The snow hawk landed back in the cave and dissipated into the Seer. Benzhi had already arrived back and was comatose, sleeping like the dead, he would probably rest until late morning, the Seer was very tired as well. It had been a strenuous day, a long day, it was actually well into the night. It was a pity he could not share his news with Benzhi now, it would have to wait until morning. The Seer was pleased that Benzhi was pursuing knowledge with qi healing, he would assist and encourage him in this endeavour.
The two daughters snuggled up to Benzhi as he slept, even at his age, the Seer knew they were incredible beauties. He sighed, oh to be young. Benzhi was a lucky man or was that half-elf? The Seer could not decide, not that it mattered. Fortunately, he was too old to be jealous. Stifling a yawn, while he drank a tonic to help with recovery, it was time for rest, he would reveal his discovery on the morrow.
Benzhi woke. 'Oh, that's right that fucking concoction comes with the world's worst hangover. Can I go back to sleep?' He thought. 'Oh no, I can't now, it's fucking over. Now I am up I will have to bear it.' Benzhi commiserated with himself. He then ran out to find some snow. For a fleeting few seconds, as his face was caked with snow, the feeling of death left, unfortunately, it returned after those few fleeting seconds, to exact revenge. More snow was required. Benzhi put himself through a regime of snow on face, drink some water, wallowing in self-pity and anger at the Seer for not working out a better potion recipe. Rinse Repeat. This lasted for what felt like half the day, in reality, it was an hour.
Moaning, Benzhi sat in front of the Seer, who willfully smiled at him, if you could call that toothy grin on his melted face a smile.
"Ye are feeling better now Protector?" The Seer inquired after Benzhi's health.
"No, remind me of my vow to never do that again, next time I am stupid enough to agree," Benzhi stated flatly.
"Ye have made no such vow," The Seer replied.
"I am making it now!" Benzhi replied with rising volume and immediately regretted it, he cradled his head in his hands.
"Only time will heal this wound," The Seer said wisely.
Benzhi drank some more water, "and water, water helps."
"We are dying to hear what ye have seen, do not make us wait longer," Reyas pleaded.
"Be more hard," Gisael advised.
"You mean harden the fuck up," Benzhi corrected her.
"Yes, that too," Gisael agreed.
Benzhi moaned.
"I found no trolls," Benzhi began, " what I did find was fifty different portal monsters from giant walking trees to gnolls invading Vaugend, but not one Troll. I must have flown a distance that would take us weeks to run," Benzhi summarised his findings. "Oh and I found another land Core, east of Vaugend a couple of days running, uninterrupted running," he qualified the time it would take if they were impeded by portal spawns it would take longer.
"Although not the news we want, that is good, aye?" Reyas asked.
Benzhi nodded gingerly. "Seer, did you fare any better?" He asked.
The Seer emitted his little gurgle chuckle. "Oh aye," he said gleefully, "I saw many trollkin."
"Trollkin? Are they some type of Troll?" Benzhi asked.
"Oh, aye," the Seer answered, "and what is more I have ken of the portals." The Seer settled back and began. "The portals allow the beasts or monsters to come through. As ye know, if you kill these portal spawn, more will come. What ye don't know, is if ye kill enough, the spawn becomes more powerful. What will happen is the spawn becomes more and more powerful until finally. The Arch spawn comes and if ye kill it, the portal will close."
"How did you find all this out?" Benzhi asked.
"When I flew and found the trollkin, I almost fell to the ground, as I be havin a vision whilst flying. The vision showed me that which could come to pass," he paused, "and I saw the trollkin defeated by ye three, then when enough were killed trolls came, then finally the Troll King. When the Troll King was defeated the portal closed." The Seer's speech came slowly, in his way.
"Just us three? We did not bring help?" Benzhi asked he would have assumed he would bring help from the Guardians and the Gaels.
"That is what I saw," The Seer stated, "but I did notice ye, ye were not able to be cut easily."
Benzhi thought about it for some time. The Seer's vision was a prediction, he had said what could be. What would Benzhi do, unrestrained? Would he bring Gaels and Guardians to fight the Trolls? The Trolls regeneration had made bows ineffective, except for a distraction or taking away their sight. Gisael could manage that easily if she had enough arrows, so why put the Guardians at risk. The Gaels had picks so had to get into very close quarters, probably in too much danger, Trolls were huge, they would pick up a melee fighter and through them or smash them with ease. Even Reyas would have to be careful, and she was faster than any other Gael. And the dwarves were mighty in defence, but compared to a Troll what good would their five-foot shields be? A troll could just reach over their shield, pluck them from the ground and smash them like a rag doll. When Benzhi thought about it. He came to the same conclusion the Seer had envisioned.
"You are right Seer, it will just be us three, we will prepare," Benzhi stated.
"What about not being cut?" Reyas asked.
"That would be good, you are always getting in the way of the enemy's blows," Gisael added. "Your lack of agility could be overcome."
Benzhi looked at her appalled. 'No words,' he thought. Benzhi shook his head. "I have an inkling the dwarves are not called Stoneskin for nothing," he said sagaciously.
Gisael nodded and touched Benzhi's shoulder gently, "you are not as stupid as you once were."
"Compliments are just spewing from your mouth today!" Benzhi said with hurt in his tone.
"Be more hard," Gisael suggested, slapping his shoulder hard.
"You mean harden the fuck up," Benzhi corrected her again.
"Yes, that too," Gisael agreed. Reyas laughed.
After listening to a detailed description of the Trollkin's location, the Vanguard left the Seer with a clear goal in mind.
The Vanguard headed back to the Dwarven Stronghold, after resupplying food, Gisael had restocked arrows and Benzhi would request more to be cached in the land closest to the Trollkin locale. The Trollkins were close to the far west border of the Alpine Forest Land. This was an area that was a traditional forest, similar to the original before the transformation had taken place. It would afford the Vanguard sanctuary and allow resupply from the Guardians or Fae Gatherers.
They had been gone less than a week when they returned to the Stronghold, it had not changed on the outside but on the inside, it now looked lived in. The Gaels and Fae had given much food and other supplies to the dwarves which allowed the hardy folk to get back to a normal life almost immediately. The only thing that was not supplied were those materials only the dwarves specialised in, minerals, ores and other materials from inside the mountain.
It did not take Kindeag and his workers long to uncover streams of coal, ore and the other common materials. Benzhi thought it would be beneficial for the dwarves to be able to trade their surplus produce for food so they could concentrate on what they were best at. Mining and crafting. With that in mind Benzhi sent requests to the Fae and Gael to continue to supply the dwarves with food, the Alpine Forest had food sources in abundance. It could probably feed in the tens of thousands of souls, and their total number was less than a thousand.
The Fae and especially the Gaels, in turn, would receive crafted products from the dwarves. The fastidious dwarves kept a record of all food received, they would repay every berry, every fur, every slice of meat in kind and with interest. Benzhi chuckled at the thought the Dwarves trying to pay the Fae back, other than jewellery, he could not imagine the Fae wanting anything from the Dwarves.
Benzhi met with Skandear not long after returning.
"Warband leader," Benzhi hailed Skandear.
"Benzhi the brave," Skandear replied. Reyas chuckled and received a look from Benzhi, he knew she was just teasing but he enjoyed scowling at her, in jest, sort of.
"Just Benzhi is fine," he corrected, "when do your warriors' train? I would like to watch and partake as well."
"We've been scouting, setting defences, watches and the like. We have moved some warriors to the mining crews as well, we are fourteen in number now out of two hundred and ten of the clan. We have not trained since before the deep dweller attack." Skandear informed Benzhi as if reciting a shopping list.
"How about we start tomorrow at day break and train all morning until midday." Benzhi requested.
Skandear looked thoughtful. He didn't speak for a full two minutes. Benzhi waited patiently. The dwarves were set in their ways and rushing them would not achieve anything, on the contrary, Benzhi thought he probably should have tried to engineer it to be Skandears own idea. Finally, Skandear relented, "aye that would be best, but half the day?"
"Yes," Benzhi said simply nodding.
Skandear nodded back.
They spent the rest of the day touring the crafters quarter and the beginning of the mines. Benzhi procured a few ordinary spears, he dared not ask on the progress of his, it had only been a week and the dwarves would present it to him proudly when it was done, nothing was to be gained by asking.
The next day they trained. Benzhi asked the dwarves to use their abilities, at first they were confused and he then just asked them to spar with everything they had, just try not to kill each other if possible.
Benzhi engaged qi sight and watched the warriors of the Stoneskin Clan spar. Fortunately, they did not dance around or move much, it was an exchange of blows on each other's sturdy defence. This allowed Benzhi to absorb the patterns they were using. He was astounded at what he saw.
Skandear's spear was a qi weapon, he did not create the patterns with his own natural ability because when Skandear used a normal spear the pattern was not present. When Skandear, or Benzhi for that matter, pushed qi onto the spear the weapon hosted and created the patterns itself.
This was a Mastercraft spear made by Barrin.
It was strengthened, and the tip, if you could call it that, twisted qi around itself in a spiral pattern, it reminded Benzhi of a drill. Thier shields were strengthened also. The patterns the Dwarf master crafters used were like runes on occasions and others they were intricate carvings, almost like a circuit.
No wonder so few warriors held off against wave after wave of deep dwellers. They didn't even have a talent like Reyas or Gisael.
Their weapons, shields and armour were not high quality, they were master quality.
Benzhi had the warriors strip off their armour and fight with fists. The looked at him baffled but complied. There was something he wanted to see and it was difficult underneath armour especially Skandear's qi armour. It was no wonder their defence was amazing, underneath their armour, they wove patterns of qi on their skin.
This was the Stoneskin, he had guessed, when hearing the Seers words.
Not only did an enemy have to penetrate their shields and their armour they also had to penetrate the Dwarves stoneskin. It was a wonder any had died, they must have been so exhausted they were vulnerable. That explained why the dwarves would switch, during the battle, from the front line to the rear.
Benzhi did not have to study the patterns on the weapons, shields and armour. They were not something he would create himself. However, the only innate ability the warrior dwarves had, other than powering their master gear, was qi stoneskin. Benzhi studied it closely and immediately began to practice as he watched, comparing his patterns to Skandears. The qi pattern looked like overlapping oval scales forming what would be scale armour of qi.
Reyas was gleeful when assigned to test punches onto Benzhi's chest, arms and some kicks to his legs while he practised qi stoneskin. Her squeals of pain when she hit his rock hard pecks, thanks to the qi armour, was music to his ears.
Reyas punched Benzhi's chest as hard as she could, and she was sorry, crack went her knuckle, she probably broke something, "Ouch!" She squealed.
Benzhi laughed so hard, he lost concentration and her next kick to his inner thigh hurt like hell. Benzhi began healing the bruise immediately, he was well practised at that. Standing back asking Reyas to wait for a moment, he engaged qi stoneskin again. Benzhi could not qi heal and do anything else at the same time, let alone qi stoneskin.
"Pick this time, not full force, pierce my shoulder," Benzhi requested.
Reyas gasped, "No, I cannot."
"I'll do it," Gisael nocked an arrow and shot Benzhi's shoulder without further warning.
Benzhi was glad she did not use qi arrow, he was not sure what that would have done. The arrowhead blunted on his shoulder as if it had hit a stone wall.
"You owe me an arrow," Gisael informed Benzhi. He just raised an eyebrow in her direction. Yes, he had eyebrows now, his hair was thick and dark. He was cleanshaven to shadow, depending on the time of day, thanks to qi blade.
The Vanguard trained hard each day for a week. Benzhi needed to improve his qi body techniques and qi stoneskin. At first, he could only create the qi patterns for stoneskin with intense concentration. Benzhi was unable to utilise qi body and qi stoneskin at the same time until either one of them became automatic, or he was able to switch between them seamlessly. They did not want to delay their quest forever, a week was enough for Benzhi to reach a new level in qi body technique and gain a good grasp of qi stoneskin.
On the eight day, at dawn's early light, the Vanguard left the Dwarven Stronghold for the Trollkin spawn portal.
Chapter end
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