Grand Saint Alloy

For a few moments Tristan thought about running away, but he quickly shoved that very sensible idea aside and yelled to the warriors, “Do you guys need any help?”

Luke whispered back, “What are you going to help them with? Your still a kid.”

“I’m thirteen.” Tristan whispered back indignantly.

One of the warriors winced at Tristans voice, “Why did we let him watch? He’s probably scared for life now.”

Siren sighed, “I was hoping to show him how important what he is capable of is, I don’t want him leaving just because some idiot calls him a silver demon. However, I did not expect a second elemental to show.“

“You think they were a couple before they died, I mean the elementals. It would not be the worst way to go?” The man with the broken leg said. He was trying to take his mind off his pain both physical and mental. He had just lost a friend, was still covered in his blood, and would have to sit still while thinking about it while his leg healed.

Siren sighed, but he did not have time to humor his soldier. Instead he turned and yelled back at Tristan, “Yeah, we could use some help. Go get the shovels from Conni with the metal handles.”

Tristan was eager to help and scampered off to get the items. Luke trailed behind as there was no way Tristan would be able to carry four shovels, especially with his low stamina. While they walked the scene replayed itself in Tristan’s mind. If he could fight the elementals like Siren, no one would hurt him for his metal kern life could go back to normal. Heck maybe Shadow-Fist and his mom would even have to accept him back, or he could at least get the truth out of them.

One of the warriors had thought that the event would scare him, but Tristan had gotten used to being scared of most adults. Elder Forest had been kind before and flipped on him, Carl jumped on him, and even his own father had beat him before all the tribes youth. At the moment there was not a substantial difference between an elemental and a grown up, both would hurt him at a moments notice, he would just have a chance to see an elemental coming.

“Luke, were you scared?” Tristan asked.

Luke looked at him in disbelief. The stare lasted long enough that Tristan started to believe he had asked a stupid question, “No one has ever asked me that before.” After a few more steps with Tristan just staring at him, “No, I was not scared, it never got dangerous for us. You know how kern tiers work, simple math says that five armed threes beat two fours.”

Tristan knew that each kern tier represented a fifty percent increase in essence capabilities. It made it very difficult to overcome a gap between tiers except by using weight of numbers and equipment. Thinking logically there was no reason that Siren would lose. The cave in was simply a method to reduce injuries and casualties.

“Luke, do you think you could teach me to fight like you?” Tristan asked.

He had just watched people overcome a tier gap with skill, so why couldn’t he. Tristan knew how hard the warriors trained, and it was not particularly impressive. Aside from Siren, they were your standard employees, doing the bare minimum to avoid getting yelled at. They were far more interested in the glory that came with their job than the job itself.

Luke raised an eyebrow, “Do you realize what you’re asking?”

Tristan nodded emphatically. He had no idea what he was asking, but he was willing to attempt anything that did not involve dying.

“You will feel like you’re dying,” Luke said, as if he could read Tristan’s mind.

“That’s fine,” Tristan said. Feeling was different than doing after all.

Luke grinned, “So, I guess I can teach you what my father taught me. First we will have to work on that lung of yours.”

He poked Tristan in the ribs. Tristan had not realized it, but Luke was really strong. Before he could start having second thoughts, they reached the main cave where Conni was sitting. He was in the room with all the chairs and long table with Chase on the opposite side. Chase was in the middle of describing how much metal they would be able to pull out of the ground.

Tristan was happy to see Chase’s excitement, it meant that at least someone appreciated his abilities, “Conni, Siren told us to get the shovels with metal handles.”

Chase looked at Conni confused, “What does that mean?”

They followed Conni to a locker with a combination lock keeping it shut, “It means something went wrong, but that it is also under control, “ Conni fiddled with the lock while looking at Tristan, “What happened?”

Tristan started to explain, “There was a water skeleton and it attacked and Siren and his people started beating it with axes and then one got punched and they hit him in the head and kept on hitting,” Tristan ran out of air at this point. It was one of the downsides of only having three quarters of his lung capacity.

In the open space Luke answered, “So, a second elemental showed up, and Siren decided to bury it.”

Conni gave a sigh of relief, “Good I was worried someone got hurt.”

Tristan and Luke exchanged a glance, better to let Siren handle that part of the report. Conni opened up the locker and inside was a small assortment of tools that had been crossbred with weapons. Inside, Tristan could see a spot where the pry bar would normally go and another couple for the mauls. Several heavy swords with square tips hung on hooks, pick axes with a hammer on the reverse side rested on the inside corner, and the shovels that Conni handed Luke and Tristan had sheathes on the heads.

Luke took three of them, which got a raised eyebrow from Conni, as solid steel shovels are relatively heavy. He tried to hand Tristan two, but when the boy only took one Conni’s face paled. If there were five soldiers and only four shovels needed, something bad happened. The shovel was heavy, but holding so much metal made Tristan feel comforted. It was the same feeling he looked for when searching for the wheelbarrow, but focused on his palms and shoulder where the shaft rested.

Conni said, “Go quickly,” He turned to Chase, “Get the medical team, I will get my wife. To start on a medicinal soup.”

The two of them ran outside while Luke and Tristan jogged back. Fortunately they did not need directions. They followed the arrows in reverse, and passed several branching tunnels with a yellow paint surrounding it. The sound of people talking and tools clanking came from others so it made it easy to know where to go. Follow the silence, for lack of a better term.

Tristan realized that he had never seen a tunnel marked red. He had hoped to see what a tunnel put there by a different culture would look like. However, he assumed that a red tunnel would be quickly explored, and remarked yellow or turned into a normal mine shaft.

The tunnels under the caldera were extensive, but digging was also slow work. There were hundreds of miles of tunnels running under the caldera, however the branching and meandering way of the mine meant that the farthest point only took Luke and Tristan an hour to reach, including the breaks for Tristan to catch his breath.

When they arrived, Siren and his two remaining healthy warriors were stretching. The one with the broken hip was sitting against the wall with a dark expression.

“Good, you’re back,” Siren said, taking the shovels and distributing them.

Tristan was left with the one he had taken, obviously the man with the broken leg would not be using it. He felt odd, not knowing what to do.

“So, I’m going to need you to dig, “ Luke said.

Tristan opened his mouth in surprise unsure of how to react, fortunately Siren stopped Tristan from acting like a fish, “Kid, he doesn’t need to dig, it won’t speed us up.”

“So, what,” Luke said, staring the warrior captain in the eyes, “He wanted to learn how to fight, we are going to start with muscle strength and endurance.”

Siren chuckled, “So you want to be the Forest Caldera’s first tier zero warrior?”

Tristan was blushing. He realized how foolish it sounded, but Siren simply stepped aside and gestured to the tunnel. Tristan could only grit his teeth and start hauling dirt back and forth for as long as he could. The other warriors simply talked among themselves as they watched the young boy.

After about twenty minutes Tristan stopped and said, “I think that’s good right?”

Luke snorted, “So you want to fight imaginary battles? You think that any opponents you have will be convenient, literally everyone is stronger than you. Get back to digging, keep moving that shovel until your arms stop working. Its not as if you need them to do your job tomorrow.”

The warriors nodded their approval, which stalled out Tristan’s rebuke. He picked up his shovel and kept digging. Every time he was about to give up, Luke would swoop in with some kind of pithy and irritating remark to keep him going. The medic team arrived after a while and pulled the injured man out, but Tristan was to sweaty and tired to notice.

Three long hours later, Siren rested a hand on Tristan’s shoulder, “Alight kid, that’s enough.”

Tristan gratefully collapsed and watched the warriors dig.