Chương 16: Chapter Sixteen: Putting Your Heart and Gnoll Into It

X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X Hyena Werks, A proud Orario Company. DanmachiXDnD Nonhuman semi SI X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X Chapter Sixteen: Putting Your Heart and Gnoll Into It X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X Sparks spiraled through the air in a fiery rain, casting the darkened workshop in a luminous golden glow. Even through the thick padding of my hat, I could still feel the wailing whine of the drill press through my bones; in my teeth, even.

When I finally felt a sudden jolt, signifying that I had cut all the way through, I eased up on the throttle and lifted the heavily smoking drill bit away–revealing a clean cut hole roughly the size of two of my fingers bored all the way through one of Dorumuru's hammers. Taking a second to blow off some of the adamantine dust clinging to the cut, I hefted up the massive weapon and lugged it over to my workbench to join its twin.

After setting it down with a table rattling thud, I took a step back to admire the sight. Surrounding the two war hammers in a fan of inordinately expensive material was a series of magitek devices; some an incredibly intricate blended mix of alloyed parts, and others that glowed with a soft blue light. Each one painstakingly crafted over the course of the last two days or so. All of them marvels of magical engineering and a right pain in my fluffy ass to make.

With so many fiddly little parts, the big stupid paws I had for hands made them nearly impossible to put together. Ever try to wire a ceramic fiberglass breadboard together using unshielded filament and no labels, all the while being forced to wear baseball mitts? Well, neither have I–But after this ordeal I think I have a pretty damned good idea of what that would be like.

For the past two whole days these tiny little gadgets have haunted my waking hours, my time spent slaving over these little slivers of Orichalchum and Mithril. And when the sun finally set I then had to burn the midnight oil down to the last dregs machining out those fifteen bags for Loki's order. Lessons learned, I supposed. Firstly: Absolutely no more bulk orders. Full stop.

I can't imagine a more hollow existence than just grinding out peripheral equipment like these fuckin' bags, just so adventurers can have a marginally easier time down there in the dark. And secondly: Look into hiring some suckers apprentices to do all the scut work around here. I mean, by Yeenogu's slobbery chewtoys–there's no damned reason why I have to be the one stitching those things back together by hand.

I could just yank any desperate idiot off the street and make them do it for copper on the gold; Freeing me up to do the stuff I actually want to do. But for now, I can set all those distracting thoughts aside, because tonight… Tonight is the night I can actually cut loose and start making shit. Dragging over one of Dorumuru's hammers across the table, I slid the handle into a vice grip and spun the handle with a flourish–tightening it until not even an act of god could move it.

I then grabbed the first part to be assembled, the lynch pin that will hold together everything else. The mana to heat exchanger. A simple device in both design and function, yet at the same time complex by the nature of its exacting tolerances. If I made even the most minute of mistakes when forging out this piece, then the extreme forces it will undergo during use were likely to cause it to catastrophically fail. And by that I of course mean explode with enough force to level a building or two.

Physically, it was just a hollow tube of Dir adamantite with air-intakes drilled into the outer ring of one end, while several curved nozzles were mounted flush to the walls of the other end. Threaded through the center was a series of interconnected baffles made of tiny mithril tubes laid out in a honey-comb like pattern. From back to front each baffle was slightly thicker than the last, designed in such a way as to exponentially increase the pressure of the mana pumped through it.

Air would be forced into the intakes and guided through the baffles, which would be heated to well over a thousand degrees by the raw thermal energy of the active mana roaring through its mithril veins while under tremendous pressure. At the end of said journey, the raw mana would then be ejected out the back of the engine via the nozzles as a fine vapor. A fine, easily combustible vapor. Or in other words, the afterburner.

Because the device was, in essence, a miniaturized, magic powered jet engine; Reduced down to its most basic form. Feeling the beginning of a smile creeping across my lips, I slowly slid the engine into the hole I cut into the hammer's head; Careful not to accidentally lose the few loose wires and tubing currently dangling from out of the handle of the weapon.

It was a bitch to thread them through the thing in the first place, and I might just have a gnoll-level crash out if I lost them because I was a tad impatient. When the engine was finally fit snug into the hammer and wired up, I twisted in some threaded o-rings to keep the ensemble in place while reaching back over towards my pile of goodies.

While the world outside this room slumbered, a part of this strange gestalt being I had become awakened with an eager stretch; Happy to finally do what it had been put on this earth to do. Time lost all meaning, simply melting away as more and more parts were pieced together under my steady paw. The twelve Nosteel panels of the variable nozzle were each twisted into place with a satisfying click; Not even offering a hint of resistance.

When I hooked a single claw along the lip of the nozzle and began pulling, the whole assembly slid open with nary a whisper of noise. The coated panels of steel gliding smoothly over one another like the aperture of a camera lens. The educated beast within me rumbled with self-satisfied delight as the weapon evolved before my very eyes. Already foreseeing how the end result would look even though we had barely begun.

A flat bar brake was mounted low on the handle of the hammer, right along the textured grip and hooked into the pneumatic brake line connected directly to the nozzle. Below the bar brake, a secondary trigger along with a safety switch was installed by some deft use of a power drill and a brief use of mage hand to get the finicky little wires where they needed to go. The mana extraction chamber screwed smoothly onto the threads cut into the end of the handle, locked into place with ample use of pipe dope.

Just to make sure no one fucked with it when they shouldn't be. Next to go on was the adjustable claw prongs, mounted right onto the bottom of the extraction chamber; Used to hold monster crystals of many sizes flush to the gathering array etched into the bottom of the thing. The idea was simple. A monster crystal would be locked into place in the pommel of the hammer, where the extraction chamber would mine, purify, and condense the raw magical energy contained within said crystal into fuel-grade mana.

The mana would then be piped into an internal reservoir until it was needed. In other words, a monster crystal would be used as both a battery and a chunk of solid fuel, safe to use and handle until it was time to convert that safely stored potential energy into extremely volatile kinetic energy. The end result was, naturally–a rocket-powered, adamantine headed war hammer. A weapon ridiculous enough to send a goblin into low-earth orbit on its own, but… It was still missing something.

The fiery boost was a good start, but it was really lacking an oomph to it. It had the setup, now it needed a punchline. The beast within me rumbled low with a sinister laugh, for we had already written that joke. Reaching out, I dragged over a squarish lattice of Nosteel-mithril alloy to my side of the table. The cube-shaped mesh of reinforced magical metal fit neatly over the front-facing head of the hammer. And a few uses of Heat Metal spot welded it to the mounting points I had previously carved into it.

Yanking on the whole assembly until I was sure the welds were solid, I then got to work wiring the device into the trigger mechanism and power circuit. The second I connected the last line of the capacitor series array into the power line, the whole assembly flashed with a dull blue glow–The ambient mana in the room being just enough to initiate the stand-by phase of the arrays crisscrossing every inch of the device.

It wouldn't be enough to actually activate the device, but it was enough to give it that signature 'This is a bonafide magical item' glow. And with that, the first of the hammers was finished. The only thing left to do with it was polish up those welds, and file back some of the cuts I made… … I would also naturally have to test it first. Looking askance at the massive pile of parts sitting next to the other hammer, I decided that finishing the second one could wait until after I was done playing testing this one.

Standing up with a grin blooming across my muzzle, I grabbed a monster stone at random from my box of spare parts and shuffled towards the door leading to my back yard. Along the way, I twisted the stone into the pommel, causing the claw to snap closed around it. After a moment, the hammer started humming with a low, slightly threatening buzz, like current running through a tension wire.

The gently glowing array tables flashed an incandescent white, before dimming back to an electric azure as the mana channels stabilized. As I hadn't had a chance to really tackle the outside of my house yet, it was still mostly bare dirt and dead grass, but I did have a few straw dummies lying about. Ones that I had permanently 'borrowed' from Loki.

Setting one up with a grunt, I snapped off a mocking salute to the one that was about to find out what zero to mach fuck-you felt like before hefting the hammer to my shoulder with a grunt. Fingering the trigger with an extended claw, I took up a batter's stance and gave the beast a few practice swings to get a feel for its weight.

Removing all that material definitely threw off its balance, but it wouldn't take an experienced adventurer like Dorumuru more than a few days to get used to it again, so it was a moot issue. Now then, the moment of truth! The beast inside me leaned forwards in anticipation, testing the chains that bound it to reason and sanity as I twisted my whole body back taunter than a die spring–the hammer hanging high above my head like a golfer about to swing out of his shoes.

Then–with a tiny twitch of my finger, the trigger broke. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. Instantly, night became day as a massive jet of bright blue flame erupted out the back of the hammer with a deafening roar, dying the world around me a shimmering cerulean. Neither god nor gnoll could have held back this monster I had fashioned, my body was forced to contort around the swing.

In less time than thought could allow, the hammer was through its downswing and rising to meet the chest of the faux man. Made of straw he may be, I swore, at that very moment–that he felt fear. Then, just as the head of the hammer kissed the target, a pressure trigger tripped, mana arrays flashed–and the enhanced Thunderwave enchantment I had mounted to it detonated. X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X Hestia.

Goddess of the hearth and home, tender of the sacred flame, known to all as a soft spoken–gentle deity backed by her quiet dignity and grace… Was one loud noise away from committing homicide. She lay on her back in her moth-bitten bed, blankets balled up to her chin in a white knuckled grip as she glared with all her might at the ceiling above her. Soul deep exhaustion colored her every feature, from the bags-upon-bags under her eyes to her splitting migraine.

Her hair, once a point of pride for the goddess, was a stringy mess that not even a rat would dare call a nest. She had not been able to sleep for more than thirty consecutive minutes ever since being exiled from her former best friend's home… Not since she was forced to live next to that thing -! At ALL hours of the night, she could hear it messing around out there. Whirs and bangs and thumps and fucking explosions! Did it not rest? Did it not sleep? What was it even doing!?

She had just spent the last three months of her descent living with the worlds premier blacksmithing familia, so she knows that at no point in forging out a weapon should things be fucking exploding! Is he even making anything with all that racket, or Hel–does he just like the sound? -Or was he just purposely messing with her?! But… finally, far enough into the night that sunrise was closer than sunset, the building from across the street had blessedly fallen silent.

Maybe, just maybe, the gnoll had gone to bed, and Hestia could get more than a handful of hours of sleep tonight. And maybe then people would stop asking her if she was the goddess of sleep deprivation, or zombies, or raccoons when she was out applying for jobs. … She could almost feel the universe realigning itself the second she had that thought. Forces beyond even her comprehension sliding into place in order to punish her for even daring to think such optimistic thoughts.

Because the second the words filled her mind, the world around her shuddered as an explosion loud enough to shame all the ones that came before it shattered the previous peace and quiet. Dust and cobwebs rained down from the ceiling, the few pieces of dishware she owned fell and broke–even the stone foundations surrounding her trembled from the aftershocks of whatever the Hel that was. And in that moment, the last fraying string of sanity holding Hestia together snapped with an almost audible twang.

Throwing off her blankets with an animalistic snarl, she sprang from her bed and stomped towards the staircase. Uncaring of the fact that she was still in her night clothes as she marched onwards. Kicking open the door, She stalked into the nave with fists balled up at her sides; Ready to give that beast a real piece of her mind, and maybe a few good punches as well! Anything to just get him to stop blowing up the Tenkai-damned neighborhood!

But before she could even get halfway towards the front door, a new sound filled the air. It started small at first, quiet enough that she had to pause and cock her head to hear it better.. But as it grew louder. And louder. And louder – She was finally able to identify it. Laughter. Laughter that contained neither mirth nor joy. No, it was a haunting cackle filled with nothing but a manic, insane elation; Colored by dogmatic fervor, and flavored with an animalistic– beastial bent that defied description.

The sound sliced through the night, echoing over the stone ruins until it formed its own haunting chorus, one that would have turned back even the strongest, bravest of heroes. Hestia was none of those things. So, in one of the most intelligent moves she had made so far since descending to the lower world, Hestia spun on her heel and shuffled right back down into the basement, softly shutting and locking the door behind her. X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X"What the Hel's got you so twitchy?

Did no one take you out for your morning walk or something?"

"Ya' know, those speciesist remarks of your's are as hateful as they are incorrect. Gnolls, and by extension hyenas have no relationship to canines whatsoever." Mama Mia just rolled her eyes, going back to stocking her bar with freshly cleaned mugs as her staff busied themselves preparing for the looming lunch rush.

"So what are you related to then? I need to know so I can better tailor my insults." In response, I just stuck my tongue out at her with a ' bleh', because I am a well-adjusted, mature adult. Which earned nothing but a scoff and another roll of the eyes from Mia.

"And to answer your question! -" I gave Snarf, who had been sitting patiently at my side with a giant cloth-covered package strapped to his back a firm pat on the flank.

"-Im meeting a client here today to drop off his commission. So yes, I'm a bit excited to see how my first real customer in this city likes my work." Instead of meeting Dorumuru somewhere private, like his familia's home or my workshop, I had elected to do the hand-off in one of the most public venues I could think of. I wanted others to see his reaction when he tried them for the first time. This city will get a taste of what I am capable of.

Mia, who had at this point turned around to grab something from the back, suddenly whirled around; A disgustingly smug grin twisting her expression into something downright wicked.

"All business deals and-or negotiations conducted on the premises automatically accrue a flat one million Valis venue fee, with an added fifteen percent cut of the proceeds as a facility fee."

"Bullshit." I snapped back, rising out my perpetual hunch to stare the towering Dwarf down.

"Where in the Nine Hells does it say that, huh!? Because I sure as shit didn't sign anything." With that smug smirk of hers growing two sizes too big for her face, she pointed to a wooden sign hanging over the bar. One that I had failed to notice previously.

"The Rules: #1: Anything Mama Mia says is law. #2: See #1." I stared aghast at the sheer, brazen con woman before me before sighing with a shake of my head.

"How about instead of that blatant highway robbery, I just agree to buy a big celebratory dinner from you with my spoils?" Her smirk dipped back into something a little less predatory, and a bit more genuine.

"Aye, that works too." X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X It wasn't long after that that the Dwarf of the hour wandered in, right on time. His eyes zeroed in on me in an instant, as I tended to stand out these days. With a grunt, the man picked his way across the dining room before grabbing a stool next to me, giving Snarf and the bundle on his back the side-eye all the while.

"Alright, Max. It's been a week, and borrowing steel from my familia is gettin' old. Why don't you show me what's become of my' hammers?" An eager grin grew over my muzzle as I reached over and unhooked the package from Snarf. I had to use both paws and a good amount of force to heave it up onto the bar. At this point, most of the restaurant's customers and staff had paused to watch the proceedings with interest. I leaned over a bit to make sure they had a good view when I ripped away the cloth to reveal-!

My best attempt at recreating a Pelican case. Snapping the clasps open with far less flair, I lifted the lid and stepped back to give Dorumuru all the room he needed to be suitably awed and amazed. And I was not disappointed. The Dwarf was on his feet in a second, jaw slack and eyes wide as he took in his new and improved hammers. With a tentative hand, he reached a grasped one in his calloused grip. Lifting it up from its cutout in the foam, the Dwarf held the hammer up to the light…

And then his head whipped around to glare incredulously at me.

"What in bloody El' did you do ta' my weapons, Max! I though' you were just enchanting the damned things, not mutilating them!" The beast within me perked up with a snarl, rousing itself from its contented slumber at the blatant disrespect directed at its craft. With a force of will I quickly clamped down hard on its muzzle before he openly growled at my customer. Patience, Max. He just doesn't know what he's been given yet.

With a dissatisfied grunt I leaned back on my stool, crossing my arms imperviously as I looked down on the Dwarf from the tip of my nose.

"I improved them. Changed them into something completely new. You could scour the face of the planet, and not find a single weapon even remotely similar to the one that is currently in your hand." The Dwarf grit his teeth, a flash of real anger spreading across his face.

"I don't give a rat's ass how special my hammers are! All I need them to do is flatten what I'm strong enough to flatten, and pierce what I can't. How am I supposed to fight without a beak on my weapon? Not to even mention the weight! It's all off! It took me ages to get used to a full adamantite war head, now you've gone an' ruined it!"

"I ruined nothing-" I hissed, feeling less inclined to restrain Max with every passing second.

"What you had before was so fucking basic–so fucking boring that even your enemies were struggling to stay awake in the face your attacks. That! - is a grade A ass kicking machine, the weapon of a real Adventurer. So before you go insulting my work, how about you actually try it!" Dorumuru paused at that, and gave the hammer a second look; His anger bleeding back into confusion as his eyes traced all the intricate carvings now etched into his weapon.

"... All right, how do I use it, then? Do I just swing it?"

"No. See that switch there by your thumb?" Without even waiting for further instructions, he immediately flipped the switch. With the electric hum of active magic, the hammer lit up a brilliant blue as its enchantment arrays came online. The gasps of the crowd went unheard beneath the ice that just flooded my veins." No no no! -" Only when the Dwarf pried his eyes away from the hammer and I had his undivided attention did I continue.

"-absolutely do not do that inside. Mama Mia will kill us both if you turn that thing on in here!" X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X Through mutual agreement, the two of us decided to take this deal outside, with a good portion of the restaurant following out of morbid fascination. Our feet took us to the nearby central plaza, which was only moderately busy this time of day. A few people stopped to stare at us, but most seemingly had more important things to do than gawk at a freak show.

"Alright, Dorumuru. Flip the switch again, but keep your fingers away from the lever and the trigger." He wordlessly followed my commands, and the hammer once again lit up like an oxy-acetylene torch.

"Now, then… Ah, shit. We're gonna' need something for you to hit. I don't suppose you lot have anything we can use as a training dummy?" I said, turning towards the crowd. A spattering of negative murmurs ended when a man in leather armor stepped out from the crowd.

"No, but I can do you one better. Just wait here a second." His piece said, the man took off at a dead sprint… straight into the dungeon. We all waited in bemused silence for a full minute before he came right back out with a furiously struggling goblin in tow. Oh! Realizing that this was my first real up close interaction with one of the monsters that had terrorized this world for so long, I leaned in close to get a better look. It was-well, actually kind of disappointing.

Even up close, It was still just a cookie cutter, Great Value brand goblin. It had no special frills or identifiers. Nothing that would denote this creature as being a Dungeon Born Monster. You could pluck this thing from here and drop it in any other fantasy world and no one would ever be able to tell the difference until you took a peek under the hood, as it were.

With an eerie amount of ease that spoke to a long experience in his craft, the man hogtied the goblin in three seconds flat and propped it up against a nearby light fixture before giving us a thumbs up. Dorumuru and I shared a sidelong glance before I just shrugged. Who am I to look a gift horse in the mouth?

"Ok, what you're going to do is post up like you're going to hit the goblin, but before you swing, depress the lever with your pinkie and ring finger, and then squeeze the trigger. Don't try and fight what comes next, just let it happen naturally."

"That same advice has gotten me in trouble before." He muttered under his breath, but he dutifully marched forward and assumed a roof guard stance just before the frantic beast. There was a beat of silence, and then my hammer roared. A jagged spire of blue flames belched forth from its maw, the hammer shooting forward along a perfect elliptical arch right into the monster's belly.

There was a blinding flash of purple light–and the goblin, along with the light pole behind it, ceased to exist; Everything above its waist was just gone, simply erased from existence as if an uncaring god hit Alt-F4 on his ass. A thunderous punch of pure kinetic force slammed into the crowd a millisecond later, many of them stumbling or even falling down from the aftershock. As I had known what was coming and braced myself, I barely budged even as my fur was matted flat from the explosion.

In the deafening silence that followed, no one said a word as the report of the explosion echoed further and further off into the city. Turning heads everywhere it reached, and inspiring the question of 'What the fuck was that' in the mind of all Orario's inhabitants. The silence was only broken when the lower legs of the goblin slowly slid over sideways and fell to the ground with a sad, wet, plop. And then I couldn't help it anymore. I started to giggle. And then laugh And laugh. And Lau-"May I introduce you!

-" I gasped between the rolling, uncontrollable laughter bubbling up from my belly. Raising a shaky claw to point at the hammer in Dorumuru's hand "To Equal! -" My claw slid down to the hammer still attached to Snarf's back.

"And Opposite!" X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X