Emperors War

"Wouldn"t it be better for both of us we just practiced against one another? I may not be as strong as you but I shouldn"t disappoint you too much either. I have practiced both alone and against my master and I find that I improve the most when in actual combat." Aker who wasn"t picking up on Shawn"s fear and embarra.s.sment didn"t know that Shawn was trying to find a way out without having to fight against him.

"Clearly this kid is much stronger than me, if I end up fighting against him there"s no chance I can win. If I lose to him now, no matter how much I explain to everyone else I"ll become the biggest joke in our Company. So what if I am one of the strongest fighters in our whole Company, everyone else will just refuse to fight him leaving me as the only one who had to suffer under his sword. After that they will laugh at me every time they see me. No matter what I have to do, I can"t fight with him!" Shawn could already picture the mocking faces of the rest of the company, if he allowed this to happen, he could end up dying from the sound of their laughter.

"You don"t understand, this is war and we are trained soldiers who fight and kill or we will be killed. Because of that when we practice we have to practice with our lives on the line, otherwise what good would it do to practice at all? I"m afraid that with my strength and your capabilities you could end up hurt badly, I just don"t know how to hold back when I hold a sword in my hand, and I would never be able to forgive myself if I ended up bullying you." Shawn"s words were sincere, listening to them anyone would be hard pressed to find any fallacy or fault in them.

"My master and I often trained that way. I completely agree with that sentiment, would it be training if we were holding back and not trying to kill the other person? If you end up hurting me or worse, I can only blame it on myself, there shouldn"t be any problems with that."

"Are you trying to kill me!? Why won"t you let this go!? Clearly I offered you several different reasons as to why this couldn"t happen and yet you keep insisting...dammit...what else do I have to tell you!?" Shawn"s face darkened as he tried to desperately try and find an excuse to get out of fighting with Aker.
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"That"s great to hear and that alleviates my biggest concern. If I accidentally hurt you the rest of the Company wouldn"t let me go....do you know how long we have waited and wanted to have our own errand bo...I mean puer nuntius. If we were to practice and I accidental hurt you, they would never let me go. Not just that but you have probably heard that the nickname for our Company is Frail Fighters?.." Shawn was nodding his head internally; he was pleased with this new approach. He would take a two-layer approach this time, this was guaranteed to stop him from being embarra.s.sed.

"I have indeed heard that the nickname of our Company is Frail Fighters." Aker nodded his head in agreement as he spoke.

Shawn who was hiding his sly smile internally was ready to expound on the second part of his two-layer approach to stop him and Aker from practicing together. "Then you should probably understand when I tell you that our Company is the last to receive resources and personnel. Even before yesterday we didn"t have a single puer nuntius in the whole Company but some of those other Companies have as many as fifty of them. At a minimum the Company with the least excluding our Company would be E Company and they have twenty five puer nuntius....." Aker was following along as Shawn spoke. Up until this point every word he said made sense. Why would they commit resources and personnel to a fighting squad that they had deemed useless?

Seeing that Aker was comprehending his intentions Shawn"s internal smile grew even larger and his confidence was boosted further so he continued on, "It"s not just people but equipment too, you have seen the living accommodations of this place as compared to the others on the compound. What if I were to tell you that I don"t even own a proper sword, would you believe it? They make us go into battle with broken and left-over swords they hand us right before each battle begins. Once we are done, we have to hand the weapons back to them. So you see...even if I wanted to have a practice fight with you I wouldn"t be able to since I don"t have a sword to use." Shawn was giving off a mood of being upset and depressed that he couldn"t swing his sword at Aker thus being able to teach him through real combat.

"I see...I have a couple of quick questions..." Aker looked to Shawn as if verifying whether it was fine. Shawn nodded his head in agreement indicating that there was no problem. Seeing that Shawn was giving him the go ahead, he proceeded to ask...."first, does our Company have a forge and a blacksmith and if so, is it operational?"

"All Companies have their own forge; it is a standard for each Company and squad to be able to produce their own weapons and armor. While the forge is a standard, the people who run it are not. At least in the last two years we haven"t had a blacksmith a.s.signed to us. The forge is maintained at least, so it should be operational." Shawn"s head hung a little lower as he spoke, he wanted to enforce the idea that there simply was no way around it, he wouldn"t be able to pull out a sword for use.

"Why doesn"t D Company hire their own blacksmith to come in and make the weapons?" For Aker this seemed like a simple answer. If the Division Commander would not a.s.sign someone to their Company then all they needed to do was hire their own blacksmith.

"Of course we thought of hiring our own blacksmith, but none of them were willing to come and work for us. They"re all to afraid that if they work for our Company the rest of the Underground Empire would shun them and destroy their reputation and business." While Shawn was feigning reluctance and being upset about not being able to fight Aker earlier, as he spoke about not being able to hire a blacksmith he was truly upset about it. Despite everyone in Frail Fighters joking and laughing about how pathetic their squad was, this was just a way to cope with it. In reality the entire squad was desperate to get into the battlefield and earn their merits.

"I think I understand, what about metals for forging weapons and armor, do we have any?" Shawn didn"t think about why Aker was asking any of these questions, he merely answered as he was being asked.

"We sure do, not only do we have metals for forging, we probably have the largest stock pile of metals in the whole division. Each year we are allocated forging metal based on the number of people a.s.signed to our Company and since we didn"t have a blacksmith to forge it, it ended up in storage."

"Then we shouldn"t have any problems, I"ll forge your sword and then we should be able to practic, if you could show me where the forge is after breakfast I"ll get started today."

After hearing Aker"s words Shawn was left speechless as he put his finger in his ear to clean it out, "Did he just say that he would forge my weapon? I absolutely must have heard wrong. Since he is a puer nuntius he has to be thirteen at most, I"ve never heard of a thirteen-year-old blacksmith before."

"I thought I heard you say you were going to be the one to forge my weapon, but I know that"s not right. Who did you say was going to forge the weapon?" After Shawn determined that he must have heard wrong of course he would ask who this kid knew who could smith. If the Company could bring in a blacksmith and he helped to pull it off he would be a hero to everyone.

"You didn"t hear wrong; I"ll take care of it after breakfast. Once I"m done with the cooking and have everything cleaned up, we will head over and I"ll make a sword for you."

While Aker was talking to Shawn he was thinking "It"s just a sword, it"s not even a magic sword, why would you think I can"t make it?"

Shawn didn"t even pretend to hide his disbelief at Aker"s words. He was doing everything just short of calling out "Liar".

Aker made a quick berry and cream crepe for breakfast topped with a honey from the Bulvarian Bees of the Quixtar solar system. He of course injected nature particles into the berry"s and the honey as he was making the dishes. When Aker first brought out the light and sweet-smelling crepe the sounds of grumbling and boos rained down him.

Everyone had been drinking all night and they all wanted something heavy to eat to start the day. Just like yesterday Shawn was the first one to step up and try the food and just like the day before there was a fight to put every crepe on their plate. Every single man was thinking "I can"t share something this good".

Following breakfast and the cleanup Aker found Shawn waiting outside of the kitchen "I"ve been waiting for you, are you ready to go?" There was no excitement in Shawn"s voice as he spoke. To say he didn"t believe Aker would be an understatement, as far as Shawn was concerned Aker was pointlessly bragging. Already Aker was a talented cook, he couldn"t help but wonder why Aker had the need to brag about being a blacksmith when he was already clearly so talented.

Upon entering the forge Aker checked out the bellow, the hammering station, and the actual forge itself. After spending ten minutes familiarizing himself with the place, he nodded his head indicating that it was acceptable.

"What kind of sword do you like?" Now that Aker had confirmed that the forge was in working order, he just needed to know what type of sword Shawn preferred to use.

"I"ll just play along with him and after he admits he"s not capable of making the sword I"ll use that as an excuse to never have to fight him. I still can"t understand why someone who is clearly so talented with a sword and in a kitchen would need to pretend to also be skilled in forging. Where the h.e.l.l would someone find the time to learn all three? Even if someone had all that time who the h.e.l.l would be talented enough to actually be able to do it?"

"I"m known around here as someone who is strong, hence the nickname muscles. The nickname"s not just for show, even when I"m using my sword, I prefer to use a big heavy sword that allows for me to use strong and powerful blows that will end my opponent quickly."

"Hahahahaha...this guy sure likes to brag about his muscles. I think this is the third or fourth time he"s brought it up since we met this morning. I don"t understand why someone who is as talented with his sword as he says he is needs to pretend to be muscular as well, oh well, no sense in disputing it with him." Every time Aker heard Shawn refer to his huge muscles he would laugh internally. Not only did Aker not consider Shawn muscular, as far as he was concerned, he was on the scrawny side.

"No problem, I"ll come and find you once the weapons done."

"Since you are going through all the trouble of making me a sword, I"ll just wait here for you to finish." Shawn who didn"t believe Aker was capable of making the sword planned on giving Aker a slightly hard time once he finally admitted he didn"t know how to make it.

As far as Shawn was concerned, he still needed to give Aker a little bit of payback for holding the sword to his throat this morning. Sure, he had bragged and over emphasized how strong he was, but still, was there any need to take things that far?

"Are you sure, it will take me three to four hours to make. Normally it wouldn"t take that long but I have to fire up the forge, learn where everything is, create the mold and so on. I"d feel bad if you spent your whole day out here waiting for me."

"Its fine, its fine.....you"re spending the effort and taking the time to forge me a sword, the least I could do is patiently wait here for you."

"You think I"m that easy to fool and get rid of? I can"t wait to see your face when you come out empty handed and begin making your excuses as to why you couldn"t forge the sword."

Aker who didn"t understand why Shawn would want to spend half the day sitting outside of the forge decided not to press the issue any further and just replied back "sure thing, then I will come out once the sword is done."

With that Aker disappeared into the forge.

Shawn who was sitting outside suddenly felt the temperature explode as heat emanated from the forge. He had been leaning against the wall of the forge waiting for Aker to come out when the temperature started escalating. At first, he didn"t understand what was happening but after a few minutes he figured out it was because Aker had turned on the forge fire.

"Seems like you will run with this farce all the way to the end huh! That"s good, if you"re going to start with a farce you have to be prepared to take it to the very end." Shawn who was giving Aker a hard time for coming up with such a farce and pushing it to the point that he even turned on the forge fire didn"t stop to think about this whole situation being created because of the farce he started.

After a few minutes the sound of "clank" "clank" "clank" vibrated through the air. At first Shawn thought that Aker was simply banging a hammer against an anvil to give the impression that he was hammering out a weapon, but that idea soon changed.

After the first four to five "clank"s" rang out a melodious and patterned sound filled his ears. The sound was exquisite to the point that he momentarily got lost in it.

"He couldn"t really be a blacksmith, right?" The look on Shawn"s face changed as a crazy idea started to fill his head. At first, he was in complete denial as his mind kept asking the same question over and over, "He couldn"t really be a blacksmith, right?", but as the fire burned hotter and the rhythmic sound of metal being forged continued on Shawn had a sinking feeling in his gut.

With each "clank" Shawn felt his head explode as he fearfully stared at the door. He was still hanging on to that lingering hope that this was all a farce setup and that when Aker walked out, he would be holding nothing but air and excuses as to why the sword didn"t work out.

When the door finally opened it was then that his final hopes were crushed, in Aker"s hands was a gorgeous blue sword. As Aker brought it into the sunlight for the first time the sword seemed to bathe in the light of the sun giving it an even fuller sense of might and strength.

Shawn who saw the sword had his heart skip a beat from the excitement of realizing that this sword was just created for him, that was until a sudden realization hit him "This d.a.m.n sword is going to get me killed". Getting a newly forged sword of this quality, of this beauty is supposed to be exciting, it"s supposed to get his blood boiling, why then did he feel like crying.

As Aker stared at Shawn, he was confused by the face he was making. To Aker it looked to him as if Shawn would break out into tears at any second. Not understanding Aker asked "Is there something wrong with your face?"