Master Of None

Midnight had snacked on the crystals to her heart's content but still found that she couldn't nap at all. For Midnight this was equal to a world ending event. Therefore, she decided to go and explore on her own in search of a way to burn off the extra energy from the crystals and hopefully nap a little. Potentially even find another snack that wasn't elemental mana crystals. 

She left behind the treasury and attempted to follow the path they had taken back outside the high forge so that she could search the merchant district which she was sure would have food. Unfortunately, the steam from the odd pipe or two ruined the scent trail for her to follow, and the next thing Midnight knew she was lost in the maze of tight passageways between the floors.

Yet, this didn't deter Midnight in the least. She could hear the sounds of metal clashing and shouts from a distance. It was hot blooded and violent but for some reason that drew her in even more. So, she followed the noises. 

Ducking through some steam pipes she began to see a brightly lit area that had wide open space. The sounds of fighting had grown exponentially and it wasn't just one or two dwarves. There were forty or fifty. 

She was still small enough to squeeze between the pipes and get in to the place she was listening to. As soon as she escaped in to the open she was greeted by the sight of training dwarves. Hammers collided with heavy shields. Axes swung and caused sparks on armor and other axes. These were the training caves of the dwarven army. There were even dwarves fighting against brutal golems with sharp swords and heavy morning stars. 

Midnight felt that she had just found a great secret. She wanted to rush in and battle with them to burn off some extra energy and be able to nap sooner. It was the perfect solution for her. "Hey, where'd this baby dragon come from!?" One of the dwarves training nearby noticed Midnight appear. It was hard to miss since she was very different from the surrounding dwarves and golems. 

Midnight looked at him and growled a little. She didn't like being called a baby since she had grown much larger than her baby size and even had her wings growing in now. The dwarf grew slightly pale hearing her growl but didn't manage to dig himself deeper before a familiar royal guard came over. 

"Miss hero, what brings you to the dwarven guard training grounds? Looking for a little sparring?" Midnight huffed in response which made the royal guard smile. "Then please allow me to take advantage of this. I have not been able to properly whip some of these weak dwarves in to shape." The royal guard had not shown this side to Walker but he was much tougher than he let on. 

After stepping to the middle of the training area the royal guard clapped his hand and all golems ceased movement. "Get your weak bodies together and prepare yourselves. You are lucky that a hero has come to train with you. Remember this day forever, the last time a mighty dragon came to us they came to work in the forge. This time one of them is here to kick you across the ash from the furnaces." 

Midnight felt that she was being looked at from every angle. Naturally, her first reaction was to flex her wings and claws while raising her head high. The royal guard clapped and the golems became slightly more active in their attacks forcing the dwarves to fight harder. Midnight felt her blood boiling as she stepped toward a group of dwarves ganging up on a golem with two large hammers as hands. 

Midnight thought that it looked fun to fight one that was moving similar to the other large monsters the party had faces. She also wanted to test her strength against the golems that were so highly respected in the dwarf city. Nowhere had the party gone had they not seen or heard about golems thus far. 

She wasn't going to just slink around. She put the shadow wrapping skill on the back burner and rushed in. Her goal was to truly test the toughness of this golem to make her own opinion of them. The dwarves fighting it and working together were surprised when Midnight lept over their heads and was bringing her claws down on to the golems' chest.

Her claws tore through the golem's chest but were not able to do any real damage to the mechanisms inside. Midnight could see the gears ticking away unimpeded as the golem targeted her. She had no trouble at all ducking under one of the hammers coming toward her while a dwarf took the chance to approach the golem as well. 

Midnight turned to see the dwarf holding the hammer arm down while the other dwarves rushed in to attack the weakened side Midnight had tore through. In just a few slashed they had disabled the gears inside and the golem fell to the ground unable to move. Midnight released a light growl since the golem was too weak. 

"Don't worry, I have the real training on the way. It was just being repaired so we were using some of the new recruits' golems to warm up. The real one is a golem designed by an up and coming prodigy. They used it in the golem battles last year and took first place. Now it's made for training. We call it Throat Ripper since the golem builder that made it designed it to go for the most sensitive weak points in a target." Midnight turned her head at this wondering what king of golem would defeat others in a golem battle. Even more, what kind of golem could earn the name Throat Ripper?

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