Mystic metals

The sands of the desert may as well have been coal in a fire pit as the heatwaves rose from it. A winding path cut was cut into it's terrain by 6 trudging feet as they ambled their way through.

The path stopped once it reached a man and a wolf, who were on one side dragging a wagon full of metallic objects which were caked with blood at this point, on the other side was a sack that was atleast 5 times their size which sloshed and shifted horrifically as it stained the light dessert sand red.

A puddle was beginning to form under it after being in place for so long, unfortunately it was going to leak in place for a little longer as a very critter had decided to block the path of it's carrier.

It was a gigantic crab, not unlike the one which Eyisha was having trouble with the first time Zhao Wei had rescued her. Although with some minor differences, the main one being that it was an elder of the species signified by it's great stature which would've put the old one to shame. Each of it's leg was as thick as a tree trunk, if any thing were to be standing underneath it as it passed by, it would disappear from the face of the earth without anybody knowing why.

Another significant change was it's shell, unlike it's young which had a flat shell like most crabs he'd met, the thing had replaced it with a trophy of it's own. The skull of a draconian beast it had eviscerated with it's own claws now decorated it's top.

From time to time as it moved, the jaws of that skull would shift ever so animatedly, giving off the illusion that it was still alive, that slight clacking a plea to put it's corpse to rest. Another few years and it might've replaced the head piece with a skull twice that size.

It was too bad it had a craving for meat that it didn't hunt, striding across the dessert on those legs until it caught up to the duo, blocking their path back to camp. It wasn't a thug who threatened them for their loot in exchange for their lives, it's scissor-like claw was cutting through the air the moment it had spotted them. If it could kill both of them, there was more for it to fill it's belly with anyway.

It smashed into the hill of sand, cutting it clean in two. But it's target was completely untouched. In it's confusion it tried to follow up on it's attack with it's other claw only to find that it's body wasn't moving as it should. With that clumsy movement, it began to fall forward, realizing just now that one of it's back legs had been severed at the joint.

Zhao Wei dashed in and slid right under it's descending carapace with his left arm stretched out, a bronze gauntlet adorning the lean forearm. With a flex the thing came to life, generating a series of motions that released a small mounted crossbow which launched a small shrapnel into the crustacean's open mandibles.

For a few moments the thing struggled, flailing it's limbs around in the sand, just before it's head burst open, splattering thick purple blood onto Myra.

Kicking it's leg to make sure it was dead, Zhao Wei moved towards it's severed leg. Digging around the tank like shell until he found a handle jutting out of it. With a heave he pulled out a short sword with a very peculiar blade. From it's hilt, it was flat like any blade, perfect for slashing and cutting down anything in it's path.

But that's were the resemblance stops as the middle widened into a axe head shaped blade that bore most of it's weight. The handle was almost as long as the blade itself with a clip in the hilt where blade could fold inwards. Safe to say, it was made for the very purpose of dealing immense damage with a forward swing in mind. While it's size could lead to a misunderstanding of sorts, it's weight more than made up for it as the weapon was made from a blend of dwarven steel mixed with a good amount of orichalcum.

Yes, it was made from the kind of metals he only read about in stories of hobbits travel ling through middle-earth with an all powerful ring. But in their world, materials like these were all too real and near impossible to handle. This one for example was of the indestructible kind outside it's place of creation where it would be found in liquid form.

Once the outside air touched the surface of this mystical metal, the whole thing would harden into it's form, from then on mold-able by neither might nor magic. The thing weighed several kilograms a drip, the one he just pulled out was about the weight of a cannonball while looking like a toothpick in the eyes the beast it took down.