Chapter 125: Deceptive rest
Irwin stared at the swirling patterns of colors and imagery that hung above Ambraz's shiny surface as he brought down the hammer perfectly in time with the soft tune he was humming. All of his cards vibrated in harmony, forcing the card lying on Ambraz to resonate along. The yellow-bordered card trembled slightly, showing that the resonance was going against its normal predetermined path, but Irwin barely noticed.
For weeks now, he'd been doing nothing but reforging cards and forcing them along different paths. It had taken him two weeks to get a hundred percent topaz card that wasn't the card's default path. Now he had been working almost three weeks on reforging cards up to emerald. He still couldn't get over ninety percent without Ambraz's help, but it had been days since he'd failed.
As he struck again, a minute increase in the card's resonance came, and he knew he was closing in on the end.
"Now," he whispered in between his hum.
"Ready," Ambraz grunted.
Irwin drew a deep breath and then focused on the bright pinpoints or holes in the card. Readying himself, he struck down on the card, and unlike he normally did, he let his hammer rest while he forced his cards to continue the single note they had just held. A deep humming seemed to pass through him while he felt his hammer shake softly. It felt as if something was trying to push the hammer up and away from the card, but he kept it there with little effort.
The cards resonating turned to a high-pitched whine, and the pressure increased. Slowly the whine seemed to interfere with the resonating of his own cards, and Irwin clenched his teeth as he tried to keep everything in balance.
"Three… two-" Ambraz counted down slowly.
Irwin felt his hold on his own cards start to slip when Ambraz reached one.
"One, up up!"
Irwin pulled his hammer up just in time to keep the cards resonating along properly. The pinpricks of light all across the card had dimmed noticeably but were still there.
"Again," Ambraz grunted.