Draith
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Chapter 29 - Magically Metal
🕑 Added 2025-03-04 14:48:59 +0000 UTCThe problem with planning to have a relaxing day while trekking through wild mountains is the ‘wild’ part.
When we arrived at the mountain lake, it was postcard perfect. Like I'd stepped right into one of those little placards at a gas station.
It was the absolute perfect spot for us to take a nice little break from the monotony of travel. Other than the giant serpent that had emerged when we drew close, of course.
I swore as I dove for cover behind a nearby broken boulder.
"It seems to have taken exception to our presence," Calbern noted from his own rock a short distance away.
"You think?" I shot back, drawing my blasting rod from storage as a shriek shot past, the noise leaving a visual distortion in the air.
Glancing over the rock, I confirmed that Inertia had slashed at the serpent. When I saw that Tresla was caught on the other side, I cursed again. Hefting the blasting wand I spun it, letting off several shots in the serpent’s direction as I raced between spots of cover. It was large enough I barely had to aim to hit it.
This serpent was beyond anything we should've encountered this far out from the Front.
Each loop of its coils had to have been over fifty feet long, and it was thicker around than Inertia. Thankfully, its only affinity seemed to be fire, and it only shot globules that didn't stop burning.
Only.
Calbern was running the opposite direction I was, moving towards the water.
And away from cover.
I swore, letting out the entire set of charges on my blasting rod, one petal at a time. They all hit, though they didn't do anything other than piss the giant serpent off. Still, that was good, since pissing it off enough it’d ignore Calbern had been my goal. I reached a huge slab of rock right as it swung its massive gullet in my direction.
Globules of fire started raining down nearby, boxing me in. That was okay. Peachy, even.
I scanned the nearby rockface and did my best to tuck the blasting rod into my belt, thankful I'd emptied its petals and leaves first. Then I started to climb.
When I emerged, Calbern was on the damn serpent's back, his exemplary balance allowing him to calmly climb towards its head even as it thrashed about. Inertia had managed to gouge its side, and Tresla was nowhere to be seen. I was hoping that meant she'd hidden and it hadn't gotten a chance to swallow her while I'd been climbing.
The serpent's eyes were locked on Inertia where she was circling high above it.
I briefly cursed the fact I didn't keep a combat spell in my second order slot as I dumped mana into my blasting rod to refill its petals. Memory Palace had a lot of utility, and after so many weeks without trouble, I’d gotten in the habit of keeping it slotted.
If only we’d taken a break earlier. I’d been steadily advancing my Astral soul as we traveled. Just another couple days and I'd have constructed another second order spell slot.
I didn't waste time bemoaning my life choices. Once my blasting rod was full, I primed it then kneeled down, balancing to steady my aim as I waited.
Calbern was almost parallel to its eyes when the serpent finally seemed to notice him, thrashing about wildly in an attempt to throw him free.
Except it failed. Mostly because of the reason it had noticed him. Calbern had driven a pair of climbing pitons into its skull, and was using them to hold himself in place as he fired careful shot after careful shot into its right eye, the rod spinning then dipping down to deliver the deadly petals.
After the fourth, it attempted to crush him, and I started to unload my petals on it once more, aiming for the gash Inertia had torn. It was enough to distract it and allow Calbern to finish his gruesome task.
When he was out of charges, he chose his moment, and allowed the serpent to throw him free. My heart froze in my throat, but of course he landed in a smooth roll, coming to his feet before dashing into its blind spot.
It didn't matter. By the time he got there, the snake's thrashing had lost most of its strength.
Several long seconds later, it gave a final jerk of its tail then lay still.
I scanned the nearby area, not quite ready for it to be over.
When it didn’t lurch back to life, and nothing else attacked us, my attention shifted to the blaze that burned just below me. I considered channeling mana into Create Ice, but a second order spell would take an hour to cast from my grimoire.
Instead, I moved down the front side of the slab I'd used for cover, dumping the contents of my ring to pick up water from the lake, then using that to put out the fires. Inertia helped by slapping them out with her wings. While we were dealing with the fire, Calbern and Tresla went to find the horses. Of course the skittish creatures had bolted the moment the serpent's giant head had cleared the surface.
Once the fires were extinguished, I joined Inertia in her inspection of the dead serpent. If not for the remote location, it would be a windfall of resources.
Sadly none of us had the skills to truly make use of it. Instead, most of it would rot. It was almost a shame we'd been forced to kill it, but a monster that powerful was a threat to the entire region.
Looking at my blasting rod, I felt frustrated. Despite the vibrant petals briming with explosive potential and the fact I had the most magical oomph out of everyone here, I'd been next to useless.
"I have unfortunate news in regards to the horses, master Perth," Calbern said as he and Tresla returned with not a horse between them.
"In their fear, they charted a course meant for their greater cousins," Tresla added, pulling out her pipe and tapping it against her cloak before sending up her smoke rings. "Found out the hard way they're no pegasi."
"We shall need to descend to retrieve our supplies," Calbern added even as he stepped forward and started wrestling the pitons he'd used free from the great serpent’s head.
The first one snapped free after only a second, half its length destroyed.
"Inertia says we should harvest its heart, eye and liver. Lungs too, if we can manage to extract them intact. And as many fangs as we have room for."
"Does she know how?" I asked, staring at its ruined eye. I suspected she wanted us to harvest the other one.
Inertia answered by flexing her wing, and rearranging it into a serrated edge. Then she began sawing.
"I would appreciate it if one of you could do the assisting. I'm afraid I'm not very good around blood," Tresla said, holding a gloved hand to her face while taking a step away.
"I'll do it," I said before Calbern could volunteer. "I was basically useless in the fight. Least I can do."
Inertia nodded, then pointed to her side. And so, I spent the next few hours holding large lumps of meat while thinking of ways I could build machines or spells to handle the process in the future.
The train of thought led me to imagining what we might do with the carcass. The skin was highly durable, and the bones were stronger than steel.
The head also presented interesting opportunities.
Afterall, Inertia and I had spent the last several weeks discussing ways to combine magic and metal.
What was more magically metal than making a badass motorcycle out of a giant dead serpent?
Of course, Inertia was immediately taken by the idea.
"How are you going to power it?" Tresla asked as she inspected the designs we’d started drawing up.
"Well, Inertia is going to handle that. She won't tell me the details, cause it involves a Forge Heart. Which she's going to Forge inside the volcano using the lungs, heart and two pounds of scribing silver."
Two pounds was enough to do thirty pages. Spending that much hurt, but if we wanted this to work, we'd need it. Honestly, I was more concerned about her work area. Discovering that the source of the hot springs was an active volcano had been a little startling. Discovering that was how most hot springs worked was even worse.
"I knew she was providing the Heart," Tresla said, tapping my drawing with her pipe. "I was the one who told you she would, remember? What I meant was, how are you going to use that to power this vehicle you've designed."
"Well, from what I understand of how the Forge Heart functions, it works as a pretty powerful heat source. One that can't really be regulated directly, at least with the materials she has available. But that's fine. We're going to use the vertebrae as heat sinks, since they seem to have a high natural thermal conductivity."
"I… do not know all those words," Tresla admitted.
Her confusion caused me to pause in my explanation. Being able to absorb even esoteric words from the Elinder books had given me a vocabulary I'd never had before, even in English.
It was an eerie feeling.
Shaking off the sensation that slid down my spine, I flipped through my journal to the relevant pages. "This part of the skeleton. They absorb and release heat fast. Well, fast for bone. Really fast for bone."
"And that will allow you to power these?" Tresla asked, tapping my sketches of the bone and scale wheels.
"Not directly. We'll use the heat to drive steam turbines which we'll have feed into a belt drive and-"
Her raised hand interrupted my explanation. "I believe it will make more sense as we assemble it."
"And that's how I know you've never built furniture before," I said, shaking my head with a light chuckle.
She simply tilted her head at me, and I let it go.
Standing up, I grabbed my rod and designs, leading the way over to where Calbern was measuring bones.
Those would serve as the parts, once we’d completed a great deal of carving and fitting. Mostly done with Inertia's inhuman strength and skill. Normal bone would’ve been too weak, but the magically infused bones of the serpent were nearly as strong as steel. So a lot weaker than Inertia, but not anything I could manipulate. It would be a lot of work, but it would be worth it, if it worked.
Not only would the bike reduce travel time, once we were done, we’d be able to bring most of the serpent with us.
The next week passed quickly, as the frame came together.
We used the the elastic materials from near its jaw as banding. Tresla used her smoke to change the scales from along its skull, keeping their strength while letting them flex just enough to fashion into the outer edge of our wheel. With a frame of carved bone, the banding and skin, we had just enough material to fashion two wheels.
When Inertia completed the Forge Heart, I almost had a heart attack, the nearby hot springs erupting with massive bursts of steam as the ground beneath us rumbled.
Minutes later, she walked out of a cave I was pretty sure hadn’t been there that morning. In her hands was the heart of the serpent, now bound in bands of metal, with unfamiliar writing along its length. The Forge Heart didn't just produce heat. It was a non-stop source of steam too. Every beat let off a billowing fog so thick, Inertia almost looked like she was walking on a cloud.
The actual capture system was simple. We used the hollow fangs, which had dripped with fire when it had been alive, to channel the steam backwards, passing over an internal paddle wheel fashioned out of one of its vertebrae. The entire thing was wrapped in several layers of the tubes that had carried the serpent's flaming spit. The belt had ended up slipping too much, so to adjust speed, there were four sets of flaps that could be manipulated to vent the steam. We'd tried only using one, but even Calbern hadn't been able to force it into place.
Installation went well, and as bad as I felt for our lost horses, it was satisfying to have built our own replacement.
With the new vehicle, I was certain we’d be in my domain in no time…
Once we got all the kinks worked out, like its tendency to roll whenever we applied the brakes.
Normal mechanical problems.
I really had to hand it to Tresla. She’d been right about stopping at the lake. It had been the most relaxing break I’d had since we left Nexxa’s domain.
Comments
Noah
If he develops fast enough travel (a train or something), then he could turn the hot springs into some kind of resort. The upper class in that main city seemed to be wealthy enough to pay for that sort of thing.
Al
Necromancer stuff right there
Vroom
Gotcha, I got that they were using the heart, some of the bones and stuff but literally making carving a bike and engine out of bone is super cool!
Draith
Edited to clarify they were building the parts out of the serpent. Those would serve as the parts, once we’d completed a great deal of carving and fitting. Normal bone would’ve been too weak, but the magically infused bones of the serpent wear nearly as strong as steel. It would be a lot of work, but it would be worth it, if it worked.
Vroom
Wait he already had mechanicals parts to make an engine? This is stretching the imagination a bit.
Michael Maor
"It had been the most relaxing break I’d had since we left Nexxa’s domain." LOL I wonder how everyone else would react if he shared that thought.
CherMi
So Tresla is a vampire. Probably.
