The Nova Ranker - The Sword Almighty

Chapter 9. This Blade is on Fiiiire!

The first thing that struck me about the forge was the very tall man with purple hair. And I mean tall. Hella tall. 7'ft tall easily. I think. I prefer the metric system. He had his incredibly long purple hair tied into a bun. He had his back to us and was very intently looking at a... I dunno what to call it. Sword oven? I think sword oven is the correct term.

"Uh... Hello?" Joey stood on his tip toes and tried to tap the man's shoulder, though he was too short to even reach his elbow.

He swung his head back rather suddenly and looked at us. He had strong looking features and was about as ripped as my brother. Also, his eyes were a blue-ish gray tone. And then he spoke.

"Oh! Hey there, you kids!" Rather than a raspy voiced warrior, he sounded like an excitable teenager. "Came for your blood iron stuff?"

I was about to speak when the big man interrupted me. "Where are my manners? I haven't even introduced myself." He turned around fully, showing a badge stuck to one of the straps of his overalls. "I'm Masrur Asker. Forgemaster of Nova Ranker Guild, and I am in charge of giving you kids your blood iron weapons!"

He stepped up to me first, picked me up like I was a sack of potatoes and took me to another room that was connected to this main forge. I looked behind this absolute behemoth of a man to see my friends get taken to rooms by other people who worked at the forge.

Masrur plonked me onto a chair and started measuring my arm with a measuring tape. "So, tell me, buddy, what do you want? What's your weapon? What element are you?"

"Uh..." I kinda liked this guy. It was nice to have someone so energetic when the environment had been mostly relaxed. "I've never really held a weapon but I like swords. And uh, I'm a fire year."

"Sword. Fire year." he repeated, clapping his hands together, smiling widely, before running off. I think he was just going to check the sword he'd left in the oven.

It took him a while to come back, but when he did, he had a sheathed sword in hand. He set the weapon in my hand and stood back, looking at me like an excited child. All that was missing was the clapping and the giggling.

I gripped the blade in my hand and unsheathed it. It was a double edged straight sword about... I dunno, 3 feet in length? Maybe a bit less. It felt light in my hand as I moved my wrist from side to side. Also, the blade was mostly silver in color, except for a very slight reddish tint. Immediately I knew there was Blood Iron in this. As I looked at the blade, I felt something resonate within it. Like it was taking my hand or something. I looked at Masrur, and he had his arms crossed as he stared at me, as if waiting for me to do something.

"C'mon, kid. We don't have all day" He frowned at me, and made a gesture with his hand, as if he were slashing at the air.

I felt like an idiot. Masrur had probably always seen kids get their first weapon and start swinging around. So, I took my best stance, getting a snort from Masrur. Yeah, I probably looked like an idiot. I took a deep breath, raised the blade over my head, before swinging it down in a quick movement. A burst of flame emanated from the tip of the blade, drawing a fiery arc in the air that remained there for a few seconds before fizzling away.

I turned to Masrur and he looked like he was about ready to scream out in joy. I looked at the sword in my hand and realized it was on fire. It wasn't a normal fire. The flame didn't look like it was licking at the edge of the blade. It looked like the sword was producing the fire on its own.

"Give it a name, bud!" Masrur said, passing me the scabbard and looking at me expectantly.

"A... name? What for?"