The Orc War: A Summoner Fiction

Elven Steel

Ranstor stood by the smithy tent, watching an elf reforge a blade. The smooth blade removed from the fiery coals glowed a bright blue opposed to the red-orange of dwarf and man made steel. "What are your blades made of? I've never seen any metal glow like that before."
The elf laughed lightly, "I would be surprised if you had. This particular blade is made of Daimic. A metal taken from the Eather. The secret to its craft is known only to my people." The elf lifted the sword off the anvil, motioning for the young man to step back, the blade burst into flames, glowing bright and strong, but trailing no smoke. "This blade belongs to my commander, Varus, it's name is Reignbringer." The flame dissipated. The blade was unharmed.
"How is that possible?" Ranstor now held the blade, inspecting it for any contraptions.
"It's the metal," he took the blade back, putting it its sheath, "everything in the Eather allows the flow of magic, Daimic in particular can channel energy with taking minimal damage."
"So why aren't all your weapons made with it?"
"Because Daimic is very difficult to obtain. It takes almost a year to to get enough to make a single dagger, a blade like that... Takes almost a century."
"Can you plate it?" The young boy asked enthusiastically.
"What do you mean?" The smith was now working on a piece of steel, quickly shaping it into the basic shape of a curved short sword.
"Could you, in theory, take a blade like that, and plate it in dimic?"
"Daimic!"
"You get the point."
The smith stopped and pondered on the thought. "It might work, but there's still the issue of scarcity. The channeling of magic would most likely be weaker as well. Why do you care?"
Ranstor drew his two hook swords off his back.
"Where did you get those?"
Rainstorms smiled, "These were dwarven made, the steel is strong but it dulls rather quickly."
The elf took one of the swords, feeling it's weight and balance, the tip of the hook balanced the blade on his finger. "And what do you think could be improved?"
"The edge of the blade, the dwarves made it perfectly balanced but the blades can't handle a skirmish without becoming metal sticks."
"You want to plate these, in Daimic?"
"Well which is stronger, Daimic or your elven steel?"
The elf examined the blades more closely, taking in the hilt of the blade, the cross guard designed to disarm opponents. "It really depends..."
"On?"
"Your style of swordsmanship. If you want a quicker, lighter blade then the elven steel is far more useful, but the Daimic will allow you to cut deeper, but the blades would be substantially more heavy, throwing off e balance of the blades."
"I see..."
"If you're still around, come back when I have finished, and when you have made up your mind." The elven smith ended the conversation and continued to work on his pile of short swords.
Ranstor nodded, turning to see his commanding officer and the two elves returning. A demon rested on Folcan's shoulders. He didn't know why, but the beast unsettled him.
Ignitious appeared behind him, "jealous are we?"
The scout jumped, startled by the generals unknown presence.
The general now stood beside him, "Tell me, why does he have your respect?" The general inquired.
"He earned it, unlike you, sir."
"So you're telling me that he, a man who has killed thousands, a monster, and now a man in control of unnatural powers, is more respectable than I?"
Ranstor started to walk away, "yes, he is."
The general stood rooted. Watching the small band of soldiers that had somehow made it through the vile jungle they now resided in. The men respected the ex-assassin more than they feared him. "It's fortunate, isn't it?"
"Sorry sir?"
" it's infortunate that he is the only one that knows the paths."
"How so?"
"He is now the key to winning this war. But how can he do that without giving up the cost?" With this statement the general took his leave, swiftly walking past the young fighter, and knocking against Folcan on his way.
"What was that about?" James asked.
"He's worried."
"About?"
"Winning."
"Don't listen to that man, if you knew what he was responsible for... Let's just say you'd want to bury a body." James ended the remark almost sarcastically. He continued on with the elves inquiring something about magic, and hallucinations. He was more curious as to what the general had been responsible for during the Dwarf War, when many citizens of the Hominium Empire were under heavy questioning the general had not been, or at least not in any of the filed reports within the great library. Ranstor took out his blades, looking down at the hilts, a small 'XX' inscribed on each of the cross guards. He remembered the punishments he had endured under the wrath of his father after he had discovered his dwarven friend hiding from the Pinkertons in his basement. They never caught the dwarf, but his father never allowed him to return to his house again.
That's where he found his real family, he may have been born of Ranstor House, and he may still use its title, but he has always been on the side of equality. He aided the dwarves as a child, they gave him the hook swords that now carry him through this war. The XX on the hilts were for every life he had saved, twenty. He was only able to save twenty lives during the war, sending them to a rumored haven in the mountains as he smuggled them out of the city. He was a war criminal, that's why he was assigned to the leading force.
Will wasn't stupid, he knew exactly what his legion was tasked with, carving through the forest, weakening their forces with all their lives, every criminal, every foolish child here were not told of their mission. But the fact that the general himself had snuck into their ranks, kept him off guard. James must not be following Ignatious' tactical plan, that's probably why so many of his legion were still alive.
A roar sounded I the distance, many jumped off their seats, half drawing their swords. Will started running towards it. A few elves followed suit, along with Horace and Zeus, the rest of the men stayed in the camp, unsure of the thick jungle. Will looked ahead seeing the two elves and James leading the charge.