Xanthippe (Chapter 2)

Template:Xanthippe nav Outside of camp, Xanthippe stalked among the puddles, looking for prey. This had obviously been farmland a short while ago; it was all fenced off from the surrounding woods, and a house was visible in the distance. Any fortified area will need farmland surrounding it, with peasants working hard in the fields to provide the warriors and merchants with the means for their livelihood. The crops had been harvested recently, probably while still unripe, so there was only trampled greenery, a few fruit trees, and a lot of puddles.

Stalking the wasteland were some Zombies. Dimwitted things, with the attention span of a gnat. Xanthippe smirked and prepared the fire bolt spell. "Eat fiery death!" she hissed, and a tiny ball of flame shot from her staff, piffling against the nearest Zombie. Its eyes rolled, blinked, and it looked around. The bolt had made little impression; maybe the Zombies were wet from the recent rain. She threw a few more; some missed, some hit, and did just about as much good. They started stumbling towards her, mumbling "brains... brains..." Stupid witches, this spell is useless! Might as well just beat them to death with this useless stick...

Now, that was an idea, and it worked much better than any of the stupid tricks the witches tried to teach her. Beating them to death was vulgar, crude, and artless, but the result was three dead zombies and one intact sorceress. And, damn it, it felt good. However, she was going to need something bigger than a sorceress' stick to kill these things; maybe she should check out the farmhouse, there might be a carving knife or a cleaver in there.

The house had actual demons in it, the first Xanthippe saw; little red guys, with little swords, and squeaky little voices. They were going through the kitchens when Xanthippe walked in and smacked one over the head. It didn't seem as impressed with her light little staff as the Zombies had been, and slashed her across her exposed stomach! Crap, why did the witch clan decide on a halter top and mini skirt for a uniform? She ran outside; the little guy followed, and got thwacked on the head again. After a brief exchange, the little demon died. The others ran -- but now Xanthippe had a sword. Inside the house, there was a padded coat in the closet, with a sash to tie it closed; much better battle gear than a halter top. With the sword and a pot lid pressed into service as a shield, Xanthippe killed the rest of the demons. *And* she didn't risk setting fire to the house while she was inside it, either.

The rest of the farm was less fun, only more Zombies and some Quill Rats. To her surprise, there was a cave in the middle of the field, but then she noticed that the mountains were mostly sedimentary rock. Moisture blowing in from the ocean was stopped by the mountains, so rain would be frequent up here, and could easily wash out a cave in the right kind of rock. Judging from the tracks, there were a lot more monsters in the cave. Going through it, killing right and left, Xanthippe noticed that some of the little squeakers shot fire bolts. Not that it did them any good, but if an enemy wants to do something stupid, Xanthippe was more than willing to let them. There were some huge, hairy things down there too, who took a lot to kill; she needed something bigger than this little sword. As she was beating one last zombie to death, she thought of a design for a new weapon, something that would put some distance between her and a foe, and pack a powerful hit. Simple, elegant, and awesomely powerful. Maybe she could name it, "Xanthippe's Mangler."

On her return to town, the Rogues' priestess thanked her for clearing out the cave, and ordered that Xanthippe should have a place to sleep among the Rogue warriors. More importantly, she let Xanthippe study the books she'd managed to carry out of the monastery. There weren't many to choose from, but Xanthippe did learn a few fun facts, including a way to send cold energies swirling in a shield around her body. Not only would it deflect enemy attacks, but rain would freeze before it hit her and she wouldn't get soaked. Then, she went to the blacksmith with her new weapon design after borrowing a pen and paper to draw a picture of it; that muscle girl didn't look too bright.

"It's basically a sword, but on a pole, so you have a lever arm. Archimedes was the first to describe the properties of the lever, and a long lever arm provides a mechanical advantage, giving you power with little energy expenditure. Now, the blade will be heavy, so it..."

Charsi looked at the drawing. "Oh, a bardiche," and handed Xanthippe exactly what she'd had in mind. "That what you were thinking of?"

Caught in mid-sentence, Xanthippe looked over the heavy, sturdy blade, mounted on a long wooden pole, with an iron butt on the foot. "Uh, yes, exactly."

"That's great, not many people use those. I always use a hammer when I need to bash heads. It's what I know. But I always keep one or two bardiches in stock, they work pretty well if you're strong enough. Are you ok?"

The heavy head of the bardiche had sunk to the ground while Xanthippe tried to hold it. "Oh, I'm just a bit tired. Haven't used some of these muscles for a few years now."

"Yeah, I kind of wondered about that," Charsi said with a little frown. "Aren't you a sorceress, though? Shouldn't you be, like, blasting them with fire and stuff?"

"It's raining, the fireballs don't work well when it's wet."

The bardiche was of superior quality, but it was also very heavy, and all Xanthippe's muscles were very sore. She hadn't considered how much force it would take to get a heavy blade on the end of a long pole moving quickly enough to kill. The Zann Esu mage clan considered mere physical effort beneath them, but damn it, this weapon looked deadly. Slicing them to bits was so much more satisfying; you didn't have to stay calm and focus on a bunch of fancy words, just go in and kill. However, using such a weapon would take a lot of effort; just lifting it was difficult. She stowed the bardiche under the bunk she was using, and fell asleep very, very quickly.