My Life As A Salamander 81 Weapons Of Old

I ventured down to the dwarven smithy. Many dwarves had been in here but since had cleared out. Many had left behind temporary lean-to's and still smoking campfires. I didn't stop until I found what I was looking for. A stack of gold colored bars. They had streaks of black that seemed to writhe and move in a strange way. It was like serpents moving about. Kyle touched my hip hesitantly. "If you go down this road... there's no turning back." He said with a low rumble. "I understand. But there is no other way." I growled as I picked up the first piece. You see. The reason Kyle warned me about doing this was for one reason. Dwarves rarely made something specifically because it was a weapon. To make a weapon was to tarnish ones hands with the blood that would be shed. But I didn't care about reputation. I was a familiar. What reputation would I ever have without being able to protect the one person I was meant to. I felt the bar in my hands. The weight seemed to shift ever so slowly as I picked up the bar. I breathed flames into the forge. All the kinds I had to make my weapon.

I held the bar in the far. Crackling electrical, ghost, living, etc. All my flames were combined into one powerful flame. As I held the bar I saw the shadows writhe in what seemed to be agony. I suddenly felt something enter my hand and I looked at my red arm. Shadowy tendrils went up my arm as seemed to creep up toward my chest.

/ This thing within your body has a familiar air to it. I feel something... Pride?/ Gluttony seemed to know this thing that was entering my body. Suddenly the tendrils surged out of the metal and into my core to form a single wriggling black dot in the center of my chest.

I heard a deep voice like a person speaking out of a barrel. /Is that Gluttony? I feel?/ It grunted out. I was shocked. /It really is you old friend!"/ Gluttony replied. I stopped for a few moments and listened to them jabber between themselves. I sighed as I realized I wouldn't get any answer out of them. I grabbed another bar only to get the same result. I sighed even heavier as I went through the bars of soul iron and the spot on my chest grew to fill my torso in black. I eventually ran out of the tainted metal and just went with the empty demon metal. It glowed red and with my grip it was like putty. I pulled it out of the flames and onto the the anvil. I pulled out a great hammer which weighed 20 pounds. I hauled off on it. I focused on my smithing while Gluttony and Pride talked. I moved according to my memory. The swinging was rhythmic as my anger took hold. One of my swings. .h.i.t and the vibration shook my arm heavily. I felt a tickle and looked down to see a line of blood going down my arm. I sighed and just kept hammering. The blood went onto the metal with a sizzle and smoke. For some reason my Immortal Dragon Body wasn't working but I didn't mind.

I kept hammering and hammering. I turned it and heated it. I formed my weapon slowly and methodically. The back part was a scythe sitting about 5 feet long. The front part was a square spiked hammer sitting 2 feet by 2 feet. I began to forge the handle of my warhammer. It was as tall as I was at 9 feet. My blood kept sizzling against the metal as I moved. The metal was gaining a blue and red color along with the blue. I felt a strange connection to the weapon as I hammered and plunged the metals into the tempering water and oil. Energy filled the weapon with destructive forces as I worked it. The metal warped in places and then sucked back into it's normal form. It was like a snake wrestling against the captive skin it was trying to molt out of. I melted demon metal onto it as I sought to make sure it wouldn't break. I didn't even need to forge it in. A snapping golden mouth shot out and began to breeding eat up the molten metal. I was startled at the ferocity and liveliness of it. "No metal in existence should move like this." I said under my breath in shock. Kyle watched in interest like a scientist watching an experiment. "Extraordinary. Look at how it eats the metal like a dragon. It's like its alive." He said and started backing away. The handle of the blade suddenly snapped at the finished blade and hammer on the table fusing wih them. The top pieces snapped together like they were one. The energy crackled through the blade and hammer as well. Still the blade consumed. It literally jumped from the anvil to the pile of demon metal ingots. It began to eat the ingots whole. It size began to expand till the hand was 12 feet long and a 6 inches wide. The scythe extended to 6 feet long and the hammer grew to 3 feet by 3 feet. After the demon metal was gone it hopped over to some steel ingots. After eating seven of the d.a.m.n things it finally calmed down. The steel melted throughout the piece as I approached. The snapping had stopped and the piece was resting. Growing on the ground like a hibernating snake after an enormous meal. The handle grew and grew till it stood at 14 feet and the blade remained at 6 feet long. Swirls spread through the handle and into the blade and hammer. the top of the weapon swelled suddenly. It then deflated leaving a dragons head design. The dragon held the blade in its maw and its tail wrapped around the hammer.

I grimly picked up the weapon. It was still hot. But as it cooled I saw everything that was beautiful about it. My blood speckled the piece with blue, red, and black. The grey steel was the swirls that spread through everything connecting it all. It was beautiful. Deadly. But beautiful. As I held it the weapon hummed in my hand. But it didn't hum comfortingly. I felt killing intent eminating from it in waves. I growled at it releasing my catastrophe cla.s.s aura. It actually calmed down some but I still felt like it was growling at me like a p.i.s.sed off kitten. It was still steaming with heat as I held it but I felt comfortable. The weight was right. It was heavy and I could feel my connection to it. "I will kill with this. And with this I will lay waste to the kingdom of Weremar. And once it is laid to waste the king will be buried with you embedded in his charred body. Nothing will stop me from this." It vibrated in my grip almost like it agreed with the idea.

Kyle was standing off to the side and staring at the weapon in my hands. His face was pale and sweat rolled off him like he was overheating. Hargo had come rumbling down the stairs and saw what I held in my hands. The killing intent still leaking out of the weapon. "You will bear no name like those before you. So the enemy will be humiliated by a nameless one. A silent cry of fear to drown itself in blood. This I promise you." I said to it. It once again vibrated. This time symbols began to form on the handle and blade. Strange symbols that felt ancient and foreign. I knew what was happening though. The blade was being marked by dwarven souls so it wouldn't run rampant.Dwarven Smith's of generations had been here and most never truly left but decided to be guardian spirits of this place.

The symbols covered the weapon from stem to stern till only the sharp part of the blade remained uncovered. I sighed in relief as they finished scrawling themselves across the metal. I stared at it in my hands. This thing I made. And felt my resolve tighten down. I moved and grabbed some cloth to wrap this thing in. It took many to get it appropriately covered but I managed. I wouldn't even try to make a scabbard for this thing. It would be buried soon enough.

I grabbed a few belts and strapped the thing to my back. Dragons Cry shivered and shimmied away from it. I looked at Hargo then Kyle. "I look forward to drinking in the mines of heaven with you both. Till we meet again." I said as I patted Hargo on the shoulder and walked up the stairs. When I exited the castle they both came tumbling out before standing up and trying to look serious. "And may the earth be a bed of gold for us to drink to and the sky be full of wine." They called. It was an old dwarven prayer reserved for wars and battles. In case I didn't return. I opened my wings wide and rocketed into the sky.

I was in the sky for only a moment before shooting southward with the wind. The air howled past me as I flew. Storm clouds brewed dramatically behind me as my energy filled the air unconsciously. I never stopped flying. Every once in a while I would dive at an unsuspecting bird and fry it to eat. That only helped with my flight muscles. As I flew I felt a sudden chill fill the air as snowflakes began to fly about me. In the clouds behind me I sensed the coldest presence I've ever felt up close. "What are you doing here Vara?" I shouted out into the wind. She smugly flew through the air laying on a large snowflake. Her clothes had changed into a white tunic and blue leathers for flying.

"I decided to try to have a decent view for what's coming. We have been sitting,waiting, and expecting someone to laze Weremar to the ground. Of all the kingdoms only Weremar was never supported by us G.o.ds. Been ages since I wiped out the werewolves. With exception to one I've found out." Vara said as she relaxed on her ice plate.

I rolled my eyes a bit at her comments. My flight didn't slow at all as I listened to her ramble a bit. It wasn't long till I heard a rumbling chortle behind me. I c.o.c.ked my head a bit and turned back to see what was behind me. What I saw was a little shocking. A serpent covered wings of all sizes and types. feathered and webbed. All kinds. It had no legs but the wings were everywhere. Its serpentine head was bright gold and its eyes like sapphires. Lightning raced around it and through it's wings and body.

I screamed out in shock and terror. "Kukulkan!" I felt my wing beats pick up in speed. I heard a reedy voice echo through the winds behind me. "I'm not here for you tiny! The storm you conjured seemed fun so I thought I would be entertained for a bit." He said. I suddenly heard very entertained laughter echo from my right. "Aed! You could have warned me you were bringing friends!" I shouted. He laughed even more.

I shook my head a little in frustration. As I flew the G.o.ds flew about laughing amid the storm. Only Aed truly took a look at what was on my back. "You really are aiming to kill him... aren't you?" Aed asked. The killing intent from my weapon was still strong but it was bearable. For it's size it was enormous. But at the same time I felt as light as a feather. "He took what was mine. I already warned him. What comes next is merely karma." I said as my heated gaze was aimed at the sunrise that was gracing the horizon.