(the continuation)

  "True enough.” Eorlas purred with a casual ease, still idly twirling blade between her fingers as she inspected the undead troll. “Though I must admit, watching you fit undead cadavers into neat little battle lines has its... charm. Fun, even. But it doesn’t tell us little of our adversaries' bite. Unless, of course, you're simply venting."

  Aegisthal was unamused by her attempts to get him to react. Her word games while unnecessary and even pedantic were a part of her nature. She was a predator, and predators hunted. He was a warrior and soldier; warriors and soldiers fought, killed, conquered, and defended. That was his nature. For him to judge her on her own nature was to judge himself and he was no judge.

  Still, her words set a dangerous precedent, one that needed correction. While Frizzy had learned directly under the general’s tutelage, he had also learned from the general by listening and watching. Wisdoms he would be a fool to not take advantage of. He was the first sentinel, the eldest, it was his duty to teach them when he could when a mistake needed correction.

  “Incorrect.” Aegisthal said plainly, recovering his weapon and moving to a nearby table to write his findings. “It provides a great deal of information, both regarding our enemy's strengths and our own. The trolls are their primary shock troops. Rapid regeneration, immense physical strength, likely minimal armor. Their durability compensates for the lack of defense. Our undead, by contrast, are armored. While they do not heal, they don’t feel pain tire and have a protective shell.”

  Aegisthal lectured while he made his notes in his smile tight script. Ensuring it was legible for later review with either the General or the elders of the two races who resided within the dungeon. While they may not warriors, they may have views that may be insightful. As the general had said to Frizzy on multiple occasions, one perspective was useful. More though could show an easier way to solve a problem. View things from all angles.

  “Their healing, flesh regrowth and limb regeneration, alters engagement strategy. It dictates what weapons we use, how we inflict lasting damage, and where our limitations lie. It is preparation. According to Omnus, I am the only golem optimized for true sustained frontline combat. The rest are multipurpose units, adequate but not designed for direct engagement. That, too, changes how we fight. These variables must be cataloged. I do not 'vent.' I plan."

  “Oh, of course not. But our own forces?” Eorlas tittered, turning her back to the undead armored troll. Making her way to join Aegisthal at the table in which he took notes. "Calling them lacking would be a kindness. The Master could win through attrition alone, should He so choose. Which is why I find His concern for the... mortals... rather perplexing.” She mused, a good deal of her amused tone now missing and replaced with one of deeper thought.

  “Explain.” Aegisthal said flatly, his attention now mostly focused on Eorlas for her choice of words.

  "The dungeon’s residents, perhaps. They have potential. A few are even cute to in their flailing ways, even entertaining at times. But they’re still mortal. Weak. Brittle. And nowhere near the standard required to stand beside us."

  Aegisthal was about to correct Eorlas for her very incorrect statement when the sounds of three explosions rocked the air. The sound was as if the air itself had suddenly cracked. The explosions were quickly followed by three solid thuds of large heavy bodies falling to the ground a half moment after the other.

  Aegisthal and Eorlas quickly snapped into action, both he and her drawing their weapons. Ready to fight and defend as needed once the threat was identified. What they found was three of the four armored zombie trolls. Their heads either caved in from a massive impact making the helmet warp into the pulverized skull or a hole bored through the helmet with the inside utterly obliterated.

  Aegisthal turned quickly to the direction of the attack, judging by the way the bodies fell an there they saw Frizzy.

  Her gaze was hard and focused, her prosthetic arm raised and pointed at the trolls. Her hand in a fist that pointed down slightly while a strange device attached to her forearm. It looked like a partially cut tube with copper coils wrapped around its body along with a mana stone cut like a gem resting in its side. She was also dressed in medium weight half plate armor with gears and pistons around the joints. Seeming to reinforce the weak point of the armor that hugged her form. A bronze pack sat attached to the back that that had further tubing linking to the pistons of her armor.

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  With their attention on her, she pulled a iron slug shaped like a bulbed needle that was roughly an inch long and half an inch in diameter. she pulled the slug from a wrist mount next to the device on her prosthetic arm and slotted it into the device through the open top of the tube. She moved her arm, aiming at the last troll, took careful aim before flexing a thumb.

  The device created a brief flash before it launched the slug with such force that it created a loud crack sound in the air. The next instant, the last troll found its armored head suddenly being caved in from the force of impact. The helmet being crushed, doing little to save the head with the body dropping motionless to the ground.

  “Don’t you ever underestimate someone.” Frizzy said coldly, lowering her weapon and arm to rest at her side. Her face a hard mask as she stared down Aegisthal and Eorlas. “If someone could be a threat to you and your home, you deal with them like they are worst enemy in the world.”

  Aegisthal said nothing. He couldn’t have explained it better than how student of the general just demonstrated. Instead stood and observed. This was a conversation he couldn’t contribute to. He chose to instead admire the weapon the Frizzy made. Something like that changed the rule considerably.

  "What... was that?" Eorlas asked, her words slower and more carefully considered. "Four armored trolls undone in a breath so clean, so sudden. How long have you been hiding something so delightfully efficient? How... is that possible?"

  She is unsettled. Unused to being surprised. Aegisthal thought to himself privately. Good. This will be a good lesson for her.

  Frizzy for her part remained quiet. She walked towards the trolls with steady measure steps the resounded with a clink from every step thanks to her armor. Approaching the slain trolls without fear before coming to stand next to one with and out stretched arm.

  With an ease that should not be possible for someone of her size, she used her non-prosthetic arm to lift up the large heavy limb. Bending it at the joint to go behind the bulk of its body before delivering a devastating blow with her knee. Snapping both bones in the trolls forearm and warping the bracer on its arm at the same time. Only then did she release the mangle limb to look at both Eorlas and Aegisthal. Both of whom were surprised that someone so small could do that kind of damage.

  Frizzy only grinned, yet it didn’t reach her eyes.

  “To quote my Teacher, your Master, and general. I’ll tell you what he told me when I asked that same question.” She said, marching closer to the both of them. “With imagination, understanding of multiple subjects, spite, and no small amount of ‘fuck you, I’m amazing’, anything is possible.” She finished with a small chuckle while staring up at both of them.

  Before either Aegisthal or Eorlas could comment, Frizzy’s gaze somehow got all the more authoritative. Her will was law, and right now she was challenging both him and Eorlas to say something to her. To question her worth, her place, her merit, her authority.

  Aegisthal was rather impressed by her growth. He remembered when she was much less confident in herself. Struggling to grow and find her place in the world when he was the only sentinel. Now here she was, acting more and more like a leader.

  “I am Jack’s first disciple, his most avid student.” Frizzy said, her words firm and blunt. “It is only recently I started to understand the deeper meanings of what he taught me. I took those lessons to heart. So now let me share what I have come to realize from what he said after I asked that question. ‘When you understand something, really understand how things work. You can do all kinds of things to bend the rules of how things do and should work. That’s when your only limitation becomes your imagination. My imagination is limitless and which means so am I.’”

  She smiled a cocky smile that dared them to say otherwise. A grin Aegisthal felt would have belonged all too well to the General.

  “To answer the other part of your question. It is a wrist-mounted … A.S.S. fixed to my prosthetic arm. If anyone else tried to fire it without a prosthetic limb like mine or a suite of armor like mine. If not, there a good chance it will dislocate someone’s shoulder.” Frizzy said proudly.

  "I require one. Scaled up. No, two units. One for myself. One for Ironhorn."

  Aegisthal said quickly, not hesitating to request the item as it would only be a boon for him and Ironhorn. A swivel version the size of a siege weapon would be a devastating to any larger threats.

  "Wait... we're just going to pretend the weapon is actually called A.S.S.?" Eorlas asked, for the first time sounding utterly bewildered to the point she didn’t even try to play her double meaning word games. "Truly? No one? Not even a twitch? We’re all just going to let that pass unchallenged?"

  Frizzy groaned at this, her face betraying utter frustration.

  “I know… believe me I KNOW. But I wasn’t the one to name it. Jack did. I just found a way to make it so it doesn’t explode every time it was fired.” Frizzy relented.

  “They… Explode?” Eorlas said still struggling with what she heard.

  “Not anymore.” Frizzy declared before getting a hesitant look and quietly mumbled. “So far.”

  Aegisthal considered the possibility and found it an acceptable risk. For a weapon that complicated and devastating, it was natural there would be some risk to the user. His body was made to be incredibly durable and endure most a great deal of damage. If it did explode, the odds of it being debilitating were small

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