Chapter thirteen: Willbreaker
Sorry for the dealy but i have been reduced to writing only on weekends and then this being my thirteenth chapter well it seemed like my muse really abandoned me in favor of my other story.
Three weeks later.
Harry was standing inside of his newest cruiser admiring the product of three weeks of his hard work, well the work of the nanobots but lets not get caught in the details. The vessel in which he was standing in the moment was an Orbital Siege Cruiser of the Fafnir-class. This vessel was a gigantic sphere with a diameter of 1.5 kilometers, on the outside it looked like a sphere covered in gigantic squares of white metal, which were in fact Long-Range Siege Batteries. Long-Range Siege Batteries were one of the most destructive weapons ever invented capable of causing unheard damage but he wasn't going to use them on Alaegasia, may the Creator forbid it for it would turn Alaegasia into nothing more than a mass of molten rocks.
"Now would be a good time to make my return" though Harry "but first I need to activate the rest of my fleet, hopefully it would be enough to protect Aleagasia from any other technologically advanced civilization". With a though the war machine that were the eighty two remaining ships were activated and immediately they went outside of the atmosphere that the planet had started to form in that short time and they aligned themselves around the only Fafnir-class cruiser.
On the back of the formation there were twenty three Long Range Heavy Destroyers and as almost all of the ships of the same designation they were Helios-class warships. They mostly engaged into causing massive damage from quite a distance, two million kilometers, with their long range missiles and the long range Gravitonic Erasers. Helion-class were one of the most versatile class because they were among the few that could travel far and still emerge from Hyper-space ready for a battle and since its cylindrical shape made enemies underestimate its destructive power, well that made things easier.
In the left, right, underside and the upside of the Fafnir cruiser there were forty eight Vacuum Eliminators, massive warshpis, and for this mission they were of the same class, The Legion-class, a type of spaceship that when in sufficient numbers can overwhelm any type of resistance and in this instance that amount would be enough. In the front stood the regal Apollo-class, officially Heavy Battle cruisers but they were also known as the Super cruisers due to their almost indestructible shields and then ten meters of Titanium-Obrinium alloy made that a nightmare top the opposition. When you added to that powerful plasma cannons, quick firing ion cannons, Photonic Erasers and a significant number of torpedo bays that could launch thirty Rigormortis type torpedoes in a second than you got a powerhouse in close to mid range battles.
Within those ships there were a total of five thousands golems. Although the significantly advance technology running such powerful and destructive ships only by computers alone was not an option, like a wise man once said "better safe than sorry". In a moment the ships "jumped" into Hyper-space, well jumped was not the best description as they technically bent the Electromagnetic constant around them to the point it matched the same constant of the particular dimension named Hyper-space and then towed themselves into it and let the temporary hole into time-space heal.
That particular dimension had a very high Electromagnetic "atmosphere", if it could be called that, and that's why most ships except for Helion and Surtur-class starships couldn't keep their shields activated while inside and even when they emerged from there the shields were disabled for a good two minutes, an eternity in a real battle and the reason ships stopped far from a battle and then they went there using their normal propulsion engine coupled with inertial dampeners which gave them time to re-energize their shields.
Battles in Hyper-space were impossible due to the high electromagnetic forces at work an a few other forces that couldn't exist in the universe and which made an discharge of energy outside of a field of a few millimeters from the ship hull, well let just say ugly, a single accident of that kind had destroyed an entire fleet in a rather spectacular explosion. The electromagnetic force itself was a major deterrent of battles as any energy diverted from the electromagnetic field generators, that made sure the ships wasn't just de-atomized by the immense Electromagnetic fields native to the dimension, would cause them to fail and they would …, well you get the picture, not pretty.
Harry seated himself in the commanding room, and opened the outside viewer (a sort of camera that shows what is happening outside of the ship, at any angle, nobody had found a befitting name) and just watched in this case not so empty space of the dimension. Out there were rivers of pure Electromagnetic energy, so dense that they looked liquid and filled with particles that simply couldn't exist in the normal space. These rivers were made from beautiful colors, shades of red that humans would find entrancing, well normal humans, a deep violet color of mesmerizing beauty and quite a few colors not known by man or a really nice number of the races of the Normal Space didn't. The sight was dangerous for any of the weaker minds of normal races but for harry it wasn't that bad, he had seen his fair share of Eldritch phenomenon's and creatures and had gained an immunity to madness so for him it was just an entertaining light show.
The trip would take at least two days without going at full speed and straining the Electromagnetic field generator and thus risking an incident, after all it wasn't like something dangerous or overly important was happening to Eragon, right? He didn't know how wrong he was because in those precise moments Garrow was taking his last breath and that that would push Eragon to run within the spire with Brom earlier than anticipated , if he did he would simply "slip" there and exterminate the Ra'zac but alas he didn't and so the machinations of fate were put into motion.
Two days later, outside the orbit of Alaegasia
Harry changed his clothes and after activating the Siege protocols with a simple though he teleported through the use of the ships teleportation devices, because he liked he feeling of being thrown in a dimension that instead of three-dimensions had only one, so that space was just one point and then back, right in the doorstep of Eragon's families farm or what was left of it. He immediately recognized the scene he had seen in an alternative timeline but this was at least three days before what he had seen. Immediately he began to unravel the strings of time and what he saw made him say some very un-gentleman words, he had forgotten to cloak his magic which had alerted Galbatorix which had an even greater range than Harry had anticipated.
It took him a full minute to find where Eragon , Brom and Sapphira were, well having a dragon with them was like igniting a gigantic flare saying "here we are" for someone so attuned to the Arcane. In a second he was standing a few feet away from the camp and from there he slowly entered the camp, ignoring the wards that Brom had erected and adding some of his own. After he did that he entered in the clearing in which Brom was teaching Eragon swordplay.
"Hello Brom, Eragon" said Harry calmly as Brom and Eragon on Reflex turned around sword at ready.
"Oh, its you, you really scared me for a bit" said Brom relived.
"Yes, you want to be more careful or She might just tear you in two" said Eragon pointing at Sapphira that had sneaked behind Harry's back.
"She can't do that even if I let her" scoffed Harry
"Is it so" as her face twisted in a draconic smirk and "playfully" shoved Harry.
Brom first instinct was to run to Harry's help as a Dragon was to strong, even one as young as her and even a playful shove could send someone flying through the air for quite some distance but Harry didn't even buldge and with a simple word "Vines" gigantic vines jut sprouted into existence around Sapphira and the and proceeded to… tickle her.
"Do you surrender, o mighty Dragon?" asked Harry in a taunting tone.
"Never" replied Saphira struggling to break free of the vines that were "tormenting" her.
"So be it" said Harry as he sat down and gestured at the bewildered Brom and Eragon to sit near him
"So what's up? well except for the burning farm, part" asked Harry slipping into a more serious expression.
"We're hunting Ra'zack's" said Eragon with hate in his voice.
"Good thing I'm here than or Aleagasia would find herself with a new order of Dragon Riders" said Harry calmly and then he added "under Galbatorix's rule"
"That will never happen" said Eragon "not for as long as Brom is with me and as soon as Saphira is grown enough, nobody will be capable of defeating us"
"Fool, this hunt was just an excuse to further your training, to give you a purpose to grow stronger, not to say you won't kill the Ra'zack, you will get your chance but later on when you have accumulated enough experience" explained Harry.
"He is right, right now you'd last a full minute before being captured, that only if the Ra'zack were planning to play a bit with you" said Brom.
"B-but you said I was getting better very quickly" spluttered Eragon.
"Even if that was true it took Dragon Riders with many decades of experience to kill the devious creatures" said Harry chuckling to Eragon's reaction.
"So what, Brom is an ex-Dragon Rider with great power and you can't get tired from using magic, then there is Saphira and if you teach me a bit of magic then they won't stand a chance" argued Eragon and Harry saw a glimpse of the leader material in Eragon but he had to humble him a bit.
"True but Brom lost his Dragon and with that a great deal of his former power and while still formidable the Ra'zack are to strong and fast for a normal human, me, well I'm still bound to rules in order to help you and even if I could I can't go all out or things will get ugly" explained Harry, and the last part while not completely true was so to a degree, and then he added "and if we started teaching you magic now, without you having accessed it naturally, you'd only succeed in killing yourself"
"Still, we're going after them" said Eragon realizing he was defeated but not wanting to give in, which made Harry laugh on the inside, he still he remembered his teenager temper tantrums.
"Of course but take your time Eragon and now back to train with Brom while I take care of the little scaly punk over there" said Harry gesturing toward the twitching form of Saphira struggling against the tickling vines.
Eragon returned to his swordplay training as Harry sat near Saphira that had long stopped trying to free herself from the vines but was too stubborn to actually conceded defeat, something all Dragons had, the terrible DDP syndrome (Damn Dragon Pride), surprising it didn't send them to extinction, oh wait it had, my bad. As he watched the training method Brom used to teach Eragon he was approved of it, most people focused on teaching the theory and then leaving the student to practice on its own but Brom wasn't most people.
During such spars, and he saw at least eight in under fifteen minutes, he was glad to say that Eragon had improved and now that he had a goal he would only train harder. In him he saw the potential to grow into one of the most powerful and skilled swordsmen and if his magical senses were right he would also be a hell of a tough magic-user, to bad he couldn't learn ninety percent of the magic styles that he knew and had mastered. What really surprised him however was the fact that he could see every small mistake that they made.
Eragon made so many that any soldier of the Empire with more than a months weeks of training could exploit those openings and kill him or maybe it was just him overestimating their enemies, but if he had learned one thing it never hurt to overestimate because if the enemy was weaker or less skilled than you anticipated it would just mean that the battle would be shorter and with less risk to the person who had overestimated but underestimating an enemy would lead, even someone as powerful and skilled as him to certain death, not that Harry would die any time soon having The Death as his "patron deity"
Brom was an entire matter altogether. When it came to combat prowess he was not in the same level as Harry himself and to further the difference between them, he lacked Magical enhancements and that would be the reason why an elf could eventually defeat him when it came to actual combat but to do that it would have to wait him out. His openings were small almost unnoticeable but his magical enhanced senses could see them very easily, however taking advantage of them was an entire matter altogether, only one with the same speed of an elf and his same level of skill could hope to even graze him slightly, even a hundred soldiers of the Empire would have trouble fighting him and surviving and according to Harry's evaluations, only Galbatorix and possibly the Shade under his employment could be a danger for the wizened old man.
After watching them for a while more he stood up, released Saphira from the vines,-hoping hat she had learned some humility, and then proceeded to the clearing where the two were fighting and took out Willbreaker. Immediately the air in the clearing grew heavy and even Saphira felt a bit of awe looking at the blade or rather at its magical design. The blade bristled with its unsealed power,-for the first time in almost a decade the blade was back to its full power. The sword had earned its name for a reason, the very pressure of unsheathing it would drive lesser men insane, - luckily no one in the clearing was a lesser man but the effect the blade was having was visible in their shaking limbs, but it was when it was used in battle that entire enemy armies were rooted for no one who had faced a yielder of the blade as his enemy, had survived to tell the tale.
"Brom, its time to polish my skills a bit" said Harry with a calm tone reigning the pressure of the blade and forcing it to disappear.
"Of course, a minute" said Brom as he retrieved Za'rock and dulled its blade.
"Let's begin" said Brom launching himself forward with a great deal of speed leaving himself open to an counterattack.
Harry chose to sidestep that attack as he knew that the opening he let him see was a trap and while he could power through it with pure speed and strength, he wanted to actually have a challenge rather than wining through superiority in the physical department. He attacked Brom with a series of lightning fast stabs and then followed with an overhead swipe. Brom dodged the swipe only to be meet by a kick in the chest that sent him flying some distance away. Cursing he rolled away from a stab from Harry and then he quickly got back in his feet, only to be meet by a barrage of swipes and jabs from Harry. Harry smiled as he saw Brom struggling to keep up with his attack and he wasn't using any physical enhancement and was holding back quite a bit.
Brom tried to throw dirt into Harry's eyes but Harry simply lowered his head and the dirt passed overhead but he didn't give Brom any rest as he followed with a leg sweep that Brom jumped over and then Brom tried to stab downwards but found himself with a sharp blade pressed against his groin and with wide eyes he dropped his blade thinking only one thing "Not even Oromis was this good even in his prime"
"A nice match Old man but you're a century to young to hope to defeat me" said Harry laughing as he got up.
"If it was a true battle, the next opponent would have killed you easily if the one you tried this tactic was not suicidal enough to take you with him" said Brom, clearly upset to being defeated so easily by someone that until a few weeks ago was being taught from him.
"Not exactly, if I wanted I could have run you through before anyone could notice, as a matter of fact I know a nice trick that makes the sword come out of your mouth" said Harry with a shrug " as for the next one I could have cut al of their legs before they got anywhere near me, even without magic"
"Still avoid falling on the ground, it's a strategically unsound position" advised Brom.
"Quite the contrary, did you ever wonder why I left you to get up, and kept my distance from you" replied Harry chuckling.
"You must be kidding me" said Brom.
"No, I wouldn't even think of that" said Harry bursting in a full blown laughter "Old man" he added
"You're so dead" said Brom.
"Aww little Brom is mad" said Harry mockingly.
"That's it" said Brom "you've just signed you death warrant"
"Please like you could even scratch me" said Harry in his best imitation of Draco Malfoy.
"Enough, little kids" said Eragon finally deciding to put a stop to the friendly banter.
"Well, you're a kid yourself" answered Harry.
"In this situation I'm the grown up" answered Eragon not missing a beat.
"Good point" said Harry "come show me what you've gt"
"You demolished Brom, how can I hope to win?" asked Eragon.
"Its not about winning, its about getting up every time you're defeated and learn something from that" scolded Harry.
"Its easy for you, your not the one being beaten to a bloody pulp" scoffed Eragon.
"You'll be the one beating us to a bloody pulp in no time, now come at me with the intention to kill, and for crying out loud Brom give him a real blade" said Harry getting into a ready stance.
"Okay, but go easy on the brat" said Brom with a look that said "Hurt him and you're toast"
Harry got in a ready stance as Eragon tried to hit him with a an overhead swipe, for him it was child's play to dodge and he attacked with greatly reduced speed and strength, keeping his level slightly above the level Eragon was currently. In the following ten minutes Harry forced Eragon to use all the tricks he had learned from sparring with Brom and pushed him to create of few of his own. Eragon held great potential, he would be probably the best swordsman in all of Alaegasia, surpassing Brom and everyone before him, the talent was there and under Brom and Harry he would advance quickly but in the end he didn't have what made Galbatorix and his servants so dangerous, experience. Experience was exactly what he was trying to give him in this training session.
"Okay, this is enough, rest a bit and then we will fight again but this time our blades won't be dulled" said Harry.
"But won't we get hurt that way, what if we accidentally cut our hands?" asked Eragon, worried.
"That's the point, you must learn to handle pain, to push forward despite the pain that you will feel in a real battlefield" said Harry as e saw Eragon gulp.
"Let's do this" said Eragon as he stood up bravely but Harry noticed the shaking and sweat appearing in his face.
"Don't worry I'll go easy on you" said Harry with a small smile.
Harry's definition of light involved plenty of superficial wouds, enough as not to kill or maim but also enough to hurt like hell. By the fifth minute Eragon was barely holding on to consciousness, only by sheer will was he standing despite his body being littered by dozens upon dozens of superficial wounds that hurt like hell. Seeing that Harry whispered a few words of a language from another world, whose power shook the very fabric of reality around them and the wounds littering Eragon's body were gone, as well as the blood as if they never were.
Eragon found the pain had disappeared and the places where he had been wounded feeling a bit itchy. With a grin he attacked again, and again he was pushed back and slowly his body was filled again with wounds, luckily Harry had had the foresight to block the physical pain to seep through the mental link he and Saphira shared. For the next two weeks all they did was train and travel through the forest staying away from any human settlement , Saphira and her Rider grew in strength and skill quickly and Harry and Brom had started teaching Eragon magic as he had tapped in it three days ago, to save himself from a bear while Saphira was away together with Harry and Brom.
Eragon wished once more to meet people as he said and I quote "You're not people but demons wearing human faces". Harry and Brom had gotten a good laugh from that and then proceeded to tell him that they would stop at the nearest human settlement to get some news and rest for a bit. And thus they went to Yazuac. Harry felt as if something dark was aloof in that place and he didn't know how right he was.