Book 4. Chapter 22
It took a surprisingly long time for Hedrek to get back up the hill. That single use of [Knights Charge] had completely exhausted him to the point that he’d barely been able to stand in his armor, much less climb a steep slope.
Cid told Govannon, “Go tell Hedrek I’ve decided to rest here for a bit. He can rejoin us when we’re ready to depart.”
Brin got the feeling that he didn’t want anyone to see how exhausted the senior [Knight] was, and the unsaid was the fact that Hedrek wouldn’t return until he was recovered enough to fake it. Meanwhile, they waited.
Brin used that time to collect all the glass he’d expended in the fight. It was satisfying to see just how much glass he’d been able to summon for the fight, but he couldn’t leave it there. People around here tended to just throw their trash on the ground wherever they happened to be standing, but Brin was not a litter bug. Besides, it was dangerous. The knights with metal shoes would be fine, but Brin bet his glass could cut through the leather of a normal shoe.
He quickly created a little tool made of glass, a footlong cylinder that pulsed softly with red light, and assigned a status to it, “Glass Collector.”
He waved it around and then used the dregs of his Mana to pull all the broken pieces of glass together into a big pile. The biggest pieces were easy to find, but there were hundreds of tiny little shards everywhere, so he found himself going back and forth several times over every inch of ground.
When he was finally satisfied that he’d gotten it all, Hedrek still wasn’t back. Brin eyed the oblong mound of glass he’d pushed together. He’d softened all the edges so that it wouldn’t hurt anyone, but it was still ugly.
He waved his Glass Collector, and pushed more Mana into [Shape Glass] to straighten the glass up and give it a shape. He formed a figure–himself. Since he wasn’t imprinting a Mirror Image onto the glass he had to mold it himself so it didn’t look perfect, but since his armor was different than anyone else’s he could make it clear it was himself by the general shape of the helmet and coat.
He made a glass Brin standing with one foot on top of a defeated glass Hedrek, with both arms in the air.