Land of the Blades

16. Spring

Several days later, I found myself daydreaming while watching the frozen ocean and feeling the cold breeze of the morning. By that point I had become accustomed to seeing my arms with its natural pale green color and cracks filled with gold.

The gold alloy that I absorbed (or that had absorbed me, it was difficult to tell) had formed a vein inside my body, which gave me more durability, but at the cost of my recent obtained speed, and the fact that my original body has been torn into pieces that were only kept together by the alloy itself. This also allowed me to stretch a lot, and make my body take almost any shape. I had learned to control this somewhat, but whenever I changed its shape drastically it will make me look like a mess.

I had to make a compromise in the name of my own self image, so I decided to only use the alloy on my arms, while keeping my head, body, and legs as they were. Some of the alloy has formed heels in my shoes by breaking the sole of them, but this also allowed me to use the gold I had inside my legs. I also have noticed that the more of the alloy I pushed out of my body, the more fragile I would become.

A sun spot appeared right in front of me, and I only noticed when I heard the arrows whistling through the air. I put my hand in front of me and let the alloy flow to the outside, forming a shield that I tried to make like Shirou's, with the petal pattern and all, but I couldn't get it exactly right. It was too viscous, but it stopped the arrows, so it worked.

—Right, I have work —I said, and for a moment I put my hand on the hilt of Antarc sword, which I have been carrying since that battle—, no, Sensei told me to report it to him...

I started walking back to the school, and the Lunarians followed me, fruitlessly shooting arrows, and even waited outside while I informed Sensei about them. He patted me on the head on our way out.

—Phos, which type do you see it as?

—I think it is one of the old type —I said—, let me check it.

Leaving the alloy flow from my heels, I started to make a staircase, still using my fluid shield to protect myself I advanced casually until I got to the statue in the center and decapitated it. The whole vessel started to disappear, alongside all the Lunarians aboard.

—Yeah, it was an old type.

A Lunarian managed to shoot an arrow before disappearing, but my eyes allowed me to see it coming and block it. It still messed with my balance and I fell from my fragile staircase. Sensei caught me, telling me to be a bit more careful and praised me for how much I had developed.

—Thank you Sensei, I'll go and continue breaking the ice floes.

—Rest a little before you go.

—I'm not as fast as I used to be, so I need to hurry if I want to return before the sunset. Antarc will be angry when he wakes up and see that I had been doing his job lousily.

—Very well, just be careful and return here if any other Sunspot were to appear.

—Yes sir.

Since the day in which Antarc was almost stolen from us, Sensei and I had been working without rest trying to fix him and Shirou. We had tried countless times to wake Rutile up to help us, but he was a very heavy sleeper during hibernation. We had resigned to do the fixing ourselves.

Shirou had been easy to put together, his arm was the one part that had more damage, but even after putting all the pieces in their place they just didn't stick together. I had to use lots of resin and held him together for several hours for him to finally stay in one piece. He still didn't wake up, and his chest was cold. Some days I could swore he felt a bit warm, but I could never be sure if that was the case or just my imagination.