The Legend of the Meta-Defying Smith Who Saved the Kingdom

His armor and the weapons he had out weighed some six tons, it is said. Only the [Levitation] enchantments woven throughout enabled him to move as though it weighed no more than a normal set of armor.

The shortest path between two points, barring Spatial magic, is a straight line. He activated a [Flash] enchantment at low intensity as he went, ensuring that he was visible as he flew from the top of the Royal Castle down to the plains below, to a point some several hundred yards before the front line.

He landed, and forewarned by his [Divine Lightspeed Haste], he activated his Greatshield's [Perfect Enhanced Divine Retribution].

The Demons struck first and struck hard.

Exactly what the Smith would have done had he been in their position.

From the Royal Castle, observers could see magical bombardment launched from dozens of points within the assembled forces, in all manner of hues. Red, blue, green, brown, black, white, and dozens of other colors of lights arced high and converged on the Smith's landing location in a magical bombardment that shook the Plains like an earthquake.

Several of the older buildings in Saint Alejandro's District collapsed from this alone.

The bombardment continued for roughly a minute, and then ceased all at once. Finally, the vile Demons stopped to look upon the results of their attack.

And then lances of golden-white light formed above the armies, precisely above where the attacks had originated, and descended with divine wrath.

And then they exploded.

The booms overlapped and echoed around and around the hills surrounding the plains, causing sound damage to everyone.

When the dust cleared, the Smith stood tall, entirely unscathed.

By all rights, having withstood the first blow, the Smith was perfectly in the right to counter-attack, and yet, he shouted, "Parley!"

Indeed, he intended to negotiate with the Demons, should they be willing.

The Smith was truly noble, to make such an offer when the Demons never had.

And, having not only withstood their initial strike, but also having wiped out the majority of the magical artillery units in retaliation, the Demon Lord took heed of the Smith's offer, and stepped forward.

He met the Smith on the front lines, alone. The Demon Lord was tall, even taller than the Smith in his armor, and he was thick with muscle. But he wore no armor, and merely carried a short spear and a sword in his hands.

His face was inhumanly beautiful, as all the Demons were, the better to lure the righteous into a false sense of security and empathy. His long, straight hair was fine, a lilac-purple, and his ears were long and pointed at the tips. Perfect white, but sharply pointed teeth revealed themselves as he parted his slender, refined lips and spoke.

"I see that humanity yet has its champions. Speak, say your piece."

The Smith tilted his head to look up at him, shield in one hand, the other empty.

"I want you and your army to turn away; leave, go back to your homeland, and torment humanity no more."

"No."

The Smith and Demon Lord stared at each other a moment.

"Is that all?" the Demon Lord asked.

"Why? Why are you doing this? Humanity did not invade your lands. We never landed armies and slaughtered all we came across. We negotiated peacefully for those ports, and we traded to our mutual benefit. And when you betrayed us, we left, and never returned! Leave! Go back, and stop this pointless slaughter."

"All humans must die," the Demon Lord spoke slowly, enunciating carefully as though the armored man before him was dimwitted. "All of them, to the very last. Your crime against the world, your very existence is anathema. Only those you call Irregular, they will be spared."

The Demon Lord paused and looked the Smith up and down. "But you are no Irregular. You will perish with the rest."

"That's it? 'Kill all humans,' that's your reason for all this?"

"Yes," the Demon Lord replied.

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"My family lives in that city!" The Smith pointed behind him with his free hand. "You intend to kill them, too?!"

"Be they human, yes. Of course. Not a single one may be spared."

"Even my newborn children?!"

At this, the Demon Lord paused. Thought about it.

"I suppose," he began, "we may spare a select few human children, to raise as slaves. But," he frowned sternly at the Smith, "only if you surrender now and let us kill you. You may not be spared. Humanity's crime of existence is too great."

The Smith was livid. Threatening his children with slavery?

"I'll kill every last one of you demons," he spat. "Here, and in your homelands when I'm done here."

The Demon Lord scoffed. "No, I don't think you will. Our entire race is here before you now. We have dedicated our all to this purge, this extermination. No matter how long it takes, we will track down and slay every last human, and finally the world will be free of your taint."

Without waiting for a reply, he turned and walked away.

And the Smith, honorable and noble as he was, waited for him to return to the front lines before beginning his counter-attack.

This proved to be a terrible mistake, for the Demon Lord was cunning and treacherous, and he struck without turning, before the Smith could move, and without triggering his foresight.

[Perfect Magic Seal]

The perfected form of the [Magic Seal] that had been ensorcelled onto the shackles that had bound him in the slave camp all those years ago.

A brilliant barrier of light formed a box around the Smith and sealed him in.

James felt himself cut off from all his enchantments.

And then a moment later, he felt his Classes detach almost entirely from his soul.

All his Skills faded, and he found only his boosts remained.

Active enchantments deactivated. [Levitation] deactivated, and under the weight of his armor, the Smith sank knee deep into the earth below him. [Might] also deactivated, and he felt the weight of his armor press down onto his body, impossibly heavy, even for him.

Back-up systems engaged.

[Sylphen Feather] enchantments, activated by reverse cut-off and using magic power storage circuits and capacitors, reduced the effective weight of his equipment and once again allowed the Smith to move.

Editor's note: Such enchantments are designed to always be active unless interrupted, usually by the user providing a small amount of magic power to the interruption circuit. Once that magic power is cut off, the enchantment reverts to an active state.

Other defensive enchantments also activated automatically, burning through vital magic power reserves.

The Smith had to act fast before all his back-up systems ran out of power.

He took from his belt his smallest hammer. It had a strange grip, with a finger guard, and the hammer head was a simple cone of Resonant Meteoric Steel, reinforced with bands of Orichalcum.

He placed one gauntleted hand on the sealing barrier, and tapped the hammer against barrier.

For although his Skills were beyond his reach, [Hammer Strike] was a technique, and he was a Smith, Class or no Class.

Tap tap tap tap ping ping ping PING PING PING.

He quickly found the resonant frequency and adjusted his strikes, until finally he disrupted the spell just enough to activate the enchantment on this tiny hammer.

[Shatter Magic]

Crash!

Having already been enslaved and shackled once, the Smith had made his preparations to ensure such a thing never happened again.

There was a sound like breaking glass and the sealing barrier shattered, and immediately the Smith flared his magic and activated his enchantments.

[Spell Jamming]

Just a moment before the seal reformed, his jamming enchantment took effect.

It was only an Advanced enchantment, but enhanced as James had designed it, it would disrupt all but the simplest and most robust spells cast on him from range.

The demons began their advance, moving impossibly fast but appearing slow to the Smith as he fully activated [Divine Lightspeed Haste].

And then they sped up even further.

The Smith had to hurry.

On his belt there were a number of hammers as well as a small box on his hip.

A box enchanted with the Secret Master, Legendary Smith original enchantment [Spatial Storage].

Whereas the Magic Bag didn't even require the user's mana to be used, the Smith's Spatial Storage required quite a lot of magic power.

Magic power supplied by magic power storage circuits, thousands of them, back in his workshop.

[Spatial Linking].

While the Magic Bag was useful in some ways, it had certain flaws.

It was frustratingly arbitrary about what could be put inside.

And items had to be withdrawn from the bag, rather than summoned directly into his hand or on his body, equipped and ready to go.

The Spatial Box lacked those restrictions.

Into his empty hand the Smith summoned an enchanted metal tube, which he pointed straight up into the air and activated.

FWUMP