The forging took six days and six nights.
While the rest of the Ghost Squad rested and fed on the foundry’s heavy rations, Kaelen never left the forge cavern. He stripped to the waist, his lean, dense muscles glistening with sweat and soot under the crimson glare of the magma pool.
When the dragon core was dropped into the furnace, the ambient heat became so intense that Thorgar’s standard tools began to liquefy. Kaelen had to step in. Using his Lightning Magic, he channeled high-frequency, azure electrical currents directly into the molten obsidian alloy, forcing the stubborn, high-density earth mana to fuse with the liquid steel.
CLANG! CLANG!
The sound of Thorgar’s hammer echoing through the cavern sounded like thunderclaps. Kaelen stood opposite him, his hands coated in protective, crackling blue static as he manually held the white-hot metal in place on the anvil. Every strike sent a wave of localized gravity rippling through his chest, cracking his healing ribs, but Kaelen just gritted his teeth and laughed through the agony.
On the dawn of the seventh day, the foundry went dead silent.
The cooling steam hissed as it erupted from the deep vats, filling the grand cavern with a thick, white fog. When the mist finally parted, the Ghost Squad stood at the edge of the platform, their eyes wide with absolute reverence.
Goran stepped out first. The northern giant was now encased in terrifying, interlocking plates of dark obsidian armor. The dragon scales covered his chest, shoulders, and legs, making him look like a walking fortress. In his hands, he held a new, six-foot greataxe forged from the drake's jawbone and reinforced with iron-scale steel.
Jax wore lighter, flexible scale-mail that didn't make a sound when he moved, the dark metal absorbing the light around him perfectly.
But it was Sylvia who couldn't take her eyes off Kaelen.
Kaelen stood at the center of the forge platform. He wore a dark, form-fitting brigandine made from the dragon's soft under-belly hide, reinforced with sleek, razor-thin obsidian plates across his vital organs. It was light, lethal, and built for invisible speed.
But it was the weapon at his hip that drew everyone's breath.
The new sword was a masterpiece. The blade was three and a half feet of folded obsidian-iron steel, completely black, but carrying a faint, pulsing vein of amber light running down the fuller—the residual power of the dragon core. The crossguard was shaped like stylized, spreading dragon wings, and the pommel held a fragment of the gemstone itself.
Kaelen gripped the hilt.
SHING.
The moment the blade cleared the sheath, the ambient air inside the cavern violently superheated. Azure lightning didn't just spark from his hand; it violently surged down the black steel, the amber vein turning a brilliant, blinding blue as the sword perfectly harmonized with his core.
He swung the blade in a casual, horizontal arc toward a massive, solid iron pillar used to anchor the forge crane.
There was no sound of impact. Just a silent, blinding flash of blue-hot light.
A microsecond later, the top half of the six-foot-thick solid iron pillar slid smoothly off its base, crashing into the dirt with a deafening thud. The cut was as smooth as glass, completely melted at the edges by the sheer intensity of the lightning-infused strike.
Kaelen sheared through solid iron like it was warm butter.
He sheathed the weapon, the blue static dying down as he turned to his squad, his trademark, rebellious smirk returning to his soot-stained face.
"The armor fits," Kaelen said, his eyes scanning his newly armored, terrifying squad. "The swords are sharp. Now... I think it's time we go find out who rules the next valley over, and tell them they have a new neighbor."
Goran let out a savage, thunderous roar, slamming his new axe into the ground. Sylvia smiled beneath her hood, her daggers flashing in the dark, while Jax simply shook his head, a wild, frantic grin breaking through his fear.
The Ghost Squad was no longer a band of dregs. They were the Dragon Vanguard, and the unconquered lands were about to bleed.