Demonstration and news.
Shirou's hammer struck the metal again. With each hit a nice sound came from the metal that was being flattened.
He was working in the camp forge, he was undergoing another test by the craftsmen who were always there. Almost everything that he had made there so far was a sword of some kind so they were testing his ability to make other weapons.
Currently he was creating a halberd. Normal steel was being used for this test instead of the bronze he had been working with yesterday. For the halberd the main thing he was working on was the axe-head. The spike could easily be made later.
After he finished flattening the blade into the right size he took the steel and sharpened it on the stone by his work place. He got the stone up to speed and carefully moved the metal along the spinning stone to sharpen it. With polearms he found it was normally easier to sharpen them before attaching the shaft.
He took the now sharp blade and set it aside to begin working on the spike. That was done quickly as he decided to go for a scythe-like spike that only needed to be sharpened on one edge.
That all done he took the provided shaft and attached the blade and spike to it. He placed the completed weapon down as one of the other craftsmen came to take it to be tested.
At that moment a messenger entered the forge and spoke "General Tepet wishes for Auxiliary Emiya to come to the practice grounds." After his message had been heard he bows and leaves. Shirou saw no reason to wait so he walked over to the exit and left.
At the practice ground there were a few people waiting. Roseblack was there as the messenger had said but so were Nereth and Rai along with the dragonlords who served under roseblack. Shirou felt a little unsure of himself in front of these important people but he gave a salute of a sort.
Roseblack watched him carefully while Nereth spoke "Shirou, I hear that you have recovered your power. Can we see a demonstration? We need to understand it's use in large scale combat." Shirou understood that when she said "We" she meant Roseblack and the dragonlords.
Shirou nodded and opened his palm. Within it he traced one of the swords created during his time in the camp forges. He heard one or two small gasps but Nereth kept a grim expression "Shirou, can you show us the sort that you used when we met?"
Shirou stabbed his first sword into the ground and focused, now in his hand was Aestus Estus Reficio.
He spun the blade around so that it caught the light so everyone could see it was made of starmetal.
One of the male dragonlords caught his breath and asked "Is he accessing Elsewhere? Those are large weapons though, how on creation are his Elsewhere pockets so large?"
Roseblack shook her head "No, from what I know he creates blades. He is creating them anew each time he draws them."
This prompted a much larger gasp from the dragonlords. A female one spoke quickly "Are they permanent? If they are then he could act as a new source of Jade weapons. We could have enough artifacts to completely overpower the forces on the isle."
Shirou shook his head "The normal blades I use can last a long time but anything of this strength has a limited life. An hour at most I think."
That deflated the woman a little but Nereth looked at him and asked one more thing "What about crowds, what can you do about those?"
Shirou dismissed the blade he carried and focused on a point on other side of the field. In the air above him he created many weapons, the results of days in the camp forge, and flung them at the point.
There was now a space about five meters across that was covered in mundane weapons, any thing that would have been there would have been skewered.
The male dragonlord exhaled as he looked at it "He is like a group of Exalted archers mixed with a ballista."
Roseblack finally cracked a smile.
"Very well," she looked at Nereth "He will join us in battle as an auxiliary sorcerer."
Nereth smiled and she and Rai walked over "Well done." she spoke kindly.
Rai nodded "Now some good news for you. Within the week we are shipping off for the isle. The war will soon begin and once it's over you can get a place in the heptagram to research whatever you want."
Nereth nodded "That was the deal."
Shirou looked at the two of them "Okay then."
In Malfeas, Rin waited on her throne. One of her newer recruits was reading the new figures to her and it wasn't looking good for her.
Sakura's forces outnumbered hers 5 to 1. Sure her plan didn't rely on victory in the battles but if she couldn't make the battles large enough then she wouldn't have time to put her plan into action.
She needed greater numbers or some weapon to tip the balance.
All she had to do was find it.
End of chapter
I know it was short but I just needed to finish up the Shirou in camp arc so I could move back to Malfeas for a bit.