Corwyn Ambers - II
'The,' Corwyn grunted as he lifted a massive weight stack onto his back, before lowering himself into a smooth squat with minimal shaking such was the perfection of his form. "Grind!" He grunted out as he was compressed to the ground. 'Never.' He then rocketed up, heaving as the massive weights dropped back and shook the gym floor. "Stops." He grunted, chest huffing for breath as he just squatted 1330 KG, more than twice the unenhanced human maximum.
He unstrapped himself and glanced at the time, finding that it was late and he perhaps should stop banging around within the gym at an ungodly eleven thirty-seven at night. He went to the communal showers and washed down, before dressing up not for bed, but instead into his Combat Gear.
His plate armor was applied with an ease of familiarity and creative strapping paired with a bit of modern velcro to keep things in place, allowing him the ability to put his armor on without the need for a squire. It still took him quite a bit to shuck on though, one thing he hated about the armor; but its protective capabilities were unmatched now that he'd started to upgrade the damned thing.
He remembered its stats that he put down in his journal.
[spoiler= Stormplate]
Stormplate (Elite Item)
(Note: This is a Set Item. It has exaggerated and compounded Enchantments but is limited in versatility.)
(Note: This armor set has empty Enchantment Slots)
Lightning Forged: This armor set has been forged with Lightning Magic, granting it the aspect of Storm. Storm, Lightning, Electricity, and Thunder based Enchantments are unlocked and enhanced.
Soul Bound: This armor set has been bound to the user's very soul via an advanced Aura technique. Its durability is dramatically increased, will mitigate Aura drain when protecting the user from damage, and will receive Aura easier when enchanting.
Transcendent Craftsmanship: This armor set has been forged and fashioned by a prodigious smith who took great lengths to craft a worthy set of armor. After an intensive amount of time absorbing his Aura, this set of Armor has become Transcendent in quality. While not looking like a masterful artwork, its design is entirely functional while its make, material, and sturdiness is beyond quality and has stepped into the realms of the Supernatural. Through absorbing its creator's Aura and experiencing his semblance through this absorption, the armor set is improving; slowly reaching towards unreachable perfection as it constantly grows in quality the more it is fed.
Lightning Cloak: At will the wearer of this armor can activate a dangerous cloak of lightning that will strike at enemies with an almost intelligent awareness of weakness. A direct blast of this cloak can cause instantaneous third degree burns on a person and can stun a foe as it wreaks havoc on their nervous system.
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[/spoiler]
A flashy enchantment, but he'd actually pushed most of his Aura into improving the Craftsmanship of his armor instead of trying to graft an Enchantment on the item. It was his only Transcendent Craftsmanship item, which he could attest to being a dramatic leap from Mastercrafted; after all, it was the next step above Legendary. Corwyn had invested a lot into his defensive potential, however, in the two months he'd been grinding and adapting, he certainly hadn't neglected his weapons.
Pulled from his gym locker was a quiver of eight javelins, the weapons barely fitting inside as they were keened to the side and their tips slightly scuffed the top of the locker. He removed them and slung them over his back, idly inspecting their enchantments.
[spoiler= The Thunderers]
The Thunderers (Unique Item)
(Note: This is a Set Item. It has exaggerated and compounded Enchantments but is limited in versatility.)
(Note: This armor set has empty Enchantment Slots)
Lightning Forged: This weapon set has been forged with Lightning Magic, granting it the aspect of Storm. Storm, Lightning, Electricity, and Thunder based Enchantments are unlocked and enhanced.
Soul Bound: This weapon set has been bound to the user's very soul via an advanced Aura technique. Its durability is dramatically increased, will deal increased damage, and will receive Aura easier when enchanting.
Legendary Craftsmanship: This weapon set has been forged and fashioned by a prodigious smith who took great lengths to craft a set of javelins that knew no equal. He took no shortcuts and obsessed over producing his greatest possible product. These javelins are perfectly weighted, balanced, and have been worked and re-worked over and over again to achieve the nearest possible point of perfection. They are such that any thrown weapon user will remark on their legendary-grade quality and declare them a weapon worthy of a hero's might. Through absorbing its creator's Aura and experiencing his semblance through this absorption, the weapon set is improving; slowly reaching towards unreachable perfection as it constantly grows in quality the more it is fed.
Returning Bolt: When thrown, the javelins can be summoned back to the thrower in a spark of lightning, manifesting within the hand of the thrower when the spark returns.
Thunderer: The enchantment these devastating Javelins gain their name from. When thrown, a small boom of thunder follows in their wake. When they strike their target, the Javelins produce a devastating boom of Thunder on impact of around 220-300 dB.
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[/spoiler]
Corwyn was thankful that he could choose when to use his Enchantments, as the weapons he was creating were things that weren't exactly the most subtle of things. More than that, he never actually used his enchantments within sparring. Against Grimm within Patch, yes, but against fellow colleagues?
No. It was too dangerous.
As for how subtle his enchantments were, well, Corwyn had no intention of becoming some civil police officer that wandered settlements. He was fully preparing to be thrown into the deep-end of some Grimm infested backwater to die. Kill a few ten thousand and the investment into him would be 'paid', or some other such crock these politicians and bureaucrats were thinking of. He didn't need subtlety in the wilds against tide after tide of Grimm; what he needed was killing power.
Corwyn pushed those thoughts away as he shut his locker, before striding over to where he'd rested his Warhammer. The weapon was taller than he was, and he was already six-foot three. The thing still had a head of height on him, which made close quarters combat annoying to an extent; but making distance was something he'd been working on with his enchantments.
[spoiler=Malleus Fulminis] Malleus Fulminis (Unique Item)
(Note: This weapon has empty Enchantment Slots)
Lightning Forged: This weapon has been forged with Lightning Magic, granting it the aspect of Storm. Storm, Lighting, Electricity, and Thunder based Enchantments are unlocked and enhanced.
Soul Bound: This Weapon has been bound to the user's very soul via an advanced Aura technique. Its durability is dramatically increased, it will deal increased damage, and will receive Aura easier when enchanting.
Transcendent Craftsmanship: This item has been forged and fashioned by a prodigious smith who took great lengths to craft the best weapon he could. While no masterwork of unparalleled craftsmanship, this weapon is a solid work that no warrior would scoff at wielding. Through absorbing its creator's Aura and experiencing his semblance through this absorption, the weapon is improving; slowly reaching towards unreachable perfection as it constantly grows in quality the more it is fed.
Thunderous Wave: Unleash a devastating wave of thunderous sound, dealing physical and magical damage to all that get caught in the wave's wake. Deafens, stuns, and can cause internal damage to a large group of enemies caught in its area of effect.
Heaven's Earth: Slam your hammer's head or butt down upon a foe or the ground itself. When striking a foe, they will be struck down by divine lighting empowering your hammer as it burns with the heat of plasma and electrocutes their bodies; stunning them if they survive the attack. If attacking the ground, the earth itself becomes impossibly electrified, shocking all within a fifteen-meter radius; healing those that you subconsciously consider allies.
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[/spoiler]
Corwyn hefted the now fifteen kilograms of weight the massive hammer held, smiling as he placed the weapon onto his shoulder. It was somewhat awkward to wield both his hammer and his javelins; he needed to constantly switch out of the weapons. Something traditional hunters would always have an advantage against him, was that they could easily switch from melee to range at a press of the button.
Something they'd never have against him, was that his weapon wasn't going to break.
It happened in a more recent sparring session within combat class prior to him becoming Corwyn, The Amalgam. Remnant Corwyn was within the top five of the year, headed off against the ever-switching Number One and Two spots of the half-sister duo: Ruby Rose and Yang Xiao Long. The two sisters had a bunch of drama surrounding them, with their dad being a professor, Ruby technically being the product of infidelity, and a lot of other rumors that Corwyn honestly never paid much attention to.
Yang and Ruby were largely neck and neck, but it was generally a consensus that Ruby was the better fighter among the two. Yang simply held a devastatingly powerful semblance that was tricky to plan around in that dealing damage meant one was likely to get dealt with. Ruby was mindful of this, but at times got a bit cocky and ate a mean right hook after needling her sister with one too many personal insults that were usually in-jokes about the girl stealing something or using something of her sister's.
Or using that oversized farm-tool of hers to clip a bit of hair; something that always sets the annoying hot-head off.
The other two of the 'top-five' were among the speedy type; dedicated and resourceful enough to counter him specifically, keeping Old Corwyn back in the fourth to fifth place of the leader boards with Yang having a Semblance that owned Old Corwyn who didn't have any ability to really fight back once she got going. Others could at least dodge, but Old Corwyn wasn't the fastest in the lot, so running from her was often an effort of futility.
Anyway, Corwyn nowadays was in the Top Three; Professor Tai wanting to hold back on letting him fight his daughters for 'the big tournament'; an event that was creeping up.
Leading to that, they were having a bunch of 'qualification fights', one of which was a fight that had intrigued him greatly was one where he was facing a girl named 'Sue Barrowsburn', a sneaky fighter that used twin Khopeshes that combined into a blade staff. A pretty cool weapon when paired with her ability to transform into a cloud of irritating sand for brief moments of intangibility; easily beatable with some correctly timed Ice Dust, or his favored Lightning Dust, but Corwyn was broke and winning one fight or not eating for a week wasn't something he wanted to do.
It came as a massive surprise to her when Corwyn suddenly remembered a time-honored combat technique that wielders of weapons like his own used against their foes; Weapon Breaking, also known as Sundering Weapons.
It was a technique that specifically targeted weapons, using greater weight, force, durability, and focused pressure to eventually damage a weapon enough that it broke. A technique he'd tried out on Sue.
The girl was well-practiced in Aura Infusion; her blades infused with Aura which discouraged this exact combat style as it was simply not worth the time and effort to bust down Aura placed over weapons that were significantly more protected than soft flesh.
Corwyn started to weapon break the girl, aiming at the conjoining parts of the Mechashift, specifically targeting anything that looked like a moving piece. The girl was getting extremely frustrated with his own fighting style, that being paradoxically extremely defensive and horribly offensive. He achieved this by turtling up, using his greater reach of his weapon, armor, and massive Aura surplus to effectively weather through any damage she could throw at him. Then when he spotted weakness he'd pounce and start sundering her weapon; and to his greatest glee, something broke.
Her blade staff she was using to counter his own reach effectively snapped, and then one strike to the flat of one of her Khopeshes had the blade bend. A glance to the Aura meters spoke of what was happening; Corwyn was dealing so much damage to her Aura through her weapons, that it simply wasn't cost effective to protect them with her Aura, resulting in his exceptionally superior weapon to effectively smash the Earth Dust enhanced weapon.
Sensitive parts and machinery needing smooth movement without any interference were suddenly damaged to the extreme in only a single blow, and that single blow also put the structure of the blade and weapon itself in a critical state, which caused it to both shatter the handle and bend the blade.
Corwyn left liking his new combat technique against foes that relied too much on their weapons and had been tentatively refining it lately.
Corwyn now headed towards the training grounds; empty as per-usual, before he settled into his combat stance and started to move through a form of shadow-boxing. For three hours he was a constant chain of movement and combo, never breaking the chain of momentum, as his body functioned and strained at full capacity.
The reinforced concrete of the floor shattered and cracked from his mere steps as he shuffled about the arena, and the air screamed from his weapon's abuse as he filled it with Aura; sending blunt blasts of compressed air that rattled the entire training area.
In six hours of shadow training and Auric Infusion, he'd finally achieved Transcendent Craftsmanship on Malleus. His arms tensed a bit as the weapon grew a tad bit heavier, likely a full kilogram, but as someone who lifted hundreds of kilos as 'light work' swinging around this bit of weight was like wielding a stick.
Corwyn breathed out strongly, trying to filter out the thick storm of carbon dioxide that often got stuck within his helmet. His body didn't desire Oxygen like it used to with his new Semblance, but Carbon Dioxide poisoning would cause his head to fog up and he'd start to panic. He'd experienced it enough to know that if he breathed deep enough breaths to keep new air intake coming and going it'd funnel through, but it was an experience of wearing heavy-armor.
Done with his Enchanting and training for the day, Corwyn left the training area to head to the fields.
It was time to practice using his Javelins. His armor somewhat constrained his form a bit, so a tried-and-true Javelin throw one would see in the Olympic Games was sadly impossible; however, his supernatural strength more than allowed him to toss hard and far enough that the Olympic running throw was ultimately unnecessary. His hammer landed into the soft turf, standing upright on its head as he drew back a Javelin.
These deadly tools would be entirely used for High-Value Target Grimm that he didn't want to tango with without softening them up a bit. That, and of course aerial Grimm that he couldn't kill with nothing but his Hammer.
Corwyn threw out one Javelin as a 'target', and with it sticking up around two hundred meters out into the large field, he tossed one exactly one meter to its right. He repeated this process of exact accuracy, a process that Old Corwyn had invented due to his desire not to purchase or rent out targets for his weapons. Once he'd run out of Javelins, he'd slap his quiver on his back and all but one of them would rocket back into the bag in a flash of electricity.
He'd then repeat the process with machine-like efficiency, clicking his tongue or scoffing rarely whenever he'd miss by a dozen or so centimeters.
As the sun came up, he caught sight of an interesting occurrence.
'Ruby?' He thought as he gazed at the girl currently starting on her laps. She spotted him halfway around the field's rough dirt track and zipped over to him in a flush of petals.
"Corwyn!" The girl said with a beaming smile on her face.
Corwyn's lips twitched as he briefly remembered the anti-social loner this girl once was largely in thanks to her older sister being a bit of a diva in 'scaring off all the pervs trying to corrupt her baby sister'.
Bitch still did that crap, although Ruby and her got into fights whenever it was brought up.
"Ruby." Corwyn gave a cool nod of his helmet, "Interesting seeing you out here." He left the question unsaid, and she picked up on it.
"Oh, erm, well, we're having the Tournament here soon, and I have to do my best! Yang is out partying and doing a celebration lap; hehehe, she'll be balling that she got second place after I put in the hours." The girl grinned widely, proud of her sudden devotion.
Corwyn hummed, rather impressed with the forethought and attitude. He'd never really had a problem with Ruby, more so her sister. The only 'fault' as he could say, would be her weapon; but the sniper-scythe thing was actually rather unique with the bullshit recoil of the gun flinging her around. Plus, the weapon was rather good at cleaving through hordes of Grimm and any form of AOE that didn't waste precious Dust or Aura resources was a-okay in his eyes.
"Second place, huh. What about third?" He asked with a grin, twisting his helmet off and threading it under and over his gorget to show his face to the girl.
She laughed, not mockingly, but amused, "Think you're up for it?" She asked. "You've been owning Sue and Rylie lately; been training hard too?"
Corwyn chuckled, "Like you'd never guess." He stated a bit mysteriously, and seeing her intrigue, decided to throw her a bone, "I discovered my semblance recently. Semblances, actually, but that one's just between you and me, yeah?"
Having twin semblances was rare. It was a condition known as Twined Soul, and often led to various mental illnesses, sociopathy, Multi Personality Disorders, and a whole host of other things. Not exactly something he wanted to advertise, but if he wanted to show his cool stuff, he needed to explain why he never seemed to sleep or rest.
'I'll likely have to take a psych test when or if it gets out. Boo.' He groaned mentally. He'd keep the exact details of his semblance to his chest, like the sheer power of Grand Enchanter, but Restless Struggler was free game. People knowing he never slept didn't really inspire him showing any grand weakness; maybe they'd assume he was a reckless fighter due to not needing to hold back? Oh, well, his Intrigue stat was low, but his Martial stat was high; can't fault a man for min-maxing, yeah?
Ruby went wide eyed, "Woah…" She said with awe, "Show me?" She asked cutely, the fake act of innocence being extremely innocent in and of itself.
"Show a competitor what to prepare for?" Corwyn asked, amused, his grin showing it all.
She blushed, having been caught so quickly. "Drat." Ruby muttered.
He chuckled, "I'll tell you the first one. I call it "Restless Struggler."
"Ooo." Ruby said, in awe at the name holding great depth.
Corwyn rolled his eyes, "With it I have limitless physical and mental stamina. I don't really feel things like fatigue, exhaustion, or any of the physical limitations I used to. I'm, effectively, functioning at 100% at all times."
"That's…" Ruby furrowed her brows, "You can't sleep?" She asked, horrified.
Corwyn grinned, "Haven't in two months."
Ruby jumped, "Demon." She hissed. "Uwa, what if I awaken two semblances and it's…evil."
Corwyn ran through his head about what he knew about Ruby. "Like if you gained superpowers from eating Strawberries but could never taste them again."
The teen gasped dramatically, her hand on her chest as she stared at him like he'd just spouted that the Grimm were the good guys. "Sacrilege." She stated intently.
"Well then, this heretic will take his totally uncool semblances elsewhere." Corwyn said with a fake sigh of exasperation.
"Wait, wait, wait." The girl zoomed in front of him and pressed her hands against his cuirass. "What's the other one! C'mon, I wanna know. Please. Please, please, please!"
Corwyn debated on the thought and found he honestly didn't really care much about people knowing about his Semblance. Well, what he let them know about it and what he showed were two different things. Extrapolation, assumptions, and other such information could go a long way, after all. "Don't tell your sister, yeah? The enemy of my enemy is my friend, yeah?" He asked, surrendering to her pleas.
"Yes!" She celebrated, looking at him with wide, wondrous eyes.
Corwyn couldn't help but feel like he needed to put on a bit of a show, so he decided to play it up a bit.
With a snap of his fingers his Javelins speared out into the field suddenly sparked into his hand and quiver, drawing an awed gasp from the girl next to him. He then drew into a launch position, bending his back like a bow, and with a deep exhale, he whispered to Ruby.
"Follow the Javelin with your eyes. Cover your ears and back up a few meters." He ordered, with the girl obeying with curious eyes.
Then, with a guttural roar, he threw. A blast of thunder resounded from the suddenly sparking javelin, the weapon like a lance of light across the sky as it was thrown up into the skies; then, suddenly, it dropped.
And upon it striking the distant grass with its sparkling blue form…
Crackhoom!
A devastating and visible blast of sound buffeted their form, Ruby letting out an inaudible squeak next to him as the force of several hundred decibels, ranging in 230-250 decibels, blasted their forms; the power of mystically enhanced thunder being felt by their Aura enhanced bodies. If they weren't Hunters and didn't have Aura, they'd likely be nursing a few significant internal injuries.
With a gesture of his hand, a spark of blue electricity darted out of the thick cloud of smoke before entering his hand. The javelin was sparkling within his hand as he smirked over to a gapping Ruby.
"Waah." She muttered, speechless.
"Cool, yeah?"
She was suddenly at his chest plate, "What was that! That was crazy! Holy cheeseballs, you were like, super cool pose and dramatic instructions, before that throw! Pssheeew! BOOOM!" She acted out in a manner that had him smiling irresistibly at her cuteness. "C'mon, spill, how'd you do that? Lightning Dust! Yeah, gotta be." She muttered, trying to deduce his abilities.
Corwyn sheathed one of the Thunderers within his quiver and hefted his nearby hammer onto his shoulder. The action drew her attention and suddenly the puppy-dog eyes were back. Corwyn flinched at them, "Show more?" She asked.
"Erm." He didn't really want to show his hand, but on the other hand. Cute girl asks me to show cool move?
Lizard Brain Wins.
With a slightly conflicted face he sighed, "Thunderous Wave, or Heaven's Earth?" He asked.
"Both!" The girl proclaimed without a single second of hesitation.
"Fffuu, fine." He sighed, slumping slightly.
He took a deep breath, before getting his game face on and gripping his hammer tightly, with a twist of his hips and a silent roar on his lips, Corwyn let loose a Thunderous Wave towards the aftermath of the Thunderer. The horizontal swing that looked like it was nothing more than just an errant swing at the wind suddenly glowed a deep lilac purple on the hammer. With a thunderous noise of cracking air and breaking winds, a deep bellow of the sky god's roar left the hammer's head in a forward-facing arc.
Turf and grass were ripped out of the ground with dirt and lumps of earth following as a cone of damage rocketed forward in a cone reaching out twenty meters from his position; devastating everything in the area with an echoing rumble of thunder. His dimming hammer slammed into the earth, a satisfied look on his face as he turned to see Ruby biting her lips before mumbling under her breath.
"So fucking cool."
Corwyn blinked, 'A curse? Must be an illusion.'
Ruby's half-lidded eyes suddenly turned to him and gained light, "Next, please?" She begged.
Corwyn showed a bit of reluctance.
"Please, c'mon, erm, I'll bake you some cookies! Or, uh, erm, I'll go on a date with you!" She suddenly blushed a storm as she said that, and the formerly reluctant face from Corwyn suddenly twisted into the most shit-eating grin she'd ever seen; and she'd seen plenty from Yang.
"A date, huh? Well, then, we have a deal." Corwyn said slowly, enjoying as she quickly became a blushing storm, but refused to flee as she definitely wanted to see something named 'Heaven's Earth'.
His grin never left his face as he gripped Malleus by the neck and raised it high above his head. From cloudy gray skies, a spark of gold appeared. Then two, before three, and soon the skies above were a shade of brilliant gold, sparkling with light that reminded both of sunshine. The sparks suddenly collected within an artificial supercell, and in a blink of a blinded eye, a bolt of gold leaped down and struck Corwyn's raised hammerhead.
With solemn strength born of showing off to a girl, Corwyn gripped the lower end of his hammer and transferred his grip into something proper. Raising into a dramatic overhead, he swung down with all his strength, his roar being lost in the current of power being channeled into his golden hammer's head. The head struck the earth, and with the sound of shattering glass, golden lightning spread across the field.
The grass around him was incinerated, Ruby flinching as the fire and sparks spread to her; yet amazingly she wasn't harmed. Golden lighting snaked around her, licking her skin and clothes as it behaved like erratic streams of energy and water, dancing in a beautiful mirage of color being starkly contrasted by the shadows of light cast by the channeled beam of lighting and the blackening of the earth.
With a few last sputters of power, the radius of lighting ended, and Corwyn rose from his kneeling position; a cocky grin on his face as he met Ruby's suddenly red cheeks.
"Tomorrow at four?" He asked casually as he sauntered up to the girl.
She looked down at her feet suddenly and mumbled something.
"Oh?" He leaned down with a grin.
"M'kay." She muttered louder.
"Wonderful." Corwyn chuckled as he turned to leave the training ground, whistling on his way.