Fate/Defiance Ch31 OLD

Fate/Defiance

Chapter 31 [Workshop]

By theMadLad

Pollux grunted as she swung her sword once more, although she always preferred her fists… she couldn’t deny the blade’s practicality, not her talents wielding one.

…Not to mention how her brother said that she looked c-cool when she used one.

Still, nothing was more satisfying for the Spartan Princess than her fists pounding against flesh.

…Which brought another thought to mind.

Icarus.

It had been a few days since the group had arrived at Mt. Pelion, the dwelling place of the infamously rambunctious centaurs. Thankfully they were all led higher up the mountain by Chiron, to an area devoid of any centaurs other than their wise teacher.

That’s where their training truly began.

But even before then she noted something. Icarus, the boy she would often use as a punching ba—training partner, had changed.

It was a subtle change, for anyone that wasn’t her.

It was the day before they had arrived at the mountain. In the previous days of their sparring, Pollux had always defeated Icarus without issue. She even had to make sure to hold back in case she accidentally killed him with her vastly superior strength.

But that time things were different.

She remembered his eyes were sharper that day, more focused, seemingly glowing with determination… and confidence.

That irked her.

Although she was more stoic and introverted than her brother, she still had her pride. Pollux was the Princess of Sparta and the daughter of Zeus, how could she stand a normal, mortal, and unarmed Icarus, stepping into the ring against her with brimming confidence?

Had he not seen the gap between them?

Although remembering the phantom pangs of pain brought by Icarus’ bow during their first encounter still made her wince, it was undeniable that without his tools and inventions… Icarus was at her mercy.

A straight fight with nothing but one’s fists was in Pollux's absolute advantage—she was completely in her element.

While he was completely out of his.

They had already done this so many times before, so why was he confident…?

Pollux watched as Icarus brought his hands up in a guard like she had taught him in their previous sessions, with both of his clenched fists being wrapped at the knuckles and with thongs of ox hide.

Although their fights were entirely one sided, she still made sure to properly teach him how to fight. Her pummeling him remorselessly was not without reason.

Boxing was developed in Sparta, and was used to help one prepare for the inevitable blows they would one day take—particularly to the head; to the point that the early Spartans of this time even viewed helmets as unnecessary.

This was one aspect of Pollux’s training to Icarus, training him to take blows.

Another was training him how to fight a superior opponent through the use of her divine strength.

And finally, she taught him how to fight correctly.

How to throw a punch so that it displays its maximum possible damage, starting with staggered feet, bent knees, and a downwards chin, before using the entire body’s movement, whether that be the feet, shoulders, or hips to compliment the punch.

How to use footwork to keep balance, using it to close or further distance in a fight, control one’s spatial positioning, and create additional momentum for future strikes.

Of course there were more techniques than that, whether it be through basic offensive moves such as a Jab, Cross, Hook, or Uppercut, or basic defensive moves such as Slipping, Bobbing, Blocking, or Parrying.

Icarus’ worst issue against Pollux was reaction speed. At a close enough distance, Icarus simply couldn’t see her coming—she was too fast, too strong.

He couldn’t react.

But that’s what was different the day before they reached Mt. Pelion.

During their spars, Pollux would initially start out slow, with strength not too dissimilar from Icarus’ own, at a point where he could still react to her strength and speed… before she quickly picked up the pace and forced him to adapt.

So, she noticed it immediately.

—The moment she threw her jab, he had already dodged.

Jab.

Dodge.

Jab.

Dodge.

Pollux quickly picked up the pace, going faster and faster. Her jabs gave way to combos, which then gave way to even quicker jabs.

Hook.

Dodge.

Faster.

Cross.

Dodge.

Faster.

Uppercut.

Dodge

Faster.

Jab.

Dodge.

Faster.

Jab.

Dodge.

Faster.

Her fist audibly plowed the air with the full extent of her divine strength being used behind the force of her blows.

Yet even then—Icarus dodged.

He was like a weightless feather riding the air around her punch.

Impossible to hit.

His head bobbed beneath her blows, with movements seemingly able to predict the future.

Pollux’s stoic face lost its edge, giving way to sheer bafflement at what she was seeing. She asked herself, how could it be? How could he suddenly improve so drastically overnight!?

She didn’t know.

“Haven’t you… heard?” Icarus spoke between harsh breaths.

Pollux tilted her head as she threw another punch, one he still managed to narrowly dodge.

“Float like a butterfly…” He bobbed under her jab, bending his knees as his body squated under her fist.

Then he stepped into her guard.

“…Sting like a bee!” Icarus shouted as he immediately raised his body while bringing his fist up to give Pollux a devastating uppercut, even remembering to add a little twist in his form, just the way she taught him.

Pollux's eyes momentarily widened at his unexpected attack, but she quickly reacted, using her superior strength and experience to immediately pull her head back, letting the fist fly past her chin before she gripped his now over extended arm.

“Haven't you heard… don’t talk during a fight?” Pollux spoke with a slight smirk.

Icarus gulped.

Then she slammed him over her shoulder and into the ground below, cracking the floor below with the force… alongside his ribs.

Icarus sat there for a moment, coughing up specks of blood as he struggled to get air back into his lungs.

“Y-you just contradicted yourself there.” Icarus choked out, unable to hold back on calling her out, nor on having the last word.

Pollux’s lips thinned as she watched him get back up.

“A-again.”

Pollux didn’t hesitate.

Her fist blurred forward as Icarus immediately reacted… only for her punch to suddenly stop.

—A feint!

Icarus’ eyes widened with realization… but it was already too late, as Pollux's other fist burrowed into his face.

That time he didn’t get back up.

Pollux felt very satisfied.

“I see… somehow you anticipate my attacks before they happen, or the moment they happen. But how?” Pollux asked curiously. She knew he couldn’t see the future, or else he would have anticipated her feint.

So how?

But Icarus didn’t respond… because he was unconscious.

Strange.

…She remembered that he was able to take a lot more than that in their prior spars.

Even pondering over it now, days later, she still couldn’t figure out how. What changed?

After that day he still came to their spars, but less often than usual, not to mention that his improvement suddenly went through the roof.

But in the end she just shook her head, dismissing it entirely after chopping it up to him being a genius.

…Her eyes twitched at the thought.

Hmph.

Pollux then started to train an extra hour everyday.

----------------------

Icarus sat alone, away from any other campers as some of them glanced over him from time to time.

A few of them had already finished their new cabins, while those that hadn’t were almost done. They had used the pine trees in the area, which were really good materials to build with.

Like… surprisingly good.

But Icarus hadn’t even started.

They watched him as he used both his hands at the same time to mash two different materials in two different bowls into small grains the size of sand.

“…Finally done.” Icarus spoke out loud as he wiped the sweat from his brow.

He then stood up, before walking over to a tree and slicing it down with one of his wings.

Those watching were confused. Because, why didn’t he do that earlier? …Why was he starting just now after playing with rocks?

They thought he was pretty weird.

This was only exemplified after watching Icarus not use the wood to build things like walls or a foundation for his cabin… but instead pull out a bronze feather to make wooden rectangles frames.

Finally, they watched as he picked up the wooden rectangles then walked over and grabbed the filled bowls with his wings before he brought them over to a large pool near his construction site, a place which was filled with seawater after an offering Icarus sent to the sea god with the help of Chiron.

Then, Icarus first cleared up the grass near the pool before he dumped the contents of the two bowls onto the ground below.

Jason couldn’t help it anymore and spoke the sentence on the minds of everyone watching, “…What the fuck is he doing?”

“Who knows what goes on in his head?” Castor replied with the shake of his head.

He then took the now empty bowls and filled them with water before dumping it into the sandy materials below. Then, he took off his shoes and stomped on them like a toddler playing in the mud.

“…Pollux, did you maybe hit him too hard during your spars?” Castor asked with a grimace.

Jason shivered as he watched Pollux actually pause to consider it, “H-hey I’m sure she didn’t hit him too hard.”

Then he watched her punch forward in perfect form, causing the air to ripple as it tossed up his hair.

Jason quickly left after that.

Meanwhile Icarus continued to work throughout the day, with Atalanta studying under Chiron, he was free to work without issue.

The wooden frames he had were filled with the muddy mixture he had made, which included sea water, mashed up limestone, and volcanic ash.

He had collected the limestone from within Mt. Pelion itself, which was the main rock that could be found on the mountain.

The volcanic ash was a material from Daedalus’ workshop that he had taken, although there wasn’t too much of it laying around.

After a while he removed the frames, and was left with white wet bricks. He laid the finished bricks out to dry and continued to make more, over and over, until the sun was down.

Then Icarus started to dig out a foundation for his building, as he also planned to add a concrete floor. Any future archeologists or robbers would have to go through tons of bullshit to enter his workshop.

He hadn’t even added the magic protections yet.

He wished to do more, make more… but he still didn’t have the knowledge, nor experience to do better.

So he had to settle for just this.

He had been inspired by the shield spell that Chiron had shown them while he was learning how to make a spell. The spell was called ‘Αἰακός’ after Aeacus, the King of the island of Aegina.

It was said that he assisted Poseidon and Apollo in building the walls of Troy.

This is where Icarus made a mistake, one that left him scratching his head. He had originally intended to ‘piggyback’ off this legend to make his workshop’s walls stronger through ‘recreating’ the legend while making the bricks.

Icarus intended to take the place of Aeacus, with himself ‘assisting’ in constructing the wall, while at the same time using Poseidon and Apollo’s passive authorities to create the bricks, and by proxy, the workshop itself.

This would be through the use of seawater in making the brucks to take the place of Poseidon, and the use of sunlight to dry them to take the place of Apollo.

But there was one ‘tiny’ problem.

…Apparently evaporation didn’t exist during the Age of the Gods.

So, his plan went to shit and was all for nothing. His future knowledge shot him in the foot this time.

Icarus sighed as he racked his head over a solution while staring at the still wet bricks. His thoughts seemed to be running miles a minute, taking apart possible solutions and disposing of them as impractical within seconds.

Then his mind split, as his thoughts separated into two and he thought of a different solution… twice, at the same time.

Mental Partitioning.

And then his thoughts accelerated.

…These were the effects of his spell that split his mind in two. It had boosted his mental output on a staggering level. But it wasn’t without drawbacks, as he had noticed some side effects, such as his head being far more prone to injury.

There could be more… but that was all he knew for now. It was an experimental spell in the first place, but until he knew more, he labeled it a success.

“Hey Jason.” Icarus suddenly spoke up loudly, breaking the silence of the area as a blonde haired boy perked up from nearby.

“…Yeah?” Jason responded nervously, not expecting the sudden callout.

“…Where does water go when things dry off?” Icarus asked as one part of his mind focused on asking and the other continued thinking.

Jason looked at his back strangely with a raised brow, as if he asked what color the sky was, “Back underground, you know… where it belongs?”

Seeing Icarus not respond made Jason give a hesitant laugh, “You do know that… right?”

Then it clicked, “Thanks Jason.”

“N-No problem?” Jason responded hesitantly with immense confusion as he wondered why Icarus asked such a basic question.

…Wasn’t he a genius?

Icarus didn’t pay attention to any of Jason’s thoughts as he had already found his solution. It would end up worse than he intended, but it would probably still work.

That was fine with him, as this place was pretty safe in general due to Chiron’s presence. So the defense being a bit worse wasn’t much of a problem with him.

Icarus sighed once more as he looked at the wet bricks beside him. Why must things be so difficult? He wished that he could just use the Divine Words for dry and be done with it… but if he did so, then he would lose the conceptually strength of the walls piggybacking off of Troy’s walls.

He needed Aceaus to be involved somehow.

Damn.

Now he had to use magical mental gymnastics.

Icarus walked up to the still wet brick and carved Aeacus’ name into it before pointing at it and speaking, “Αἰακός, Γιος της Αίγινας.”

It did nothing.

Then he killed the spell.

…And the brick became dry.

Icarus laughed, amused about how it actually worked, “Fucking magic is so dumb. I love it!”

The others occasionally glanced at him as if he had lost his basket and eggs.

But Icarus didn’t care.

Other than helping build the walls of Troy, Aeacus had another legend—that being, that after his death… he became one of the judges of Hades.

Icarus had labeled the spell as ‘Aeacus, Son of Aegina’ which signified his lineage, as the son of the water nymph Aegina, who was also the namesake of his kingdom.

By signifying Aecaus’ connection to his mother, instead of his father, Zeus, Icarus was able to use the spell and brick as a label for what ‘Aeacus’ was.

Then by killing the spell, he also sympathetically killed ‘Aeacus’ as well, which then piggybacked his legend of becoming a judge of the Underworld in order to send the water back underground.

And in turn, dry the brick.

Icarus sat down with a laugh, what an over complicated and pointlessly complex way to dry a fucking brick, all for the sake of having Aeacus tied in someway to his brick wall.

Now he just had to do the same thing to every single brick.

Then he simply had to take the place of Apollo instead of Aeacus in its construction.

Which was easy, he just needed to be artsy.

…And what was artsier than building the first true brick walls in all of Greece, with the first ever concrete bricks? Icarus laughed as he put the finishing touches to his workshop's walls with only one thought in mind, ‘Eat your heart out Romans, you’re a thousand years too early to compete with me!’

Literally.

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Omake [Poor Achilles]

“Woah, so this was made by Icarus?” Achilles asked with starstruck eyes as he gazed at the white brick structure so juxtaposed against the wooden cabins and forest surrounding it.

“Yes.” Chiron responded to the young boy with a chuckle before he grinned as he pointed to the walls, “He actually based it off your grandfather Aeacus’ work on the walls of Troy.”

“Hehe, really?” Achilles grinned with pride. To think that someone like Icarus would base his work off his grandfather!

His grandfather must have been one impressive guy.

But more than that he was impressed by the building itself, he had never seen such architecture before in his short life! With small white stone blocks that looked so deliberately and perfectly placed.

If he had to describe the feeling that the structure gave him… it would be oddly satisfying.

But more importantly…

“How strong is it?” Achilles asked in earnest.

“Could probably take a hit from Heracles and not falter an inch.” Chiron bragged about his student to his other student.

“Oh! Amazing!” Achilles fanboyed, excitedly cheering with Chiron’s references to his other legendary students, “Let me try!”

Chiron grabbed him before shaking his head with a soft smile, “It’s time for training, and don’t go damaging it—it's more than just a building, it might even become part of our culture itself. Such a thing is… priceless.”

“Aw…” Achilles whined as his shoulders fell.

Chiron soon brought him over for training, failing to notice Achilles looking towards the building with determination.

He was definitely going to punch it!

…But little did he know that the building had been forced to take on aspects of Aeacus legend that Icarus had to deal with specifically because of his magical gymnastics.

Because he could not replace Aeacus’ ‘part’ in the workshop’s construction, part of the wall of Troy’s legend had been kept, specifically a prophecy made by Apollo.

That one day Aeacus’ descendants would destroy the walls of Troy.

So, when Achilles snuck out that night to punch the wall as nothing more than playful curiosity mixed with childish determination he didn’t account for himself being the building’s perfect conceptual weakness.

So when his fist caved in the wall, he broke out in a cold sweat… and when the building crumbled around the hole he couldn’t help but remember Chiron’s earlier words.

That the building was priceless.

He nearly shit himself in fear.

B-But at least he was stronger than Heracles!

…Unfortunately, Chiron beat that notion out of him the next day.

Poor Achilles.

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Author’s Notes

Thanksgiving update, hope you all have a great day! Writer’s block was killing me for this chapter, but I hope you enjoyed it.

For those wondering, Icarus ‘invented’ Roman Concrete for his workshop.

Icarus’ previous spell seemed to work out well, but perhaps there’s more to it hmm?

Made an Omake too, hope you liked it as well. Just assume it’s non-canon.

Join the discord at, https://discord.gg/AMyqBN2