Chapter 99: Chapter 89 – Man of the Machine

The Desert Claimer came to a stop as the mix of vultures and a handful of forgers all stared towards the army of an estimated hundred goblins. Several of which looked to be blood aged or even higher levels. Alone, Wrench stood. His arms and body are covered by his cloche. Sighing, he glanced around at the goblins, before then turning his attention to the Desert Claimer. Upon which he saw Charlie.

 

“Back already?” he yelled, putting out a hand to his side. Clasping his hand into a grip, he caught a goblin arrow mid-flight. Tightening his grip, he snapped the arrow in two.

 

“We have a bit of a pest problem, so give me a second,” From the ranks of goblins, a blood aged leapt forward. Leaping into the air, it held its axe high. Falling, it aimed for his head.

 

Within a flash, the goblin was no longer falling through the air. Instead, he found a wrench holding his neck with one hand, and the other hand firmly placed onto his stomach. Lifting the goblin higher, he raised a knee before smalling the goblin down onto his leg. Black blood spluttered from the mouth of the beast as there was an audible crack of bone.

 

Allowing the body to fall to the ground, Wrench began to scan across the other goblins. Dropping down into a crouch, he turned and sprinted into the thickest part of the goblin group.  Lightning cracked around the sand. Sand flew up into the air, for a moment clouding the vision of Wrench. As the sand fell, the shadow of the man could be seen ripping and tearing through the group.

 

Stunned, Charlie hadn’t even noticed his jaw had fallen as he focused on the black blood as it flung through the air. There was such speed, even as sand continued to fall, gaps formed as the black blood collided with the grains of gold. In one hand, he held his worker’s wrench. Eyes wide, Charlie watched as his wrench came down onto the head of a blood aged.

 

With ease, he then turned to a goblin a struck his left hand against the face of the creature, before turning his attention to the next. His gloved hand hit so hard that the face of the brittle creature caved in on itself. Turning, Charlie noticed Ourupadia staring in a mix of fear and amazement at the man as several bloods aged attacked him at once.

 

Like flowing water, he dodged one, allowing the creature to inadvertently cut its axe down into the face of another blood aged. This fighting style. How he took advantage of the enemies surrounding him by making them attack each other. In this style of fighting where he rarely fought himself, instead, he turned the enemies upon each other. It was so similar to how warriors in their tribe used to traditionally fight hundreds of years ago.

 

Swiping up, he bashed in the jaw of a blood aged, while leading the spear from the same blood aged into a goblin behind him. Flowing through the sand, the cracking lightning coming from his left arm both struck down goblins while acting as a shield to protect him from any attackers behind him. Thumps shook the sand under them. Making the sand leap into the air, and even making the Desert Claimer take a few steps back.

 

Not far from them, a small hill of sand began to shake.

 

“Ight, you ladz don?” A deep voice shook as the fat, greasy and sand-smeared body of a goblin lord emerged from the sand.

 

Its beady eyes scanned down to the walls of the town. Dead goblins and blood aged alike littered the entrance, and at the centre of the blood vortex sat Wrench. His casual body posture and ease with which he flung around the goblins before then killing another gave the impression this invasion was more of an inconvenience. Shivers flooded over the bold shoulders of the lord as it stared up at this sight. But just as quickly as the fear had arrived, it was overtaken by rage.

 

“How dare you! I took a nap for five fucking minutes, and you weaklings can’t handle even one humi?” the beast roared. Charlie jumped as he felt Ourupadia pull him closer to her chest. Her body shivered, as the hairs on her tail stiffened. This… this beast was about the same strength as the one who had been killed by Cluupyte.

 

“Ahh,” Wrench gave a small moan of annoyance as he stretched his neck, “you bastards just get bigger and bigger, don’t you?”

 

Growling, the creature leaned one of its large arms behind its back. Grabbing something, it pulled out a large spike-like object. It looked almost like a tree sharpened into a spear for the ten-foot-tall beast. Throwing the spear towards the man, he leapt into the air. As the spear collided with the sand, the golden and white specs flew into the air.

 

Glaring towards the area in which he had thrown the spear, the goblin lord’s eyes widened as he saw a figure burst from the cloud of sand. Whipping off his cloche, he pulled out two of his pistols. As he lined them up with the head of the beast, the crack of gunfire filled the air. Swinging one of its meat paws, the creature simply gave Wrench a path as he whipped around his pistols so that the sharpened axe heads.

 

A shadow fell over the face of the lord, as he stared at him.

 

“What are you?” It muttered as the axes came down onto its head.

 

Growling, it wrapped its hands around Wrench’s waist. Ripping the axes from the head of the beast, he plunged them down into the hands of the lord. The axes hit in such a way, that it forced the monster to let go. As it did this, Wrench forced his hands against the eyes of the beast. First, Charlie thought he was to fall to the disgusting level of the beast as he looked as if he was going to gauge out the eyes of the lord.

 

Yet it did not happen. Instead, as he pulled back his hands, Charlie saw the faintest holes in the palm of his hands, while blood began to ooze from the eyes of the lord. Even though the creature still waled and roared, all others lay dead. Taking a cloth from his pocket, Wrench began to casually wipe the thick goblin blood from his hands and Wrench. As if only now remembering Charlie and the others, he looked up to them while a little stumble of surprise.

 

“Ah, afternoon,” he said, a loud thud and woosh of sand behind him sounding as the Goblin Lord fell dead to the ground.

 

“Train me,” for a moment there was silence, as all eyes turned to Charlie. He sat rigidly; his eyes fixated on the bloody man.

 

“Excuse me?” Sweat dripped down the side of Wrench’s face. Staring towards the emerald eyes of the boy, he could have a sword for a moment to have seen a field. Empty, except for a hand full of piled bodies. All fear that came with these corpses flooded over him. Grinning under his mask, Wrench muttered, “what a pleasant, or better said interesting surprise.”

 

A voice whispered into his ear. “There is something wrong with that thing,” the voice echoed into the ear of Wrench.

“Thing?” He whispered back.

 

“There is a thirty-five percent chance of this creature being a non-human,”

 

Inside the pub in which they had taken shelter after the mercenary attack, Charlie sat in the main room. It was dark and sweat began to trickle down the side of his face. In all honesty, he had not expected this. Well, he had asked, but to think… The door opened, and Wrench walked inside. His large cloche was gone, and his vest and shirt were still splattered in dots of black blood.

 

“I…I’m sorry, you know I,”

 

“Stop,” Wrench lifted a hand as he sat down on the other side of the table.

 

“Sorry,” Charlie said, with a small hoarse chuckle. A hand smacked down onto his head. Looking up Charlie looked to see Wrench standing over him.

 

“Every time you say that from this point forward, I will beat you,” Wrench continued, again raising his hand. Charlie flinched, moving down into his chair.

 

“You say that you wanted me to train you? Why?” For a moment Charlie stayed quiet, before awkwardly looking up, all while using his arms to shield his head.

 

“S…” Charlie said Wrench raise his hand higher, “I mean it was just a sudden thought. I didn’t think much about it. I just thought, maybe if I could fight like that, there would be no need for the natives to baby me in the way they do,”

 

“They don’t seem to have a problem doing so?” Wrench began to lower his hand, “and why do you have such dedication to them? From some merchants who came through here, I hear that their queen uses you like a sex toy and slave all day long,”

 

“Trust me, compared to the torture, which was my brothers and sisters, let alone my parents, then this is a paradise. And yes, they can go a little far sometimes, and I do dislike it. But can you blame a tiger for its stripes?”

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“Or better yet, a Desert Crawler for its hunger,”

 

“Exactly,” For a moment there was silence as Wrench too in the boy’s views.

 

“Interesting. You seem so passive, timid, weak,” Wrench leaned down and placed a hand on the shoulder of the boy. Using his other hand, he began to wrap it around his neck.

 

“Yet those eyes of yours, they tell me so much different to what is under the surface,” His voice became deeper, as a feeling of cold iron began to creep around Charlie’s legs. He could not move his head, yet he was able to look down to see iron break through the floorboards and wrap around his legs.

 

“Why do you want to be strong?” Wrench said, his raspy, harsh, metallic voice clawing at his ears.

 

“So, no more die because of me. I… I no longer want to feel fear,” Wrench’s hand tightened with Charlie’s words.

 

“Did you not read the book I gave you? Passage eight, line fifty-three, fear is a commander’s greatest friend,” Charlie looked up into his mask’s deep eyes.

 

“What?” he muttered, and Wrench began to lessen his grip.

“Fear is an amazing thing. It is what makes you human, it is what makes you far better than I,” Charlie hesitated as he stared at this sadistic being.

 

“What are you?” Charlie croaked out.

 

Allowing the metal to wrap around the legs of Charlie, Wrench released his grip and moved back. Taking off his vest, he then removed his hat, and then lastly took off his gloves. Finally, he removed his shirt. Large metallic cogs adorned his left shoulder. For a moment, Charlie thought it to just be some incredibly made tattoo, but then he saw the creaking and silently moving parts.

 

The long bars and parts of metal moved down his arm, no, better put these parts were his arm. No, still that was an understatement. His arm was a machine.

 

“I have undergone a curse. A curse that makes it so that as I use the magic given to me by my mask, my organic flesh becomes nothing more than stone,” he turned to look towards Charlie, “the fear you call weak, that fear you call your downfall. I say it is what makes you human,”

 

Wrenched look down at Charlie, before extending his metal arm.

 

“Do you want to be strong? If so, what are you willing to do boy?” Wrench began, raising his hand and extending his fingers in an exaggerated movement. For a moment, Charlie stared down at his legs. The iron held him in place.

 

“What will I have to do?”

 

“No, answer me first,” Again there was silence. Their eyes locked, and again, if it was not for the mask of Wrench, that emerald field would have overtaken him.

 

“I am willing to do anything,” Charlie’s eyes made Wrench stumble back, before then clenching his hand into a ball.

 

Suddenly, Charlie began to paint. It was slow at first, but soon the pain overtook him as the metal around his legs compressed. Bone cracked, as metal dug into his flesh. Wrench simply stood and watched as the metal snapped his legs like insignificant twigs. Diving down, Charlie began to claw at the metal. Yet his fingernails only snapped against the iron sheets.

 

“To become strong. To become a good leader. To become someone worthy of power, I believe there is something you must learn. The struggle. First, you will learn how to crawl,” Wrench muttered as Charlie fell forward, his head hitting to table as his body convulsed as struggled against the pain in his legs.

 

“Don’t struggle, it will only take longer,” as the last of the bones in his legs were broken, Wrench moved to his side. Pulling back his head, he saw Charlie had passed out. There was without a doubt this wouldn’t be the last time he did this. But to be honest, it was going to be interesting to find out.

 

Allowing the metal to fall to the ground, he picked him up and placed him over his shoulder. Today, he was to learn to crawl.

 

Outside the walls, Wrench walked with the boy over his shoulder. Opening his eyes, Charlie stared down at the sand. Remembering the even earlier, he immediately tried to move his legs. Yet only numbness responded. He then moved his arms. Discovering his arms were still in movement, he began to punch and hit the body of Wrench.

 

“Ah, you are awake. Good, we are just about to arrive at the right place,” seeing his hits did nothing, Charlie chose to take in his surroundings. A blue haze surrounded them, but what little he could see through this mist was only sand. Turning, he scanned their surroundings. Sand, and only sand for as far as the human eye could see.

 

Sand splattered into Charlie’s face as he fell to the ground. Wrench turned and began to walk.

 

“Crawl this direction. If you can reach me, then I will train you,” his words lingered as he disappeared through the blue mist.

 

“WAIT!” Charlie screamed, “YOU CAN’T DO THIS!” Charlie roared.

 

Again, the emerald eyes shook Wrench, yet he dared not to look behind him.

 

“Learn the struggle, and crawl,” his cold, hellish voice said.

 

 

 

 

 

I wanted to make more of a fight here, but I have hurt my wrist so sadly I couldn't. Anyway, I have a discord. So yeah. here you go,  https://discord.gg/PpYYaEGTuG

 

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