Emperors War 111 Harmony Style

"Nothing at all, aren't we both part of the same company, of course I'll make you one?" As Aker's words left his mouth and entered the ears of the fighters from D Company there was a great s.h.i.+ver of excitement that could be felt coming from those couple of hundred men.

"Did I hear him right? Did that kid just say he would make Archie's weapon for free?" No longer carrying that air of valor and heroism that das.h.i.+ng and debonair fighters voice exuded incredulity as he stared doubtfully at Aker.

Archie with his fish eyes bulging didn't dare doubt Aker's words, what if he offended him and he elected to not forge him a weapon? Who could he cry to if that happened, not only would no one help him but they would probably add fuel to the fire and laugh at his bad luck.

"Thanks Little Brother or should I call you Big Brother...hahahaha" A nervous laugh left Archie's lips as he was not sure how he should treat this kid. In terms of battle strength, skills, talents and potential Archie was clearly behind Aker...wasn't it Archie begging the other for a favor?

In every facet that Archie considered the only way in which he would be the Senior between them was age.

"Just call me Aker, everyone just calls me by my name. Don't mention it, forging is one of my hobbies and having someone to make a weapon for just makes the endeavor more rewarding." Aker's words along with the small smile he was wearing didn't just give Archie a good impression, everyone present couldn't help but feel that this kid was superb.

"Me too!"

"And me!" "And me!" "This guy too!"

The calls for Aker to create weapons bombarded his ears, so many fighters were calling out he lost track of who was making a request.

Aker was being inundated by request so the fighters began pus.h.i.+ng forward as if they wanted to crawl up on the stage and put themselves in Aker's face to get his attention. Muscles seeing the situation spiraling out of control decided to bring order back to the scene "Everyone from D Company listen up!"

Muscles had only met Aker a couple of times but he already owed him so much, on top of that Aker would be teaching him sword fighting which would only add to the tab of debt. While Aker would be the one making the weapons couldn't Muscles handle the request for Aker and take some of the load off for him?

"I'll take the request from everyone and hand them over to Aker. Don't forget there are hundreds of you here and it takes time to forge a weapon. Since Aker already promised Archie a weapon his will be the first, for everyone else we can do it by random draw."

Muscles added a bit of inflection in his voice making it sound more domineering as he spoke. If he was speaking to a civilian crowd this inflection would have caused the crowd to cower down in fear and perhaps even run away in fright, but to this group it was merely a joke. Which of them couldn't give a battle cry that scared ghost and caused avalanches?

"Who are you to decide how that kid forges the weapons! I'll be the one who will decide the order that brat makes them in!" The conniving fellow who had been sneaking burgers earlier wouldn't let such a lucrative opportunity pa.s.s him by, he'd have to be a special kind of stupid to not see how easy it would be to clean up.

'Just because this idiot won't charge anyone to forge weapons doesn't mean there isn't a sweet deal to be made here. If I can control the order of whose weapon is created first then I would be able to bid out the slot each day. As the days pa.s.s the price will only get more and more expensive as fighters get tired of waiting.'

As he rubbed his hands together and his thoughts lead him towards a glorious wealth filled future he almost didn't hear as fighter after fighter called out

"I'll be the one to decide" With his skinny arms, short legs and exceedingly long hair this fellow seemed almost comical in his declaration. His only defining feature was his piercing blue eyes, his eyes despite his comical features gave him a slightly intimidating aura.

"No, I'll be the one" Perhaps the only fighter in D Company and therein the entire Underground Empire with thinner arms, shorter legs and longer hair fired back. Not wanting to be seen as someone with smaller arms than that the blue eyed fellow he would secretly stuff them, thus giving the sense that they were bigger than they were in reality. Everyone in the Company knew this secret but no one mentioned it.

In truth when these two guys weren't fighting, they were the closest of friends, that is when they weren't fighting, which wasn't often. Lukas that blue eyed fellow and Ruben with his fake arms, neither was willing to give way once they started.

"Who the h.e.l.l are you to decide!? Didn't you already tell me your face was tired of meeting my fist. Should I introduce the two of you again?" Lukas fired back while holding his tiny fist up in a most comical fas.h.i.+on.

"Hahahahaha.....Would a tiger fear a dog? Would a cat fear the mouse? Who's afraid of you? Come on then, let me see how strong your fist is....." Mocking Lukas as he flexed, Ruben found this as a favorite move but each time he did it, it would expose just how fake his bulking arms were.

Just like that the two began fighting and sure enough Lukas's fist hit Ruben in the face, once...twice....three....four....times Ruben was getting hit but amazingly enough he kept moving forward as if it never happened.

Aker who was watching the two snickered to himself, especially Ruben who took shot after shot to the face but kept on keeping on. Aker wasn't sure even listening with his divine ear but he was pretty sure he heard Ruben continuing his mocking toward Lukas under his breath.

To take a beating and to still mock with your heart fully into it, this was manly too.

"Enough! Everyone knock it off!" That heroic voice once again permeated the area and really did cause the two to stop fighting as well as put a hush to the ones arguing about who would be the all-powerful keeper of the forging order.

"These knuckleheads have forgotten that you're forging these weapons for them without any strings attached and lost their heads and that ultimately it comes down to what you want to do. How did you want to decide the order of forging?" It was hard for the fighters in D Company to ignore when this man spoke. His bearing despite his thin stature exuded that debonair and heroic feeling in his every word and action.

"I didn't say there wouldn't be any strings attached, I just said I didn't want anything in return for making the weapons." Aker looked out and over the group, his sweep of the eye caused all of them to stop their meandering and one upping leaving them only focused on him.

"Just like Shawn over there, I'll make you a weapon, and it's not just limited to swords. I should be able to forge just about any weapon any of you would want to use. I can customize it to fit your needs just like Shawn's as well. He wanted a heavy sword but maybe you want a long light saber, perhaps a short spear, or a set of balanced knives, whatever it is I can give it a go..."

It wasn't just the fighters from D Company that were salivating as Aker spoke, the fighters from the other companies who had found themselves here were also beaming with antic.i.p.ation.

Sure, every company outside of D Company had a blacksmith who could forge them weapons, but those blacksmiths didn't do custom orders for the regular fighters. If they wanted a custom weapon, they would have to pay for it themselves and a weapon of the caliber that Muscles was carrying around, they could never afford something like that.

It was no wonder they were looking on at Aker ready to pounce on him to claim owners.h.i.+p, their greedy eyes overflowing with their intentions. To have their very own blacksmith who could forge any weapon they wanted which would be perfectly customized just for them, the value of this kid couldn't be quantified.

"but just like Shawn I'm making it for you to practice with. If you don't want to join my practices that's fine you don't have to, but I won't be making you a weapon either." Aker had given this group the same ultimatum he had given Muscles.

"You're just a puer nuntius, you don't have any say so in what we do and don't do. You'll do what we tell you to do or....." That conniving fellow was angry at everyone here to include Aker. He was so caught up in the mountain of wealth and favors he was going to rake in by exploiting Aker he had convinced himself that it was already his. A breath later hundreds of fighters were competing with him trying to claim owners.h.i.+p and then some errand boy was giving him conditions.

"Or what? Come up here and show me, I'll wait. Even if you can defeat me, can you make me forge weapons? I promise you that you can't make me do something I don't want to do no matter how strong you are. I'll tell you this right now, Shawn will handle everything and I will forge the weapons according to his order, if you don't like it then you can go and forge your own weapon. If you try and force me or if you try and coerce or threaten Shawn then I will immediately stop forging weapons. If that happens, I would like to see what the other fighters in D Company would do to you."

With Aker's words everything was settled and the entire crowd was left perplexed. This kid seemed to have two different personalities, he would be humble doing the cooking, cleaning and forging weapons without complaint. These were task that most of the fighters considered menial and beneath them.

Then he would be domineering, authoritative and absolute. His words just now were daring someone to try and force him, he was throwing down the gauntlet in complete defiance and telling everyone of those regular fighters they could hop up on the fighting stage and try. When he slapped Brendon and lorded over him, everyone was surprised but that wasn't overly exaggerated, but now it wasn't just Brendon, it was the entire crowd he was challenging.

"Hahahahaha.....good, isn't that how a fighter should be!" That das.h.i.+ng man with his heroic voice alleviated the tension that was permeating in the air. Most of the fighters from D Company had an amazing impression of Aker, but some of them felt that he didn't know his place, he was only a puer nuntius after all and he should be licking their boots.

"Well said Brother Ashton! Since Aker has said it and I volunteered to handle it then let's not do it by random draw. It was my mistake to begin with mentioning such a thing, listening to Aker reminded me that for these types of matters it should be our strength that determines the order and not luck. I'll set up a stage back on the company grounds, whoever can hold the stage for five minutes will have their weapon made after Archie's. Each day we will hold a contest of hold the stage and the winner that day will have their weapon forged next." Muscles was speaking to that heroic figure Ashton, however his words were meant as an announcement of the rules to everyone from D Company.

"Let's go right now, I'll be the next one to have my weapon made. Kid, I want you to make me a halberd with blood red metal, I want my enemies to see the color of blood before I cut them down...hahahahahaha." Lukas called out with his eyes now red and he wasn't the only one who was letting their emotions get the better of them.

Suddenly the idea of standing on a stage, king of that moment, suppressing all who try and oppose with a weapon perfectly designed for the victor as the reward, this thought was overwhelming. Without hesitation the fighters dashed back to D Company, everyone wanting to be first.

Muscles, Ashton, Brendon and Archie waited for Aker to hop down off of the fighting stage and were the last of the group to leave. As the group of them walked off the covetous eyes of the fighters from the other companies watched, each of them with their own calculations and plots.

As the group walked back to D Company both Muscles and Ashton were focused on trying to pull details out of Aker. They wanted to know how he learned to forge, cook and fight, and were completely stumped with the idea of how someone as young as Aker could have such impressive ability's, this was the question they asked themselves over and over again.

They were also lightly probing to figure out if Aker had any other secrets he was keeping. They were all feeling that Aker had already exposed all of his capabilities but were still trying to validate, wouldn't it be to unbelievable if he was still hiding more after what he's already shown?

Since Aker had left from dinner to head directly over to the fighting stage, he still had to clean up the kitchen and prep for tomorrow's breakfast. Aker headed back to the kitchen while the others went to setup the D Company fighting platform which would become the new home for the battles to determine the forging order.

Aker who was used to cleaning up as he cooked didn't have a huge mess and thus was able to get the kitchen in order relatively quickly. He prepped for the mornings breakfast and then decided it was time to head back to his room for the night.

Along the way Aker an into Leland who had been taking care of the laundry and cleaning the common areas. Leland hadn't heard anything about Aker defeating Finley nor about him being a blacksmith so the two talked about how the cooking, cleaning and menial task were coming along.

Once Aker got back to his room area, rather than walk directly into his room he took a few minutes and scoped out the couple of rooms around him. After walking through four empty rooms Aker shook his head up and down indicating that he was happy with his thoughts, "With me creating weapons for the other fighters it shouldn't be too difficult for me to have one of them pull a favor of some sort and get my room expanded. Just like I thought all of the rooms are the same size so if I can have a minimum of four and hopefully get five then that should allow me to train to my heart's content."

After confirming that he shouldn't have any problems expanding his room Aker found his spot on the floor and broke out his dizi to practice.

Aker's fingers danced over the dizi while he thought about his day. The metal dizi already had a heavy sound to as it came off more masculine than most flute type instruments. Today however, the normally heavy and masculine dizi had an intimidating sound as the notes fluttered about.

Today as Aker played, he thought back on his interactions with Brendon, Finley and his deceleration to the crowd to come and challenge him.

This was Aker's first time having such domineering thoughts while playing the dizi, and the sound was sufficed to say, impactful.

If an ally was around, they would feel the blood boil and the heroic and domineering att.i.tude would consume them, they would be able to battle a hundred and march forward unafraid of even the heavens falling.

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If an enemy was around, they would feel suppressed, a boot on their face without the slightest bit of willpower to object to their minor role.

Aker was unknowingly injecting nature particles into his dizi as he played, it started ever since he began practicing on this new planet with its abundant nature particles.

Finis.h.i.+ng his dizi practice Aker broke out a formations book and began absorbing nature particles while reading. After his fight with Finley his goal was to develop a fighting style that could utilize formation type attacks much like Finley had demonstrated.

Ultimately the weakness that Aker discovered in Finley's attacks were that after two or three strikes it became obvious that the attacks were based on formations. If you were fighting against someone who was knowledgeable in formations then the attacks would begin to prove ineffective, just as Aker demonstrated.

The mistake that Aker was making in his thought process was that he was a.s.suming that there were many others out there just like him, that could survive the first couple of waves of attack, were knowledgeable in formations and had a keen enough understanding of them that they could develop countermeasures.

"The attacking style needs to be capable of utilizing any types of weapons or at least accounting for the differences between weapons. Spears are longer and have a completely different type of attack and defend than that of a saber or sword. Even between the saber and sword the differences are quite extreme, as the saber excels in brute force utilizing the methodology of my strongest will defeat your strongest whereas the sword has so many different ideologies...."

Aker was looking up from his book and speaking out his thoughts. As he sat on the floor his mind was going through all the different variations of fighting he had learned over the years, the different types of combinations, and the different concepts of attacking and defending.

"Any battle strategy will have to allow for fluidity, it shouldn't be rigid in how the sword is used, the saber, the spear, every weapon should be free and unfettered, for it to truly work the weapons being used shouldn't be the restriction. It should be the concepts of how the attack and defense are utilized that are key, not the actual form...."

As Aker was talking out his thoughts, he was beginning to touch on the concepts that he wanted to learn and teach and began forming an idea.

Aker stood up, grabbed his sword and began swinging. Initially as he swung his sword he followed his normal sets, his swings were precise, he followed his same concepts of carbonatations, doing the same dodge, attack and counter he had always done.

Aker had practiced these moves, tens of thousands...no hundreds of thousands of times. Every single swing of his sword was exactly the same with no deviation at all. Every movement was honed and perfected based on all of his battle experience, but it wasn't perfect in the sense of fluidity and adaptability.

Aker learned that lesson today when he fought Finley. It was because Aker's fighting style was too rigid that initially he exposed so many weaknesses despite his superior ability.

Fire is explosive and consuming; it is alive and breaths, its consumes and spreads its hunger knows no bounds. 'My sword should be explosive and have a life of its own', Aker's sword moved faster and faster until the tip disappeared into a blur of movements. As Aker's sword danced and moved everything in Aker's room began to sway back and forth with his movements.

Earth is strong and stable; it is the nutrient of life as it is the soil that feeds the plants that all other life depends on, it is the mountain and plateau. Aker's sword movements slowed drastically, his sword was no longer das.h.i.+ng around as fast as possible it was now moving in a very predictable and defined manner, sometimes from on high and other times from down low. While it appeared to be moving slowly if someone were to attack, they would find it nearly impossible to penetrate its defense.

Metal is hard and dense, because of its makeup it can be a magnet pulling in everything or a repulsive gravitational force. Aker's sword was no broadly slicing and stabbing. As the sword moved all the objects in the room were trying to either move towards Aker or fly away depending on whether he was moving his sword forward or backwards.

Water is the definition of fluidity; it can be both soft and hard. It can penetrate any defense and can become an impregnable defense. Water can bombard and destroy or gently nourish and give life. Aker's sword was moving both fast and slow, flas.h.i.+ng moments of utter destruction followed by a slash that seemed as soft as a goose feather pillow.

Wood is a provider, it produces the air that we breath, it provides the foundations of what human and beast call home. Wood allows for creation and creativity; it is this element that is the best at healing. As Aker's sword moved there was a grace and bearing to it that gave the feeling that it had come alive. A cool breeze fluttered through the room and the world started to sing.

"The elements are the foundation of Body Conditioning; they are the foundation of strength for magic fighters. Any battle style that I would develop should then of course have their foundations in the same place. By utilizing the strengths of the five elements and incorporating their ideas we will naturally be able to create a cohesive style that would be able to compete with any other.....hmmmmm…..let's call it Harmony Style."