A rifle bullet sailed through the air, cutting as it went. Its target was left scorched and marred in the middle, the whole thing cleanly cut though.
"How is it Seth?" asked Harold, looking at the man holding the gun. Standing upright, his arm bent, his arm holding the gun, bracing it from the bottom of the barrel, the stance was awkward to look at, the body bent in ways Harold would hardly think comfortable for repeated reliable shooting. The body was stiff, but Seth would always shoot as such as if his body was in a small alleyway with no space to relax his shoulders or arms.
"Fires clean, not much recoil. How powerful is it?"
"This rifle can pierce any shield currently used by Druin forces"
"Elites as well?" asked Mongrel.
"From the shield's we have recovered, yes, but that is not to say it is a one shot kill"
"Why don't ya give that weapon to all soldiers" asked Mongrel, fascinated by the power of the weapon and by how not every single soldier would use such a gun. Would that not allow the Druin bastards to die once and for all?
"Haha, why don't you have a feel Mongrel" Seth said as he tossed the weapon over to Mongrel, already understanding the ideas popping through Mongrel's head.
The gun flew and Mongrel stretched out his arms to embrace it. As it landed on his arms the first time, his arms would take up the weight of this great gun. It pulled him down, he barely managed to hold the gun before it hit the ground.
"Why so fucking heavy" said Mongrel as he shifted his weight to stabilize the weapon in his hands.
"Because that thing contains the strongest propellent the human federation has developed"
"GET THIS THING OFF OF ME" yelled Mongrel, unable to bare the weight of this weapon any longer.
Seth chuckled while pulling the next gen rifle off of Mongrel. The metal was dense and hard with the molecular structure being knotted around molecules. This allowed the material to maintain a light structure while being incredibly sturdy.
The round that was just fired had half as much propellant as a tank round would, allowing the bullet to be fired at incredible speeds. It truly was the next gen of technology and would allow Seth to be even more effective in combat.
"Fuck ya could have told me how heavy that fucking thing is"
"Hahaha why do you think I looked so strange holding it, even for me it is heavy"
"Won't that weigh ya down infiltrating different areas?" asked Mongrel, perplexed as to why anyone would want a weapon that heavy, especially Seth who's main fighting style was based around speed and swords. This additional weight would throw off his style.
"Yea it will, it is a shame because it is sexy" Replied Seth as he looked at the gun. Sleek and black the material from which it had been made, it had no imperfections. The stock fit in his hand like a glove.
"It is a nice looking gun, but why don't ya get a new sword?" Mongrel turned to the concierge "Do ya sell swords here?" he asked, expecting such a place to sell almost anything they could want that is to do with fighting and killing.
"We do sir. I can show them to you" Replied the concierge, hiding whatever feeling may have been inside his mind.
"See Seth, won't that be better?"
"You are probably right Mongrel, I do like this weapon but I don't think it would be truly helpful" Seth replied with a sigh.
"Please, this way gentlemen" Said the concierge Harold, while motioning them to move to another room.
The room was a large open space with high ceilings, sparsely occupied by large truncated cones.
Harold kept walking at a brisk pace until he got to a rack of weapons. The rack held different sized weapons and shapes, from Falchions, Gladius, Sabers, Rapiers, Dao, Jian to Scimitar and everything in-between, the rack was heaven for anyone who wielded a sword. The roof to floor size of the rack allowed for accommodating different heights as well as styles, with the shortest swords being on the far right and longest on the far left.
"Seth, I know I asked before but is it truly okay to buy in such a place? The size of this rack I cannot even begin to imagine how much a single blade costs" whispered Mongrel to Seth as his eyes ran around the room taking it all in.
In between the rails of the rack Harold reached in an pressed buttons that were not visible to seemingly anyone but himself.
The rack of the wall moved out with a pop and a hiss, as the mechanisms split and carried the swords still in the rack out in front, on either side below sat a single sword a Saber.
"This is a sword the owner specially got for you Seth, knowing your style he thought this would be the optimum weapon you would choose instead of a gun" Said Harold with a pleased smile on his face as if he was enjoying watching his bosses vision turn into a reality.
"He always knows me far too well" Said Seth with a chuckle as he stepped forward to pick up this sword that had been curated just for him.
The sword when picked up felt light in Seth's hand. The balance of the blade was close to the hilt, allowing for Seth to change the direction of his cut faster, allowing faints, new cut and secondary cuts to be easier. The trade off is that a balance point was further forward, which allowed more powerful cuts, but this was of little concern to Seth.
The style he used was swift and decisive. The cuts timed and placed perfectly to result in devastating combos and attacks that would leave an opponent either moving how Seth wanted or cut to ribbons.
A truncated cone located a few meters away from Seth glowed to life and a replica of a dummy holding a sword was projected on top of the truncated cone.
With a leap Seth arrived on the cone as well moving too and frow while his opponent mimicked his movements. The dummy was made of water and would not actually hurt Seth in any way.
The dummy lunged at Seth with its Saber cutting to his left side. Seth side stepped and allowed the blade to pass close to him and returned a slash to the dummy. It evaded as well, but before it could counter cut Seth had moved and was cutting again. This time he cut to the leg that the dummy held its weight on. With no time to react, the dummy pulled its front leg back, switching its lead leg.
Seth continued to pursue his target, attacking now at the head to force the dummy to defend. His blade almost struck the water construct, but just before it did his blade stopped and with a flick of the wrist the blade moved to the other side, cutting clean into the dummies head from the side it was not defending.
The dummy undulated before collapsing.
"How did it feel?" asked Mongrel, glad Seth always went easy on him when they crossed blades.
"Like it was made for me" Replied Seth with a smile. The blade truly felt like it had been only made for him. The balance was perfect for how he liked, the stiff yet flexible blade would allow him to block and retaliate when needed and the handle, the best part in Seth's mind almost felt like nothing was in his hand. There were no contact points that his hand would wear on, nor was their any part that did not flow like it was sculpted to his hand.
The blade and hilt, down to the smallest detail, he knew it was perfect, perfect for him.