention."
"Oh, okay. Why are you here? I don't remember asking you to come here today." Liam said.
"You told me to come see you within the next few days. You told me this when you came to the restaurant." Ian thought that Liam was messing with him.
Liam took a slight pause before saying, "Oh, right. I've been so busy these past few days that I've lost track of so many things."
"So does that mean that you haven't finished the item you were making for me?" Ian asked as he pondered on whether he should have come to the workshop.
"Nope. I finished them two days ago." Liam replied hastily.
Ian was happy to hear this. He had waited for almost a month and was extremely excited to finally be able to control his power. But suddenly, his mind fully processed what Liam had said. He turned to face Liam and said, "Did you say them?"
"Yep. I made a pair of them for you." Liam replied.
Ian was surprised to hear this. He didn't expect to get more than one item to help him. Then again he didn't know what to expect.
"So what are they?" Ian didn't want to think about what Liam had told him. Instead, he wanted to see what it was that Liam created.
Liam didn't say anything else. All he did was jester for Ian to follow him. Ian complied and went towards where Liam was going. They both walked up to a table that had a tarp covering something on it.
Once in front of it, Liam said, "Under this are the items that will help you," before dramatically removing the tarp.
With the tarp removed, Liam revealed to Ian a pair of fingerless gauntlets. They were made of leather with strips of metal holding them together. The leather was dyed a beautifully rich night blue, while the metal was black with a small hint of brown. On top of each gauntlet, there were five marble-like crystals going down in a line. Each one of them was a centimeter in diameter. However, there was a sixth one on the back of the hand which was an inch in diameter.
Ian was in awe upon seeing them. He had never seen anything like them.
Liam, seeing how amazed Ian was, said, "You should try them on."
Ian did not hesitate and immediately grabbed the gauntlets. Upon lifting them, he found it surprising how light they were. He expected them to be a lot heavier but they weighed between one to two pounds.
He didn't let this bother him so he quickly put the gauntlets on. He thought they were going to be too small for him but surprisingly they fit him like a glove. They were extremely comfortable and allowed him plenty of movement for his wrist.
This was nice and all but then Ian turned to Liam and said, "So how do these things work?"
"I'm not sure. The idea is that they will activate when you use your power. But since I haven't tested them I have no idea if they work. Plus these are very different from the original ones I made."
"Wait, you made another pair?" Ian was surprised to hear that Liam had made a different pair of gauntlets.
"Ya, but they aren't as polished as these are. The other ones were made of stone and metal, and they were four times as big. Not only that, I knew you liked to hunt with blades so I made the new ones fingerless." Liam said as he walked over to another table that was covered in different mechanical parts.
He removed most of the parts off the table to reveal two giant metallic-looking gauntlets. The gauntlets were very blocky and were stuck in the shape of a fist. There was no way for Ian to use a weapon if he wore those.
Liam grabbed one of the larger gauntlets and gave it to Ian. Upon grabbing it, Ian was given a shock. Just one of the gauntlets had to weigh at least forty pounds. There was no way Ian was going to walk around with those on. Now that Ian understood why Liam made the newer pair, he gave him the gauntlet to put back on the table.
Liam returned the gauntlet back to the table as he said, "I'm going to keep these old pair of gauntlets so I can work on them later. They may be big and bulky but they could be useful down the line."
"Now with that out of the way, can you explain to me how these things are supposed to work?" Ian asks. He was extremely eager to try out the new gauntlets.
"The way they are supposed to work is simple. The smaller crystals on them are a gauge while the bigger one is an indicator. When you activate your power the bigger crystal should glow. afterwards, the gauntlets will begin to absorb your power and store it in the smaller ones. Once they have absorbed your power, they will begin to slowly feed you a steady amount of energy. This way you won't use up all of your energy." Liam explained.
"So do I reabsorb the energy after I'm done using them or?" Ian asked.
"Nope. The gauntlets will store the energy so you can use it at a later date. However, that does mean that you'll have to recover the energy that is stored. Thankfully since you shouldn't be completely drained you should be able to recover quickly."
"Interesting. Well, let's hope that they work." Ian said, not sure of what to expect.
"Lets. Now all you need to do is test them."
Ian heard this and tried to think of something to test the gauntlets on. He thought about going out to hunt with them or to try them out with Ellie, Emmett, and Kevin. There were many things he could do to test them out but he didn't know what. Suddenly, a loud explosion was heard in the distance.
"What was that?" Ian asked. The explosion, though far in the distance, was strong enough to slightly shake the workshop.
"I don't know but whatever it was it came from the village." Liam sounded worried.
"We should check it out," Ian said in a panic.
Liam took a moment to think before saying, "You go ahead, I have something I need to do first." afterwards, he ran to the back of his workshop.
Ian wasn't going to wait for Liam so he rushed out of the workshop and made his way towards the explosion.