Kyle had a passion for ancient melee weaponry. At Expos, he had always provided the cultural display department of House Jessek with his collection.

  From his prized possession, a millennium-old medieval Arabian scimitar to a beautifully preserved Renaissance flamberge greatsword—all of it has always won awards for archaeology and military culture.

  The dragon's hoard had been full of weapons. Racks upon racks of Roman-style gladii, ancient Indian or Arabian-style blades, all made of varying metals and covered in beautifully ornate decorative inscriptions or inlays. But only this one had truly caught his interest.

  The warhammer was still exceedingly beautiful, but seemed to prefer function over form.

  It was a massive 5-foot-long weapon designed for crumpling rib cages and cleaving through skulls. The head was a cylinder, approximately three-quarters of a foot long.

  The design was a sphere scooped out of a cube, the removal of which had formed four vicious-looking prongs. The other side was a more standard square striking surface that still looked menacing in its own right.

  The entire weapon was made out of a dusky, ashen purple metal. The rest of the head was cylindrical, and ridges that broke up the smooth curves kept it looking deadly across the board.

  Kyle did not doubt that this was the perfect weapon for him. The moment he lifted it, runes ignited across its surface. The weapon immediately gained a cold aura of killing intent. The shadows across its surface looked deeper and foreboding. The entire thing suddenly gained a sort of depth, in that moment.

  The ivory white handle had tasteful gold inlays that contrasted elegantly with the dark purple head. At its tip opposite the head, it held a beautiful amethyst crystal that glowed.

  Runes and words of power in various magical scripts flared across the surface, adding to the weapon's majesty. After that, whenever he moved it, a glowing trail of turquoise light slowly faded away behind it, following the head like a waving strip of iridescent paper.

  Bariyon chimed in once again. “Aye, lad, that’s a beauty right there. Loads of enchantments for enhancing striking force and perfecting the center of balance, and masterful durability runes. And that metal! I’ve never even seen or heard it described before. This is quite a find!”

  Kyle swung it around, and found it objectively heavy. It was so heavy, in fact, that it could probably punch through about an inch of Vulframite if his power-armored limbs were the ones swinging it.

  He looked at his trusty plasteel breaching axe in comparison, and found it wanting. He could sell it or give it to a future ally or something.

  Before leaving, he sealed the hole in the wall and moved several boulders into the way. He didn’t want the ants eating the dragon corpse while he ran to Altrai and back.

  As he ran through the slowly ascending tunnels again, he found no ants. Where’s a nuisance when you actually need one, he thought excitedly. Finally, right before he left the caves, he found a single large ant the size of a motorcycle. It was stumbling around, still stunned from the explosion earlier. Kyle lifted the hammer.

  His armor automatically shifted his stance and pulsed the servos to maximize the striking power. The pronged side of the hammer came down from a flawless overhead strike directly onto the barely conscious ant's head.

  Several anomalous and clearly magical things occurred during the strike. During the arc of the head, the acceleration speed was noted to be about 5 percent faster than the velocity predicted by his armor's AI.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  The ant also anomalously shifted into the perfect position for him to strike. On such a disoriented enemy, the effect was massive-the ant fell flat on its face. He suspected that the pull would be very minor on any other enemy.

  At the very end of the strike, a few inches from the ant's exoskeleton, the hammer spontaneously shot forward similar to the tactical hammers he had heard of some PAST units using. A small kinetic discharge would kick the hammer forward into the unfortunate target.

  The effect on the poor ant was catastrophic. The hammer went straight through it and into the rock floor below its head. The rest of the ant’s body was absolutely vaporized by the kinetic energy of the strike. Only parts of the legs were spared from the blast.

  The layer of gore coating Kyle’s armor was added to once more by a fine misting of Eau de Fourmi.

  Kyle spun the hammer in his hand absentmindedly. Now this, this I could get used to.

  Another layer of grime fell onto his armor, as a fine layer of dust fell from the shaken ceiling. Small pebbles fell onto his armor and plonked off silently due to its stealth-optimized molecular structure.

  I need to wash the armor off. Thank goodness it’s airtight, I probably smell like acidic shit.

  ————

  The run back to Altrai was equally as annoying. More random monstrous megafauna attacked him-wyverns, large white-furred creatures with tusks, and even more goblins with winter-adapted bodies. A light snowstorm had rolled in while he had been in the caves, further complicating things.

  Kyle continued to use his beautiful new hammer. It could kill essentially anything that challenged him, crushing skulls and sending smaller creatures flying off cliffs and into rocks.

  About 20 minutes in, he had finally escaped the miserable mountainous region and reached the forests at the base, now lightly dusted with snow.

  Before he reached the city or a river to clean the armor in, he heard a rumble. It seemed another creature had taken offense to his existence.

  Expecting some kind of uber-bear or deathmoose, he gripped his hammer tightly. I have to name both this and the railgun…

  Rather than some magically juiced-up forest creature, a huge slime rumbled through the forest towards him. Whenever its form rolled over a tree, the tree would disintegrate and disappear into particles within seconds. Kyle immediately backpedaled; Vulframite was notoriously vulnerable to acidic compounds due to its molecular structure.

  Kyle immediately embedded the hammer into the ground and unclipped his railgun once more. After a quick charging cycle, he raised it and slammed the trigger down on the house-sized slime.

  To his growing horror, the slime just jiggled at the shot that could destroy buildings and shred tanks. The kinetic energy merely dissipated-the thermal energy only scarred the surface, leaving a slowly healing burnt spot.

  It’s totally immune to all kinds of physical damage… last resort! Go!

  “Bariyon! Magic it or something!” The skull grumbled, “It doesn’t work like that, laddie! Agh… fine…”

  After a bit of vibrating and rapid jaw motions, a bolt of sickly green magic exploded from the skull. A huge portion of the slime's flesh blackened and died on impact, and the whole creature slowed noticeably.

  “Give me a moment. I need to recharge-” the slime spat a glob of itself at Kyle, which he dodged. It ate into the ground and through a tree on landing.

  The slime righted itself and started rolling towards him. Kyle was having none of it-he uprooted the hammer, and absolutely eviscerated that slime. It seemed that the creature's ability to dissipate kinetic energy was limited by size.

  In that much time, Bariyon had shot another bolt at the motherslime. Nearly a third of it had decayed at that point, and the rest was pretty sluggish. Kyle decided to give the railgun another go.

  Unclipping it once more, he quickly loosed another bolt of plasma at the now not-so-distant slime.

  This time, due to its dead flesh, the amount of actual energy dispersing mass was decreased. The bolt struck true, and the slime melted from the kinetic force.

  “An emperor slime… these are exceedingly rare, m’boy. It must have been attracted by the death of the dragon. In fact, such a powerful creature's dying has likely attracted all sorts of miscreants to the region. I would keep an eye out for cultists once we get to the city. Probably not too much considering the region's frontier status, but you never can tell with those types.” Bariyon mused.

  Clearly dead, Kyle sprinted away from the corpse of a large monster for the second time that day.