Chapter 584: Unexpected
Laz entered and looked around, rather amazed at everything that had been gathered here. Lining the walls were thousands of swords, spears, bows, lances and other things that Laz didn’t recognize. The shields were piled high into the room, almost running from floor to ceiling. Still, despite these things, they didn’t give Laz much pause other than the amount.
The group didn’t stop there though, continuing on back as they kept passing by shelves after shelves of such weapons. Laz only became interested as they got to a stone door in the back of the room and pushed it open.
Unknown to them, Artemis was right behind them as they walked, understanding showing on her face as she looked at the stone door they entered. She took a quick glance at a massive steel door that sat quite at the end of the hall before laughing to herself. She knew of some of the things within that door as she had brought them here herself, but there were several things in there that even her father feared and therefore she wasn’t allowed to touch.
As for the door they just went into, she could only imagine the embarrassing fate awaiting the young man. Still though, as she had wanted to speak with him anyway, she went inside.
While the weapons from before were somewhat impressive in scale, the ones Laz was seeing right now were impressive in nature.
There were feather covered armors, spears made of bones, a fur covered shield with an animals head sticking out from it like someone had just skinned the beast, chopped off it’s head and attached it all to a wooden shield. It looked stupid and did nothing besides that. There were also claw swords, head gear that glowed, and many other ’wonders’ to be held.
As the organizers took Laz through the strange place, at one point when they were holding up what could only be described as a leather bikini to see if it would fit, they heard a laugh that seemed to tinkle like bells, yet boom like a drum as it was sweet to listen too, but powerful.
"Milady Artemis!" Everyone said, dropping to one knee in salute. The only one who didn’t was Laz who was already sitting in a chair as they had also been trying to get some rainbow colored sandals on Laz’s feet and not understanding why they wouldn’t fit.
Seeing Laz just sitting there, one of the guards tried to drag the chain down to cause him to fall, but felt like the chain was attached to an iron block and couldn’t be moved.
"Enough. Bare in mind the slaves of the arena are considered possessions of my father and bowing before another is calling his ownership into question. Now rise and explain why you decided to dress this man in these ridiculous clothes?"
"Yes Milady. We wish to make him grand and imposing as to convey..."
"I’m aware you don’t wish to ruin the surprise so instead of telling me about it, how about you explain how these things could make him seem grand and imposing?" Artemis said, looking around at the types of things they had gathered.
"Well... we have taken into consideration what those on the senate have been wearing as of late and thought it would be best..."
"Ok. Stop. Let’s look at this from another angle. You there, sergeant, if you saw someone wearing feathered armor and these strangely colored sandals, how would you think of the person on the battlefield?" Artemis asked, looking at the heavily armored man.
"Milady. I would wonder who was foolish enough to let such a person march to war. These things are useless and only make one stand out more. They do nothing for defense but would probably inspire quite a bit of laughter. Of course we would also kill them first since the only people foolish enough to wear such a thing was a person who had both never gone to war before, but was important enough where the leadership for the other side couldn’t order them to do differently."
"My thoughts exactly. Would you fear such a person?"
"That would be impossible mam."
"I had thought as much. Do you understand what we mean?" Artemis said, looking at the organizers.
"Yes Milady. It seems that perhaps we are not the best in regards to choosing things such as this. Uhh... mayhap milady would be willing to provide some consultation on what would make this slave look grand and imposing?" The leader of the group asked, an idea forming in his mind.
Artemis was taken aback by this, never having thought that they would ask her for this as fashion wasn’t her strong suit, not like her sister.
’Then again, we aren’t dealing with fashion, but armor and weapons....’
Thinking towards this path, Artemis began going through the entire armory of the strange things that had been collected. As for why they didn’t get thrown away or wasted as junk, in most cases it was because the oddity of them added value and since they would never waste their own blacksmiths time in making such things, keeping what they found was a better solution. Besides, despite the weird taste that went into them, most of the articles had belong to rather superb warriors of the past and could therefore be considered trophies of sorts.
While this had been going on, Laz had been keeping his eyes peeled after he realized he was in such a strange place to see if his pack was here. He didn’t know if another could open it, but if they could, he perhaps would see some of his things in this place, such as the liquid armor that had bonded with him. Due to him not wearing it back when he had been chased by the beast, thanks mostly in part to him forgetting to put it on after that rather exhausting exercise he got in the temple, he thought that maybe it was strange enough for them to put in here. Still though, he hadn’t laid eyes on anything of his own, making him question the whereabouts of the space pouch.
"Oh. Right. We can use that," Artemis said, walking to the back of the room with everyone else in tow.
Once they arrived there, they saw this massive black and red armor that looked like it was straight out of an ancient Japanese era movie. The chest piece was huge, round and seemed made for someone twice Laz’s size. The head gear was a spectacle of metal and red plumage that Laz couldn’t decide if it was a feather or some sort of old banner. The wrist guards and leggings were also of the same barrel shaped black with red accents while the boots were the only thing that even looked normal, being of some sort of black leather.
"Yeah. This screams imposing without screaming stupid," Artemis said, looking over at the sergeant.
"Agreed mam. While being flashy, it’s not in the nature of being out of place on the battlefield. And while the armor isn’t... practical, it does actually provide protection for the vital areas."
"Put it on him and lets see the fit," Artemis said, ordering the men.
They quickly stripped Laz down to nothing, causing quite a stir among both the men and Artemis herself. While she was a veteran of the battlefield and the lack of privacy that comes from such an endeavor, she had never seen what Laz had beneath his tunic before and her mouth dropped open at the sight. As for the other men who were there, even the stoutest of them ended up taking another glance if only to admire what they themselves could never have. What’s more, a few of them, the organizers especially, felt some stirrings of jealously due to their inadequacy.
Luckily for them, the guards had dressed him quickly, covering his limp manhood that could have acted like a club to attack them with. Right before they were about to start putting the chest piece on, Artemis stepped forward and walked behind him.
"I didn’t notice before... but this isn’t natural, is it?" She asked, moving a finger to the mass of scar tissue that made up Laz’s back.
Laz didn’t respond, instead staying in place while feeling a bit smug about everyone’s previous reaction.
"You may speak," Artemis said after Laz remained quiet.
"No. It was caused by a great beast," Laz said, without any further comment.
Artemis brought a finger up and touched a part of the skin, but quickly brought her hand away as though it burned.
"BY ALL MY ANCESTORS... It’s still burning..." She said, stepping away as she looked at her finger, the tip of it being slightly singed due to the shadow flames having reacted to her touch. The spot quickly healed but she couldn’t help but shoot her gaze straight to Laz’s eyes.
"You... this pain is constantly with you, is it not?"
"It is."
’A burning that could even harm a god...’
"What type of beast was it?"
"Some sort of massive shadow... in the shape of a giant lizard with wings," Laz responded, not sure if they would know what a dragon was even if he mentioned it.
"NO... Impossible... that... where? Where was it?" She asked in an almost frantic voice.
"I don’t remember. I simply remember green hills, the bright suns being blotted out by a shadow and then darkness. When I woke up, I was here," Laz said keeping his story as short as possible to not reveal the presence of the gate.
"Finishing having him try it on. I must speak with my father immediately," Artemis said, storming off.
The men did as instructed and once the helmet was on, they took a step back to admire the outfit.
"It was everything we wanted. Even the mask looks demonic."
"I don’t remember ever seeing an enemy with this type of armor before."
"Still, it seems to fit him way better than we thought. Much better than that feathered headdress."
The comments went on and on, but Laz was frozen in his tracks. In his head, he had heard a voice speak.
*Armor of Asurian General has detected the bloodline. Would you like to fully equip and activate the armor?*
’The fuck?’
