Knight of Iron

"The nobles write these things with their own language, hiding their meaning to the commoner," Cruz spat. "So much knowledge before me, all wasted."

Cruz searched intently through his papers. Some of which he had swiped from Lena's research, others he had taken in hopes that they would give him any information on how to help Trace. Unfortunately, none of it seemed to be of much help. Not due to any lack of knowledge, but through Cruz's general lack of understanding. The pages were basically encoded in scientific jargon. After rereading a paragraph on veils for the tenth time, he snapped. In his anger, he crumpled it into a ball and chucked it into the gaping abyss below him. He never heard it hit the ground.

I became a Shardbearer so quickly, I should've seen that coming too! That being said, I intend to be much more threatening as a Shardbearer. Waves Shardblade.

... Cruz jogged into the wilderness near the city. He jogged casually, careful not to draw any attention, until no one was looking and he dove silently into the vegetation in the woods. He stealthily snuck away from civilization until he was out of sight—and earshot. He navigated quickly through trees, underbrush, and hills until he reached the cave. A small opening at the bottom of a hill, the entrance almost undetectable. Yet he slipped through easily, and followed the narrow, winding passageway a short ways until it opened up into a giant, open cave system. Stalactites hung from the ceiling, and larger stalagmites rose from the floor. Beads of water fell gently, and Cruz climbed up onto a wide ledge overlooking a deep drop. He sat, legs dangling, and began looking through his papers again. While the cave didn't look like much... it was home, for now. @Channelknight Fadran

I have forgotten what rep title I am at right now and am too lazy to open a new tab or something so I will just post this and find out. EDIT: So it turns out I'm a Seer. This is embarassing.

Also, it's June!

The happy, depressed ninja who gets too disappointed and writes Dark Revengers rom-com comics and is confused at the unending future of the happy Radiant Sharders plus my bloodthirsty kittens is named

Mow Ash. Which now, to me, sounds like an activity one might find themselves doing on Scadrial, though for what reason I couldn't fathom.

He's known for doing that...

Nope, it's sadly just a reskin. The only bonus things I've heard of is that metallic items might glow blue as you approach them, but otherwise, we must wait for a real videogame...

Every character has a default pickaxe for collecting materials, so it's just a default weapon that you start with, basically.

True; they're working on a Mistborn movie starring Kelsier and Vin. It'd be quite a while before these folks get to see Wax on-screen, 'cause let's face it, the majority of the Fortnite audience aren't big on reading.

Orpheus took a look at his shirt, stained with his own blood, and then keeled over and vomited into the nearby foliage. "I... I'm f-fine."

Exodus nodded, impressed. "Well done," he commended. Then he waved his sheathed sword toward all the other orcs. "BACK OFF!" he bellowed. But, understandably, it was too late for that. Filled with vengeance and hate, the disgusting beings gripped their primitive steel weapons. They were hesitant, however, if only for seeing their fallen brethren. "Any help, Minuet?" @Condensation Orpheus collapsed to the ground, his arms cut open and bleeding from attacking the demon. He spat out blood. "Yeah, think so. I'm... healing. Slowly."

Exodus snarled as two of the orcs swung steel axes directly at him. He slid backwards easily, dodging them both. "Glorious death," Exodus whispered, shooting shards of ice from his right hand into their hearts. One of the orcs managed to grab onto his other arm. He grabbed the orc with his left hand and shot a blast of burning fire into its face. It screamed in agony, but Exodus refused to let go of it. The facial features of the orc became distorted and marred, its skin seared black, and in the last moment Exodus let go, and it fell to the ground. He yanked his sheathed sword off his side, and channeled his innate realmatic energy to increase his speed and dexterity a little bit. It wasn't as good as having Alaxis back, but it would have to do. He darted in between another two orcs, which howled in rage. He whacked one with his sword and then grabbed the other with his arm and shoved the sword in its face. An incredibly valuable possession, sure, but not one they could take from him easily. The orc's eyes widened with fear as the sheathed sword came into contact with its skin. Exodus had tuned it out, had gotten used to it—but to the orc, the tens of thousands of screams of tortured souls would be terrifying. After Exodus had his moment of fun, he twirled out a knife and stabbed its neck. The orcs Exodus had dealt with earlier were already rising from the ground, spewing forth Elvish curses. He sighed. Orcs were tough to kill.

Orpheus continued to fight, bashing his knife into the demon repeatedly, sending small shards and sparks flying. They began to drift back towards the demon, of course, but much slower than they had been previously. The demon shrunk to Orpheus's size, and the excess matter became a massive hammer. Alaxis smashed the hammer down and Orpheus was unable to avoid it. He panicked and released his control over his powers. Immediately as the hammer came into contact with him, to his surprise, his skin began to glow violently. He screamed in pain as it shattered around him, and yet lunged at the demon, plunging his arm into its chest, clawing at its heart... Alaxis grunted as the boy stabbed them, scattering their essence. Their presence in the physical realm began to falter, and they knew they wouldn't last much longer. They needed to win or lose, and quickly. They formed a hammer and swung at the boy, but the boy seemed to instinctively channel Zanidar's presence, and his essence shattered again. They had spent far too long in the physical, and exerted themselves far too much. Their essence moved toward them too slowly to be of much use anymore. They needed to escape back to the spiritual. No sooner than they had thought of this then the boy lunged at them, grabbing for their heart. A perfect opportunity to trick them into thinking they had defeated him. "Nᴏ... ɴᴏ!" they cried dramatically. They let loose a terrifying scream of agony, summoned their last remaining presence, and then bled away slowly and deliberately into the spiritual, where they would remain until they could manifest again. "Yᴏᴜ ᴄᴀɴ'ᴛ... sᴛᴏᴘ..." they whispered, and then retreated completely into the spiritual.

It probably just works similarly to how it does in real life, with perfect pitch just being the ability of the brain to hear, for example, a G flat and know that it is a G flat because the brain can just recognize the sound of a G flat as a G flat. To be able to recreate the sound of a G flat is not so hard, once you have mentally categorized every note of the piano. There's not necessarily Cognitive shenanigans going on when I hear a sibling make a weird noise and then recreate it very closely myself, this is just the same thing but more advanced.

Orpheus ducked nimbly out of the way of the shards, his powers aiding him in his reflexes, but a couple of the shards managed to nick him. He began to heal quickly, and he grabbed his hunter's knife and stayed low to the ground, poised to run. If only he had an opportunity... The shards hit Alaxis again, and they rearranged their matter to restore themselves back to their titanic height. The Wanderer blocked them with a shield of rock, which he ripped out of the stone and hurled at the tower. @Channelknight Fadran @Random Bystander They turned their attention back to the Wanderer, who again tried to Harvest them. Alaxis called back the rest of his matter—their Spiritual Realm body pushed into the Physical through realmatic conversion. They put their mental fortitude into resisting the boy, for having been Harvested was, indeed, a considerable disadvantage. They had to stop the pesky boy, and so they sent a massive flaming arrow out of their stomach directly at him. Harvesting, how annoying... Orpheus sees an opportunity and leaps forth between Owlson and the demon, grabbing the arrow with his hand and breaking it in two with his enforced strength. The demon had lost focus on him momentarily, and Orpheus intended to make him regret it. He took his own knife and began hacking away at the demon's essence, emitting lights and sparks. "Go!" Orpheus yelled.

Cruz dumped his empty milkshake container in an outdoor trash can and wiped his fake-mustached lip.