Carmelita trained studiously with her Nekhaka, working with it until it became second nature for her to wield. The physical aspect of using the flail had come easily. The hard part had been learning to tap the magic within it, how it shaped, what it could do, and how to control it. One aspect she'd mastered quickly had been projecting a sphere of magical energy that could impact with stunning force, much like she had with her shock pistol. Getting that to go where she wanted took practice, since the angle it flew at seemed to depend on the speed the flail's lashes were spinning at, the direction of the spin, where she was holding it, and whether she released it on an over or underhand swing. While it provided a great many ways to use the magic, it was a difficult system to master.
Other ways the magic could be used included, but was not limited to: a hurled lightning bolt; a blinding flash of light; an energy bola; a web-like net; and creating a miniature tornado. Carmelita had yet to figure out how to deliberately shape most of those, and had focused on just the shock blast. She hoped to have at least that mastered by the time the weapons were made, and they were ready to take on Seft. If nothing else, she'd be at a level equivalent to the weapons she was used to.
Still, she thought to herself as she spun the lashes tight together with a twirl of her wrist, treating it like a ribbon in rhythmic gymnastics, I miss the shock blade Bentley added to my pistol. It's not like I can just- She flicked her wrist with the wound lashes.
Energy wrapped around the lashes, binding them together as the resulting energy blade sheared through a nearby rock, causing it to slowly fall to pieces.
Carmelita stared at the weapon as the lashes unraveled from each other to go limp again. "...it's thought directed, isn't it?" she asked with a groan.
"But of coursssse," Wadjet told her. "It'ssss magic. Where did you expect it to get itsssss input? Buttonssss on a controller?"
"So the hard part is learning what thoughts shape the weapon," Carmelita concluded as she twirled the lashes a few times. "At least I have something to go on now. I was worried I'd have to learn to speak Ancient Egyptian for voice commands."
"The completed weaponssss will need that if wielded by ssssomeone other than you or Sssssly," Wadjet observed thoughtfully. "But we can think of that if you win."
Carmelita sighed as she flipped the weapon up to grasp the lashes and handle at once. "I just can't believe it took me so long to realize something so simple," she grumbled irritably. "What...six hours? Eight?"
"Two days," Bentley piped up from where he and Penelope were hard at work constructing a forge.
"Seriously?" Carmelita gasped in shock. "But...but why aren't Sly, Murray, and Coco back?"
"Egypt to Greece isn't a one-day trip off a plane in our time," Penelope pointed out dryly. "I'm sure they'll be back soon-"
"We're back!" Murray declared boisterously at the head of a group of dwarf camels, loaded down with Naqahdah. Sly followed him in, a worried expression on his face that he quickly hid as he smiled at Carmelita. "We got the Nakky...the Naku...the magic glowy quartz!"
"And we had a close encounter with Seft," Sly added nervously. "I don't know if he knew what we were there for...but he plans to confront us directly. One last showdown with everything we can bring to bear..."
"I should have asked if Hades could lend a hand, then," Coco observed as she walked in with two large sacks, barely managing to pull them both along. "Then again, he didn't have any..."
"Are you alright, Coco?" Carmelita asked worriedly, rushing to her side to check her over.
"I'm fine Mom," Coco hastened to reassure her as she wound up getting checked over - and hugged - by Sly as well. "A little dehydrated at best, but otherwise just fine. Besides...I get to sit this fight out, don't I? The only ones who can hurt Seft now that he's like this is you two with these special weapons."
"She issss correct," Wadjet confirmed. "I will be keeping the ressst of you cloaked within the cave when Sssseft arrives to do battle. You will be able to watch...but to participate would only put you in needlesssss danger. For now, it isss time to forge the weaponssss." She slowly slithered over to where Penelope and Bentley were working on the forge. "Issss all in readinessss?"
"Yup!" Bentley confirmed, gingerly walking over to the largest part of the construction, made from a cauldron with a hole in the bottom hooked to pipes. "This is the Naqahdah refinery. Actually using that material involves reducing a lot of the ore to create a small amount of the material actually used in the weapon to have the right energy properties...so it will all have to go in here. We can't get the seams quite right, so we can expect some spillage of the concentrated material-"
"On clean up!" Deik-Beck chimed in happily as he returned with the Mithril.
"The Orichalcum goes in here," Penelope continued, gesturing to a large beaker hooked to a series of twirling glass tubes. "The alchemic aeration will allow it to mix properly with the other metals. The Mithril is added here." She gestured to a series of metallic IV drips hooked to the long pipe that the Naqahdah and Orichalcum would feed into. "It will slip into the holes left by the aerated Orichalcum, binding the materials together."
"It will then all be pumped through the Adamantine," Bentley concluded, gesturing to the last crucible. "As an ore, Adamantine is malleable...but once it has been heated, cooled, and shaped...no power known to the Gods of this world can reshape it. That will make the resulting alloy all but unbreakable as far as Seft is concerned...unless he's got more resources we don't know about."
"Then we need to be prepared to counter that if he does," Coco observed worriedly as she gave bits of Orichalcum and Adamantine ore to Deik-Beck as treats as he groomed her mane.
"And that brings us to the last stage," Bentley explained as he gestured to the molds below the Adamantie vat. "Once the alloy's poured in, the two of you will each put a drop of your blood into your respective weapon. This will infuse it with your essence, binding it to you...which will also extend its protections to you. With luck, it will let you fight Seft on an equal footing for as long as your stamina and the power of the weapons last."
"Then it issss time to begin..." Wadjet hissed out, watching as the ores were placed in their proper crucibles.
orichalcum.... skyrim reference?
8762378
More like Skyrim was referencing it too. It's supposedly the stuff that made Atlantis so great at everything but floating.
8762389
.... i want to say too soon so bad right now
This is nice, but I'd really like more Rock in the Gulch. That one's very funny, and I simply can't get enough of it.
8762414
Tats posts on an approximate schedule, usually one update a week for all his active stories, usually on specific days.
Voice command would turn this into an anime fight, which would be funny but against someone as smart as Seft make everything way to easy to counter.
8762500 And yet a smart combatant would use that intelligence against their enemy. Train them to expect one thing when you say one thing, then turn it around and do something different while saying the same thing, or don't do anything and have your partner get in a free shot. That's the advantage of the weapons being activated based on thoughts and will rather than commands and gestures alone...it becomes easier to outsmart your opponent by deliberately misleading them when you always control exactly what your weapon will actually do.
If this somehow makes no sense, I blame it on getting about four hours of sleep and having a headache as well as feeling like i'm about to pass out.
Nice bit of meta humour, there.
I can see that Penelope and Bentley are ore ready explaining the characteristics of the metals and Nsync too! Almost like they were singing.
8762533
That works with the thought based as it is yea. I was referring to Carmelita thinking that she'd need to speak Egyptian to activate.
Pure vocal invocation wouldn't give the option to change what action you want to perform but you are right that partners could use it to create fakeouts before the enemy clued in. Which again with Seft wouldn't take long
8762507
Fair enough, I'm being too harsh, still she is a bitch. This is the fate that maybe the original Clockwork deserved.
8762500
Unless he had to too, in which case it would be even footing.
8762477
Yeah, I know. I've been following him ever since his Rainbow Stark fic was still incomplete. I know it's not easy getting a chapter a day - hell, for me it's almost impossible to get out one a week - but I'm just saying what I'd like to happen.
Hehehehe, that bit about the controller was funny.
Good show.
Dang. And here I was, expecting this fight to be laden with quick-time events. You sure showed me.
8762561 Fakeouts within fakeouts. If you know your enemy is smart enough to begin anticipating the attack coming from the opposite direction when a 'command' is given, then you simply vary things like timing and angle of attack. This is why truly intelligent combat is hard to write, because the more intelligent and capable each combatant is the harder things become to properly plot out, and the more likely that any given tell is a feint.
It eventually will get to the point where Sly, Carmelita, and Seft are in a delicate dance where Seft is doing everything in his power to attempt to stay one step ahead of the Coopers, but keeps getting thrown off because their ability to fake the timing allows them to hide one move inside the motions of another and launch something entirely unexpected. Mental control effectively gives Sly and Carmelita access to frame buffering and instant-move cancelling, two common fighting game techniques.
Now Seft, being a fel deity, likely has more than a couple tricks up his own sleeves.
8762477
The only day he doesn't write anything on is saturday. I'd have to check his user page to see what stories he's currently working on.
8762378
Not sure, but probably unlikely. Orichalcum is a mythological alloy once thought to have existed.
8763274
He also writes stories on fan fiction. I’m reading the one where Caboose replaces “Senpai” (they call the character many names but his own, which I assume was mentioned once.) in Monster Monsume.
It’s not as ridiculous as Zerg making a “Hyper Death Ray” and the Little Green Aliens say “Hyper die” in Toon Disney’s Buzz Lightyear of Star Command and instantly think of Undertale’s Asriel.
8763298
Yep. He's got another one based off Steven Universe too.
By the by, those and his other fics aren't limited to fanfiction.net. You can also find them on AO3 as well. Not sure about his FiM related ones.
As far as that site is concerned, the only one I know has all of his pony fics there is RealityCheck.
AWESOME MOMENT OF FORGING!!!! I can't wait to see how these weapons turn out!!!!
8763825
I'm totally expecting something along these lines. lol
8764043
That would be amazing
8764043
I honestly wish Skyrim smithing could be done like this to get better results and earn more towards a level up.
8765869
Thinking about it, if there was a mod for Skyrim that added something along those lines, despite being a little immersion breaking, I would totally download it. Unless you mean something that fit the world of Skyrim, then I definitely agree with you there.
This makes me wanna watch Man At Arms: Reforged
8763602
I watch AO3 because I’m too stupid to figure out Fan Fiction website.
It’s hard to tell when they update, especially if you’re not reading Tatsurou’s blog post religiously here.
8765869
My stepdad would hate that sooo much! 🤣
8762394
Considering the time period they're in right now...
(bops wadjet on nose with rolled up papyrus scroll)- No bad time guardian we do NOT pull a 4th wall break (aka a pinkie pie) when the timestream and all existence is on the line!