The Fearless War

The Fang

After stopping with the Chief, my father took me quickly to the workshop, even though it was night, the windows were illuminated by the fire of the forge.  Otherwise, it would not be possible to differentiate the building from the forest. 

At the door, my father kicked it open and helped me up to Uncle Miles' room. When he managed to let me rest, he tightened the wound in my arm and began to bind the top of my shoulder with the belt of his quiver.

"Oz, I need you to hold on for a bit, I am going to get the fang out. Don't pass out."

"Hey, this is nothing dad. It's not the first time something broke my arm."

"Just wait until I find my brother.... "

Without finishing his sentence, he held my arm with his elbow and leaning his legs on the bed, he pulled out the fang tearing my forearm. At that moment the pain made me open my eyes wider and I clung to that sensation to stay awake. With the fang out, my father threw it at the door and yelled.

"Miles! Come here at once with your bribes or I swear I'll bury in your head every spear in this damned place!"

"Really? I'm already here nor if it was you who doesn't prepare for anything. I heard you coming from the square."

My uncle entered the room with two bottles of elixirs and some tongs and metal thread. While my father lifted my head and helped me drink the first elixir. As I received the liquid, my body began to burn, and my consciousness began to fade. But the pain of the wounds as they closed helped me stay awake.

"Charles, hold Oz, despite the elixir that arm is going to need help."

Between the two of them they turned me on my side and Uncle Miles began to stitch the torn arm with the metal thread as the wounds continued to close. Had he not closed it like that my body would have suffered more trying to close it on its own.

"Oz, when you no longer feel the burn, carefully remove the stitching and take this one of lesser quality."

"Ok, by the way uncle Miles, the spear bow broke inside a skull."

"Inside a skull?! What the f**k did you fight?!"

"A mutant, it's not normal for them to be this close to a village, is it Miles?"

"No, I'm going to have to check his body, you're going to go to the chief for a report, aren't you Charles?"

"Yeah, are you sure you'll be okay on your own for the night Oz?"

"Like it's his first time, so relax a little brother, your son is capable of more."

Hearing that sentence my father grabbed Uncle Miles by the shoulder and lifted him up without letting go of his grip, he pushed him out the window with his arms first, being a fall that could kill normal people from a third story. The sound of the thump never came but a dry noise did come at the workshop door.

"Hey Charles! If you're going to drop someone like a cat at least tie their legs together."

My uncle's audacity in irritating people knew no bounds. But my father's patience found a worthy opponent with that quality in my uncle. They were like opposites who came to a truce to live, or rather, in order not to keep trying to kill each other.

"How does Uncle Miles dodge everything, father?"

"It's because of your grandfather, I think at this point you already know, but in his case, he learned what suited him best, to run and attack. Something he even applies to his work."

My father's words carried a certain melancholy, just as he had said, my grandfather tried to train him, but my father only accepted enough to survive with his family. Not to fight defending a purpose or ideal.

"Do you think what I want to do is wrong?"

"I don't think it's wrong, but I wish you would trust us more."

"How would I do that if everyone in the family and village believes Grandfather was a madman and soulless."

"You know that's just an opinion, everyone keeps their own points and if you prefer to keep your grandfather with another image, and follow a path of your own, no one should move you from that opinion and decision."

"If that's the way things are, I have something to say.... I'm going to enter a knight's academy in the capital."

"You want to enter an order then?"

"That's the idea. Yes" The look that was on my father's face was one of sadness with a bit of frustration, he seemed to want to say something but couldn't find the words for it.

"Ah ... It will be difficult, but I will convince your mother, just promise us you won't do it in vain."

"Do you think I'm Uncle Miles?"

"Hahaha, you're right, your action before the mutant is more evidence than anything."

After laughing for a while our conversation was interrupted by a moan of anguish coming from the window.

"Well Oz, it looks like if I don't hurry, Miles will climb again. Rest up, I'll come for you in the morning."

"Thanks, I'll be here."

The moment he finished speaking, my father walked over to the window and closed the window frame with Uncle Miles' hand in the way. Which originated a scream and another thump on the floor.

As I lay down to regain the energy, I had lost all day. My father went out and the last thing I heard outside was the door closing and my father pulling Uncle Miles groaning for his hand.

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I was back in the tower when I opened my eyes again, the room on the second floor was the same as before, the only notable difference being that the box was closed again.

Inside it I could find a sword like the ones on the previous floor, but this was longer and with a single edge, while the hilt and guard were a set of boards, which seemed to accommodate my fist completely, leaving the only weak point in the wrist.

As I took the sword and moved it in my hand, I could feel that it was light, but it would be able to resist. And as if waiting for a chance to test it. The door to the next stairs burst open.

From the upper threshold, a wooden golem emerged, this time more robust and it seemed to carry a stone scutum shield. Its overall appearance could not be compared to my first opponent in the tower. His appearance called for that of a knight of the front lines. He wore apart from the shield, an armor composed of vegetation and stones. It seemed to be impenetrable.

"I don't suppose you're going to give me an advantage, or are you?"

The only response I got from the figure in front of me was the squeak of wood rubbing together as the golem took a stance to charge at me with its shield. Without being able to analyze what had happened, I was jolted to the ground.

The golem had crashed into the wall, destroying the box, and splintering the structure of the tower. Had my body not been screaming at me to jump sideways I would have been crushed against the wall. I was at a disadvantage, as I had dropped the sword while dodging.

Since the sword was in the middle of the room, I reached out to grab it again as the golem prepared its stance for the next charge. Which came as I grabbed the hilt and jumped over the moving golem.

I landed behind my opponent and swinging the sword, I tried to thrust through his back, but my strength was not enough to penetrate the armor. It seemed indeed impenetrable, but wasting no time, I moved around the golem to prevent it from sitting in an attacking position. As I circled it, I kept trying to break the armor.

Within each defense was a weakness, but I could not detect any in my opponent's armor, the parts that a normal armor should have joints where it was a weak point, there was no joint weak enough for me to exploit. For a few minutes I kept trying to break through the golem's joints in another attempt to defeat it. But fatigue soon reached my body and I had to avoid attacking and focus on dodging the attacks that were now based on the golem charging with its shield as if it were a weapon.

In the repetitive combinations that could be expected from a golem, I decided to close my eyes while dodging, so I could try something new. I tried to concentrate my breathing and focus on my senses as I ran. For a moment my head pressed against itself, and I almost lost my balance.

After a while, I was able to concentrate completely, I focused my senses to listen to the sounds of the golem, at first being only the sound of wood screeching on itself, I was able to hear a sound that did not match its movement.

As I opened my eyes again, I could identify that sound, something metallic, it made no sense inside a natural golem, but following that sound, I charged the sword in my hand against the back of the shield, directly into the golem's wrist.

With a bit of excessive force, I was able to pierce the armor at that point, but quickly the sound changed direction, as if its origin was not something fixed. But without giving it so much importance, I focused on finishing the attack on the golem's arm, and overexerting my arm, I cut the golem's wrist, causing it to drop the shield.

As the shield fell, the golem backed away and its destroyed limb began to cover itself with a substance that looked like sap, when it covered the entire 'wound' it solidified and transformed into wood of the same type as the armor the golem was wearing. I tried to focus again on the sound I had heard on the golem's wrist, but I could not identify where it was; and before I could find it, my senses screeched and as I opened my eyes, I put the sword to my side and with the other hand I supported the blunt part to avoid being thrown.

The golem began to move again, but faster and with no apparent pattern, without giving me time to recover, it lashed out again, and I tried to deflect the blow with the hard part of the sword, but the force threw me to the other side of the room. Getting up again I could finally see what the golem was holding in his remaining arm, it was a short-handled labrys, made of pure stone including the handle that seemed to come straight out of the golem's palm.

Raising my sword, I tried to deflect another blow from the labrys while dodging, which reduced the reaction on my arms, and I managed to position myself behind the golem making it jam its weapon into the wall. I took that opportunity and tried to concentrate again on the sound, this time while looking as well; something that would make me strain my mind more. My head began to ache like needles as I focused on locating the metallic noise inside the golem, as I analyzed the sound with my sight the golem managed to separate from the wall and charge at me again.

Sliding with the labrys passing by my head, I could listen carefully to what I was looking for, and without losing the impulse of my dodge I launched a diagonal cut towards the golem's hip.

"Holy s**t, are you serious?!"

By striking with the cut, I had apparently blocked the escape route of whatever was causing the noise, but I had lost my weapon, and even though the golem had its movements restricted, it didn't have to do more than extend the handle of its labrys even more to be able to attack me again. Desperately I tried to dodge while thinking about how to pull out the sword, but the answer to my problem literally fell on my head.

The shield that the golem had thrown hit me as it bounced off its attacks. I lifted the massive body of stone with effort and got into position to receive a blow. After a long time using a single sword, my arm was about to give out, but I compensated with my whole-body resisting. As the weapon bounced, the golem flinched and lost its balance, so I took the opportunity to strike and with the low point of the shield, hammered the sword into the golem's body completely.

The dry blows filled the room and ceased with the golem falling immobile, but my mind was still restless, and it was because the metallic sound was still alive and louder. But my worries were emptied when I saw that the only thing still alive on the golem was a leg. As I approached, I hit the leg with the front of the shield, crushing it completely. I lifted the shield and found only wood fibers and plants, until I saw something white.

It seemed to be a fang, similar to the one I wore on my wrist, but the big difference was that this one had a metallic center, it looked like a mixture of silver and gold, without being completely joined, upon closer examination the metal inside shot out and fell to the floor, producing a creaking sound as it melted, leaving in my hand a common fang. But as I looked at my hand again, the fang was on its tip and without warning it buried itself in my hand.

"What's going on?! Don't go into my hand without permission!"

As I screamed the fang just entered my palm and an intense pain erupted inside my arm, as if something was opening inside, but forcibly.  The pain also reached the rest of my body, and I began to lose my senses, screaming with all my strength, I felt a last effort in my back, and I lost consciousness.

I opened my eyes while trying to breathe, my body no longer felt the pain, but my mind remembered the sensation perfectly. I tried to get up slowly, but my body did not respond well. With effort I grabbed a bottle of minor elixir and drank it to alleviate my discomfort. As the elixir wore off, I was able to get up well and as I untied my now healed shoulder wound, I realized something.

"Where is it? Don't tell me I lost it."

In my desperation and talking to myself, I saw that the fang on my wrist bracelet was gone, but the strange thing was that the string was intact, with no trace of it having fallen off or come untied. As I tried to think where it might be, I felt something as an answer to my question in my hand. As I touched it, I felt something dubious in my palm, just above my wrist.

"What's happening to me?"