Apprentice (Solo, Private)

Mission:

Zhu sighed as she climbed the stairs in the tower of the sky. She didn't know why she was actually doing this, but there wasn't any way that she wasn't going to take the opportunity. She wanted to see her old master again and get his take on not only her new form, but also the immense progress she had made since she had left him. As she reached the top she carefully inspected the view from all sides with a bit of a smirk on her face. She was more than thrilled by the height and the way she could almost see the whole world. She then turned and looked at the crystal she saw what she wanted more than anything else in the world. She needed to activate the crystal somehow. She didn't exactly know how one would go about doing it, but she wasn't going to give up just like that. She walked over to the crystal and pressed both of her hands against it inhaling slowly as she sent a pulse of her magical energy into it. She felt a sudden tug and her whole world warped around her and she appeared in a different location all together. She was in a forest clearing. Just outside of the clearing was a stone house with smoke rising from a chimney. In the clearing was a few tree stumps, well several in reality, but they were all decorated with edged, blunt, and weapons of various types in general.

She gulped as she walked up to a stump and gently ran a hand along the shaft of the spear that was sticking straight up out of it. She suddenly heard a voice behind her that caused her to turn around and look in horror "Well, well. Who is this? Who dares come into my training grounds?" She saw he was holding his fire poker and that was bad. She had interrupted him as he was forging. That was a very dangerous thing to do. She held her hands up slowly speaking "In the sight of the Scorekeeper all warriors are her children, and the warriors who have earned her favor shall be remade in her image and be allowed to call themselves true warriors."

It was at this point that the man smiled and nodded his head "In the name of the Scorekeeper if it isn't little Zhu all grown up...and filled out. When did you become a babe?" Zhu smiled as she lowered her hands nodding her head "I have been remade in the Scorekeeper's image as you can plainly see." The man nodded his head as he pulled out a pipe and began to smoke it "Indeed I can. Well a herald of the Scorekeeper. I am certainly very proud of you Zhu. I knew you had what it takes. So why are you here interrupting my latest and greatest works?" Zhu smiled as she looked at the spear and kicked it out of the stump and began to brandish it "I'm here to train old man!"

The man sighed as he shook his head lightly "Well that's a shame. You know that once I start a work I must see it through till the end. We can train after I have finished forging my newest masterpiece. You're welcome to come in and watch me just like you used to when you were younger." with that he turned and left his former student out in the training grounds alone. Zhu sighed as she flipped the spear around in her hand impaling it once more inside of the stump. Training would have to wait for the time being. Not that she really had a problem with that. She did have other matters to attend to while she was here. She didn't know how she would go about telling her master that her sibling disciple, and one of his most promising disciples had fallen, and that she couldn't even bring justice to the one who slew him. With a heavy heart she inhaled slowly following after her master into his forge. As she walked in the floor was made of dirt and stone just as it had been when she was a child. The trough was filled with water that acted as a mirror reflecting all of the sights that it could see in the forge. Her master was gazing into the fires of the forge reaching in with his poker every now and again to adjust the coals. While he reached in with a long pair of tongs to move the ore or perhaps the weapon he was working on.

After a few long and arduous hours he finally reached in with his  tongs and withdrew a molten hot shape from the flames of the forge. It was the head of a double- headed axe. He brought it to an anvil and began to strike the red hot metal with a hammer that was much more flat than a standard hammer. It was clear he needed to do the final shaping of the weapon. As the metal sang when it was struck by the hammer the old weapon smith spoke "So tell me why you feel as if you are bringing me dark tidings." He said casually as he flipped the axe head over on the anvil. Zhu sighed as she sat down on her knees behind her master her head hung low "I do have very dark tidings master. Tidings I wish I wasn't the one to bring you, but I am the only one who knows. My brother, your other son...Liu Bei. He has been slain in battle. I couldn't find his body to give him proper burial rights...I don't even know if he is really dead, but with what I found I can assume he is either dead, or he is in a state much worse than that. I am sorry my master." The old man was silent for a long time. Nothing could be heard, but the signing of the steel as it was struck by the hammer.

It took several more long minutes that seemed like an eternity to the warrior before her master would speak to her. He finally pulled up the axe head and plunged it into the trough cooling it off and letting it take a true form. With it now being cool he walked over and began to fix it to a metal and wooden shaft that would serve as the handle for the great weapon. He inhaled once more and exhaled looking to her as he finished fitting the head on the handle "Well. I suppose that is how all warriors are supposed to meet the scorekeeper. You saw no signs of him being captured alive, and you saw no evidence of him being anything less than a great warrior?"

Zhu shook her head slowly as she glanced at the axe wondering if he was going to use it on her if she gave the wrong answer "Based on the foes I myself slew while I was searching for him it would be highly unlikely...nay impossible for him to have been taken alive. The dead don't take living hostages. Those who lose to the dead, or impersonate them are always doomed to join their ranks. You taught me that master. I found enough blood to suggest he was seriously injured if not fatally so. He died in combat, but what remains of his corpse I can't say for certain. All I know is I found no body so that seems to suggest that the undead have eaten it or he has joined them as a corpse."

Her master seemed to take the news in stride, or at least it hadn't devastated him like Zhu had thought it would. Still she knew that if he was a bit younger and still not under his sacred oath to the scorekeeper then he would go out and search from his fallen son himself. Still he just nodded his head lightly "Then we shall drink to his memory tonight, and I shall make a grave for him and use this axe to mark it. He was a warrior and now he will forever fight by the scorekeeper's side in the next life." He grabbed the axe and gave it a few testing swings in order to make sure that the balance was proper and that he would be able to use it effectively. Zhu knew that her master would be able to tell a good blade and weapon by simply holding it. Still she was a bit concerned with how it would work out. After a few minutes of swinging and holding he nodded his head and hung it from pegs on the wall looking to his student with a smile as he exhaled a large cloud of smoke "Well then. enough living in the past. We have the future to attend to, and if you are going to be the herald of the scorekeeper then I shall have to take your training up by a huge notch. Come with me my daughter."

The two warriors left the smith to go out into the yard where the weapons were all standing waiting to be put to use, and to be wielded. So for now it was that Zhu and her master stood in the center of it. Her master smiled and held out a hand to her head focusing his magic into the center of his hand. It then surged into her head and began to drag out Zhu's magic. She screamed loudly as her magic was forced to activate suddenly in every stump Zhu's weapons began to appear in various places. They continued to form one by one until finally all of Zhu's spell weapons were made real and ready to be used. When the process ended Zhu sank to the ground panting in pain and agony due to the immense torment her body had just undergone. Her master on the other hand slowly moved to her favorite weapon smiling widely "I see. You still have the weapon I forged for your. I am very proud of you my child." he then looked around and saw the weapons she had bought, found, and reclaimed. He walked over to Tessaiga and gently put his hand on it's hilt. The moment he did so however the hilt grew sudden spikes, and it began to heat up immensely. He was quick to withdraw his hand away from it frowning "I see. So this is the legendary blade of your family. I am very impressed. I suppose it only recognizes you as the wielder and any others are hurt. Very useful indeed."

He walked among the weapons that he had forcibly summoned from her and nodded his head in approval "I am very impressed by your arsenal my daughter. You truly have been busy. I am quite impressed. Well then we shall train and you shall be allowed to wield any of these without restraint. Any new powers you have learned in tandem with them will also be available to you. Now then when you have recovered you may stand and start your fight." he smiled and slowly walked forward to a wooden staff and picked it up brandishing it with one hand while his other hand gripped his pipe and he continued to smoke it slowly letting puffs of the smoke rise from his mouth and the bulb of the pipe.

This was the same stance that he had taken back when Zhu was a boy. The challenge was still the same. He was to break his master's pipe with his weapons, and if he could not within a week then he would consider his student in need of training. It was this training that Zhu had failed and had been sent away to try and train to see if she was would ever be worthy of her master's lessons and legacy.

Slowly Zhu rose to her feet still breathing hard and heavily due to the pain that she had endured in order for her to start her training. She walked over to Green Dragon and pulled the Kwan Dao from the stump where it was sticking straight up. She spun it around in her hand smiling as she felt the familiarity of her blade and then suddenly she leveled it smirking to her master "Now I am ready to fight you master, and this time I shall not fail as me and my brother did when you put us through this training."

Her master smirked and nodded his head lightly as he puffed away at his pipe "I do hope so. You are the herald of the scorekeeper, and if you can't even pass this little trial then how could you ever hope to be worthy of the transformation you have found yourself in. You'd better pass my dear otherwise there will be hell to pay." with that he stopped talking and his puffs began to slow down in frequency. Zhu knew that this was the signal to start and start she did so with full vigor and force.

She charged in her blade off to the side and as she got within striking distance she aimed a slash at her master's face and his damned pipe. Of course as always he was ready for this and he moved his stick to poke the shaft of the weapon away forcing the blow and the weapon away from him. This of course caused Zhu to stumble as she tried to recover and pulled her blade back up to slash at him once more. This time her master actually took a step back while he slapped the shaft of the pole-arm causing it to pause a moment allowing him all the time he needed in order to step out of the path of the blade. Zhu groaned as she followed after him jabbing the blade of her weapon towards him. He however wasn't going to be caught so easily. He instead spun to the right of her and slapped the back of her legs with his stick the resulting smack very loud and clear as day. Zhu cried out in pain as she dropped to her knees still refusing to give up the fight she whipped her blade around one handed to try and cut her master's legs.

He saw this coming a mile away and he jumped back onto a stump and out of the way of the blade. Still the blade sailed and it served to spin Zhu around so she could actually face her mentor. She quickly jumped up to her feet and rushed forward stabbing her blade at him once more. This time however he struck the blade with his open palm, and Zhu instantly dropped it. No sooner had she done so then her entire weapon shattered and vanished. She knew it would come back after some time, but still to see her master's magic she realized that he was in a league all on his own. She jumped back as he stepped towards her swishing his stick through the air "Well go on." he said in a monotone voice as he followed her about more. (Green Dragon Broken)

Zhu rushed to grab at another weapon that was in a stump. She knew that if she didn't get ahold of a weapon then he would hit her with that stick, and being hit with that stick even now registered as the most painful experience of her life. This weapon however wasn't one of her own weapons. It was a javelin and she turned on her master with the new weapon in hand ready to strike at her master with a new weapon and tactic. She wasn't sure how this would actually work out, but still it was as good a time as any to try something new. She rushed forward her Javelin at the ready after only a few steps she threw her weapon at her master. As she did however she grabbed an Axe that was resting in a log and rushed after him.

As the Javelin arrived at her master he simply slapped it with his rod and it shattered to pieces. No sooner had the weapon broke then Zhu was on her master swinging the axe at his head as hard as she could. He sighed ducking under the blow and slapping Zhu with the rod in his hand. He landed his blow against Zhu's stomach and it ripped from her the loudest scream that Zhu had ever produced. She dropped to the ground holding her stomach and writhing in unparalleled agony the axe rested by her side. Tears streamed from her eye as she squirmed and writhed the pain feeling like it was hitting her soul.

Her master simply sighed as he looked at her "You are still that weak? I thought for sure you would be much stronger than this by now. I must say I am disappointed." His mouth was stopped as Zhu aimed a kick at his head grabbing her axe and swinging it at his midsection. Her master had no choices now, but to jump away and he frowned looking down at her with a smirk "Well, I must admit that I am surprised. You can recover from those strikes so quickly now. Before you would've been screaming and crying for at least a week. You recovered in a matter of minutes, no seconds. I am impressed."

Zhu slowly got up groaning and holding her axe, but the pain was still radiating through her and it forced her to leave the axe head on the ground. She panted softly groaning as she gripped her stomach shaking her head from the pain "Well, I have to say that it still hurts like a son of a bitch...You annoying pompous old bastard....I am the Herald of the Scorekeeper. I am not some foolish little boy anymore! You're going to pay for this!!!" She roared as her body began to change and morph before her master's eyes. Her body swelled up in size, her muscles thickened, she grew taller, she grew denser, she gained hooves instead of her feet, she grew a tail that flicked to and fro, and finally she gained two large horns that were facing towards him. As an added bonus her facial features also took on that of a bull and she gained a nose ring.

Her master tilted his head as he looked over his pupil and the new form that she had taken on. He smiled and nodded his head lightly "That is quite interesting. I'm not sure how you managed to do that, but you are certainly more powerful than you used to be. Tell me what is this kind of magic that you are using?" Zhu huffed as she rushed forward picking up a hammer in her right hand as she charged at her master her horns bared low to the center of his body. Her master went to dodge to the side but was met with the left handed axe swing. He jumped over the blow only to be attacked by the hammer at his mid section. He was forced to use the rod in his hand to deflect the attack, but as it wasn't a true strike the hammer remained intact. He grunted as he was thrown a good distance. Still he managed to do a flip and land on his feet no worse for the ware. He smiled as he stood up and tilted his head "Well I must say that I am impressed. Your strength is truly impressive while you are in that state."

Zhu smirked as she stood proud and strong brandishing the weapons that she had in her hands nodding lightly "Aye. I am indeed far stronger than i normally am. At least physically. Still there is only so much more that I can do while using this form. It has it's limits, but the strength it gives me allows me to use any weapons I want with tremendous ease. Still if I grab the wrong weapon then I can easily shatter it so I have to use caution when selecting a weapon." She gripped her weapons tighter and suddenly charged him once more.

Her master rolled his eyes lightly shaking his head as he stood up ready to go "That won't work twice on me you know that so why even try it?" He glanced up to see the axe she was wielding coming flying at him. He was about to dodge it when the hammer also came flying at him. He jumped up into the air and Zhu ran under him. She managed to grab the flying weapons and she whipped around swinging the hammer above her head aiming at her master. He frowned as he deflected the hammer with his rod, but suddenly he kicked her in the face using her as a spring board to throw himself away and land perfectly on the handle of a spear that was sticking into a stump "Well, that was different. You usually aren't this clever. Something really big must've been changed you."

Zhu didn't let this bit of duel beratement and praise stop her. She rushed her master once more this time however pushed the Hammer forward not bothering to swing it but jab with it instead. As she did so she stepped forward and swung the axe at her master this time she used it flat to give her a more vertical advantage. Her master wasn't a slouch and he spun to the opposite side of the hammer striking it with his rod causing the hammer's head to shatter into tiny little slivers of stone and metal. He then lashed out with the rod and slapped Zhu's arm with it causing her to drop the now useless hammer's handle. It was at this point that her master held up his hand the signal for them to actually stop this fighting for the time being. He didn't seem to mind what Zhu did, but there was something about him that spoke volumes. Still the warrior did as she was bid and halted her attacks standing still.

He looked at her and smiled softly as he began to puff away on his pipe again "Why don't you get out of that form. You don't need to worry so much. We are going to do something else. So why don't you start picking up the pieces and I will forge them into a proper weapon for you." he said as he sat there and started to smoke. Zhu sighed as she dropped her form returning from her minotaur state to another and did as she was told. As she had done so her master smirked and pointed "You missed some. And while you work I'll tell you the tale of how I became a warrior, but one that was truly much better at it than you seem to be." he said keeping his smirking face a glow.

Zhu frowned as she continued to pick up the shattered metal shards putting them into a basket that her master had somehow managed to produce from the thin air. As she worked he smiled and continued to tell this tale that he hadn't shared before "I was a young squirt, younger than you and Liu Bei when you both came to me. I was already training in the ways of the warrior. It used to be the tradition that after I trained for a year my master would take the weapons he had made all that years, but hadn't sold and would do a session much like this. He would then shatter all of them, and form them into a much greater weapon than they were separately. However my spell weapons are much like yours have proven to be, and that is to no effect. Truly it used to eat away at me, and my confidence as a warrior. Of course I realize that now it had nothing to do with the fact that I wasn't a great Warrior. I simply hadn't finished learning."

He smiled as he looked down at his apprentice nodding his head once as he stood up and leapt down from the shaft of the spear he had been standing/sitting on. He looked around nodding his head lightly with a smirk "Now then. Come with me and we shall turn that into a weapon that is much better than those weapons used to be." he said. The pair of them walked into the forge and her master took his seat as he waved to a thick stone tablet "Take the shaping knife and cut the mold that you want." he said rather dismissively. It was at this point that Zhu realized what he was doing. Her master never used molds unless he was making a very specific kind of weapon, a spell weapon. So Zhu took the shaping knife over to the mold. The sharpening knife was magic and it could shape the form of anything the user thought of in stone. So now it was up to Zhu to think of something.

Zhu sighed as she tried to think of something. She had many weapons, and she had many ways to use them. Of her two forms however that she had been granted by her new power and the Scorekeeper she smiled and nodded her head. She needed something powerful, something strong, and something that would actually be able to deal death with amazing degree, and also with enough power to break through shields and armors. So she took the knife and began to draw the shape she wanted in the stone slab that would serve as the mold. It didn't take her all that long until she was finished and as she finished the design and completed the circuit the stone inside suddenly vanished forming a depth at her deepest knife stroke. She took a step back and nodded her head lightly as she knew that she was finished and would be the perfect weapon for her Minotaur form. She lifted up the slab grunting wit the effort as she moved it towards the fire, and the great cauldron that would hold the molten metal before it was poured into the mold.

Her master was standing in front of the fire pouring the metal shards into a top cauldron that heated the metal up and let it flow down into the much larger cauldron that was also kept extremely hot in order to keep the metal in a liquid state. Her master was a true Grand Master Smith and so his forge could make hand forged weapons, or molded weapons with great ease and little effort on his part. So this was the evidence of it. However the cauldron also was magically enchanted with runes that would allow the metal to retain the special charge it needed in order to become a spell weapon. So when the great cauldron was full her master looked at her mold and smiled nodding his head lightly as he looked at the mold and instantly knew what she was making. He said nothing as he poured the motel metal into the mold watching as the red hot liquid slowly filled the mold entirely.

The molten metal filled the mold surely and slowly, but that was fine. It just meant that it was sure to be one solid piece. As it cooled her master looked at the mold and the molten metal that was starting to cool  "Well I must say that I am very interested in the form you have selected. It is clear that you are going to need two hands to wield an Axe of this size. There is almost no way that you can wield a weapon that takes that much metal with only one hand. However something tells me you knew that. So tell me what is your plan for this weapon?"
Zhu smiled as she smirked and looked over at her master shrugging her shoulders lightly "Well there are many things I can use a great weapon like this. After all I have very few large weapons in my arsenal, and almost no axes. You were the one who taught me to diversify my weapons. So i have created this weapon in the hopes of giving myself something much stronger in order to deal a lot more damage. I am hoping that when this is finished then I will be able to break through a lot of different defenses."

Her master seemed to think about this nodding his head in approval as he looks down at the axe head. "I suppose that with an axe of this size it would be possible to do what you seek, but the shaft for it must be incredibly thick, and would take great strength to wield. Do you still have that kind of strength?" he asked as he looked at her looking her over once more as if he was trying to size her up.

This caused the warrior to frown deeply as she nodded her head "I do indeed thank you. You don't need to assume that just because I look weak it means I am. After all did any of my swings seem less powerful than when I left you back when I started my life as a real wizard."

Her master smiled as he shook his head and walked out towards his back room "No they weren't any weaker than when you last dueled with me. In fact they were even far more powerful than they had been before. I am very proud of you, and I expect you to continue on this path otherwise I shall be very dissapointed in you." He said as he left the room. Zhu followed her master into the next room and all through it was wood. Lots, and lots of wood. Her master was always one who over prepared and in this case he already had wooden handles of various and exactly every size that could actually be used. He walked around digging through stacks of them as he was clearly looking for the one of them that he would like and allow to act as the shaft for Zhu's newest weapon. As he did so he spoke once more "Well an axe like that looks a bit old fashioned. So A wooden handle is the only proper support for it. However you must be aware that it will make the weapon's handle it's greatest weak point. I would be very careful what you do with this axe."

Zhu shrugged her shoulders lightly as she smiled "Well that would be true, but if we wrap the wood in leather and cap it off at the bottom with metal bulbs then it would be entirely possible that it wouldn't make it that much of a difference. I know you know that, was that a test to see if I would pick up on it?" She asked her master as she walked over to a table and pulled up a long roll of leather strapping that she then lifted and handed to her master just as he turned around to take it from her.

Of course her perception pulled a smile from him as he nodded his head lightly "Aye it was, and I am glad that you caught on that. So the only question I have now is how should I attach the Axe head to the shaft. Iron nails would do the trick, but we need something thicker...or the pole needs to be thicker. Hmmmm. Give me a minute alone in here and go check on the blade. I will be in there presently." he said as he waved his student from the room without much else to say to her.

Zhu simply shrugged her shoulders as she left the wood filled room once more and instead walked out into the forge room and inspected her axe. The metal was still steaming, but it had taken on the proper color of steel and it was shaping up nicely. Yet something was missing from it she wished she didn't pick something so plain looking. As she sat there however trying to think of what she could do to spice it up her master walked back into the room looking at the Axe with a smirk "You are clearly trying to figure out how to improve the axe. Here allow me." he said as he placed the rod down and then placed his left hand on Zhu's head, and then one over the axe. From his hands a soft brown glow began and soon the Axe started to change right before Zhu's eyes. It slowly continued to morph and change until it matched the vision that Zhu had for an axe of her own. She stared in awe at the new weapon before looking up at her master.

He simply smiled as he moved away and picked up the future shaft of the axe once more "This is a power I developed quite by accident. It doesn't do much of anything really worth while, but it does allow me to make weapons that I have appear in the world as they do in my head. I can make it read anyone so long as i put my hand near their head. This allows me to transfer the thought of the mind onto the physical form of the weapon. That is all I have done." He stopped and looked at the axe head that he had reshaped and smiled fondly to it "You are certainly my student. Very practical and very sturdy. Along with that flair for the imposing and dramatic as you always have. I am most impressed. The spike on the back are capable of piercing through some armors, That hole in the middle I can already hear this blade howling through the world around you. I am very, very impressed." He said as he moved to the crafting table and placed the shaft of the Axe upon it. When it was there he walked back and carefully pulled the now cooled axe head from the stone. Well it was cool to his touch, but Zhu could smell the scent of burning flesh. Her master felt no pain in his fingers or hands any more. He felt everything else, but pain was taken from him. This was his gift from the scorekeeper for his long years of making and using weapons in her glory and to spread her wrath upon the world.

It was at this point that Zhu just realized her master had paid her a very high compliment and she looked at him with eyes as large as the moon trying to figure out where that came from. She frowned and shook her head lightly "Uh, master are you alright? You are not dying are you master?! You can't die on me now! You're the only family I have left!"

Her master laughs loudly as he leans forward slapping the palm of his hand as he shook his head laughing continuing through the entire affair. Finally after several long minutes he regained his composure and shook his head lightly "I am not dying you twit. I am far more alive than you will be fore several long years more. We do not age very well, we are going to actually die in battle old age will not get us. Do not worry about that sort of nonsense. No I am alive and well, but you have earned praise so I gave it. That simple you are still my student, but you are worthy of my praise now that you are the herald of the scorekeeper."

Zhu just nodded her head lightly as she looked down at the axe head that she was going to have forged into a brand new spell weapon for her. However she said nothing about that instead she simply said "Well alright, thank you for the very high praise master. I am most honored. What is our next step?"

Her master rolled his eyes and flicked his hand at her signalling her to be silent. He then picked up the several shafts eventually settling on a very ornate and imposing looking one. He slid it into the hole that was in the axe head for it, and Zhu could smell the scent of burning leather. Of course he wasn't done here as he took thick sturdy looking nails and began to hammer these into their slots before he squeezed the metal around the handle hard and forced it to contract and fuse to the shaft even better. This was the way he made weapons and truly it was an honor to Zhu that he would allow her to watch. Before she and Liu Bei weren't even allowed to be in the workshop while he was working, and it was for this very reason. He was the greatest weapon smith to ever live, and watching him was something that was priceless. Of course if someone was watching him and tried to steal his secrets they would find that without the Scorekeeper's blessing of painlessness they would be unable to complete the task as skillfully as he makes it seem. At any rate when he was finished he simply nodded his head and walked away from it "It's ready for you my dear. Go ahead."

This was the part that the warrior understood with crystal clarity. For it was only by sending her magic into the newly forged weapon that she would actually be able to make it a spell weapon. She walked over to the work table and picked up the axe by the shaft. At first she was surprised by the weight of the thing, but it took her only the briefest of moments for her to understand what she was holding, and the weight of it. She smiled as she allowed her aura to flare up and sent a good pulse of her magic into the weapon. This caused it to let out a loud hiss as it glowed with magical power and energy until finally it died away, but the blade was somehow very different. Zhu licked her lips as she allowed her blade to feel right in her hands before suddenly she pulsed magic into it once more and it vanished into her pocket Dimension. Now she had a brand new powerful weapon and she could feel it's power adding to her already substantial power. She flexed her body a bit as she got used to the effect of her pocket dimension taking in the new weapon. It was a strange feeling that only requip wizards could really understand. Now that she had this new weapon however she would have to train with it. So she summoned it up once more looking to her master "Shall we test this out?" She asked him with a mischievous smirk as she gripped her axe tighter looking like she was going to swing it, but she knew that if she actually did that then it would be the last thing she would ever do so she thought it better for her to not do anything of the like.

Her master smiled and shrugged his shoulders lightly as he walked out of the forge "I suppose that was the point of your visit." He suddenly frowned as he looked back at this student crossing his hands in front of his chest "How did you get here without setting off my alarms? I had no idea you were actually here until you were inside of the training grounds. How did you manage this feat?" he demanded very suddenly.

The act was so shocking that even while Zhu was still leaving his forge and he asked it of her she tripped on the doorway and stumbled using the butt of her axe to catch her and keep her from face-planting on the ground in front of her master. Now recovered she cleared her throat lightly and shrugged "I'm not sure to be honest. I sort of just arrived. I went to a tower called the Sky tower I think, and there was a crystal there. The rumor was that if you touched the crystal it would allow you to see your master be they alive or dead, but I didn't think it would be so simple as a teleportation device."

Her master frowned as he walked towards the training grounds once more rubbing his chin in thought "I don't think it is as simple as all that. I can't seem to sense any of my alarm lacrima that is beyond the training grounds. I think that this crystal has actually pulled you and me, along with this location into an alternate dimension or reality and thus we exist here, and not in the outside world. I wonder what happened to my training area now that it is here. It would be something to find where I was supposed to be no longer there, or perhaps there is some form of barricade that keeps people from finding where I am supposed to be now that I'm not there and neither is my home. Very interesting idea indeed. A shame I don't think that I can reach out to anyone in order for them to tell me the state of things. Oh well, I suppose that is a matter for another time really, but all that matters now is that we are training together, and that means we need to test out that new axe of yours. Oh that reminds me what were you going to call this weapon?"

Zhu smiled as she gave it a test swing listening to the howling whistle it made "Gorehowl, that's what I shall call it."

Her master seemed to think this over and he nodded his head lightly in agreement with her choice of name “Very well then. Gorehowl it shall be. I am guessing that you chose that name for the simple fact that it makes that strange whistling sound when you swing it through the air?” he asked, but of course it was mostly a rhetorical question as he already had the answer in his head. He had heard the sound the axe had made as it was swung through the air, and he knew that his apprentice wasn't likely to miss something so obvious. Granted she wasn't always the most creative when it came to naming things, but in this case she didn't really have to be. He was about to turn to her and speak when he heard the sound the axe made once more.

No sooner had he ducked then Zhu swung her new axe where he had once been standing. Zhu shook her head in frustration as the sound had given her away, but still it didn't really matter. She didn't actually expect to damage her master, and certainly not with this particular weapon. Still she needed something to do, and testing out her weapon seemed like the best option. Of course this didn't actually have very much effect on anything.

Still she wouldn’t allow her master to actually attack her with herself so open and exposed as she was. Now she was quickly starting to back pedal and quickly. It proved to be the best decision that she could’ve possibly made. Because no sooner had she started to move backwards than the rod of her master shot out to where one of her knees had formerly been. He whipped around and stood up with a small smile on his face, and his pipe in his free hand. This pissed Zhu off more than anything else. She knew that if he felt confident in holding his pipe in his hand then he was perfectly at home beating her at her own game. This wouldn’t stand and she couldn’t allow him to underestimate her like this. She was so mad that she blanked and threw her axe towards him allowing it to spin several times as it flew towards him. It was at this point that he rolled his eyes and slapped the weapon with his rod causing it to shatter into the tiniest pieces. Still this being one of Zhu’s spell weapons it simply vanished back into her pocket dimension. (Gorehowl Broken)

As he looked around however he noticed that Zhu had already picked up another weapon, and this one was much more familiar to him. It was her family’s blade and it was already in its fully released state. He was very impressed with how fast she was recovering, and more importantly that she was holding the blade perfectly still despite the fact that it was bigger than she was. Still he couldn’t be impressed for long as he could see wind starting to swirl around the blade itself. He didn’t understand what was going to happen that is until Zhu swung the blade with all of her might and it caused five great slashes of pure magical energy to rip through the training grounds. He was amazed with what had happened that he had no choice, but to put his pipe away and jump up into the air using an impaled spear in one of the many weapon stumps to get up over the slashes. 

Still he wasn’t able to rest just yet. Zhu was already starting to move and come at him with all her might. However, as she moved he could see that the blade she was hold was now on fire with blue flames. It was clear that she was now trying to kill him.  This is what he had trained her and Liu Bei to do. He trained them to be ready to kill him at a moment’s notice, and he was sure that Zhu would one day surpass him and be the death of him by doing so. After all he had killed his own master in much the same way, and he would be proud and honored if she were to kill him during this. That is how the masters in the Warrior’s branch of Requip passed on, and their titles passed on as well. Still he wasn’t going to die just yet and as he was about to land Zhu was already bringing her blade down in a vertical arc down upon him with all of her might. 

It wasn’t enough however as her master simply slapped the side of her blade with his rod of shattering. As he did so the blade suddenly shrunk and became a very beaten up looking katana. He was surprised by the fact that it didn’t break outright, but still he was far too busy to worry about that right now. He tilted his rod so the katana hit it and slid down along the length towards his hand. Her master used his other hand to break his fall and lower himself while his rod hand let the rod go just before the blade reached his fingers and he held it in his teeth. The force of Zhu’s blow caused her to cut in an odd angle and this in turn threw her off balance and towards the ground. Her master pushed himself up with his grounded hand and returned the rod to his hand with a small smile “Well that is certainly interesting. I didn’t think that anything could withstand the power of the rod. I must say that your family truly has a blade that is worthy of being remembered as a weapon of the scorekeeper.” He said praising her favorite weapon.

Zhu got to her feet looking at her blade with amazement. She had thought that he would’ve broken it with his rod, and she was just as amazed as he was that her blade was still fully intact. Granted it was in its weaker form and it wouldn’t actually be of the same quality of use to her as it had formerly been. She then looked to her master smiling widely “Well, it is good to know that your rod can’t break everything so simply. However, I do not want to risk my family’s legacy breaking from your terrifying shattering rod.” She said as she pushed the blade into her belt loop and it vanished into that pocket dimension (Tessaiga out of thread) with her family’s weapon now out of harm’s way she walked over to a stump and pulled up two swords. One of which was her blade ‘Wolf Slayer’ and the other was her blade ‘Steel Fang” These would be the weapons she used at this point. 

As she held the swords she could feel her body already starting to engage in another transformation. Her cells split multiplied, and slowly she began to have white feathered wings spread out from her back flapping once to lift her slightly from the ground. Her bones were lighter and this allowed her to actually achieve flight with the wings she had. Truly she was ready to fight him with her angel form now. She turned to him in the air smirking as he was looking at her holding his rod like it was a sword. This was the state that she was looking for, this was the level of respect and fear that she was hoping to pry away from her master despite his reservations for giving her this level of fear and respect.

Now she was ready to fight him and she would fight him with as much ferocity as she could. She flapped her wings once as hard as she possibly could and this caused her to sail towards her master at a very high speed. She wasn’t going to let him have a chance to strike and would keep him on the defensive as best she could. As she swung Steel Fang her master lifted his rod to defend himself. Of course since this was a defensive move and not an offensive one the blade didn’t shatter, but that wasn’t the issue. What was the issue for her master was as she swung Wolf Slayer he made a move to dodge it, but he somehow still felt a blow hit his body. He jumped back away from his student looking down at his figure. He couldn’t see any marks on him, nor could he see any cuts. He wasn’t sure what it was, but he had definitely felt as if some force had actually struck him. Still he didn’t have much time to think on it for Zhu was already on him trying to cut at him. She came at him with a flurry of strikes.

Steel Fang came down in a diagonal slash trying to hit her master’s sternum. Still he managed to avoid it with ease, but then Wolf slayer came from the other side traveling in the opposite trajectory and this would create a pincer type movement. Her master easily dodged this attack however, but once more he grunted as he felt a strange force slam into him. He could feel it across his body that would’ve been slashed by the sword had he not avoided the blade. Once more he jumped back to disengage and try and figure out what was happening. Still as Zhu closed in on him once more he rushed forward and as Steel Fang came in for a stab he slapped the blade with his rod and it caused the weapon to shatter into dozens of tiny pieces the rings flying off in various directions. Zhu didn’t let this stop her however as she was quick to bring her Wolf Slayer down in a vertical arc aiming at his head downward. He dodged to the side of it, but even so as he did he felt the impact of some unseen force and it now caused a ringing in his head. (Steel Fang Broken)

Still, now disengaged he could regain composure and Zhu would take the opportunity to pull up another sword. This was a simple Chinese style one handed sword and she flew at him. She was stopped mid-air however by a hand covering her face. Her master was on the offensive now and this was not a good thing for the young warrior woman. Her master threw her down onto the ground, but as he did so he slapped both of the swords with his rod and they shattered instantly upon the attack. As she was on the ground he slapped her across the face with the rod with a smirk as her face became red with a white line crossing over her right cheek. She screamed out in pain as she put her hands over her face and rolled around on the ground trying to recover. Her master let her and he walked away sitting on a stump once more shaking his head. (Wolf Slayer Broken)

“I am ashamed of you.” He started as he pulled out his pipe “It took me a minute, but I soon understood what you were doing. You somehow made a spell weapon that didn’t need to actually hit someone in order to deal damage to them. You thought you could use something like that on me and there would be no consequences? A warrior never hides their movements, never relies on cheap tricks in order to win, a true warrior fights with honor and fights their opponent’s honestly killing them with their better skills.” He took a long drag from his pipe as he looked at his student who had finished writhing and was now sitting on her knees looking at the ground her hands on her knees. He then exhaled and allowed the smoke to leave his mouth “Still…I suppose that had they not been attacks on me then you would’ve successfully landed blows against other much less skilled opponent’s. I shall not break you for using such a weapon, but you will promise the scorekeeper that you will only use a weapon like that against animals, and those without proper functioning minds. I will hear you make this vow.”

Zhu nodded her head as she lifted it the mark having caused a wound and her face was bleeding “I give the Scorekeeper my most solemn vow that I shall use the blade I have named Wolf Slayer to only kill animals, and monsters. I shall not use it against another warrior in combat.” She said as she leaned forward and bowed to her master “Forgive me master Zheng Mao for using this weapon against you despite me knowing it was a dishonorable way to fight.”

Her master nodded his head lightly as he stood up snuffing out his pipe again and putting it away “That’s already done. Still, we need to begin anew and now we shall continue on with your training.” He said despite the fact that now the sun was starting to set.

Zhu knew that she and her master would be fighting all through the night and into the morning, and this didn’t bother Zhu at all as she was used to this kind of treatment. Her master usually did three-day long training sessions like this between him and his students in order to teach them to fight at their worst and their best. This wasn’t her worst, but it wasn’t her best either. She hadn’t eaten for some time and she was starting to get hungry, but she wouldn’t allow this to slow her down. She flapped her wings and pulled herself over to a pair of very familiar weapons. It was her war glaives and they were something that her master had given her. She quickly pulled them onto her hands and gripped them tightly. Now armed once more she flapped her wings and rushed her master now using the glaives to create wide arching slashes through the air.

Glaives were very dangerous weapons as they didn’t discriminate against who they would slash. The blades were wickedly sharp and they curved around beyond what would be considered smart or safe. If a user wasn’t careful they would tear up their sides, their backs, and their arms with these weapons. It was especially more difficult due to the fact that Zhu was now fighting with wings. She had to be careful to spread her wings behind her as she brought the glaives around her body before slashing them forward towards her master. It was a very dangerous game that she was playing here, but it was also a very smart one. Even her master had a hard time predicting the trajectory of the slashes, as well as covering himself all the time.

He managed to do just this however, and it was quite impressive to watch from the outside. It would be like some magical graceful dance of death that no one could hope to match. Yet, all things in life must come to an end and this little dance was certainly no exception because finally her master slapped her right glaive and it shattered, as she went in for a strike with her left he did the same and she was once more unarmed. This opportunity wasn’t lost on him and he slapped Zhu’s wing with his rod. This was a brand new level of pain that Zhu hadn’t previously felt before. She had injured her body, her legs, her arms, her face, and many other places, but these wings were brand new to her, and she hadn’t felt them in the pain that they were now in.

She dropped down to the ground writhing and squirming despite the fact that she was rolling on her wings. It was agony and a brand new type of agony. Zheng Mao watched with great interest as she was writhing in pain. This was a reaction that she would normally have had when she was a child so to see her like this now and in so much pain was interesting to say the least. He knew the pain that the rod could inflict as it was the rod that his master had used to train him with so he wasn’t unsympathetic to her situation and plight. Still this was the only way for her to get stronger as a warrior and it would not be a path that would be pain-free. It took several minutes for Zhu to recover from the blow and even when she did she couldn’t use her wing.

It was still ringing and she had a feeling that he had broken the thin bones that were in her wings. It was not a thing she wanted to do, but it was something she had to do. She flexed her body as she finally started to allow it to return to its normal appearance. Her wings vanished she looked healthier and she was now once more the warrior and herald of the Scorekeeper. Her master stood up from his usual spot and he looked at her with a tilted head smiling at her “Well that was a new pain experience. Now that you have experienced it from the rod then you shall not be so weak against it the next time. I have always taught you that pain gives you a memory of what not to do and where your defenses are at their weakest. This is that, and you have done well.”

Zhu rolled her eye as she sat down rubbing her right shoulder despite the fact that she no longer had her wing she could still feel the sting of the strike as if it had happened to her all over again. She looked to her master nodding her head lightly “Yes I recall that lesson well. Still, I am very convinced that when you strike with that rod of shattering against flesh then it causes the pain that would normally be felt to be increased by some obscene measure. I have been in many fights, but even to this day I haven’t felt anything as painful as that stick of yours. I have even been immolated alive by fire wizards and I wasn’t in near as much pain as you slapping me with that stick. Care to explain?”

Her master nodded his head lightly as he gripped it and twisted it in his grasp “Yes I shall do just that. You are right the rod of shattering will break any and all weapons it touches with one touch…” he then looked to Zhu’s empty sword belt shaking his head “Well almost all. At any rate that is the effect it has against weapons. However, against the flesh of living things it can’t do anything quite that powerful. Still the strikes are amazing and they are more painful than anything normal humans can feel aside from breaking bones, and even still I’d say that my master breaking my bones didn’t hurt as much as getting struck with this thing. I was once in your shoes if you do recall.” He looked over the rod with a far off look shaking his head “You know I planned to gift this to Liu Bei. You know that he had no family, he was a child who was unwanted by the world. I had planned to raise him up and make him the heir to my forge, my livelihood, and my legacy.” He looked to his new daughter and this scared Zhu more than anything. She saw her master shed a tear for her fallen brother in arms. He cleared his throat lightly and spoke “I want you to swear to me that if you ever find the ones who slew such a promising warrior, that you will break them, and their entire worlds down around their heads. You will show no mercy and you will do what needs to be done.”

Zhu could feel the pain her master was feeling and it caused tears to form in her eye and she knelt before her master her one eyed gazing meeting both of his eyes as tears began to fall down her cheeks “I swear this to you my master. I shall not rest until I am sure that my brother’s killers have atoned for their grave sin against the scorekeeper with their entire worlds.” She said her voice trembling from the emotions that were welling up inside of her.