Harry Potter, Hero of Legends, Stories and Elves Part 10

"Yes!" Dawn squealed when she felt the grinder's magic flow into the blade as she finished sharpening it.

"What's up?" Xander asked, curious why she was squealing.

"The grinding wheel is enchanted, about a fifth of the time it bestows a positive quality the first time you sharpen something," Dawn explained as she rested the blade on the workbench so that she could start polishing the blade. "It's usually pretty good."

"Usually?" Hermione asked.

"You can end up with some annoying qualities like Shattering on a throwing dagger which causes the dagger to explode when it hits something or Devouring which causes the blade to eat anything it touches, including the sheath but I've only had that happen once," Dawn explained, hoping the grinding stone hadn't screwed things up.

Harry checked the properties of the new blade. "Huh, it picked up the Unbreakable Edge and Sharpened by Blood qualities."

Dawn winced when she realized that she'd basically crippled the sword. "Sorry."

"What's wrong?" Xander asked.

"The Sharpened by Blood quality basically makes a weapon about as sharp as a butter knife, it slowly improves the more blood you spill until you're looking at something that could cut paper and the Unbreakable Edge means I can't even try to sharpen it, not that it would help," Dawn admitted, annoyed that she'd screwed up his blade.

"You win some, you lose some," Eldrin offered, fairly sure the hero was strong enough to just bludgeon the first couple of demons to death before the enchantment kicked in.

Harry laughed when he checked the sword's new qualities and realized that he could abuse the hell out of the Sharpened by Blood quality. "The combination is actually just about perfect."

"What do you mean?" Dawn asked Harry, wondering what she'd missed.

Harry turned to look at Hermione. "The Sharpened quality has two sub qualities, the first reduces the blade's sharpness to almost nothing, cuts the durability in half and decreases the blade's sharpness every time someone tries to sharpen it by any methods other than the second quality."

"The Unbreakable Quality would cover for the durability reduction," Hermione mused. 

Dawn shook her head. "You'd still have to constantly use it."

"Why?" Hermione asked.

"The blades get less sharp over time," Dawn offered.

"That's because the second half of the first quality also reduces the sharpness of the blade by a small amount every day which would quickly erase your progress if you're not cutting your way through a mountain of enemies," Harry explained as he opened his inventory and started looking for something that had a quality he wanted so he could get rid of the quality that crippled the sharpness.

Xander frowned as he tried to do the math in his head. "I'm not sure Buffy actually kills enough demons to make that worth it."

"Probably not but we have an army of demons and Harry can swap qualities," Dawn pointed out.

"Unless there's a reason to keep it?" Kara asked.

"Nope," Harry replied with a grin. "The first ability references the second ability but the second quality doesn't mention the first quality which means we can keep it, which is nice because it's actually pretty useful. Every time you kill something with the blade, the enchantment slowly improves the sharpness of the weapon and gives you a tiny fraction of your victim's strength and skill."

"I didn't know about that second part," Dawn admitted as she turned to look at her grandfather.

Eldrin shrugged. "I knew about it but with the durability hit, you'd probably go through at least ten to twenty blades before you'd notice a significant difference considering you're a blacksmith."

"That's fair," Dawn admitted, figuring that he hadn't told her about the rest of the enchantment because he didn't want her hunting monsters.

"Would the boost stack?" Xander asked thoughtfully.

"It stacks," Harry replied as he pulled a knife that had a Life Stealing enchantment on it out of his inventory. "Unfortunately, there are diminishing returns when you get stronger than the monsters you're fighting or more skilled which means you'd probably get more use out of the blade than I would considering my powers boost my strength and skill," Harry explained as he opened his Property Translocation interface and dropped the knife in the box.

"Sorry," Dawn offered, feeling guilty.

"Don't worry about it, I'm a wizard," Harry replied as he touched the sword that Eldrin had crafted and dropped it in the other box in his interface. "The only reason I wanted a sword was in case I ran into something that is resistant or immune to magic." He selected the Life Stealing quality and the first property in the Sharpness of Blood quality and hit the button, burning a decent amount of mana to swap the qualities.

He swapped the dagger for the silvertine dagger that he's stolen the anti-demon property from and swapped the sword's crippled durability for the dagger's durability. He swapped the dagger for an obsidian knife that he'd picked up from one of the demons he'd killed and swapped the sharpness value, figuring that would be a good start. Harry pulled the blade out of his interface and set it on the table. "Don't touch the blade, I swapped the sharpness value with the value from an obsidian knife and the durability from the silvertine dagger."

"I name thee Haxcaliber, Sword of Munchkins," Xander offered.

Dawn laughed. "We're keeping that."

"I'm fine with that," Harry agreed.

Hermione shook her head. "Really?"

Harry shrugged. "It's not Excalibur or a sword that can cut through an army of demons in one swing but it's going to get more dangerous the longer someone uses it and it's going to carve through demons because it cuts their defenses by half and it has two anti-demon properties that stack and the upgraded Impact property from using a bit of dark iron to alloy the metal."

"Technically I twisted the Anti-Celestial property so that it would apply to all outsiders and spirits," Eldrin said smugly, rather proud of how the sword turned out.

"Which is fantastic," Harry assured him.

"Shouldn't it have a more impressive name?" Hermione asked.

"I've certainly heard of worse names," Eldrin offered, not seeing a problem with the name. "Not every sword has a name or needs one, but I have a feeling this one is going to end up in the Legends."

"What is the worst name you've heard?" Kara asked.

"The Sacred Blade of Ten Thousand Eternal Rainbows springs to mind," Eldrin offered after a couple of seconds of thought. "Mostly because of the length of the name and the fact that the blade was cursed and the rainbows weren't eternal."

"The owner was that really smug guy with the floppy hat, right?" Dawn asked.

"Yeah," Eldrin agreed. "He wouldn't believe me about the monster attraction curse, I'm pretty sure he was eaten by a gryphon. Mister Stabby would probably take the second spot but it's a dagger and was named by a child after she dealt with a particularly mean bear that was trying to eat her."

"That probably gets a pass," Xander agreed, thinking about the stake that Kendra had given Buffy that had survived dusting a large number of vampires over the years.

"Now that you have a proper weapon, what are you planning?" Dawn asked, curious if they had a plan or if they were just winging it.

Harry picked the sword up and put it in his inventory. "One of the demon captains should be pretty close to Breezewood, I figured I'd swing by and see if I can ruin their day."

Eldrin covered his mouth with his arm as he yawned. "The town is probably fine considering an Archmage lives there but it's worth checking as long as you're not dead on your feet."

"I'm fine," Harry assured him and then turned to look at Hermione. "I'll be back in a couple of hours."

"Stay safe," Hermione told him.

"That's the plan," Harry replied as he used his Warp ability and opened a portal back to Gargan's camp since it was closer to Breezewood.

Eldrin scowled as someone knocked on the door. "You should get that, I might stab them."

"I'll deal with it," Dawn replied as she walked over and opened the door. She looked at the human in his mid thirties that was wearing a robe. "Let me guess, Sirius?"

"Yes?" Sirius replied, relaxing a touch when he spotted the people he was looking for in the smithy.

"You missed the fun," Harry told Sirius, having enjoyed watching Eldrin forge his sword.

Dawn took a step to the side so he could enter.

"She never invites people in, she just leaves the door open," Kara offered. “It’s just one of her quirks.”

Xander smiled knowingly at Dawn who smirked back.

"Thank you and I had plenty of fun," Sirius replied as he walked into the smithy and glanced around. "Some of the girls are really flexible and I got to see Tonks get drunk enough to start flirting with girls." 

"And you left?" Xander asked, surprised that he'd left her there without someone to make sure she didn't get into trouble.

"She's my cousin and apparently there's a thin line between drunk enough to flirt and drunk enough to make out on the tables."

"What if she gets into trouble?" Hermione asked.

"That's why I left Neville in charge," Sirius replied with a grin as he walked over to the table by the group, figuring it would be a great 'learning' experience for him. "Can you take a look at these?" he asked Harry as he held the rings that he'd duplicate out so he could see them. "I asked one of the local enchanters but I want a second opinion."

Harry checked the rings, a touch surprised that the duplicates were actually functional since they were temporary conjurations. "They're useless for stealing properties since all of the qualities are listed as temporary but they're functional."

"Can I have a copy?" Dawn asked hopefully.

"Sure," Sirius replied as he gave her the duplicated rings. "They'll last another nine and a half hours."

"Plenty of time," Dawn said cheerfully as she looked at Xander.

'And there goes my last excuse,' Xander thought, feeling a bit guilty that he was relieved at the thought.

"Don't forget to clean the forge, I'm going to grab a drink, grab some earmuffs, then get some sleep," Eldrin told Dawn as he headed for the door.

"Have fun," Dawn offered as her grandfather left.

"How did you duplicate the rings?" Hermione asked.

"The gemino charm, it's normally used to permanently duplicate objects but you can use it to temporarily duplicate charmed objects."

"And you just now mentioned it?" Xander asked.

Sirius shrugged. "I wasn't expecting it to work on the rings, they're enchanted. The charm failed on James' cloak when we tried it back in school, so I just figured it couldn't duplicate enchanted objects. The only reason I tried is because one of the ladies wanted to see if I could make a mundane copy of the ring and if there would be a trace of the enchantment that she could study."

"Can I steal Xander or do you need him to save the world?" Dawn asked as she put the rings on.

"Have fun," Harry suggested as he stepped through the portal he'd opened earlier.

"That's annoying," Hermione grumbled as the portal closed behind her friend. “It’s hard to keep him out of trouble when he can escape me like that.”

Sirius laughed. "Damn nice exit though."

"Speaking of exits and the rings, can I talk you into helping me out?" Kara asked Hermione.

"With…" Hermione trailed off as she realized what Kara was talking about. "Why me?"

"Because you're attractive and extremely intelligent and I want to make sure my children aren't related to Luna or Dawn's children so they'll have plenty of people to have children with," Kara explained.

Hermione spent twenty seconds weighing her options before deciding that she didn't mind Kara being her first as she was smart and genuinely nice. "Where do you want to go?"

"My house," Kara suggested. "I have a bed in the treehouse that has a nice view of the stars."

"Sounds nice," Hermione admitted, not sure how to feel about someone actually wanting her when they had better options.

Sirius quickly duplicated the rings and the bracers, putting the duplicates in two piles. He gestured toward the forge with his wand. "Scourgify."

Dawn laughed when she realized that the forge was sparkling clean. "You're a life saver."

"Just trying to help," Sirius replied as he put his wand away in his pocket then turned to look at Hermione and Xander. "I'm going to find a bar and get properly drunk, I'll meet you back at Luna's tomorrow."

"If I'm not there, come find me, Dawn has chains," Xander told Sirius as he picked up one of the piles of rings.

"And I'm not afraid to use them," Dawn teased.

"Have fun," Sirius replied with amusement as he headed for the door, happy to get back to drinking and having fun now that he'd given everyone a copy of the rings.

"It was nice meeting you," Hermione told Dawn as she collected the other pile of duplicated objects. "If we have the time I’d love to hear about your world later."

"Same. I love Luna like a sister but some of her stories are a bit questionable," Dawn admitted, looking forward to getting to know the bookworm.

"I'd be happy to trade stories tomorrow," Hermione assured her as she headed to the door.

"Absolutely," Dawn replied as she took her leather apron off.

"Have fun," Kara told her friend and followed Hermione outside.

Dawn walked over and locked the door then turned and looked at Xander with a smile. "Do you want to have sex on my bed or should we start on some of the flat surfaces in here?"

"We've got time…" Xander trailed off as Dawn reached down and pulled her summer dress off, revealing her green loincloth and her perky breasts. "Bed," he said instantly.

Dawn snickered as she walked toward the backroom. 'Yes!'

0o0o0

"Do you know how long I was working on that project?" Gavin complained as he ran up the stairs of his tower.

"Two weeks?" Fiona asked as she followed her white haired teacher up the narrow stairs, doing her best to hug the wall and wishing he'd slow down despite the demons outside.

"Two weeks down the drain because they couldn't wait another fifteen minutes to attack!" Gavin complained in annoyance.

"They're demons, they're not exactly known for being polite," Fiona pointed out, doing her best to keep up without falling off the stairs and breaking something.

"Sorry, I'm just cranky," Gavin offered as he reached the landing. He opened the solid iron door and stepped out onto the top of his tower. He walked over to the edge of his tower and looked down at the group of barely visible demons tossing spells and giant rocks at the shield covering the town, rather annoyed that they'd pulled him away from his research. "At least they brought an army."

"At least?" Fiona asked as she walked over to the stone guardrail and looked down at the massed demon horde that was surrounding the town. "The shield isn't going to hold."

Gavin glanced up at the full moon that was doing a halfway decent job of illuminating everything despite the scattered clouds over the town, taking a moment to enjoy the view since the demons weren't getting through the shield any time soon. "Don't worry, our backup is already on his way."

"What type of backup? Because we're going to need an army," Fiona complained, fairly sure they were going to have to teleport to safety once the wards fell.

"They sent a Potter," Gavin replied, causing his apprentice to give him an annoyed look. "Cover your ears." He waited until Fiona covered her ears then gestured and called down bolts of lightning on the five catapults that he could see, turning the night as bright as day for a second as two of the five siege engines were obliterated and a wave of sound rolled over them so loud it was almost like a physical blow.

Gavin's smile slipped when he realized that he'd only managed to destroy two of the catapults due to a combination of wards and lightning rods. "Let's try that again," he mused as he hit each of the three catapults with another lightning bolt. He frowned when only one of the catapults exploded, leaving the other two intact. 

"Can you give me a little warning next time," Fiona complained as she blinked the spots out of her eyes. 

"Sure," Gavin replied as he pulled a metal rod out of his bag of holding and started casting one of the spells that he didn't like admitting that he could cast, using the rod's magic to make sure the spell wouldn't actually kill any of the demons.

"What are you going to…" Fiona trailed off as a small marble sized ball of condensed fire flew out of her master's hand faster than an arrow and struck the ground, exploding into a massive wave of white flames that washed over the screaming demons and the catapults, leaving the demons screaming in agony on the ground and the catapults in ashes. "What the fuck was that?!"

"That was a storm of eldritch fire," Gavin replied, well aware that his apprentice knew what a Fireball was.

"I meant the part where they're on the ground screaming in agony and not ashes," Fionia replied, ignoring the fact that she knew he'd cast a Fireball spell, a spell that he often complained about in his lectures.

"They annoyed me and if they're dead, they can't suffer," Gavin replied as he cast a spell to let the army of demons hear him, well aware that demons could just be called back if they weren't killed by one of the heroes. "Run and hide, the hero of Legend is here to kill you!" he shouted, causing most of the demons to twitch and look around in a panic. 

"Do you think they'll leave?" Fiona asked.

"No," Gavin replied as he summoned his staff and tapped into the tower's mana reserves. "Hear my call, God of Thunder, I summon thee!" he shouted as he cast his lightning wall spell, putting the thirty foot tall wall of lighting around the outside of the demonic camp so that it would be harder for the demons to flee, draining ten percent of his tower's available mana in the process.

"Don't worry, be happy, you're trapped in here with me," Gavin told the demons in a different tone of voice and pitch then suspended his spell after adding some maniacal laughter.

"So, now what?" Fiona asked, wondering if he had an actual plan.

"That depends, can you feel the hero approaching?" Gavin asked thoughtfully as he leaned against the stone guardrail and watched the demons’ reaction, taking a bit of amusement in messing with them now that his experiment was ruined.

Fiona focused on sensing magic for a couple of seconds, trying to sense something other than her master's magic and the demons below her. "No, are you sure he's coming?"

"Absolutely," Gavin replied with a grin as he watched the 'invisible' hero pull a pony sized blocky object out of thin air and drop it before flying like a bat out of hell on a broomstick. "Eyes," he told his apprentice as he watched the object land in the middle of a large group of demons that were rushing toward the wall. He smiled as he watched the object explode in a blast of arcane plasma that washed over the group of demons, turning most of them into ash and less than ash.

Fiona pulled her arm away from her eyes once she knew it was safe. "What was that?!"

"That was the hero," Gavin replied with amusement as several groups of snake headed demons appeared out of nowhere and started stabbing various demons while shouting something he couldn't quite make out.

Fiona frowned as ten large brutish demons that had been consumed reappeared in the middle of a group of magic using demons and started rampaging. "What the hell is going on?!"

"If I had to guess, I'd say the hero was some sort of demon binder or summoner," Gavin offered as he gestured and silently cast his Fog of War spell, conjuring the illusion of a dense sickly green fog over the battlefield that would keep the enemy demons from seeing anything beyond about five feet in front of them. 

Fiona stared at the mostly transparent fog that had covered the battlefield. "Did you create the fog or was that the hero?"

"That was me. Fog of War, it's a nice little illusion spell that makes everything seem to be covered in fog. Allies see it as a barely there outline while your enemies see it as the crap that rolls off a bog in the dead of winter."

"That's nasty," Fiona admitted as she watched snake-headed demons appear out of thin air and start ripping into demons before running off, making it look like the army had turned against itself. 

"That's one of the reasons people don't like fighting illusionists, especially if they have other types of spells to mix in," Gavin replied as he watched the hero sneak up on the leader of the army and cut his head off with a single swing of his blade. "That was anticlimactic, I was expecting a bit more of a fight."

"He still has to kill over twenty thousand demons," Fiona pointed out.

"Yeah, but without their leader and the inability to run, it's just a matter of time," Gavin replied and reactivated his spell that let him say things to the demons. "The drums of war are coming, the knobbles will eat your knees and don't look behind you or the Grimkins will get you."

"What the hell is a Grimkin?" Fiona asked.

'I'll tell you later," Gavin replied without saying anything, knowing she was pretty good at reading lips. "Beware, beware of the Daughter of the Night, she will strip your flesh and nibble your toes," he sang as he watched the chaos unfold as the hero spread his demons around and the demons started losing their minds.

"This should be illegal," Fiona muttered, not particularly impressed by the old man's singing.

Gavin cackled, causing his laughter to cover the battlefield and make the demons even twitchier.

0o0o0