Chapter 82- Hugh’s forging, The Ashen Blade.
Hugh was as ready as he could get.
Learning qi sense and circulation had helped him more than he expected.
Leo could feel a quiet, focused obsession radiating from the old smith.
"You finally picked the design?" Leo asked.
Hugh nodded and unfurled a parchment. The drawing showed a long blade with a slight curve and a single edge. Thick near the hilt, it narrowed steadily to a fine point. At a glance it looked ordinary.
"Starfall Iron for the core. Ashen Core layered through the fold. Asgardian Ironwood handle, wrapped in shadow-leather. Obsidian pommel," Hugh said, voice hoarse.
Leo nodded and checked the exterior of the dimension. Rook watched as well.
"Guest?" Rook asked. "I saw a poster with your image on it, and a good amount of bounty."
Rook looked at Leo.
"What? You want to claim the bounty too?" Leo asked.
Master Rook only smiled.
Hugh pumped the bellows. The forge roared to life. He held his hand over the fire. Leo saw the scar on Hugh’s forearm pulse like a living vein.
Hugh urged the black flame forward. The skin around his hands darkened. Veins of black spread beneath the surface. The red and yellow fire in the hearth turned pure black.
The forge also held a spark of Leo’s eternal flame, raising the chance of success. The dimension itself improved forging efficiency and success rate to some degree. Leo felt confident Hugh could finish the work.
Leo watched the flame turn black. It felt heavier than normal fire.
Hugh reached for the ingot of Starfall Iron, then looked at Leo and Rook. "Stand back a little. When I start hammering, sparks will fly."
Leo nodded and moved to the observation post with Rook. Ash and Amber were curled up in the same spot, watching the black flame with wide eyes. Leo sat down and scratched Amber behind the ears.
Hugh began hammering.
Clang!
The first strike rang through the forge. Sparks of blue and black flew across the room.
Master Rook watched the strike. "He is using both mana and qi together in the strikes."
The black flame wrapped around the metal as the hammer came down.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Hugh had no vision skills to help him, but years of experience showed in every precise strike. Leo was impressed.
With each blow the Starfall Iron compressed and took shape. Hugh did not melt the metal the way Leo usually did. He heated it and hammered the impurities out while shaping it slowly.
The metal shifted from red to white and back to black with every strike.
Leo tracked the process with forge sight, but he could not see how the qi reacted with the metal, so he extended his qi sense as well.
Threads of gold energy flowed from Hugh’s core, through his arms, into his hands, and into the hammer. With each strike the energy passed into the metal. The metal seemed to take in the qi, glowing brighter with every impact.
Rook kept watching. "That black flame is not related to qi."
Leo added, "It is not related to mana either. That is what makes it special. It lets mana and qi work together without restricting each other."
"It almost looks like old man Hugh is fighting his injury and the forge at the same time," Master Rook said.
Leo nodded and kept observing.
Night fell.
Hugh was still hammering. Master Rook grew bored and began moving through his sword forms. The movements looked more like a ritual than practice. Leo watched.
I guess footwork is really important.
Rook noticed Leo’s attention. "You want to spar?"
Leo nodded.
Rook drew his plain sword. "Let me see if you still swing your blade like a hammer or like a sword."
The first spar lasted only thirty seconds.
Even with the difference in stats and levels, Leo could not beat Rook.
He felt close to depression.
They started again.
Leo lunged with everything he had—raw strength, speed, momentum.
Just when he thought he might land a hit, Rook stepped aside slowly and cleanly.
Leo’s attack missed. His momentum carried him forward. He stumbled, off balance. Rook tapped the back of his knee.
Leo nearly fell but caught himself and spun with a backhand strike. The blade cut empty air. Rook had already moved.
No wasted motion.
"Again," Rook said.
Leo attacked once more. This time he used shorter strokes and controlled force, trying to cut off Rook’s angles. The old swordsman parried once, twice, three times. Each block was a light tap, not a clash.
He did not meet force with force. He redirected it.
"You should switch to an axe if you are going to swing like that," Rook said.
Leo kept glancing at Hugh during the spar.
Seeing his attention was divided, Rook shook his head and sheathed his sword. "Rest. Go watch what Hugh is doing with the qi in the forge. Then we will spar again."
Leo nodded, closed his eyes, and extended his qi sense to follow the whole process.
Clang. Clang. Clang.
The qi moved with each strike in rhythm with the hammer. It faded into the blade in steady pulses.
"Pulse forging?" Leo thought.
He opened one eye. Hugh was still hammering. The Starfall Iron had compressed by half. The blue sheen had deepened to something almost violet.
Hugh forged through the day and the night.
At last the Starfall Iron had been drawn out into a long bar that glowed with blue and black light. Hugh heated it again and cut a deep line along the center, almost splitting the bar in half but not quite. He opened the metal like a book.
The grain was fully visible—layers of blue and black woven together by qi and mana. Hugh reached for the Ashen Core, a fist-sized chunk of material as dark as coal. The metal felt similar to Hugh’s own flame.
He placed the core into the opening and folded the metal closed, trapping it inside. The flames surged again and covered the bar.
Through qi sense Leo saw violet mana threads from the flame strike the core and bounce off. The core sat inside the fold like a stone in a river. The metal could not close around it cleanly. The edges of the fold stayed open. Heat bled out.
Hugh’s jaw tightened. He hammered harder.
Clang!
The gap narrowed, then sprang open again. The core pulsed and pushed back.
From Leo’s view the Ashen Core was refusing to fold. It fought the qi and the metal.
Hugh had to force it down.
He intensified the heat.
But then the injuries in his arms once again bulged.
For a brief moment his hammering rhythm and flame control slipped, but he recovered and the injury settled again.
Master Rook spoke. "His injury is eating away at his qi. He will run out soon."
Hugh’s hammer had already slowed. His breathing was ragged. Exhaustion showed clearly.
Leo almost ran to support him, but Rook caught his arm.
"Let him try."
Hugh stopped hammering and set the hammer down.
Both Rook and Leo were surprised and thought he had given up.
Then the black flame surged once more.
It rose high and nearly covered Hugh. The flame burned without pulse or rhythm—desperate, raw, and uncontrolled.
The fold snapped shut. The Ashen Core sank into the metal under the intense heat. The gap vanished. The bar became whole and seamless.
Hugh’s hands were still pressed against the surface. Then his arms dropped and his feet swayed. He fell backward.
Leo reached him in time and caught him.
Hugh’s body was hot to the touch. His chest heaved. He gasped for breath. But his eyes stayed sharp and clear.
"The core is in. The metal has been formed."
Leo nodded and told him to sit.
Hugh sat. Leo handed him a waterskin. Hugh drank in long, shuddering gulps. The gray scar had pulled back to its usual place on his forearm. The little qi that remained pulsed weakly.
"He pushed through on will alone," Rook said, quiet enough that only Leo heard. "The qi was gone. The flame was all that was left."
He nearly killed himself, Leo thought. He looked at Hugh’s hands—still trembling, the calluses cracked at the edges. But the blade is whole.
Hugh rested through the afternoon.
Leo stayed nearby, watching the finished bar cool under the black flame that had finally settled into a steady burn. The metal held a deep violet-blue sheen where the Starfall Iron and Ashen Core had joined. No seams showed. The surface was smooth and dense.
Rook walked a slow circle around the forge, checking the tools and the floor for any stray sparks that might have landed outside the safe zone. Ash and Amber had moved closer during the final surge. Amber nosed at Hugh’s boot once, then settled again when Leo gave a quiet word.
Hugh’s breathing evened out after the water. He flexed his fingers carefully, testing the scar. The black veins under the skin had faded. Only a faint heat remained in the air around his hands.