Scroll 01: Mission Reconnaissance
Date: November 28, 1551
Location: Perion SpecOps Training Arena
Time: 01:19 PM
"Bring everything you've got, Damus!" yelled the woman from across the room. Her name and rank was Combat Master Lamati. She wore a crimson suit of armor. Above it rested a face with feminine qualities, but the eyes embedded within it burned with an inextinguishable pride and love for fighting. Her brown hair was hidden by a red bandana, but stray strands of hair fell to the sides of her face where she had not tied them down properly.
True to Lamati's words, Damus charged, raising a Traus in his right hand as he did so. He sported a golden Nordic helm on his head, which almost fully covered his matted dark black hair. He had a well-toned body, with definite muscle showing underneath the sleeves of the black shirt he wore under the chain mail. Even with his slight bulk, though, he seemed to be faster than the average person when he charged.
Lamati danced backwards as Damus brought down the Traus for a powerful slash. Unable to stop himself due to the forward motion of his attack, Damus allowed his momentum to roll him forward, bringing the sword upwards in a quick movement as he did so. Lamati blocked the weak swipe with the blunt part of her Rising, then used the blunt face of the axe to aim a blow to Damus helmet. Damus quickly rolled to the side and sprang to his feet, bracing himself for another attack.
Lamati shook her head. "That's enough for today, Damus," she told him. "We will practice more next time." She hoisted the Rising onto her shoulder and turned away.
Relieved, Damus loosened his grip on the Traus. He looked down at his belt, and began sheathing the weapon. But out of the corner of his eye, he caught a flash of movement. I knew she would try to catch me with a surprise attack like that, Damus thought with tired satisfaction as he sprang back and parried Lamati's blow with his sheathed sword, resulting in a muffle thunk sound as axe met sheath.
Allowing the sword to fall to the ground, Damus grabbed the Titan from his belt and swung it in an arc at Lamati's chest plate. He was met by a metallic cling as the broad blade of Lamati's Rising blocked his attack. Lamati brought back the axe and aimed a blow at Damus with the flat of the axe, forcing him to hastily duck and roll to the side. Unfortunately, Lamati swung the axe over her head in a backhanded swipe, and it was all Damus could do to block the axe with his Titan and avoid getting his head chopped off. From his position on the ground, he had a severe disadvantage compared to Lamati, and he wasn't being helped by the fact that Lamati had managed to twist herself around so that she was putting even more force being the blade. Lamati's eyes gleamed as she applied more pressure to the weapon, challenging Damus to find a way out of his situation.
With a yell of frustration, Damus whipped his leg in a hook maneuver. Lamati jumped away backwards over his leg, taking away the pressure from the axe with her. The instant the pressure was gone, Damus leapt to his feet, gripped the Titan, and charged. Lamati was waiting for him, and as Damus neared her, she raised the Rising and aimed a swipe at his chest. Damus, anticipating her reaction, abandoned his charge and sprang backwards a few feet. During the split second in which Lamati was still being carried away by the momentum of her swipe, Damus slipped behind her and dealt her a hammering blow to the back with the Titan, letting out a yell of triumph as he did so. The force of the blow sent Lamati skidding across the ground several meters until she hit the wall, stunned. After a few seconds of shock, Lamati groaned and sat up, lifting her hand up to rub the back of her head. Then she looked up and gazed at Damus.
Feeling suddenly ashamed of himself, Damus looked down at the ground and shuffled his feet. He tried to talk, to say something to loosen up the situation. However, his tongue seemed to be tied, and he could not think of anything to say.
Lamati chuckled, clearly noting Damus's uncertainty. "It's all right, Damus," she grunted as she hefted herself to her feet. Damus looked up, and was shocked to see a smile on her face as she looked at him. "You know, I must congratulate you. I haven't been dealt a blow like that in all the years that I've been fighting in the war," Lamati softly laughed. "And that's a pretty long time."
Damus was unsure how to respond. "Well—um—thank you, Master Lamati," he mumbled, uncertain if it was a good or bad thing that he'd hit his teacher so hard.
Lamati chuckled again. "You don't need to worry so much, Damus. You have been trained to be the top warrior in the Perion army—second to Sitting Bull, though, of course. You were given the best weapons you could hold, the best equipment we could provide, and—", here Lamati paused to give a roguish wink to Damus, "—the best teacher that you could possibly get. And now, you have bested me. My mission is complete. I have trained you to the best of my ability, and it seems that my efforts were not in vain." Damus looked at Lamati with bated breath as she gazed at him thoughtfully. Then, she shouldered the Rising and walked out of the training arena. "Please follow me," she requested to Damus as she walked out of the doorway.
Wondering what Lamati had in store for him, Damus hitched the Titan and the sheathed Traus into his belt, and then walked slowly out the door after Lamati. Down the hall, he saw Lamati waiting for him. She was standing outside of a room that Damus knew to be an armory for heavy weapons. It was always kept securely locked, and Damus had never been granted access to it before. Puzzled, Damus jogged down the hall. As Damus approached, Lamati took a ring of keys from her pocket, unlocked the door, and stepped in. Damus followed Lamati into the armory.
Inside, Lamati was striding over to a dull grey case in the back area of the room. While she was fumbling to find the correct keys, Damus took a glance around the room. The walls were lined with dozens of weapons hanging on metal racks, ranging from daggers, broadswords, spears, maces, and halberds. Damus longingly held the hilt of a small, but surprisingly heavy, golden-brown hammer. He was picking it up to take a few swings when Lamati called to him, "Damus, please come here." Slightly disappointed, Damus lay down the hammer and trotted over to where Lamati, and the now-unlocked grey case, stood. From inside the case gleamed a marvelous war hammer. It was large, obviously meant to be a two-handed weapon, and the metal that it was made of shined a pure, golden yellow. Damus noticed that engraved into the metal were strange markings, which surrounded a larger drawing that looked to Damus like an eye.
"It is indeed a magnificent weapon," smiled Lamati as she grasped the hammer by its handle. "You are now equal, if not greater than, me in battle strength. Although you were my student, I am your teacher no longer." Lamati turned the weapon so that she was offering the hilt to a shocked Damus. "It has been an honor to have had the training of you, the first Colossus. Please accept the Golden Mole as a gift from your former teacher."
Damus was stunned. He stuttered, "Master Lamati—this—are you sure you want to give such an awesome weapon to me? It looks fit for a hero!"
Lamati let out a soft chuckle. "Well then, Damus, who better to wield such a weapon than you? If this hammer was made for heroes, then you should be the first one to wield it."
Damus accepted the weapon, gazing at it a moment before looking at Lamati, saying, "I am no hero, Teacher."
Lamati chuckled again. "You are a hero Damus. You just haven't accepted it yet."
As Damus stood there, pondering her words, Lamati turned and walked out of the room. She paused in the doorway.
"Damus, as you have completed your combat training, there is no need for further lessons. I will return to my post in the war—as will you, soon. We will need your newly acquired fighting abilities. Please report to Sitting Bull seven days from now. I will see you there." Without waiting for Damus's good-bye, Lamati left the room.
Damus stood still for a moment, gazing down at the magnificent weapon in his hands. Then he hefted the hammer onto his shoulder, pressed the "Lock" button on the door of the armory, and left the room, his footsteps fading as he padded away down the hall.
Date: November 28, 1551
Location: Perion Museum of Weapons History
Time: 03:07 PM
Damus stood outside the Perion Museum of Weapons History, gazing up at the building. It was small, made of weathered stone like the rest of Perion, and nestled away in a small, quiet, almost forgotten corner of the city. As Damus stepped inside, his nostrils were met by the familiar, musty smell of aging artifacts. His footsteps quietly echoed throughout the soundless hallways as he traced his habitual path to a certain stairwell. Above it hung a sign on yellowed paper, reading, "Employees Only". Damus disregarded it and traipsed quietly down the staircase. Upon reaching the bottom step, Damus found himself in a long hallway lined with ancient objects. He passed quite a few rusty helmets, several glittering sword, and a rather large collection of old busts depicting old heroes, before he found himself blocked by a large metal set of double-doors at the end of the hall. To the right of the doors was a small panel set with numbers and letters. Damus punched a code into the panel, and smirked to himself as he thought that unbeknownst to the regular visitor, the real weapons history research was behind these doors.
The doors parted, revealing a laboratory that, in contrast to the rest of the quiet museum, gently buzzed with whirring machinery. No one was operating them, but Damus hadn't expected there to be. Only one man took care of both the museum and the lab, and he was currently crouching in a corner of the room, with a protective mask shielding his face as he welded bits of metal to an impressive suit of armor. Damus strode over to the man, making sure to clank his armored boots loudly on the floor so that the man could hear him over the noise.
"Hi, Professor!" Damus yelled, stopping a few feet from the jumping sparks being emitted from the welding. The last few sparks bounced out of existence as the professor halted the welding tool and took his mask off, revealing a pair of twinkling grey eyes and a forehead that was only beginning to wrinkle from thinking too much. Professor Julian Hencroft was a middle-aged man, and although his hair was graying, the professor remained sharp and active as he ever was. To Damus, Hencroft was a sort of fatherly figure, who always maintained his position in the Perion museum in spite of others being drafted into the war. Professor Hencroft was a scientist and engineer. To the Perion military forces, he specialized in weapon history research; to himself and Damus, he specialized in research for the development of new weapons.
Hencroft smiled at Damus as he stood up. He pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket to wipe the perspiration off his forehead, asking, "Back already, Damus?"
Damus smiled. "Yeah. Master Lamati's stopped teaching me."
Hencroft raised his eyebrows curiously. "Really? Why?"
"She thought that I'm as strong as she is now, and according to her, there's no need for further training. I'm good to report to Sitting Bull in a week join the war."
"Hmmm," Hencroft murmured, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.
"And also," continued Damus, "She gave me a new weapon as a parting gift." Damus showed his hammer to Hencroft. "The Golden Mole!"
"Mole? Did I hear mole?" asked the professor, as he examined the contours of the golden weapon. "Such a useful number. Six point zero two two times ten to the twenty-third. What chemists would have done without Avogadro's constant, I couldn't imagine."
"Prof, don't go all techie on me," groaned Damus.
Hencroft chuckled. "Don't worry, I was just kidding with you. It is a very nice weapon," he said as he handed the Mole back to Damus. Turning, he gestured to the suit he had been working on. "It should work very well for you, along with your new armor over there."
Damus was shocked for the second time today. "What…? My armor? But isn't the armor I'm wearing good enough?"
"No," Hencroft stated. "It is not suited for the work that I would like you to perform before you leave in a week. It also has special enhancements that your current armor does not have."
"Sweet!" Damus exclaimed eagerly. "Can I wear it now?"
"No, not yet, Damus," Professor Hencroft smiled as he saw how anxious the seventeen-year-old was to don his new armor. "There are still some modifications that I would like to complete before I hand it to you. Fortunately, I have completed the part of the armor that is necessary to perform the work I am giving you."
"Oh, yeah," Damus said, having completely forgotten the work when Hencroft had mentioned the enhancements of the armor. "What kind of work are we talking about?"
The professor motioned for Damus to follow, and walked over to a small holographic computer display. Damus noted that the professor was the only person he knew to have such advanced technology—most people did not even know the technology existed.
The professor tapped a command into the computer next to the hologram, bringing up a map of the local area surrounding Perion. Damus noticed that several yellow blinking dots were scattered around the city, and that a small cluster of them was gathered to the northeast.
Hencroft pointed to the dots. "These lights are where strange incidents within the past year have been reported," the professor stated. "I do not believe that Sitting Bull or the Perion council has noticed any connection between them, but I think that there are similarities between the cases." He tapped another button on the computer keyboard, bringing up the image of a small report. "The reports are about civilians being attacked by wild animals. But the reports have been…puzzling. Nearly all of the victims who could be interviewed said that the animals seemed to act strangely, in comparison to other animals. They did not make the same sounds, or act the same way as normal animals…one of the victims phrased it, "It was as if they were possessed by something."
The professor tapped another key and the hologram disappeared. He looked at Damus. "This is where you come in, Damus. I want you to visit the central area of these incidents and see if you can find anything that might be a clue to the cause of these unnatural animal attacks. When you go, take these gloves with you," he said, handing a pair of armored gloves to Damus. "From scannings of the attack scenes, I have found traces of strange, potentially harmful energy. These gloves emit an energy frequency opposite to the energy I found, which safely neutralizes it. You should use them to pick up anything of interest you find."
Damus nodded. "Understood, Professor."
"Good. The center of the commotion is about two miles to the northeast of here. The map shows that there should be a cave within the area. Report back with whatever you find."
Damus snapped to a mock salute. "Roger, sir!" he said, winking at the Professor, before turning around and leaving the lab. Professor Hencroft chuckled as he left the computer and turned back to the suit of armor. "That kid sure isn't the standard soldier," he chortled to himself as he picked up his welding tool and turned back to his work.