>open_log.data:[missingidentification]

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>log.data_begin

Sunset At Dusk

It was nearing sunset while the dryad observed the figure from the bushes, a good distance away. 

He was still relatively new to the world he had been born into, but he hadn't seen anyone like them or even heard of anyone like it. It reminded him of those old world artworks depicting those ancient armored nobles on horseback. The "knight" was clad in nearly fully enclosed dark metallic plating, with a few parts painted or stained a deep rich purple. It held a heavy looking sword firm in one hand, and had a fairly large shield affixed to it's left vambrace. The figure seemed to gaze all over the field, before it became entranced on the gash in the earth. The harsh cliff side and the ocean water that flowed into the narrow passage which slowly widened out farther towards the northern sea. It appeared to be scanning the waves, and the rocks below. 

The dryad grew tired in his awkward crouched position, he moved to adjust his footing in the brush when suddenly the harsh snap and crunch of twigs and leaves echoed through the plain landscape. He had hoped to keep himself hidden but it seemed that wasn't going to happen. 

The armored figure lifted its head with a snap, before looking behind itself. Its gaze became locked in the direction of the dryads cover, he knew he'd been spotted. The young man lifted himself from the cover of the bush, he was a well built and fit fellow, standing at his tallest. 

"Hey there, didn't mean to give you a scare. Im a dryad, just on a scouting run." The knight stared at him from a distance. It made him uncomfortable how silent they were.

He spoke again, louder now "You can hear me right? I know there's some distance between us and all that uh.. gear of yours.. is probably blocking out some noise, you can ask me to repeat if you can't." The two stared for a moment longer, the dryad growing more uncomfortable by the second. 

The knight began to walk. Blade in hand. shield held close. 

"Look I don't know what you're doing all the way out here but I'm not here to start anything, and I'm not particularly fond of the way you're approaching me.." 

The noise began to grow, with each step the knight took its armored shell shuddered and shook, metal sliding against metal, each step of the march rung out with a harsh metallic clang and bassy boom. He hated to admit it but he was beginning to grow intimidated by the knight. 

As it continued its approach he began to get a better idea of the figures height. It was a little taller than he was. The sound of the armor didn't do much to put him at ease either. It sounded heavy, like the type of armor you'd wear on the back of a horse, not the type you'd be moving around on foot in. And yet despite its weighty sound, whoever dawned that armor was striding straight to him. 

Of course, he did still manage to regain his composure, this guy couldn't be any worse then the fairies he'd gone up against, those towering insectoid.. things.. The dryad's voice rose and grew a little bite. "Whatever you planned on doing here doesn't matter, you'll stop right where you are and sheath that blade if you don't want to get seriously hurt, can you hear me yet? Hm?"

The knights pace did not slow down even a bit. Its grip remained firm. Its armor rung.

He was sick now, he didn't come out here to fight someone but they weren't exactly giving him a choice. The figure was already too close for comfort, a little over halfway across the field from where it started. He looked to the knights face but he couldn't see behind the front grill of the helmets face plating, only a faint haze that seemed to flow from the gaps in the metal like smoke off the end of a cigarette. 

"Fine, you don't wanna talk? We don't have to." 

He felt a heat begin to pool in his right palm, the spell bound to it beginning to stir and bubble from within his core. First began a light smoke, then sparks, then in an instant, ignition. 

The ball of flame sputtered and dripped with heat and energy, the radiant glow illuminating him in the dark of the coming evening. He held it in his hand before getting in position, he'd seen it in old "baseball" books, the ones he'd used to practice his throwing. 

In a flash, he pitched the fireball and drove it hard against the knights chest plate, a dead center shot. The ball's form fell apart as it stuck to the knights front, and while it took a second to catch fire, the knight began to burn. The force of the impact alone had stunned the figure, and while fire wouldn't do much against the plating itself, the cloth underneath would still burn through, and the metal would only make all of the heat worse. 

But he looked upon the results with dissatisfaction. He was proud of his aim but he felt like the results were were lacking. He'd tossed a number of fireballs in his time, and each time there was a little more.... reaction.. to being set on fire. This wasn't even mentioning the fact that he'd seen his fireballs knock a satyr right off its feet before. Why did this one feel so weak? He hadn't thrown it any differently then any other time before.. 

The dryad pondered on until his eyes caught movement, and sweat began to form at his forehead. The knight raised its head as the fire on its chest began to die down, its chest plate discolored from the heat and its undergarments charred but lacking any holes. 

It stepped forward once more. 

He was seriously uncomfortable now, The knight was drawing closer and he did not have a readied spell that he could safely use up close. However, he did have his staff. 

He swung his arm forward and the large staff formed from nothing with his motion. It was a heavy metal staff with a carmine gemstone core attuned to combustive magic, and while it devoured mana like nothing else, he'd once used it to blow holes through the one-and-a-half inch thick metal armor of a centaur. 

It also weighed a ton. It was a little taller than he was and it was forged from the heaviest and thickest metal he could pay the Iron Casters Guild to make for him. 

The knight was just a handful of yards away now and approaching rapidly, he wouldn't have a good chance to line up a shot, but he already knew that. 

He heaved the staff over his shoulder and got himself into form, he felt his muscles begin to tighten as he readied himself. 

The knight was right on top of him now, it raised its blade high over its head with both arms. "Both arms" the dryad thought to himself with glee "Perfect"

The motion was explosive, his muscles swung the absurdly heavy staff off his shoulder and slammed its side straight into the knights abdomen. 

The hard angular edge that had been forged into his staff dug into the metal plating covering the knights gut, the armor crumpled and caved in at the point of impact. The knight froze in silence. The dryad's breath hastened, his muscles ached, it had taken a great deal of energy to move his body like that, so he simply analyzed his stunned foe. 

The force behind that blow would've crumpled any average joe right onto the floor, armor or not. He was betting on the knight to fall over any second now. A strike like that could surely even kill a man. He was sure of it! The dryad panted. the knight was frozen. He gazed into the helmet, it was still too dark inside to make anything out. 

The knight raised its helmet.

His heart dipped in his chest. How could it have been? They should be writhing in pain on the floor at minimum, how can they be standing? All of this inner thought and staring took place in just a few seconds, just a few seconds was all it took to break the dryads confidence. 

His body burned as it moved before his mind fully understood why, instinct was his best friend of course. His arms brought the detrimentally heavy staff up over his head as fast as it could, just in time to catch the knights continued motion, the blade it had already brought over his head before he struck. 

He felt a weight he had never felt before as the sword was brought down on top of him, his arms having to hold up the weight of the staff just as much as the weight of the attack. He was sure that if his staff was forged with the usual thickness and steel it would've bent from the impact. 

How did they have this much strength behind their blade after the damage they had taken? He couldn't comprehend it, whatever dawned this armor could not have been human. 

He couldn't bear to keep his arms up any longer, he tilted his staff and let off one of his hands, causing the blade to slide down the side of the staff with sparks and screeches before slamming into the soil next to him, dust and dirt kicked up from the impact. He backed away a bit as the knight pulled the sword from the earth and prepped to go for another brutal overhead strike. 

Survival instincts were in full drive, with what little energy he could muster without any spreading flame nourishing him he brought his staff up over his head once more to block the second blow as the knight raised its blade up high with one firm hand. 

His arms were on fire, his chest heaved, he had underestimated his foe and he was afraid. He hadn't even noticed the one handed hold the knight had on its blade until he felt a sharp pain strike his side. 

He had fallen for the bait, the knights left arm slammed its large heavy shield  directly into the dryads gut with enough force to throw the man to the ground. 

His staff withdrew into nothing, and He couldn't feel his abdomen as he curled into a ball. All he could feel was his heart pounding as he struggled to breath after the strike had knocked the wind out of him.

 The knight stared down at him from above, its already tall stature looming above him, casting a shadow over the crumpled man below. He had only one risky trick up his sleeve now. He knew it wasn't safe to be this close, but he wasn't exactly in a place to do much else as panic flooded into him. 

His vision blurred as a heat engulfed his left hand. The spell bound to it formed a glint of light within his palm as he raised it as high as he could. He tossed the shimmer of light as high as he could muster, it rose to the height of the knights helmet as it once more brought its sword up to cleave him into two. 

In the blink of an eye, the speck of light rapidly began to expand. It grew to the size of an apple, then a grapefruit, then a pumpkin, then 4 feet in diameter. The small star began to engulf the knight as time seemed to move at a crawl for the dryad, his adrenaline running wild. 

Before the knight could react, the miniature sun violently erupted, the force of the explosion slamming the dryad into the ground further, and scattering burning pieces of the knight all across the field.

As his fire burned once again he began to regain his strength, enough to allow himself to stand back up. He looked across the field at his handy work as charred discolored metal plates and burning cloth rained down around him. He was still sore from the explosion. He had intended to tune down its strength a bit when he had cast his left hand's spell so that he wouldn't just kill himself too, but it seemed he could've tuned it just a bit more seeing as he was still aching all over. Besides, he doubted it would've lowered its lethality against his intended target much seeing as it had completely scattered the knight..

His smile of relief faded slowly. 

Why had it done that? If the sun bomb had enough explosive force to shred apart the knight why was he still in one piece despite only being marginally further away? He knew his spells, he understood the range of his spells well, was it still possible for him to be overthinking it? 

He looked down at the scattered pieces of metal and cloth. Metal and cloth. It was all he saw. If the knight was blown to pieces then where was the flesh? The blood? He looked around almost frantically, there was nothing, not a drop, not an ounce. 

He found the knights scattered chest piece lying on the ground, he saw what seemed to be a faint glow, and that same faint haze he had seen before emanating from within the armor.

He looked within, and saw... nothing, just empty plating. The only thing inside was something affixed to the inside of the back plate. 

Looking closer, it was gemstone wrapped in thick fibers, likely to protect it. It was a nicely polished purple gemstone, likely amethyst, or at least it had been nicely polished. It had been cracked a great deal, though not completely shattered by the explosion. 

He saw its faint glow, and then he began to feel a strange pull in his hands. He looked at the gemstone as its glow seemed to brighten just a bit, before looking around him as he realized the scattered pieces had begun to move. He saw pieces of the plating fall into place, tattered body suit cloth joining back together as from the greaves up a familiar form threatened to take shape once more. 

He didn't need to see the end of this for his brain to finally connect the dots. 

He threw the chest plate as far from the reforming knight as he could before quickly re-summoning his staff. 

With three well placed blasts, he crushed the amethyst into shattered charred dust inside the now crumpled and swiss-cheesed chest plate. 

The pieces of armor fell to the ground motionless as the gem's glow vanished. It made sense to him now, all of it. There was no knight. There had never been a knight. Someone had bound spells to the inert armor using the gem as a conduit, like in his staff. It allowed the armor to act on its own, or perhaps on the will of some one else.. 

Why had it been sent here? What was it sent to do? He wasn't sure, it wasn't like he anything to go off of. Regardless, there was a clear danger letting something like this go quiet. He grabbed a few pieces of the scattered armor to present to the other dryads back in town

and also to keep for himself. It was clearly pretty sturdy seeing as the plates themselves were still largely undamaged, barring some discoloration. 

And he thought the helmet looked cool too.

>log.data_end