Chapter 010: Return of The Edge

Author: WolfSpatial

Co-Author: Lucifer

[If you knew how quickly people forget the dead, you'd stop living to impress them.]

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Holding the gilded ring in my right hand, I watched as the Ignition Spirit touched it and vanished. Small scribbles appeared on the side of the ring, words I didn't know. The same connection I felt from the planet below me and my staff came from the ring, only about a thousand times weaker.

Blinking once as the ring heated and cooled as if breathing, I slotted it onto my ring middle finger and focused on it. Pure heat filled my outstretched hand as the Ignition Spirit's voice filled my head, "Wait, what's wrong with you-"

His voice was cut off as my Mana flooded into the ring and black fire formed into a ball above my hand. I made a mental note to check on the spirit later when I got out of this situation.

"How did-" Catheine was cut off by the other man, a hand on her shoulder as two more balls of fire appeared next to the first.

"It's just like the Magic Missile… Okay." Holding my hand up, the three balls floated into the air. I grinned and looked out at the Shadow Army before closing my hand, pulling it close to my chest and shoving it forward, opening it at the same time., "Let's call it… HELLFIRE BARRAGE!"

As soon as one ball of black flames vanished, another took its place and fired. I couldn't stop the maniacal laughter that bled from my throat as I watched my pitch-black flames wreathe the battlefield and disintegrate entire portions of the opposition.

Despite my assault, the army didn't stop moving forward. They pushed past the ashes and sludge of their former comrades, focusing in my direction. There was a slight nausea that overtook me as the scent of burning shadow-sludge filled my nostrils.

The few Shadow soldiers that made it past my Hellfire Barrage began to dig their hands and feet into the wall to climb up. Elgade's soldiers broke from their stupor quick enough to stab and prod at the climbing enemy, sending them back down to the ground with various injuries.

My level in the top left flickered as it rose, I was happy with my new level as only about half of the Shadow Army remained. I took a breath and stopped firing, holding my head and leaning against the crenellation to my left.

"You there, Spirit?" I whispered, calling out to my de-facto companion. Not getting a response, I rubbed the ring, mentally dubbing it the Hanz Ring.

"Are you okay?" Catheine's voice filled my ears as a gentle hand touched my shoulder, "That must've taken a lot of you."

I turned and stared into her helmet, the night sky not giving enough light for me to see her face, "How could I be anything other than perfect? I'm me, Jayce Fateweaver."

Her head moved back slightly, showing me that she was a little surprised by my words. She looked down at the ring on my finger, "How did you do that? Inscribe an artifact without a Rune Marker."

"Where I come from, we call it Enchanting. Almost no one can do it though, just the special few. Like me." Technically that was true, as there weren't a lot of people that could force Spirits into items. I still felt a little bad about the Ignition Spirit, he hadn't responded to me since I put Mana into his dwelling.

"Can you teach me?" She seemed hopeful, grabbing my left hand and clasping it in hers. She pulled out all the stops in the hopes that I'd show her.

I pulled my hand from hers, giving her a disappointed look, "I'm saddened that you'd attempt to use your feminine wiles on me, Catheine D'Elgade."

"Wha-" She took a step back at the realization of what I said, her hand reaching for her sword, "How do you know my real name?"

This was my favorite part, the smirk on my face proclaimed as such, "I know so much about you, Catheine. I know that the reason you wear a helmet is because when you were just a girl, your father forbade you from practicing swordsmanship. That led you to have a mishap – because you weren't being supervised properly – to which you cut your face by accident."

"H-how could you know that!?" She pulled her sword and readied it with shaking hands. Seems like I hit a soft spot.

Stepping forward, past her sword, I was stopped by another blade coming from my right. I leaned backward as it flew past, becoming embedded in the wall to my left.

I looked over to find Duke Lorence D'Elgade, the man to whom Catheine was speaking when I arrived, with his arm extended toward me. Anger seemed to live on his face as mouth opened, "Step away from my daughter."

"Hey, man." I held my hands up in a placating manner, "She came onto me. I swear."

"You… Bastard!" Catherine swung her sword, which looked fairly slow to me after my level-ups. Reaching out, I grabbed the blade and poured the slightest bit of Mana into the Hanz Ring.

My hand, cloaked in Hellfire, clasped around her sword which started to turn red. I leaned closer, speaking into her ear with another unmistakable smirk, "Did you not just see me decimate those little soldiers? Didn't you fight them for seven years and get nowhere? What were you hoping to accomplish, Catheine?"

Giving a tug, I pulled the sword from her frozen hands and held it to my left. Sliding my right hand, still cloaked in Hellfire, down the blade, I fixed the indentation of my hand and swung the sword despite the ringing in my ears that came when I grabbed the hilt.

Letting my hand slip, I tossed the blade over the wall, "Sorry about that, Mages aren't known for their strength, you see…"

"Father…" Catheine spoke just loud enough for me to hear, causing me to move closer.

That turned out to be a poor move as Lorence had moved closer to hit me with his dagger. I stopped the blade with my left hand, the tip poking into my skin and drawing a little bit of blood.

Moving back, I looked down at my hand and fought a laugh, "All that for a drop of blood… Mind if I try?"

I stretched out my hand to ask for his dagger, unsurprisingly he didn't give it to me. Catherine wrenched Lorence's sword from the wall and readied herself against me.

Looking around, I puffed my right lip and blew the air out. The guards were too busy fighting the remaining Shadow Soldiers that they either didn't notice or were too busy to do anything. I gave a lost look and glanced at the second dagger that Lorence pulled out, "Mind if I call a few more soldiers? You could probably use the help."

"This is between the two of us," Lorence quipped, shocking Catheine. He glanced at her and said, "I'll take him down, go help the others."

She had no choice but to obey, leaving me and daddy dearest to fight. I wasn't sure if I could beat him without killing him, given the volatile nature of Hellfire. I could, of course, give him the same treatment as I gave the Shadow Army, but I kind of wanted to come back to this city and look around on my own time.

"Look, Lorence – can I call you Lorence? – I'm going to – Look," I dodged a swipe from his right dagger, hitting his left head-on with my Hellfire-cloaked fist, "I'm not sure why you're happy-stabby right now, and I really don't care, but if you could do that somewhere else, I'd appreciate it."

He was already breathing heavily, normal for a man that was nearing fifty. He stopped to hear me out, or so I thought, "Will you do me a favor? I know we've been attacking you, but it's not because of ill will on my part, I just had to test you before I ask you; marry my daughter."

"Wow," Blinking, I put out my Hellfire and set my hands on my hips, "Wasn't expecting that. Don't get me wrong, she might be beautiful under all that iron and angst, but not really my type."

"I see." He sheathed his daggers behind his back, leaving me to watch as they vanished from sight. I wondered mentally if they had an invisibility rune, or if that was even a thing, as Lorence came to shake my hand, "I have other daughters, maybe one of them will be to your taste."

His smile didn't assure me all that much. At first, I thought it sent a chill down my spine, but I found the source to be something else.

I had my back facing the plains outside the city, and I watched as fear and anger gripped Lorence's eyes when they looked past me. His grip tightened on my hand as his teeth clenched together.

Sliding my left hand across his face, his head jerked to the side and he slumped to the ground. I was ninety-percent sure he was still breathing.

Turning to the battlefield, l stared at the figure slowly coming closer to the city wall with another Shadow Army behind him. It made me wonder just how many beings they had turned into Shadows.

As he came up to the walls, he and his army stopped some hundred yards away. He scanned the wall before stopping at me and pointing at me.

He wore pitch black armor, larger than the rest of the army and unlike them had two blue lights as eyes. With a sword on his hip and a shield on his back, he gestured for me to come down from the wall.

Now, I knew that was a horrible idea, but I also figured he wouldn't ask me down there just to be a bitch about me killing some of his men. Walking to Lorene, I made sure he was alive before going over to the edge of the wall and looking down.

The ground seemed to leer away from me, "That's probably a safe distance…"

"Wait!" I barely heard Catheine yell before I jumped over the wall. Landing on one knee with my fist planted into the ground, I flicked my head up to grin at the Knightmare.

"Total superhero landing, achievement complete." I whispered to myself as the dust cleared.

I stood up, wiping the dust from my robe before giving Catheine a thumbs up — to which her jaw hit the stone — and walking towards the Shadow General.

Seeing me approach, he climbed off his mighty steed and stepped toward me. The ground beneath him turned to black as he walked it, standing about twice my height, "What need do you have of me?"

He looked down at me, possibly thinking of a response, "Staff… Give…"

"What?" I laughed, "Even if I wanted to, you're not strong enough to wield it. You at least need a tenth of my strength to even touch it. What do you need it for anyways?"

Unfortunately for me, the big fella didn't have any expressions visible behind his smokey black helmet. It irked me that he was so hard to read. So, I activated my True Vision and pulled up his sheet, finding his race to be, not Knightmare, but Greater Shade.

"Why are Shades like you so interested in a little staff?" He had a reaction to that, his body jolting slightly, "Didn't think I'd know, huh? Let's see… your name is… that's weird… you don't have a name. Are you a type of Spirit? Must be low-ranked not to have a name. Who is your master?"

"Staff… NOW…" He stretched out his hand for me to hand him a staff I didn't have. Whatever staff he wanted, I reasoned that he probably shouldn't get it. You don't reward children when they misbehave.

"No," I looked up at him with a condescending expression, "You've been terrorizing these people for seven years! Aren't you ashamed of yourself?"

He shied away from me, pulling back his hand and scratching the chin of his helmet. The orbs of light in his helmet that acted as eyes grew dim, "But…"

"No 'but's, mister." I pointed my finger at him, poking into his abdomen and pushing him back slightly, "You've been a very bad boy. Do you have any idea how worried your mother and I have been? Go to your room and think about what you've done!"

"I…" The giant didn't know how to respond, he slunk back to his horse and looked at me in confusion.

I pointed in the direction he had come, "I said GO! And no dinner tonight either, I'll be having a conversation with your mother too to make sure she doesn't sneak you anything!"

"…okay…" He hung his head and got onto his horse, steering it away and taking his army with his head down.

One of the Middling Shades in the back of the army turned their head to me, only to be met by me smacking him, "Keep it moving."

He rubbed the back of his head and shuffled along, groaning in annoyance. The army started to vanish as they reached the horizon, leaving to clap my hands together once and turn back to the city.

The city gate opened and Catheine rushed out with five men, ready to fight anything in their way. They stopped after yelling for a while and looked around. Catheine was the first to catch her bearings, "W-what happened? Where'd the Knightmare-"

"Shade," I corrected, walking pasted her, "They're Shades, not Knightmares. Greater Shades, to be exact. The little ones are Middling Shades. Hmm, I wonder what a Lesser Shade looks like…"

"Whatever!" She came up next to me, looking at me as we walked, "Where'd they go?"

"Home, I'd assume." Yawning, I stretched and leaned back for a second to pop my back, "Wherever that may be for them."

"How'd you do that!?" She seemed to have the events of the last time she asked that play in her head as she quickly changed her tune. She grabbed my sleeve and looked toward the ground, causing me to stop, "…please… Tell me… so I can help my people…"

"Be assertive, they follow orders very well. But I doubt that will work again," I tapped her shoulder and kept walking, leaving her alone near the city gate. Turning to walk backwards, I cupped my hands around my mouth and yelled, "Better get stronger while you can, Cat!"

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That's the end of the short escapade into Cantria. We'll be back later, but for now, y'all are here to read a Shield Hero Fic. Chapter 11 will satisfy your paltry needs.