Chapter 6: First encounter

The swing of the hammer rang throughout the building. "Now for the sharpening and the hilt" Carth reached for another average branch in the pile and handed it to Eliza, " take this and shave it down to a smooth handle."

Eliza took the piece of wood and began to work on it, cutting here and there trying to keep it smooth. While she worked on the handle Carth started to make the holes and indents for the blade to attach to the hilt. After both sides finished their work they put it together. Carth grabbed it by the hilt and swung at the attack dummy. Made a good cut but was nowhere near perfect.

"I believe this to be a good Catun 1 grade blade." Carth placed down the blade on the table and gave Eliza the chisel to input her signature. A Catun 1 blade is very basic in the terms of freshly made blades.  

"Well done, you have achieved a blade that will serve its user well." Carth grabbed his own blade he made a while back and pulled it out of its sheath. "Soon you will be able to make blades like this, remember your training. There will be a point that you will have to learn on your own. Master your own patterns and techniques to create blades that can only be recognized as your own." 

"I'm glad you believe in me that much, Teacher but are you sure I can achieve that level?" Elize was fidgeting with the chisel on the wooden table. "I find it hard to believe in my ability."

"Quit downing yourself Eliza, your skills are starting to flourish. Utilize your first great work as a baseline for all the momentum you will be gaining." Carth put a hand on her shoulder, "The longer we talk here the less improvements are made, let's get to work."

The two worked on weapons for several hours hammering, sharpening, molding, tempering, and cooling. The weapon orders for the trainees are done and some training lessons for Eliza were, for the most part, successful. 

Meanwhile Shela was shouting at the trainees, "Keep training! Remember to block, counter attack, then move! NOW BEGIN."

The squads clashed at each other to practice, learn and even adapt. Lilith clashed against a man equal in stature. He took the first swing with a downward strike, which was a waste on his part. Those moves only work on downed or frozen enemies, Lilith was neither of those. She quickly moved to the side and took a side swipe at his stomach. When he struck the ground with his blade the pressure of hers was already against him. The strike knocked his breath out of him and collapsed on the floor gasping for air. The fight was over. Shela walked over the down man, grabbed him by his shirt and lifted him to his feet

"Get up, you aren't listening to your failure. When I told you to strike first I did NOT mean try to go for a final blow when your opponent was not injured or tired. A single strike can win but a predictable one always misses." Shela looked the man in the eyes, "if this was a real fight you'd be the first dead on the field. Let's take this one from the top, no rest for the wicked."

Out of the corner of Shela's eye she saw Carth coming around the corner. Suddenly all the fights around her were ramping up. Seeing the connection she realized when Carth is present everyone gets even more fired up. Why does everyone look up to him? He can't even fight that well. Is it for the weapons he will be giving them? Or something else entirely. She just can't put her finger on it. 

It was late and the training sessions wrapped up. Carth and Shela returned to their chambers and looked at each other.

"Well this is awkward. Let me make it clear to you that I am not forcing you to do any of this Shela, I feel as if there is another motive for you to come in here," Carth looked away as Shela undressed herself to what he woke up to the previous night. "What are you getting at?"

Shela laughed, "you are very observant aren't you. Well I will be honest, I have never trusted anyone with my life, but you…" her voice began to trail off. It was extremely unusual for shek to give into humility and yet here she is, bowing her head to her savior. "I am in debt to you. 

"Don't worry about it, next time you can save me." Carth joked while he was taking off his shirt. Shela failed to meet his eyes. Carth stepped closer to look at Shela’s flustered face. she snapped up looking him dead in the eyes, cheeks flush with red "Don't say a word". Shela suddenly dove in for a kiss. As time seemed to stand still Carth stood there stunned for a moment before reciprocating Shela's kiss. The two embraced by the sunset as Shela led Carth to the bed as the sky grew dark.

Before Dawn broke everyone was roused from sleep by a loud church bell ringing, DING DING. Carth Quickly pulled his shirt on as Shela tossed him his bag of weapons, which he had forged for the trainees, screams, shouting and clashing of metal can be heard outside of the building. They both rushed outside to see what was happening.

Carnage was happening all around them, blades hitting metal clubs, it was the cannibals. People of both sides laid dead or unconscious on the ground. 

"THE CANNIBALS ARE HERE" a voice sounded from the tower, DING DING, the bell continued to ring out. Carth ran around the village handing the blades he had forged out to the trainees he could find. Turning the corner the duo saw a rush of painted people. The scrawny ones had green painted over their bodies with what looks to be a painted green metal bowl on their heads. The others were larger ones painted red with thin white lines. Neither wore clothes, only random metal parts tied to them to act as armor.

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The cannibal group looked up and saw the duo standing there and began to charge. Shela stepped in front of Carth and began her swing of her fragmented axe. The cannibals ran right into the swing and either got slashed and fell to the floor or pushed against another and slammed to the ground. Carth quickly took the advantage and slashed the throats of the downed cannibals, leaving them gurgling on the floor trying to gasp for air. 

The duo moved on killing as they went trying to save any that seemed to be failing in their current fight. After about a half of an hour the gates to the village slammed shut, Cannibals still trying to get in while the wounded had gathered inside many of the refugee homes. The cannibals remaining inside the gates were killed and slaughtered as they were picked off by the guards.The cannibals left outside the gates are now surrounding the village. 

"This makes no sense, how did the cannibals get here? Why did the attack look like it was planned? CANNIBALS DON'T PLAN." Moll was rambling inside one of the refugee homes. Carth was sitting across the table cleaning his bloodstained blade. He was not interested in her ranting. He heard many stories by the paladins he used to work with. They said that given enough time, any creature they fought enacted what could only be described as a plan. This was no different.

"Calm yourself Moll, we are still in trouble and you're still their leader. So lead them. I don't care if it is a counter attack, regroup and discuss, or even flat out tell them to wait and tend to the wounded. Don't just stand there rambling on possibilities and take action." Carth finished cleaning his blade. He looked up after his aggressive suggestion and saw Moll once again flustered in anger at how he was right.

"F-fine, we'll go with your second suggestion. Did you have a former leadership job? I just don't understand where this is coming from, where did you get all this experience?" Moll looked genuinely curious at how he seemed to know much about leadership. 

"Long story that I am not willing to share yet, I'm sorry." Carth then stood up and walked out to help with aid to any of the wounded. He entered the building and asked if there were serious injuries.

"Most wounds were blunt injuries. Cannibals like to capture their prey live. They tie dem to poles or throw them into cages as human livestock. Only when they get hungry is when they 'tenderize' the prisoners by beating dem to death just to cook and consume dem. In order for dem to capture their prey they use blunt weapons. Dat's why there was little blood from our side of the fight." A man said splinting another's leg, "names Quin, I was part of dat twenty dat were being trained under yah." 

Carth was stunned at the wave of info he had just received. "And why did you explain that to me?"

"Cause I need you to find bruised people, most of dem will act as if it's fine in front of yah. Don't believe dem, they just want to impress yah. Show dem you radah dem get medical attention den hide their injuries." Quin explained to Carth.

Carth understood that perspective. No one likes to show weakness to their superiors, even though he does not feel superior at all. He thanked Quin for the information and proceeded to leave the house. There were still shouting here and there but in whole it has calmed down. Cannibals on the outside, survivors on the inside. This is quite the predicament.

"Rally the people together. We need to come up with a plan. We won't starve easily with the farms inside the walls but any of the members trying to return will certainly be ambushed." Denz said exiting the shadows.

"How many times are you going to sneak up on me just to chat? You sure have eyes and ears everywhere." Carth smiled at Denz, "when do you think they'll make their next move?" 

"No clue, they never acted this way before. The surrounding tactic also surprised us, it seems the cannibals have a new leader. He must be above average for a cannibal." Denz shrugged, he knew nothing either. This attack was out of the blue in the dark of night, not something cannibals typically do. The two looked at each other, they knew what they had to do, they both nodded towards each other in agreement.

Shela was picking up corpses of the dead cannibals and threw them into the corpse furnace the village had. Every village has an open furnace to toss the dead in to keep the scent of corpses from attracting other creatures to the location. 

"Thanks for the help Shela," Braith said tossing another corpse into the open machine, "your help in the battle was appreciated. We would have lost a lot more if it weren't for you and Carth’s training and pitching in." 

“It’s no issue, I’m just glad we didn’t get our ass handed to us,” Shela looked at the gates, “Hey have you seen Carth? I wanted to meet up with him after the clean up.”

“He went to check up on the injured I think. Mind if I tag along? I was meaning to do it sooner rather than later.” Braith said as she washed her hands off with a rag. They both agreed to head to the medical refugee house and see what they can do. 

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