Technomancer: Genesis - 107 Tavern Brawl
Heinrich raised an eyebrow. He had seen Hearth seem to drift too swiftly. “I thought the Bedross were terramancers?” asked Heinrich to Ulric.
“They are,” Ulric nodded.
“You saw that, didn’t you? That seemed to be a wind spell though. Maybe I’m just imagining things.”
“Whatever that was, if it was a spell, it was impressive, it seemed to be chantless by the way he executed it.” Ulric seconded.
“Indeed, it is impressive for his age. He’s around 12 and chantless magic is already within his grasp. But we could be wrong, though,” Heinrich replied.
Five more guards rushed over to Hearth who was still moving forward to the person who slandered him.
“Out of my way idiots,” Hearth bellowed as he stomped the ground. Five rods emerged from the ground like a projectile piercing almost instantaneously, knocking out the ring of guards who wanted to block him.
“Wow, that was a chantless spell for sure,” Heinrich asked.
“I don’t know, I’ve never seen it before,” Ulric responded.
The merchant Hearth was targeting suddenly looked and spared him a glance, it seemed that the scene made him spur. But he still quickly turned and kept talking to the people around his table.
“Now, I get your attention, don’t I?” Hearth said out loud. The guards who he knocked groaned but they began to stand up again.
“Block him don’t let him get to Lord Redway,” the tall guard spoke. More men in plate armour blocked his path and now Hearth stopped.
He smiled sinisterly. “You maggots can’t do anything to me.”
“Try to take him down and bring him to justice!” Four men surrounded him and two started casting. The four were trying to distract Hearth while the two knights chanted, it was standard detaining procedure.
The four lunged at him. He leapt and struck the first man with a kick to the head. His shin was covered in a metallic-like armour. There was a clang as his shin impacted on the man’s visor.
“That’ boy isn’t normal,” one of the guards said in a hushed voice.
“Is that, [Earth Armor?]” asked Heinrich.
“Yes, it seems so.”
“But why is it covering only his shin? Very Interesting. That was chantless to was it not?” Heinrich further commented. While the barmaid cowered and kept on saying. “Please, my lords take this outside.”
Hearth used the connected kick as a launching pad to move sideways evading the other two knights. The formation became more serious.
Another guard lunged at him and Hearth zipped away a foot further without even stepping. Everyone was in shock.
. . .
“Now did you get my point, Hearth,” Ezra said.
“Yes Lord, basically [Earth Shake] is just using the kinetic energy manipulation of magic, it becomes chaotic as the spell is released but each individual shock can just be thought of as movements within the ground beneath.”
“Yes, very good summary,” Ezra lauded Hearth.
“Therefore, you can use each motion if directed in an organized manner in order to move,” Hearth said.
“Yes, the possibilities are endless. And as we can see that [Earth Shake] is just an aggregate sum, if you can decompose each motion then you can make it into simpler movements which can aid you in moving your body into better positions using the ground beneath you.”
“Yes! Thank you so much, Lord Ezra!”
. . .
Knights began to surround Hearth again. They lunged at him while he wore a smirk. A knight tried to punch him but Hearth made the ground that the man stepped on move toward him. He used that momentum and also punched with a magic propelled earth moving forward. The resultant blow was three times more devastating than a normal critical blow. The momentum of the knight, coupled by the momentum of Hearth and his magic augmented punch crumpled the visor of the knight.
The gauntlet he wore was premium titanol and used [Earth Fist] underneath as padding. Blood oozed as the punch decimated the helmet.
“Ugh,” the man fainted.” Everyone was in shock they didn’t expect his fist to do so much damage to the armour.
“He is definitely a pureblood,” Heinrich commented.
“Yep, definitely, those tactics and spells look like they are secret tier techniques of House Bedross, No one in the right mind would teach them to an illegitimate child. Besides you can see his battle prowess I think it is safe to say he can fight a viscount at his age. Very promising, no wonder he could claim that he is heir to Castle Bedross,” Ulric added.
Chaos ensued as more knights came desperately trying to knock Hearth out. But hearth bobbed and weaved using the ground beneath him, propelling him in different places. He appeared to zip in and out. While sometimes he would embed himself in the ground for an uppercut and use the earth as a launch pad to rocket his way to a knockout.
Each hack found its way to empty space as Hearth’s control of the floor manifested itself. When the onslaught died down there were only four knights’ lefts standing and heavily panting. One of them was the tall knight.
He used the ground and propelled a knee to another knight’s visor. He didn’t even use his sword. He had downed six people in the course of two minutes.
The guards were breathing heavily.
“Alright, Now!” the Captain commanded. The two knights who had been chanting let loose as a spell. Two [Rock Bullets] went speeding toward Hearth who just snorted.
“Hmph,”
He stomped on the ground as two tinier [Rock Bullets] met the trajectory of the projectiles toward him, the effect was the two stones veered off target. One of the spells hit another knight. The other one was dodged but it lodged firmly in the walls of the tavern.
Out of the twelve that went to apprehend Hearth, four were bloodied, five were knocked out.
“So, if I’m still with mother’s milk does that mean you were beaten by a toddler?” Hearth was trying to goad the remaining guards to attack. Hearth spat at the ground.
“I could take the likes of you all day and still have the energy to spare. You are such an ugly idiot, I wonder how drunk your father was to sire a bastard like you. Your mother must have had an uglier face than you.”
The guard’s eyes were flaming with fury but he took his calm.
“We admit, that you are formidable. You have done enough damage, just walk away and we won’t demand damages.”
“Who are you to declare that. You are just some hireling. I want to hear it from your Lord.” Hearth said it but he had no intention of conceding at all. He wanted to knock out a lot of heads, the more the better.
The captain didn’t utter a word.
Hearth made his move and ran swiftly. For every step he did, he made the earth beneath him move three, he was so fast the slim guard didn’t have time to react.
Hearth moved the ground beneath the slim guard as he attempted a retreat, he couldn’t do anything and just met Hearth’s punch attempting to parry it. However, it was a feint as the ground beneath Hearth sunk immediately then propelled him upward like a rocket while the momentum of the guard was moving down. The force thoroughly crushed the helmet of the guard, knocking him out and crushing part of his skull.
“His techniques are definitely impressive, I know of no child who can do such feats” Heinrich commented.
Hearth spat at the man’s body as he was knocked out cold.
“There you’ve vented,” The captain said with eyes full of apprehension, “you can leave now.”
“Are you joking? I’m just getting started,” Hearth strode again toward the person who whispered his critique.
The man finally stood up,” Pardon me then for whispering such falsehood. It is obvious to this whole tavern you do have the blood to maintain the estate. I apologize if I have slandered you. You have dealt with my guards. I shall pursue this matter no more. Though your manners are certainly lacking, that is why it was not questionable why you were identified as such” the lord sat down again and continued to talk to his friends as if nothing happened.
“That’s it? That’s all you are gonna say? You are definitely a pussy.” Hearth said out loud. But the lord paid no attention to what he said.
Hearth cast a [Rock Bullet] at the man, he tried to maximize both spin and kinetic energy to deal the most damage. As it shot toward the noble he flicked it away like it was nothing.
“I told you I would not pursue this matter, yet you insist!” He stood up again.
Hearth was stunned, he thought it was a fluke and did it again.
The noble slapped it away again.
“That is it” the noble cast a [Rock Fist] projectile directly at Hearth. He was hit and was sent flying thirty meters.
He crashed into the wall.
“Oh, it seems that noble is powerful, I wonder who he is,” Ulric commented.
“Look the boy is standing, by the Great Omnipotence that kid is strong, I thought he would have fainted from that attack” Heinrich observed. “Even I don’t know if I could stand up after such a clean hit.”
Unbeknownst to them, he was wearing Ezra’s bulletproof vest prototype.
‘Damn, looks like I can’t win from that bastard with my magic alone,’ Hearth as he coughed. The Barmaids sobs could be heard as it reverberated in the walls of the tavern.
“YOU! I’M NOT DONE WITH YOU YET” Hearth shouted. He attempted to take out something from his left jacket pocket. He held the gun firmly in his hand and pointed it toward the noble who slandered him. The noble looked lazily at him with half open eyes as he yawned.
“Wow, you’re still standing after that? You are indeed formidable.”
Hearth cocked the gun.
“What’s that?” Heinrich asked.
“It seems to be a hand crossbow of sorts,” Ulric observed.
“What good will that do against such a high ranked noble.”
There was a shout, “STOP RIGHT THERE HEARTH BEDROSS, IF YOU FIRE THAT THING, NEVER COME BACK TO LORD EZRA’S FOLD!”
Hearth shuddered, he knew that voice well.
It was Rycharde.