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The original was posted on /r/hfy by /u/Sylesth on 2025-07-01 20:03:43+00:00.
More writing! A little bit more crafting, and a fight this time! Managed to write some more this week and it's enough for me to post, and so I shall.
Enjoy!
Dragons vary greatly, in size, intelligence, and many other characteristics. From small forest drakes that hunt prey no larger than deer to immense beasts that slumber for years or even decades before emerging to gorge themselves before returning to sleep. They are, invariably, all predators, however. Possessed of a certain craftiness, a certain… force of will. A captive dragon will never stop seeking escape, or in lieu of this, violence. Only the bounds of a skill can calm such a fire, and even then those few that have managed to tame a drake or dragon tend to report that the beasts chafe at any kind of confinement and are often unhappy when not on the move or hunting something. Due to the difficulty of studying any kind of dragonoid in captivity, little is known about their lifespan, breeding habit, or other habits of life – most studies stem from dead specimins. Skill users that have managed to subdue a dragon should not be considered an infallible source of information on the beasts, either, for their abilities are sure to have influence upon the beasts’ behaviors.
-Part of Trussarian Braff’s lecture on dragons to the University of Sempta
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The entire time, Valteria watched silently, interested in the process. She laid stomach down on the bed, propped up on her elbows, observing the runes slowly inscribing themselves across the weapons and arrows. Once Xander had set the last item down, she sighed, no longer fearing interrupting the process. “You know, it really is unfair how fast you can improve something. When I need to prototype something new, it can take weeks of tinkering to get it just right. My suit took years of work!” She said, in false exasperation.
“Well, to be fair, there wasn’t much prototyping going on. Just on the shaft of the arrow,” Xander admitted. “I was just making them harder to break for the most part, since they’re already magical. Well, except for the arrows and your big ass mace. They aren’t magical. Speaking of which… would you like your mace to be magical?”
Valteria looked thoughtful. “Hmm. I suppose it would be better than not being magical. Though if you want to get technical, it is magical now since you improved its durability. But some kind of active effect could be beneficial. Do you have any ideas?”
“Well,” Xander drummed his fingers against his head in thought. “I could make it just hit harder when you swing it – that might take some getting used to though… maybe not the best the night before a potential fight. Hmm… what else, what else. I could make it catch fire when you hit something, or electrocute things, or explode on impact – actually, that might damage the mace, scratch that – let’s see, I could add the same corrosion runes that are on my mace. You haven’t seen it in action though. It’s a little gruesome to be honest if you, uh, hit… flesh.”
Valteria scrunched her nose slightly in disgust. “Maybe not that, then. I do like the idea of electrocuting things. Make them easier to hit for the next swing if they’re all locked up or dazed, right?”
“It does tend to have that effect,” Xander responded.
“Let’s go with that then. And thank you,” Valteria added. “For doing this. I don’t think you really realize how expensive this would be to have done on my own. Let’s just say… it would be prohibitively expensive.”
“Hey, it’s no trouble. I like improving things, and I don’t charge my friends. Or my girlfriend,” he added, giving her arm an affectionate rub.
With the addition of some lightning runes, intelligence runes, and more gathering arrays to the head of Valteria’s hammer, Xander soon had a set up that should deliver a high-powered shock to anything that Valteria hit. He’d based it off the same arrays he’d used on his shocking chain weapon.
Valteria was especially interested in the filling for the runes. “So, you fill the runes with… ruby, right? And that’s because it conducts mana better than being empty?”
“Mmhm!” Xander grunted. “Makes the effect of the rune stronger. “More mana gathered, more lightning delivered, etcetera, etcetera. Like using a more efficient mana conduit in one of your devices, I’d guess. And then I cap it off with a layer of metal so that the ruby is less likely to get chipped out.”
“Makes sense,” Valteria agreed. “It certainly would be more visually appealing if the ruby was left exposed though.”
“I suppose,” Xander said. “But I’m more of a function over form kind of guy. And I feel like it might give you a bit of an element of surprise, too. You go up against a guy with glinting ruby runes all over his weapon, you’re gonna expect it to do something. Versus the runes being much harder to see, you might not notice and assume he just has a non-magical weapon.”
“That’s true,” Valteria admitted.
“I ought to get these back to the team,” Xander said as he gestured to the pile of weapons. “What do you want to do the rest of the day? There’s still a little bit of light left. Any shopping you need to do? Though, they might not have much that you need around here besides maybe food. You still got plenty of food, right?”
“Oh yes, I’m still well stocked. After all, we planned for a three-week trip and it only took half that,” Valteria reminded him. “Maybe we can… snuggle? I do like snuggling,” Valteria said hopefully.
“Of course we can snuggle, silly. You think I’d ever pass up the opportunity to snuggle up to you?” Xander said affectionately.
Valteria wiggled happily. “Well go get those new and improved weapons delivered, so you can do that!”
The next morning came soon enough, ushered in once again by Frazay, antsy as ever to be on the move. Xander wondered how the woman always managed to wake up so early. He rolled out of bed at the sound of knocking and Frazay’s voice calling out. Getting up in the mornings was significantly easier when one didn’t actually sleep. Valteria, however, was less happy to get up, grumbling and pulling the sheets back around her body.
“We’re up, we’re up,” Xander called out to Frazay, who ceased her knocking and calling.
“Urgh, no I’m not,” Valteria mumbled.
“Come on, it’s time to get up,” Xander said softly, rubbing her shoulder.
“Ughhh but I don’t want to,” Valteria complained. “I want you to get back in bed instead, can we do that?”
“No can do,” Xander replied. “We gotta hike to that village today.”
“Fine,” Valteria pouted, slowly rolling her own way out of bed. “Do you… think it really come to a fight?” She asked, a slight edge to her voice betraying her nervousness.
“I’m not sure,” Xander told her. “I think there’s a good chance we can get by without one, now that we know Antellina wasn’t kidnapped – hopefully we can reason our way in by telling them we’re not here to steal her away from her lover. But,” he added, “we’re prepared for one if something does happen.”
Xander and Valteria met with the rest of the team downstairs. Atrax slowly trudged his way towards the table the rest of them sat at.
“Frazay, your definition of ‘morning,’ fits my definition of ‘night.’ Why are we up so early,” Atrax groaned.
“Because,” Frazay responded, pointing the fork she was using to eat breakfast with at her detractor, “It’s most of a day’s walk to the village we’re going to, and I want to have plenty of light left when we get there.”
Atrax grumbled unintelligibly, still unhappy with the hour despite Frazay’s reasoning.
While the rest of the team grumbled, stretched, yawned, and ate, Xander found himself leaning into Valteria’s side as she also ate the food the innkeeper had brought her.
“Armor’s ready to go?” He asked quietly.
“Mmhm,” Valteria responded, taking the time to stop chewing for a moment. She swallowed her food and finished talking. “Everything should be ready and my bag is packed for a few days’ worth of travel.”
“Good,” Xander replied. He leaned a little harder against Valteria for a moment and said, “I’m sure you’ll do fine today.”
“Thanks,” Valteria replied softly, in the kind of tone that one uses when they aren’t sure that they believe what they’re being told.
Xander offered a supportive squeeze of her thigh and let her get back to eating. The rest of the team was finishing up their food as well, and it was not long until Graffus pushed back his plate and stretched one final time.
“We’re all ready?” Graffus asked, looking around at the team.
“I think so,” Xander replied, noting that everyone seemed done eating.
“S’pose we should get going then,” Frazay commented.
The mercenary band started their journey in the early morning light, dawn just beginning to creep over the horizon. Everything seemed peaceful in the early morning, Xander thought. He hoped it would stay that way. He had no interest in fighting a small village of werewolves if he didn’t have to. The clerk at the guild had helpfully told them that there were somewhere around fifty people – ...
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