The hammer

Lor didn't wait for Alix to answer, already running toward him, his long dagger held strongly in his hand before him. He had already forgotten about the hunt and the dead beast body beside him, wanting to test himself.

-"If you want to suffer a bit, be my guest, hehehe" replied arrogantly Alix, hot-blooded like most young men of his age.

Rooting his feet on the soil with a waiting position, he carefully analyses Lor's move. They were erratics, trying to hide in which direction he wanted to attack. Obviously, he had great experience in a battle against others.

He was of short stature, but with a tonic built, made for quick motion and rapid dodge. His short black hair was covering his fierce blue eyes, gazing intensely at Alix. A long wound from his wrist to his shoulder testify of his warring nature, highlighted by his experienced movements.

Slashing from the right with a blurred movement, Alix dodge right from the beginning, having seen through his feint. A little wound appeared on his shoulder, screeching against his skin without piercing through it.

-"You are perhaps better than me with you fluid movement but I'm using energy in my fight from much longer than you, you don't have...Heeeey ! How come there isn't even a little blood ?? In what material are you made of, monster?"

-"Indeed I didn't think about the possibility of embedded energy in our weapon but it won't be sufficient to win against me. And now that you have lost the surprise factor, it won't be easy for you to touch me anymore, I won't fall for it ag..."

"SCRIIIIICH"

-"Speaking in a battle, it's restricted for a genius like me hehe" Lor had a little smirk on his face after succeeding a second time to touch Alix even if nothing came out of it. "Such a fearsome defense!" he thought.

-"Don't let me touch you or you are finished, f*cking little genius" Alix wasn't fazed by his double loss, concentrating again, his body as water, coaling around Lor's blade.

His hand touching the soil, he pushes it, jumping leg first above the already retreating Lor, his hand caressing his shoulder.

"AOUTCH !!"

-" What's this, how could you provoke this much damage without even hitting m.. OUTCH!!! Don't you dare do it ag... AAARGH !" retreating with haste, Lor was panting after the three Katas hit him, his eyes bulging from the sheer incredibility of this fight.

-"I didn't think to make my energy fused with my Kata's move could provoke this much power! Sorry, I miscalculated...heheh" A little flustered, his hand was scratching his head as he tried to smile.

-"I won't lose without fighting, let's end this" Lor was running crudely in Alix's eyes, probably letting his mind loose itself in the fight.

With a quick motion of his hand, his two feet perceptibly stabilized, he made Lor's body turned in the air as if an inanimate object, letting him go with renewed speed against the floor ten or so meter away. During this movement, Lor's dagger succeeding in slashing against his upper body, cutting his dad's clothes as if paper and scratching Alix's skin.

"BOOOOM"

He landed in a powerful cloud of dust, a little dizzy.

"What do you think you are doing young men!!!" A big bearded man had come on the place of the battle, not knowing what was happening, he quickly took the two of them by their ears, lifting them as if air.

"Aïe, stop it, dad, it was just a friendly match, nothing serious !!"

-"Nothing serious??? You are a late Gaseous level and him an early Evaporate one, you are bullying him!! I won't let it pass! My son is better than this!!"

-"Do I look like I was winning dad? He is extraordinary, being able to put me in this state with nearly two Grand level differences."

-"Yeah, don't worry Sir, it was just a friendly bout, trying to feel each other after the hunt..."

-"If it was truly a friendly bout, you could have spared me a little, tchh, I ended up dusted away!"

Before the two bickering young men, Erik came to a realization, laughing loudly.

-"Ahahahahah, my son, ahah, my big genius, you have finally found someone to put your little arrogance away, ahahah"

-"How come you're laughing when it's your son that has lost dad! You should yell at him for making me lose this much, euh!"

-"I won't dare, he helps me teach you a lesson for life ahahah"

Alix was a little baffled, trying to apologize but not knowing when to, he looked a little stiff between the duo of dad and son.

-"Don't worry Alix, I understand this son of mine and can deduce a little what happened, you don't have to apologize, it's great that you're so good! And I know Lor didn't use all he had, you wouldn't be unscathed if he tried his thunderstrike, even with your incredible defense, but it's good he knows to restrain himself a little...Come on, I let Méline guard the hunted beast when I saw you two fight from afar, take your Megaceros and follow me. It's time to eat what we killed right?"

With a big clap on the back of his son and Alix, he runs away toward his daughter, sometimes still shaking from his laughter.

Looking at each other with a playful gaze, Alix and Lor took the corpse with them and began to return home.

-"Say, Alix, how come you are this powerful when just at the early Evaporation level? Is it due to your peculiar black energy?" Lor was kind of curious, wanting to know if he could increase his fighting capability too.

-" It should be one of the reasons, I don't really know though, just that I lived some kind of fortunate event that allowed me to fight weird creatures..."

-"You don't have to say too much, I understand that it's important to keep this sort of thing a bit secret, but I'm wondering why you didn't try to break through to the first transition? With the enormous black energy still present in your body, you should be able to do it, even toward the apex of Evaporation, no? With just one level you only let a part of this black energy disappear from your face after all..."

Alix didn't know what to answer this, indeed he could probably go through the seven levels in one go, even probably further. But he realized after his first breakthrough that his Energysomes were continuing to appear even in cells he already completely fed. He understood instinctively that it was probably due to the green blood he had flowing in his body.

These new organelles were indeed green, absorbing the energy to self create after achieving the limit of the early Evaporation level. He would probably have to wait for another week before they stopped appearing, but if each step had the same reaction he was fated to wait after each one even with the necessary energy already being here.

He had to come up with a good excuse for it will probably repeat itself but nothing truly came.

-"I must stabilize my level more, I think it's probably due to the black energy which is more difficult to integrate, resulting in this situation..."

-"Yeah you are probably right, I can't think of another possibility, such a shame, you would have taken a great lead in your path to Immortality. Well you are already strong enough, a little set back is good for me I suppose, hehehe"

-"Wait until I'm in the first transition, I would already have surpassed you ahaha!" Alix was happy, this few last days had indeed been great for him, letting him reconstruct himself slowly.

When at home, Cilis could be seen, giving orders to her family, organizing the whole cutting of the two beasts.

"Don't wander, Erik go fetch some little cutting tools, the two furs are in good condition, I won't let you ruin them with your big manly weapons! Alix, can you please light a fire here, we will smoke some of the meat I think, Mel, go help your brother to take out the tanks, we will need a few of them given the length of these two! "

One hour later, everything was settled with great efficacy, five tanks were full of blood, two hundred kilograms were being smoked while Cilis was carefully instructing Méline how to correctly manage the furs, removing the veins and tendons.

Erik had returned to his forge, a new order had been given by the mayor of Tellama village for a new door to opened their latest fortification. The mayor had a great perspective for his village if a little oversized.

The sheer quantity of work to be done by the sole blacksmith of the village was indeed bountiful. The deadlines too, to make such a big project in under a month was quite the dream but Erik liked a challenge and hadn't refused.

The hammering noise could be heard echoing around the little isolated home punctuating the pace of the family. Suddenly, it stopped, followed by a powerful grunt.

"Alix!!! Come here!!"

Looking around him and seeing the same perplexed faces as himself, Alix entered the forge where he never put a toe before. Seeing the Incredible blue fire next to Erik, Alix was hypnotized by this strange scene, making his calm heart palpitate a little.

The forge was besides quite big, a metallic structure allowing for an area without any obstacle in it. The stove was in the center, where all kinds of metallic scraps were littering the ground, with few weird looking structures.

-"Don't look at me like this with you big round eyes, come, I need help!"

-"Hmm, it's a pleasure to help you Sir, but why me? I never touch a hammer before in my life..."

-"Oh, stop calling me Sir, called me Erik, it will be much simpler. As for why, well, my wife is too occupied with all she had to do in the house, and my children, well...It's a great shame in my life but neither of the two likes to work with the metal and it has been a long time that I stopped forcing them to help me here...Hmm, so that leaves you, satisfied?"

-" Very actually, what can I do for you Si...Erik?"

-" Easy, take a hammer from the hook here on the wall, and you will help me hammering this recalcitrant big piece of metal!" Saying this, he pointed to an enormous boulder the size of Alix's upper body that was resting on the soil at the bottom of the forge.

Taking the biggest hammer he could find, under the surprised gaze of Erik, Alix waited for more instruction.

"Now put the metal lump on this plate and hammer it until it's completely flat and cover the entire plate"

The plate in question was four-meter square approximately, in a metal like matter, placed next to the stove.

Beginning his hammering without asking other questions, Alix put his arms and back to work, and let the hammer fall on the lump of metal with all his strength.

"CHTUNK"

The noise was loud and muffled at the same time. Erik began his work without bothering him, knowing he would have a day or more without being disturbed. Ten minutes or so later, contrary to his expectations, the noise stopped, followed by Alix's voice.

-"OK, it's done, now what do I have to do Erik?"Alix said smugly.

-"Don't try to play big kid, how could you have already fini...What, you flattened the whole piece in under ten minutes?? And it's so thin and smooth! What a nice work, how did you do it?" Erik was touching the metal sheet with his finger, a marvelous expression on his face.

-"Well first I wanted to use my energy to help me but besides more accurate movement it didn't do anything more because I haven't strengthened yet the other part of my body. So I just put all my strength in the blow and it was easier than I thought, the hammer was naturally falling as if made for my hand...."

What Alix didn't say was the strange green steam that had coiled around his arms the minute he began his work. It had allowed him to increase his strength and precision as if he was made for this work. It had instantly retracted when he finished thining the sheet of metal.

"Such great strength! Even with my energy, I couldn't do the same for more than fifteen minutes before being tired. And he seems to be a natural in the way he used the hammer... " Erik was thinking with a big smile on his face, fidgeting on his feet.

-"I found a genius! Ahahaha, and that know nothing for now, ahahahah!"

His laughter echoed in the forge, startling Alix, then propagating in the house provoking curious glance of his family.