Embrace the Ether 19 Arsenal

"What sort of equipment are we talking about here?" Deus asked toward Elias and one of the men who stood next to him. The man appeared almost insect in nature, as his arms were nearly as long as his entire body, his face completely hairless and smooth. The man's entire exoskeleton seemed to mimic that of a praying mantis. His skin dyed a dark grey as if to blend into the black sand of Midnight. He was a native of Midnight, born from the Krex species of predators who burrow beneath the sand to await prey.

The clansman raised his head toward Deus as a smile formed on his lips, his voice raspy and cracked, "Well mister Deus, it's Deus right? We've brought a fair amount of things with us today for everyone who's working with mister Elias." The man pointed toward the club's bar, which had its alcoholic contents replaced with bags upon bags of guns and ammo, with several exciting looking melee weapons too.

"If you'd come with me for a moment, I'll show you exactly what you'll be working with," the Krex lifted up one of the heavier looking rifles, "This here is known as a Tremor. The name comes from it's rumbling as you fire it, along with the high caliber rounds it uses."

Deus and Droh simply nodded in approval as Elias watched them both with interest.

"The Tremor usually is fired within close to medium range. If you have a target close enough you can rip them apart, but if they're far enough away the bullets could drop and lose momentum. Most you'd do from a distance is leave some bruises."

"Really? The weapon loses all lethality simply by being fired from too far away? Seems… risky." Deus spoke up in concern, to which the clansman simply shook his head and sighed. "It's easy to manufacture so it's quite a popular gun… but I can definitely see the problems, too. Well, nothing else we can do besides move onto another gun. You want to see what we have for long-range firing?"

Deus and Droh both nodded.

"Great!" The clansman smiled again as he lifted up another weapon, this time treating it a bit more carefully than he did the Tremor from before. "This one is a specialty of the clan… the design and make of her is from master Roland himself. We call her the Dire Long-rifle. I heard it was named that in recognition to this very city where the master was born."

Deus chuckled, "It definitely seems more impressive than the Tremor. How does it work?"

"Excellent question!" The clansman once more smiled as he brought the weapon closer toward Deus, "You see this part here? It's an air pressurizer, so it's designed to draw in the oxygen in the air and fire it all out at once. Because of this piece, the weapon is capable of firing over a thousand meters in distance without losing too much killing power."

"A thousand?!" Droh shouted out in excitement, "On the mostly flat desert ground… that's practically everything that you can see."

"Exactly. Because of this weapon that our clan produces, Direfell and it's powerful army have been able to hold a steady position of power within the region. From what I've heard there are several other territory lords who've tried moving in on this place… but they've failed every time because of Direfell's excellent weaponry."

Elias spoke up, "That's enough of that… I'm sure we have time for a lecture another day, but not today. Hurry it along so we can get moving." He looked around and spoke again, "Also, has anyone seen that Thaddeus fellow from yesterday? Mercer!" He turned to face Deus and spoke apologetically, "Excuse me, Deus, but it seems I've still got some things to deal with so you can take a bit more time picking your equipment. Until next time."

After saying his goodbyes Elias headed off toward another room, accompanied by all of the clansmen who had been originally following behind him except for the one who assisted Deus and Droh with their equipment.

"Any interests so far?" The clansman asked the two of them, to which Deus shook his head, while Droh nodded in approval. The Dire Long-rifle had definitely drawn his attention. Not only was it surprisingly light and agile, but it also apparently held quite a surprising amount of stopping power behind it. There was a reason why that weapon was a preferred tool of Direfell's military service.

"Hmm." The Krex snapped it's tongue as it looked across the equipment that had been laid out in front of them all. "Maybe these will work better for you. You're working the vanguard on your next job, yes? I heard this from mister Elias as he explained the basic gist of the job."

As he was speaking he had approached a table that sat toward the back of the room. Deus followed behind him as Droh stayed behind with the Dire Long-rifle as he looked everything over with a pleased grin.

"These are the most typically used weapons of the vanguard force," He said as he lifted a silver blade into the air. Simply moving it seemed to slice through the air, creating an almost sharp ringing sound. "These beauties are usually simply called Silver Swords, but true experts of the skill refer to them as Quickblades."

In his hand sat a perfectly balanced sword. The edged blade thin and sharp, the metal which it was forged from was a peaceful silver. Slashing it through the air seemed to create the illusion of light as if leaving behind whispers of sound that floated in the air with each cut and slash. The blade balanced directly upon the hilt, providing the option of even turning the weapon into a throwable, as a last resort.

Whoever had designed the blade was clearly an expert in the craft. The metal used was proof alone of that.

"The Quickblades we have aren't actually from Direfell or it's factories. In truth, our clan managed to get our hands on a shipment of these beauties during a 'routine' job." The clansman clearly didn't want to go into further detail when discussing the job in question, simply leaving it all off with a vague expression.

"During that time we also acquired several of these spears, would you like to take a look?"

He put down the Quickblade and carefully lifted a new weapon into the air with an almost exaggerated gusto. "These spears are my preferred weapon, truth be told. Powerful strikes, versatile design, and fighting stances, along with a more distanced hitting range. A truly great all-rounder type of weapon. Did you know that our cities very own military captain fancies a beautiful spear, too?"

"Captain Roch fights with a spear?" Deus sincerely asked in reply. Previously he had seen the military captain murder a man without a weapon at all, and so to know he specializes in a specific fighting style was a definite surprise. He thought to himself, 'So he truly was quite powerful, especially if he could do that without even using his weapon.'

"Mhmm. Truth is I've never seen his spear myself, but from what I've heard… it's a true beauty. Not like this one at all. Nothing wrong with this one, that's not what I'm saying…" The clansman stuttered over his own words, "But, well… from what I've heard, it's like nothing you've ever seen. That captain and his spear alone could probably take on an army singlehandedly. You know, the sort of weapon one would keep for their entire life and never replace."

Deus sighed in shock, "I suppose if anyone in this city could afford to have such a masterwork like that, it would be him."

"Indeed," The clansman agreed, "Oh, yes. This spear here is known as Jaeger. It's a beautiful weapon forged from Lightstone and is as quick and light as the air itself. Don't let that confuse you, though… it's capable of slashing and piercing through solid metal if enough force is used."

"Impressive indeed… but I think I'd like to take a further look at the Quickblade, instead." Deus proclaimed to the glee of the clansman.

"Excellent choice sir! Come, you should see how it feels in your grasp and give it a few good slashes, just not toward me." The clansman carefully handed the Quickblade over to Deus as he took a step back to watch.

In his hands, the Quickblade felt almost weightless. To the point of it not even existing at all. No, that wasn't right… it was more like the sword was floating in the air. It truly earned its name as being one of the lightest and fastest weapons in the clan's arsenal.

The stopping power it held though was not a joke, which further brought surprise to Deus's face. To test the extent of the weapon, the clansman had brought over a fairly thick slab of metal which was destined to be smelted down anyways.

"Come, see if you can carve this metal into two!" The clansman provoked in a playful manner.

In reply to his provocation, Deus quickly walked over and used the sword to slash downward onto the metal, giving it a clear cut down the center. In truth, he was prepared for the blade to carve its way through a tenth of the metal before halting. But that didn't happen. He slashed downward and the sword simply glided through the metal, as if nothing stood in its way to begin with.

The sword aimed downward toward the earth as Deus stood there in shock. The blade had carved clear through the block of metal, leaving behind a beautifully even cut down the middle, as if it had always been two chunks of metal from the beginning.

'How is this possible? I know it's a well-made sword and the material was strong… but this…' Deus pondered to himself as he carefully raised the sword-edge toward the sky, allowing him a clear look at the sharpness of the blade. 'Is it some sort of magic? I can't think of any of reasoning behind this… it slashed through solid metal as if it were butter.'

Several seconds passed by quickly as Deus stared at the blade. After some time he finally spoke up as a smile formed on his lips.

"I'll take this one. What else you got?"

The clansman gave a firm smile as he nodded and led Deus over toward the other side of the room. Deus held the Quickblade to his side as he followed behind the man.

They looked through a collection of different armor pieces and grenade tools. The variety of these items was far less extensive and were thus quite easy to decide on with just a few quick glances. Usually, each member of a team would arm themselves with some sort of healing tool, or at least a numbing injection to deal with pain while fighting.

It was surprisingly rare for soldiers to arm themselves with grenades, but for a dangerous and elite job like this one, each member had been assigned a grenade type of their choice. The types ranged from electronic to explosive, even with the occasional hydrogen packs. But the worst of all was the anti-matter grenades—which were far rarer and far more dangerous than any other type of grenade and would only be allocated to their team leader, Elias.

After some time waiting, Thaddeus finally arrived and armed himself. He chose the Jaeger spear as his primary weapon while arming himself with an explosive grenade. Droh chose the Dire Long-rifle along with an electronic grenade, as predetermined by him and Deus.

Deus, however, chose the Quickblade as his primary tool for fighting, but instead of a grenade, he opted for a smaller hand-cannon styled pistol. The pistol was designed using basic stone and metal, with a small air pressurizer attached to aid it's firing range. It wouldn't be able to mimic the distance of the Dire Long-rifle, but it was worthwhile nonetheless. Plus, it allowed Deus to substitute his sword's weakness at fighting at range with a pistol, which increased his fighting capability tremendously.

Chapter end