Infallible Oathbreaker 19 Bringing The Hammer Down

But its segmented sh.e.l.l was so tough no matter how hard he hit it he barely made a scratch. Staggering from the recoil of his own attacks.

"When I said do something, I meant somewhere more along the lines of shutting up. Its useless, the armors too tough. I am well aware of how to deal with this spirit. It would take a the smiter of a Spiritknight of the second step to destroy it." Lara's voice came from the back of the cave. Whatever cla.s.s this creature was there was no defeating it. It was willing to kill them at the cost of his own life. She slumped up against one of the cave walls and watched Darius' hopeless attempts.

Darius wouldn't stop. He was not going to die there, not if he could help it. He kept on hitting the beast again and again. Over and over until he felt himself slowly begin to slip away. His thoughts faded into the background and his body felt like it was moving of his own accord.

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

He started of sloppy. He knew he had to concentrate. At first something didn't feel right as he hit it, but soon he started to find his rhythm and get into the groove of it. Each time he struck the shrimp the cave would shake violently, causing dust and debris to fall of the walls. It was as if an earthquake was going on inside the cave.

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Each strike was more perfect than its predecessor. The shock-waves sent out were enough to knock someone of their feet. Even Lara could feel them at the back of the cave. In this trance like state Darius felt himself let go as his strikes became more and more precise. The sound it made was familiar, and so were the vibrations the hammer made each time. As he relentlessly continued hammering the shrimp he could feel something was happening, a sensation he knew all too well rushed like a tidal wave through his body, engulfing his very being as the shrimp itself was put into a trance like state.

Darius knew that what he was doing wasn't damaging the shrimp at all. This was doing something else to it entirely, it was sort of reshaping it into something else...

He had now achieved a certain frequency as he continued. He wasn't sure how or why this was the perfect frequency but he could just tell. From the way the hammer felt as it landed on the shrimps hard sh.e.l.l to the way it sounded as it did so. Something told him it was just right. He honed his skill to the max. Hitting it in the exact same spot the exact same way.

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Lara watched in awe at what Darius was doing. She had seen this once before when she visited a forge many years prior. But as far as she was concerned there was no mistaking it. Darius was smiting!

"How is this possible?" she muttered as she watched Darius mould the shrimp. It became smaller and smaller, the energy inside it being compressed by Darius' hammer.

Far above the dome, in the skies, an old man was holding his belly while laughing aloud. Splendid! Splendid! This boy was born to be a Spiritsmith! I have to get my hands on him!"

Usually smiting could only be done on dead spirits, and most Spiritsmiths used machines to detect the right frequency to smite a particular Spirit with, which was a long process especially for beginners, but somehow Darius was able to find this frequency himself. Six years of striking the anvil had taught him just where it would be.

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Darius' body felt like he was burning inside, but after six years he was more than used to the feeling. At this point the shrimp was beginning to take shape, that of a large round sphere. There was nothing it could possibly do to them now and the mouth of the cave was open, but Darius didn't stop, he simply kept on going. He didn't even realize it but subconciously he was counting the number of strikes. The hours had flown by as he mumbled to himself, so low that Lara couldn't hear it.

"Nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-eight, nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine...ten thousand!" he shouted the last one out as he put all he had into it.

Bang!

Bang!

BOOM!

He tossed the hammer aside and fell onto his knees. Although he was sweaty and out of breath, he was far from tired. The sphere was now only about the size of a tennis ball.

Lara walked slowly up to him, not quite believing what she had just seen. "When did you? How did You?....Who are you?" So many questions flooded her mind she wasn't quite sure what to say, until one rose above the rest,

"What are you?!?"

The formation broke as the two eighteen year olds were left standing in the empty arena. Darius slowly rose to feet, turning to look back at her he said,

"My name...is Darius Omen."

In a room on the second floor, a woman was standing in front of several monitors, but paying close attention to only one of them. It was a video of Darius smiting the spirit in the cave.

"And you said he's not from any guild?" she asked, never taking her eyes off of the screen.

"No, my lady." one of her two personal Spiritknight guards said. They too were interested by this young mans' amazing speed, stamina and strength. It was the kind that could only come from intense refinement of the body. Not to mention the fact that he had just smited a spirit using a smithing method. Such a thing was unheard off.

"Keep a close eye on him for me. I need to study that hammer." She c.o.c.ked her head to the side a little bit and sighed, "Interesting..."

"Yes lady Katya. In the mean time, the formation has ended." said the other knight guard.

"Very well. Mich.e.l.le how did this batch do?" She gracefully glided over to a spectacled woman who was a.n.a.lyzing information a holographic computer screen. Lady Katya could only ever work with women. Her beauty was the only thing to ever match her intelligence. Most men, n.o.bles included, could barely contain themselves around her, let alone focus on anything other her amazing body. The l.u.s.t evident in their eyes would repulse her.

She was only twenty-two years old and was already the test administrator and master of formations at the academy. Her two trusted body guards, Mara and Opal, were both three star Spiritknights of the third step. Born from the highest of orders and stayed by her side at all times. On more than one occasion they found themselves having to protect her from l.u.s.t filled men who couldn't control themselves, carrying out swift and merciless executions depending on their n.o.bility status.

"Of the twenty n.o.bles that entered two died, three were critically injured and eight are ready to become spirit knights, princess Lara included. We collected all the spirit dantians and have Spiritsmiths refining them as we speak. They should be ready to perform the right of cultivation in a few hours. " said a spectacled lady who had been sitting in front of one of the control panels.

"Good. Now that we've separated the wheat from the chaff, the real game can begin. What about the boy?" she asked.

"The dantian from the replicating spirit is being refined, but after examination the smiths say that the dantian the boy created himself is, as they put it, perfect. It's of the cla.s.s indomitable. I already have people looking into him for you."

"Alright then, project me."